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Interview

Sponsor Spotlight :: Eastern Michigan University Interdisciplinary MA in Creative Writing

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The MA in Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University is distinguished as one of the only interdisciplinary programs for creative writing in the country. They accept applications year-round with January 10 being the priority deadline for the fall term.

“Locating the writer’s work along the frontiers of social imaginaries and civic possibilities, our program nourishes opportunities to develop a conceptually rigorous and imaginatively engaged writing.” The program also emphasizes the importance of aesthetic risk and social application while also offering writers opportunities to explore multiple arts and mixed genres.

Core faculty for the program are Rob Halpern, Carla Harryman, Christine Hume, and Matt Kirkpatrick. Recent visiting writers include Latasha N. Nevada Diggs, Nathaniel Mackey, Ted Pearson, Joanna Rocco, Daniel Borzutzky, Wayne Kostenbaum, Kevin Killian, Sarah Schulman.

They also have a literary magazine, BathHouse Journal, and a reading series, BathHouse Reading Series.

Stop by their listing at NewPages to learn more about the program.

NewPages Mag Stand: Carve Magazine

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The Fall 2020 issue is now at the Mag Stand, and it features the winners of the 2020 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest: Lindsay Kennedy, C. Adán Cabrera, Ella Martinsen Gorham, Anna Prawdzik Hull, and L. Vocem. New poetry by Beth Spencer, Cho A., Anthony Aguero, Andrew Navarro, and Esther Sun. New nonfiction by Sarah Yeazel and Clinton Crockett Peters. Additional features include Christine Heuner in Decline/Accept, Grace Talusan interviewed by Sejal H. Patel in One to Watch, and illustrations by Justin Burks.

NewPages Mag Stand: Plume

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Visit Plume for this month’s Featured Selection: On Queer Poetics, Writing Courageously, and Becoming Otherwise: An Interview with Nomi Stone by Amanda Newell. In nonfiction, Peter Johnson provides “The Edson Letters.” Mark Wagenaar reviews Eric Pankey’s Alias. See this month’s poetry contributors at the Mag Stand.

NewPages Mag Stand: Terrain.org

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Visit this week’s Mag Stand. New on Terrain.org this month: poetry by Jane Lovell, Zach Eddy, Ted Kooser, Mary Fitzpatrick, Emily Tuszynska, and Jocelyn Casey-Whiteman; nonfiction and photos by Tyra A. Olstad; fiction by Jessica Bryant Klagmann; and an interview with Aimee Nezhukumatathil by Melissa L. Sevigny.

NewPages Mag Stand: Chestnut Review

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Work by Erik Wilbur, winner of the Chestnut Review 2020 Poetry Chapbook Contest, opens the Autumn 2020 issue, followed by an interview with the poet. See what else can be found in this issue at the Mag Stand.

NewPages Mag Stand: The Bitter Oleander

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The Autumn 2020 issue features an interview with the Danish poet Carsten René Nielsen, including a selection of his prose poetry translated by David Keplinger. Also in this issue: fiction by Michael Pearce, Kelly Talbot, and more; essays by Will Stone; and poetry by Dolores Etchecopar, Stephen Tuttle, Madronna Holden, David Cholrton, Matei Vişniec, Silvia Scheibli, Patty Dickson Pieczka, and others. See more contributors at the Mag Stand.

An MFA in the Pandemic

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Guest Post by Samantha Tucker

Ohio State University logoWhen I applied to MFA programs, it was with the intention of finding a writing community. During my time at The Ohio State University, I was lucky to foster strong relationships with my classmates through our shared experience and dedication to the written word. To this day, I continue to edit and be generously edited by a group of talented writers, most of whom I met in my very first class, a nonfiction workshop with the writer Lee Martin.

But what is a writing community when the people sharing their art are only able to do so virtually? And when writers find themselves in the middle of so many American catastrophes, where do we find the urge to create at all? I asked Lee Martin, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio State, for insight on his teaching and writing life during a pandemic.

How have your workshops/classes adapted to being online?

Lee: We seem to be adapting well. I love my students, and the level of engagement seems to be high. It’s not quite the same, of course, as sitting around a table, but we’re doing fine. I’ve had some students comment on how our Zoom meetings give them a chance to feel a part of our writing community, so that’s a good thing. I just wish we could do the things we used to do—go out for $4 burger night at Brazen Head Pub, have spaghetti dinners at my and Cathy’s house, have bowling parties, etc. Ah well, I hope we’ll be able to do those things and more very soon.

How has your writing changed, if at all?

Lee: I find myself writing steadily as a way of escaping the reality of what’s going on in the world around me. It’s a comfort to me to escape into the worlds of my own making in novels and stories set before the pandemic. I’m only now working on something more current that, of course, will eventually have to face the pandemic head-on.

What are your words of wisdom as to finding the space in this chaos to create art?

Lee: I’ve been thinking a lot about how to stay in the present moment of what delights me rather than thinking about all that depresses me or makes me fear for the future. Silence is a good thing. If we can find those places of silence we can fill them with the efforts of our own choosing rather than the worries and the fears that the current climate places upon us. Today, for instance, Cathy and I went out to Inniswood Metro Gardens and disappeared into the natural world and immediately felt our breath coming more easily. Such places and moments are all around us. All we have to do is look for them.

Reviewer bio: Samantha Tucker is an anti-racist essayist in Columbus, Ohio. Find her words at www.theamericandreamstartshere.com.

NewPages Mag Stand: Spoon River Poetry Review

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The Summer 2020 Issue of SRPR is now on the Mag Stand. In this issue, you’ll find cover art by Brittany Schloderback; the SRPR Illinois Poet Feature with new poetry by Simone Muench and Jackie K. White, with an interview of the poets by Carlo Matos and Amy Sayre Batista; and new poetry by Jose-Luis Moctezuma, Paul Martinez-Pompa, Julia Wong Kcomt translated by Jennifer Shyue, Michael Leong, Emily Carr, and more.

NewPages Mag Stand: Plume

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This month’s featured selection: “The Chronicler of a Blue Planet: An audio interview with Ranjit Hoskote by Leeya Mehta” with work by the poet. Christopher Buckley pens the essay, “Out of Fresno—Poetry & ‘Career,’” and Susan Blackwell Ramsey reviews Hailey Leithauser’s Saint Worm. See more poetry contributors at the Mag Stand.

The Malahat Review Novella Prize – 2020 Winner

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The Malahat Review hosts a Novella Prize biennially. The 2020 winner opens the Summer 2020 issue. Judges Samantha Jade Macpherson and Naben Ruthnum selected “Yentas” by Rebecca Păpucaru.

Of “Yentas,” the judges said: “‘Yentas’ is a nostalgia-free portrait of girlhood lived among the Jewish communities of 1980s Montreal. The novella’s evocation of the cruelties and kindnesses of teenage friendship, territorialism, and enmity is built in prose as funny as it is precise. Rebecca Păpucaru’s treatment of culture, ethnicity, and religion as complex structures informing protagonist Karen’s family and social life achieves impressive depth and nuance. Through Karen’s eyes we are totally immersed in a rich and bubbling teenaged world. Visceral and enchanting, a truly fantastic read!”

At The Malahat Review‘s website, readers can check out an interview with the winning author.

NewPages Mag Stand: Plume

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Visit this month’s featured selection: “From Lewisburg to Syracuse: An interview with Bruce Smith by Chard deNiord.” Sydney Lea, in nonfiction, writes “Inviting the Reader: Narrative Values, Lyric Poems” and Donovan McAbee reviews Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry by John Murillo. See poetry contributors at the Mag Stand.