visiting writers

2009 Winter Residency  
   

Scott Russell Sanders. Born in Tennessee and reared in Ohio, Scott Sanders studied at Brown University before going on, as a Marshall Scholar, to earn a Ph.D in English literature at Cambridge University. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at Indiana University, and has won the university’s highest teaching award. Among his more than twenty books are novels, collections of stories, and works of personal nonfiction, including Staying Put , Writing from the Center , and Hunting for Hope . His latest book is A Private History of Awe , a coming-of-age memoir, love story, and spiritual testament, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He has received the Lannan Literary Award, the Associated Writing Programs Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Great Lakes Book Award, the Kenyon Review Literary Award, and the John Burroughs Essay Award, among other honors, and has received support for his writing from the Lilly Endowment, the Indiana Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation.  In June 2006 he was named one of five inaugural winners of the Indiana Humanities Award.  A Conservationist Manifesto, his vision of a shift to a sustainable society, will be published in 2009. His writing examines the human place in nature, the pursuit of social justice, the relation between culture and geography, and the search for a spiritual path. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, have reared two children in their hometown of Bloomington, in the hardwood hill country of Indiana’s White River Valley.

 

Linda Bierds’ seventh book of poetry, First Hand, was published in April 2005 by Putnam’s. Flight: New and Selected Poems will be published by Putnam’s in October 2008. Her prizes include the PEN/West Poetry Award and the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award (both for The Profile Makers), two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, four Pushcart Prizes, the Consuelo Ford Award from the Poetry Society of America, a 1995 Notable Book Selection from the American Library Association (for The Ghost Trio) and fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Artist Trust Foundation of Washington, and the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 1998 she was named a Fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She is a professor of English at the University of Washington and lives on Bainbridge Island, just west of Seattle. Her books are: Flight: New and Selected Poems (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2008) First Hand (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2005) The Seconds (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001) The Profile Makers  (Henry Holt and Co., 1997)The Ghost Trio (Henry Holt and Company, 1994)Heart and Perimeter (Henry Holt and Co., 1991) The Stillness, the Dancing (Henry Holt and Co., 1988) and Flights of the Harvest-Mare (Ahsahta Press, Boise State University, 1985).

 

 

Heather Sellers holds a Ph.D in English/Creative Writing from Florida State University. A professor of English at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, she won an NEA grant for fiction and was part of the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers program.

Her books include a short story collection titled Georgia Under Water, a children’s book titled Spike and Cubby’s Ice Cream Island Adventure, three volumes of poetry, and three books on the craft of writing. She has also taught at the University of Texas/San Antonio, and St. Lawrence University.

   
   
 

   
Past Visiting Writers
Lee Martin is the author of the novels, The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; River of Heaven ; and Quakertown . He has also published two memoirs, From Our House and Turning Bones ; and a short story collection, The Least You Need To Know . His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such places as Harper's, Ms., Creative Nonfiction, The Georgia Review, Story, DoubleTake, The Kenyon Review, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, The Southern Review, and Glimmer Train . He is the winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council, as well as the 2006 Ohio State University Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. Since 2001, he has taught in the MFA Program at The Ohio State University where he is now Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing.
   

George Singleton was born in Anaheim, California and lived there until he was seven. He grew up in Greenwood, South Carolina He graduated from Furman University in 1980 with a degree in philosophy, and from UNC-Greensboro with an MFA in creative writing. Singleton has taught English and fiction writing at Francis Marion College, the Fine Arts Center of Greenville County, and the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He has been a visiting professor at the University of South Carolina and UNC-Wilmington, and has given readings and taught classes at a number of universities and secondary schools. His stories have been anthologized in eight issues of New Stories from the South, and also in 20 Over 40, Surreal South, Writers Harvest 2, They Write Among Us, and Behind the Short Story. His non-fiction has appeared in Bark and Oxford American, and has been anthologized in Best Food Writing 2005, Dog is My Co-Pilot , and Howl. He has published four collections of stories: These People Are Us, The Half-Mammals of Dixie , Why Dogs Chase Cars, Drowning in Gruel; and two novels: Novel and Work Shirts for Madmen. He has published stories in The Atlantic, Harpers , Zoetrope, and Playboy, as well as over one hundred stories in literary magazines and Quarterlies.
   
