A debut novel deal for Kimberly Elkins

We are very excited to report that Kimberly Elkins (Fiction 2010)’s novel, “What Is Visible,” which she worked on while at BU, has been sold to Grand Central Publishing, a division of Little, Brown. A chapter from the novel, “The Letter,” is the runner-up for the Nelson Algren Award and will be published shortly in a literary supplement to The Chicago Tribune.  Another story, “The Awful Wondering,” will be out in The Iowa Review in September.

Congratulations, Kimberly, and we can’t wait to read the book!

Lisa Hiton in the Summer 2012 issue of the Indiana Review

We're proud to announce that Lisa Hiton's poem "Tuesday" has been published in this summer's issue of The Indiana Review!

Lisa graduated in 2011 with an MFA in Poetry from BU, where she was a Teaching Fellow and co-curator of a reading series, Writers at the Black Box.  Among other honors, Lisa has been the recipient of fellowships from the New York State Summer Writers Institute and the MU Writing Workshop: Thessaloniki and Thassos, where she is currently working with Carolyn Forché.  Lisa's poetry and essays have also appeared or are forthcoming in Elephant Journal, 491 Magazine, The Poetry Dress, and others.  She teaches literature, writing, and yoga around Boston.

Congratulations, Lisa!

 

May 15th MFA reading at the Playwright’s Theater

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At 7 PM on May 15, 2012, come to the Boston Playwright's Theater at 949 Commonwealth Avenue, for the final session in the BU MFA poetry reading series, featuring Susan Barba, Mike Brokos, Bryan Coller, Megan Fernandes, L. E. Goldstein, Abriana Jette, Natasha Hakimi, and Kelly Morse. Wine and cheese reception to follow.

Susan Barba is the managing editor at David R. Godine, Publisher/Black Sparrow Books. She has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University, and her writing has appeared in Boston Review, Words Without Borders, and The Yalobusha Review. She has a poem forthcoming in the Hudson Review, and she lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children.

Mike Brokos hails from the mid-Atlantic, growing up outside of Baltimore, earning an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Maryland, and living in the Washington, DC area for several years before coming to Boston to work on his MFA in Poetry.

Bryan Coller grew up in Southern California where he attended UC Irvine. He studies and teaches creative writing at Boston University.

Laura Goldstein is from Niceville, Florida. She finished a creative writing M.A. in August from the University of Southern Mississippi, and is now pursuing her M.F.A in poetry from Boston University.

Natasha Hakimi holds both a B.A. in Spanish and a B.A. in English with a creative writing concentration from the University of California, Los Angeles.She has received several awards for creative writing, including the May Merrill Miller Award for Poetry in 2008 and 2010, the Ruth Brill Award for short fiction in 2010 and the Falling Leaves Award in 2010. Natasha writes for Los Angeles Magazine and Truthdig and is pursuing her M.F.A. in Creative Writing, with an emphasis in Poetry at Boston University.

Megan Fernandes is a PhD candidate in English Literature at UC Santa Barbara. She is the editor of Strangers in Paris (Tightrope Books 2011) and has two forthcoming chapbooks, Organ Speech (Corrupt Press, November 2011) and Some Citrus Makes me Blue (Dancing Girl Press, January 2012). She has also been published in Upstairs at Duroc and Media Fields: Science and Scale.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Abriana Jette holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and English from Hofstra University. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry at Boston University where she is a Betsey Leonard Fellow. She is a Robert Pinsky Global Fellow, an AWP Intro Journal Project nominee, and teaches at the Boston Academy of Arts.

Kelly Morse grew up in the Pacific Northwest, but has since drifted as far as Spain, South Africa and even the East Coast. Most recently, her work has appeared in PoetsArtists and Strange Roots: Views of Hanoi. Kelly is currently working on a series that explores linguistic and world-view gaps between Eastern and Western cultures after a two-year stay in Vietnam.

For more information please visit: http://www.facebook.com/events/323200821086669.

Megan Fernandes publication news

We're proud to share Megan Fernandes (MFA: Poetry, 2013)'s recent publishing news, all accomplished as she's been a full-time student in our MFA program!

