Ashland University MFA Program

NewPages LitPak! Dozens of calls for submissions and contest announcements are available in the most recent LitPak, put out by NewPages.  Visit http://www.newpages.com/classifieds/LitPak to view the PDFs of these fliers. The Coffin Factory Call for Submissions and Poetry Contest Greetings from the editors of The Coffin Factory , a new literary magazine for people who love books. We publish fiction, essay, and art three times a year because we believe that quality literature and art are essential for the existence of an intelligent and culturally engaged society. Our first issue is now available in Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores nationwide, and features work by Joyce Carol Oates, Milan Kundera, Roberto Bolaño, José Saramago, and Rabindranath Tagore, in addition to interviews with New Directions Publishing and Justin Taylor. In each issue we feature at least one Market Fresh Selection, which is a section devoted to writers who have not been published in a...

The Ashland University MFA Program extends a warm welcome to Thomas Larson and Bonnie J. Rough, joining the program as honored visiting graduate faculty this spring. Thomas Larson is the author of The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" and The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative , Ohio University Press / Swallow Press, now in its third printing. He teaches, lectures, and holds workshops on memoir writing throughout the United States. Larson writes personal essays, memoir, feature articles, book reviews, and literary criticism. For the last twelve years, he has been a contributing writer for the weekly San Diego Reader where he specializes in investigative journalism, narrative nonfiction, and profiles. His writing has appeared in numerous reviews and journals, among them Tampa Review, The Gettysburg Review, Southwest Review, Antioch Review, Fourth Genre, Amazon.com/Shorts, the Anchor Essay An...

Each month, the Ashland University low-residency MFA program compiles a list of calls for submissions and upcoming contests, which is then distributed through the program's electronic newsletter.  To have your contest or journal included, email mfa@ashland.edu  with a brief description and a link to the contest guidelines. Submissions are now open for LUMINA' s 2012 Issue, and for our Poetry Contest! We are seeking submissions of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry for this year’s issue of LUMINA. The Poetry Contest will be judged by acclaimed poet Carolyn Forché and will award a $500 First Place prize. Deadline for all submissions is November 15, 2011 . http://www.slclumina.wordpress.com/ Mason’s Road Call for Submissions The submission period for Mason’s Road literary journal issue 4 is now open. We’re seeking engaging fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, drama (stage or screen), art, craft essays, and audio drama. Each issue is devoted to an element of craft...

Several of the Ashland University MFA Program's faculty members appear in the Notables section of the  Best American Essays 2011 anthology.  Congratulations to Steven Harvey (" Blood Mountain ," Ascent, March 9), Robert Root (" Time and Tide ," Ascent , August 1), and Kathryn Winograd ("Bathing," Fourth Genre , Spring). Notables are selected by the series editor, Robert Atwan. For the complete list of Notables and the Table of Contents for this year's anthology, visit Houghton-Mifflin .

Please join us for one of our upcoming info sessions to learn more about the program and to meet some of the faculty. If you are interested in one of these sessions, please R.S.V.P. to Sarah Wells no later than one week prior to the event. Light refreshments will be served. Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 7-9 p.m. Dauch College of Business and Economics, Room 105 Monday, November 14, 2011, 7-9 p.m.   Dauch College of Business and Economics, Room 104   Denver, Colorado Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 7-9 p.m. Location TBA Oakland, California Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 7-9 p.m. Crepevine, 5600 College Ave., Oakland, CA, 94618

The Ashland University MFA Program is proud to announce its visiting writer lineup for summer 2012.  The following visiting writers will be on the Ashland University campus during the MFA program's residency July 28 through August 10, 2012. Eula Biss Eula Biss is the author of The Balloonists and Notes from No Man’s Land .   Her work has recently been recognized by a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Howard Foundation Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.   She holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa and teaches nonfiction writing at Northwestern University.  Her essays have recently appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading , The Best Creative Nonfiction , The Believer , Gulf Coast , and Harper’s . Andre Dubus III Andre Dubus III Andre Dubus III grew up in mill towns on the Merrimack River along the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. He began writing fiction at age 22 just a few months after graduating from the U...

In case you missed out on this year's MFA residency at Ashland University, several of the readings and craft seminars were recorded.  Visit the links below to hear presentations by MFA faculty and visiting writers. Visiting Writer Presentations , including readings and craft seminars by Thomas French, Kathleen Norris, David Wojahn, Todd Boss, Thomas Larson, and Michael Steinberg Faculty Presentations , including readings and craft seminars by Peter Campion, Jill Christman, Bob Cowser, Angie Estes, Deborah Fleming, Carmen Gimenez Smith, Steven Harvey, Stephen Haven, Mark Irwin, Joe Mackall, Leila Philip, Robert Root, Ruth L. Schwartz, Peter Trachtenberg, and Kathryn Winograd Congratulations are due to the nineteen graduating students of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at Ashland University!  The following students defended thesis manuscripts at the summer residency July 24-August 5. Amelia Berg, Creative Nonfiction - "Para los Niños" ...

Today's Events: All posted events are located in the Schar College of Education Ronk Lecture Hall, Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio and are free and open to the public. 1 p.m. - Craft Seminar with David Wojahn About the Presenter: David Wojahn David Wojahn David Wojahn, visiting writer in poetry, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1953, and educated at the University of Minnesota and the University of Arizona. His first collection, Icehouse Lights, was chosen by Richard Hugo as a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, and published in 1982. The collection was also the winner of the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Book Award. His second collection, Glassworks, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1987, and was awarded the Society of Midland Authors’ Award for best volume of poetry to be published during that year. Pittsburgh is also the publisher of four of his subsequent books, Mystery Train (1990), Late Empire (199...

