“One of Me Wonders”: An Interview with Mike Puican (poetry ’09)

An excerpt from an interview with Mike Puican (poetry ’09) about the reinvention of oneself, being a disupter in writing, and looking at oneself from the outside. Published by The Collagist.

“One of Me Wonders”: An Interview with Mike Puican

Where did you find the inspiration to begin this poem? As a reader, I felt that this poem’s grounding is in reality rather than a poetic fantasy. Did the inspiration for this poem spark out of a memory that you may or may not have included in here?

All the images are from my past. I am someone who has reinvented himself a few times in my life—athlete, anti-establishment radical, capitalist businessman, poet, activist for incarcerated writers, and others. With each reinvention, my inclination has been to pretend that anything that doesn’t fit my current persona didn’t exist. I’m now trying to understand this bundle of disparate directions and how it all originated from the same source.

The poem lists experiences from these different times with no interest in providing a narrative explanation. It’s a collage of disparate scenes joined only by the voice of the poet who is trying to understand how this can be explained. The closest the speaker can come is to attribute it to some unknown fire in his heart.

[…continue reading the interview at The Collagist]

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“The Goslings, Maine” by Caroline M. Mar (poetry ’13)

An excerpt from “The Goslings, Maine” by Caroline M. Mar (poetry ’13) published by 4×2: An Online Poetry Journal.

The Goslings, Maine

The water calls to my water body. The water
turning aqua-purple, my body diving
deep into Japanese eggplant, my body turning
suddenly nervous at a stroke of jelly green

tendrils along an ankle bone. What is the water?
Breathing, turning, trying to remember
there is nothing here to harm. In the unknown depths
below, sea creatures moving, slow in grey-green

darkness. This water is still as a held breath.
Barely a breeze as I duck back below. I can’t help
but think of purpled mouths opening
like the ray I saw gasping in the fisherman’s hand.

[… continue reading “The Goslings, Maine”]

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“Like Magic” by Sue Mell (fiction ’16)

An excerpt from “Like Magic ” by Sue Mell (fiction ’16) published by Matter Press.

Like Magic

It seemed delightful at first, the magician making the rounds on the 6th floor of the rehabilitation center where my mom was recovering from a fall. Then it grew to be a bit much—his acting as though this were his own personal stage, and not a room shared by four elderly women on Medicare. He liked making a big fuss with the privacy curtains: whoosh, whoosh, alakazam, and all that. But Mrs. Uriga complained, claiming this stirred up the dust, despite the floor being waxed and polished, the surfaces wiped down with pungent cleansers, at inconvenient times nearly every day. Miss Cho was the one in need of a nebulizer for congestion in her lungs, and it didn’t bother her—though, like the rest of us, Mrs. Uriga’s loud and constant complaining did.

[… continue reading “Like Magic” at Matter Press.]

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“Holy Grounds” by Avra Elliott (fiction ’15)

An excerpt from “Holy Grounds ” by Avra Elliott (fiction ’15) published by Waxwing.

Holy Grounds

When Eddie’s sister Colleen first told him of Harold’s death, he’d pictured the old writer in a smoking jacket sitting in an overstuffed burgundy armchair, worn novel in his lap, a cigarette — or perhaps cigar — smoldering in a crystal ashtray beside him. As Harold drew his last breath, his soul, a grey version of his body if classic films were to be believed, would stand up and walk into the arms of one of Harold’s dark-haired damsels. That seemed the natural death of an aging, chain-smoking Western mystery writer. To hear a year after the fact that his friend had been killed by an insane man in a park, his face broken by a two-by-four, was to realize he’d been viewing life through a kaleidoscope. With the smallest shift what he knew to be a circle shrank into a dot and exploded into new patterns of nameless shapes and colors. Eddie began to suspect his favorite jacket had been stolen, not misplaced, and when Colleen said their father had sold the family home a few months before, she meant burned it to the ground.

[… continue reading “Holy Grounds” at Waxwing.]

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“Del Rio Elementary” by David Rutschman (fiction ’02)

An excerpt from “Del Rio Elementary ” by David Rutschman (fiction ’02) published by Waxwing.

Del Rio Elementary

With a sudden blazing clarity I saw that we were living wrong. Our bodies were made to roam the plains, I thought. But we have murdered and despoiled …

I was eating lunch from a plastic molded tray. My parents were getting divorced. Kids shouted and laughed around me; chairs scraped. Sometimes this happens, my mom had said. It definitely wasn’t my fault.

Our elders are fearful and without wisdom, I whispered. I leaped to my feet and spoke louder: They tremble at shadows!

