Welcome Back!

The 2011-2012 school year begins today for all of our wonderful MFAers! There are some exciting new additions to Roosevelt this year, so get excited for the coming Fall and Spring!

Kyle Beachy: Tenure Tracked Skateboarding Machine

Last year's Writer-in-Residence, Kyle Beachy has returned, fully secured in a tenure tracked position! He will be teaching Fiction I this Fall! If you haven't been in one of Kyle's classes yet, you are in for a treat! Besides many published short stories and essays, you can find his acclaimed novel, The Slide, at your bookstore today! And tomorrow too! 

Kathleen Rooney: Non-Fiction Poet Writer-in-Residence Machine

Speaking of Writer-in-Residence, Roosevelt welcomes Kathleen Rooney to that very position! Kathleen participates in many Chicago literary events, has her own press, and has books in both poetry and non-fiction! She will be teaching a non-fiction class this fall and a poetry class in the spring!

Christine Sneed: Fiction Writing Grace Paley Prize Winning Machine

Teaching Fiction III/IV this year is award-winning writer Christine Sneed! Her novel, Portraits of a Few People I've Made Cry was awarded the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction at AWP in 2009! She also teaches at Depaul! And has a wonderful blog here!

Dominic Smith: Visiting Writer Gage Gallery Reading Machine

Mark your calenders! This September 19th, novelist Dominic Smith, will be our visiting writer at the Gage Gallery! You can read all about him on his website and welcome him as he reads some of his work and visits class! More details forthcoming!

More news and events to come! Keep up with this blog for updates! And send in your good news and publications! Get excited!

Bruce Machart at RU 2/7

Right off the heels of AWP, the excitement keeps coming!  Highly acclaimed writer, Bruce Machart, whose debut novel, The Wake of Forgiveness, will be reading from his work, at 5pm, this Monday (February 7th), 18 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.  Coffee and treats and nice conversation will be at 4:30!  


Bruce Machart's fiction has been published in some of the country's biggest literary magazines, including Zoetrope: All-Story, Story, One Story, Five Points, and Glimmer Train!  He has a short story collection, called Men in the Making, coming out this year from HMH.  


The Wake of Forgiveness has been described by author and editor, Hannah Tinti, as such: “In The Wake of Forgiveness, Bruce Machart tells a story of fathers and sons that stretches wide across the Texas landscape, leaving behind its own beautiful wake of remembrance, inheritance, and the unbreakable bonds of family.”


Great blurb, Hannah!  We are so excited to have Bruce here!  Be excited to and join us this Monday!  

Roosevelt Reading Series Fall Preview

The Roosevelt Reading Series kicks off next Monday with a reading by Ben Fountain. Fountain will read from his acclaimed novel,
Brief Encounters with Che Guevara.

Tom Grimes (author of Mentor) will read on October 27th, and Heather Sellers (published in three genres) will conclude the fall Roosevelt Reading Series on November 17th.

Reading Series events are hosted at the Gage Gallery, across the street from Millenium Park. Coffee and cookies are served at 4:30pm, and the readings begin at 5pm.

Poet Mary Jo Bang to visit this Tuesday!

Tuesday, April 27

5:00 p.m.

Roosevelt University’s Gage Gallery

18 S. Michigan Avenue (across from Millennium Park)

Mary Jo Bang is the author of six collections of poems, including Louise in Love, The Eye Like a Strange Balloon and Elegy, which was awarded the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recent book is The Bride of E (Graywolf, 2009). Individual poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Paris Review, Fence, Denver Quarterly, three volumes of Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. She has a BA and MA in Sociology from Northwestern University, a BA in photography from the Polytechnic of Central London and an MFA in poetry from Columbia University. She’s received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bakeless Prize, and a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. She teaches at Washington University in St. Louis and is currently at work on a verse translation of Dante’s Inferno.

Join us at 4:30 in the Gage Gallery for Coffee & Convo so that you can catch up with your fellow classmates and professors before the school year comes to a close. We'll see you there!

S.L. Wisenberg to Visit RU Today!

Roosevelt University’s Creative Writing Program, Oyez Review, and the Department of Literature and Languages present

Sandi Wisenberg

Creative Nonfiction

Wednesday, April 14

5:00 p.m.

