2017 Newsletter Inside:

Program News...... 4

Faculty News ...... 5

Student News ...... 7

Readings, Publications and Community ...... 11

Alumni News ...... 21

Dr. Antonio D. Tillis Dean, CLASS

Dr. James Kastely English Dept. Chair

Alex Parsons CWP Director

Giuseppe Taurino Assistant Director From the Director

Fellow writers, desire to rekindle your romance with the gorgeous, single Recruitment this year is and available CWP, give thought to in-kind donations arguably the best indicator if the strictly transactional isn’t for you. We are open to of the state of the Program. proposals and propositions, advice and suggestions. And Virtually every top appli- please send us your news, be it professional, literary, or cant we contacted, cajoled, familial. e-stalked, or otherwise pressured is attending. This fall we launch our first large, lecture-style sophomore We’ll welcome 16 writers Creative Writing class. Seven faculty will collaborate to our singular communi- on the lectures, and the class will be co-taught by three ty. They join in large part graduate students. The course is a template for others because of the rigorous and aimed at expanding the number and variety of fiction and collaborative tone set by our students and faculty, as well as poetry classes our graduate students can teach. We’ve also the success of our recent and long-standing graduates. This soldered together a shiny new Creative Writing Minor. year and last we bade goodbye to a number of (employed!) Any student at UH can side-car this to their major field creative writing professors, and enjoyed the work of many of study. It should open the vista and byways for a whole students and graduates, whether bound and bearing a pub- new spectrum of young writers. Our undergraduates lisher’s impress or inked on the pages of The New Yorker. now have one of the best slates of classes, professors, and resources among any university. In midst of general As promised, we expanded our website and online pres- and depressingly usual cuts, our new dean has pledged ence because we ran out of storage space for the clay tab- $10,000 in annual funding to the undergraduate literary lets. You can peruse the curated existence of the CWP via journal Glass Mountain and the Boldface Writers’ Con- the Roy G. Cullen and UH Creative Writing Facebook pag- ference, in tacit recognition of our curricular quality. And es, Instagram, and the blog we share on the Inprint site, the our undergraduates are publishing: one has a collection of latter thanks to Inprint’s generous crash-couch policy. On short stories contracted with Riverhead and another was the subject of their support, Inprint provided 14 incoming a finalistfor this year’s Nelson Algren Prize for fiction. In students with $10,000 grants and has underwritten half of the Cynthia Macdonald Graduate Assistantship in Arts short, we are soon to arrive at an undergraduate program Administration. Fifteen of our incoming students are also that mirrors the quality of the graduate program. fully funded at between $25-35,000 this year (this includes coverage of tuition & fees, health insurance, and a teaching What does the future hold? A concerted effort to pub- assistantship; also pep talks). Such support is a high-water licize our program’s excellence. An on-going effort to mark for the Program, and egalitarian in its division and ensure the financial well-being of our students. A trend in disbursal. There are always threats to our funding, however, the MFA toward interdisciplinary studies. Perhaps a sum- and we look to you for help as we foster new, reasonably mer residency program? (Anyone have a villa? Anyone?) debt-free writers. Whatever the outcome of these, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the vibrant state of the CWP, Many of you teach throughout the country. We would like which makes all futures possible. to rely on you to promote the CWP to deepen our pool of recruits and otherwise benefit With thanks, from a happy symbiosis. If you gave us the slow fade but Alex now recognize a repressed, nascent, or blooming

3 Program News

The Archival Impulse In this project- / process-based course we used the collaborative art space Alabama Song as a lab to examine the concept of the ARCHIVE as both an imaginative as well as a generative site. Students investigated the idea of the ARCHIVE through artist pre- sentations and readings. Throughout the semester each student developed and created [either solo or as a collaborative group] a series of ARCHIVES [alternate, personal, imaginative, unofficial] which sprang directly from their existing creative practice. As a final project one ARCHIVE was distilled, refined, and contained in either a book / performance / film / installation / website, etc. Visiting artists included: Regina Agu (A Living Index), Raphael Rubenstein / Heather Bause (The Miraculous), Mel Chin (Funk and Wag A to Z), Mariam Ghani (Index of the Disappeared), and Paula Matthusen (Field Recordings). The co-teachers of the workshop were Gabriel Martinez and Ron- nie Yates. Readings included: Hal Foster, An Archival Impulse; Jacques Derrida, Ar- chival Fever; Martha Rossler, The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems; Pad Ma, 10 Theses on the Archive; John Tagg, The Archiving Machine; Alan Sekula, The Body & the Archive.

4 Faculty News

obert Boswell’s story her writings, titled Feminism and Diaspora: Critical "O" will appear in The Perspectives on Chitra Divakaruni, will be published Atlantic in October, later this year in USA and India. Her novel Palace of Rand he has a story coming Illusions has been optioned for a movie. out in the anthology Houston In the summer of 2016, Nick Flynn formed a Noir. Recent stories also band, Shaker Flynn, with Simi Stone (The New appeared in The Ploughshares Pornographers) and Philip Marshall (KILCOOL), Omnibus and Telluride in response to the murder of Alton Sterling by the Magazine. He judged the Baton Rouge police. Shaker Flynn has performed Hopwood Drama Prize for in several venues in New York and New England, the University of Michigan, including The Omega Center and The Boston and he will lecture at the Book Festival. In Warren Wilson residency in February 2017, July. he presented Audrey Colombe presented on difficult Blake & the students in the creative writing classroom at Apocalypse in the Creative Writing Studies Organization London and (CWSO) Annual Conference in Asheville, Manchester North Carolina. As faculty advisor for (UK) with Glass Mountain Magazine, she oversaw the Sarah Lipstate publication of Glass Mountain #18—as well (Noveller) on as the 10th anniversary of the magazine— experimental which included a reading and launch as part of guitar, alongside films the UH Libraries’ 2016-2017 Poetry and Prose by Houston’s Gabriel series. The annual Boldface Conference, held Martinez (Alabama Song). in May, welcomed many new writers—local A book of poems, I Will and national—and brought in CWP alums Destroy You, is forthcoming Bill Broun, Leah Lax, and Hayan Charara from Graywolf Press. as featured writers. Audrey is currently working on an article based on Tony Hoagland has two the CWSO conference books of poems forthcom- presentation and ing: Priest Turned Therapist also a handbook for Treats Fear of God in 2018 undergraduate literary from Graywolf Press and Recent Changes in the Vernacular from Tres Chicas Press. magazines. His poems have appeared this year in the Paris Chitra Divakaruni's novel Review, Ploughshares, The Sun Magazine, Amer- Before We Visit the Goddess ican Poetry Review and elsewhere. An interview has been translated into Polish with former U of H graduate student Katie and Italian. A scholarly work on Condon can be found in Grist: The Journal for

5 Writers from the University of Tennessee. He current- their work alongside critical essays, interviews, letters, ly has two bumper stickers on his car: “Ask Me photographs, and other ephemera. About Iron-Deficient Anemia,” and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”. Martha Serpas was back at Tampa General Hospital this May offering workshops in In February, Incognegro, the integrative care and poetry. She published critically acclaimed graphic poems in Plume and The Golden Shovel novel professor Mat Johnson Anthology in honor of Gwendolyn Brooks. created with illustrator War- Her nonironic poem “Joy” appeared in ren Pleece, will be re-issued Fogged Clarity’s special Inaugural Issue. She on it’s tenth anniversary read “Ode to the Passion Mark” with UH alum by Dark Horse Comics, Dave Parsons, co-editor (with Wendy Barker) along with an entirely of Far Out: Poems of the 60’s at Brazos. (For the new monthly mini- se- record, Martha may have been a bit late to that ries. The new storyline, particular revolution.) Incognegro: Renaissance, Spring visits by Alicia will be a prequel origin Ostriker, Ellen Bryant story set in Harlem Voigt, and Aliki Barn- during the 1920s. stone were highlights of the year for her as Antonya Nelson is working on a book of essays well as a mid-Novem- about dogs (tentatively titled One Dog is People), a ber trip with a double kind of memoir told with dogs as the centerpiece of handful of students to each part, to be published by Bloomsbury. attend the American In November, Academy of Religion’s Graywolf Press Annual Meeting in San will publish Mar- Antonio for a dose of tha Collins’ and post-election analysis Kevin Prufer’s POE MS, and activism. EnglishTRANSLATIONS, Into English: Po- COMME N TARIES ems, Translations, Into English Roberto Tejada has Commentaries, Into Edited by Martha Collins & presented from his work on contemporary Kevin Prufer an anthology of art and media from the U.S. and Latino essays on the art America in lectures that include “Family of translation. This Resemblance in 1990s Mexico: Francis Alÿs will be followed and the Fabiola Project” (The Menil

POETRY / CRITICISM $16.00 BELLE TURNBULL by my own new ISBN 978-0-9641454-9-8 51600> Since 2009, The Unsung Masters Series has presented accomplished writers who Collection, Houston, December 2016); deserve greater attention. In this, the ninth book in the series, the featured book, How He Loved Them, 9 780964 145498 writer is Belle Turnbull (1881-1970), the first strong poet to live in and write about the mountains and high mining towns of the Colorado Rockies. Well-known during her life but long out of print, “A Traveling Show: The Language Turnbull’s lyrics of sublime alpine wilderness and her narratives about the harsh which Four Way Books will and dangerous world of hard rock mining offer us a profoundly original vision of the American west that transcends the region. ROTHMAN & VILLINES “This book restores to Westerners a treasure we were foolish to misplace. In poems that are and Mail Art of Matt Keegan and as consoling as they are unsettling, Belle Turnbull extracted and refined the meanings of release at the beginning of mountains, miners, memory, and mortality. Now, nearly fifty years after her death, a team of gifted writers—serving as Turnbull’s latter-day friends in high places—joins together to rescue her work from our inattention, and return us to her company. “ —Patty Limerick, Faculty Director of The Center of the American West, Kay Rosen” (Contemporary Art 2018. Kevin’s newest poems University of Colorado, Boulder “In Belle Turnbull’s poetry, sophisticated poetic technique, the grit of speculative mining, and nature that threatens as it awes all fuse into an alloy of great power. Her work, neglected for decades, brings to life the invasion of rural Colorado by American culture. In this volume, a Museum Houston, January 2017), and generous selection of her writing along with analysis by contemporary poets and critics endow are in Paris Review, Kenyon Turnbull’s achievement with its long-deserved place in American poetry.” —Bruce Berger, author of The Telling Distance: Conversations with the American Desert THE UNSUNG MASTERS SERIES “Belle Turnbull is a genuine Colorado literary treasure, and kudos to Pleaides Press and the “The Latin American Photobook in Review, Boulevard, Southern editors of this volume for bringing her memory back into our modern consciousness. She is a poet we need to know, and this collection demonstrates why.” Belle Turnbull —Art Goodtimes, author of As If the World Really Mattered on the life & work of an american master “To discover Belle Turnbull is to discover Colorado from the inside out. Here we have a deeply Context” (The Museum of Fine Arts Review, and several other original poet braving the elements, choosing a life of wilderness and hardship, giving voice edited by david j. rothman and jeffrey r. villines to the invisible streams, rugged peaks, and high country characters of the early 20th century.” magazines. Kevin is also —Wendy Videlock, author of Nevertheless THE UNSUNG MASTERS SERIES Houston, April 2017). Poems from THE UNSUNG MASTERS SERIES + continuing to direct The A JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND FINE ARTS his forthcoming collection, Why the Unsung Masters Series with Assembly Disbanded, can be heard at UH MFA alum Wayne Miller. The series brings great, the Poetry Foundation and Houston Public Media largely unknown authors to new readers by reprinting

6 Student News

in order to attend the DisQuiet with autorr George Suanders in literary conference in Lisbon, Por- Gulf Coast, and appeared on panel tugal. His short story, “Wyoming” discussions as part of Writefest appeared in the March 2017 issue and MenilFest. of Tin House.

Erika Jo Brown (PhD, Poetry) re- ceived a 2017 Teaching Excellence Award by the UH Provost’s Office, given to four graduate students university-wide in recognition of outstanding teaching. She was honored at the Faculty Excellence J.S.A. (Jennifer) Lowe (PhD, Sarah McClung (PhD, Fiction) Award Dinner on April 20 at the Poetry) has an article forthcoming published essays in The Guardian, Hilton University of Houston. in Journal of Fandom Studies, and The Rumpus and the Corpus Chris- The award came with a lovely but two book chapters forthcoming in ti Caller Times, and a story, “The deadly-looking statue and a cash edited collections (one about the Green Ray,” in The Switchgrass prize. She was also accepted to the social media platform Tumblr, one Review. Tin House Writers’ Workshop and on the Netflix series Jessica Jones). the National Poetry Foundation conference

Christopher Brean Murray (PhD, Poetry) had poems accepted at Jonathan Meyer (MFA, Fiction) Forklift Ohio, and Jubilat, and was received the 2017 Inprint Donald the winner of an Inprint Donald JP Gritton (PhD, Fiction) was Barthelme Prize in Fiction for his Barthelme Prize in Poetry. awarded a Cullen travel grant short story, “Meat off the Bone.” from the University of Houston He also published an interview 7 Literary Review Prize in Poetry teach as a visiting assistant profes- and published in their latest issue. sor in the UH Honors College. A selection from “A Derive” will be anthologized in Best American Luisa Muradyan Tannahill’s Experimental Writing, and other (PhD, Poetry) book, American Ra- poems have been accepted for diance, was a finalist for the 2017 publication in Copper Nickel and Autumn House Rising Writer’s Colorado Review. He recently ac- contest, the 2017 Michael Waters cepted a position as the Associate Poetry Prize, and was chosen by Director of Communications at Gold Wake Press for publication Exploratorium in San Francisco. in the spring of 2018. She also published poems in the Los Ange- Aza Pace (MFA, Poetry) published les Review, Rattle, and the Par- a poem in The Southern Review is-American. and was nominated for Best New Poets of 2017. She also has two poems forthcoming in American Chordata, and she was the winner of an Inprint Donald Barthelme Prize in Poetry.

