Laurel Bastian in Madison Magazine

There's a wonderful article about our former MFA poet and current Halls Emerging Artist Fellow Laurel Bastian in the September 2010 issue of Madison Magazine. Read it online here.

UW Press Among Nation's Most Innovative

The guy who wrote that obnoxious article for the Huffington Post about the most overrated writers in the world partially redeems himself today by naming the University of Wisconsin Press as one of the most innovative university presses in the nation. He specifically mentions and praises the following: the Press's Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography; Wisconsin Studies in Classics; Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiography series; Studies in Dance History; George L. Mosse Series in Modern European Cultural and Intellectual History; and The History of American Thought and Culture.( Click on the link above for specific recommended titles.)

We would only add to that impressive list the Press's Brittingham and Pollak Prizes in Poetry series edited by our own Ron Wallace. Pictured above is the 2010 winner of the Britingham Prize, Jennifer Boydon's The Mouth of Grazing Things.

UW-MFA Program Ranked #3 in Nation

Poets & Writers has just released its 2011 MFA program rankings. UW-Madison is listed as #2 in poetry, #3 in fiction, and #3 overall (tied with Austin).

We take all rankings with a grain of salt. Interestingly, tonight we'll be taking our celebratory margaritas with a rim of salt.

The article, which explains the methodology used and includes a detailed list of how the top 50 programs ranked in the individual criteria considered, is here: http://www.pw.org/content/2011_poets_amp_writers_magazine_ranking_of_mfa_programs

Article Celebrates Past Derleth Prize Winners

August Derleth (pictured above) was, as any UW-Madison writer knows, a prolific and multi-talented Wisconsin writer. Each spring the August Derleth Society awards a $1,000 prize for outstanding writing in the tradition of Aug (as the Society calls him) to one of our graduate students. In its June issue, the Society's Journal has a wonderful article about the prize's recipients from Doyle Wesley Walls, the first winner in 1986, to current MFA poet Kai Carlson-Wee, the 2010 recipient. The article not only names all the past Derleth prize winners, but catches us up on what many of them are doing now. It's a really nice walk down memory lane, especially for those of us who have worked with many of the winners.

UW Writers in the News

Congratulations to Danielle Trussoni, our former undergrad, whose novel Angelology has debuted at #7 on the New York Times bestseller list, and to Prof. Lorrie Moore, whose novel A Gate at the Stairs has been long-listed for the Orange Prize.

Men in Beards Have Good Week

David Clewell, one of Ron Wallace's very first and very favorite undergrad poetry students, author of seven volumes of poetry, and director of Webster University's MFA Program, has been named the new poet laureate of Missouri. Congratulations, Dave.

Former Fellow John McNally's new novel After the Workshop received a great write-up in Time-Out Chicago. We in Madison are looking forward to seeing John before, during, and definitely after his reading in Helen C. at 7pm next Thursday, March 11th.

And Former MFA Poet and Institute Fellow Nick Lantz is featured in the Washington Post.

(pictured: John, then Nick, then Dave)

Rob Nixon: Champion of Ignorance

Professor Rob Nixon, whose creative nonfiction classes are favorites of undergrad and grad students alike, recently gave a presentation at MLA entitled "In Defense of Ignorance." Rob makes the point that, when writing about subjects in which they have expertise, authors must return to their initial state of ignorance in order to inject drama into the narrative. An article in the Neiman Foundation's Storyboard has more on the talk--which will be of interest to all prose writers.

Traci Brimhall Up on Poetry Daily

Congrats to former Institute Fellow Traci Brimhall whose poem "Flat Lux" is today's featured poem on Poetry Daily.

Nate Rates Greats

...or, if you prefer, Brown Crowns Renowns. In any case, an interesting article with a list of the must-reads from each year of the past decade by L Magazine's book critic, the great Nate Brown (MFA 2008, current Halls Emerging Artist Fellow). UW writers making the list: Lorrie Moore (faculty), Lauren Groff (MFA), Dean Bakopoulos (MFA) Patrick Sommerville (undergrad), Antoine Wilson (Institute fellow), and Charles D'Ambrosio (Institute fellow).

