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.
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Posted in Alumni, Awards, Short Story Publications
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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
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Posted in Alumni, Poetry Publications
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May 5, 2014 at 12:57 PM
Lisa Hiton recently gave a live poetry reading on The Casserole Reading Series, hosted by west coast poet, Chelsea Kurnick! Check it out here.
Two of Lisa's poems appear in -Anti, and earlier this year, she published this brief and lovely poem in Cellpoems. In addition, her poem, "Moonchild," was published in the spring issue of The Journal.
Way to go, Lisa!
Lisa Hiton holds an MFA in poetry from Boston University and an MEd in Arts in Education from Harvard University. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Literary Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Linebreak, and The Cortland Review among others. She has received the Esther B. Kahn Scholarship from 24Pearl Street at the Fine Arts Work Center and a nomination for the Pushcart Prize.
By Coordinator
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Posted in Alumni, Poetry Publications
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May 2, 2014 at 5:24 PM
We're thrilled to see The Best Emerging Poets of 2013 on sale on Amazon! The book, edited by Abriana "Abe" Jette (poetry alum) features BU poets such as Caitlin Doyle, Bekah Stout, and Dariel Suarez, and is soon to be the number one poetry anthology selling on Amazon. Buy your copy today!
Congrats, Abe!
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, 491 Magazine, and many others. She earned her M.F.A. in Poetry from Boston University, where she was a Betsey Leonard Fellow and a Robert Pinsky Global Fellow, and her M.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Hofstra University, where she graduated with Distinction. In the Fall, she will be pursuing a Doctorate of the Arts in English at St. John's University. She is the editor of the anthology "Best Emerging Poets of 2013", and teaches for St. John's University, and the City University of New York.
By Coordinator
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Posted in Alumni, Poetry Publications
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May 2, 2014 at 12:50 PM
It's been an impressively productive year for Dariel Suarez, whose fiction and poetry has been published or is forthcoming in a smattering of journals and other places!
His short story, "Lemonade," was published in Superstition Review this week. Another story, "Hope," has been accepted for publication by Michigan Quarterly Review. It will appear this summer in print.
Three of his poems have been published in MiPOsias. The issue is available in these links:
Order the print version.
The free, iTunes version.
Hearty congrats, Dariel!
Dariel Suarez is a Cuban-born writer who came to the United States in 1997. He earned his M.F.A. in fiction at Boston University, where he was a Global Fellow. Dariel is a founding editor of Middle Gray Magazine and has taught creative writing at Boston University, the Boston Arts Academy, and Boston University’s Metropolitan College. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals and magazines, including Prairie Schooner, The Florida Review, Southern Humanities Review, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, and Baltimore Review, as well as several anthologies. He’s recently completed a story collection set in his native country, and he’s at work on a novel about a Cuban political prisoner, titled The Playwright’s House. More about Dariel can be found at www.darielsuarez.com.
By Coordinator
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Posted in Alumni, Poetry Publications, Short Story Publications
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April 28, 2014 at 1:40 PM
Mimi Lipson's book of short stories, The Cloud of Unknowing, is now available on Amazon and in select bookstores nationwide. Hurrah! Published by Yeti Publishing, the book has received enthusiastic reviews from Sigrid Nunez and Ha Jin, among others.
Read an interview with Mimi here, and be sure to check out the stories, which Sigrid Nunez says "reveal again and again not only what's so funny and so sad about human longings and imperfections but also what is beautiful about them."
Congratulations, Mimi!
Mimi Lipson lives in Kingston, NY. She traveled to Italy, Spain, and Morocco in Fall 2012 on a Leslie Epstein Global Fellowship and graduated from BU's MFA program in January 2013. Her fiction has appeared in BOMB, Harvard Review, Witness, and elsewhere. She has enjoyed residency fellowships at Yaddo, Ucross, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and she is a 2014 Edward Albee Writing Fellow.
By Coordinator
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Posted in Alumni, Short Story Publications
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April 25, 2014 at 4:22 PM
We're so happy to learn that Luisa Caycedo-Kimura, a poet from the 2012-2013 class, has recently been chosen to be the 2014 John K. Walsh Residency Fellow! She'll receive a one-month artist residency at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, Minnesota, as well as a travel stipend.
About her path as a writer, Luisa says, "Five years ago, I left my career as an attorney to focus on my writing. It had to be all or nothing. I had no interest in being a hobbyist. In these past few years, wrapped in my writing pursuits, my husband and I shed most of our worldly possessions. We went from a house, to an apartment, to living in a small room. At times the scale backs happened slowly, almost imperceptibly. Other times, they were rapid and harsh... It was a time of molting and growth."
Read more here.
Congratulations, Luisa!
Luisa Caycedo-Kimura is a poet, a translator, and a recent graduate of Boston University’s MFA program. She traveled to Spain this past fall as a Robert Pinsky Global Fellow in Poetry. Luisa 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. 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. Her poems have also been included in the writing curricula at colleges and universities.
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Posted in Uncategorized
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April 22, 2014 at 4:37 PM
It is time, you said, then extended your hands,
the rabbit unfolding slowly from your chest,
trembling.
Bravo to BU poet Sarah Huener, whose poem, "The Rabbit," was published in Four Way Review's spring issue. Congratulations, 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.
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Posted in Uncategorized
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April 15, 2014 at 10:43 AM
Three BU poetry alums--Natasha Hakimi, Mike Brokos, and Sophie Grimes--have been featured in Stay Thirsty magazine! The quarterly column was written by Abriana Jette, who is a BU alum herself. Congrats, poets!
By Coordinator
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Posted in Alumni
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April 8, 2014 at 2:04 PM
Laura Marris, a lecturer in poetry at BU, has recently published a review-essay in Meridian on Frank Bidart and his book Metaphysical Dog. From the essay:
"The greater the distance between the artist and the illusion he or she wishes to create, the more poignant the desire to make art. Much of Frank Bidart’s work engages with this process and with the body as a (worthy or unworthy) instrument of illusion. But for a poet who has made a medium of the body, what does it mean to be metaphysical?"
Well done, Laura!
Laura Marris graduated from Yale in 2010 and holds an MFA from Boston University. She is a winner of the Daniel Varoujan Prize from the New England Poetry Club, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in H.O.W. Journal, DMQ Review, and Secousse. She teaches poetry at BU.
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Fantastic news for Emma Duffy-Comparone! Emma recently won a Pushcart Prize for her story, “The Zen Thing,”