Georgia Pearle (PhD, Poetry) has a poem, “Gone, Ungone,” forth- coming in Kenyon Review Online, and a review of francine j. harris’s play dead forthcoming in The Rumpus. Henk Rossouw’s (PhD, Poetry) Novuyo Tshuma’s (PhD, Fiction) Martin Rock’s (PhD, Poetry) book-length poem Xamissa won novel House of Stone is due out poem “Leda and Not the Swan” the Poets Out Loud Editor’s Prize next year with WW Norton in was runner up for Mid-American and will be published by Ford- the USA and Atlantic Books in Review’s James Wright Poetry ham University Press in 2018. An the UK. She was invited by the Award and will be published in excerpt will feature in the anthol- Rockefeller Foundation to attend the forthcoming issue. His poem ogy Best American Experimental their thematic residency at their “On Forgetting My Tongue in Writing 2018 (Wesleyan University Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy, Japan” was a finalist for American Press). For 2017-2018, Henk will from July 24 to August 9 2017, on

8 ‘Youth as Agents of Transformative Change,’ to work on House of Stone. Writing Prizes

Inprint and the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program are pleased to announce the writing prize winners for 2016 – 2017

INPRINT JOAN AND STANFORD ALEXANDER PRIZE IN FICTION Dana Kroos

INPRINT VERLAINE PRIZE IN POETRY Daniel Chu Stalina Villarreal (PhD, Poetry) published poems in the Rio Grande INPRINT MARION BARTHELME PRIZE IN Review and the Texas Review. CREATIVE WRITING Adrienne Perry

INPRINT DONALD BARTHELME PRIZE IN NONFICTION Joshua Foster

INPRINT DONALD BARTHELME PRIZES IN FICTION JP Gritton and Jonathan Meyer

INPRINT DONALD BARTHELME PRIZES IN POETRY Christopher Murray and Aza Pace

INPRINT ROBERT J. SUSSMAN PRIZE Joshua Gottlieb-Miller Cait Weiss’ (PhD, Poetry) manu- INPRINT DONALD BARTHELME GULF COAST Editor’s PRIZE script VALLEYSPEAK won the Zone Carlos Hernandez 3 Press First Book Award judged by Douglas Kearney and will be BRAZOS BOOKSTORE /ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS published October 2017. This year, PRIZE her poems were nominated for Best Michele Nereim New Poets and a Pushcart Prize. Cait spoke on the panel “Sexual Violence CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL! and the Poem as a Formal Body” at AWP 2016 in Washington, D.C., and JUDGES led a masterclass talk at Boldface Conference. In 2017, she was invited MARION BARTHELME and SUSS- POETRY to read her work at Kaboom Books MAN PRIZE Samuel Amadon (UH Alum) and Public Poetry and had poems Laurie Ann Cedilnik (UH Alum) accepted for publication by Boston NONFICTION Review, Chautauqua Literary Jour- FICTION James Allen Hall (UH Alum) nal, and Hayden’s Ferry Review. Ru Freeman

9 Graduates New Students 2017-2018

Fall 2016 Fiction Poetry

Yerra Sugarman, PhD, Poetry Laura Biagi, MFA Theodora Bishop, PhD BA, Northwestern University BA, University of Vermont MFA, University of Alabama Spring 2017 LeeAnne Carlson, MFA BA, University of Houston Devereux Fortuna, PhD Selena Anderson, PhD, Fiction BA, Northern Arizona Univer- Robert Howell, PhD sity Melanie Brkich, MFA Poetry BA, University of Texas-Dallas MFA, New York University MFA, Louisiana State Univer- M. Callen, MFA Poetry sity Justin Jannise, PhD BA, Yale University Rachel Fairbank, MFA, Nonfiction Onyinye Ihezukwu, PhD MFA, University of Iowa BA, University of Nigeria Christopher Hutchinson, PhD, Poetry MFA, University of Virginia Ji yoon Lee, PhD Dana Kroos, PhD, Fiction Cameron Lehman, MFA BA, Austin College BA, Stanford University MFA, University of Notre Shane Lake, PhD, Poetry Dame David Nikityn, MFA Meghan Martin, PhD, Poetry BA, Monmouth University Kristjan Meikop, MFA BA, Abo Akademi Jonathan Meyer, MFA, Fiction Anne Shepherd, PhD BA, Texas Tech University Paige Quinones, PhD Brennan Peel, MFA ,Poetry MFA, Texas State University BA, University of Florida MFA, Ohio State University Henk Rossouw, PhD, Poetry Brenden Stephens, PhD BA, Frostburg State University Ralph Thompson, MFA Matthew Salesses, PhD, Fiction MS, Frostburg State University BA, Acadia University MFA, University of Central BA, University of Houston Nathan Stabenfeldt, MFA Poetry Florida PhD, McGill University Andrea Syzdek, MFA Poetry Ben Kaj Tanaka, PhD Liza Watkins, MFA BA, Emerson College BA, University of Colorado MFA, University of Arkansas -Boulder MA, University of Chicago

10 Poison Pen Reading Series

Always on the last Thursday of the month, the Poison Pen Reading Series features nationally renowned writers and local talent, as well as members of the University of Houston community. Now in its 11th year, Poison Pen continues with a Cabbage Patch & Kool-Aid Man ensemble to remember. This past year, the series featured UH alums Janine Joseph and Ed Porter, current UH students Chris Murray, Adrienne Perry, Allegra Hyde, Sam Thilen, Will Burns, Sam Dinger, and Josie Mitchell, and UH professor Mat Johnson. For the November reading, the Gulf Coast editors showcased their talents amidst whiskey and applause. Poison Pen is organized by Greg Oaks (UH PhD, 2001), Analicia Sotelo (UH MFA, 2012) UH PhD student Erika Jo Brown, Scott Repass (co-owner of Poison Pen), Casey Fleming (UH MFA, 2007), Jameelah Lang (UH PhD, 2016), UH faculty member Mat Johnson, and David Maclean (UH PhD, 2009). Poison Pen is proud to welcome Giuseppe Taurino (UH MFA, 2006)to the committee and looks forward to another crazy good year.

