Creative Writing at the University of Maryland

Temim Fruchter (BA, 2002; MFA, 2019) featured in Maryland Today!! Also, Temim is reading IRL from CITY OF LAUGHTER (Grove Atlantic) *tonight* at 7 at Loyalty Bookstore in Petworth DC. University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House 🥳💥📚✍🐢

Jewish Folklore Goes Q***r in Alum’s New Novel The Mystical and Mundane Meet in Story Inspired by Author’s Eastern European Family Matriarchs

Don't miss Temim Fruchter's (BA, 2002; MFA, 2019) recent Shondaland interview about her brand new novel, CITY OF LAUGHTER (Grove Atlantic).

‘City of Laughter’ Is a Gorgeous Exploration of Ancestry and Q***r Jewish Life Temim Fruchter discusses her debut novel and the winding history that guided her.

Happy Pub Week & Congratulations to Temim Fruchter, whose glorious debut novel, CITY OF LAUGHTER, was released on January 16! Temim is a double alum of University of Maryland Department of English, earning a BA in 2002 & an MFA in 2019! University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House

City of Laughter | Grove Atlantic A rich and riveting debut spanning four generations of Eastern European Jewish women bound by blood, half-hidden secrets, and the fantastical visitation of a...

Megaphone

"Solstice in Truro" by MFA Faculty Poet Joshua Weiner on The Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, selected by Claudia Rankine! Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Department of English

Solstice in Truro Teaching term done,

Congratulations to current MFA student Subraj Singh, whose story "All That Hunger, All That Thirst" is in the current issue of AGNI (98)!
University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland Department of English AGNI

All That Hunger, All That Thirst | AGNI Online July and August used to be the best month because that is when school would be out for the summer. Is real funny how they call it summer when Guyana is summer all year round, eh? But back then them thing didn’t matter. All the children would rest up on the weekend after school close and by Monday ...

📚✍💥Join us Wed., Dec. 6 at 7pm in the Ulrich Recital Hall for the *Writers Here & Now faculty reading* featuring MFA Program Director Lillian-Yvonne Bertram & their latest poetry collection, NEGATIVE MONEY (Soft Skull Press, 2023)!📚✍💥Dr. Bertram will be introduced by Distinguished University Professor Matthew Kirschenbaum. Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Alumni Association AADHum = Black Digital and Experimental Humanities at UMD

📡🙌"Totalitarian" by Tyler Mills (MFA, 2008) featured on The Slowdown with Major Jackson on October 30!📡🙌 Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities

Congrats to Steve Bellin-Oka (BA, 1989) on his role as The Academy of American Poets guest editor for the month of November (2023): https://poets.org/november-2023-poem-a-day-guest-editor-steve-bellin-oka
University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House

November 2023 Poem-a-Day Guest Editor Steve Bellin-Oka Listen to a short Q&A where Steve Bellin-Oka discusses his curatorial process for Poem-a-Day.

💥Listen to MFA Program Director Lillian-Yvonne Bertram on Marketplace Business News with Kai Ryssdal!💥https://www.marketplace.org/2023/09/26/poet-lillian-yvonne-bertram-explores-money-as-a-state-of-lack/
University of Maryland Department of English Soft Skull Press Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities

In "Negative Money" a poet explores money as "a state of lack" - Marketplace The title "Negative Money" came to Lillian-Yvonne Betram's when they were thinking about the feeling of being in debt.

📚✍💥Join us Wed., Oct. 4 at 7pm in the Ulrich Recital Hall for Writers Here & Now featuring Deesha Philyaw & Monica Youn!! The reading is free & open to the public, as always.📚✍💥University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland Department of English Blue Flower Arts Graywolf Press Wvu Press

"Facts About Deer" from NEGATIVE MONEY (Soft Skull Press) by MFA Program Director Lillian-Yvonne Bertram on Poetry Daily today! 💥🔥⚡️ University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House

"Facts About Deer" by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram from "Negative Money" published by Soft Skull Press

🥳🤩🐣Happy Pub Day & congratulations to MFA Program Director & faculty poet, Dr. Lillian-Yvonne Bertram: NEGATIVE MONEY, published by Soft Skull Press, is their fifth book.🥳🤩🐣University of Maryland Department of English Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities

Billionaire boy sells seats on his rocket/
& my tub won't warm water enough for my own/
ten stone. I p**s my pool.

—from "Money Can Buy a 13th Month"
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Negative Money

Negative Money hits shelves next week.

ICYMI: here's Elizabeth Arnold's stunning translation of THE WANDERER, first published in TriQuarterly, that appears in her new book WAVE HOUSE, released TODAY, 6/15/23, from Flood Editions.

The Wanderer Translated out of the Old English, The Exeter Book, 10th c.

🥳🐣Happy Pub Day to MFA faculty poet Elizabeth Arnold! Order your copy of Liz's 6th book, WAVE HOUSE (Flood Editions), today🥳🐣: https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9798985787412/wave-house.aspx?bCategory=2NP
University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House

Wave House Wave House “Elizabeth Arnold’s poems are structures for our times: built to move and to hold. Within them surge the elemental forces, the earth’s deep patterns and the human-driven, breakneck hurts—and the poet’s own migratory mind, coming honestly to terms with ...

Poet Shara McCallum MFA ’96 Named 2023 Guggenheim Fellow By Chloe Kim Shara McCallum MFA ’96, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Penn State University and a faculty member in the Pacific Low-Residency MFA Program, has received a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship to support her work in poetry.

"Ethnic Arithmetic" by Sara Burnett (MFA, 2014) is the featured poem on The Slowdown today, hosted by Major Jackson!! 🤩🤩🤩🌟🌟🌟Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Alumni Association University of Maryland Department of English Autumn House Press

🥳🐣A belated but very happy pub day to Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach (BA, 2008), whose third poetry collection, 40 WEEKS, was released from YesYes Books last week!!🥳🐣University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House

40 WEEKS | yesyesbooks Distributed by YesYes Books and IngramCover & Interior Design: Alban FischerAuthor photo: Connor North Goad$18 | ISBN: 978-1-936919-93-2Poetry l Perfectbound | April 25, 2023 Praise for 40 WEEKS 40 WEEKS is a breathtaking collection poised on the thresholds between anxiety & wonder, violence...

A stunning review of ARE WE EVER OUR OWN (BOA Editions, 2022) by MFA faculty fiction writer Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes in The Georgia Review: https://thegeorgiareview.com/posts/on-are-we-ever-our-own-by-gabrielle-lucille-fuentes/
Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Department of English

on Are We Ever Our Own by Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes – The Georgia Review In the Odyssey, Circe promises her famed traveler to “set him a course,” and throughout the short-story collection Are We Ever Our Own Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes offers this same gift […]

Congratulations to Shara McCallum (MFA, 1996), who has been named a 2023 GUGGENHEIM FELLOW in Poetry! 🤩🥳🔥⚡️
https://sharamccallum.com University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland Alumni Association

About - Shara McCallum When the dead returnthey will come to you in dream —Shara McCallum from “No Ruined Stone” From Jamaica, and born to a Jamaican father and Venezuelan mother, Shara McCallum is the author of six books published in the US and UK, most recently No Ruined Stone, winner of the 2022 Hurston/Wright Le...

📚🖌Join us for the Writers Here & Now Alumni Reading on *April 12 at 7pm in the Ulrich Recital Hall* celebrating Charlie Clark (BA, 1999; MFA 2003), Leigh Ann Ruggiero (MFA, 2007), Hannah Baker Saltmarsh (BA, 2004; MFA, 2006), and Hananah Zaheer (MFA, 2003)!!📚🖌 Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland Alumni Association Four Way Books University of Massachusetts Press University of Georgia Press Bull City Press

⭐️Looking forward to the Writers Here & Now Alumni Book Launch on *April 12 at 5pm in Tawes 2115*, featuring our superstar alumni, Charlie Clark (BA, 1999; MFA, 2003), Leigh Ann Ruggiero (MFA, 2007), Hannah Baker Saltmarsh (BA, 2004; MFA, 2006), and Hananah Zaheer (MFA, 2003), who will be in conversation about their debut books with current MFA students Cecilia Smith & Kate Hansen.⭐️ Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland Alumni Association University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Four Way Books University of Massachusetts Press University of Georgia Press Bull City Press

Don't miss this conversation between Allison Wyss (MFA, 2013) & Mary Lynn Reed (MFA, 2013) in Heavy Feather Review:
https://heavyfeatherreview.org/2023/03/11/phantom-advances/
Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Alumni Association University of Maryland Department of English

“If There’s a Window—a New Possibility”: Allison Wyss Talks to Mary Lynn Reed Mary Lynn Reed is a fiction writer and mathematician—but I’ve learned she’s also a photographer, shark-level pool player, and ace bowler. Her debut collection Phantom Advances has a bit…

🥳 Belated but big CONGRATULATIONS to Mary Lynn Reed (MFA, 2013), whose debut short story collection, PHANTOM ADVANCES (Split/Lip Press), hit the shelves on March 20!🥳
https://www.splitlippress.com/phantom-advances

Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Alumni Association University of Maryland Department of English

Phantom Advances by Mary Lynn Reed In Mary Lynn Reed’s debut short story collection, young q***r women travel America’s back roads, roaming through the South, Midwest, New York, and California, while questions of gender and identity ride shotgun.

🥳Congratulations to Tyler Mills (MFA, 2008), whose fifth book & first work of nonfiction, THE BOMB CLOUD, will be published by Unbound Edition Press in March of 2024.🥳 University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland Alumni Association Jiménez-Porter Writers' House 📚🖌✨

Unbound Edition Press to Publish Tyler Mills's The Bomb Cloud - Unbound Edition Press Unbound Edition Press today announced it will publish a memoir from poet and essayist Tyler Mills titled The Bomb Cloud, which is Mills’s fifth book and first work of nonfiction. The books confronts a family mystery surrounding involvement in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The title is sched...

Jason Schneiderman (BA, 1998) will guest host The Slowdown starting March 13th!📡🎧💥University of Maryland Department of English University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland Alumni Association

In the next few weeks, Major is taking a little time away from the mic to work on his upcoming book. Starting on Monday, March 13th, you will be hearing poems and a moment of reflection from Jason Schneiderman.

Here’s what Jason told us about taking the host chair for The Slowdown: "When I decided to put poetry at the center of my life, I never dreamed that the art form would experience such an explosion in interest and popularity. I'm gratified that you've found your way to poetry, and I'm grateful for your decision to join me in celebrating a new poem every day. One of my favorite things to do is share poems that I love, and I can't wait to show you some poems that have knocked my socks off. As one of the oldest art forms we know, poetry uses the human instinct for language to fulfill the human need to connect. I'm honored to be your guide and curator for the next two weeks.”

Jason is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Hold Me Tight (Red Hen Press, 2020). He is Professor of English at CUNY’s Borough of Manhattan Community College and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His awards include the Emily Dickinson Award, the Shestack Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. His next collection of poems, Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire, will be published by Red Hen Press in 2024. Learn more at Jason’s website: jasonschneiderman.net

Photo by Marion Ettlinger

Don't miss the opportunity to hear from award-winning authors Ravi Howard and Nicole Sealey next Wednesday at 7 pm in Ulrich Recital Hall!

This event is part of the Writers Here & Now series, which brings writers of national and international prominence to the University of Maryland.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ravi Howard is the author of two novels, Like, Trees, Walking and Driving the King (HarperCollins). In addition to being selected as a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, Like, Trees, Walking won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Howard has received fellowships and awards from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association,the Hurston-Wright Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His short fiction has appeared in Salon, Massachusetts Review, Silent Beaches, Untold Stories, Saw Palm, and Alabama Noir. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Atlanta, and Gravy, and he has recorded commentary and fiction for NPR’s All Things Considered and Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Thacker Mountain Radio. He has taught creative writing with the Hurston-Wright Foundation, Callaloo, Kimbilio, Minnesota Northwoods, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He is currently an assistant professor in the creative writing program at Florida State University.

Nicole Sealey was born in St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, and raised in Apopka, Florida. She is the author of Ordinary Beast (Ecco, 2017), which was a finalist for the PEN Open Book and Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Sealey’s chapbook, The Animal After Whom Other Animals are Named (Northwestern University Press, 2016), was the winner of the 2016 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Prize. In 2019, Sealey was named a 2019-2020 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. She has received fellowships and awards from the American Academy in Rome, the Forward Foundation, CantoMundo, Cave Canem Foundation, the National Endowment and New York Foundation for the Arts, an Elizabeth George Foundation, among others. She was the Executive Director at Cave Canem Foundation from 2017–2019. Sealey lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Writers Here & Now is co-sponsored by the Jiménez-Porter Writers' House, Creative Writing at the University of Maryland, and the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies.

🙌L.S. McKee (MFA, 2005) has won the 2022 First Book Award in Poetry from Zone 3 Press!🙌Her debut poetry collection, CREATURE, WING, HEART, MACHINE, will be published later this year. Congrats, Laura!! University of Maryland Department of English Jiménez-Porter Writers' House University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities University of Maryland Alumni Association 🐣⚡️🚀🖌📚🥳