Just Published: Anjanette Delgado's The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho

MFA alumna Anjanette Delgado's second novel The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho has just been published by Kensington Books. In their advance review, Publisher's Weekly says, "It doesn't take a psychic to predict this fun novel will be a hit." The Spanish language edition, La Clarividente de Calle Ocho, will be released in September in the U.S. and Mexico by Suma de Letras, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

 Delgado began her career as a journalist for NBC, CBS, Univision and Telemoundo, among others, and  covered presidential coups, elections, the Olympics, both Iraq wars and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She has written for NPR, Vogue, NBC, and created, wrote, and developed the sitcom Great in Bed for HBO Latin America. She won an Emmy for her series "Madres en la Lehanía" about the plight of mothers who leave their children to come to the U.S. to work as undocumented nannies.

While she was a student in the MFA program, Delgado's first novel, The Heartbreak Pill, was published in English and, as Píldora de Mal Amor, in Spanish.  It won first prize at the Latino International Book Award for Best Romance in English, among other awards. Delgado, who received her degree in 2012, wrote The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho as her MFA thesis.

You can read Shelf Awareness Book Brahmin's interview with Delgado, and an excerpt from The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho is online at Squarespace.  You can learn more at her website. She will be among those reading at the FIU alumni Writers on the Bay celebration at Books and Books in Coral Gables, Sunday, September 14th at 4 PM, and will return to the bookstore for a book launch on Oct. 17th. Store owner Mitchell Kaplan should be on hand to explain how he feels about his role as a character in the novel.

Nina Romano's Latest Chapbook Published

This summer, Flutter Press has published Time's Mirrored Illusion, a chapbook of poetry by MFA alumna Nina Romano. Among Romano's other books are Faraway Confections, a full-length collection that came out from Aldrich Press, an imprint of Kelsay Books, in Fall 2013, and the chapbook Prayer in a Summer of Grace (Flutter Press).

You can read more about Nina's writing and other projects at her website. She will be reading at Liberty Bookstore in West Palm Beach on October 30th at 7 PM.

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.

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.

FIU MFA Program Well-Represented at Miami Book Fair International

Miami Book Fair International is celebrating its 30th anniversary this week. FIU’s Creative Writing program will be well-represented, with faculty, students, and alumni among the more than 300 authors who’ll be presenting at the Festival of Authors. Here’s a quick listing of those from FIU, the works they’ll be reading from and/or speaking about, with the day time of the presentation.  For rooms and other details, please see the complete Book Fair Schedule online.  (And at the Fair, pick up a printed copy which will be updated with any changes.)

To find out what goes on at the sessions you miss, you can read The Florida Book Review's annual Book Fair blog,  reported this year by a record number of FIU MFA alumni and graduate students, including FBR Editor Lynne Barrett’s Literary Journalism class.

Saturday, Nov. 23:

11:30 AM: Richard Blanco (Looking for the Gulf Motel) and Campbell McGrath (In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys)
1 PM: E. Parker Phillips (Panel: Queer Poetry/Queer Differences)

1:30 PM: Nina Romano (She Wouldn’t Sing at My Wedding) and Laura Valeri (Safe in Your Head)

3 PM: Julie Marie Wade (Postage Due)

3:30 PM: Joe Clifford (Junkie Love)

4 PM: Campbell McGrath (Florida Book Awards)

4 PM: The Miami Poetry Collective & Cent Journal, the “How To” issue, including: Annik Adey-Babinski, Marci Calabretta, Paul Christiansen, P. Scott Cunningham, Dawn S. Davies, Yaddyra Peralta, and Nick Vagnoni

Sunday, Nov. 24:

 11 AM: John Dufresne (Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting)

11:30: Anjanette Delgado, panel: El mercado del libro en español en Estados Unidos: situación, evolución, y opportunidades

12:30 PM: James W. Hall (Going Dark)

2 PM: John Dufresne (No Regrets, Coyote)

3:30 PM: Patricia Engel (It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris)

4 PM: Melanie Neale (Boat Kid)

4:30 PM: Richard Blanco (For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey)

4:30 PM: Preston Allen (Every Boy Should Have a Man)

5 PM: Tigertail, A South Florida Annual: Sunstruck Matches, a reading, including Elisa Albo, J.J. Colagrande, Andrea Dulanto, Jesse Millner, and Lauren Doyle Owen

5 PM: All that Glitters: Nonfiction from Sliver of Stone, a reading, including Jan Becker, M.J. Fievre, Nicholas Garnett, and Fabienne Sylvia Josaphat