http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/ A blog for the Creative Writing Program. en Copyright 2011 Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:39:48 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.31-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 8586=Breaking News|8584=Deadlines|8585=Events|9587=Publication News| MFA poetry alum Katie Hae Leo's play, "Four Destinies", is opening October 15th and will run through October 30th at the Mixed Blood Theatre, 501 4th Street, Minneapolis. The play will open the season for Mu Performing Arts, who Leo has had a close working relationship with for several years. "Four Destinies" builds a satirical, humorous story around the lives of four adoptees all named Destiny Jones (a Korean adoptee, an African American adoptee, a Guatemalan-born adoptee, and an adopted Caucasian boy). A well intentioned playwright embodies the shaky hand of fate as she attempts to give the characters the rose colored lives they desire. Leo's play pushes the audience headfirst into the murky waters of DNA, of what ifs, of family, of blood, of our own origin stories. Leo insists that her background in poetry feeds directly into her playwriting. "Dialogue is heightened language, so you need to be able to choose words carefully. As a playwright you have to distill everyday dialogue into the crucial components that forward the action. A good ear is required," says Leo. Leo also uses whispers of poetical tactics to create texture within "Four Destinies." She experiments with repetition, interruption, and non-linear time. Leo states, "For the purposes of this play, it didn't make sense to utilize a straightforward, emotionally cathartic, naturalistic climax. So, I have the characters break out into poems." Leo (and the MFA blog agrees with her!) encourages writers to blend and bend and blur the lines of their creative interests. Creative stone soup for everyone! More pretty threads for our mismatched quilt we say! Leo also emphasizes the benefits of theater's collaborative tendencies and the experience of watching her work grow some long legs and walk off the page. Leo says, "You get to work with actors, directors, and designers, all in the service of your work. And, seeing your writing come alive on stage is a truly rewarding, visceral experience." Tickets range from $10 to $25, and are available from the Mixed Blood Theatre box office at 612-338-6131 or online at www.muperformingarts.org. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/poetwright_katie_hae_leo_and_f.html 315192 Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:39:48 -0600 -The formidable folks at Rain Taxi are hosting the annual Twin Cities Book Festival this weekend. When a book festival happens, it's like the whole grocery store has become a free sample party. For real. You will get to keep and see and hear so many things sans MONEY. And it will all be so much better than tiny hotdogs on toothpicks. Go see James Tate read! Maybe buy some pretty books! -Pangur Ban Party has a new ebook, Very Beautiful Women, which includes work by current MFA students, Feng Chen and Carrie Lorig. -This is cool. Barrelhouse is cool. Take an online poetry workshop with Mike Young. -The new issue of Caketrain, featuring fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, is available for preorder. CAKE. TRAIN. What human object with a belly and a heart can resist that name?! -The front page of Pank has a piece by local Minneapolis writer, John Jodzio. There's also a tiny interview with him up at We Who Are About to Die. -We love the october issues of kill author, elimae. We love the grocery lists at Vinyl. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/wipe_your_feet_before_entering.html 314906 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:23:05 -0600 The looks Flor will exchange with you in the middle of class are unparalleled. The musicality of her name makes trombonists and radio DJs swoon. Name: Florencia Lauria Genre: Nonfiction Where are you from? Buenos Aires half the time, New York the other half. How do you take your coffee? Depends on the weather. Lately I've been taking it black, but I have nothing against milk or sugar (especially when it gets cold). If your writing was a landscape, what would it look like? I've never been to California, but I think my writing looks like my imaginary concept of a Southern Californian landscape. There are peaks and valleys, palm trees and beaches. There is the ocean and the desert. There are too many crisscrossing highways and sudden seismic shifts. Tell us about a lie you've told: I lie about my name every time I buy coffee at Starbucks. I usually tell the barista that my name is Catie or Jaime or Maia. The catch is remembering which name I gave out. What is your superpower? I wish I could say teletransportation, but unfortunately I haven't figured out how to do that yet. One of my actual superpowers, though, is remembering people's birthdays. It's kind of a creepy superpower when I barely know the person whose birthday I remember. Tell us about something you're reading and why it's great/not great: Right now I'm reading Katharine Harmon's You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination. It is great because it validates my belief in treasure maps. Describe your favorite physical writing space. My favorite writing space is an orange desk I bought at Steeple People. It prompts me to approach writing with a certain light heartedness; it begs me to not take myself too seriously. Also, I feel like I'm writing on top of a tangerine or a peach or a traffic