June 25, 2014 at 5:09 PM
Check out this fantastic interview in Stay Thirsty magazine featuring BU poetry alum Abriana Jetté, where she talks about the BU Creative Writing Program, what it means to be an emerging poet, and how music and poetry influence each other.
Abriana Jetté is an internationally published poet, essayist, and educator from Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared in dozens of journals, including the Dr. T. J. Eckleburg Review, The Iron Horse Literary Review, The American Literary Review, and 491 Magazine. She teaches at St. Johns’s University and the City University of New York, writes a regular column for Stay Thirsty Magazine that focuses on emerging poets and she is the editor of the recently published book, The Best Emerging Poets of 2013, that debuted on Amazon as the #3 Best Seller in Poetry Anthologies.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni
|
June 11, 2014 at 12:02 PM
More great news from Creative Writing program alumni! Sarah Huener's poem, "Zagreb, October," was named a finalist in the Pocataligo Poetry Contest, which is held annually by Yemassee. Sarah says she wrote the poem while on her Global Fellowship travels in Croatia.
Hurrah! Way to go, Sarah!
Sarah Huener is a poet and musician from North Carolina. She studied poetry at UNC Chapel Hill, and recently received her MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University. This fall Sarah traveled in Croatia and Israel as a Robert Pinsky Global Fellow. She is working on her first book.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni, Awards
|
June 10, 2014 at 4:23 PM
Publications abound for Ryan Wilson, whose poems have recently been published or are forthcoming in a slew of journals! His poem, "After the Sonogram," appears in the new issue of Iron Horse Literary Review, and "Goths" was published in the most recent issue of 32 Poems. In addition, Ryan wrote this essay review for their ‘Marginalia’ series.
Congratulations, Ryan!
Ryan Wilson was born in Griffin, Georgia. He holds an MFA in poetry from the Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University, and another from Boston University. His work has appeared in a number of journals, such as Able Muse, The Hopkins Review, The Journal, Measure, River Styx, Sewanee Theological Review, and Unsplendid. Currently, he is a doctoral candidate at The Catholic University of America, and he lives in Baltimore with his wife.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni, Poetry Publications
|
June 9, 2014 at 3:07 PM
Hearty congratulations to Mai Wang! A current MFA candidate in fiction, Mai recently received an Emerging Artists Award from the St. Botolph Club Foundation. The St. Botolph club gives grants to exceptional writers, visual artists, and musicians who are beginning their careers.
We're so proud of you, Mai!
Mai Wang graduated from Yale University, where she was an English major in the Writing Concentration. A former beauty blogger, she has written for print and digital publications such as Upstreet Magazine, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Yahoo Shine. In 2013, she was the Writer-in-Residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska City, NE. In her writing, she explores themes of immigration and national identity. She is currently working on a novel set in Beijing that is based on her mother's experience in the Cultural Revolution.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Awards, Grad Students
|
June 3, 2014 at 1:50 PM
Tara Skurtu has published two poems in issue 22 of Memorious, which went live yesterday! View the issue here, and read Tara's poems: "Şoricel" and "Discovery: Negative Return."
Congrats, Tara!
Tara Skurtu teaches Creative Writing at Boston University, where she received a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship and an Academy of American Poets Prize. She was named one of Lloyd Schwartz’s 6 Favorite New Poets on WBUR’s Here and Now. Recent poems have appeared in Poetry Review, Memorious, DMQ Review, The Dalhousie Review, the minnesota review, B O D Y, and The Los Angeles Review.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni, Poetry Publications
|
May 28, 2014 at 11:06 AM
Daphne Kalotay's newest novel, Sight Reading, has won the 2014 New England Society Book Award for Fiction and has been selected as a Highly Recommended book by the Boston Authors Club. Congratulations, Daphne!
Daphne will be reading from Sight Reading at Newtonville Books on Thursday, May 29, at 7 and at the Brookline Booksmith on Thursday June 12.
From the novel:
“The thing to keep in mind,” the man said, tapping his baton at the podium for them to stop, “is that what the music asks of us isn’t always spelled out on the page. We might need to slow down even where there’s no ritardando written, or rush forward where there’s just a crescendo mark. Tempo is about more than just speed.” He said this casually, as if the thought had just occurred to him.
