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January 25,
2006
Austin Hummell and Timothy Liu
Austin
Hummell's books are The Fugitive Kind , (University
of Georgia Press) and Poppy (Del Sol Press). He teaches
at Northern Michigan University and is poetry editor of Passages
North .
Timothy Liu is the author of six books of poems, including
Of Thee I Sing , selected by Publishers Weekly
as a 2004 Book of the Year, and For Dust Thou
Art , soon to be published by Southern Illinois
University Press. Recent poems have been translated into Arabic,
Chinese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovene and Turkish. His
journals and papers are archived in the Berg Collection at the
New York Public Library. He is an Associate Professor of English
at William Paterson University and on the Core Faculty in
Bennington College's Writing Seminars. |
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February
22, 2006
Geoffrey Wolff
Geoffrey Wolff is the author of many books including - among
them - the biographies, The Art of Burning Bridges:
A Life of John O'Hara and Black Sun: The Brief Transit
and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby . His novels include
Bad Debts, The Sightseer, The Age of Consent, Inklings
and Providence . Among his other work is an autobiography,
The Duke of Deception , and A Day at the Beach
, a collection of essays. Most recently, he has published,
The Edge of Maine , a work of nonfiction that explores
coastal Maine. Wolff has received fellowships from Guggenheim
Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment
for the Humanities. Since 1995, he has directed the graduate
fiction program at University of California, Irvine. He divides
his time between Maine and California. |
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March 29, 2006
Aimee Bender and Victoria Chang
Aimee Bender is the author of
three books, the most recent being the story collection Willful
Creatures. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ,
Harper's, The Paris Review, Tin House, and more, as well as
heard on PRI's "This American Life." She teaches creative
writing at USC.
Victoria Chang’s first book of poetry, Circle, won the
Crab Orchard Review Award Series in Poetry (Southern Illinois
University Press, 2005). Her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming
in journals such as Best American Poetry 2005, The Nation, Poetry,
Threepenny Review, Kenyon Review, Virginia Quarterly Review,
Slate, New England Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Poetry
Daily. She is the editor of an anthology titled: Asian American
Poetry: The Next Generation (The University of Illinois Press,
2004). She has degrees from the University of Michigan, Harvard,
and Stanford. She has received a Bread Loaf Scholarship, a Taylor
Fellowship from the Kenyon Writer’s Workshop, a Hopwood
Award, as well as a Holden Minority Fellowship from the Warren
Wilson College MFA Program. She resides in Los Angeles and is
completing a Ph.D. in USC’s literature and creative writing
program. |
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April 26, 2006
Dean Bakopoulos
Dean Bakopoulos was born in Michigan in 1975 and now
lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he is executive director
of the Wisconsin Humanities Council. His first novel, PLEASE
DON'T COME BACK FROM THE MOON (Harcourt), was a 2005 New York
Times Notable Book, and his short stories and essays have appeared
in Zoetrope: All-Story, the Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer,
and The Los Angeles Times. The recipient of a 2006 creative
writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts,
he is at work on a second novel, HARMONY, which will be published
by Harcourt in 2007. |
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April 28, 2006
An Evening of Poetry and Jazz
Second Annual Benefit
for the Casa Romantica Poetry Reading Series featuring Glyn
Maxwell
and Danny Seidenberg & the Unbande
GLYN
MAXWELL was born in 1962 in Hertfordshire, England. He studied
English at Oxford and poetry at Boston University. Among the
honors he has received are the E. M. Forster Prize from the
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the Somerset
Maugham Prize; his book The Nerve won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial
Prize in 2004. His poems have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly,
The New Yorker, the New Republic, and many other periodicals.
Maxwell serves as the poetry editor of the New Republic.
The UnBande is a brand new collaboration from Hollywood, CA
(an exotic galactic outpost) whose unlikely instrumentation
and unexpected stylistic forays make it undeniably unique in
the string playing universe. Two violas and the Chapman Stick...un-violins
and the un-guitar/un-bass Crazy classical crossover, rockin’
pop, swingin’ jazz, original compositions, and wild improvisation.
A delicious light-hearted concoction that explores in depth
the concept of “What If?”and “Why Not”
Fun for the whole family.... Featuring Danny Seidenberg, 11
year veteran of the Turtle Island String Quartet, Novi Novog
of Doobie Brothers and Prince fame, and the incomparable Larry
Tuttle (Freeway Philharmonic, String Planet) wielding the amazing
Chapman Stick. |
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May 31, 2006
Chad Oness and Gary Young
C. Mikal Oness is t founding editor and director of Sutton
Hoo Press, a literary fine press producing hand-made limited
editions of poetry and prose. SHP publishes both established
an emerging writers, including: Philip Levine, Gerald Stern,
Charles Wright, Maurya Simon, Lynee McMahon, Anthony Butts,
Pamela McClure, Mark Jarman, Gary Young, Valerie Martinez, and
Mark Doty.