cone. What is the best thing about being a non fiction writer? (or a writer in general) What's the worst? The best thing about being a writer is getting away with spending a ridiculous amount of time deciding whether to write "aluminum" or "tinfoil." The worst part about being a writer is spending a ridiculous amount of time deciding whether to write "aluminum" or "tinfoil." Last dream you had: Last night I dreamt that a famous painter, named Babara, invited me to her rooftop party. We drank mojitos and she suggested I hire a personal dresser. I'm still trying to decipher what this means. Last great/terrible thing you overheard: I am sitting at a cafe waiting to overhear something great and/or terrible, but most people are talking about the weather, about glaciers, about vegan muffins. What are all those whales singing about exactly? They are singing about rain. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/1st_year_mfa_profiles_florenci.html 314900 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:19:43 -0600 Acclaimed poet Ronaldo Wilson will visit the Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota on Wednesday, October 19, for a free reading at the newly expanded Weisman Art Museum. The reading begins at 7:30 pm and will be followed by a reception and book sales at 8:30 pm. Wilson is the author of "Poems of the Black Object" and several other books. He has held fellowships at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Vermont Studio Center, Cave Canem, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Yaddo Corporation, and has had four poems nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is the recipient of the Cave Canem Prize for Poetry and is considered one of the finest young poets writing today. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/poet_ronaldo_wilson_visits_uni.html 314600 8586|8585 Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:46:26 -0600 Writer Philip Gourevitch is going to speaking at the Coffman Memorial Union Theater this evening (7:30 p.m.)! There is nothing small about Gourevitch's writing. His book, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families, focuses on the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and in 2008, he published The Ballad of Abu Ghraib, a book about America's war on terror and the scandal that took place at Abu Ghraib prison. Gourevitch's talk is free & open to the public. It is sponsored by the Esther Freier Endowed Lectures in Literature and the one-day conference "My Letter to the World: Narrating Human Rights." http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/_writer_philip_gourevitch_is.html 314357 8585 Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:38:33 -0600 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/chili_cook_off.html 314339 Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:37:42 -0600 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/photos_from_the_jenny_boully_r.html 314327 8585 Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:21:46 -0600 Two recent graduates of the MFA Program at the University of Minnesota, Amy Shearn and Amanda Coplin, will publish novels in 2013. Amy Shearn's novel, tentatively titled "The Double Life of Jenny Lipkin," will be published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Shearn's first novel, "How Far is the Ocean From Here?" was published by Shaye Areheart Books. Amanda Coplin is a former Provincetown Fellow. Her debut novel, "The Orchardist" will be published by Harper Collins in 2013 after a heated auction between seven publishing houses in New York. "The Orchardist" was Amanda's MFA Thesis. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/two_new_alumni_novels.html 312720 8586|9587 Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:16:01 -0600 Elisabeth Workman's (MFA, 2014) manuscript ULTRAMEGAPRAIRIELAND was short-listed in two competitions--a semi-finalist in Alice James Books' 2011 Beatrice Hawley Awards and a finalist in the Subito Press 2011 Book Awards. Elisabeth is a first-year MFA in the Creative Writing Program. She has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and a 2011 McKnight Fellowship in Poetry. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/mfa_elisabeth_workmans_ultrame.html 312386 8586|9587 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:21:38 -0600 MFA Sarah Fox ('12) will have her second collection of poetry, Mother Substance, published by Coffee House Press in fall 2012. Sarah received a Graduate Research Partnership Program grant in summer 2011 to assist her in writing and researching the book. She also received a Gesell Summer Residency at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota. Fox spent the time intensively writing the manuscript. Her previous collection of poetry, Because Why, was also published by Coffee House Press. Sarah is the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bush Foundation. Poems from Because Why have appeared in Bloomsbury Review, Jacket, jubilat, Verse, and other journals. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/new_book_by_mfa_student.html 312380 8586|9587 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:10:07 -0600 Just a friendly poke in the neck that these awards are due in a week! Win money! Spit cookie crumbs in the face of the starving artist stereotype! Oprah will probably come out of retirement just to interview spectacular you! Academy of American Poets James Wright Prize Deadline: October 10, submissions to Creative Writing Office, 222 Lind Award: $100 Eligibility: Undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at the University of Minnesota. Criteria: Quality of writing Reader: TBA (non-University writer) Application: Cover sheet (name, address, phone, email, title of poems), 2 poems. Names should not appear on poems. Gesell Award for Excellence in Creative Writing (MFAs only) Deadline: October 10. 