We'd like to congratulate our own Jill Maio (Fiction 2009), whose story “Tallying” has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by the Los Angeles Review. The LAR describes "Tallying," which appeared in their Fall 2010 Issue 8, as "one of those haunting and courageous stories, painful yet somehow humorous at times." Congratulations, Jill!

Each year the Massachusetts Book Awards recognize the best writers in this vibrant literary state by naming winners and a list of "Recommended Readings" in four genres -- fiction, nonfiction, poetry & children's/young adult literature. This year, The Unpredictability of Light (Word Press), a collection of poems

by Boston University Creative Writing alumna Marguerite Bouvard (Poetry, 1977) has been named a MassBook of the Year, sharing a spot on the

Recommended Reading in Poetry list with Boston University faculty member Louise Glück's A Village Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Marguerite's recent publications also include a poem coming out in Gemini Press in February, and a prose poem, "Journey," recently released from the online journal  Prose Poem Project. Her poetry and essays have been widely anthologized. She is a resident scholar at Brandeis University.

Robert Pinsky, BU poetry professor and former U.S. Poet Laureate, will give three performances in LA next week with the great Bobby Bradford and his Mo'tet: Wednesday 2/9 at the Oakwood School, Thursday 2/10 at the Armand Hammer Museum, Friday noon at The Century in Century City.

Joe Fazio's wonderful story, "A Temporary Fix," has been published on The Kenyon Review online. Joe is a recent graduate of the Fiction program at Boston University. He is currently working on a collection of stories and a novel and lives in Boston with his wife, Shivani.