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the University
of Missouri, Oness has received the Toi Shan Fellowship from
the Taoist Center in Washington D.C. His work has appeared in
The Iowa Review, Shenandoah, The Colorado Review, Third Coast,
The Bloomsbury Review, Cutbank, Stand, The Green Mountains Review,
and many others. His work has been awarded the Mahan Poetry
Prize, an Academy of American Poets Prize, the Mary Roberts
Rinehart Award from George Mason University, and a Wisconsin
Arts Board grant. His boot Water Becomes Bones published by
New Issues Press in 2000 and was awarded the Posner Prize in
poetry. He has a limited edition chapbook, Runian, from Bergamot
Press, another limited edition, Privilege, from Cut Away Books.
Gary Young is a poet and artist whose books include Hands, The
Dream of a Moral Life, which won the James D. Phelan Award,
Days, Braver Deeds, winner of the Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize,
and No Other Life, which won the William Carlos Williams Award
of the Poetry Society of America. A new book, Pleasure, has
just been released. He is the co-editor of The Geography of
Home: California’s Poetry of Place, and has produced a
series of artist’s books, most notably Nine Days: New
York, A Throw of the Dice and My Place Here Below. He has received
grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Vogelstein
Foundation and the California Arts Council. He has received
a Pushcart Prize, and has twice received fellowship grants from
the National Endowment for the Arts. His poems have appeared
in such magazines as Poetry, Antaeus, The American Poetry Review,
The Kenyon Review, and The Nation. Since 1975 he has designed,
illustrated, and printed limited edition books and broadsides
at his Greenhouse Review Press. His print work is represented
in numerous collections including the Museum of Modern Art,
the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Getty Center for the Arts,
and special collection libraries throughout the country. He
lives with his wife and sons in the mountains north of Santa
Cruz, California. |
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June 28, 2006
Mark and Michael Polish
Mark and Michael Polish have written, produced, and directed
three feature films: TWIN FALLS IDAHO, JACKPOT, and NORTHFORK.
Their filmmaking awards and citations include the John Cassavetes
Award at the 2002 Independent Spirit Awards and a 2001 Seattle
International Film Festival New American Cinema Award. Their
films have collectively been nominated for five Independent
Spirit Awards. Jonathan Sheldon was an associate producer on
NORTHFORK and was named the head of development for the Polish
Brothers' production company.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING
Less than a decade since they began working in the movies, Mark
and Michael Polish have established themselves as critically
acclaimed, award-winning independent filmmakers. Their innovative
approach to art direction, use of digital photography, and ability
to attract stellar talent to their modestly budgeted films sprang
from necessity; now these aesthetics have become admired trademarks
of their work. Infused with this same balance of artistic integrity
and popular appeal, The Declaration of Independent Filmmaking
is a practical guide to writing, shooting, editing, scoring,
promoting, and distributing short and feature films. Mark and
Michael, along with co-author Jonathan Sheldon, have packed
this book with star-studded, often hilarious tales from their
own experiences--as well as helpful insider photos. This is
an indispensable resource for anyone interested in filmmaking,
whether a high school student with a $500 budget or a serious
filmmaker looking for a fresh approach. |
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July 26, 2006
Susan Gubernat and Mariano Zaro
SUSAN GUBERNAT's first book of poems, *Flesh* won the
Marianne Moore Prize and was published by Helicon Nine Editions
in 1999. Her second book, *Shaggy Parasol,*was a finalist in
the National Poetry Series last year. She is an opera librettist
whose work was recently showcased by the New York City Opera.
Her awards include fellowships from the New York and New Jersey
State Arts Councils as well as residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell,
and Millay art colonies. She is an associate professor in the
English Department at California State University, East Bay.
Mariano Zaro is a poet and fiction writer. Originally from Spain
he moved to California in 1991. He has published two poetry
books Desde Donde/Where From and Poems of Erosion/Poemas de
la Erosión. Both in English and Spanish. His poems have
included in anthologies in Mexico, Spain and the US. His short
fiction has appeared, among others, in the Baltimore Review,
Caracola, El Signo del Gorrión and the Louisville Review.
He has translated American poets Philomene Long, Alicia Vogl-Sáenz
and Sarah Maclay. He is the winner of the 2004 Roanoke Review
Short Fiction Contest. He teaches Spanish and Creative Writing
at Whittier College. |
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August 30, 2006
Lisa Glatt and David Hernandez
Lisa Glatt is the author of the novel A Girl Becomes
a Comma Like That and the short story collection The Apple's
Bruise, both published by Simon & Schuster. Her poetry collections
include Shelter and Monsters & Other Lovers. Lisa's work
has appeared in such magazines as Zoetrope, Mississippi Review,
Columbia, Indiana Review, Pearl, and The Sun. She was recently
awarded a fellowship to the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy.
Lisa currently teaches at California State University, Long
Beach and private workshops. Glatt is married to poet and visual
artist David Hernandez.
