Faculty News
Greg Martin's essay "The Family Plot" is forthcoming in Tin House.
Laura Dave's novel, The Divorce Party has been optioned by Universal Studios for film production. You can read the press release here. Dave's debut novel, London is the Best City in America had previously been adapted for Reece Witherspoon. Earlier this year Dave wrote a piece for the January 20th 2008 New York Times entitled, "G.P.S. for My Lost Identity"
Jonis Agee's latest book, The River Wife, is a "Hot Read" according to USA Today (May 3, 2007) and has been chosen as the main selection for Book of the Month Club. The novel was also featured with a starred review in the March 12th issue of Publishers Weekly which raves: "Lush historical detail, a plot brimming with danger, love and betrayal,
and a magnificent cast (Jacques is larger than life, and the wives are
sassy, sexed-up spitfires) will keep readers entranced." Jonis was featured in the April 30th issue of Publishers Weekly in the Q&A section, available online here . She will be reading from her book on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Anthony Doerr's story, Procreate, Generate is featured in Granta 97: Best of Young American Novelists 2.
Andrea Hollander Budy has released a new collection of poetry, Woman in the Painting, published by Autumn House Press. Maxine Kumin writes, "Her readers enter poem after poem in this poignant and mature collection bearing the heat of their own lives. The Depression, World War II, the poet's family history of loss are ranged against remarkable poems about Auden, Larkin, Dickinson and allusions to Dylan Thomas and Rilke, as well as painters Munch and Vermeer. Budy's impeccable conversational diction does just what a poem should do; it raises the hairs on the nape of your neck."
Garrison Keillor read one of the poems, "Nineteen-Thirty-Eight," from Woman in the Painting on his radio program, The Writer's Almanac, on July 19, 2006. The program aired on more than 300 National Public Radio stations nationwide.
Selections of the poetry can be found on the Autumn House website, and the book can be found on Amazon.com.
Andrea Hollander Budy has been both a D. H. Lawrence Fellow and an instructor at the Conference.
Lisa Tucker 's third novel, Once Upon a Day is now on sale. See her website for more details.
Praise for Once Upon a Day:
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Tucker's outstanding novel (after Shout Down the Moon) is as structurally dextrous as it is emotionally satisfying, boasting a chorus of extraordinary voices and assured parallel plot lines separated by four decades.
From Booklist:
In what may well be her breakout book, after Shout Down the Moon (2004), the gifted Tucker tells a compelling love story with uncommon empathy and grace.
Amy Beeder to be published by Carnegie Mellon
Faculty member Amy Beeder has had her first book of poetry accepted
for publication by Carnegie Mellon University Press. Burn
the Field will be published in 2006.
Laura Dave publishes her first novel
A
first novel by Laura Dave, a young journalist for Self
magazine, was bought by Carole DeSanti for Viking. London
is the Best City in America was published by Viking in
May 2006. The novel is a humorous tale about the marital affairs
of a young woman and her much-admired brother. The novel is
currently being developed at Universal Pictures as a major motion
picture, starring Reese Witherspoon.
You can find out more by visiting Laura's website. Laura
Dave was a participant at the 1999 Conference.
From USA Today:
Is every relationship a shot in the dark, or are some people
meant to be together? That's what the endearingly quirky Emmy
Everett ponders in Laura Dave's charming, offbeat debut. Living
on the beach since dumping her fiancé three years earlier,
Emmy returns home for her brother's wedding to his longtime
love, Meryl — only to learn that he has the hots for another
woman. Right before Josh's big day, brother and sister hit the
road to find the mysterious Elizabeth and decide which woman
is right for him. Dave steers clear of easy answers to deliver
a novel that winningly explores the romantic choices we make.
— Donna Freydki
John Dufresne publishes his second short story collection
John Dufresne’s collection of short stories, Johnny Too Bad, was published by W.W. Norton in February 2005.
From Publishers Weekly
A small town policeman obsessed with a crime of passion; a hyperactive hound who prefers a Barbie to a bone. The vagaries of man and beast are fodder for acclaimed novelist Dufresne (Louisiana Power & Light, etc.) in his energetic second collection. Southern Florida is the setting, a place whose sultry clime seems to foster off-kilter displays. (Indeed, Dufresne's relentlessly skewed perspective means these 18 stories are best savored over the course of several days.) Florida is "tough on fiction writers," says the narrator of "Squeeze the Feeling." "How do you compete with daily life?" Dufresne writes of the betrayals that level romantic relationships, wondering how "you could go from finishing each other's sentences to not talking for twenty years." In the 18 linked entries of the title story, a woman has a love child with Bigfoot, a dog named Spot performs Shakespeare (sort of: he runs for the door when an ersatz Lady Macbeth rubs her hands and orders him "out") and two lovers wait out a tornado by curling up in a tub. "Life doesn't get any sweeter when you grow up," laments betrayed husband Rance in "Talk, Talk, Talk." But in the writings of Dufresne, whose tales are marinated in melancholy and sprinkled with wit, it is the piquant nature of the journey that keeps readers engaged.
Pam Houston's Sight Hound comes out in paperback.
Pam Houston's Sight Hound: a Novel was released by W.W. Norton in paperback this January. More news, and information can be found on her website.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Postfeminist toughness and post-hippie sentiment are the alternating currents of this wry, tender novel by Houston (
Cowboys Are My Weakness; Waltzing the Cat; etc.) about a Colorado playwright and her beloved Irish wolfhound. Rae hasn't had much luck with men, but her love for her dog Dante is pure and uncomplicated. When he is diagnosed with cancer, she puts all of her energies into prolonging his life, volunteering him for experimental surgery. The ups and downs of the three years he spends in remission are narrated from the perspective of the motley friends who float in Rae's out-sized orbit. Chief among these is Howard, the adorably histrionic actor whose love is Rae's main consolation for the looming loss of Dante; there's also Darlene, Rae's tough-as-nails housekeeper, who keeps things running at the ranch while Rae's at her Denver apartment or traveling to exotic places. Then there's restless, jaded Jonathan, Rae's fellow playwright and best friend; Jodi, the young bride of a surrealist painter, who moves to Colorado and finds a soul mate in Rae; Dr. Evans, the driven vet who labors to save Dante; and Brooklyn Underhill, Dr. Evans's idealistic young ex-soldier assistant. And of course, Dante has his own say, as does Rae's rambunctious second dog, Rose, and Darlene's cat, Stanley. Houston isn't afraid to venture into boggy terrain—readers who squirm at the notion that dogs have human "moms" and "souls as deep and authentic as anything in creation" will resist being carried along at first—but the novel's humor and irony are bracing, and different voices provide welcome contrasts in tone. Houston's gift for capturing the dynamic of unorthodox webs of relationships is on pleasing display in this gruffly warmhearted novel.
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