A TRUE GENRE BENDER JCO ACROSS THE BOARD

Joyce Carol Oates is an author whose talent stretches across the restrictive shackles of genre. She has successfully written literary fiction and short stories, only to move on to horror stories and mystery and suspense novels, and in doing so has often blurred the lines between the genres. Here is but a brief sampling of her staggering breadth of writing.

Faithless: Tales of Transgression – Short-Story Collection – – Novella – – Literary Novel – Don’t be fooled by the title, Faithless is about In a small liberal arts college in the 1970s, The Stevicks are an average, working-class family much more than marital infidelity. The 21 stories a naïve young college girl falls in love with a simply trying to survive the extraordinary 1950s. in this collection cover every type of faith, or professor of poetry and his sculptress wife. Oates weaves McCarthyism, mass paranoia, and lack thereof, imaginable. From faithlessness in As Gillian descends into a gothic world of drugs, political unrest into the Stevicks’ world, following oneself to infidelities to God, these short stories obsession, and a battle for her humanity, fifteen-year-old Enid Maria’s affair with Felix probe the varied ways in which people betray Oates creates a living nightmare for the reader, Stevick, a professional boxer twice her age who one another and themselves. a beautiful and shocking tale of infatuation, happens to be her uncle. An epic family saga that sex, and the need to be noticed. grabs hold of you right from the start, You Must Remember This is one novel you will never forget.

Freaky Green Eyes The Faith of a Writer – YA Mystery Novel – – Nonfiction– – Horror – is an alter ego that guides Perhaps overqualified to write a book on Winner of the Bram Stoker Award in 1996 and Franky, a fifteen-year-old girl struggling to writing, Oates does so with ease and style. told as a first-person diary, complete with crude realize who she is while growing up with an She celebrates her “first love” authors, the drawings and staccato sentences, Zombie tells the increasingly absent mother and a father thrill of inspiration, and the absolute necessity story of Quentin P., a serial killer intent on creating prone to violence. Morphing into a coming- of reading as a writer. She delves deep into his very own zombie. Though his quest is horrific, of-age story, a mystery novel, and an her own process, while offering advice to Quentin’s captivating humanity and his childlike examination of domestic violence, this book beginning writers. This book is essential for air make him almost relatable, sympathetic even, caters to all readers. any writer’s collection. and that is what provides the book’s true terror. Real World: Columbia When Writers Start Getting Real compiled by James Lower / photos by Ian Merritt

You know how it goes at all those rooftop fundraisers you go to over the summer, right? Alright, well neither do I. But if we did, there’d be some highly paid, starched-collar professional, a friend of your parents, who asks, “And what is it that you go to school for?” And you reply, “Actually, I’m a writer.” After the requisite, “Ohhhhh,” and a pregnant silence, the pro scoffs and says, “Well, what exactly do you plan to do with that?” Hypothetically, we’d like to grab this person by their collar and spit, “Lay off! I like telling stories!” But over time we’ve realized that even though these people might not be genuinely curious, it’s still a great question. A degree in writing could just be one of the most versatile degrees around in terms of what you can do with it. Just look at our alumni. This is the true story of five alumni who wound up living in and reporting back on what happens when writers stop being broke ... and start getting real. From public relations to National Public Radio to the high school English classroom. From the freelance hustle to the towers of the Tribune. With an incredible amount of hard work, luck, and patience, this is where your degree can take you: just about anywhere.

Drew Ferguson Writing Department. The dirty little secret disaster to , writing a draft Vice President, Corporate/ about public relations is that too many people of a speech for the U.S. President, trying to Financial at Ketchum in the field can’t write, they don’t understand convince CEOs that it’s not really appropriate MFA in Creative Writing ’98 their audience, and they’re too busy to bad-mouth nuns or try and take a hit out overanalyzing everything so they never see on , writing someone’s Congressional I’d like to be noble and say that I got into public how simple things really are. PR’s supposed testimony, or sitting in a TV studio green room relations because I thought it was an important to be about effective communication, and with Chaka Khan. After a while, everything, no field, that the work I did would free the flow the Story Workshop method of teaching matter how strange it is, has a been there, of information, that it would allow companies writing demonstrates that the best writing done that vibe to it. to better communicate with the public, but is about having a strong sense of audience, that’d be a lie. I got into public relations for understanding forms, and getting to the And that’s what makes returning to your own two reasons: 1) The money (it’s weird how heart of the matter—what’s most taking fiction—the stuff you aren’t writing on the job— people say “selling out” like it’s a bad thing) your attention. Need to communicate with all the easier. Is it hard to write your own novel and 2) because I can say I lie for a living (or at employees, vendors, or shareholders? You’ll when you’ve been writing all day? Sure, but it’s the very least, I hedge or exaggerate the truth), find yourself smack dab in the letter form and probably no harder than writing after serving which for me is about the most productive use making sure the voice and the content meet cappuccinos, working construction, or whatever of a fiction writing degree outside of writing the needs of the audience. Need to write a else other gainfully employed people do to earn fiction. I’ve heard other writers discuss how press release or develop a pitch for a reporter? their scratch. Whatever takes us away from our there aren’t factory jobs that pay for writing You look at the material you’ve been given own writing sucks, but the thing is, when you’re fiction, but PR is damn close. and you rely on that old Take-A-Place coaching writing for other people all day, that just makes to go to the moment or thing that’s most your own writing even more important. Bottom In fact, you’d almost swear that the Story taking your attention, and voila, you’ve likely line: PR’s a day job that was practically made Workshop method of teaching writing was got your news hook. Best of all, you can find for fiction writers. It pays, leaves you time to designed to produce flacks—and of course, yourself in plenty of truth-is-stranger-than- write, and sets you up brilliantly for promoting most flacks never took a class in the Fiction fiction moments—trying to explain a maritime your own book when it’s published. My awareness of audience helps me consider how best to reach them, so that what happens to me, what matters to me, doesn’t just seem like the random isolated thoughts and experiences of one woman ...

