English Alum Kicks Off Oprah Book Club 2.0

On June 4, Oprah Winfrey's OWN network and O magazine kicked off Oprah's Book Club 2.0, a reading club built around online interaction. The first book chosen for the venture is by a BA alumna, Cheryl Strayed. An English and Women's Studies double major (1997), Strayed in March published Wild, a memoir of her 1995 solo hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. The book has received widespread praise--even bringing Dwight Garner of the New York Times to tears. On the Oprah's Book Club 2.0 website, Ms. Winfrey explains her choice: "It is just a wild ride of a read . . . . It is stimulating, it is thought-provoking, it is soul-enhancing. This book is about being brave when you didn't think you could be."

English@Minnesota Fall '12 Writers Series!

Zadie Smith, discussing her forthcoming novel NW, is among the writers presented for free this fall by the Department of English and the Creative Writing Program. Smith, the prize-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty, will give the Esther Freier Endowed Lecture 7:30 pm, Tuesday, October 23, at Coffman Union Theater. Other authors in the English@Minnesota Writers Series are: Antonya Nelson, short story writer and novelist (7 pm, October 16, Weisman Museum); poet Christopher Kennedy (7 pm, November 7, Weisman); and creative nonfiction writer Lia Purpura (7 pm, November 14, venue TBA), all sponsored by Creative Writing and the Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer Endowment. Creative Writing also presents poets and professors Peter Campion and Ray Gonzalez reading at the Weisman 7 pm on October 4. All events are open to the public; no tickets necessary. See you there!

Pawlowski Defense

Doctoral candidate Lucia Pawlowski will defend her dissertation, "High Theory, the Teaching of Writing, and the Crisis of the University," as directed by Dr. Geoff Sirc, on Thursday, June 7th, at noon in the Wright Room (Lind 202). All are welcome for the public portion of the defense.

New Creative Writing Program Newsletter

Check out the Spring 2012 Alumni Newsletter from the Creative Writing Program for news and features about alumni, current students, and faculty. The issue features interviews with Director Julie Schumacher, about her new book for young adults, The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls, and with Professor Charles Baxter, recent winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story. Finally, congratulations to this spring's graduates of the MFA program, who defended their creative theses earlier this month (photo left): Elizabeth Abbot, Lucas de Lima, Sarah Fox, Alex Grant, Amir Hussain, Chris Keimig, David Malley, Wahida Omar, Claire Stanford, Molly Sutton Kiefer, and Andrea Uptmor.

PhD and MFA Placement

Congratulations to our doctoral and Creative Writing Program graduates, who have secured tenure track positions this year at the following institutions: University of Arkansas, Fort Smith; Fresno Pacific University; Georgia Perimeter College; LaGuardia Community College in New York; St. Francis University; Seattle University; University of St. Thomas; Washington University, St. Louis; and University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.

Baxter Receives Rea Award, "Best Novelist" Recognition

Edelstein-Keller Professor of Creative Writing Charles Baxter has won the 2011 Rea Award for the Short Story, given annually to a living American or Canadian writer whose published work has made a "significant contribution in the discipline of the short story as an art form." The Rea Award honors writers "for originality and influence on the genre," rather than any one collection or story. Baxter receives $30,000 and joins a list of acclaimed honorees including Alice Munro, Donald Barthelme, Grace Paley, and John Updike. The jurors this year were Lorrie Moore, Stuart Dybeck, and Bill Henderson. Baxter's latest book, the 2011 Gryphon: New & Selected Stories, was noted in the jurors' citation, which reads in part: "Charles Baxter is a writer of elegant sentences, an expert in the mechanics of dramatic narration, and a master of psychological exile, which is the unexotic but special terrain of the short story." Meanwhile, the Star Tribune named him "Best Novelist" in its May 16 Best of Minnesota section. (The Star Tribune also named MA alumna Erin Hart Best Mystery Writer and BA/MA/PhD alumna Joyce Sutphen runner-up to Robert Bly for Best Poet.) Congratulations!

PhD Alumna Recognized

Poet Marilyn Nelson (PhD 1979) in April received the Frost Medal, the Poetry Society of America's highest award. The Medal is presented annually for "distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry." Previous winners of this award include Wallace Stevens, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Moore, and Charles Simic, who was the 2011 recipient. Nelson reads in Minneapolis 7:30 pm May 21 at Plymouth Congregational Church.