A press release (from the UW Creative Writing site), what with the semester starting in a few days:

The MFA program in Creative Writing will host two Eminent Writers in Residence, Maggie Nelson and Mark Nowak, at the University of Wyoming during the 2012-2013 academic year. During their visits, Nelson and Nowak will work closely with MFA students, visit classes and writing workshops, and give public readings of their work.

Maggie Nelson is the author of books including Bluets (Wave Books 2009), Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press 2007), and The Red Parts: a Memoir (Free Press 2007). Her most recent book of nonfiction, The Art of Cruelty, was published this fall to excellent reviews. In addition to nonfiction, Nelson is also the author of several collections of poetry, including, most recently, Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press 2007). Her awards include an Arts Writers grant from the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for Nonfiction. She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches at the School of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts.

Mark Nowak, a 2010 Guggenheim fellow, is the author of Coal Mountain Elementary (2009) and Shut Up Shut Down (2004), both from Coffee House Press. He has recently appeared on BBC World News America, BBC Radio 3, and Pacifica Radio’s “Against the Grain,” among others, to discuss global working class policies and issues. Nowak currently acts as the director of the graduate Creative Writing program at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York.

The MFA Creative Writing program aims to mentor a new generation of writers. Each semester, the Eminent Writer in Residence program brings distinguished writers to Wyoming. Previous guests include Edward P. Jones, Claudia Rankine, Joy Williams, Colson Whitehead, and many others. For more information about Maggie Nelson, Mark Nowak, and Wyoming’s Eminent Writer in Residence program, please visit the MFA website at http://www.uwyo.edu/creativewriting or contact Gwynn Lemler at cw@uwyo.edu or 766-6453.

Exciting news, of course–apologies for posting so late!