Brad Vice Fiction Reading--Monday, April 30

The Visiting Writers Series is proud to present a reading by

BRAD VICE

4PM, April 30, 2007
Mississippi Room
SIUC Student Center

Free and Open to the Public

Brad Vice's fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Southern Review, Greensboro Review, and Shenandoah, among other worthy venues. His work has also appeared in anthologies such as New Stories from the South and Best New American Voices. A new edition of his collection, The Bear Bryant Funeral Train, has been published by River City Publishing.

Read more about Brad Vice here

Brad Vice

MFA Graduation GALA--April 27, 2007

The Creative Writing Program of Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Department of English
cordially invites you to attend our MFA Celebration

April 27, 2007
6:30 PM
Student Center Renaissance Room

These eleven graduating students will read briefly from their thesis works:

Chris Allen
Amy Blache
J. Benjamin Borden
Jacob Boyd
Chris Bryson
Desiree Dighton
Elisabeth Meyer
James Miller
Ingrid Browning Moody
Kurt Mueller
R. Elena Pearson

Please join us in wishing them congratulations and godspeed. There will be a reception with refreshments before the readings and during the intermission.

Graduate Faculty:
Pinckney Benedict, Rodney Jones, Judy Jordan, Allison Joseph, Beth Lordan, Mike Magnuson, Jacinda Townsend.

Congrats to Rachel Furey!

Received this note today from first-year MFA fiction writer Rachel Furey:

I just thought I'd let you know that I recently got a short
story titled "Naked Mannequins" accepted for the fall issue of
Our Time is Now (a literary magazine for writers 23 and
under). I also recently found out that I was chosen to receive
the Wright Morris scholarship for full tuition, room, and board
to attend the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference.

Well-done, Rachel!

Michael Meyerhofer reads in Virginia

Michael Meyerhofer (MFA '06) will read from his award-winning full-length collection on Wednesday, April 25 at 6PM at the Longwood University Bed and Breakfast. This reading celebrates the publication of Leaving Iowa, the first winner of the Liam Rector First Book Award in Poetry (Briery Creek Press).

The Longwood University Bed & Breakfast is located at 608 High Street, Farmville, VA 23901.

Rodney Jones in California for Tufts Awards Ceremony

Claremont Graduate University’s 15th Annual
Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards Ceremony
April 24, 2007 - Zipper Concert Hall, The Colburn School of Music
200 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

2007 Winners:
Rodney Jones - Kingsley Tufts Award $100,000 for Salvation Blues
Eric McHenry - Kate Tufts Discovery Award $10,000 for Potscrubber Lullabies


Claremont Graduate University Presents the 15th Annual Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards ceremony at 6 p.m. on April 24 at Zipper Concert Hall, The Colburn School of Music. Come and hear the authors read from their award winning works. The ceremony will be followed by a book signing. Books will be available for purchase on site.

Claremont Graduate University awards two prizes for poetry each year, The Kingsley Tufts Award ($100,000) and The Kate Tufts Discovery Award ($10,000.) CGU’s Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award is the largest monetary prize in the nation for a mid-career poet. Carbondale, Illinois resident Rodney Jones—a professor of English at Southern Illinois University—has been selected as the winner of the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Award for his poetry book, Salvation Blues (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Kate Tufts Discovery Award is presented annually for a first book by a poet of genuine promise. The winner of the $10,000 Kate Tufts Discovery Award is Seattle resident Eric McHenry for his poetry book, Potscrubber Lullabies (The Waywiser Press, 2006).

Poemspotting...

"A Toast to Virtue," a new poem by first-year poet Kerry James Evans, appears in the Spring 2007 issue of the Mid-American Poetry Review. I can't find any web links for this journal, so if you want to get a copy so you can read the poem or if you want submit poetry to this journal that specializes in publishing poets of the Midwest, write to

The Mid-America Poetry Review
P.O. Box 575
Warrensburg, MO 64093-0575

Their next deadline for submissions is July 15.

Catching Up With Douglas Haynes (MFA '02):

Got this very nice note from Douglas Haynes (MFA '02) after spotting his poem "Alopecia" in the latest issue of the Bellevue Literary Review:

Without ever intending to, I've settled in New Hampshire for a while, where I'm now in my second year of teaching at New England College (I'm an actual Assistant Professor with a business card and a 401k, both of which I feel quite ambivalent about!). I genuinely appreciate the perks and pleasures of teaching, though, especially after my 2005 stint of freelance newspaper writing that had me chased out of libertarians' houses and touring garden and cat shows. For now, I teach two first-year composition courses, an advanced personal essay course, and a general education seminar I designed called "Translating Travel: Reading & Writing Across Cultures." I also continue writing poetry, personal essays, and feature journalism. Recently, my poems have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Isotope, & Wild Earth, and I'm currently sending around a chapbook manuscript. I've also had essays in North American Review and Orion Online, among other places. I would love to hear from other SIUC M.F.A. alums and faculty. Write me at: dhaynes@gmail.com

Moira Linehan Reading on April 19, 2007

The Visiting Writers Series & Crab Orchard Review present a reading by Moira Linehan:
THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2007
4:00 PM SIUC Student Center Auditorium

This reading celebrates the publication of Moira Linehan's new book, If No Moon, published this year by Southern Illinois University Press in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry.

The reading is free and open to the public.

Moira Linehan, award-winning poet, poetry teacher and prolific author, lives in Winchester, Massachusetts. Her
poems have appeared in Green Mountains Review, Image, Notre Dame Review, Sou'wester, and Weber Studies.
In summer 2005, she was poet-in-residence at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Read more about If No Moon here:

SIU Press

Congrats to Kerry James Evans

A note from first-year poetry MFA student Kerry James Evans:

Just wanted to let you know that The Dos Passos Review just
accepted "Siphoning Gas" for publication in their June 2007
issue.

Congrats, Kerry!

Rodney Jones short-listed for the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize

Rodney Jones is a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize!

Read about it here:

Griffin Poetry Prize

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers Reading--April 5

The Visiting Writers Series and Crab Orchard Review present a reading by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers--Thursday, April 5, 4:00 PM, Mississippi Room, SIUC Student Center

This reading celebrates the publication of Honoree Fanonne Jeffers's new book, Red Clay Suite, published this year by Southern Illinois University in the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry.

The reading is free and open to the public.

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, an assistant professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, is the author of two other books of poetry, The Gospel of Barbecue and Outlandish Blues. She has received a number of honors, including the Stan and Tom Wick Prize for Poetry, the Julia Peterkin Award for Poetry, and awards from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.

Read some of Honoree's work here:

Callaloo