Fayetteville Named a Top 20 College Town

Travel+Leisure has named Fayetteville one of the top 20 college towns for 2013! They mention our great cuisine and thriving arts scene. But everyone here knows that really only scratches the surface: award-winning Farmers Market or gorgeous scenery, anyone? View the full list here. 

Publishers Weekly Praises Gilchrist Collection

Publishers Weekly heralds Acts of God by author and professor Ellen Gilchrist, declaring, "The South is alive and vibrant in Gilchrist’s latest collection." You can read PW's full review online. And mark your calendars for April 2014, when Acts of God will be released!

New Story by Englehardt in Monkeybicycle

"Kentbrook! Kentbrook! Kentbrook!", a deft new story by fourth-year student John Englehardt about the destinations we never quite reach, appears now in Monkeybicycle.

"When Helen stops the car under the sign for American Airlines and doesn’t get out to say goodbye, I consider launching into a tirade in which I list all her faults. Like how she’d be sexier without so many moral hang-ups, how she’s dependent on her officious parents—and so on. In this fantasy I end by saying, 'I want to marry you and all your fucking problems. I wish that was enough,' which is admittedly just something I heard in a movie."

Randolph Thomas Wins Many Voices Project Prize

Congratulations to alum Randolph Thomas (1993), whose story collection, Dispensations, won the 2012 Many Voices Project prize from New Rivers Press! Randolph's fiction has appeared in numerous journals, and his work has won the Florida Review Editors' Prize, the John Gardner Memorial Award, and the Glimmer Train Family Matters Prize. He teaches at Louisiana State University. 

Recent graduate Mathew Goldberg (2008) was also shortlisted for the prize for his novel Friedman in Pieces. So proud of you both!


Longhorn, Heil Featured in Hayden's Ferry Review

Issue 53 of Hayden's Ferry Review features work by alum Sandy Longhorn (2003) and third-year student Kathleen Heil. Pick up your copy now to read Sandy's poems "Left a Refugee Here in a Sterile County"and "I Have Gone Shimmering into Ungentle Sleep." You can also read "Haircut," a short story by Patricio Pron, which Kathleen translated from the original Spanish. 

And on December 12, check the journal's blog for a free internet broadcast from 8-10pm eastern time. Sandy will be featured reading from her work at 9pm!

Yates on the Importance of Small Presses

As you work on your holiday reading/giving lists, don't forget the small presses. Alum Steve Yates (1994), author of "Some Kinds of Love: Stories" and assistant director/marketing director at University Press of Mississippi, offers some insight on the importance of what these small-scale publishers do in his essay "Your No One is My Everyone."

Reaves in Town Creek Poetry

Still shivering in the deep freeze, we offer up these poems by third-year student Diana Reaves, with the warm sun of summer just humming right through them. Read "Papa's Orchard," "We Picked Gardenias," and "Honeysuckle" in the Fall 2013 issue of Town Creek Poetry.

Bowen's "The Even Years of Marriage" Available Now

Here's a book to add to your holiday reading/giving list: The Even Years of Marriage by alum Ash Bowen (2008) is now available from Dream Horse Press. The manuscript won the 2012 Orphic Poetry Book Prize. You can sample some of Ash's poetry from recent issues of the Baltimore Review and Pebble Lake Review.

Heil in New Delta Review & Poor Claudia

Point your browser toward New Delta Review for "The Authority of Accent," an essay by third-year translation student Kathleen Heil. And check out five poems that Kathleen and her collaborator Shrode Hargis published in Poor Claudia: Phenome.

A Duo of Interviews

Check out Authors & Translators, which features an interview with alum Elizabeth Harris (2000). Elizabeth's translation of Mario Rigoni Stern's novel, "Giacomo's Seasons," recently won a prize from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Culture.

After that, head on over to The Rumpus, where novelist and visiting professor Padma Viswanathan interviews Canadian author Catherine Bush.

Dougherty in Green Briar Review

"O Dochartaig, Ár nDútcas" by first-year poet Kevin Dougherty has won honorable mention in Green Briar Review's Annual Federico Garcia Lorca Poetry Prize and was selected by the editors for publication. Congratulations, Kevin!

Takacs Poems & Interviews

Enjoy a passel of new poems by second-year student Eszter Takacs. Two parts of her chapbook-length poem "In Share of Light" appear now in volume 8 of Smoking Glue Gun. 

"Together we will breathe during complicated explosions" and "The world is frightening and I am your best best friend" can be found in issue 27 of the print journal Forklift, Ohio, alongside work by Bob Hicok, G.C. Waldrep, and Kyle McCord. 

And Tell Tell Poetry features an interview with Eszter about her chapbook "The Spectacular Crash." 

Penkov in 2013 Best American Non-Required Reading

"East of the West," an award-winning story by alum Miroslav Penkov (2009) is featured in the 2013 edition of The Best American Non-Required Reading, alongside works by Sherman Alexie, Nick Hornby, and Karen Russell.

Last July, "East of the West" won the 2012 BBC International Short Story Award, which carries a prize of £15,000. It's part of Miro's collection East of the West, published in 2011.