If you thought you could relax after AWP, THINK AGAIN

Whew.  Well, that was fun.  Let’s take a moment to pause and do some deep breathing post-AWP.   Go water your plants.  Go  through your voicemail messages.   Make some soup for your neighbor who just broke her leg.   All in the service of preparing for tomorrow, March 6^th, at 4:30 PM when Roosevelt University will be host to one of the most riveting, heart-pounding battles of all time.  I speak, of course of the Scott Blackwood/Kathleen Rooney LITERARY DEATHMATCH.

Who will emerge the victor?   Will it be Scott “Don’t call me Whiting”  Blackwood, head honcho of the Roosevelt MFA program, and award winning novelist and short story writer?

Will it be Kathleen “Also, best not to call me Whiting” Rooney, Roosevelt MFA Visiting Professor, Rose Metal Press co-founder, poet AND creative non-fiction master? 

 This once in a lifetime reading…er…LITERARY DEATHMATCH  happens tomorrow, March 6^th at 4:30 PM in Auditorium Building Room 406.  Be There!

Blackwood Recieves Prestigious Whiting Writers' Award

Scott Blackwood, with wife, Tommi, at the Awards Ceremony! Exclusive Pic!

Scott Blackwood, novelist, assistant professor of literature, and famed Director of Roosevelt's MFA in Creative Writing, has received the prestigious $50,000 Whiting Writers' Award, given annually, to emerging writers! The award has been given to the likes of Denis Johnson, Jonathan Franzen, Lydia Davis, Ben Fountain, and Stuart Dybek, to name just a few! Scott is one of ten writers (four fiction, four poets, one non-fiction, and one playwright) to receive the award this past Tuesday, October 25th, in New York City, from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation.

The Legend. The Novel.

The award is not just based on past accomplishments, though Scott has many! His novel, We Agreed to Meet Just Here, released in 2009, won the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best Fiction, was a winner in the AWP Award Series in the Novel, and was a finalist for the 2010 PEN USA Award! His first book, the story collection, In the Shadow of Our House, was published in 2001. 

He's also the Director of our growing program here at Roosevelt! Says Scott, “My hope is that this award will also bring the Creative Writing Program some attention, partly for our focus on our values." 

But what are our values, Scott? 

This is not what a Roosevelt Writer looks like! No Lone Wolves here!

 

“Creative writers are not lone wolves. We’re very interdependent and the Whiting Award process, in some ways, is about this interdependence. It’s anonymous and outside the writers’ control, meaning there are no applications, no ambitious writers schmoozing for better positioning, none of that. It’s ultimately about your work and how it affects others. That is the kind of community of writers we are building at Roosevelt University and the kind of community of writers I have been fortunate to have been a part of since my writing career began.”

This is what Roosevelt writers look like! Wolf Pack!

Ah, I remember now!

The Whiting Writers' Award also looks at a writer's exceptional talent and promise. Which works just fine, because Scott is working on his new novel, probably at this very moment! Ask him about it or read about it on the bottom of the Roosevelt article, here! This is a huge award, reported by the likes of the NY Times and Washington Post and Chicago Sun-Times - so, the next time you see Scott, congratulate him enthusiastically!

Blackwood to Read at Tamale Hut Reading Series

MFA director Scott Blackwood will be reading this coming Saturday, February 19th at The Tamale Hut Cafe reading series.  The reading, which starts at 7pm, will be followed by time for questions and an open mic opportunity.  This suburban reading series offers a great opportunity for established and emerging writers to come together in a supportive literary community.  Come hear our director and enjoy some well steeped words at 8300 W Cermak Road, North Riverside IL 60402.

Happy Course Registration Time!

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Like picking out Channuka gifts or registering your wedding at an academic Crate&Barrel, course registration is all about dreaming big. Will you take night classes? will you have two workshops and a literature course? Will your teacher assign movies to watch outside of class? Will they use blackboard or Norton Anthologies? Will there be potential new facebook friends sitting next to you? The possibilities are endless.

So close your eyes and make a wish and all your courses will come true...wait that's not how we do it anymore. Sign up for an advising session with Scott or Janet to discuss your plan and get your registration code. Then come hang out and chat about what classes you signed up for at RU's next Reading Series event: Heather Seller's Nov 17th.

Image by Mykl Roventine.

Blackwood's novel a finalist for PEN USA

MFA Program Director Scott Blackwood's novel, We Agreed To Meet Just Here, was just named a finalist for the prestigious PEN USA Literary Award for fiction. PEN Center USA’s annual awards program, established in 1982, is a unique, regional competition that recognizes literary excellence in ten categories. Past award winners include Barbara Kingsolver, Maxine Hong Kingston, T.C. Boyle and Paul Thomas Anderson.

Blackwood's novel was also awarded the AWP Prize for the Novel, and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best Work of Fiction.

Reminders: Two Events Today

Don't forget, Granta editor John Freeman is visiting Roosevelt today at 2pm, and Scott Blackwood's reading tonight at the Book Cellar at 7pm.

