THE CREATIVE
WRITING ALUMNI NEWSLETTER Spring 2003
A newsletter for CSU MFA in Creative Writing Alumni, Faculty,
Students, and Friends
Mary Crow - Emeritus RETIRING
After 30 years of service to Colorado State University, Colorado Poet Laureate Mary Crow Emeritus is retiring. Mary Crow Emeritus was instrumental in building the MFA in Creative Writing Program at CSU, the Reading Series, and several poetry programs in the Poudre School District. Her most recent book of poetry is I Have Tasted The Apple, and Mary has two forthcoming books of translations, Engravings Torn From Insomnia: Poems by Olga Orozco (2002, BOA Editions, Ltd) and Homesickness: Selected Poems (2002, Integer Press). Mary has been an influential, thoughtful mentor and teacher, and she will be missed.
Mary Crow Emeritus and Bill Tremblay with former students at the 2003 AWP Conference
NEW FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR CSU MFAS
Thanks to a generous donation from an anonymous donor, CSU has been able to establish the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Fellowship Fund. The Tremblay-Crow Fellowships, which are a part of this fund, are intended to honor the talent, inspiration, and tireless efforts of Bill Tremblay and Mary Crow Emeritus, who have taught in CSU's English Department for 39 years and 30 years respectively. Each year, two $2,000 merit-based fellowships will be awarded to incoming MFA students whose writing shows exceptional promise, or to continuing students who are contributing members of the MFA program and whose writing has shown exceptional growth. Fellowship recipients will not have graduate teaching assistantships in the English Department.
NEW FACULTY MEMBER
Matthew Cooperman will join CSU’s poetry faculty
in August of 2003. Cooperman’s collection Surge won the Wick Chapbook
Prize, and his collection A Sacrificial Zinc won the Lena Miles Weaver
Todd Prize. His poetry has recently been published in ACM, Denver
Quarterly, American Literary Review, Black Warrior Review,
LIT, Chicago Review, and Quarterly West, among others. He
was a founding editor of Quarter After Eight, and a Provincetown
Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
AWARDS
Congratulations to Deanna Ludwin (Poetry, 1995) who was awarded third prize in the Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize contest judged by Naomi Shihab Nye for her poem "First Party". Her poem will appear in Water-Stone. She also received the 2002 Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching Creative Writing from the Organization of Graduate Student Writers at CSU. Deanna’s poem "It Isn't Sex If" was included in Green Mountains Review's 2002 special "Contemporary American Comedy" issue, and she attended the Squaw Valley Poetry Workshop in July of 2002.
Congratulations to Aaron Abeyeta (poetry, 1997) whose first collection of poetry, Colcha, received an American Book Award for 2002, and the poem "Colcha" received a grand prize from the Academy of American Poets.
Congratulations to Jody Rambo (1997) who received a $5,000 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council in 2002, as well as a Jerome Foundation Literature Travel and Study Grant in 1999. Recently, her work has appeared in Quarterly West, Verse, The Seattle Review, and Meridian.
Congratulations to Jacqueline Lyons, (Poetry, 1999) who received an NEA in Poetry for 2003.
Congratulations to Steve Church (MFA, Fiction 2001), who was awarded a 2003 Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship in Nonfiction.
Congratulations to Todd Mitchell (Fiction, 2002), who won the 2003 Knight Select Award for Outstanding Fiction. His story will appear in the Knight Literary Journal, Volume I, which is currently available through the Xlibris Website.
Congratulations to Jeff Faas (Fiction 2003), who received first prize in The Atlantic’s Student Fiction Contest, as well as an honorable mention for his nonfiction. Look for Jeff’s story in the May or June issue of The Atlantic. Last year, current CSU student Emily Wortman-Wunder received an honorable mention for her fiction in The Atlantic’s contest.
Congratulations to Jamie Kembrey (Fiction, 2003), who received a 2003 fellowship in the amount of $1000 from Arts Alive Fort Collins for his story "Hyakutake’s Celebration."
Congratulations to Nicole Backens (Fiction, 2004), whose short story "The Disciple of Because" was selected on the national level as a winner of the AWP Intro Journal Awards, and will appear in Shenandoah.
Congratulations to Jenna McWilliams (Poetry, 2005), whose poem "Heavily Disguised" was chosen by CU professor and poet Joe Amato as winner of the 2004 Academy of American Poets College and University Prize for CSU.
