5 X Friday: English Major Mason Nunemaker

Senior English major Mason Nunemaker is a poetry editor for our annual undergraduate literary arts journal Ivory Tower, created by students in a two-semester English magazine production class. According to Nunemaker, this year's content has just been finalized (from over 600 student submissions!). "I'm very excited to see how the pieces all converse with each other," he reports, "especially across the different genres of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art." A poet himself, Nunemaker won a poetry award from the University's Steven J. Schochet Endowment for GLBT Studies awards program, and he's also an officer for USlam, the U's spoken word poetry team. How does he see printed and performance poetry differing? Read on.

5 X Friday: English Major Matthew McGuire

Matthew McGuire is a senior English and Philosophy double major who will publish a short story in the new issue of Ivory Tower, celebrated with a launch party Wednesday, April 24, from 7-10 pm in the Whole Music Club. The U's undergraduate literary and art magazine, Ivory Tower is edited and produced by students in a year-long English class. McGuire was a fiction editor for Ivory Tower last year, and his story "Silence Is Sexy" was accepted through this year's blind submission process. How does he begin writing something? "I get most of my story ideas from conversations with friends or bits of speech I overhear in public," he reveals. "Most pieces start with a voice, and then I try to experiment until I find something that works." Interview by Natalia Petkovich, originally for the Ivory Tower website. More...



1. Who are your favorite authors?
David Foster Wallace was my first exposure to difficult literature, and he remains my favorite. Ben Marcus, David Markson, Jena Osman, and Zachary Schomburg top my contemporary list. As far as the canon goes, I like William Gaddis, Ralph Ellison, Emily Bronté, Thomas Hardy, and Samuel Beckett. I think no one comes close to Kafka and the way his stories work. There's a British author, Stephen Gilbert, who wrote a brilliant book called The Ratman Notebooks.
2. Name a fictional character who you despise.
Walter Berglund from Freedom gets under my skin. He represents a lot of what I don't like in fiction: obvious social criticism, lack of genuine human relationships, misogyny masquerading as feminism.
3. "Silence is Sexy" has a unique style--it's all dialogue. What inspired you to write this story?
It came from a friend's complaint about his relationship. He claimed to have trouble sleeping next to another person because of the extra body heat. My goal with the story was to completely eliminate anything that could indicate character, gender, names, age, etc. What was surprising to me was when I showed the piece to some trusted readers, everyone agreed on the genders of the speakers.
4. You were a fiction editor for the 2012 edition of Ivory Tower. What did you learn by being in that class?
Working on Ivory Tower taught me a lot, mainly that I don't have what it takes to be an editor. It was extremely difficult for me to reject pieces without having the necessary space and time to explain why the pieces didn't work or fit with a certain theme. Thankfully, the other members of the staff helped me make the tough decisions.
5. You're stuck on a desert island. You get three books, two movies, and one iPod that can play only one song. What do you bring?
Books: a collection of Kafka stories, a condensed OED, and Infinite Jest. Movies: Melancholia and Salò. Song: "Nobody's Wounded" by Deine Lakaien or "Love Less" by New Order.

Ivory Tower Wins Tony Diggs Innovation Award

Ivory Tower, the literary and arts magazine created for and by undergraduates at the University of Minnesota, has won the Tony Diggs Innovation Award from the Student Activities Office. These Excellence Awards are intended to recognize student group achievements; the Innovation Award specifically recognizes student groups that have displayed innovation and/or fostered creativity through their program/events. Ivory Tower, which is edited and produced through the year-long English course Literary Magazine Production Lab, this year introduced the "Write and Return" program: circulating notebooks to encourage student writing and drawing on campus, as well as to boost submissions to the journal. Ivory Tower also helps organize the Writer's Block writing workshops, among other activities. The new issue of Ivory Tower is celebrated 7 pm, Wednesday, April 25, at the Whole in Coffman Union with readings, music, and art. Congratulations to the Ivory Tower staff and the writers and artists included in the 2012 Ivory Tower!

Writer's Block Workshop with Juliet Patterson

Ivory Tower presents an opportunity to work on revising poems with local poet Juliet Patterson this Wednesday the 18th in Coffman 304 at 5:30 pm. Patterson is a poet, community activist, and teaching artist living in Minneapolis. Her first book, The Truant Lover, won the Nightboat Poetry Prize in 2004. Her forthcoming book, Threnody, speaks about ecological crisis and our "attempts to conceptualize nature and wilderness in the face of loss." If possible, PLEASE BRING 3-4 POEMS you'd like to take a fresh look at, but don't reread them before the workshop begins! Mesa pizza!

Ivory Tower 2011

Copies of the 2011 Ivory Tower, the University of Minnesota's undergraduate literary arts magazine, flew out the door back in May. However, you can still view the journal, created by students in a year-long English class, online. Thanks to student initiative, the 2011, 2010, and 2009 issues are now also available via a free app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch!

BA Alumnae Launch Paper Darts #3

The co-editors of Twin Cities-based literary and art magazine Paper Darts met in the English editing class that creates the University's literary journal Ivory Tower. All English majors, Jamie Millard, Regan Smith, and Meghan Suszynski have published three issues now of Paper Darts since graduating in 2009. A launch for the third takes place Saturday, March 5 from 7-10 pm at Honey in NE Minneapolis, featuring readings by local writers John Jodzio, Matt Mauch, Michele Campbell, and Robert Voedisch, live music by local trio The Chord and the Fawn, and a digital art slideshow. The Star Tribune featured Paper Darts this Thursday.