8/3/2012 - John Foy, Thomas Larson, Mark Neely, Bonnie J. Rough, and Jerald Walker

Today wraps up the first week's events at Ashland University's summer residency program.  Next week features two of our visiting writers-- Mira Bartok and Garrett Hongo-- along with presentations by Peter Campion, Jill Christman, Bob Cowser Jr., Angie Estes, Deborah Fleming, Thomas Larson, Joe Mackall, and Sarah M. Wells.  We'll also have readings by second-year and graduating MFA students.

Today's Events:

"The Semi-fictive Nature of Narrative, Narrators as Personae" - Thomas Larson and Mark Neely

1-2:30 p.m., Schar College of Education, Room 138, Ashland University

Reading by John Foy, Mark Neely, Bonnie J. Rough, and Jerald Walker

7 p.m., Schar College of Education, Room 138, Ashland University

Coming Sunday:
Peter Campion, Jill Christman, Bob Cowser Jr., and Sarah M. Wells

About Today's Presenters:

John Foy

John Foy's first book is Techne's Clearinghouse (Zoo Press, 2004). His poetry is featured in the Swallow Anthology of New American Poets (Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 2009) and has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New Criterion, Parnassus, The Raintown Review, Cimarron Review, Southwest Review and other periodicals. His work has also been selected for the Poetry Daily website and linebreak.org. He has an MFA from Columbia University and works for Itaú BBA Securities in New York, where he is senior editor of Equity Research. He has taught writing at Harvard Business School, Columbia, and Barnard. His essay-reviews have appeared in Parnassus, Contemporary Poetry Review, and other publications.

Thomas Larson

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 Annual: The Best of 1997, Contrary Magazine online where he does quarterly book reviews, and New Letters where his memoir, "Mrs. Wright’s Bookshop," won the journal’s Reader’s Award for the Essay in 2008.

Mark Neely

Mark Neely is the author of Beasts of the Hill (Oberlin College, 2011), winner of the FIELD Poetry Prize, and Four of a Kind (Concrete Wolf, 2010), winner of the Concrete Wolf chapbook prize. His poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Barrow Street, Salt Hill, and Boulevard. He directs the Creative Writing Program at Ball State University, where he teaches courses in poetry writing and literary editing. Bonnie J. Rough Bonnie J. Rough is the author of the memoir Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA, which won a 2011 Minnesota Book Award. Her writing has appeared in anthologies such as The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best Creative Nonfiction, and periodicals including The New York Times, Huffington Post, The Sun, The Iowa Review, Defunct, and Brevity. Rough, who has her MFA from the University of Iowa, has taught at The Loft Literary Center and is a prose editor for Versal. Jerald Walker Jerald Walker is the author of Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption, recipient of the 2011 PEN New England/L.L. Winship Award for Nonfiction. His essays have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, including three times in The Best American Essays. Walker is an Associate Professor of creative writing at Emerson College, where he is Chair of the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing, and Director of the Boston Summer Writers’ Conference.