Congrats to Rachel Furey (MFA '09)

Congrats to MFA fiction alum Rachel Furey on getting two pieces accepted for publication:

Since it wouldn't have seemed quite right if I had gotten a piece infor one of my parents and not the other, I'm happy to report that Ihave work forthcoming in both the Thanks Mom (due out in March) and Thanks Dad (due out in April) editions of
Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Hope all is well here. Ice and snow here, but staying warm.

Congrats, Rachel to you and your parents!

Reminder: Help for Haiti Benefit Tomorrow

Details here:
Benefit Press Release

Congrats to Brenna Lemieux

Second-year poet Brenna Lemieux sends good news from Ireland:

I just found out one of my poems got picked up by New Delta Review, so I thought I'd brag a little. It's called "Life of Eloise (Temporary Exhibit)."

Congrats, Brenna! We miss you in C'dale!

Alumni Publications: Forthcoming and Recent

Melanie Dusseau (MFA '03, poetry)'s first book of poems, 

The Body Tries Again (Word Press), is now available and can be ordered  from Amazon. com and Barnes & Noble.

Alex Lumans (MFA '09, fiction)'s story "Excavating the Blind" appears in
Story Quarterly #43. The journal is now published at Rutgers University-Camden.

Andy McFadyen-Ketchum (MFA '09, poetry) writes to say: "Looks like the South Dakota Review is taking "Winters we Watch the Snow Descend Slowly." That makes a third of the poems in my thesis published....feels more legit somehow..."

Congrats to all these fabulous alums!

Upcoming Alumni Readings: Adrian Matejka (MFA '01)

Poetry alum Adrian Matejka will be reading from his work both close to home and far away:

via Jake Adam York, editor of Copper Nickel at the University of Colorado Denver

Poet Adrian Matejka, author of Mixology, a 2008 National Poetry Selection, and contributor to the 13th issue, will read at 4pm on Wednesday, January 27th in the Recital Hall of the King Center on the Auraria Higher Education Campus. Books will be on sale. Copper Nickel 13, will sell for $5 to ANY student with an ID. A reception will follow at the Denver Press Club, 1330 Glenarm, at 6pm, with a contributor reading at 7pm.

Adrian will also read with his faculty colleagues at our sister school, SIUE, in Saint Louis:
Thursday, Jan. 21, SIUE is hosting a reading by creative writing faculty at the Regional Arts Commission on 6128 Delmar at 6 p.m. Adrian Matejka, Stacey Lynn Brown, Valerie Vogrin, Geoff Schmidt, and Allison Funk will read. The event is open to all.

Upcoming Literary Event in Carbondale

HELP FOR HAITI: A LITERARY BENEFIT
Sponsored by the MFA Program in Creative Writing
Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Thursday, January 28, 2010
SIUC Student Center Cambria Room
7-8:30 PM
Free and open to the public with donations gratefully accepted
All donations to go to the International Relief Fund of the American Red Cross

Rodney Jones poem to appear in BAP 2010

Beloved MFA faculty member will appear in Best American Poetry 2010 (editor, Amy Gerstler) with his poem "North Alabama Endtime!"
Congrats, Mr. Jones!

Fantastic news from fiction faculty member Jacinda Townsend!

I'll let Jacinda tell you all in her own inimitable style:

My book deal is a done deal now, so yes feel free to share this on the blog--it's a historical novel called Saint Monkey and it's with Norton, though I'm not sure when it's coming out. (I've been told to think this weekend about a "delivery date," about which I'm a little freaked, but I think I'm going to seriously tunnel in and try to revise by June, because let's be for real I'm not going to get anything done this summer with two kids all up in my grill 24/7.

Congrats on the book deal, Jacinda!

Congrats to...

MFA poetry alum Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum:

Spoon River Poetry Review will be publishing "The Lives of Boys" and "Self-Portrait, 1997" in the coming months.

and

current fiction student Melissa Scholes Young:

After too many rejections to count, my baby, my "Scrap Metal Baby," has been accepted for publication in The View From Here's print journal for April 2010. "Scrap Metal Baby" is a short story that came out of a writing assignment in Pinckney's workshop. It was and is a stretch and a challenge for my writing style to write surreal. Pinckney made me do it. I'm grateful. "Scrap Metal Baby" can now be born. Her mama needs a rest.


Congrats Andy and Melissa!

Pinckney Benedict Goes International!

Fiction faculty member Pinckney Benedict has the following great news:

Good news: My new fiction collection, Miracle Boy and Other Stories, which will be published in the US by Press53 in May, has been picked up by the excellent Salt Publishing for UK, European, and Australian publication in September.

More info at
Miracle Boy and Other Stories

Alumni Reading Alert: Melanie Dusseau (MFA '03) to read at College of DuPage

The invitation comes from Liz "Kershner" Whiteacre (MFA '02, poetry):

I invite you to banish just-before-mid-term blues and spend Wednesday, February 17th with me to celebrate Melanie and her first collection, The Body Tries Again. She'll be performing the 17th from 7-8:30 p.m. (I can get you an invite to the faculty dinner too... ;) in SRC 2800 in Glen Ellyn, IL at College of DuPage. Join Mel and me for a minication (there are talks of hitting the Shed and Magnificent Mile Thursday)--you deserve it. And, the glow from this reunion could get you easily to spring break (for that, you're on your own).

For info on Mel D's new book, visit:
The Body Tries Again

Curtis Crisler (MFA '04) featured on Read Write Poem

Read Write Poem is a great site for poets and poetry lovers. MFA alum Curtis Crisler (poetry, '04) was recently interviewed for a piece there:
The B Sides

The poem referenced in the article above can be found here: They will say

Adrian Matejka (MFA '01) to appear in BAP 2010

Adrian Matejka (MFA '01, poetry) 's poem "Seven Days of Falling" (the first poem in his award-winning collection Mixology) has been selected to appear in the 2010 edition of Best American Poetry! Congrats, AD!

Congrats to Melanie Martin (MFA '04, poetry)

Congrats to Melanie Martin (MFA '04, poetry)! Three of her poems ( "This Body, This Anchor", "Casting a Line", and "Poem for Roxana") are scheduled to be published in an upcoming anthology titled
Beside the City of Angels: An Anthology of Long Beach Poetry, (edited by Paul Kareem Tayyar). The anthology will be published by World Parade Books in February.

Ben Percy (MFA '04) reads at River Styx

Fiction alum (MFA'04) Ben Percy will read as part of the River Styx at Duff's Series in St. Louis, MO on January 18, 2010:

River Styx reading series

Congrats to Andy McFadyen-Ketchum!

Andy McFadyen-Ketchum (MFA '09, poetry) writes with an impressive list of forthcoming publications:

My poem "Corridor" will appear in Southern Indiana Review, a section of "Marysarias" in CENTER out of U of Missouri, "Constellations" in Blueline out of New York (if you have short nature poems, send them there!), and "To Touch the Moon" in Grist out of U of Tennessee. I also have an interview with Robert Wrigley forthcoming in the Missouri Review, an interview with Nicky Beer forthcoming in New Orleans Review (her first book,The Diminshing House, will be out Monday!), and a review of Michael McGriff's Dismantling the Hills forthcoming in Third Coast.

Congrats, AMK, on all these forthcoming pubs!

Adrian Matejka (MFA '01) nominated for NAACP Image Award!

Adrian Matejka (MFA'01) has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the Poetry Category for his National Poetry Series-winning collection Mixology! Congrats, AD!

NAACP Image Awards