Department of Creative Writing

News & Accolades – December 2016

The Department of Creative Writing has developed a partnership with publishing giant HarperCollins Publishers in New York City that will give students direct access to leading publishing industry professionals!

ecotonelookout.org/uncw-partners-with-harpercollins

Robert Anthony Siegel on negotiating the mad traffic of Taiwan—and making it that much worse: journal.fulbright.org.tw/index.php/browse-topics/life/item/156-last-fragment-from-a-taiwan-notebook-traffic,-turn-signals,-fate.

BFA student Mason Hamberlin announces his first two publications: his poem "anniversary (or a collection of metaphors relating two previously unrelated people)" appears in the Fall 2016 issue of voicemailpoems.org, while his surreal flash-fiction piece "You See a Skein of Ducks" appears in Thrice Fiction No. 18.

BFA student Kristen Scarlett’s poem titled “Aposematic Mimicry” will be published in the annual print edition of Crosswinds Poetry Journal in May 2017.

MFA student Megan Ellis’ essay "Hunty" was published by Entropy in their Literacy Narratives section. Read it at entropymag.org/literacy-narrative-hunty.

MFA student Evan Gray has two poems, “Sleeper” and “Images,” in the Winter 2016 After the Pause. Read them at issuu.com/afterthepause/docs/afterthepause__1_.docx (pages xx & yy).

MFA student Graham Irvin’s short story, “Behind the Counter” appears in The Tusk at tusk2.com/2016/12/02/behind-the-counter.

MFA student Lauren Krouse ruminates on privilege and political correctness in an MFA program at thoughtcatalog.com/lauren-krouse/2016/12/why-you-should-stop-using-the-word-privilege.

MFA student Martha Lundin was nominated by |tap| literary magazine (12.6.16) for a 2016 Pushcart Prize for her essay, "Asteroid."

MFA student Stephanie Trott has two interviews up on the Rumpus: therumpus.net/2016/11/the-rumpus-interview-with-alice-mattison therumpus.net/2016/12/the-rumpus-interview-with-vi-khi-nao

Sarah Creech’s (BFA ’05) second novel The Whole Way Home will be published by William Morrow in June 2017. Sarah’s debut novel, Season of the Dragonflies (published by William Morrow in 2014), was a SIBA OKRA pick for the summer of 2014. Publishers Weekly described the book as "charming and suspenseful...a memorable debut." She teaches English at Queens University Charlotte.

Stephen Malloy (BFA ’16) has a short story titled "The Organic Bedroom" appearing in the Bacopa Literary Review 2016 (Volume 7).

Cheryl Wilder's (BFA ’05) debut poetry chapbook, What Binds Us, from Finishing Line Press will be released March 2017. Take advantage of presale and order yours by January 20, 2017. Available here: finishinglinepress.com/product/what-binds-us-by-cheryl-wilder.

Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams (MFA ’07) has a flash story, "A Box of Winter," about Robert Redford, up at Flash Fiction Online.

Stephanie J. Andersen (MFA ’06) has been nominated by Hippocampus Magazine and Books for a 2016 Pushcart Prize for her poem, “Still.”

Christina Clark (MFA ’16) shares with us the following good news:

My poem “The Train You Never Took in Harlingen, Texas, (2007)” will be published Vol. 29:3 of Calyx Journal in the Winter/Spring of 2017.

Two poems, "Resignation Letter to Silent Model Management" and "Casting Call," were accepted by Cream City Review and will appear in their upcoming issue.

Jonathan Russell Clark (MFA ’16) wrote a piece on Read if Forward about books that explore the history of the many aspects of the book itself, from pulp to grammar to the alphabet. Read it at readitforward.com/bookshelf/the-aspects-of-the-book.

Alexa Doran (MFA ’15) is one of 13 women authors featured in the Winter 2017 edition of Dying Dahlia. She is a PhD candidate at Florida State Univeristy.

Liz Granger (MFA ’16) wrote a piece, “The Media Didn't Fail America — You Just Didn't Know Where To Look,” on the media and rural America, at Refinery29.

Dina Greenberg’s (MFA ’15) flash fiction: “Guinevere Tries a New Kind of In-vitro” has been nominated for the 2017 Best Small Fictions anthology. The piece appeared in Issue 8 (December 2017) of Tahoma Literary Review, curated by the journal’s publisher Joe Ponepinto.

Lucy Huber (MFA ’13)’s piece, “Planning My Wedding Made Me Obsessed with True Crime,” appears in The Tusk.

Shawna Kenney (MFA ’07) recently published a longform profile on Narratively, and has a prose poem forthcoming in ONLY LIGHT CAN DO THAT: 100 post-election poems, stories, & essays—an anthology published by The Rattling Wall & PEN Center USA.

Keith Kopka (MFA ’11) has been nominated by Queen Mob's Teahouse for a 2016 Pushcart Prize for his poem, “Monument.”

Josh MacIvor-Andersen's (MFA ’11) book On Heights & Hunger was published in 2016 by Outpost19.

The story of two professional and competitive tree-climbing brothers, both hungry for transcendence and adventure, coming to

terms with their relationship to the divine, the family that first provided a framework for faith, and their own obsessions,

victories, and failures.

Jeremy Morris (MFA ’14) was chosen as a finalist for the Moon City Press Poetry Award for his manuscript (and MFA thesis), Litany as a Life Raft (also a recent finalist for the Crab Orchard Review First Book Prize).

Jamie Mortara (MFA ’13) has two poems in peach mag. Read them at peachmgzn.com/jamie-mortara.

Katie Prince (MFA ’15) shares a wealth of good news:

I was a finalist in Terrain.org's 7th Annual Poetry Contest; the three poems ("armistice," "'astronomers capture violent newborn star,'" and "terraform") were published along with my voice recordings.

I have a poem, "what this lacks is understanding," coming out in the next issue of New Delta Review.

An ekphrastic poem, "after infatuation—ross bleckner—oil on linen," is forthcoming in the next issue of Cordite Poetry Review.

I have three poems ("on escaping black holes," "poem in which I drive drunk," and "the moral of the story is bears aren't friends") coming out in the next issue of The Pinch Journal.

Two poems ("dark matter" and "no vacancy") were accepted by The Adroit Journal and will appear in their August 2017 issue.

Dana Sachs (MFA ’00) was granted the Award for Excellence in Creative Writing from the North Carolina Sorosis Night Department. Read more at starnewsonline.com/entertainment/20170107/dana-sachs-earns-creative-writing-award.

Emily Paige Wilson (MFA ’16) has been nominated by Sundog Lit for a 2016 Pushcart Prize for her poem, “Burning Witches.” She also shares other good news:

A poem of mine was a finalist in the first Sycamore & Ivy Poetry Contest. It will be published in the January issue of Fourth & Sycamore.

Another poem appears at Heavy Feather Review: heavyfeatherreview.com/2016/12/13/wilson.

And I was a finalist in the Devil's Lake 2016 Driftless Poetry Prize for my poem, “Marriage Advice from My Mother.”

The December issue of Wilmington’s Salt magazine features a wealth of Creative Writing folks. Regular columnists include faculty members Clyde Edgerton and Virginia Holman, and MFA alums Anne Barnhill (’01), Jason Frye (’05), Dana Sachs (’00), and Barbara Sullivan (’11), among others. Read it here: issuu.com/saltmagazinenc/docs/december_salt_2016. A link to the digital archive of Salt is here: issuu.com/saltmagazinenc/docs.