Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rushdie
The Return to Realism
MFA Index
A Comprehensive Guide to
More Than 200 Programs
POETRY POWER
Nicole Sealey & Dawn Lundy Martin
Javier Zamora & Erika L. Snchez
DEPARTMENTS pw.org
8 Editors Note THE LITER ARY LIFE For information about
11 Letters 23 The Time Is Now more than two hundred
Writing prompts and exercises. graduate programs in
NEWS AND TRENDS 25 Rejection Slips creative writing, visit our
On not getting into the New Yorker. MFA Programs database,
12 The American Writers Museum opens;
by da n iel wa ll ace which includes details
the ASLE brings together writers and
31 Patience and Memoir about funding, class size,
environmentalists; the Radius of Arab
The time it takes to tell your story. core faculty, and more.
American Writers offers community; by joyce m ay na r d
an interview with Lena Dunham about Keep tabs on your
37 How Deep This Grief applications to MFA
her new book imprint; and more.
Wrestling with writing as therapy. programs and writers
by i a n sta nsel
retreats, as well as your
43 Writing as Redemption submissions to contests,
Rewriting a scene to rewrite your life.
literary magazines,
by ju li a fier ro
small presses, and
51 Why We Write
literary agents, using our
With deepest gratitude.
by na ncy mn dez-booth Submission Tracker.
Read Stephen Morison
Jr.s online exclusive
THE PR ACTICAL WRITER Springtime in Tirana:
121 Reviewers & Critics Report From Literary
Kevin Nguyen of GQ. Albania.
by mich a el ta eck ens
Read the expanded
125 First interviews with Kevin
Javier Zamoras Unaccompanied and Nguyen, GQs digital
Erika L. Snchezs Lessons on Expulsion.
by r igoberto gonz lez deputy editor, and Lena
Dunham, whose new
133 Selling Your Second Book
Random House imprint
Warnings and reassurances.
by chloe ben ja mi n just released its rst title.
Listen to the fteenth
episode of Ampersand:
141 Grants & Awards The Poets & Writers
Over 110 upcoming deadlines, plus 6
new awards, and 221 recent winners. Podcast, featuring a
clip from Porochista
189 Conferences & Residencies Khakpours interview with
Retreatsfrom Tieton, Washington,
Salman Rushdie; Dawn
to Tepoztln, Mexico.
Lundy Martin and Nicole
199 Classieds Sealey reading from their
Calls for manuscripts, job openings, new collections; and an
and more.
excerpt from one of the
stefanie keenan
Staff Accountant
P A UL V A RG A S
Contributing Editors
MICHAEL BOURNE
FRANK BURES
JEREMIAH CHAMBERLIN
JOFIE FERRARI-ADLER
RIGOBERTO GONZLEZ
DEBRA GWARTNEY
P O E T S & W RI T E RS , I N C .
TAYARI JONES
RUTH ELLEN KOCHER Executive Director
STEPHEN MORISON JR. ELLIOT FIGMAN
KEVIN NANCE
FRANCINE PROSE Founding Chair
CLAUDIA RANKINE GALEN WILLIAMS
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S E P O C T 2 0 17 6
Note
EDITORS
T H E R E A R E F EW L I V I NG NOV E L I S T S W R I T I NG I N E NGL I SH
who command the level of reverence that our cover subject has
achieved over the past forty-two years, since his rst novel, Grimus,
was published in 1975. Toni Morrison is up there with him. As is
Philip Roth. J. M. Coetzee, Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin.
Certainly there are others, but still, exclusive company. Perhaps add
Don DeLillo, whom Salman Rushdie clearly admires, if the refer-
ences to him in Porochista Khakpours interview with Rushdie are
an accurate gauge. At one point in their wide-ranging conversation,
Rushdie talks about his resistance to labels, making it clear that he
wouldnt be terribly fond of this parlor game of mine. If someone
tries to put me in a particular box, I immediately want to be in a dif-
ferent box. Ive never been a great gang member. There are writers
who like to travel in packsI dont like that, he says. I just think
what is great about this art form is that its one single intelligence
saying, Heres how I see it. An intelligence that nobody owns. Its
just this one person saying, I will tell you this. The desire to be that
individual voice I think is what makes a novelist. Every novelist Ive
ever loved has that thing where you know its them. You pick up a
random page of DeLillo and its nobody else. The same can be said
of Rushdie, of course. His new novel, The Golden House, is a tour de
force that puts current American culture and preposterous politics
in stark relief. It is, in a word, epic. As is the interview starting on
page 54, which covers a number of subjects, but the comment that
made my eyes sparkle was this one, about Rushdies approach to the
act of writing: Ive always had this view that you wake up every day
with a little nugget of creative juice for the day and you can either
use it or you waste it. My view is, therefore, you write rst. Get up,
get out of bed, get to your desk, and work.
I love that kind of work ethic, and this issue is lled with brilliant
poets, novelists, memoirists, and essayists who arent wasting a
moment. Still, I admit Im not at my writing desk as often as Id like,
and I imagine Im not alone. Lucky for us, Joyce Maynard (31) has a
reminder: Writing doesnt happen just when you place your ngers
on the keyboard or pick up your pen, she says. An essential and
too often overlooked part of the process occurs in the not-writing
time, the time when it looks as though nothings happening, but
youre actually making sense of your life. The writing time, the
not-writing time, lets make the most of it all.
Letters
Poets & Writers Magazine, 90 Broad Street,
Suite 2100, New York, NY 10004. Letters
accepted for publication may be edited for
clarity and length.
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 12
CONTR IBUTORS
like perhaps all important writing, is on the Story of the Day wall for AND R E W M CFADYEN -
to include, not exclude. So we focused others to enjoy. The Word Play ex- K E T C H U M is a freelance
more on the extraordinary history of hibit houses a variety of word games writer, editor, ghostwriter,
American writing, the array of types on a virtual tabletop, encouraging and writing coach. His
and backgrounds of people who have visitors to write and share original poetry collection, Ghost
contributed to it, and the story of poems. This isnt a librar y, says Gear, was published by the
America our writing collectively tells. OHagan. Its not a place where you University of Arkansas
To create t h is inclusive space, want to go sit down and read. Its a Press in 2014. His website is
OHagan and his team of developers three-dimensional space where you andrewmk.com.
hired Amaze Design, a rm known interact with what you nd, not just
for creating visually striking, inter- look at it and move on. M A G G I E M I L L N E R teaches
active learning spaces such as the In addition to the interactive por- creative writing at NYU,
A merican Jazz Museum in Kansas tions of the museum, several exhib- where she is pursuing her
City, Missouri, and the Birmingham its focus on the history and range of MFA in poetry. Previously,
Civil Rights Institute in Alabama. American writing. A mural depicting she served as Poets & Writers
The nal product is a vibrant, inspir- a tree full of squirrels reading famous Magazines Diana and Simon
ing space that allows museumgoers to childrens books lls an entire wall of Raab Editorial Fellow.
interact with the writers of Americas the Childrens Literature Gallery.
past and present and get inspired to The exhibit in the main hall, Ameri- M A R W A H E L A L is a poet
w r ite t hemselves. I n M i nd of a can Voices, celebrates a hundred and journalist who lives and
Writer, patrons can bang away like emblematic American writers below teaches in Brooklyn, New
Hemingway at a bank of old type- a sixt y-foot timeline of A merican York. She is the winner
writers and hang their masterpieces history, starting with the exploration of BOMB Magazines
2016 Poetry Contest and
the author of the poetry
collection Invasive species,
forthcoming from Nightboat
Books in 2019. Her website is
marshelal.com.
D A N A I S O K A W A is the
associate editor of Poets &
Writers Magazine.
K E V I N L A R I M E R is the
editor in chief of Poets &
Writers, Inc.
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 14
TRENDS
I
n 1992 in Reno, Nevada, a group of seem intuitive. But in the early 1990s
scholars and writers founded the many scholars working at the crossroads
Association for the Study of Lit- of these increasingly siloed disciplines
erature and Environment (ASLE) sought a way to share ideas and enlist
to promote interdisciplinary re- creative, scientific, and ethical advice
search and conversation about the from specialists in other fields. With
connections between humans and the the advent of ASLE , members gained
natural world. Comprising profession- access to a directory of multidisciplinary
als in both the humanities and the sci- scholars, as well as environmental stud-
ences, ASLE encourages collaboration, ies curricula, a list of awards and grants,
supports environmental education, mentoring programs, and a bibliogra-
and convenes a community around the phy of ecological writing, among other
twin goals of literary excellence and resources. In 1993, ASLE launched
ecological sustainability. Now, twenty- the semiannual (now quarterly) jour-
ve years later, the organization is more nal ISLE : Interdisciplinary Studies in
robustand necessarythan ever. Literature and Environment, which pub-
The intersections of poetry and con- lishes academic articles in addition to
servation biology, or speculative ction poetry, nonction, and book reviews.
and environmental activism, may not Since 1995, ASLE has also hosted a
28 August. Now, as I write this, you know nothing about anything, about what awaits you,
the kind of world you will be born into. Autumn (Penguin Press, August 2017) by Karl Ove
Knausgaard, translated from the Norwegian by Ingvild Burkey. Tenth of thirteen books, ninth
novel. Agent: Andrew Wylie. Editor: Ann Godoff. Publicist: Gail Brussel.
XX
My life seems to be an increasing revelation of the intimate face of universal struggle.
Were On: A June Jordan Reader (Alice James Books, September 2017), collected poetry
and nonction by June Jordan. Agent: None. Editors: Christoph Keller and Jan Heller Levi.
Publicist: Alyssa Neptune.
XX
In the early hour. Early Hour (Copper Canyon Press, August 2017) by Michael McGriff.
Fourth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Michael Wiegers. Publicist: Emily Grise.
XX
A lifetime or two ago, I lived with my friends Heather and Pete on Armitage Avenue, just
west of Western. The Wrong Way to Save Your Life (Harper Perennial, August 2017) by
Megan Stielstra. Third book, second essay collection. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff.
Editor: Emily Grifn. Publicist: Amanda Pelletier.
XX
I am a child sitting in my wooden ip-top desk in my fourth grade classroom listening to
Miss Hudson read Robert Frosts poem The Road Not Taken, a poem about two paths and
a crossroad. Poetry Will Save Your Life (Atria Books, August 2017) by Jill Bialosky. Ninth
book, second memoir. Agent: Sarah Chalfant. Editor: Peter Borland. Publicist: Lisa Sciambra.
XX
A tour guide through your robbery / He also is // Cigarette saying, look what I did about
your silence. Heaven Is All Goodbyes (City Lights Publishers, September 2017) by Tongo
Eisen-Martin. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Elaine Katzenberger.
Publicist: Chris Carosi.
XX
For author readings and excerpts of books featured in Page One, visit us at www.pw.org.
biennial conference, each event held in a ASLE have been established in nearly a
different U.S. city, at which intellectual dozen countries or regions outside the
cross-pollination and collaboration can United States, including Brazil, India,
happen in person. The twelfth confer- and Japan, and this years ASLE confer-
ence, titled Rust/Resistance: Works of ence drew around a thousand members
Recovery, took place in June and dou- from twenty-ve countries. Irmscher
bled as a celebration of ASLEs twenty- describes the organizations interna-
fifth anniversary. Hosted by Wayne tional, interdisciplinary conferences as
State University in Detroit, the 2017 its pice de rsistance against Trumpian
conference featured more than eight unilateralism.
hundred presenters as well as keynote The Trump administrations pro-
addresses by writers and environmental- posed 2018 budget would also eliminate
ists such as poet Ross Gay and his- the National Endowment for the
torian and novelist Tiya Miles. Arts and National Endow-
According to ASLE copresi- ment for the Humanities.
dent Christoph Irmscher, Though such cuts seem
these conferences serve as unlikely at this point
sustained intellectual ex- Congress thus far having
periences in which an array upheld federal funding for
of amazing speakers comple- both agenciesthe proposal
ments the serious conversations itself is indicative of an attitude
that take place in individual panels. that devalues the importance of art
ASLEs quarter-centennial comes at and literature to American life and cul-
a critical moment. As an organization ture. In light of such threats, Irmscher
committed equally to literature and to looks to literature for models of political
environmentalism, ASLE and its mem- environmentalism. Panels and presen-
bership are doubly threatened by the tations on Thoreaus Waldento men-
massive rollbacks in arts and climate tion one of the intellectual progenitors
spending proposed by the Trump ad- of ASLE can no longer ignore the fact
ministration. The White Houses 2018 that his philosophy of resistance has as-
budget plan, unveiled in May, would sumed new importance in an era when
slash funding to the Environmental the government systematically sup-
Protection Agency by nearly a third, presses scientic evidence, he says.
eliminating 20 percent of its workforce In a sense, the joint disavowal of
and leaving the agency with its smallest both environmental protection and
budget in forty years, adjusting for in- the arts can be seen as a conrmation
ation. Predicated on a staunch denial of what ASLE has always known: that
of the urgent reality of climate change, these disciplines are deeply linked and
the plan proposes crippling reductions even interdependentthat, as Rachel
to programs that clean up toxic waste, Carson once said, No one could write
determine the safety of drinking water, truthfully about the sea and leave out
and research and predict natural disas- the poetry. In the face of these most
ters, among others. recent threats, ASLE will continue to
In June, President Trump announced serve as a meeting point. In a climate
that the United States will also be with- that discourages innovation, scientists
drawing from the Paris climate accord, have adopted new roles as dissenters
an agreement between nearly two hun- and protesters, says Irmscher. As they
dred nations to reduce emissions and unite and march, they nd new allies in
mitigate global warming that was ad- the arts and humanities that have long
opted by consensus in 2015. As we have spoken truth to power. ASLE , whose
known ever since Rachel Carson, the en- core mission is to promote collabora-
vironmental crisis can only be addressed tion and public dialogue, provides an
globally, not within traditional national organizational framework for such new
boundaries, says Irmscher. Branches of alliances. MAGGIE MILLNER
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 16
TRENDS
W
hen poet Glenn Shaheen is not the only writer who
Shaheen f irst has found community through RAWI, James Berry
s t a r t e d w r it- a nonprot organization that for the Ann Birstein
ing, he had little past twenty-ve years has worked to Chana Bloch
sense of commu- support and disseminate creative and Michael Bond
nit y as an A rab scholarly writing by Arab Americans. Aleshia Brevard
American writer. He felt constrained RAWI a word that means storyteller Helen Cadbury
from writing about Arab American in Arabicwas first established in Morton Cohen
issues or identit y, and his under- 1992 by journalist and anthropolo- Helen Dunmore
graduate writing professors scoffed gist Barbara Nimri Aziz as a seven- Margaux Fragoso
at identity writing, telling him it person group of writers that met in Sam Glanzman
would be a cheat to write like that, Washington, D.C. It has since grown Anne Golon
because youd immediately get pub- into a thriving community of nearly Neil Gordon
lished. But when fellow poet Hayan 125 writers, artists, and journalists all Juan Goytisolo
Charara introduced Shaheen to the over the world, from the United States Alistair Horne
Radius of A rab A merican Writers to the United Arab Emirates. Mem- Spencer Johnson
(RAWI), Shaheen found a community bers include literary heavyweights like Denys Johnson-Davies
that supported and empowered his ar- Pulitzer Prize nalist Laila Lalami, Liu Xiaobo
tistic freedom. RAWI helped me be National Book Award nalist Rabih Irina Ratushinskaya
proud of my Arab heritage. Knowing Alameddine, poet and translator Fady Shelley Savren
there was a thriving community of Joudah, and poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Peter Sears
Arab writers of all backgrounds and The organization now hosts work- Sam Shepard
genres made me realize I was actu- shops and a biennial conference that Clancy Sigal
ally a part of that community, says features panels, readings, and work- Kenneth Silverman
Shaheen. I feel free to write about shops for A rab A merican writers. Charles Simmons
anything now after meeting so many The last conference, which focused Austin Straus
other Arab writerssome working on a range of topics including craft, Ed Victor
on science ction novels or ecopoetry publishing, and the effects of Islamo- Jackson Wheeler
makeen osman
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 18
Literary MagNet
of respect. I often donate it right back digital issue that includes an audio version. The journal, which
to the mag, so Im obviously not in it for launched a new website this fall, is open for submissions in all
the doughno writers are. This belief genres year-round online and via postal mail. DANA ISOKAWA
MFA in presidents recent ban on travelers fact that we arent the only ones of our
WRITING
from several A rab-majorit y coun- kind. But seeing and experiencing this
tries, Arab Americans face increased community rsthand is so vital to ones
challenges. More than ever, Jarrar resolve in continuing to do this work.
says, I hope that RAWI can be a solace Emerging poet Kamelya Omayma
and provide its members and the Arab Youssef agrees. For her, RAWI provided
American literary community support the foundation she needed as a writer.
nonction,
and
speculative
ction
illustr ations copyright 2016 chris riddell, from neverwhere by neil gaiman, illustr ated by chris riddell.
Sarah Lawrence
cultivates writers,
each with a deep
understanding of the
craft and the tools to
write compellingly,
wherever your THE WR IT TEN IMAGE Neil Gaimans rst solo novel, Neverwhere, takes place
career takes you. in a shadowy underground world lled with a fantastical set of characters: an eln young
woman with a magical power to open doors, an imperious marquis inspired by Puss in
Boots, a man who speaks to rats (pictured above), and a pair of slimy assassins, to name a
few. A new edition of the novelpublished last year in the United Kingdom and this month
in the United States by William Morrowbrings these characters to life with artwork by
illustrator and U.K. childrens laureate Chris Riddell, whose black-and-white illustrations
take up full pages and adorn the margins of the text. One hopes it creates a moodits a
little bit like some good stage lighting, Riddell says in a video lmed by the U.K. bookstore
chain Waterstones, adding that the illustrations help the reader concentrate on the very
heart of the book, which of course are the words. Gaiman originally published the book in
the United Kingdom in 1996 as a novelization of a BBC television miniseries of the same
name. The new edition, the authors preferred text, also includes an alternative scene and
an additional short story about one of the characters. I wanted to talk about the people
who fall through the cracks, writes Gaiman in the books introduction. To talk about the
SLC.EDU/WRITING-MFA dispossessed, using the mirror of fantasy, which can sometimes show us things we have
seen so many times that we never see them at all, for the very rst time.
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 20
TRENDS
Q&A
For weekly writing prompts delivered via e-mail, sign up for our The Time Is Now newsletter
at www.pw.org/writing-prompts-exercises, where youll nd more writing prompts and The Best Books for
Writers, a list of suggested reading for creative writers.
Life
Rejection Slips
ON NO T GET T I NG I N T O T H E N E W YOR K E R
M
Y FIRST time? November 29, 1984. It was
the third story Id ever written and, like
the other two, was brooding and man-
nered and obscure, the work of a young
writer writing the way he thought writers wrote. I was
condent about that story, though. At six pages, it was the
longest one Id ever written, capacious by my standards, D A N I E L W A L L A C E is
the perfect story to send to the best magazine in the world. the J. Ross MacDonald
I had a pretty good feeling that the New Yorker was going Distinguished Professor of
to buy it, publish it, and I was going to be on my way. I was English at the University of
twenty-ve years old. North Carolina in Chapel
Before I say what Im about to say I need to say this: Im Hill, where he directs the
a lucky writer. Ive published six novels, most recently Ex- creative writing program.
traordinary Adventures, which was released this past May. Big He is the author of six
Fish, my rst novel, was a New York Times best-seller and was novels, including Big Fish
adapted into a Tim Burton lm and then a Broadway mu- (Algonquin Books, 1998) and,
sical, and my other books have been published to critical most recently, Extraordinary
acclaimwhich means they didnt sell as well as the rst Adventures (St. Martins
one. My books have taken me all over the world; Ive had Press, 2017).
a wonderful time, and I hold not even the smallest grudge
toward anybody.
However.
Of all the things Ive wanted to happen in my writing life,
the one Ive wanted longer than any other is to have one of my
short stories published in the New Yorker. I have been trying
to do that, without success, for over thirty years.
For that rst decade of my writing life, no single thing
more closely corresponded to my idea of success than getting
into the New Yorker. The writers who had inuenced me the
mostSalinger, Updike, Cheever, Nabokov, Weltyhad
been published there. It was more than a magazine to me:
It was where the literature of the twentieth century actually
happened. To be accepted by the New Yorker and edited by
the great literary gatekeepers of this countrythe heirs of
William Shawn and William Maxwellwould be an honor
and a validation that could not be equaled.
How many stories did I submit? I dont really know. But
Id say that over the course of the last thirty-four years Ive
iman woods
The authors rst rejection slip from the New Yorkers Daniel Menaker.
Somehow most of my early stories became pen pals: Year after year I wrote
had the good fortune to land on the stories, sent them to him, and he slipped
editorial desk of a guy named Daniel them into the self-addressed stamped
Menaker. I had no idea who this person envelope and sent them back to me.
was, and it didnt really matter because But not just t hat. He would al-
at that time in my life, editors were ways take a moment to write a little
all-powerful demigods whose approval something, and sign it DM .
would allow me entry into the world I Looking at the rst rejection letter I
hungrily watched from afar, typing in received from him brings back memories
solitude in my tiny duplex in Carrboro, of the young me, the me who really knew
North Carolina. Daniel Menaker and I nothing at all about what he was doing,
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 26
the literary life R EJECTION SLIPS
the me who may as well have been pan- George Saunders, is unmatched. Take MFA in Creative
ning for gold in the bathtub. I have many
more notes like this in my collection,
a look at his website. Its astonishing.
We made a date to meet this past De- Writing. MA
spanning over a decade. The last note
Menaker sent, dated August 9, 1990, is
cember at a caf on Manhattans Upper
West Side. Other than a waitress, the
in Literature.
actually a letter typed on New Yorker sta- caf was empty when I got there. I took Summers in
tionery, without the normal boilerplate.
It says, among other things, that the
the table farthest from the door, and
when he came in I waved, because even Sewanee.
story I submitted was very goodas far though Id never seen him before this Join the innovative program in
as it goes. Which apparently wasnt very could not have been anybody else. He literature and creative writing for
far, but he ends it by saying something wore a herringbone jacket, slightly rum-
students whose lives wont stop
for a year or two of conventional
truly lovely and that moved me when I pled chinos, a dark blue V-neck sweater graduate school. Give us six weeks
read it. I know weve been seeing your over a button-down shirt. His hair was each of the next four summers,
work for some time now, he wrote, but snowy white, short but curly and thick, write and defend a thesis, and
wed be glad to see more. and his beardish goatee was an ashy gray. well award you an MA or MFA of
He remembered me, out of all the Eyes sharp and clear and playful. exceptional qualityand introduce
writers he read, and made note of my We did not have long, only an hour, you to a community that has
been drawing writers and readers
decade-long struggle. Recently I was so I thought I should get right to talk- together for over a hundred years.
showing my collection of rejections ing about the New Yorker and, you
to a student who was going through know, me. But we didnt. We talked Apply for summer 2018 at
a spate of his own, and I thought, about ants for a while. Are they really letters.sewanee.edu.
Twenty-ve years have passed since all that smart? Yes and no, we decided.
Daniel Menaker wrote that note. I We talked about dogs. Then we talked
wonder if he remembers me still. about our wives and whether we would
Impossible. die before they did (probably). We
talked about TV and movies and Hol-
I
A M happy to meet with Daniel lywood agents. He ordered wafes and
Wallace anytime, Menaker they were small and delicate and he
wrote to my agent, who had offered me one and I ate it.
contacted him on my behalf. I Daniel Menaker shared his waffles
do remember my exchanges with him, with me.
and I do remember thinking again and Time passed like this. After a while he
again that he had a lot of talent and nodded toward my pen and my reporters
hoping that we would end up using notebook, woefully blank. So did you
something of his. want to ask me any questions?
Si nce ou r epistola r y relat ion- That was, after all, why I was there.
ship began in 1984, Id learned a lot But I didnt want to ask him any ques-
about Daniel Menaker. He was an tions because I was enjoying our con-
editor at the New Yorker for twenty versation; he was too, I thought. It was
years, an award-winning writer who as if we were old friends, as if we had
has published a half dozen books: known each other for yearsand in a
novels, stor y collect ions, a mem- way I guess we had.
oir. His stories, many of them pub- But I asked him a few questions, and
lished in the magazine, had won O. he gave me a few answers. He told me
Henr y Awards. A f ter leav ing t he he wrote personal notes on about one
New Yorker he became an executive out of every forty stories he read; that @SewaneeLetters
editor at Random House and, later, he looked at almost a hundred stories letters.sewanee.edu
editor in chief. Now hes an associ- every week and that he himself had been 931.598.1636
ate professor at the Stony Brook MFA rejected by the New Yorker many times,
The University of the South
program and writing his novels. The even while he worked there. And he told 735 University Ave.
list of great writers he worked with me two or three inside stories that he Sewanee, TN 37383
in his career as a magazine and book made me promise not to write about, John Grammer, Director
editor, from Isaac Bashevis Singer and but believe me, theyre great stories and April Alvarez, Administrator
Alice Munro to Elizabeth Strout and I wish I hadnt promised.
Such a good, gentle, honest man, this An editor isnt really a great. I mean, here I was eating Daniel
Daniel Menaker. Did he realize just Menakers wafes at a small caf in New
how much power he had to change a human being, though, not to York City, talking about ants and dogs
writers life? Did he think about it when and death. He said we should go out to
he was reading a story by a writer (me, a young writer; hes more like dinner the next time I was in the city,
for instance) who had never been pub- and though I havent been back yet,
lished there and what that would mean a judge, etheric, a gatekeeper were still in touch. Do you see what just
if he were? happened? After a lifetime of rejection, I
He thought about my question. Yes with powers we can only had been accepted. I had made a friend.
and no, he said. (He equivocated like A writers work is often produced in
this a lot. Yes and no. Maybe, maybe not. It dream about. a room, alone, and when we think the
is and it isnt.) But his rst commitment work is as good as we can make it, we
was to the story and to nothing else. So yes, he said. Yes and no. send it out into the world as a kind of
This is something he had learned at the Then, wafes done, tea cooling, he emissary, even a facsimile of our actual
elbow of William Maxwell, who had asked me a question. Do you still sub- selves. We send it to an editor. An edi-
edited Cheever, Salinger, and Updike. mit? I nodded. There is someone at tor isnt really a human being, though,
He inherited Maxwells point of view: the magazine now doing for me exactly not to a young writer; hes more like a
He wasnt really working for the maga- what Daniel Menaker did all those judge, etheric, a gatekeeper with pow-
zine; he was working for the writer. years ago, now via e-mail: You have an ers we can only dream about. This is
At the same time, he was aware that admirably clean, inviting prose styleits the mistake we often make and why
a writer who publishes a story in the a very good story, but. rejection can be so daunting. Maybe
New Yorker is given unprecedented and Its the but I have lived with for what we need is a revolutionary change
unmatched validation. She might get thirty years. in the submission process: If we could
a book contract, and that storythat So, no, t he New Yorker did not all just eat wafes with our would-be
one storymight open doors for her change my life, but somehow the life I editors, the writers world would be a
for years to come. ended up with turned out to be pretty better place.
WRITING
CHANGES
MFA Faculty
Amaranth Borsuk
Rebecca Brown
Sarah Dowling
Jeanne Heuving
Ted Hiebert
Joe Milutis
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 28
THE LITERARY
Life
Patience and Memoir
T H E T I M E I T TA K E S T O T E L L YOU R ST ORY
N
OBODY but a writer, or someone who loves
a writer, would understand this. The night
my husband died, I began to write a book.
Not in the rst hour. First I just lay there
beside Jim with my head on his shoulder, my body pressed
against his. We had stopped weighing him a couple weeks
earlier, but he was probably down to ninety pounds by J O Y C E M A Y N A R D is
this time. Just a year before, almost to the day, he had the author of nine novels,
undergone a fourteen-hour surgery to remove a tumor in including Labor Day
his pancreasremove the tumor and reroute his entire (William Morrow, 2009) and
digestive system to the point where it was no longer pos- To Die For (Dutton, 1992).
sible to touch his abdomen; there were so many tubes and Her earlier memoir, At Home
drains and stitches, and everything just hurt so much. All in the World (Picador, 1998),
feeling having left his body now, I could place my hand on has been translated into
his belly again, and I did that. seventeen languages. Her
For one houra little longer, maybeI lay there with new memoir about nding
my husband as his skin grew cold. This was the last time and losing her husband, The
we would ever lie together like this, and I wanted to take Best of Us, will be published
in every single thing about this moment. I took it all in, by Bloomsbury this month.
as a woman who adored this man and was mourning his
departure from earth. But here is another hard truth: I was
taking everything in as a writer, too, and as a reporter. For
close to half a century Id been telling stories about my life.
Already, in my head, this one had begun to take shape.
Sometime around 3 A M I went downstairs, made a pot
of coffee, and with my husbands well-loved body still in
our bed in the room above me, I opened my laptop and
wrote the rst sentence of what would become my next
book: On the Fourth of July weekend three years ago, at
the age of fty-nine, I married the rst true partner I had
ever known. When I was done with that sentence, I went
on to the next one.
Some history: I began working full time as a writer when
I was eighteen years old. In the more than four decades Ive
been writing for my livingnot only to keep food on the
table, but to nourish my spirit as wellI have come back
catherine sebastian
making sense of what happens in a shred of space for herself and usually farmhouse with the plan of surprising
story. Even when my characters speak coming up short. my husband. He took one look and de-
in the present tense and recount situa- At the height of its popularity, the manded that I return it. This didnt sit
tions still unresolved, I maintain, from column was syndicated in more than right with me, but I was still working
the start, a certain crucial awareness of fty newspapers around the country, that out when Monday morning rolled
the themes that lie at my books center. with a deadline requiring my nine hun- around.
With the stories that unfold in my own dred words delivered onto my editors Unable as I was to know where wed
life, however, its important to arrive at desk every Monday morning. I needed landed yet, I turned in a column that
some kind of landing place before the to arrive at an ending to every column transformed an ominous fault line in
act of writing can get underway. Tackle and some kind of conclusion about my marriage into a comical episode,
a memoir too soon and you may miss what had taken place, even though in when how I really felt was that my hus-
what its really about. my real life, more often than not, no band had failed to recognize my yearn-
I didnt always understand this. such resolution existed. ings, and a part of myself, that should
For eight years, when I was in my Many times over those years Id nd not have been shut down.
thirtiesliving in a farmhouse in myself in the middle of a raging battle Perceptive readers spotted this and
rural New Hampshire, married to my with my childrens father, or wad- told me later they realized in that mo-
first husband and raising our three ing through grief over the ending of ment that my marriage wouldnt last.
childrenI wrote a weekly newspaper a friendship, or worrying about what It didnt.
column in which I explored our life. seemed at the time like heartbreak in Look ing back now over essays I
That column, Domestic Affairs, was a the life of one of my children. wrote in the early days after my di-
kind of ongoing report from the front: One Saturday afternoon I received a vorce, I hear the voice of a woman still
an imperfect marriage, seen through windfall check for two thousand dol- too hurt and bitter andmost damag-
the eyes of a wildly devoted but awed lars, some unexpected foreign rights ing of all for a writertoo angry to
mother, a young woman struggling to for a book Id written. That afternoon write with compassion and clarity. One
find a balance between meeting the I spent the whole thing on an oriental of the worst things that can happen in a
needs of her family and locating some rug that I brought home to our humble piece of personal narrative takes place
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 32
the literary life PAT I E NC E A N D M E M OI R
when a writers uncontrolled emotion my world. The letter was written by much more important and spiritually
spills out onto the page and allows her J. D. Salingerfty-three years old at elevated than I.
reader to form an assessment of what the time but already living a reclusive But when my own daughter, Au-
has taken place that differs substan- life in New Hampshire. I embarked on drey, turned eighteen, I looked at what
tially from what the writer intends. a correspondence with Salinger that had happened to me when I was her
At that point the writer has lost the led to my leaving college and largely age from a new perspective. For the
readers trust; instead of identifying, abandoning the worldfriends, fam- rst time my principal loyalty shifted
she stands at a distance, shaking her ily, my aspirations to be a writerand from the great man to the young girl
head. moving in with him. in the story. I could not have seen
Over the years, I grew less inclined A year later, on a trip to Florida with myself as worthy of something better
to write about what had happened the him, the man I believed I would stay than what I received at eighteen, but
week before, or just yesterday, and in- with forever put two fty-dollar bills when I imagined Audrey in that situ-
stead focused my attention on those in my hand and sent me away with the ation, everything appeared different.
parts of my story from which Id gained instruction that I clear my possessions Twenty-ve years had passed before
sufficient distance. Sometimes that out of the home wed shared and dis- I wrote my memoir, At Home in the
takes a few months, sometimes years. appear from his life. World (Picador, 1998), which is often
In one notable case, it took decades. For twenty-ve years I never told described as the book about Salin-
this story. Eventually I married and ger. In fact, it was a book about me
W
HENI was eighteen gave birth to three children; I pub- my development as a writer, my long
years old, shortly lished essays and, later, novels, though struggle to locate my own voicebut
after publishing a Salingers voice, and the knowledge Salinger had chosen to be a part of
cover stor y in the of his disapproval, haunted me. Not a my life, briey, and I no longer felt an
New York Times Magazine (with a title week went by in which I wasnt asked obligation to protect him with my si-
whose irony escaped me at the time: about Salinger, but I held to the belief lence. When the book was published,
A n 18 -Year- Old Look s Back on that it was my obligation to protect the outcry over my alleged betrayal
Life), I received a letter that altered the privacy of a man I considered so of him was vast, the condemnation
Faculty includes:
CHRIS ABANI JACK DRISCOLL
SANDRA ALCOSSER VIEVEE FRANCIS
ELLEN BASS PETE FROMM
MARVIN BELL DEBRA GWARTNEY
SANJIV BHATTACHARYA CATE KENNEDY
JUDY BLUNT SCOTT KORB
BONNIE JO CAMPBELL DORIANNE LAUX
Chris Abani
EDUARDO CORRAL JOSEPH MILLAR
CLAIRE DAVIS MARY HELEN STEFANIAK
ONE OF THE TOP FIVE LOW-RESIDENCY PROGRAMS
KWAME DAWES KELLIE WELLS
IN THE NATION - THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
Master of Fine Arts in Writing | Pacic University | Forest Grove, OR | 503-352-1531 WWW.PACIFICU.EDU/MFA
of me for telling my story close to were fifty-nine and sixty years old, to my desk, I found the last cup of cof-
unanimous in the literary world. This almost a quarter century after our fee Id been drinkingbeforewith a
did not shatter me as it would have respective divorcescontained none thick skin of mold growing on the top.
once, chiey because I was no longer of the drama or conict a good mem- It had been that long since Id worked
the young girl Id beenthe one who oir requires. This was going to be there.)
wanted approval more than anything one storythe only one, perhaps For nineteen months I made it my
else and measured her worth by the I didnt w rite about. I was happy lifes work to keep my husband alive
assessment of others. enough, living it. rst, with a brutal surgery that required
W hen someone asks how long it Then came the diagnosis, fifteen well over a dozen hospitalizations, then
took to write At Home in the World, months after our wedding, three years dealing with complications so frequent
my answer contains two parts. Two after wed met. it was a rare day that we didnt pay a visit
months, I say (because thats how The day we learned Jim had a tumor to some doctors ofce. I, a woman who
long it took, putting the words on in his pancreashis odds for sur- had carefully guarded her independence
t he page). But t he real a nswer is vival very lowI had a novel nearly and her freedom to work unobstructed,
t went y-five yearsthe amount of nished and a contract to deliver two now spent my days on the phone, re-
time it took to understand what had more. For four decades I had main- searching clinical trials. When the
happened all those years back, its ef- tained a strict writing practice. If a day came that the surgeon told us the
fect on my life, and the long road Id friend suggested we meet for lunch, chemotherapy had shrunk the tumor
traveled to make sense of my experi- or proposed a visit, Id usually put her sufciently to make an operation pos-
ence and give myself permission to off. I ercely protected the hours of sible, the euphoric e-mail I wrote telling
tell the story in the rst place. my workday. my children and my friends declared:
I felt no need for similar distance But from the day the doctor deliv- Were getting the surgery. Jims di-
in telling the story of Jim and me. In ered the prognosisthat most people agnosis had become my diagnosis. The
fact, I had no desire to write about my with this kind of cancer were dead cancer was located in his body, but the
husband at all, when he was healthy. within a yearI barely set foot in my single-minded obsession to vanquish it
Our marriageentered into when we ofce. (Months later, when I ventured had taken up residence in my brain.
George Plimpton,
Jim Harrison, His memoir is advertised
Hunter S. Thompson on the strength of its wild side,
all make raucous but it is most attractive for
appearances in this its hard-earned
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 34
the literary life PAT I E NC E A N D M E M OI R
For all those months I wrote almost One day youll write about all of
nothing but Facebook posts letting this, he said.
friends know what was happening. I The morning of his death, I began
managedjust barelyto nish my to do just that.
novel and deliver it, though by the
J
time of its publication, my husband IM died in our bed, in the mid-
was failing and I canceled my book dle of a June night, four days
tour. after his sixty-fourth birthday,
But it is not entirely accurate to say three weeks before our third
that my life as a writer ceased over the anniversary. I spent the rest of that
course of that nearly two-year period. summer without him writing the rst
I kept a notebook with me all the time, draft of a memoir, The Best of Us, and
and often Id scribble down something the rest of that year revising it. People
Jim said. (Pulling up to the house wed hearing this often make the observa-
bought together, just three months tion that the work must have been so
before his diagnosis, after a six-week cathartic for you, and no doubt it was.
hospitalization, Jim had stood outside But as I always tell them, if I ask you
for a moment, breathing in the jasmine to read a book I write, Id better have
and the wisteria in bloom. This would more than my own personal catharsis
be a good place to die, he said, as he to offer.
made his way inside.) And unlike that earlier memoir of
One of the things Jim suffered most, minethe one that took twenty-five
over the span of those months, was the years to put down on paperthis new
knowledge that his illness had kept me one demanded to be written while ev-
from the work I love. The knowledge erything that happened was still raw.
of this was as hard for him, I think, I needed no distance to tell what was,
as the physical pain that had him on for me, not a cancer memoir but a story
oxycodone and methadone. about two people discovering (in my
Im doing what I want, I told him. case, for the rst time in my life) what
Being with you. But I was doing it meant to be married, to have a true
something else, too. partner, and to be one as well.
When I teach memoir, as I do on I felt grateful, over the course of that
occasion, there is a lesson I never fail long, solitary summer I spent writing
to share with my students. It is to re- the book, that I have whatever tools
mind them that writing doesnt hap- one needs to take unprocessed grief and
pen just when you place your ngers make it into whole cloth. As I neared
on the keyboard or pick up your pen. the end of the manuscript, I realized I
An essential and too often overlooked was reluctant to nish it. Once I did, my
part of t he process occurs in t he story with the man I loved would really
not-writing time, the time when it be over, and I avoided that for a while,
looks as though nothings happening, but eventually I got there.
but youre actually making sense of I brought to it every lesson of my
your life. For me, that took place over sixty-three years on earth. The events
those nineteen months I spent sitting I recount in those pages may have been
in doctors waiting rooms with Jim, freshly lived, but the perspective was
awaiting the results of his latest scan. that of a writer who had taken a few
One day, not far f rom t he end, decades getting there.
we were ly ing side by side in his First you live through the expe-
ho s pit a l b e d , a s we of t en d id rience. Then you f ind out what it
spring t ime in San Francisco, t he meant. Then you write. The meaning
sun streaming through the window, just came more swiftly with this one.
infection overtaking his liver, Jim Maybe because its simple. The story is
on morphine and he looked me about what it means to love somebody.
straight in the eye. Till death do you part.
