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Alum Publishes Chapbook with Finishing Line Press

Jen Kindbom, Ashland University MFA class of 2009, has had her chapbook, A Note on the Door , accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press. It will be published in the spring of 2011. Advance sale copies may be purchased on Finishing Line Press's website. About A Note on the Door , Kathryn Winograd has the following to say: " A Note on the Door sparkles in the best tradition of American poetry: the ordinary world made new through the simple vernacular and cadences of American speech. Jen Kindbom is the fay spirit sprinkling our dirty porches, crying babies, and noxious beetles with her magic dust. These are the poems I'll pin to my neighbors' doors."

Visiting Writers 2011

A hearty welcome to the visiting writers and editors who will be joining the Ashland University MFA program next summer! Todd Boss, Poetry Visiting Editor Todd Boss grew up on an 80-acre cattle farm in Wisconsin, which is the setting for his debut poetry collection, Yellowrocket (Norton, 2008). His poems have appeared in Poetry, Best American Poetry, and The New Yorker . His second collection, Overtures of an Overturned Piano , will be published by W. W. Norton in Fall, 2011. He is the co-founder of Motionpoems, a poetry film initiative. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he is the poet laureate of Nina's Cafe. ---------------- Rhina Espaillat, Poetry Rhina P. Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic in 1932, has lived in the United States since 1939, and was educated in the public school system of New York City. She was graduated from Hunter College and did graduate work at Queens College, also a branch of the City University of New York. Espaillat taught high school E

Stephen Haven, Director, to Give Three Talks and Readings in October

Stephen Haven, Director, Ashland University MFA Program in Creative Writing and Director of the Ashland Poetry Press, will take part in three October talks and poetry readings, at the following locations: October 21, 2010 @ 7 pm A Reading from Anthology Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out (Coffee House Press, 2010) Haven will read with Larry Smith, Ray McNiece, Maggie Anderson, and Jeanne Bryner Sponsored by Mac's Backs Books 1820 Coventry Rd Cleveland Hts, OH October 24, 2010, 4:30 pm Hudson Valley Writers' Center Poetry Reading 300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow, NY Haven will read with Afaa Michael Weaver October 25, 2010, 1:30-3:30 Binghamton University, State University of New York 4400 Vestal Parkway East Binghamton, NY LN 1104 (the Grad Student Lounge at the base of the Library Tower) . A conversation on publishing, craft, and the writing life with STEPHEN HAVEN editor at ASHLAND POETRY PRESS at Ashland University in Ohio. Haven, author of two collections o

Review of Bob Cowser Jr.'s Green Fields

Bob Cowser Jr.'s is a member of the MFA faculty at Ashland University. His most recent book, Green Fields: Crime, Punishment, and a Boyhood Between is reviewed below. Review by Joan Hanna, current Ashland MFA student “I want to treat this story as a murder mystery of another kind, not as a whodunit but as a sort of ‘detective story’ ... After all, something has drawn you here. You want to know what it is the searchers seek among the ragweed and soybean plants—the tiny body, yes, but something more. Now this book lies open before you, each paragraph a stand of trees, a deep forest of wonder and darkness.” (16) This is exactly what Bob Cowser delivers to his readers in Green Fields (UNO Press) a deep forest of a story that begins on the day of Cary Ann Medlin’s disappearance. Cowser could have simply given his reader the details of how her body was discovered and the subsequent investigation, arrest and eventual execution of Robert Glen Coe 21 years later. Instead, Cowser has chos

Introducing New MFA Faculty Members

The MFA program at Ashland University welcomes three new faculty to the program this spring. Carmen Giménez Smith is Assistant Professor of creative writing at New Mexico State University, Publisher for Noemi Press and Editor-in-Chief of Puerto Del Sol and the author of Odalisque in Pieces (University of Arizona, 2009). Her work has most recently appeared in Ploughshares, Colorado Review and Jubilat , and forthcoming in A Public Space and Denver Quarterly . A memoir, Bring Down the Little Birds , will be published by University of Arizona Press in 2010. She also co-edited, with Kate Bernheimer, the fairy tale anthology, My Mother She Slew Me, My Father He Ate Me (Penguin 2010). She lives in New Mexico with her husband, Evan Lavender-Smith and their two children. Leila Philip is the author of A Family Place and The Road Through Miyama , which won the PEN 1990 Martha Albrand Citation for Nonfiction in 1990. She has received awards for her writing from the National Endowment for t

