Spring 2012 Reading Series
The following Spring 2012 readings are free and open to the public, all in the basement auditorium of the English Building at 7:30 p.m.
February 16 MELANIE RAE THON
The most recent of Melanie Rae Thon’s seven books include the novel The Voice of the River (FC2, 2011) and In This Light: New and Selected Stories (Graywolf, 2011). Thon’s work has been included in Best American Short Stories (1995, 1996), three Pushcart Prize Anthologies (2003, 2006, 2008), and the O. Henry Prize Stories (2006). She is a recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award (1997), two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992 and 2008), and a Writer’s Residency from the Lannan Foundation (2005). Originally from Montana, Thon now lives in Salt Lake City, where she teaches in the Creative Writing and Environmental Humanities programs at the University of Utah. Sponsored by Iron Horse Literary Review.
February 23 KATE NORTHROP
Kate Northrop’s newest poetry collection, Clean is recently published by Persea Books. Her first collection, Back Through Interruption (Kent State U Press, 2002) won the 2001 Stan and Tom Wick First Book Award, and was runner-up for the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award and the Kate Tufts Award. Her second collection, Things Are Disappearing Here (Persea, 2007) was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and the finalist for the James Laughlin Award. Kate Northrop was born and raised in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and now teaches in the MFA program in Laramie, Wyoming. Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English.
February 28 CHARLES BOWDEN
Charles Bowden has spent more than seventeen years covering the ongoing nightmare in Juàrez, Mexico. He’s the author of two dozen books, including the national bestseller Murder City: Ciudad Juàrez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields (Avon 2010). A contributing editor for GQ and Mother Jones, he has also written for Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, New York Times Book Review, and Aperture, among other periodicals. His honors include a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction and the Sidney Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism. Luis Alberto Urrea describes Murder City as “go-for-broke apocalyptic prophecy. Forget Baghdad, forget Kandahar: Hell is only fifty yards from your back porch, and Bowden is going to make you look or die trying.” Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English.
March 29 BONNIE J. ROUGH
Bonnie J. Rough’s new memoir Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA (Counterpoint) won a 2011 Minnesota Book Award. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Sun, Huffington Post, The Iowa Review, Ninth Letter, Identity Theory, Brevity, and also in several anthologies, including Modern Love: 50 True and Extraordinary Tales of Desire, Deceit, and Devotion (Three Rivers Press), The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 1 (W.W. Norton), and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2007 (Houghton Mifflin). Her many awards include a Bush Artist Fellowship, a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers, and a Minnesota State Arts Board grant. Sponsored by Iron Horse Literary Review.
April 12 RHETT ISEMAN TRULL
Rhett Iseman Trull's first book of poetry, The Real Warnings (Anhinga Press, 2009), received the Anhinga Prize for Poetry, the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award, the Brockman Campbell Award, and the Oscar Arnold Young Award. Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2008, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, and other publications. Her other awards include prizes from the Academy of American Poets and the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation. She was a Randall Jarrell Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she received her MFA; she lives in Greensboro with her husband, with whom she publishes the poetry journal, Cave Wall. Sponsored by Iron Horse Literary Review.