Department of Creative Writing
News & Accolades – February 2013:
Wilmington Water Tours will sponsor a “launch” of Philip Gerard’s new book, Down the
Wild Cape Fear—A River Journey Through the Heart of North Carolina (UNC Press) on
Sunday, March 3rd. The festivities begin with a river cruise at 3 p.m. to benefit Cape Fear
River Watch, with each paying guest receiving a copy of the book. (Contact Wilmington
Water Tours for details.) When the Wilmington docks at @ 4:30 p.m., the public is
invited to a free reception, short reading, and book-signing at the dock. Snacks will be
provided and there will be a cash bar. Books will be available for purchase.
Among the denizens of the river featured in the book are UNCW biologist David
Webster, divemaster Frank Chapman, and kayaking guides Virginia Holman of Creative
Writing and Curry Guinn of Computer Science.
Karen Bender’s new novel, A Town of Empty Rooms, has received great reviews in The
Boston Globe and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and an interview in the Los Angeles
Times.
Also, Karen’s essay, “The Accidental Writer,” appeared in the Sunday
New York Times Book Review.
Congratulations, Karen!
Phil Furia’s The Songs of Hollywood (co-author Laurie Patterson) was published in
paperback by Oxford University Press. ♦Phil wrote and narrated “The Great American
Song Book: Holiday Edition” at Thalian Hall on December 15. ♦His radio program, “The
Great American Song Book,” was selected for syndication by Public Radio International.
♦He was interviewed for Writers News Weekly, The Vintage Bandstand, Susan
Stamberg’s Weekend Edition (National Public Radio), and PBS’ Great Performances:
Broadway Musicals—A Jewish Legacy. ♦Finally, he wrote liner notes for Susan Bartilla’s
I Love (Peggy) Lee CD.
Many congratulations, Phil!
Sarah Messer’s poem, "My Life as a Puritan Bedpost," appears in the current issue (Fall
2012) of the Michigan Quarterly Review. She also has a new poem, "Poisoned Mouse,"
in the current issue (XXV No. 2) of Green Mountains Review. Finally, she has a poem on
the poets.org website (daily poem series), called "After the Election."
Congratulations, Sarah!
MFA student Peter Baker shares with us several publications:
♦ I wrote an essay, “The Real World of Monet,” about Monet and the novelist Eva Figes
for The New Yorker's "Page-Turner" blog.
♦ I also had a review-essay, “Suspicious Minds,” on relationships between the American
covert sector (CIA, Special Ops, etc.) and American fiction in the January 7 issue of The
Nation.
♦ And a short review of the new CK Stead novel appears in the January 4 issue of the
Times Literary Supplement (print only).
Congratulations, Peter!
MFA students Ben Hoffman and Nicola DeRobertis-Theye both had work featured in
Treehouse Magazine:
Nicola’s “Six Months in a Coma”
Ben’s “Next Time They Will Wow Them With the Shiny Stuff”
Congratulations, Ben & Nicola!
MFA student Sally Johnson’s poem "The Woman, Here (A Sestina)" was published in
Sundog Lit (http://sundoglit.com/2013/01/21/sundog-lit-issue-two-january-2013/).
Congratulations, Sally!
MFA student Eric Tran’s piece, “Release the Panda Bear,” will appear in issue 35.1 of the
Indiana Review.
Congratulations, Eric!
MFA student Anna Sutton’s poem “Photographs of Water” has been accepted by
Barrow Street for publication in Fall 2013.
Congratulations, Anna!
MFA student John Mortara’s poem “My Heart is an Alien Spacecraft” appears in The
Fiddleback at http://thefiddleback.com/issue-items/my-heart-is-an-alien-spacecraft.
Congratulations, John!
MFA alum (’11) Rochelle Hurt was awarded a prize for some of her Ohio poems from
the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund (http://www.dorothyprizes.org/).
Congratulations, Rochelle!
MFA alum Matt Tullis (’05) shares that his roundtable discussion with Chris Jones of
Esquire, Thomas Lake of Sports Illustrated and Ben Montgomery of the Tampa Bay
Times was published in the winter issue of Creative Nonfiction.
Also, his story, "Feet of Clay, Heart of Iron," which was published by SB Nation Longform
back in October, was selected as one of "102 Spectacular Nonfiction Stories from 2012"
by Byliner.com.
Congratulations, Matt!
MFA alum Ashley Talley (’07) recently won a Regional Artist Project Grant from the
Charlotte-based Arts & Science Council.
Also, over the past few months, she produced several stories for WFAE, the Charlotte
NPR station, including:
http://www.wfae.org/post/german-daughter-finds-meets-her-world-war-ii-american-gi-father
http://www.wfae.org/post/tractors-honky-tonk-evolution-pucketts-farm-equipment
Ashley is the Assistant News Director at the ABC affiliate television station in New Bern.
Congratulations!
MFA alum Allison Reavis (’11) will have her short story, "For Love and Money,"
published in the Arkansas Review.
Congratulations, Allison!
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
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/whqr/arts.artsmain?action=sectionIndex&sid=15.
Philip Gerard is featured this month in Our State magazine with his next installment of
the series “The Civil War: Life in North Carolina.” This rich and complex story will
continue monthly through May 2015 and can be read at ourstate.com/civil-war.
“The war magnified the best and the worst of the human spirit and bequeathed us a
legacy that, a century and a half later, we still ponder.”