11 Inprint News

Supporting, championing, and utilizing the wonderful talent of the University of Houston Creative Writing Program (UH CWP) have been at the heart of Inprint since the organization’s inception. A nonprofit organization founded in 1983, Inprint’s mission is to inspire readers and writers in Houston. Inprint—directly serving 14,000 people annually through readings, workshops, community program, and support for emerging writers—has helped to transform Houston into a diverse and thriving literary me- tropolis, where creativity is celebrated and Houstonians come together to engage with the written word.

Looking forward to another great year ahead, Inprint will proudly award fellowships and prizes and provide employment and other support to graduate students at the UH CWP. Last year alone these Inprint fellows and juried prize winners received $200,500 (marking the organization’s highest year of support) and over the years Inprint has given more than $4 million to over 500 graduate students. Inprint will also once again provide an annual financial grant to Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature & Fine Arts, helping to ensure 2016-2017 Inprint CWP Prize Winners that the journal continues to thrive. The Inprint Fund, managed by the UH CWP, provided more than $25,000 last year to fund three dissertation fellowships and 11 author visits and craft talks.

As in the past, Inprint will also employ UH CWP students and alums in a variety of ways. A majority of Inprint’s Writers Workshops, Intensive Workshops, Teachers-As-Writers Work- shops, Senior Memoir Workshops, and Life Writing Workshops at Methodist Hospital—which help individuals of all back- grounds to become better writers—are taught by grad students and alumni. UH CWP stu- dents and graduates are also hired to serve as Inprint Poetry Buskers, a team of writers who demystify and spread the joy of poetry by writ- ing free poems on demand with typewriters at festivals and special events throughout the city. In addition, Inprint will recruit bloggers and live tweeters from the UH CWP. For 2017- 2018, Inprint is also thrilled to have UH CWP student Charlotte Wyatt as the first Inprint/ UH CWP Fellow. She will join the Inprint staff Top: Inprint Poetry Buskers and work on a variety of projects. Bottom: Inprint Writers Workshop

12 Inprint Reading Series

The Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, now entering its 37th season and presented in association with the UH CWP, makes it possible for thousands of Houstonians to meet and hear from the world’s most accomplished writers and thinkers. Over the years, the series has featured more than 350 great writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The 2017/2018 season is shaping up to be one of Inprint’s best, featur- ing renowned author Paul Auster, Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize finalist Nathan Englander, National Book Award finalist Nicole Krauss, Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, Guggenheim Fellow and novelist Claire Messud, Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen, UH CWP faculty member Kevin Prufer, and others. Readings take place on Mondays, 7:30 pm, in downtown Houston’s Alley Theatre and Cullen Theater in Wortham Center, and at Rice University’s Stude Concert Hall. When possible, UH CWP students are given compli- mentary tickets, and one or two writers each year give free craft talks on the UH campus for the ben- efit of the UH CWP. UH Creative Writing Program faculty also often serve as on-stage interviewers for the readings.

For more information on all of Inprint’s programs, including the Inprint Writers Workshops, Inprint Writing Cafe, Cool Brains! Inprint Readings for Young People, the Inprint Book Club, community pro- grams, collaborative readings, and more, visit www.inprinthouston.org, call 713.521.2026, join the email list, follow Inprint on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or just come by and say hello.

13 Brazos Bookstore

Brazos Bookstore has been Houston’s premier literary bookseller since 1974, a curated retail/community space featuring new fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, with a special emphasis on independent publishers and liter- ature-in-translation. The store is honored to continue partnerships with some of Houston’s foremost literary arts organizations, including the University of Houston Creative Writing Program (you!), Gulf Coast, Inprint, and many others.

Brazos Bookstore’s events program is varied, ranging from local authors to internationally renowned figures, in a variety of venues across Houston. In the past two years, Brazos has hosted 12 Pulitzer Prize-winners, 2 Nobel laureates, and authors from coun- tries including Argentina, Bolivia, Denmark, France, Iceland, Indonesia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Peru, Republic of Congo, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey, which reflects the increasing internationality of Houston.

Recent notable authors include Rick Bass, Mary Beard, Geraldine Brooks, Robert Olen Butler, Alexander Chee, Justin Cronin, Richard Ford, Alexandra Fuller, Mary Gaitskill, J. Bradford Hipps, Cheech Marin, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Eileen Myles, Sharon Olds, Orhan Pamuk, Steven Pinker, Di- ane Rehm, Richard Russo, Zadie Smith, and Colson Whitehead. Oftentimes those in attendance are able to see these authors in an intimate environment and engage in conversation with them about their work.

So come by and see us! We got books and authors. What more is there to say?

Upcoming Notable Events

Offsite 9/7 Brené Brown – BRAVING THE WILDERNESS 9/30 Michael Chabon – MOONGLOW 10/26 Roddy Doyle – SMILE 11/3 Jeffrey Eugenides – FRESH COMPLAINT 11/16 David Eagleman and Anthony Brandt – THE RUNAWAY SPECIES 12/6 Reza Aslan – GOD

In-store 9/12 Rodrigo Hasbun – AFFECTIONS 9/25 Santiago Gamboa – RETURN TO THE DARK VALLEY 11/1 John Freeman – FREEMAN’S 4 11/2 Eileen Myles – AFTERGLOW

14 Writers in the Schools

Writers in the Schools (WITS) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that transforms the hearts and minds of young people all over Houston. Since 1983, WITS has worked hand-in-hand with educators and professional writers to teach students the craft of writing while encouraging critical thinking, cre- ative self-expression, and personal responsibility. WITS programs take place in schools, museums, hos- pitals, community centers, parks, libraries, camps, and juvenile detention centers. WITS also provides professional development opportunities for classroom teachers, giving them the tools to make writing an adventure in learning.

This year, WITS was delighted to welcome new writers from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program to our teaching roster. Melanie Brkich, Michelle Burk, Thomas Cardamone, Chelsea DesAutels, Niki Herd, Matt Krajniak, Josie Mitchell, Dallas Saylor, Cait Weiss, and Charlotte Wyatt have infused WITS classrooms with fun and inquiry through their innovative approaches to teach- ing writing. We are grateful for their belief in WITS and their efforts to create rigorous, reflective, and celebratory learning experiences for their students. Many congrats to this year’s Inprint Prize Winners who are also WITS writers: Dan Chu, Adrienne Perry, Jon Meyer, and Joshua Gottlieb-Miller.

WITS has been hard at work this year helping to cultivate and advocate for Houston’s literary landscape:

In partnership with the Houston Public Library and the City of Houston, WITS established the Houston Youth Poet Laureate program to identify young writers committed to civic and community engagement, poetry and performance, and education across Houston. Fareena Arefeen, a student at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, was named Houston’s second Youth Poet Laureate. WITS was also thrilled to join Mayor Turner in celebrating our Special Programs Manager, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, as Houston Poet Laureate this year. D.E.E.P. will serve the city over the next two years, bringing poetry to youth all over Houston.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, WITS collaborated with The Buffalo Bayou Partnership and artist Nicola Parente for a second year to create colorful and interactive Poet-Trees. These installations captured the hearts of visitors at Buffalo Bayou park throughout the month of April. We are pleased to share that UH Professor Roberto Tejada joined the WITS board and was our keynote speaker at the Spring Writer Meeting.

