September 2009 Archives

In case you missed it, Gregory Donovan's poem, "Is There a Dead Mule In It," was recently published in storySouth. You can access it here:

http://www.storysouth.com/2009/03/is-there-a-dead-mule-in-it.html

In a recent article titled "Thursday Things We Like for 6.25: Trailer Bride, Dead Mules, and Juke Joints as Fine Art," the Yellowhammer Press website recommended Donovan's poem, alongside recommendations for the photographer Birney Imes and the altcountry band Trailer Brides:

http://www.yellowhammerpress.com/2009/06/24/thursday-things-we-like-for-6-25-trailer-bride-dead-mules-and-juke-joints-as-fine-art

Recent MFA Graduate Elizabeth Quinn will have a story published in the fall/winter edition of LIT magazine out of the New School in New York.  She is currently serving as an adjunct instructor at JMU in the Writing and Rhetoric Department.

MFA Alum Nan Byrne just completed work on a new documentary The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas for Discovery Channel's new series, American Gangs. Another documentary KKK: Inside American Terror that aired on the National Geographic Channel in October was nominated for both a CINE and Emmy Award Award for best documentary.

Poet Katie Ford, winner of this year's VCU Levis Reading Prize, will give a reading next week, on September 24 at 8PM in VCU Commons, Richmond Salons.

Katie Ford's Colosseum was selected for the 12th Annual Levis Reading Prize. The collection, which was published by Graywolf Press, stems from Ford's experiences living through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans. Ford examines both ancient and contemporary catastrophes in the book with particular attention to Katrina's power and impact.

The Levis Reading Prize is presented on behalf of VCU's MFA in Creative Writing Program. Sponsors include the VCU Department of English, the James Branch Cabell Library Associates, Friends of the Library, the VCU Libraries, the VCU Honors College, Barnes & Noble @ VCU Bookstore, the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences and the Levis family.

MFA Alum Nathan Long has a short story set to appear in a forthcoming issue of College Hill Review. His recent fiction can be seen in failbetter and in the anthologies The Best of Philadelphia Stories, Vol II, and The Way We Work.

MFA Alum Jon Pineda will have an essay appearing in Gulf Coast and his memoir Sleep In Me is due out in fall 2010 from the University of Nebraska Press. He will also be a part of this year's James River Writers Festival (on a panel with Thomas Lux) and the ODU Literary Festival.

MFA Alum Mary Jean Kledzik has poems in the current or immediately forthcoming publications: Gargoyle, Margie, Alimentum and Lady Jane's Miscellany. She was also one of 3 "Honorable Finalists" chosen by David St. John for the 1st book award by Tebot Bach.

MFA Alum Pir Rothenberg has just published a story at juked.com. He will also have new stories in forthcoming issues of Makeout Creek, Zahir and in the anthology, Richmond Noir.

Professor Les Harrison will be chairing a panel on "Poe and Information Technologies" and presenting a paper at the Third International Edgar Allan Poe Conference: The Bicentennial.  Several current graduate students, including Jen Smith (MATX), Timothy Towslee (MA) and Ryan Cales (MA) will also present on the same panel.

For more information on the conference, including a list of papers/topics to be presented, please see:

http://www2.lv.psu.edu/PSA/Conference2009

MFA alum Mary Mullins, currently an adjunct English instructor, and Vera Brown, second year MATX student and Focused Inquiry GTA, will be presenting a panel,
“Rethinking Active Learning: Character Impersonation, Creative Imitation, and Cultural Reflection in the Writing Classroom,” at the 2010 CCCC Annual Conference on March 17-20, 2010 in Louisville, KY.

For ore information on the conference see:

http://www.ncte.org/cccc/conv

This November, Cleveland State University Poetry Center will publish two volumes of poetry by graduates from the VCU MFA program - Allison Titus and Mathias Svalina. Allison's collection is called, Sum of Every Lost Ship -- while Mathias' book is entitled, Destruction Myth. For more information, please see:

http://www.csuohio.edu/poetrycenter/Forthcoming/ForthcomingTitles.html

MFA Alum Patty Smith's latest work can be seen in the new collection, Something to Declare: Good Lesbian Travel Writing, which was just published this month by
Terrace Books, an imprint of The University of Wisconsin Press.

You can check out more info here: http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4622.htm

The 2009-2010 VCU Visiting Writer Series has been set. This year's line-up of visiting writers includes Colson Whitehead, Thomas Lux, Deb Olin Unferth (winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award), Mary Gaitskill, Katie Ford (winner of the Levis Reading Prize), Linda Bierds, Fanny Howe, and our Visiting Writer-in-Residence, Rosellen Brown.

MFA Alum Diana Woodcock has her first two chapbooks coming out shortly. Mandala will be published by Foothills Publishing as the 14th in their "Poets on Peace" series; and Travels of a Gwai Lo will be published by Toadlily Press. In 2008 her poem, "Survivor," was selected by Mark Strand for Best New Poets 2008.

MATX student Jenn Figg's most recent work, Terra Incognita, will open this week in the exhibition “Fall Solos 2009” at the Arlington Arts Center.  The reception is Friday September 11 from 6-9 pm.  Please come to the opening if you are in the area: 

AAC Location: 3550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22201, 703-248-6800
Metro: Virginia Square (Orange Line)
Hours: Tues-Sat 11am-5pm

Jenn is currently a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire thru September.  In October she will be an artist in residence for “Accessibility 2009” at Cleveland State Community College in Cleveland, TN. 

MFA Alum Brigitte McCray will publish an article on Hart Crane and William Styron in a forthcoming issue of the Explicator, and on September 26th she will present her paper "The Intolerable Wrestle": Sylvia Plath's Ariel and T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets at the T.S. Eliot Conference in St. Louis.

Brigitte is a second year PhD candidate in the literature department at Louisiana State University where she is specializing in 20th century American and British literature with a focus on war and culture and queer studies.

First-year MATX student Rebekah McKendry has been invited to make two presentations and moderate a panel at "The Trinity of Terror: 3 Days of Macabre, Movies, and Music."

Laura Browder's history/photography book based on her highly acclaimed show, “When Janey Comes Marching Home,” will be published by University of North Carolina Press in the Spring 2010. The show attracted international attention from newspapers in Germany and Austria; was previewed in Virginia Quarterly Review and reviewed very favorably in Art Papers. The exhibit's venues included Hollins University, the Women’s Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and the National Museum of the Marine Corps.