Skip to main content

Monday, July 25, 2011

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: "'What Else Is True?' Encompassing Complexity" with Ruth L. Schwartz

7-8 p.m. Visiting Writer Reading: Rhina Espaillat

About Today's Presenters:

Rhina P. Espaillat
Rhina P. Espaillat
Rhina P. Espaillat, visiting writer in poetry, 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 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 English in New York City for several years, and writes poetry and prose both in English and in her native Spanish. Her poems, essays, narratives and translations have appeared in numerous magazines, on many websites, and in over fifty anthologies.


Espaillat has published eleven collections of her work: Lapsing to Grace (Bennett & Kitchel, 1992); Where Horizons Go (Truman State University Press, 1998), which won the 1998 T. S. Eliot Prize; Rehearsing Absence (University of Evansville Press, 2001), which won the 2001 Richard Wilbur Award; "Mundo y Palabra/The World and the Word" (Oyster River Press, 2001), a bilingual chapbook that is part of a series titled Walking to Windward: 21 New England Poets; a chapbook in the Pudding House invitational series, titled "Rhina P. Espaillat: Greatest Hits, 1942 - 2001" (Pudding House Press, 2003); The Shadow I Dress In (David Robert Books, 2004), winner of the 2003 Stanzas Prize; a chapbook titled "The Story-teller's Hour" (Scienter Press, 2004); Playing at Stillness (Truman State University Press, 2005); a bilingual collection of poems and essays titled Agua de dos rios, published under the auspieces of the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Culture (Editora Buho, 2006); a bilingual collection of short stories titled El olor de la memoria/The Scent of Memory (CEDIBIL, 2007); and a poetry collection titled Her Place in These Designs (Truman State University Press, 2008).

Ruth L. Schwartz
Ruth L. Schwartz
Ruth L. Schwartz, poetry, is the author of four books of poems, each the winner of a national award: Dear Good Naked Morning (Autumn House Press, 2005), selected by Alicia Ostriker for the 2004 Autumn House Poetry Prize; Edgewater (HarperCollins, 2002), a National Poetry Series winner chosen by Jane Hirshfield; Singular Bodies (Anhinga Press, 2001), recipient of the 2000 Anhinga Prize for Poetry; and Accordion Breathing and Dancing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996), winner of the 1994 Associated Writing Programs Competition. Her fifth collection of poems, Bone River, will be published by Autumn House Press in 2012. Ruth is also the author of a memoir, Death in Reverse: A Love Story (Michigan State University Press, 2004), and her creative nonfiction has appeared in the Utne Reader, The Sun, and numerous anthologies.


Recipient of over a dozen national writing awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Astraea Foundation, Ruth is also a lifelong explorer of consciousness and healing. In addition to her M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Ruth has a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology, and offers workshops and retreats nationwide on the theme “The Writer As Shaman: Words as a Portal to the Soul.” Her website is http://www.thewriterasshaman.com/.

Popular posts from this blog

Interview with Kyle Winkler

After talking to Lisa Nik, it only seemed right to keep the good juju going and interview one of our newest fiction faculty members, Kyle Winkler. You can learn everything you ever wanted to know about Kyle from this interview and from his website . Thanks to our lovely and talented intern, Angela Manasieva for preparing this interview. 1. Where are you from and how do you use your surroundings to write? I'm from southwest Indiana originally. Rolling hills, farmland, corn, wheat. LOTS of corn and wheat. My landscapes have affected me heavily in my writing. All that tall crop and the sometimes isolating farmland in the autumn during sunset can do a lot to make one feel...creeped out? Hah. I've tried to use my small town upbringing to good effect, as well. I grew up most of life in a working class to middle-class home in the rust belt. So I'm often trying to evoke the experiences and attitudes of the sorts of folks I grew up around and with. And those experiences were, to so

Meet the Team

We're very pleased to introduce our spring 2018 Ashland MFA Faculty. We hope you're as excited about these names as we are. Included are a few links to help you get acquainted with these writers and their work: interviews, book reviews, short publications, excerpts. For a full listing of faculty including their bios and additional information, visit our website's Faculty Page . Poetry Dexter Booth Author of Scratching the Ghost , winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Booth’s poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Blackbird, VQR, and elsewhere. Grist Journal  review of  Scratching the Ghost   “Love in the Time of Revolution” ( Blackbird ) “Queen Elizabeth” ( VQR ) “Insomnia Poem” ( Waxwing ) Gaylord Brewer Author of nine collections of poetry including Country of Ghost and Give Over, Graymalkin.  Brewer has published over nine hundred poems in journals and anthologies including Best American Poetry and The Bedford Introduction to L

2020 Virtual Summer Residency

Get excited! The Ashland University 2020 MFA Summer Residency is going virtual this year. From  July 13 - 31st , we’re hosting workshops, readings, panels, craft classes, open mics, and more--all from the safety and comfort of your home. Stay tuned for schedule updates and registration links! Students and faculty share a laugh at last year's residency Visiting Writers Jericho Brown , Visiting Writer in Poetry Poetry Reading:   Tuesday, July 21, 7:30pm EST Craft Class:  Wednesday, July 22, 5pm EST Jericho Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book,  Please  (2008), won the American Book Award. His second book,  The New Testament  (2014), won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was named one of the best of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront, and the Academy of American Poets. He i