We were thrilled to hear about the new UH PhD in Spanish with a Concentration in Creative Writing and are eager to welcome more bilingual writers to our WITS community as we continue to reach Span- ish-speaking classrooms during the school year.

15 In addition to enhancing our local literary community, WITS has been developing a strong national presence through its partnership with the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and Brave New Voices. Many of our writers have gone on to establish their own WITS programs as well, and we are happy to support them as members of the WITS Alliance.

WITS has been growing by leaps and bounds, serving over 38,000 students and teachers last year alone, and 3,000 kids during the summer. As we continue to develop and expand our programs, we recognize that the work we do depends on the strength of our writers. WITS employs and trains approximately 200 writers and teachers every year, giving creative individuals the chance to connect with each other and with the Greater Houston community. WITS is committed to fueling Houston’s creative economy by giving professional writers the opportunity not only to earn a living, but also to make a difference in the lives of young people.

For more information about WITS, including how to apply for a teaching position, please visit us at witshouston.org or call 713-523-3877.

16 Gulf Coast A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts

2016-2017 was another stellar year for Gulf Coast as on top of a stunning installation by David Scanavino, we welcomed Digital Editor Georgia Pearle and Art and we added the Toni Beauchamp Critical Art Writ- Editors Rachel Cook and Maria Luisa Minjares to ing Prize to our contest lineup. With the guidance of the Gulf Coast family. We celebrated 30 years as one our judge Darby English, we are already seeing an of the best literary journals in the country by expand- exciting pool of entries. We are also thrilled to say ing our reading series and publishing a wide range of that the Barthelme and Translation Prizes are show- award-winning authors and artists. ing early signs of record-breaking entries, no doubt thanks to our amazing Our Reading Series continued to be a smashing judges Roxane Gay and success that brought an incredible lineup of John Keene. featured readers to Houston. With our Reading Series Curator Erika Jo Brown and Jonathan This year, we were also Meyer on the mic, the reading series lived up happy to continue to build to its reputation as one of the best in Houston on our strong partnerships (as named by Houstonia Magazine). In ad- with local organizations dition to reading, several of our readers held like Writefest, TCAF, brilliant talks during their time in Houston. Tim Lawndale, the Moody Z. Hernandez gave an insightful discussion on Center for the Arts, WITS, autonomy in writing, while Hadara Bar Nadav Inprint, and the University discussed the challenges of of Houston. This year’s the job market. Guest read- Menilfest included lo- ers this season included (in cal food trucks, amazing order) Hadara Bar Nadav, performances by students of WITS, and panels Allegra Hyde, Lisa Olstein, featuring some of the UHCWP’s finest. Gulf Monica Youn, Susan Briante, Coast was also thrilled to continue its part- Janine Joseph, Tim Z. Her- nership with Pleiades Press, distributing this nandez, Jonathan Moody, year’s Unsung Masters Series to our growing and Chen Chen. In addition subscriber list. to our Reading Series, Gulf Coast also celebrated its 30th In the digital realm, Gulf Coast broke the in- anniversary by having a party ternet multiple times. Thanks to the efforts of with Danez Smith, Deborah our Digital Editor, we introduced live stream- “DEEP” Mouton, and Hous- ing of our events. We also published award ton’s Youth Poet Laureate Fa- winning authors like Alex Lemon and Kaveh reena Arefeen at the incredible Lawndale Art Center. Akbar. Our print journal has continued on the path At AWP 2017, Gulf Coast joined forces with six oth- of excellence by including more translations, more er journals (Pleiades, AGNI, and American Literary special features, and more rising stars. Our latest is- Review, to name a few) to host a powerhouse reading sue features George Saunders, Leila Chatti, sam sax, for a packed house. Jamel Brinkley, Jill Magid, Jamal Cyrus, and Car- men Machado among many others! Our Fall issue is Gulf Coast continues to embrace its focus on both lit- already coming together nicely and we look forward erature and art. Our Summer Launch party was held to another exciting year!

17 Glass Mountain The Undergraduate Literary Journal at the University of Houston

We had a busy year at Glass Mountain as an influx of Glass Mountain is unique in that it accepts work only fresh and excited staff allowed us to take the journal from emerging artists, defined as those who have not in new directions. This year LeeAnne Carlson served attended a graduate program in their craft. We have as Editor, while the fall semester Managing Editor seen Glass Mountain grow from a publication that responsibilities were shared by Georges Boulos only accepted submissions from the undergraduate and Devyn Price. Our Fiction Editor was Francesca body at the University of Houston to one that pub- Ervin, Poetry Editor was Maryam Ahmed, and Art lishes pieces from around the world. In our fall 2016 Editor was Vanessa Berumen. One challenge that issue, we featured work from Columbia, Mexico, we faced this year was that we were largely starting Canada, and Russia, submitted by writers ranging in over. Many of our upper editors from last year had age from high school students to a 65 year old labor moved on, or attorney. Having were unable to a wide range of fulfil their obliga- submissions is tions to the maga- unusual among zine and regretful- undergraduate ly stepped down, literary maga- leaving very large zines, and is a shoes to fill. In significant part addition, mid-year of what makes we were faced Glass Mountain with losing one of unique. our co-managing editors, as Devyn This year we held Price graduat- our traditional six ed. These shoes readings per year, were filled when as well as our Marissa Gonza- annual Write-A- lez, editor of the Thon, the pri- Reviews section mary means by moved into posi- which we raise tion as one of our funding for the managing editors. This year we also formalized the Boldface Conference. The ekphrastic competition position of Social Media Manager. Kim Coy took featured one of the art selections from the Fall 2016 on this responsibility, and her work proved vital to issue, a piece that would go on to be featured in the growing the awareness of the magazine, not only at UH Sustainability Fest. Raffles provided breaks from UH but to the Houston writing community at large. a day of concentrated writing, with students buying Erika Jo Brown was our hardworking and indomi- tickets for a chance to win prizes ranging from books table Graduate Student Advisor, keeping us focused to naming rights for a baby goat--the winner of the and moving forward. Of course, nothing would have naming rights declaring that ‘his goat’ would be happened without the leadership of our Faculty Advi- named Peaches. sor, Audrey Colombe. One of our primary goals this year was to expand our