Life
How Deep This Grief
W R E ST L I NG W I T H W R I T I NG A S T H E R A P Y
I
HAV E always found the idea of self-expression to
be rather solipsistic, embarrassing even. It smacks
of arrogance, this idea that I would have to express
all the special wonder that exists inside me, and
that people might want to listen. Maybe this comes from
spending the majority of my life in the Midwest, the land
of self-effacement. Maybe it comes from being raised, for I A N S T A N S E L is the
the most part, by a single mother who, through my forma- author of the novel The Last
tive adolescent years, took care of three children and her Cowboys of San Geronimo
aging father. When food or shelter isnt a given, you tend to (Houghton Mifin Harcourt,
develop a quick eye-roll reex when notions of individual 2017) and the short story
creativity come up. collection Everybodys Irish
And yet from an early age I also felt the desire to write, to (FiveChapters, 2013), a
tell stories. It wasnt until college that I began to gure out nalist for the PEN/Robert
how to reconcile this seeming contradiction, when a writ- W. Bingham Prize for Debut
ing teacher, the essayist Joe Bonomo, scrawled a quote from Fiction. He teaches creative
V. S. Naipaul on the board: No one cares for your tragedy writing at the University of
until you can sing about it. This was a moment of revela- Louisville.
tion as huge as any Id experienced in my then nascent
writing life. The words on the blackboard transformed
the idea of writing from self-expression into something I
was much more comfortable with: a job.
A few years later, in graduate school, I had the plea-
sure and sometimes terror of studying for a semester with
Frank Conroy, famed writer and infamous writing teacher.
Franks instructional antics were legendary: tearing up
student manuscripts in workshop, making people cry. By
the time I took his class, he was nearing the end of his life,
and it might have been that hed lost some of the re hed
had in his prime. He was still Frank, though, and hed still
go after a piece, sometimes directly and sometimes more
slyly, lulling the nerve-racked writer into a false sense of
literary success before going in for the kill.
But what often, in the heat of the moment, seemed like
random attacks from our instructor now, in retrospect,
make perfect sense. I see now that the thing that consis-
tently raised Franks ire, regardless of style or subject mat-
ter, was writing that struck him as lazy or self-indulgent.
Frank was, I believe, a reader, first and foremost. Even
more than a writer, he was a reader. And I believe he felt
personally insulted by lazy, self-indulgent work.
W
HAT writing had be- Just get here. I hung up and cried and
FACULTY AND LECTURERS INCLUDE:
come for me, horses watched all the people entering and ex-
Russell Banks
had always been for iting the gas station fteen feet from
Lan Samantha Chang m y s i s t er, K el l y. my windshield.
Tim Dorsey She rode from an early age and grew I arrived sometime around 9 PM .
Andre Dubus III to become a trainer, teaching kids and T he hospit a l lobby a tower i ng
Ann Hood adults, even taking an opportunity to steel-and-glass spacewas abandoned
Major Jackson become certied in therapeutic riding save for a person stationed at the in-
Laura Lippman in order to work with autistic children. formation desk. I dont recall a thing
Laura McCaffrey Horses were her life, her passion. Her about this person, not even if it was a
Peter Meinke car was forever festooned with errant man or woman, but I do remember ap-
Ana Menendez lengths of hay and alfalfa. Her jeans preciating the matter-of-fact way I was
Stewart ONan and boots were caked in mud from directed to the ICU. No chitchat. No
Cathie Pelletier the pasture. Her whole life, it seemed, sympathetic smiles. Just the directions
Les Standiford carried the odor of leather and saddle I needed. I ran up a long ramp to a bank
Helen Pruitt Wallace soap and just a sweet hint of manure. of elevators.
Sterling Watson The way Id entertained fantasies about Three years later, hardly a day goes
agent/editor panels and more winning the Pulitzer Prize, she imag- by when I dont picture Kelly in that
ined herself taking gold in the eques- ICU bed, though the image itself is like
DOZENS OF FELLOWSHIPS AND trian events at the Olympics. a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing.
SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE.
One afternoon in May 2014 my wife The tubes, yes, they are there. There
APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED was at the ob-gyn, pregnant with our was a covering on her head, though I
August 1November 15
second child. I was at home with our cant remember what exactly it looked
FOR MORE INFORMATION rst kid, who was napping. My phone like. And there was some kind of in-
wip@eckerd.edu or writersinparadise.com
rang and my stepfathers number reg- atable plastic thing over most of her
istered on the screen. He didnt call me body, but its actual form I cant quite
often, but it wasnt unheard-of, and I recall. I both fear and long for the de-
didnt think much of it. I said hello, tails I am missing.
asked him how he was. He hesitated. I do know my brother-in-law was
4200 54th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, Florida 33711
Kelly, he told me, had suf fered there. We hugged and cried into each
a bra i n a neu r ysm a nd was bei ng others shoulders. I probably asked for
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 38
the literary life HOW DEEP T HIS GR IEF
I
N THE ne x t fe w week s a nd
months, people suggested to
me, usually subtly and indi-
rectly, that I might write about
Kelly. But to me the idea was beyond
ludicrous: It was unthinkable. I had
a book out, a story collection, but no
tenure-track job, and so I was still in
the manic CV-building phase, wherein
I regarded nearly everything I wrote
as a new line for prospective jobs.
Publishing an essay about her would
feel like cashing in on the loss of her.
I refused to use the experience of her
death as material.
At the time, I was working on a novel
set during World War II. It was a large
story, told in four parts. I had nished
a draft of the rst two parts, and the
book was already more than three hun-
dred pages long. This would be my rst
novel, and like many rst-time novel-
ists, I wanted to go big. I wanted to be
that where-did-he-come-from writer,
that writer who emerges from nowhere
with a doorstop of a book, which of
course also happens to be brilliant.
The authors sister, Kelly, with her daughter, Brooke, at Fox Chase Farms in Maple But when, a few months after my
Park, Illinois, in 2012. sisters death, I opened my laptop and
clicked on the last draft of the book, I
the latest from the doctors, but damn itself, ever so briey, from behind the had no interest in continuing it. The
if I can recollect what he told me. all-encompassing fog of my sorrow. sentences were either overwrought or
At some point in the night I went to Grief, after all, happens to us without at and lifeless. The characters seemed
the ICU waiting room and lay down. our having any say about when or how like random collections of actions and
There were others there, most of them it might manifest. A nger, though: thoughts. The story meandered. And
friends of a man whod been brought in Anger is a choice. Anger is pointed worst, I couldnt quite remember just
after a motorcycle accident. More of and focused. Anger gives us the sem- what made me want to write it in the
his friends came in. One woman kept blance of control when it seems as rst place.
repeating the story, what she knew if the world has been stripped of all So I didnt write anything for a
and how shed heard. But, they all said meaning. while. Im not sure how long. I taught
with relief, he was going to be all right. My sister died the next day. After a classes. I probably read here and there.
Thank God. couple of hours lled with tears and I know I cried a lot, and at seemingly
I hated them. I hated their stupid paperwork and desperate embraces, random intervals, hiding around cor-
voices and I hated their stupid friend my mother and I drove from the hos- ners from my child and pregnant wife.
who was stupid enough to ride a motor- pital to her house. In that hour we A couple of months after Kellys
cycle without a helmet on. Hes going said little. W hat was there to say? death I had a chance to go to New York
to be all right. Dandy. But, I wanted to What could I say to a woman who just for a few days for a literary function
say to them, my sister is not going to be lost her child? Nothing. I remember and asked my brother to join me. We
all right, so would you kindly shut the recognizing, though, in a moment spent two days wandering around a
hell up and let me live out this horror of strange, detached clarit y, that I city he knew far better than I did, and I
in silence? was right then in the midst of the was happy to play the tourist with him
I remember my a nger at t hose worst day of my life. I have no doubt as my guide. We stayed with friends
people, I suppose, because it was the some similar thought wound its way in Brooklyn and took the train into
one thing that managed to reveal through my mothers mind, too. Manhattan each day, coming up with
O
V ER t he yea r s my sis- brothers she gave me but also be about
ter would give me story womenmothers and daughters and
ideast he way people girlfriendswho share unyielding
often domost of which bonds. And, most of all, it would be
I cant remember. I dont fault myself about horses, to whom Kelly dedicated
for this. Ideas latch themselves to a so much of her life.
writer with a mysterious magnetism.
I
You dont know why you write the sto- F I may be so reductive, there
ries you do. are two types of people in the
One of the stories my sister proposed world: those who get older and
stuck with me, though. It had to do let go of the steel-hard rules
with two brothers, both of them horse they nurtured through their youth
trainers, caught in a feud. That was it, and those who build buttresses and
as I recall. It wasnt a bad idea, but at the reinforcements to support those rules.
time it was easy to relegate it to the back I nd myself in the former camp. As
of my mind. I didnt have much inter- a younger person you dene yourself,
est in writing about horses or the horse in part, by all of your strongly held
world back then. And anyway, I had my beliefs. I just cant muster the energy
Big World War II Novel to write. anymore to argue for one way of living
Now, though, that novel seemed or working and against another. More
abby and insignicant, polluted by my important, I cant muster the certainty.
narcissistic dream of being the next big So Ive been relaxing my rules lately.
big-book writer. It had, in other words, I never thought of the process of
become about me. Somewhere along writing my novel as therapy, per se.
the line, Id left the reader behind. But it gave me something to do with
Consumed with thoughts of Kelly, my grief. It helped me get outside of
with the entirety of the rest of the my own sadness and rediscover a sense
world seeming utterly inconsequential, of purpose in my days.
I found myself without a project. What I still stand by my belief that writing
can a writer do when the one thing your should be more about the reader than
brain clings to is also the one thing you the writer. But if there is some way for
cant write about? people to use writingor painting or
Then one day I came back to the cooking or woodworking or anything
idea of the feuding brothers and it oc- to help heal their own wounds, then so
curred to me that if I could not write be it. Have at it. God bless. Do what
about Kelly, I might be able to write you need to do. Ill be right over here,
for her. hoping like hell it works.
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 40
THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MFA PROGRAM PROUDLY WELCOMES
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Professor
Author of Oceanic (2018) and Lucky Fish (2011)
Catherine Lacey
2017-2018 John and Rene Grisham
Writer in Residence
Author of The Answers (2017) and Nobody is Ever Missing (2014)
Visit mfaenglish.olemiss.edu With an inspired diverse faculty, a strong supportive program, full funding for all
to learn about our new admissions graduate students, and a location smack in the middle of the Souths most literary
policythere is no application fee! town, Oxford, its no wonder the University of Mississippi was named by College
Magazine a Top 10 University for Aspiring Writers and ranked among Poets &
Writers magazines Top 50 MFA programs.
English
DEPARTMENT OF
THE LITERARY
Life
Writing as Redemption
R EW R I T I NG A SC E N E T O R EW R I T E YOU R L I F E
I
H AV E a small pink-white scar at the base of my
thumb. It curls at the end like a question mark I
may have drawn to remind myself of something. It is
an important reminder. And its proofof an event
I had forced myself to forget as a child and, now, cannot
forget. I am compelled to rewrite that real-life scene again
and again in my ction, as if memory, and even the past J U L I A F I E R R O is the author
itself, can be revised. of the novels The Gypsy Moth
There is a chapter toward the end of my new novel, The Summer, published in June
Gypsy Moth Summer, in which one of the main characters, by St. Martins Press, and
Maddie, is beaten by her father. He hits her with a broom. Cutting Teeth (St. Martins
The metal broom head cracks apart and cuts her hand, and Press, 2014). Her work has
she is left with a scar in the shape of a question mark. Like appeared in the New York
Maddie, I, too, was a sixteen-year-old girl living on an islet Times, BuzzFeed, Glamour,
off the East Coast in 1992. What the reader cannot know is the Millions, Time Out New
that this scene between Maddie and her father, though only York, and other publications.
a few pages long, took me two and a half decades to write, A graduate of the Iowa
and rewrite. Only now, after many tries, has it provided Writers Workshop, in 2002
me with a glimmer of redemption. she founded the Sackett
The real-life event took place in 1992, the day after my Street Writers Workshop
junior prom, when my father, riing through my backpack, home to more than four
found a pack of Camel Lights, a discovery that fueled our thousand creative writers.
worst, and nal, physical confrontation. But the rst time Her website is juliaerro
I put the scene on paper was over a decade later, in 2001, .com.
in a short story I wrote during my rst year as a creative
writing student at the Iowa Writers Workshop.
I hadnt had much time to produce new material during
that rst semester, and I had been feeling paralyzed by the
talent and condence of my classmates. I procrastinated
all through winter break but nally wrote a new story in
one sitting and, unusual for me, by hand. The story was
about a teenage girl who, like Maddie and me, was grow-
ing up working class on an idyllic island, home to the elite
upper class. The teenager, also like Maddie and me, was
a troubled girl in an unpredictable home where violence
seemed to crouch around the corner of each day, ready to
spring, claws bared.
I handed the story into my workshop when I returned
rubidium wu
our professor, a distinguished author the story at the last minute, after all, I was simply the vessel through which
whose final verdict was often damn- and even more worrisome, I had felt the words f lowed. How could the
ing. Id never had a workshop critique so little as I wrote the violent scene story be good (the denition of which
as positive as that one, and the story, my professors and classmates admired seemed so elusive in workshop)? How
titled The Girl W ho Walked on the most. How could the story be any could the emotion be authentic when
Water (I cringe a little now at the good, I asked myself, when it felt as I knew I should have wept as I wrote?
heavy-handed symbolism), earned me if Id turned off my mindand my
I
a coveted fellowship that year, the at- heartin order to write that scene? WA S fa m il iar w it h t he phe-
tention of my peers and professors, The girls father striking her with a nomenon of emot ional dis-
and a shaky condence I would cling broom, the twisted metal cutting into assoc iat ion t hat v ic t i m s of
to for the rest of my time in gradu- her hand. The rest of the story was t rau ma, spec if ica l ly ch i ld-
ate school. The sacrice was worth it, unremarkable and bordered on clich, hood abuse, can experience. In the
I told myself. And I did feel as if I had just like the title, but my classmates years after Id left home for college,
sacriced the unnamed girl (Maddie and professors were right about that memories of my fathers episodes had
Version 1, well call herI hadnt even particular scene, I knew that much returnedhis lashing out when his
allowed her the power of a name) in the it was exceptional. Yet as Id written it, obsessive fears erupted, often climax-
story. I let her be abused, raped, hu- my hand cramped from clutching the ing in violence, and always against
miliated. In return, Id received praise. pen, I had felt as if I were on autopilot. me, never my mother or brother. I
I had also sacriced myselfthe part The sensory details Id experienced in loved and admired my father. He is
of me who was that unnamed girl. real lifethe scent of my fathers Eng- a survivorof war and poverty, of
I was grateful for the response and lish Leather cologne, the tinny taste of famine and diseasehimself a wit-
relieved my acceptance into the Work- blood, the cheerful jingle of a tooth- ness to constant domestic abuse in
shop hadnt been a uke, a suspicion paste commercial on the TV set, the his own childhood. I still love him.
Id harbored since Id received the ac- bite of the metal broom head slicing I had wanted to ignore those violent
ceptance letter, but I still had a grow- my handappeared on the page, but memories that visited me in dream-
ing fear that I was a fraud. Id written it was as if someone else was writing; like fragments those rst years away
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 44
the literary life WR ITING AS R EDEMPTION
from home, the first objective dis- W hen Id arrived at t he Work- bags of book s. Most were collec-
tance I had from what I quickly real- shop, Id read only works from the tions of contemporary short ction
ized had been a dysfunctional family. so-called literary canon. Other than written in a minimalist style. Stories
I doubted myself. Could I be making t he novels of Edit h W harton, Id by Raymond Carver, James Salter,
it up? I chided myself. Get over it, read few stories with young women Lorrie Moore, and Lydia Davis. I
Julia, plenty of kids had it way worse. f i xated on one collect ion Black
But I only had to look down at the Ive always been the type of Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips, who,
question-mark-shaped scar on my it was rumored, had been a favorite
hand to see the evidence. reader who wants drama, student of Frank Conroy. I studied
Some of my MFA classmates asked those stories, so spare they seemed
if I was the girl in The Girl W ho conict, and serious stakes, all starvedstories about young girls
Walked on Water, and I played coy, who were abused and molested, used
not revealing or denying. I suspected of which provide the complete and discarded. Im sure I had those
they wanted me to be her, but I was broken girls in mind, as well as the
too ashamed to admit it. After all, escape I crave in books. emotionally distant stylewhat we
that girl was a victim; she didnt ght called restrained prose in workshop
back. Instead, she forgave her father. No surprise, I want the same critiquesas I put that unnamed girl
She comforted him as her torn hand in The Girl Who Walked on Water
bled, rubbed his back as he cried and escape in my own writing. through hell.
apologized and said he was better In my final workshop, I studied
off dead. She begged him not to kill prot agon ist s, not si nce my teen- with professor Marilynne Robinson
himself, fearful he would. This was age years when I binge-read V. C. and learned the most important les-
what had happened in my own life, Andrewss melodramas and stole my son of my writing life, one I carry
this is what I had doneno wonder I mothers romance novels. A few days wit h me st ill, passing it on to my
felt ashamed as I watched that scene after my arrival in Iowa City, I vis- own students: the necessity of hav-
replayed on the page. ited a used bookstore and left with ing compassion for your characters.
Visiting Faculty: Emily Barton, Susan Choi, John Freeman, Major Jackson,
Katie Kitamura, Hari Kunzru, David Lipsky, Meghan ORourke
WRITE IN PARIS
Low-Residency M.F.A. Writers Workshop in Paris
The M.F.A. Writers Workshop in Paris invites students to work under the
guidance of internationally acclaimed faculty in one of the worlds most
inspiring cities. Pariswith its rich literary history and cultural attractions
provides an ideal setting for living the writers life. The program offers both
freedom and rigor, balancing intense and stimulating ten-day residencies
with sustained independent work in the intervals between.
Visiting Writers Include: Edwidge Danticat, Lydia Davis, Jonathan Safran Foer,
Matthea Harvey, Ann Hood, Ishion Hutchinson, Major Jackson, Leslie Jamison,
Etgar Keret, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Rachel Kushner, Ben Lerner, Valeria Luiselli,
ZZ Packer, Claudia Rankine, Taiye Selasi, Brenda Shaughnessy, Tracy K. Smith,
Hannah Tinti, Ocean Vuong, Rachel Zucker
Ive always been the type of reader deserved. I promised myself Id do a motherhood. She recalls a traumatic
who wants drama, conict, and seri- better job in the future. momentyes, you guessed it, she was
ous stakes, all of which provide the A fter years spent helping other sixteen when her father hit her with a
complete escape I crave in books. writers unlock the doors that lead to brooma scene that is in stark contrast
No surprise, I want the same escape a deeper emotional understanding of to her own childrens blissful lives. She
in my own writing. I was diagnosed their writing, Ive learned we must goes so far as to imply that perhaps
with obsessive-compulsive disorder give ourselves permission to fail in children today are given too much love.
in my early twenties, and Ive always that first draft, especially when re- Having had ten years of retrospection
experienced life with an emotional calling a traumatic event. We have between The Girl Who Walked on
intensit y that has crossed into my many terms for it in work shop Water and Cutting Teeth, I knew that
ction. This means that bad things underdeveloped, sketchy, vague, ste- the most signicant part of the scene
happen to my characters. They live reotyped. I know now that incomplete wasnt the girl getting hit with the
in worlds where danger lurks, just as rst draftMaddie Version 1was a broom but the aftermathher father,
violence did in my childhood home, placeholder I would return to when I his head on the kitchen table, weeping
around every corner. My characters was ready, and I wish I could go back into his arms, begging the girl for for-
lose loved ones, homes, fortunes, and in time, tell my twenty-three-year-old giveness. This moment of forced em-
sometimes their lives, and it is my self, Thats okay, you did your best. pathy, I realized, was even more brutal
job, my responsibility, to make sure Try again later. than the physical attacknot only
their suffering is not for nothing. for the character experiencing it, but
T
While the emotional distance I felt EN years later, I rewrote also, I was nally ready to admit this,
in writing The Girl Who Walked the scene, a summarized for me. I knew I had a responsibility
on Water allowed me to record that version told in ashback, to this new version of the unnamed
violent memory in meticulous detail, i n my f irst publ ished girl. I wouldnt let her be a victim
I can also see how it prevented me novel, Cutting Teeth. Allie (or Maddie again. I worked on that ashback for a
from treating that broken unnamed Version 2), a new mother to twins, is week. I revised until I felt so close to
girl with the compassionate care she struggling with her ambivalence toward the girls consciousness, experiencing
her every thought and feeling, smelling To which Ill answer: Im finished
and tasting and hearing as if I had now. Maddie is free. That was the last
crawled into her skin. The revisions time her father hit her. I am free too, and
exhausted and thrilled me. I knew I had at the end of a decades-long journey
succeeded. While if not to rewrite
that rst unnamed my l ife (t hough
girl, Maddie I h avent g i ven
Version 1, had been u p o n t he p o s -
objectifiedused sibilit y), then to
by me, consciously make sense of a
or not, to shock the moment in time
readerthis new t hat has shaped
girl was real. me. W hen I was
Now, fou r forced to forgive
years later, hav- my father in
ing rewritten the t hat long-ago
scene in a longer kitchena burden
dramatized form no ch ild shou ld
for my new novel, have to shoulder
The G yps y Moth I knew the power
Summer, I hope of empathy, and
the unnamed girl that understand-
(Maddie Version ing has made me
3, Final) has the into the person,
redempt ion she and writer, I am
deser ves. The today.
broom scene in The Gypsy Moth Sum- Can that glimmer of redemption
mer is the most difficult scene Ive leap off the page and into real life?
ever written, and the most important. Perhaps it is a necessity for a writer,
I forced myself to linger in that dark even the most cynical, to believe in
kitchen for an entire chapter, made a little magic, to believe that she can
myself feel every blow of the broom, rewrite the past. Rewriting that scene
wrapped myself in the girls terror so from real life hasnt changed the past,
the reader would feel trapped just as but it has taught me to hope. As a
she does. Just as I did. So that, instead younger writer, I wrote ction to re-
of pity, the reader will share the girls veal the aws I saw in the world, and
pain, making it impossible for the in myself. Now I write in the hope
girlvictim or heroine or bothto that Ill discover a better world, and
be dismissed. The scene has a new maybe if I keep searching, the un-
ending. It may be difcult for read- named girl I nd will be even stron-
ers to understand the triumph this ger and, nally, safe.
recent finale represents. For me, it
is everything. The girl hits her fa-
ther backa battle neither I nor the EDITOR@PW.ORG
rst two versions of Maddie had the Can you think of other authors who
strength or courage to ght. have rewritten scenes and included
The Gypsy Moth Summer has been them in multiple novels and/or short
out for only a short time and I am still stories? Heres one: Raskolnikovs
waiting for someone, a Cutting Teeth d rea m of t he beat i ng of a hor se
reader or a former Iowa classmate, to b y d r u n ken p e a s a nt s i n Fyo dor
call me out. Wag a nger at me and Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment
exclaim, You cant rewrite a scene (1866) appears again, brief ly and
again and again like that. You cant in a different form, in The Brothers
rewrite life! Karamazov (1880).
Life
Why We Write
W I T H DEEPEST GR AT I T U DE
B
ETW EEN February and May 2008 I wrote 230
thank-you notes. They acknowledged gifts and
extraordinary kindnesses received, but not for a
happy occasion. I wrote the notes after we lost
our baby boy, a stillbirth at eight months of pregnancy,
after ve years of trying to conceive and as many failed
attempts and lost pregnancies. I had waddled into the hos- NANCY MNDEZ-BOOTH
pital emergency room the night of Thursday, February 7, is a ction writer. She
2008, in labor and giddy with excitement. My husband, teaches writing and Latina/o
John, and I left the hospital on Saturday, February 9, with literature and culture at
our sons death certicate: Liam Mndez-Booth; Friday, colleges and universities in
February 8, 2008; 12:28 A M ; 5 pounds, 10 ounces. New York and New Jersey.
At the time, I had established a career as a marketing, Her work has appeared in
advertising, and corporate writer. I was the Copy Com- print and online, including in
mando, the writer called in when the concepts were com- the Jet Fuel Review, KGB Bar
plex, the clients were difcult, the deadline was tight, and Literary Magazine, Latina,
the writing needed to be compelling and clear. I had com- OZY Media, Philadelphia
mand of the language, a store of words that I knew how to Stories, and Salon. She is
select, group, and craft into reader-friendly copy that ex- currently completing a
plained forensic accounting or the mechanics of precision second ction manuscript
timepieces or the implications of digitized medical data. and developing a one-woman
I left the hospital with new words. Placental abruption show with support from
was the term for the detachment of my placenta that had the New Jersey Women
denied blood and oxygen to my baby. Strep A bacteria is Playwrights Program. She
the infection that attacks vital organs, is lethal to unborn is looking for representation
babies, and that I could have contracted anywhere. Such and a publisher for her work.
precise scientic words explained what had happened but She posts regularly at www
not why. I had done all the right things throughout my .nancymendezbooth.com
pregnancy, and even well before it, yet my baby died. Why? /blog.
During those initial months, I didnt understand the why
of anything. Why was there trafc on the street when we
left the hospital? Why were the bodegas along Jersey Citys
Kennedy Boulevard open for business as usual the morning
John and I rode in the limo behind the hearse? Why were
people walking with purpose, like they had someplace to
denver david robinson
who couldnt comprehend, communi- skin smooth over a little belly no big- Our friends made eye contact with
cate, or organize information. I was ger than a baseball. Peggy showed me us, treated us like normal people, and
diagnosed with post-traumatic stress beauty that night, even as I was covered gave us hope that life can continue
disorder and took a three-month leave in dried sweat and sat in blood. after tragedy.
of absence from work. I began to Some days I wrote only t wo
write the thank-you notes during thank-yous, other days more. I
that time. Everything I needed was That time also reminded me that the took my time with each note be-
in the gray bag that sat insistently cause I needed to ll my days and
on the oor of our extra bedroom. ability to write is a gift. It is my give them purpose. I wrote those
The limo driver from the funeral notes as if they were expected, as
home had given me the bag when responsibility to develop it and provide if I had a deadline, because every
he drove John and me to the repast morning began as a black-cloud
after Liams burial. It held a guest the comfort my words might give to day. I needed a reason to get out
book, boxes of acknowledgement of bed. Broken as I was, I could
cards, and Bic pens. others. I wish this story of loss were not handle writing a card, sealing and
My f i r st t ha n k-you wa s to addressing an envelope, afxing
Peggy, the head maternity nurse mine. It is difcult to write. Yet I do. a stamp, and dropping it into the
on duty the evening I was admit- mail slot in the lobby of our build-
ted. Peggys hand had been solid, ing. The thank-you notes gave a
dry, and warm in mine as I labored. I wrote a thank-you to our friends structure to my hours until I was able
She brought Liam to us post-delivery, Mary and Eva, who hosted a dinner to string them into a stretch of days,
swaddled burrito-style like any other for John and me a few weeks after my and eventually weeks.
newborn in a printed baby blanket release from the hospital. John and I Acknowledging my gratitude some-
and with a little yellow knit cap on lived for a few hours that night: We t imes forced me to confront ugly
his head. She unwrapped Liam for me spoke about movies with friends, ate emotions that were as strong as my
so I could see how perfect he was, his cheesecake, and listened to music. grief. What the hell was I so thankful
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 52
the literary life WHY WE WRITE
for? I was not grateful for what had preservers that kept me af loat amid in some cases, and how hearing my
happened. It was unfair, and I was the wreckage that was my life after story provided the healing of recogni-
angry, hurt, and confused. At times I losing Liam. My orderly print on the tion and hope because, in their eyes, I
resented putting on the show that I was page was a comfort. There was com- am surviving.
somehow getting through and stay- fort in communicating my gratitude I think how much poorer I would
ing positive; some days were all about when I could not find the words to be as a person if Id not learned to be
hate and rage. Writing the thank-yous make sense of grief or the experience. grateful and generous, how poor of a
helped me understand that, yes, ter- I made connections through writing mother I might have been. Thats what
rible things happen in life, but there when I had t rouble being around still trips me up: I learned to be thank-
are still people and things that bring people. I could express how someones ful because I lost Liam. I dont want
beaut y into life and make it worth kindness touched me when I was not this lesson. I want one moment with
living. I finished all my thank-you able to talk about what had happened my son. I want to know the color of
notes by the time the three months or how I felt. Liams eyes. There are still days when
of my leave expired. It was a task I had That time also reminded me that I wonder what the hell Im so thankful
planned, organized, and completed on the ability to write is a gift. It is my for. I cant reconcile the simultaneous
my own, when I didnt think I could responsibility to develop it and provide contradictory feelings of appreciation
accomplish anything. the comfort my words might give to and resentment, gratitude and anger.
Those three months showed me others. I wish this story of loss were I st ill w rite t hank-yous. Those
that a woman who had approached not mine. It is difcult to write. Yet I post-trauma acknowledgments taught
me after Liams f uneral mass was do. There are people who have viewed me that I have something to be thankful
right: She had reminded me that I me as the dead-baby woman, the writer for every day, if I choose to see it. It
am a writer, and writing would help stuck on the same depressing story. But is my duty to share that beauty with
me. I couldnt nd the words to help there have been more people who have others. There is one thank-you I never
me when I was most desperate, but I shared with me their own stories of wrote, and I doubt I ever can. It would
was able to write thank-yous. Those loss, how isolated theyd felt with pain break me. It would be a thank-you to
written acknowledgments were life theyd kept silent for years or decades Liam.
B Y P O R O C H I S TA K H A K P O U R P H O T O G R A P H S B Y T O N Y G A L E
NCE upon a time, on a day of York villain who embarks upon a boor-
many rsts, a writer who had ish presidential campaign. Meanwhile,
lived nearly four decades on themes of race and ethnicity, gender
a rather wounded, uncertain and sexuality, immigrants and natives,
planet met the writer she ad- outsiders and insiders, ambition and
mired most, a writer who had power, money and more money form
l ived al most exact ly seven the dizzying backdrop for this wildly
decades on that same battered earth. satiric and yet piercingly real world of
It was the rst hot day of the year, The Golden House. Rushdie isnt just
a week before the off icial start of writing a New York parable though;
summer (high of ninety-seven degrees this is very much a return to literary
in Manhattan, record-breaking heat realism, but its largely a hyperreal re-
advisory, every news outlet declared), ality of our own world, one that even
and the rst interview Salman Rush- his most celebrated madcap fabulism
die was giving for his new novel, The couldnt top.
Golden House, published this month by And so I found myself at his agents
Random House. It was also the first office: a maze of book-lined rooms
time I properly sat down with the belong i ng to t he bot h renow ned
author who has had more inf luence and notorious A ndrew Wylie, just
on me than any other living writer. two blocks and yet worlds away from
The Golden House is his eighteenth Trump Tower. One of Wylies assis-
bookhis thirteenth novel, which tants escorted me to a cozy (cramped)
has somehow been more quietly an- conference room with an ancient air
nounced than one might expectbut conditioner trying to blast away the
I devoured it in a sitting and a half, my days sins of pollution and humidity.
favorite Rushdie novel in years. I was a bit nervous and excited and
If F. Scott Fitzgerald, Homer, Eurip- overheated and then overchilled; I put
ides, and Shakespeare collaborated on on and then took off my jacket, over
a contemporary fall-of-an-empire epic and over, and this continued until, a
set in New York City, the result would few minutes later, in walked Rushdie.
be The Golden House. Like Rome at its He was shak ing his head at t he
collapse, the America of Rushdies new weat her, armed wit h a perspiring
novelnot unlike our own America iced coffee and wearing an expensive-
is bursting at the seams. Rushdie an- looking gray suit with a pale blue dress
chors us to a lmmaker narrator as he shirt, mustering a New York mumble-
navigates a life in the city to which apology as a greeting. He was a com-
only the wealthiest have access, and bination of ustered, amused, anxious,
ultimately intersects with its newest and exhausted, but he rather quickly
inhabitants, the mysterious Golden turned charmingly enthusiastic about
familyNero Golden and his three doing press, something one might
adult sonsas well as a classic New imagine is cumbersome at best for a
man with a literary career that spans
more than four decades. He smiled
P O R O C H I S T A K H A K P O U R is the gently through much of our interview
author of the novels Sons and Other but also at another rst: his entry into
Flammable Objects (Grove, 2007) and The a new decade. Salman Rushdie was
Last Illusion (Bloomsbury, 2014), and just days away from turning seventy
the forthcoming memoir Sick (Harper years old.
Perennial, 2018). Her writing has appeared This was not my first encounter
in many sections of the New York Times, with him. I had seen him speak many
the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, times in my lifebraved many metal
the Wall Street Journal, Bookforum, Elle, detectors and a police presence at var-
Virginia Quarterly Review, and other ious times all around the world to hear
publications around the world. himbut he and I also both moved
to New York around the same time, boycotting the event, which rather know who you are, he said, and we
two decades ago, and Id occasionally controversially honored Charlie Hebdo, exchanged niceties and I walked off
seen him around town. One time, in among others. I had not been a fan of staring into my champagne ute and
my early twenties, at a fancy down- their decision, as I felt very devoted eyeing the metal detectors and hordes
town party Id drunkenly snuck into, I to PEN , so I went on with my table of security at the Museum of Natural
blurted to the astoundingly accessible host duties. But a few times on Twitter History, thinking to myself, Well, if
New Yorker, I love your work, but Id been critical of Rushdies attitude we all die tonight, at least I can die
Im from the country that tried to kill toward those boycotting (Rushdie knowing Salman Rushdie is not that
you, sorry! (He didnt say a thing but was a former PEN president and not mad at me.
maybe laughed, and I did not remind shy about this anger at those walking Because long before I encountered
him of this during our interview.) away from the gala), so when I got to him in person, I had been his fan. My
In 2015 I met him at the PEN Liter- the event, several photographers kept work has long been compared to his,
ary Gala, for which I served as a table nudging me to take a photo with him. and thats no coincidence. I rst read
host and where fellow table hosts who I nally ended up shaking hands with The Satanic Verses just a few years after
were Bard colleagues of mine became Rushdie and introducing myself awk- its publication in 1988 (I was ten). My
known as parts of the PEN Six for wardly as cameras snapped away. I Iranian familyMuslims who had
ed during the Iranian Revolution
EXCERPT had been impressed by Rushdies bold
confrontation of some dark aspects of
The Golden House Islam more than his literary prowess.
In the secret, grassy quadrangle of the Gardens, I crawled before I could walk, In 1989, after a riot protesting the
I walked before I could run, I ran before I could dance, I danced before I could book in Pak istan, Irans Ayatollah
sing, and I danced and sang until I learned stillness and silence and stood mo- Khomeini issued a still-in-place fatwa
tionless and listening at the Gardens heart, on summer evenings sparkling ordering the authors death, and my
with reies, and became, at least in my own opinion, an artist. To be precise, aunt bought us a hardcover, noting it
a would-be writer of lms. And, in my dreams, a lmmaker, even, in the grand would be worth something one day.
old formulation, an auteur. There had been so much on the news
Ive been hiding behind the rst person plural, and may do so again, but Im about it that I became obsessed with
getting around to introducing myself. I am. But in a way Im not so different from itthis was yet another instance in
my subjects, who were self-concealers alsothe family whose arrival in my neck which my worlds of America and Iran
of the woods provided me with the big project for which I had, with growing collided. I was already dreaming of
desperation, been searching. If the Goldens were heavily invested in the erasure being a writer one day, and for the rst
of their past, then I, who have taken it upon myself to be their chroniclerand time I learned that you might have to
perhaps their imagineer, a term invented for the devisers of rides in Disney risk your life for art.
theme parksam by nature self-effacing. What was it that Isherwood said at the You could say that Salman Rushdie
outset of Goodbye to Berlin? I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, has changed the course of my life in
recording, not thinking. But that was then, and this is the age of smart cameras many ways.
that do all ones thinking for one. Maybe Im a smart camera. I record, but Im So on that blisteringly hot June day
not exactly passive. I think. I alter. Possibly I even invent. To be an imagineer, I was nervous to meet this hero of
after all, is very different from being a literalist. Van Goghs picture of a starry mine in this context. But what I found
night doesnt look like a photograph of a starry night, but its a great depiction remarkable in the couple of hours
of a starry night nonetheless. Lets just agree that I prefer the painting to the we had together was not just that
photograph. I am a camera that paints. the titan of letters is full of sterling
Call me Ren. I have always liked it that the narrator of Moby-Dick doesnt insights on everything from novel-
actually tell us his name. Call-me-Ishmael might in reality, which is to say in writing to identity to social media to
the petty Actual that lay outside the grand Real of the novel, he might have been magical realism to modernism to New
called, oh, anything. He might have been Brad, or Trig, or Ornette, or Schuyler, Yorkbut that there is also some-
or Zeke. He might even have been called Ishmael. We dont know, and so, like thing breathtakingly down-to-earth
my great forebear, I forbear to say unto you plainly, my names Ren. Call me about Rushdie, who often seems both
Ren: thats the best I can do for you. surprised and delighted by any praise,
who seems as insecure as every writer
From The Golden House by Salman Rushdie. Copyright 2017 by Salman Rushdie. Reprinted I know (including me), and who feels
by arrangement with Random House, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, as unsure of the state of our world as
a division of Penguin Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. we all do.
Salman Rushdie and Porochista Khakpour in the Manhattan ofce of Rushdies literary agent, Andrew Wylie.
Here you are now at your thirteenth reception, I did a lot of rethinking Yes, of course.
novel. Or should I assume you are on to about what I think is wrong about it, That was a text Id really always liked.
number fourteen now? never mind what other people said. And And so the book started there. I started
Im not actually. I have no idea whats that process of rethinking is what led to see how you might make some
next. I have a completely empty head. me eventually to Midnights Children. It contemporary ction out of that idea.
Which is not a good feeling actually. was partially a way of rejecting what I That part of the book Im okay about.
