Farewell Friends

Hey Y'all,

It's been an excellent year for readings--sometimes yielding an embarrassment of riches--, but another semester is over so it's time to pack it in. Don't be sad. Remember Wallace Stevens, who says "The world is larger in summer."

In the fall, the readings coordinator job expands, as well. Alyssa Knickerbocker and Vanessa Merina, both UW-Madison MFA candidates in fiction, will dazzle you next year as the Program in Creative Writing's readings coordinators! That's right coordinators, plural!

Have a great summer, and check back periodically to see what the program's up to. You know that once September rolls around, you won't want to miss out on anything. Thanks for visiting this blog, and--more importantly--for coming to our many readings and contributing to the vibrant literary community here in Madison.

Be well,
Ryan

Thursday, May 7: An Evening of Fiction & Poetry

Emma Straub reads fiction and Traci Brimhall reads poetry. You won't want to miss this.

Thursday, May 7th
7pm - 8pm
Helen C. White Hall
Room 6191

Two Great Readings Next Thursday, April 30

It's the first annual English 695 fiction and poetry reading, where undergraduate creative writing students read work from their thesis projects. This reading is hosted by the Madison Review.

* * * *

Also on April 30: you're invited to join distinguished poet Martin Espada -- a UW-Madison alum known as "the" Latino poet of his generation, and "the" Pablo Neruda of North America --
for a poetry performance you will find at once illuminating, humorous, moving, and interdisciplinary.

The main event takes place at Pyle Center, on Thursday, 30 April at 7pm:
POETRY OF THE POLITICAL IMAGINATION:
A READING BY MARTIN ESPADA

There will also be two brownbag lectures by Espada: "The Redemption of Pablo Neruda," at noon on Thursday the 30th of April, and "Colonialism and the Poetry of Rebellion" in Puerto Rico, at noon on Friday the 1st of May. The brownbags will be in 5233 Mosse Humanities Bldng.

Espada's poetry breaks down conventional knowledge boundaries. It unites powerfully literature and history, political and social analysis, ethnic studies and area studies. It puts forth an "Americas" vision that encompasses New York and Puerto Rico, Wisconsin and Chile. It produces an experience that is at once edgy and humane, funny and dramatic. Espada's thirty honors include two Paterson Awards for Sustained Literary Achievement, citation as Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and most recently, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award.

These events are co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, the Office of MultiCultural Arts Initiatives, the Department of History, LACIS (Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies), the Harvey Goldberg Center for the Study of Contemporary History, the Comparative US Cultures Cluster, and Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies.

Tonight @ Avol's Bookstore:

Jennifer Militello & Ryan Walsh
Thursday, April 23, 7:00pm @ Avol's Bookstore

JENNIFER MILITELLO's first collection of poetry, Flinch of Song, was awarded the Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book Prize and will be published in Fall of 2009. She is the author of the chapbook Anchor Chain, Open Sail (Finishing Line Press, 2006) and has had poems published in The Kenyon Review, The New Republic, The North American Review, The Paris Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Best New Poets 2008, among others. www.jennifermilitello.com

RYAN WALSH is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His poems have appeared in Asheville Poetry Review, Ecotone, FIELD, Green Mountains Review, and Solo. He co-edits the literary journal Rivendell and is the editor & publisher of Pocket Press.

Two Great Readings Next Thursday, April 30

It's the first annual English 695 fiction and poetry reading, where undergraduate creative writing students read work from their thesis projects. This reading is hosted by the Madison Review.

* * * *

Also on April 30: you're invited to join distinguished poet Martin Espada -- a UW-Madison alum known as "the" Latino poet of his generation, and "the" Pablo Neruda of North America --
for a poetry performance you will find at once illuminating, humorous, moving, and interdisciplinary.

The main event takes place at Pyle Center, on Thursday, 30 April at 7pm:
POETRY OF THE POLITICAL IMAGINATION:
A READING BY MARTIN ESPADA

There will also be two brownbag lectures by Espada: "The Redemption of Pablo Neruda," at noon on Thursday the 30th of April, and "Colonialism and the Poetry of Rebellion" in Puerto Rico, at noon on Friday the 1st of May. The brownbags will be in 5233 Mosse Humanities Bldng.

Espada's poetry breaks down conventional knowledge boundaries. It unites powerfully literature and history, political and social analysis, ethnic studies and area studies. It puts forth an "Americas" vision that encompasses New York and Puerto Rico, Wisconsin and Chile. It produces an experience that is at once edgy and humane, funny and dramatic. Espada's thirty honors include two Paterson Awards for Sustained Literary Achievement, citation as Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and most recently, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award.

These events are co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, the Office of MultiCultural Arts Initiatives, the Department of History, LACIS (Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies), the Harvey Goldberg Center for the Study of Contemporary History, the Comparative US Cultures Cluster, and Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies.

Flinch of Song: a Poetry Reading

Jennifer Militello & Ryan Walsh
Thursday, April 23, 7:00pm @ Avol's Bookstore

JENNIFER MILITELLO's first collection of poetry, Flinch of Song, was awarded the Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book Prize and will be published in Fall of 2009. She is the author of the chapbook Anchor Chain, Open Sail (Finishing Line Press, 2006) and has had poems published in The Kenyon Review, The New Republic, The North American Review, The Paris Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Best New Poets 2008, among others. www.jennifermilitello.com

RYAN WALSH is finishing his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His poems have appeared in Asheville Poetry Review, Ecotone, FIELD, Green Mountains Review, and Solo. He co-edits the literary journal Rivendell and is the editor & publisher of Pocket Press.