Category Archives: Interviews

Author Reading & Discussion with Pepper Stetler & Nicholas P. Money – Memoir, Disability Studies & Science Writing.

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Memoir, disability studies, & science writing– please join us for a nonfiction reading by Miami faculty, followed by a Q&A about the craft of creative nonfiction writing!

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Biology professor Nik Money and Art History professor Pepper Stetler will read and discuss their new nonfiction books Thursday, November 7 at 7:30 in Harris Hall 150. 

Stetler’s new book, A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother’s Reckoning with the IQ Test, has been described as “an important and illuminating contribution to disability studies.” (Daisy Hernandez)

Molds, Mushrooms, and Medicines: Our Lifelong Relationship with Fungi, by Nicholas Money, showcases, with great humor and deftness, “An amazing tour of the world of fungi–a realm that is more entwined with the lives of humans than we realize.” (Alanna Collen)

Creative Writing faculty TaraShea Nesbit and Margaret Luongo will interview the authors after their readings, followed by a Q&A on the craft of nonfiction writing with the audience. 

Hope to see you there!

More info:

https://events.miamioh.edu/event/author-reading-and-discussion-pepper-stetler-nicholas-money

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Author Bios

Pepper Stetler is a Professor of Art History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and writes extensively on issues facing people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. She is the author of A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother’s Reckoning with the IQ Test (Diversion Books). Her essays have appeared in The New York TimesThe Wall Street JournalThe AtlanticSlate and other venues.

Nicholas Money is a Professor of Biology and Western Program Director at Miami University. He is an international expert on fungal biology and author of popular science books that celebrate the microbial world including The Rise of Yeast: How the Sugar Fungus Shaped Civilization (Oxford University Press) and Molds, Mushrooms, and Medicine: Our Lifelong Relationship with Fungi (Princeton University Press). His writing is noted for blending first-rate science with stories of human interest. Learn more about Money and his works on his website, www.themycologist.com

Alumni Event: Life After College with an English Degree – A Gustche Lecture with Patrick Briggs

Please join us

Join us in welcoming creative writing alumnus and tech CEO Patrick Briggs ’06, who will be giving a talk about how an English degree can bring career success!

The lecture will be held in Harris Hall (500 Harris Drive) on Thursday, October 24th at 4:30 PM in room 111A. A reception will follow. 

Patrick Briggs is the CEO of Semify, a white-label digital marketing service provider. Prior to joining Semify, Patrick was an entrepreneurial leader for startups and technology companies in Silicon Valley and New York City. Over the last fourteen years, Patrick has driven nine-figure revenue growth by leading marketing, sales, product positioning, cost optimizations, and strategic development in consumer-packaged goods businesses, customization and promotional printing businesses, business-to-business technology and software businesses, and business-to-business and business-to-consumer insurance products. Patrick holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a BA in English: Creative Writing with a minor in Anthropology from Miami University, and the Boy Scouts of America rank of Eagle Scout.

This event is sponsored in part by the Department of English, the Center for Career Services and Success, and the Marilyn Gustche Lectureship Fund. 

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English Department Career Day Event

A Career Day for English Majors including creative writing majors

Join the Department of English and the Center for Career Exploration and Success (CCES) for Spill the Tea: English Edition, an afternoon of career-development workshops followed by an alumni panel, on Tuesday, April 9 in Shriver’s Heritage Room. There will be prizes, swag, and delicious food!

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The MFA Experience

UPDATE: We had a great event. Special thanks to all our alumni guests who shared their experiences and advice, and those of you who joined us. We had great feedback and questions in the chat. Current MFA student Ty Young was asked at the last minute to help with the technical aspects of the event and did a great job, Thanks!

Interview with CCA Agent and Miami Alumna, Alex Rice

On March 3rd, 2023, Creative Artist Agency Agent Alex Rice (and Miami alumna) joined the creative writing program’s Annual Publishing Symposium for a panel discussion on the publishing environment, and tips for students looking to get published or find a career in publishing. It was a fantastic event with many students turning out. I was lucky enough to be able to ask her questions on the panel, and she was generous in her answers and also in her willingness to do an interview.

–Brian Ascalon Roley

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Meet Your Professors! — Interview Three, Margaret Luongo

To finish out this series, I interviewed Margaret Luongo, Director of Creative Writing, Associate Professor of English, and advisor for my apprenticeship with the CW program. Since my first (and regrettably, only) class with her, I have experienced just how wise and kind she is and I am very glad I got to work more closely with her as part of my apprenticeship, especially now that it is coming to close along with the rest of my college career. I’m very thankful that I have been able to work with Prof. Luongo over this past year, and I hope you all enjoy learning a bit more about her!

-Lauren Miles

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The Importance and Impact of Research on Fictional and Historical Fiction Works

By: Marin Thurmer

Back in November, I was pleased to meet one of Dr. TaraShae Nesbitt’s colleagues from graduate school, Dr. Shena McAuliffe, who currently teaches fiction at Union College in New York and visited Miami university classes and did a reading. Being a creative writing undergrad myself, along with other peers sitting around me, I felt the group’s anticipation to be introduced to McAuliffe’s particular style of research that contributes to her writing, mainly nonfiction and historical fiction works. The book in question: The Good Echo! This narrative doesn’t obey traditional schemes of narration, with the keystone of the work being a posthumous narration from the perspective of a dead son, just twelve years old when he succumbed to an infection in his root canal, which his father performed the fatal surgery on before his death.

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Meet Your Professors! — Interview Two, Patrick Murphy

Last semester, back when things were strange in the way we call “normal,” I was thrilled to be in the course ENG 360B: Comics in Theory and In Practice, co-taught by professors Jody Bates and Patrick Murphy. I had tried making comics before but always stopped short of completing them, but this class gave me the tools I needed to return to this incredible form of art and creative writing. When I decided to start this series of professor spotlights, I knew I wanted to learn more about Dr. Murphy’s work in comics. And now, with this interview, you can learn more too! — Lauren Miles

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Selvage, Diaspora, and Lingual Processes: a Conversation with Hoa Nguyen

National Poetry Month 2020

By: Savannah Trent

I sat down, well more accurately sat down and logged into google chat, to talk to poet Hoa Nguyen to ask her about identity, belonging, and the diasporic experience.  Nguyen, whose 2016 book length collection of poems Violet Energy Ingots was shortlisted for the 2017 Griffin prize in poetry, is a poet whose work is known for its melodic quality, weaving rhyme, non sequiturs, syllabic play, and references to Sappho and Shakespeare among others. Born in the Mekong Delta, she was raised in the Washington DC area during the time of punk, post-punk and the Reagan presidency though she now resides in Toronto where she teaches creative writing and serves as a mentor to Miami University’s low residency program in creative writing. She is also the author of Dark (Skanky Possum 1998), Your ancient see through (AA Arts 2001), Hecate Lochia (Hot Whiskey 2009), As long as trees last (Wave 2012) and Red Juice: Poems 1998-2008 (Wave 2014).

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