2011, submissions due to Creative Writing Office, 222 Lind Award: $500 each in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction Eligibility: Currently enrolled graduate students in the MFA Program. Criteria: Quality of writing. Readers: Writers outside Minnesota Application: 4-5 pages of poetry; 15-25 pages of prose. Cover sheet with name, address, phone, email, title of work (s). Students may submit in more than one genre. Names should not appear on manuscript. Winners will be announced in mid-November! http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/the_tweak_humanity_craves_most.html 312255 8584 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:49:26 -0600 Jonathan Escoffery is a man with nice scarves. Name: Jonathan Escoffery Genre: Fiction Where are you from? The short answer is Miami, Florida, since that's the geographical location I inhabited for most of my life, though I was born in Houston, Texas. "From" is an interesting question to me, though. Somehow, I've always held nostalgia for mid-twentieth century Jamaica, my parents' Jamaica, a place that, as it has been described to me by my family in such illustrious detail, I've never really known, and no longer exists, if it ever truly did. That place survives in family gatherings, and through the food and music of our culture. Tell us what you hear right now: I hear the street traffic passing outside of my apartment window. I like to pretend it's the sound of waves rolling over sand. When the number 2 bus passes, my apartment shakes, and I pretend it's an earthquake. Your writing is animal/mineral/vegetable? To me, my writing is alphabet soup in my belly. The more I write, the fuller I grow. To others, I can only hope it is two giraffes banging their necks together at full speed. Greatest poetry/fiction reading you ever bore witness to: I can't recall ever hearing words sound more important than when Nuruddin Farah reads aloud, whether it's his writing being read or not. Also, describe your headspace while you're reading something really wonderful: While reading something I feel wonderful about I am transported out of time and space, and I lose all sense of obligation to the physical world. Reality is suspended. My body and other people's bodies are burdens I have little use for, and when I am done reading, I feel as though I've been ejected from a womb. Describe your (physical) writing space: I keep my favorite works of poetry and prose close at hand on a desk that is pushed against a window which looks out on a busy intersection. I alternate between writing on my laptop and an antique L.C. Smith and Corona typewriter. I have a dry erase board for plotting and lots of scrap paper and pens, which poke out of a red flower pot. I have a few shelves that either store books, or hide everything that is not book/writing-related, i.e. bills. I think of my apartment as more office than living space. Everything there more or less revolves around my typewriter. When I'm completely immersed in my writing, I don't have a very good idea of what's physically around me, at all. Something that inspires you that isn't a writer or a piece of writing: Assuming movies and music don't count, since they're technically written, I'd say overhearing other people's conversations can be extremely inspiring. In short, eavesdropping. People say the most delightfully absurd things on buses and in bars, and they're often times not very discrete. I'm often inspired to commemorate these absurdities in story form. Last great/horrible thing you overheard: On the bus, I overheard an American complaining about being treated like an "immigrant" and having to work illegally in Ireland when he moved there to escape the tyranny of the Bush(Jr.) administration. What is the perfect height for a maitre d' and why? It is my general belief that it's not the height of the maitre d' that counts, but the size of his or her bicycle mustache. Which, by my standards, should be sizable in both length and girth. Links to writing/readings: http://www.sliverofstone.com/Jonathan_Escoffery.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heoj0RPdBfU http://www.foundlingreview.com/Sept2009Issue1Escoffery.html http://www.rso.cornell.edu/rainyday/pdf%20large/rainyday_fall_2009_large.pdf http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/1st_year_mfa_profiles_jonathan.html 312238 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:46:05 -0600 University of Minnesota MFAs have been venturing annually up to the northern woods of Minnesota near Bemidji for the official MFA retreat for over 30 years. (This trip actually predates the MFA program, which began in 1997.) Michael Dennis Browne, who, for many many years, was considered the unofficial poet laureate of the U of M, brought young writers up north (near his own cabin) so that they might get a chance to catch the northern lights being pretty, to cause trouble in canoes, and to wander near the Mississippi headwaters. Most important of all, however, Browne wanted them to have the opportunity to chop up all of the wood he would need for the winter for him. This year was no different. Our robust writers had a fine time drinking by the fire, petting Lexo the cabin dog, and testing their wherewithal by jumping in the autumnal waters of the lake. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/mfa_retreat_2011.html 312233 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:38:53 -0600 On Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 author Jenny Boully, who is the Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer, will be doing a reading in the Upson Room of Walter Library. Tell your smart phone that you need to be there at 7:30 p.m.! Boully's work is known for tripping/skipping across genres, for playing with form, and for sentences that are as deeply weird as they are deeply beautiful. Here is an excerpt from her new book, not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them, which reads between the lines of J.M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy: The Home Under Ground Wendy, have you quite come to terms with what it means to fly home? I don't quite think so; you see, I've a certain crick in my neck from all of that spinning, and the applying of various poultices--Tiger Lily's pussy lard and Peter's toe jam--haven't quite been working, although Tiger Lily's father quite said they would. So, no, I haven't actually been thinking too much on what it means to fly home. Why don't you tell me.*** aroma; it's ever-so-much stronger than you might think. The business trip will take eleven days; will you be quite lonesome without. Me? The doves all crying; why, yes, you've guessed it, Wendy! In the eaves. Don't be. So sad. Isn't this exactly the kind of life you imagined. For me? Oh, no. Oh, no. There will be no lovenotes sent to you in starcode; the boss simply won't allow. It. If you like, maybe you could leave. A note with the secretary. She'll be happy. To help. You. This, I know. For certain. She's always so eager. To please. But you mustn't. Cry, Wendy. That won't do; that won't do. At all. Oh, there! Will you look at. The time. It's about time, really. It's about time that. I got going. And what's that, you say? The cradle? We'll discuss it. Later. When I get back. Home. Isn't it a wonder? Really. That belly of yours is really. A wonder. Quite. The look in his eyes: it is delicious. His eyes say that he'd like to shred Hook to pieces with his good sword, the sword that cut Hook's hand off, and not his hobby one. But sometimes he'll mistake the good sword for the hobby sword: this can make a meeting with anything (This excerpt comes from Requited.) http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/10/friday_has_eyes_the_color_of_f.html 312232 Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:36:17 -0600 In late August, 12 promising writers showed up on our doorstep in the thick of the night. We've taken them under our expansive wing and called them our first year MFA candidates. We're going to give you the chance to get to know each and every one of them as if they were your very favorite sweater. First up is Elisabeth Workman! Name: Elisabeth Workman Genre: Poetry Where are you from? Philadelphia's sprawling suburbs What was breakfast like? A sensitive beach Which zoo animal is your writing? A macaw in love with a narwhal Greatest poetry/fiction reading you ever bore witness to: Amiri Baraka performing with Sonny Rollins was pretty mind-blowing. But also: I was living in Boston when Allen Ginsberg died. That night a throng of Boston-area poets got together in a small auditorium at Harvard to read Howl. The last to read, a short bald man poet (who was probably a poet of influence and academic stature, I just didn't know), took on the Footnote to Howl and embodied those anaphoric "holy's" with all of his red-faced being. It was chilling. And lots of us were crying. When he finished, all of the readers filed out of the room; there was a long pause and then they played a recording of Ginsberg reading "A Supermarket in California." After it ended, no one knew what to do and that was palpable in the air, this question of "what now?" And here's the best moment ever at a reading: a large man in the audience stood up, and sang in this sonorous voice "There's a man by my side walking. There's a voice within me talking. There's a voice within me saying, 'Carry on. Carry it on.'..." Also, describe your headspace while you're reading something really wonderful: Emily Dickinson is purported to have said, "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." (Maybe this is where the phrase "mind-blowing" has its roots?) I love this standard, and would definitely say I experience a partial decapitation of sorts, along with an inaudible humming/disorientation (the sensation of all normative synapses being rewired?), and an elevation and opening with a great momentum pushing it. So, basically, something like the French Revolution. Now describe your (physical) writing space: I'm stationed in "the library" of our little house, so three walls are mostly lined with books. The fourth wall has a painting of an ampersand by our friend Chris Thomas. Wooden floors. Yellow walls. Red desk. Old wooden desk chair on casters with a seal reading: "Property of Department of State." Little bed (for guests and naps). Piles of books on the floor. Windows facing west. Pictures hanging in spare spaces: a disco ball, Purple Rain Prince, two headless sparkling horses, a little owl saying "Poetry's heavy," and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. On my desk, besides my computer: Yoko Ono's Grapefruit, a book of surrealist games, a photo of my man, a weeping Buddha, and a glass paper weight from a dear friend that has scrawled on its paper bottom in an antiquated hand "Mon cher"--over the summer the high humidity somehow sealed it to the desk, so