So It Begins...

It's officially the first week of fall term! And Chicago--accomodating as always--has been kind enough to supply us with appropriately autumnal weather.

We've got some major events planned for this semester. Here's a taste, just to whet your appetite:

Sept 16 - Scott Blackwood Reading
Our very own program director will be reading from his lastest touching novel, We Agreed To Meet Just Here, around 7pm at Lincoln Square's Book Cellar, which is hands-down the best bookstore in Chicago.

Sept 21 - Debra Monroe Visit
The Flannery O'Conner award-winning novelist and short story writer Debra Monroe (Shambles) will be visiting Roosevelt University to read from and speak about her work as part of the Roosevelt Reading Series.

Oct 7 - Frank X. Walker Visit
The world's first "Affrilachian" poet (Black Box), Frank is also an editor and a globetrotting lecturer. He'll be reading from his work and talking to our students as part of the Roosevelt Reading Series.

Oct 19 - Allen Wier Visit
Author of the Texan epic, Tehano, Allen is also a short story writer, an essayist, and a professor at the University of Tennessee.

Oct 30 - Halloween Field Trip
Last year, some of our MFA students were brave enough to make the trek to Chicago's Theatre on the Lake, host of the annual Haunted Sanitorium. This year, we know to bring a change of pants.

More details on these events and authors are coming soon!

Everything You Need To Know About the AWP Conference

We're lucky at Roosevelt. Next week, the 2009 AWP Conference will descend upon the Chicago Hilton, and we'll be in the midst of it all.

Here's just a little preview of what to expect:

(In case you don't know, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference and bookfair is an annual gathering of authors, publishers, MFA programs, and publications. It's like a Comic-Con for Lit Buffs, packed full of seminars, readings, speeches by people you'd never get a chance to see anywhere else, and SWAG, of course.)

Wednesday

From noon to 7:00pm, you can pick up your registration badges on the lower level of the Chicago Hilton, which grants you access to all the fun. Even if you haven't pre-registered, there will be badges for sale.

Thursday

Let slip the dogs of war. The labyrinthine bookfair opens at 8:30am (check out this massive list of exhibitors and try not to drool), including our very own Roosevelt MFA booth.

Starting at 9:00am, there will be over 100 seminars on everything you could possibly ask for: memoirs, Jewish poetry, getting published, the influence of hip-hop on literature, writing your first novel, you name it. Click here for the day's full schedule.

Featured Presenters

At 10:30am, Charles Baxter talks about writing in multiple genres (event R132).

At noon, Stuart Dybek and Aleksandar Hemon speak on urban settings (event R142), while Dorothy Allison discusses gay regionalism (event R143).

At 1:30pm, Charles Baxter, CJ Hribal, Wang Ping, Scott Russell Sanders, Sun Yung Shin, Luis Urrea, and Barrie Jean Borich will be part of the Loft Mentor Series Reading (event R160),

At 3:00pm, CJ Hribal talks about landscape in narrative (event R187), while Tyehimba Jess, Roger Sedarat, and Achy Obejas discuss writing outside of American culture (event R180).

At 4:30pm, catch a reading by Eric Bogosian (event R199) or Tyehimba Jess (event R209), or hear Haki Madhubuti talk about founding his own press.

After Dark

At 7:30pm, head over to Roosevelt's glorious Auditorium Theatre for the conference's keynote address by none other than Art Spiegelman, author of the Pulitzer-winning graphic novel Maus.

If that's not enough, head back over to the Hilton's third-floor Waldorf room around 10:00pm for the AWP Public Reception and Dance Party, where you'll find DJ Neza and free beer and wine. Read that again; it isn't a typo.

Friday

The bookfair's back, as are the hundred-something seminars ranging from contract advice, working with editors, teaching creative writing, gay and lesbian lit, writing historical fiction, and comics. Click here for Friday's sched.

Featured Presenters

At 10:30am, editor Kim Addonizio talks about compiling anthologies (event F120).

At noon, Major Jackson and Paul Muldoon talk about a writer's role in society (event F138).

At 1:30pm, Kwame Dawes, Valzhyna Mort, Brian Turner, and Katja Esson speak on traumatic poetry (event F156). Scott Blackwood will also preview his new novel, We Agreed To Meet Just Here (event F167).

At 3:00pm, catch a reading by Frank Bidart and Mary Jo Bang (event F175), or head to the National Book Award reading featuring Aleksandar Hemon, Marilynne Robinson, Bharati Mukherjee (event F174).

At 4:30pm, catch a reading with Kim Addonizio, David Yezzi, Molly Peacock, David Mason, and Andrew Hudgins (event F193).

After Dark

After you grab dinner, head north on Michigan Ave to Roosevelt's Gage Gallery, where program director and author Scott Blackwood will celebrate the release of his AWP award-winning novel, We Agreed To Meet Just Here, at 8:30pm with a reading, jazz, and adult beverages.

Then, if you didn't get enough dancing and free drinks on Thursday, head back to the Hilton for round two.

Saturday

Make your last run through the bookfair, and sit in on topics like writing young adult fiction, breaking genre boundaries, online lit mags, bad poems by great writers, translations, and writing in the Windy City. Here's Saturday's full schedule.

Featured Presenters

At 10:30am, Wang Ping discusses writing about mothers (event S124), while Haki Madhubuti talks about African Diaspora writers (event S136).

At noon, Haki Madhubuti speaks on Black Literature (event S139), while Kwame Dawes speaks on his cultural responsibilities as a poet (event S149), and Barrie Jean Borich discusses writing in the Midwest (event S143). Dorothy Allison also speaks on writing as a woman (event S140).

At 1:30pm, Honor Moore, Nick Flynn, Donald Hall, and Carolyn Forche talk about writing memoirs as a poet (event S158).

At 3:00pm, catch a reading by Paul Muldoon and a conversation with Alice Quinn (event S177), or a reading by Major Jackson (event S180), or Stuart Dybek (event S176). Frank Bidart will also read from the work of Elizabeth Bishop (event S173).

At 4:30pm, catch a reading by Naeem Murr (event S194), Charles Baxter (event S195), or Andrew Hudgins (event S193).

After Dark

AWP ends with a blast: celebrated actors B.D. Wong, Rita Wolf, and Isaiah Sheffer lend their talents to the reading of new short fiction. And don't forget DJ Neza and the free drinks again.

Scott Blackwood's Novel Now Available

We Agreed To Meet Just Here, the AWP award-winning novel by Scott Blackwood (our very own director), hit the bookshelves this week and is now available on Amazon. Published by New Issues Press, Blackwood's novel is "a lyrical mystery about disappearance, told in precise and luminous prose."

We Agreed To Meet Just Here has already garnered some good reviews in Texas Monthly and My San Antonio. Here's what others have to say:

"Extravagantly beautiful and yet offhand, We Agreed to Meet Just Here sweeps us along with its lush, hypnotic prose. Each of its characters is drawn to the illusion of forbidden perfection, the belief that the darkness, absence, and silence from which babies arrive and into which the dead enter is numinous proof our every wish will be fulfilled. As readers, we see what Scott Blackwood’s characters can’t see: a world so perfectly wrought every small gesture or urge matters."  --Debra Monroe, author of Shambles

"This little gem of a book puts on lush display Scott Blackwood's talent for measuring and connecting the previously un-connectable in lived experience, and making of it an entirely new whole which we immediately accept as true, natural, exhilarating, even inevitable. He is a lovely sentence writer, and this first novel sparkles with invention." --Richard Ford

Scott Blackwood will be reading an excerpt from We Agreed To Meet Just Here during the AWP Conference next week, on Friday, February 13th in Roosevelt's Gage Gallery. More details soon.

Spring Term Begins

It may not actually be spring yet, but spring term began today after a long (but welcome) Christmas break. As you can see above, some of us are particularly excited to be back.

Here's a look at this term's courses. They're all quite tempting:

Fiction Writing II & III (Scott Blackwood)

Blackwood's workshop/seminar focuses on fictional aesthetics, craft, and the relationship between a writer's life and publishing. Books include Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Boswell's The Half-Known World, Alice Munro, and Raymond Chandler. Guest workshoppers will include Janet Burroway, David McGlynn, and Don Pollack.

Science-Fiction and Fastasy Literature (Gary K. Wolfe)

In the past few years the boundaries of these genres, like the boundaries between popular and literary fiction, have grown increasingly fluid. This class will focus on the current state of fantastic fiction during the last two decades, focusing largely on short fiction and touching upon such writers as Robert Charles Wilson, Guy Gavriel Kay, Greg Bear, William Gibson, Connie Willis, Kelly Link, and Ted Chiang. Following introductory historical lectures, the course will develop through detailed discussions of specific stories and novels.

Poetry Writing II & III (Frank Rogaczewski)

Focuses on issues raised by contemporary poetry, and how they are reflected in student compositions. Guest workshoppers include Susan Briante.

Shakespeare and Film (Regina Buccola)

Creative Nonfiction Writing I (Janet Wondra)

Explores techniques of nonfiction storytelling with an emphasis on personal narrative, such as memoir. Texts include Judith Kitchen's Short Takes and Julie Hilden's The Bad Daughter. Guest workshoppers include Miles Harvey.

Rise of the Novel (Bonnie J. Gunzenhauser)

Books include Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Fielding's Tom Jones, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Sense and Sensibility.

Screenwriting (Scott Blackwood)

Students produce a screenplay in a workshop atmosphere, practicing techniques used by professional screenwriters to create complex characters, thrilling action, and original plots. Some attention to marketing the screenplay, including the treatment and pitch. Robert McKee's Story will be used as a guide, and Yaphet Smith will stop by in March to workshop.

Click here for more first-day-back pics.