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In the past year, Megan has published two chapbooks: Organ Speech (Corrupt Press) and Some Citrus Makes me Blue (Dancing Girl Press). The anthology she co-edited, Strangers in Paris (Tightrope Books) was named one of the twelve recommended books in Parisian Expat Literature by World Literature Today. Megan gave readings to promote her work this past year in Paris, London, Toronto, New York City, and Chicago.

She is also the recent recipient of the Writers Room of Boston 2012 Fellowship in Poetry and was named a winner of the Dzanc Books Scholarship to the Disquiet Writing Festival in Lisbon this summer. This summer, our department is sending her to Portugal and Morocco as a 2012 Robert Pinsky Global Fellow in Poetry.

Megan is completing her PhD in Literature this year at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has a forthcoming publication in Rattle.

Congratulations, Megan! We are excited for you.

Kelly Morse recent publications

Kelly Morse, a poet currently studying in our MFA program, has been quite busy as a student, publishing no fewer than four poems in this past year! Congratulations, Kelly.

Please visit the following links to read Kelly's wonderful poetry.

"Phuong Vy" - mojo, issue 2 (forthcoming late spring) http://mikrokosmosjournal.com/wordpress/

"Natural Language" and "How to Drink the Beer in Saigon" - Plan B Magazine, issue 5 (forthcoming in print May 2012)

"The Stretch of Paper, Like Linen" - PoetsArtists, issue 28, pg 52, Oct 2011 www.poetsandartists.com

Finalist for the SLS Unified Literary Contest 2012, poetry, judged by Tony Hoagland (organizations website: http://www.sumlitsem.org)

Kelly Morse grew up in the Pacific Northwest, but has since drifted as far as Spain, South Africa and even the East Coast. Kelly is currently working on a series that explores linguistic and world-view gaps between Eastern and Western cultures after a two-year stay in Vietnam. She will be a 2012 Robert Pinsky Global Fellow in Poetry, and will travel to Hong Kong and Hanoi.

Caitlin Doyle’s poem in The Atlantic

Caitlin Doyle, who received her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from BU in 2008, has had one of her poems published in the May 2012 issue of The Atlantic.

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Caitlin has also been awarded the 2012 ALSCW (Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers) Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT. The fellowship provides a residency to a writer of poetry, prose, or literary translations. Information about the fellowship is available here.

And this spring, she will hold the Roland Scholarship as a residency fellow and Associate Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL, working with Visiting Master Artist Gregory Orr. Click for information about the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

Congratulations, Caitlin! We at BU Creative Writing are eager to see what's in store for you in the future...

Lisa Hiton: “Against Irreverence”

Lisa HitonLisa Hiton (MFA, Poetry, 2011) has published a fascinating article about yoga, teaching, and cynicism, in the online elephant journal. Click here: "Against Irreverence: Unleashing the Wrecking Ball."

Lisa's poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The Indiana Review, 491 Magazine, The Poetry Dress, and others. She teaches college literature and yoga in Boston.

Congratulations, Lisa!

Carolyn Mainardi, BU undergraduate, published in Danse Macabre

sharkExciting news this Friday--Carolyn Mainardi, a senior in the College of Communication at BU who has taken courses from MFA students and alumni of the Creative Writing Program, including Caroline Woods's EN 305 and Daphne Kalotay's EN 405, has been published! Her story, "Secret Eater," about a girl whose sister is gnawed by a shark, appears in this week's edition of Danse Macabre: http://dansemacabre.art.officelive.com/DanseMacabreDuJour.aspx

Congratulations, Carolyn!

BU Poetry Faculty in the Boston Globe

GlobeThe Boston Globe featured three of our readers at the February 22, 2012 Annual Faculty reading on their Names blog: http://www.boston.com/Boston/names/2012/02/poets-gather-boston-university/pwPMK8L9JruadtTZKuaU6O/index.html

Leslie Epstein, Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award winner Ha Jin, Molly Smith Metzler, and Chloe Martinez also read.

Read it online: new short fiction by Micah Nathan

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Micah Nathan (Fiction 2010), award-winning author of the novels Losing Graceland and Gods of Aberdeen, has two new short stories either already published or coming soon. Happy news for a Friday: you can read one of them online.

"One Act" was released in the Gettysburg Review's last issue. You can read the story here.

"Quarry" is appearing in Glimmer Train this month.

Be sure to check out Micah's blog for more "stories malevolent and benign."