[… continue reading “Del Rio Elementary” as well as another fiction piece, “Uncle” at Waxwing.]

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Little-Known Operas, a new book from Patrick Donnelly (poetry, ’03)

Hear Patrick Donnelly (poetry ’03) read from his new book Little-Known Operas, published in February by Four Way Books.

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Music Lesson, a new book from Kristen Staby Rembold (poetry, ’06)

An excerpt from the poem “Picture from the Group of Seven” from Music Lesson, a new book by Kristen Staby Rembold (poetry, ’06), published by Future Cycle Press.

Picture from the Group of Seven

I have often stopped on the landing
to stare at this framed print
of a bountiful garden past maturity.
I would stop and think of melancholy.

But why melancholy?
Is it something about the faded hues
of mustard and olive and off-red?
Maybe it’s the black outlines,

as in an etching or engraving,
but coarser and blacker,
like block printing, with channels
cut by a body leaning on a chisel–

a tool for digging
like the hoe that must lie just offstage
from the picture, waiting to turn
the composting leaves into soil.

I think I recognize this place,
or at least this frame of mind,
with the garden just past the peak of all its glory–
its heavy fruits and brilliant petals–

sometime in mid-August
before the cool of fall sets in,
the shadows and undersides becoming visible,
manifested by crosshatches and lines.

Sometime while I wasn’t looking,
busy with preparations, engaged in my work,
it happened. No more than the complications
that arise in an ordinary life:

faults, illness, sadness, a child’s failure to thrive.
I pause on the stairs to think of these things…

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REMINDER AND DATE CHANGE: Attention Southern California Wallies!

The MFA Program for Writers Southern California Alumni Group has launched a reading series and we are so very excited to hear you read your work! The series is open to all alumni of the Warren Wilson MFA program living in Southern California, as well as all Warren Wilson MFA graduates and faculty passing through. Readers for The Sprawwl will not be judged, but will be lightly curated by the committee for variety, balance and inclusion. Each event will feature two poets and two prose writers. Whether you are a recent grad or a well-established writer, we want to hear from you. We can’t wait to connect and reconnect our awesome community of writers at Warren Wilson!

Our first event will take place at Boston Court Theatre in Pasadena on Sunday, June 2, 2019, from 3-5 p.m. A casual reception will follow the readings, and if we still haven’t gotten enough of each other, we can continue the fun at a local restaurant. A second event is being planned for December at Beyond Baroque in Venice. We will send out a new call for submissions and more details closer to the date. Meanwhile, if you’d like to read in June, please send us your workl!

Submission Guidelines

If you write fiction, please send 5-10 pages and a short bio to [email protected].

If you write poetry, please send 3–5 poems (no more than 10 pages) and a short bio to the same address.

Your submissions should reflect the kind of work you plan to read and should reach us by March 15, 2019.

It is our hope that writers chosen for The Sprawwl, whether residents of Southern California or passing through, will commit to supporting and growing the Warren Wilson Southern California Alumni Association through attendance at meetings, volunteer work, and/or donations to Friends of Writers.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing you soon!

The Reading Committee

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Four poems by faculty member Matthew Olzmann (poetry ’09)

An excerpt from “Letter to the Person Who During the Q&A Session After the Reading Asked for Career Advice ” by Matthew Olzmann (poetry ’09), published by Waxwing.

Letter to the Person Who, During the Q&A Session After the Reading, Asked for Career Advice

The confusion you feel is not your fault.
When we were younger, guidance counselors steered us
toward respectable occupations: doctor, lawyer,
pharmacist, dentist. Not once did they say exorcist,
snake milker or racecar helmet tester.
Always: investment banker, IT specialist, marketing associate.
Never: rodeo clown.
Never: air guitar soloist, chainsaw
juggler or miniature golf windmill maker.

[… continue reading “Letter to the Person Who, During the Q&A Session After the Reading, Asked for Career Advice” as well as three other poems by Matthew Olzmann at Waxwing]

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Melissa Berton (poetry ’93) wins Oscar for “Period. End of Sentence”

Melissa Berton (left) and Rayka Zehtabchi at the 2019 Academy Awards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCt_WE6mqI
Melissa Berton (poetry ’93) and Rayka Zehtabchi accept the Oscar for Documentary (Short Subject) for their film “Period. End of Sentence” at the Oscars 2019.

Melissa Berton (poetry ’93) and Rayka Zehtabchi post-win interview.

Learn more about Melissa Berton (poetry ’93) and her work on the film “Period. End of Sentence.”

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