Ashland University MFA Program

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...