[Laughter.] I always feel happier when was trying to do in my rst novel, that
Ive got a project to work on. This book I found my way. So in my head thats a I used that book and the Shahnameh in
took a lot out of me. book I rejected in order to discover my my second novel, The Last Illusion, and
path. I think its a book in which the au- it was you who taught me to how to do
I was extra excited to read it, and I feel thor has not found his voice yet. I think that.
like this is one of your best books. Ive its kind of erratic. There are passages Oh!
been thinking a lot about your rst book, that I think are really embarrassing. So
Grimus, actually. I dont look at it very often. Taking in my th and mashing it up
Nobody really liked it when it came with contemporary New York and the
outexcept Ursula LeGuin. Shes been But its from there that you started this American psyche and Muslim identity,
my loyal critic from the very beginning. lifelong project of bringing in mythology balancing all that.
and history from meta perspectives. Oh, good. Well, the thing I always felt
I think its a great rst novel. Well, yes, thats been there from the about the great stories, the myths, is
You do? Well, thank you. Im not so beginning, I think. I presume you how much they concentrated into a
sure myself. [Laughter.] After it came k now Farid ud-Din Attar and The very small space. I remember much
out and after its really quite poor Conference of the Birds. later, when I was writing The Ground
Beneath Her Feet, where the Orpheus you dont want to do it. With this book, and critics that centers around our style
story is quite central to thatI mean, I really didnt want to do it. So I just and its relation to substance. As in, why
you could tell the story of Orpheus think of it as one of the available ways do you choose to tell it in the way you
and Eur ydice in under a hundred of telling a story, and what you do are telling it?
words, and yet theres so much in depends on the story you want to tell. I think thats a good question to ask
there that if you start unpacking it you yourself, actually. One of the things I
can write a six-hundred-page novel. I think a lot of people forget that fabu- do when Im teaching people is I say,
I think thats what the great myths lism is mainstream world literature There are a number of questions you
do: They give you these incredibly and that the domestic or psychological have to ask when you are beginning
concentrated pieces of meaning that realism we have in the United States is a project: one is what are you writing
you can unpack almost like Mary Pop- the anomaly. As an Iranian, I used to nd about and what is the story you are
pinss bag; endless stuff comes out Cheever, Salter, Yates, and others so ex- telling; then you have to ask whose
of it. So Ive quite often gone back otic. For me, they were the other. story is it; then you have to ask why
there. Not so much in this book, but, Yes. Certainly, I mean, Cheever is quite are you telling it; and then the big-
for instance, in the novel before. I re- exotic. [Laughter.] The thing about re- gest and most important question is
ally tried to revisit those stories. Not alism in its great heyday is that it de- how are you doing it and why are you
just One Thousand and One Nights but pended on there being an agreement doing it that way? The how question
stories of that sort. Id written these between writer and reader about the is what makes a work of literature work
two books for younger readers out of nature of reality. And so that when or not work. I mean, with Ulysses there
that same kind of sensibility, but if you Trollope or George Eliot are writing, is not much story. Man works around
read those stories they are not writ- they can expect their reader to have, Dublin for a day. His wife is unfaith-
ten for younger readers. I mean, One broadly speaking, the same world- ful to him. He meets a younger writer
Thousand and One Nights is an adult view as themselves. They would agree in the red-light district. I mean, really
book. Its not a childrens book. about what the world was like. When not very much happens. But the how
you have that agreement, then you can is what makes it this gigantic work of
Denitely. But I sometimes think we of build a realist novel on that. But we literature.
the East can handle more adult subject now live in a time when that consensus
matter, just like we can handle darker has very much broken down. We dont We often talk of voice, of authority,
humor a bit better. have an agreement about the nature of which is also a nebulous concept for
Maybe. Growing up in India, with this reality. I mean, reality is now an ar- students, but the Rushdian storyteller
kind of story material as the rst c- gument. And sometimes it becomes voice is something Ive grown up with
tional air that you breathe, was really a violent argument. So I dont think and is so comforting to me. I always
a giftand not just One Thousand and you can write realism in the way that know its you. And I know my storyteller
One Nights, but the animal fables and people used to because of this prob- is actually my author. And I feel that with
of course The Mahabharata and The lem about consensus, about there not The Golden House, too.
Rubaiyat and all these grand narra- being a consensus about what is real. One of the things that was a discovery
tives. It gave me a way of thinking that I mean, look whats happening in this for me here was the narrator. In the
Ive never entirely set aside. Although country. There are narratives about very early stages of working on this
Ive always slightly resisted the kind A merica now that have almost no book, I had the very boring idea that
of magical realist tag because I believe meeting point. One mans truth is an- he should be a writer. [Laughter.] And
that belongs properly to that group of other mans lie. When you live in this I started writing it like that and then I
South American writers, and it should kind of moment, you have to be aware thought, Stop it, this is so awful! It
be kept for them. of that. And so my view is that realism would be better if he were a tax accoun-
is very broad churchon one end of tant than a writer. But then I thought,
Yes, I feel that way too. What about the it youve got Raymond Carver, and on you know, Ive always been very inter-
term fabulism? the other end youve got James Joyce. ested in cinema. Ive maybe not written
Well, I think magical realism, fabu- I mean, Ulysses is a completely realistic about it as much as Id liked to have.
lism, French surrealism, its kind of all novelits just that high modernism I think actually a lot of my formative
the same thing. And then if you look did something else with realism. education was in the world of the art-
at the history of literature, its all over house cinema. The moment I could
the place all the timeI mean Kafkas The funny thing in this discussion is think of him as a young filmmaker,
a magical realist and so is Gogol. The that we who are stylists and language it really opened a huge series of doors
point is its a kind of writing thats al- writersand I know thats a dicey term for me in the bookfirst of all, hes
ways been around. But then sometimes tooget this questioning from readers more interesting that way, and second
MFA
A Two-Year Program
had. Then this thing happened that
was even more surprising. I thought
at rst, even as a lmmaker, hes been
S. Naipaul might have called mimic
men. And identity issues can become
repressive. And so in another part of
with a Third-Year Option this eye-of-the-camera kind of gure my head I felt I needed to get into that
Internationally just watching, and the story would be
about this crazy family. And the more
because this is what everybody is think-
ing about.
Recognized Faculty I got into it, the more I realized, actu-
ally it was about himthat actually the Its amazing to read your new book in
book was just as much his story as the this time period. Will you nd it frustrat-
story of the Golden family. And so it ing, or will you be open to it being now
was something I didnt set out to do, constantly compared to life in Trump-
it started being a sort of bildungsro- landia?
man, a novel that was about getting I mean, yeah, of course, it does go
A. Manette Ansay Chantel Acevedo wisdomthis young man, through from Obama to Trump. And I kind of
his engagement with these people, in guessed right. I mean, Im sorry to say
a way learning how to be a man and it. [Laughter.]
being attracted to terrible deeds and
having to survive his own misdeeds. I When was it written?
thought, Oh, I didnt know thatIm It was written last year. I mean, 99 per-
writing a book about him. cent of it was written before the elec-
tion. I was also aware of the fact that if
Jaswinder Bolina M. Evelina Galang
I thought about that choice and thought things had gone another way there may
about Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby have had to be some reshaping done
and his decision to give us the novel in to it, which sadly I didnt have to do.
Nicks point of view. Theres also something about an arc
Everyone says Gatsby, but I dont think that goes from a moment of great op-
I even thought of Gatsby except in the timism to its opposite, which has a kind
most tangential way. Because to me of shapeit has a good shape. Its an
Amina Gautier Mia Leonin whats interesting about GatsbyI awful thing to say: that this thing that
mean, many things are interesting is very bad for America is very good for
about Gatsbybut one thing is that al- the novel. It provides this light-into-
most everyone in the novel is from the darkness trajectory. Which is not the
Midwest, and its about people from the trajectory of the storyI thought that
Midwest coming to the East Coast and was good because otherwise it could be
being screwed up! [Laughter.] And the read as some kind of straightforward
Maureen Seaton
survivor, which is Nick, goes home. allegory, and I didnt want it to be. I
So it seems to me Fitzgerald is talking mean, obviously I cant pretend there
All students receive about that. I mean, I suppose the obvi- isnt an echo of some Trump stuff in
financial aid. ous Gatsby thing is reinvention, which,
after all, is the great subject for the
there, but it seems to me to be very
much some kind of background, not
Michener Fellowships American novel, from Huckleberry Finn. foreground. It is not like an attempt to
available. But I think the question of identity has write a Trump novel. It doesnt ignore
become so central that [in writing] this that its happened, but it is not what the
book [I saw] it in all sorts of forms, you book is about.
Who do you think is your ideal reader Do you think youll come back? York. Ive been here a long timeits
these days? Do you think about that? I dont know. If you are on a book tour been almost twenty years now. And the
I dont have an ideal reader, but I ac- and youre going to be in San Francisco way Ive written about it has changed
tually like who my readers are. Just in tomorrow, its quite useful to say Im in that time. Before I was living here
terms of who shows up. First of all, Im reading at such-and-such tomorrow, I wrote The Ground Beneath Her Feet,
happy to say lots of people show up. so I might do that. Twitter is a way of about another New York that doesnt
Thats good! But also they are a little reaching a lot of people, but its also so exist anymore. Its about when I first
bit of everybody. I mean, any publisher bad-mannered. I think the anonymity discovered New YorkI rst came here
will tell you that without middle-aged is what does it. It allows people to be in the early seventies, I must have been
white ladies there would be no ction; discourteous in a way theyd never be twenty-six or so. Thats that other city:
there would be no publishing compa- if they were sitting in the same room as CBGB , Maxs Kansas City, dirt, and
nies. [Laughter.] But I really like that you and if you knew their name. muggings.
my readership is extremely diverse. When I wrote Fury, I thought it was
And also in terms of age there is a very A while ago I had someone tweet at me a novel of arrival, about coming here.
wide range. There are always a lot of Go kill yourself, and then I met the per- I cant write the novel in the way Don
very young people. Its kind of nice son and said, Hi, I am here now; how do DeLillo would write New York; that
when youre about to turn seventy to you feel? but of course the response wouldnt be possible. But there was
feel that there are people who werent was, quickly, Oh no I didnt mean it. another kind of New York novel about
born when you started publishing Oh, yeah, now its a gure of speech! coming here; most people in this city
books, who have an interest in what [Laughter.] I just think somehow were came from somewhere else, so I thought
you are doing. bringing up a generation of rude peo- Id write about that. And The Golden
ple because of the ease of it and lack HouseI think because I really have
I used to see my students discover you of accountability and lack of conse- been here a long timeit is just prob-
on Twitter all the time. quences. So I just thought, I dont like ably the most New York New York novel
Yes. Well, I have abandoned Twitter. It it; I dont like the tone or voice of it, Ive ever written.
was just the moment to stop. I started so I stopped doing it.
because somebody said why dont you You not only refer to but you create a
try it and you might nd it interest- I do appreciate that you are very much mythology of New York City.
ing, and I did, and then you acquire engaged with your audience. When I Well, you notice almost all the major
all these peopleI think its at one moved here twenty years ago, Id see characters are immigrants. Everybody
and a quarter million or somethingI you at parties. Youre a writer whos is from Argentina or India or Burma.
mean, its quite humbling when you very much in the world and you havent And thats on purpose. I tried to cre-
look at Neil Gaiman or Stephen Fry done that thing that writers sometimes ate a kind of New York that feels like
and so on. Okay, so its only one and a do, which I think of as an obsessive glo- its mine, that feels like a city for me to
quarter million. And then you get to rication of an introversion that might write about.
the upper echelons like Justin Bieber, be more misanthropy.
and then forget about it. But it was Yeah, Im not like that. Im not like that I often think theres a way New York
interesting to be able to have a way of as a person, so why would I be like that City embraces those of us who are from
talking to a million people directly, as a writer? I mean, I admire writers other places, perhaps even better than
and then because of the phenomenon who can just shut the world out, but I some white peoplesay, the rural white
of retweeting you actually are talking think the great thing about the novel is America the New Yorker Trump tried to
to many more. And that was interest- that it plunges its hands deep into whats appeal to.
ing. And then I just suddenly thought, happening. Im into the idea of trying I always thought of myself rst of all as
I dont want this noise in my head. to know as much about as many parts a kind of big-city writer. I spent almost
Jonathan Franzen has always been of the world as possible. Dont just sit all my life in Bombay, London, or here.
sort of a denialist of all this stuff, and in your own comfort zone. Try and be I think if thats your frame of mind, its
I remember he gave some statement in rooms that are different no matter not so difcult to adjust from one big
somewhere say ing writers should what happens in those rooms. Get deep city to another because you know how
know better. And at the time I remem- into the matter of life, you know? And it is to live in a big city. But if youre
ber thinking, Okay, Jonathan, you do you cant do that in an ivory toweryou coming from some small rural commu-
that and Ill do this, but actually Im have to be in the world. And certainly nity, I think there are journeys that are
more and more agreeing with him. I this city. Who can write about it if you from the depths of America to the big
havent missed it for a nanosecond. I dont get into it? You cant just sit in cities that are maybe more complicated
deleted the app. your little apartment and imagine New than from another country to here, as
consider to be nished is where theres marathon. It doesnt mean a marathon havent done before? And this kind of
a point at which Im not really making it runner is a more gifted athlete than a modernist way of approaching reality is
better anymore. Im just pushing things sprinter, but its just that kind of ath- where The Golden House came from. It
around and making them different, and letics. Its long-form, you have to chip came out of thinking about modernism.
then I think, Now I need to know what away at it, let the mark posts go by and
other people have to say. trust that one day the finish line will I do think of you as a modernist author.
come. You cant even think about the Well, if you think about it, modern-
With all the many hats that you wear nish line when you start. ism is a hundred years old. You know,
humanitarian work, an appointment at modernism isnt modern.
NYU, the talks, the travelingare you I wonder if thats why your work has a
writing every day? consistency to it that I feel. I can really I love it so much. I tend to feel less aes-
When Im writing a novel, yes. The see your project as an author. Theres a thetically interested in a lot of what was
novel comes rst and everything else logic to it all. categorized as postmodern.
has to take a number. Ive always had That might be easier for you to see than I remember doing an event with Edward
this view that you wake up every day me. Me, I dont want to do the same Said at Columbia, and in the Q&A this
with a little nugget of creative juice thing every time. Im always looking for gentleman stood up who was clearly a
for the day and you can either use it or some way to get at it in a way I havent member of the facultyand he seemed
you waste it. My view is, therefore, you done before. For example, the last very agitatedand he said, Weve al-
write rst. Get up, get out of bed, get to novel came after Joseph Anton and was ways claimed you as postcolonialist; are
your desk, and work. Usually a couple in many ways a reaction to itbecause you still with us? And I said, Well,
of hours, until I know what Im doing after this immense piece of nonction, you know, we just met! I think the
that day. Then I can go have a shower I wanted to do something very, very thing about postcolonialism is that, yes,
and the rest and then go back to it. Do ctional, something on the other end obviously there was a period where it
the work rst; otherwise it doesnt get of the pendulum. And then I thought, was very important, especially in India,
done. Ive always thought of the novel- Well, that book goes as far into that as and there is an obvious sense in which
ist as a long-distance runner; thats the you could, so what else can I do that I Midnights Children is postcolonialist. But
MFA
The low-residency MFA at Seattle Pacic
IN CREATIVE University is for apprentice writers who
it was seventy years ago. Nobody in India think what is great about this art form No. I mean, of course its nice when
thinks very much about the British Em- is that its one single intelligence saying, you win and its not so nice when you
pire. The subject is gone. So now youre Heres how I see it. An intelligence that dont, but I dont really care. The thing
in a moment thats post-postcolonial. I nobody owns. Its just this one person that is much more of a prize to me is
think the same thing is true for post- saying, I will tell you this. And you can what we were saying earlier, which is
modernism. That weve gone a few steps be lucky or unluckythe point of that is that the books endure. If you are writ-
more than that nowthere isnt a name its a big gamble. But the desire to be that ing this kind of work, not pop ction,
for it, but there doesnt need to be. individual voice I think is what makes a the purpose is to write something that
novelist. Every novelist Ive ever loved will endure, that hopefully will be
A modernist fan and writer friend of has that thing where you know its them. around long after youre not around.
mine, Can Xue, calls her work neoclassi- You pick up a random page of DeLillo Martin Amis has this nice phrase that
cal experimental instead of, say, avant- and its nobody else. I always quotewhat you want to do is
garde. leave behind a nice shelf of books. You
Well, I just dont like labels. If someone This reminds me of your reactions know, Midnights Children is a really old
tries to put me in a particular box, I im- when people bring up the Nobel Prize. book nowwhen I started writing it, it
mediately want to be in a different box. Ive seen you laugh at the idea, though was 1976. The fact that it has managed
Ive never been a great gang member. I personally think you should be up for to remain interesting to people two or
There are writers who like to travel in it already. three generations later, thats a prize.
packsI dont like that. The thing about But look at who gets it. [Laughter.] You Books survive only because people love
magical realism is, those guys really were know, Ive been lucky with prizes a lot themtheres no other reason why a
thinking together in a way. They actu- of the time, and unlucky a lot of the book survives ever. Books dont survive
ally had a kind of project in the way the time, and thats just the game. But I because of scandal. If The Satanic Verses
French surrealists had a project. But I dont think of it as serious. survives, it wont be because of scan-
have the Groucho Marx position: not dal. People forget scandal. Affection
wanting to be a member of any club Youre not perched by your phone on is the only thing that makes literature
that would have me as a member. I just Nobel announcement day? survive. Thats all there is.
BY DAW N L U N DY M A R T I N
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
R I C H A R D K E L LY
T
HE poet s whose work I in Greensburg. There we had our rst Nicole Sealey: I dont know if you
ret urn to again and again substantial conversation, though weve remember, but about a decade ago I
answer a call that compels been in each others orbit and mutual wrote a review of your debut collection
them, meaning their poems admirers of each others work for years. for Mosaic magazine. I wrote:
cannot not exist. I cant escape them, Despite the sweltering heat that hit
even though what I want from poetry us in that special landlocked way, we Just as the great American folklorist
is light less, weight lessness, to be talked about poetry and craft, our new Zora Neale Hurston encouraged
u ntet hered. The poems for t he booksI, too, have a new collection, reader s t h rough her mot her s
writer and for me, the readercreate Good Stock Strange Blood, out in August wordsto jump at the sun, so does
the feeling, however temporarily, that from Coffee House Pressaesthetics poet Dawn Lundy Martin urge in
I am free. and language, vulnerability and va- A Gathering of Matter / A Matter of
Gathering. It is the leap, not necessar-
Nicole Sealey is one such poet. grancy, luxury and yearning, drag and
ily the landing, that forces risk and
Born in St. Thomas and raised in systematic repression. invention. Martin has taken such
Apopka, Florida, she is the author of Somewhere in my thoughts I held a leap and, in the process, invented
Ordinary Beast, published this month Sealeys poem A Violence, from Or- new ways in which to engage and
by Ecco, and The Animal After Whom dinary Beast, as we spoke. I thought of experience language. A Gathering of
Other Animals Are Named, winner of how it feels like a poem for our times; Matterdoes not consult with con-
the 2015 Drinking Gourd Chapbook at the end, it references what the mind vention, but rather vehemently argues
Poetry Prize. She is also the executive cannot sustain. We are left to imag- with it.
director of Cave Canem, a nonprot ine what that is, exactly, though she
organization in Brooklyn, New York, gives us good direction. In Between the I didnt think it possible, but Good
that cultivates the artistic and profes- World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015), Stock Strange Blood takes even greater
sional growth of African American Ta-Nehisi Coates writes of the art leaps and risks even more. Can you
poets. In fact, in mid-June we spent that he was coming to love as a young trace your journey from A Gathering of
a week toget her at Cave Canems man, how it lived in this void, in the Matter / A Matter of Gathering to Good
retreat at the University of Pittsburgh not yet knowable, in the pain, in the Stock Strange Blood?
question.
Our discussion spanned several Dawn Lundy Martin: When I was
D A W N L U N D Y M A R T I N teaches in days, and I felt the calling that com- writing A Gathering of Matter / A
the writing program at the University of pels us both through our focus on the Mat ter of Gathering, I was doi ng
Pittsburgh and is codirector of the Center craft of our poetry and how we think two things. One, I was guring out
for African American Poetry and Poetics. meaning gets made. As our conversa- how to speak to childhood traumas;
She is the author of several books and tion spread (during the week of the and second, I was thinking of black
chapbooks, including A Gathering of Matter retreat, the Minnesota police ofcer displacementlike our relationship
/ A Matter of Gathering (University of on trial for the killing of Philando to a postcolonial continent. So I was
Georgia Press, 2007), winner of the Cave Castile was acquitted of all charges trying to make work about something
Canem Poetry Prize; Discipline (Nightboat in the July 2016 shooting), we never really big and something really small,
Books, 2011), which was selected for the overtly said the names of those people and do it via a poetics that was in-
Nightboat Books Poetry Prize and was a who have been unjustly killed by po- terested in languages inexactitude.
nalist for the Los Angeles Times Book lice, but they are ever-present none- Language feels too bulky to speak to
Prize; Candy, a limited-edition letterpress theless. While at the retreat, we all trauma. What happens when we open
chapbook (Albion Books, 2011); The Main heard of legal absolutions that confuse our mouths to speak it? Out comes
Cause of the Exodus (Oclock Press 2014); the rational mind. But the conversa- dust. Blathering. A cry. A stammer. A
The Morning Hour, selected by C. D. tions between most of us who attended circling, a return again and again to
Wright for the 2003 Poetry Society of remained focused on poetry. Why? I try to say what happened.
Americas Chapbook Fellowship; and thinkand this is what I noticed in I was working from the idea that
Life in a Box Is a Pretty Life (Nightboat my talk with Sealeythat the art that language was not enough, that it fails
Books, 2015), which won the Lambda moves us does something else entirely usoften even in regular communi-
Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry. Her than speak to the thing at hand. What cation, like, say, an argument with a
latest collection, Good Stock Strange Blood, we do as poets is figure out how to loverand that where poetry enters
was published by Coffee House Press in negotiate the limits of the so-called is in the re-formation and ratcheting
August. Her nonction writing has been rational world. This is a means of of language, so that it does its best job
published in the New Yorker, Harpers survival. And it is also, nally, where at speaking. This is especially impor-
Magazine, and boundary 2. weightlessness might be found. tant when it comes to trauma, which
women, queer people, and the poor. know, being a good citizen, pulling theyve exhausted the possibility. I
The other day I was listening to this yourself up by your bootstraps. say this to say, these multiple means
heartbreaking podcast about the re- But turning back to aesthetics, Im toward narrative is my attempt to keep
surgence of predatory home-lending energized by the ranging approaches the relationship I have with poetry in-
practices. Instead of buyers acquiring to telling stories in Ordinary Beast and terestingyet manageable. Writing is
mortgages, mortgage companies are the range of forms you inhabit and hard, at least for me. Having an archi-
offering contracts and telling buyers invent. How did you develop these tectural plan with which to imagine
that this is a cheap route toward home multiple means toward narrative? And and engage poems makes the process
ownership. Buyers never accumulate Im interested in how drag and gender less so. I love form for precisely this
equity, so as soon as they miss a pay- is congured in the work. I love the reason and nd the constraints ironi-
ment theyre out. Ta-Nehisi Coates emergence of all these drag queens cally freeingthe restrictions actu-
writes about this in The Case for who speak up through the interstices ally lend themselves to specic music,
Reparations. This was one way black of the book via epigraph. associations, and imagery that prob-
people were kept from owning homes ably wouldnt happen otherwise. This
in the 1960s and 70s. The practice is Sea ley: I n t he mov ie Love Jones, is denitely true of the various forms
back. And guess whos the secretary of the character Darius Lovehall says, in the collection.
treasury. A guy who has made billions When people who have been together For the last decade Ive been at work
from people losing their homes. Play- a long time say that the romance is on Legendary, a series of personae
ing the game often doesnt workyou gone, what theyre really saying is sonnets inspired by the queens featured
Inevitable
Dont Come Back Too Much and
by Lina Mara Ferreira Not the Mood
Cabeza-Vanegas by Durga Chew-Bose
page 76 page 81
I
N HER 1995 book on writing, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott But theres hope. The books featured herefour put out by indepen-
writes, Tell the truth as you understand it. If youre a writer dent or university presses, and one by a major publisherare among a
you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolution- few dozen debut essay collections and literary memoirs published this
ary acttruth is always subversive. In the past few years, year. Theyre intelligent, curious, and inventive; they experiment with
literary nonction has had something of a renaissance, with form and structure, defying strict narrative in favor of lyricism and medi-
contemporary writers like Leslie Jamison, Maggie Nelson, tation, creating space for language and ideas to move and work toward
Rebecca Solnit, and Ta-Nehisi Coates making best-seller lists, book surprising places. And, not least, they all have compelling, powerful
club picks, and course syllabuses around the country. Nevertheless, stories to tell. I asked these debut authors to write about the process
there still exists some uncertainty about the genreone that is in fact of publishing their rst books, what rst led them to literary nonction,
very old but has been embroiled for years in a modern-day identity and why their stories needed to be told in this way, through the lens of
crisis. Questions about literary nonction (known interchangably experience, observation, and memoryas fallible and unreliable as it
as creative or narrative nonfiction) are often based around such might be. Some themes emerged in their responses: In their books they
qualiers: What constitutes literary? Does creative mean you make grapple with difcult subjects like identity and race, illness and death,
things up? How can you claim a story is true when youre relying history, family, and displacement. They talk of persistence, obsession,
on memorythat ever fallible, unreliable narratorto tell it? Such and hard work. But the most striking similarity among them might be
uncertainty is perhaps most apparent in the publishing industry. To best summed up in the denition of the word essay: an attempt. When
put it plainly, books of literary nonction, whether essay collection or used as a verb: to try. Through their books, these authors are trying
memoir, are hard to publish. First books of literary nonction are even not just to tell a story, or to claim any specic knowledge or answer,
harder. In the eyes of major publishers, theyre difcult to market. but instead to seek the truth of their own lives and the lives around
Which means theyre a tough sell to editors. Which means it can be them, to understand what it means to live and see and love and grieve;
hard for nonction writers to nd an agent. What does get published, ultimately, to seek out, as Thomas Mira y Lopez says, the unknown yet
more often than not, are memoirs by celebrities and Internet person- inevitableto ask, as all great writing does, the most universal and
alitiesbooks more concerned with salaciousness and salability than unanswerable of lifes questions.
story or artistry. The great books of literary nonction that do get
published are typically by writers who have at least one book, and M E L I S S A F A L I V E N O is the senior editor of Poets & Writers
some record of sales success, already under their belt. Magazine.
didnt exactly seem to want me. all losses are credit toward an impending
What followed the ve-month failure jackpot. I dont believe hard work and
to write a book I hated was the extended perseverance entitle us to anything.
ve-year failure to sell a book I loved. But I do know that going through
I got a job offer in the U.S., which was all of that was easier than forcing my-
then rescinded. I got a book contract self to write something that felt unim-
with an independent press, which was portant. Because by the time I was in
then rescinded. I returned to Colombia high school, I had read the Iliad and
on the very last day left on my visa to live the Odyssey twice, but I had only ever
in my parents one-bedroom apartment, seen Colombian myths in crudely illus-
where every morning my father had to trated childrens books. I had studied Erik Unger
open the door to the converted closet
where I slept so I wouldnt suffocate from
foreign lms and wars while watching
my own country dig its heels deeper and
traveltransformsus
fumes expelled by the gas heater. Then deeper into an unending civil conict.
I moved to China to work for the only And through the stapled spines of local
Achangeofsettingina
university that would have me. myths sold on supermarket shelves, and newdestinationhasthe
And every year, for ve years, regard- the gold-leaf covers of foreign-authored powertotakeyourwriting
less of anything else, I rewrote that book. novels in libraries, I came to understand innewdirections
Sentence by sentence, cover to cover, that the stories I loved mostthose told
every year, untilafter fteen consecu- by the part of me that belonged to the
tive rejectionsit nally found a home. land beneath my feetcould never be
Joinusintherarefiedair
If there is a lesson in there, Im not considered literature. ofmagicalNewMexico
sure what it is. So I pull on the lever of a broken slot ever-changingCubaor
Pressing on after each defeat with the machine and hope for the best. Because culturallyrefinedJapan
belief of inevitable success has always Id still choose to fail trying to prove that
fortheWritersLab
seemed to me no better than pulling notion wrong than succeed in just about
the lever of a slot machine and thinking anything else.
Travel ) Writing and Food
Screenwriting ) Memoir )
and family, and Scalises diagnosis, at Non-Fiction
age twenty-four, of a brain tumor and
a rare hormonal disorder. Editor: Ariel Instructors include:
Lewiton. Agent: Janet Silver of Aevitas
Creative Management.
Pam Houston
Andrew McCarthy
When I realized the project Id been Deborah Madison
working on for two years was meant to Kirk Ellis
be a memoir and not, as Id planned, a
Lee Gutkind
long-form dive into the enduring cul-
tural significance of wrestler Andre and Hampton Sides
the Giant, I didnt handle that transi-
tion gracefully. Id always admired the
Su sa n O rlea n
/ Mar y Roach
leigh allen
/ M ichael Pa-
t er n it i t y p e s:
smart, partici-
patory journal-
Mike Scalise ists whose work
wa s he av y on Jennifer Spelman
The Brand New Catastrophe (Sara- reportage and writerslab.santafeworkshops.com
bande Books, January), a funny and in- ref lect ion but -- ext
timate memoir about illness, the body, light on details
of their own lives. My favorite book family, my wife, andyepme. drowning out others drama with
then was Denis Johnsons Seek, a col- It was clear now. I was in memoir- mine, but rather placing my story (and
lection of bold literary journalism land. All I had to do was figure out my familys story, and my wifes story)
in which Johnson claimed an attrac- what that meant. in careful conversation with that of
tive semi-distance from his subjects. I was only in my thirties, so part others who might have struggled with
Johnsonlike Orlean and crew of that work included dispelling un-
reserved a cool privilege to swoop into helpful myths about the genre: that It was clear now. I was in
a narrative with a hilarious parentheti- memoirs are poisonously navel-gazey
cal or an insightful clause, then shift (false), or that you have to live a long, memoir-land. All I had to do
the spotlight back onto the subject at distinguished life in order to write one
hand, which was always someone else, (nope). But more than that, I had to
now was gure out what that
something else, the author little more adjust to a concept many memoirists meant. I had to adjust to a
than the readers smart, elusive buddy. contend withthe idea that my story
My problem was that after two years was worth a spotlight at all. Who cares? concept many memoirists
of working in that vein, my Andre the Id confess to other memoir-writing
Giant project was a miserable failure. friends, who like me were shouldered contend withthe idea
The writing was too distant from the with a story they knew they had to tell,
that my story was worth a
material, or at times too close to it. My but at odds with the prospect of put-
calibrations were off in a way I couldnt ting themselves at the center of it. spotlight at all.
repair. Nothing held together. The But then something interesting
projects only true successes were the happened as I continued to write. All rare illness, or seismic catastrophe, or,
opposite of reportage: passages of per- the research Id done? All the story quite simply, having a family. It was
sonally driven ref lections about my arcs Id car ved out for A ndre t he a sleight of hand I didnt anticipate
diagnosis, at age twenty-four, with a Giant and other rare hormone cases but one I was pleased with. By nally
rare set of hormone conditions simi- just like ours? They all found their entering the spotlight, I allowed it to
lar to those of Andre the Giant, and natural narrative grooves alongside widen and tell a story far beyond my
how that diagnosis deeply affected my my experiences. Memoir didnt mean own.
mid-twenties, I enrolled in New York of the genre. Finally, at twenty-eight Victoria signed me, helped me shape
Universitys graduate poetry program, even though Id already pursued one a book proposal, and sold it later that
but I was a mess by then. Id go days MFA I enrolled in Hunter Colleges year to Masie Cochran at Tin House
without sleep, trying to fulll my prom- graduate memoir program, and it was Books. The proposal was with other
ise to my dad. I was hospitalized a lot, there that I met Alexandra Styron, editors, but after I talked with Masie, I
for psychosis and hypergraphia, which one of the most generous writers alive. knew she was the one. We shared the
I tried to keep a secret. I started reading She read countless drafts of The Glass same belief: The Glass Eye was about my
memoirs in an effort, I think, to feel less Eyeeven after I graduated. And then, struggle to write The Glass Eye. After we
alone. Literary memoirs such as Darin the summer after graduation, the agent hung up, I asked Victoria to pull the
Strausss Half a Life did even more than Victoria Marini reached out after read- proposal from everyone else. Id never
that; they expanded my understanding ing an essay Id written for the Believer. felt so liberated.
me. I write essays because I sometimes essays for online outlets like the Guard- ing. They really
feel near-desperate to connect images ian, Rolling Stone, and BuzzFeed around let me run a little
that recur in my memory, to recuper- 2009. I didnt have an MFA , and I didnt before I cou ld
ate, to nd out why a face, or a movie, have any real plans to write a book. I did walk.
ellee achten
my rst workshop thereit was led by seemed too much
Ander Monson, who cultivated an idea like an attempt
of the essay in terms of experiments or to remember the
dead, when what I really wanted to rough shape. I was lucky enough to re-
do was explore how we misremember ceive the Olive B. OConnor fellowship
them. The more I started to circle at Colgate University shortly after the
around questions that haunted me, MFA , and there I had room to work and
the more the dead seemed to turn into a burgeoning anxiety not to waste the
other entities and other beingsa sort time. Another piece of luck came in
of alchemy of alternate selves. nding an agent specically interested
The essay, I think, is particularly well in literary nonfiction and the essay.
suited to opposition and analogy, and so Matt McGowan sent the book out and
it seemed the best form to handle that it hung in the air for a while, or what
tension. Theres something unknown felt like a while. Early this year, I was
yet inevitable about the form that re- in the car with my mom and my part-
ally excites meits bound not by a set ner on the Palisades Parkway in New
of facts or lived narrative events (even York. We stopped at a rest stop that
though essays are, or can be, factual and was also a bookstore. I had accidentally
personal), but by the way a writers mind done a lot of acid over New Years and
works, which establishes both pattern felt like I was just settling back into my
and unpredictability at the same time. old self when I opened an e-mail to nd
I had the majority of material in the out Counterpoint was interested in the
book written by the time I nished the book. I had to hit refresh several times
MFA program, though much was still in to make sure it was real.
The Intangibles:
100 MFA Takeaways That Can't Be Measured Our 11th
annual
Consider the Novella: Making the Case for a New Workshop Model
102 by Douglas Trevor
special
section on
Flood Is Water: On Leaving an MFA Program
graduate
107 by Kima Jones programs
in creative
The Road Less Traveled: Making It Without an MFA
111 by Thomas Mullen writing
Advice to MFA
Applicants TEN POINTS TO CONSIDER
BEFORE APPLYING
Do some financial planning. Funding courses, or offer opportunities to teach magazine? Are you interested in lead-
might not be your top priority, but it outside of funding requirements? If so, ing workshops in prisons or commu-
should be part of your planning. Make what will your course load and time nity centers? Does the program have
sure youll have enough money to live commitment be? Dont forget about the a regular reading series? What about
on, at least somewhat comfortably, time spent outside class reading, grading, student groups, campus organiza-
while youre a student. If a program and prepping. Do you want your writ- tions, or volunteer opportunities?
doesnt offer full funding, look into jobs ing to be your primary focus in an MFA Think about what will help make
on campus, work-study opportunities, program? If so, make sure you have time your time in the program more dy-
travel and research stipends, and other for it. namic and fullling, and make sure
monetary resources the program might those opportunities are offered.
offer. And, not least, understand the Location is important. If you choose to
long-term costs of student loansand attend a full-residency program (see Talk to current and former students.
interest rates. page 88), youll probably be spending Do some research and ask students
the next two or three years in a new as well as alumni about their experi-
Size matters. Whats more attractive place. Would you prefer to live in a ences at the programs youre consid-
to you: an intimate environment with big city or a small town? Somewhere ering. Ask your friends and followers
a small group of peers whose work (and warm or cold? Near the coast or in the on social media and try to connect
personalities and social proclivities) mountains? Consider the resources with poets and writers who are in
youll get to know closely, or a larger most important to your life outside those programs. Ask them about the
cohort and workshop environment of the classroomsocially, culturally, facult y, the local communit y, the
where youll get to know and work with environmentally, gastronomically, or social scene, t he rental market
many writers (and perhaps have slightly otherwise. anything and everything that mat-
more anonymity)? ters to you.
Review your residency options. Maybe
Read books by faculty. Dont pick a pro- you want to earn an MFA while keeping Visit the campus. If your dream pro-
gram just because you recognize the your job and maintaining your current gram is nearby, drop in for a visit. If
names of the faculty. Know their work, life and location, taking only a week or its across the country, perhaps wait
too. Youll want to nd not just a men- two out of your busy schedule to attend u nt il youve been accepted, t hen
tor, but someone whose writing style, workshop. Depending on your career sit in on a workshop before decid-
sensibilities, and aesthetics resonate or family situation, you may want to ing. Take a stroll around campus.
with your own. So if you havent already consider a low-residency program (see Visit the library, gym, or graduate
done so, make sure to read the work of page 96). student center to get a feel for the
the faculty with whom youre interested space. Set up meetings with faculty
in studying. Once youve narrowed your Explore the curriculum. Is the program and administrators. If you can, go out
top programs, ask an administrator if focused on the workshop model? Does to a reading or drinks with current
the teachers you want to work with will it offer courses in craft, theory, or lit- st udents. Programs often include
be on sabbatical during your residency. erature? What about genre ction, or such opportunities on prospective
And ask around: Is that amazing author cross-genre study? You may have a tra- students days. So take advantage of
a generous teacher? Look online for ditional or more experimental focus in them. Ask questions, and dont be shy.
any proof that the critically acclaimed your workmake sure the program you Youll get to know a lot more about a
writer is also a caring professor. choose accommodates your interests. program and a schoolincluding its
community, politics, diversity, and
Decide if you want to teach. Does the pro- Consider extracurriculars. Do you atmospherethis way than you ever
gram require teaching undergraduate want to work on the staff of a literary could from a website.
I
F YOU V Eweighed t he cost s a nd The MFA Index lists the level of nan-
benefits, considered the pros and cial support students receive toward
cons, and nally arrived at the con- their tuition (full or partial), including
clusion that, yes, you want to pursue tuition waivers, fellowships, scholar-
an MFA degree, your homework has ships, and/or teaching assistantships,
only just begun. Now that you know research assistantships, and graduate
you want to attend an MFA program, assistantships. Many programs can-
you are faced wit h anot her set of not guarantee full funding for all stu-
decisions: To which programs (among dents, as funding often depends on
the more than 200 that are currently university budgets that change unpre-
offered by colleges and universities dictably each year. If a program has
around the world) do you want to apply? funded all or nearly all of its students
The M FA Index is intended as a for the past several years, it is listed
place to start, a reference to help you in the MFA Index as offering Full
begin narrowing down your choices. funding. Partial funding can mean
The programs listed in the following as little as one student receives a small
pages are pulled from the free MFA scholarship to 80 percent of students
Programs database at pw.org, which receive full funding. When programs
includes the information presented in are not fully funded, it is important to
the MFA Index as well as important de- calculate the cost of tuition. One pro-
tails such as core faculty and specic grams tuition might be so high that
funding opportunities. There are, of even if all students are offered a partial
course, certain elements of any given tuition waiver, it would cost those stu-
program that might make it the perfect dents less to attend a program that has
(or, conversely, a less-than-ideal) place fewer funding opportunities. Further
for you as a person and as a writer. The research will bear out these details and
MFA Index offers enough information comparisons.
about the genre tracks, location, size, Deciding to pursue an MFA is a big
amount of available funding, cost of liv- decision. Choosing which programs
ing, and residency requirements for you you will apply to is an even bigger
to determine whether you want to do one. Use the MFA Index to consider
additional research on a program, gath- the full eld of programs, then narrow
ering the details that matter the most to down your choices. Take your time.
you. Once youve identied a program Do the research. We wish you the best
or several programs in the MFA Index of luck.
that you think are worth a closer look,
investigate them further using the MFA
Programs database, then visit each pro- PW.ORG/MFA
grams website, requesting more infor- For complete information about the
mation from program coordinators and programs featured in the 2018 MFA
directors, if necessary. Index, visit our MFA Programs dabata-
The level of funding a program of- base, which includes details about core
fers is of particular interest to many faculty, specic funding opportunities,
prospective students, and rightly so. contact information, and more.
Adelphi University in Garden City, New York 2004 P, F, N 2 XS-S Partial VVH $50 1/15/18
City College of New York in New York City 2004 P, F, N 23 XL Partial VVH $125 10/1/17
Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts 1981 P, F, N 2-3 L Partial VVH $60 2/1/18
Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York 2011 P, F, N, + 2 XS Partial VVH $75 1/1/18
Hunter College in New York City 1999 P, F, N 2 S Partial VVH $125 2/1/18
Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York 2007 P, F, N 2-3 XS-S Partial VVH $50 Rolling
Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York 2012 P, F, N 2 XS-S Partial VVH $0 Rolling
The New School in New York City 1996 P, F, N, + 2 XL Partial VVH $50 1/15/18
New York University in New York City 1996 P, F 2 L-XL Partial VVH $100 12/18/17
Queens College in New York 2007 P, F, N, T, + 2-3 S Partial VVH $125 2/15/18
Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey 2008 P, F, N 2-3 S Full L $70 1/20/18
Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey 2007 P, F 2-3 S Full H $65 1/1/18
Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York 1969 P, F, N, + 2 XL Partial VVH $60 12/15/17
KEY
Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven 2009 P, F, N 2 S Partial H $50 3/1/18
Stony Brook University in Southampton, New York 2007 P, F, N 2-3 S-M Partial VVH $100 1/1/18
University of New Hampshire in Durham 2007 P, F, N 2-3 S Partial VVH $65 1/15/18
Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier 2014 P, F, N 2 S-M Partial H $75 2/28/18
William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey 2010 P, F, N 2-3 XS Partial VVH $50 Rolling
American University in Washington, D.C. 1980 P, F, N 2-3 S Partial VVH $55 1/15/18
George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia 1980 P, F, N 3 M-L Partial VVH $75 1/10/18
Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville 2002 P, F, N 3 S Partial L $35 2/1/18
Full = All students are offered full tuition Cost of Living App. Fee
support for the duration of the program. According to bestplaces.net, which calculates The lowest application fee (postal or online) for
Partial = At least some students are offered total cost of living for each U.S. city compared U.S. students. Note: Many programs charge a
some tuition support for the duration of the with an overall national average. higher fee for nonU.S. students.
program. V V L = Very Very Low: 25% or more below
Note: Many programs cannot guarantee full V L = Very Low: 1624% below Next Deadline
funding for all students, as funding often L = Low: 615% below The next application deadline on or after
depends on university budgets that change A = Average: 5% below5% above September 1, 2017, whether that be a priority
unpredictably each year. If a program has H = High: 615% above deadline, funding deadline, or nal deadline.
funded all or nearly all of its students for the V H = Very High: 1624% above For most programs listed here, it is the nal
past several years, it is listed as Full. V V H = Very Very High: 25% or more above deadline for entry into the program in fall 2018.
Program (alphabetical by region) MFA Est. Genres Duration Size Funding Cost of Living App. Fee Next Deadline
University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida 1991 P, F 2-3 XS Full VVH $65 2/1/18
Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas 2012 P, F, N 3 XS Partial L $45 10/15/17
Central South
University of Texas in Austin (New Writers Project) 2010 P, F 2 XS Full VH $65 12/15/17
Chicago State University in Illinois 2001 P, F, N 2-3 XS-S Partial H $30 10/15/17
Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri 2000 P, F, N, + 1-2 L Partial A $30 Rolling
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois 2008 P, F, N 2.5-5 S Partial VVH $75 10/15/17
Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois 1998 F, N 2-3 XS-S Partial H $40 Rolling
Program (alphabetical by region) MFA Est. Genres Duration Size Funding Cost of Living App. Fee Next Deadline
School of the Art Institute of Chicago in lllinois 1996 NGS 2 M Partial H $80 1/10/18
California College of the Arts in San Francisco 2000 P, F, N, + 2 S Partial VVH $70 1/10/18
California Institute of the Arts in Valencia 1994 NGS 2 S-M Partial VVH $70 12/1/17
West
California State University in Long Beach 1995 P, F 2 S Partial VVH $55 1/15/18
Colorado State University in Fort Collins 1985 P, F 3 XS-S Partial VH $60 1/1/18
Mills College in Oakland, California 1980 P, F, N 2-3 XL Partial VVH $50 1/15/18
Program (alphabetical by region) MFA Est. Genres Duration Size Funding Cost of Living App. Fee Next Deadline
Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado 1974 NGS 2 S-M Partial VVH $60 1/16/18
New Mexico State University in Las Cruces 2001 P, F 3 XS-S Partial L $40 1/15/18
Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California 2000 P, F, N, T 2 XS Partial VVH $60 11/1/17
Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga 1995 P, F, N 2-3 M Partial VVH $0 12/10/17
San Diego State University in California 1989 P, F 3 M Partial VVH $55 2/1/18
San Francisco State University in California 1992 P, F, N, T, + 3 M Partial VVH $55 1/15/18
San Jose State University in California 2001 P, F, N, + 2-3 L Partial VVH $55 3/1/18
University of California in San Diego 2009 P, F 2-3 XS Full VVH $105 12/1/17
University of San Francisco in California 1986 P, F, N 2-3 L Partial VVH $55 1/15/18
University of Utah in Salt Lake City 1983 P, F, N 2-3 S Partial H $55 12/15/17
NOTES: Multiple attempts were made to verify the information in the MFA Programs database and the 2018 MFA Index with representatives of each program
(with the exception of cost of living, which was found at bestplaces.net). If these attempts were unsuccessful (as was the case with the full-residency program
at Chicago State University and the low-residency program at Albertus Magnus College) the information was checked against the program's website as well as
MFA Nation 2016: A Compendium of Graduate Programs in Creative Writing at pw.org. The MFA programs at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri,
and the University of Texas in El Paso offer an online track in addition to a full-residency track. Other universities that offer fully online MFA degrees include Bay
Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts; Concordia University in St. Paul; Mount St. Mary's University in Los Angeles; National University in La Jolla,
California; and the University of Arkansas in Monticello. Many colleges and universities, some of which offer MFA degrees and are listed in the 2018 MFA Index,
administer MA and/or PhD degrees in creative writing. The MFA Programs database at pw.org lists these programs. The MFA Programs database is updated by
associate editor Dana Isokawa, senior web editor Jessica Kashiwabara, and assistant web editor Bonnie Chau.
Albertus Magnus College 2010 P, F, N 2-3 S Three Saturdays each semester New Haven, CT $50 Rolling
Glenside, PA
Three weeklong residencies in (January and
Arcadia University 2011 P, F 2 M $25 3/1/18
January, July, and August August); Edinburgh,
Scotland (July)
Ashland University 2007 P, F, N 2 M One 2-week residency in July Ashland, OH $30 9/15/17
Augsburg College 2013 P, F, N, + 2 S-M One 10-day residency in July Minneapolis, MN $0 2/1/18
Pittsburgh, PA
Two 11-day residencies in January
Carlow University 2004 P, F, N 2-3 M (January); Dublin, $0 Rolling
and June Ireland (June)
Rotates between
Cedar Crest College Dublin, Ireland;
2012 P, F, N, + 2-3 S One 15-day residency in July Barcelona, Spain; $50 12/1/17
(Pan-European MFA)
and Vienna, Austria
Chatham University 2009 P, F, N 2 XS-S One 10-day residency in July Gibsonia, PA $0 11/15/17
Faireld University 2008 P, F, N, + 2 M Two 9-day residencies in July Enders Island, CT $60 10/15/17
and December
Wroxton, England
Fairleigh Dickinson University Two 10-day residencies in (January);
2002 P, F, N,T, + 2-3 M Madison, NJ $0 10/15/17
January and August
(August)
KEY
Genres drama, among others. Note: Some programs programs offer more flexible residency options
The program offers tracks in these genres. offer translation as a concentration or as and do not require students to graduate in this
P = Poetry; F = Fiction; N = Nonction; T = required coursework; only translation tracks are time.
Translation; NGS = Not Genre-Specic; + = noted here. Many programs offer dual-genre or
Additional Genres, such as playwriting/drama, cross-genre tracks or opportunities, which are Size
screenwriting, TV writing, writing for children not noted here. The total number of students in the incoming
and young adults, popular-genre ction, comics class each year across all genres. Many
and/or graphic narratives, travel writing, Duration programs start two or more cohorts each year.
environmental writing, libretto, narrative-poetic The number of years it takes a typical XS = 29 students; S = 1019; M = 2030;
medicine, writing for new media, and radio student to complete a degree. Many L = 3149; XL = 50+
Oklahoma City University (Red Earth Two 10-day residencies in Oklahoma City,
2011 P, F, N, + 2 S January and July $50 9/15/17
MFA) OK
Program (alphabetical order) MFA Est. Genres Duration Size Residency Requirements Location App. Fee Next Deadline
Charlotte, NC
(January, May);
Two weeklong residencies in Buenos Aires,
January and May or one 15-day
Queens University of Charlotte 2001 P, F, N, + 2 L Argentina; Rio de $50 10/1/17
residency in July/August (Latin Janeiro, Brazil; or
American track) Santiago, Chile
(July/August)
Whidbey Island,
Two 10-day residencies in WA (March);
Seattle Pacic University 2005 P, F, N 2 S Santa Fe, NM $50 11/15/17
March and July/August
(July/August)
Incline Village,
Two 8-day residencies in NV; occasional
Sierra Nevada College 2012 P, F, N, + 2 M international $50 12/1/17
January and August
locations
Louisville, KY
Two 10-day residencies in May (May, November);
Spalding University 2000 P, F, N, + 2-4 L-XL and November, or one 10-day international $30 2/1/18
residency in June/July location (June/
July)
New Smyrna
Beach, FL
Stetson University (MFA of the Two 10-day residencies in (January); city in
2015 P, F 2 M $50 12/1/17
Americas) January and June Canada, Mexico,
Central/South
America (June)
University of Alaska in 2008 P, F, N 3 S One 13-day residency in July Anchorage, AK $75 1/15/18
Anchorage
Various
international
One monthlong residency in locations, most
University of New Orleans 2000 P, F, N 2-3 S recently Cork, $20 10/1/17
June/July
Ireland, and
South Tyrol,
Italy
Freeport, ME, or
Howth, Ireland
University of Southern Maine Two 10-day residencies in (January);
(Stonecoast MFA) 2002 P, F, N, + 2 L $65 9/1/17
January and July Brunswick,
ME, or Dingle,
Ireland (July)
Dublin, Ireland,
or towns in the
Two 5-day residencies in Berkshires,
Western New England University 2014 F 2 XS-S $30 Rolling
January and July MA (January);
Springeld, MA
(July)
Western State Colorado University 2010 P, F, + 2 S One 2-week residency in July Gunnison, CO $50 6/1/18
Buckhannon,
Two 9- or 10-day residencies in
West Virginia Wesleyan College 2011 P, F, N 2 M WV; sometimes $0 10/1/17
January and July Ireland
8TH ANNUAL
The Intangibles
MFA TAKE AWAYS THAT CAN'T BE ME ASURED
T
HERE are some aspects of a graduate writing to even more tightly than their diplomasthe skills and
program that cannot be quantifiedqualities lessons, experiences and connections theyll carry with
that dont fit neatly on a spreadsheet, facets them for the rest of their writing and publishing careers.
that cant be summed up on a university We asked several poets and writers from around the
website or in an application packet. These are the country to discuss some of the more intangible benefits
elements of a program that MFA graduates might hold on their MFA programs provided.
M
ANY applicants to, and rst- happens in a few pages and that we as but one that perhaps gets a little more
year students in, the MFA readers care about what transpires. demanding as time passes.
program in which Im for- The explicit attention that short ction It seems curious to me that perhaps
tunate to teachthe Helen draws to questions of pacing makes the the most challenging of prose genres
Zell Writers Program at the Univer- merits of studying short storiesand also serves as the domain in which so
sity of Michigansee short stories as trying ones hand at themseem per- many younger writers are encouraged
the default mode of the apprentice c- fectly obvious. to cut their teeth. I worry a bit that
tion writer. There are plenty of logical I n a n 1899 let ter to t he w riter a default emphasis on the short story
reasons for this to be the case. Short Maxim Gorky, Anton Chekhov re- form in MFA programs can end up dis-
stories make good writing samples for marked that good writing should be couraging talented writers who might
MFA applications, there are countless grasped at oncein a second. When not excel, in spite of their talents, in
venues in which one might hope to asked to explain why he wrote short this demanding domainthat it may
publish ones short fiction, and sto- stories and poems rather than novels, dissuade those who might otherwise
ries easily accommodate the rhythm Raymond Carvera self-described focus on writing longer works. To
and timeframe of a workshop. From follower and emulator of Chekhovian be clear, Im not arguing against the
a teaching point of view, in contexts aestheticsoffered the following ad- benefits of trying to write short fic-
in which student work usually takes vice: Get in, get out. Dont linger. Go tion. Submitting oneself to the rigors
pride of place, assigning short stories on. More recently, the author and es- of revising a handful of pages, and
instead of novels, for example, seems sayist Francine Prose said of exemplary the challenges that inhere in trying
both justied and apropos. What bet- short stories that they make us marvel to make something happen in these
ter introduction to the craft of ction at their integrity, their economy. If we pages, are both crucial skills for writ-
than studying the craftiest of genres? went at them with our blue pencils, we ers to develop. Rather, part of what Im
The one in whichperhaps a little like might nd we had nothing to do. suggesting is practical, and the other
Dutch miniature paintingevery de- This sense that a good short story part is pedagogical.
tail must be painstakingly executed? is aerodynamically swift and stagger- Beginning with the practical, Id like
As an apprentice genre, short stories ingly efficient, approachingif not to encourage MFA programs, and the
are rigid taskmasters, requiring a me- embodyingperfection itself, is a students they train, to more explicitly
ticulous command of language, voice, judgment at which most commentators embrace the novella as an apprentice
characterization, plot, and action. on the form seem to arrive. In fact, it genre: as the ground zero, we might
Short stories demand that something is rare to nd an accomplished prac- say, of ones earliest attempts at writ-
titioner of the short story form who ing a story (or even a novel). But rst,
does not emphasize how incredibly perhaps its wise to try to answer a basic
D O U G L A S T R E V O R has published difcult it is to work in this genre question: What is a novella? Rather
short ction and novellas in journals such one in which the canvas is very small than attempt to dene the genre ac-
as Ploughshares Solos, the Iowa Review, the and, therefore, any room for mis- cording to a specific page length or
Paris Review, New Letters, Glimmer Train, takes is scant. Additionally, in some word count, lets say instead that it
New England Review, and dozens of other ways, it feels as if this canvas is get- exists somewhere between whatever
publications. Trevor is the author of a ting smaller. As anyone who has pub- constitutes a novel and whatever con-
novel and a story collection, and his next lished short stories consistently over stitutes the most publishable short
book, a collection of short stories (and the years has probably noticed, the ction. Perhaps, for our purposes, we
one novella), The Book of Wonders, will journals and glossies devoted to pub- might simply (if somewhat crassly) call
be published by SixOneSeven Books in lishing such work tend to solicit, and it a story whose length disqualies it
October. He is the director of the Helen publish, slightly shorter stories every from being published in most literary
Zell Writers Program at the University year. Young writers are being asked to journals or magazines because it is too
of Michigan. work in not only a demanding form, long.
The winning novel is chosen for the quality of its prose, its originality,
and for authenticity of setting and characters.
For this years award, publishers are invited to send one copy of a book published in 2017 to:
3FCB8IJUF8JMMJBNTt.BEJTPO"WFOVF
4VJUFt/FX:PSL
/:
The Willie Morris Award is sponsored by Reba White Williams and Dave Williams.
For additional information, inquire via e-mail: info@williemorrisaward.com
or visit the website www.WillieMorrisAward.com
My modest proposal, then, is for Hed never been drunk. Hed never students spent the rst eight weeks of
those who teach in MFA programs to purchased a rearm or spoken into a the semester reading ten or so novellas
make efforts to encourage emerging telephone. He had no idea who his to get a sense of the form. Then they
writers to inhabit the storytelling space parents might have been, and he left workshopped their own novellas, two
Im associating with the novellaone no heirs behind. or three a week, for the rest of the se-
in which, over the course of dozens and Train Dreams hardly follows Ray- mester. Most students, Byers says, hit
dozens of pages, a story might pivot mond Carvers dictum to get in and get the 80-page mark without much trouble
and shift, even meander, in mesmeriz- out. On the contrary, as with Grainiers and one student made it to about 180
ing ways. One of the unintended con- own thought processes, through much pagesbeyond, in fact, the denition
sequences of emphasizing economy as of the story we as readers drift along. of a novella that wed established. From
the emulative aesthetic form is that it There is room, in Johnsons narra- Byerss perspective, the very challenge
can cause us to forget the pleasure of tive, for anecdotes and asides, for leaps of trying to write a novella formed part
reading stories that bend and twist in backward and forward in time, and of the appeal. I presented the idea as
such wayssomewhat leisurely taking for unanticipated encounters with the impossible, he says, and therefore
us where we might not expect to go. haunting and sublime. In a visit to our impossible to fail at. So that took the
Denis Johnsons Train Dreams (Far- Ann Arbor campus several years ago, pressure off. In the end, the students
rar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), first Johnson recounted feeling pressured by were addressing not the workshop or
published in the Paris Review in 2002, his publisher to make the freestanding me so much as the form itself. We were
strikes me as a great example of the version of this novella longer. But one all out of the equation, in a sense, just
freedom afforded by the novella. In can imagine a longer version of Train trying to bring something into being
crisp but otherworldly prose, Johnsons that resembled the texts wed read.
novella follows the character Robert Beginning with novellas, the Perhaps the amorphous properties
Grainier in and around the northwest- of novellasthe fact that many writers
ern mountains of Idaho on the cusp emerging writer can learn to gauge cannot even agree, for example, on a
of what the story proposes to be the both what it means to develop a prescribed length for the genreare a
end of the Old West. In nine chapters better starting ground for some emerg-
that range in length from six to twenty longer, more novelistic narrative ing writers than the often fetishized
pages each, we follow Grainier as he arc and what is required to shrink a short story. Beginning with novellas,
works extracting timber for the Spo- the emerging writer can learn to gauge
kane International Railway line, loses story down to short-story size. both what it means to develop a longer,
his wife and baby girl to a terrible for- more novelistic narrative arc and what
est re, and acquires a pair of horses, Dreams feeling perhaps too meander- is required to shrink a story down to
in the process becoming a freighter for ing, whereas if the novella had been short-story size. An MFA graduates
people in and around Bonners Ferry. cut down to the size of a short story, rst book might end up being a great
Grainier interacts occasionally with a it might have been forced to sacrice collection of short stories, but it might
Kootenai Indian named Bob; he is much of its meditative quality. very well end up being something else
haunted by the images of his lost loved Its hard to conceive of such a highly entirely: interlinked or freestanding
ones, particularly his little girl, Kate, realized piece of ction as Train Dreams novellas, a short novel, a long novel,
whom he ends up believing survived in any other form, but as a novella and so on. In its very capaciousness,
the re, becoming the areas legendary hovering between the short story and the novella grants apprentice writers
wolf-girl. He grows old, never ceas- the novelwe can glimpse, Janus-like, the creative space they might need to
ing to grieve the loss of his family. As qualities of these other genres within think through important questions of
Train Dreams unfolds, Johnson subtly its pages. This strikes me as one of the craft. And there could be something
gestures toward events and develop- unique values of the novella, even if liberating to be gained from situating
ments in the wider world: the 1918 the mastery of this form is of course oneself in a prose form that so dees
outbreak of the Spanish f lu and the no easier than the mastery of any other prescriptive formulae. Perhaps, in the
rise of the motion picture and aircraft artistic medium. early stages of a project, when prose
industries. We watch a world change W hat would a novella workshop writers might not yet know what they
over the shoulder of a quiet man, one look like? A few years ago, one of my have on their hands, it might be useful
who is striking in part for what he has colleagues in the Helen Zell Writers for them to tell themselves that theyre
not experienced, what he does not Program, Michael Byers, taught a working on a novella, and leave it at
know. As Johnson writes of Grainier: course on novellas. In Byerss class, that.
New T i t l e s
The Donner Party Where Is North
By George Keithley By Alison Jarvis
George Braziller, Inc. Silversh Review Press
The Donner Party is one of the three or four nest book- Winner, 2015 Gerald Cable Book Award. In Alison Jarvis
length American poems ever written.Poetry. Out of the extraordinary Where Is North, a life unfolds between breath-
western migration of the 1840sKeithley has made a lean, taut taking love poems. In a dark time the eye learns to see,
narrative poem that moves with the speed and terseness of a killer Roethke said. Where Is North is a profoundly necessary book
shark.The New York Times. Keithleys account of the Donner for our strange era.D. Nurkse.
tragedy is a major event in American letters.X.J. Kennedy.
www.georgebraziller.com www.spdbooks.org
Anton Haardt relates the story of Mose Tollivers turn to paint- In Lebanon during the civil war, a teenage boy and his family
ing after a crippling accident left him unable to work. She charts witness leveled cities and the aftermath of massacres. What does
the evolution of his career, from the days when he hung his it mean to survive? To carry the burden of what youve seen
paintings in a tree in his front yard in Montgomery, Alabama, across an ocean to America? Set to Music a Wildre explores the
selling them for a dollar each, through his rise to renown in the violence of living, the guilt of surviving, and the impossible task
folk art world and far beyond. of belonging.
www.antonhaardtgallery.com www.usi.edu/sir
A Long Late Pledge How a Poem Can Happen, Conversations with Twenty-
By Wendy Willis One Extraordinary Poets
Bear Star Press By Andrew Kuhn with a foreword by Billy Collins
Co-published by Katonah Poetry Series
A Long Late Pledge arrives at the perfect moment in our national
A LONG LATE conversation about democracy, what it is and where it has failed. Since 2010, poet and psychologist Andrew Kuhn has interviewed
PLEDGE Williss book suggests what remedies there might be for resur- 21 distinguished poets who read for the Katonah Poetry Series.
recting its original premise, this time including a pledge to honor Kuhn asks complex questions, and readers are rewarded with
poems
what was left out of its charters and laws the rst time around. reective and surprising answers. Billy Collins observes, [Kuhn]
Distribution: Bear Star & SPD. challenges his subjects, but from a place of deep sympathy and
evident knowledge of what poets do, and the artistic choices
www.bearstarpress.com they face. http://katonahpoetry.com/interviews
Written in response to the visual art and photography of Tom The novella is the perfect medium for this wide-ranging author
Patton, Stephani Schaefer, and Sara Umemoto, Spectators grap- to explore the power and imagination of oral storytelling in the
ples with the Western identity vis--vis the idea of the spectacle. lives of his characters. Maddens unmatched scope in this collec-
Flash Fictions by These ash ctions range from sketches of anguished lives to tion could draw comparisons to Joseph Conrad, Henry James,
Rob Davidson
daydreams with a touch of absurdism. In several pieces that and Thomas Wolfe.
ponder narrative itself, Davidson writes against the hollow senti-
ments of tourism.
www.robdavidsonauthor.net www.utpress.org
Story Sparks: Finding Your Best Story Ideas & Turning Late Night, Early Morning: Stories
Them into Compelling Fiction By Allen Wier
By Denise Jaden University of Tennessee Press
New World Library
Allen Wier is best known as an award-winning novelist, but
Successful novelist Denise Jaden busts the waiting for the muse he is also a master of the short story. Late Night, Early Morning
myth, showing that inspiration is actually a learned skill. She offers contains twenty-two of Allens rst collection (Things About to
great information on how to fertilize new ideas, and how to move Disappear), six uncollected stories, and seven stories that became
through writers block. Jaden celebrates the imaginative sparks that part of his rst four novels. Skillfully written and compassionate
make innovations of all kinds possible while also pinpointing the stories of daily life.
tools writers need to fan their unique creative ames.
www.newworldlibrary.com www.utpress.org
If you have a book to promote in the New Titles section, e-mail advertising@pw.org
special section
the
MFA
L
ATOYA and I have just a few days lots. Maurice drives slowly through that second meaning. I am thinking
left in New Orleans before the streets. LaToya and I roll down of people calling my poetry raw and
we are to return home to our our windows to see better, to take brutal and real, my syntax famil-
lives, to our work. Were here clearer pictures, but the rain wont let iar, my voice authentic. I am think-
for our annual writing retreat, time up. Maurice tells us that many fami- ing about ne print and nicknames and
we take together each year to work lies never returned to New Orleans my name, which my family says with
on our novels. Weve been to Taos, because they didnt have the right such ease but strangers stumble over
Tuscany, and Saratoga Springs, and insurance. They bought water in- so frequently Ive learned to say it for
this year we decided on New Orleans. surance, not ood insurance, he says. them before they can manipulate it. I
Its a pact weve made as best friends: am thinking of the many times lan-
two weeks, anywhere we want, every guage was politely used to rob me of my
I stay up the rest of the night
year, no exceptions, until our novels personhood.
are nished. Our writer friend picks thinking of the ways language If a flood isnt water, then what is
us up and brings us across the bridge, it? The trick of plain English is
is so often used against
into the Lower Ninth Ward, where intentional: Black folks were meant to
Hurricane Katrinas damage did the black people and the ways be cheated. The sentences so clean, the
most harm to poor black people, daggers nearly invisible but the blade
it has been used against me.
where many homes are still aban- always dull when it sticks. I have just a
doned, twelve years later. Its raining I am thinking of people calling few days left in New Orleans, but I am
hard this evening. I feel a dread rise my poetry raw and brutal and up in my nightgown, thinking about
in my chest and settle over me. I fear the vernacular and thinking about the
water because I cannot swim. Yet here real, my syntax familiar, my institution and how I got to be on the
we are, in the Gulf, driving past Fats voice authentic. I am thinking inside and outside of language and aca-
Dominos house on a rainy evening, demia and publishing.
taking photographs, being inside and of the many times language was
I
outside of this city at the same time. politely used to rob me of my AM leaving my MFA program, a
Our friend, Maurice, points out Brad place where I am on the inside and
Pitts renovation projects and land- personhood. on the outside. I am the only black
marks and abandoned lots. Lot after woman in workshop, but that is
lot after lot of nothing. Not noth- But ood is water, I say. Tell that to not why I am leaving. I am the only
ing, he says. Used to be. That used the insurance man, he says. queer in workshop, I am the only genre
to be somebodys house. I stay up the rest of the night think- writer in workshop, I am the only poet
I peer through the raindrops to ing of the ways language is so often and ction writer in workshop, I am
look for fou ndat ions, yard sig ns, used against black people and the the only person of color in workshop,
small ower beds, a broken window, ways it has been used against me. I I have to pronounce my characters
anything to document the fact that a am thinking about myself as a child, names in workshop, I am the only per-
family lived and died in that place, but as a genius speller, as an avid reader, a son with queer characters in workshop,
there is nothing now. For every house lover of English, fascinated by Shake- I am one of three black women in my
that survived, another ten or fteen speare, ent hralled by Gwendoly n program, I am the only black woman
Brooks, eager to read anything put in ction. There is one black faculty
in front of me, understanding, since I member this semester. But none of
K I M A J O N E S is a poet and prose writer was a child, that nonblack people say these reasons are why I am leaving.
living in Los Angeles, where she owns and things to me in plain English when When its my turn to have my writing
operates Jack Jones Literary Arts, a book they are actually saying an opposite critiqued, I take notes on my pages.
publicity company. thing to me. Ive learned to listen for Most of them say, He did not read my
story. I thank the class for their time. I am being asked, Who do you think owner who needs to le her quarterly
What I really mean by thank you is you are? I am being told this talk is t a xes a nd pay rol l t a xes a nd send
I am so humiliated and so disgusted that black-talk. Better turn around. media follow-ups and schedule an
I have nothing more to say. Ive learned office cleaning. Some days it takes
I
polite language, too. MAKE the decision with two days more than I have in me to remem-
I tell this to LaToya at 1 A M . Ive left in New Orleans, after several ber that in addition to my work, my
woken her up with my crying. If I cant more calls to friends for advice. job work, my make-a-living work, I
speak up for myself, if I cant defend I feel like theres a style guide to am writing a novel. Its all blurred
myself, then what is the use of lan- an MFA program, and I am not of it. into one now: I am a writer who is
guage? If I cant use the language Ive I dont like the way those folks talk a publicist who works with writers
been taught to make meaning, whats to me. Theres so much work to do, who works in publishing who is self-
the use of ction? If the institution and xing my tone isnt chief among employed and an employer of t wo
can use language against me, a lan- the labor. I am a book publicist who poets with MFA degrees. My friends
guage Ive loved and studied all my has built a business around the sole are writers. My friends are clients.
life, then what are we doing here in decision to publicize and empower My Twitter followers are prospec-
the institution? What does it mean to black writers and writers of color. I tive clients. Everyone I meet at any
ask a black woman to change her tone have four books by clients forthcom- given conference or event or retreat
and call it craft? They say the tone of ing this fall, and already work has is a prospective client. I have a cli-
the piece. They say the feel of the dia- started on my spring projects. I have ent who won the Pulitzer. I have a
logue. The texture of the sentences. The two employees, and I am thinking of client who won the PEN Bingham. I
tone of the language. Flood is water. my mothers retirement and my own. have a client who won the Midland.
I understand that Im being told to Somet imes I work eighteen-hour They are all black writers. I think of
watch what I say. I am being asked, days. Some days I am not a poet, I watermelon jokes on national award
Who do you think you are speaking to? am not a writer, I am a small-business stages and I get busy. I think about
W
ARNING: I do not have an as my twenties passed and the rejection was stacked, the game rigged. Every
MFA , teach creative writ- letters and failed manuscripts piled up, time I sent an unsolicited query letter to
ing, or live in New York I worried Id made a fatal error. I real- an agent, I feared that I was showing up
City. For these reasons ized a little late that MFA programs, once to a gunght with a knife.
alone, you should probably ignore any rare, had become commonplace and That fear lingered until the day my
career advice I offer. Best turn the page that a Standard Road for Writers had agent told me that my first novel was
to another story, quickly. been blazed: college, MFA, publication, going to be published. Suddenly the lack
Still here? Then I should also note teaching job. I had unknowingly ven- of an MFA didnt matter so much.
that Im a novelist, with ve published tured down a less trodden path rife with Im hardly some antiestablishment,
novels so far, and have been a full-time thorny underbrush, snakes, and occa- academia-hating populist. I attended a
writer for eight of the past twelve years. sional mudslides. An MFA had not been New England prep school and a private
That may seem like an unbelievable plot an option for me. I graduated college in liberal arts college. I loved being a stu-
twist, but Im here to inform you that its 1996 with double the average amount of dent. I am the son of an art teacher, and
possible to make it as a writer without student loan debt. My fathers business I have many professor friends who love
an MFA . As application season draws had gone under during my junior year; their jobs. What Im saying is I might
near, and youre debating whether or my parents declared bankruptcy and our have enjoyed an MFA program. I might
not to attend grad school, you should family lost our house, so I was lucky to have even been a natural for grad school
know that going without an MFA has even graduate. Given this frightening and academia. If youre lling out an ap-
serious downsidesbut so does tak- nancial insecurity, I couldnt consider plication right now, I am in no way hop-
ing out big loans for an arts degree in going into further debt so some writing ing to dissuade you.
todays economy. Obstacles abound on professor could teach me about irony. But I also know plenty of disillusioned
either side of this choice. While I knew that MFA scholarships survivors of MFA programs who dont
I never set out to be an exception to existed, I didnt want to risk the heart- enjoy teaching and are suffering through
any rules. At rst I didnt even realize ache of applying, being accepted, and itsome of them adjuncts locked into
there were rules to being a writer. Like then nding out I couldnt swing tuition. low earnings and very little stability
so many others, I was convinced I would Besides, the prouder part of me ar- either as a perceived penance for failing
be published in my early twenties. Yet gued, as a writer I feel duty-bound to to score that big book deal or because
avoid clichs in my prose, and the idea they feel that theyre trapped on a certain
of enrolling in grad school or moving career path. And I know many people
T H O M A S M U L L E N is the author to Brooklyn would seemingly make my who earned graduate degrees and now
of Darktown (Atria, 2016), which was very life a clich. How could that be a toil outside academia, unable to land ten-
short-listed for the Los Angeles Times good thing, for me or for my writing? ured jobs and nearly suffocating beneath
Book Prize, the Indies Choice Book Still, as I toiled on my manuscripts the weight of student loan debt, which
Award, the Southern Book Prize, and two at night and on weekends while hold- forces them to delay other life decisions.
CWA Dagger Awards and was named an ing down jobs that helped me pay off As someone who knows what its like to
NPR Best Book of the Year; The Last Town my debt and feed myself, I noticed that literally run out of money, I assure you
on Earth (Random House, 2006), winner the words attended graduate school there is nothing romantic or artistically
of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize and appeared in the bios of all my favorite noble about being broke. Writers should
USA Todays Best Debut of the Year; The young writers. Theyre learning all this make smart financial decisions about
Many Deaths of the Firey Brothers (Random stuff Im not learning! I began to fear. their futures.
House, 2010); and The Revisionists Theyre being given the secrets to success while If youre considering diverting from
(Mulholland Books, 2011). His latest, I type in my apartment alone! My goal had the Standard Road, wielding your ma-
Lightning Men, will be published by Atria always been to write novels, not to teach, chete to hack your own way through the
in September. He lives in Atlanta with his yet the two appeared inextricably linked writerly jungle, youd best brace your-
wife and sons. in a way that felt deeply unfair. The deck self for blisters on your hands and the
FICTION POETRY
Fiction Faculty Poetry Faculty
Brady Udall, Mitch Wieland, Janet Holmes, Kerri Webster,
Emily Ruskovich Martin Corless-Smith
Full Semester Visiting Fiction Faculty 2017: Recent Full Semester Visiting Poetry Faculty:
Joy Williams Pierre Joris
Recent Full Semester Visiting Fiction Faculty: Full Semester Visiting Poetry Faculty 2018:
Denis Johnson Bhanu Kapil
Anthony Doerr
Special Guest Faculty Spring 2018: Visiting Writers in Poetry
Heather Marion,
screenwriter for Better Call Saul Robin Coste-Lewis Lyn Hejinian
Alice Notley Clark Coolidge
Michael Palmer Cole Swensen
Full Semester Fiction Faculty 2018 Dan Beachy-Quick Myung Mi Kim
Rick Bass Kazim Ali Ben Lerner
John Beer Nathaniel Mackay
Anne Boyer C.S.Giscombe
Visiting Writers in Fiction Peter Gizzi Fanny Howe
Ann Beattie Melanie Rae Thon Richard Bausch Peter Manson J.H. Prynne
Joy Williams Wiley Cash Claire Vaye Watkins Tom Raworth Geraldine Monk
Charles Baxter Ron Carlson Chris Offutt Bernadette Mayer
Leslie Jamison Bobbie Ann Mason Ann Cummins
Robert Boswell Lee K. Abbott Edith Pearlman
Pam Houston Jessica Anthony Hal Ackerman
Rick Bass Rajia Hassib Ben Percy
Alumni publications include books with Norton, St. Martins, Harper-Collins, Greywolf Press, and LSU Press, and work in Tin House, McSweenys, Glimmer
Train, Narrative, Zoetrope, Ploughshares, and VQR, among others. Alumni awards include the National Magazine Award, the National Endowment for
the Arts Fellowship, and the Whiting Award. Fully funded TA-ships and GA-ships Teach creative writing 2nd and 3rd year
APPLICATION DEADLINE: JANUARY 15
occasional snakebite. But it can be done. While some writers without MFA s do Find your community.
You can make your own path. I did, and get hired to teach, this rare occurrence We writers tend to be shy, introverted
heres what I learned along the way. is typically reserved for a select few oddballs, but dont let yourself become
namely, those who have published a a hermit. If you arent in an MFA pro-
There are downsides to going without number of big, critically acclaimed gram, youll need to nd a way to build
an MFA. books. So instead of summers off and your own community. This might mean
First, lets be honest: There are seri- sabbaticals to focus on your books, breaking out of your shell a bit: Join writ-
ous drawbacks to not taking the Stan- youll get three weeks vacation, if ers groups, take a workshop at a local
dard Road. You probably wont even youre lucky. writing center, go to readings and events.
know about (or, in some cases, have Another advantage an MFA provides Youll have to seek your people out, but
the academic credentials required for) is a ready-made peer group thats more they might not be so hard to nd. One
fellowships that can make it easier to likely to hold inuential positions in of the things I loved most about my last
write your first book. Youll feel cut the publishing and academic industries. full-time day job, at a marketing agency,
off from the world of academic writ- The friends and colleagues one meets was that I hung out all day with design-
ers and their journals and conferences, during a graduate writing program be- ers, illustrators, programmers, and
and you wont have the access to agents come professors who know about job other writers: people like me who love
that the best MFA programs provide. opportunities and fellowships; they to create. Now that Im a full-time nov-
One award-winning novelist and pro- get editing jobs at literary magazines elist again, I make an effort to schedule
fessor recently thanked his research and publish their friends stories; they regular lunch and coffee dates with nov-
assistants in the acknowledgments of become published authors, happy to elists, journalists, designers, professors,
his new book, and Id like to break it to blurb their friends books. Forgoing and other oddballs with unconventional
you now: You wont have any research an MFA means forgoing this built-in jobs and flexible schedules. Whatever
assistants. Its also unlikely that youll community. Which means that youll your work situation, find some fellow
be a writing professor down the road. just have to build your own. travelers with whom you can share your
writing, discuss your artistic challenges, magically save your writing energy for at, because at least that way youll be in
compare notes, laugh, and stay (reason- nights and weekends. This is perhaps the a good mood when you open Microsoft
ably) sane. The more you put into your worst advice Ive ever received. But I fol- Word at 7 PM. And youre more likely to
community, the more youll get out of lowed it, in my early twenties, suffering be promoted, make decent money, and
iteven if none of you have MFAs. through right-brain jobs like consulting feel good about the work youre doing
and nonprot medical research. I needed while collecting those rejection letters.
