Graduate Reading Series Schedule

Fall 2007 MFA In-House Readings,
Sponsored by the Graduate Writers Forum.
All readings in the SIUC Student Center

Wed. Sept. 26, 2 pm, Illinois Room:
Will Tyler, 2nd-Year Poetry
John Flaherty, 2nd-Year Fiction

Thurs. Oct. 11, 5 pm, Kaskaskia/Missouri Room:
Jenna Bazzell, 1st-Year Poetry
James Scoles, 1st-Year Fiction
Amie Whittemore, 1st-Year Poetry
Alexander Lumans, 2nd-Year Fiction

Wed. Oct. 17, 2 pm, Illinois Room:
Halvor Aakhus, 1st-Year Fiction
Renee Evans, 2nd-Year Fiction

Thurs. Nov. 1, 5 pm, Kaskaskia/Missouri Room:
Laura Gross, 1st-Year Poetry
Justin Benton, 1st-Year Fiction
Kerry James Evans, 2nd-Year Poetry

Making Stanzas Rumba

Allison Joseph will be attending and reading her poem "Proposal on a Plate: Orango Island, Guinea-Bisseau" at the annual Dancing Poetry Festival on September 29 in San Francisco, CA. This unique event combines poetry and dance. Allison herself will not be dancing.

More about the Dancing Poetry Festival at
Dancing Poetry home

Michael Meyerhofer selected to read on the Georgia Poetry Circuit!

Congratulations to Michael Meyerhofer (MFA '06), who has been selected to appear on the Georgia Poetry Circuit. Michael will be doing readings in the spring at ten different colleges and universities in Georgia. Dates for particular readings aren't yet firm, but as soon as they are, this blog will have all the details.

You're Invited...

to a Book Release Party and Reading for
LAURA BENEDICT!!!

She'll be reading and signing copies of her novel, ISABELLA MOON,
at Kite Hill Vineyards & Winery on Sunday, October 7 from 3 to 5 PM

You can find out more about Laura and ISABELLA MOON at
Laura's website

You can find out more about the Kite Hill Vineyards at
Kite Hill

Story Announcement: Chad Simpson (MFA '05)

from Chad Simpson:

I have a new story online: "Glass" is live at Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics.

Check out Chad's story at
Guernica

Latino Heritage Month Keynote Lecture 2007

Poet, novelist, essayist and professor Luis Urrea will be this year's keynote speaker for Latino Heritage Month. His lecture, titled "Dual Culture Life Experience" will take place on September 25, 2007 in the SIUC Student Center Auditorium at 7pm. Luis Urrea is the author of 11 books, including The Devil's Highway, Six Kinds of Sky, Across the Wire and The Hummingbird's Daughter. He is a member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame and a Pulitzer Prize Finalist.

This lecture is sponsored by the Associate Chancellor (Diversity), the Office of Diversity and Equity, the Hispanic Student Council, and Student Development Multicultural Programs and Services.


You can find out more about Luis Urrea at his website
Luis Urrea

First In-House Reading of the Semester

The In-House Reading Series, sponsored by the Graduate Writers Forum, is back!
The first of this semester's readings will be held
at 5pm on September 20, 2007
in the SIUC Student Center Kaskaskia Room.
Reading from their poetry will be first year MFA students
Hannah New, Travis Mossotti, and second-year MFA student
Andy McFadyen-Ketchum.
The reading is free and open to the public.

Ben Percy (MFA '04) Podcast on NPR

In case you didn't hear Ben Percy on NPR yesterday, here's a link to the podcast:

NPR

Congrats to Jason Lee Brown!

Third-year fiction writing MFA student Jason Lee Brown has cross-genre chops:

"My poem “Bioluminescence” has been accepted for publication in the Spoon River Poetry Review and should be out sometime this year."

Congrats, Jason!

Devil's Kitchen Fall Literary Festival Schedule

2007 Devil’s Kitchen Literary Festival
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Thursday, Friday, & Saturday--October 25 – 27

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25

8:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Readings by Mary Jo Firth Gillett & Wendy Rawlings
Student Center Auditorium

9:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Festival Reception (sponsored by the SIUC Dept. of English)
Student Center J.W. Corker Lounge

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26

— panel discussions, Student Center Auditorium —

10:00 – 10:50 a.m.
Poetry Panel featuring Betty Adcock, Mary Jo Firth Gillett, Patricia
Spears Jones, James Kimbrell, & Simone Muench

11:00 – 11:50 a.m.
Fiction Panel featuring Kerry Neville Bakken, Dale Ray Phillips, &
Wendy Rawlings

2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Readings by Simone Muench & Betty Adcock
Student Center Auditorium

3:15 – 4:30 p.m.
Reception and Booksigning featuring all festival readers
Student Center Old Main Lounge

5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Readings by James Kimbrell & Kerry Neville Bakken
Student Center Auditorium

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27

11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Readings from the new anthology Surreal South
Student Center Auditorium

2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Readings by Dale Ray Phillips & Patricia Spears Jones
Student Center Auditorium


The festival is sponsored by GRASSROOTS, the Southern Illinois
University Carbondale Department of English’s undergraduate literary
magazine. The Devil’s Kitchen Fall Literary Festival is made possible
through funding from the SIUC Fine Arts Activity Fee, the SIUC
Creative Writing Program’s Visiting Writers Series, and CRAB ORCHARD
REVIEW.

Teaching the Unteachable?

Sigma Tau Delta presents a talk by Allison Joseph of the SIUC's Creative Writing Program
on the topic of "Teaching the Unteachable: The Pedagogy of Poetry-Writing"

Monday, September 10, 2007
Time: 6-7 pm
Location: Saline Room, SIUC Student Center
All are welcome to attend.

Virtual Pinckney Benedict...

Today's Daily Egyptian has a profile of Pinckney Benedict's virtual classroom:

Daily Egyptian

Devil's Kitchen Literary Festival 2007 Details

Announcing the 2007 Devil's Kitchen Fall Literary Festival!
OCTOBER 25, 26, & 27, 2007

hosted by GRASSROOTS, the undergraduate literary magazine of the Department
of English at Southern Illinois University Carbondale--

Visiting Writers for this year's festival will include:
Kerry Neville Bakken, winner of the Devil's Kitchen Reading Award in Prose
James Kimbrell, winner of the Devil's Kitchen Reading Award in Poetry
Mary Jo Firth Gillett, winner of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award
PLUS--Betty Adcock, Patricia Spears Jones, Simone Muench, Dale Ray Phillips and Wendy
Rawlings!

All festival events will take place at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Student Center Auditorium. All readings and panels are free and open to the public.

The Devil's Kitchen Fall Literary Festival is made possible by funding from the
SIUC Fine Arts Activity Fee.

Watch this blog for the festival schedule!

article on Young Writers Workshop 07

This article ran in Diverse Issues in Higher Education (September 6, 2007 edition):

DIVERSE

For the record, that's not Kerry in the photo, but Darian Spearman, who's now attending Carleton College in Minnesota.

Now Available: MFA Carbondale T-shirts!

The t-shirts have arrived! They are available in M, L, and XL.
If you wish to have your very own MFA Carbondale t-shirt,
contact Allison at aljoseph(at)siu.edu--each t-shirt is $15.

Mike Magnuson to read at University of Southern Indiana

Mike Magnuson will be reading at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, Indiana on Thursday, September 13th at 7pm.
Details here:
University of Southern Indiana

Storyspotting with Ben Percy (MFA '04)

Ben Percy (MFA '04)'s stories and prose pieces are cropping up all over this season. In Ben's own words:

" "The Caves in Oregon" appears in the current issue of Glimmer Train. "When the Bear Came" appears in the current issue of American Short Fiction. "Dial Tone" appears in the current issue of the Missouri Review.

And I've got a story "So Far From Anything" and a nonfiction piece "The Greatest Writer You're Not Reading" coming out in the October issue of Esquire."

Congrats, Ben! Big props on your productivity!