Jessica M. Young the company for a mom who’s just putting her my sense of telling and direct address. When Regular Contributor to WBEZ’s son down for his morning nap; or the window to I am telling scenes or models, I must make Eight Forty-Eight the city for a retiree who’s interested in what’s sure that the writing is sharp and tight enough MFA in Fiction Writing ’08 going on in his community. I imagine all these so that the listener on the other end can see people and more, on the other sides of their clearly what I see. I don’t have a lot of words Radio is definitely not a medium I thought would radios listening to WBEZ, my voice pouring out like in longer-form fiction, nor do I have the suit me as a writer, but looking back, it seems of their speakers. I know about the listeners who benefit of an in-person telling. I must rely on like an obvious choice. I have some performance make public radio a part of their day: They’re the writing and make it as clear and concise training, which gives me a strong sense of voice thoughtful, they’re engaged, they’re curious, and as possible. I always take my sense of telling and listening, and as a writer, I have no shortage they’re smart, and if I don’t grab them, then to someone with me into the essays I write. of emotions and opinions about the world around they’re lost. My awareness of audience helps me I remember I have something to communicate me. After working with a connected friend who consider how best to reach them, so that what and that helps me write. got me plugged into the scene, and receiving happens to me, what matters to me, doesn’t some great guidance and encouragement from just seem like the random isolated thoughts and A short-form essay can be evocative, poignant, producers, I was hooked. experiences of one woman, but is identifiable, funny, and even confrontational. I work understandable, and universal. thoughtfully and carefully at writing for the The most important thing I rely on when writing radio, which, at its best, can be any and all for the radio is an immediate sense of audience. My training from Columbia College comes of these things. I like it when I know the Eight A larger audience is something that, in school, into play in a big way here. I regularly rely on Forty-Eight listeners heard my words, and it seems a bit more conceptual. It’s easy to say my voice. Voice is the thing that can never be made the hair on the backs of their necks that people outside the semicircle are listening, duplicated or faked. It’s like the fingerprint on stand up, and that whatever their response but sometimes that’s hard to believe. When I’m the material; you can always identify a writer to my writing was, they never stopped listening. working on a radio essay, I know it’s going to by his voice, if you listen for it. Also, the work Columbia has tuned my sense of audience be reaching people the moment it airs: It’s the with forms I did in my classes, including the so finely that I make that my goal every time soundtrack for a morning commute or errand; it’s letter and the how-to, are key at heightening I sit down in front of the microphone. I look at the story every which way, trying to keep myself in the moment, as I ask myself what the story really needs ...

TITLE: No One Was Killed AUTHOR: John Schultz Professor Emeritus, Columbia College Fiction Writing Department Brandi Kleinert Larsen It’s also helped me when I have to point out things Director, Content for Tribune that could be improved. Instead of telling folks to Interactive / BA in Fiction change an element without giving a justification PUBLISHER / DATE: Writing expected ’11 for it, I can speak to what’s working (the recall) University of Chicago Press; Reissue edition, April 2009 and then ask questions about what isn’t. By What That Means: I’m in charge commenting on their work, I’m able to tap into Opening: of national lifestyle and my employees’ creativity, too, and oftentimes Past fright, past exhilaration, past terror, television content for the they come up with surprises that I hadn’t even past awe, past exhaustion, everything that Tribune’s network of websites. considered—making everything we do stronger. happened that week in Chicago had a rightness about it. It came and went so fast What I do is tell stories. On a good day, I get up early (around 5:00 am) and hard that we who shared and witnessed to write. A few hours later, I head into the office may lose that sense of it. One of the greatest advantages of taking classes and then, around 5:30 pm, I race to class and Book Jacket Blurb: in the Fiction Writing Department is that it’s I spend the next four and a half hours dreaming While other journalists, including Norman helped me hone my perceptions. I ask myself the up my own stories. Yeah, it’s tiring, but I believe Mailer, contemplated the events of the same questions whether I’m writing a short story the creativity that my classes spark carries 1968 Chicago riots from the safety of their or building a photo gallery: What is taking my over to my job. During an oral telling, I’m seeing hotel rooms, John Schultz was in the city attention? Is this a full movement? Am I telling what’s going on in my story (when things are streets, being threatened by police, choking this from the best point of view? Is the story going well), but when an instructor asks, “What on tear gas, and listening to all the rage, that’s on the page the story I want to tell? What happens next?” I’m problem solving on the fear, and confusion around him. The result, No One Was Killed, is his account of the surprises me? What’s here that’s unexpected? fly, because I often don’t know what’s going to contradictions and chaos of convention happen. I ask the same question of myself the week, the adrenaline, the sense of drama The Story Workshop method has also helped following morning as I write, and I try and come and history, and how the mainstream press me to approach my job differently. The hours up with good solutions. I look at the story every was getting it all wrong. I’ve spent around the semicircle doing recall which way, trying to keep myself in the moment, and comment help me analyze feedback as I ask myself what the story really needs. On His Approach to the Book (from the Afterword): from our users. If the team I work with has A few hours later, when I’m at work, I’m already If, as a writer, you did not see and sense published a new section and a web producer warmed up, so when a problem comes to me, the subjective force in such events—or any at one of the TV stations comes to us with I’m able to look at it from a few different angles newsworthy events, for that matter—and criticism, I’m able to look at what took her and figure out the best solution. I know I’m tell them so the reader could see them, attention without the baggage of “Someone running on all cylinders when even that answer you were in imminent danger of having just said something bad about our work.” The comes to me as a surprise. I especially love that your audience fill in your words with a kind Workshop gave me the freedom to wonder, writing fiction has given me a sense of play— of stereotyped imagery as a substitute for “Why is this taking her attention?” not only at work, but also in how I look at life. what you did not provide. THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FREELANCING AND FICTION WRITING IS FREELANCERS EXPECT TO GET PAID.

Rob Duffer Starting out, expect to write for free to get clips is to get to the point where editors are Freelancer Extraordinaire and the experience of seeing how mangled or pitching ideas to you to write, so you have MFA in Fiction Writing ’05 polished an idea can go from pitch to print. to establish relationships. robertduffer.com It’s nice to get something out of it, like free books, in addition to the byline. Before I wrote Pitch to several places. Customize the pitch My first paying writing gig was withThe Tap, literary articles for TimeOut, Eight Forty-Eight, for the appropriate person, reference what a short-lived but beloved Chicago bar journal Centerstage, Examiner, and others, I was section you think it’ll fit, then keep the meat published by Matt Richmond, a retired tap dancer reviewing literary journals and indie books for of the pitch—what it’s about—the same for and journalism grad at CCC. I was a bartender New Pages. All New Pages wanted was a sample the next five editors you send it to. Use the and first-year MFA student so 5 cents a word, review. jargon of the trade: profile, service piece, a byline, a chance, and a free drink or two was interview, essay, narrative, preview (if you’re plenty. The Tap folded and I learned my first There are two ways to go about freelancing: not sure, look it up). Follow up at least twice. lesson in freelancing: Nothing stays the same. pitching and Craigslist. Some of those I’ve had many articles published where the FREELANCE WRITER WANTD[sic] ads on editor remembered the pitch after I followed up. In the four months I wrote for Bowen, Guerrero Craigslist are legit, and some are sales jobs. Don’t worry about being annoying, but don’t be & Howe, Chicago-based parent company of such The alternative is to come up with your own sociopathic, either. If you don’t hear back after internationally renowned journals as Canadian idea and find an interested editor. Read the two follow-ups, move on, she’s not interested. Builders Quarterly, there were three different mastheads of the mags you like, check the Even if the follow-up is unrequited, at least the editors. Same thing at Chicago Scene, plus website, send an email to a writer/editor editor will recognize your name and associate one too many kerfuffles to make it worthwhile. and reference a specific piece or recurring it with professionalism the next time you pitch. Places like Centerstage are staging grounds feature you admire. The hardest part is for up-and-coming editors. What Newcity lacks making contact. Getting no response is the norm for freelancers. in accurate bookkeeping it makes up for in Again, like your fiction submissions, it’s long-term relationships. Chicago Public Radio’s Like submitting your fiction, pitch to markets not personal (unless you write “I’m really Eight Forty-Eight and TimeOut Chicago have you’re familiar with, especially to someone desperate”). There are plenty of markets and been great regular gigs, but freelancers are you know who’s just launched a new endeavor. editors who are looking for fresh ideas. always last on the list of creditors. The Trib Work with any editor you can at the start, Nice. Now the fun part starts—the researching, sent me bankruptcy papers instead of a six- because the editorial turnover is so high at interviewing, and writing. Even writing about month-old paycheck. The biggest headache younger publications—especially online— steel-frame warehouses in Manitoba relied on of the freelancing hustle—and it is a hustle— that you can form a solid relationship as that the same elements of storytelling as fiction: is getting paid regularly. The biggest difference editor, and your writing, move on to bigger character, narrative, and audience. between freelancing and fiction writing is markets. A Newcity assignment led to the freelancers expect to get paid. Submitting Chicago Scene link which led to the Trib work There’s no way of knowing where the hustle will your fiction and pitching your freelancing share which eventually led to the pinnacle of local take you, only that you’ll be a lot farther along more similarities than differences. freelancing, this fictionary request. The ideal than if you never played. I’m passionate about reading and writing, and it is my hope that my students will see my passion and begin to develop their own ...

TITLE: Anne Smit In my classroom, we also sit in semicircles. The Chicago Conspiracy Trial High School English Teacher I use it to create a comfortable learning AUTHOR: B.A. in Fiction Writing ’06 environment, to encourage participation John Schultz and keep students engaged. Teaching high Professor Emeritus, Columbia College I work in hallways filled with teenagers school doesn’t have to mean rows and rows Fiction Writing Department shouting out the latest drama and gossip, of desks and staring at the back of someone where sweaty boys and overly made-up girls else’s head. Students don’t learn this way. PUBLISHER / DATE: hang all over one another between classes, My goal is to create a place where students University of Chicago Press; Revised edition, holding onto that last embrace before the can collaborate and work together, listening April 2009 bell rings. And that’s just it, their passion and sharing responses in a place where they Opening: and enthusiasm is unrivaled, and that is feel safe and accepted. It is the nature of the several games

why I love teaching high school English. of history-making—of determining the Earlier in the year, my juniors were working The difference between teaching high school material intentions of a society—that the and teaching college is that most high on their own short stories. I received one figures and groups of the “moribund but school students don’t want to be there; they very racy, sexually charged piece. The two ruling past” will test the utmost and in many are not interested in school, and they are most characters went from kissing, to removing different ways the strength of a challenger. certainly not interested in reading and writing. clothes, to …“pump after pump after pump Book Jacket Blurb: This presents a challenge, but it’s one that he slows down because her knees start In 1969, the Chicago Seven were charged I’ve accepted. I’m passionate about reading to shake.” Now this is never appropriate in with intent to “incite, organize, promote, high school, and as a teacher, it was my job and writing, and it is my hope that my and encourage” antiwar riots during the to convey this. But to come at the student students will see my passion and begin Democratic National Convention. The to develop their own. with rules and chains and negativity would Chicago Conspiracy Trial is an electrifying only extinguish his creativity. As a teacher, account of the months-long trial that For me as a writer, the only other way to hone I need to recognize each student’s strengths commanded the attention of a divided my craft—outside of writing—is to teach. and encourage them. The most important nation. John Schultz, on assignment for I chose Columbia because I wanted to learn thing to remember is that the student was The Evergreen Review, witnessed the the craft and art of writing. I wanted to writing, and he was very aware of sensory whole trial, from the jury selection to understand voice and style and structure details and movement and voice—maybe the aftermath of the verdict. In his vivid and story first, then I went back to school he needed to focus more on audience and account, Schultz exposes the raw emotions to learn the fundamentals of teaching. The grammar— but as his teacher, I need to and judicial corruption that came to define skills I acquired at Columbia shaped me as acknowledge his strengths first. Sadly, one of the most significant legal events in a teacher. The semicircle ingrained these many teachers take away a student’s voice American history. skills in me, and I still coach my students when they spend so much time cleaning up Critical Praise: to “See it,” “Listen to your voice,” and “Get content and grammar. Well, I will never be A beautiful, compelling, tear-jerking, mind- your voice up.” one of those teachers. •• • fic • • • boggling book. – William S. Burroughs NEWS&NOTES COMPILED BY KAREN SCHMIDT

This is by no means an exhaustive list of accomplishments by our faculty, students, and alumni, but these highlights will give a brief glimpse of the talent, energy, and involvement of the people in our Fiction Writing Department here at Columbia College Chicago during the past few months.

o f n o t e : Nami Mun Full-time faculty member Nami Mun’s debut novel, Miles from Nowhere, was published in January 2009 and was featured in a variety of international and domestic periodicals such as, Le Monde, , Korea Daily, National Post, The Age, USA Today, New York Times, , Vanity Fair, Glamour, The Believer, People, and many others. Miles has made bestseller lists nationwide, was selected for Indie Next and Amazon’s Best of the Month, and was shortlisted for the Orange Award. The U.S. paperback will be available in Fall 2009 along with the foreign editions. Recently, Mun has read at universities, festivals, and events nationwide, including Story Week, the Happy Ending Reading Series, Printers Row, the Arts Club of Chicago, and the Broadway Youth Center.