No, a writing job wont kill your desire a real job so I could pay the rent and For my last day job I worked as a mar-
to write. my big loans, but I was afraid that more keting copywriter, a eld I didnt enter
If you wont be teaching, how will you lucrative and faster-paced elds like law until I was in my thirties, during a dry
support yourself while you work on or advertising would suck up my nights spell between novels. I wish Id chosen it
your rst (or even your fourth) novel? and weekends. So I toiled unhappily in years earlier. Advertising and marketing
Unless youre truly fortunate, book these dry workplaces, hiding my writ- agencies actually want creative people,
advances and royalties will last only so ing life like it was some superhero secret especially if you can write fast; I enjoyed
long, so a day job or reliable freelance identity. I felt out of place, and because the work and felt invigorated by it. Was
career is necessary for all but the very I wasnt using my best skills, I didnt ad- it as fun as writing novels? No. But it was
few. You absolutely must have a backup vance and wasnt making much money far better than my previous jobs, which
plan, some way to earn money while you by the time I hit thirty. treated creativity like some suspect char-
write. The best plan is one that can lead The fact is, all jobs take time and acter trait, or sign of insanity.
you up another career ladder so that if, energy. Whether you will in fact have Avoid the mistake I made in my twen-
God forbid, you never do land that book the desire and energy to write at night ties and nd a job that allows you to take
deal, youll still be earning a living. has nothing to do with your day job. No advantage of your gift rather than hide
Youve probably heard the conven- matter what you do, you are going to be it. It wont in any way hinder your writ-
tional wisdom that its best to have a tired at 6 PM. You might as well get tired ing. You will not run out of desire to
non-writing day job so that you can doing something youre actually good write your novel just because you wrote
NONFICTION
Margo Jefferson, Richard Locke, Phillip Lopate
OPTION FOR JOINT COURSE OF STUDY POETRY: Lucie Brock-Broido, Timothy Donnelly,
Dorothea Lasky, Shane McCrae, Deborah Paredez
IN LITERARY TRANSLATION TRANSLATION: Susan Bernofsky
marketing copy for a bank all day. Trust father of two little boys, I can assure you (the other two I wrote as a full-time nov-
me. the I need to stay home and write line elist, living off advances and options).
doesnt work once youve reproduced. This is probably more of a coincidence
Finding time to write will be your Kids ears simply dont hear it, and than anything, but it shows that having
greatest battle. hardworking spouses shouldnt have to lots of free time to write is no guarantee
When I was in my twenties, sometimes I tolerate it much either. I wrote nearly that your work will be better.
had to invent excuses for why I couldnt all of my fourth novel, Darktown, on
go out with my friends on Saturday Sunday evenings after the kids went to You dont have to publish stories rst.
night and instead stayed home to write. bed, as both my wife and I had full-time Because so many who take the Standard
Later, when I was married and childless, jobs. Was it ideal? No. Would I have Road study short fiction in their MFA
I sometimes had to tell my wife that I loved more free time on the weekends workshops and start out by publishing
loved her but, no, I couldnt go to that to focus on the book? Of course. But if the collection theyve polished in class,
museum exhibition with her on Sunday you choose to have kids, and you dont one can get the false impression that
because I needed to write. These deci- have sabbaticals or summers off, you stories are a necessary stepping stone
sions may not have pleased my twenty- wont have that luxury. Even if you dont to publication. MFA programs tend to
something friends, or even my amazing have kids, life will still do its best to get in perpetuate this belief, with most ction
and supportive wife, but they were the the way of your writing. Whatever your workshops focused on the short story
choices I needed to make to carve out path in life may be, youll need to make form. But if your goal is to publish a
writing time. If you arent in a gradu- sacrices and nd ways to squeeze writ- novel, you should write a novel. Getting
ate writing program that gives you that ing time in whenever you can. a story published is almost as hard and
time, youll need to make some hard, and Heres the good news: Of my rst four merely a fraction as lucrative (if it pays
potentially unpopular, decisions. novels, the two that sold the best and re- anything at all), so pursue short stories
And if you plan to have kids, this will ceived the most acclaim were the two I only if you actually enjoy writing them.
only get harder. As the fortysomething wrote while holding down full-time jobs Its true that many agents do read
literary journals, hoping theyll nd a community of writers in a like-minded from occasional visits from New York
gem of a story, then contact that author pursuit helps tie them to the mast of City agentsa perk for students at
to nd if he or she is also working on a their keyboard. If you have trouble get- many of the top programsits doubly
novel. But those same agents read unso- ting motivated, you might benet from important that you pitch wisely. Follow
licited queries every day (or their assis- grad school. If you cant swing tuition, all the advice you nd in magazines like
tants do, at least), and if yours intrigues sign on with a writers group to keep this one on how to write a strong pitch,
them, theyll want to see your book. I yourself accountable and on a schedule. research which agents represent which
wasted a few months trying to write and Youll need to read, read, readon writers, take any feedback graciously,
publish stories, sending them on to jour- your own, without a syllabus (though and never, ever give up.
nals only to be rejected months later. I some helpful reading lists can be found I nally found an agent when I started
was trying to be something I wasnt. The online). Ill leave the can-you-really- pitching the right ones. As agents always
fact is, nearly every idea Ive ever had has teach-writing debate for someone else to say in their rejection letters, this is a
been a novel idea. If you enjoy writing argue, but regardless, if you arent ben- taste-based industry and everyone has
short ction, go for it. But dont do it out eting from the wisdom and guidance of a different opinion. Theyre not lying.
of a sense that you must. If your goal is a professor or mentor, youll need to be Over the years Id pitched to pretty much
to publish a novel, your lack of published that much more driven to read, learn, ex- any agent who represented writers whose
short stories will not be a hindrance. periment, respond to criticism, and learn books Id liked, which in some cases
Nothing trains you for writing a great from mistakes on your own. meant novelists like Amy Tan, John
novel like writing a few bad novels rst. Irving, or Michael Ondaatje. In retro-
Target your agent pitches perfectly. spect, the manuscripts I was writing bore
Youll need to be motivated. Pitching is soul-crushing and time- little resemblance to the work of those
Many writers, especially younger ones, consuming, yes, and it took me years authors, so I made little headway. Then
have a hard time getting started, so the to nally land an agent. If you arent in the New Yorker published its now-famous
discipline of an MFA program and the an MFA program and arent beneting Future of American Fiction issue,
K
EVIN Nguyen is the digital deputy editor of
GQ, where he writes about books, music, and
popular media. He grew up outside of Boston
in the 1990s and attended the University of
Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Since moving to
New York City ve years ago, he has run the Best Books
of the Month feature at Amazon and was editorial director M I C H A E L T A E C K E N S has
at Oyster, the Netix for books, then Google Play Books worked in publishing since
after the tech giant acquired Oyster in 2015. He can be 1995. He is a literary publicist
followed on Twitter, @knguyen. and cofounder of Broadside
PR (broadsidepr.com).
At GQ you mostly work on reported features, but you also
compile a Best Books of the Month feature. How many
books do you receive each month, and of those how many
are typically included in your roundups?
I went on vacation last week and returned to four mail
crates of unopened galleys. So Im getting something in
the vicinity of fty to seventy-ve books a week. And
honestly, I wish publishers wouldnt send me things
unsolicited. Most of those books are never going to be
touched, and eventually they are shipped off to Housing
Works for donation. In a given month Ill try roughly
twenty books. From those Ill nish about half, maybe
slightly more. And then Ill pick about half of thoseso
its somewhere between four and six books each month.
It really depends on how strong that month is.
In an ideal world, I would just request those books and
not receive any mail. It feels like such a waste, but once
youre on those distribution lists, theres no getting off
them.
Its funny. If I died today, the books would keep coming
to the ofce, and I think about the poor person who would
get stuck dealing with several thousand pounds of galleys
each month. Which is why I plan to never die.
THE WRITING
PROGRAM
pitches, Kirkus, previews
from places like the Mil-
lions, and of course, word
of mouth. Twitter can
be a good signal, but its
taste is fairly narrow.
I do read a lot of stuff
blind, too. My equiva-
lent of digging through
the slush pile is brows-
ing through everything
available as a digital gal-
ley on Edelweiss.
Blurbs mean nothing.
Same with big advances.
MFA IN
Honestly, by the time
the galley rolls around
POETRY
Ive forgotten what I
read about it in Publish-
graduate/writing_program of color. Big lead titles are more diverse in the past three years, weve seen some
314.935.5190 than ever. tremendously successful fiction by
scrabong@wustl.edu And, of course, that spreadsheet also authors of color. So now editors and
lists publishers. I make sure to read across agents cant say that anymore. Progress
First
JAV I E R Z A MOR AS U NAC C OM PA N I E D A N D
E R I K A L . S NC H EZS L E S SONS ON E X PU L SION
W
HEN I heard the news that Javier Zamora
and Erika L. Snchez, both of whose
careers Id been following, had placed
their books with two of the most pres-
tigious poetry publishers in the countryCopper Canyon
Press and Graywolf Press, respectivelyI knew I had to
nd a way to visit them and ask them about their work. Both RIGOBERTO GONZLEZ
identify as Latino and have close connections to a narrative is a contributing editor of
about undocumented immigration; they both also received Poets & Writers Magazine.
the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry
Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, which recognizes
early talent and promise. But their personal stories are as
distinct as their voices, as I learned after spending time
with Zamora in Washington, D.C., while we were both in
town for different literary events, and with Snchez in the
Chicago area, where she was born and raised.
Javier Zamoras story begins in a small town in El Sal-
vador called La Herradura, or the horseshoe, where he
was born in 1990. The countrys violent civil war was still
years from ending and the Zamora family began to frac-
ture under the weight of living in the part of the city oc-
cupied by the military. Zamora was only a year old when
his father, an eighteen-year-old sherman, ed the country
under cover of darkness. The family myth is that thats
how I learned to walk, Zamora says. I followed him out
the door.
Four years later, his mother migrated north to join her
husband, but Zamora would not see his father until age
nine, when he made the treacherous trek from Central
America to the United States, unaccompanied by a fam-
ily member, under the charge of other undocumented
immigrants.
As we walk along the National Mall, past the Wash-
ington Monument and the National Museum of African
American History and Culture, Zamora cant resist a
pause in the story hes told many times but which still
moves him.
The small party of border crossers traveled through
deidre schoo
his empathy and awareness of lan- an immigrant like me who had also knew all too well, having helped his
guage in those early poems were just been to Berkeley. I decided I wanted to father after school and before soccer
extraordinary for a writer of his age, follow in her footsteps. Like Sharif, practice throughout high school. His
she says. Anybody would have seen whose debut, Look, was published by parents had instilled in him a strong
work ethic and encouraged him to one accomplishment was the most
find a practical profession. Being a
poet was not exactly that.
personal: the public acknowledgement
of his work with the Undocupoets. Southwest
Even though I knew what I wanted
to be, I still hesitated telling my fa-
When I began to submit my po-
etry manuscript to contests, many
Review
ther, Zamora says. It seemed like publisher websites stated that only
such a disappointing next step to take U. S . c it i z en s c ou ld s ubm it . We
after all that sacrice, after such a long wanted to change that, Zamora says.
road from El Salvador to the U.S. Fa-
ther and son were working together,
That we included fellow act iv-
ist poets Christopher Loma Soto
painting a house, when he decided
to reveal his plans. His father simply
and Marcelo Hernndez Castillo.
Together their grassroots efforts, in-
>
replied, You go where your heart is
telling you to go.
cluding a petition that garnered hun-
dreds of signatures, proved fruitful,
*i*i
This was the permission Zamora and soon most presses removed the
needed in order to move for ward, requirementone that made no sense
and not long thereafter, in 2015, after in a political climate in which undoc-
completing his MFA , his literary jour- umented young people were coming First Place $1,000
ney began to skyrocket. He served one forward and becoming visible in all Second Place $500
year as the Olive B. OConnor Fellow walks of life, including the arts. The
at Colgate Universit y, and during Undocupoets were recognized with
this time he was awarded a coveted the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writers for
poetry fellowship from the National Writers Award from Poets & Writers, #PUIXJOOJOHQPFNTXJMMCF
Endowment for the Arts. A year later Inc., the nonprot organization that QVCMJTIFEJO
came the Ruth Lilly fellowship. But publishes this magazine. Southwest Review.
POEM U "ii>i
Saguaros Li`>Lvi
U &OUSBOUT>Li
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It was dusk for kilometers and bats in the lavender sky, U 0OMZLi`]GPSNBMi
like spiders when a y is caught, began to appear. BSFFMJHJCMFiT]i>T]
And there, not the promised land but barbwire and barbwire >iiT]i`>>]
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with nothing growing under it. I tried to y that dusk TJNVMUBOFPVTTVCNJTTJPOT
after a bat said la sangre del saguaro nos seduce. Sometimes U />i>`>``iv>
I wake and my throat is dry, so I drive to botanical gardens >Viiiii
U $5.00iiivii
to search for red fruits at the top of saguaros, the ones U &OUSJFTNVTUCFQ>i`PS
TVCNJUUFEPOMJOFCZ
at dusk I threw rocks at for the sake of hunger.
-iiLi30, 201.
U -LLii-
But I never nd them here. These bats speak English only. i`
Sometimes in my car, that vicious red syrup U >i\
clings to my throat and I have to pull over /i>*i*i
-i,ii
I also scraped needles rst, then carved *" 750374
those tall torsos for water, then spotlights drove me >>]/875275-0374
and thirty others dashing into paloverdes;
C e l e b r a ti n g 1 0 0 y ea r s !
green-striped trucks surrounded us and our empty bottles
rattled. When the trucks left, a cold cell swallowed us.
F
OR Erika L. Snchez, the ing worlds so dissimilar to her own. ber of these books were loans from
daughter of undocumented Her reality was street violence and her older brother Omar, who was an
Mexican immigrants who poverty and rarely seeing her mother English major at Illinois State. It was
became citizens long after because she worked the night shift at his education that encouraged her to
her birth in 1984, Chicago and its a paper factory. There was such a apply to nearby University of Illinois
working-class suburbs have always difference between what was happen- in Chicago, where she enrolled in
robyn lindemann
been her stomping grounds. Snchez ing in my hood and what was playing 2002.
remembers particularly the black and in my head when I read, she says. As a college student she began to
Mexican communities like Pilsen, on To bridge this divide she turned to spread her wings, but it was the year
the west side of Chicago, and Cicero, a the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and she spent in Spain as a Fulbright
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 128
the practical writer FIRST
fellow in 2007 that really made a dif- sected in her life experience, in the
ference. I began to understand my world, in her imagination.
freedoms, but also my privileges, Despite the vote of conf idence,
she say s. T h is sof tened t he way Snchez faced a difcult adjustment
she perceived her motherand her after she completed her degree and
mothers expectations of her Mexican moved back to Chicago. She didnt
daughterbut she also accepted that have much luck f inding a job that
there was no turning back. She re- could further her writing career, so
turned from Europe with a renewed she took a job in marketing in 2010,
sense of purpose. What was once an an error in judgment, she now con-
act of personal expression became a cedes, that cost her dearly. I cried in
calling, so she decided to pursue an the bathroom all the time, she says.
MFA degree. T here wa s , howe ver, a s av i ng
Her three-year residence in A l- grace: Oh Hells Nah, a blog she kept
buquerque, attending the writing for two years, in which she worked
program at the Universit y of New through her complicated emotions,
Mexico, was a challenging time, but much in the way she kept journals
it did give me the space to write, she as a teenager. Because she used a
says. And it was here that she studied pseudonym, she had permission to
under Dana Levin, a Richard Russo say anything, and this was liberat-
Visiting Writer, whom she credits ing, she says. The blog addressed the
with enriching her love of language. anxieties and challenges of being a
L e v i n rec a l l s S nc hezs w r it i ng modern-day Latina navigating cul-
fondly: We throw this word around a tural pressures and the guilt of re-
lot these days, but Erika really was the sisting them. She wrote openly about
epitome of erceerce about writing sex and desire, with a level of self-
and revising, erce about tackling sex deprecating humor that allowed her
and family and identity and violence to write her way out of the dark place
as subjects, especially as they inter- in which she found herself.
POEM
Baptism
From Lessons on Expulsion. Copyright 2017 by Erika L. Snchez. Reprinted with the
permission of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.
Then, in 2015, her luck changed. right bicep. The horses were inspired the university for the next two years,
Receiving the Ruth Lilly fellowship by the Larry Levis poem Anastasia starting in the fall.
gave me validation, Snchez says. & Sandman, which in turn inspired The emotional labor and heartache
And not long after, Graywolf accepted t he t wo horses in her novel. My that it took to get to this point in her
my manuscript. mom wasnt thrilled, Snchez says. career isnt lost on Snchez. Its ex-
Editor Jeff Shotts explains the ap- But shes resigned herself to my she- hausting, she says. But its also im-
peal of the collection: The extraor- nanigans. Very little surprises her portant work. It saved my life, and I
dinar y ways t hat she inter weaves anymore. hope it can save someone elses.
sometimes very personal poems about Not ever y t hing took a t urn for Snchez makes that statement with
growing up the daughter of undocu- the better, however. As her career her signature smile. W hen I point
mented Mexican immigrants with ascended, her long-term relationship out that we havent moved from the
larger-scale, even more journalistic with her signicant other began to fall entrance of the art exhibit this whole
poems about narco-traffickers, sex apart. The two were married only a time, she bursts into laughter, and this
workers, factory laborers, and border year and a half before but it became eases the gravity of the moment.
violence and history make Lessons on apparent that it was best to separate. After this, Ill take you to see the
Expulsion an ambitious, rare kind of Devastated by the breakup, Snchez Chicago skyline from Palmisano Park,
rst book. coped the best way she knew how: by she says. Theres a circle of Buddha
Soon after, more good news: Knopf channeling her energy to the writ- heads up there, but people keep taking
bought her young-adult novel, I Am ing, revising with fervor her literary them. Everyone wants to have some
Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, debuts. peace.
forthcoming in October. Snchez Nonetheless, this year will be an- We exit the museum, climb back
wanted to mark the occasion with other great one for Snchez: Besides into her car, and she stomps on the
something special and personal but celebrating the release of her books, gas pedal. Were off, full speed and
also slightly rebellious, as per the she has bid farewell to the Midwest fearlessly, which appears to be the
title of her novel. She chose a tattoo: a and relocated to New Jersey, where most comfortable way Snchez moves
silhouette of two horses on her upper shell be a Princeton Arts Fellow at forward.
GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN
WRITING AT EMERSON
We are the storytellers, poets, screenwriters, editors, publishers,
and teachersRIWRPRUURZ:LWKDZDUGZLQQLQJIDFXOW\H[LEOH
Your story SURJUDPVDQGGHJUHHVIURPSXEOLVKLQJWRFUHDWLYHZULWLQJDQG
starts here. HYHU\WKLQJLQEHWZHHQQRRQHWHDFKHVthe art and business of
writing like Emerson.
Creative Writing
MFA
Publishing &
Writing MA
Popular Fiction
Writing &
Publishing MFA
P
EOPLE will trash your second novel no matter
what, one of my graduate professors once said.
You might as well get it out of the way and move
on to the third. This professor was a writer I
had idolized since my teens and whose work was, to me,
awless. She used her cell phone to pull up the Amazon
reviews on her second book and began to read aloud com- C H L O E B E N J A M I N is the
ments so cruel they seemed to warn against publishing author of The Immortalists,
anything at all. forthcoming from Putnam
Shortly after my rst novel found a home, I began work in January 2018, and The
on my second with a hefty dose of trepidation. After all, Anatomy of Dreams, which
warnings about the fate of second books extended far be- received the 2014 Edna
yond my professors red ag. Ferber Fiction Book Award
If your rst book didnt sell well, good luck getting a publisher and was long-listed for the
to buy your second. 2014 Flaherty-Dunnan First
And once its out? Well, no media wants to cover a second Novel Prize. She is a graduate
novel. Unless your rst book was a smash hit, readers wont want of the MFA program in
to buy it either. ction at the University of
If your rst book was a success, good luck: Readers will hate Wisconsin in Madison and
the second book if its too different from the rst. Come to think lives with her husband in
of it, though, theyll probably hate it if its too similar, too. Madison, Wisconsin.
And yet, as my professor had pointed out, it was impos-
sible to move on to a third book without writing a second.
Besides, I had another problem: I liked my second book.
I wrote feverishly on weekends and made what progress I
could on weekdays, staring at the computer screen in the
early mornings before I left for my job in social services.
This is the book, I told my agent, Margaret Riley
King of William Morris Endeavor ( WME). The book
I was meant to write. Unfortunately, it was also my
second.
If your rst book didnt sell well, good luck getting a pub-
lisher to buy your second.
Agent Dorian Karchmar, whose clients at W ME in-
clude Amor Towles, Jennifer Haigh, and Helene Cooper,
has spent almost twenty years in the publishing business.
In that time, she says, its only become more challeng-
nathan jandl
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 134
the practical writer SEL L ING YOU R SECON D BOOK
in my agents voice. I had been incred- Monday morning King e-mailed, Can The Last Day of the War orphaned be-
ibly grateful for that advance, but once you hold Thursday for calls? A few fore it was passed to another editor at
taxes and agent fees were subtracted hours later she asked if I could hold the house.
and I paid off my credit card, what re- Wednesday, too, and then Tuesday as The book, which had to do with
mained supplemented my day job for well. That week was one of the blur- the Armenian genocide in the after-
little more than a year. riest of my life, filled with ecstasy math of World War I, received very
Do you want to take it? King asked. and more anxiety and one seriously nice reviewsthe New York Times
The choice was not just monetary. If ill-timed stomach f lu. King held an called it a bravura performancebut
I took the offer, I could be certain the as my new agent, Eric Simonoff, said,
book would be published. It was pos- it didnt exactly set the world on re
sible wed nd a much better deal if we in terms of sales, says Mitchell. Still,
sent the book to other houses, but it was Eric assured me this was nothing to
equally possible that wed have no deal worry about so long as I wrote a really,
at all. And my editor at Simon & Schus- really good second book. No pressure
ter was passionate about the new book. there. During the years I worked on
I knew how hard shed fought for it and my second novel, I was not optimis-
that she was disappointed she hadnt tic about its prospects in the market-
been able to offer more. More than that, place. The book is about three sisters
though, I liked her. In turning the deal who decide to kill themselves on the
down, I would also lose our partnership. last day of the twentieth century. This
Deep down, however, Id already didnt strike me as wowza best-seller
made my choice. It wasnt just that I material. And indeed, when we gave
hoped for more money so that I could it to my [previous] editor, she passed.
build a more sustainable life as a writer; That was a dark day of the soul. But,
I also knew Id written a novel that was to my surprise, when we sent the book
better than my rst. Just as my agent around to other editors, a number of
was my advocate, I had to be my books them were quite interested. We wound
advocate, and I didnt want to foreclose Judith Claire Mitchell up selling it in a matter of days to an
the chance of finding a publishing editor who really, really adored it and a
house that felt as strongly about it as auction the following Monday. That publisher who really, really supported
I did. Amicably, we parted ways with night we sold the book to an editor I it. It felt like a miracle.
Simon & Schuster. I spent the next loved as much as my rst for an amount Bolstered by a passionate agent and
year nishing the novel and revising that allowed me to leave my day joba publishing team, A Reunion of Ghosts
it extensively with my agents help. We privilege I had never dared let myself received swift acclaim. Excellent trade
both felt that the stakes were high, and dream about. reviews were followed by coverage in
that we had to make the manuscript as I cant believe it, King said, laugh- People and the Los Angeles Times, as well
airtight as possible to attract the kind ing. Not one person brought up the as an array of accolades: It was a Kirkus
of attention we wanted. sales of the rst book. Best Book of 2015, the winner of two
One Thursday afternoon in the awards, and a nalist for several more,
spring of 2016, she submitted it to a list And once its out? Well, no media including the National Jewish Book
of editors. I felt queasy with anxiety. wants to cover a second novel. Unless Award.
While my rst novel was on submis- your rst book was a smash hit, readers St ill, many sophomore aut hors
sion, I struggled to sleep and function wont want to buy it either. struggle to attract coverage. Aside
at work; each rejection sent me into Judith Claire Mitchell approached from the Encore Award, which is open
a tailspin so painful that I eventually her second book, A Reunion of Ghosts only to U.K. residents, few opportuni-
asked my agent to stop sending them. (Harper, 2015), with similar apprehe- ties exist to highlight second books.
This time I e-mailed my closest friends sion. By the time it was nished, ten In 2014, seeing a real need in the
nick wilkes photography
and booked them for a Saturday night years had passed since the release of her community, Porochista Khakpour
antianxiety extravaganza, complete debut, The Last Day of the War (Pan- author of two novels, Sons and Other
with strong cocktails and a home theon, 2004). That publication had Flammable Objects (Grove Press, 2007)
screening of Magic Mike: XXL . Then been plagued with problems: Before it and The Last Illusion (Bloomsbury,
I went to sleep. came out, Mitchell parted ways with 2014)wrote the tweet that launched
Less than twenty-four hours later, her agent, and the editor at Pantheon a prize. Can someone please create
the responses began to come in. On who bought it left publishing, leaving some prizes and lists for SECOND
novels?! she wrote. Trust me when announced the list. Still, in general,
I say we sophomores need more help it remains really hard to get a ny
than the freshman. novel covered, reviewed, purchased,
T h re e mont h s l at er S l a t e a n- or read. Second novels remain the
nounced the Slate/Whiting Second hardest.
Novel List. Not quite an award, the It i s a problem , s ay s Sa nd i
list was billed as an opportunity to Torkildson, co-owner of the inde-
celebrate five excellent and under- pendent bookstore A Room of Ones
recognized novels published in the Own in Madison, Wisconsin. The
previous five years. The finalists industry does inuence how we buy.
A khil Sharmas Family Life, Helen Larger economic factors are also at
DeW it t s Light ning Rod s, Ei leen play: During the recession, the clo-
Myless Inferno, Daniel Alarcns At sure of bookstores like Borders led to
Night We Walk in Circles, and Marlon a slump in sales. On the other hand,
Jamess The Book of Night Women independent bookstores have slowly
were publicized via interviews with lled that void, creating an ideal envi-
the authors and essays by the judges. ronment, Torkildson argues, for read-
The list was enthusiastically re- ers to discover lower-prole authors.
ceived. Publishing professionals People go to bookstores to nd the
were grateful for an honor that tar- things they never knew they wanted,
geted underselling books. I also saw she says, citing the power of written
a lot of relief from writers at the free- staff picks, verbal recommendations, Kirstin Chen
sarah deragon
dom to be honest about a book that and good, old-fashioned browsing. As
didnt perform the way they hoped for whether theyd take a chance on not buy a second novel just because the
but that was still really good, says a sophomore author whose freshman rst one didnt do well. It takes a while
Slate writer and editor Dan Kois, who year had gone south? We wouldnt to build an audience.
WHATS YOUR
STORY? Well help you tell it.
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 136
the practical writer SEL L ING YOU R SECON D BOOK
If your rst book was a success, good Brittany Cavallaro, author of the
luck: Readers will hate the second young-adult best-seller A Study in
book if its too different from the Charlotte and its sequels, felt similar
first. Come to think of it, though, pressure. Because her novels were
theyll probably hate it if its too slated to be published one year apart,
similar, too. she wrote the second book in the tril-
Kirstin Chens rst novel, Soy Sauce ogy, The Last of August, before the rst
for Beginners, was published in 2014 was released.
by New Harvest (an imprint of Ama- I had no idea if readers would like
zon, distributed by Houghton Mifin my characters, my setup, my writing
Harcourt) to praise from USA Today, style. As early reviews of A Study in
Glamour, and O, the Oprah Magazine. Charlotte began to trickle in, I was so
It sold pretty well and quickly racked tempted to take each one as a directive
up a number of Amazon reviews, says as how I could do better now that I
Chen. [Readers] appeared to enjoy was writing my second. She took pains
just about everything about the book to hide her panic from her agent and
except for its final pages. They said editor. I kept thinking, I dont want
the story cut off too abruptly and that to let anyone down, these people who
too much was left unresolved. When it have believed in me.
came time to write the nal scene for Undeniably, a beloved first book
my second novel, Bury What We Can- m a k e s re ader s hu n g r ier for t he A MEMOIR IN SHARDS
not Take [forthcoming from Little A in secondand can foster a sense of
March 2018], I found myself composing letdown, even betrayal, if it doesnt By Alex Lemon
live up to expectations. After White
Teeth (Random House, 2000), Zadie A thrillingly experimental memoir
Smit hs lauded debut, her second
novel, The Autograph Man (Random from one of our most inventive
House, 2002), fell at. Donna Tartts
writers about love, joy, and life
rst novel, The Secret History (Knopf,
1992), inspired such cultish hysteria after brain trauma.
that The Little Friendpublished by
Knopf ten tantalizing years laterwas A marvel of a book.
denounced with particular passion.
But these stories, which gain steam ELENA PASSARELLO
in part because of what author Cur-
tis Sittenfeld calls the satisfaction Alex Lemon is a brave,
in knocking a book off its pedestal,
obscure the second-time successes. headlong writer.
Hanya Yanagiharas second novel, A
MARK DOTY
Little Life (Doubleday, 2015), became
a best-seller, short-listed for the Man
Booker Prize as well as the National LOOK FOR IT SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
out, publishers must invest not just course not. Did it mutate into a new
in a book, but also in a career. After form while I was working on the third
a period that saw anxiety for midlist book? Yes, absolutely. But at least now
authors, Dorian Karchmar believes I can identify it for what it is and keep
theres reason to be hopeful. In the working despite it.
past few years weve seen a noticeably Cavallaro discovered the second
healthier business environment for novelists best weapon: her own experi-
independent booksellers, an increased ence. As second novelists, weve written
appetite for print books, and a mod- at least one book; many of us, including
est but very real f lowering of indie me, have written more that were never
presses picking up talented non-debut published. We know what its like to
writers whom the big imprints may be execute revision after revision and
skittish about publishing, she says. proofread second-pass pages at mid-
I think there is also a renewed feel- night, our eyes glazed over and a glass
ing among certain publishers that it of wine on the bedside table. We know
is important to recommit to authors what its like to panic, and weve been
over the longer-term. If youd given able to nd our way out of it. Weve hit
up after John Henry Days, you wouldnt walls and received countless rejections,
have gotten The Underground Railroad; but we also know that all it takes is one
if you bailed after Abide With Me, you precious, hard-won acceptance.
missed out on Olive Kitteridge; if you This served as comfort for Natalia
lost faith after About Grace, you lost out Natalia Sylvester Sylve ster, aut hor of Cha s i ng the
on All the Light We Cannot See. Sun ( New Har vest, 2014) and the
Cavallaro lived inside a storm of forgotten that the reviews were meant forthcoming Everyone Knows You Go
self-doubt for about a month, she for readers, not as a road map for me. Home (Little A, 2018). Even though
says. A nd then I got to work. Id Did my fear totally abate? No, of my second novel required a different
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S E P T O C T 2 0 17 138
the practical writer SEL L ING YOU R SECON D BOOK
process than the first, many of the The narratives around second novels belie the fact
challenges I encountered felt familiar
to me, she says. Things like a char- that even publishers dont know the fate of a book in advance.
acter falling at or the plot stalling or
the brutal helplessness of feeling stuck High-prole titles op; word of mouth turns low-budget
in the middle of the storyits not
that they were easier to navigate, but books into best-sellers. The industrys unpredictability
at least this time, I knew that getting
past them wasnt impossible, because can be freeing, a reminder that a writers sphere of
Id done it once before. As for know-
ing that your readers and reviewers are control rarely extends beyond the page.
out there? I found that the critical re-
views and reader comments that hurt deepening their work, keeping the minder that a writers sphere of con-
the most were the ones that I agreed faith in the face of a contracted mar- trol rarely extends beyond the page.
with. Ultimately, the best thing you ketplace, and recognizing their role Youve written a novel, my agent
can hope for as you write the second in promoting themselves and their told me before we submit ted The
book and beyond is that youll grow booksbeing actively engaged in the Immortalists. Let me do this part.
and improve with each one. cultural conversation, and connected In urging me to trust herand,
That g row t h requ ires pat ience to the broader literary community. okay, to be a little bit less control-
f rom ever yone. For publishers, A fter all, the narratives around lingshe was also giving me permis-
says Karchmar, this means under- second novels belie the fact that even sion to trust myself.
standing that writers arent football publishers dont know the fate of a As Sylvester puts it, experience is
players: They seldom peak at twenty- book in advance. High-prole titles empowering. For once, she says, I
ve, and a couple of sidelined seasons op; word of mouth turns low-budget could face doubts head-on and say,
dont have to add up to career suicide. books into best-sellers. The industrys Oh, I remember you. I remember how
For writers, it means broadening and unpredictability can be freeing, a re- you work.
POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES state, national, and international prizes in poetry, ction, and creative
nonction. We list only prizes of $1,000 or more, prizes of less than $1,000 that charge no entry fee, and prestigious nonmonetary
awards. Applications and submissions for the following prizes are due shortly. Before submitting a manuscript, rst contact the sponsoring
organization for complete guidelines. When requesting information by mail, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE). See
Submission Calendar for deadlines arranged by date and the Anatomy of Awards for a closer look at the numbers behind Grants
& Awards. For announcements of recently awarded prizes, see Recent Winners.
Deadlines
Academy of American Poets American Academy in Berlin submission system submit up to 25
WALT WHITMAN AWARD BERLIN PRIZE FELLOWSHIPS pages of poetry or prose, a project
Residential fellowships are given an- proposal, a rsum, and two letters of
A prize of $5,000, publication by Gray-
nually to ction writers and creative recommendation (sent directly to AAS
wolf Press, and a six-week residency at
nonction writers to spend an academic by the references) by October 5. There
the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria,
semester in residence at the Hans Arn- is no entry fee. Visit the website for
Italy, is given annually for a poetry col- complete guidelines.
lection by a poet who has not published hold Center at the American Academy
in Berlin. Fellows receive a $5,000 American Antiquarian Society,
a book of poems in a standard edition.
monthly stipend, lodging, partial board, Fellowships for Creative Writers, 190
The winning book will also be distrib-
and round-trip airfare. Writers based in Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA 01609.
uted to 5,000 members of the Academy (508) 471-2149 Cheryl McRell, Contact.
the United States who have published at
of American Poets. Joy Harjo will cmcrell@mwa.org
least one book in any genre are eligible.
judge. Using the online submission sys- www.americanantiquarian.org/artistfellowship.htm
Submit two writing samples totaling no
tem, submit a manuscript of 48 to 100
more than 60 pages, a curriculum vitae,
pages with a $35 entry fee by November American Literary Review
and three letters of recommendation
1. Visit the website for the required (sent directly to the Academy by the LITERARY AWARDS
entry form and complete guidelines. references) by September 29. Fiction Three prizes of $1,000 each and pub-
Academy of American Poets, Walt writers should submit an additional lication in American Literary Review are
Whitman Award, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite writing sample of 15 to 20 pages from given annually for a poem, a short story,
901, New York, NY 10038. (212) 274-0343, a proposed project; nonction writers and an essay. Using the online submis-
ext. 13. Nikay Paredes, Programs should submit a project proposal of ve sion system, submit up to three poems,
Coordinator. nparedes@poets.org to seven pages. There is no application a story of up to 8,000 words, or an essay
www.poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes fee. Visit the website for the required of up to 6,500 words with a $15 entry
/walt-whitman-award entry form and complete guidelines. fee by October 1. Visit the website for
( S E E R E C E NT W I N N E R S.) complete guidelines.
Alice James Books American Academy in Berlin, Berlin Prize American Literary Review, Literary Awards,
ALICE JAMES AWARD Fellowships, Am Sandwerder 17-19, 14109 P.O. Box 311307, University of North
A prize of $2,000 and publication by Berlin, Germany. Johana Gallup, Fellows Texas, Denton, TX 76203.
Alice James Books is given annually for Selection Manager. www.americanliteraryreview.com
a poetry collection by a poet residing in jg@americanacademy.de
American Poetry Review
the United States. The winner will also www.americanacademy.de/home/fellows
HONICKMAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE
receive a $1,000 honorarium to give a
American Antiquarian Society A prize of $3,000 and publication by
reading at the University of Maine in
FELLOWSHIPS FOR CREATIVE WRITERS American Poetry Review is given annu-
Farmington. Submit a manuscript of
Up to three fellowships are given annu- ally for a rst poetry collection. The
48 to 80 pages with a $30 entry fee by
ally to poets, ction writers, and crea- winning book is distributed by Copper
November 1. All entries are considered Canyon Press through Consortium.
tive nonction writers for monthlong
for publication. Visit the website for Gregory Pardlo will judge. Submit a
residencies at the American Antiquarian
complete guidelines. manuscript of at least 48 pages with a
Society (AAS) in Worcester, Massa-
( SEE RECEN T W IN N ERS.) $25 entry fee by October 31. Visit the
chusetts, to research and write work
Alice James Books, Alice James Award, informed by pre-twentieth-century website for complete guidelines.
114 Prescott Street, Farmington, ME American history and culture. A stipend American Poetry Review, Honickman First
04938. (207) 778-7071. Alyssa Neptune, of $1,150 to $1,350 and on-campus Book Prize, 320 South Broad Street,
Managing Editor. housing is provided; fellows resid- Hamilton #313, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
info@alicejamesbooks.org ing off-campus receive $1,850. For Elizabeth Scanlon, Editor.
www.alicejamesbooks.org/alice-james-award residencies in 2018, using the online www.aprweb.org
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special literary supplement, Global Dysto- Brick Road Poetry Press Visit the website for complete guide-
pias, by October 1. Visit the website for BOOK CONTEST lines.
complete guidelines. A prize of $1,000, publication by Brick
Deadlines
Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival, Brooklyn
Boston Review, Aura Estrada Short Story Road Poetry Press, and 25 author copies Nonction Prize, P.O. Box 491, New York,
Contest, P.O. Box 425786, Cambridge, is given annually for a poetry collection.
NY 10156. brooklynfa@yahoo.com
Keith Badowski and Ron Self will judge.
MA 02142. (617) 324-1360. www.lmbrooklyn.org
Using the online submission system,
review@bostonreview.net submit a manuscript of 50 to 100 pages
bostonreview.net/contests with a $25 entry fee by November 1. All California State University in
entries are considered for publication. Fresno
Briar Cliff Review Visit the website for complete guide- PHILIP LEVINE PRIZE FOR POETRY
WRITING CONTESTS lines. ( S E E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.)
A prize of $2,000 and publication by
Three prizes of $1,000 each and pub- Brick Road Poetry Press, Book Contest,
Anhinga Press is given annually for
lication in Briar Cliff Review are given 513 Broadway, Columbus, GA 31901. Keith
Badowski and Ron Self, Coeditors. a poetry collection. C. G. Hanzlicek
annually for a poem, a short story, and
www.brickroadpoetrypress.com will judge. Submit a manuscript of 48
an essay. The editors will judge. Submit
to 80 pages with a $25 entry fee ($28
three poems totaling no more than six Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival
for electronic submissions) by Septem-
pages or up to 5,000 words of prose with BROOKLYN NONFICTION PRIZE
a $20 entry fee, which includes a copy of ber 30. Visit the website for complete
A prize of $500 and publication on the
the prize issue, by November 1. Visit the guidelines.
Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival website is
website for complete guidelines. given annually for a work of nonction California State University in Fresno,
Briar Cliff Review, Writing Contests, Briar that is set in Brooklyn, New York, and Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, English
renders the boroughs rich soul and Department, Mail Stop PB 98, 5245
Cliff University, 3303 Rebecca Street,
intangible qualities through the writers
Sioux City, IA 51104. (712) 279-1651. North Backer Avenue, Fresno, CA 93740.
actual experiences of Brooklyn. Using
Tricia Currans-Sheehan, Editor. the online submission system, sub- (559) 278-1569. Corrinne Clegg Hales,
tricia.currans-sheehan@briarcliff.edu mit an essay of up to 2,500 words by Coordinator. connieh@csufresno.edu
www.bcreview.org November 15. There is no entry fee. www.fresnostate.edu/levineprize
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A prize valued at $2,000 is given annu- of 60 to 90 pages with a $25 entry fee
A prize valued at approximately $2,500
ally to a woman poet over 40 who has is given annually for a poetry chapbook by October 31. Visit the website for
not published a book in any genre. The by a black poet. The winner will receive complete guidelines.
winner receives $1,000; publication in $500, publication by Jai-Alai Books, and (SE E R E CE N T W I N N E R S)
a weeklong residency at the Writers
Voices From the Attic, Carlow Universitys Cloudbank Books, Vern Rutsala Book
Room at the Betsy Hotel in Miami,
literary journal; and round-trip trans- Prize, P.O. Box 610, Corvallis, OR 97339.
Florida, and will give a reading at the O,
Miami Poetry Festival in April. Major (877) 768-6762. Roberta Sperling,
portation and lodging to give a reading
Jackson will judge. Using the online Contact. roberta@cloudbankbooks.com
at the university with this years judge, www.cloudbankbooks.com
submission system, submit a manuscript
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon. Submit two of 25 to 30 pages with a $12 entry fee
poems of up to 75 lines each with a $20 by September 30. Visit the website for
Coal Hill Review
complete guidelines. POETRY CHAPBOOK PRIZE
entry fee, which includes a copy of Voices
( S E E R E C E NT WI N N E R S.) A prize of $1,000 and publication by
From the Attic, by October 2. Visit the
Cave Canem Foundation, Toi Derricotte Coal Hill Review in print and online is
website for complete guidelines. & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize, 20 Jay given annually for a poetry chapbook.
( SEE REC EN T W IN N ERS.) Street, Suite 310-A, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Heather McNaugher will judge. Submit
Carlow University, Patricia Dobler (718) 858-0000. a manuscript of 12 to 20 pages with a
cavecanempoets.org/prizes/toi-derricotte $20 entry fee by November 1. All entries
Poetry Award, c/o Jan Beatty, Director -cornelius-eady-chapbook-prize
are considered for publication. Visit the
of Creative Writing, 3333 Fifth Avenue,
Cloudbank Books website for complete guidelines.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213. (412) 578-6346. Jan
VERN RUTSALA BOOK PRIZE Coal Hill Review, Poetry Chapbook Prize,
Beatty and Sarah Williams-Devereux, c/o Autumn House Press, P.O. Box 5486,
A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Contacts. sewilliams412@carlow.edu Cloudbank Books will be given annually Pittsburgh, PA 15206.
www.carlow.edu/Dobler_Poetry_Award.aspx for a collection of poetry, ash ction, www.coalhillreview.com
Deadlines
A prize of 2,000 (approximately $2,600) winning chapbook, by October 31. Visit tion in Cutthroat are given annually for
is given annually for a poem. A second- the website for complete guidelines. a group of poems, a short story, and an
place prize of 1,000 (approximately Comstock Review, Jessie Bryce Niles essay. Cornelius Eady will judge the Joy
$1,300) is also given. Both winners Poetry Chapbook Contest, 4956 St. John Harjo Poetry Award; Lidia Yuknavitch
receive publication on the Coffee-House Drive, Syracuse, NY 13215. will judge the Rick DeMarinis Short
Poetry website and an invitation to read poetry@comstockreview.org Fiction Award; and Brenda Peterson
at a Coffee-House Poetry reading in www.comstockreview.org will judge the Barry Lopez Creative
London in November. Imtiaz Dharker Nonction Award. Submit three poems
and Michael Symmons Roberts will Copper Nickel of up to 100 lines each or a short story
judge. Submit a poem of up to 45 lines JAKE ADAM YORK PRIZE or essay of up to 5,000 words with a
with a $7.50 entry fee ($5 for each ad- A prize of $2,000 and publication by $20 entry fee by October 20. Visit the
ditional poem) by October 16. Visit the Milkweed Editions is given annually for website for complete guidelines.
website for complete guidelines. (SE E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.)
a rst or second poetry collection. Vic-
Coffee-House Poetry, Troubadour toria Chang will judge. Using the online Cutthroat, Writing Awards, P.O. Box 2414,
International Poetry Prize, P.O. Box submission system, submit a manuscript Durango, CO 81302. (970) 903-7914.
16210, London W4 1ZP, United Kingdom. of at least 48 pages with a $25 entry fee, Pamela Uschuk, Editor in Chief.
coffpoetry@aol.com cutthroatmag@gmail.com
which includes a subscription to Copper
www.coffeehousepoetry.org/prizes www.cutthroatmag.com
Nickel, by October 15. Visit the website
Comstock Review for complete guidelines. Dzanc Books
JESSIE BRYCE NILES POETRY CHAPBOOK Copper Nickel, Jake Adam York Prize, DZANC BOOKS/DISQUIET OPEN BORDERS
CONTEST University of Colorado, English BOOK PRIZE
A prize of $1,000, publication by the Department, Campus Box 175, P.O. Box A prize of $5,000 and publication by
Comstock Writers Group, and 50 173364, Denver, CO 80217. Wayne Miller, Disquiet, an imprint of Dzanc Books,
author copies is given biennially for Editor. wayne.miller@ucdenver.edu will be given annually for a novel, a
a poetry chapbook. Kathleen Bryce copper-nickel.org/bookprize memoir, a collection of short stories or
essays, or a cross-genre work that ex- Elixir Press previously published books of ction
hibits a marked commitment to mutual POETRY AWARDS with a $25 entry fee by November 1.
understanding and cultural exchange A prize of $2,000 and publication by Visit the website for complete guide-
Deadlines
across the globe. Using the online sub- Elixir Press is given annually for a po- lines. (SE E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.)
mission system, submit a manuscript of etry collection. A second-place prize of RONALD SUKENICK INNOVATIVE FICTION
of any length and a brief synopsis with a $1,000 and publication is also awarded. CONTEST
$25 entry fee by September 15. Visit the
Kathleen Winter will judge. Submit a A prize of $1,500 and publication by
website for complete guidelines.
manuscript of at least 48 pages with a Fiction Collective Two is given annually
PRIZE FOR FICTION $30 entry fee by October 31. Visit the for a short story collection, novella,
A prize of $10,000 and publication by website for complete guidelines. novella collection, or novel. U.S. writers
Dzanc Books is given annually for a ( S E E R E C E NT WI N N E R S.) who have not previously published a
novel. Lindsey Drager, Daniel A. Hoyt, Elixir Press, Poetry Awards, P.O. Box book with Fiction Collective Two are
and Chrissy Kolaya will judge. Using 27029, Denver, CO 80227. Dana Curtis, eligible. Noy Holland will judge. Using
the online submission system, submit Editor. info@elixirpress.com the online submission system, submit
a manuscript of any length and a brief www.elixirpress.com a manuscript of any length with a brief
synopsis with a $25 entry fee by Septem- bio and a $25 entry fee by November 1.
ber 15. Visit the website for complete Fiction Collective Two Visit the website for complete guide-
guidelines. CATHERINE DOCTOROW INNOVATIVE lines. (SE E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.)
SHORT STORY COMPETITION FICTION PRIZE Fiction Collective Two, University
A prize of $2,500 and publication by A prize of $15,000 and publication by of Alabama Press, P.O. Box 870380,
Dzanc Books is given annually for a Fiction Collective Two, an imprint of Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. (773) 702-7000.
story collection. Using the online sub- University of Alabama Press, is given www.fc2.org/prizes.html
mission system, submit a story collec- annually for a novel, short story collec-
tion of any length with a $25 entry fee tion, novella, or novella collection. U.S. Finishing Line Press
by September 15. Visit the website for writers who have published at least three OPEN CHAPBOOK COMPETITION
complete guidelines. books of ction are eligible. Laird Hunt A prize of $1,000 and publication by
Dzanc Books, 5220 Dexter Ann Arbor will judge. Using the online submis- Finishing Line Press is given annu-
Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103. sion system, submit a manuscript of any ally for a poetry chapbook. Submit a
www.dzancbooks.org length, a brief bio, and a list of three manuscript of up to 30 pages with a $15
entry fee by October 31. All entries are Glimmer Train Press Hackney Literary Awards, Novel Contest,
considered for publication. Visit the SHORT STORY AWARD FOR NEW WRITERS 4650 Old Looney Mill Road, Birmingham,
AL 35243.
website for complete guidelines. A prize of $2,500 and publication in
Deadlines
www.hackneyliteraryawards.org
( SEE RECEN T W IN N ERS.) Glimmer Train Stories is given three
Finishing Line Press, Open Chapbook times yearly for a short story by a writer Harvard University
whose ction has not appeared in a print RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE FELLOWSHIPS
Competition, P.O. Box 1626, Georgetown,
publication with a circulation of more Fellowships of $77,500 each, ofce space
KY 40324. (859) 514-8966. Chris Kincaid, than 5,000. Using the online submis- at the Radcliffe Institute, and access to
Editor. nishingbooks@aol.com sion system, submit a story of 1,000 the libraries at Harvard University are
www.nishinglinepress.com to 12,000 words with an $18 entry fee given annually to poets, ction writ-
between September 1 and October 31. ers, and creative nonction writers to
Ghost Story Visit the website for complete guide- allow them to pursue creative projects.
SUPERNATURAL FICTION AWARD lines. ( S E E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.) Fellows are expected to reside in Boston
A prize of $1,000 and publication on the Glimmer Train Press, Short Story during the fellowship period, which lasts
Award for New Writers, P.O. Box 80430, from September through May. Poets
Ghost Story website is given twice yearly who have published a full-length collec-
for a short story with a supernatural or Portland, OR 97280. (503) 221-0836.
tion or at least 20 poems in magazines
Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda
magic realism theme. The editors will or anthologies in the last ve years and
Swanson-Davies, Coeditors.
judge. Submit a story of 1,500 to 10,000 who are in the process of completing
www.glimmertrain.com
words with a $20 entry fee by September a manuscript are eligible. Fiction and
Hackney Literary Awards creative nonction writers who have a
30. All entries are considered for pub- book-length manuscript under contract
lication. Visit the website for complete NOVEL CONTEST
for publication or at least three shorter
guidelines. ( SEE RECEN T W I NNE R S . ) A prize of $5,000 is given annually for works published are eligible. Writers
an unpublished novel. Submit a manu- who are graduate students at the time
Ghost Story, Supernatural Fiction Award,
script of any length with a $30 entry fee of application are not eligible. For
P.O. Box 601, Union, ME 04862. by September 30. Visit the website for 20182019 fellowships, submit up to
Paul Guernsey, Editor. complete guidelines. 10 poems or one or two short stories, a
www.theghoststory.com/tgs-ction-award ( S E E R E C E NT WI N N E R S.) recent book chapter, or an essay totaling
Craft
THE MFA PROGRAM FOR WRITERS AT WARREN WILSON COLLEGE
Community
The nations premier low-residency MFA program
Asheville, North Carolina www.wwcmfa.org
no more than 30 pages; contact informa- Hippocampus Magazine, Remember in writers on the basis of achievement and
tion for three references; a curriculum November Contest, 210 West Grant exceptional promise. Citizens and per-
vitae; and a project proposal by Septem- Street, #210, Lancaster, PA 17603. (717) manent residents of the United States
Deadlines
ber 14. There is no entry fee. Visit the 295-2524. Donna Talarico, Founder. and Canada with a signicant record of
info@hippocampusmagazine.com publication are eligible. Using the on-
website for the required entry form and
hippocampusmagazine.com line submission system, submit a career
complete guidelines. summary, a list of publications, contact
( SEE REC EN T W IN N ERS.) Indiana Review information for up to four references,
Harvard University, Radcliffe Institute FICTION PRIZE and a statement of intent by September
Fellowships, Fellowship Ofce, 8 Garden A prize of $1,000 and publication in 19. Upon request of the foundation,
Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Indiana Review is given annually for submit up to three published books by
(617) 496-1324. a short story. Submit a story of up to November 15. There is no entry fee.
8,000 words with a $20 entry fee, which Visit the website for the required entry
fellowships@radcliffe.harvard.edu
includes a subscription to Indiana Review, form and complete guidelines.
www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/fellowships
between September 1 and October 31. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
All entries are considered for publica- Foundation, Writing Fellowships, 90 Park
Hippocampus Magazine
tion. Visit the website for complete Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER CONTEST guidelines. (212) 687-4470. fellowships@gf.org
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Indiana Review, Fiction Prize, Ballantine www.gf.org/applicants/apply
Hippocampus Magazine is given annu- Hall 529, 1020 East Kirkwood Avenue,
ally for an essay. The winner will also Bloomington, IN 47405. Kore Press
receive free admission to the annual inreview@indiana.edu MEMOIR AWARD
Kore Press, Memoir Award, 240 North Literal Latt, Essay Award, 200 East 10th Madison Review
Court, Tucson, AZ 85701. (520) 327-2127. Street, Suite 240, New York, NY 10003. POETRY AND FICTION PRIZES
www.korepress.org (212) 260-5532. Jenine Gordon Bockman, Two prizes of $1,000 each and publica-
Deadlines
Editor. litlatte@aol.com tion in Madison Review are given annu-
Lascaux Review
www.literal-latte.com ally for a group of poems and a short
PRIZE IN POETRY
story. The editors will judge. Submit
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Mad Creek Books three poems totaling no more than 15
Lascaux Review is given annually for a JOURNAL/CHARLES B. WHEELER POETRY pages for the Phyllis Smart Young Prize
poem. The winner and nalists will also PRIZE in Poetry or a story of up to 30 pages
be published in the 2018 Lascaux Prize A prize of $2,500 and publication by for the Chris OMalley Prize in Fiction
Anthology. Submit up to ve poems of Mad Creek Books, the literary trade with a $10 entry fee by November 1.
any length with a $10 entry fee by Sep- imprint of Ohio State University Press, Visit the website for complete guide-
tember 30. Previously published and un- is given annually for a poetry collec- lines.
published poems are eligible. All entries Madison Review, Poetry and Fiction
tion. Kathy Fagan will judge. Using
are considered for publication. Visit the Prizes, University of Wisconsin, English
the online submission system, submit
website for complete guidelines. Department, 6193 Helen C. White
a manuscript of at least 48 pages with a
Lascaux Review, Prize in Poetry, 275 $28 entry fee, which includes a subscrip- Hall, 600 North Park Street, Madison,
Conner Street, Clinton, AR 72031. WI 53706. Ron Kuka, Faculty Advisor.
tion to Journal, the Ohio State Uni-
lascauxreview@gmail.com rfkuka@wisc.edu
versity MFA programs literary review,
www.lascauxreview.com/contests www.english.wisc.edu/madisonreview
during the month of September. Visit
Literal Latt the website for complete guidelines. Malahat Review
ESSAY AWARD ( S E E R E C E NT WI N N E R S.) OPEN SEASON AWARDS
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Lit- Mad Creek Books, Journal/Charles B. Three prizes of $1,500 Canadian (ap-
eral Latt is given annually for a personal Wheeler Poetry Prize, c/o Journal, Ohio proximately $1,100) each and publica-
essay. Submit an essay of up to 10,000 State University, English Department, tion in Malahat Review are given annu-
words with a $10 entry fee ($5 for each 421 Denney Hall, 164 Annie & John Glenn ally for a group of poems, a short story,
additional essay) by September 30. Visit Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210. and an essay. Submit up to three poems
the website for complete guidelines. thejournalmag.org/book-prizes/wheeler-prize of no more than 100 lines each, or a
Through the Great Writers, Great Readings series, the MFA program brings
prominent authors to campus every semester for readings, group discussions
and small master classes with graduate students. Recent visiting writers include
Jeffrey K. Eugenides, Jhumpa Lahiri, Phillip Lopate, Rowan Ricardo Phillips,
Lia Purpura and Karen Russell.
Hofstra University Now Has Two Forums for Your Literary Work:
AMP: Always Electric
A project of the Hofstra University Digital Research Center and co-sponsored by
the MFA program and the Department of English. Now accepting poetry, short
prose, innovative and cross-genre texts, video poems and literary videos.
Windmill: The Hofstra Journal of Literature & Art
A joint project of Hofstra Universitys MFA in Creative Writing and BA in
English/Publishing Studies. Accepting print and digital submissions including
ction, creative nonction, art and photography, and poetry.
short story or essay of up to 2,500 words Manchester Metropolitan University, fee by October 1. Visit the website for
with a $40 entry fee, which includes a Poetry and Fiction Prizes, Finance Service complete guidelines.
subscription to Malahat Review, by No- Center, Righton Building, Cavendish
Deadlines
Missouri Review New Criterion, Poetry Prize, 900 collections at the New York Public
JEFFREY E. SMITH EDITORS PRIZE Broadway, Suite 602, New York, NY Library. The fellows will each receive
10003. letters@newcriterion.com $70,000, an ofce at the Cullman Cent-
Three prizes of $5,000 each and publi-
Deadlines
www.newcriterion.com
cation in Missouri Review are given annu- er for Scholars and Writers at the New
ally for a group of poems, a short story, New Issues Poetry & Prose York Public Librarys main branch in
and an essay. Submit up to 10 pages of GREEN ROSE PRIZE midtown Manhattan, and full access to
poetry or up to 8,500 words of prose A prize of $1,000, publication by New the librarys collections, from Septem-
with a $22 entry fee, which includes a Issues Poetry & Prose, and a reading at ber 2018 through May 2019. Fellows will
subscription to Missouri Review, by Oc- Western Michigan University is given be required to work on their projects
tober 2. Visit the website for complete annually for a poetry collection. Poets at the Cullman Center for the duration
guidelines. who have published at least one full- of the fellowship and give a public talk.
Missouri Review, Jeffrey E. Smith Editors length collection of poetry are eligible. Writers currently enrolled in a graduate
Prize, University of Missouri, 357 Submit a manuscript of 40 to 120 pages degree-granting program are ineligible.
McReynolds Hall, Columbia, MO 65211. with a $30 entry fee by September 30.
Using the online submission system,
Visit the website for complete guide-
contest_question@moreview.com submit a writing sample of up to 4,500
lines. ( S E E R E CE N T W I N N E R S)
www.missourireview.com words, a project proposal of up to 1,500
New Issues Poetry & Prose, Green Rose
Prize, Western Michigan University, 1903 words, a curriculum vitae, and three
New Criterion
West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI letters of recommendation (submitted
POETRY PRIZE
49008. (269) 387-8185. William Olsen, directly to the Cullman Center by the
A prize of $3,000 and publication by St.
Editor. new-issues@wmich.edu references) by September 29. There is no
Augustines Press is given annually for a www.newissuespress.com entry fee. Visit the website for complete
poetry collection that pays close atten-
guidelines. (SE E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.)
tion to form. Roger Kimball, Charles New York Public Library
Martin, and David Yezzi will judge. CULLMAN CENTER FELLOWSHIPS New York Public Library, Cullman Center
Submit a manuscript of up to 60 pages Up to 15 fellowships are given annually Fellowships, Stephen A. Schwarzman
with a $25 entry fee by September 30. to poets, ction writers, and creative Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street,
Visit the website for complete guide- nonction writers whose work will ben- Room 225, New York, NY 10018.
lines. et directly from access to the research www.nypl.org/csw
Greater Philadelphia
Apply Today!
arcadia.edu/mfacw
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Nightboat Books North American Review, James Hearst Omnidawn Publishing, 1632 Elm Avenue,
POETRY PRIZE Poetry Prize, University of Northern Iowa, Richmond, CA 94805. (510) 237-5472.
A prize of $1,000 and publication by 1222 West 27th Street, Cedar Falls, IA Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan,
Deadlines
Nightboat Books is given annually for 50614. (319) 273-6455. nar@uni.edu Coeditors. submissions@omnidawn.com
a poetry collection. Kazim Ali and www.northamericanreview.org
www.omnidawn.com
Stephen Motika will judge. Using the Omnidawn Publishing
online submission system, submit a PEN/Faulkner Foundation
SINGLE POEM BROADSIDE POETRY PRIZE
manuscript of 48 to 90 pages with a $28 AWARD FOR FICTION
entry fee by November 15. All entries A prize of $1,000 and publication in
OmniVerse, Omnidawn Publishings A prize of $15,000 is given annually for
are considered for publication. Visit the a book of ction published during the
website for complete guidelines. online journal, is given annually for
a poem. The winner also receives 50 current year. Four nalists will each
( SEE RECEN T W IN N ERS.)
copies of a letterpress broadside of the receive $5,000. The winner and nalists
Nightboat Books, Poetry Prize,
winning poem. Craig Santos Perez will will also be invited to read at the Folger
P.O. Box 10, Callicoon, NY 12723.
judge. Submit a poem of 8 to 24 lines Shakespeare Library in Washington,
info@nightboat.org
with a $10 entry fee ($5 for each ad- D.C. in May 2018. Andrea Barrett,
www.nightboat.org
ditional poem) by October 17. Visit the Stacey DErasmo, and Alex Espinoza
North American Review website for complete guidelines. will judge. Submit four copies of a
JAMES HEARST POETRY PRIZE FABULIST FICTION CHAPBOOK CONTEST short story collection, novella, or novel
A prize of $1,000 and publication in A prize of $1,000, publication by published in 2017 by October 31. There
North American Review is given annu- Omnidawn Publishing, and 100 author is no entry fee. Visit the website for
ally for a poem. Eduardo C. Corral will copies is given annually for a work of complete guidelines.
judge. Using the online submission sys- fabulist ction. Lily Hoang will judge.
PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Award for
tem, submit up to ve poems with a $20 Submit a manuscript of one or more sto-
entry fee, which includes a subscription ries totaling 5,000 to 12,000 words with Fiction, 201 East Capitol Street SE,
to North American Review, by October 31. a $18 entry fee ($20 to receive a ction Washington, D.C. 20003.
All entries are considered for publica- title from the Omnidawn catalogue) by (202) 898-9063.
tion. Visit the website for complete October 23. Visit the website for com- awards@penfaulkner.org
guidelines. ( SEE RECEN T W I NNE R S . ) plete guidelines. www.penfaulkner.org
Persea Books Perugia Press, Poetry Prize, P.O. Box Poetry Society of the United Kingdom,
LEXI RUDNITSKY FIRST BOOK PRIZE 60364, Florence, MA 01062. Rebecca National Poetry Competition, 22
Olander, Director. Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX,
Deadlines
submission system, submit up to ve po- Reed Magazine, San Jos State University, MacQueen and Robert OSullivan
ems with a $15 entry fee, which includes English Department, One Washington Schleith will judge. Submit a poem of
a copy of the prize issue, by November Square, San Jos, CA 95192. (408) any length with a $15 entry fee by Oc-
Deadlines
1. All entries are considered for publica- 924-4425. mail@reedmag.org tober 15. Visit the website for complete
www.reedmag.org
tion. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
guidelines. ( SEE RECEN T W I NNE R S . ) River Teeth San Diego Poetry Annual, Steve Kowit
JOHN STEINBECK FICTION AWARD LITERARY NONFICTION PRIZE Poetry Prize, San Diego Entertainment
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Reed A prize of $1,000 and publication by and Arts Guild, 1953 Huffstatler Street,
Magazine is given annually for a short University of New Mexico Press is given Suite A, Rainbow, CA 92028. (760)
story. Using the online submission sys- annually for a book of creative nonc- 728-2088. William Harry Harding, Chair.
tem, submit a story of up to 5,000 words tion. Submit a manuscript of 150 to
info@sdeag.com
400 pages with a $25 entry fee ($27 for
with a $15 entry fee, which includes a sdeag.org
electronic submissions), which includes
copy of the prize issue, by November 1.
a subscription to River Teeth, by October Silversh Review Press
All entries are considered for publica- 31. Visit the website for complete guide-
tion. Visit the website for complete lines. GERALD CABLE BOOK AWARD
guidelines. ( SEE RECEN T W I NNE R S . ) River Teeth, Literary Nonction Prize, A prize of $1,000, publication by
GABRIELE RICO CHALLENGE IN CREATIVE Ashland University, 401 College Avenue, Silversh Review Press, and 25 author
NONFICTION Ashland, OH 44805. (419) 289-5098. copies is given annually for a rst
A prize of $1,333 and publication in Reed riverteeth@ashland.edu poetry collection. Poets who have not
www.riverteethjournal.com/contests published a full-length poetry collec-
Magazine is given annually for an essay.
Using the online submission system, San Diego Poetry Annual tion may submit a manuscript of at least
submit an essay of up to 5,000 words STEVE KOWIT POETRY PRIZE
48 pages with a $25 entry fee, which
with a $15 entry fee, which includes a includes a copy of the winning book, by
A prize of $1,000, publication in San
copy of the prize issue, by November 1. Diego Poetry Annual will be given an- October 15. All entries are considered
All entries are considered for publica- nually for a poem. The winner will for publication. Visit the website for
tion. Visit the website for complete also receive an invitation to read at an complete guidelines.
guidelines. ( SEE RECEN T W I NNE R S . ) award ceremony in April 2018. Clare (SE E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.)
Silversh Review Press, Gerald Cable length with a $20 entry fee by Octo- a $20 entry fee by October 1. Visit the
Book Award, P.O. Box 3541, Eugene, OR ber 15. Visit the website for complete website for complete guidelines.
97403. (541) 344-5060. Rodger Moody, guidelines. Southeast Missouri State University
Deadlines
Deadlines
Southwest Review
1748 Cave Ridge Road, Mount Jackson, A prize of $1,000 and publication in
MORTON MARR POETRY PRIZE VA 22842. Sarah Kohrs, Managing Editor. Louisiana Cultural Vistas Magazine is
A prize of $1,000 and publication in sepoetryreview@gmail.com given annually for a group of poems.
Southwest Review is given annually for a sowsearpoetry.org The winner also receives an all-access
poem or a group of poems by a writer pass to the Tennessee Williams/New
who has not published a poetry collec- Sunday Times EFG Short Story
Award Orleans Literary Festival (valued at
tion. Submit up to six poems in a tradi- $600) in March 2018 to give a reading.
tional form (such as a sonnet, sestina, or A prize of 30,000 (approximately
Writers who have not published a book
villanelle) with a $5 entry fee per poem $39,000) is given annually for a short
story by a writer whose work has been of poetry with a traditional publisher
by September 30. Visit the website for are eligible. Jericho Brown will judge.
complete guidelines. previously published in the United
Kingdom or Ireland. Five runner-up Submit two to four poems totaling no
Southwest Review, Morton Marr Poetry prizes of 1,000 (approximately $1,300) more than 400 lines with a $15 entry fee
Prize, Southern Methodist University, are also given. Unpublished stories by November 15. Visit the website for
P.O. Box 750374, Dallas, TX 75275. and stories published or scheduled to complete guidelines.
(214) 768-1037. Preston Hutcherson, be published after January 1, 2017, are Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary
Managing Editor. swr@smu.edu eligible. Writers, publishers, and agents Festival, Poetry Contest, 938 Lafayette
www.smu.edu/southwestreview may submit a story of up to 6,000 words Street, Suite 514, New Orleans, LA 70113.
by September 28. There is no entry fee. contests@tennesseewilliams.net
Sows Ear Poetry Review Visit the website for the required entry tennesseewilliams.net
POETRY PRIZE form and complete guidelines.
A prize of $1,000 and publication in (S EE R EC EN T W I NNER S .) Travelers Tales
Sows Ear Poetry Review is given annually Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, SOLAS AWARDS
for a poem. Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda c/o Society of Authors, 84 Drayton A prize of $1,000 and publication in the
will judge. Submit up to ve poems Gardens, London, England, SW10 9SB. annual anthology The Best Travel Writing
with a $30 entry fee, which includes a shortstory@efginternational.com and on the Travelers Tales website is
subscription to Sows Ear Poetry Review, shortstoryaward.co.uk given annually for a travel essay. Writers
from Arizona and Vermont are eligible Tucson Festival of Books anthology, Stories That Need to Be Told.
for publication, but not the cash prize. LITERARY AWARDS Submit a poem, story, or essay of up to
The editors will judge. Using the online Three prizes of $1,000 each are given
Deadlines
University of Arkansas Press University of Iowa Press, Iowa Short University of Massachusetts
MILLER WILLIAMS ARKANSAS POETRY Fiction Award, Iowa Writers Workshop, Press
PRIZE 507 North Clinton Street, 102 Dey House,
Deadlines
JUNIPER PRIZES
A prize of $5,000 and publication by Iowa City, IA 52242. (319) 335-2000.
uipress@uiowa.edu Four prizes of $1,000 each and publica-
University of Arkansas Press is given
annually for a poetry collection. Billy www.uipress.uiowa.edu tion by University of Massachusetts
Collins will judge. Using the online Press are given annually for a rst
University of Louisville
submission system, submit a manuscript poetry collection, a poetry collection, a
CALVINO PRIZE
of 60 to 90 pages with a $28 entry fee short story collection, and a short story
by September 30. Visit the website for A prize of $2,000 and publication in
Salt Hill Journal is given annually for a collection, novella, or novel. The crea-
complete guidelines.
work of ction written in the fabulist tive writing faculty at the University of
University of Arkansas Press, Miller
experimental style of Italo Calvino. Massachusetts in Amherst will judge.
Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize, Poetry
The winner will also receive airfare and Submit a poetry manuscript of 50 to
Series, 105 North McIlroy Avenue,
Fayetteville, AR 72701. (479) 575-7258. lodging to read at the annual Louisville 70 pages or a story collection, novel, or
info@uapress.com Conference on Literature and Culture
novella of 150 to 350 pages with a $30
www.uapress.com/millerwilliamspoetryseries
Since 1900 in February 2018. Brian
entry fee by September 30. Visit the
Evenson will judge. Using the online
University of Iowa Press submission system, submit a short story website for complete guidelines.
IOWA SHORT FICTION AWARD or an excerpt from a story collection, (SE E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.)
Two awards of publication by University novel, or novella of up to 25 pages with University of Massachusetts Press,
of Iowa Press are given annually for rst a $25 entry fee by October 13. Visit the
Juniper Prizes, East Experiment Station,
collections of short ction. Writers who website for complete guidelines.
671 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA
have not published a book of ction are University of Louisville, Calvino Prize,
01003. (413) 545-2217. Mary Dougherty,
eligible. Submit a manuscript of at least English Department, Room 315, Bingham
150 pages by September 30. There is no Humanities Building, Louisville, KY University of Massachusetts Press
entry fee. Visit the website for complete 40292. Director. mvd@umpress.umass.edu
guidelines. louisville.edu/english/creative-writing/contests www.umass.edu/umpress/juniper.html
University of North Texas Press Ronald Wallace, Poetry Series Editor. Washington College, Patrick Henry
VASSAR MILLER PRIZE rwallace@wisc.edu Writing Fellowship, C. V. Starr
A prize of $1,000 and publication by www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/poetryguide.html Center, Custom House, 101 South
Deadlines
ABC
MAUREEN EGEN WRITERS EXCHANGE AWARD
2018
Arkansas
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Award Applications
The Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award introduces emerging writers An application form must
to the New York literary community and provides them with a network for accompany all manuscripts.
professional advancement. One ction writer and one poet from Arkansas To download guidelines and
will be selected. Winners receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to application, go to
meet with editors, agents, publishers, and prominent writers. at.pw.org/wexaward
Eligibility
This year, poets and ction writers who are residents of Arkansas and have Applications must be postmarked
published no more than one full-length book in the genre in which they are by January 8, 2018.
entering are eligible.
The Writers Exchange Award
is supported by a generous
For more details, go to at.pw.org/wexaward. contribution from Maureen Egen.
Washington Writers Publishing House, or is written in a traditional style. Jim Yale University Press, Yale Series of
Poetry and Fiction Prizes, c/o Kathleen DuBois and Soma Mei Sheng Frazier Younger Poets, P.O. Box 209040,
Wheaton, 7127 Fairfax Road, Bethesda, will judge. Submit any number of poems New Haven, CT 06520.
Deadlines
MD 20814. wwphpress@gmail.com
of up to 250 lines each with a $12 entry youngerpoets.org
www.washingtonwriters.org
fee per poem by September 30. Visit the
Whitesh Review website for complete guidelines. Zoetrope: All-Story
MONTANA AWARD FOR FICTION ( S E E R E C E NT WI N N E R S.) SHORT FICTION CONTEST
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Winning Writers, Tom Howard/Margaret A prize of $1,000 and publication on
Whitesh Review is given annually for a
Reid Poetry Contest, 351 Pleasant Street, the Zoetrope: All-Story website is given
short story. Rick Bass will judge. Using
the online submission system, submit PMB 222, Northampton, MA 01060. annually for a short story. The winner
a story of up to 5,000 words with a $20 Adam Cohen, President. and nalists are considered for rep-
entry fee by November 1. All entries adam@winningwriters.com resentation by several literary agen-
are considered for publication. Visit the www.winningwriters.com/our-contests cies, including the Georges Borchardt
website for complete guidelines. /tom-howard-margaret-reid-poetry-contest Literary Agency, the Gernert Company,
Whitesh Review, Montana Award for
Fiction, 708 Lupfer Avenue, Whitesh, International Creative Management,
Yale University Press
MT 59937. (406) 261-6190. Brian Schott, Sterling Lord Literistic, and William
YALE SERIES OF YOUNGER POETS
Founding Editor. Morris Endeavor. Maile Meloy will
brian@whiteshreview.org An award of publication by Yale Univer-
judge. Using the online submission sys-
www.whiteshreview.org sity Press is given annually for a poetry
tem, submit a story of up to 5,000 words
collection by an early-career poet who
Winning Writers with a $20 entry fee by October 2. Visit
has not published a full-length book of
TOM HOWARD/MARGARET REID POETRY
poetry. Carl Phillips will judge. Submit the website for complete guidelines.
CONTEST
a manuscript of 48 to 64 pages with a Zoetrope: All-Story, Short Fiction Contest,
Two prizes of $1,500 each and publica-
$25 entry fee between October 1 and 916 Kearny Street, San Francisco, CA
tion on the Winning Writers website
are given annually for a poem in any November 15. Visit the website for com- 94133. contests@all-story.com
style and a poem that either rhymes plete guidelines. (SE E R E CE N T W I N N E R S.) www.all-story.com/contests.cgi
Submission Calendar
2
Deadlines
September 14
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
14 September 30
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY IN
FRESNO
October 2
CARLOW UNIVERSITY
Patricia Dobler Poetry Award
Radcliffe Institute Fellowships
Philip Levine Prize for Poetry
September 15
DZANC BOOKS
15 CAVE CANEM FOUNDATION
Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady
Chapbook Prize
MISSOURI REVIEW
Jeffrey E. Smith Editors Prize
SOUTHERN INDIANA REVIEW
Dzanc Books/Disquiet Mary C. Mohr Awards
Open Borders Book Prize GHOST STORY
Supernatural Fiction Award ZOETROPE: ALL-STORY
Prize for Fiction Short Fiction Contest
HACKNEY LITERARY AWARDS
Short Story Competition
HIPPOCAMPUS MAGAZINE
Remember in November Contest
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS
Novel Contest
LASCAUX REVIEW
Prize in Poetry
LITERAL LATT
October 5
AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
Fellowships for Creative Writers
5
Brittingham and Felix Pollak Prizes Essay Award
October 13 13
September 16
TULIPTREE PUBLISHING
16 MAD CREEK BOOKS
Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize
NEW CRITERION
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE
Calvino Prize
Stories That Need to Be Told Contest
September 19
JOHN SIMON GUGGENHEIM
Poetry Prize
NEW ISSUES POETRY & PROSE
Green Rose Prize
SOUTHWEST REVIEW
October 15
AMY LOWELL POETRY
TRAVELING SCHOLARSHIP
15
MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
Writing Fellowships
19 Morton Marr Poetry Prize
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS PRESS
Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize
A PUBLIC SPACE
Emerging Writer Fellowships
BARNARD COLLEGE
Women Poets Prize
September 21 UNIVERSITY OF IOWA PRESS
COPPER NICKEL
TRAVELERS TALES Iowa Short Fiction Award Jake Adam York Prize
Solas Awards
21 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS
Juniper Prizes
SAN DIEGO POETRY ANNUAL
Steve Kowit Poetry Prize
September 28
SUNDAY TIMES EFG SHORT STORY
AWARD
28
WINNING WRITERS
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid
Poetry Contest
3o SILVERFISH REVIEW PRESS
Gerald Cable Book Award
SONGS OF ERETZ POETRY REVIEW
Poetry Contest
October 1
September 29
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN BERLIN
Berlin Prize Fellowships
AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW
Literary Awards
BOSTON REVIEW
October 16
COFFEE-HOUSE POETRY
16
Troubadour International Poetry Prize
MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN Aura Estrada Short Story Contest
UNIVERSITY
Poetry and Fiction Prizes KORE PRESS
Memoir Award October 17
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY OMNIDAWN PUBLISHING
Cullman Center Fellowships MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize
PULITZER PRIZES
Single Poem Broadside Poetry Prize
17
29 Prizes in Letters October 20
1
CUTHROAT
20
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE Writing Awards
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Mighty River Short Story Prize
Deadlines
October 23
OMNIDAWN PUBLISHING
23 November 1
ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS
SOWS EAR POETRY REVIEW
Poetry Prize
31
Fabulist Fiction Chapbook Contest Walt Whitman Award WASHINGTON COLLEGE
Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship
October 24
SIXFOLD
24 ALICE JAMES BOOKS
Alice James Award
AMERICAN-SCANDINAVIAN FOUNDATION
WHITEFISH REVIEW
Montana Award for Fiction
1 15
James Hearst Poetry Prize Edwin Markham Prize for Poetry
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
PEN/FAULKNER FOUNDATION
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Award for Fiction
Nilsen Literary Prize
PERSEA BOOKS
Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize
POETRY SOCIETY OF THE UNITED
KINGDOM
National Poetry Competition
Anatomy of Awards: September/October 2017
This issues Deadlines section lists a total of 118 contests, sponsored by 85 organizations,
RIVER TEETH
offering an estimated $2,709,243 in prize money. More than half of that money will be given to
Literary Nonction Prize
winners of writing fellowships awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
TRUMAN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS Of the 118 contests, 106 (90 percent) charge entry fees (the median entry fee is $20), but those
T. S. Eliot Prize fee-charging contests offer only $275,993 (10 percent) of the total prize money.
TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS 12 contests Contests that
do not charge entry
Literary Awards charge fees offer
entry fees $275,993
TUPELO PRESS in prize money
31
Vassar Miller Prize
Contests
that do not
106 charge entry
contests fees offer
charge $2,433,250
entry fees in prize money
Website: bitly.com/VTcwMFA
Tumblr: VTcwMFA.tumblr.com
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Recent Winners
Alice James Books Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship,
ALICE JAMES AWARD c/o Thomas H. P. Whitney Jr. and William
Mia Ayumi Malhotra of San Mateo, Cali- A. Lowell, Choate, Hall & Stewart, LLP, 2
fornia, won the 2017 Alice James Award International Place, Boston, MA 02110.
for her poetry collection Isako, Isako. She amylowell@choate.com
received $2,000, and her book will be www.amylowell.org
published by Alice James Books in April Asheville Poetry Review
2019. Andrs Cerpa of New York City WILLIAM MATTHEWS POETRY PRIZE
received the Editors Choice Award for Jared Harel of New York City won the
his collection Elegy With a Bicycle in a 2017 William Matthews Poetry Prize
Ransacked City. He received $1,000, and for You Want It Darker. He received
his book will be published in January $1,000, and his poem will be published
2019. The annual awards are given for in Volume 24, Issue 27 of Asheville Poetry
poetry collections. ( SEE D E A D L I NE S . ) Review. He also received an invitation to
Alice James Books, Alice James Award, give a reading at Malaprops Bookstore
114 Prescott Street, Farmington, ME in Asheville, North Carolina. Cornelius
04938. (207) 778-7071. Alyssa Neptune, Eady judged. The annual award is given
Managing Editor. for a poem. The next deadline is January
info@alicejamesbooks.org 15, 2018.