now it's more of a desk growth or partial orb I can touch when I need to. Something that inspires you that isn't a writer or a piece of writing: Movement. Getting to the point of physical exhaustion. Last great/horrible thing you overheard: "My wife compares my relationship with Freud to that of a child's with Santa Claus." Society lacks what flavor of Doritos? Mayan Apocalypse -- The New Yum! Read some of Elisabeth's poems! They are full of all the right vitamins! http://www.diodepoetry.com/ http://www.typografika.com http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/09/1st_year_mfa_profiles_elizabet.html 310159 Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:51:48 -0600 We have something really great to stir into your coffee on this ever so fall-ish morn. Joyce Sutphen, a graduate of the University of Minnesota's MA and Ph.D programs in English Literature, was recently named the poet laureate of our great flannel state. She graciously agreed to answer a few questions for us about her writing and what it's like to preside over Minnesota's poetry kingdom. This is a basic question, but how does it feel to receive a title like "poet laureate?" It feels a bit unreal; I can't explain how it happened or what I did to deserve the title. People like to tease me ("Where are your laurels?" "Do I have to address you as Madame Poet Laureate?"), and I laugh and change the subject. Is there a difference between a poet's laureate's responsibilities to the (general) public and his/her responsibilities to the writing community? I hope not, because I don't think in those terms. I write for passionate intelligent readers, and those readers are part of the writing community that exists in every part of the state. Minnesota is not the only thing you write about, but it's something that surfaces and resurfaces throughout your body of work. Is there some aspect or part of Minnesota you've been preoccupied with in your writing lately? I haven't finished with writing about my family and the experience of growing up on a small farm. That's material that keeps looking different to me and I continue to try to get it down, to create something that conveys what's being lost when those independent little places disappear. Lately I have been writing poems about the late 60s, when I was an undergraduate at the University and the early 70s, when I was trying to find my way through ... life. Which contemporary Minnesota poets are you excited about? I feel fortunate to have met so many fine Minnesota poets over the years. I especially admire Connie Wanek (of Duluth), Tim Nolan (Minneapolis), Patricia Kirkpatrick (St. Paul) and Phil Bryant (St. Peter). These four are excellent poets in very different ways and make a sort of poetic compass for me. We often send each other new poems and talk about who we are reading. Lately I have been admiring Ed Bok Lee's new book, Whorled, Jim Moore's beautiful Invisible Strings, and Bill Reichard's Sin Eater. Of course, there are poets I have admired for years and those I've come to read and admire more recently. I tried to make a list, but it's impossible! Can you give us a prompt for a poem? For me, most poems come in one of two ways: either I get an idea or some words and I obey the direction of that prompting and start writing or I start reading poems (from a volume I'm currently reading or a book I pull from the shelf) until something (an idea or a word) catches my imagination and I pick up a pen and write. In the classroom, it's hard to present students with more than one poem, but sometimes I like to take a pair of poems that complement each other in some way (for example, James Wright's "Hook" and Mary Oliver's "Picking Blueberries, Austerlitz, New York, 1957"), read the poems out loud, talk about them a bit, and then give the class about ten minutes to write. I try not to suggest a direction in this kind of exercise, since I want the richness of the source poems to lead the way. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/09/lets_give_them_sutphen_to_talk.html 310149 Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:10:10 -0600 The Star Tribune gave a shout-out to the University of Minnesota MFA program in Sunday's Sept. 17 edition: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/129922113.html Laurie Hertzel notes the excellence of our faculty, our top-10 national ranking among MFA programs and our stellar Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer Series. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/09/mfa_love_in_the_star_tribune.html 308706 8586 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:43:56 -0600 Steve Healey is a local poet, who recently wrote a book about that giant river outside Minneapolis' window. Our own Sarah Fox, a 3rd year MFA candidate, interviewed Healey about the magic of spelling M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i, Betty Crocker, and the animals that wander into poems for the Coffee House Press website. 