George Ella Lyon, Catalpa, Appalachian, George Ella Lyon, Catalpa

George Ella Lyon

Born and raised in the mountains of Kentucky, George Ella Lyon grew up with a love of poetry and music. She has published two collections of poems, along with Where I'm From,Where Poems Come From , a poetry primer; twenty-two picture books; five novels for young readers; an autobiography (A Wordful Child , in the Richard Owen "Meet-the Author" series); Choices   (a book of stories for adult new readers); and With a Hammer for My Heart , a novel. She is the editor of A Kentucky Christmas , and co-editor with Leatha Kendrick of Crossing Troublesome: Twenty-Five Years of the Appalachian Writers Workshop. Her work is featured in the PBS series, "The United States of Poetry."

   
Lynnell Major Edwards is the author of two full-length collections of poetry as well as the books The Highwayman's Wife and The Farmer's Daughter (Red Hen Press, 2007, 2003). Her work has appeared on Verse Daily and in numerous literary journals including Poems & Plays, Southern Poetry Review, The Los Angeles Review, Poetry East, and Dos Passos Review. She is a regular reviewer for The Georgia Review, Pleiades, and Rain Taxi. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky where she teaches writing and literature courses at the University of Louisville. She earned her doctorate in English at the University of Louisville, her undergraduate degree at Centre College in Kentucky, and is the recipient of a 2007 Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. She is also associate director of InKY, inc. a non-profit literary arts organization that sponsors the monthly InKY reading series in Louisville.
   
   
   
Charlie Hughes Charlie G. Hughes is the co-editor of GROUNDWATER: CONTEMPORARY KENTUCKY FICTION, editor of The Kentucky Literary Newsletter, a biweekly e-mail newsletter, and author of Shifting for Myself, a volume of poems.  He is also the owner of Wind Publications, a literary press with an emphasis on Kentucky and regional writers. Hughes hold degrees from Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky.  Though employed as an analytical chemist, he has an abiding interest in the literary arts. He is the former editor of Wind, Kentucky's oldest active literary magazine. His poems and fiction have appeared in prominent literary magazines including Kansas Quarterly, Kentucky Poetry Review, Hollins Critic, International Poetry Review, ART/LIFE, Cumberland Poetry Review, Exquisite Corpse, Appalachian Heritage, Cincinnati Poetry Review and others.
   
Kate Daniels is the author of three volumes of poetry, including The Niobe Poems and her most recent work, Four Testimonies: Poems. Her first volume The White Wave was awarded the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize for Poetry.She has an MFA from Columbia University and has won the James Dickey Prize for Poetry from Five Points: A Journal of Literature and Art and the Louisiana Literature Prize for Poetry from Southeastern Louisiana University. Her poems have been anthologized in a number of publications and have appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, Critical Quarterly, and the Southern Review. She also edited a volume of poems by Muriel Rukeyser and co-edited the book Of Solitude and Silence: Writings on Robert Bly.
   
Catherine Wald Beth Lordan is the author of the novel AUGUST HEAT, the short-story collection AND BOTH SHALL ROW, and the novel-in-stories BUT COME YE BACK. Her short fiction has appeared in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2002, the ATLANTIC MONTHLY, and GETTYSBURG REVIEW, as well as on NPR's Selected Shorts. The recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as an O. Henry Award for her short fiction, Lordan teaches fiction writing and directs Irish Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She lives in Carbondale with her husband.
   
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Doug Whynott believes that persistence and commitment are key ingredients for success as a writer. To date, Doug has published four critically acclaimed and commercially successful nonfiction books, including: Giant Bluefin ; Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekeepers ; and A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time: Joel White's Last Boat .   His latest book, A Country Practice: Scenes from the Veterinary Life , earned praise from Booklist as the "best introduction to the profession since James Herriott."  Doug discovered the potential benefits of a writing career by reading National Geographic . "There in the masthead, it said articles were accepted for 'generous remuneration.' I realized that people could travel the world and write for a living." On the advice of a mentor, he pursued his MFA at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Never expecting overnight success, Doug earned a living tuning pianos while devoting no less than three hours a day to writing. His first book took 10 years to be published, but he never stopped working on it. Meanwhile, he advanced his career by publishing articles and teaching writing at Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University. In his position as Graduate Program Director for Emerson's Creative Writing program, Doug has fulfilled a lifelong goal of leading a graduate program and instituting a nonfiction track for MFA candidates.
   