A Gate at the Stairs Is Top Ten NY Times Book of '09

We are delighted--but not one bit surprised--that the New York Times' Sunday Book Review has named Professor Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs one of the top ten books (and one of the top five novels) of 2009. In a podcast the Book Review's editors describe A Gate at the Stairs as "a witty coming of age story by the premier novelist of her generation."

Congratulations to Lorrie!

UW on NY Times Top Ten Books of '09 Lists

The New York Times posted its literary critics' top ten books of 2009 today, and we were thrilled to see that former undergrad Patrick Sommerville's first novel, The Cradle, made Janet Maslin's list, while Prof. Lorrie Moore's latest novel, A Gate at the Stairs, was on the list compiled by Michiko Kakatani. Here are the critics' thumbnail descriptions of these novels:

Maslin on Sommerville: A slim, enchanting, unsentimental debut novel in which a young father-to-be’s journey to retrieve his wife’s stolen cradle sends him on an unexpectedly important journey. (Little, Brown & Company)

Kakatani on Moore: By turns heartbreaking and funny, sobering and wry, this novel chronicles the coming of age of a young woman in the year after 9/11 and her initiation into the adult world of loss and grief. (Alfred A. Knopf)

Congratulations to both Pat and Lorrie!

Kelly Cherry's Newest Books

Professor Emerita Kelly Cherry has two new books out. Her latest collection of poetry is The Retreats of Thought, a book-length sonnet sequence that explores the philosophical domain, addressing classic questions, raising new ones, and sometimes doing philosophy in fourteen lines.

And a starred review in Booklist says of her new collection of essays, Girl in the Library: On Women Writers and the Writing Life, "Piquant essays on family history and coming-of-age are deepened by reflections on beauty, art, and vocation. In fresh and inquiring portraits of exceptional southern women writers--Eudora Welty, Elizabeth Hardwick, Mary Ward Brown, Bobbie Ann Mason--Cherry explores the nature of a literary life." Library Journal adds, "Cherry explores the craft of writing, tracing her own development from rebellious college student to award-winning author of 19 books... Cherry's story will prove inspirational to aspiring writers as will her critical essays."

Even though he's left home, MFA grad Dean Bakopoulos is still a local hero, as you can tell by reading this article.

Travel & Leisure: Mad City among Top U. Towns

Not that we're surprised, but Madison has been named one of the top ten university towns by Travel & Leisure.

And as if to justify the designation, just this weekend alone we ran into former and current MFAs and CW minors happily mingling at the Forward Music Festival and others checking out the funky and fabulous Willie Street Parade (that's the parade's famed bubble car pictured above). Tonight, the faculty and Institute fellows are off to the annual English Department cocktail party, followed, no doubt, by a parade of our own up State Street for gelato and blueberry pie.

UW Grad Finalist for First Novel Award

Congrats to Patrick Somerville (undergrad program) whose novel The Cradle, from Little, Brown and Co., is a finalist for The Center for Fiction's annual $10,000 First Novel Prize. The other finalists are: "American Rust" by Philipp Meyer from Spiegel & Grau; "Tinkers" by Paul Harding from Bellevue Literary Press; "The Vagrants" by Yiyun Lin from Random House; and "Woodsburner" by John Pipkin from Doubleday/Nan A. Talese.

The prize--once known as the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize--went to Hannah Tinti last year for her novel, "The Good Thief." The Center was founded in 1820 as the Mercantile Library.

Librarians, staff, and members of The Center first read submissions and the recommendations of these Common Readers, as they are called, are then forwarded to a committee of distinguished American writers. This committee selects the novels on the short list and the winner.

Our fingers are crossed for you, Pat.