James Sherman Part-time faculty member James Sherman received a fellowship to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for the summer of 2009. He will be working on a new play, Jacob and Jack, which will premiere at the Victory Gardens Theater in May, 2010. The movie of Sherman’s play, Beau Jest, starring Lainie Kazan, Seymour Cassel, and Robyn Cohen, which James wrote and directed, has been on view at major film festivals across the country and overseas. His plays,Beau Jest, Jest a Second, Romance in D, Mr. 80%, Affluenza!, and From Door to Door, have most recently been produced in Phoenix, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Los Angeles, as well as Hamburg, Germany, and Sydney, Australia. Sherman continues to teach Playwriting and Improvisational Acting at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, and the Victory Gardens Theater.

J. Adams Oaks MFA alumnus J. Adams Oaks currently curates Serendipity Theatre’s reading series, 2nd Story, at Webster’s Wine Bar. His debut novel, Why I Fight, which was published in April 2009 by Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, began as his graduate thesis. Why I Fight won both the National Society of Arts and Letters regional competition, an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award, and was a 2009 selection by the Junior Library Guild. Booklist’s starred review described it as “a breathtaking debut with an unforgettable protagonist … his painful and poignant story is a wonderful combination of the unlettered and the eloquent.” He’s been published in Hair Trigger, River Oak Review, 2D, No Touching, and the Madison Review. His short story, “Connected That Way,” won Chicago Public Radio’s Stories On Stage competition. DROP US A LINE! We Want To Hear From YOU LET US KNOW what you know about recent staff/alumni/faculty accomplishments. Contact us at: www.colum.edu/alumni

in Chicago in late summer, early fall. Her essay Full-time Faculty “On the Road to Palestine” was published in The John Schultz’s books No One Was Killed: The American Theatre Reader, selected from 25 years Democratic National Convention and The Chicago of writing from American Theatre Magazine. She has Conspiracy Trial were both reissued by the also written a preface to The Antigone Project: A Play University of Chicago Press in April 2009. in Five Parts, consisting of modern-day versions of the Greek play by five playwrights. A virtual round Joe Meno’s latest novel, The Great Perhaps, was table with David Adjmi, Christine Evans, Charlotte published by Norton Books in April 2009. It was Meehan, Christopher Shinn, and Naomi Wallace, selected as New York Time’s Editor’s Choice and is edited by Caridad Svich on the Iraq War and a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Association Book Language is forthcoming in Theater, published by Yale Award. His short-story collection Demons in the University Press. Schlesinger was on a panel called Spring, published by Akashic Books in August 2008, “Motherhood and Political Activism/Theatre” at was shortlisted for the Story Prize in January 2009. the Arts in One World Conference in January 2009. The collection was reviewed in Chicago Tribune, and She was nominated for a United Artists Fellowship, Meno was featured in the May/June 2009 issue a $50,000 award to develop and complete new of Poets & Writers. At the Association of Writers works. The nomination process is anonymous, and Writing Programs, he read at Story Week Goes and the awards are granted to artists in numerous to AWP along with ZZ Packer and Dorothy Allison disciplines. In the summer of 2009, she was in February 2009. The story he read, “Children Are awarded a Columbia College Faculty Development the Only Ones Who Blush,” was published by One Grant to travel to Jerusalem to develop a play and Story magazine in June 2009. He has just finished performance with the Bread and Puppet Theater. an adaptation of his novel The Boy Detective Fails, published by Punk Planet in September 2006, into Wade Roberts spent much of Summer 2008 in a musical where it will premiere at the Signature Lithuania, preparing a photography and writing Theater in Washington D.C. in 2010. Columbia essay for Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and College Chicago has recently named him 2009- Culture (University of California Press). He is also 2010’s Distinguished College Artist. editing high-definition video from that trip for the Travel Channel and National Geographic Television, TITLE: Eric May will participate in a panel reading and where he is also contributing on other projects. discussion on October 26, 2009, at DePaul He recently started work on an ambitious Chicago Bath Massacre: America’s University. Panel members of Parks, Squares, Lawns, neighborhood documentary project that will present First School Bombing Woods & Dales: The Burghs of Fictive Chicago will writing, photographs, oral histories, video, and art AUTHOR: read from their own writing and discuss how city contributed by residents. lines and borders crafted by civic history have Arnie Bernstein defined them as writers, teachers, and editors, with Patricia Ann McNair has recently published short alumnus a distinct eye toward the degree to which Chicago’s stories including “Running” in Dunes Review in interwoven villages have endowed its literary voice. the summer of 2008, “Regarding Alix,” in New Plains Review fall 2008, and “Just Like That,” in PUBLISHER / DATE: Sam Weller recently signed a deal with Melville Superstition Review in spring 2009. She was on University of Michigan Press; March 2009 House Press/Stop Smiling Books to publish The two panels at AWP in February 2009—“Strong and Opening: Ray Bradbury Interviews, a book collecting Weller’s Coarse and Alive and Cunning,” a panel on cities many hours of interviews with the literary legend. The morning of April 16, 2007, dawned clear as characters with Philip Lopate and others, and and bright over central Michigan. In Dewitt, The book will be published in August 2010. Weller “Qualifying for University Employment,” a panel will moderate a panel at the Guadalajara, Mexico a small town about twenty miles from the on hiring writers for creative-writing teaching jobs. Book Festival in November, discussing Bradbury’s state capital of Lansing, ninety-six-year-old She has presented “Journal and Sketchbook, influence on the Los Angeles Writing community. Willis Cressman woke at his usual time, ate Ways of Seeing,” a workshop at NAWE annual “You Know Where You Are?” an excerpt from breakfast, then puttered around the house. conference with artist Philip Hartigan, adjunct Weller’s memoir-in-essays will appear in the next faculty, in Manchester, England, in fall 2008. Book Jacket Blurb: issue of F Magazine. Also with Hartigan, McNair was involved in an art On May 18, 1927, the small town of Randy Albers, chair of the Fiction Writing Department, installation at Finestra Art Space called “Climbing Bath, Michigan, was forever changed was co-chair of the 2009 AWP conference. He the Crooked Trails” in April of 2009. when Andrew Kehoe set off a cache of was interviewed about the conference on WGN Don De Grazia published “Reel Shadows” in the explosives concealed in the basement of radio by CCC alum Bob Sirott and MFA alumna April 2009 issue of TriQuarterly. As a part of the the local school. Thirty-eight children and Marianne Murciano in February. He served on the Windy City Story Slam Championship, he told a six adults were dead, among them Kehoe, selection committee for the Harold Washington two-minute story on WBEZ which aired on Eight who had literally blown himself to bits by Literary Prize awarded to Dave Eggers, was named Forty-Eight on January 26, 2009. setting off a dynamite charge in his car … to Newcity’s Lit 50 list, and taught a Fiction Seminar With seemingly endless stories of school in Columbia’s Florence, Italy, summer study Alexis Pride had a story published called “Sex violence and suicide bombers filling today’s Kills” in TriQuarterly in April 2009. abroad program, where he also served as lead headlines, Bath Massacre serves as a administrator. A chapter of his novel-in-progress Gary Johnson’s nonfiction piece, “Surviving the reminder that terrorism and large-scale was published in TriQuarterly in April 2009. Bush Nightmare,” ran on smirkingchimp.com and murder are nothing new. Lisa Schlesinger is rewriting Leaner Than Light, buzzflash.com in January 2009. Besides being Number of Days Separating the Bath a multimedia performance about Paul Engle, associate chair of the FWD, did you know he’s also massacre and the Virginia Tech commissioned by the University of Iowa for a trustee on the Oak Park Public Library Board, shootings: production in October, and Wal-Martyrs for a reading where he now serves as board secretary? 29,188 NEWS&NOTES Brian Costello’s “Long-haul Truckers,” a music Ballads of Suburbia, through MTV Books in July Adjunct Faculty review of the Chicago band Vee Dee, appeared 2009. In April 2009, her first novel, I Wanna Be on ChicagoReader.com in March 2009. Your Joey Ramone, was a finalist for the Oklahoma Julia Borcherts is the co-founder and co-host chapter of Romance Writers of America in both of Reading Under the Influence and Nerds at Deb Lewis’s novel, Hades’ Son, was named one Young Adult and Best First Book categories. She Heart and is a frequent contributor to Time Out of the Top Three Rated Manuscripts of the Project: was interviewed by Erica Phillips in December Chicago and Metromix/RedEye. This past year, she QueerLit 2008 contest. Each manuscript was 2008 for Venus Zine’s Hott List. has published stories in Criminal Class Review, read and rated by a minimum of seven Review freshyarn.com, Sin: A Deadly Anthology and Cubbie Committee Members. David Peak’s first novel,The Rocket’s Red Glare, is Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. She forthcoming in spring 2010 by Leucrota Press. Megan Stielstra won the Literary Death Match also co-curated the Golden Gloves edition of the at AWP. Windy City Story Slam and was a featured reader Christian Woodruff appeared in Messy Magazine’s at 2nd Story, Orange Alert, The Parlor Reading January/February 2009 issue with his story, Series, Mercury Café’s R.A.W. Readings and Alumni “Forgive, Forget.” Literary Gangs of Chicago. J. A. Konrath, aka Jack Kilborn, published his C. J. Arellano wrote a service piece listing gift Patricia Pinianski, writing as Patricia Rosemoor, novel Afraid in April 2009 through Grand Central recommendations from local Chicago businesses, sold her 50th book, Saving Grace, to the Harlequin Publishing. which ran as a cover story in Newcity in November Intrigue romantic suspense line where it will 2008. Arnie Bernstein’s novel, Bath Massacre: America’s be published in April 2010. Her latest book, First School Bombing, was published by University Dan Prazer’s essay, “Hindsight,” was published on Stealing Thunder, is available in August 2009. of Michigan Press in April 2009. flashquake.org in the summer of 2008. Other books published through Harlequin Intrigue include Christmas Delivery, December 2008, and Hugh Holton’s books Revenge and The Thin Black Micah McCrary conducted an interview with Steve Rescuing the Virgin, April 2009. She has also Line: True Stories by Black Law Enforcement Pink entitled, “From Dead Last to Accepted,” for published The Vampire Agent with Marc Paoletti, Officers Policing America’s Meanest Streets were Screen in November 2008. MFA alum, through Del Rey in January 2009. published with Tom Doherty Associates, LLC in Margaret Sullivan, MFA alumna and chair of She is presenting at two conferences in July. At January 2009. Thrillerfest, she’ll be on a panel about adding the Marketing Communication Department for Eileen McVety worked with Inkwater Press to romance to thrillers, and at Romance Writers Columbia College Chicago, has written a play publish Welcome to the Company in 2009. of America, she’ll co-present a workshop about called False Advertising that has been published at sharkforum.org in January 2009. Her story, balancing character with plot. Christina Katz published her book, Get Known “Jacinta’s Perfect and Orderly World,” appeared Before the Book Deal, through F+W Media, Inc. in Mort Castle sold his third novel to be released in Ghost Factory in March 2009. November 2008. in Poland, Cursed Be the Child, to Replika Nicole Chakalis, MFA alumna and Fiction Writing Publishing. His stories, including “Altenmoor, Michael A. Black’s Windy City Knights was Department staff, was awarded the 2008 Where the Dogs Dance,” and “I’ll Call You” from reprinted as a mass market paperback in October All-Staff Arts & Media Award for an excerpt from Masques V, have appeared in mp3 version at 2008 by Dorchester Publishing Company, Inc. His her thesis material and collection of stories, sniplits.com. He also sold an audio story to novel Random Victim was printed by Leisure Books Butter and Whiskey. Pseudopod.org as well as a reprint to Nowa in April 2008. The novel he worked on with Julie Fantastyka, Poland’s top S-F/Speculative fiction Hyzy, Dead Ringer, came out in November 2008 magazine. His novel Ksiezyc na wodzie (Moon on through Gale Group, and his collaboration with Law Graduate Studies the Water) was reviewed in Newsweek Polska in & Order SVU’s Richard Belzer, I Am Not a Cop!, the January 2009 where it was called, “one of the first book in a new series, was released in October Lex Sonne’s fiction, “Deer Head in the Closet,” best books published in Poland last year.” They 2008 by Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group. was published by Ghost Factory in March 2009. also named his novel Obcy (The Strangers), one He also published “Tracy Stomps Mark” at Marcus Sakey’s novel, The Amateurs, was of the Ten Best Horror/Thriller Novels of 2008. fictionatwork.com, and “A Dream with Dogs” published in August 2009 by Penguin Group. Work by Castle was included in an illustrated in Eleven Eleven. stories anthology, J.N. Williamson’s Masques. He Drew Ferguson’s novel, The Screwed-Up Life of Faisal Mohyuddin published his story, “Leaving also contributed five stories to the anthology Charlie the Second, will be released in Poland by India,” in MAKE’s fall 2008/winter 2009 issue. Mighty Unclean, which was published by Dark Arts Kurpisz Publishing House in April 2010. His novel Books and released at the 2009 Bram Stoker was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for gay Melanie Datz appeared in fictionatwork.com in Awards Weekend in Burbank, California. debut fiction. March 2009 with her story, “Petty Theft I Regret.” Phyllis Eisenstein’s novelette appeared in the David Baker had his first screenplay,The Eulogist, Maggie Ritchie’s “The Dinner Journal,” appeared anthology Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in recently optioned by Astrakan Films, with in Ghost Factory in March 2009. Also in March Honor of Jack Vance, published by Subterranean William Olsson slated to direct. It received Best 2009, she performed at the Windy City Story Slam: Press in December 2008, and in hardcover Screenplay Honors at the 2008 San Fernando Chicago Golden Gloves Edition. August 2009. Valley International Film Festival. David is currently Jessie Morrison had a story, “The Cross of Deckie working full time at OSU. Moran,” published in Ghost Factory in March 2009. Kathie Bergquist has a novel excerpt, “Beautiful Latoya Wolfe’s fiction, “Dual Citizenship,” was Radiant Things,” in the Best Lesbian Romance Bill Hillmann appeared in Cubbie Blue’s Anthology published by Chicago Reader in December 2008. 