Join us for a special event with Rita Dove, Miami University creative writing alumna, Pulitzer Prize winner and National Poet Laureate Emeritus
Alumna poet Rita Dove will join us virtually for a reading and conversation including creative writing poetry faculty in the Heritage Room, Shriver Center. You can check out a recent Paris ReviewInterview of the US Poet Laureate Emeritus and Pulitzer Prize winner in which she speaks about her time at Miami and its influence on her.
Each year the Creative Writing Program brings in members of the publishing industry–such as editors, publishers, agents, and authors–often alumni or friends of the program. This year we are doing it by Zoom. Please sign up using the QR code in the brochure or this link:
We heard a short preview of Dan Remoto’s powerful writing during our successful annual charity event, Writers Harvest. Too short.
So please join the Creative Writing Program for a fiction reading with Dan Remoto, who will read from his new book, The Heart of Summer ( Penguin Random House Southeast Asia) at Miami on Thursday, February 22nd, 7:30pm in BAC 337. (Zoom attendees, please register here.)
“A collection of short fiction on love, longing and loss written in the realist and fantastic modes. A young boy and his sisters gather beautiful shells on the beach as mementos of a country they will leave behind.”
Danton Remoto has published a novel called Riverrun and a book of stories called The Heart of Summer with Penguin Random House Southeast Asia. He studied at Rutgers University and the University of Stirling in the UK. He is an MFA Poetry student at Miami University.
Poets Isaac Pickell, an alumnus, and David Schloss, Miami Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing, read from their new books of poetry. They were wonderful readings and it was great to see these familiar faces.
I was surprised to hear that David retired in 2011 (though he taught until 2014), because it didn’t seem long ago. Covid distorts time. He was one of the professors who hired me twenty years back, and those first years occupy a much larger space in my memory, time wise, than the years since.
I was also surprised to hear that Isaac got his MFA in 2017, because that didn’t seem long ago either. It was interesting to hear them back to back, because their approaches to poetry are very different, yet both deeply engrossing. I recommend you order their books. The Q & A was interesting too, so much so that if host Cathy Wagner hadn’t kept track of time the discussion could have gone on for hours. Though I regrettably don’t have a transcript, this photo comes from that exchange.
Their bios are below the photo. Thanks to those who came out.
–BR
Isaac Pickell
A recent alum of Miami’s MFA program, Isaac Pickell is a Black & Jewish poet and PhD candidate at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he teaches and studies the borderlands of blackness and black literature. Isaac’s new book of poems It’s Not Over Once You Figure It Out is available for pre-order from Black Ocean. Joe Hall praises the book’s “jaw-dropping turns of thought…The poems defend against the brutal foreclosures of this historical moment”; Taylor Byas says “Pickell’s speaker collapses time as we know it.”
David Schloss
David Schloss was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944, and educated at Columbia University, The University of Southern California Cinema School, Brooklyn College (BA), and The Iowa Writers Workshop (MFA). After teaching at Miami for decades, he retired in 2014 from Miami as Emeritus Professor of English. His new book, Provocations—his sixth full-length poetry collection—is just out from Dos Madres Press. John Ashbery lauds him for “reinventing classical forms and meter to speak profound truths on vital issues of our day.” Lesley Hardy calls Provocations “a blistering “report” on disaster and war…a monumental and challenging work.”
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!
In association with the exhibition, Poetry at Miami: 1827-Now, at King Library.
Even though the wonderful readings hosted by faculty poets Keith Tuma and Cathy Wagner are over, you can still see the excellent associated exhibit, Poetry at Miami: 1827-NOW, on the third floor of the King Library, Miami University. Organizer and Librarian Mark Dahlquist has been very supportive of Miami creative writers for which the library has many resources. Check out the helpful Creative Writing resources page on the library website.
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.
Join us via Zoom as we welcome three successful publishing/writing professionals, two of them Miami alumni, who will discuss the publishing process in one of our most popular events of the year. Wednesday March 1st at 730pm, register via the QR code or this link: zoom registration
Visiting Professors Emily Spencer and Jen Sammons, a Miami alumna, gave a wonderful reading to a packed room from poetry and non fiction, which reached many more via live streaming.
Each year, publishing professionals visit us to give tips about the publishing world to the larger Miami University Creative Writing community and also meet with second year MFA students. This year our visitors included four alumni successful in the publishing world, on Friday’s panel of the two day event.
