THE MAGAZINE OF THE PIPER CENTER FOR CREATIVE WRITING | COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

INTERNATIONAL WRITING WRITERS & TEACHERS SEE THE WORLD GEORGE WITTE ON THIS WRITER’S LIFE INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT LAURIE BROOKS PROFILES OF WALTER MOSLEY & GAIL TSUKIYAMA SPECIAL REPORT: TWENTY YEARS OF HAYDEN’S FERRY REVIEW

ALSOINSIDE DIANAGABALDON | JAMESMASAOMITSUI | CLAUDIARANKINE | PHILIPTAYLOR IN THIS ISSUE

NUMBER 6 SPRING 2007 FEATURES EDITOR Charles Jensen THE INESCAPABLE ELEMENT ...... 4 ASSISTANT EDITOR Aimée Baker draws a portrait of novelist Walter Mosley. Michael Green SINGAPORE SUMMER ...... 6 COPYEDITOR Molly Meneely and John Young describe their experience traveling to Asia to Veronica Lucero teach creative writing.

CONTRIBUTORS Aimée Baker Carlos Manuel POINTS OF LIGHT ...... 10 Charles Jensen illuminates new features of this year’s writers conference. Darcy Courteau James Masao Mitsui Cameron Fielder Claudia Rankine Dioana Gabaldon Philip Taylor A PASSAGE TO INDIA ...... 12 Michael Green George Witte Caitlin Horrocks explains the Piper Center for Creative Writing’s newest retreat. Elizabyth Hiscox John Young Douglas Jones “IT STARTS WITH AN IMAGE” ...... 15 Carlos Manuel spends time with playwright Laurie Brooks.

PIPER CENTER STAFF THE POETRY OF LANDSCAPE ...... 22 Jewell Parker Rhodes, Artistic Director Elizabyth Hiscox and Douglas Jones describe their trip to Durham, England. Charles Jensen, Program Manager Roxane Barwick, Program Coordinator NEW DIRECTIONS, NEW ENVIES ...... 24 Salima Keegan, Communications Director Caitlin Horrocks recounts Hayden’s Ferry Review’s twenty years of success. Aimée Baker, Program Assistant Meghan Brinson, Program Assistant DISTANT HORIZONS ...... 27 Beth Staples, Program Assistant Michael Green explores the trend of setting novels in Africa.

PIPER CENTER THE DELIGHTFUL ANTIDOTE ...... 30 ADVISORY COUNCIL Aimée Baker talks about novelist Gail Tsukiyama’s literary strength. Ben Bova John Rothschild Billy Collins Greg Thielen MAKING A FIRST BOOK ...... 33 Harold Dorenbecher Theresa Wilhoit Darcy Courteau interviews ASU Alumni on their recent debut books. Dana Jamison, chair George Witte Simi Juneja C. D. Wright KEEPING UP WITH THE WILHOITS ...... 36 Jo Krueger Darcy Courteau catches up with the fi rst three recipients of the prestigious The- Kathleen Laskowski resa A. Wilhoit Thesis Fellowship. Maxine Marshall Naomi Shihab Nye Barbara Peters, ex oficio Janaki Ram DEPARTMENTS

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR ...... 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS PHOTO THIS WRITER’S LIFE: GEORGE WITTE ...... 19 Geoffrey Gray MFA FACULTY NEWS ...... 35 2007 ONLINE BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS ...... 38 Q & A: GABALDON, MITSUI, RANKINE, TAYLOR ...... 39

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LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe that the 2007 ASU Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Con- ference will be celebrating its fifth anniversary. How time has flown!

Thanks to participant feedback, the conference has grown to include a wide vari- ety of readings, workshops, and panels in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and publishing. In addition, intensive multi-day writing workshops will be taught by terrific writ- ers like Diana Gabaldon, Carolyn Forché, T. M. McNally, Michael A. Stackpole, and many more.

From February 21–24, 2007, the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing will, for the first time, invite the public to attend the conference’s evening readings:

February 21: James Masao Mitsui and Gail Tsukiyama February 22: Kevin McIlvoy and Diana Gabaldon February 23: Peter Pereira, Laurie Notaro, and Tony Hoagland February 24: Walter Mosley

Even if you aren’t registered for the entire conference, come join us for splendid evenings of fiction, poetry, and non- fiction readings. Be sure to visit www.asu.edu/piper for the most up-to-date listing of conference news.

Thank you all for your kind and generous support of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.

Warmest wishes,

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THE INESCAPABLE ELEMENT A PROFILE OF WALTER MOSLEY BY AIMÉE BAKER

“Did he hesitate? Even for a second?” Dewitt Albright standing of race in America. Like his character, Mosley asks the amateur private eye Easy Rawlins in Walter Mos- shows no sign of hesitation. ley’s acclaimed 1990 novel, Devil in a Blue Dress. One Mosley is perhaps best known for the Easy Rawlins se- might ask the same about Mosley himself. He is the au- ries, which presently accounts for ten of his novels. Raw- thor or editor of more than twenty-five books, several lins is a familiar and even comforting character, the kind screenplays, and numerous short stories and articles. He is who falls into tough places, does necessary bad things, but a Grammy winner for his liner notes on a Richard Pryor at his core remains decent, even warmhearted. In Devil boxed set and the recipient of several prominent awards in a Blue Dress, Rawlins, just back from World War II, is and acknowledgments, including the Anisfield Wolf Award, trying to set up his life in Los Angeles when he loses his given to works that increase the appreciation and under- job. In order to keep his house, he accepts a request from

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Albright to find a white woman who frequents black clubs. and accurate detail intrinsic to Mosley’s writing.) Easy’s As with all mysteries, and especially those that take some new vocation as a janitor is not arbitrary either. Unlike of their cues from film noir, the journey is much more another famous Los Angeles detective, Jake Gittes (from complicated than it at first appears, as the past and pres- the film Chinatown), who has prospered in the postwar ent tangle up in ways reader and characters don’t always era, Easy has found that the same opportunities are not understand. Easy soon finds his available to black men, despite life spiraling out of control as “FICTION MOSTLY RESIDES IN the intervening eras of Civil he encounters greed, murder, Rights and Affirmative Action. deceit, and racism. The reader THE IMAGINATION OF THE READER. Perhaps responding to some eagerly follows this fast-paced of the political overtones, Presi- ride through the sinister streets ALL A WRITER CAN DO IS HINT dent Clinton, when admitting of Los Angeles. his affection for the mystery What is immediately appar- AT A WORLD THAT CALLS FORTH novel, singled out Mosley’s ent in the Easy Rawlins nov- works as among his favorites. els is not only Walter Mosley’s THE DREAM, [TELL] THE STORY Readers across the country skill with navigating the tricky agree, it seems, since the nov- aspects of mystery storytelling THAT EXHORTS US TO CALL els spend long stretches on the but also his vivid portrayal of a bestseller lists and earn ter- culture and time. With Easy as THE POSSIBILITY INTO BEING.” rific reviews. The popularity of a guide, the reader traverses the Devil in a Blue Dress led to a landscape of midcentury Los — WALTER MOSLEY movie adaptation starring Den- Angeles, sitting down at Joppy’s zel Washington and Don Chea- bar (which sits above a meat-packing plant) to have a stiff dle. Mosley is currently working on the screenplay for the drink or taking a midnight drive out past the dusty city Rawlins novel Little Scarlet. limits. Like most genre works, Mosley’s novels are guilty Though best known for his mysteries, Mosley works indulgences that provide all the requisite pleasures. But easily in other genres and disciplines as well. His publica- there is a serious subtext under the popular surface, which tions include everything from literary fiction to young steeps the reader in history. Inextricable in this history, of adult fiction to science fiction. Considered together, Wal- course, is the subject of race, which has not always found ter Mosley’s body of work will be revered for its inno- its way into stories set in Los Angeles but which Mosley vation, style, imagination, and social conscience. In the understands is an inescapable element. He handles all this introduction to the 2003 Best American Short Stories, so deftly that the reader never feels him preaching a the- which he edited, Mosley writes, “Fiction mostly resides in matic point. the imagination of the reader. All a writer can do is hint Those times change, too, as Mosley does not confine at a world that calls forth the dream, [tell] the story that Easy Rawlins to postwar Los Angeles. Other books ex- exhorts us to call the possibility into being.” Fortunately plore the rich detritus of life in different times and places. for readers, Mosley continues to call forth the dream. In the latest novel in the Rawlins series, Cinnamon Kiss, The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing wel- which came out in 2005 to favorable reviews, Easy has comes Walter Mosley to the Desert Nights, Rising Stars become a family man and found work as a school janitor. Writers Conference. He will give a reading on the eve- This novel creates a very different landscape than Devil in ning of February 24th. a Blue Dress; as Rawlins has grown and changed, so has Los Angeles. (By the time readers get to this book, they FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE 2007 WRITERS have already experienced McCarthyism, the Watts Riots, CONFERENCE, TURN TO PAGE 10 OF THIS ISSUE. and the expansion of Los Angeles, each told in the rich

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SINGAPORE SUMMER MFA STUDENTS TEACH CREATIVE WRITING ABROAD BY MOLLY MENEELY AND JOHN YOUNG

In 2006, the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writ- JOHN’S STORY ing initiated an ongoing exchange program with the Na- While in Singapore, we conducted a six-week interdis- tional University of Singapore (NUS) to create opportuni- ciplinary workshop in fiction and poetry for twelve NUS ties for ASU’s graduate Creative Writing students to travel English literature students in the Scholars Programme; to the university and teach creative writing courses. What four NUS alumni joined the class as well. Guests to the follows are accounts by 2006 International Teaching Fel- workshop included Singapore’s de facto poet laureate, Ed- lowship Winners John Young and Molly Meneely, who dis- win Thumboo, and the emerging poet Alvin Pang, both cuss their experiences in Singapore. Accompanying pho- of whom have taught at the International Writers Work- tographs were taken by John and Molly during their trip. shop at the University of Iowa. Faculty at the University

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Scholars Programme (USP) such as Director Peter Pang Glück, and Maile Meloy. We began the workshop with and Professors Don Favreau and Lo Mun Hou facilitated a videotape of poet Anne Sexton reading and discussing the relationships that we developed with Singaporean au- her poetry. Afterward, we encouraged the students to re- thors. gard writing as they would Before I taught a single class a good friend, one to whom in the program, I was lucky THE WORKSHOP BEGAN WITH you might say things that enough to join Thumboo (af- surprised you. fectionately referred to as ENCOURAGEMENT TO REGARD The students came from “Prof” by his former students a wide range of back- and Singaporean literary lu- WRITING AS THEY WOULD grounds—not just literature minaries like Pang and Dar- but the social sciences and ren Shiau) on a day excursion A GOOD FRIEND, other disciplines as well— north to Kukup, Malaysia, a and they brought those small fishing village where we ONE TO WHOM YOU SAY THINGS backgrounds to their work enjoyed curry crab, steamed ga- in surprising and impressive roupa, and other delights. The THAT SURPRISED YOU. ways. Over a month and trip up through rubber and ba- a half, the students’ writ- nana plantations was quite an ing improved quickly; they experience, as I listened to academics from another cul- demonstrated passion as well as discipline. By the end of ture debate politics and ideas. Throughout it all, we were the course, the students had developed enough techniques charmed by Thumboo’s sharp sense of humor. I took that to critique each other’s work with a sophisticated writing journey during the first week, and it really primed me for vocabulary. my experience there. In poetry, which is deemed more publishable than fic- Once we began work, we ran the class in the style of a tion in Singapore, students displayed experience with strict workshop, with three weeks each devoted to poetry and forms and meter. In their stories, we encouraged them fiction. The course met twice a to stretch beyond such con- week, and by the end, the stu- straints and treat their char- dents had completed three po- acters with as much specific- ems and one short story. Eng- ity and respect as possible. The lish is the national language result was a suite of stories not of Singapore, so the students only enjoyable to read but also focused on creative work ex- entirely original. clusively in English. Beyond the class, one stu- The poems included a dent took it upon herself still-life, a dramatic mono- to begin an online writing logue, and a form of their own group among her peers; an- choosing. Exercises were con- other exchanged e-mails with ducted within class to prepare me regarding to what extent the students for the poems and JOHN AND MOLLY WITH THEIR WORKSHOP STUDENTS. an author is responsible for the story. They read and de- grounding the reader with in- bated selections (we schlepped a passel of books across formation relevant to an understanding of the work and to the Pacific) from a wide range of writers—classics such what degree he thought this grounding might constitute as T. S. Eliot, Robert Browning, and D. H. Lawrence, as pandering. well as contemporaries such as Joyce Carol Oates, Louise A few of the students thanked us with an invitation

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been largely unavailable to them in their traditional school environ- ment. Each student composed two po- ems (one to be workshopped) and one short story. We also read poems in class and assigned one short story overnight for reading: Charles Bax- ter’s “Gryphon,” which eerily mir- rored our own unusual presence in the classroom for our students. “Six times eleven is sixty-eight,” we read excitedly as the story’s famous sub- stitute teacher confounds her fifth grade class in fictional Five Oaks, but for a moment, our Singaporean students seemed to think us the cra- zy ones rather than Ms. Ferenzci. Despite such occasional commu- nication gaps, many of the poems and stories I received in my breakout ONE OF SINGAPORE’S BUSY AND BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBORHOODS. section made bold, earnest choices. Students were unafraid of subject material outside them- to dinner in Little India, where we discovered not only selves, and because of their growing comfort with the great cuisine but also some of their favorite haunts around workshop format they made honest yet constructive re- Singapore. Overall, the trip was a wonderful, eye-opening marks about others’ work. experience that I will never forget. If nothing else, both the six-week course and the ju- nior college course promoted critical thinking about the MOLLY’S STORY techniques and possibilities of writing, as well as good Beyond our regular six-week course at University old-fashioned encouragement to keep at it. The literary Scholars Programme, John and I also taught a two-day community of Singapore is small, close, and supportive. It creative writing “crash course,” also organized by NUS, to would not be a stretch to imagine an imminent explosion forty local junior college students. in literary culture in Singapore—and around Southeast To manage the large roster and breadth of material (as Asia—should creative writing be adopted more formally with the regular course, we were to touch on both poetry as an educational field. and fiction), John and I alternated the schedule between Beyond our teaching experiences, Singapore and its full-group meetings and smaller breakout sections. This neighbors provided rich terrain for exploration and reflec- enabled us to deliver the broadest information in a lecture tion. Our apartment wasn’t in the flashy, pristine down- but still foster smaller group discussion and workshop. The town that most associate with this, the “South Beach” crash course definitely got the students writing creatively, of Asia, but in a typical neighborhood, and we dined at which, within the strict goal-oriented educational system Singapore’s numerous “food courts”: outdoor patios with of Singapore, could be considered a victory in itself. Our food stalls of Indian, Chinese, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, emphases on process, peer input, experimentation, and re- and “Western” cuisine, where dishes sold for US$2. We vision provided an outlet to students that has otherwise ate ripe mango in chunks, drank fresh blueberry and kiwi

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juice, and consumed more spicy food and whole fish than we ever had before (or ever will again). Singaporeans were kind and curious about our cre- ative work and global views. Friends I made introduced me to the Singapore Art Museum, Mt. Faber Park, and roti prata, the flatbread dipped in curry that is the best late-night snack on Earth. On the weekends, I traveled to Cambodia and John to Vietnam, both just hours away. We were able to expose ourselves to the un- matched physical beauty of jungle, beach, and ruins and SINGAPORE FROM AFAR. experience moving cultural and political histories. Later I traveled to Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Thailand; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. Each place was a distinct and fascinating sensory explosion, and I am still trying to compose the colorful fragments into coherent memories. Mostly I talked to women, who encouraged my solo travel. They provided enormous insight into Asia’s role in the global scene and its potential—behind the sustained growth of China and India—to influence Western culture and economies for generations to come. Upon returning to ASU, I enrolled in a graduate course in Anthropolo- gy on the Peoples of Southeast Asia and will be able to combine some of my cultural and literary studies of the summer with new research to examine and evaluate the regional importance of commonalities within Southeast Asian literature. With regard to our teaching and writing, and ultimately

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO READ THE PIPER INTERNA- TIONAL FELLOWS BLOG, WHERE OUR STUDENTS WILL POST UPDATES ON THEIR INTERNATIONAL TRAVELS AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCES. MOLLY ENJOYED SIGHTSEEING IN SINGAPORE AND SURROUNDING AREAS.

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POINTS OF LIGHT DON’T MISS THE 2007 ASU WRITERS CONFERENCE BY CHARLES JENSEN

The 2007 ASU Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers conference-goers when it comes to the depth and breadth Conference kicks off February 22 on the ASU Tempe of course and panel topics provided. campus. This year’s conference schedule has been slight- Evening readings, previously open only to conference ly redesigned based on our participants’ feedback from participants, are now ticketed and open to the public. For the 2006 conference. Participants will have fewer op- only $10, anyone in the community can purchase a ticket tions during each conference session to avoid having to to the nightly reading and book signing events that make make “tough choices” when it comes to selecting which up the Piper Center for Creative Writing’s Spring Distin- sessions to attend—our most common comment on last guished Visiting Writers Series. year’s conference. Although there are fewer options for We have also responded to comments about the vari- sessions, our stellar conference faculty will not disappoint ety and quality of food offered by Atlasta Catering at the

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University Club. Participants who choose to preorder We are pleased to once again welcome back our most boxed lunches will discover a more varied menu that, in beloved faculty from past conferences, including Bernard addition to sandwiches, will Cooper, Carolyn Forché, Lee include a salad option and a Gutkind, Tania Katan, Kevin more enticing vegetarian op- 2007 CONFERENCE GUESTS INCLUDE McIlvoy, Elizabeth Searle, tion. Aaron Shurin, Mary Sojourn- Participants will once WALTER MOSLEY, AUTHOR OF er, and Michael A. Stackpole. again enjoy a “contained” They are joined this year by venue. Most events will be DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, AND a diverse group of contempo- held in Old Main’s beautiful- rary literature’s most distin- ly restored Carson Ballroom. TONY HOAGLAND, AUTHOR OF guished practitioners, includ- The University Club and the ing Marilyn Bowering, Diana Piper Writers House will of- WHAT NARCISSISM MEANS TO ME. Gabaldon, Tony Hoagland, fer several sessions during the Walter Mosley, Laurie Notaro, day as well. Peter Pereira, Claudia Rankine, Jim Sallis, George Witte, The Piper Center for Creative Writing invites all par- and Paula Woods. We continue our commitment to show- ticipants to attend the daily Meet the Writers event, our casing Arizona writers by including Anjana Appachana, successful addition to the 2006 conference. At Meet the Mark Crockett, James Masao Mitsui, Richard Siken, Philip Writers, participants have the opportunity to talk with the Taylor, and Betty Webb. Several members of ASU’s distin- conference faculty in a small-group setting or have their guished MFA faculty will work with participants as well. books signed while enjoying afternoon coffee or tea. For complete faculty and up-to-date schedule infor- The 2007 conference features several new or enhanced mation, visit our website at www.asu.edu/piper/confer- “tracks” that conference participants can follow throughout ence/2007. the four days. Naturally, we continue to offer tracks in fic- tion, poetry, creative nonfiction, and playwriting; additional tracks and sample course offerings include the following: GENERAL REGISTRATION Access to all general conference panels, classes, and PUBLISHING daytime readings: $275. Deadline: February 9, 2007. “Working with an Editor at a Major Publisher” TICKETS TO EVENING READINGS EDITING Tickets can be purchased for $10 at the conference or “Press Editors” in advance and are required for anyone who wants to attend the evening readings. Tickets will be sold to THE WRITING LIFE the general public on a first-come, first-served basis. “Starting Out as a Writer” SCHEDULE OF EVENING READINGS CAREERS IN WRITING WED: JAMES MASAO MITSUI & GAIL TSUKIYAMA “Teaching Creative Writing” THUR: KEVIN MCILVOY & DIANA GABALDON FRI: PETER PEREIRA, LAURIE NOTARO, & TONY NOIR WRITING HOAGLAND “Writing Mystery and Noir” SAT: WALTER MOSLEY* *includes ticket to screening of Devil in a Blue LITERARY ADAPTATION Dress at the Harkins Valley Art Theater. “Books on the Silver Screen”

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A PASSAGE TO INDIA MFA STUDENTS ENJOY A WRITING RETREAT ABROAD BY CAITLIN HORROCKS

This January, while most of us were recovering from the students were selected to spend a week at the Sanskri- holidays, throwing away holiday gift wrap or New Year’s ti Kendra International Artists’ Residency Programme Eve noisemakers, visiting with family or leaving Phoenix in Delhi and several days working with the Daywalka for a glimpse of snow, four Arizona State University stu- Foundation’s Kalam program in Kolkata, teaching creative dents traveled much further afield, to Delhi and Kolkata writing to marginalized youth. The International Writers’ (formerly Calcutta), India. Retreat program ran January 1-14, and the Piper Center Aimée Baker, Max Doty, Michael Green, and Tina Ham- International Writers’ Retreat Fellowships paid for stu- merton, all MFA students in ASU’s graduate creative writ- dents’ travel and residential costs. ing program, were the inaugural recipients of the Piper “This sort of travel isn’t exactly in my normal budget Center’s International Writers’ Retreat Fellowships. The as a grad student,” says Green. “The Piper Center is really

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giving us an amazing opportunity. And it’s fantastic that forward to the chance to minimize some of the unavoid- we can do it between semesters.” able ethnocentrism that I hold simply as a result of never As the name implies, a writers’ retreat is a place at which having been out of this hemisphere.” artists can retreat from their daily In addition to the regular resi- concerns and focus on their art for dency programme, Sanskriti has a concentrated period. They have THEY HAVE SOLITARY LIVING participated in special collaborative solitary living and studio spaces in projects with partners, including which to work, as well as social op- AND STUDIO SPACES IN WHICH the India-Austria Association and portunities to congregate with oth- the British Council. This year, the er artists. Over the past few years, TO WORK AND FOCUS, Piper Center for Creative Writing the Sanskriti Kendra International will join the list, and Hammerton is Artists’ Residency Programme has AND SOCIAL OPPORTUNITIES eager to be among the first repre- provided residencies to over three sentatives. She is currently working hundred artists, scholars, and writ- TO CONGREGATE WITH OTHER on a series of poems about an Indi- ers and three hundred craftspeople an-born childhood friend and says, and cultural activists from all over ARTISTS, SWAP STORIES “I don’t want nostalgia to overtake the world, including Sri Lanka, Ja- my project and ruin its ability to pan, Lithuania, Mexico, Pakistan, AND IDEAS. reach others effectively. That is why and Lebanon, among many others. I feel it is so important to travel to The artists live and work in semirustic buildings scat- the India of the present, the living India, in my growing tered across the Kendra’s seven acres of beautifully land- adult self, and find what there is to be found. By visiting scaped grounds, enjoying grassy courtyards, fountains, India, I will be able to expand my project in terms of the trees, and winding paths. Participants can take advantage essential details and sounds of place needed for poetry, as of a library, an amphitheatre, an art gallery, ceramic cen- well as gain some spiritual perspective on its landscape ter, and museums of Indian terracotta, Indian textiles, and and people.” “everyday art” intended to expand the artistic and cultural After a week, the group will trade the tranquility of San- sensibilities of visiting artists and to give them the oppor- skriti Kendra for the crowds of Kolkata, where they will tunity to work with Indian craftspeople. “It will be nice to work with the Daywalka Foundation’s Kalam: Margins be able to write,” says Hammerton, who is completing her Write project. The program offers creative writing work- thesis manuscript for a May graduation. “But I sure will shops to marginalized youth, primarily those growing up take advantage of these wonderful offerings as well.” in red-light districts such as Kalighat. The program’s Web Sanskriti Pratishthan, a nonprofit organization founded site defines its mission: “[Kalam] empowers youth to dis- in New Delhi in 1978, began its residency programme as cover themselves as creative writers and cultural thinkers, India’s first international writers’ retreat, and the potential and promotes critical consciousness and engaged imagi- for collaboration, conversation, and inspiration that is the nations in the margins. It is a movement for young peo- mission of any artists’ retreat is deepened by Sanskriti’s ple to claim their right over their lives by rewriting their ability to, according to their Web site, “significantly fos- selves, their communities, and their worlds according to ter understanding between different cultures through the themselves.” sharing of ideas and life experiences.” The organization ASU professor Melissa Pritchard traveled to Kolkata “perceives its role as that of a catalyst in revitalizing cul- last January to meet with Kalam founders Sahar Romani tural sensitivity in contemporary times. The belief in the and Bishan Samaddar and explore outreach possibilities. A positive function of culture as a universal and unifying year later she is returning, this time accompanied by the force is intrinsic to Sanskriti.” four students, to reconnect and assist with the rights-based “I admire their mission,” says Green. “And I truly look writing project she calls “innovative and exciting.” Here,

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too, the International Fellows will have the opportunity “I’ve been working on a novel that deals with Ameri- to enter into cross-cultural dialogue, not this time with can culture on a large scale, our sex, our music, our ways the established artists and writers at Sanskriti but with the of thinking. My hope is that the trip to India will grant fledging adolescent writers of Kolkata. Kalam students have me some measure of perspective, a fresh set of eyes with read at poetry festivals at the Oxford Bookstore, a Kolkata which to see my own country.” institution. While in Kolkata, the International Fellows As globalization continues to shrink the distance be- will also be giving a celebratory reading at the Bookstore. tween us, we should be more ready than ever to step be- Of course, much of the value of such cross-cultural dia- yond our own borders, whether national, cultural, linguis- logue is not only to learn about other countries and cul- tic, or artistic. The Piper International Fellows are excited tures, but also to help us see ourselves anew. Says Doty, to take that step.

LEE GUTKIND TO BE FIRST DISTINGUISHED Gutkind has written a number of celebrated books, WRITER IN RESIDENCE AT ASU many of which are distinguished by the remarkable time and energy he’s devoted to his subjects. His first book, Lee Gutkind, a pioneer in the discipline of creative Bike Fever, relates his adventures as a young man driv- nonfiction, will be the distinguished writer in residence ing his motorcycle across the country; One Children’s at ASU during the Spring 2007 semester. Gutkind, the Place details two exhaustive years exploring the com- director of the creative nonfiction program at the Uni- plex dynamics of a pediatric hospital; and The Best Seat versity of Pittsburgh and the founder of the well-regard- in Baseball, But You Have to Stand chronicles a year ed literary journal Creative Nonfiction, he spent imbedded with a crew of Na- will lead a graduate seminar in creative tional League baseball umpires. nonfiction during his time at ASU. Gutkind’s newest book, Almost Hu- Because Arizona State University’s Cre- man: Making Robots Think, recounts ative Writing MFA does not include a the author’s experience immersing him- concentration in creative nonfiction, self in the world of robotics engineers students in the program usually have at Carnegie Mellon University. The only intermittent opportunities to learn book notably makes the complex ideas the craft within the curriculum. Gut- and technology easy to understand for kind, dubbed the “godfather behind the unindoctrinated reader. creative nonfiction” by Vanity Fair, will Gutkind will challenge students to change that, at least temporarily, and make the shift from their primary dis- give current students a chance for in- ciplines to creative nonfiction in ways tense, semester-long instruction. that go beyond simply altering their Gutkind calls creative nonfiction “the technique. As he writes in his essay literature of reality” and explains how, in “Nonfiction in the Crosshairs,” “The a fact-based essay, the writer uses skills typically associ- challenge in creative-writing programs (in creative non- ated with poets and fiction writers, including dialogue, fiction especially) is to teach students how to write and plot and detailed description. “It allows a writer to em- how to think. If the thinking isn’t fresh, exciting, filled ploy the diligence of a reporter, the shifting voices and with discovery, daring, and surprise, then what is worth viewpoints of a novelist, the refined wordplay of a poet, writing about it in the first place?” and the analytical modes of the essayist,” says Gutkind. — Cameron Fielder

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“IT STARTS WITH AN IMAGE” TALKING THEATRE WITH PLAYWRIGHT LAURIE BROOKS BY CARLOS MANUEL

It is a beautiful September afternoon at ASU—not insane hours before the opening of a show. But not Lau- cool but not one hundred degrees, either—so Theatre for rie. She’s enjoying her visit to ASU, smiling and admiring Young Audiences playwright Laurie Brooks and I sit un- one of the giant abstract art pieces that have been placed der a tree on campus. While we watch students stroll from around campus. building to building, we discuss the U.S. premiere of her “So,” I ask. “Are you excited about the premiere of latest play for young people, The Lost Ones. your play?” We are only a few hours away from the opening of “Yes. Of course.” She answers. “But remember that this the show, but Laurie, visiting from New York City, is very is the U.S. premiere. The world premiere belongs to the calm and relaxed. I am having a hard time accepting her Graffiti Theatre Company, which is in Cork, Ireland.” cool demeanor because, as a playwright, I’m usually going I nod, thinking of her impressive background. With so

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much experience, perhaps it’s not unusual that she seems hint of preachiness or soap opera. Children’s theatre—or so relaxed. Laurie graduated from the American Acad- theatre for young audiences, to use the politically cor- emy of Dramatic Arts in 1970 and rect term—is growing up.” In 2001 then received a Bachelor of Arts in The Wrestling Season received the Theatre from Hofstra University. In TO HAVE A BODY OF WORK Distinguished Play Award from the 1991, she received a Masters of Arts American Alliance for Theatre and in Educational Theatre from New MEANS TO SPEND HOURS Education and in 2002 the Interna- York University. Throughout it all, tional Association of Theater listed Laurie has put together an impres- IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER, it as an outstanding play for Chil- sive body of work, including The dren and Young People. Wrestling Season, The Match Girl’s TYPING AWAY AND IGNORING Laurie is no stranger to the Ken- Gift, and, most recently, Brave No nedy Center or to having plays World, which had its world pre- THE WORLD OUTSIDE. commissioned in general, an envi- miere at the Kennedy Center in ous position for a playwright to be January 2006. in. In 1995, before The Wrestling To have a body of work means to spend hours in front Season, she became a participant in the prestigious new of a computer, typing away and ignoring the world outside play development program, New Visions/New Voices, your writing quarters. But of course there is often an in- with her play Selkie. In 2002 the Imagination Celebration spiration beyond the writing vacuum: a muse who guides of The Kennedy Center and Salt Lake City also commis- the writer. And Laurie is quick to credit her three daugh- sioned her Everyday Heroes in conjunction with the 2002 ters. “My oldest is twenty-five, the middle one is twenty- Winter Olympic Games. Other plays, such as The Match two and the young- Girl’s Gift: a Christ- est is twenty-one,” mas Story, Frank- she tells me. “And lin’s Apprentice, they are definitely and A Laura Ingalls my inspiration.” Wilder Christmas, That inspira- have been com- tion leads her, ap- missioned by other propriately, to “try children’s theatre to write plays that companies across are compelling for the nation. Brooks young people.” One also enjoys a special example, The Wres- relationship with tling Season, which the Graffiti Theatre she developed at Company in Cork, the Kennedy Cen- Ireland. Her plays ter, is a play about Deadly Weapons, eight young peo- The Tangled Web, ple who struggle and The Lost Ones with self-identity LAURIE BROOKS WORKS WITH A STUDENT FROM NOTRE DAME DE SION. have been commis- and the peer pres- sioned, devised, and sure that accompanies it. Imaginatively, Brooks sets the premiered by them. entire play on a wrestling mat. Time magazine said that In devising a piece of theatre, actors, a director, and the work is “so energetically stylized that it defuses any a playwright work together to create a world. In the

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case of The Lost Ones, which the image. And then, I let it come toured southern Ireland during out.” the spring of 2005, they created “But the truth is that every- a world in which two boys lose one has to find her own style. My their childhood to war. Their only brother taught me that the most guide to escape to a better place important element in writing is its is a battered copy of Peter Pan, structure.” (Her brother is fantasy but they have forgotten how to author Terry Brooks; her first play, read and remember little of the Imaginary Friends, was an adapta- story. They can only concentrate tion of his short story of the same on their vague memories of it. As name.) “You need to understand they developed it, the piece be- structure to have a good piece came an occasion to investigate of work,” she continues. “Some the emotional lives of boys and playwrights are more interested in the human rights of children. It form than structure, but for me, uses very little language and in- there is no way around it.” stead focuses on gestures, physi- However, if pressed to empha- cal actions, and silences to convey size an element in playwriting, their emotional struggles. Com- Laurie is quick to say that char- municating the themes through acter is the most important aspect such methods was quite difficult. for her. And when it comes to the The story and its telling is so ideas she is trying to portray on compelling and unusual that I stage, Laurie adds that she wants asked Laurie about her writing FROM BROOKS’S PLAY LAND AND SEA: A SELKIE MYTH. “people to be moved, to cry, to process. “It all starts with an im- laugh, and feel a spectrum of age. I let it grow, refeed the image, think about it all the emotions by the end.” The Lost Ones, which will open time,” she says. “I make notes, write outlines, have visions the 2006–2007 ASU theatre season, is sure to do all of about the image and the words. I take my time defining these things.

1 7 PIPER WRITER’S STUDIO SCHEDULE OF SPRING CLASSES Week of January 15 - March 5 Week of March 12 - April 30

INTENSIVE SCREENWRITING WITH LEVY ANTAL INTENSIVE MAGAZINE WRITING THURSDAYS 6 PM – 8 PM | DOWNTOWN SCOTTSDALE WITH JANA BOMMERSBACH This rigorous workshop emphasizes refining the story TUESDAYS 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM | DOWNTOWN PHOENIX and creating fully developed characters and realistic dia- This is a “learn by doing” course on nonfiction magazine writing. logue. Students will analyze scenes from successful screen- The class will learn how to find and shape ideas for the magazine plays, adapt a story, and digest their own work to understand market, how to “pitch” a story to editors, how to research stories, the techniques required for a submission-ready screenplay. and how to organize and write compelling articles.

BEGINNING POETRY WITH ALICIA BINDER INTENSIVE POETRY WITH LOIS ROMA-DEELEY TUESDAYS 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM | NORTH SCOTTSDALE TUESDAYS 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM | NORTH SCOTTSDALE We’ll explore the art of writing poetry by reading and Intermediate and advanced poets will explore various ways studying some of Arizona’s poets. This workshop will fo- in which the “personal” life can be transformative. Po- cus on both the process of writing poems as well as ways ets will test the “limits” of gender, race, and class as well as to develop and enhance the craft of poems in progress. the hidden stories buried beneath time and inside place.

INTENSIVE CREATIVE NONFICTION BEGINNING FICTION WITH JENNIFER SPIEGEL-BELL WITH ROBERT BLAIR KAISER TUESDAYS 6 PM – 8 PM | NORTH SCOTTSDALE THURSDAYS 6 PM – 8 PM | NORTH SCOTTSDALE We will highlight major principles of fiction writing, such as cre- Robert Blair Kaiser, author of ten books and hundreds of maga- ating multifaceted characters, making decisions about perspective, zine pieces, will illustrate the art of creative nonfiction. He teach- considering narrative drive, manipulating time, choosing detail, es a largely narrative style that leans heavily on a close observa- crafting authentic and vital dialogue, and fine-tuning our art. tion of the people involved and the conflicts they encounter.

BEGINNING CREATIVE WRITING WITH ERIN SWEETIN BEGINNING CREATIVE NONFICTION TUESDAYS 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM | GLENDALE WITH CHRIS BENGUHE The sources of all creative writing are experience, observation, TUESDAYS 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM | DOWNTOWN PHOENIX and imagination, which we will explore in three projects: a poem, Real life is stranger than fiction, they say. Benguhe teaches you a short fiction piece, and a creative nonfiction essay. For each how to see your life or someone else’s with all the highs, lows, project, we will engage in the complete writing process, from and plot points that make any book worth reading, then how to prewriting to revision. organize and outline that into a long-form essay or book.

PUBLISHING OUTSIDE THE BOX WRITING AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE WITH MARK CROCKETT WITH SHAVAWN MIDORI BERRY SATURDAY, JANUARY 27 | 11 AM – 3 PM | TEMPE SATURDAY, MARCH 31 | 11 AM – 3 PM | TEMPE The “Publishing Outside of the Box” workshop will show writ- Through journaling and guided writing, participants will discov- ers—in explicit detail—how to approach a Random House, Si- er their intuitive wisdom and innate spirituality. Sharing between mon and Schuster or any publisher with their work—and poten- participants will facilitate the emergence of a supportive creative tially get it published. writing community. Bring paper, pens, and an open heart. All faiths welcome.

COMPLETE REGISTRATION INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT WWW.ASU.EDU/PIPER/WORKSHOPS. THIS WRITER’S LIFE

A TIME AND PLACE BETWEEN THIS WRITER’S LIFE BY GEORGE WITTE

As a budding college poet, I found private times and answering phones, writing rejection letters, composing places where I could write: a spare table in a rarely visited flap copy, memos, press releases, and the like—so crammed floor of the library; an easy chair tucked behind a pillar in my head that wine and evening no longer brought much the student center; late nights in the office of the literary inspiration. Fueled instead by coffee, I rose at 5:30, was at magazine, where after finishing homework and maybe a my desk by 5:45, and wrote until 7:30, when I needed to glass (or two) from the bottle of red wine hidden in a file ready myself for the day. That schedule worked well, and drawer, I found my second wind. for about twelve years I wrote steadily, completing nearly After graduating, I took a job in book publishing as an three manuscripts worth of poems and placing some of editorial assistant for St. Martin’s Press. My poetry time them in magazines. shifted to early morning, because each day of work—filing, In my mid-thirties, now a senior editor with a full list

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of books, a series of happy Five years went by. I events conspired against thought about writing spare time. First, I was more than I wrote. No given the opportunity to time in the mornings, start from scratch a literary lunch hour at my desk imprint within St. Mar- proved interruptible, my tin’s Press, called Picador evening second wind was USA. Building that busi- long gone, and weekends ness, reading every manu- and vacations were . . . script submitted for our well, weekends and vaca- consideration, editing at tions. A glass of wine no all hours of the night and longer wakened the muse traveling widely to present but put it to sleep on the the imprint to booksellers couch. The poems dwin- and foreign publishers cut dled to a few, then none into those early mornings. at all. Though delighted Then, I met my wife. We by our family and lucky were engaged, married, to work with authors of and became parents. Our first-rate fiction and non- daughter faced a series fiction, I allowed a piece of medical challenges, of myself to wither, and intense at first and requiring constant attention as one put it away. thing and another popped up, was hammered down, only Our daughter reached school age, so we planned a move to emerge again. She grew into a notoriously early riser, to a suburban town in New Jersey with a strong public so mornings became a tradeoff between who woke to feed school system. The month we moved, my mother fell in and play with her and who stayed in bed to grab another her home, was unable to walk again, and shortly thereaf- precious hour of ever-more-elusive sleep. ter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Three weeks I still found time to write, later, she was dead. Her dy- but inconsistently, in dribs ing set me thinking about her and drabs, on weekends when THE NEXT DAY, HAVING RETRIEVED life—incidents, anecdotes, and I wasn’t editing, reading, do- particular sentences that ar- ing household chores, trans- MY NOTEBOOK FROM UNDER rived in my mind with the porting our daughter to and tensile strength of lines of from the park, the library, the THE BED—ABANDONED WHERE I’D poetry. On my first day as a bookstore, and the kid-friend- suburban commuter, riding ly hamburger joint where the LEFT OFF WRITING FIVE YEARS AGO— a train packed with people staff was trained to sing a cap- busying themselves with lap- pella do-wop classics during I BEGAN AGAIN. tops, newspapers, cell phones, down time. Oh yes, and my books, and hurried applica- wife—remember her, fella?— tions of mascara and lipstick, I my wife enjoyed having actual conversations with me and wrote a few lines on a piece of scrap paper. The next day, I with her, most of which took place during nap time and having retrieved my notebook from under the bed—aban- over meals, when we could sit down, breathe, and make doned where I’d left off writing five years ago—I began eye contact with each other. again.

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Now I write nearly every day, thirty-five to thirty-nine that needs attention. It’s simply there, one period in the minutes each way, each day. The train is a mobile room morning and one at the end of the day—a time and place of my own. In the three years since we moved, I finished between where I live and where I work. I find that writ- my first book, The Apparitioners, and found a publisher ing in between helps me focus: my time is limited, and in Three Rail Press, a new poetry publisher based in Se- I can’t stare out the window, fidget at my desk, get up to attle. Two new manuscripts are well along in the mak- make coffee, tidy up around the house, mutter to myself ing, one nearly done and the other gradually taking shape. about the roar of our neighbor’s incessant leaf-blower, or The train gives me time and space to write; I don’t have answer my e-mail. to make time or borrow it from another part of my life Because there isn’t time, there is.

PIPER FRIENDS UNVEILS NEW GIVING LEVELS

The Piper Center for Creative Writing uses all do- open to the entire state; and to offering financial sup- nated funds to promote a vibrant literary community port to talented students in the ASU graduate creative in the Phoenix area. Donations go toward attracting writing program. Private donations at all levels are world-class writers for the Distinguished Visiting Writ- instrumental in maintaining and growing these Piper ers Series and annual Writers Conference; widening the Center programs. Gifts of $100 dollars and above are reach of the Piper Online Book Club, a free service tax deductible.

PATRON OF THE ARTS | $3,400 EACH YEAR FOR THREE YEARS ($10,200 CUMULATIVE DONATION) / $284 PER MONTH This three-year gift creates a merit-based scholarship in the donor’s name for a current student writer in the MFA program. Patrons are invited to join their student recipient for lunch with the Piper Center Artistic Director.

CHAMPION OF THE ARTS | $1,000 CUMULATIVE DONATION PER YEAR / $84 PER MONTH In support of community enrichment programs including the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, these gifts may directly fund an upcoming visiting writer’s event in the donor’s name.

ARTS ADVOCATE | $500 CUMULATIVE DONATION PER YEAR / $42 PER MONTH This gift funds the development and growth of free community enrichment programs like the Piper Online Book Club.

SUPPORTING SUBSCRIBER | $100 CUMULATIVE DONATION PER YEAR / $9 PER MONTH Supporting Subscribers provide funding directly to Piper Center for Creative Writing publication initiatives, such as Marginalia.

FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO GIVE, PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 47 OF THIS ISSUE.

2 1 INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

THE POETRY OF LANDSCAPE POST-MFA FELLOWS EXPLORE NORTHERN ENGLAND BY ELIZABYTH HISCOX AND DOUGLAS JONES

As Arizona starts to put on its winter weight of tourists sors for students and staff. They will also explore notions and part-time residents and gear up for sun worshipers of landscape and borders in connection with the work of and golfers, two recent graduates of ASU’s Master of Fine Basil Bunting, the celebrated Modernist poet who hailed Arts Program in Creative Writing will be headed up the from the area. Durham University is home to its own Po- down staircase, so to speak. Poetry alumni Elizabyth His- etry Centre that bears Bunting’s name and contains ex- cox and Douglas S. Jones will bundle up for the sleet and tensive archives of the poet’s work. Hiscox and Jones hope snow of Northeast England and Durham University. to work closely with the archived material to examine While at Durham, the two will lecture on American themes of border, identity, and landscape. Such themes, so Letters, lead creative writing workshops, give readings of prevalent in the Southwestern arts community that the their own work, and assist in the capacity of on-site advi- poets are used to, translate differently to a region bisected

2 2 INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

by Hadrian’s Wall, a border placed by Romans to divide a and internationalization and is now finally coming to people centuries ago. Hiscox and Jones will explore those fruition in this first exchange between the two institu- differences. tions. The goal of both universities Durham lies closer to Edinburgh THEMES RELATING TO BORDERS is to create a cross-pollination of than London, with the nearby New- creativity, to plant saguaros in the castle as the closest major urban TRANSLATE DIFFERENTLY TO A moors of Northern England and center. Situated on the River Wear, place grey partridges amongst palo the town is heavy with tangible his- REGION BISECTED BY HADRIAN’S verde. As with any artistic endeavor, tory—the campus itself boasts col- the process and product are often leges in the medieval quarter of the WALL, A BORDER PLACED BY commingled. A bridge between the city. The university lies at the foot two schools could itself open other of Durham Castle and along with ROMANS TO DIVIDE A PEOPLE. avenues for area artists. the town’s cathedral—the oldest Hiscox and Jones started their Norman example in Britain—has residency in January. The two will been designated a World Heritage Site. (The location has discuss their experiences and encounters from abroad more recently stood in for the Hogwarts School of Witch- at the Piper International Fellows Blog. Check it out at craft and Wizardry in the popular Harry Potter films.) http://piper.blog.asu.edu. But the campus is more than just a pretty face. Dur- ham’s English Department is ranked first in the UK by The Times—beating out old favorites like Oxford and FACTS ABOUT DURHAM Cambridge, and it earned University of the Year in 2005. Hiscox and Jones have accepted visiting scholar positions “Durham” comes from the Anglo-Viking words “dun” at Durham University and will spend two terms there, and “holm” meaning “hill” and “island.” In 1995, the helping to develop its modules in creative writing. Ad- city celebrated its thousand year anniversary. ditionally, as ambassadors for the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, they will work to expand ASU’s in- Durham is the third oldest university in England and ternational connections through promotion of the center’s was established in 1832, but the idea of a university programs, conference, and publications. Jones and Hiscox for Durham was first suggested by Oliver Cromwell were awarded the inaugural Piper Center Post-MFA Fel- in 1650. lowship, which will allow students to explore issues and trends in writing at home and around the world as an An English style of mustard originated in Durham in extension of their time in the creative writing program at 1720 by an old woman of the city. Her name was Mrs. Arizona State University. Clements, and her special recipe was known as Dur- The history of the exchange goes back to a 2004 visit ham Mustard. At one time, there were three separate from Professor of English at Durham Stephen Regan. Vis- mustard factories in the city. iting the southwest for ASU’s writer’s conference, Des- ert Nights, Rising Stars, Regan experienced firsthand the Two important features of church architecture, the fly- level of support for creative writers in the Valley of the ing buttresses and ribbed vaulting are thought to be Sun, as well as the exciting array of poets and authors the innovations of the Durham Cathedral masons. conference helped bring to the students and the com- munity. During the conference, the United Kingdom and Elizabeth Barrett, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Arizona formed a connection around late-night bonfires was born at Coxhoe Hall near Kelloe, just outside and discussions of Adrienne Rich’s poetry. That connec- Durham, in 1806. tion blossomed into more formal considerations of study

2 3 LITERARY PUBLISHING

NEW DIRECTIONS, NEW ENVIES BEHIND THE SCENES OF HAYDEN’S FERRY REVIEW BY CAITLIN HORROCKS

On any given day during my time as an MFA student best work. at ASU, I may have attended a workshop, taught a class, or It’s an extraordinary responsibility, to be trusted with heard a reading. Most days I’ve tried to write, and many someone else’s words, and an extraordinary honor. The days I’ve picked up an unpublished story by a writer in students involved with Hayden’s Ferry Review as interns, Kansas, Maine, or New Zealand. A story by a writer who associate editors, and editors understand that our work may have published five novels or a writer who’s never on the magazine matters, both to those hoping to appear seen her name in print. A writer who has printed out his in its pages and to the readers who look to the magazine story, slid it into a manila envelope, and mailed it to the to provide exciting, high-quality literature and art. HFR Piper Center, Attn: Prose Editor, Hayden’s Ferry Review, gives students the opportunity to learn the editorial ropes willing to let me and my coeditors read and evaluate his while working on a magazine that is nationally known

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and respected for its literary excellence and its dedication on to success as both writers and editors. A former HFR to publishing a mix of established and emerging writers. art editor has gone on to start a small press; a former mar- This year, HFR, a professional literary magazine staffed by keting assistant has made a career in textbook publishing. ASU MFA students and published by the Piper Center for HFR alums have edited literary, trade, children’s, and news Creative Writing, celebrates twenty years of offering the publications. “Working on HFR helped me get hired at best contemporary poetry, fiction, visual art, essays, and my current job,” says former prose editor Katie Cortese. interviews. “I’m an editor for a publishing company in Scottsdale and Since its inaugural issue in 1986, HFR has won the they were impressed to hear I’d worked in an editorial ca- respect and attention of readers and well-known writers. pacity in the past. I even brought a copy of the magazine It has been ranked by Columbia University in the top one with me to the interview.” percent of all literary magazines in the country and was Student editors have found their own writing changed mentioned in Esquire as one of the journals where the and deepened by their tenure on the magazine. “I was best new writers are coming from. HFR has published constantly witnessing new experiments with language, work by Raymond Carver, Jean Valentine, T. C. Boyle, Rita new modulations, tonal consequences,” writes Todd Fred- Dove, Philip Levine, John Updike, David St. John, Rich- son, current international editor and associate poetry edi- ard Ford, Yusef Komunyakaa, Joseph Heller, Norman Du- tor. “Functions that might . . . stoke new directions, or at bie, Alberto Rios, Rick Moody, Charles Baxter, and Ron least new envies.” For the International Section, Todd has Carlson. But alongside these names readers will almost invariably find an author making his or her way into print for the first time. “The satisfaction of helping an author RECENT AND UPCOMING ISSUES to reach readers and to gain some recognition for his or Every issue of HFR contains an exciting mix of po- her work is one of the most rewarding parts of being an etry, fiction, essays, interviews, and visual art. Here are editor for HFR,” says former prose editor Todd Kaneko. some highlights: “One recent writer wrote me back saying that she was on the verge of giving up on submitting her work due to all ISSUE 40: Hayden Ferry’s Review 20th Anniversary Issue (up- the rejections she had been getting. Since the story’s pub- coming) lication, we’ve received letters from readers admiring the story for the boldness and uniqueness of its material.” ISSUE 39: Special section on “Works of Witness;” new work by Of course, publication in HFR is hardly an act of char- Pam Houston, Andrei Codrescu, Mahmoud Darwish (upcoming) ity: the pieces in the magazine are the survivors of a read- ing process in which ninety-nine per cent of all submis- ISSUE 38: Special section on “Modern Magic;” a CD of songs sions are eventually rejected. Counting every poem, story, from “Eight Buffalo Hides: My Life on Parchment, Poetry and essay, and piece of art, HFR receives over 10,000 submis- Songs of Borderlands and Actions” by Henry Oso Quintero sions every year, and there’s only room in the 140-page magazine to publish a fraction of them. Submissions are ISSUE 37: Interview with Charles Baxter; new work by Kevin processed by interns and read by associate editors, who McIlvoy, David Lee, Peggy Shumaker; first-ever International Sec- choose whether or not to pass a piece on to a genre editor tion for further consideration. At every step of the editorial process, students work ISSUE 36: Sepcial section on “Gender Boundaries;” poetry by and learn under the supervision of Salima Keegan, the Bob Hicok, photography by Tammy Rae Carland Piper Center for Creative Writing’s director of market- ing and communications as well as the managing editor ISSUE 35: Special section on “Metafiction;” interview with Wil- of Hayden’s Ferry Review. She has kept in touch with liam H. Gass former student editors and reports that many have gone

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had to find and solicit writers in far flung countries, writ- The opportunity to work on HFR has been essential ing in seldom-translated languages, “I have gone far into to the ASU MFA experience since 1986. “ASU’s program other communities,” Todd writes. “Other writing com- wouldn’t be the same without HFR,” says Katie Cor- munities, other cultures altogether.” With the entire ex- tese. “In the creative writing classroom, we are focused istence of writing conferences and MFA programs owing on the minutiae of the art—invested in the mechanics much to the need for community among writers, HFR of the stanza, the line—the close-up if you will,” writes is a chance for MFA students to engage with the writ- Elizabyth Hiscox. “To borrow an analogy from our fellow ing community at large, reading and corresponding with artists in film, [work on HFR] allows the lens a wide-an- other writers from all over the country and the world. gle.” For the last twenty years, Hayden’s Ferry Review has “Hayden’s Ferry Review allows ASU and its community been rewarding its student editors and its readers across to participate in a larger conversation,” says former poetry the country with an eclectic, wide-angle take on the best editor Elizabyth Hiscox. of contemporary literature and art. Now, its editors and readers look forward to the next twenty.

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DISTANT HORIZONS UNPACKING THE TREND OF SETTING NOVELS SET IN AFRICA BY MICHAEL GREEN

Two questions have preoccupied me recently as I work Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible, about a family on my novel set in Africa. One, why do I feel compelled to of American missionaries in the Congo in the 1950s, be- write a novel set in Africa? And two, what kind of mean- came a bestseller in 1999. Giles Foden’s The Last King of ing can it have coming from the perspective of a white Scotland, released around the same time, looks at the reign middle-class American? Until I answer these questions, of Uganda’s Idi Amin through the eyes of a Scottish doc- other facets of my novel—character, setting, theme—no tor. Russell Banks’s The Darling chronicles the adventures matter how convincing or compelling, seem irrelevant. of Hannah Musgrave, an American political radical in Li- These questions have perhaps also preoccupied some of beria. Spymaster John LeCarré also turned his attention to the best American and British novelists in recent years, as the continent. His The Constant Gardener, set in Kenya major novels set in Africa have appeared regularly. Barbara and the Sudan, was a bestseller in 2000; more recently he

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produced The Mission Song, which concerns the fate of tive Africans appear essentially as window dressing, Con- the Congo. Last year, Dave Eggers published What is the rad was himself engaging in an act of colonization. The What, a fictionalized memoir of a true life Sudanese refu- accusation has been leveled, perhaps not unfairly, at other gee. These are just a few of many examples. twentieth century writers such as E. M. Forester (A Pas- Of course, many novels by Af- sage to India) and Graham Greene ricans have come out during that FICTION IS DRIVEN BY CONFLICT (The Quiet American). Each author same time. For example, the Nigeri- in his way attempts to illuminate an writer Uzodinma Iweala recently AND CONFLICT RAGES Western man’s hubris and folly, his produced the celebrated Beasts of selfish destructive actions against No Nation about a child soldier in THROUGH AFRICA. nonwhite peoples. But by placing a an unnamed West African country. white person at the center of their And J. M. Coetzee won the Nobel THE IDEAL CONDITIONS EXIST novels, they inevitably marginalize Prize in 2003 for chronicling the the voices of those who suffered emotional and political terrain of IN WHICH TO SET the consequences of such folly (in his native South Africa. Those au- the case of these novels, the Indians thors have a psychological and cul- A COMPELLING STORY THERE. and Vietnamese). tural perspective that American and This makes me wonder if the British novelists can never have. Yet we still feel compelled Western perspective is possible to shed, or at least mini- to set stories in the continent. mize, when writing about non-Western cultures. In the One simple reason is that fiction is driven by conflict literary landscape of post- and post-postmodernism, and and conflict on a major scale rages throughout Africa. in the historical context of globalization, in which each Whatever else they are—epidemics, famine, ecological of us is presumably more connected to our international devastation, refugee situations, political strife, and espe- brethren, it is tempting to suggest that perspectives have cially war—they are all ideal conditions in which to set a widened, perhaps even permanently shifted. In What is compelling story. Putting a protagonist in an awful situa- the What, Eggers valiantly attempts to write from the tion is the cornerstone of drama, and there are few places voice of a Sudanese man, Valentino Achak Deng, chroni- in the world that match the awfulness of the situations in cling his suffering and experience from the first person, Africa. rather than filtering it through a white person’s. As if to This leads into a second reason. The writer experiences signal Eggers’s intentions, Deng’s picture even takes up conflicting impulses to write but also to be away from her the entire front cover of the book. Ultimately, though, as or his desk, out in the world doing something where so a white American, Eggers, for all his brilliant imagination, much needs to be done. Good writers are almost always can only approximate Deng’s experiences. in touch with strong empathetic impulses—they must be Kingsolver actually lived for a time in the Congo when to create believable characters who are not themselves. she was a child and drew on some first-hand experience We look to Africa, see catastrophic situations, and want to when writing The Poisonwood Bible. Living there, she help ease suffering and improve lives. says, “undoubtedly gave that place permanent importance My second question—what kind of meaning can a nov- in my mind. I have strong sensory memories of playing el have coming from the perspective of a white middle- with village children and exploring the jungle.” Perhaps class American—is one I think about often and less easy to having a formative experience there gives her writing answer. Consider even the most famous novel ever set in more authenticity, gives her a perspective that Eggers can Africa, Conrad’s classic, Heart of Darkness. The book takes never have, for all his research and empathetic imagina- the evils of colonialism as one of its themes, but some tion. But her novel is still told from a white point of view; would argue that by appropriating the Congo for a story the Congolese remain in the background. about two white men—Marlowe and Kurtz—in which na- There is nothing innately wrong with stories of white

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people among nonwhite cultures. But the reality is that thing original in The Darling by making his protagonist the white voice continues to dominate narratives of every female, but the story was still seen through the eyes on an kind, while nonwhite voices often remain marginalized or American. silent; moreover, white stories set among nonwhites often I think about all this as I put my own book together. tend to follow a template: the white protagonist suffers a For all my good intentions, it is difficult to avoid the pit- fall and then experiences redemption, after which he (or falls of ethnocentrism, as these other authors have surely sometimes she) is able to use his restored status to help or found out. Writing my first novel, struggling with basic save nonwhites. The Constant Gardener follows this tem- elements of craft, ideological ambitions are sometimes the plate, using an African situation to dramatize the story of first thing to slip away. But there is no point to me mas- a white protagonist (or in this case, two of them). Russell tering craft if my ideas don’t strive to be relavant and Banks told me that he felt that he had attempted some- progressive.

NEW INTERNATIONAL SECTION APPEARS IN HAYDEN’S FERRY REVIEW

When he arrived in the MFA poetry program in 2003, America, makes finding them difficult to do from these Todd Fredson immediately sensed the need for an inter- shores. Todd and Diana have found themselves in the national component of Hayden’s Ferry Review, one that role of detective, only hoping to find a new talent at would provide a venue for poets and writers working in the end of an investigation rather than a lipstick-stained traditions outside of the dominant literary cigarette and the brunette that smoked community. Since then, Todd has teamed it. Since founding the new HFR section, up with poetry student Diana Park to cre- both Todd and Diana have traveled over- ate HFR International, a section dedicat- seas to build an international network ed to underrepresented voices. of writers. After receiving a Piper Cen- Todd and Diana see themselves as cu- ter Travel Grant in the summer of 2005, rators as much as editors, trying to allow Todd and his partner Sarah Vap traveled the relationship between artist and audi- throughout South America, visiting writ- ence to remain as unmediated as possible. ers and attending a poetry festival. Di- Sometimes, this means showcasing literal ana received the same grant the following voices. Allowing an audience access to summer, using it to attend a poetry work- the creator’s original sound is important; shop in Prague where she made many the Spring/Summer 2006 International new contacts. Section of HFR included translations of In keeping with the spirit of the proj- Native American songs accompanied by ect, “we’re trying to cover a variety of ar- an audio CD of these songs performed by Henry Oso eas and social groups,” says Diana. The editorial duo Quintero. Thanks to HFR International’s audio page, solicits work from writers and translators from Vietnam writers can be heard reading their work in its original to Estonia to Korea. Upcoming issues of HFR’s Inter- form. If they receive funding, Todd and Diana hope to national section will include work from Mahmoud Dar- hire a webmaster who will update their audio archives. wish, a Palestinian poet, and translated works of Roma- The very nature of the HFR International project, of nian poets Liliana Ursu and Camelia Leonte. amplifying voices that haven’t been heard in mainstream — Darcy Courteau

2 9 AUTHOR PROFILE

THE DELIGHTFUL ANTIDOTE A PROFILE OF ESTEEMED NOVELIST GAIL TSUKIYAMA BY AIMÉE BAKER

I have always been told that a measure of success is porary literature, the more I feel disconnected from the not how much money you earn or what your job is, but importance of family and friends. This aspect of life often who you have in your life—the family that you sometimes serves as a backdrop for protagonists to react to rather feel stuck with and the friends you draw into your world. than interact with. Sometimes family and friends are rel- Our culture easily recognizes that both friends and family egated to an even more shadowy world where we are only are important signifiers to our way of being. How often granted access to them by brief mention as though they have we heard someone say her child is hanging out with are only of passing interest. the wrong crowd? Or experienced someone mourning Gail Tsukiyama is a delightful and welcomed antidote the loss of a friendship just as deeply as the breakup of a to all of this. Her novels place importance on the pres- romantic relationship? Yet the more I delve into contem- ence of family and friends, giving credence to the idea

3 0 AUTHOR PROFILE

that they serve a vital role and function in the lives of her sorts, threads that interweave to tell a complete and lush characters. Whether exploring historical situations, as she story. did in her debut novel Women of the Silk, or contempo- The third voice belongs Josephine, Laura’s daughter. rary times, Tsukiyama always assuredly gives us a picture While some may say it makes more sense for the third of complete and complicated lives and explores the nature section to be devoted to Laura, Gail Tsukiyama leaves ex- of friendship and family. pectation behind and opens up the world for us by al- In her 2002 release, Dreaming lowing Josephine to have a voice. Water, Tsukiyama introduces us TSUKIYAMA HAS SHOWN US Lost without any real ability to to Hana, a sufferer of Werner’s connect to her absent father and Syndrome, a disease which causes THAT THE ADDITION OF FAMILY AND workaholic mother, Josephine is the body to age twice as fast as adrift in life, angry and confused, chronological age would suggest. FRIENDS IS WHAT MAKES until she forms a bond of friend- When Hana is introduced, she is ship with Hana. In terms of how thirty-eight yet looks as though CHARACTERS WHO THEY ARE. Tsukiyama maneuvers us through she is in her eighties. her characters’ lives, letting Jose- Dreaming Water is divided into three voices, each with phine take control of part of the narrative is a brilliant their own chapters. There is, of course, Hana, who spends move because since it highlights her message of the need most of her time thinking not about how her disease is for strong friends and family. wearing her body down while her soul knows it is not Continuously, Tsukiyama has shown us that the addi- time, but reflecting on her experiences with her father, tion of family and friends is what makes characters who Max, her mother, Cate, and her best friend, Laura. She they are. The presence of these people speaks to the his- traces not only the development of her disease, but also tory of the character and how they have come to exist at a gives us anecdotes about trying to grow up in smalltown certain time, dealing with the issues and thoughts that are California, about finding a place among her classmates, presented to them in the novel. When we read a Tsukiya- and about her fierce devotion to Laura, who serves as her ma novel, we see the complete depth of life that we expe- friend and protector. rience daily. Certainly, we will never be given unattached Hana’s sections are interspersed primarily with Cate’s, characters whose only thoughts of family are how awful who is trying to cope with the idea of her daughter pass- they were to the protagonist. Indeed, with Tsukiyama we ing away before her. Cate tells Hana that she would not are always blessed to enter a world where characters, while change a moment of her life because, for Cate, the joy of not always dealing with perfect families or friends, are able having Hana in her life is greater than the pain of losing to recognize that these people serve an important role in her. Indeed, Cate rejoices in the presence of her daughter their development and daily thoughts. and reflects on her own about her husband Max. Cate’s fo- Luckily for those craving an exploration of familial rela- cus is not on the loss of Max to a brain aneurism but their tionships and friendships, Tsukiyama has already published life together from the moment they met until the present, five novels and given her success and talent, shows all the her life without him. In a way, Cate absorbs Max’s history. signs of bringing the world more of her delicately crafted, Her love and relationship with him allows us insight to his eloquent, and engaging novels. In fact, her latest book is childhood during World War II, when his family was con- scheduled for release in 2007. Also luckily for residents fined to an internment camp in Wyoming because they are of the valley and those traveling here for the 2007 Desert Japanese. Tsukiyama allows both Cate and Hana to access Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, Gail Tysukiyama this history in the way that so often happens in families: a will be a cornerstone in the offerings this year, participat- personal story develops into a shared family history. The ing in panels, leading a small group workshop for begin- experiences of Tsukiyama’s characters are not singular and ning fiction writers, and giving a reading on the evening independent but speak to each other creating a tapestry of of February 21.

3 1 NEWS

PIPER RESOURCE CENTER LIBRARY EXPANDS larger writing world. ITS COLLECTION The MFA faculty have had much success in the writ- ing world as well. They are represented in a collection In a back room of the Piper Writers House, ASU cre- that consists of books by professors such as Norman Du- ative writing MFA students might be found browsing bie, Alberto Ríos, T. M. McNally and Melissa Pritchard. through the latest issues of glossy magazines such as the The library eventually plans to own a complete set of all New Yorker and Poets & Writers or checking out small the books published by faculty. literary journals with offbeat names such as ZYZZYVA, Students can now also use the library to study the Bat City Review, Zone 3, and Rattapallax, hoping to texts that appear on their required reading lists, includ- discover a great new story or poem. They may also be ing works by Henry James, Robert Hass, Joseph Conrad, looking into the business side of writing, researching and Lucille Clifton. MFA candidates receive their de- reference texts and trade magazines for such items as gree based not only on their original thesis and course- publication markets, submission information, and con- work but also on the results of comprehensive exams tests. they take in their third year. To prepare for the exam, Beyond that, they have access to the Dorothy Lykes fiction and poetry students pore over separate reading collection of poetry books, which joined the periodicals lists that include both required and optional texts. In a year ago, and three exciting new collections: books by making them available, the library has lessened the bur- ASU creative writing alumni, books by ASU creative den on student schedules and pocketbooks. writing faculty, and a complete set of the titles on the The Piper Resource Library works in a conventional MFA required reading lists. way, with students using their Piper Center ID cards to This is the Piper Resource Center Library, more com- check out materials. Students can locate materials that are prehensive than ever and always expanding. sometimes not available at local libraries or bookstores. “We’re actively seeking alumni who have published The Piper Center Resource Library is open to stu- books,” explains Roxane Barwick, program coordina- dents Monday–Thursday from 10:00–4:30, and open to tor for the Piper Center for Creative Writing. Once she the public on Thursdays 10:00–4:30. The Dorothy Lykes learns of an alumni publication, she buys a copy for the Collection and some reference texts are noncirculat- resource library, which at present owns books by authors ing, but all other books and magazines, including the such as Tayari Jones, Rigoberto González, Jen Currin, MFA alumni, faculty, and reading list collections, can be and others. The collection both supports ASU alumni checked out by students or enjoyed at the Piper Writers and offers current students a chance to read the work House by members of the public. of former students who have gone on to success in the — Caitlin Horrocks

TOM WAYMAN IS ASU’S SECOND CANADIAN on a variety of topics, including methods of teaching FULBRIGHT creative writing—a subject Wayman says is important to him. Wayman also hopes to have contact with members Canadian poet Tom Wayman of our community through participation in the 2007 will spend spring 2007 at the Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers Conference and the Piper Center for Creative Arizona Book Festival. Writing as ASU’s second Dis- Wayman is the author of several books, including I’ll tinguished Canadian Fulbright Be Right Back: Selected and New Poems 1980–1996. Writer-in-Residence. In his writing, he is interested in the accurate depic- During his visit, Wayman will tion of daily employment. He lives in British Columbia, engage with students and faculty Canada, and teaches at the University of Calgary.

3 2 PUBLISHING

MFA ALUMNUS JOSH RATHKAMP

MAKING A FIRST BOOK TWO ASU MFA STUDENTS ON HOW THEY PUBLISHED BY DARCY COURTEAU

On the very same day that she delivered her first child, Sarah wrote both manuscripts while attending ASU’s Sarah Vap learned that her collection of poetry, American MFA program. She completed a section of Dummy Fire Spikenard, won the Iowa Poetry Prize. Three weeks later, during a month-long summer residency in Lithuania, as she and her partner Todd Fredson cared for their new where she stayed at a huge outdoor museum. The grounds son, Oskar, Saturnalia Books announced that another col- enclosed fifty hectares of sculptures and forest; Sarah lection of hers, Dummy Fire, had won their contest. Both spent days wandering its paths. “Dummy Fire is about volumes would be published. “I felt a sense of release,” she the struggle to recognize a true form versus a dummy says. “I feel a responsibility toward the books . . . I have form—of anything I encounter—and then to start parsing definitely felt a lightening since learning they would be what is true and not true,” she says. Within the volume, published.” she wrestles with the desire to “find what is a dummy and

3 3 PUBLISHING

destroy it—but you can’t. You can destroy everything and Josh had an unconventional first encounter with the nothing, yet in the end, for me, it is all true.” world of poet. As a teenager, he would gather with friends Sarah’s second volume draws its title in part from the in an old, unlit cemetery in Saginaw, Michigan. Only lat- costly spikenard oil that Mary Mag- er did he learn that Theodore Ro- dalene used to anoint Jesus’ feet. ethke, one of his favorite poets, was When his apostles complained that “PUBLISHING THE BOOKS buried there. Since his nights spent her money could have gone to bet- schmoozing girls atop Roethke’s ter use, Jesus praised her for the love HAS FREED SPACE IN MY HEART grave, Josh has had his poetry pub- she showed. For Sarah, the anoint- lished in, among others, Meridian, ing represents a “very extravagant, AND MIND TO GET TO WORK Indiana Review, Drunken Boat, very feminine kind of love—she Rhino, Fugue, and Passages North. was blessing Jesus.” The woman’s ON SOMETHING ELSE. Josh now teaches composition and act initiated a kind of power shift, creative writing at ASU. He com- but one that was “very holy and I’M GLAD TO BE THINKING pares getting published to teaching: feminine.” With this “gentle but “I feel like I have something inter- complete” reversal in mind, Sar- OF THE NEXT THING.” esting to say that will affect other ah considers the American spike- people,” he says.“I never wanted to nard plant, a commonplace shrub — SARAH VAP be a doctor or a paramedic, but I with healing properties, along with wanted to reach others through my American girlhood, which is rarely treated as sacred. poems.” “American Spikenard struggles to find what is holy of After the manuscript that became Some Nights No Cars American girlhood.” At All became a finalist in three major poetry compe- Sarah’s work has appeared in many journals, most nota- titions, Ausable Press (ausablepress.org) decided to pub- bly FIELD, Blackbird Review, How2, Colorado Review, lish the collection in September 2007. Saturnalia Books and Denver Quarterly. (saturnaliabooks.com) will print Sarah’s Dummy Fire in In his collection Some Nights No Cars At All, Josh February 2007, and University of Iowa Press will publish Rathkamp writes about taking basic elements and shaping American Spikenard also in February. Poetry lovers can them into something new and wonderful. He says that his preorder a copy from Amazon.com; all three books can be poetry is about “simple possibilities—the idea that any- preordered at area bookstores. thing is possible if you spend enough time doing it.” This Both Josh and Sarah are currently working on new col- ethic of creating possibility out of restraint is echoed in lections. Of her previous poems, Sarah says, “They rep- his style; working in the tradition of a lyric narrative, he resent a huge chunk of my life, and I’ll never be finished often writes about relationships, how occurrences within with them. But having them published has freed space in them can be “mundane, but also catastrophic and beautiful my heart and mind to get to work on something else. I’m and weird.” glad to be thinking of the next thing.” For Josh, a limited palette can produce magical results. Life in the desert underscores that conviction: “Living here on the moon, as it were, and for half of the year in FOR MORE NEWS ABOUT ASU MFA ALUMNI, TURN TO nearly unbearable temperatures, something altogether in- PAGE 46 OF THIS ISSUE. terior visited me. The experience of this landscape is con- fused by its actual history—on the one hand, geological, IF YOU ARE AN ASU MFA ALUMNUS, PLEASE DO KEEP on the other hand, recent and territorial, and in the great US INFORMED OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS! E-MAIL middle ranges, the profound consciousness of Anasazi and [email protected] WITH NEWS. Hohokam.”

3 4 NEWS

MFA FACULTY NEWS JAY BOYER’s latest play, Suicide Gals, Won’t You Come MELISSA PRITCHARD trav- Out Tonight, Come Out Tonight, won the 2006 New eled with MFA students Mi- Rocky Mountain Voices Prize. It has received a num- chael Green, Tina Hammerton, ber of productions to date, among them at the Author’s Aimee Baker, and Max Doty to Playhouse (Bay Shore, Long Island), the Silver House the Sanskriti Foundation, New Theatre (Houston, Texas), the Westcliffe Center for The Delhi in January, 2007, and Performing Arts (Westcliffe, Colorado), Stevens Theatre then went on to Calcutta to of Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), and meet with members of Kalam, is scheduled to have its first production of 2007 at the an arts and education program Impact Theater in Brooklyn, New York. His most re- funded by the antitrafficking foundation, Daywalka. The cent nonfiction, “About Ron Carlson: A Profile,” can students gave a joint reading with Kalam poets at the fa- be found in Ploughshares, Fall 2006, Volume 32, Nos. mous Oxford Bookstore and met with graduate students 2 & 3. And his prize-winning short story, “The Night at Jadhapur University. Her interview with Sahar Ro- Mechanic,” will be published this December in Plough- mani and Bishan Samaddar, cofounders of Kalam: Mar- shares as well. gins Write, will appear in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of Hayden’s Ferry Review. Her new book, Devotedly PAUL COOK is now writing classical music reviews for Always, Virginia: A Life of Virginia Galvin Piper, will MusicWeb-International (at www.musicweb-interna- be published in September 2007. Finally, in 2006 she tional.com). worked with Sean Nevin and Katie Cappello to build an outreach program with the Phoenix Children’s Hospital. CYNTHIA HOGUE’s coedited Innovative Women Poets: An JEWELL PARKER RHODES’s Voodoo Season was re- Anthology of Contemporary leased in paperback. She recently published a new Poetry and Interviews, which memoir, Porch Stories: A Grandmother’s Guide to Hap- includes an interview by award- piness. An excerpt and interview are winning MFA alumnae Charles available at www.npr.org. Amazon Jensen and Sarah Vap with Shorts will e-publish “Down South,” MacArthur Fellow C. D. Wright, a creative nonfiction tale. Jewell also will be published by the Uni- lectured and taught a creative writing versity of Iowa Press in Janu- class for Sichuan University faculty in ary 2007. The book party will Chengdu, China. She was the key- be held at Fordham University note speaker for Carlow University’s (New York) on February 5. Low Residency MFA Program, the Up South: Interna- Hogue will be a MacDowell tional Writers of the Diaspora Conference, and Ohio Fellow in Spring 2007. State’s “African American Literary Cavalcade,” and the National Black McDonald’s Owners Association Annual T. M. MCNALLY’S The Conference, and featured speaker at Southern Method- Goat Bridge, winner of the ist University, among others, including many Arizona Faulkner-Wisdom Gold Med- libraries and schools. al, will be released in paper- back this spring. — collected by Charles Jensen

3 5 MFA PROGRAM

KEEPING UP WITH THE WILHOITS CATCHING UP WITH MFA FELLOWS BY DARCY COURTEAU

When writer Joyce Carol Oates chose Marian Crotty’s Caitlin Horrocks, have received the gift of a final year of short story, “Make Me New,” as winner of the 2004 The- study without the concerns of work. Members of ASU’s resa A. Wilhoit Thesis Fellowship, she rang in a new era creative writing program are always pleased to hear good for MFA students. Now, each incoming MFA candidate news from its students and alumni, so they are very happy knows of the possibility of a blissful final year dedicated to to report that all three Wilhoit recipients are doing well in writing. The fellowship is generous: designed to release a their lives and careers. third-year MFA student from teaching and work responsi- After graduating, Marian Crotty left for New York City, bilities, the recipient receives $25,000 with tuition waiv- where she wrote copy for Victoria’s Secret, worked in a ers and health insurance. Since that first award, two other French restaurant, and taught creative writing to children talented writers, the poet Douglas Jones and fiction writer in Harlem. She has since returned to Tempe and health

3 6 MFA PROGRAM

insurance as a teacher of freshman composition. “I prob- Caitlin Horrocks submitted her “Steal Small” to be con- ably shouldn’t like it, but I really do,” she says. sidered for a Wilhoit Fellowship; it is the story of a woman Since winning the Wilhoit Fellowship, “Make Me New,” who becomes an accomplice to her boyfriend’s thievery, a chronicle of the hours before a twelve-year-old girl goes stealing dogs and selling them to pharmaceutical compa- to a group home after beating up other children at school, nies where they are sure to be tortured and killed. In dis- has been published in Washing- cussing why he chose this story, ton Square. “I usually write about judge Ron Smith wrote, “To her young women in trouble,” Crotty THE FELLOWSHIP IS GENEROUS: credit as a writer, I feel the unre- says. “There is always a sense of lenting smallness and suffocation anxiety, a fear of something hap- DESIGNED TO RELEASE A STUDENT of the world in which her nar- pening.” Nearly two years after rator lives; I share her narrator’s graduating from the MFA pro- FROM TEACHING AND WORK squalor; and I understand, in the gram, Crotty says she is writing face of her desperation, guilt and more than she ever has before. RESPONSIBILITIES, IT CARRIES helplessness, why her narrator is An essay, “After Bad News,” was so determined to cling to the lit- recently published in Blackbird; $25,000 FOR A BLISSFUL FINAL YEAR tle taste of love she knows we’re her story “Sparkle Plenty” is all due, no matter how bleak our forthcoming in Greensboro Re- OF STUDY, INCLUDING A TUITION circumstances. As with all good view. fiction, this is a complete world, Poet Douglas Jones has also WAIVER AND HEALTH INSURANCE. spoken from the heart.” Judges of found his work getting the type- the nationwide Atlantic Monthly setting treatment, with several poems forthcoming in both Student Writing Contest must have agreed; they awarded Blackbird and Caketrain. He is considering putting to- “Steal Small” first place. gether a chapbook and has recently begun work on a long With a growing list of awards and publications—she has poem and a series of prose poems. “The prose poems are been published in Cincinnati Review and Passages North, getting to a point where I want them to drive themselves, among others, and has work forthcoming in the same is- but I’m not sure they’re sixteen yet,” he says. “They get sue as Douglas Jones in Blackbird—Horrocks is bound to some wild ideas and occasionally go out after curfew.” But use this, her final year at ASU, wisely. “It’s been incredibly these days, Jones finds himself returning to shorter pieces: freeing to go from being a student, a writer, a teaching “This time is a period of transition, and most of the writ- assistant, and someone desperate for summer employment ing I’ve been doing has been individual poems, not narra- to just being a student and writer,” she says. “I’m tak- tive arcs spanning pages. It’s really sporadic, actually. They ing classes and learning about subjects I didn’t think I’d aren’t pieces of the same puzzle. In fact, it’s more like one have time for.” Having the Wilhoit has also allowed her is a puzzle piece, another a sofa, another the severed arm to take care of “the business side of writing,” sending out of an orangutan, and so on.” manuscripts for publication. She is also currently polish- Jones and his partner, poet Elizabyth Hiscox, currently ing her short stories while generating new ones and doing teach composition at ASU but are preparing to travel to research for a novel. “The fellowship is helping me make the United Kingdom this winter. There they will serve the most of my time at ASU and to work towards a thesis as writers-in-residence at the University of Durham in that I feel really represents my best.” Durham, England, home of the Basil Bunting Poetry Cen- ter. Local poets are sad to see the couple go but will take comfort in seeing Jones’s smiling picture on the Poetry in FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CREATING FELLOW- Motion cart still circling campus semesters after he helped SHIPS FOR STUDENTS, TURN TO PAGE 47. launch the project.

3 7 ONLINE BOOK CLUB

PIPER ONLINE BOOK CLUB SEPTEMBER 2006 LITERARY SELECTIONS MACKENZIE BEZOS’S The Testing of Luther Albright JANUARY Debut Fiction DIANA GABALDON’S Outlander OCTOBER Fiction KAZUO ISHIGURO’S Never Let Me Go FEBRUARY Fiction TONY HOAGLAND’S What Narcissism Means to Me NOVEMBER Poetry JULIA SCHEERES’S Jesus Land MARCH Memoir JEANETTE WALLS’S The Glass Castle DECEMBER Memoir LOUISE GLÜCK’S Averno APRIL Poetry KEVIN BROCKMEIER’S The Brief History of the Dead The Piper Online Book club is an in- Fiction novative approach to sharing litera- ture. MAY RICH COHEN’S Participants engage in moderated Sweet and Low discussion by using an e-mail-based Memoir Listserv technology. Readers can participate in the book club discus- JUNE sions twenty-four hours a day, seven SALVADOR PLASCENCIA’S days a week based on their preferenc- People of Paper es and schedules. Users can receive Fiction a weekly summary of emails, a daily digest, or individual messages as they JULY are created. Book club e-mails typi- JONATHAN FRANZEN’S cally number less than ten per week. The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History Participation in the book club is free Memoir and open to members of the commu- nity. To join or to learn more about AUGUST our upcoming titles, visit our Web site AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL’S at www.asu.edu/piper/bookclub. Miracle Fruit Debut Poetry

3 8 Q & A

Q & A DIANA GABALDON, JAMES MASAO MITSUI, CLAUDIA RANKINE, & PHILIP TAYLOR MULL OVER QUESTIONS ON WRITING, CULTURE, & ART. COLLECTED BY CHARLES JENSEN

HOW HAS YOUR WRITING CHANGED OVER THE don’t want the reader to notice immediately, by the way; YEARS? you focus their attention on something dramatic happen- ing in front of them and slip the necessary information in DIANA GABALDON (DG): Well, I’d like to hope it’s gotten along the way) en passant. Literary prestidigitation. Now better. I don’t know that there’s much change in terms of I’m more inclined to construct scenes that may well be technique (I do like to try new techniques, but most of “about” four or five things at once. The aim is always to this wouldn’t be evident to a casual reader) but perhaps in have complete engagement with the reader but to have terms of depth. In my first novel, most scenes were simply layers within the work that make it worth rereading. (If “about” the most evident dramatic strand, with small allu- you’re going to write thousand-page books, there had bet- sions to other things (this is how you hide things that you ter be something in them to make it worth the effort.)

3 9 Q & A

JAMES MASAO MITSUI (JMM): The main difference is ing at it, he yanked three pages at random. “That should that I have matured as a writer and settled into my own take care of the problem.” It took a little tinkering, but voice. When I began, I was influenced by the work of po- he was absolutely right. A screenplay is simply a blueprint ets I looked up to: William Carlos Williams, Frank O’Hara, for a movie, because movies are fundamentally a visual James Wright, Richard Hugo, Pablo Neruda and things medium. After you cut your script’s umbilical, you have a like line length, stanza format, even titles, were some- dozen foster parents—producers, directors, studio execu- times similar in style to these poets. I also wrote a lot of tives, actors, cinematographers, editors, etc.—who all want what I call “workshop poems,” for example, poems about to turn your ugly offspring into a thing of beauty. It’s the photographs and paintings. The nice thing about poetry nature of the business. So, over time, one learns that the is that it is usually intensely nonfiction. Now I write less you give them, the less there is for them to change or poems for specific needs and targets: poems for my wife, to argue about. Lilly, on her birthday, Valentine’s Day, and Christmas; a poem for Governor Janet Napolitano; a poem in response HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE THE POETRY OR to the Ann Coulter book How To Speak To A Liberal (If PROSE BEING WRITTEN TODAY, AND HOW DOES YOUR You Must); a poem for my niece’s wedding; a poem about OWN WORK REFLECT THAT CHARACTERIZATION? inane letters to the editor. My poems are more emo- tional now, and sometimes they are intended to work like DG: There’s the devil of a lot of it, and it ranges from ‘smart bombs’ with a specific target. My writing also uti- straightforwardly commercial to lyrical (with or without lizes more humor than when I started (at the late age of insight to match) to purposefully dense, from amazing twenty-eight), and I suppose you could say that I write originality to teeth-grinding predictability. And there’s with more confidence now. I feel I was blessed, early on, a horrible plague of bad copyediting/grammar/spelling, to have such wonderful mentors: Bill Stafford, Dick Hugo, caused by the decline of American public education. (If Nelson Bentley, and David Wagoner. Not only from their I see one more person confuse “rein” and “reign” or say teaching, but from their examples. “peaked” when they mean “piqued”. . . . ) Putting aside that last—a great deal depends on the CLAUDIA RANKINE (CR): The space in which I write has writer’s purpose: some people write essentially to tell sto- become less precious, less private. Now I find myself work- ries that allow a reader to leave his or her own life for a ing most deeply on airplanes and in airports. I am able to short period; others seek to illuminate life and thus cause exist without interruption for a defined period of time. I the reader to examine his or her own soul in the pro- also work much more slowly. My revision time could be cess. And some people have a political or cultural agenda, six months after the initial draft. Often I have experienced which I don’t think is a Good Thing At All in a writer of much more by the time I sit down again. fiction; that sort of impure motivation invariably distorts. No, my own work doesn’t reflect much of this; I have a PHILIP TAYLOR (PT): Working in series television for so highly individual style, which draws on older constructs long, I have learned over the years to write more econom- and philosophies as much as it does modern ones. ically and, hopefully, more evocatively. When I started out, in my arrogant fashion, I wanted to reshape the face CR: The work seems more global to me. There exists a of television—raise the bar, so to speak. I tried to dazzle consciousness of a kind of domino effect in relationship them with purple prose and insightful dialogue. What I to the self in the world. Poets like Mark Nowak, Juliana ended up with was overwritten action and longwinded Spahr, C. D. Wright, to name three, insist on the world in characters. I remember one producer’s response when I their work. Adrienne Rich, Charles Bernstein, and others, told him that I’d tried to cut three pages from my script, as like Carolyn Forché, insisted we look around, and now he’d requested, but I simply couldn’t find any place to lose many are finally articulating the connective realities out those pages. He picked up the script and, without look- there.

4 0 Q & A

In my own work I try to stay aware, stay conscious of to me: “Poets are bound to set things in order.” That can privileged status as an American and my equal status as a be read two ways: first, that poets are likely to set things human being in the world. straight and correct what’s wrong—but that comes off as egotistical; the second possibility is that poets (and all PT: In light of what I just wrote above—the unique nature artists) are bound to situations that they know are wrong. of screenwriting—I wouldn’t presume to comment. Also, In fact, these issues are tied to us with thick ropes of re- regretfully, I read far too little sponsibility, and we must deal literature. Apart from writing, with them until they are back apart from preparing my class- “MY POEMS ARE MORE EMOTIONAL in the place where they should es at ASU, I am also besieged be. And perhaps these things with scripts from every quar- NOW, AND SOMETIMES THEY ARE will never be where they be- ter, most of which are so bad long, but we must at least make they make War and Peace read INTENDED TO WORK LIKE the attempt through our medi- like a haiku. Six months ago, a um to begin a positive change. friend of mine gave me her lat- ‘SMART BOMBS’ WITH A It’s our job description. I am est novel to read. I am barely at least aware of this concept one-third of the way through. SPECIFIC TARGET.” working in my poems, and the It’s not for want of trying—I way I have chosen to deal with love to read for pleasure—it’s — JAMES MASAO MITSUI this is through understatement simply a question of time. and restraint, through showing and not just telling. It does WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT little good to a cause if one shouts and screams for change. FUNCTION OF ART, AND HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR And poems should not be sermons. OWN WORK FULFILLS THAT FUNCTION? Finally, the epigraph of my latest book is a quote by Natsume Soseki, a nineteenth-century Japanese novelist. DG: The only function of art—as of science—is to detect He said, “An artist is a person who lives in the triangle and delineate pattern in such a way that the pattern forms which remains after the corner called common sense has a connection with the person interacting with it. That’s been removed from this four-cornered world.” That to me my job: to draw patterns out of chaos. promotes the idea, the responsibility that artists have, to speak out against injustice, to not be afraid of being in the JMM: The most important function of art is not just to en- minority, to not write about what we might perceive the tertain aesthetically; it should cause people to think about general audience might want to hear. Poetry, art, provides what’s wrong in the world, which might lead them to try ways that help us survive trauma. to change the injustice. One of the great things that grew out of the 60s war-protest era was the encouragement to CR: Art touches heart. That is a sound bite. It opens me “Question Authority.” Artists like photographers Lewis up to beauty, disgust, surprise, boredom. It’s alive and is a Hine and Dorothea Lange took pictures of social protest part of how I experience the world; it is in part my world. against child labor in the early 1900s and the relocation of My ambition for my own work is that it allows someone Japanese-Americans during World War II. The social com- to feel his or her connection to others. mentary of their artistic photographs in magazines and newspapers led to child labor laws and insurance that Ex- PT: The single most important function? To elicit an ecutive Order 9066 would never be forgotten, or repeated, emotional response . . . laughter, tears, anger, terror, what- despite the Russell Pearces of the world. ever. Unless you make an audience or a reader feel, you My good friend, Bill Ransom, wrote in a letter poem are never going to get them to think. The first is your

4 1 Q & A

goal; the second is icing on the cake. I believe Arthur tyranny through their craft. Miller once said, “If you want to send a message, use I applaud the poet Sharon Olds, who turned down an Western Union.” I think he was wrong and—if one has invitation to dinner at the White House with an eloquent read The Crucible—rather hypocritical. My opinion is if letter to Laura Bush in regards to W’s misguided motiva- you want to send a message, try Interflora or Wine of the tions for conducting the war in Iraq. Month Club. One of my favorite lyrics is from an old rock and roll song by Quarterflash: “Say WHAT RESPONSIBILITY, IF what you want; do what ANY, DO WRITERS HAVE “YOU SEE A MOVIE OR READ A BOOK you say.” In other words, TO VOICE THEIR OPINIONS as an artist, if you think ABOUT WAR AND OTHER AND AS EVOCATIVE AS IT MIGHT BE, something is wrong, you RELATED ISSUES? are morally obligated to VERY SOON YOU UNDERSTAND THE PLACES write about it. DG: Depends what you’re writing. If you’re writing fic- IT DIDN’T TOUCH WITHIN YOU. CR: None. Things get done tion, none. If nonfiction . . . in all kinds of ways. Who well, in that case, you have I HAVE THAT EXPERIENCE OFTEN. I CAN ONLY knows what serves. the responsibility to write with clarity, document your IMAGINE PEOPLE HAVE A SIMILAR PT: They have no respon- facts, and make your biases sibility whatsoever. How- known. EXPERIENCE WITH MY OWN WORK.” ever, should they feel com- pelled to air their views, I JMM: William Carlos Wil- — CLAUDIA RANKINE wish they would keep my liams wrote in Spring and previous answer in mind. All: “It is good to get the news from poems, yet men die You are never going to cudgel me into accepting a point miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” of view. If you make me laugh or cry, then maybe my I believe that writers are morally obligated to speak out brain cells wills start percolating. You might call that my against unjust wars and other issues like corruption, the synaptic gospel. power of corporations, ecological issues, religious fanati- cism, and prejudice of all types. DO YOU SUBSCRIBE TO A PARTICULAR THEORY OR I admire Natalie Maines and the Dixie Chicks, who UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE OR ART, AND IF SO, speak out honestly about the present administration and WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT IT INVOLVES? the war in Iraq without holding back their personal beliefs and not what they think their fan base wants to hear. DG: I have a lot of theories about language and art, but When I graduated from Eastern Washington University so far as I know, none of them are codified or labeled in 1963, I was named the Outstanding Graduate of my and thus fall into the category of Strong but Individual R.O.T.C. class, and I served two years in the 5th Infantry Opinion. Division (Mechanized) as well as four additional years in the Army Reserves. I mention this because the war in Iraq CR: I find that I agree with much of what Lyn Hejin- is wrong; it is immoral, and unlike our president, I have ian writes in The Language of Inquiry. In it she really doubts that the “mission” will ever be accomplished. explores experience and process as modes to govern one’s Of course we should defend ourselves when the cause writing life. is just, but artists who believe that any military action is unwarranted have the responsibility to speak out against PT: No, I don’t. That primrose path may have some se-

4 2 Q & A

ductive twists and turns, but it eventually leads into a rath- PT: Several years ago, I happened to come across a Zorro er sterile cul-de-sac. eZine where a debate was raging over a particular scene in an episode I had written. I foolishly attempted to in- WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO KNOW YOUR form everyone online what my intensions had been. I SUBJECT? was besieged for weeks by fans wanting everything from an autographed script to DG: For a writer of fic- money! I had to change my tion, it essentially means “THE ONLY FUNCTION OF ART—— e-mail address. So I avoid to have a sufficiently ad- cyber-strangers like the equate grasp on the in- AS OF SCIENCE——IS TO DETECT plague. However, I truly ternal nature and external enjoy teaching theatre and form of your subject as to AND DELINEATE PATTERN IN SUCH A WAY film, although the students give you the confidence to quickly lose that “stranger” handle it. Mind, you got a THAT THE PATTERN FORMS A CONNECTION status. lotta latitude in that word, “adequate.” Sometimes you WITH THE PERSON INTERACTING WITH IT. IF TRANSLATED, WOULD need only one or two par- YOUR WORK BE MEAN- ticularly striking details THAT’S MY JOB; TO DRAW PATTERNS INGFUL TO, SAY, AN AB- for adquacy. Other times, ORIGINAL TRIBE IN NEW you need months or years OUT OF CHAOS.” GUINEA? PLEASE EX- to understand what you’re PLAIN. talking about. — DIANA GABALDON DG: Sure. I deal in what PT: All the writing teachers I’ve ever read or talked to makes people tick. I was a scientist—an animal behav- always tell you to write what you know. This is eventually iorist—before starting to write fiction, and people from going to lead you into another barren cul-de-sac. After prehistory to the atomic age share the same concerns that all, how much do you know? I take that cliché to mean, most other animals do: food, shelter, mates, children, safe- “And if you don’t know, go out and research it until you ty. The fine points of how these concerns are handled do.” The friend I mentioned earlier—the one who gave vary from culture to culture, but the concerns themselves me her book to read six months ago—wrote a wonder- don’t. ful first novel set in eighteenth-century Scotland. She stunned everyone when they learned that, while she had PT: Most of the series I have worked on have been syndi- obviously never been to the eighteenth-century, she had cated worldwide. They seem to be very popular, even in also never been to Scotland . . . just to the ASU library. places such as Zimbabwe and Japan. As for an aboriginal tribe in New Guinea . . . I have no idea. They might enjoy CR: It, for me, suggests an investigative drive toward an the swordfights. I know that sounds facetious, but I seri- opening up that allows for a kind of active experience. ously doubt they would glean much meaning.

HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE USEFUL TO STRANGERS? ARE THERE ANY LIMITATIONS TO YOUR ART? IF SO, WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THOSE LIMITA- DG: I write novels. Though I will tell people in the gro- TIONS? cery store how to pick a ripe avocado, if they seem puz- zled about it. DG: Yeah, the literacy of the population at large. What’s

4 3 Q & A

the percentage of people in our society who read books— box office. There is no formula for that kind of artistic/ ten or so? That means ninety per cent of the population sociological/chemical reaction. If there were such a for- isn’t deriving the slightest benefit from my art! mula . . . no box office bombs! It’s been my experience that the same applies in television. You do your best. The CR: Well the limits of the art are the limits of the artist, public is the ultimate arbiter. perhaps. You see a movie or read a book, and as evocative as it IS THERE A DIFFERENCE might be, very soon you under- “YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO BETWEEN THE REALITY OF stand the places it didn’t touch YOUR ART AND THE REALITY within you. I have that experi- CUDGEL ME INTO ACCEPTING A OF YOUR LIFE? ence often, I can only imagine people have a similar experience POINT OF VIEW. IF YOU MAKE ME DG: No. It’s just me, either way, with my own work. and I’d hate to think half of me LAUGH OR CRY, MAYBE MY BRAIN wasn’t real. PT: Personally, I see no limita- tions to my craft. I’m ambiguous CELLS WILL PERCOLATE. CALL THAT CR: Not really; it and I exist on about the word “art.” I intend the highway of hope and hor- to embark on a musical within MY SYNAPTIC GOSPEL.” ror. the next few months. I’ve never attempted this genre before, and — PHILIP TAYLOR PT: Absolutely. I wouldn’t have I may go down in flames, but it’s it any other way. something I’ve wanted to try for thirty years. DO YOU THINK THE CONCERNS OF AMERICAN WRIT- ERS DIFFER RIGHT NOW FROM THE CONCERNS OF HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE THE RELATIONSHIP OTHER WRITERS IN THE WORLD? BETWEEN ART AND COMMERCE AS YOU HAVE EXPE- RIENCED IT? DG: Not good ones, no.

DG: Now, that would take a lot more room than we have CR: As Americans, we exist with certain privileges, with- here. Perhaps a quick illustration, though: I seldom deliver out clear and present dangers; there is much we can’t manuscripts on time, because it’s impossible to predict ex- know because it hasn’t touched our lives daily. I can’t help actly how long it will take for a book to be “done.” Pub- but worry that there is stuff in plain sight that we should lishing contracts do, of course, have deadlines written into be recognizing that we don’t see because we can’t feel it. them. But, as I said to my husband as we approached— I learn so much from writers and artists like J. M. Coe- and passed—one such deadline, “What are they going to tzee and William Kentridge. They are both South Africans. do if I don’t deliver it by June 6? Send somebody around I think they both allowed me to understand and conse- to break my kneecaps? They’ll get it when it’s ready.” quently to experience the world in more complex ways.

PT: William Goldman—one of the great screenwriters— PT: That is such a generalization. If you pressed me, I said that nobody in Hollywood really knows anything. would say that most American writers are concerned with This is mistakenly construed to mean that Hollywood ex- making a buck . . . and most of the writers in the rest of ecutives are dense. In actual fact, it means that Goldman’s the world are concerned with making money. “No man belief is that that, before a movie is released, Hollywood but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” Samuel has absolutely no idea how a film will be received at the Johnson (1709-1784).

4 4 Q & A

PIPER CENTER FRIENDS WHAT DO AMERICAN WRITERS HAVE TO TEACH OTH- ER WRITERS IN THE WORLD? WHAT MIGHT THEY The Piper Center wishes to thank our circle of generous friends LEARN? for their support of our programs and initiatives:

DG: What purpose does the word “American” serve in ei- PATRONS OF THE ARTS ther of these questions? What we learn—or teach—from writing isn’t usually linked to culture or politics, save in the most transitory fashion. CHAMPIONS OF THE ARTS

JMM: We need to put aside the Hollywood movie idea that America must ride heroically to the rescue of oth- ARTS ADVOCATES er countries and cultures. In the same way it is wrong STEPHANIE DOWNIE to think that American writers can or even have the au- dacity to think that they can teach other writers in the world. We have only begun to designate a Poet Laure- SUPPORTING SUBSCRIBERS ate in the last twenty years. Other countries honor their EVELYN FRAM artists as “National Treasures” while most American poets JONATHAN & CAROLE HALL must earn a living by teaching, writing self-help books, MARY HOLDEN selling insurance, working in the medical field, or selling DEBORAH STINTON produce. Perhaps I am mistaken: I guess we could teach VALERIE NIEMAN other writers in the world that it is possible to be artists MIRIAM LOWE while working in another profession that actually pays for MARY ANN MILLER the groceries. But the best response is that all writers MICHAEL W. ZIMECKI and artists, regardless of boundaries, learn from each other. SUE BRACHMAN Poets, artists—in the U.S., Slovenia, South Africa, Iran, In- GREGORY WILLIAMS dia, France, Argentina, the Ukraine, Iceland, Jamaica, all CAROL KOST countries—have the same concerns and issues in common. THOMAS ROGERS Maybe we should think of ourselves, whatever country CHARITY TAYLOR ANTAL we’re from, as students rather than teachers and put our JOSEPH HARRIS egos aside. BARBARA SEARLE

PT: Oh dear, what a xenophobic question.

Although the Piper Center is funded by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and a generous endowment from the Virginia G. MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THE 2008 ASU DES- Piper Charitable Trust, we need your support and involvement ERT NIGHTS, RISING STARS WRITERS CONFERENCE, to continue our mission to cultivate a lively literary community WHICH WILL BE HELD FEBRUARY 20—FEBRUARY 23, in the Phoenix metro area. 2008. For more information on providing your support, please turn to WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE OUR 2008 CON- page 47 of this issue. FERENCE WILL FEATURE AN EMPHASIS ON CHI- NESE-AMERICAN WRITERS AND LITERATURE.

4 5 ALUMNI LINER NOTES ALUMNI LINER NOTES STACIE ANFINSON (Fiction, TEAGUE BOHLEN (Fiction, 1997) currently teaches fiction 1987) was selected to present her and magazine writing at the University of Colorado at paper, “Establishing Religion and Denver. Her first novel, The Pull of the Earth, was re- Spiritual Standards within the leased through Ghost Road Press. More on the book and Post-Postmodern Community what else she’s been doing can be found at her Web site, College Classroom,” at the Ox- www.teaguebohlen.com. ford University Roundtable Dis- cussion of “Religion, Education, OLIVER DE LA PAZ (Poetry, 1998) is a cofounder and a and the Role of Government.” board member of Kundiman, a not-for-profit organization For the fifth year in a row, Sta- committed to the discovery and cultivation of emerging cie drove ASU President Michael Asian-American poets. The organization will be having Crow’s car in the Homecoming Parade and was herself its fourth annual retreat this June. He also received a honored when Arizona governor Janet Napolitano drove 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship. His the car honoring Stacie as the 2005 Scottsdale Commu- second book, Furious Lullaby, will be published by South- nity Hero. ern Illinois University Press in the fall of 2007.

LEE BARNES (Fiction, 1992) CHARLES JENSEN’s (Poetry, 2004) published The Lucky, which was chapbook Living Things, winner of the a finalist for the Spur Award; Talk 2006 Frank O’Hara Chapbook Award, to Me, James Dean, a short story was published in December 2006. He collection (Stephens Press); and founded the online poetry magazine Dummy Up and Deal, which LOCUSPOINT (www.locuspoint.org), was reprinted in trade paperback which explores creative work on a city- in 2006. Barnes coauthored the by-city basis. screenplay for “The Run,” one of the stories from Talk to Me, which was filmed as a short LUKE KRUEGER’s (Playwriting, 2003) first book will be and has been screened at the Rhode Island Film Festival, published this February by Barricade Books. The book, A the Los Angeles Short Film Festival, and elsewhere. A new Noble Function: How U-Haul Moved America, is avail- collection of stories is due in print in fall 2007 with the able for preorder on Barnes and Noble’s and Amazon’s University of Nevada Press. The tentative title is Snake Web site. Additionally, he was named the Emerging Writ- Boy and Other Stories, the title story being a novella he er-in-Residence at Penn State Altoona, the first play- wrote in early draft form while at ASU, working in an wright to receive that honor. He attended the Last Fron- independent study under Alberto Ríos. He continues to tier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, last summer, and teach at the Community College of Southern Nevada. his play featured there, called Eat Me!, was named Best of Conference. LINDA BIELER (Poetry, 1998) wrote her chapbook Lessons in the Rain Room JENNIFER SPIEGEL (Fiction, 2003) most recently pub- while teaching at Rajabhat University lished a story in The Gettysburg Review. She’s been in Nakorn Phatom, Thailand. She con- told a publisher is “considering” her novel. One of her tinues to write and publish in literary older stories will be featured in an upcoming anthology. journals and is currently working on a Though she still teaches part time (occasionally for the second chapbook. She lives in Arizona Piper Center for Creative Writing), she’s a full-time mom and California. to Wendy Ireland Bell.

4 6 SUPPORT THE LITERARY ARTS IN OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY The Piper Center is committed to supporting both a to the talented students of Arizona State University’s MFA vibrant and diverse literary community in the Phoenix Program in Creative Writing. Through our giving program, metropolitan area as well as fostering the work of the you can ensure your financial support is earmarked to next generation of literary leaders by providing funding directly benefit our students or our community.

PATRON OF THE ARTS | $3,500 each year for 3 years ($10,500 cumulative donation) / $284 per month This three-year gift creates a merit-based scholarship in the donor’s name for a current student writer in the MFA program. Patrons are invited to join their student recipient for lunch with the Artistic Director of the Piper Center. Includes a three-year Piper Center Membership.

CHAMPION OF THE ARTS | $1,000 cumulative donation per year / $84 per month In support of community enrichment programs including the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series and the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, these gifts will directly fund an upcoming visiting writer’s event. Includes a one-year Piper Center Membership.

ARTS ADVOCATE | $500 cumulative donation per year / $42 per month This gift funds the development and growth of free community enrichment programs like the Piper Online Book Club. Includes a one-year Piper Center Membership.

SUPPORTING SUBSCRIBER | $100 cumulative donation per year / $9 per month Supporting Subscribers provide funding directly to Piper Center publication initiatives, such as Marginalia. Includes a one-year Piper Center Membership.

MEMBER | $35 non-charitable purchase Members receive 10% off the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, 10% off Piper Writer’s Studio Workshops, and 10% off purchases at Changing Hands Bookstore.

YES, I WOULD LIKE TO BECOME A 2007-2008 PIPER FRIEND IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORY o Patron of the Arts: $______to create a named fellowship for a deserving MFA student in Creative Writing o Champion of the Arts o Arts Advocate o Supporting Subscriber o Member (non-charitable)

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RETURN TO THE VIRGINIA G. PIPER CENTER FOR CREATIVE WRITING Piper Friends | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | PO Box 875002 | Arizona State University | Tempe AZ 85287-5002 UPCOMING EVENTS UPCOMING EVENTS TOM WAYMAN ASU MFA FACULTY READING Distinguished Canadian Fulbright Chair in Creative Featuring Sally Ball, Jay Boyer, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Writing and T. R. Hummer Monday, February 5, 2007 at 7:30 pm Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 7:30 pm University Club on the ASU Tempe Campus ASU Tempe Campus Memorial Union Ventana Room This event is free and open to the public. This event is free and open to the public.

2007 DESERT NIGHTS, RISING STARS CONFERENCE LEE GUTKIND February 21– 24, 2007, ASU Tempe Campus Distinguished Visiting Writer in Residence Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 7:30 pm CONFERENCE READINGS University Club on the ASU Tempe Campus James Masao Mitsui and Gail Tsukiyama, February 21 This event is free and open to the public. Kevin McIlvoy and Diana Gabaldon, February 22 Peter Pereira, Laurie Notaro, and Tony Hoagland, PIPER SCHOLARS READING February 23 Featuring Darcy Courteau, Michael Green, Caitlin Walter Mosley, February 24 Horrocks, and Claire McQuerry All conference readings begin at 7:30 pm in Old Main’s Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 7:30 pm Carson Ballroom. Tickets can be purchased for $10. ASU Tempe Campus Memorial Union Pima Room This event is free and open to the public.

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