Stories

This year the English Department and Creative Writing Program sponsored poetry readings by SCU alumni Peter Verbica and Janice Dabney and SCU faculty members Tim Myers and Philip Kobylarz, a fiction and nonfiction reading by SCU alumnus and faculty member Mike Malone, and a storytelling event with SCU faculty members Tim Myers and Andy Garavel.

The Santa Clara Review, the Creative Writing Program, and the Department of English inaugurated an ambitious reading series this past year: Writing Forward featured Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Gerald Stern, Lenore Marshall Prize winner and NEA/Guggenheim poet Rigoberto Gonzalez, and New York Times columnist and non-fiction author Katie Hafner. (A student interview with Gerald Stern may be heard at Santaclarareview.com—Mr. Stern said the questions made it one of the best interviews he had ever given).

Writing Forward builds on the reading series previously tied to Review publication parties that brought to SCU notable poets and fiction writers such as Robert Hass, Juan Felipe Herrera, Carolyn Forché, Dana Gioia, and Jim Shepard.

Writers for the coming year include poet Alexandra Teague (California Book Award winner) on Tuesday, October 20, 2015, 5-6 PM, St. Clare Room (Learning Commons) and distinguished non-fiction writer Norma Elia Cantú, on Tuesday, February 2, 2016, 4-5 PM, St. Clare Room. All are welcome.

The Review and Creative Writing are also working with the College of Arts and Sciences and other campus organizations to bring U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera to SCU in Spring 2016 (n.b.: the Review brought him first two years ago). The son of migrant farm workers, Herrera was educated at UCLA and Stanford University, and he earned his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In addition to publishing more than a dozen collections of poetry, Herrera has written short stories, young adult novels, and children’s literature.

We wish to congratulate the following students for their success in the increasingly competitive admissions to MFA in Creative Writing programs: Martin Saunders, ‘12, English major with creative writing emphasis, accepted full scholarship and teaching stipend to attend the MFA program in poetry at  North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Kelly McMeekin, ‘13, English major with creative writing emphasis, will attend the MFA program in fiction at University of Washington, Bothell. Ellen Paolini, ‘14, English major with creative writing emphasis, accepted full scholarship to attend the MFA program in fiction at Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia.