MFA Program Starts Blog

Tumblr, meet the Department of English's Creative Writing Program. The new blog features an interview with freshly minted Minnesota State Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen (BA summa cum laude 1982, MA in English & Creative Writing 1993, English PhD 1996). . . . In other Creative Writing news, Assistant Professor of Poetry Peter Campion was awarded the Poetry Magazine Editors Prize for Reviewing, for his September 2011 review of The H.D. Book by Robert Duncan.

New Conversations on Teaching Series

Graduate Studies kicks off a new brown bag lunch series on teaching this fall with Thursday events in October and November. "Do's and Don'ts of the Classroom: Top Teaching Tips" will take place at 12:30 pm October 13 with two of the department's award-winning teachers, Professor Siobhan Craig and Professor Rebecca Krug. They will reveal their secret strategies for encouraging discussion, enlivening the classroom, avoiding dullness, and more. November 10 at 12:30 pm, "Behind the Podium: Lecturing 101" will feature two of our award-winning lecturers, Professor John Watkins and Professor Brian Goldberg, sharing tricks of the trade for keeping large groups of students enthralled and excited. Bring lunch and questions--these events will begin with our featured speakers, followed by lots of time for Q&A/general discussion. Soda and coffee served. Lind Hall 207A.

Alumna Monica Nassif Wins Carlson Honor

Monica Nassif (BA 1982) was named 2011 University of Minnesota Entrepreneur of the Year at a McNamara Alumni Center reception September 8. Nassif is the founder of Caldrea, a luxury cleaning products line, and its offshoot the Mrs. Meyers' Clean Day brand. Her success, she says in an interview, grew out of an internship with Dayton-Hudson which her English adviser helped her acquire. After almost two decades as a brand-builder for prominent retailers and consumer product firms, she started a marketing communications business in Minneapolis, then initiated Caldrea in 1999.

Tales from the Road new issue!

Tales from the Road is an online journal of undergraduate creative work inspired by experiences abroad. Accepted genres include creative prose, poetry, art, and multimedia. Check it out.

FUSE Kick-Off!

The Fellowship of Undergraduate Students in English (FUSE) invites students, faculty, and staff to an evening of live music, refreshments, and conversation on Wednesday, September 14, from 6-7:30 pm in Lind Hall 207A. FUSE's mission is to enhance the education experience of English Undergraduates through peer mentorship, writing workshops, engagement opportunities, and community-building events. See you there!

Creative Writing MFA Ranked #10

The Creative Writing Program of the Department of English was ranked #10 in the Top Fifty MFA Programs in the United States, as compiled by Poets & Writers magazine. The annual rankings are based on such measures as funding, teaching load, and selectivity, as well as a poll of MFA program applicants. Creative Writing faculty have been awarded two Regents Professorships, seven Minnesota Book Awards, four Guggenheim Fellowships, and one MacArthur Fellowship. Program alumni and current students have published over 90 books. The rankings are published in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers.

Welcome Peter Campion

Poet, critic, and editor Peter Campion joins the Department of English this fall as Assistant Professor of Creative Writing. Campion, winner of a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship, is the author of two collections of poetry, The Lions and Other People. Since 2007, he has served as the editor-in-chief of the journal Literary Imagination. He held the Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry from Stanford University and is the recipient of the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as a Pushcart Prize. He received his MA in Creative Writing from Boston University and previously taught at Auburn University. Professor Campion will teach a graduate level poetry writing class this fall.