mfa in creative writing - American University

VISITING WRITERS SERIES 2012–2013

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

In a city long known for its creative activity and writers—including Walt Whitman, Henry

While serving as a Civil War nurse in Washington, D.C., Walt Whitman lived in a boarding house at 1205 M Street, N.W. Although that house no longer stands, the building where he tended wounded soldiers now serves as the National Museum of American Art.

In 1877, Frederick Douglass said of Washington, D.C., where he often lived, “Wherever the American citizen may be a stranger, he is at home here.”

From 1960 to 1975, Katherine Anne Porter lived near American University in Northwest Washington.

Adams, Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Katherine Anne Porter, and Sterling Brown—American University continues

the tradition by serving as a lively venue for creative work by both established and emerging writers.

DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE … COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES … AMERICAN UNIVERSITY … WASHINGTON, D.C.

FICTION AMY HEMPEL

Acclaimed short fiction writer Amy Hempel is the author of five collections of stories, including Reasons to Live, The Dog of the Marriage, and, most recently, The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, which was a finalist for the 2006 PEN/Faulkner Award. Hempel has been honored with a Hobson award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a USA Fellowship, the Ambassador Book Award, the Rea Award for the Short Story, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction. Of The Collected Stories, the Los Angeles Times writes: “Hers is the work of a brave, unflinching mind. . . . Her prose conveys a world stripped to its essences.” Hempel teaches at Harvard University and Bennington College.

7:00 p.m., Tuesday, October 2, 2012

BOARD ROOM, BUTLER PAVILION (SIXTH FLOOR)

FICTION AND NONFICTION PAUL LISICKY

About Unbuilt Projects, Paul Lisicky’s recent hybrid of fiction, memoir, and poetry, Joy Williams writes: “Lisicky’s clean, comfortable prose always manages to break your heart, for he has the diviner’s gift for finding the wellsprings of sorrow.” Lisicky is also the author of two much praised novels, Lawnboy and The Burning House, and a memoir, Famous Builder, which Edmund White describes as showing “all the vital signs of genius.” A recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener-Copernicus Society, the Henfield Foundation, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Lisicky is currently the New Voices Professor at Rutgers–Camden.

8:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 17, 2012

ABRAMSON FAMILY FOUNDERS ROOM, SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL SERVICE

TALK IRA SILVERBERG

Before joining the NEA as literature director in 2011, Ira Silverberg worked in the publishing industry as a literary agent, editor, and publisher for more than 25 years. His client list featured best sellers and literary prize winners alike, including Neil Strauss, Sam Lipsyte, Ishmael Beah, Rene Steinke, and Adam Haslett. Silverberg was editor in chief at Grove/Atlantic and publisher at Serpent’s Tail’s High Risk Books, where he was influential in defining the “downtown” aesthetic of the 1990s. A longtime advocate of independent literary and cultural institutions, he has been affiliated with BOMB magazine, the PEN American Center, and the Portable Lower East Side.

“State of the (Literary) Arts: Trends and Transformations of the Last Decade” 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 30, 2012 BATTELLE ATRIUM, BATTELLE-TOMPKINS

POETRY EDUARDO C. CORRAL

For his debut collection, Slow Lightning, Eduardo C. Corral was the 2011 recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, joining such distinguished previous winners as Adrienne Rich, W. S. Merwin, and John Ashbery. Seamlessly braiding English and Spanish, his poems hurtle across literary and linguistic borders toward a lyricism that slows down experience. Although Corral’s topics are decidedly sobering, contest judge Carl Phillips observes: “One of the more surprising possibilities offered in these poems is joy.” Corral, who holds degrees from Arizona State University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, was a recipient of the 2011 Whiting Writers’ Award. He lives in Casa Grande, Arizona.

8:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 7, 2012


POETRY AND PROSE ANNUAL FACULTY BENEFIT READING

7:30 p.m., Wednesday, January 23, 2013 826 DC | 3233 14th Street, NW | Washington, DC 20010

Our annual reading of poetry and prose by American University’s creative writing faculty features Kyle Dargan, author of Logorrhea Dementia: A Self-Diagnosis; Danielle Evans, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self; Stephanie Grant, Map of Ireland; Andrew Holleran, Grief; David Keplinger, The Prayers of Others; Elise Levine, Requests and Dedications; and Rachel Louise Snyder, Fugitive Denim. Proceeds from this reading will benefit 826 DC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to mentoring and encouraging young writers ages 6 to 18 and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Suggested donation at the door is $5.

METRO: COLUMBIA HEIGHTS (GREEN AND YELLOW LINES)

NONFICTION TED CONOVER

Of Ted Conover’s most recent feat of literary journalism, The Routes of Man: Travels in the Paved World, Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) writes: “Ted Conover is one of the great writers of my generation, and this may be his finest book. Fearless and compassionate, with echoes of Conrad and Kerouac, it explores how the road, once a symbol of limitless possibility, has become a path to annihilation.” Conover is the author of five previous books of literary journalism, including Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. He is currently distinguished writer in residence in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University.

7:00 p.m., Monday, February 4, 2013


POETRY ISHION HUTCHINSON AND VALZHYNA MORT

Born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, Ishion Hutchinson is the author of Far District, a debut collection that received the 2011 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. Of Far District, Yusef Komunyakaa writes: “Not only does this collection travel through an abiding language and far reaching imagery, but it also transports the reader to a complex psychological terrain through a basic honesty and truthfulness.” Hutchinson, who earned his PhD from the University of Utah, teaches at Cornell University.

8:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 27, 2012

COMMUTER LOUNGE, EAST QUAD BUILDING

Born in Minsk, Belarus, Valzhyna Mort made her American debut in 2008 with the collection Factory of Tears, translated into English by Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright and poet Franz Wright. Of Collected Body, her first book written in English, the Library Journal writes: “Mort is a fireball . . . personal, political, and passionate.” Her awards include the 2005 Crystal Vilenica award in Slovenia, the 2008 Hubert Burda Prize for poetry in Germany, and the 2010 Lannan Literary Fellowship. Mort is a 2011 graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at American University.

FICTION HANNA PYLVAINEN

A graduate of the MFA program at the University of Michigan, Hanna Pylväinen is the author of We Sinners, a collection of stories about the Rovaniemi family, members of an ultraconservative Lutheran sect known as Laestadianism. About We Sinners, NBA winner Jaimy Gordon writes: “In a debut collection of dazzling economy, precision, and reach, Hanna Pylväinen explores a familiar yet unfamiliar world . . . with immense sensitivity to her characters, and a surprisingly light, deft touch.” Pylväinen was a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and has been the recipient of residences at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony.

8:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 20, 2013


BISHOP C.C. MCCABE LECTURE SERIES | Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences AVA FARMER

7:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 27, 2013


Ava Farmer (nom de plume of Sandy Lerner) reads from her novel Second Impressions, the first sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that accurately depicts the original’s historical and cultural milieu. Published by Chawton House Press, an affiliate of Chawton House Library in Hampshire, England, the book draws its history from this rich archive of early English women’s writing while exploring the characters’ potential lives beyond the conclusion of Austen’s masterpiece. A discussion with the author, hosted by the literature department’s Fiona Brideoake and Jonathan Loesberg, will follow.

GRADUATING MFA STUDENT READING 5:00 p.m., Sunday, May 12, 2013 POLITICS AND PROSE BOOKSTORE

5015 Connecticut Ave, N.W. | Washington, D.C.

Experience our MFA program’s rich diversity of voices at a group reading of poetry and prose, featuring our 2012–2013 graduates.

AMERICAN.EDU/VISITINGWRITERS

MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING In 2012–2013, the Department of Literature is offering—in addition to its regularly scheduled graduate workshops in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, literary journalism, and translation—such graduate-level courses as Readings in Genre: Novel; Travel Writing and Eighteenth-Century Imagination; Advanced Interdisciplinary Approaches to Literature: Metanarrative; Advanced Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature: French Realist Fiction; and Seminar in Literary Theory: Universalism and Its Discontents. Former visiting writers and writers in residence include Grace Paley, Edward P. Jones, Michael Cunningham, Azar Nafisi, Amy Bloom, Alison Bechdel, Walter Kirn, Mark Doty, Yusef Komunyakaa, Richard Rodriguez, Mary Gaitskill, Li-Young Lee, Terry McMillan, Colm Tóibín, Alice McDermott, Tony Hoagland, Major Jackson, Tillie Olsen, Marilyn Hacker, Victor Lavalle, Edward Hirsch, Manil Suri, Jamaica Kincaid, and Terrance Hayes. Visiting Writers Series events are free and open to the public, except for the Annual Faculty Benefit Reading on January 23, 2013. Proceeds from this reading will go to 826 DC, a nonprofit organization that nurtures and inspires young writers ages 6 through 18. Suggested donation at the door is $5. FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT, THE VISITING WRITERS SERIES EXPRESSES ITS GRATITUDE TO Peter Starr, dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Mary Schellinger, director, College marketing and communication; Thomas Meal, webmaster; Maureen Fittig, director, special events; Catherine Gannon, public relations coordinator, Katzen Arts Center; Will Byrne, Julia Craig, Catherine Johnson, Joellyn Powers, Stacia Yearwood, and Amy Wozniak, of the Department of Literature; Joe Callahan of 826 DC; Sarah Baline of Politics and Prose Bookstore; Ali Kahn and Rena Münster of University Publications; and Donald O. Graul of American Independent Writers. VISITING WRITERS CODIRECTORS Richard McCann and Stephanie Grant

2012–2013 CREATIVE WRITING FACULTY KYLE DARGAN: Logorrhea Dementia, Bouquet of Hungers (2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award), The Listening (2003 Cave Canem Poetry Prize) DANIELLE EVANS: Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (2011 Paterson Fiction Prize); stories in the Paris Review, 2008 and 2010 Best American Short Stories STEPHANIE GRANT: Map of Ireland, The Passion of Alice ANDREW HOLLERAN: Grief; In September, the Light Changes; The Beauty of Men (1997 Ferro-Grumley Award); Ground Zero; Nights in Aruba; Dancer from the Dance DAVID KEPLINGER: The Prayers of Others (2007 Colorado Book Award), The Clearing, The Rose Inside (1999 T. S. Eliot Prize), The World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors: Poems of Carsten Rene Nielsen (trans.) ELISE LEVINE: Requests and Dedications, Driving Men Mad

RICHARD MCCANN: Mother of Sorrows (2005 John C. Zacharis Book Award, 2006 ALA Stonewall Honor Book); Ghost Letters (1994 Beatrice Hawley Award, 1994 Capricorn Poetry Award); Nights of 1990; Things Shaped in Passing: More “Poets for Life” Writing from the AIDS Pandemic (ed. with Michael Klein) RACHEL LOUISE SNYDER: Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade; contributor to NPR’s Marketplace and All Things Considered; host and executive producer of Global Guru

PROFESSORS EMERITI KERMIT MOYER: The Chester Chronicles, Tumbling MYRA SKLAREW: Over the Rooftops of Time; The Witness Trees (Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award); Lithuania: New and Selected Poems; The Science of Goodbyes HENRY TAYLOR: Crooked Run (L. E. Phillabaum Poetry Award, 2006); Understanding Fiction: Poems 1986–1996; The Flying Change (Pulitzer Prize, 1986); An Afternoon of Pocket Billiards; The Horse Show at Midnight

PHOTO CREDITS Walt Whitman, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Frederick Douglass, Library of Congress; Katherine Anne Porter, Rare Books and Manuscript Department, University of Maryland Libraries; Ted Conover, by Spike Jones; Eduardo C. Corral, by JW Stovall; Amy Hempel, by Kenneth Chen; Ishion Hutchinson, by Rachel Eliza Griffiths; Valzhyna Mort, by Doug Barber; Ira Silverberg, by Tim Pannell; Paul Lisicky, by Star Black To receive email alerts about upcoming Visiting Writers Series events, please send a message to [email protected] or phone 202-885-2973.

An equal opportunity, affirmative action university. UP13-174

Adrienne Rich, 1929–2012

“Every poem breaks a silence that had to be overcome.” CLAUDE BROWN YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA MAJOR JACKSON AZAR NAFISI EDWARD P. JONES FRANK CONROY DAVID GROSSMAN MANIL SURI JEAN VALENTINE ALLEN GINSBERG ALLAN GURGANUS BILLY COLLINS BEVERLY LOWRY TIM O’BRIEN GALWAY KINNELL MARILYN HACKER TERRY MCMILLAN MATTHEW KLAM RICHARD RODRIGUEZ ALICE MCDERMOTT LUCY GREALY CHARLES BAXTER HANAN AL-SHAYKH PETER HO DAVIES COLM TÓIBÍN AMY BLOOM TILLIE OLSEN NICK FLYNN ADAM HASLETT RICHARD YATES TONY HOAGLAND JAMAICA KINCAID MICHAEL C. HARPER PAUL MONETTE BRUCE WEIGL GAIL GODWIN GRACE PALEY RICHARD SELZER MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM LEE K. ABBOTT ROBERT HAAS LI-YOUNG LEE A. J. VERDELLE CHARLES JOHNSON MARK DOTY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE JACKI LYDEN FAYE MOSKOWITZ JOHN GARDNER VICTOR LAVALLE LISA ZEIDNER  ALLEN BARNETT LEILA ABOULELA MARY GAITSKILL ALISON SMITH EDWARD HIRSCH  JO ANN BEARD GAIL MAZUR MELANIE THERNSTROM

BUTLER BOARD ROOM

BATTELLE ATRIUM butler pavilion

battelletompkins

ABRAMSON FAMILY FOUNDERS ROOM

school of int’l. service

east quad building

COMMUTER LOUNGE

MFA in Creative Writing Department of Literature College of Arts and Sciences 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20016-8047

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VISITING WRITERS SERIES 2012–2013

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