Julie Marie Wade's New Chapbook: When I Was Straight

Julie Marie Wade's poetry chapbook When I Was Straight has been published by A Midsummer Night's Press. The book had a pre-publication launch signing at AWP 2014 in Seattle, and is currently a finalist for the Over the Rainbow juried book list of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association.

In addition, Wade's Wishbone: A Memoir In Fractures, originally published by Colgate University Press, which sold out its first printing, is being reissued by Bywater Books in November 2014.

You can read an interview with Wade, about her recent and forthcoming publications, at Late Night Library.

Young Widower by John W. Evans Published

MFA alumnus John W. Evans' memoir, Young Widower, winner of the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize, has just been published by the University of Nebraska Press. Booklist praises "the unfolding and cathartic grieving process that underpins and elevates this heartbreaking tale." You can read an adapted excerpt from the book published by Slate.


Evans' poetry collection, Consolations, will be published by Trio House Press in March 2014 and he'll be signing advance copies of it at the AWP in Seattle. Since completing his MFA at FIU, Evans has been a Stegner Fellow in Poetry and a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where he continues to teach creative writing. More about Evans and his writing on his website.

Leaving Little Havana by Cecilia Fernandez Published

Leaving Little Havana: a Memoir of Miami's Cuban Ghetto by  Cecilia M. Fernandez has just been published by Beating Windward Press.  First written as Fernandez's MFA thesis, the book was a finalist for the Breadloaf Writers' Conference book competition.

Before receiving her MFA from Florida International University, Fernandez was a reporter for the Stockton Record, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Hollywood Sun-Tatler and worked at WPBT, WSVN, WLTV, and WSC-TV as a reporter, producer, and anchor. Her writing has appeared in Latina Magazine, Accent Miami, Upstairs at the Duroc: The Paris Workshop Journal, Vista Magazine, and Le Siecle de Georges Sand. You can learn more about Fernandez and her book's journey to publication on her blog.

Fernandez will be appearing at Books & Books in Coral Gables tonight, Dec. 7th, 7 PM, for the official book launch of Leaving Little Havana.

Boat Girl, Melanie Neal's Memoir, Sets Sail

Boat Girl: A Memoir of Youth, Love, and Fiberglass details the coming-of-age-experiences of Melanie Neale, a 2006 FIU MFA Creative Writing program graduate. The memoir began, in part, as her MFA thesis, based on her experiences when her family lived on a boat sailing along the U.S. east coast and the Bahamas in the 1980s and 1990s.

As those who were her classmates know, Neale lived aboard her own 28' sailboat while she was in the MFA program. Boat Girl is published by Orlando-based Beating Windward Press, which specializes in literary fiction and nonfiction.

 At Neale's website, you can learn more about the book as well as the many literary journals and magazines where her work has been published.  She'll be appearing at Miami Book Fair International in November.

The 2012 FIU Writer's Conference Approaches

The Biltmore Hotel & Resort in Coral Gables, Florida

This October, FIU's 2012 Writers Conference, put on in partnership with Books & Books, will be held at the Biltmore Hotel and Spa in Coral Gables, FL.

From October 25-27, writers, teachers, editors and agents will be on hand, bringing their expertise to conference attendees.  Here's a quick look at who'll be there and the topics covered:

● novel, Scott Spencer (Endless Love) ● non-fiction/memoir, Ann Hood (Comfort) ● food and fiction writer, Steven Raichlen (Island Apart, The Barbecue Bible) ● fiction, John Dufresne (Requiem, Mass.) ● poetry, Denise Duhamel (Ka-Ching!) ● revision process, Lynne Barrett (Magpies) ● novel, Debra Dean (The Madonnas Of Leningrad) ● screenwriting & structure, Les Standiford (Bringing Adam Home) ● the book concept, Ellen Sussman (DirtyWords, French Lessons) ● memoir, Julie Wade (Small Fires) ● Richard Pine, Inkwell Management Literary Agency ● Jill Bialosky, Editor (W.W. Norton)

Conference director Les Standiford says, "Of course we hope that everyone will want to join us at the legendary Biltmore, with its many amenities, but as always, the heart of the matter is writing. Our program offers intensive, hands-on workshops and discussions intended to help writers at all stages of development."

For more information, the schedule, availability of manuscript conferences, and registration details, visit the conference page at the FIU Creative Writing program website here.

A look back in history.

The MFA Program Welcomes Julie Marie Wade

Julie Marie Wade is the newest addition to the faculty of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. Wade, who will be teaching memoir/nonfiction, completed her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Humanities with creative dissertation at the University of Louisville in 2012, after having received a Master of Arts in English at Western Washington University and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry at the University of Pittsburgh.

She has received the Chicago Literary Award in Poetry, the Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize, the Oscar Wilde Poetry Prize, the Literal Latte Nonfiction Award, two Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prizes, the AWP Intro Journals Award, the American Literary Review Nonfiction Prize (read her prize-winning piece here), the Arts & Letters Nonfiction Prize, an Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, the Thomas J. Hruska Nonfiction Prize, and the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir.  She is the author of two collections of lyric nonfiction, Wishbone:A Memoir in Fractures (Colgate University Press, 2010) and Small Fires (Sarabande Books, 2011), and two collections of poetry, Without (Finishing Line Press, 2010) and Postage Due (White Pine Press, forthcoming in 2013). Learn more at www.juliemariewade.com