SPRING 2007– SPRING 2008 Literary Reference NEWSLETTER OF THE CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM LIVING ACUTELY IN LANGUAGE An interview with author Tess Gallagher by Amber Larson

ess Gallagher is a poet, fiction Amber Larson: You once took a T writer, essayist, screenplay writer, class from . and translator. Among her many poetry What was that experience like? collections are Under Stars, Amplitude: New Who were some of your other and Selected Poems, Moon Crossing Bridge, early influences as a writer? Portable Kisses, and Dear Ghosts. Her hon- Tess Gallagher: Being in ors include a fellowship from the Guggen- Roethke’s class was a life- heim Foundation, two National Endow- changing event. I was so young ment of the Arts Awards, the Maxine that everything he said went Cushing Gray Foundation Award, and the into me so deeply. I had just Elliston Award for “best book of poetry wanted to write poetry, but I published by a small press” for Instruc- discovered a way of inquiry, a tions to the Double. way of living acutely in lan- In her most recent collection, Dear guage. I think the music of lan- Ghosts (Graywolf Press, 2006), the ghosts guage and how it affected the of the past are conjured and communed memory and the body itself with: the deceased beloved, the father impressed me. Roethke made long dead, the victims of holocaust and you feel this in his way of teach- war. With these spirits beside her, Galla- ing. I think his having us gher, a cancer survivor, confronts her own memorize poems and recite illness and mortality and celebrates new them aloud was very compel- love and friendship in these spare lyrics ling. It became a central part of and sprawling narratives. my own teaching when I began to get positions at universities Tess Gallagher participated in the 2006- around the country. 2007 Visiting Writers’ Series, offered by T.G. I’ve probably never experienced the University of Oregon Creative Writing As for my other influences: David writer’s block. I just have periods when I Program. She read to a full house on Wagoner and Mark Strand were strong am working on something else. I seem to April 12, 2007. influences while I was still in the North- go more deeply into many kinds of read- west. When I went to the University of ing too. I love reading short stories, of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1972, I met course, and always have. I had written IN THIS ISSUE many young poets from around the them early on and tried to get into Stan- country and they really became influ- ford to write stories in the beginning of PROGRAM CHANGES 2 ences. I ultimately married Michael my writing aspirations, but failed to gain & FACULTY NEWS Burkard, a poet I very much admired. entrance. My poetry was beginning to We were in some classes together with gain notice though, so I just turned my CRWR COURSES 3 Norman Dubie and Marvin Bell, Donald head toward poetry. It wasn’t until I met Justice, Larry Levis as our teachers. Of and we began to make a course everything I read began to influ- life together that I went back to writing KIDD PROGRAM 4 ence me: especially work in translation stories. Right now I love nothing better such as Anna Akhmatova. than to discover a good book of short sto- MEET THE MFAs 5&8 ries to read. I just finished Creatures of the A.L. You write poetry, fiction, essays Earth by John McGahern, a wonderful and screenplays. How does writing in Irish writer who passed away recently, POEM: THE CRYSTAL 9 different genres influence your writing but who is from the part of Ireland I have PALACE as a whole? LANGUAGE–Continued on page 6

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Creative Writing Dorianne Laux, after and “Swan Goes“) and Southwest Review ten years with CRWR, (“The Passion of Mary, Called Magda- Program Changes recently accepted a lene”). Her poems “City” and position at North “Impedimenta” will appear this fall in Geri Doran joined the Carolina State Univer- TriQuarterly. Creative Writing Faculty sity, where she will Laurie Lynn Drummond received a as a Visiting Assistant teach in the graduate residency fellowship to Ucross last June, Professor for 2007-2009. creative writing program. She will be and she has received another fellowship Geri received her AB from much missed by the Program, as will Joe there for this August. In the past year, she Vassar College and her Millar, her husband and a former Kidd has given readings at Pennsylvania State MFA from the University Tutorial Program Director. Dorianne’s University and Ashland University. Work of Florida. She is the au- fourth book of poems, Facts about the Moon continues on her novel. thor of Resin (Louisiana (Norton, 2005), received the Oregon Book State University Press, 2005), which re- Award and was shortlisted for the 2006 Karen Ford’s “Marking Time in Native ceived the 2004 Walt Whitman Award of Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Joe’s most America: Haiku, Elegy, Survival” is forth- the Academy of American Poets. Her recent book, Fortune (Eastern coming in American Literature (2009). “The poems have appeared in The Atlantic University Press 2006), won the C. Hamil- Lives of Haiku Poetry: Self, Selflessness, Monthly, The New Republic, New England ton Bailey Prize from Oregon Literary and Solidarity in Concentration Camp Review, Southwest Review, Virginia Quar- Arts. We wish Dorianne and Joe all the Haiku” will be included in Poetry, Politics, terly Review, Tri-Quarterly, and other jour- best in their writing and new life in North and the Profession: Cary Nelson and the nals. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Carolina. Struggle for the University, SUNY Press. Stanford, she is the recipient of the 2005- Karen’s essay “The Sonnets of Satin-Legs 2006 Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Schol- Julia Schewanick joined Brooks” appeared in Contemporary Litera- arship as well as fellowships and residen- the Creative Writing Pro- ture (Fall 2007). cies from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Confer- gram in May 2006 as Of- ence, Literary Arts, the Vermont Studio fice Coordinator. Her Ehud Havazelet was promoted this Center, and the Millay Colony for the advanced computer and spring to full professor of fiction. Ehud Arts. She will teach graduate workshops organizational skills re- has recently published his second book and seminars and undergraduate writing sulted in a promotion to (see next page). His recent and forthcom- courses at UO. Business Manager for both ing publications include stories in Plough- Creative Writing and Women’s and Gen- shares and Tin House and an essay in the der Studies in May 2007. New York Times Magazine. In other news, Ehud notes that Coby was named Most The Creative Writing Program recently Literary Reference Improved Player on his under-eight made three continuing GTF appointments AYSO soccer team—Coby claims “it’s no Literary Reference, the newsletter of the for 2008-2009 support of students and the big deal.” Creative Writing Program, is published Program. Sara Johnson will return to quarterly in conjunction with the Uni- teach Introduction to Poetry Writing; Garrett Hongo’s “Cane Fire” was selected versity of Oregon Office of Publications. Chris Roethle will teach Intermediate by Charles Wright for Best American Poetry Poetry; and Will Fleming will provide 2008; the poem originally appeared in the Director support for special projects. The Program Spring 2007 issue of Ploughshares. "Chikin Karen Ford wishes to thank our student assistants for Hekka" appears in Language for a New Cen- Faculty the past two years, Alysa Iha and Ryan tury: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle David Bradley Stoker. East, Asia, and Beyond, co-edited by Tina Geri Doran Chang, Nathalie Handal, and Ravi Laurie Lynn Drummond Shankar, foreword by Carolyn Forche Ehud Havazelet Faculty News (W.W. Norton, 2008). Other recent publi- Garrett Hongo cations include “Coral Road” and “55” in David Bradley’s “. . . By Any Other American Poetry Review, “Kubota Writes to Business Manager Name” will be reprinted in Best Creative Julia Schewanick José Arcadia Buendia” in Virginia Quar- Nonfiction (W. W. Norton, 2008). This es- terly Review, and “A Child’s Ark” in New say originally appeared in Obit. A piece Creative Writing Program Labor Forum. In April, Garrett gave a read- on The Autobiography of Malcolm X is forth- 144 Columbia Hall ing at the University of Vermont; this coming in A New Literary History of Amer- 5243 University of Oregon August he will teach at the Bread Loaf ica (Harvard University Press, 2009) and a Eugene, OR 97403-5243 Writers’ Conference. short essay, "Beyond Chagrin," is slated (541) 346-3944 for publication in AARP. [email protected]