Roosevelt University’s Gage Gallery

18 S. Michigan Avenue (across from Millennium Park)

Sandi Wisenberg grew up in Houston and lives in Chicago. She is the author of two collections, The Sweetheart Is In, and Holocaust Girls: History, Memory, & Other Obsessions, and the recently published The Adventures of Cancer Bitch, based on her blog. She's published prose and poetry in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Tikkun, New England Review, Michigan Quarterly Review and many other places. She's currently the creative nonfiction editor of Another Chicago Magazine and co-director of Northwestern's M.A./M.F.A. in Creative Writing program. She also teaches in the University of Chicago's Graham School of General Studies, in the certificate program in creative writing. She's received a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

And don't forget to swing by early, anytime after 4:30 p.m. to partake in Roosevelt's Creative Writing Coffee & Convo mixer. See you there!

Overheard at Coffee & Convo [03.01.2010]

The first Roosevelt Creative Writing Coffee & Convo was a success, thanks to our students and faculty who took a break from their reading, writing, and working to catch up and eat cookies. Here are pictures from this event, and what we overheard during the event.

Overheard 4:33 p.m.

Are you ready for the moment of truth?

What's that?

The Bachelor.

Overheard 4:40 p.m.

I need to hear about the Olympics.

I'll probably cry.

Overheard 4:41 p.m.

I need to take a picture with you and your sandwich.

Should I do something with it?

Overheard 4:56 p.m.

What's the difference between jazz hands and spirit fingers?

Overheard 4:59 p.m.

You have to let the little hairs get long.

Join us tonight, at 4:30 p.m. in the Gage Gallery for our second installation of Coffee & Convo, and Frank Rogaczewski's book release party and reading!

Faculty Book Release, This Tuesday!

Thank you all for making our first Coffee & Convo a success, and for the great turn-out for Roosevelt's first 2010 Visiting Author Series event last week! Join us this Tuesday for:

Frank Rogaczewski’s

The Fate of Humanity in Verse

Book Reading & Release Party

Tuesday, March 9

5:00 p.m.

Roosevelt University’s Gage Gallery

18 S. Michigan Avenue (across from Millennium Park)

Frank Rogaczewski received his Ph.D. in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His poetry has been published in Notre Dame Review, Denver Quarterly, ACM, Samizdat, BlueSky Review, Oyez Review and elsewhere. He’s also one of the featured poets in Vectors: New Poetics (Writers Club Press). His debut collection of prose poems, The Fate of Humanity in Verse (American Letters & Commentary, Inc.), was published in spring, 2009.

And don't forget to swing by early, anytime after 4:30 p.m. to partake in Roosevelt's Creative Writing Coffee & Convo mixer. See you there!

First Visiting Writers Series Event 2010

Our first reading series event for the spring is tonight at 5:00 @ the Gage Gallery. Visiting MFA Adjunct Professor Adam Levin will be reading from his work and participating in a Q&A. Refreshments, good fellowship with your fellow writers, and a fine reading. What more could you ask for on a Monday night?

Not only will this be the first Visiting Author Series reading of the semester, but it is also our first ever MFA Coffee and Convo! We are implimenting a half hour time slot before each Visiting Author Series reading in order for MFA mingling and community building. So please join us at 4:30 p.m. in the Gage Gallery--to drink a cup of joe, have a cookie, and catch up with your fellow peers and professors!

READING: ADAM LEVIN Monday, March 1, 5 – 6 p.m. (Coffee & Convo 4:30 p.m.)

Adam Levin’s first novel will be published by McSweeney’s in Fall 2010.

A collection of short stories will follow in early 2012. Levin holds

an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University

and an MA in Clinical Social Workfrom the University of Chicago.

His fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including

Tin House, McSweeney’s and New England Review. He teaches fiction

in the Creative Writing Program at Roosevelt.

See you there!

Want To Attend Some Literary Events?

Make sure you check out our newly-updated event calendar page, with events at Roosevelt University and around the community. And if you've heard of another great literary event in the area, make sure to leave us a comment below and tell us about it!