“It’s about the passage of time, really. In our lives—not just on the page. You know how sometimes everything seems to keep rushing forward, but then at other times things are peaceful and still? How sometimes we feel stuck in time, or just plodding along day by day—and then suddenly it’s as if time’s passed us by, or we’re being hurried along, too quickly? That’s what tempo is really about. That’s what we’re expressing. Not just how fast or how slowly the music moves. It’s about how fast and slow life moves.”
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni, Awards, Readings
|
May 15, 2014 at 4:59 PM
Wonderful news for Renee Emerson, whose beautiful book of poems, Keeping Me Still, has just been published! You can buy a copy and read more about the book here.
From the publisher: "...a collection of poems like keepsakes of what is lost and gained as we move on, grow, and reach for something bigger--always with hope."
Congratulations, Renee!
Renee Emerson is the author of Keeping Me Still (Winter Goose Publishing 2014). Her poetry has been published in 32 Poems, Christianity and Literature, Indiana Review, Literary Mama, Southern Humanities Review, storySouth, and elsewhere. Renee teaches creative writing and composition at a small Christian university in Georgia, where she lives with her husband and daughters.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni, Poetry Publications
|
May 15, 2014 at 3:58 PM
Poet Luisa Caycedo-Kimura has been nominated for another writing residency! She'll spend a week in Ragsdale, a non-profit artists' community in Lake Forest, 30 miles outside of Chicago, located on architect Howard Van Doren Shaw’s country estate. It looks like a gorgeous, quiet place to write.
Way to go, Luisa! and we hope you have a wonderful and productive time.
Luisa Caycedo-Kimura is a poet and translator. She was born in Colombia and grew up in New York City. A former attorney, she left the legal profession to pursue her passion for writing. Luisa has received various awards for her poetry and was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Prize. Last fall Luisa travelled to Spain as a Robert Pinsky Global fellow. Most recently, Luisa was awarded the 2014 John K. Walsh Residency Fellowship. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Jelly Bucket, Connecticut Review, Louisiana Literature, PALABRA, San Pedro River Review, Crack the Spine, Sunken Garden Poetry 1992-2011, and elsewhere.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni
|
May 9, 2014 at 9:28 AM
Fantastic news for Emma Duffy-Comparone! Emma recently won a Pushcart Prize for her story, "The Zen Thing,"
From the story:
Each year, like a shifty circus in a truck, the family unpacks itself for a weekend on a beach and pretends to have a good time. This summer they are in Rhode Island, on Scarborough Beach. Everyone is staying at the Sea Breeze Motel down the street. Expectations are low. It is the kind of setup where doors open to a courtyard, which is carpeted. In the middle of the carpet is a pool. In the middle of the pool, submerged, are a bikini bottom and a bloated swimming noodle, which has somehow drowned like a piece of plumbing pipe.
Billy, Anita’s brother, who is thirteen and has Down syndrome, has spent the morning dipping a red bucket into the pool and watering all of the plastic plants with it: the scheffleras in the corner, and a few palms slouching under the exit signs. He wears an industrial measuring tape clipped to his bathing suit and has measured the diving board several times and the circumference of the doorknobs to their rooms. Anita adores Billy.
“He’s really into maintenance these days.” Anita’s mother sighs. “And breasts.”
Congratulations, Emma!
Emma Duffy-Comparone's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Pushcart Prize XXXIX, Ploughshares, One Story, American Scholar, Southern Review, Mississippi Review, Cincinnati Review, and The Sun. She has received scholarships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences, and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Elizabeth George Foundation. She is a lecturer at Tufts University.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni, Awards, Short Story Publications
|
May 6, 2014 at 10:33 AM
We're continually proud of BU poet Tara Skurtu, who, in addition to having her poems published in a slew of journals, was recently featured on Radio Boston's ARTery segment on WBUR! What an honor (and a treat!). Listen to it here.
Bravo, Tara!
Tara Skurtu teaches Creative Writing at Boston University, where she received a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship and an Academy of American Poets Prize. She was named one of Lloyd Schwartz’s 6 Favorite New Poets on WBUR’s Here and Now. Recent poems have appeared in Poetry Review, Memorious, DMQ Review, The Dalhousie Review, the minnesota review, B O D Y, and The Los Angeles Review.
By Coordinator
|
Posted in Alumni, Poetry Publications
|
