Just Published: Joe Clifford's Lamentation

Joe Clifford’s third novel, Lamentation, has just been published by Oceanview Publishing. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly says Clifford, “understands human potential for moral collapse and redemption, and his lean, gritty prose never lets characters or readers off the hook.”  Revolt Daily’s Renee Asher Pickup writes, "Crime writers are known for getting down to the grit of real life, but not all of them can pull off the heart Clifford works into his writing. Through the story you will roll your eyes at the protagonist one moment, cheer for him the next, and find your heart breaking by the end."

Since graduating from the MFA program, Clifford has published a collection of short stories, Choice Cuts,  his thesis novel, Wake the Undertaker, (both, Snubnose Press), and an autobiographical novel, Junkie Love (Battered Suitcase Press).  While in the MFA program, he was editor of Gulf Stream Magazine, and since graduating he has pursued editing as well as writing. He is co-editor of The Flash Fiction Offensive.  In December, Out of the Gutter and Zelmer Pulp will bring out Trouble in the Heartland, a collection of crime stories inspired by the songs of Bruce Springsteen that Clifford has edited. 

Clifford's book tour will bring him to Murder on the Beach in Delray Beach on Wednesday, Nov. 19th, and he’ll be among the presenters at Miami Book Fair International Sunday Nov. 23rd.  He discusses his time in the MFA program and his path to publication in an interview with MFA student Justin Bendell in Sliver of Stone Magazine's latest issue.  More info. at Clifford's blog, Candy and Cigarettes.

Dennis Lehane Short Story Becomes a Film and a Novel

FIU MFA alumnus Dennis Lehane's The Drop, now out as both a novel from William Morrow and a film from Fox Searchlight Pictures, began as the short story "Animal Rescue," first published in Akashic Books' Boston Noir and chosen for Best American Mystery Stories 2010. Lehane wrote the screenplay for the film, in which the action moves to New York City, but the novel stays in Boston's Dorchester.  Publisher's Weekly calls the novel a "gritty gem," and The Guardian says, "“He has reworked [the story] into a smart, grubby and thoroughly enjoyable novel to coincide with the film's release.”

Photo: Radio Boston

What is it like to write both the screenplay and the novel? Lehane discusses the differences in an interview with Boston Magazine. You can watch the trailer for the film which co-stars Tom Hardy and James Galdolfini, here.

Just Published: Patricia Engel's It's Not Love, It's Just Paris

MFA alumna Patricia Engel's first novel, It's Not Love, It's Just Paris, debuts August 6th with a launch reading at Books & Books in Coral Gables.  On the summer recommended reading lists of the L.A. Times, Time Out New York, and Flavorwire, It's Not Love, It's Just Paris has been praised in early reviews by the Miami Herald as "a clear-eyed recasting of a classic storyline executed with confidence and just enough city-of-lights magic" and by the Tampa Bay Times as "warm, quirky, and intelligently observed."

Engel's first book, the 2010 story collection Vida, was a  New York Times Notable Book of the Year, finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Fiction Award and Young Lions Fiction Award, won the fiction silver medal in the Florida Book Awards, and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and L.A. Weekly.  Her fiction has appered in The Atlantic, Boston Review, Harvard Review, and Guernica. More information about her work and where you can catch up with her on her book tour can be found at her website.

John Dufresne Launches No Regrets, Coyote

John Dufresne's fifth novel No Regrets, Coyote, has been published to critical acclaim. In the New York Times, Marilyn Stasio calls it "a goulishly funny crime novel," and "dazzling, even by the exacting standards of South Florida crime fiction." And Library Journal says it's a "classy and darkly witty thriller." Dufresne's first ventures into crime writing, stories in Miami Noir and Boston Noir, were each chosen for inclusion in Best American Mysteries, but this is his first venture into a full-length mystery.

