Farewell for Summer
It’s been a wonderful school year here at UW, cumulating with a memorable commencement ceremony where six MFA students walked (perhaps a record). Hats off to you, graduates! This blog will go on hiatus until the Fall when Joey Rubin takes over (word on the street is he plans to take the blog to new glittery heights). Great summer to all!
Adam Bouche, Erin Fortenberry, and Rebecca Estee graduate in style.
PhD Panel and Reading and Donuts
It’s April in Wyoming and that means snow flurries and ice castles and grapefruit-colored sunsets. It also means some very cool things are coming up for MFA students.
1.) Graduation! All your 1980s teen movie dreams are coming true, complete with confetti and a gloriously slimming cap and gown (in Pokes colors, of course). This also means, for the next three Fridays, MFA graduates will read from their beautiful theses. The first reading is this Friday, April 26th at 6pm in the Carriage House, featuring:
Erin Fortenberry – The Fourteenth Season
Adam Boucher – two stories
Maggie Nelson’s Return Engagement
Please join the MFA in Creative Writing Program for the rescheduled Public Reading of Eminent Writer in Residence Maggie Nelson. There will be a small reception at the event. Second Story Books will host the book signing at the UW Art Museum. This event is free and open to the public. Friday, April 19, 2013, 7 – 8pm
Maggie Nelson (Ph.D. in English Literature, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York) is the author of four books of nonfiction and four books of poetry. Her most recent book, The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (W. W. Norton, 2011; out in paperback in 2012), was featured on the front cover of the SundayBook Review of the New York Times, as well as named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and an Editors’ Choice. Her other nonfiction books include the cult hit Bluets (Wave Books, 2009); a critical study of poetry and painting titled Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press, 2007; winner, the Susanne M. Glasscock Award for Interdisciplinary Scholarship), and an autobiographical book about sexual violence and media spectacle titled The Red Parts: A Memoir (Free Press, 2007; named a Notable Book of the Year by the State of Michigan). Her poetry books include Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007); Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull Press, 2005; finalist, the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of Memoir), The Latest Winter (Hanging Loose Press, 2003), and Shiner (Hanging Loose, 2001; finalist, the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award). Her poetry has been widely anthologized, including in the Best American Poetry series.
Reading this Saturday, 4/6
Join the MFA in Creative Writing students for the last reading of the semester. Readers will include Kelly Hatton, Rebecca Golden, and Sofi Thanhauser. This event is free and open to the public.
Saturday, April 6, 2013, 7 – 8pm
Lincoln Center
365 West Grand Avenue
Some News!
Sofi Thanhauser, Kelly Hatton, and Joey Rubin — all first-year MFA students — have received Cheney international travel grants. Sofi will go to Tamil Nandu to research textile production. Kelly will return to Paraguay, where she served in the Peace Corps, to continue work on her fiction and nonfiction projects centered on sustainable farming communities. Joey will attend the British Centre for the Translation of Literature Summer School at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. Congratulations, all! Well deserved and such fantastics achievements for the MFA program.
Also, this week fiction writer, John Brandon, will visit UW.
John Brandon is the author of three novels, Arkansas, Citrus County, and A Million Heavens, all with McSweeney’s. His shorter work has appeared in Oxford American, The Believer, ESPN the Magazine, GQ, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The New York Times Magazine, and numerous university journals. During the season, he writes about college football for Grantland.com.
There will be a Q&A with him on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in the Carriage House and a public reading at 7:30 p.m. at Second Story Books. Hope to see everyone there!
Mark Nowak Reading Tonight
Eminent Writer in Residence Mark Nowak will read from his work tonight at 7 p.m. at Second Story Books. This event is hosted by the MFA in Creative Writing Program and is free and open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow the reading. Hope to see you there!
Nowak’s writings include the New York Times “Editor’s Choice” for “Shut Up Shut Down” and the acclaimed book about coal mining disasters in the United States and China, “Coal Mountain Elementary.”
He is among a dozen poets to be included in the seminal anthology “American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics.” Poet Adrienne Rich heralds Nowak for “regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature.”
Nowak is the director of the graduate creative writing program at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y.
Wyo Arts Council Features MFA Students
The Wyoming Arts Council is an invaluable resource to the state, offering grants, programming, and other means of support for working artists. Featured in their Winter Newsletter are UW MFA students Rebecca Estee and Kali Fajardo-Anstine for their work at the Wyoming Girls School. As part of their MFA Project, these two have made monthly visits to Sheridan, Wyoming to teach creative writing.
Be sure to check out the full newsletter for other wonderful happenings around the state. You can do so here.
It Will Be Friday Night, and We Will Feel Alright
Because, in addition to it being the start of a wonderful Wyoming weekend, the UW MFA program will have another fabulous reading, the second of the year. Where, when, who? Here, let us show you:
Lam Pham, Ginger Ko, and Dan Freije are going to delight. Promise.
ZZ Packer Reading
The UW Creative Writing MFA was pleased to host ZZ Packer for a quick visit last week. ZZ was a joy and gave an excellent reading in addition to her consulations with fiction students.
Here are some photos from the event:
ZZ’s collection ‘Drinking Coffee Elsewhere’
ZZ reads to a packed house at the Albany County Public Library
ZZ did a quick Q&A after the reading
After the reading we showed ZZ a good time at the infamous Buckhorn Bar in downtown Laramie
Overall a great visit and reading! Wyoming misses ZZ Packer already.
Congrats, Rebecca Golden!
Rebecca Golden, first year non-fiction student, has a new essay up on Salon. Congratulations, Rebecca!