www.uoregon.edu/~crwrweb Geri Doran has poems in the current

issues of Subtropics (“The Dark Octaves”

UO Creative Writing Program | Literary Reference SPRING 2007-SPRING 2008 Page 3 CRWR Fall 2008 In Memoriam Course Schedule CRWR 230: Introduction to Poetry Writing James Byron Hall Introduction to forms and techniques of writing poetry. Instructors: Akdeniz, Peñaloza, Johnson July 21, 1918 – February 28, 2008 CRWR 240: Introduction to Fiction

Writing Best known as a short-story writer and novelist, teacher and critic, James Introduction to forms and techniques of B. Hall was also instrumental in founding the Creative Writing Program writing fiction. Instructors: Goldberg, at the University of Oregon. We mourn his passing and wish to remem- Malick, Roos ber him here with an excerpt from his poem “Envoi: A Clutch of CRWR 330: Intermediate Poetry Dreams”: Writing – Verse to Free Verse T.S. Eliot once wrote that “No verse is free

for the man who wants to do a good job,” The forked path in the woods implying that even poems without strict Dreams of a crossroads, dreams formal character require a degree of order- The perfection of concrete divides ing for maximum effect. Yet, as contempo- A valley into four equal fields; rary poets, we often take the notion of "free verse" as permission to think less

critically about how we shape a poem and The shoat at the slaughterhouse door use that shape to communicate with oth- Remembers a fine white gate ers. It does not help that many poets (even And the barn-end of a meadow talented ones) are unclear about what Where corn calls with the voice of a man. “free verse” is. The usual definition—that free verse is not rhymed or metered—does little to help us understand it better or use it to the fullest in our work. In this work- shop, we will read and write both formal and free verse poetry to discover ways in which successful writers, especially those writing in free verse, have patterned their work to make it richer and more power- Havazelet Publishes New Book ful. Specifically, we will discuss practical matters such as sound, rhythm, syntax, Ehud Havazelet’s newest book and first novel, Bear- line length, and stanza length as tools we ing the Body, was published by Farrar, Straus & may use to unlock greater texture and Giroux in 2007. The novel has received the Edgar deeper meaning in revision. Poets and Wallant Award, was a finalist for the John Singer essayists on our reading list will include Sergeant first novel prize, and was named a New York Elizabeth Bishop, Lucille Clifton, T.S. Times Notable Book of the Year and a Chicago Tribune Eliot, Robert Frost, Paul Fussell, Jack Gil- Favorite Book for 2007. Bearing the Body has been bert, Joy Harjo, Robert Hass, Anthony translated into six languages. Hecht, Marie Howe, Galway Kinnell, Robert Lowell, Mike McGriff, John Milton, Sharon Olds, Edgar Allen Poe, Ezra Francine Prose, writing for the New Pound, Robert Pinsky, Carl Sandburg, York Times, remarked, “Havazelet’s novel, as its title sug- Ntozake Shange, Christopher Smart, gests, is intensely aware of the weight, the demands and the Timothy Steele, and more. Texts will in- clude The Poet’s Companion, edited by Kim sheer rebelliousness of the body. As he demonstrated in his Addonizio and Dorianne Laux. This 1988 collection of linked stories, Like Never Before, he has a course has a strong writing emphasis. particular fascination with, and ability to capture, the mys- Instructor: Roethle tery of how a single body can simultaneously harbor all its CRWR 340: Intermediate Fiction Writing younger incarnations.” This course will provide undergraduates

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS—Continued on page 9

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Drummond Named Kidd Director 2007-2009 Kidd Scholarships

ssistant Professor Laurie Lynn Of her first Awarded to Six UO A Drummond was appointed Di- year as Kidd Undergraduates rector of the Kidd Tutorial Program begin- Director, Laurie ning in Fall 2007. Laurie holds a BGS in writes, “I have To support undergraduate writing, the English and an MFA in Creative Writing been quite for- CRWR program is offering six $3,000 from Louisiana State University. Her short tunate to have scholarships for the Kidd Program next story collection, Anything You Say Can And had five won- year. These scholarships are awarded to Will Be Used Against You (HarperCollins derful Kidd highly qualified applicants to the Kidd 2004), was a finalist for the PEN/ tutors and a Program whose literary work shows un- Hemingway Award and won the Jesse fabulous Kidd usual merit. Scholarship recipients for James Award in Fiction for Best Book fellow [Chris 2008-2009 are: from the Texas Institute of Letters, as well Roethle] to as the Violet Crown Award in Fiction work with; they from the Writers’ League of Texas. A have made my Poetry story from the collection, “Something position more Anna Nakano-Baker About a Scar,” won an Edgar Award for rewarding and less difficult than it might Best Short Story. have been. The real reward, of course, Laura Pizzo comes from seeing students excited, im-

Laurie’s stories and essays have been proving, taking chances, making connec- published in Story, Southern Review, Fic- tions, thinking more critically, and creat- Fiction tion, Black Warrior Review, New Virginia ing work that is accomplished and mov- Review, Louisiana Cultural Vistas, Creative ing. I'm honored to be a part of such a Brenna Crotty Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Brevity, and River stellar program, and I'm looking forward Teeth, among others, and translated into to working with next year's tutors, stu- Elin Guttormsen Farsi for Golestaneh: Iranian Cultural & Arts dents, and Kidd fellow, Jenn Kepka.” Ryan McConnell Monthly. Kristina Stipetic

Kidd Fellows Provide Kidd Awards in Poetry These six scholarship recipients will and Fiction join another 22 students for a full year of Program Support creative writing study. Each Kidd Tutorial section matches one graduate tutor—a 2006-2007 Prize Winners Each year, a 3rd-year poet or fiction writer—with at least four POETRY JUDGED BY VISITING POET TESS GALLAGER MFA student is ap- and no more than seven undergraduates Chad Canter (1st): Looking Through My Dad's pointed the Walter and who have identified a primary focus of Polaroids of Vietnam Nancy Kidd Tutorials poetry or fiction. In the belief that writers Katherine Neall (2nd): Misfolded Program Fellow. The must explore and experiment in order to Kidd fellow mentors Larissa Nelson (3rd): i drank a flower tonight learn their craft and become better writers, new tutors, conducts FICTION JUDGED BY VISITING WRITER BRET LOTT all students study and write poetry, fic- Pedagogy Sessions, Christopher Rowe (1st): My Father's Horn tion, and creative nonfiction. All sections and helps the Kidd Julian Aaron (2nd): Jarred Tomatoes convene for the Kidd Talks throughout Director coordinate and promote the Jason Curtis Thayer (3rd): Eyes Like Wet the year, which are presented by each of program. The Kidd fellow also assists Cement the Program’s Visiting Writers. with undergraduate applications to the program and administration of the Kidd Each Kidd student will complete a course of study involving workshops, Prize. Poet Chris Ro- 2007-2008 Prize Winners substantial reading, inquiry and research, ethle completes his POETRY JUDGED BY VISITING POET N. SCOTT MOMADAY and a final creative project. fellowship year this Joey Eberhart-Garah (1st): The Sea & The Island June and passes the Hajara Quinn (2nd): Country Song baton to incoming Shelly Emerson (3rd): Broken fellow (and fiction FICTION JUDGED BY VISITING WRITER ANTONYA NELSON writer) Jenn Kepka, Jason Curtis Thayer (1st): 21 who will assume her role in Fall 2008. Leslee Chan (2nd): My Grocery List Benjamin Woods (3rd): Lost Things

UO Creative Writing Program | Literary Reference SPRING 2007-SPRING 2008 Page 5

Meet the Incoming MFA Students

Aziza Lucia Akdeniz grew up in Europe, English and Women Studies from the Uni- be moving to Eugene with his new wife Asia, and New York and received her BFA versity of Maryland while working at a Rebecca (who is a much more talented from New York University. She has spent Texas-themed pub and a cluttered book musician than he will ever be), the two the last two years in Denver, CO, teaching store. Her subsequent work covering mu- fifty-pound beasts, and their rickety old literature at the University of Colorado. sic and gossip for The Washington Post Camry. After eight years in the east, the She is looking forward to spending the introduced her to a dizzying number for west is looking quite lovely. next two years in Eugene immersed in senators and wannabe rock stars. Eliza- Michelle Peñaloza received her BA from good poetry, good people, and good Ore- beth also taught English in Poland (where Vanderbilt University with concentrations gon wine. she realized her love of medieval architec- in English, Women's Studies, and Secon- ture) and Ecuador (where she realized she Patricia Zane Biebelle (“Zane”) was dary Education. Originally from Nash- spoke very poor Spanish). This summer, raised on a ranch outside of Carlsbad, ville, Michelle is moving to Eugene from when she isn't occupied with pawning her NM, and currently lives in Las Cruces. the suburbs of Philadelphia, where she's furniture, she'll be keeping busy with long After spending her life in the desert, she is been teaching at a Quaker boarding walks in the city, a long trip to Southeast looking forward to her move to Eugene. school for the past three years. Michelle Asia, and long forays into the written She received her BA in English from New spent her summers volunteering at word. Mexico State University, with a minor in 826NYC, a writing center for kids in Creative Writing. While at New Mexico Adrienne Gunn Goldberg is the author of Brooklyn, and traveling to the Philippines State, Zane won the Robert A. Wichert fiction and essays. She holds an MA in to (re)learn Tagalog. Teaching full time Award for Creative Writing in fiction and Creative Writing from Northwestern Uni- has left little time for writing, so she's ex- started a writers’ group, Ink, with some of versity and is excited to begin the MFA cited about getting back to school after the her peers in the Creative Writing depart- program at Oregon in the fall. Her current summer—this time on the other side of ment. She plans on spending the summer projects include a collection of short sto- the desk. writing short stories and short-short sto- ries, a novel, and editing a forthcoming Chelsey Roos spent her childhood mov- ries, reading for pleasure, knitting and anthology. For the past six years, Adri- ing around the country with large stacks teaching her friends to knit, as well as enne has lived in Chicago and worked in of books and equally large stacks of crack- getting ready for the big move with her Marketing and Special Events. She is ex- ers. She received her undergraduate de- husband, Timothy Ahearne. cited to no longer be working in these gree from Washington University in St. areas. Adrienne now lives in Eugene with Erica Braverman is currently living Louis (MO) and then spent a year as a her husband and dog and would love to abroad in Cheongju, South Korea, where pharmacy technician in Pittsburgh, PA, get together. she is teaching ESL at a hogwan, or private telling people that, yes, they really do language academy, to elementary and Jennifer Knight (“Jenne”) is moving to need those drugs. Chelsey spends a lot of middle school aged students. She is plan- Eugene from Boston, MA, where she has time reading, wandering, and inhaling ning on returning to the States after trav- spent the last year living as a stranger in a caffeinated beverages. She enjoys arguing eling around Southeast Asia when her strange land. A northwest native, Jenne is about the merits of young adult fiction contract is up at the end of July and mov- excited to return to the relative normalcy and how psychology has changed the ing to Eugene shortly thereafter to begin of the region. She received her BA in Eng- world. She is also, by chance, extremely classes. She received her BA from Florida lish from the tall. State University, where she majored in and is interested in language: accents/ Natasha Sunderland comes to Oregon Creative Writing and minored in Film dialects, etymology, and translation. She after three years in Brooklyn and a couple Studies. Erica is still very interested in also loves fiction for young adults and is a of desk jobs in Manhattan. She is grateful Film Studies and is considering going for KEXP addict. for the reading time provided by count- her PhD in that area of study. For now, Nichols Ford Malick (“Nick”) earned his less subway commutes and for the illusion she is looking forward to concentrating on BA in Philosophy and Creative Writing of nature provided by city parks. Natasha the last few months left in Korea and then from Colby College in Waterville, ME. grew up in Malibu, CA, and then came the green, bicycle-friendly town of Eugene When he isn't writing Nick enjoys run- east in search of seasons. She received her and the beautiful University of Oregon ning, singing, and wrestling with his two BA in English/Creative Writing from Col- campus, or more specifically, its plush dogs, Jogger and Darcy, neither of whom gate University, with a minor in Film & lawn, where you will be able to find her likes to play fetch. While he has held nu- Media Studies. When she is not practicing with her shoes off and a book of poems merous jobs in his lifetime, from baker to survival by Internet during the workday, close at hand. pseudo-geologist, he has most recently she is reading, writing, running, worrying Elizabeth Lee Buchanan is heading to been teaching English at the Tilton School over daily minutiae, watching bad movies Eugene from Washington, D.C., where she in Tilton, NH, where he has enjoyed the on television, or traveling. Eager to be has been working steadily as an editor for additional responsibilities of cross- near the Pacific again, Natasha is thrilled the last four years. She earned her BA in country coach and dorm parent. He will to have this opportunity, and cannot wait for a great two years in Eugene.

