A Note from the Chair
2014 was a year when Creative Writing welcomed new full-time faculty in fiction, when our small group of full-time and visiting faculty published a remarkable number of books and chapbooks from distinguished presses, across fiction, non-fiction and poetry; and when extraordinary graduate and undergraduate students also published collections of poetry. We continued to respond to ever-increasing demand for our courses. We saw increasing audiences for readings, especially those supported by our partners in the Logan Center and the Committee on Social Thought. And we completed a great administrative team. Congratulations and thanks to all. And more, much more follows.
John Wilkinson
Chair of Creative Writing
Undergraduate Achievements
Jamie Lauren Keiles published the essay “The Best Time I Vomited After Deleting My Twitter” on The Hairpin.
Angela Qian won the Norman Mailer Award for College Poetry, an award administered by the National Council of Teachers in English.
Recent alum Mae Rice published the essay “Chicago Fear” in The Morning News.
Recent alum Eric Thurm (English/CRWR minor c/o 2014) was recently quoted in a New York Times article.
Student poets Ashley Tran (’15, English) and Hannah O’Grady (’15, English) were awarded the College’s Seidel Scholars PRISM Grant for the summer of 2014. Tran completed a poetry chapbook entitled “Yellow” under the guidance of her mentor, Stephanie Anderson, who is a PhD candidate in the Department of English and teaches poetry writing for the Committee on Creative Writing. O’Grady wrote a series of poems entitled “Adventures in Verse, or What I Learned at the Family Dollar.” Both students presented on their work at the Autumn 2014 PRISM Symposium.
Graduate and Faculty Achievements
Stephanie Anderson’s latest chapbook, Sentence, Signal, Stain, was published in September by Greying Ghost.
Will Boast’s memoir Epilogue came out in September from W.W. Norton and Company.
Hannah Brooks-Motl’s The New Years came out in May from Rescue Press.
Rachel DeWoskin’s young adult novel Blind came out in August through Viking Juvenile.
Baird Harper won the 2014 Raymond Carver Short Story Fiction Contest. The winning story “Safe, Somewhere” was published by Carve Magazine.
First-year English graduate student Christopher Kempf received a National Endowment for the Arts award in poetry.
David MacLean’s book The Answer to the Riddle is Me was just named one of the Best Books of 2014 by Kirkus Reviews.
Patrick Morrissey’s volume of poetry The Differences came out in October from Pressed Wafer.
Gwen Muren’s Glitch came out in June from Crater Press (Crater 26).
John Wilkinson’s book of poetry Schedule of Unrest came out in September from Salt Publishing.
Student Opportunities
APPLY: Memoryhouse Chapbook Workshop
Submissions deadline: December 22
During winter quarter 2015, Memoryhouse will be hosting its annual chapbook workshop for writers looking to transform their writing into physical art objects. Memoryhouse will provide all of the guidance, tools, and materials you will need to produce your chapbook. The program is free and will consist of four workshops.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: The Mochila Review
Submissions deadline: January 1, 2015
The Mochila Review, the international undergraduate literary magazine published by Missouri Western State University is seeking fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art submissions for its 2015 issue; we are currently accepting submissions until January 1, 2015.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Ball State University Digital Literature Review
Submissions deadline: January 5, 2015
For our second issue, entitled “Slavery Now,” the Digital Literature Review will examine the complexity of slavery in a modern context. We welcome original, engaging, scholarly submissions that explore the cultural significance of slavery from the perspective of a wide range of academic disciplines, including criminal justice, philosophy, anthropology, and literary studies. We are accepting original and currently unpublished undergraduate work. For more information, we invite you to visit our journal’s website. Please send submissions to our email, dlr@bsu.edu, by January 5, 2015.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Ron Offen Prize in Poetry
Submissions deadline: January 7
An opportunity to read alongside Daniel Borzutsky
On Thursday, January 29th, Daniel Borzutzky will read from his latest books, In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy (Nightboat, 2015); and The Book of Interfering Bodies (Nightboat, 2011). Any current graduate or undergraduate student at the University of Chicago is eligible. Please submit 3–5 pages of poems to kmobrien@uchicago.edu by Wednesday, January 7, 2015. One student will be selected by Daniel Borzutzky to participate in a featured reading with him on January 29th in the Logan Center. The winning student will also be awarded a $300 prize, which is made possible by the support of the Ron Offen Poetry Prize Fund.
APPLY: The Ashbery Home School 2015 Summer Program
Scholarship application deadline: February 1
August 9-14, 2015
The Ashbery Home School of Hudson, New York is a one-week innovative writing conference that welcomes poets seeking to enhance their practice through a radical consideration of other art forms. Featuring daily workshops, seminars, readings and nightly gatherings, the Ashbery Home School offers writers at all stages of their career an intensive and stimulating engagement with poetry and the arts in a one-of-a-kind historic setting. Five full-tuition scholarships plus stipend will be awarded! Applications received by Dec 15th are free. We encourage all interested participants to apply soon. Contact: ashberyhomeschool@gmail.com
CFP: The North American Review Bicentennial Creative Writing and Literature Conference
June 11-13, 2015
University of Northern Iowa
We are eager to include papers, panels, and roundtables from a wide range of writers and critics. Our keynotes speakers are Martín Espada, Patricia Hampl, and Steven Schwartz. If you have any questions about the conference, feel free to contact the conference director Jeremy Schraffenberger at schraffj@uni.edu.