 Today's Events: All posted events are located in the Schar College of Education Ronk Lecture Hall, Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio and are free and open to the public. 1 p.m. Craft Seminar: "The Facts of the Matter" with Sonya Huber and Peter Trachtenberg 7 p.m. Reading by David Wojahn About the Presenters: Sonya Huber Sonya Huber Sonya Huber is the author of two books of creative nonfiction, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir (University of Nebraska Press, 2010), finalist for the 2010 Grub Street National Book Prize in Nonfiction, and Opa Nobody (University of Nebraska Press, 2008), shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize. She has also written a textbook, The Backwards Research Guide for Writers: Using Your Life for Reflection, Connection, and Inspiration (Equinox Publishing, forthcoming). Her work has been published in literary journals and magazines including Fourth Genre, Passages North, Hotel Amerika, Crab Orchard Review, The Chronicle of Higher Educa...

Today's Events: All posted events are located in the Schar College of Education Ronk Lecture Hall, Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio and are free and open to the public. 7 p.m. - Reading by Todd Boss, Tom Larson, and Michael Steinberg About the Presenters: Todd Boss Todd Boss Todd Boss, visiting editor in poetry, 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, Pitch, will be published by W. W. Norton in Winter 2012. 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. More information about Todd Boss is available on his website, http://www.toddbosspoet.com/ . Thomas Larson Thomas Larson, visiting editor in creative nonfiction, is the author of The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Sam...

Today's Events: All posted events are located in the Schar College of Education Ronk Lecture Hall, Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio and are free and open to the public. 1 p.m. Craft Seminar with Kathleen Norris   7 p.m. MFA Faculty Reading with Leila Philip, Mark Irwin, and Angie Estes   About the Presenters:   Angie Estes Angie Estes Angie Estes, poetry, is the author of four books, most recently Tryst (Oberlin College Press, 2009), which was selected as one of two finalists for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize. Her previous book, Chez Nous, also from Oberlin, appeared in 2005. Her second book, Voice-Over (Oberlin College Press, 2002), won the 2001 FIELD Poetry Prize and was also awarded the 2001 Alice Fay di Castagnola Prize from the Poetry Society of America. Her first book, The Uses of Passion (1995), was the winner of the Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including TriQuarterly, The Paris Review, Ploughs...

Today's Events: All posted events are located in the Schar College of Education Ronk Lecture Hall, Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio and are free and open to the public. 1 p.m. - “A New Lyric: On the ‘I’ and ‘You’ and Subjectivity” with Carmen Giménez Smith   7 p.m. - Reading by Kathleen Norris About the Presenters:  Carmen Giménez Smith Carmen Gimenez Smith Carmen Giménez Smith has joined the MFA faculty in poetry. She is assistant professor of English at New Mexico State University, publisher for Noemi Press and Editor-in-Chief of Puerto del Sol. She is the author of the poetry collections Odalisque in Pieces (University of Arizona, 2009) and Trees Outside the Academy (Center for Literary Publishing, 2011) and the memoir Bring Down the Little Birds (University of Arizona, 2010). She also co-edited, with Kate Bernheimer, the anthology, My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (Penguin, 2010). Her work has most recently appeared in Ploughshares, jubilat, A P...

Today's Events: 7 p.m. - MFA Faculty and Administrator Reading: Sonya Huber, Kathryn Winograd, and Sarah M. Wells About the Presenters: Sonya Huber Sonya Huber Sonya Huber is the author of two books of creative nonfiction, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir (University of Nebraska Press, 2010), finalist for the 2010 Grub Street National Book Prize in Nonfiction, and Opa Nobody (University of Nebraska Press, 2008), shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize. She has also written a textbook, The Backwards Research Guide for Writers: Using Your Life for Reflection, Connection, and Inspiration (Equinox Publishing, forthcoming). Her work has been published in literary journals and magazines including Fourth Genre, Passages North, Hotel Amerika, Crab Orchard Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Washington Post Magazine, in other journals and in many anthologies. She teaches in the Department of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University. Kathryn Winograd ...

Today's Events: All posted events are located in the Schar College of Education Ronk Lecture Hall, Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio and are free and open to the public. 1-2:30 p.m. Craft Seminar with Tom French 7 p.m. Faculty Reading – Deborah Fleming and Joe Mackall About the Presenters: Thomas French Thomas French, visiting writer in creative nonfiction, worked as a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times for 27 years, writing serialized book-length narratives that appeared in the newspaper one chapter at a time. One of his projects, Angels & Demons, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. French now teaches at Indiana University and in Goucher College's MFA program for creative nonfiction. He also teaches at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and at writing conferences around the world, from Paris to Singapore to Johannesburg. He is the author of three nonfiction books, including Unanswered Cries, an account of a Florida murder case, and Sou...

Today's Events: All posted events are located in the Schar College of Education Ronk Lecture Hall, Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio and are free and open to the public. 1-2:30 p.m. Poetry Faculty Craft Seminar: “Poetry and Memorability” with Mark Irwin and Peter Campion 7 p.m. Visiting Writer Reading: Tom French About the Presenters: Peter Campion Peter Campion Peter Campion, poetry, is the author of The Lions: Poems (University of Chicago Press, 2009), winner of the 2010 Larry Levis Reading Prize, Other People, (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Mitchell Johnson (Terrence Rogers Fine Art, 2004). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry in 2011. He was also the 2009 recipient of the Rome Fellowship in Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters and has held a George Starbuck Lectureship at Boston University, as well as a Wallace Stegner Fellowship and Jones Lecturership at Stanford University. His poetry and prose have appeared recently in ...