The Minor Outsider

Ted McDermott's (MFA 2011) novel about MFA life, The Minor Outsider, comes out in the States in June. There's a great review in Publisher's Weekly.

Sarah Vap: Distinguished Hugo Writer 2017

Sarah Vap, our Fall 2017 Distinguished Hugo Writer, will teach graduate and undergraduate workshops in petry. Vap is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Viability (Penguin 2016), which was selected for the National Poetry Series. Her book of hybrid poetics, End of the Sentimental Journey, inaugurated the Infidel Poetics Series with Noemi Press (2013). She is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for poetry, and has taught at Arizona State University, University of Southern California, and Drew University.

Kingdom Come Radio Show

Joni Wallace (MFA 1998) is the author of two books of poetry and a chapbook, Kingdom Come Radio Show (Barrow Street Press, 2016). A finalist for the Colorado Prize, the Besmilr Brigham Award, Word Works' Washington Prize, and AROHO's To the Lighthouse Award, Wallace teaches at the University of Arizona Poetry Center in Tucson. Her second collection, Blinking Ephemeral Valentine (Four Way Books, 2011), was selected by Mary Jo Bang as the winner of the Levis Prize. Read an interview with Joni Wallace by Mary Jo Bang in Poetry Society of America.

Pete Fromm: Distinguished Kittredge Writer 2017

Pete Fromm, our Fall 2017 Distinguished Kittredge Writer, will teach a graduate fiction workshop and a multi-genre course "Writing Into the Wilds." Fromm's latest book is the memoir The Names of the Stars (St. Martins, 2016).  He is a five time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for his novels If Not For This, As Cool as I Am, and How All This Started, his story collection Dry Rain, and the memoir Indian Creek Chronicles. The film of As Cool as I Am was released in 2013.  He is also the author of four other story collections and has published over two hundred stories in magazines.

James Welch honored as an "Outstanding Montanan" at the Capitol

James Welch (MFA class of 1967) was inducted into the "Gallery of Outstanding Montanans" at the Capitol Rotunda.

Kevin Canty's new novel: The Underworld

Kevin Canty's The Underworld (Norton) tells the story of a mine fire that devastates a small Idaho town. Praised by Kirkus Review, Canty's The Underworld  "does a fine job of showing how disaster can lacerate a place or people without utterly destroying hope." Check out the reviews in the Missoulian and the Missoula Independent.

Anna Blackburn wins the Merriam-Frontier Award

Congratulations to Anna Blackburn whose poetry submission, “The Keeping House,” won the 2017 Merriam-Frontier Award.

In the judges’ words, Blackburn "demonstrates a mastery of form with her submission of poems of varying styles and lengths that are united by a tethering narrative. She leads her readers to look at the world differently.  And she understands when to push against the page and when to let the form work for her.”

Poems Across the Big Sky II

"With Poems Across the Big Sky II, Many Voices Press continues to serve Montana writers, bringing together diverse perspectives, life-styles, cultures, from experienced and inexperienced poets, from the young among us, and from our esteemed elders," writes editor Lowell Jaeger. UM Creative Writing alums - Hannah Bissell (also Assistant Editor), David Allan Cates, Sally Cobau, Michael Earl Craig, Carla Homstead and Karin Schalm - celebrated the release of the anthology with a reading at Turner Hall's Dell Brown Room.

Justin Boening's collection selected for the National Poetry Series

Justin Boening’s (BA 2007) debut collection of poems, Not on the Last Day, But on the Very Last (Milkweed Editions, 2016), was selected for the National Poetry Series by Wayne Miller. John Ashberry calls it "A stunning achievement."

Debra Magpie Earling Honored as New Director of Creative Writing

Debra Magpie Earling, a professor of fiction and a member of the Bitterroot Salish Tribe, has been named the new director of the Creative Writing Program. She is the first Native American to hold the position since the program was founded in 1920. Earling was honored at a ceremony in the Payne Family Native American Center.

Michael Earl Craig selected as Montana Poet Laureate

Governor Bullock selected Michael Earl Craig (BA 1994) as the next Montana Poet Laureate. Craig, who works as both a poet and farrier in Livingston, MT, has published four collections of poetry. Talkativeness (2014, Wave Books) is his most recent.

Rick DeMarinis Lifetime Achievement Award

The Creative Writing Program honored Rick DeMarinis (M.A. 1967) with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Montana Book Festival. Panelists Bill Kittredge, Annick Smith, Jon Jackson, Lois Welch and Kevin Canty discussed the importance of DeMarinis' work. Kittredge read excerpts from "A Class Act," DeMarinis' rendition of a Richard Hugo workshop in the 60's. Many people asked for copies, so we have made it available here.