Readers in 2007

Cathy Day (fiction) and Susanna Childress (poetry), January 5

Cathy Day's short-story cycle, The Circus in Winter, was published by Harcourt in 2004. This fictional history of her hometown was a finalist for three book contests and was also translated into German and Czech. Her work has appeared in New Stories from the South, Story, River Styx, Antioch Review, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. A Hoosier by birth, she earned her MFA at the University of Alabama and teaches in the Writing Program at Pitt.

Susanna Childress's first volume of poetry, Jagged with Love, was selected by Billy Collins for the 2005 Brittingham Poetry Prize; Southern Illinois University Carbondale also honored this book with the Devil's Kitchen Reading Award. Her poetry and short stories appear in The Missouri Review, The Mississippi Review, Goodfoot, Image, and Gargoyle. Childress is finishing a Ph.D. in English from Florida State and teaches at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

Ilya Kaminsky (poetry) (plus, a Saturday workshop with Ilya!) and Kevin Moffett (fiction), February 2

Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union, and arrived to the United States in 1993 when his family was granted asylum by the American government. He is the author of Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004), which won the Whiting Writer's Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award, the Dorset Prize, and the Ruth Lilly Fellowship. Dancing In Odessa was also named Best Poetry Book of the Year 2004 by ForeWord Magazine. Ilya has worked as a law clerk at the National Immigration Law Center and at Bay Area Legal Aid, helping the impoverished and homeless in solving their legal difficulties. He currently teaches in the graduate writing program at San Diego State University.

Kevin Moffett's first collection of stories, Permanent Visitors, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. A regular contributor to the Believer and McSweeney's, he has published fiction in Tin House, Chicago Tribune, Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Terrance Hayes (poetry) and Charles d’Ambrosio (fiction) (plus, a Saturday workshop with Charles!), March 9

Terrance Hayes was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1971. He is the author of Wind in a Box (Penguin 2006), Hip Logic (Penguin 2002) and Muscular Music (1999). He has been a recipient of many honors and awards, including a Whiting Writers Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a National Poetry Series award, a Pushcart Prize, Best American Poetry selections, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University.

Charles D'Ambrosio is the author of The Point and Other Stories; Orphans, a collection of essays; and, most recently, The Dead Fish Museum. His fiction appears frequently in The New Yorker. Among other honors, he is the recipient of a Whiting Award.

Kellie Wells (fiction) and Jason Schneiderman (poetry), April 20

Kellie Wells was awarded the Flannery O'Connor Award and the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers’ Award for her collection Compression Scars. She is also a recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award for emerging women writers. Her work has appeared in various journals, including The Kenyon Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Prairie Schooner. Her novel Skin was published in 2006 by the University of Nebraska Press, in their Flyover Fiction Series, edited by Ron Hansen. She teaches in the MFA program at Washington University, St. Louis.

Of Jason Schneiderman's first collection of poems, Sublimation Point, Tom Sleigh writes: "Grave, sweetly questioning, often irreverently funny, Jason Schneiderman's poems about love and death, the Holocaust and family history, self knowledge and self deception give this book a range and tonal variety that is extremely rare for any poet, let alone a first book." Schneiderman's poems have appeared in Tin House, Grand Street, and American Poetry Review, and in The Penguin Book of the Sonnet and Best American Poetry 2005. He has received fellowships from Yaddo and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and is currently a Chancellor's Fellow at CUNY. He also teaches literature at Hunter College.

Michael Byers (fiction) and David Young (poetry), May 4

A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, Michael Byers is the author of two books, The Coast of Good Intentions, a book of stories, and Long for This World, a novel. The Coast of Good Intentions won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, garnered a Whiting Writer's Award, and was a New York Times Notable Book. Long for This World, also a New York Times Notable Book, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, won the Virginia Commonwealth University First Novel Award, and the annual prize for fiction from Friends of American Writers. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best American Travel Writing, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. He teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan, and is at work on a novel.

David Young’s tenth collection of poems, Black Lab, was published in 2006 by Knopf. A critical book, Six Moderist Moments in Poetry, came out from Iowa. And a new translation, Out On the Autumn River: Selected Poems of Du Mu appears in November from Rager Media Press. David is retired from teaching at Oberlin but still active at Oberlin College Press, where he helps edit Field and books in their various series: translation, contemporary poetry, and some anthologies.

Francisco Aragon (poetry) and Scott Hightower (poetry); Deborah Bogen (poetry), June 1

Francisco Aragón’s poems and translations have appeared in various print and web publications, including Chain, Crab Orchard Review, Chelsea, The Journal, ZYZZYVA, and the online magazines Jacket, Electronic Poetry Review, and Tertulia. In addition to Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press), he is the author of three limited edition chapbooks and the translator of four poetry collections by Francisco X. Alarcón. He directs Letras Latinas, the literary unit at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. A native of San Francisco and former long-time resident of Spain, he currently resides in South Bend, Indiana.

Scott Hightower’s third collection, Part of the Bargain, received Copper Canyon Press’ 2004 Hayden Carruth Award. He lives in New York City, is a contributing editor to The Journal and Barrow Street, and teaches at NYU/Gallatin and Drew University in New Jersey, while hard at work on translations of the poetry of the Spanish/Puerto Rican poet Aurora de Albornoz.

Deb Bogen's new book, Landscape With Silos, won the 2005 XJ Kennedy Poetry Prize and is available from Texas A & M University Press. Since she believes this makes her an Aggie Author she's been boning up on livestock studies, rodeo trick rope competition, and football. You can find out all about Deb at www.DeborahBogen.net.

7th Annual Cookout Extravaganza with University of Nebraska Press, Saturday July 14
Featuring: Lee Gutkind, Dinty Moore, Floyd Skloot, Michelle Herman, Joe Mackall, and Terese Svoboda

Lee Gutkind is founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction and professor of English at University of Pittsburgh. His newest book is Almost Human: Making Robots Think (W.W. Norton). Gutkind’s memoir, Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather (University of Nebraska Press, 2004) was partially inspired by a Vanity Fair article pinpointing Gutkind as the “godfather behind creative nonfiction.” In celebration of his impact on the genre In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction was published in 2004. Gutkind, whose books include Many Sleepless Nights, an inside chronicle of the world of organ transplantation and An Unspoken Art, a profile of veterinary medicine, has been praised for his depth of reportage and his mastery of narrative. http://www.leegutkind.com/

Michelle Herman is a longtime writer and teacher of fiction whose first nonfiction book, The Middle of Everything (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), tackles the twin subjects of motherhood and daughterhood, as well as other traditionally “domestic” issues. It has become a staple of women’s studies classes and book groups across the U.S. Her personal essays on subjects as far-ranging as the domestic (marriage, child-rearing, keeping house) to the unclassifiably intellectual (her novella-length essay on the unconscious appears in the spring 2007 Southern Review) have brought her national attention as a writer of rare insight and wisdom, as well as surprising, sometimes brutal, candor, humor, and compassion. New essays appear regularly in a wide variety of journals—from American Scholar to O, the Oprah Magazine.

Joe Mackall is an associate professor of English and journalism at Ashland University and the editor of the nonfiction journal River Teeth. His essays have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies as well as on National Public Radio. He has also worked as a reporter for several newspapers, including the Washington Post. Mackall’s memoir The Last Street Before Cleveland: An Accidental Pilgrimage was published in 2005 by the University of Nebraska Press. His new book, Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among America’s Most Traditional Amish, will be published by Beacon Press in June 2007.

Floyd Skloot is the author of twelve books, including In the Shadow of Memory (available in a Bison Books edition), the winner of numerous awards, including the 2004 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Creative Nonfiction, Nonfiction Finalist for the 2003 Barnes and Noble Discover Award, and Finalist for the “Art of the Essay” PEN Award. A World of Light (University of Nebraska Press, 2005) was a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice selection. Skloot’s work has been featured in The Best American Essays, The Best American Science Writing, The Best Spiritual Writing, The Best Food Writing, The Pushcart Prize, and The Art of the Essay. http://www.floydskloot.com/

Terese Svoboda’s four novels fictionalize Southwestern Nebraska, Africa, New York, and all the places in between (including Tin God, University of Nebraska Press, 2006). She has also sandwiched same in four books of poems as well as prize-winning and NY Times-published essays. The Atlantic, Paris Review, Slate, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, and many other magazines have featured her work, and she won a 2006 O. Henry for a short story. L.A.’s Disney Hall premiered her opera in 2005.