Catherine Wald Catherine Wald’s recent book,The Resilient Writer: Tales of Rejection and Triumph from 23 Top Authors (Persea Books 2005), won the 2006 Outstanding Book Award in the service category from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). Her web site rejectioncollection.com, has been featured in The New York Times, Writer’s Market, wirednews.com, The Writer, Writer’s Digest and The Artist’s Magazine. Cathy leads seminars on writing, self-promotion and overcoming rejection such organizations as Manhattanville College, Sarah Lawrence College, SUNY Purchase, National Writers Union, International Association of Business Communicators, NYU School of Publishing, Flushing Arts Council, Journalism & Women Symposium, and Bronx Writers Center. She has moderated panels for Associated Writers and Writing Programs, The New School and ASJA, and she teaches at the Hudson Valley Writers Center. In 2006 she was named to the Westchester Arts Council’s Artist Roster. Cathy has been published in Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, Reader’s Digest, The New York Times, Woman’s Day, The Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune; and in several anthologies. She was awarded three artist residencies at the Ragdale Foundation. The author of a rejected novel, she is also the translator from the French of Childish Things by Valery Larbaud (Sun & Moon 1994). As a corporate communications writer and editor, Cathy held positions at AIG, Philip Morris and Avon Products before going freelance. Since then, she has managed editorial projects for companies such as ADP, American Express, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Ernst & Young, Ogilvy, Pepsi and Prudential. A resident of Yorktown, New York, Cathy is married to a high school science teacher and is the mother of two teenagers.
   
Tony Crunk is a poet and the author of two books for children, Big Mama and Grandpa’s Overalls. His first collection of poetry, Living in the Resurrection, was the 1994 selection in the Yale Series of Younger Poets, and his work has appeared in such journals as Paris Review, Georgia Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Poetry Northwest. Crunk received an MA in philosophy from the University of Kentucky and an MFA from the University of Virginia. He has taught at the University of Virginia, James Madison University, Murray State University and the University of Montana. He has also served in administrative and instructional capacities with a number of community arts organizations, including Hellgate Writers, Inc. and The Writer’s Voice/Billings, MT Center. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
   

Silas House is the author of the novels Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves and The Coal Tattoo as well as the play The Hurting Part. He has received the Award of Special Achievement from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the Appalachian Book of the Year, the Chaffin Award for Literature, two Kentucky Literary Prizes for Novel of the Year and the fiction prize from the National Society of Arts and Letters. House is a two-time finalist for both the Southern Book Critics Circle Prize and the SEBA Book of the Year. House is writer-in-residence at Lincoln Memorial University, where he also directs the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival. Currently, House is collaborating with actress Ashley Judd on a screenplay that will be filmed this year.
Robert O. Butler Robert Olen Butler is the author of ten novels and three collections of short stories. A former sergeant in the Army Military Intelligence, Butler served in Vietnam and has used those experiences in some of his works. His writing has been published in Best American Short Stories, Esquire, The New Yorker, New Stories from the South, The Paris Review, and The Sewanee Review. His numerous awards include the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his collection of short stories A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction, and the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Butler received a M.A. from the University of Iowa in 1969. Currently, he holds a Frances Eppes Professorship at Florida State University.
 

 

Ann Neelon

 Andrew Hudgins is the author of several poetry collections, including Saints and Strangers (1985), which was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize; The Never-Ending (1991), a finalist for the National Book Award; and his most recent, Ecstatic in the Poison (Overlook Press, 2003). His book-length poem After the Lost War: A Narrative (1988), a narrative in the voice of Georgia-born poet and civil war soldier Sidney Lanier, won the Poets’ Prize. Hudgins is also the author of a book of essays, The Glass Anvil (1997). Mr. Hudgins’s honors include fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is Humanities Distinguished Professor at Ohio State University.
   