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LANGUAGE—Continued from page 1 been going to for the past thirty years, in ing with the death of the beloved. Dear ting the experience out there in all its se- the West on the border of Co. Sligo and Ghosts is very political and yet also very verity seems to help emotions release, and Co. Roscommon. attentive to new elements of my life mix- this is part of healing. A.L. You were married to the great short- ing with the “ghost” elements. I experi- A.L. The idea of physical, emotional and story writer Raymond Carver just prior to enced my own mortality in my battle with spiritual transformation arises time and his death in 1988. What influences did breast cancer. I nursed my mother time again in this collection. Can you talk you have on each through Alzheimer’s. I embraced a new a little about how that theme functions in other’s writing? love with my Irish partner, the painter your writing? and storyteller Josie Gray. I began to T.G. We had a very write more openly out of my Buddhist T.G. Well, I think my writing has always great impact, I think, readings and experiences, my meeting been about transformation and compan- although if you were with Jacucho Setouchi-san and a winter ioning. Poetry has always been a way for reading Carver schol- retreat with Thich Nhat Hahn. My Irish me to stay close to what matters and to arship this wouldn’t be life began to become visible in poems like acknowledge all the unseen elements that acknowledged. They “Lie Down with the Lamb.” In many deeply influence one. Those we have would speak about poems though the eyelet sting of the Iraq loved and who have passed out of our John Gardner, Hem- war makes itself known. I even brought lives through death and who continue to mingway, Chekhov, back the poem “Sugarcane” about my first ghost us—I have a form for including etc., but never Tess Gallagher as an influ- husband, who was in the Vietnam War, a them and acknowledging them in my ence. It’s just too obvious maybe? Ray’s poem that had become marooned in the poetry. Life is really about change and poetry got very much stronger when he book Portable Kisses where it didn’t have those who are most able to move with the met me, I do believe. And his stories the appropriate impact. changes in a clear-sighted way are going stopped being just “slice of life” encoun- to be the most vibrantly alive. Poetry is ters. They began to actually develop and A.L. You have some emotionally power- really against all those spirit-calcifications to let in more light in say a story like ful poems in this collection about your that can happen to a person. “Cathedral.” It’s, of course, hard for me to experience with cancer. How did writing A.L. Aside from the powerful emotional speak too much about all this, for it inevi- those poems influence your journey to- landscapes you give us access to, you also tably would sound self-serving. In our ward healing? bring us into different physical landscapes working together on our poems and sto- T.G. Actually I didn’t start writing those in your poetry: Cairo, Bucharest, and Ire- ries we were just so happy to contribute to poems until after my treatment was com- each other’s writing we never claimed territory. Our writing stayed our own, but inside that work were essential contribu- Moon Crossing Bridge was like an experience poured molten out tions from each of us. of the vat, whereas Dear Ghosts was more like an exploratory Ray tended to help me clarify my work. expedition that has definite branches and themes. I got some narrative muscle in my poetry from working with him and writing short stories. This ability entered my poetry too. But my nature was always a bit plete. Of course healing is a long process. land to name a few. How important is more complex in how I moved in the lan- I think I am still going through it. For as travel to your work? guage, so I kind of reverted to that after huge an experience as the cancer was, I T.G. I think it is very Ray’s death, I admit, when I wrote the really wrote relatively little. Maybe that important because it is book of poems Moon Crossing Bridge. was because I was helping my niece dur- ing her pregnancy (she was living with a mechanism of A.L. You write about grief in both Moon me while I went through chemo) and also change and of helping Crossing Bridge and Dear Ghosts, especially taking care of my mother who was gradu- one to enter into new the loss of Raymond Carver. Can you talk ally needing more attention. realities. It unseats us about how the experience of writing those and invites us. I have poems differed with fifteen years separat- A.L. What reactions have you received just returned from ing them? from readers who may be experiencing Spain. I had only been similar challenges? there very briefly with T.G. Moon Crossing Bridge was like an Liliana Ursu in about experience poured molten out of the vat, T.G. I’ve actually had a very good re- 1991. But this time I was a guest at the whereas Dear Ghosts was more like an sponse from both men and women who Residencia de Estudiantes where Lorca, exploratory expedition that has definite have had breast cancer, but also lots of Buñuel, Dali, Jiménez, etc., were all stu- branches and themes. Moon Crossing moving response from those who have dents in Madrid. It was so exciting to be Bridge is essentially monothematic, deal- lost loved ones to breast cancer. Just get-

