BU Creative Writing

"In a Room With Rothko," an essay by Anthony Wallace (Fiction 1999) that originally appeared in The Arts Fuse, has been awarded a Pushcart Prize Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXXVIII: Best of the Small Presses (Norton & Co, 2013).

The Arts Fuse, which is an e-journal of arts criticism, describes the essay as "a personal meditation on the art of Mark Rothko, ranging from memories of a mystical encounter with his paintings to thoughts on the recent SpeakEasy Stage production of 'Red,' which is based on the life of the artist."

Anthony Wallace was awarded the 2013 Drue Heinz Literature Prize for a collection of short stories called The Old Priest; the University of Pittsburgh Press published the collection in September 2013. The title story originally was published in The Republic of Letters and was awarded a Pushcart Prize; "The Old Priest" appears in PPXXXVII (2013 edition) and has been reprinted in 236, the BU Creative Writing alumni literary magazine. Tony has published poetry and short fiction in literary journals such as CutBank, The Atlanta Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Florida Review, and River Styx. He has twice been a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award. He teaches in the Boston University CAS Writing Program and is currently teaching EN 305, Writing of Fiction, for the Creative Writing Program.

A story by Dariel Suarez (Fiction 2012), "The Comforter," about a mental hospital in Havana where patients die when a cold front comes through, has been accepted for publication in the Southern Humanities Review and will appear in print in the next few months. Dariel also has work forthcoming in Prairie Schooner and The Florida Review. All are stories that he worked on while in workshops at BU with Leslie Epstein, Sigrid Nunez, and Ha Jin.

Congratulations, Dariel!

Dariel Suarez is a Cuban-born writer who came to the United States in 1997. He is a fiction co-editor at Blood Lotus Journal and a founding editor of Middle Gray Magazine. He has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Boston Arts Academy, and is teaching this fall at BU’s Metropolitan College. Dariel’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals and magazines, including Gargoyle, Necessary Fiction, and Baltimore Review (links are to online texts of his work), 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. Dariel can be found at www.darielsuarez.com.

Leah Griesmann (Fiction 2005) spent the summer in Berlin, Germany, where she received a DAAD grant in fiction to research her next writing project. DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service, is the German national agency for the support of international academic cooperation.

Leah's story "Stardust" is forthcoming in PEN Center USA's The Rattling Wall. She is also reading an original short story at San Francisco's Litquake Festival, and her story "The Slave," which appeared in J: Journal: New Writing on Justice (link is to the story's online text) will be performed at "Play on Words" at the Blackbird Tavern in San Jose, California.

Leah Griesmann (Fiction 2005) was a 2010-2011 Steinbeck Fellow in Fiction, and the recipient of a 2013 DAAD grant for fiction in Berlin, Germany. Her stories have appeared in The Cortland Review, Union Station, Litro Magazine, Pif Magazine, J Journal: New Writing on Justice, and PEN Center USA's The Rattling Wall.  Her fiction has been read or performed at Sacramento Stories on Stage, the Center for Literary Arts, Why There Are Words, Play on Words San Jose, and San Francisco's Litquake Festival. She is currently a lecturer in creative writing and composition at San Jose State University where she is at work on a novel and a collection of stories.

Congratulations, Leah!

Abriana Jetté (Poetry 2012) has posted a second installment of "Emerging Poets" on StayThirsty.com, featuring three BU MFA alumni: Megan Fernandes (Poetry 2012), Lisa Hiton (Poetry 2011), and Rebekah Stout (Poetry 2010). The article also features Jonathan Escoffery, who teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota.

To read Abriana's essay, visit http://www.staythirstymedia.com/201310-082/html/201310-jette-intellect-image.html

Abriana Jetté is a poet, essayist, and educator from Brooklyn, New York. She traveled to Sardinia as a Robert Pinsky Global Fellow while earning her MFA at Boston University. She also has an M.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Hofstra University, where she graduated with Distinction. Her work has appeared in the American Literary Review, Word Riot, The Boiler, Every Day Poets, and many other places. She teaches Creative Writing at St. John's University, and various English related courses for the City University of New York.

Tara Skurtu (Poetry 2013) is a 2013 Robert Pinsky Global Fellow (part of the BU MFA program); she is currently spending her global fellow semester in Romania. The Romanian poet and scholar Radu Vancu has just invited Tara to be an official author (and read poems) at the International Poetry Festival in Sibiu, Romania, September 27-29. Tara is one of two poets from the US. (The other is Martin Woodside.)

The Robert Pinsky Global Fellows in Poetry and the Leslie Epstein Global Fellows in Fiction may go to any country and do there what they wish, for a typical stay of three months. The Global Fellowship adventure is not only intended to help our MFA candidates grow as writers, but also to widen eyes, minds, and hearts–from which better writing and poetry might eventually flow.

You can follow Tara Skurtu's adventures in Romania at http://skurturomania.blogspot.com/ Congratulations, Tara!