2009 anthology published by Cleis Press, with his story, “What it Feels Like,” in December January 2009. She read from her excerpt at Daniel Paul appeared in Ghost Factory in March 2008. He recorded “The First Rule in Bull Running” Sappho’s Salon at Women & Children First 2009 with his short story, “How to Withstand Being for WBEZ, which aired January 22, 2009. He also Bookstore the same month. Her fictional story, Stuck in the Middle Seat on Your Eight-Hour Flight co-curated and performed at the Windy City Story “Greetings to the New Brunette,” appeared in to Alaska Without Losing Your Into the Wild Buzz.” Slam: Chicago Golden Gloves Edition in March Ghost Factory in May 2009. 2009 at the Subterranean. Max Glaessner’s “Punks in Space: Sam Weller, Ray Aaron Golding’s “Owls Only Hoot at Midnight,” Bradbury’s Biographer and Explorer from Beyond,” Patrick J. Salem’s metafiction piece, “The Radio was published by Ghost Factory in March 2009. appeared in Doorways in the fall of 2008. He also is Playing,” appeared in Six Sentences webzine in won the Windy City Story Slam Championship in March 2009. Jotham Burrello had his short story, “Snow January 2009, reading his McDonald’s story. Angels,” appear in Eleven Eleven and another, Benjamin Kummin published his creative nonfiction “Speed of Life,” in Drunken Boat. Stephanie Kuehnert released her second novel, piece, “Suggested Scenarios for Howie Mandel’s Howie Do It,” in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency in spring 2009. Columbia Tim Stafford and undergraduate Rory Cox Scholastic Press performed at the Windy City Story Slam: Chicago Golden Gloves Edition in March 2009. Association James Lower performed “A Perfect Loss” as part Awards of 2nd Story in April 2009. “A Shock of Strawberry Congratulations to the Fiction Writing ,” an excerpt from his memoir, will appear in Department’s hallmark publications the upcoming issue of F Magazine. for their national recognition at the 2008 and 2009 Columbia Scholastic Press Undergraduate Studies Association Awards Brandi Larsen published “Something True” in Versal in May 2009. Katie Ziolkowski’s “The Peculiar Cough,” appeared 2009 Gold Crown winner for in Dark Sky magazine in November 2008. Top College Magazines Hair Trigger 30 David Hughes had his story, “Clank, Clank, Clank,” published in New Voices in Fiction magazine in the spring of 2009. 2009 Collegiate Circle Winners: Jon Gugala published “Runner, Jon Gugala, First-place awards: Freezes to Prepare for Boston,” a nonfiction piece Stephanie Shaw, Chelsea Laine Wells, on getting ready to run the Boston Marathon, J.S. Gordon, and Kelli Connell on Columbia College Chicago’s The Loop. He Second-place awards: read “The Marine Corps Shuffle” at 2nd Story in April 2009. Jessica M. Young Jamillia Greene’s nonfiction, “Hidden Spots in Third-place awards: an Ancient City,” appeared in Kilter: The Journal J. E. Harrington, Kristen Fiore, of GothicArtChicago.com in fall 2008. April Newman, Mary Forde, Cecil McDonald, Jr., and Chris Maul Rice Sarah Elgatian published her nonfiction entitled, “From the Dwarf Planet,” in Buffalo Carp in Certificate of Merit awards: March 2009. Tracy Blight, Faisal Mohyuddin, TITLE: Annie Kennedy wrote a book review of Future Kevin Peterson, Jana Dawson, The Great Perhaps Missionaries of America that appeared on Daniel Prazer, Cecil McDonald, Jr. bookslut.com in January 2009. AUTHOR: Joe Meno Nicolette Kittinger won the Windy City Story Slam 2008 Silver Medalist Certificate Graduate Faculty, Columbia College Fiction of October 2008, and competed in the All-City for College Magazines Writing Department Championships at Metro in January 2009 (where fictionary, Spring-Summer 2008 she and her husband were married by Story Slam founder “Reverend” Bill Hillmann). In April 2009 Collegiate Circle Winners: PUBLISHER / DATE: 2009, she traveled with Windy City Story Slam to W.W. Norton & Co.; May 2009 Philadelphia to compete against First Person Arts First-place awards: Opening: at the Philadelphia Free Library Festival. She also Guido Mendez (3), Jessie Tierney (2), Anything resembling a cloud will cause competed in Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Jana Dawson, and Art Spiegelman Match Chicago Ep. 2. She didn’t win, but judge Jonathan Casper to faint. Second-place awards: T.J. Jagodowski said, “Her story was like a toy gun Book Jacket Blurb: Jessica M. Young, Jessie Tierney, and where you pull the trigger, and out comes a BANG Jonathan, a paleontologist, is searching flag, then seconds later, out comes a real bullet!” Colin Channer in vain for a prehistoric giant squid; his Jessa Marsh’s stories have appeared in decomP, Third-place awards: wife, Madeline, an animal behaviorist, Monkeybicycle, and Storyglossia. She is currently Guido Mendez, Jessie Tierney, cannot explain her failing experiment; their assistant editing for Storyglossia, as well as web Jessica M. Young daughter Amelia is a disappointed teenage editing for Monkeybicycle. She is featured in an revolutionary; her younger sister, Thisbe, Certificate of Merit awards: upcoming interview to be posted to Storyglossia is on a frustrated search for God; and their and Pank Magazine’s blog. Brooke Hennen, Guido Mendez (2), grandfather, Henry, wants to disappear, Jana Dawson, Jessie Tierney, and limiting himself to eleven words a day, then Karen Schmidt published a number of articles Danielle Desjardins ten, then nine—one less each day until he for University of Illinois at Chicago’s School will speak no more. Each fears uncertainty of Public Health’s website and magazine, and the possibilities that accompany it. Healthviews. Her essay, “Midnight Shopping,” appeared in Newcity in November 2008, and When Jonathan and Madeline suddenly decide to separate, this nuclear family her short story, “Shoebox,” was published in Alumni, faculty, staff, and students, Kaleidoscopic Resonance in winter 2009. is split and forced to confront its own Please contact Linda Naslund cowardice, finally coming to appreciate She co-founded Feedback! in February 2009 at [email protected] with your and is assisting with research for Sam Weller’s the cloudiness of this modern age. accomplishments today! upcoming book, The Ray Bradbury Interviews, Name of Jonathan Casper’s to be published by Melville House Press/ Neurological Condition: •••fic••• Stop Smiling. Casper-Cerebrovascularitis The Anxiety of Brevity: The Rise of Flash Fiction