2 Mississippi Steve Healey Standing next to the river, I recorded the sound of the river in an attempt to represent that sound more accurately than my earlier description of it, which compared the river sound to someone saying "shhhh." I rewound the tape and played it back, and the recording also sounded like someone saying "shhhh," but then I remembered that I was listening to both the recording of the river and the river itself, and I could not with absolute certainty distinguish one from the other. It sounded like the two sounds synchronized into one "shhhh," but at times they seemed to separate, as if telling each other to be quiet, like accomplices committing a crime. Or they may have both been telling me to be quiet, despite the fact that I was producing no sound, or so I thought. Retreating swiftly and quietly to the privacy of my own home, a safe distance from the river itself, I listened again to the recording of the river sound. This time it sounded like a perfectly preserved memory of the river, a solitary "shhhh" moving inexorably toward the Gulf of Mexico, and just as I felt liberated from the burden of having to remember the river through my own mental activity, the recording stopped, precisely at the moment when I had turned off the tape recorder. Then I remembered that the river itself was elsewhere, continuing its perfect sound forever, and that I would never be able to represent that continuousness accurately. I remembered, however, that I could take a length of magnetic tape on which that river was recorded and splice the ends together to form a loop which I could then play continuously. The sound could keep going "shhhh" all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, telling all the cars and condos to be quiet. It's worth remembering, however, that a river is not a person, and that a person saying "shhhh" eventually needs to stop making that sound, either to inhale or die. There would be no other choice, unless of course I recorded myself saying "shhhh" and played a loop of that recording continuously, in which case I'd no longer need to remember myself. I'd be immortal in the privacy of my own sound. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/09/friday_doesnt_always_have_to_m.html 308342 Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:57:01 -0600 Poets & Writers Magazine has listed our MFA Program as #10 in the nation in their 2012 program rankings! http://www.pw.org/content/2012_mfa_rankings_the_top_fifty While we have been as high as #3 and drifted around in the teens, we are plenty happy to be #10. This year, we expect admissions to the program continue to rise with the addition of Peter Campion, our new Assistant Professor of Poetry. Campion was recently awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. Last year, we received 467 applications to the MFA and we will shoot over 500 this year. Our current students are being published in a staggering amount of literary journals (and even publishing debut books while in the program, a la second-year poet Mary Feng Chen, whose first book will be published by Black Ocean Press in January 2012). Our alumni have published over 99 books and chapbooks since 1997, and that tally doesn't include three new books coming out this fall and in spring 2012 (Nate Slawson, Lauren Fox, Shana Youngdahl). The dedicated and generous faculty mentoring our students? Here's a list of our stellar faculty writers: Charles Baxter, Julie Schumacher, Regents Professor Patricia Hampl, Regents Professor Madelon Sprengnether, Ray Gonzalez, Maria Damon, Dan Philippon, Peter Campion and David Treuer. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/09/mfa_program_named_10_in_nation.html 308232 8586|9587 Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:55:33 -0600 The following students were recognized by the Creative Writing Program with the following prizes: Gesell Award in Fiction: Edward McPherson Gesell Award in Poetry: Feng Sun Chen Gesell Award in Nonfiction: Gwyn Fallbrooke and Sally Franson 2011 GRPP Summer Recipients: Kate Johnston and Sarah Fox Academy of American Poets James Wright Prize for Poetry: Colleen Coyne Marcella Debourg Fellowships: Wahida Omar and Andrea Uptmor 2011 Anderson Center Summer Residencies: Sarah Fox and Chris Keimig Michael Dennis Browne Summer Fellowship in Poetry: Alex Grant 2011 Scribe for Human Rights: Claire Stanford 2011 Best New Poets Anthology Nominees: Feng Sun Chen and Lucas de Lima AWP Intro Journal Award Honorable Mention in Nonfiction: Isaac Butler Outstanding Composition Instructor, Fall 2010: Jonah Charney-Sirott. Also, some recent publication news by our current MFAs... Lucas de Lima's poems "Broken Hummingbird Heart," "OurSpace," "Your Valley: My Anus," and "Wax Brazilian" were just accepted by Spork Press. His poem "Set Fire to Grass. Ana Maria Wants a Shrine" is also forthcoming in Metazen. Kate Petersen's interview with James Salter is featured on The Paris Review's blog for James Salter Month. Her short story "Ground Rules" has also been accepted for publication in the Los Angeles Review. Brian Laidlaw's poems "Elegy for the Analog Self" and "Elegy for the Analog Clock" will appear in an upcoming issue of PANK. Sally Franson was recently awarded second place in the Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism Competition for her feature story entitled, "hello, cancer." Sarah Fox and Lucas de Lima have 8 poems each in the new issue of Action! Yes. Lucas de Lima will also be exhibiting drawings and poems in RADIANCE, a group art show featuring NYC and Minneapolis artists at Madame, 3405 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis. The opening is on Friday, April 15th at 8pm. Additional gallery hours on Saturday (2-8pm) and Sunday (1-5pm). Brian Laidlaw's poem "A Partial List of Schoolyard Games" has been accepted for publication by 32 Poems. Colleen McCarthy's poems "Hide" and "Cellar" are in the current issue of Midway Journal. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/05/end-of-year_student_news.html 292948 9587 Thu, 12 May 2011 13:45:43 -0600 Long time, no speak, and yet our candidates continue their strong performances outside of the classroom. Check out some of our current student accomplishments after the jump. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2011/03/catching_up_some_spring_2011_s.html 278181 Brian Laidlaw's poems "The Farrier's File" and "Dead Pony Recapitulation" will appear in the next issue of KNOCK. Poets Sarah Fox and Chrissy Friedlander recently spoke about love poetry on Radio K's Culture Queue . Feng Sun Chen has a book of poetry forthcoming from Black Ocean in 2012 entitled Hunger Transit. Her chapbook, Ugly Fish, will be published by Radioactive Moat this spring, and her work will also be featured in issue 11 of Kill Author this month. Amir Hussain will be reading eco-centered poems as a graduate student participant at the ASLE 2011 Conference "Species, Space, and the Imagination of the Global," June 21-26, at Indiana University: http://www.indiana.edu/~asle2011/index.shtml. Rose Hansen has written an article on sled dog races that will be published in the March/April 2011 issue of Mushing Magazine. Alex Grant's poem "Lurebait" will be published in the January issue of The Scrambler. His poem "My Dead Sister is a PVC Pipe" will appear in a forthcoming issue of Forklift, OH. Adriane Quinlan has won a James Reston Reporting Fellowship from The New York Times. She will spend the summer reporting from the paper's Metro desk. Adriane also had part of a memoir published about her job as a speed typist for the Ministry of Propaganda during the 2008 Olympics in the literary journal, N+1 last month. http://nplusonemag.com/pr-for-the-prc David LeGault's essay, "I am a Fan of Charles Martin Smith," will be published in the upcoming issue of Ninth Letter. "Revision and Collapse," will be published in the Spring 2012 (14.1) issue of Fourth Genre. Brian Laidlaw's poem "Bearing Straight" will appear in the next issue of Lungfull! Magazine. His poem "Elegy for the Analog Lore" was recently featured in Abjective. He has accepted a position as adjunct instructor of Music at McNally Smith. His poems "Pony Expressions," "Atlas at Last," "Homegoing," "Anecdote for Fathers," and "Self Portrait Lakeside" have recently been accepted for publication at The Iowa Review. Brian Laidlaw had two poems, "Grace Amends" and "Cooling Board," accepted by New American Writing. "Haploid Love Poem," "Furvert Love Poem," "Bitch Creek," "Thank You for the Sky," and "Yes Lets" have been accepted by No Tell Motel and will be published later this month. "Small Water" and "Nettles" will appear in the next issue of Cutbank. Mary Chen's work was featured in Strange Machine Issue 5, and her poem "Glitter" was one of the finalists for the Palooka People's Choice Award. Beloit Poetry Journal accepted Amir Hussain's "Night Poem" for publication in its upcoming Winter/Spring issue. A poem and ecopoetic statement by Amir appears online at Poets for Living Waters, a poetry response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: http://poetsgulfcoast.wordpress.com/ Isaac Butler's essay "Chronicle of An Award Ungiven" is in January's issue of American Theatre magazine. Lucas de Lima has a poem in the new ABJECTIVE: http://abjective.net/ Colleen Coyne's poem "The Kitchen Ghost" is a winner of the 2010 mnLIT "What Light" Poetry Project and will be published on mnartists.org and magersandquinn.com in November. Two of Colleen poems, "Host" and "Flicker," will appear in the upcoming "Safe" issue of Women's Studies Quarterly (Spring/Summer 2011). Kate Petersen has two new publications: "Suffolk Downs" in Hobart Pulp, http://hobartpulp.com, and "State and Milk" (forthcoming) in the fall 2010 issue of The Pinch. Sally Franson's poem, "New York Poem" will be featured in BAP Quarterly's upcoming NYC issue. http://www.bapq.net/ Sarah Fox and Lucas de Lima are now contributing to the multi-authored literary blog, Montevidayo: http://www.montevidayo.com. Sarah also has poems forthcoming in Spout Magazine and Action, Yes: http://actionyes.org Molly Sutton Kiefer has three poems in the anthology From Orchards, Fields, and Gardens and it is available for pre-order here: http://shashtin.com/FromOFG.html. Her poem "The Recent History of Middle Sand Land (II)" was been published in Tattoo Highway: http://www.tattoohighway.org/20/mkrecent.html She was the winner of the Astounding Beauty Ruffian Press chapbook award for her manuscript, The Recent History of Middle Sand Lake. The book was published in December 2010. http://home.earthlink.net/~astoundingbeautyruffianpress/ A section of Chrissy Friedlander's long poem "On the Subject of Tornadoes" will appear in the Summer/Fall 2010 issue of Fugue. 9587 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:57:29 -0600 Professor Charles Baxter's Third Annual Benefit for Hunger netted $1500 for Second Harvest Heartland food shelf. Faculty readers included Regents Professors Patricia Hampl, Madelon Sprengnether, MJ Fitzgerald, Ray Gonzalez, and Maria Damon. A house of 152 sat in rapt appreciation. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/09/baxters_benefit_nets_1500_for.html 250529 8586|8585 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:12:05 -0600 The MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota has landed at number 19 on the 2010-2011 Poets and Writers list of the nation's best MFA programs. Our alums have published over 80 books in the last 12 years and won numerous national and local awards. Our faculty isn't slouching, either: we're expecting three new faculty books this year. Go, us! http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/09/mfa_program_19_in_nation.html 249196 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:04:29 -0600 Poets DA Powell and Josie Rawson will team up for an evening of ardent, eclectic and exhilarating poetry on Tuesday, October 12 at 7:30 pm in Coffman Theatre. Powell recently won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He is the author of Cocktails, Chronic, and Tea. Rawson is the Minnesota Writer of Distinction in the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English. She is the author of two poetry collections, Unrest and Quarry. Rawson is also a Master Gardener in Northfield, MN. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/09/da_powell_and_josie_rawson_rea.html 249195 8585 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:00:51 -0600 An interview with Eric Dregni, author of Weird Minnesota and In Cod We Trust, will be included in the documentary film, World's Largest, showing at the Twin Cities Film Fest later this month. Dates: Sept. 29th, 9:30 pm at AMC Theater Block E, Screen 1 and Sat. October 2 at Block E. He discusses his book Minnesota Marvels. http://www.twincitiesfilmfest.org/worlds-largest/ http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/09/mfa_alum_in_documentary_film.html 249193 8586 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:58:51 -0600 The Third Annual Benefit for Hunger reading is this evening, Sept. 22 at 7:30 pm in University Hall, McNamara Alumni Center. Hosted once again by Edelstein-Keller Chair in Creative Writing Charles Baxter and featuring readings by faculty Patricia Hampl, Madelon Sprengnether, MJ Fitzgerald, Maria Damon and Ray Gonzalez. Free, with a suggested donation of $5. All proceeds benefit Second Harvest Heartland food shelf. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/09/benefit_for_hunger.html 249192 8586|8585 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:54:32 -0600 This is going to be an excellent year for publications by MFA alums! Kevin Fenton won the 2010 AWP Award for the Novel last spring; the novel, Merit Badges, is due out in January 2011 from New Issues Press....Stephanie Johnson's debut collection poetry, Kinesthesia, is due this fall from New Rivers Press. Stephanie won the "New Voices" Award from NRP...Both Arlene Kim and Eireann Lorsung have poetry collections coming in Spring 2011 from Milkweed Editions...Matt Burgess' debut novel, Dogfight, out this fall from Doubleday, is already winning praise in Publisher's Weekly and comparisons to Jonathan Lethem and Richard Price... Francine Tolf's warm and frank memoir, Joliet Girl (North Star Press) is a careful and rich retelling of her childhood in Joliet, Illinois in the sixties and seventies....Alex Lemon's memoir, Happy, continues to do well. He has a new collection of poetry out from Milkweed Editions, Fancy Beasts...And Swati Avasthi's debut young adult novel, Split, is racking up awards left and right... http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/08/a_pretty_big_year_for_mfa_alum.html 245534 9587 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:56:15 -0600 Regents Professor Patricia Hampl will present her new show, "The Big Time--F. Scott Fitzgerald," a staged essay about Fitzgerald's love/hate relationship with literary ambition and success on Saturday, September 18, 8 pm, Fitzgerald Theatre in downtown Saint Paul. Music by Dan Chouinard and friends (including a visit by singer Blake Hazzard, Fitzgerald's great-granddaughter, who will perform a song). This show continues Professor Hampl's longstanding interest in and love for Saint Paul-ite F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hampl is also the editor of "The Saint Paul Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald." http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/08/regents_professor_patricia_ham.html 245531 8585 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:52:01 -0600 2009 MFA alum Matt Burgess's debut novel, Dogfight, has been chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the top ten debuts for fall 2010. Burgess has also been selected by Barnes and Noble as "Discover Great New Writers Pick." In addition to a national tour, Burgess will be a visitor to the popular undergraduate course EngW 1101 Introduction to Creative Writing. He will read from his work and discuss "Dialogue in Fiction." http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/08/mfa_alums_debut_novel_lauded_i.html 245153 9587 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:02:49 -0600 Professor Julie Schumacher has been awarded a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy for one month in 2011. Schumacher's project while in residency will focus on a collection of short stories, Passengers. s http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2010/08/julie_schumacher_awarded_bella.html 245151 8586 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:33:55 -0600 MFA Dhana-Marie Branton received an SASE Emerging Writer Fellowship and a MN State Arts Board Grant for 2008...MFA Laura Owen received a MN Arts Board Grant for 2008 and was also a finalist for the SASE fellowship...Two Emilys (Freeman and August) were finalists for the SASE...Pushcart Prize nomination alert... http://blog.lib.umn.edu/creawrit/main/2007/12/congratulations_6.html 102045 MFA alum Amanda Fields received a nomination for her short story, "Boiler Room," featured in the Indiana Review...MFA Katie-Leo Keast received a Cultural Collaboration Grant from the MN Arts Board to adapt the children's book, "Baseball Saved Us," in conjunction with the Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins. The book is about Japanese internment camps. Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:32:05 -0600