Julie Marie Wade Awarded 2014 To The Lighthouse Prize

Julie Marie Wade's poetry manuscript SIX has been selected as the winner of the A Room of Her Own (AROHO) Foundation's To The Lighthouse Prize by final judge C.D. Wright.

Wright wrote, “I chose SIX not in spite of but because of its discursiveness, its willingness to wander through the poem with technique at hand, but also a permit to allow both substantive and ephemeral material to wander into the field of the poem and exit without a conclusive goal in mind. It’s an accumulative project, inclusive, and busy about the business of sifting and sorting through this thing we call life that we carry out in this creation we call a body on this tumultuous blue orb we call earth.”

Wade, an Assistant Professor teaching in the Creative Writing Program at F.I.U. is the author of Without: Poems (Finishing Line Press); Small Fires; Essays (Sarabande Books) ; Postage Due: Poems & Prose Poems (White Pine Press), winner of the Marie Alexander Poetry Series; Tremolo: An Essay (Bloom Books), winner of the Bloom Nonfiction Chapbook Prize; When I Was Straight: Poems (A Midsummer Night’s Press); and the forthcoming Catechism: A Love Story (Noctuary Press, 2016).  Her 2010 book Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures, winner of the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Memoir; was first published in 2010 by Colgate University Press, and has just been reissued by Bywater Books.  You can learn more about her work and upcoming events on her website.

Denise Duhamel Named a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow

FIU Creative Writing professor Denise Duhamel has been selected as a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow.  The fellowships are awarded to candidates who have demonstrated exceptional ability in scholarship or creative activities.

In an interview with FIU News, Duhamel says that she is currently working on a book of poetry exploring the relationship between men and women, and wants to visit the Galapagos Islands to see nature untouched by progress as she thinks about gender roles, nature, and culture.

Duhamel's most recent collection  of poetry, Blowout, was a finalst for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and she servedd as the guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2013. Duhamel has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Puffin Foundation, and Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust for Theater.

Edward Hirsch, president of the Foundation, is enthusiastic about the Fellows in the class of 2014: “It’s exciting to name 178 new Guggenheim Fellows. These artists and writers, scholars and scientists, represent the best of the best. Since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has always bet everything on the individual, and we’re thrilled to continue the tradition with this wonderfully talented and diverse group. It’s an honor to be able to support these individuals to do the work they were meant to do.” You can read a full list of this year's Guggenheim Fellows here.

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.

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.

Campbell McGrath & Dennis Lehane Win Gold Medals in the Florida Book Awards

Prof. Campbell McGrath and MFA program alumnus Dennis Lehane have each won gold medals in the Florida Book Awards for books published in 2012. The awards are coordinated by the Florida State Libraries and co-sponsored by a number of Florida literary and cultural institutions. The medals will be presented at the Florida Heritage Awards ceremonies in Tallahassee on March 20, 2013.

McGrath's In The Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys won the Gold Medal in Poetry. This is McGrath's third win in the Florida Book Awards.  Shannon won the 2009 Poetry Gold Medal, and Seven Notebooks the 2008 Silver in Poetry.  “It feels great, it’s an honor,” McGrath said. “I love the idea of the Florida Book Awards, they bring attention to Floridian literature, the arts and culture. This is an award unique to our home state, so it’s important.”

The Gold Medal for General Fiction went to Live By Night, Lehane's eleventh book, tenth novel and the second in his historical series that follows Joe Coughlin, the son of a Boston police captain turned mobster during the prohibition era of the 1920s.

Other FIU Creative Writing winners in past years are: Lynne Barrett, Gold Medal, General Fiction 2011, for Magpies; alumna Patricia Engel, Silver Medal, General Fiction 2010, for Vida; Denise Duhamel, Silver Medal, Poetry 2009, for Ka-Ching!; alumnus Jesse Millner, Bronze Medal, Poetry 2009, for Neighborhoods of My Past Sorrow;  John Dufresne, Gold Medal, General Fiction 2008, for Requiem, Mass; James W. Hall, Silver Medal, Genre Fiction 2007 for Magic City; and alumnus Leonard Nash, Silver Medal, General Fiction 2007, for You Can't Get There From Here. The Florida Book Awards were established in 2006 to recognize, honor, and celebrate the best Florida literature published each year.

John W. Evans Wins River Teeth Book Award

River Teeth has announced that FIU MFA alumnus John W. Evans is the winner of the 2013 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Award, for his manuscript Young Widower. The book will be published in 2014 by the University of Nebraska Press.

Evans is the author of two poetry chapbooks, No Season (FWQ) and Zugzwang (RockSaw). Since completing his MFA, he has been a Stegner Fellow in Poetry and a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where he continues to teach creative writing. You can learn more about Evans and his writing at his website.

FIU Video Profile of John Dufresne

FIU profiles Professor and Guggenheim recipient John Dufresne, who discusses teaching, writing, and the relationship between the two. "Every story should be a plunge into reality, not an escape from it."

Julie Marie Wade Receives Deming Fund Grant

Julie Marie Wade has received a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for her new creative nonfiction collection in progress, Other People's Mothers.   Wade is among nine awardees recently announced.  Her project is a collection of 12 autobiographical stories.

The Money For Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund is the oldest ongoing feminist granting agency. The fund gives encouragement and grants to individual feminists in the arts (writers, and visual artists). Information about upcoming deadlines and application forms are available on the fund's website.

John Dufresne Named a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow

John Dufresne, Professor of Creative Writing at FIU, recently received one of Guggenheim's prestigious fellowships for 2012.  In an interview with FIU News, Dufresne said, "It’s quite a thrill to have been given this fellowship and recognition [...] It feels like a validation of the work I’ve been doing over the years. It’s a surprise and a great feeling. I still consider myself an apprentice. I’m still trying to get better at what I do." Read the complete article here. 

FIU Student Literary Award Winners Announced

Congratulations to all the winners of the FIU Student Literary Awards!

POETRY (Judge: John Hodgen)
Graduate Winner: Julio Machado, "Maid Hour"
Graduate Runner-up: Patrick Norris, "Luciferge", "Ohio's Finest", "I Like Fish"
Undergraduate Winner: Valeria Manavallo, "Franz"
Undergraduate Runner-up: Melanie Martinez, "Boondocks"

NONFICTION (Judge: Kat Meads)
Graduate Winners (a tie)
Justin Bendell, "Kurt Cobain Avengers"
Jennifer Maritza McCauley, "New Britain Ghosts"
Graduate Runner-up" Fabienne Josaphat, "When Looking in the Mirror"

FICTION (Judge: M. Evelina Galang)
Graduate Winner: James Elens, "Brothers After the Storm"
Graduate Runner-up: Alexandra Handwerger, "Girl Scouts"
Undergraduate Winner: Brett Kaplan, "Monty"

Academy of American Poets Prize (Judge: Michael Hettich)
Winner: Marci Calabretta
First Runner-up: Parker Phillips
Second Runner-up: Amy Hughes

Les Standiford Receives FIU Torch Award

Professor Les Standiford, Director of the Creative Writing Program, has been honored with the 2012 FIU Faculty Torch Award, which was given to him at the Torch Award Gala on March 3rd.  The awards are given to distinguished alumni and to one faculty member, each year.  The faculty award honors "an outstanding member of the Faculty whose achievements have brought distinction to the faculty member and our University. Selection is made from candidates who have distinguished themselves by obtaining a high level of accomplishment and who possess high standards of integrity and character."