Brian Barker Leigh Anne Couch lives in Tennessee and is the managing editor of the Sewanee Review. She has held residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the KHN Center for the Arts. Her poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Cincinnati Review, 32 Poems, Alaska Quarterly Review, Carolina Quarterly, and Verse Daily, with work forthcoming in the Western Humanities Review and the Louisville Review. Her first book of poems Houses Fly Away will be published by Zone 3 Press this fall.
   
Fred Haefele Erin McGraw is the author of four books, most recently The Good Life (Houghton-Mifflin, 2004). Her stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Good Housekeeping, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, and many other publications, and she has received fellowships from Stanford University, the Macdowell Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. She teaches creative writing at the Ohio State University and is currently working on a novel set in Hollywood in 1924.
   
Daniel Anderson's work has appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, The Yale Review, Harper's, The New Republic, The Southern Review, and The Best American Poetry, among other places. His first book of poems, January Rain, was published in 1997. His second collection, Drunk in Sunlight, will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2006. He also edited The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov which was listed as a New York Times “Notable Book” in 2003. He is the recipient of a 2005 Pushcart Prize and has received fellowships from the NEA, the Bogliasco Foundation, and Johns Hopkins University. Most recently, he has taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Presently, he is the Nancy and Rayburn Watkins Endowed Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Murray State.
   
Lynn Pruett Eric Gansworth is the author of three novels, including Indian Summers (1998) Smoke Dancing (2004), both from Michigan State University Press, and Mending Skins (University of Nebraska Press, 2005). He is also the author of a collection of poetry and paintings, Nickel Eclipse: Iroquois Moon (Michigan State UP, 2000). Gansworth is an enrolled member of the Onondaga Nation and was born and raised on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in western New York. He has a Master of Arts in English from the State University College at Buffalo and is an Associate Professor of English at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.
   
Leah Stewart Nancy Reisman, author of House Fires and The First Desire, received her M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts , Amherst . Her short story collection House Fires won the 1999 Iowa Short Fiction Award. Her novel The First Desire won the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Foundation Prize for Jewish Fiction. She has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and has won an O.Henry Award and the Raymond Carver Short Story Award. Her stories have been included in numerous anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, O.Henry Award Stories, and Jewish in America.
   
Leah Stewart Philip Stephens's first collection of poems, The Determined Days (Sewanee Writers' Series/The Overlook Press), appeared in 2000 and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA West Award. His chapbook, The Signalmen, received the Hanks Chapbook Award from the St. Louis Poetry Center in 1999. His writing has appeared in The Oxford American, Southwest Review, North American Review, and The Journal, among other places, and his poetry has been anthologized in American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 2000) and Phoenix Rising: The Next Generation of American Formal Poets (Word Press, 2004). His essay, "Fate and a Jukebox," appeared in Best Music Writing 2004 (Da Capo Press, 2004).
   
Leah Stewart Dianne Aprile is the author of four books, including two on the Abbey of Gethsemani, the monastery home of the writer/peace activist/Trappist monk Thomas Merton. A former staff writer for The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times, she has received numerous awards for her work in journalism, including the National Society of Newspaper Columnists top award in 1996 and a shared staff Pulitzer in 1989. Her work has also appeared in a number of publications, including Conversations with Kentucky Writers, The New Southerner Anthology, and Southern Living. An excerpt from her memoir-in-progress, The Thickness of Water, will appear in the fall issue of The Louisville Review. Aprile teaches creative nonfiction at Spalding University, leads writing workshops throughout the region, and is a contributing editor to Pitch magazine.
   
Leah Stewart A native of Murray, Kim Trevathan is the author of Paddling the Tennessee River: A Voyage on Easy Water, the account of the 652-mile canoe trip he took with his dog Jasper, in 1998, published by the University of Tennessee Press in 2001. Recently, UT Press published Coldhearted River: A Canoe Odyssey Down the Cumberland, based on a slightly longer trip with a photographer, Randy Russell, instead of the dog. Trevathan has published fiction and essays in New Delta Review, The Texas Review, New Millennium Writings (Spring 1999 fiction prize), The Distillery, The Florida Review, and elsewhere. He teaches writing and literature at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee.