CWW News

If you're a member of the CWW, keep your eye on this page for deadlines and upcoming events. If you have news, click on "Send us your CWW News " in the left hand column of this page. If you're a prospective student, we think this page will give you a feel for what it's like to be a member of the CWW. Snoop around. Enjoy.

 

Have a look at The Completely Unofficial, Nearly Unabridged Guide to the CWW. (It's a big, hoss file, so be patient

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Heads Up, Y'all

Just before graduation this May, Harper Collins bought fiction student Barb Johnson's thesis, a collection of short stories entitled After Emerald City. The book will be released in 2009.

 

Joseph Boyden's novel, Three Day Road, has tied for first place in the competition for the Prix Litteraire. Commenting on the news of the win, Joseph said, "I'm well on my way to becoming the Jerry Lewis of France." To which Amanda added, "Or something like that." Joseph's short story collection, Born With a Tooth, is also up for an award in France. His new novel is slated for publication this fall, and can be pre-ordered from Penguin Canada.

It's official! Our own Bill Loehfelm has won amazon. com's Breakthrough Novel Contest with his novel, Fresh Kills. We're talking publication, big bucks and some fancy electronic equipment. Check out the details of this very good news at amazon.com and pre-order your copy. Publication is set for August 2008.

Congratulations, Bill!

 

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Graduation 2008

Congratulations to our recent graduates, the biggest, friendliest group ever.

 

	Karen Atherton Jason Buch Julia Cianci Gina Ferrara Rob Florence Barb Johnson Ginny Kaczmarek Casey Lefante
	Lish McBride Laura Miller David Parker, Jr. Trisha Rezende Nason Smith Julie Townsend Rachel Trujillo Jeremy Tuman	The 5'2" & Under Club

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INTERESTING SUMMER TIDBIT: Did you know that Parkview persists? Yep. We meet there every Monday night at 8:30ish all summer long. If you're in the loop, stay there. If you want to get in the loop, come on down to 910 N. Carrollton. Look for the swarming termites.

The latest issue of Bayou Magazine is hot. Pick one up at the bookstore. If you'd like to read manuscripts for Bayou, UNO's national literary magazine, talk to Joanna Leake. Or, on your way here or there, snag Lish McBride or Jesse Manley or email them at bayou@uno.edu. Check out the website. All the kids are doing it!

Congratulations to Jesse Manley, next year's associate editor for Bayou Magazine.

The UNO bookstore has it. You're in it. Go get it. That's right, Ellipsis 2008 is out and about thanks to our shiny new editor, Danny Goodman, and his team of genre editors, readers and roustabouts. OK, just kidding with the roustabout thing. But the book is out and it is hoss. It's the biggest, best Ellipsis ever.

 

Awards and Publications

Being a fabulous writer while teaching can be tricky. Difficult even. For some, impossible. For Casey Lefante, though, it's just another day at the ice cream parlor. The English Department named Casey Lefante Best TA for the 2007-2008 academic year .

In today's society, given this busy world in which we live in today, teaching freshman comp remains as challenging as it has been since the dawn of time. But if you venture down to LA 196, you'll find Casey carpe-ing the diem just for the fun of it.

Released in March 2008,Voices Rising: Stories from the Katrina Narrative Project, was the brainchild of our own Rick Barton. Edited by CWW alumna, Rebeca Antoine, Voices is a collection of stories that grew out of UNO's Katrina Narrative Project. These are the true accounts of Katrina storm experiences taken from interviews done by UNO students and alumni. Among the authors are CWW faculty, alumni and students, including Rick Barton, Rebeca Antoine, Mary Swerczek Sparacello, Caroline Skinner, Zachary George, Matt Peters, Sylvia Schneller, Amy Ferrara Smith, Susanna Dienes, Jana Mackin, Dena Vassey, Carol McCarthy and Missy Bowen.

You can read an excerpt from the book and buy yourself a shiny new copy from UNO Press.

Current Students

• Casey Lefante's "Plastic Parts" is in the Spring 2008 issue of Third Coast.

• Barb (E.B.) Johnson has a story in the Summer 2008 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

• Look for Gina Ferrara's work in two publications this spring: Coe Review and muse & stone.

• Carol McCarthy has been busy, y'all. She has poems in the most recent issues of Red Clay Review and Clemson Poetry Review. She has a book review in a forthcoming issue of Rattle. She gave a paper at LSU's WGS Graduate Conference and presented a paper on Marianne Moore at St. Francis College in Brooklyn.

• Carolyn Mikulencak's short story, "Swallow" is in the online journal, Rougarou

• "Jar of Teeth," by Mr. David Parker, was runner-up in Playboy's annual College Fiction Contest.

• Barb Johnson's short story, "Emerald City," won the Washington Square fiction contest, which includes a cash award and publication in an upcoming issue of Washington Square.

• Katrina's Path, an original stage play by University of New Orleans MFA student Rob Florence, was a regional finalist in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and will be performed at the 2008 Region VI Theatre Festival in Hunstville, Texas

• Poetry student, Carol McCarthy, has work forthcoming in issues of Natural Bridge, Houston Literary Review, Marginalia, eratio postmodern, and Pebble Lake Review. Wowie!

• "Plastic Parts," a short story by Casey Lefante, has been accepted for publication in Third Coast.

• Congratulations to playwriting student, Bradley Troll, who won Le Chat Noir's 2007 One Act Play Competition. His winning play, "Last Call," will be staged at Le Chat Noir September 7th and 8th. For tickets or information www.cabaretlechatnoir.com

• Take a look at Dave Parker's articles,"Sunday in the Park: Tunica Hills" and "Raptor City" in NOLAfugees.com

• Barb Johnson has an essay in Glimmertrain's Bulletin. It's about writing and our very own CWW.

• Barb Johnson's short story, "Killer Heart," won first place in Glimmertrain's Spring 2007 Fiction Open for New Writers. The story will appear in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

• Jesse Manley's poem, A Quick Guide to Refugee Gift Giving" is available for viewing in the current issue of The Extrovert.

• Our CWW ran the show at the recent Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers Conference, taking first place in every category in the Association's annual writing contest. Congratulations to all. The winners were:

  Fiction: Barb Johnson, first place; Casey Lefante, second place; Sylvia Schneller, third place

  Nonfiction: Sylvia Schneller, first place

• Poetry: Carol McCarthy, first place

• Barb Johnson's short story, "Delia Failed" won the $1500 second place prize in Astraea Foundation's national fiction-writing contest.

• For her poems "On This Page" and "Dangerous Propositions," Ann M. Plicque has won the Academy of American Poets Award, which includes a $100 honorarium.

• Gina Ferrara has published two poems in YAWP, and her chapbook, The Size of Sparrows, has been published by Finishing Line Press in Kentucky. Other poems are due to appear in two separate anthologies.

Alumni

• Nicole McClelland has recently had work in Mother Jones, The Nation, and Hustler. She has an essay in the upcoming anthology, Are We Feeling Better Yet?: Women's Encounters With Health Care in America, which is due out in the fall.

• Read Ginny Kaczmarek's review of Eleonor Stanford's The Book of Sleep on literarymama.com

• Rebeca Antoine edited Voices Rising: Stories from the Katrina Narrative Project, which was released in spring 2008.

• Pick up the Winter/Spring 2008 Passages North and you'll find A. C. Lambeth's short story, "The Bishop's Cake."
  

• A.C. Lambeth was a finalist in the 2007 Indiana Review Fiction competition.

• Amy Ferrara's short story, "Small Town Screaming," won first place in ByLine Magazine's Fiction Contest.

• "Putting Makeup on Dead People," a short story by Jen Violi, has been accepted for publication at The Baltimore Review.

• Todd Schrenk's essay, "Indian Red," has been published in The Extrovert.

• Check out Nicole McLelland's essay in Mother Jones. "University of New Orleans: Broke but Unbroken" tells the tale of the plucky and the stylish who know what it means to dance in New Orleans.

• Robin Kemp's poem, "New Breast," will appear in the upcoming Red Hen Press anthology, Letters to the World.

• Michael Perrone's novel, A Time Before Me, now in its second edition, has been picked up by a publisher in Rome. "Finally," Perrone said, "a copy of my work in a language I can't read." UPDATE: In June of 2007, A Time Before Me received the Bronze Award from ForeWord Magazine.

• Craig McWhorter's short story, "Silent Protest" will be made into a short film that has been funded by the Australian Film Council. McWhorter co-wrote the screenplay, and shooting begins in September of 2007.

• Nicole McClelland, Lauren Rice and Marcus Gilmer all have essays in the inaugural issue of The Extrovert. And, while he is not a UNO alum, the work of David Sedaris also appears in this issue.

• Check out A.C. Lambeth's new short story in the Winter 2007 issue of Cimarron Review.

• Johnny Damm's short story, "Moving Pictures," is in the Winter 2007 issue of SNReview.

• Recent screenwriting graduate, Jason May's "Coyote Funeral" has been accepted into The Spindletop Film Festival as well asThe Santa Fe Film Festival.

• Congratulations to Barbara Babin Lacour, whose musical comedy, "Everybody's Crazy But Me!" was a finalist in the M.R. Sarett National Playwriting Competition.

Faculty

• Joseph Boyden's novel, Three Day Road, has tied for first place for The Prix Litteraire. His new novel, Through Black Spruce, is slated for publication in fall 2008 and can be pre-ordered from Penguin Canada. Additionally, he is at work on a screenplay, co-written with his wife, Amanda Boyden, and based on Three Day Road. While you're waiting for Through Black Spruce, check out his essay, "Bush Country," in the recently released, Me Sexy.

• John Gery's collection of poetry, A Gallery of Ghosts, was released in March. Read an excerpt or a review and get yourself a copy here.

• Amanda Boyden's second novel, Babylon Rolling will be released in August of this year. Random House/Pantheon (hardcover) has made the novel one of their two lead titles for this coming autumn.   Set in New Orleans in the year between hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, the novel follows the lives of four families living on the same block in Uptown New Orleans. Keep your eye out for Random House's two-page catalog spread and preorder your copy.