M I A AY U M I M A L H O T R A
www.alicejamesbooks.org/alice-james-award Asheville Poetry Review, William Matthews Alice James Books
American Academy in Berlin Poetry Prize, P.O. Box 7086, Asheville, Alice James Award
BERLIN PRIZE FELLOWSHIPS NC 28802.
Fiction writers V. V. Ganeshananthan Keith Flynn, Managing Editor. JACQUELINE ALLEN TRIMBLE
of Minneapolis, Paul La Farge of Red www.ashevillepoetryreview.com Balcones Center
Hook, New York, Thomas Chatterton Baileys Womens Prize for Poetry Prize
Williams of Berkeley Heights, New Fiction
Jersey, and Carole Maso of Providence Naomi Alderman of London won the TA R A L A S K O W S K I
received Berlin Prize Fellowships. They 2017 Baileys Womens Prize for Fiction Balcones Center
each received a semester-long residency for her novel The Power (Viking). She re- Fiction Prize
at the Hans Arnhold Center at the ceived 30,000 (approximately $39,000).
American Academy in Berlin, a $5,000 Sam Baker, Katie Derham, Aminatta
monthly stipend, and round-trip airfare. Forna, Sara Pascoe, and Tessa Ross
The annual fellowships are given to judged. Formerly the Orange Prize for
ction writers, nonction writers, and Fiction, the annual award is given for a
scholars. ( SEE D EAD L IN E S . ) novel by a woman from anywhere in the
American Academy in Berlin, Berlin Prize world published in the United Kingdom
Fellowships, Am Sandwerder 17-19, 14109 in the previous year. As of this writing,
Berlin, Germany. Johana Gallup, Fellows the next deadline has not been set.
Selection Manager. Baileys Womens Prize for Fiction, c/o
jg@americanacademy.de Society of Authors, 84 Drayton Gardens,
www.americanacademy.de/home/fellows London SW10 9SB. Paula Johnson,
Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Contact. pjohnson@societyofauthors.org
Scholarship www.womensprizeforction.co.uk
Joanna Klink of Williamstown, Mas- Balcones Center for Creative
sachusetts, won the 20172018 Amy Writing
malhotra: mark malhotra
of Washington, D.C. won the seventh works will be published in the Spring Binghamton University, Book Awards,
annual Balcones Fiction Prize for her 2018 issue of Bellingham Review. The an- P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902.
short story collection Bystanders (Santa nual awards are given for a poem, a short (607) 777-2713.
Fe Writers Project). Amanda Eyre Ward story, and a work of creative nonction. Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Director.
judged. The winners each received The next deadline is March 15, 2018. english.binghamton.edu/cwpro
$1,500. The annual awards honor a book BOA Editions
Bellingham Review, Literary Awards,
of poetry and a book of ction published A. POULIN JR. POETRY PRIZE
Western Washington University, Mail
during the previous year. The next dead- Marcelo Hernandez Castillo of
line is January 31, 2018. Stop 9053, Bellingham, WA 98225. Dayna
Sacramento, California, won the 2017
Balcones Center for Creative Writing, Patterson, Managing Editor.
A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize for his col-
Balcones Prizes, Austin Community bellingham.review@wwu.edu
lection, Cenzntle. He received $1,500,
College, 1212 Rio Grande Street, Austin, www.bhreview.org
Recent Winners
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 166
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
novel A Horse Walks Into a Bar (Jonathan novel translated into English and pub-
Cape). They each received 25,000 (ap- lished in the United Kingdom between
proximately $32,500). The nalists were May 1 of the previous year and April 30
Mathias nard of Barcelona and Charlotte of the award year. As of this writing, the
Mandell of Red Hook, New York, for next deadline has not been set.
Mandells translation from the French Booker Prize Foundation, Man Booker
of nards novel Compass (Fitzcarraldo International Prize, 28 St. Jamess Walk,
Editions); Roy Jacobsen of Oslo, Don London, England EC1R 0AP.
Bartlett of Norfolk, England, and Don themanbookerprize.com/international
Shaw of England for Bartlett and Shaws Brick Road Poetry Press
translation from the Norwegian of
BOOK CONTEST
Jacobsens novel The Unseen (Maclehose);
Recent Winners
Erin Murphy of Altoona, Pennsylvania,
Dorthe Nors of Jutland, Denmark, and
won the 2016 Brick Road Poetry Book
Misha Hoekstra of Aarhus, Denmark,
Contest for Assisted Living. She received
for Hoekstras translation from the
$1,000, and her book will be published
Danish of Norss novel Mirror, Shoul-
by Brick Road Poetry Press. The annual
der, Signal (Pushkin Press); Amos Oz
award is given for a poetry collection.
of Tel Aviv, Israel, and Nicholas de
( S E E D E A D L I NE S.)
Lange of Nottingham, England, for de
Langes translation from the Hebrew Brick Road Poetry Press, Book Contest, JOHN BLAIR
of Ozs novel Judas (Chatto & Windus); 513 Broadway, Columbus, GA 31901. Keith Bellingham Review
and Samanta Schweblin of Berlin and Badowski and Ron Self, Coeditors. Parallel Poetry Award
www.brickroadpoetrypress.com
Megan McDowell of Santiago, Chile, for
McDowells translation from the Span- Carlow University S U S A N M . S TA B I L E
ish of Schweblins novel Fever Dream PATRICIA DOBLER POETRY AWARD Bellingham Review
(Oneworld). They each received 1,000 Dana Salvador of Albuquerque, New Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonction
(approximately $1,300). Nick Barley, Mexico, won the 2016 Patricia Dobler
Daniel Hahn, Helen Mort, Elif Shafak, Poetry Award for her poem After the HUBERT VIGILLA
and Chika Unigwe judged. The annual Accident. She received $1,000; publi- Center for Fiction
award is given for a story collection or cation in Voices From the Attic, Carlow NYC Emerging Writers Fellowship
Universitys literary journal; and round- Cave Canem Foundation, Toi Derricotte Director. caapp@pitt.edu
trip transportation and lodging to give & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize, 20 Jay www.caapp.pitt.edu
a reading at Carlow University. Allison Street, Suite 310-A, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Center for Book Arts
Hedge Coke judged. The annual award (718) 858-0000. POETRY CHAPBOOK COMPETITION
is given to a woman poet over 40 who cavecanempoets.org/prizes/toi-derricotte Kimberly Kruge of Guadalajara, Mexico,
has not published a book in any genre. -cornelius-eady-chapbook-prize won the 22nd annual Poetry Chapbook
( SEE D EA D LIN ES.) Center for African American Competition for High-Land Sub-Tropic.
Carlow University, Patricia Dobler Poetry and Poetics She received $500, and her chapbook
Poetry Award, c/o Jan Beatty, Director POETRY FELLOWSHIP
will be published by the Center for Book
of Creative Writing, 3333 Fifth Avenue, Arts. She will also receive a $500 hono-
Rickey Laurentiis of New York City won
Pittsburgh, PA 15213. (412) 578-6346. rarium to participate in a reading at the
the 20172019 Center for African Ameri-
Recent Winners
Jan Beatty and Sarah Williams-Devereux, center in October. Juan Felipe Herrera
can Poetry & Poetics Poetry (CAAPP)
Contacts. sewilliams412@carlow.edu judged. The annual award is given for a
Fellowship. He will receive $48,000 each poetry chapbook. The next deadline is
www.carlow.edu/Dobler_Poetry_Award.aspx year of a two-year residency at CAAPP at December 15.
Cave Canem Foundation the University of Pittsburgh. The bien- Center for Book Arts, Poetry Chapbook
TOI DERRICOTTE & CORNELIUS EADY nial fellowship is given to a poet with an Competition, 28 West 27th Street,
CHAPBOOK PRIZE MFA or PhD in creative writing who has 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001.
Nick Makoha of London won the 2016 not published more than one book and www.centerforbookarts.org
Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady has knowledge of African American or
Center for Fiction
Chapbook Prize for Resurrection Man. He African diasporic poetry and poetics. As
NYC EMERGING WRITERS FELLOWSHIPS
received $500, publication by Jai-Alai of this writing, the next deadline has not
Nine ction writers, all of New York
Books, and a weeklong residency at been set. City, won 2017 NYC Emerging Writers
the Writers Room at the Betsy Hotel, Center for African American Poetry and Fellowships. They are Amna Ahmad,
and will give a reading at the O, Miami Poetics, Poetry Fellowship, University of Charlotte Crowe, Dana Czapnik, Erik
Festival in Miami, Florida. Robin Coste Pittsburgh, School of Arts and Sciences, Hoel, Andrew Mangan, Crystal Powell,
Lewis judged. The annual award is given English Department, 526 Cathedral of Maud Streep, Alexandra Tanner, and
for a poetry chapbook by a black poet. Learning, 4200 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Hubert Vigilla. They each received
( SEE D EA D LIN ES.) PA 15260. Lauren Russell, Assistant $5,000, yearlong studio space at the
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 168
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Recent Winners
tion, micro essays, or short experimental
www.centerforction.org
work. ( S E E D E A DL I N E S)
Chautauqua Institution Cloudbank Books, Vern Rutsala Book
CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE
Prize, P.O. Box 610, Corvallis, OR 97339.
Peter Ho Davies of Ann Arbor, Michi- (877) 768-6762. Roberta Sperling,
gan, won the sixth annual Chautau- Contact. roberta@cloudbankbooks.com
qua Prize for his novel The Fortunes
www.cloudbankbooks.com
(Houghton Mifin Harcourt, 2016). S H A N G YA N G F A N G
He received $7,500 and a weeklong Colorado Review Cutthroat
residency at the Chautauqua Institution NELLIGAN PRIZE FOR SHORT FICTION Joy Harjo Poetry Award
in Chautauqua, New York. The annual Katie M. Flynn of San Francisco won the
award is given for a book of ction or 14th annual Nelligan Prize for Short ALLISON ALSUP
creative nonction published in the Fiction for her story Island Rule. She Dana Award for Short Fiction
previous year. The next deadline is received $2,000, and her story will be
December 15. published in the Fall 2017 issue of Colo- MISHA RAI
Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua rado Review. Richard Bausch judged. The Dana Award for the Novel
Prize, P.O. Box 28, 1 Ames Avenue, annual award is given for a short story.
Chautauqua, NY 14722. (716) 357-6376. The next deadline is March 14, 2018.
STONY BROOK
SOUTHAMPTON
MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING & LITERATURE
Colorado Review, Nelligan Prize for Short the 2017 Crazyhorse Fiction Prize for Award for her essay Edmonton Uncles.
Fiction, Colorado State University, 9105 his story Quantum Convention. Justin Rick Bass judged. Each winner received
Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523. Torres judged. Andrew Blevins of New $1,250 and publication in Cutthroat. The
(970) 491-5449. Stephanie GSchwind, York City won the 2017 Crazyhorse annual awards are given for a poem, a
Director. Nonction Prize for his essay The short story, and an essay.
nelliganprize.colostate.edu Egg Men. Robin Hemley judged. Each (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
Comstock Review winner received $2,000 and publication Cutthroat, Writing Awards, P.O. Box 2414,
in Issue 92 of Crazyhorse. The annual Durango, CO 81302. (970) 903-7914.
POETRY CHAPBOOK CONTEST
awards are given for a poem, a short Pamela Uschuk, Editor in Chief.
Ted Kooser of Garland, Nebraska, won
story, and an essay. The next deadline is cutthroatmag@gmail.com
the 2016 Poetry Chapbook Contest for
January 31, 2018. www.cutthroatmag.com
At Home. He received $1,000, publica-
Crazyhorse, Prizes in Fiction, Nonction,
Recent Winners
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 170
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Recent Winners
the 2017 Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writ-
short story as an art form. There is no ers Award. He received $5,000 to work
application process. on his creative nonction manuscript
Dungannon Foundation, 53 West Church Jackalope! The Complete Natural and
Hill Road, Washington, Connecticut Cultural History. Established to honor
06794. the memory of Ellen Meloy, the annual
www.reaaward.org award provides support to creative non-
Elixir Press ction writers whose work reects the JIM SHEPARD
POETRY AWARD AND EDITORS PRIZE spirit and passion for the desert embod- Dungannon Foundation
Kathleen Winter of San Francisco won ied in Meloys writing to spend time in Rea Award for the Short Story
the 17th annual Elixir Press Poetry a desert environment. The next deadline
shepard: barry goldstein
Award for her collection I will not kick my is January 15, 2018. MICHAEL BRANCH
friends. She received $2,000 and publica- Ellen Meloy Fund, Desert Writers Ellen Meloy Fund
tion of her book by Elixir Press. Jane Award, D. A. Davidson and Co., P.O. Box Desert Writers Award
Sattereld judged. Bruce Bond of Den- 1677, Helena, MT 59624. Mark Meloy,
ton, Texas, won the Editors Prize for his Executive Director. HENK ROSSOUW
collection Rise and Fall of the Lesser Sun fund@ellenmeloy.com Fordham University at Lincoln Center
Poets Out Loud Editors Prize
Gods. He received $1,000 and publication www.ellenmeloy.com
GRADUATE DEGREES
c%B)kX% a)XX
kc%k a8{{x
a8
Claim your voice in a vibrant
FACULTY
literary community in the ) Micheline Marcom Cynthia Scheinberg
San Francisco Bay Area. Diane Cady ca Juliana Spahr
Julie Chen { Tom Strychacz
Susan Ito {{ Truong Tran
Kim Magowan Kathryn Reiss U
MAKE A STATEMENT. a Kirsten Saxton Stephanie Young
www.mills.edu/english
Fiction Collective Two Fine Arts Work Center given to 10 poets and ction writers.
CATHERINE DOCTOROW INNOVATIVE WRITING FELLOWSHIPS The next deadline is December 1.
FICTION PRIZE Ten emerging poets and ction writ- Fine Arts Work Center, Writing
Jennifer Natalya Fink of Washington, ers have received writing fellowships Fellowships, 24 Pearl Street,
D.C. won the 2017 Catherine Doctorow from the Fine Arts Work Center. The Provincetown, MA 02657.
Innovative Fiction Prize for her novel First-Year Fellows in poetry are Han- (508) 487-9960.
Bhopal Dance. She received $15,000, and nah Beresford of Voorheesville, New www.fawc.org
her book will be published by Fiction York; David Hutcheson of Carrboro, Finishing Line Press
Collective Two. Mary Caponegro North Carolina; Candace Gayle Wiley of OPEN CHAPBOOK COMPETITION
judged. The annual award is given for a York, South Carolina; and H. R. Webster Jeanine Stevens of Sacramento and Lake
short story collection, novella, novella of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Leslie Marie Tahoe, California, won the 2016 Open
Aguilar of Abilene, Texas, received the
Recent Winners
collection, or novel by a writer who has Chapbook Competition for Brief Immen-
published at least three books of ction. Second-Year Fellowship in poetry. The sity. She received $1,000 and publication
( SEE D EA D LIN ES.)
First-Year Fellows in ction are Brendan of her chapbook by Finishing Line Press.
Bowles of Amherst, Massachusetts;
RONALD SUKENICK INNOVATIVE FICTION The annual award is given for a poetry
David Hoon Kim of Costa Mesa, Califor-
PRIZE chapbook. (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
nia; Gabriel Louis of Washington, D.C.;
George Choundas of New York City won Finishing Line Press, Open Chapbook
and Christa Romanosky of Pittsburgh.
the 2017 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Competition, P.O. Box 1626, Georgetown,
Frances Hwang of El Cerrito, California,
Fiction Prize for his novel The Making KY 40324. (859) 514-8966. Chris Kincaid,
received the Second-Year Fellowship
Sense of Things. He received $1,500, and Editor. nishingbooks@aol.com
in ction. A panel of writers judged
his novel will be published by Fiction the First-Year Fellowship competition;
www.nishinglinepress.com
Collective Two. Elisabeth Shefeld Kimiko Hahn selected the Second-Year Fish Publishing
judged. The annual award is given for a Fellow in poetry, and Nam Le selected POETRY PRIZE
short story collection, novella, novella the Second-Year Fellow in ction. Risn Kelly of Cork, Ireland, won the
collection, or novel. ( SEE D E A D L I NE S . ) Each fellow will receive a seven-month Poetry Prize for her poem Paris, 13
Fiction Collective Two, University residency at the Fine Arts Work Center November 2015. She received 1,000
of Alabama Press, P.O. Box 870380, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, from (approximately $1,100) and publication
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. (773) 702-7000. October 1 to April 30 and a monthly in the 2017 Fish anthology. Jo Shapcott
www.fc2.org/prizes.html stipend of $750. The annual awards are judged. The annual award is given for a
HUB CITY
PRESS + WRITERS PROJECT
SPARTANBURG, SC
announces
c. michael curtis
the
short story book prize
$10,000
A N D P U B L I C AT I O N I N 2019
Open to previously unpublished Southern writers
LEARN MORE:
WWW.HUBCITY.ORG/CMCBOOKPRIZE
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 172
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
poem. The next deadline is March 31, short memoir. The next deadline is Janu-
2018. ary 31, 2018.
FLASH FICTION PRIZE Fish Publishing, Durrus, Bantry, County
Lindsay Fisher of England won the Flash Cork, Ireland. Clem Cairns, Editor.
Fiction Prize for her story Lost. She info@shpublishing.com
received 1,000 (approximately $1,100), www.shpublishing.com
and her story will be published in the
Fordham University at Lincoln
2017 Fish anthology. Chris Stewart
Center
judged. The annual award is given for a
POETS OUT LOUD PRIZES
work of ash ction. The next deadline
is February 28, 2018. Julia Bouwsma of New Portland, Maine,
won the 20162017 Poets Out Loud
SHORT STORY PRIZE
Recent Winners
Prize for her collection Midden. Henk
Sean Lusk of Dorset, England, won the
Short Story Prize for his story Dead Rossouw of Houston, Texas, won the
Souls. He received 3,000 (approxi- Editors Prize for his collection Xamissa.
mately $3,300), publication in the 2017 They each received $1,000, and their
Fish anthology, and tuition to attend a books will be published by Fordham
short story workshop at the West Cork University Press in Fall 2018. Each
Literary Festival in July. Neel Mukher- winner will also be invited to read in
jee judged. The annual award is given the Poets Out Loud series at Fordham
University in Fall 2018. Elisabeth Frost LINWOOD D. RUMNEY
for a short story. The next deadline is Gival Press
November 30. and Afaa Michael Weaver judged. The
Poetry Award
SHORT MEMOIR PRIZE annual awards are given for poetry col-
Paul McGranaghan of Dublin won the lections. The prize is on hiatus this year;
C O U R T N E Y K N O W LT O N
Memoir Prize for his short memoir the next deadline is in November 2018.
Glimmer Train Press
Pay Attention. He received 3,000 Fordham University at Lincoln Center, Short Story Award for New Writers
(approximately $3,300), and his piece will 113 West 60th Street, Room 924i, New
be published in the 2017 Fish anthol- York, NY 10023. (212) 636-6792. Elisabeth TERRANCE MANNING JR.
ogy. Vanessa Gebbie judged. The annual Frost, Series Editor. pol@fordham.edu Iowa Review
award is given for a personal essay or www.fordham.edu/pol Creative Nonction Award
thegeorgiareview.com
Now at your
bookstore, or
online
A SUMMER
OF GOOD-
BYES
by Fred Misurella
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 174
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Recent Winners
International Prize were Jane Mead of Hackney Literary Awards
Napa, California, for World of Made and NOVEL CONTEST
Unmade (Alice James Books); Donald Annabel Thomas of Ashley, Ohio, won
Nicholson-Smith of New York City for the 2016 Novel Contest for her novel
his translation from the French of In manuscript Theona of the Bees. She
Praise of Defeat (Archipelago Books) by received $5,000. The annual award is
Moroccan poet Abdellatif Labi; and given for an unpublished novel.
Denise Riley of London for Say Some- ( S E E D E A D L I NE S.) CAITLIN BAILEY
thing Back (Picador). The nalists for Milkweed Editions
Hackney Literary Awards, Novel Contest,
the Canadian Prize were Hoa Nguyen of Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry
4650 Old Looney Mill Road, Birmingham,
Toronto for Violet Energy Ingots (Wave
AL 35243.
Books) and Sandra Ridley of Ottawa for NINA PURO
www.hackneyliteraryawards.org
Silvija (BookThug). They each received New Issues Poetry & Prose
bailey: lucas botz
,
FICTION / POETRY / Creative NONFICTION
Janine JOSEPHToni GRAHAM
Lisa LEWISAimee PARKISON
Sarah Beth CHILDERSDinah COX
`
Teaching ASSISTANTSHIPS / MFA, PhD, BA /
Fellowships / CIMARRON REVIEW
P R O G R A M A N D A P P L I CAT I O N I N F O R M AT I O N
english.okstate.edu
writer Marilynne Robinson of Iowa City to the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Iowa Review
received fellowships from the Radcliffe Ceremony in Washington, D.C. in Oc- IOWA REVIEW AWARDS
Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard tober. The annual awards, cosponsored Catherine Cafferty of New York City won
University. They each received $75,000, by Amistad Press, are given for a poem the 2017 Iowa Review Award in poetry
ofce space at the Radcliffe Institute, and a short story by black students en- for How Sweet. Joyelle McSweeney
and access to the libraries at Harvard rolled full-time in an undergraduate or judged. Laura Kolbe of Boston won
University. The annual fellowships are graduate program. The next deadline is the award in ction for her short story
given to poets, ction writers, and crea- February 1, 2018. Crimes of Paris. Amelia Gray judged.
tive nonction writers with substantial Hurston/Wright Foundation, Award for Terrance Manning Jr. of Pittsburgh won
publications or a current contract for the College Writers, 840 First Street N.E., the award in creative nonction for
publication of a book. ( SE E D E A D L I NE S . ) his essay Defending the Pit. Charles
Third Floor, Washington, D.C. 20002.
Harvard University, Radcliffe Institute DAmbrosio judged. The winners each
Recent Winners
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 176
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Minnesota; and Taiyon J. Coleman of 421 Denney Hall, 164 Annie & John Glenn
Saint Paul. They each received $25,000. Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210.
Kiese Laymon judged. The annual fel- thejournalmag.org/book-prizes/wheeler-prize
lowships are given to Minnesota writers Mid-American Review
who have published at least one book or POETRY AND FICTION CONTESTS
work in several journals. The fellowships Josie Sigler of Portland, Oregon, won the
alternate between poetry/spoken word 20162017 James Wright Poetry Award
and prose; as of this writing, the next for her poem O tree with a hundred
deadline has not been set. mouths. Amelia Hawkins of Urbana,
Loft Literary Center, McKnight Illinois won the 20162017 Sherwood
Artist Fellowships, 1011 Washington Anderson Fiction Award for her story
Avenue South, Open Book, Suite 200,
Recent Winners
Butter Yellow. They each received
Minneapolis, MN 55414. (612) 215-2575. $1,000, and their winning works were
www.loft.org published in Issue 37.2 of Mid-American
Mad Creek Books Review. Jeannine Hall Gailey judged in
JOURNAL/CHARLES B. WHEELER POETRY poetry, and Charles Yu judged in ction.
PRIZE The annual awards are given for a poem
B. K. Fischer of Sleepy Hollow, New and a short story. (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
York, won the 2016 Journal/Charles B. Mid-American Review, Poetry and Fiction
Contests, Bowling Green State University, J. D. MOYER
Wheeler Poetry Prize for her collec-
English Department, Bowling Green, OH Omnidawn Publishing
tion Radioapocrypha. She received $2,500,
43403. mar@bgsu.edu Fabulist Fiction Chapbook Prize
and her book will be published by Mad
Creek Books, the literary trade imprint casit.bgsu.edu/midamericanreview/fallcontests
DIANA KHOI NGUYEN
of Ohio State University Press. The an- Milkweed Editions Omnidawn Publishing
nual award is given for a poetry collec- LINDQUIST & VENNUM PRIZE FOR Open Book Contest
tion. ( S EE D EAD L IN ES.) POETRY
Mad Creek Books, Journal/Charles B. Caitlin Bailey of Saint Paul won the sixth NASEEM RAKHA
Wheeler Poetry Prize, c/o Journal, Ohio annual Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Waterson Desert Writing Prize
State University, English Department, Poetry for her collection Solve for Desire.
MFA IN
kore press POETRY
2017
MEMOIR
WRITE IN THE HEART OF CHICAGO
AWARD Teaching opportunities and
assistantships available
FACULTY
Jenny Boully
Workshops led by renowned CM Burroughs
She will receive $10,000, and her col- Narrative, Winter Story Contest, 2443 and creative nonction writer Ava Chin
lection will be published by Milkweed Fillmore Street, #214, San Francisco, CA of New York City received 20172018
Editions in December. Srikanth Reddy 94115. Tom Jenks, Editor. Cullman Center Fellowships. They
judged. The annual award is given for a www.narrativemagazine.com each received $70,000, an ofce in the
poetry collection by a resident of Iowa, New Issues Poetry & Prose Cullman Center at the New York Public
Minnesota, North Dakota, South Da- POETRY PRIZE Library, and full access to the librarys
Nina Puro of New York City won the physical and electronic resources from
kota, or Wisconsin. As of this writing,
2017 New Issues Poetry Prize for Each September 2017 to May 2018. The
the next deadline has not been set.
Tree Could Hold a Noose or a House. Puro annual fellowships are given to poets,
Milkweed Editions, Lindquist & Vennum ction writers, and creative nonction
received $2,000 and publication by New
Prize for Poetry, 1011 Washington writers whose work will benet directly
Issues Poetry & Prose in Spring 2018.
Avenue South, Open Book, Suite 300, from access to the research collections at
Recent Winners
Narrative lection. The next deadline is December New York Public Library, Cullman Center
WINTER STORY CONTEST
30. Fellowships, Stephen A. Schwarzman
New Issues Poetry & Prose, Poetry Prize, Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street,
Janet Burroway of Lake Geneva,
Western Michigan University, 1903 West New York, NY 10018.
Wisconsin, won the 2017 Winter Story
Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49008. www.nypl.org/csw
Contest for her short story Home
(269) 387-8185. William Olsen, Editor. North American Review
Help. She received $2,500, and her new-issues@wmich.edu JAMES HEARST POETRY PRIZE
story was published in Narrative. Jon www.newissuespress.com Jordan Franklin of New York City won
Hauss of Ventura, California, won the
New York Public Library the 2017 James Hearst Poetry Prize
second-place prize for his short story for her poem Black Boy. She received
CULLMAN CENTER FELLOWSHIPS
Plagiarism. He received $1,000, and Poet Lynn Melnick of New York City; c- $1,000, and her poem was published in
his story was published in Narrative. tion writers Georgi Gospodinov of Soa, the Spring 2017 issue of North American
The annual award is given for a work of Bulgaria; Nellie Hermann of New York Review. Major Jackson judged. The an-
ction or creative nonction. The next City; Melinda Moustakis of Fairbanks, nual award is given for a poem.
deadline is March 31, 2018. Alaska; and Lorrie Moore of Nashville; (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 178
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
North American Review, James Hearst $1,000. The annual award is given to Omnidawn Publishing, 1632 Elm Avenue,
Poetry Prize, University of Northern Iowa, honor a writer based in Northern Cali- Richmond, CA 94805. (510) 237-5472.
1222 West 27th Street, Cedar Falls, IA fornia for a lifetime of achievements Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan,
50614. (319) 273-6455. nar@uni.edu and distinguished service to the literary Coeditors. submissions@omnidawn.com
www.northamericanreview.org www.omnidawn.com
community. There is no application
North Carolina Writers process. Passaic County Community
Network Northern California Book Reviewers, 1450
College
THOMAS WOLFE FICTION PRIZE PATERSON PRIZES
Fourth Street #4, Berkeley, CA 94710.
Virginia Ewing Hudson of Raleigh, Kim Addonizio of San Francisco won the
(510) 525-5476. ncbr@poetryash.org
North Carolina, won the 2017 Thomas 2017 Paterson Poetry Prize for Mortal
poetryash.org/programs/?p=ncba Trash (Norton). Stephanie Han of Hono-
Wolfe Fiction Prize for her short story
Omnidawn Publishing lulu won the 2017 Paterson Fiction Prize
Recent Winners
Mother. She received $1,000 and her
story will be published in the Thomas FABULIST FICTION CHAPBOOK PRIZE for her story collection, Swimming in Hong
Wolfe Review. Wiley Cash judged. The J. D. Moyer of Oakland won the 2016 Kong (Willow Springs Books). They each
annual award is given for a short story. received $1,000. The annual awards are
Fabulist Fiction Chapbook prize for
The next deadline is January 30, 2018. given for a poetry collection and a book of
his manuscript The Icelandic Cure. He ction published during the previous year.
North Carolina Writers Network, received $1,000 and publication by
Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, P.O. Box The next deadline is February 1, 2018.
Omnidawn. Bradford Morrow judged. Passaic County Community College,
21591, Winston-Salem, NC 27120.
The annual award is given for a fabulist Paterson Prizes, The Poetry Center, 1
Ed Southern, Contact. ed@ncwriters.org
www.ncwriters.org
ction chapbook. (SE E DE ADL I N E S.) College Boulevard, Paterson, NJ 07505.
OPEN BOOK CONTEST (973) 684-6555. Maria Mazziotti Gillan,
Northern California Book Executive Director. mgillan@pccc.edu
Diana Khoi Nguyen of Denver won the
Reviewers www.poetrycenterpccc.com
2016 Open Book Contest for her poetry
FRED CODY AWARD
collection Ghost Of. She received $3,000 Poetry Foundation
Judy Grahn of San Francisco received
and publication by Omnidawn. Ter- RUTH LILLY POETRY PRIZE
the 2017 Fred Cody Award for Lifetime
rance Hayes judged. The annual award Joy Harjo of Tulsa won the 2017 Ruth
Achievement and Service. Grahn, whose
is given for a poetry collection. The next Lilly Poetry Prize. Harjo, whose most
most recent book is Hanging on Our Own
recent collection is Conict Resolution for
Bones (Red Hen Press, 2017), received deadline is December 31.
Holy Beings (Norton, 2015), received Poetry Society of the United Kingdom, stories, and essays published in Prairie
$100,000. The annual award is given to National Poetry Competition, 22 Schooner in the previous year. There is no
a U.S. poet in recognition of lifetime Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX, application process.
achievement. There is no application England. SILLERMAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE
process. marketing@poetrysociety.org.uk Bernard Matambo of Oberlin, Ohio, won
Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior www.poetrysociety.org.uk the 2017 Sillerman First Book Prize for
Street, Chicago, IL 60654. Prairie Schooner African Poets for his poetry collection,
www.poetryfoundation.org WRITING PRIZES Stray. He received $1,000, and his book
Poetry Society of the United Denise Duhamel and Julie Marie Wade, will be published in 2018 by University
Kingdom both of Hollywood, Florida, won the of Nebraska Press. The African Poetry
2016 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Book Fund editorial board judged. The
NATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION
Award for their collaborative essay 13 annual award, sponsored and adminis-
Recent Winners
Prize:
$2,000 and
publication by
Anhinga Press
Submit:
2017 48-80 page ms.
Open July 1
through Sept. 30
Guidelines:
fresnostate.edu/levineprize
Coordinator: Fee:
Corrinne Clegg Hales, $25 hard copy
connieh@csufresno.edu $28 online
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 180
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
and publication of her book by Press Award for Trans and Gender-Variant JOHN STEINBECK AWARD FOR FICTION
53. Kevin Morgan Watson judged. The Literature for her poetry collection, even Holly Pekowsky of New York City
annual award is given for a short story this page is white (Arsenal Pulp Press). won the 2016 John Steinbeck Short
collection. The next deadline is Decem- Each winner received $1,000. Chinelo Story Award for her story In Another
ber 31. Okparanta of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, World, Theyd be Dandelion Petals.
Press 53, Award for Short Fiction, 560 won the inaugural Betty Berzon Emerg- She received $1,000 and publication of
North Trade Street, Suite 103, Winston- ing Writer Award, given to a LGBTQ her story in Reed Magazine. The annual
Salem, NC 27101. (336) 770-5353. writer who has published one to two award is given for a short story.
Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher. (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
books. She received $1,500. The an-
www.press53.com/award_for_short_ction.html GABRIELE RICO CHALLENGE FOR
nual awards honor books of ction and
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Publishing Triangle creative nonction by LGBTQ authors,
Shanee Stepakoff of Farmington, Maine,
Recent Winners
LITERARY AWARDS or with LGBTQ themes, published in
won the 2016 Gabriele Rico Creative
Joe Okonkwo of New York City won the the United States or Canada during
Nonction Challenge for her essay
Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction the previous year. The next deadline is
Three Witnesses and One Silence:
for his novel, Jazz Moon (Kensington). December 5.
From the Special Court for Sierra
Cathleen Schine of Venice, California, Publishing Triangle, Literary Awards, 332 Leone. She received $1,333 and publica-
won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Bleecker Street, #D36, New York, NY tion of her essay in Reed Magazine. The
LGBTQ Fiction for her novel They May 10014. publishingtriangle@gmail.com annual award is given for an essay.
Not Mean to, But They Do (Farrar, Straus www.publishingtriangle.org (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
& Giroux). Sarah Schulman of New York
City won the Judy Grahn Award for Les- Reed Magazine Reed Magazine, San Jos State University,
bian Nonction for her book Conict Is EDWIN MARKHAM PRIZE FOR POETRY English Department, One Washington
Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community, Liz Lampman of Portland, Oregon, won Square, San Jos, CA 95192.
Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair (Ar- the 2016 Edwin Markham Prize for Po- (408) 924-4425.
senal Pulp Press). David France of New etry for her poem For E. She received mail@reedmag.org
$1,000 and publication of her poem in www.reedmag.org
York City won the Randy Shilts Award
for Gay Nonction for his memoir How Reed Magazine. The annual award is Robinson Jeffers Tor House
to Survive a Plague (Knopf). Vivek Shraya given for a poem or group of poems. Foundation
of Toronto won the Publishing Triangle ( S E E D E A D L I NE S.) POETRY PRIZE
POETRY JOURNAL
ANNUAL CONTEST
READING PERIOD:
JULY 1 TO DECEMBER 31
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR
THREE WINNERS FOR 2016
Donald Levering of Santa Fe, New San Francisco State University Fellowships in Creative Writing. They
Mexico, won the 2017 Robinson Jeffers GINA BERRIAULT AWARD each received a $10,000 stipend and a
Tor House Foundation Poetry Prize for Cristina Garca of San Francisco won yearlong residency at San Jos State
his poem The Notebook. He received the 2017 Gina Berriault Award. Garca, University. The annual awards are given
$1,000. Eavan Boland judged. The whose most recent book is the forthcom- to ction writers or creative nonction
annual award is given for a poem. The ing novel Here in Berlin (Counterpoint, writers. The next deadline is January 2,
next deadline is March 15, 2018. 2017), received $500 and will be inter- 2018.
viewed and have a short story published San Jos State University, Steinbeck
Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation,
in Fourteen Hills, San Francisco State Fellowships in Creative Writing, Martha
Poetry Prize, P.O. Box 223240, Carmel, Universitys literary journal. The annual Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies,
CA 93922. (831) 624-1813. Elliot award is given to a ction writer with San Jos, CA 95192. (408) 808-2067.
Ruchowitz-Roberts, Coordinator. a love of storytelling and a commitment
Recent Winners
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 182
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
Series Editor. sfrpress@earthlink.net Ramspeck of Lima, Ohio, each won 2016 Sunday Times EFG Short Story
www.silvershreviewpress.com McGinnisRitchie Awards in ction. Award
Southern Indiana Review Barnes won for his story The Skydiver, Bret Anthony Johnston of Cambridge,
MARY C. MOHR AWARDS Massachusetts, won the 2017 Sunday
Caron won for her story The Handler,
Richard Thompson of Houston, Texas, Times EFG Short Story Award for his
won the 2016 poetry award for his Garrison won for his story Aberra- story Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows
poem manhood. Bradford Kammin of tions, and Ramspeck won for his story About Horses. He received 30,000
Ann Arbor, Michigan, won the ction Messenger. Irina A. Dumitrescu of (approximately $39,000). The nal-
award for his story The One Good ists were Kathleen Alcott of New York
Bonn, Germany, and Floyd Skloot of
Thing About Las Vegas, Nevada. City for Reputation Management;
They each received $2,000 and publica- Portland, Oregon, both won the award Richard Lambert of Norwich, England,
tion in Southern Indiana Review. Jericho in creative nonction. Dumitrescu won
Recent Winners
for The Hazel Twig and the Olive
Brown judged in poetry; Adam Johnson for her essay The Things We Take, the Tree; Victor Lodato of Ashland, Oregon,
judged in ction. The award, which was and Tucson for The Tenant; Celeste
Things We Leave Behind, and Skloot
formerly given in alternating years for a Ng of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for
poem or a short story, will now be given won for his essay La Serenata. They
Every Little Thing; and Sally Rooney
annually for a poem, a short story, and each received $500. The annual awards of Dublin for Mr Salary. They each
an essay. ( SEE D EAD L IN ES . ) are given for short stories and works of received 1,000 (approximately $1,300).
Southern Indiana Review, Mary C. Mohr creative nonction published in South- Anne Enright, Andrew Holgate, Mark
Awards, University of Southern Indiana, Lawson, Neel Mukherjee, and Rose
west Review during the previous year.
8600 University Boulevard, Evansville, Tremain judged. The annual award is
IN 47712. (812) 464-1784. Ron Mitchell, There is no application process. given for a short story by a writer from
Editor. sir.contest@usi.edu Southwest Review, Southern Methodist anywhere in the world who has been
www.southernindianareview.org previously published in the United
University, P.O. Box 750374, Dallas,
Southwest Review TX 75275. (214) 768-1037. Preston Kingdom. (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
MCGINNISRITCHIE AWARDS Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award,
Hutcherson, Managing Editor.
Thomas Barnes of Boston; Amber Caron c/o Society of Authors, 84 Drayton
of Cambridge, England; Gary Joshua swr@smu.edu Gardens, London, England, SW10 9SB.
Garrison of Tempe, Arizona; and Doug www.smu.edu/southwestreview shortstoryaward.co.uk
AT THE
palm beach
poetry festival
Delray Beach, Florida
January 1520, 2018
Readings, Talks on Craft,
Individual Conferences,
Interviews, Annual Gala,
Workshops and more
WORKSHOP FACULTY: Ross Gay
Laure-Anne Bosselaar Rodney Jones
Gabrielle Calvocoressi Phillis Levin
Chard deNiord Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Beth Ann Fennelly Tim Seibles
Deadline: November 10, 2017
Sustainable Arts Foundation He received $1,000 and publication in Tucson Festival of Books
WRITING AWARDS Volume 12 of The Best Travel Writing and LITERARY AWARDS
Poet William Evans of Columbus, Ohio; on the Travelers Tales website. The edi- Lynne Thompson of Los Angeles won
ction writer Rose-Anne Clermont of tors judged. The annual award is given the poetry award for Genesis and Other
Berlin; and nonction writer Dionne for a travel essay. (SE E DE ADL I N E S.) Poems. Dana Levin judged. Carrie Bind-
Ford of Montclair, New Jersey, received Travelers Tales, Solas Awards, 2320 schadler of Oxford, Ohio, won the c-
Sustainable Arts Foundation Fall 2016 tion award for her short story Tortoise.
Bowdoin Street, Palo Alto, CA 94306.
awards. They each received $6,000. Po- Mark Beauregard judged. Lee Anne
info@besttravelwriting.com
ets Chanda Feldman of Rehovot, Israel, Gallaway-Mitchell of Tucson won the
www.besttravelwriting.com
and Rachel Zucker of New York City; nonction award for her essay Good
ction writers Kathleen Founds of Wat- Trustees of the Robert Frost Lands of Mercy. Donna Steiner judged.
sonville, California, Ladee Hubbard of Farm The winners each received $1,000 and
Recent Winners
New Orleans, and Christina Soontornvat FROST FARM PRIZE were invited to attend the ninth annual
of Austin, Texas; and graphic memoir- Caitlin Doyle of Cincinnati won the Tucson Festival of Books in March 2018.
ist Arwen Donahue of Nicholas County, seventh annual Frost Farm Prize for The annual awards are given for a group
Kentucky, received Fall 2016 Promise of ve poems, a short story, an essay, or
her poem Wish. She received $1,000,
Awards. They each received $2,000. The an excerpt from a novel or memoir.
publication in Evansville Review, and an
annual awards are given to poets, ction (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
writers, and nonction writers with chil- invitation to read at the Robert Frost
Tucson Festival of Books, Literary
dren. The next deadline is August 31. Farm in Derry, New Hampshire, in
Awards, P.O. Box 855, Cortaro, AZ 85652.
Sustainable Arts Foundation, Writing June. Deborah Warren judged. The Meg Files, Director.
Awards, 1032 Irving Street #609, San annual award is given for a poem written masters@tucsonfestivalofbooks.org
Francisco, CA 94122. in a metrical form. The next deadline is tucsonfestivalofbooks.org
www.sustainableartsfoundation.org April 1, 2018. University of Massachusetts
Travelers Tales Trustees of the Robert Frost Farm, Press
SOLAS AWARDS Frost Farm Prize, c/o Robert Crawford, JUNIPER PRIZES
James Michael Dorsey of Culver City, 280 Candia Road, Chester, NH 03036. Chelsea Jennings of Seattle and Timothy
California, won the 2017 Solas Awards hylabrookpoets@gmail.com OKeefe of Athens, Georgia, won the
Grand Prize for his story Jordans Bull. www.frostfarmpoetry.org/prize-1 2017 Juniper Prizes in Poetry. Jennings
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 184
GR A N T S & AWA R DS
won for her collection, Transmission Loss, Paisanos ranch, located fourteen miles judged. The annual award is given for a
and OKeefe won for his collection, You southwest of Austin, Texas. Martinez poetry collection. The next deadline is
Are the Phenomenology. Yang Huang of received the Jesse H. Jones Writing April 15, 2018.
San Francisco and Malinda McCollum Fellowship, which includes a monthly University of Utah Press, Agha Shahid
of Charleston, South Carolina, won stipend of $3,000 and a six-month stay Ali Prize in Poetry, J. Willard Marriott
prizes in ction. Huang won for her at Paisanos ranch. The annual fellow- Library, 295 South 1500 East, Suite 5400,
story collection, My Old Faithful, and ships, cosponsored by the Texas Institute Salt Lake City, UT 84112. Hannah New,
McCollum won for her story collection of Letters, are given to writers who are Contact. hannah.new@utah.edu
The Surprising Place. They each received native Texans, who have lived in Texas www.uofupress.com/ali-poetry-prize.php
$1,000, and their books will be published for at least three years, or who have Washington Writers Publishing
by University of Massachusetts Press. published signicant work with a Texas House
The annual awards are given for two po- subject. The next deadline is January 15,
Recent Winners
POETRY AND FICTION PRIZES
etry collections and two books of ction. 2018.
Nicole Tong of Fairfax, Virginia, won the
( SEE D EAD L IN ES.) University of Texas, Dobie Paisano 2017 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize for her
University of Massachusetts Press, Fellowships, Graduate School, 110 Inner collection How to Prove a Theory. Jacob
Juniper Prizes, East Experiment Station, Campus Drive, Stop G0400, Austin, TX R. Weber of Laurel, Maryland, won the
671 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 78712. 2017 Washington Writers Fiction Prize
01003. (413) 545-2217. Mary Dougherty, gradschool.utexas.edu/services-and-resources
for his story collection Dont Wait to be
Director. mvd@umpress.umass.edu /paisano-fellowship-program Called. They each received $1,000 and
www.umass.edu/umpress/juniper.html University of Utah Press publication by Washington Writers Pub-
University of Texas AGHA SHAHID ALI PRIZE IN POETRY lishing House. The annual awards are
DOBIE PAISANO FELLOWSHIPS Philip Schaefer of Missoula, Montana, given for a poetry collection and a short
Fiction writer Ricardo Nuila of Houston won the 2016 Agha Shahid Ali Poetry story collection or novel by writers who
and nonction writer Domingo Mar- Prize for his poetry collection Bad Sum- live in Washington, D.C. or in Maryland
tinez of Seattle each won a 2017 Dobie mon. He received $1,000, publication of or Virginia within a 75-mile radius of
Paisano Fellowship. Nuila received the his book by University of Utah Press, the U.S. Capitol. (SE E DE ADL I N E S.)
Ralph A. Johnston Memorial Fellow- and $500 and travel and lodging ex- Washington Writers Publishing House,
ship, which includes a monthly stipend penses to give a reading at the University Poetry and Fiction Prizes, c/o
of $6,250 and a four-month stay at Dobie of Utah in Salt Lake City. David Baker Kathleen Wheaton, 7127 Fairfax Road,
MFA
Steven Church
Corrinne Clegg Hales
John Hales
Randa Jarrar
Tim Skeen
we recent
visitors
grow Sherman Alexie
Roxane Gay
writers Tim Z. Hernandez
Juan Felipe Herrera
Leslie Jamison
Poetry, Fiction and Solmaz Sharif
Creative Nonfiction Justin Torres
Mai Der Vang
Fall 2018 Admission Deadline publishing
is March 1, 2018
The Normal School:
For funding opportunities, visit: A Literary Magazine
Fresnostate.edu/ Philip Levine Prize
creativewriting for Poetry
Bethesda, MD 20814. 2016). She received $10,000 and an all- Winning Writers, Tom Howard/Margaret
wwphpress@gmail.com expenses-paid trip to New York City. Reid Poetry Contest, 351 Pleasant Street,
www.washingtonwriters.org The annual award is given for a novel PMB 222, Northampton, MA 01060.
Waterston Desert Writing Prize set in the South and published in the Adam Cohen, President.
Naseem Rakha of Silverton, Oregon, current year. The next deadline is March adam@winningwriters.com
won the 2017 Waterston Desert Writing 31, 2018. www.winningwriters.com/our-contests
Prize for an excerpt of her nonction Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, /tom-howard-margaret-reid-poetry-contest
work-in-progress, Searching for the 654 Madison Avenue, Suite 703, New Yale University Press
Soul of Creation. She received $2,000
York, NY 10065. (212) 752-5480. Elisabeth YALE SERIES OF YOUNGER POETS
and a four-week fellowship at PLAYA
Norton, Executive Administrator. Duy Doan of Boston won the 2017 Yale
in Summer Lake, Oregon. She was also
enorton@white-williams.com Series of Younger Poets prize for his
Recent Winners
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 186
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES application information for writers conferences, literary festivals, residen-
cies, and colonies of interest to poets, ction writers, and creative nonction writers. Applications for the following events are due shortly.
Conferences and festivals with rolling, rst-come, rst-served admission are listed well in advance. Some accept registration on the date of
the event. Contact the sponsoring organization for an application and complete guidelines. When requesting information by mail, enclose a
self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE).
Conferences
&
Residencies
A.I.R. Studio Paducah September 22, and $250 on site. The cost is no application fee. Visit the website for
for non-ALTA members is $275 before complete guidelines.
A.I.R. Studio Paducah offers residencies
September 1, $300 before September 22, Art Omi Writers Residency, 55 Fifth
of two weeks to three months to poets,
and $325 on site. The cost for students Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10003.
ction writers, and creative nonction
writers in the Lower Town Arts District is $50 before September 22 and $75 on (212) 206-6027. D. W. Gibson, Contact.
of Paducah, Kentucky. Residents are site. Editor passes are also available for
dwgibson@artomi.org
provided with a private apartment and $100 before September 22 and $125 on
www.artomi.org/program.php?omi-residency
studio space. The cost of the residency site, and one-day passes are available for
-programs-9
is $550 for two weeks and $875 for a $125 before September 22 and $150 on
month. For residencies in 2018 and 2019, site. Lodging is available at the confer- Brattleboro Literary Festival
submit up to ve poems of any length ence hotel for a discounted rate of $189
The 16th annual Brattleboro Literary
or up to 10 pages of prose, a rsum, a per night. Visit the website for more
information. Festival will be held from October 12 to
writers statement, and contact informa- October 15 at various venues in down-
tion for three references with a $25 ap- American Literary Translators town Brattleboro, Vermont. The festival
plication fee by November 11. Visit the Association Conference, 900 East 7th features readings, panels, and special
website for an application and complete Street, PB 266, Bloomington, IN 47405. events. Participants include poets Steph
guidelines. Elisabeth Jaquette, Managing Director. Burt, Andrea Cohen, Maggie Dietz,
A.I.R. Studio Paducah, 4410 Oglethorpe elisabeth@literarytranslators.org
Denise Duhamel, Carolyn Forch, John
Street #609, Hyattsville, MD 20781. www.literarytranslators.org/conference
Freeman, Major Jackson, David Tomas
(301) 454-0433. Kay Lindsey, Martinez, Gail Mazur, David Rivard,
Art Omi Writers Residency
Communications Coordinator. Nicole Sealey, and Charles Simic; ction
airstudiopaducah@gmail.com Residencies of one week to two months
writers Jacob Appel, Katherine Arden,
www.airstudiopaducah.com are offered to poets, ction writers, cre-
Olivia Kate Cerrone, John Freeman Gill,
ative nonction writers, and translators
American Literary Translators Crystal King, Min Jin Lee, David Sam-
from late March to early June and from
Association Conference mid-September through early November uel Levinson, Carmen Maria Machado,
at Omi International Arts Center, situ- Courtney Maum, Claire Messud, Anna
The 40th annual American Literary
ated on 300 acres in the Hudson River Noyes, Victoria Redel, Richard Russo,
Translators Association (ALTA) Confer-
Valley town of Ghent, New York. Up to Emma Smith-Stevens, Hannah Tinti,
ence will be held from October 5 to
October 8 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in 20 residents can be accommodated dur- and Yoojin Grace Wuertz; and creative
downtown Minneapolis. The conference ing each session. The residencies include nonction writers Kerri Arsenault, Jill
features panels, workshops, readings, a private lodging, meals, and opportunities Bialosky, James Dodson, Julia Foulkes,
book fair, and opportunities to meet with to meet with New York City publishing Ruth Franklin, Gretchen Holbrook
editors and translators. The 2017 theme professionals. Using the online applica- Gerzina, Bill Goldstein, Bill Griffeth,
is Reections/Refractions. Writers tion system, submit a writing sample Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Ron
and translators Lydia Davis and Tim of up to 50 pages, a rsum, a one-page Powers, Emily Raboteau, Nina Sanko-
Parks will deliver keynotes. The cost of project proposal, and a letter of recom- vitch, and Wendy Warren. All events
the conference for ALTA members is mendation (sent directly to the program are free and open to the public. Visit the
$200 before September 1, $225 before by the reference) by October 20. There website for more information.
Brattleboro Literary Festival, P.O. Box Brooklyn Book Festival, 249 Smith Street, doramaarhouse@mfah.org
1116, Brattleboro, VT 05302. (802) PMB #106, Brooklyn, NY 11231. www.mfah.org/doramaarhouse
365-7673. Sandy Rouse, Contact. (570) 362-6657. Liz Koch, Contact.
vtbookfest@gmail.com www.brooklynbookfestival.org Colrain Poetry Manuscript
Conference
www.brattleboroliteraryfestival.org
Brown Foundation Fellows The Colrain Poetry Manuscript Confer-
Program ence will be held from October 6 to Oc-
Brooklyn Book Festival
The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston tober 9 at the Captain Whidbey Inn on
The 11th annual Brooklyn Book Festival
offers residencies of one to three months Whidbey Island, Washington, and from
will be held on September 17 at Brooklyn from March 1 through June 30, 2018, November 10 to November 13 at the
Borough Hall and Plaza in New York to midcareer poets, ction writers, and Brandt House in Greeneld, Massachu-
City. The festival features readings, creative nonction writers at the Dora setts. The conference features workshops
panels, and a book fair. Participants Maar House in Mnerbes, France. Resi- of book-length poetry manuscripts
include poets Kaveh Akbar, William dents are provided with travel expenses, with editors and publishers. The faculty
Brewer, Robin Coste Lewis, Carolyn lodging, work space, and a stipend of $50 for the October session includes poets
Forch, Morgan Parker, and Danez per day, and must participate in one com- Joan Houlihan and Fred Marchant, and
Smith; ction writers Andr Alexis, munity event during the residency. Using publishers Rusty Morrison of Omnidawn
Jess Arndt, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Julia the online application system, submit Publishing and Martha Rhodes of Four
two work samples totaling no more than Way Books. The faculty for the No-
Fierro, Jonathan Safran Foer, Lindsay
20 pages, a curriculum vitae, a project vember Intensive session includes Joan
Hunter, Lisa Ko, Catherine Lacey, Vic-
description, a proposal for a community Houlihan and Martha Rhodes; the ses-
tor LaValle, Jonathan Lethem, Claire event, and two letters of recommenda- sion is open to poets who have published
Messud, Joyce Carol Oates, and Colson tion (sent directly to the program by the
& Residencies
Whitehead; and creative nonction writ- references) with a $20 application fee conference, or have been a nalist or
ers Deborah Campbell, Jeff Chang, Farai by October 16. Visit the website for an semi-nalist for a book contest. The cost
Chideya, Nelson George, Suzy Hansen, application and complete guidelines. of each session, which includes lodg-
Chris Hayes, Phillip Lopate, and Pankaj Brown Foundation Fellows Program, ing and meals, is $1,425 for the October
Mishra. All events are free and open to Dora Maar House, Museum of Fine Arts session and $1,675 for the November
the public. Visit the website for more Houston, P.O. Box 6826, Houston, TX session. Using the online application
information. 77210. (713) 639-7345. system, submit three or four poems and a
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 190
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
brief bio. There is no application fee. Ap- online application system, submit three must be postmarked at least 30 days prior
plications are accepted on a rolling basis. to ve poems of any length or up to 10 to the requested residency start date.
Visit the website for the required form pages of prose, a rsum, and a writers Visit the website for an application and
and complete guidelines. statement by September 30. There is no complete guidelines.
Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference, application fee. Visit the website for an Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, P.O. Box
Concord Poetry Center, 40 Stow Street, application and complete guidelines. 6, Temecula, CA 92593. (951) 302-3837.
Concord, MA 01742. (978) 897-0054. Denali National Park Artist-in-Residence Janice Cipriani-Willis, Executive Director.
Joan Houlihan, Director. Program, P.O. Box 9, Denali Park, AK info@dorlandartscolony.org
conferences@colrainpoetry.com 99755. www.dorlandartscolony.org
www.colrainpoetry.com www.nps.gov/dena/getinvolved/arts-program.htm
James River Writers
Denali National Park Artist-in- Dorland Mountain Arts Colony Conference
Residence Program The Dorland Mountain Arts Colony The 15th annual James River Writers
Denali National Park and Preserve in offers residencies of up to 12 weeks year- Conference will be held from October
central Alaska offers 10-day residencies round to poets, ction writers, and cre- 14 to October 15 at the Greater Rich-
from late February through March and ative nonction writers in the secluded mond Convention Center in Richmond,
from June through mid-September to hills overlooking the Temecula Valley Virginia. The conference features pitch
poets, ction writers, and creative non- in southern California. Residents are sessions with editors and agents and
ction writers. Residents are provided provided with lodging and work space panel discussions for ction writers
with lodging in rustic cabins located in a private cottage with a full kitchen, and creative nonction writers. The
along the Park Road corridor or at the bedroom, bath, and porch. The cost of conference will also offer pre-conference
park headquarters, depending on condi- the residency is $300 per week or $1,000 master classes on October 13 at the main
& Residencies
Conferences
tions. Residents are expected to donate a for four weeks; residents are responsible branch of the Richmond Public Library.
piece of work about the park or inspired for their own transportation and meals. Participants include ction writers David
by the writers experiences there, and to Submit up to ve pages of poetry or 10 Baldacci and Meg Medina; nonction
lead at least one public outreach activity pages of prose, a project description, a writers Beth Macy and Margot Lee
in the park, such as a workshop or read- rsum, and two letters of recommenda- Shetterly; literary agents Erica Bauman
ing. Residents are responsible for their tion with a $30 application fee. Applica- (Aevitas Creative Management), John
own transportation and meals. Using the tions are accepted on a rolling basis, but Bowers (Bent Agency), Ben Grange
MFA IN
NONFICTION
colum.edu/pwnonction
(L. Perkins Agency), Annie Hwang Shankar Narayan, Paisley Rekdal, totaling no more than 15 pages or 15
(Folio Literary Management), and Michael Schmeltzer, Derek Shefeld, to 25 pages of prose, a project proposal,
Cherise Fisher (Wendy Sherman As- Nance Van Winckel, Joe Wilkins, and and one letter of recommendation (sent
sociates); and editors Jaime Coyne (St. Carolyne Wright. The registration fee, directly by the reference to MacDowell)
Martins Press) and Esi Sogah (Kensing- which includes weekend classes and a with a $30 application fee by Septem-
ton Books). The cost of the conference, banquet on Saturday night, is $195. Mas- ber 15. Travel aid and personal expense
which includes some meals and a one- ter classes are available for an additional grants are available based on need. Visit
on-one meeting with an agent or editor, $100 to $120 each. Lodging is available the website for an application and com-
is $335, or $195 for a single day. The cost at nearby hotels; free camping is available plete guidelines.
of a master class is an additional $65. on the Mighty Tieton property. Regis-
Registration is rst come, rst served. tration is rst come, rst served; on-site MacDowell Colony, 100 High Street,
Lodging is available at area hotels. Visit registration is available as space permits. Peterborough, NH 03458.
the website for more information. Visit the website for more information. (603) 924-3886.
admissions@macdowellcolony.org
James River Writers Conference, 2319 LiTFUSE Poets Workshop, Tieton Arts
www.macdowellcolony.org
East Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23223. & Humanities, P.O, Box 171, Tieton, WA
(804) 433-3790. Annette Marquis, 98947. (509) 979-5190. Emily Gwinn, Millay Colony for the Arts
Program Director. Director. emily@litfuse.us
programdirector@jamesriverwriters.org www.litfuse.us The Millay Colony for the Arts offers
www.jamesriverwriters.org two-week and monthlong residencies
MacDowell Colony from April through November to poets,
LiTFUSE Poets Workshop MacDowell Colony offers year-round ction writers, and creative nonction
The 11th annual LiTFUSE Poets residencies of up to two months to poets, writers at Steepletop, the former estate
of Edna St. Vincent Millay in Austerlitz,
& Residencies
Workshop will be held from September ction writers, and creative nonc-
Conferences
22 to September 24 at the Mighty Tieton tion writers on a 450-acre estate near New York. Residents are provided with
arts center in Tieton, Washington. The Mt. Monadnock in Peterborough, New a private room, studio space, and meals.
conference features workshops, readings, Hampshire. Residents are provided For residencies from April 2018 through
performances, and meditation for poets. with a private room, studio space, and July 2018, using the online application
The faculty includes poets Alexander meals. For residencies from February system submit up to 10 poems totaling
Dang, Christine Holbert, Christopher 2018 through May 2018, using the online no more than 15 pages or up to 30 pages
Howell, Tod Marshall, Tim McNulty, application system submit 6 to 10 poems of prose, along with a brief bio, a writers
writer to watch.
Claire Vaye Watkins,
author of Gold Fame
$14.95 paperback Citrus and judge
$11.96 ebook
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 192
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
statement, and a $35 application fee by Betsy Roder, Executive Director. Nimrod Conference for Readers and
October 1. Visit the website for an ap- betsy@kulcher.org Writers, Nimrod International Journal of
plication and complete guidelines. kulcher.org/programs/artist-retreat Prose and Poetry, 800 South Tucker Drive,
Tulsa, OK 74104. (918) 631-3080. Eilis
Millay Colony for the Arts, 454 East Nimrod Conference for Readers ONeal, Editor in Chief.
Hill Road, P.O. Box 3, Austerlitz, NY and Writers nimrod@utulsa.edu
12017. (518) 392-3103. Calliope Nicholas,
Residency Director. The 2017 Nimrod Conference for Read- nimrod.utulsa.edu/conference.html
& Residencies
Conferences
letters of recommendation by October
to register for a one-on-one manuscript cost of the conference is $65 for FLAC
1. There is no application fee. Visit the consultation with an editor is October members and $95 for nonmembers.
website for an application and complete 13; general registration is rst come, rst Workshops are available for an addi-
guidelines. served. Lodging is available at the nearby tional $40; registration is rst come, rst
New York Mills Arts Retreat, 24 North Hyatt Regency hotel for a discounted served. The general registration deadline
Main Avenue, P.O. Box 246, New York rate of $89 per night. Visit the website is September 15. Lodging is available at
Mills, MN 56567. (218) 385-3339. for more information. the nearby Sheraton Riverwalk Hotel for
improbable
creatures
poems by
jon davis
www.grid-books.org
a discounted rate of $129 per night. Visit up to six pages with a $25 application fee fee. Applications are accepted on a roll-
the website for more information. by November 10. Lodging is available at ing basis but must be recieved at least two
Other Words Literary Conference, area hotels for discounted rates, starting months prior to the requested residency
Florida Literary Arts Coalition, P.O. Box at $159 per night. Visit the website for date. Visit the website for an application
992, Saint Augustine, FL 32085. (904) more information. and complete guidelines.
819-6339. Rick Campbell, Director. Palm Beach Poetry Festival, 3199 B-3 Lake Rensing Center, 1165 Mile Creek Road,
rcamp427@gmail.com Worth Road, Lake Work, FL 33461. (561) Pickens, SC 29671. (864) 380-1267.
www.oridarts.org/other-words-conference 868-2063. Susan R. Williamson, Director. rensingcenter@gmail.com
news@palmbeachpoetryfestival.org www.rensingcenter.org
Palm Beach Poetry Festival www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org
The 14th annual Palm Beach Poetry Sanibel Island Writers
Festival will be held from January 15, Rensing Center Conference
2018, to January 20, 2018, at the Delray The Rensing Center offers residencies
The 12th annual Sanibel Island Writ-
Beach Center for the Arts in downtown of three weeks to three months to poets,
ers Conference, sponsored by Florida
Delray Beach, Florida. The festival ction writers, and creative nonction
Gulf Coast University, will be held from
features workshops, readings, craft writers in the Southern Appalachian
November 2 to November 5 at the BIG
talks, manuscript consultations, panel foothills of Pickens, South Carolina.
ARTS center and the Sanibel Public
discussions, and social events for poets. Residents are provided with lodging and
The faculty includes poets Laure-Anne work space in a private cabin, and access Library on Sanibel Island, Florida. The
Bosselaar, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Chard to the centers gardens and library, and conference features workshops in poetry,
deNiord, Beth Ann Fennelly, Ross Gay, access to mountains, lakes, and water- ction, and creative nonction, as well
Rodney Jones, Phillis Levin, Aimee falls. The cost of the residency is $150 as manuscript consultations, readings,
panels, concerts, and book signings.
& Residencies
Nezhukumatathil, and Tim Seibles. The per week, or $50 per week if the resident
Conferences
guest speaker is poet Coleman Barks. contributes eight hours of work per week Faculty and visiting writers include poets
The cost of tuition is $895 for work- toward improving the center. Meals and Barbara Hamby, David Kirby, and Keith
shop participants and $495 for auditors. transportation are not included. For Kopka; ction writers Lynne Barrett,
One-on-one manuscript consultations residencies beginning in March 2018, Kevin Canty, John Dufresne, Linda Oat-
with Lorna Blake, Sally Bliumis-Dunn, submit up to 20 pages of poetry, ction, man High, Nathan Hill, Michelle Rich-
and Nicole Brown are available for an or creative nonction, a rsum, and a man, Darin Strauss, Ann Kidd Taylor,
additional $99. Submit three poems of statement of intent with a $20 application and Robert Wilder; creative nonction
O N I C A Review
fall 2017
available now
Featuring
Suzanne Greenberg
Ryan Ridge &
Mel Bosworth
Brendan Park
Ryan Shoemaker
Gregory Spatz
James Warner
Richard Wirick
M
Nathalie Kramer
Ashley Farmer
Inna Effress
A N T A
Judith Grossman
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 194
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
writers Steve Almond, M. K. Asante, Ucross Foundation Residency traditional village located in the foothills
Sloane Crosley, Beth Ann Fennelly, Program of volcanoes approximately one hour
Joyce Maynard, Susannah Meadows, and The Ucross Foundation offers residen- from Mexico City. The conference
Megan Stielstra; agents Lisa Gallagher cies of two to six weeks to poets, ction features daily workshops in poetry,
(DeFiore & Company), Christopher writers, and creative nonction writers ction, and creative nonction, as well
Schelling (Selectric Artists), and Nicole on a 20,000-acre working cattle ranch as readings, manuscript consultations,
Tourtelot (DeFiore & Company); and in the foothills of Wyomings Bighorn
excursions, time to write, and an optional
editor Alicia Lynn Clancy (St. Martins Mountains. Residents are provided with
private studio space, private bedroom, residency extension. The faculty includes
Press). The keynote speaker is ction poet Paul Muldoon; ction writers
shared bathrooms, and meals. For resi-
writer Alice Hoffman. The cost of the Magda Bogin, Taiye Selasi, and Luisa
dencies from late February 2018 through
conference is $500 ($400 for BIG ARTS
early June 2018, using the online applica- Valenzuela; and nonction writers Reyna
members and $300 for full-time stu- tion system submit 10 pages of poetry or Grande, Jonathan Levi, Ginger Thomp-
dents). For a manuscript consultation or 20 pages of prose, a project description, son, and Alison Wearing. Guest authors
workshop, submit up to 10 pages of po- and two letters of recommendation with
include ction writers Sandra Cisneros
etry or prose by September 30. The cost a $40 application fee by October 1. Visit
and Jennifer Clement. Tuition is $1,895,
of an individual manuscript consultation the website for an application and com-
plete guidelines. which includes most meals. Housing is
is $100; the cost of a small-group work-
shop is $100. General registration is rst available for $30 to $250 per night. Sub-
Ucross Foundation Residency Program,
come, rst served. Lodging is available at 30 Big Red Lane, Clearmont, WY 82835. mit a writing sample of 8 to 10 pages and
area inns and hotels for discounted rates. (307) 737-2291. a cover letter. There is no application fee.
Visit the website for more information. www.ucrossfoundation.org/residency-program Admissions are made on a rolling basis.
& Residencies
Conferences
Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Sanibel Island Writers Conference, Under the Volcano Master
Florida Gulf Coast University, Reed Hall Classes and Residency Under the Volcano Master Classes
242, 10501 FGCU Boulevard South, Fort The 15th annual Under the Volcano and Residency, c/o Magda Bogin, 425
Myers, FL 33965. (239) 590-7421. Tom Master Classes and Residency will be Riverside Drive, 14H, New York, NY
DeMarchi, Director. tdemarch@fgcu.edu held from January 11, 2018, to Janu- 10025. info@underthevolcano.org
www.fgcu.edu/siwc ary 21, 2018, in Tepoztln, Mexico, a underthevolcano.org
Stop revising!
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TODAY FOR ONLY $32 A YEAR Book Publication + $1,000
John Ciardi Prize for Poetry and
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Recent Winners:
Henrietta Goodman, All That Held Them
Doug Ramspeck, The Owl That Carries Us Away
Recent Judges: Kate Daniels and Billy Lombardo
application fee by September 15. Visit the the website for complete guidelines.
complete guidelines. website for an application and complete
Vermont Studio Center, 80 Pearl Street, guidelines. Wellspring House, 284 Main Street,
P.O. Box 613, Johnson, VT 05656. (802) Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, P.O. Box 2006, Asheld, MA 01330.
635-2727. 154 San Angelo Drive, Amherst, (413) 628-3276. Preston Browning,
writing@vermontstudiocenter.org VA 24521. (434) 946-7236. Sheila Contact. browning@wellspringhouse.net
www.vermontstudiocenter.org Pleasants, Director of Artists Services. www.wellspringhouse.net
S E P T O C T 2 0 17 196
CONFERENCES & RESIDENCIES
Wordstock: Portlands Book town of Edmonds, Washington. The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival
Festival conference features workshops in poetry, at Boulder
The 2017 Wordstock: Portlands Book ction, and creative nonction, as well as
manuscript consultations and informa- The third annual ZEE Jaipur Literature
Festival will be held on November 11th Festival will be held from September 15
tion sessions on publishing. The faculty
at the Portland Art Museum and neigh-
includes poet Elizabeth Austen; ction to September 17 at the Boulder Public
boring venues in downtown Portland,
writers Mary Buckham, and Rachel Library in Boulder, Colorado. The
Oregon. The festival features author
Weaver; creative nonction writers festival features presentations, panels,
discussions, readings, writing workshops,
Iris Graville and James McKean; and readings, and music performances.
a book fair, and pop-up events. Admis-
marketing professional Beth Jusino.
sion is $15 in advance and $18 on site for Themes at the 2017 festival include mi-
Fiction writers Kristin Hannah and
adults, and free for high school students gration, U.S. gun culture, nature and the
Megan Chance will deliver the keynote.
and attendees under the age of 17. Paying The cost of the conference is $155 until environment, Native American rights,
attendees receive a $5 voucher that is August 31 and $170 thereafter. The and LGBT, Latino, African American,
redeemable at the book fair; workshops full-day pre-conference craft of writing and Native American voices. Participat-
are included in festival admission. Visit workshop with Mary Buckham is $130.
the website for more information. ing authors include ction writers Anosh
Pre-conference half-day workshops are Irani, Alberto Ruy-Snchez, Navtej
Wordstock: Portlands Book Festival, $80 each. Manuscript consultations with
Singh Sarna, and Akhil Sharma; and
Literary Arts, Inc., 925 SW Washington poet Elizabeth Austin and ction writer
Jessica Barksdale Incln are available for nonction writers Johanna Hanink,
Street, Portland, OR 97205. (503)
227-2583. Amanda Bullock, Festival and $40. Space is limited; registration is rst Paulo Lemos Horta, Erling Kagge, and
Events Manager. come, rst served. Lodging is available Dan-el Padilla Peralta. The confer-
amanda@literary-arts.org for discounted rates at the Edmonds ence is free, but attendees must register
& Residencies
Conferences
www.literary-arts.org/what-we-do/wordstock Harbor Inn Best Western Plus. Visit the in advance. Visit the website for more
website for more information. information.
Write on the Sound Write on the Sound, Frances Anderson
The 32nd annual Write on the Sound ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, 1001
Center, 700 Main Street, Edmonds, WA
Writers Conference will be held from 98020. (425) 771-0228. Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302.
October 6 to October 8 at the Frances wots@edmondswa.gov jlfbouldercolorado@gmail.com
Anderson Center in the waterfront www.writeonthesound.com jaipurliteraturefestival.org/boulder
We are thankful for every contribution we receive. Due to space limitations, we list here only Friends who made gifts of $100
or more between April 16, 2017 and June 15, 2017. To join the Friends of Poets & Writers, visit pw.org/friends.
C l a s s i f i e d s
Caveat emptor! Poets & Writers Magazine is unable to check all claims made by advertisers. Readers should beware
of publishers who charge, rather than pay, an author for publication; publishers who do not pay for publication,
even in copies; publishers who require a purchase before publication; and contests that charge high reading fees.
The magazine recommends that you see the publication and submission guidelines before submitting a manuscript;
if you have questions regarding an advertisers commitment to publication, please contact the advertiser directly.
its online/print maga- 3 of Hofstra Univer- BLUELINE : and Pulitzer Prize- to submit their work. those identifying as
zine and for the Rachel sitys stunning digi-lit A Literary Magazine winning critic, will be For further details and women. Fiction, nonc-
Classif ieds
Wetzsteon Chapbook magazine, co-sponsored Dedicated to the Spirit the judge for this years submission guidelines, tion, poetry, and trans-
Award. www.map by our Digital Research of the Adirondacks contest. For guidelines, please visit the website lations on the culture
literary.org. Center and English seeks poems, stories, visit crosswindspoetry at: www.changesinlife and consequences of
Department. Send us and essays about the .com. .com. war. Print publication
your beautiful, your Adirondacks and compensation. Poetry:
NEW BOOK PRIZE
strange, your well- regions similar in $25 per page. Prose:
for a creative nonc- CALL FOR CIRCLESHOW : THE
tion manuscript by an crafted and heartfelt geography and spirit, $10 per page ($250
submissions: The Ofcial Journal of
author with a signicant best. AMP: Always focusing on natures maximum). Transla-
Westchester Review, an Seven CirclePress is
Pittsburgh connec- electric. Submittable shaping inuence. We tions: $15 per page
annual print journal, published biannually
tion and a subject of guidelines at www.amp also welcome nonc- ($250 maximum). www
seeks short ction, both online and in
regional and national .hofstradrc.org. tion about the regions .consequencemagazine
poetry, creative nonc- print. We are currently
signicance. $10,000 literature or culture. .org.
Submission period July tion, excerpts of plays, accepting submis-
prize and publication. and graphic novels for sions of poetry, ction,
THE AWAKENINGS 1 through November
Deadline for submis- its 10th issue. Submis- nonction, and ash
Review is accepting 30. Decisions mid- THE DERONDA
sions: October 23. For sions accepted year- for our 2017 issues.
submissions for its 2018 February. Payment in Review seeks poems and
more information, round. Writers should Payment for accepted
issue. The AR publishes copies. Simultaneous short prose for an issue
view guidelines at www have a connection works is 1 contributor
poetry, ction, drama, submissions accepted with the theme ight
.creativenonction.org/ copy of the print
and nonction from if identied as such. to the Westchester (in all possible mean-
submissions. edition. Visit www
writers who have a rela- Please notify immedi- County, NY, area. See ings). Please see our site
tionship with mental website for guidelines: .sevencirclepress.com (www.derondareview
ately if your submission
ROSE METAL PRESS , illness, either self, www.westchesterreview for guidelines. Mail
is placed elsewhere. .org) before submitting.
an independent .com. inquiries to editor@
family, or friend. We Electronic submissions Send up to 5 poems to
publisher of hybrid sevencirclepress.com.
accept hard copies only encouraged, as Word derondareview@gmail
genres, seeks submis- mailed to The Awaken- les, to blueline@ .com, maber4kids@
CALLING ALL BABY
sions to its 12th Annual ings Review, P.O. Box potsdam.edu. Please
boomer writers! Boom- CLOCKHOUSE , yahoo.com, or P.O. Box
Short Short Chapbook 177, Wheaton, IL 60187. identify the genre in published in partner- 6709 Efrat 90435, Israel.
Speak e-zine is looking
Contest. Please submit See submission guide- the subject line. Further ship with Goddard
for fresh baby boomer
your 2540 page, lines at www information at www College, seeks submis-
voices. Essays, ction, DUCTS , A BIANNUAL
double-spaced manu- .awakeningsproject.org. .bluelinemagadk.com. sions from emerging
script of ash ction/ travel, artswe publish online litmag, seeks
writing that is about the and established writers
nonction under 1,000 for its 2018 issue. Past original essays, ction,
words from November BASEBALL BARD . THE BRYANT possibilities and ener- humor, memoir, and
gizing things you can issues include works by
1 to December 1. $10 Online literary maga- Literary Review, a poetry for December
Samiya Bashir, Lucas de
fee. Judge: Rigoberto zine with annual printed journal of poetry and do with the rest of your 2017 and June 2018
Lima, Cynthia Manick,
Gonzlez. More details book seeks poems up to ction, seeks quality life. Four-hundred word issues. Payment is $20
Paisley Rekdal, Ira
at www.rosemetalpress 32 lines on subject of submissions for its limit, must be age 50 or per piece. Both estab-
Sukrungruang, among
.com. baseball. All properly May 2018 issue. Work over. Click about us lished and new writers
terric new voices.
submitted poems are may be any style or for details. www.boom welcome. Submissions
Deadline: December
CALL FOR MANUSCRIPTS subject matter. See speak.com.
published. Poets new to 1. For submission accepted year-round.
Magazines Baseball Bard are invited
poetry samples at www
guidelines and mission Simultaneous submis-
.bryantliteraryreview.org.
to submit on a free trial CALLING ALL statement, visit www sions permitted. See
ALGORITHM - FREE Deadline: December 1.
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the Winter/Spring 2018 .edu/transference. for us. Submissions Michael Martone, comcast.net. For presentersagents,
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OUT
THERE
Your path starts here
OSUcascades.edu/mfa-pw
Basho
a poetic journey in Japan
November 05-16, 2017
Tokyo / Nikko / Yamadera
Matsushima / Kanazawa / Kyoto
espirita.org.uk
each day is a journey, the journey itself home
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On June 4, Poets & Writers held its seventh annual eleven readers, including those pictured above, helped to
Connecting Cultures reading at Beyond Baroque, a celebrate the vitality and diversity of the citys literary
nonprofit literary arts center in Los Angeles. Each community. Read more on the Readings & Workshops
year representatives from organizations that have been Blog (www.pw.org/blogs/pw_blogger) and see more of
supported through the Readings & Workshops program Craig Johnsons pictures from the reading on our Facebook
are invited to share their work with one another. This year, page, @poetsandwriters.
We provide you with the tools and knowledge needed to develop the skills and discipline you need to
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residency format is designed for working professionals, allowing you to work and study from anywhere.
ITS A PLACE OF
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FACULTY: Tim Weed, Alden Jones, Danielle Trussoni, Allen Kurzweil, Taylor Polites
Winter Residency in Havana, Cuba. Learn more at salve.edu/mfa or 800-637-0002