BY David Peak

We’ve all heard the anecdote: Hemingway and get on with our day, refreshing our email my storytelling chair, reclining, putting my feet up, sits at a table with six or seven other writers. account for the thirty-seventh time, checking to flexing my five-thousand-word, sustained-scene He claims that he can write a six-word story. see if our blogroll has any updates. muscle. Why? The answer is that I want to see my Everybody balks. Money is thrown on the writing published. But what about print journals? table—ten bucks a head. The stakes are set. It’s a new world. Opium Magazine gives you an Sure, they’re still out there. But do I really want to Hemingway uncaps his pen, leans over his “estimated reading time” next to the story title. send my work off to Tin House, wait two months napkin, and writes, “For sale. Baby shoes. Wigleaf’s editor declared 2009 “the year of the for a response, when I can send it to Night Train Never worn.” micro.” “Hint-fiction” contests challenge entrants and get a response in two weeks? to write the best story in twenty-five words or And just like that—a few slashes of Papa’s less. Readers and writers alike flock to these A few weeks ago I was having an after-class pen—legend is born. sites. Audiences are born. beer with one of my professors. She leaned forward, elbows on the table, and said, “David, Some seventy, eighty years down the line, the In 1973, Harold Bloom wrote The Anxiety of you shouldn’t give away your writing to online shadow of Papa’s legend still looms. Anyone Influence, in which he stated that all poets— publications. Save your best stuff for print.” even halfway familiar with the online publishing all writers for that matter—are hindered in the I thought about this for a few minutes. I world knows this, knows the anxiety of brevity, creative process by their precursors. That was nursed my beer. Finally, I said, “But what’s the the need to be succinct, to be precise. Go ahead. thirty-six years ago. Now we have the Internet. difference, really? And how many people are Get online. Find ten web publications and read Things are more complicated. Not only does the gonna go to the bookstore, pay ten bucks for their submissions guidelines. What do you modern writer struggle to find their voice beyond a journal, sit down, read the entire thing? How notice? What patterns can you find? the echoing barrel of the Canon, now the modern does that compare to the thousands of hits a writer must adhere to the limitations of the reader’s notable web pub gets when a new issue goes How about this: 1,000 words or less. collective attention span—or lack thereof. live? Isn’t that what this is all about? People Sound familiar? reading our stuff?” She shook her head. “No. Flash fiction. Micro fiction. Short-shorts. Texts. It’s about crafting things that last.” The world moves quickly in 2009. The writer’s Whatever you want to call them. The web’s game used to be synonymous with patience, but crawling with them. And like any writer who wants More than anything, I think that’s the issue here: now we’ve got instant access. E-mail, tweets, to be read, I’ve had to adjust my process. I’ve flash fiction as generational gap. Who’s to say that blog posts—these things move at the speed gotten used to sitting at the computer, writing writing on the Internet won’t last? Who’s to say of light, reflect our thoughts and moods by the and re-writing my first sentence over and over that books will always be cherished? If a writer hour, sometimes by the minute. And the form of again, taking words out, rearranging the syntax, can open up a world for a reader in less than the short story is changing alongside our need scoffing at adverbs, befriending the semi-colon. 1,000 words, then haven’t they done their job? to look at a screen, process a full movement, No longer do I feel comfortable leaning back in •• • fic • •• thing. MacKenzieCertain considered characteristicsI look for pursuingbook, that inhe are insulted,”bothYA eventually required, houses YAthe and he YA changedbecause however, adultsays marketadult books,”of andhisthe canifTwilight, aopinion. agent’snovel’syoung bookbe says equally in isadultMacKenzie.an insistence protagonist“What mind.to increasing be rewarding.fiction doesn’tSinceconsideredI didn’t that “Besides,”ishas thenumbersurvives—though alwaysseventeen.realize Oaks,the becomesuccess YA,book whoseofguaranteewho’sat sheshe adultsthewould blurred. of“We says.adds, youngtimecomenovelyou appealaredidn’tit’s instant As wasAs“ifin onWhyadult reading undermined. someanpublishersColumbia to wantthehowto Iexample, success you?novel Fighta non-traditional hotel muchyoungerbooksthe ColumbiaWhy wasseries alumni book feelroom; inI’dYA she fordopublished theaudience. thatjusthad to suchofyoungeryoucites Stephaniedoes mainstream isbe peoplelikeyourstudentschanged have definitelyas limitedthe it to by urbanbookHarryAfterhaveaudiences. torecent together.see Simon Kuehnert besincejust by hastrying Potter,literarya environmentyou soaview?any was novel aren’t place& crossoverjive?Isometime. toSchusterwasBut readership,”Accordingly,introduced market. andA Are convince Rooftopsthat SeriesOkay.filling myina J. you kid.” classes andpersonal celebratesAdamspotential, inAt HangcaughtFortheof backopenhisonlineApril,“Ultimately, least ofUnfortunateauthors shea whenseats TehranfriendsupgrowingOaks inexperience admissionsinsharesnot says. roll theythe diversity, aAnd the anymore. thehaveare crowd,call sixties.phone. thatby will Story“Therenumberexposuregood amarketEvents,discovering onereminds experienced,similarworkhe richness here or Workshopbutpolicy writing ColumbiaItofdidn’t holdingisWhere hurts,oftothey her whenandfelt sometostory. novelists,mecapitalize broughtBut experiences.clients,writeinis less…seasoned.thatinitiallymore are there butofyou somethegood approach College’sheavyacceptance “At theyou theasomething is getchallenge.Srecently, all “kiddy”first t Mahbodhadwriting, odiversityonpublicationhoneynow? liner sorts isubjectdown e sthat.” . 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fictionary CONTRIBUTORS Laurie Lindeen is the author of the memoir Petal Pusher (Atria, ’07). She holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches creative writing in Twin Cities schools for the COMPAS/WAITS organization. A finalist for the Bush Artistic Fellowship in 2009, she’s working on a novel and two collections of essays. Her essays can be found at themorningnews.org. She used to front the Randall Albers chairs the Fiction Writing indie rock band Zuzu’s Petals. Laurie lives Department at Columbia College Chicago and is in Minnesota with her husband and son. the founding producer of Story Week. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared inPrairie Schooner, Chicago Review, Northfield Magazine, Mendocino Review, F Magazine, and elsewhere. His fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and a chapter from his novel-in-progress, All the World Before Them, appeared in the spring 2009 issue of TriQuarterly: Strong Medicine. April Newman is an educator who earned Karen Schmidt is working towards her BA her M.F.A. in Creative Writing. These days in telling detailed and intricate lies, or for all she works with the storytelling collective professional purposes, fiction writing. She 2nd Story. Her essays have appeared in the hopes to use what Columbia has taught her to Iowa Review, Hair Trigger Magazine, and this write novels that you will one day thoroughly year landed a Columbia University Scholastic enjoy. In the mean time, she is embracing her Achievement Award. She likes pirates. Space journalistic tendencies with work appearing pirates. Although there aren’t any on her in Newcity, and Healthviews. Mort Castle has been an adjunct faculty website aprilnewman.com. member of the Fiction Writing Department since 1997 and has also taught in “many other venues” including Midwestern high schools, libraries, social and civic clubs and ... He is the only person to conduct writing workshops at both the annual World Horror Convention and the Green Lake Christian Writing Conference. Stephen Tartaglione is an MFA candidate More than 700 of Castle’s books, stories, David Peak’s writing has appeared in or is at Columbia College Chicago. His work has articles, poems, etc., have been published, forthcoming in more than thirty online and print appeared in Hair Trigger 31 and on WBEZ with two works cited by Newsweek.PL as being journals and anthologies, including Lamination Chicago’s Eight Forty-Eight radio program. “among the best books published in Poland Colony, Dogzplot, Doorways Magazine, The He is also the co-editor of Knee-Jerk magazine, in 2008.” This year sees publication of the Corduroy Mtn., Mud Luscious, and Titular-Journal. a monthly literary publication available online graphic novel format Masques (Checker Book His debut novel, The Rocket’s Red Glare, will be at kneejerkmag.com. Publishing) and New Moon on the Water, a story released by Leucrota Press in February 2010. collection (Full Moon Press). He blogs at davidpeak.blogspot.com.

Stephanie Velasco is majoring in fiction writing and cultural studies, minoring in Jonathan Fullmer is the recipient of the Dwight Ilana Shabanov is a graduate student in the public relations, and poking her nose into just Follett Fellowship and a Graduate Opportunity Fiction Writing Department. Her writing has about everything else. Other such dalliances Award from Columbia College Chicago, where he been in Hair Trigger 30, Reservoir, Fictionary, and include dancing, crafting, and saving the world is currently working on an MFA in creative writing. numerous e-mails to friends and family. During (not necessarily all at the same time, but He co-edits Knee-Jerk magazine, an online literary the day she writes press releases for people usually). Stephanie is originally from Kingsport, journal devoted to humorous and experimental who live in places you can’t find on a map. Tennessee, and misses the mountains, the writing. His work can be found in Time Out Ilana is working on her first novel that will mild winters, and the smell of biscuits and Chicago, Bookslut, Word Riot, Fictionary, and Pen be sure to embarrass most of her family, but gravy. She recently discovered that rolling down Pricks, and in numerous health-related magazines still, they couldn’t be more proud. She lives in hills, though seemingly fun, can sometimes no one has ever heard of. Chicago with her husband and their three cats. lead to puking. Twice. FALL 2009

COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO 600 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVENUE CHICAGO, IL 60605 1996

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Develop your creativity, tell your stories, and gain skills essential for personal and professional development in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago.

UNDERGRADUATE BA/Bfa degrees in Fiction Writing, with specializations in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Playwriting, Electronic Applications, Publishing, and Story Workshop® Teaching; and BA/Bfa degrees in Playwriting, interdisciplinary with the Theater Department.

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