6th Gift of Freedom Award to Diane Gilliam

Poet Diane Gilliam (poetry, ’01) has won the 6th Gift of Freedom Award from A Room of Her Own.

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The $50,000 Gift of Freedom award is the largest of its kind for women writers. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s tenet that a woman must have money and a room of her own in order to write, the Gift of Freedom commissions a creative project by a promising woman writer/artist ready to restructure their life in order to complete their work within the two year period of the grant.

In her proposed grant project, a book of poems titled The Blackbirds Too, Gilliam will map the course of “identity accomplished by breakage of the structures a person might depend on to become someone:  work, knowledge, marriage, family, goodness.  The culture at large defines our first versions of such things and it seems inevitable that as we grow into ourselves the received definitions begin to fail us.”

Gilliam is also the author of One of Everything (Cleveland State University Press, 2003) and Kettle Bottom (Perugia Press, 2004).  More information about the award can be found at: http://www.aroomofherownfoundation.org/.

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Adoration of the Foot

“Adoration of the Foot,” a poem by Mary Jane Nealon (poetry, ’01), appears online at Spark and Echo Arts.  Read the entire poem at Sparkandecho.org.

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This piece is my attempt to highlight the body as the warrior for the spirit.  In every situation of suffering that I have witnessed, the body asserts itself as a force for life. I am convinced that despair often comes with physical pain and that comforting the suffering body is what makes way for praise.  I am especially drawn to the power of the human foot, which is the element of praise in my poem.  The body in despair is often curled and tight and touching the foot with compassion and love is a way to honor the suffering person, to praise the body’s struggle to live and in doing so, one often sees the body uncurl, open out and release the suffering spirit.

Mary Jane is the author of Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse’s Life (2011, Graywolf).

 

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Masticated Light

“Masticated Light,” a poem by Jamaal May (poetry, ’11) appears online at Ploughshares.

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In a waiting room at the Kresge Eye Center,
my fingers trace the outline of money folded into pocket
and I know the two hundred fifty dollars there
is made up of two hundred forty-five I can’t afford to spend
but will spend on a calm voice to tell me
how I am to be repaired. But legally blind
and nothing can be done means I’ll spend
the rest of the week closing an eye to the world,
watching how easily this becomes that.
The lampposts lining the walk home
are the thinnest spears I’ve ever seen, a row of trashcans
become discarded war-drums, and the teeth
in the mouth of an oncoming truck
want to tear through me. Some of me
always wants to be swallowed.  …[Keep Reading]…

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Joan Frank Named Finalist for ForeWord Book of the Year Award

Joan Frank (fiction, ’96) is a finalist for ForeWord Reviews’ 2012 Book of the Year Award in Adult Nonfiction, for her book Because You Have To: A Writing Life (2012, University of Notre Dame).

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ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards program was created to highlight the year’s most distinguished books from independent publishers. The awards announcement provides an additional publicity opportunity for publishers long after a book’s initial publication date. After months of perusing the list of submissions, librarians and booksellers eagerly anticipate this announcement of finalists—a valuable resource for discovering obscure titles from the world of indie publishing.

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Reflections on the Mid-Life MFA

“Reflections on the Mid-Life MFA,” an essay by alumni Geoff Kronik (fiction, ’12), is online at HowlRound.

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I’m fifty now and though my career had benefits of security, its price was a sense of regret. I never ceased wanting to write, and fancied myself a frustrated writer. This is why six months ago, I finished a low-residency MFA degree. Which begs the question—if there is still time to be who I might have been, do those letters stand for self-actualization at last? Hardly—writing demands a unity of self and work my business career did not. In that work, authenticity was secondary to persuasion, and decades of self-suppression are now proving difficult to unlace. My MFA may be progress towards who I might have been—but who am I? Am I a might-have-been that never will be? This is my main anxiety, here at the intersection of middle age and literary life.

Read the full article here.