UO Creative Writing Program | Literary Reference SPRING 2007-SPRING 2008 Page 7

where Lorca was formed and to feel those truth teller—one who makes the truth These are stories from the West of Ireland artistic currents still alive there. I also appear when I am most able. A life with- and told in a wonderful and engaging went on a pilgrimage to Granada and ac- out the spirits of those who inform us is way by Josie Gray. We will do some occa- tually got to sit at his desk and play his not, for instance, a life I could bear, so I sions in Belfast where I used to live in the piano there at the summer home of his make them present for myself and for mid 70s, for instance at a pub there. But parents where he went to write in sum- everyone. we’ll also do a reading in Sligo. mer. I felt so close to his spirit. It was A.L. Are you working on a new project? I am also writing new poems, of an important homage. And having my What does the future hold for you? course. And working on the Everyman’s poems go into Spanish was perhaps one volume of Ray’s work. Occasionally I get of the most important things that has hap- T.G. I am just finishing work on a book of wonderful travel invitations, and recently pened to me in the past ten years, for I oral stories I have been working on for the I got invited to a festival in Scotland for really feel they are somehow, through the past twelve years with Josie Gray. It is March. I will also return to Spain in May wonderful translations of Eduardo Moga, called Barnacle Soup, and I’ll be in Ireland for a festival. My Irish appearances seem newly alive. to welcome it with Josie in late September. to be more frequent each year, and this Blackstaff Press in Belfast is the publisher A.L. Can you talk about the role memory means that more poems are starting to and it will be available in the U.S. from plays in your poetry? come from those trips. DuFour Press, which will distribute it. T.G. Memory is really the deep breath of the present as it has power to reach its full potential of binding the past to the present in new seeing, new feeling, new being. Creative Writing Reading Series A.L. You’re able to walk a fine line be- A reading by poet, fiction tween sentimentality and bitterness in writer, and playwright N. Scott your elegies. How do you find that bal- Momaday capped the 2007- ance? 2008 Creative Writing Reading T.G. I do feel pain and sorrow and loss Series. The May 1 reading and are our teachers, much as one might wish subsequent Kidd Lecture were otherwise. They are disconcerting and highlights in a vibrant season disorienting. It’s only human to hate hav- of readings and lectures. Each ing to encounter them as the terms of be- ing alive. I guess I have learned to be year the Creative Writing Pro- grateful for being unseated by them. In gram invites several working writing the elegies I learn ways to treasure writers to read, discuss their and even new ways to explore the loss writing, and meet with student and who that person was. They become Photo by Shelly Withrow writers. more whole in my imagination. Reality is Visitor N. Scott Momaday with Poetry Professor Garrett Hongo not what it’s cracked up to be! you might say.

A.L. Robert Frost once said, “To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.” What 2006-2007 Visiting Writers 2007-2008 Visiting Writers does it mean to you to be a poet?

T.G. I am finding out, really, with each Brian Turner & Kate Lynn Hibbard Susan Rich & Lillias Bever poem I write what it is to be a poet. I like (MFA alumni readers) (MFA alumni readers) it that there is no exact job description for being a poet. I do know that I want to Scott Nadelson David Bradley keep alive the music and meaning of this Maxine Scates Ehud Havazelet & Dorianne Laux language I was born to, but which is ever changing, both in my apprehension of it Cai Emmons Paul Lisicky & Mark Doty and in its daily use. To be a poet, for me, Geri Doran means to maintain a heightened aware- Tess Gallagher ness and empathy for the life around Quraysh Ali Lansana Antonya Nelson me—and this means people, animals, and the trees, birds and living companions Bret Lott N. Scott Momaday and elements of this earth. I feel like a

Page 8 SPRING 2007-SPRING 2008 UO Creative Writing Program | Literary Reference

Meet the Returning MFA Students The Crystal Palace

Leslie Barnard received her bachelor’s lives with her husband, fiction writer degree in Religious Studies from Pomona Ryan Blacketter, and their cat, Ernie. I would be lying if I told you College in Claremont, CA. As an under- Daphne can squeak out “The Good, the I didn't come to love it— graduate, she studied abroad in Kenya Bad, and the Ugly” on ocarina and sing and India. After graduating, Leslie spent along with beat-up pianos. She writes legs wound in fishnet, silk two years teaching elementary school on poetry and would love to speak Spanish of my sweat, scent of cheap the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South more often. Dakota. She recently received the Penny sage oil slicking my skin. Wilkes Prize for Writing and the Environ- Dennis Arlo Voorhees grew up on a dairy farm in Rutland, MA. He was the That I didn't feel ment. captain of the soccer team at Brandeis, a pull in my body Anna Drexler spent two years teaching until he tired of running and moved to English language in Tokyo and Bangkok Montana where he received his BA. Before when I bent before moving to Eugene to pursue her arriving in Eugene, he was a damn good MFA in fiction. She returned to her home- bar cook in Portland, OR, and an adequate across the bar to pour town in Iowa where she finished her ESL teacher in Hungary. undergraduate degree at Coe College, ampoules of bourbon receiving her BA in Asian Studies. After Claire Whitenack graduated with a BA in down every throat that opened, graduating she worked for an investment English from the University of Virginia, firm for two years before deciding to focus then hiked the Appalachian Trail before didn’t leash their eyes to my back on her writing. Currently she is working moving to Eugene. She spends most of her time writing poetry but disappears as I leaned toward the flame on a novel based on her time abroad. into the wilderness fairly often, no matter of an offered light, Sara Keilholtz received her bachelor’s in how hard it's raining. She also has an in- English from the University of Oregon in terest in alliterative verse and plans to use didn’t enjoy the daytime secret 2007. She has been an exchange student in her spare time this summer to study Old of cigarette-soaked neon night Spain, trekked in the Pyrenees and in Ti- English and Old Norse. bet, and studied Spanish at a language caught in the net of my hair. school in Mexico. She taught English and Brenden Willey is a fiction writer from Adolescence had aroused in me hosted a travel TV show in China. She has Kernersville, NC. He has held many jobs, also been an ESL teacher for French teens from landscaper to copyeditor. Prior to the pleasure of being in an annual summer program and has moving west, he worked at a women’s desired, of stripping taught oral English to middle school stu- shelter and edited English tests in New York City. He has a BA in English from dents. away the binding and offering myself the University of North Carolina at Kärstin Painter is a fiction student from Greensboro. He is the 2008-2009 Margaret to the suckling mouths Boulder, CO. Before packing up her pica McBride Lehrman Fellow. of those who overflowed ruler to attend graduate school at Miami Nikki Zielinski moved to Eugene from University, Kärstin worked as a book with lust and dollar bills. editor for Rowman & Littlefield Oakland, CA, where she was working as a sex educator and volunteer ESL tutor. So though I'm moved to hide it, Publishers, an independent academic She received her BA from Antioch College press. She has an Australian shepherd I’d be lying if I told you with a double major in English Literature named Finn. Eugene has helped her to and Creative Writing and has worked for I regret those nights discover both intense grass allergies and The Antioch Review and Livermore Street The Sweet Life. Kärstin plans to spend her spent half undressed, literary journal. Since arriving at the summer writing while under the influence University of Oregon, she has been a tutor back when I bent of Claritin D. in the Kidd Tutorial Program and was Daphne Sanford-Blacketter has lived in selected for the Miriam Starlin Poetry my body like a hook California, Oregon, Iowa, and Idaho. A Award. Because she finds stasis to be a graduate of Reed College (BA) and the highly uncomfortable state, she moves and gathered in the men University of Iowa (MAT), she is still re- frequently and has lived in nearly twenty to drown beneath my breast. covering from her senior thesis— cities; in order to sit still this summer, she something about Anne Carson, triangu- will be writing and reading and running lated eros, and Oscar Wilde. The former and baking. As usual. teacher and Boise Public Library assistant By Nikki Zielinski 2008 Starlin Poetry Award Recipient

UO Creative Writing Program | Literary Reference SPRING 2007-SPRING 2008 Page 9

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS—Continued from page 3 with an opportunity to advance their un- sell, Auerbach, Bloom, de Man, Sacks, and derstanding of and skills in applying the Hecht. Weekly exercises and a final port- MFA Student & Alumni essential theory and craft of fiction writ- folio. Lectures, in-class scansion and exer- Accomplishments ing: plotting; characterization and render- cises, and discussion. Instructor: Hongo ing. Students will read selected classic J.T. Bushnell made two journal appear- CRWR 607: Seminar – Memoir & short fiction texts and write "etudes" ances this spring: “Runner” in the Personal Essay based upon them, some of which will be March/April issue of The Rambler and The process of discovery is at the heart of discussed in a workshop-like context. “Listening” in The Tusculum Review. J.T. writing memoir pieces and personal es- was also awarded a place in the first an- Instructor: Bradley says. What we write about needn’t be ex- nual summer fiction seminar at the Eliza- CRWR 417: Kidd Tutorial I treme or newsworthy, but it has to have beth Kostova Foundation in Sozopol, This is Section 1 of a three-part intensive, caught the writer’s imagination, shifted Bulgaria, on the Black Sea Coast. yearlong study of fiction, poetry, and non- the writer’s world in some way, and that fiction. The tutorial sequence includes shift is what the writer takes the time to Drea Brown was awarded a Fellowship development, completion, and presenta- carefully illuminate and examine. Topics from Cave Canem, which will afford her tion of an individual line-of-inquiry of discussion will include the construction study at the Cave Canem summer resi- project. Admission is by application only. of self as a character, the persona we dencies for the next five years. Instructors: Biebelle, Buchanan, Sunderland, choose to adopt, the question of truth ver- Braverman, Knight sus narrative shaping, structural choices, Elyse Fenton received this year’s Pablo and the necessary self-implication we Neruda Prize for Poetry given by Nimrod CRWR 607: Seminar – Poetic Meter and must be willing to undertake. We will International Journal. Traditional Form examine short-short, lyric, and experimen- Primarily for MFA students in poetry, this tal essays alongside more traditional es- Sara Johnson won an AWP Intro Jour- is a craft seminar in traditional poetic me- says from a diverse group of writers. Ex- nals Award for her poem “Avocado.” ter and form. We’ll begin by studying ercises, two essays, and one seven- to ten- She received second place in the Iron metrics and syllabics, briefly looking at Horse Literary Review’s Discovered Voices page paper. Instructor: Drummond the founding of English meter during the contest, and her poem “Resurrection Renaissance and then taking our study CRWR 635: MFA Poetry Workshop Fern” will appear in Iron Horse’s Na- through the nineteenth century on up to Concentration on student writing in a tional Poetry Month 2009 issue. Sara’s current practice. The main focus of the workshop setting. We write within the poem “Hunting” was recently accepted class, however, will be on the varieties cross-currents of contemporary American for publication by Willow Springs. and persistence of traditional meter and poetry—often it forms the bulk of our form in modern and contemporary poetic reading and the basis of our poetics. Poets Matt Rader’s second book, Living Things, practice. We’ll study the sonnet, villa- in the UK share our language but are in was published by Nightwood Editions in nelle, sestina, various stanzaic structures, other ways as different from us as writers April 2008. blank verse, and perhaps one genre (the from Croatia or the Azores. As we move pastoral elegy or the prospect ode). Over through our graduate workshop—writing Brian Simoneau’s poem “Demolition” the last two or three weeks of the course, poems weekly from prompts, discussing appeared in the Fall/Winter 2007 issue we’ll take a very close look at figuration— our poems—we will also read capaciously of Poet Lore. His “Funeral with Cherry figural propositions, narrative analogies, (and closely) new writing from the UK. Blossoms Falling” appeared online in the image chains, and the notion of a poem as Our accompanying texts will be New Brit- Boxcar Poetry Review in January 2008. a metonymic/synecdochal complex—not ish Poetry, edited by Charles Simic and Brenden Willey received the Margaret simple poetic devices used in isolation, Don Paterson, and the June/July 2004 McBride Lehrman Fellowship from the but the poet’s conscious figurative pat- issue of Poetry (special issue devoted to Graduate School, an award giving him a terning of a poem in conjunction with its contemporary British poetry). Instructor: $10,000 stipend for 2008–2009 studies. rhetorical structure, so as to constitute, Doran arguably, the survival of a kind of alle- CRWR 645: MFA Fiction Workshop gory in contemporary practice. Important Concentration on student writing in a to these studies will be at least an appre- Call for Student / Alumni News: workshop setting. Instructor: Havazelet ciation of and an acquaintanceship with (if Let us know how you’re doing—whether you’re a not a grounding in) the Anglo-American current or former CRWR student. Tell us about: tradition of verse. Poets: Wyatt, Surrey, CRWR Winter 2009 • your experience in the Program Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Course Schedule • your accomplishments Wheatley, Hardy, Yeats, Frost, Pound, • current students: what you look forward to after Stevens, Kees, Thomas, Bishop, Hecht, CRWR 230: Introduction to Poetry Writing graduation Justice, Van Duyn, James Wright, Plath, Introduction to forms and techniques of • alumni: what you’ve been doing since Levine, Hass, C.K. Williams, Levis, writing poetry. Instructors: Akdeniz, Submit your update to: Hirsch, St. John, Graham, Wood, Jarman, Peñaloza, Johnson Creative Writing Program: Schnackenberg, and Digges. Background 5243 University of Oregon | Eugene OR 97403-5243 and reserve readings in Thompson, Fus- COURSE DESCRIPTIONS—Continued on page 11 or via web: [email protected]

Page 10 SPRING 2007-SPRING 2008 UO Creative Writing Program | Literary Reference

Creative Writing Congratulations MFA Graduates Program Awards The CRWR ith the help of generous spon- Graduates of 2008 W sors, the Program awards three pose together for one last photo. prizes to graduate and undergraduate Back Row (from writers each year. left to right): Will Fleming, Jenn The Miriam McFall Starlin Poetry Kepka, Jessica Award honors a promising 1st-year poet Murakami, Matt with a $5,000 stipend, to allow her the Rader, Jeremy Simmons, Chris freedom to pursue her writing in the sum- Roethle, and mer between her 1st and 2nd year in the Thomas Watson. MFA program. Established in 1997 by the Front Row (from left to right): late Glenn Starlin as a gift to his wife, Chloe Garcia- Miriam, the award went to Drea Brown Roberts, Sara for 2007 and Nikki Zielinski for 2008 Johnson, Brian Young, Drea (see poem, p. 8). Brown, and Tobey Ward. The Logsdon Award is given each year to a 2nd-year MFA fiction writer for work of exceptional merit. Recent recipi- ...and the Gradu- ents were Tim Dalton (2007) and Tobey ates of 2007. Ward (2008). Back Row (from left to right): New this year is the Penny Wilkes J.T. Bushnell, Environmental Writing Prize for poetry Roby Conner, Cindy Murphy, or fiction writing in the environment. The and Chris Roethle. prize is awarded to both undergraduate Front Row (from and graduate students in the CRWR pro- left to right): Eliza Rotterman, gram whose work concerns the natural Vanessa Norton, world, landscape and place, environ- Elyse Fenton, Tim mental ethics and concerns, and similar Dalton, Kelsie Gray, and Jessica subjects. This year’s winners are under- Murakami. graduate Nick Bernard for his sequence poem “The Structure of Loneliness” and graduate students Claire Whitenack for “The Green Man Greets the Night” and Leslie Barnard for “Bold.”

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UO Creative Writing Program | Literary Reference SPRING 2007-SPRING 2008 Page 11

