Creative Writing Program News

faculty and graduate student creative activity 

 

FALL 2009 -- Spring 2010

Jessica Forcier's story, "Female Explosion Syndrome," the SCSU Creative Writing Program's nominee for this year's Associated Writing Programs' Intro Awards, has received an honorable mention. From submissions by the hundreds of writing programs in North America, five winners and four honorable mentions were chosen by this year's judge, Crystal Wilkinson. 

Tim Parrish's "After the River" was republished in The Best of LSU Fiction (Southern Review Press), a collection that contains the work of Robert Penn Warren, Andrei Codrescu, Valery Martin and other prominent writers.

Jeff Mock published his book of poems, Ruthless, winner of the Three Candles Press Open Book Award, selected by Deborah Keenan.

Vivian Shipley published two books: All of Your Messages Have Been Erased (Southeastern Louisiana University Press) and Greatest Hits: 1974-2010 (Pudding House Press). She won the Erika Mumford Prize from the New England Poetry Society for "Proud Flesh." Shipley was also named to the University of Kentucky Alumni Association Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

 

Fall 2008 -- Spring 2009

Robin Troy published a short essay in the Missoula Independent in September 2008.  She was also a finalist in the Michigan Literary Fiction Award for novels, fall 2008 and was awarded the SCSU Junior Faculty Research Fellowship for 2009-2010. 

Jeff Mock published his poems "The God of the Apocalypse" in the Cincinnati Review (Summer 2008); "How He Remembers His Life" in Confrontation (Spring/Summer 2008); "Hummingbird," "I Feel More Like I Did When I Came in Here Than I Do Now," "A Life in the Day," and "Natural Habitats" in Avant Garde for the New Millenium, Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2009; and "The God of Westward Expansion," "The Goddess of Second Chances," "The God of Nostalgia," "The Goddess of Brief Encounters," and "The God of Simple Vision" in Locuspoint, 2009.

Tim Parrish's "The Longer Route," an excerpt from his memoir Southern Man, appeared in the Cincinnati Review's 2009 summer issue.  He also gave a reading and guest taught at Misericordia University (Pennsylvania) in the spring (2009).

 

 

Southern Students' Success

A sampling of past Southern creative-writing students' successes, as both graduates and undergraduates, includes:

• Tony Fusco's poetry collection, Jessie's Garden, and numerous poetry prizes including The Sunken Garden Poetry Prize, The Alan Ginsburg Poetry Contest, The Wallace W. Winchell Contest, The Al Savard Poetry Contest, and The Trumbull Arts Festival Contest
• Tom Lombardi's novel, My Summer on Earth
• Sheila Squillante's first-place win in the 2003 "The Story of Your Life" Memoir Contest judged by Nora Ephron, Beverly Donofrio, and Suki Kim; her first-place essay "Love, Loss and Another Day at Work" in Glamour magazine; her receipt of a Writer's Grant and Travel Grant from the MacDowell Artists Colony; her honorable mention for the Intro Poetry Project, the national competition sponsored by AWP of all U.S. graduate writing programs. She now serves as Assistant Director of the Creative Program at Penn State.
• Sarah Wareck, one of six national winners of AWP's 2003 Intro Fiction Awards, and one of seven winners of Chicago Readers' national fiction contest. Runner-up for Sarabande's 2007 Mary McCarthy Prize
• Shawn Taylor, winner of GulfstreamMagazine's First Fiction national contest, 2004
• Tara Jill Ciccarone's honorable mention in Zoetrope All Story's national award for fiction; honorable mention for GlimmerTrain's national award for new fiction; was included in MississippiReview's Prize Edition in 2000; and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for fiction in 2001
• Allyson Wuerth won the New England Association of Teachers English Poetry Contest, 2005.

A partial list of the national journals in which our students have published includes New York Times Sunday Magazine, Ploughshares, McSweeney's, Sou'wester, FENCE, nerve.com, Louisiana Literature, Voices Along the River, AGNI, American Letters & Commentary, Beloit Poetry Journal, CROWD, Hayden's Ferry Review, Quarterly West, Sycamore Review, Coe Review, Cimarron Review, Midwest Review, Miller's Pond, Artisan, Bellowing Ark, Alaska Quarterly, Oxford, Third Coast, Connecticut Review, The South Carolina Review, Red Rock Review, Chiron, Laurels, New Letters, Phoebe, Clackamas Literary Review, Arubutus.net, The Southeast Review, Typomag.com, Nerve.com, LetterX.com, The Pedestal Magazine, Epiphany, Post Road, Prairie Schooner, Mochila Review, Beacon Street, Whirligig, Cottonwood, and Berkeley Fiction Review.

A partial list of fellowships and university positions held by former students:

• Jason Labbe, Henry Hoyns Fellow, University of Virginia, 2005-2006
• Allyson Wuerth, Stadler Semester Poet, Bucknell University, 1998
• Wayne Harrison, Oregon Literary Fellowship, 2004, and Fishtrap Fellowship, 2003
• Sheila Squillante, Katey Lehman Fellow in Creative Writing at Penn State, 2000-Jeffrey Voccola, Assistant Professor of English at Kutztown State University
• John Rosse, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Landmark College
• Marcel Burch, Assistant Professor of Developmental English at Norwalk Community College