A large crowd, including many members of the FIU MFA community were on hand Friday, August 2nd, for the book launch at Books & Books in Coral Gables. The reading and q&a were live-streamed online and can be still be viewed.  Or listen to NPR's All Things Considered interview. You can see the schedule for appearances on the No Regrets, Coyote book tour, and find links to more reviews, at JohnDufresne.com.

Laura Valeri's Safe In Your Head Published

FIU MFA alumna Laura Valeri's Safe in Your Head, a novel in stories, has been published by Stephen F. Austin University Press.  Stories from the book have appeared in, among other journals and anthologies, Glimmer Train, Waccamaw, Night Train, Voices in Italian Americana  Valeri drew upon family history for the book, including stories told to her in childbood by her grandmother that "ingrained themselves so vividly in my imagination that they nagged at me from the subconscious for decades."

Valeri's first book, the story collection The Kind of Things Saints Do, won the Iowa/John Simmons Award and the Binghamton University/John Gardner Award.  She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Georgia Southern University.  Learn more about her writing and research on her website.

For Joe Clifford, a Novel, another Novel, and an Award

Joe Clifford, who has been living in the San Francisco area since graduating from the FIU MFA Program, is having a busy year.  As already reported here in January, his story collection Choice Cuts was published by Snubnose Press.  Now his first novel, Junkie Love, was published by Battered Suitcase Press in March, his second novel, Wake the Undertaker, is just out from Snubnose Press, and he has been awarded a San Francisco Acker Award in Fiction.

Junkie Love is an autobiographical novel, of which The Ampersand Review says, "From the first page, everything you experience through Clifford’s graceful yet biting narrative is beautiful and tragic. The journey over a decade of addiction to seek redemption is compelling, daunting, with no easy escape or roadmap home found in track-marred arms." Wake the Undertaker, a noir thriller that harks back to vintage pulp, was originally Clifford's MFA thesis The Lone Palm.  You can read (or hear) interviews with Clifford about his journey to the publication of his three books (in a short time, but years in the making) on his website.

The Acker Awards "for Achievement in the avant garde" are given to artists "who have made outstanding contributions in their discipline in defiance of convention,  or else served their fellow writers and artists in outstanding ways."  The award ceremonies will take place in San Francisco on June 6, 2013.

Joe Clifford is currently Acquisitions Editor at Gutter Books and Managing Editor for the Flash Fiction Offensive. With his wife Justine Clifford he co-produces Lip Service West, a bi-monthly reading series for true stories. A short film/book trailer for Junkie Love is up on You Tube. Rumor has it that Clifford will be in Miami in September to participate the annual alumni reading at Books & Books.

Dennis Lehane Wins Edgar® Award for Best Novel

Dennis Lehane with his award.

Dennis Lehane received the Best Novel Edgar^® Award from for Live By Night at the 67th annual 2013 Edgar Awards banquet in New York City on May 2nd.  The prestigious awards are given by the Mystery Writers of America.

Shelf Awareness reported from that Lehane's acceptance speech, "paid tribute to the librarians who 'offered a light in the darkness for the kids from the wrong side of the tracks.'"

Live By Night, Lehane's tenth book, also received the Gold Medal for Fiction in the Florida Book Awards in March.  Lehane, who received his MFA from Florida International University, is co-director of the Eckerd College Writers In Paradise Conference.

Preston L. Allen's Every Boy Should Have a Man Published

Akashic Books has just published Every Boy Should Have a Man, by FIU MFA alumnus Preston L. Allen.  Publishers Weekly says "In a future where primitive 'mans' are considered pets or food by the dominant, giant humanoi 'oafs,' one female man and her daughter become the cherished possessions, then friends, of a young oaf who learns to see them as more than just creatures."  Booklist calls it "Imaginative, versatile, and daring...Allen sharpens our perceptions of class divides, racism, enslavement, and abrupt and devastating climate change to create a delectably adventurous, wily, funny, and wise cautionary parable."

