An excerpt about Philip Levine from alum Anna Clark’s (fiction, ’07) book Michigan Literary Luminaries: From Elmore Leonard to Robert Hayden appears at Belt Magazine:

Philip Levine’s father came to the United States from Russia, traveling across the ocean all by himself at age eleven. He grew up in New York City with two older sisters and their families. His path to Detroit was an extraordinary one: he enlisted in the English army, was stationed in Palestine and conjured a new identity (including a new passport) in Cairo.

Or at least, those are the stories Levine was told as a child. The poet, who died on February 14, 2015 at age 87, was also told that he had Spanish ancestry. That was not true, but it catalyzed Levine’s lifelong fascination with Spanish politics, culture and literature.

Continue reading online…

Work by alumni Valerie Bandura (poetry, ’02), Laurie Saurborn Young (poetry, ’08), and Rachel Howard (fiction, ’09) in featured in the Spring 2015 issue of Waxwing Literary Journal. You can read the journal online here.

A story by alum Amy Minton (fiction, ’09) appears in the fall issue of Phoebe and you can read an excerpt online:

This rickety fishing-boat-turned-dive-charter stinks of fish guts and flowery aerosol. Planks around the wheelhouse are freshly painted—maybe yesterday, maybe last week. Nothing ever dries in this humidity. A glob of grey paint on the baseboard tells me there is a serious lack of attention to detail on this boat. I needle the paint glob with the tip of my nail until the outer skin bursts and hot grey paint oozes out. Underneath, stuck to the weathered baseboard, a dried fish eye stares at me.

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We are pleased to announce that the 2015 Goddard/Warren Wilson MFA Alumni Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon at Lewis and Clark College, from July 26 to August 1. Watch this space for more information about the conference, scholarship opportunities, and registration forms.

Alum Robin Black (fiction, ’05) is serving as the February Guest Blogger at Gulf Coast:

Agoraphobia, Writing, and Me: Fear and Laughing at Canyon Ranch

I would pay a lot of money to have the emails I wrote my family and friends in January, 2003, from Canyon Ranch. I suspect they are some of the best writing I’ve ever done.

A little background: In January, 2003 I was nearly forty-one years old, the mother of three children, the wife of one (very patient and understanding) man. And I was a recovering – I hoped – agoraphobic.

Continue reading this piece (along with several others) online…