Announcements

PARTICIPANTS

Chelsey Clammer (2016) received an honorable mention for her essay “BodyHome” in ArtAscent’s “Home” issue. Chelsey’s memoir, Again: a Memoir of Insanity and Sexuality was selected by Red Orchid Publishing’s 30 Career Launch contest. Red Orchid Publishing has also hired Chelsey as an editor.

Jessica Barksdale Inclan (2015) won second place in The Missing Slate’s Halloween contest for her poem, “Frankenstein Goes to the Bathroom.”

Warren Read (2015) His one act play, “Black Gum Rising,” was featured in Bainbridge Performing Art’s 2014 One Act Fest.  His play was selected and directed by Tony Award winner Dinah Manoff.

Amy Young (2016) was accepted to the BreadLoaf/Orion Environmental Writers’ Conference set for June 9-15, 2014.

 

ALUMNI

Bill Capossere’s (2010) two-page play, “Obsolete” was selected for performance in GEVA Theatre’s/Writers and Books Two Pages-Two Characters Contest. Bill also received a 2013 Pushcart Prize Nomination.

Libré Cory (2013) has been invited to serve on the board of directors for the Chautauqua Poets and Writers Association. Chautauqua brings writers and poets to southern Oregon to give public readings and workshops. In recent years, Chautauqua has sponsored appearances by Ted Kooser, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mark Doty, Li-Young Lee, and many others.

Katie Eberhart (2010) and Eleanor Berry will be reading from their collaboration: Convergence of Visions: A Dialogue in Poems at the Northwest Poets’ Concord in Newport, Oregon, on May 3, 2014.

Casey Fuller (2009) reads his poem, “When We Die,” in a song by the same name by the Portland band, Letters, on the compilation, Well I Don’t See Why Not. The album is available on the Antiquated Futures record label.

April Ayers Lawson (2008) Her debut story collection has been bought by Gyldendal, the Norwegian publisher that owns Granta. Her previously published story, “Virgin,” appeared in the recent Norway edition of Granta, Issue 2 (side by side with Zadie Smith, Paul Auster, W.G. Sebald, and Herta Muller).

Jill McCabe Johnson (2008) served as guest faculty at the January residency for the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA on Penn Cove.

Jill Kandel (non-matric. 2010): Her essay, “Paying the Piper” earned runner-up in the Missouri Review’s 2013 Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize competition, Essay Category. It will be published this spring in the Missouri Review.

Carrie Mesrobian (2013): Her novel, Sex & Violence, was a finalist for YALSA’s 2014 William C. Morris YA Debut Award and was also a nominee for the Minnesota Book Awards in the Young People’s Literature category. Carrie also signed a two-book deal with HarperCollins Children’s Books, for two young adult novels set to be released in 2015 and 2016.

Tina Schumann (2009) was a runner-up in the 2014 Skagit River Poetry Festival’s Phyllis L. Ennes Poetry Contest. She will be giving a reading of her work, co-facilitating student workshops, and her poem, “Praising the Paradox,” will be featured in the 2014 Skagit River Poetry Festival anthology. Tina’s full manuscript, Praising the Paradox, was a finalist in the 2013 Augury Books Editor’s Prize.

Cindy Stewart-Rinier (2012): Her poem, “Polaroid of My Mother,” received a Pushcart Prize nomination from VoiceCatcher Journal.

 

FACULTY

David Biespiel gave a reading from his fifth collection of poems, Charming Gardeners, at Open Books on December 6, 2013, in Seattle, WA.

Barrie Jean Borich (2009) was profiled, in conjunction with her book, Body Geographic, in the Printer’s Row Journal, the book supplement of The Chicago Tribune, February 2, 2014. Barrie Jean will become a member of the RWW faculty, beginning at the 2014 summer residency.

Kathleen Flenniken (2007) and Stan Sanvel Rubin gave a reading at the Port Townsend Public Library on December 12, 2013.

Greg Glazner is currently writing the text for an art song to be sung by tenor David Saul Lee, accompanied by CityWater New Music Ensemble, with music by composer, Garrett Shatzer, whose work has been performed by many soloists and ensembles including The Mobius Trio, at such venues as The Kennedy Center and, as of March 2014, The Vatican. The premier performance of the collaboration will be in November 2014 at the Festival of New Music in Sacramento, where it will be recorded. Two other northern California performances will follow.  Greg is also regularly performing a literary reading/live band event called Professor Len and the Big Night; they will be featured at the Sacramento Poetry Festival on April 12, with more performances to follow in Davis and Sacramento. Live demo recordings with PLU MFA participant Jeb Harrison (2015) on bass can be found at gregglazner.com.

Lola Haskins has recorded a CD of poems from her collection, The Grace to Leave; her reading is accompanied by cello and cello solos.

Jim Heynen has new stories appearing in current or Spring issues of The Georgia Review, Clover, sleet, and Great River Review. The Georgia Review will feature an interview with Jim in their next issue. His new collection of short-shorts, Ordinary Sins: After Theophrastus, is scheduled for fall, 2014, with Milkweed Editions.

 Dinah Lenney’s new book, The Object Parade, Essays by Dinah Lenney (Counterpoint), is to be released in April 2014. Preorders are already available at Barnes and Noble.