Review of Cover Me and Interview with Author Sonya Huber

Sonya Huber is on faculty for the MFA Program at Ashland University. A review of her newest book, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir is posted below. Cover Me by Sonya Huber: Adventures in the Health Care System By: Joan Hanna (MFA student at Ashland) I thought I knew what to expect from Cover Me , (University of Nebraska Press) by Sonya Huber but I was so wrong. This book is much more than a diatribe about medical coverage in the United States. This is a personal and blatantly honest look through Sonya’s own experiences which she hopes will prompt us to ask the question: "Can I tell my life story through the lens of my healthcare card." Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs weaves throughout this book like a threaded roadmap forcing the reader to realize that attaining even our most basic needs is often in conflict with or defined by our healthcare coverage. Suddenly the message of this book becomes very personal and very clear. Sonya's book is witty, funny and at times a sad

Summer Residency, Week One Events

The Ashland University MFA program summer residency kicks into gear on Sunday, July 25. All craft seminars and readings are free and open to the public. The program begins Sunday afternoon with the opening of an art exhibit in the Coburn Art Gallery (1:30), followed by a craft seminar, "Poetry and the Visual Arts" with Peter Campion, at 2:30. Unless noted, all events are held in the Schar College of Education Building's Ronk Lecture Hall. For more information about the summer residency, visit the MFA program's website: http://www.ashland.edu/graduate/mfa. Here's the rest of the schedule of events for week one: Sunday, July 25 1:30-2:30 p.m. - Art Exhibit and Reception, Coburn Art Gallery 2:30-4 p.m. - “Poetry and the Visual Arts” with Peter Campion, Coburn Art Gallery 7 p.m. MFA Program Welcome & Reading by Sonya Huber, CNF, and Kathryn Winograd, Poetry   Monday, July 26 1-2 p.m. - "Lies We Must Tell: The Art of Shaping Creative Nonfiction" with Stev

Poetry Student Wins Lettre Sauvage Chapbook Contest

Grace Curtis, soon-to-be graduate in poetry from the Ashland University MFA program, just won the Lettre Sauvage chapbook contest for her manuscript, The Surly Bonds of Earth . Stephen Dunn, the judge of the contest, had this to say about Grace's chapbook: "In Grace Curtis' The Surly Bonds of Earth , we feel in the presence of a voice richly capable of blending image and statement as it explores its various concerns. Behind that voice is an intelligence we learn to trust, and a sense of narrative tact (most evident in "Weeding") as she thinks her way down the page. The 'outer seriousness, inner humor' quality that Frost championed is hers as well. Many pleasures here, many tones." -- Stephen Dunn Grace will give a reading from her thesis Thursday, July 29 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the Ashland University Summer Residency program. A complete schedule of events is available on the Ashland University website .

Why Ashland? A New Student Shares His Reasons for Choosing the MFA at AU

Jeff Muse, an incoming creative nonfiction student at Ashland University, shared a few words with us about why he chose Ashland over other MFA programs. Thanks for your comments, Jeff! "I relish Ashland's small cohort size and exclusive focus on creative nonfiction and poetry, mingling the two in the residency and via cross-genre tracks if one so desires. It's not that I don't support diverse writing tracks -- fiction, children's literature, screenwriting and such. I simply prefer a tight circle of like-spirited writers around me. Meeting several Ashland faculty and staff members, talking to alums/students and reviewing its website, including presentations by faculty members and visiting writers, really helped me with this. Ashland folks seem comfortable and confident with their niche, and that makes me feel comfortable and confident as a writer. "Ashland's faculty appear ideal for my nonfiction interest in memoir, environmental journalism and nature/place

Kathryn Winograd on Literary Mama

Kathryn Winograd, a member of Ashland MFA program's poetry faculty, has an essay posted on Literary Mama, an online literary journal, this month: Literary Mama : Creative Nonfiction : Talismans of the Whirlpool Kathy will be reading as part of the Ashland University Summer Residency Program Welcome Sunday, July 25 at 7 p.m. She will also present a craft seminar with Robert Root, "Lyric + Essay = X: Two Perspectives on Crossing Genre," Thursday, July 29 at 1 p.m. Both events will be held in the Ronk Lecture Hall, Schar College of Education Building at Ashland University.

Peter Campion Wins Larry Levis Prize

MFA Faculty member, Peter Campion, is the winner of the 2010 Larry Levis Reading Prize for his most recent collection of poetry, The Lions . Peter will be giving a craft seminar on Sunday, July 25 at 2:30 p.m. on "Poetry and the Visual Arts" as part of the Ashland University MFA program's summer residency. The craft seminar will be held in conjunction with the opening of an art exhibit at the Coburn Art Gallery on the campus of Ashland University. Peter will also give a reading along with Steven Harvey, creative nonfiction faculty member, on Thursday, August 5 in the Ronk Lecture Hall, located in the Schar College of Education Building at Ashland University.