Writers of Washington University in St. Louis

Joanna Kaminski-Indiana Review

2011-01-26T23:04:00.001-06:00

Joanna Kaminski (Poetry, '10) has a poem, "Baby," forthcoming in the Winter 2011 issue of Indiana Review.

Amy Baily in New Writing

2010-11-15T13:24:00.000-06:00

Amy Baily (Fiction '09) has a story, "The Confidante," in the most recent issue of New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing.

John Brandon, Citrus County, Review

2010-09-10T11:40:00.005-05:00

John Brandon's (Fiction,'01) new novel Citrus County was on the July cover of the New York Times Book Review.

In his rave review, Daniel Handler (author of A Series of Unfortunate Events) says, "John Brandon’s terrific new novel, Citrus County, opens with a slap in the face to the adage that an author ought to identify his hero by having him do something nice for a kid ... "

Tamiko Beyer, Interview in Collagist

2010-07-28T10:52:00.001-05:00

An interview with Tamiko Beyer (Poetry, '10) has been posted by The Collagist. Her poem "Wondering Home" appeared in the April issue of the journal.

Teddy Wayne, The New Yorker

2010-07-26T10:04:00.000-05:00

Teddy Wayne's (Fiction, '07) humor piece "Postmadern Men" was published as the Shouts and Murmurs feature for the August 2, 2010 issue of The New Yorker.

New work has appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney's, Five Chapters, Barnes and Noble Review Grin & Tonic, The L Magazine, GQ, and Vanity Fair, among others. Visit Wayne's site for a comprehensive listing (with links to work!).

Shannon Robinson, Nimrod Fiction Prize

2010-07-20T13:57:00.001-05:00

Shannon Robinson (Fiction, '11) won Nimrod International Journal's 2010 Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, judged this year by novelist David Wroblewski. Her winning short story, "Miscarriages," which had previously won Wash U's departmental prize for fiction, will be published in the Fall 2010 issue of Nimrod.

Wash U Departmental Prizes

2010-06-30T14:21:00.001-05:00

Several 2010 English Department prizes have been awarded to Writing Program members:

Academy of American Poets Award, Graduate Student: Joanna Kaminski (Poetry, '10), Honorable mention to Marni Ludwig (Poetry, '11)
Carrie S. Galt Prize for Fiction: Shannon Robinson (Fiction, '11)
Norma Lowry Memorial Prize, Graduate Student

Congratulations!

Haines Eason, radio, pubs & chapbook

2010-06-10T21:37:00.001-05:00

Haines Eason (Poetry, '10) has new work out in Cream City Review (five poems which won the journal's Beau Boudreaux Poetry Prize, judged by Kathy Fagan), Center, and Notre Dame Review, and Southern Indiana Review, which will also be publishing an interview on their website soon.

His chapbook, A History of Waves, is now available for purchase from Poetry Society of America; he read from it for two segments of The Poets Weave on NPR station WFIU out of Bloomington, Indiana. The first installment is available online now, and the second airs June 20.

Nick Admussen, KRO, a chapbook...

2010-05-10T08:19:00.002-05:00

Nick Admussen (Poetry, '04) has new poems at 751 Magazine, Kenyon Review Online, and The Ledge. An excerpt from his forthcoming chapbook will appear soon at Epiphany Magazine.

Kerri Webster reads at Wash U

2010-04-26T19:13:00.000-05:00

Poet Kerri Webster, whose three-year tenure as Visiting Writer concludes this year, gave a reading April 20. She read from her book We Do Not Eat Our Heart Alone and her forthcoming chapbook Psalm Project, as well as a poem inspired by the craft class on persona poems she taught this semester and a poem in tribute to her friend and colleague in the program Kathleen Finneran. She was warmly applauded for several minutes upon the completion of the reading.

Kevin Prufer, Teddy Wayne read at Wash U

2010-04-26T18:58:00.003-05:00

Writing Program alumni, novelist Teddy Wayne ('07) and poet Kevin Prufer ('96), returned to Wash U this past Thursday to give the one of the final readings of the year.

Wayne read a short piece he'd read while a student at Wash U (published in McSweeney's) and then read an excerpt from his debut novel Kapitoil, which was just heralded by the Boston Globe as "one of the best novels of [this] generation."

Prufer, remarking that it was strange to be reading so close to the classroom in which he'd had his first workshop with Carl Phillips, read from his most recent book National Anthem, as well as from two forthcoming works.

Both writers met the following day with students to discuss their post-program experiences.

NYS Summer Writers Scholarships

2010-04-06T12:01:00.000-05:00

Poets Annah Browning ('10) and Allan Popa ('11) were awarded scholarships to attend the 2010 New York State Summer Writers Institute. Two others were also offered scholarships but declined due to other commitments.

Nick Flynn reads at Wash U

2010-04-06T10:57:00.001-05:00

Poet and memoirist Nick Flynn read from his memoirs Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (Norton, 2004) and Ticking is the Bomb (Norton, 2010) on March 31. The latter, published in January of this year, interweaves his personal history and the then impending birth of his daughter with an exploration of American torture practices, particularly those demonstrated in photographs taken at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Of Washington University's campus, Flynn said it reminded him of a sort of Disney castle.

Nick Flynn's Another Bullshit Night in Suck City won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, was shortlisted for France's Prix Femina, and has been translated into thirteen languages. He is also the author of two books of poetry, Some Ether and Blind Huber, for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress.

Frank Bidart, Hurst Professor

2010-04-06T10:42:00.001-05:00

Poet Frank Bidart joined members of the Writing Program the week of March 22, giving both a reading of his work, and a craft lecture on "the fate of the soul" and exploring the distinction between the personal and impersonal in poetry.

Frank Bidart is the author of eight books of poems. His latest book is Watching the Spring Festival. He has received the Wallace Stevens Award, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Foundation Writer's Award, and the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Cambridge, MA and teaches at Wellesley College.

Amanda Goldblatt, The Collagist

2010-03-19T10:05:00.007-05:00

Amanda Goldblatt's (Fiction, '09) story "If Your Light Must Leave You" is in the March edition of The Collagist, Dzanc's online journal.

Haines Eason, Cream City Review

2010-02-28T18:09:00.003-06:00

Haines Eason (Poetry '10) won the 2010 Cream City Review Beau Boudreaux Poetry Prize, judged by Kathy Fagan. The winning poems will appear in the Spring 2010 issue.

Eileen G'Sell, Interim Magazine

2010-02-18T17:30:00.004-06:00

Eileen G'Sell (Poetry, '06) was a finalist in Opium Magazine's 2009 Bookmark Contest, judged by Andrew Sean Greer. She has two poems forthcoming in Interim Magazine, and other recent work can be found in Ninth Letter and The Boston Review.

G'Sell teaches English and film studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is also the publications editor at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Kathryn Davis, Significant Objects Project

2010-02-17T06:27:00.000-06:00

Hurst Senior Writer in Residence, Kathryn Davis, is participating in the very interesting Significant Objects Project, in which small and seemingly insignificant objects are invested with new meaning through the attachment of a short story. Each object is paired with a writer, and the object and its new-found "history"are sold on Ebay, proceeds, in this case, going to the nonprofit 826 National.

Kathryn's object: Yellow Bear.

It's still up on Ebay, but only barely (bearly!). Five hours. Here on Ebay. Here on the Significant Other Project site.

Aimee Mepham, Opium Magazine

2010-02-16T14:34:00.004-06:00

Aimee Mepham (Fiction, '02) was the winner of Opium Magazine's 2009 Bookmark Contest, judged by Andrew Sean Greer. Her winning story, "Excuse Me," was printed in Opium9 and received $1,000. Aimee is an adjunct professor of creative writing at Salem College.

H.M. Patterson, Conjunctions

2010-02-16T12:35:00.006-06:00

H.M. Patterson's (Fiction, '06) short story "Sailing By Night" will appear in Conjunctions (Volume 54: Shadow Selves, Spring 2010).

Brian Evenson reads at Wash U

2010-02-12T14:04:00.008-06:00

The Writing Program welcomed author Brian Evenson yesterday, Feb. 11th, as the latter read in Hurst Lounge. Tipped off about the room's angels by one of his current students, a WU alumn, Evenson began by glancing at each and quipping that the closest he'd previously come to reading with angels was a reading he'd given in the basement of a church in Utah, which, he said, had not gone over well. Evenson read a newer story, "Windeye" (read online here, before reading "Invisible Box" (sex with a mime(!)), and "An Accounting" (the origin of a Midwestern Jesus) from his collection Fugue State. Second-year fiction student Colin introduced Evenson.

Find Fugue State here.
A couple charming interviews, at Bookslut and Rain Taxi.

Brian Evenson is the author of nine books of fiction, most recently the novel Last Days and the story collection Fugue State. He lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island, where he directs Brown University's Literary Arts Program. He has received an O. Henry Prize as well as an NEA fellowship. A limited edition novella, Baby Leg was published by New York Tyrant Press in late 2009.

Jane Miller reads at Wash U

2010-02-12T14:04:00.005-06:00

Poet Jane Miller read Feb. 4th as part of the Writing Program spring reading series. Miller began with a poem recited from memory before reading from her recent collection Midnights. She also read a sequence of short poems from a work in progress--she likened the poems, the last line of one poem being the first of the next--to the continuous roll of a player piano. Miller was introduced by second-year Wash. U. poet Alec Hershman.

Purchase Memory At These Speeds: New and Selected Poems and Midnights.
Read the WU Newsroom event announcement.
Read the 2005 Greenbelt Review interview here.
Bio and selected poems online at the Poetry Foundation.

Jane Miller is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including the National Poetry Series selection The Greater Leisures, Memory at These Speeds: New and Selected Poems, and the book-length poem A Palace of Pearls. Miller has received the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award and the Western States Book Award.

Mary Stewart Atwell, Alaska Qrtrly &...

2010-02-10T09:42:00.015-06:00

Mary Stewart Atwell's (Fiction, '02) story "Maynard" appeared in the fall and winter 2009 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review. The story will be reprinted in Best American Mystery Stories 2010. Mary is an assistant fiction editor of Virginia Quarterly Review.

David Schuman, Tusculum and Sou'wester

2010-02-04T14:13:00.001-06:00

David Schuman's (Fiction '04) short story "Dentiste" was published in the Fall 2009 issue of Sou'wester, and he is currently the featured artist at Tusculum Review. Read his story "Dogo Argentino" here.

David Schuman’s fiction has appeared in Missouri Review, Conjunctions, Black Warrior Review and many other publications. He won a Pushcart Prize in 2007. He is currently serving as assistant director of the Writing Program at Washington University.

Alison Espach, Scribner

2010-02-02T20:06:00.002-06:00

Alison Espach’s (Fiction ’09) debut novel, The Adults, will be published by Scribner in Spring 2011. An early draft of the manuscript was submitted as her Writing Program thesis.

Ali's short fiction has previously appeared in McSweeney's, The Del Sol Review, and Sentence. She currently teaches fiction and creative nonfiction at Washington University in St. Louis and is the fiction editor of Arch Literary Magazine. She is a contributor to Fiction Writers Review.