Timothy Moore and Tovah Burstein featured in Chicago Reader's Annual Fiction Issue!

Change the batteries in your smoke detectors and refill those fire extinguishers, because our Roosevelt MFA Students are ON FIRE.

More like MFA-ers on fire, am I right?

If you're in the Chicago area, pick up a copy of today's Chicago Reader and browse through the cover story- the winners of their annual fiction contest.  Inside you'll find not one but TWO Roosevelt MFA students, former-GA and megablogger Tim Moore and (also-)former-GA and rhapsodic reviewer Tovah Burstein!

First Step- the Chicago reader...

Next Step- the White House bookshelf.

The judge of this year's issue, Goldie Goldblum, an accomplished Chicago-based novelist and short story writer, clearly has impeccable taste.  Reader culture-editor Tony Adler heaped praise upon Tim's story "goofy-touching" story "Thank God for Facebook!," as well as Tovah's piece "Moving on at the Hipster Gym," which he called "a strange, compelling hybrid—a satire that's also a cri de coeu."  Well done, T and T!

 If you're not in the Chicago area and want to the read Tovah and Tim's pieces, they will be preserved on the interweb for eternity right here.

But that's not all- Tim also has a story forthcoming in the soon-to-be-released Spring 2012 issue of the Oyez Review, Roosevelt's own student-run literary journal.  Tim Moore- a publishing force to be reckoned with.

Welcoming the two new grad assistants!

It's the beginning of the spring semester at Roosevelt. That means a new grad assistant... and this year, two new GAs!

Tim Moore has been named the new grad assistant in the Creative Writing program, assisting director Scott Blackwood and lead GA Tovah Burstein. Moore is a fiction writer recently published in Nap, and was awarded the Friends of American Writers scholarship last November. He has a screenwriting background, is a sought-after tutor at the Roosevelt University Writing Center, and can be found at any MFA reading event, rain or shine.

Heather Cox has been named the first-ever grad assistant of the Department of Literature and Languages, assisting department chair Bonnie Gunzenhauser. Cox worked as the departmental administrative assistant last fall and is an impassioned, active participant in all things MFA. She was a leader in Serif and kicked off Ghost Ocean Magazine. Her poetry has been recently published in Pear Noir (including a postcard series), technicolor Magazine, Psychic Meatloaf, and Pyrta.

Congrats to you both !

photo by Heather Cox 

Moore's "The Ghost" published in Nap

Congratulations to MFA candidate Timothy Moore, whose short story "The Ghost" appears in the debut issue of Nap literary magazine. Nap is a quarterly fiction and poetry magazine that will appear online and on kindle. You can catch a glimpse of "The Ghost" online through Nap's website. Tim's work promises to thrill, since Nap seeks writing that is sensory, crisp, detailed, odd, humorous, serious, emotional, visual, dense, charming, imaginative, absurd, animated and experimental.  Doesn't sound like something I'd be able to take a nap after!

Moore wins The Friends of American Writers Scholarship

MFA student Timothy Moore has been honored by The Friends of American Writers with a $1,000 Scholarship. This is Moore's first award as a writer and he is so happy about it. When several people asked him, he was reported to say "I'm happy!" and we are happy for him!

The FAW is an organization that promotes American Literature and upholds high standards and encourages litarary ideals in American writers. They loved Moore's short story, "This is What it Means to be Displaced". This Chicago based organization is happy to support an incoming Roosevelt student each fall.

Check out Moore's new student bio on our student page! If you're nice to him, he might even let you read his story!