18 involvement with, and support of, the other organiza- and dreams in such a fashion is an investment in the tions that comprise the local Houston writing com- future of our craft. munity. Beyond involvement in events on campus such as the Red Block Bash, hosted by the Blaffer The Spring 2017 semester brought staffing changes Gallery, staffers from Glass Mountain could be found to the magazine. Marissa Gonzalez stepped into the at events around the city of Houston such as book shoes of graduating Managing Editor, Devyn Price, festivals at different universities, WriteFest, Menil- and Kim Coy shouldered more editorial responsibili- Fest, and more. Due to an expanded social media ties as well. This semester was intense as we pushed presence we were able to attract not only increased forward to publish our Tenth Anniversary Issue. numbers of students, but also community members For an undergraduate student-run magazine to have to the six readings held by the magazine over the persevered and excelled is amazing. It was an honor course of the year. Staffers at Glass Mountain had the to be able to shepherd the magazine to the publica- opportunity to add poetry busking to our repertoire, tion of this beautiful issue, mindful of the work of so with the support of Inprint. The magazine was invited many who labored to lay the foundation of the maga- to participate in zine. The maga- a panel held at zine has grown Brazos Book- and developed a store on Texas unique esthetic Independents, that perfectly featuring inde- exemplifies pendent book- what can be ex- stores, publish- pected when the ing houses and unjaded eyes of magazines. It undergraduates was particular- pore through a ly gratifying to slush pile. We learn that Glass are excited to Mountain is used take this edgy to teach journal publication in local high schools and and adventurous approach even further with the in colleges across the country. We are looking for- launch of our online magazine this summer. We look ward to continuing our craft class series with CWP forward to being able to complement the print mag- students next year, continuing to strengthen the ties azine with podcasts of panels and interviews with between the undergraduates and the graduate pro- artists selected for the print journal as well as make gram. public art and writing unique to the online version.

Arguably the highlight of the year was being able to The changes that have taken place this year at bring seven staffers to the 50th Annual AWP Con- Glass Mountain will only continue to be dynamic ference in Washington D.C. Not only were we able and exciting with the new staff stepping up for the to promote the magazine, as well as the Boldface 2017-2018 year. Kim Coy will be the new Editor, Writing Conference, we also saw a change in our with Amanda Ortiz and Anthony Alvares serving as staffers. Our editors and assistant editors are com- Co-Managing Editors. It will be exciting to see the mitted to the magazine and work long hours to put growth of the magazine in their capable hands! together a publication that we feel is truly unique in focus and beautiful in form. To be able to see these ~ LeeAnne Carlson staffers leave D.C. inspired to continue work in Outgoing Editor, Glass Mountain Magazine writing and publishing was incredibly satisfying. The vast majority of our student volunteer staffers do not plan to continue in the literary sphere beyond their time at the university; to be able to help shape goals

19 Boldface A Conference for Emerging Writers

“Imagine spending the day at a coffee-shop filled with unique, passionate, intelligent writers who want to share their knowledge and listen to you in kind. Now imagine doing that for five days in a row. That’s Boldface.” –Boldface attendee This year we held our ninth annual Boldface Writing guilds and groups joined us on Friday, many featured Conference. This conference, unique in its focus on in panels offered throughout the day. Panels focused emerging writers, features daily small group writing on the practical aspect of taking writing to the next workshops, alternating with craft talks, readings, and step, from self-publishing and traditional publication, panels. This year, like previous years, we had students to exploring the MFA application process. A panel on joining us from local schools such as UH, UH Down- translation was well particularly popular, not sur- town, and Houston Community College. We also had prising for a conference offered at one of the nation’s students from as far away as Indiana and Oregon, not most diverse universities, in one of the nation’s most to mention such far-flung locales as Waco, Texas. The diverse cities. conference highlighted our visiting writers, all graduates of the CWP, and Evening events provided for more readings and craft talks given by our relaxed interaction, with two open- visiting writers were well attended and mic readings at local businesses. The well appreciated. Poet Hayan Charara party on the rooftop at Calhoun’s Bar challenged attendees to turn from glib continued for hours as both attend- witticism to seek authenticity and au- ees and faculty enjoyed clear weather thority in their writing. Our featured after a week full of rain. The party nonfiction writer, Leah Lax, spoke on continued late into the night, with memory, and how essential it is for promises to return in a year for the the writer to be driven by memory as tenth anniversary of Boldface. well as to create memory within their characters. Bill Broun, fiction, encouraged writers to Boldface continues to grow each year, in attendees, find the freedom to create worlds by creating their and scope of the conference. This is only possible own nouns, arguing that by creating a unique world because of the support that the conference receives in which your narrator is an expert serves as fictive from the graduate students, community members, portals. and most importantly, the UH English Department and the Creative Writing Program. Special thanks are This year we expanded our focus on professionalism due to Alex Parsons, j Kastely, Lillie Robertson, Dr. established in previous years for the last day of the Antonio Tillis, and each and every member of the conference. Literary journals, publishers, writing board of Glass Mountain.

20 Alumni News Nicky Beer’s (MFA, 2003) poem Dragon” won the Ploughshares “Juveniles” appeared Cathleen Cal- Alice Hoffman Prize. He still in the July 4, 2016 bert’s (PhD, loves horror movies. issue of The New York- 1989) fourth er. She also published book of poems, Eric Ekstrand (MFA, 2010) poems in the Alaska The Afflicted completed a residency at the Mac- Quarterly Review, Girls, won the Dowell Colony in 2016, and this descant, Jet Fuel Review, Vernice Quebo- summer he received a Walter E. and Memorious, as well deaux Path- Dakin fellowship from the Se- as the anthology Still Life ways Poetry wanee Writers’ conference. with Poem: 100 Natures Prize and was Mortes in Verse. She also published by Christa Forster (MFA, 1994) had an essay/recipe pub- Little Red published recent work in the on- lished in The Artists and Tree in July line journal, Zócalo Public Square Writers Cookbook. 2016. and in the anthologies Goodbye, Mexico: Poems of Remembrance; Michelle Boisseau (PhD, 1985) Liz Countryman’s (PhD, 2012) Our Space: Shorts and Poetry was awarded a 2017 Guggenheim first book, A Forest Almost, was from the Houston Community; Ar- Fellowship in Poetry. selected by Graham Foust as the tlines2: Art Becomes Poetry; and winner of the 2016 Subito Press The Milk of Female Kindness: An Eleanor Mary Boudreau (MFA, Poetry Prize and will be published Anthology of Honest Motherhood. 2016) recently published poems by Subito in fall 2017. Her feature articles have appeared in of FIELD, Copper Nickel, and Recent poems in the Houston Chronicle’s “Gray New American Writing. appear and are Matters” section. Her forthcoming original performance, Conor Bracken (MFA, 2015) had in Poetry, The “What’s on [My] his poem “Damaged Villanelle” Kenyon Re- Mind?” was funded featured in the April 24th edi- view, and Mir- by an Individual Artist tion of The New Yorker, and his acle Mono- Grant from Hous- chapbook, Henry Kissinger, Mon cle. She and ton Arts Alliance and Amour, was selected by Diane fellow CWP premiered at 14 Pews. Seuss as the winner of the 2017 alum Sam- Matthew Dickman select- Frost Place Chapbook Competi- uel Ama- ed her poetry manuscript, tion (it will be published by Bull don are Phenomenal Days, for his City Press in September, 2017). working mentorship at the 2016 Tin He has been the assistant direc- on their House Summer Workshop. tor of the University of Hous- fourth She serves on the Adviso- ton-Clear Lake Writing Center issue ry Board of Public Poetry. since August 2016. of the poetry Having designed and taught journal Oversound. writing and reading courses Julie Chisholm (PhD, 2002) is for Inprint, The Hines Center for doing nothing creative, but she Viet Dinh’s (MFA, 2003) debut Spirituality and Prayer, and The did make full professor this year novel, After Disasters, was a final- Kinkaid School, where she teach- at Cal Maritime. ist for the PEN/Faulkner Award es full-time in the Upper School for Fiction, and his story, “Lucky English Department, she looks 21 forward to unveiling her newest Texas A&M University and busily forthcoming issue of Oxford course for the 2017-2018 academ- scratching away at his dissertation. Magazine of Miami University. ic year: “Visions of Apocalypse: His article, “Race, Nature and Lark is also curating an exhibition From Dante to Dylan to Dr. Dre.” Decapitation in Eudora Welty’s called “Guest Star” including the ‘A Curtain of work of all Randi Faust (MFA, 2006) will Green,’” ap- the people be starting Law School in the peared in the who’ve ever fall at South Texas College of Spring 2016 stayed at Law, where she plans to focus on edition of The her house. Public Interest Law, specifically Eudora Welty It will open Civil Rights and Voters’ Rights. Review, receiv- on June 8 If all goes well, she’ll graduate in ing the Ruth at Devin 2020—the same year her son Sam Vande Kieft Borden graduates Colorado College! Prize from the Gallery in Eudora Wel- Houston. A Renata Golden’s (MFA, 2000) ty Society. In poem from essay “What the Two Percent March 2017 he traveled to San CWP poetry alum Mark Larue will Are Saying,”was published in Francisco to receive the John be one of the works featured in the MUSE/A Journal and her essay, and Suanne Roueche Excellence show. “Lessons from Frank,” is forth- Award from the League for Inno- coming in Unmasked and Women vation in the Community College. In the spring, after finishing up a Write About Sex & Intimacy After On April 8, Cliff was among 15 five-year appointment as Utah’s Fifty. writers, including novelist Attica poet laureate, Lance Larsen (PhD, Locke, journalist Cary Clack and 1993) co-directed a theater study James Allen Hall (PhD, 2006) country-rocker Joe Ely, inducted abroad program in London. He won Cleveland into the Texas Institute and his students saw some great State University of Letters at their annual productions, and his daughter Poetry Center’s meeting in El Paso, Tex- got her picture taken with Daniel Essay Collection as—an honor for which Radcliffe, after watching an ac- Prize, judged he is most grateful and claimed production of Rosencrantz by Chris Kraus. shocked. He continues and Guildenstern are Dead at the His book, I as a professor of English Old Vic. Lance has new work Liked You Better and creative writing at forthcoming in Southern Review, Before I Knew Lone Star College-Mont- Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, You So Well, gomery in Conroe, American Poetry Review, and else- which began Texas, where he serves where, and his fifth poetry collec- in a nonfiction as co-program director tion, What the Body Knows, was workshop at of the monthly Writers published by University of Tampa Houston with in Performance reading Press. He continues to teach at Mark Doty, was series good friend and Brigham Young University, and released in April. James is cur- CWP alum Dave Parsons. will shortly take over as depart- rently directing the Rose O’Neill ment chair so say your prayers for Literary House at Washington Peter Kimani (PhD, 2014) will be him. College, on Maryland’s Eastern the Visiting Writer at Amherst Shore, where he also serves as an College for the 2017-18 academic After ten years away, Leah Lax associate professor of English. year. (MFA, 2004) has been pulled back into opera world—first, Cliff Hudder (MFA, 1995) is now Laura Lark’s (MA, 1989) short with composer Lori Laitman for ABD in American Literature at story, “Drag” will appear in the a chamber work based on her

22 memoir, Uncovered. Then, with the 2017 AWP Conference entitled Meta Make-Belief, in early 2019. composer Mark Buller, a choral “Place as Wellspring: Reimagining He and his wife Camellia Cosgray work featuring stories and words Local Fiction.” She teaches cre- will celebrate their son Harold’s of veterans for Houston ative writing, nature writing, second birthday in August. Grand Opera’s “Veterans’ and literature Songbook” project. And, at Lynchburg Kimberly Meyer’s (PhD, 2008) with composer Chris College in “Welcoming the Stranger,” her Theofanidis, a new Virginia. series of portraits of Syrian and version of The Refuge, Iraqi refugees and those here in for which she spent Robert Lun- Houston who are helping resettle a year listening to day’s (MA, 1985 them came out in Texas Month- Houston immigrants / PhD, 2002) ly. Also, her essay, “Rupture,” and refugees. Oh— Gnome, a book- won the Spring 2016 Los Angeles and she’s deep into length lyric essay, Review Literary Award in Creative a memoir in many was published Nonfiction and another voices called Not this past winter by essay, “Little Log From Here. Leah’s Black Sun Houses For You recent memoir Lit. and Me,” previ- Uncovered won ously published a Texas Writers’ James Davis in Brain,Child, League Discovery Award and was May (MFA, was anthol- a finalist for five others, including 2007) was a Walter E. ogized in a Chautauqua Prize. Dakin Fellow at the 2016 Inspired Jour- Sewanee Writers’ Confer- neys: Travel ence and published poems Writers in in Copper Nickel, The Mis- Search of souri Review Online, and the Muse. Terminus.