Dinty W. Moore bought his first car in Pittsburgh, lost his virginity in Pittsburgh, once shared a meal with Princess Grace of Monaco in Pittsburgh, and considers Pittsburgh to be the most visually interesting city in America. He also likes the neighborhoods. Moore is the author of numerous books, including The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction (Longman, 2006). Between Panic and Desire: Notes from a Serial Projectionist is scheduled for publication in 2008 by the University of Nebraska Press. http://www.dintywmoore.com/

Kevin Prufer (poetry), John Gallaher (poetry) and Wayne Miller (poetry), August 3

Kevin Prufer is author of Fallen From a Chariot (Carnegie Mellon, 2005), The Finger Bone (Carnegie Mellon, 2002), and the forthcoming National Anthem (Four Way, 2008). He's also co-editor of The New European Poetry (Graywolf, 2008), Dark Horses: Essays on Overlooked Poems (U. of Illinois, 2006) and Editor of The New Young American Poets (Southern Illinois, 2000) and Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing.

John Gallaher is the author of Gentlemen in Turbans, Ladies in Cauls (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001) and the forthcoming Little Book of Guesses (Four Way Books, 2007) winner of the Levis Poetry Prize. He is an editor of The Laurel Review.

Wayne Miller is the author of Only the Senses Sleep (New Issues, 2006), translator of Moiqom Zeqo's I Don’t Believe in Ghosts (BOA Editions, 2008), and co-editor of The New European Poetry (Graywolf Press, 2008). He's also Co-Editor of Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing.

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (poetry) and Elise Levine (fiction), September 7

Elise Levine is the author of the novel Requests and Dedications (McClelland & Stewart) and the story collection Driving Men Mad (M&S). Her work has appeared in many publications including Best Canadian Stories '05, The Journey Prize Anthology, Prairie Schooner, Gargoyle, and The National Post, and has been broadcast nationally by the CBC. The recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council, she was also awarded a Canadian National Magazine Award in 2005, and residency fellowships at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and Ledig House.

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon's Black Swan won the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in African American Review, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, Rattapallax, Shenandoah, the Women’s Review of Books, and other journals, as well as in anthologies Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Role Call, and Common Wealth. Currently at work on a second collection of poems, Open Interval, she is Assistant Professor of English at Cornell University.

Greg Downs (fiction) and Susan Hutton (poetry), October 5

Greg Downs' collection of short stories, Spit Baths, was published in October 2006 by the University of Georgia Press, which awarded it the Flannery O'Connor prize. Downs' stories have been published in numerous literary magazines, including Witness, New Letters, Glimmer Train, and Sycamore Review. He is an Assistant Professor of History at City College of New York, where he also teaches Creative Writing.

Susan Hutton received her MFA from the University of Michigan and held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in poetry at Stanford University. Her book On the Vanishing of Large Creatures was published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is a contributing editor at The Poetry Foundation.

November 2 - Autumn House Press presents… Ed Ochester (poetry) and Nancy Pagh (poetry)

Through his writing, editing, and teaching, Ed Ochester has been a major influence on contemporary letters for more than three decades. He edits the Pitt Poetry Series and is general editor of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction, both published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. From 1978 to 1998 he was director of the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh, and was twice elected president of Associated Writing Programs. He co-edits the poetry magazine 5 AM, and lives in a rural county northeast of Pittsburgh. He is the author of eight collections of poems, including Unreconstructed, New and Selected Poems to be released by Autumn House in Fall 2007.

Nancy Pagh’s first collection of poems, No Sweeter Fat, was selected by Tim Seibles for the 2006 Autumn House Prize. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Poetry Northwest, Crab Creek Review, Rattle, Grain, Pontoon, and The Bellingham Review. At Home Afloat, her study of women’s travel language at sea, was co-published in 2001 by the University of Idaho and the University of Calgary presses. She currently lives in Bellingham and teaches English and Canadian Studies at Western Washington University.

Benjamin Percy (fiction) and David Griffith (non-fiction), December 7

Benjamin Percy is the author of two books of short stories, The Language of Elk and Refresh, Refresh. His fiction has appeared in the Best American and Pushcart Prize Anthologies, The Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Esquire, and many other places. He teaches writing at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he lives with his wife and son.

Dave Griffith is the author of A Good War is Hard to Find: The Art of Violence in America (Soft Skull Press, 2006). His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Image, Godspy, the Utne Reader, and Killing the Buddha. He teaches writing and literature at the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College. During the summer he teaches fiction and chairs the creative writing department at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts.