Department of Creative Writing
News & Accolades – April 2016:
Lookout Books congratulates Matthew Neill Null—author of the debut Lookout
novel Honey from the Lion—who has been named winner of 2016 Joseph Brodsky Rome
Prize, awarded by the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
Winners of the coveted Rome Prize are provided with a fellowship that includes a
stipend and a yearlong residency in Rome. Past recipients of the prestigious award
include Ralph Ellison, A.R. Ammons, Cormac McCarthy, Anne Sexton, Junot Díaz,
Anthony Doerr, Sigrid Nunez, Randall Kenan, and Lorrie Moore, among others.
Wendy Brenner's essay about the Washington Duke Inn appeared in the March issue of
Our State. Her appreciation of Clyde Edgerton's induction into the NC Literary Hall of
Fame, as well as his taxidermied chicken, appears in the North Carolina Writers'
Network newsletter.
Wendy's poem "The Bed" is featured alongside works by faculty members May-lee Chai,
Nina de Gramont, Anna Lena Phillips Bell, Emily Louise Smith, and MFA alumna Dina
Greenberg, among others in Cameron Art Museum's "She Tells A Story" exhibit, which
runs through September.
Congratulations, Wendy (et al)!
May-lee Chai’s short story, "Shouting Means I Love You," has been accepted for
publication in Glimmer Train.
Her review of the novel Year of the Goose was published in the Dallas Morning News,
February 13, 2016: dallasnews.com/lifestyles/books/20160212-fiction-year-of-thegoose-by-carly-j.-hallman.ece
Congratulations, May-lee!
A stage adaptation of Clyde Edgerton’s novel Walking
Across Egypt will be presented by TheatreNOW as a
dinner show in Wilmington, NC April 1—30, 2016.
Congratulations, Clyde!
Phil Furia announces the release of his latest book, The
American Songbook, which received a nice review in the
March 18 issue of Times Literary Supplement.
Congratulations, Phil!
Anna Lena Phillips Bell’s manuscript Ornament was selected by Geoffrey Brock as the
winner of the 2016 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry. Poems from the collection appear or
are forthcoming in the Southern Review, 32 Poems, Michigan Quarterly Review, the
Hopkins Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, and other places. Ornament will be
published by the University of North Texas Press in spring 2017.
Congratulations, Anna Lena!
Michael White’s memoir Travels in Vermeer is a finalist for a Firecracker Award from
CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses).
Travels in Vermeer also received a nice review in the North Carolina Literary Review,
and it appears (along with David Gessner’s All the Wild that Remains!) on the "Year's
Best Reads for the traveler" list from Longitude Books.
Congratulations, Mike (and David)!
The April 2016 issue of Our State magazine features articles by several of our
Department of Creative Writing faculty members!
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TRAVEL & CULTURE | “Carolina Canvas” by Clyde Edgerton
THIS LAND WE LOVE | “Whiskey Roads” by Philip Gerard
THIS LAND WE LOVE | “Landscape in Motion” by David Gessner
See more at ourstate.com/issue/april-2016-issue.
The MFA program was well-represented in the 2016 NC State Poetry Contest, judged by
former Writers Week keynote Yusef Komunyakaa:
Honorable Mention:
Christina Clark, “First Date With Wolf”
Finalists:
Eli Sahm, “after the wine bar with my hand”
Isabelle Shepherd, “Doe Season in Braxton County, West Virginia”
Emily Paige Wilson, “The Old Country”
Congratulations, Christina, Eli, Isabelle & Emily!
MFA student Cathe Shubert is the winner of the 2016 Phyllis Smart Young Poetry Prize.
Her work will be published in the next issue of The Madison Review, and she receives a
$1000 cash prize.
Congratulations, Cathe!
MFA student Jacqueline Thomas’ poem “For Edna” appears in Wildness.
Her poem “Without Shadows” appears in concīs.
Congratulations, Jacqueline!
MFA student Stephanie Trott received admission to the Disquiet International Literacy
Program in Lisbon, Portugal and was a semi-finalist for their fellowship for writers of
Luso-American descent.
Congratulations, Stephanie!
MFA student Emily Wilson shares a wealth of good news:
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Her poem "My Great-Grandmother's Ghost is a Kleptomaniac" appears in the Spring
2016 edition of The Raleigh Review.
Her poem "Registry Room" appears in the Fall/Winter 2015 edition of Hayden's
Ferry Review.
Two poems, "I forget the Czech for “stamp” in the post office and start making up
words instead" and "Women in Széchenyi Bathhouse," appear on Vinyl Poetry.
Her poem "Declension" was accepted for publication by Redivider.
Three poems, "Baking Lessons," "Burning the Witches," and "Reasons to Travel to
Another Country," were accepted for publication in Sundog Lit.
Horse Less Review published three poems: "The Ghost and the Thief Share
Breakfast," "The Ghost and the Thief Share Lunch," and "The Ghost and the Thief
Share Dinner."
She was a semi-finalist for the Mid-American Review's James Wright Poetry Award.
Congratulations, Emily!
MFA alum Xhenet Aliu (’07) has sold her second novel, Brass, to Random House. Set in
the mid-90s in Waterbury, CT, the novel explores the affair between a young American
girl and a recent Albanian immigrant. Referencing the collapse of Albania at the time,
the second narrative takes place seventeen years later and focuses on the daughter
who’s born of the relationship.
Congratulations, Xhenet!
MFA alum Rochelle Hurt (’11) has a review and a poem in 32Poems. She has a block of
fiction in the 80th issue of The Collagist. And she has poems in The Journal, So to Speak
Journal, and American Literary Review (click the links to read).
Rochelle is the author of two poetry collections: In Which I Play the Runaway (2016),
winner of the Barrow Street Book Prize, and The Rusted City, published in the Marie
Alexander Series from White Pine Press (2014). Her work has been included in Best New
Poets 2013 and she’s been awarded literary prizes from Crab Orchard Review, Arts &
Letters, Hunger Mountain, and Poetry International. She is a PhD student at the
University of Cincinnati and Assistant Editor for the Cincinnati Review.
Congratulations, Rochelle!
MFA alum Jamie Mortara (’13) has a poem, “Google Keeps Sending Me to Places that
No Longer Exist,” in Reality Beach.
Congratulations, Jamie!
MFA alum Carson Vaughan (’14)—recently featured in HGTV’s “Tiny House Hunters” for
his epic cross-country journey in a travel trailer—has a piece in The New Yorker (!) titled
“My Cousin, the Cowboy Poet.”
Congratulations, Carson!
The April issue of Wilmington’s Salt magazine features a wealth of Creative Writing
folks. Regular columnists include faculty members Clyde Edgerton and Virginia Holman,
and MFA alums Jason Frye (’05) and Dana Sachs (’00), among others.
Read it here: issuu.com/saltmagazinenc/docs/april_salt_2016.
A link to the digital magazine is here: saltmagazinenc.com.
Phil Furia hosts the daily segment ‘The Great American Songbook’ on WHQR 1:302:00pm, and during the Morning Edition on Fridays at 6:00am.
Philip Gerard is a regular commentator on WHQR—listen to his broadcast segments
every other Thursday at 7:35a, 8:50a, or 5:45p, or online in the WHQR Thursday
Commentaries at whqr.org/people/philip-gerard.