David Hernandez's poetry collection include Always Danger (Southern
Illinois University Press, 2006), winner of the Crab Orchard
Series in Poetry, and A House Waiting for Music (Tupelo Press,
2003). His poems have appeared in The Missouri Review, Ploughshares,
TriQuarterly, AGNI, The Southern Review, Iowa Review, and FIELD.
His drawings have also appeared in literary magazines, including
a feature in Indiana Review. David lives in Long Beach, California
and is married to writer Lisa Glatt. |
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September 27,
2006
Corey Marks and Stephen Yenser
Corey Marks first collection of poems, Renunciation,
was selected by Philip Levine for the 1999 National Poetry Series
Open Competition and published by University of Illinois Press
in 2000. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including
Black Warrior Review, New England Review, Orion, The Paris Review,
TriQuarterly and The Virginia Quarterly Review. ?His work has
also received an NEA Fellowship and the Bernard F. Conners Prize
from The Paris Review. He teaches at the University of North
Texas.
Stephen Yenser was born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1941. He is the
author of The Fire in All Things (Louisiana State University
Press, 1993), which was selected by Richard Howard to receive
the 1992 Walt Whitman Award; The Consuming Myth: The Work of
James Merrill (1987), and Circle to Circle: The Poetry of Robert
Lowell (1975). His poems and essays have appeared in The Nation,
The New Yorker, Paris Review, Partisan Review, Poetry, The Yale
Review, and other magazines. His honors include a "Discovery"/The
Nation Award, two Fulbright teaching fellowships, and an Ingram
Merrill Foundation Award in Poetry, and the B. F. Connors Prize
for Poetry from the Paris Review. With J. D. McClatchy, he is
editing James Merrill's Collected Poems and Selected Letters.
He is a professor of English and Director of Creative Writing
at the University of California in Los Angeles. |
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October 25, 2006
Richard Goodman
Richard Goodman is the author of French Dirt: The Story
of a Garden in the South of France. He has written on a variety
of subjects for many national publications, including The New
York Times, Creative Nonfiction, Commonweal, Vanity Fair, Garden
Design, Grand Tour, The Writer’s Chronicle, salon.com,
Saveur, Ascent and The Michigan Quarterly Review. He has twice
been awarded a fellowship at the MacDowell Colony and twice
been awarded a fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative
Arts. He is a winner of a Hopwood Award for his fiction. He
wrote the introduction for Travelers’ Tales Provence.
His essay, “In Search of the Exact Word,” is the
lead essay in the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus.
He is the Fine Presses Editor for Fine Books & Collections. |
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November 29,
2006
A Lorca Reading with Ralph Angel
and Antonieta Villamil
Ralph Angel was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1951.
He is the author of Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), Neither
World, which received the 1995 James Laughlin Award, and Anxious
Latitudes (1986). A fourth collection, Exceptions and Melancholies,
as well as his translation of Federico García Lorca’s
Poema del Cante Jondo, are forthcoming from Sarabande in 2006.
His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Antioch
Review, The American Poetry Review, and many other magazines,
and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The
Best American Poetry, New American Poets of the 90s, and Forgotten
Language: Contemporary Poets and Nature. His most recent honors
include a Pushcart Prize, and awards from the Fulbright Foundation
and Poetry magazine. Mr. Angel now lives in Los Angeles and
is the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor of English at
the University of Redlands, where he teaches creative writing.
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December 6, 2006
UC Irvine MFA Reading
Lauren Johnson – Fiction
Vernon Ng – Poetry
Leila Mansouri – Fiction
Justin Rigamonti – Poetry
Lauren Johnson attends the graduate fiction program at the University
of California, Irvine, where she teaches creative writing. As
an undergraduate at UCI, she was published in the University
of New Mexico journal, Scribendi, won first place in the UCI
Bookstore short fiction contest, and received an award for her
Honors Thesis, a collection of short stories. She also edited
the undergraduate creative writing journal, New Forum. During
her year abroad in St. Andrews, Scotland, she was awarded the
Hemingway Prize for her short story, “Moth,” which
will appear in an anthology of Hemingway prize-winners.
Leila Mansouri was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She studied history
and creative writing at Northwestern University, where, during
her senior year, she was a recipient of the Edwin L. Shuman
fiction award. She currently lives in Irvine, CA and is working
towards an MFA in fiction at UC-Irvine.
Vernon Ng is currently an M.F.A. candidate in poetry at UC Irvine
and teaches beginning poetry there. He received his B.A. in
English and Art History from the same school, and has been awarded
two UCI Bookstore Poetry Prizes, a Brett Baldwin Memorial Prize,
and a nomination for the Ina Coolbrith Prize. He is interested
in the life of Elizabeth Bishop, and reads more contemporary
French philosophy than is fashionable.
Justin Rigamonti, poet, illustrator, and painter, was born and
raised on the western outskirts of Portland, Oregon. He has
had poetry published in The Cortland Review, and Ink Slinger,
as well as writing and illustrating a children's book, published
by Landmark Editions. He is now currently working towards a
MFA degree in poetry at UC Irvine.
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