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Patrick Donnelly is Finalist for Lambda Award

Nocturnes of the Brothel of Ruin (2012, Four Way Books), a collection of poetry by alumni Patrick Donnelly (poetry, ’03) is one of five finalists for a Lambda Literary Award in the category of Gay Poetry. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on June 3rd in the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York.

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Now in their twenty-fifth year, the Lambda Literary Awards celebrate achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writing for books published in 2012.

Lambda Literary Foundation set a new record in 2013 for both the number of LGBT books submitted for Lammy consideration, 687, and the number of publishers participating, 332. This beats the record-setting numbers in 2012 of 600 titles by over 250 publishers and is the fourth consecutive year of growth in submissions and publishers.

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“Bamiyan”

“Bamiyan,” seven poems by Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. (poetry, ’09) appears in the Summer 2012 issue of New Haven Review.

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Light of Asia

We still have him, in the plains, on an early lintel,
as an absence at the center of each story:

a flower, footprints, a wheel between kneeling deer.

But his words grew difficult to see.

It was hard to hear his hands. And so they began

to define and carve the balanced postures

and proportions of his princely torso:

the head with its raised crown, the long-lobed ears,
soft half-lidded eyes, half-smile, the dexterous

gestures of compassion,

blessing, protection, absence.
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“Patriotism”

“Patriotism,” a short story by Nan Cuba (fiction, ’89) appears online at storySouth.

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Cheryl was so mad, she thought she’d explode. She sat in front of the fireplace reading the paper. The elections were only a month away, and she was scared. How did her country get in this mess? Even though Gerald was still in bed, she talked as though he were sitting beside her.

“Oh, God,” she said, crumpling the paper into her lap. She sipped coffee, leaned back, closed her eyes, pressed her lids. “What’s wrong with those assholes in Congress? The more they scream, the less they get done.” Somebody, she thought, should do something.

One article described a local rally. The accompanying picture, she noticed, showed people carrying signs with hideous messages and grotesque cartoon images. “Self-righteous radicals,” she grumbled. She hit the photo with the back of her hand. If only she could knock some sense into them. If only they’d listen.

She jerked past the front page, snapping the paper into place. She read more headlines: Mexico’s drug wars, kidnappings, journalists murdered. Iran could launch a nuclear attack. Palestine and Israel, infinite hatred. Oh no, a baby abandoned in an airplane bathroom. Suffering, stupidity, violence, but what could one person do? Candidates promised to fix everything before elections. Then did nothing. Or worse, they created bigger problems. Maybe she should write her own manifesto. …[Keep Reading]…

Nan is the author of the novel Body and Bread (2013, Engine Books).

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The Writing on the Wall

“The Writing on the Wall: Graffiti, Poetry, and Protest in Egypt,” an essay by Andy Young (poetry, ’11) appears online at The Los Angeles Review of Books.

THE FACE OF 19-year-old Khaled Said, the catalyst for Egypt’s January 25 uprising, is stenciled all over Egypt. But if you walked down Mohamed Mahmoud Street, which ends in Tahrir Square, you would see his mutilated face after he was beaten to death by cop thugs. Beside his face, the artist Ammar Abo Bakr also depicts the disfigured images of other victims, including the young Shenouda Noshi Atteya, one of the 28 killed in the Maspero Massacre of October 2011, in which peaceful protesters, mostly Coptic Christians, were killed by the army.

The faces depict the fallen of Egypt’s revolution, a revolution that continues two years after Hosni Mubarak’s departure in February 2011. Mubarak’s regime was first replaced by the regime of the armed forces, and then by the current, increasingly repressive Muslim Brotherhood. These are the faces of the moment.

Read more

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An Interview with Jamaal May

Alumni Jamaal May (poetry, ’11) was recently interviewed for Michigan State University Public Radio.  Listen to the recording here.

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Jamaal is the author of the poetry collection Hum, forthcoming in 2013 from Alice James Books.

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