Gist Street Reading Series: News & Gossip

Gist Street Gossip 2007

Randall Mann co-authored a textbook, Writing Poems, Seventh Edition, which is out from Pearson Longman. He works, works out, and works it out in San Francisco.

Ann Pancake's novel, Strange As This Weather Has Been, will be published in October 2007 by Shoemaker & Hoard. She'll be reading at Pitt Johnstown on November 6, 2007 and at Chuck Kinder's class at Pitt’s main campus on November 7.

Kirk Nesset is author of Paradise Road, a book of short stories (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007) and Alphabet of the World (translations, Bucknell University Press, forthcoming). He was awarded the Drue Heinz literature prize in 2007 and has received a Pushcart and numerous grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Deb Bogen had new work appear in the Gettysburg Review, Crazyhorse, Margie and Pittsburgh’s own Paperstreet. In 2007 she read in New York at the Bowery Club and in Tempe, Arizona.

Joy Katz was recently writer-in-residence at the University of Missouri-St Louis. A review of her new chapbook, The Garden Room, is forthcoming in Boston Review. Meanwhile she and her husband are soon to scoop up a baby boy in Vietnam and figure out how to raise him in Brooklyn.

Leslie Anne Mcilroy's second full-length book of poetry, Liquid Like This, will be published in July 2008 by Word Press. A book party is in the works. Something cool. Something big. Something wet and musical.

Lee Martin's novel, The Bright Forever, was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. His new novel, River of Heaven, will be published by Shaye Areheart Books in April, 2008.

Jason Schneiderman enjoyed a residency at Yaddo in late June and early July 2007. He has poems forthcoming in Court Green and American Poetry Review. Parts II and III of Robert Vivian’s Tall Grass Trilogy, The Bomb-Maker's Son and Lamb Bright Saviors, will be published in University of Nebraska Press in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The first part of the trilogy, The Mover Of Bones, was a finalist for Binghamton University’s John Gardner Fiction Award. He'll also be teaching next winter at Ondokuz Mayis University in Samsun, Turkey.

Kevin Moffett's first collection, Permanent Visitors, was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Story Award and the Believer Book Award. His work is forthcoming in A Public Space and the Land-Grant College Review. Starting this fall, he'll be teaching writing at Cal State-San Bernardino.

Hilda Raz and Aaron Raz Link have published their memoir about Aaron's sex-change, What Becomes You (U. Nebraska Press, American Lives Series). Reviews are good and sales are brisk and they've done readings together and alone in San Francisco, Seattle, Lincoln, Taos, Portland (Oregon), NYC, and at AWP. The book will be out in paperback next spring. Take a look at the URL: http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bookinfo/5176.html

John Fulton's third book, a collection of novellas and stories called, The Animal Girl, will be published in the fall of 2007 by LSU Press. Stories from the collection have been awarded the Pushcart Prize and selected for special mention in The Best American Short Stories. There's more information at JohnFulton.net. Otherwise, he and his wife have a one-year-old daughter, Zoe, who has supplied more than adequate distraction from the novel he's working on. He's also a professor at UMass-Boston, where he's helping to launch a new MFA program in creative writing that begins in the fall of 2007.

Philip Terman's new book of poetry, Rabbis of the Air, was published summer 2007 by Autumn House Press. Same kids, same spouse, but he wouldn't call that any more juicy than it already is.

Liz Ahl's poems have appeared this year (2007) in The Women's Review of Books, Court Green, Prairie Schooner, and Alimentum. She's starting her second year as English Department Chair at Plymouth State University and is counting the days (and hours and minutes) until her sabbatical in the spring.

Hilary Masters reviewed Norman Mailer's new novel, Castle in the Forest in Pronvincetown Arts. In the same issue Hilary's new novel, Elegy for Sam Emerson is also reviewed.

G.C. Waldrep's second full-length collection of poems, Dislcamor, will be released in early September by BOA Editions. It is already up for pre-order at Amazon.com.

Eric Schwerer's second book of poetry, The Saint of Withdrawal, has recently been released. Order from amazon, the publisher, or direct from author (schwerer @ pitt.edu). The poet Thomas Lux writes: "Eric Schwerer is a young poet with a great ear (oh so rare!), an intense 'thought-felt' intelligence, and the ability to make his poems' mysteries lucid (oh rarer still!). The Saint of Withdrawal is a stunning debut."

Blue Front by Martha Collins has been selected to receive an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The award is given annually and recognizes outstanding works that contribute to society’s understanding of racism and foster an appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.