Nina McConigley Wayne (MFA, 2006), Miller’s recently pub- (MFA, 2002) poetry lished an essay collection, Post-, won the in the May 2017 Rilke Prize for a book issue of O, Oprah of “exceptional artistry Magazine, and and vision written by a has an essay in mid-career poet.” Post- Little Boxes: also won the Colorado Twelve Writers on Book Award in Poetry, Laura Long (PhD, 2000) co-edited Television (Cof- and In the fall of 2016, the anthology Eyes Glowing at the fee House Press, his co-translation of Edge of the Woods: Fiction and 2017). Moikom Zeqo’s Zodiac Poetry from West Virginia, pub- (Zephyr Press, 2015) was lished by West Virginia University Marc McKee’s named a finalist for the Press in March, 2017. The book (MFA, 2003) newest collection PEN Center USA Award in Trans- was featured on the PBS News- of poetry, Consolationeer, will be lation. hour Poetry Series and praised by published in late 2017 by Black Kirkus Reviews. Laura also orga- Lawrence Press. BLP will also Melanie J. Malinowski (PhD, 2000) nized and presented on a panel at publish his fourth collection, Meta received first prize in the Don’t

23 Talk To Me About Love contest for speaks contemporary and antique Carol Quinn (PhD, 2005) received nonfiction for her essay, “Arena typescript. a grant from the American-Scan- Rock” last summer. She also had dinavian Foundation (and specif- an essay entitled “Stone Cold Fox” David Parsons’s (MA, 1991) poems ically, the Jane and Aatos Erkko about her obsession with Steven appeared in The Great American Fund) to go to Finland and work Tyler published in Hippocampus Wise Ass Poetry Anthology (La- on poetry and prose. She’ll be Magazine. Melnaie continues to mar Univ. Literary Press), Texas working on a novel on immigra- live in Houston with her husband, Poets Laureate Cook Book: Poems tion in her great-grandmother’s Andy, their twelve-year-old daugh- & Recipes, World Peace (Glass childhood home in Ylitornio, ter, Echo, and their dog Egypt. Lyre Press) and Southern Poet- Finland. ry Anthology, VIII: Texas (Texas Christopher Munde’s (MFA, 2008) Review Press/Texas A&M Univ. Allie Rowbottom (PhD, 2016) poetry manuscript, Slippage, was Press). David was invited to read at recently sold her first book, Jell-O selected by Dorothy Barresi to numerous venues, including, Texas Girls: A Family History, to Little receive the Patricia Bibby Award, Association of Creative Writing Brown and Company, to be pub- and will be published by Tebot Teachers Conference, the TPL lished in the spring/summer of Bach in 2018. Also, in the past Cookbook launch with five other 2018. year, his poems have appeared Laureates, St. Thomas Univ. with in Bateau, Phoebe, Sugar House fellow UH Alum, Daniel Rifen- Matthew Siegel (MFA, 2009) pub- Review, The South Carolina Review, burgh, Texas City College Library, lished poems coming in Tin House and West Branch Wired. and was asked to read his poem, and had a poem up for Poem-A- Texian, at the Historic Texas Flag Day on the Academy of American Kerry Neville’s (PhD, 2000) short Park at the Rising Stars & Leg- Poets site. fiction collection, Remember To ends of Texas Festival. He is still Forget Me, will be out in Septem- teaching Creative Writing at Lone Analicia Sotelo’s (MFA, 2012) ber 2017 from Braddock Avenue Star College and Co-Directing chapbook Nonstop Godhead was Books. Fiction and essays have the Writers In Performance Series selected by Rigoberto Gonzalez appeared in The Gettysburg Review, with his pal and colleague, fellow for the Poetry Society of America TriQuarterly, Epoch, Arts & Letters, UH Alum, Cliff Hudder. Chapbook Fellowship. Her de- JuxtaProse, The Establishment, and but collection of poetry, Virgin, The Fix, among others. She has Edward Porter (PhD, 2013) pub- won the Inaugural Jake Adam accepted a tenure-track Assistant lished stories in Glimmer Train York Prize for a first or second Professor of Creative Writing po- and Catamaran, and will be con- collection of poems, presented in sition at Georgia College and State tinuing as a Jones Lecturer in Fic- partnership by Copper Nickel and University, and is fiction/nonfic- tion at Stanford University during Milkweed Editions, judged by Ross tion faculty for the University of the 2017-18 academic year. Gay. Limerick/Frank McCourt Interna- tional Writing Summer School at Celeste Prince (MFA, 2013) was Marilyn Stablein’s (MA, 1984) NYU. offered a spot in the Sewanee Writ- published essays in the Malpais ers’ Con- Review and Laurie Newendorp (MA, 1992) ference this UPPERCASE lives quietly (too quietly) in Hous- past summer Magazine. Poems ton, and is a volunteer at the new and is very and artwork Moody Center for the Arts. Her re- excited to appeared or are cent manuscripts, “When Dreams get back into forthcoming in Were Poems” (poetry), “Annabelle, writing after the anthology A Love Story” (fiction), and “the so many Honoring Our book of beginnings”* (memoir in years off. Rivers, San Pedro progress) seek a publisher who Review, Otoliths

24 and Gargoyle. She presented the (Winner of the National Outdoor of Woo & Isolde, was selected by keynote address at the Newport Book Award) for the UH Honors Amelia Gray as winner of the Rose Book and Paper Festival and College Great Conversation. Metal Press Short Short Chapbook taught workshops in visual mem- Con- test and is forthcoming oir and poetry in Albuquerque, at Yerra Sugarman (PhD, 2016) has in August. Seattle’s Cascadia Poetry Festival recently published and in Oregon through Mountain poems in AGNI, Coert Voorhees’s Writers Series. She completed Lin- Mississippi Review, (MFA, 2009) novel ear Habitats, a sculptural antholo- Bellevue Review, On the Free will gy of three works combining text, Literary Imagina- be published by poems and visuals: A Writer’s Book tion, Cherry Tree, and Lerner in Octo- of Graphs, A Graph Sampler and Copper Nickel. AGNI ber. His short Block Book. A new book Phantom nominated her work film For Keeps, Circus is forthcoming. for a Pushcart Prize. set in the world She also has articles on of competitive Emma Lazarus and Mar- Elementary ilyn Hacker forthcoming school mar- in the online edition of bles, is being the Oxford Encyclopedia of produced by American Literature. Instant Pictures and will be released in early 2018. Giuseppe Taurino’s (MFA, 2006) published a story in B O D Y and Sidney Wade’s (PhD, 1984) seventh was a featured writer at the South- collection of poems, Bird Book, ern Literary Festival. He continues will be published by Atelier26 to serve as Assistant Director of Books in September, 2017. Cur- the UH CWP, and as a contrib- rently Professor Emerita, she re- uting editor for American Short tired from teaching in the MFA@ Gail (Donohue) Storey Fiction. FLA program at the University of (MA, 1982; CWP Ad- Florida last June. ministrative Director, Jennifer 1982-1986) whose Tseng’s (MFA, literary papers have 2002) debut been acquired by the novel Mayumi UH Libraries Special and the Sea of Collections, partici- Happiness (Eu- pated in the library’s ropa Editions exhibit “Storied: The 2015) was trans- First Ten Years of lated into Italian the Creative Writ- & is forthcoming ing Program” with in Danish this fall. resource materials Her chapbook, Not from her collection So Dear Jenny, po- and a videotaped ems made with my interview. She Chinese father’s En- also returned to lead a discus- glish letters, won the sion about her most recent book, Bateau Press Book Chapbook I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Contest and was published in Feb- Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail ruary. Her collection The Passion

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Photography by Melanie Brkich (MFA Poetry, 2017)