PUBLICATIONS
Professor John Calderazzo's literary nonfiction book on volcanoes around the world and culture, Rising Fire: Volcanoes and Our Inner Lives, will be published by Lyons Press. Also, "Into the Rawahs," an essay that John co-wrote with SueEllen Campbell, will appear in Sights of Insight: Colorado Sacred Places, a forthcoming anthology that has won a publication award from the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities.
Sondra Meek’s (1987) collection Nomadic Foundations was recently published by Elixir Press.
Charles Taylor (1990) has one poem and several photographs forthcoming in the Sierra Review, which is edited by Dr. Bill Hotchkiss.
Michael Shay’s (1992) story, "The Problem with Mrs. P" will be featured in the new anthology of working class writing from Wayne State University Press. Visit his website, www.hummingbirdminds.com, an on-line literary center focusing on writers, literary presenters, publishers, and resources important to writers in the Rocky Mountain West.
Jiro Adachi’s (1992) novel from St. Martin’s, The Island of Bicycle Dancers, will be out in February of 2004.
Julie Becker’s (Poetry, 1997) chapbook, "Pygmy" was published in 2001 by Potes and Poets Press as a part of their Innovative Women Series.
Gary Chang (Poetry, 2002) will have a collection of poetry Nowhere Near Moloka'i out in Fall/Winter 2003 from Bear Star Press.
Jill Darling’s (Poetry, 2002) manuscript, Solve For, has been selected as a semifinalist for the Academy of American Poets’ Walt Whitman Award. The winning book will be chosen in May by C.D. Wright.
Aaryn Richard (Poetry, 2004) has had two poems accepted for publication in Hotel Amerika: "After (I Said) Mourning" and "A Psalm in which the voice never claims betrayal." Also, four poems are forthcoming in The Portland Review: "Wall," "Risen," "In Mutable Scenes," and "Entrances and Rituals."
READING SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS
CSU’s 2003 Reading Series continued on Thursday, April 24th with a reading by John Bradley, the Crow/Tremblay Alumni Reader for 2002-2003, at 7:30 pm in the Hatton Gallery in the Visual Arts Building on CSU’s campus. Bradley graduate from CSU with a MA in English, then went on to receive an MFA from Bowling Green State University. His book of poetry Love-In-Idleness won the Washington Prize, and he is the editor of Atomic Ghost: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age and Learning to Glow: A Nuclear Reader. He has a full length book (Terrestrial Music) forthcoming from Curbstone Press, and a new chapbook of prose poems (Ad Musk Here) from Pavement Saw Press.
On Thursday, May 1st, CSU faculty members Steven Schwartz (fiction), David Mogen (Creative Nonfiction), and Deanna Ludwin (poetry) read from their work at 7:30 pm in the Hatton Gallery in the Visual Arts Building on the CSU campus.
Crow/Tremblay Alumni Reader John Bradley, with MFA Candidate Rosa Salazar
BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, JOBS, ETC.
From Paul Schultz (1988): Fiona Gabrielle born 9/25/02.
Though we try interest her in writing, she seems more inclined toward music
and dance. All is explained in a poem by Noelle Rydell in the March/April
issue of the North American Review.
Krista Hilton Ross (1990) currently works online for Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, teaching students and instructors.
Alissa Reardon Norton (1994) is development director and managing editor of Many Mountains Moving, a literary journal based out of Boulder, CO. She also writes grants for non-profit organizations and is married with two kids, Antonio (3) and Emmaline (7 mos.).
Chris Hoerter (1994) and Laura Augustine (1994) are living in Chapel Hill, NC; Laura works as a Knowledge Engineer at Cisco Systems, and Chris is at home with their son, Sam.
Neil Hastings (2004, fiction) and Lesa Alison (2004, poetry and fiction), now Mrs. Hastings, were married on March 8 in Oz Spies (2003, fiction) and her husband Sean Fontaine’s living room. The bride was radiant in a white skirt suit with faux-fur collar and held a bouquet of pink roses, while the groom looked smashing in a black linen suit. Mimosas and pastries were served following the ceremony. Mr. and Mrs. Hastings will make their home in Fort Collins with their crazy cat, Chloe, and will soon move into the Spies/Fontaine residence in June, when the Spies/Fontaines relocate to Denver.
