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RC hires Creative Writing alumna Elizabeth Schmuhl

ESchmuhlThe RC has hired RC Creative Writing alumna Elizabeth Schmuhl (’06) to teach a First Year Seminar. Elizabeth has roots in metro Detroit as well as southwestern Michigan, where her family owns the 100+ year-old Paw Paw River Farm. She intended to go to college out of state, but changed her mind when she visited an older friend – Melissa Solarz, also an alumna – at the RC. She has always been interested in writing, visual arts, and dance, and continues those interests today: a Hopwood winner, she’s a regular blogger for Michigan Quarterly Review, and Zoo Cake Press will publish her Presto Agitato: A Dictionary of Modern Movement this fall with an additional small run chapbook from Dancing Girl Press; she illustrates essays for The Rumpus; co-edits the twice-weekly micro-fiction web publication CheapPOP; and makes collaborative-movement/video-poems with Mary-Kim Arnold, two of which will be published this fall in Glass Press of the Future.

RC Creative Writing student Adam Theisen covers the Stones

Screen shot 2015-09-11 at 2.40.35 AMRC Creative Writing student Adam Theisen wrote for the Detroit Metro Times over the summer; among his published stories, Adam talked with Blaire Alise, a young Metro Detroiter who signed a songwriting deal and is going to NYU, covered The Stones’ show at Comerica Park, and wrote about The Ark’s 50th anniversary. (Here’s a link to all Adam’s Times‘ stories). Adam is also a Senior Arts Editor at The Michigan Daily. (Here’s a link to a Daily story from June).

RC lecturer Robert James Russell to read from new novel

RJRplusRC lecturer Robert James Russell will be launching his Western novel Mesilla at Literati Bookstore on Friday, September 25, at 7 PM! Robert will be reading from the novel, and signing books, too, and will be joined by Chicago-based writer Ben Tanzer  Mesilla is set in 1863, New Mexico Territory. Shot full of holes and on the run from the relentless pursuit of his one-time friend now intent on retribution, Confederate deserter Everett Root finds himself navigating the brutal desert headed to the town of Mesilla. Matthew Gavin Frank says, “In a mounting gush of sumptuous prose, Robert James Russell’s Mesilla scrubs bare the elements of the classic Western—the wounded, questing hero, the damsel in distress, the phantasmal villain in hot pursuit—and reinvents them as existential meditation.” Emily Schultz, author of The Blondes, says, “A shotgun marriage between classic and revisionist Western, Mesilla sings a hard-bitten practicality and brutal authenticity.”

Opportunity for Writers’ Showcase

RC students Maggie Lott and Maria Fabrizio  are creating a “Writers’ Showcase” performance, and are on the lookout for creative talent to give the show substance! The Showcase is structured as a collection of “scenes” that can be funny, serious or anything in between, and they are looking for scene submissions! These pieces can include written dialogue, poetry, written action, etc.; they are looking for a variety! This applies to the theme of the pieces as well; please feel free to take them in any direction. The scenes can be of any length (even just a quick 30 second scene can work), but should not exceed 10 minutes. If selected, your piece will be acted out live, onstage by actors on Saturday November 7th! The show will be take place in East Quad, but you do not have to be a member of the RC to participate. Submissions are due to mclott@umich.edu by Monday September 14th.  Please don’t hesitate to email Maaggie or Maria (fabrmar@umich.edu) with any questions or concerns!

 

Review of Mikolowski Book in New Pages

Screen shot 2015-08-19 at 1.31.01 PMIn May, New Pages published a review by Benjamin Champagne of Ken Mikolowski’s That That (Wayne State University Press, April 2015). Champagne says “..,Mikolowski uses reduction to get to the heart of the issue. These poems take on enormous universal equations by mimicking tiny proverbs. It is a great read for the age of Tweets. It reaches hearts and minds with the wisdom of Solomon using the tactics of a Facebook advertisement.”

Ken Mikolowski Retires

MikolowskiPoet and long-time creative writing lecturer Ken Mikolowski retired from the RC and from U-M at the end of the Winter 2015 semester.

Ken taught poetry at the RC for nearly 40 years, since 1977 (full-time since 1988), and is only the second poetry instructor since the Creative Writing Program began in Fall 1970 (after Warren Hecht’s arrival that Winter). Andrew Carrigan taught poetry at the RC 1971-75. Ken taught an introductory poetry class, typically with 15-18 students, and then tutored selected students. Even in his introductory class, Ken says he didn’t try to “teach students how to write poetry” but to help them with their own writing, by encouraging them to read, grow, and develop.

Ken plans to remain in Ann Arbor, to travel, and to write. Ken’s newest book of poems, That That, was published this April by Wayne State University Press. Ken has also published four other books of poetry: Remember MeThank You Call Againlittle mysteries, and Big Enigmas, and has been widely anthologized. He has recently collaborated on projects with RC music professor Michael Gould, and on a jazz recording (released on CD last year). A multimedia presentation of Remember Me was staged last year in the RC Gallery, and has traveled to New York, Nairopa, Berlin, and Poland.

Ken credits the Artists’ Workshop in Detroit’s Cass Corridor in the 1960s as his greatest creative influence. A native of Detroit, Ken attended Wayne State University with the plan to get an engineering degree. Over Ken’s seven years at Wayne (he was paying his own way) he turned to poetry, and under poet W.D. Snodgrass edited WSU’s Wayne Review.

In the 1960s, Mikolowski founded the Alternative Press in Detroit’s Cass Corridor with his late wife, the painter Ann Mikolowski. As the press’s editor for 30 years, Mikolowski published—as unbound letterpress-printed mail art—the work of local Detroit poets as well as nationally recognized Beat and Black Mountain poets, including Amiri Baraka, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, and Anne Waldman. The Press was celebrated in a 30-year retrospective exhibition and symposium at the Hatcher Graduate Library in 1999.

Aside from the RC, Ken also taught at Macomb Community College and at Wayne State.

RC student Paige Pfleger chosen for NPR internship

Screen shot 2015-04-18 at 11.45.12 AMCongratulations to RC Creative Writing student Paige Pfleger, who has been selected for the highly competitive Digital News Desk internship at the headquarters of National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. She writes, “I’ll be webifying broadcasted stories and pitching and reporting stories for NPR.org! There is only one intern for the Digital News Desk. I believe I was selected because of all of the reporting I’ve been doing with Michigan Radio, NPR.”

 

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