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS—Continued from page 9

CRWR 240: Introduction to Fiction CRWR 418: Kidd Tutorial II problems to be studied and emulated. Writing This is Section 2 of a three-part intensive, Writers want to take a text apart to see Introduction to forms and techniques of yearlong study of fiction, poetry, and non- how it works. This course provides under- writing fiction. Instructors: Goldberg, fiction. The tutorial sequence includes graduates with the opportunity to do this. Malick, Roos development, completion, and presenta- Students will learn and apply reading tion of an individual line-of-inquiry proj- styles and analytical modes appropriate to CRWR 330: Intermediate Poetry Writing ect. Instructors: Biebelle, Buchanan, Sun- literary production, as opposed to literary Intermediate-level study of poetry writ- derland, Braverman, Knight theory or cultural studies. The course is ing. Instructor: Roethle reading, not writing, intensive; this is not CRWR 607: Fiction Seminar – Chekhov CRWR 336: Creative Non-Fiction Writing a workshop. Students will read three nov- Chekhov is considered by most to be the This course will introduce undergraduates els and several shorter texts and written father of the short story, by many its to the genre of creative nonfiction assignments will include close-reading greatest master. In this seminar we will (sometimes called literary nonfiction or analyses, emulations of exemplar texts read the stories and one play closely, pay- narrative nonfiction and the subject of and short essays analyzing and/or emu- ing particular attention to matters of craft great debate in terms of “Truth”) and lating approaches to a specific fictional and form, how Chekhov while inventing deepen their understanding and facility problem. Instructor: Bradley many of the techniques of the modern with the various techniques, some of short story (and play) constructed his which come from fiction and poetry (for CRWR 419: Kidd Tutorial III works. Requirements include two 7-10 This is Section 3 of a three-part intensive, instance, narrative arc and characteriza- page critical papers, using the secondary yearlong study of fiction, poetry, and non- tion from fiction; attention to language as well as primary texts; a formal in-class fiction. The tutorial sequence includes and rhythm from poetry). Subgenres we presentation; a thorough knowledge of development, completion, and presenta- will study closely include memoir, per- the oeuvre beyond the reading list; active tion of an individual line-of-inquiry proj- sonal essay, landscape narrative, portrait/ participation in class discussion. ect. Instructors: Biebelle, Buchanan, profile, and nature. We will also examine Instructor: Havazelet Sunderland, Braverman, Knight the short-short and unconventional struc- ture. Lots of exercises and two creative CRWR 635: MFA Poetry Workshop CRWR 607: Poetry Seminar – Robert pieces, some of which will be discussed in Concentration on student writing in a Lowell a workshop-like setting. Instructor: workshop setting. Instructor: Hongo Polemical, political, lyrical, transforma- Drummond tive, self-aggrandizing, self-immolating— CRWR 645: MFA Fiction Workshop Robert Lowell was one of the twentieth CRWR 413: Modern Allegorical – Concentration on student writing in a century’s pivotal poets and most fascinat- Literature for Poets workshop setting. Instructor: Bradley ing figures. In this course, we will read as In this reading course, we’ll take up dis- much of the “complete” Lowell as we can, cussion about the nature of allegory, its along with considerable period and cur- symbolic potential for us as writers, and CRWR Spring 2009 rent criticism, in order to trace two paral- its incarnation in contemporary litera- Course Schedule lel lines of inquiry: the path of Lowell’s tures. Our springboard will be excerpts poetic development, from the earliest for- from medieval and Renaissance allegories: CRWR 230: Introduction to Poetry mal work through the late “verse autobi- William Langland’s Piers Plowman and Writing ography”; and the attending (and diverg- Spenser’s Faerie Queen. Contemporary Introduction to forms and techniques of ing) critical thinking about his poetry. Of readings will likely include selections writing poetry. Instructors: Akdeniz, For the Union Dead, Thomas Parkinson from Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s The Orchard, Peñaloza, Johnson wrote “it is good to see poetry treating the Maurice Manning’s Lawrence Booth’s Book moment where person and history meet.” of Visions, Anne Carson’s Autobiography of CRWR 240: Introduction to Fiction Perhaps the two have never met so vio- Red, Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, and Writing lently (and at times tenderly) as in Robert Jose Saramago’s Blindness and/or The Introduction to forms and techniques of Lowell. “We are words,” he wrote in a Stone Raft. We will also watch “The Both- writing fiction. Instructors: Goldberg, poem dedicated to John Berryman; “John, ersome Man,” directed by Jens Lien. The Malick, Roos we used the language as if we made it.” course will emphasize traditional close CRWR 330: Intermediate Poetry Writing Instructor: Doran reading of texts. Written work in the first Intermediate-level study of poetry writ- half of the course will include several ing. Instructor: Roethle CRWR 635: MFA Poetry Workshop shorter response papers; in the second Concentration on student writing in a half of the course, we will attempt a CRWR 414: Literature for Fiction Writers workshop setting. Instructor: Hongo longer allegorical poem or sequence. – Models in Problem-Solving CRWR 645: MFA Fiction Workshop Willingness to read deeply and participate Creative writers tend to view literary texts Concentration on student writing in a in class discussion is essential. Instructor: not as objects of art to be admired, but as workshop setting. Instructor: Drummond Doran exemplars of solutions to classic narrative

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CRWR Summer Session 2008

CRWR 410: Writing TV Drama CRWR 199: Character and Point CRWR 199: Style, Detail, and June 16 - June 23, MTWUF, 8:00am - 12:00 of View Dialogue & 1:00 - 5:00pm, 4 credits June 23 - 27, MTWUF, 6:00 - 7:50pm, August 4 - 8, MTWUF, 6:00 - 7:50pm, This week-long intensive course will repli- 1 credit 1 credit cate the real, intensive experience of the Whose story is it, which character should Explores how style derives from words “writer’s room’” on a TV drama. The class tell the story, and what does your charac- chosen and sentences crafted; how dia- will begin with the genuine pilot episode ter desire? Instructor: Leslie Barnard logue defines character. Instructor: Leslie of a drama to be aired in the 2008 season. Barnard Students will conceive and pitch a follow- CRWR 199: Plot, Narrative, on storyline, develop an outline, and write CRWR 199: Fiction Workshop a portion of the script. Each day will con- Drive, and Structure sist of an hour of screening, at least an July 7 - 11, MTWUF, 6:00 - 7:50pm, June 23 - July 17, MTWU, 3:00 - 5:20pm, hour of lecture, and detailed analysis of 1 credit 4 credits television drama. This will include the Examines three separate, yet interdepend- Concentration on student fiction writing. history of TV drama, from live produc- ent elements of fiction and the options Instructor: Jennifer Kepka tions of the Golden Age (1948-1960), the and obstacles they present to the writer. mass appeal genre works that dominated Instructor: Leslie Barnard the 1960s-1970s, and the socially daring, CRWR 199: Poetry Workshop more experimental series aired since mar- July 21 - August 14, MTWU, 3:00 - 5:20pm, ket expansion in 1987, such as The So- CRWR 199: Time, Scenes, and 4 credits pranos, House, and Lost. A final project, Flashbacks Concentration on student poems. consisting of a substantial TV script, will July 21 - 25, MTWUF, 6:00 - 7:50pm, Instructor: Drea Brown be required. Instructor: Michael Cassutt 1 credit For more information about the Univer- Examines the elements of scene, sum- sity of Oregon’s summer writing courses, Register online at www.uoregon.edu mary, flashbacks, backstory, and transi- please contact the Creative Writing Pro- tions. Instructor: Leslie Barnard Registration opens May 5, 2008. gram.