RC creative writing alum Carmen Bugan (RC 1996) recently contributed to an Oxford University Press podcast about the power of words, arguing against the uses of rage in dealing with social justice.

Carmen also recently reviewed Eilean Ni Chuilleanain’s Collected Poems on Harvard Review Online.

Carmen’s new book of essays, Poetry and the Language of Oppression, was recently published by Oxford University Press. The press release notes that the book “offers an autobiographical practicing poet’s perspective on writing about Cold War government surveillance and political oppression;  discusses the process of ‘writing oneself free’ by adopting a second language, and makes the case for the necessity of individual, personal testimony in literature; and contributes an understanding of the language of oppression, and the concepts of freedom and liberty of the individual in a conflict-riven society.”

Carmen was born in Romania and emigrated to the United States in 1989. After U-M she earned an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University, and a MA and PhD (English Literature) from Oxford University, UK. Her poetry collections include Crossing the Carpathians (2004), The House of Straw (2014), Releasing the Porcelain Birds (2016) and Lilies from America: New and Selected Poems (2019). She has also published a memoir, Burying the Typewriter (2012), and Seamus Heaney and East European Poetry in Translation: Poetics of Exile (2013).  She teaches at the Gotham Writers Workshop in NYC and lives in Long Island.

Several current RC students (and LSA students majoring in RC Creative Writing or having taken an RC writing class or tutorial) won Winter 2021 Hopwood awards! Congratulations!

Screenplay: Alexander Wagner

First- and Second-Year Nonfiction: Jingqi Zhu, Darby Williams

Undergraduate Nonfiction: Annie Ning, Ellie Katz

First- and Second-Year Poetry: Nicole Tooley

Undergraduate Poetry: Sebastien Butler, Kennedi Killips

Keith Taylor Award for Excellence in Poetry: Kennedi Killips

Marjorie Rapaport Award in Poetry: Avery Fessenden

Naomi Saferstein Literary Award: Phoebe Danaher

Paul and Sonia Handleman Award: Sebastien Butler

Peter Phillip Pratt Award in Fiction: Jeana Vallina

Roy and Helen Meador Award: Nicole Tooley

Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship: Jena Vallina, Arjun Thakkar

After graduating from the RC in 2011, Carolyn Lusch earned a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from U-M’s Taubman College in 2015. Since then she has worked on sustainable transportation and land use planning projects in Michigan and Connecticut, working to shift the sprawling & auto-oriented narrative.

She has published articles on public transportation, pedestrian safety, and writing communities in Concentrate, the CT Mirror, the New Haven Independent, and the Arts Paper. Her fiction has been featured in Carrot Bean Magazine and the Local Lit @ Lotta reading series. She is starting an online lit mag, Lat/Long, to celebrate writing about place, space, and urbanism. You are encouraged to submit!

When not planning or writing, she can be found wandering the streets of New Haven with her spunky 3-year-old, Eli. Her family looks forward to returning to the verdant grounds of the Midwest in the near future!

Oxford University Press will publish a book of essays by Carmen Bugan (RC 1996),  Poetry and the Language of Oppression, this August (June in the UK). The press release notes that the book “offers an autobiographical practicing poet’s perspective on writing about Cold War government surveillance and political oppression;  discusses the process of ‘writing oneself free’ by adopting a second language, and makes the case for the necessity of individual, personal testimony in literature; and contributes an understanding of the language of oppression, and the concepts of freedom and liberty of the individual in a conflict-riven society.” More about the book at the Oxford University Press website. (For a 30 percent discount, use code AAFLY66).

Carmen was born in Romania and emigrated to the United States in 1989. After U-M she earned an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University, and a MA and PhD (English Literature) from Oxford University, UK. Her poetry collections include Crossing the Carpathians (2004), The House of Straw (2014), Releasing the Porcelain Birds (2016) and Lilies from America: New and Selected Poems (2019). She has also published a memoir, Burying the Typewriter (2012), and Seamus Heaney and East European Poetry in Translation: Poetics of Exile (2013).  She teaches at the Gotham Writers Workshop in NYC and lives in Long Island.

This April, U-M Institute for the Humanities is sponsoring a 2021 Poetry Blast! in celebration of National Poetry Month. Activities include daily poetry readings (including many by RC faculty and staff, including Darcy Brandel,  Hannah Ensor, Laura Kasischke, Sarah Messer,  Christopher Matthews, and Van Jordan), prompts to write poetry, and “pop-up” poems appearing around campus.

The daily readings will be featured at noon on the Humanities Youtube channel. Click here to receive a daily reminder in your inbox.

Sign up for daily poetry prompts (written by the RC’s Laura Kasischke) by clicking here.

More information about the Poetry Blast is on the Institute for the Humanities home page.

RC Creative Writing teacher Sarah Messer was featured in a February 2021 Ann Arbor Observer article called “Lives of the Poets,” which reviewed the Ann Arbor connections of several famous poets (including Robert Frost, W.H. Auden, Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon, Robert Hayden, and Radcliffe Squires), then focused on local poets  Linda Gregerson, Keith Taylor (who recently retired from U-M, where he ran the English undergraduate writing program), and Sarah

Sarah is a Hopwood Award winner (1990). She came to Michigan to work with Alice Fulton, who taught at U-M from 1983-2002. In later years, Sarah quit a tenured teaching position at North Carolina-Wilmington to return to Ann Arbor, where she eventually started working at the RC, after a recommendation from long-time RC creative writing teacher Ken Mikolowski. Sarah also works at White Lotus Farms, caring for the goat herd. The print and on-line article has a cute photo of Sarah with Buckwheat, one of the White Lotus goats.

In 2010 Sarah co-founded the One Pause poetry program at White Lotus. Its website is currently getting an overhaul, but videos of readings and interviews are available on the One Pause Youtube channel.

Earlier in March (on March 1, 2, 8, and 9), 39 U-M undergraduate students, including 13 RC students (and U-M students taking RC writing courses), participated in a Café Shapiro Zoom-conference reading of their poems, short stories, and essays.  Seven U-M librarians offered commentary, along with guest hosts from Funny Or Die as well as two U-M alums.  These and other materials will soon be available in the 24th annual Café Shapiro Anthology, which will be viewable on the Café Shapiro webpage, with paper copies also available through the U-M Library and M Publishing.

The readings are viewable, and following is a list of presenters with their approximate time-stamps. RC students (and U-M students taking RC writing courses) are indicated in bold.

March 1: Meghan Chou 18:52, Aelita Klausmeier 34:31, Erika Woo 42:31, Alexander Aisner 49:20, Nicole Tooley 59:10, Eli Neumann 1:08:20, Dylan Ann Gilbert 1:16:26, Malin Andersson 1:30:15, Madeline Bacolor 1:42:16, Andrew Warrick 1:50:20

March 2: Hayley Yu 18:35, Nayiri Sagherian 29:20, Tess Klygis 40:47, Lily Price 49:47, Ellie Katz 56:22, Jee-in Kwon 1:06:19, Sabrina Nash 1:14:22, Harper Klotz 1:21:41, Kellie Madeline Beck 1:28:05, Carly J. Cooper 1:40:09

March 8: Jade Wurst 5:28, Charles-Alexandria Makenna Goodrum 12:14, Victoria Adams Murphy 27:40, Nicholas Casio Moore 35:00, Roshni Veeramachaneni 47:30, Rachna Iyer 1:03:13, Soumya Tejam 1:16:00, Hannah Martin 1:27:00, Aniyah Kishara Fisher 1:41:55

March 9: Hussein A. Alkadhim 8:53, Lia Baldori 21:24, Jack Doyle 42:39, Hiba Dagher 32:01, Milisa R. Carter 50:53, Fareah F. Fysudeen 1:01:45, Thomas Frederick Griffith 1:17:48, Kaleb A. Brown 1:29:04, Max Hernand 1:36:31, Ryan-Simone T. McCants 1:51:48

Café Shapiro launched over 20 years as a “student coffee break” during U-M’s Year of the Humanities and Arts. It has become an annual event. Many of the earlier years are archived on the Café Shapiro webpage, or via DeepBlue.

On March 16th, RC Creative Writing alums Allison Epstein and Jon Michael Darga participated in a Zoom conference on “Paths to Publication,” hosted by RC Creative Writing program head Laura Thomas. A slightly edited version is available via You Tube.

Doubleday published Allison’s first novel, A Tip for the Hangman, in February. Jon represents authors as an agent with Aevitas Creative Management.

RC Creative Writing student Brenna Ringwelski won first prize (of three awarded) in the Fall 2020 Bratman Writing Awards, selected by U-M History each autumn, for her essay, “An Exercise in Autonomy: Women Revolutionaries in Siberian Prisons.” The Bratman Awards were established in 2016 by Ben and David Bratman to honor the memory of their mother, Nancy Bylan Bratman (BA 1951), a U-M Honors History major; she also served as reporter and associate editor of the Michigan Daily.