Allen is a professor at Miami-Dade College. His previous widely-praised novels from Akashic are Jesus Boy and All or Nothing, and his story collection (and thesis) Churchboys and Other Sinners won the Sonya H. Stone Prize in Fiction and was published by Carolina Wren Press. He will be reading from his new novel at 7 this evening, May 8, at Books & Books on Miami Beach.

Christine Kling's A Circle of Bones Published

Christine Kling's A Circle of Bones, her fifth novel, has been published by Thomas & Mercer.  Circle of Bones, a Caribbean thriller about the race to recover secrets found in the wreck of a World War II submarine, is the first in a three-book series.




Kling's previous novels, the Seychelle Sullivan series, are Surface Tension, Cross Current, Bitter End, and Wrecker's Key. Kling reports that she has retired from teaching at Broward College and is "living the dream of full-time cruising on board my 33-foot Caliber sailboat Talespinner." More about her writing and the nautical life on her website.

Joe Clifford's Short Story Collection: Choice Cuts

Joe Clifford's first book is out.  His story collection, Choice Cuts, has been published by Snubnose Press.  Of Choice Cuts, the Ampersand Review says, "What brings the collection together is the raw, no-holds-barred writing style, intense characterizations, and beyond twisted plotlines."

Snubnose Press will also be publishing Clifford's hardboiled novel, Wake the Undertaker, and Vagabondage Press will be bringing out his novel Junkie Love, both books scheduled for later in 2013.

After completing his MFA, Clifford moved to the San Francisco area, where he is the producer of Lip Service West, a "gritty, real, raw" reading series. He is also editor of the Flash Fiction Offensive. His work has appeared in Big Bridge, the Bryant Review, Drunken Boat, Fringe, Opium, and Word Riot, and many other journals. More info. on Joe's work can be found at www.joeclifford.com and his blog Candy & Cigarettes.

Dan Wakefield Has Edited Kurt Vonnegut: The Letters

FIU's long-time Writer-in-Residence Dan Wakefield has "splendidly assembled and edited" (New York Times) the letters of Kurt Vonnegut. The book is just out from Delacorte Press. A starred review in Publishers Weekly says of Kurt Vonnegut: The Letters,  “Fans will find the collection as spellbinding as Vonnegut’s best novels, and casual readers will discover letters as splendid in their own way as those of Keats.”
 

Dan's many fans in South Florida will be welcoming him back to Miami in November when he'll appear at Miami Book Fair International.  Dan was Writer-in-Residence in the FIU Creative Writing Program from 1994-2010, and received the university's Excellence in Graduate Mentorship Award. He teaches in the Low Residency MFA in Writing Program at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C.  and leads workshops  in "Spiritual Autobiography" and "Creating from the Spirit" all around the U.S.  Readers can learn more about Dan's novels, books of nonfiction, and many other projects and achievements on his website.

Dennis Lehane's 10th Novel Published

FIU MFA program alumnus Dennis Lehane's tenth novel and eleventh book, Live By Night, has just been published.  A follow-up to Lehane's first historical novel The Given Day, Live By Night is set in the Prohibition era in locations ranging from Boston to Tampa.

In her New York Times review, Janet Maslin calls it "Crime Noir 101, as taught by the best of its current practitioners," and Tampa Times book critic Colette Bancroft says, "Live by Night takes on big subjects — race, class, money, religion, friendship, family, violence — by embedding them in irresistible storytelling about a compelling, conflicted and mordantly funny man."

More on the book and Lehane's book tour appearances can be found at his website.

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.

Debra Dean's The Mirrored World Published

Debra Dean’s second novel, The Mirrored World, has just been published by Harper Collins.  In the book Dean reimagines the life of Russia's Saint Xenia, whose journey from a life of privilege to  tending the poor in St. Petersburg's slums is told from the point of view of her younger cousin and friend, Dasha. Learn more about the book by going to Debra Dean's Facebook Author page.

On Thursday, Sept. 6th, at 8 PM, everyone's invited to Dean's launch reading at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables.  Readers can learn here where else her book tour is taking her.