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florida mfa creative writing: The Poets & Writers Guide to MFA Programs , 2015 This essential handbook, revised and updated for 2010, provides everything you need to know about deciding where and how to apply to the best graduate creative writing programs for you. -The top programs in the United States. -How to decide where to apply. -Advice on preparing your application. -A look at PhD programs in writing. -Tips on becoming a teaching assistant. -How to get the most out of your MFA experience. A collection of articles edited by the staff of Poets & Writers Magazine, this handy resource includes straightforward advice from professionals in the literary field, additional resources to help you choose the best programs to apply to, and an application tracker to keep you organized throughout the process. |
florida mfa creative writing: The Creative Writing MFA Handbook Tom Kealey, 2005-01-01 Guides prospective graduate students through the difficult process of researching, applying to, and choosing graduate schools in creative writing. This handbook includes special sections about Low-Residency writing programs, PhD programs, publishing in literary journals, and workshop and teaching advice. |
florida mfa creative writing: On the Mezzanine Cassie Donish, 2019-03-04 Literary Nonfiction. LGBTQIA Studies. ON THE MEZZANINE is a lyrical, intertextual work that explores an unfolding relationship between the unnamed narrator and her lover, C., to whom the writing is addressed. The lives of the two characters are thrown into upheaval as they interrogate issues of gender and sexuality, and as C. goes through a divorce and struggles with mental illness. The narrator writes through her own mounting confusion and desire as she attempts to play multiple roles: new partner, counselor, caregiver, and friend. She draws on other sources, from poetry to philosophy to film, in an attempt to understand her experiences of eros and queerness. As the situation intensifies, both characters grapple with the complex relationships between socially determined narratives, identity, and agency. |
florida mfa creative writing: Battle for the Big Top Les Standiford, 2021-06-15 “Les Standiford takes us under the big top and behind the curtain in this richly researched and thoroughly engaging narrative that captures all of the entrepreneurial intrigue and spirit of the American circus.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Devil in the Grove Millions have sat under the “big top,” watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the men whose creativity, ingenuity, and determination created one of our country’s most beloved pastimes. In Battle for the Big Top, New York Times–bestselling author Les Standiford brings to life a remarkable era when three circus kings—James Bailey, P. T. Barnum, and John Ringling—all vied for control of the vastly profitable and influential American Circus. Ultimately, the rivalry of these three men resulted in the creation of an institution that would surpass all intentions and, for 147 years, hold a nation spellbound. Filled with details of their ever-evolving showmanship, business acumen, and personal magnetism, this Ragtime-like narrative will delight and enchant circus-lovers and anyone fascinated by the American experience. |
florida mfa creative writing: Looking for The Gulf Motel Richard Blanco, 2012-02-12 Family continues to be a wellspring of inspiration and learning for Blanco. His third book of poetry, Looking for The Gulf Motel is a genealogy of the heart, exploring how his family's emotional legacy has shaped—and continues shaping—his perspectives. The collection is presented in three movements, each one chronicling his understanding of a particular facet of life from childhood into adulthood. As a child born into the milieu of his Cuban exiled familia, the first movement delves into early questions of cultural identity and their evolution into his unrelenting sense of displacement and quest for the elusive meaning of home. The second begins with poems peering back into family again, examining the blurred lines of gender, the frailty of his father-son relationship, and the intersection of his cultural and sexual identities as a Cuban-American gay man living in rural Maine. In the last movement, poems focused on his mother's life shaped by exile, his father's death, and the passing of a generation of relatives, all provide lessons about his own impermanence in the world and the permanence of loss. Looking for the Gulf Motel is looking for the beauty of that which we cannot hold onto, be it country, family, or love. |
florida mfa creative writing: Bitten Andrew Furman, 2014-04-15 When Andrew Furman left the rolling hills of Pennsylvania behind for a new job in Florida, he feared the worst. While he’d heard much of the fabled “southern charm,” he wondered what could possibly be charming about fist-sized mosquitoes, oppressive humidity, and ever-lurking alligators. It wasn’t long before he began to notice that the real Florida right outside his office window was very different from the stereotypes portrayed in movies, television, and even state-promoted tourism advertisements. In Bitten, Furman shares his amazement at the beautiful and the bizarre of his adopted state. Over seventeen years, he and his family have shed their Yankee sensibilities and awakened to the terra incognita of their new home. As he learns to fish for snook—a wily fish that inhabits, among other areas, the concrete-lined canals that crisscross the state—and seeks out the state’s oldest live oak, a behemoth that pre-dates Columbus, Furman realizes that falling in love with Florida is a fun and sometimes humbling process of discovery. Each chapter highlights a fascinating aspect of his journey into the natural environment he once avoided, from snail kites to lizards and cassia to coontie. Sharing his attempts at night fishing, growing native plants, birding, and hiking the Everglades, Furman will inspire you to explore the real Florida. And, if you aren’t lucky enough to reside in the Sunshine State, he’ll at least convince you to unplug for an hour or two and enjoy the natural beauty of wherever it is you call home. |
florida mfa creative writing: The All-Night Sun Diane Zinna, 2021-08-03 A lonely young woman gets too close to her charismatic female student in this propulsive debut, culminating in a dangerously debauched Midsommar’s Eve. LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD • “Memorable and meaningful.”—Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author of The Burning Girl Lauren Cress teaches writing at a small college outside of Washington, DC. In the classroom, she is poised, smart, and kind, well liked by her students and colleagues. But in her personal life, Lauren is troubled and isolated, still grappling with the sudden death of her parents ten years earlier. She seems to exist at a remove from everyone around her until a new student joins her class: charming, magnetic Siri, who appears to be everything Lauren wishes she could be. They fall headlong into an all-consuming friendship that makes Lauren feel as though she is reclaiming her lost adolescence. When Siri invites her on a trip home to Sweden for the summer, Lauren impulsively accepts, intrigued by how Siri describes it: green, fresh, and new, everything just thawing out. But once there, Lauren finds herself drawn to Siri’s enigmatic, brooding brother, Magnus. Siri is resentful, and Lauren starts to see a new side of her friend: selfish, reckless, self-destructive, even cruel. On their last night together, Lauren accompanies Siri and her friends on a seaside camping trip to celebrate Midsommar’s Eve, a night when no one sleeps, boundaries blur, and under the light of the unsetting sun, things take a dark turn. Ultimately, Lauren must acknowledge the truth of what happened with Siri and come to terms with her own tragic past in this gorgeously written, deeply felt debut about the transformative relationships that often come to us when things feel darkest. Praise for The All-Night Sun “Inventive and luminous . . . Zinna’s intimate debut dazzles with original language, emotional sentience, and Swedish folklore as it plumbs the depths of grief, loss, and friendship . . . Zinna reaches an inspired emotional depth that, as the title signifies, never stops blazing.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) |
florida mfa creative writing: The Gulf Belle Boggs, 2019-04-02 A hilarious send-up of writing workshops, for-profit education, and the gulf between believers and nonbelievers Marianne is in a slump: barely able to support herself by teaching, not making progress on her poetry, about to lose her Brooklyn apartment. When her novelist ex-fiancé, Eric, and his venture capitalist brother, Mark, offer her a job directing a low-residency school for Christian writers at a motel they’ve inherited on Florida’s Gulf Coast, she can’t come up with a reason to say no. The Genesis Inspirational Writing Ranch is born, and liberal, atheist Marianne is soon knee-deep in applications from writers whose political and religious beliefs she has always opposed but whose money she’s glad to take. Janine is a schoolteacher whose heartfelt poems explore the final days of Terri Schiavo’s life. Davonte is a former R&B superstar who hopes to reboot his career with a bestselling tale of excess and redemption. Lorraine and Tom, eccentric writers in need of paying jobs, join the Ranch as instructors. Mark finds an investor in God’s Word God’s World, a business that develops for-profit schools for the Christian market, but the conditions that come along with their support become increasingly problematic, especially as Marianne grows closer to the students. As unsavory allegations mount, a hurricane bears down on the Ranch, and Marianne is faced with the consequences of her decisions. With sharp humor and deep empathy, The Gulf is a memorable debut novel in which Belle Boggs plumbs the troubled waters dividing America. |
florida mfa creative writing: Dreyer's English Benjamin Dreyer, 2019-01-29 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A sharp, funny grammar guide they’ll actually want to read, from Random House’s longtime copy chief and one of Twitter’s leading language gurus NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • Paste • Shelf Awareness “Essential (and delightful!)”—People We all write, all the time: books, blogs, emails. Lots and lots of emails. And we all want to write better. Benjamin Dreyer is here to help. As Random House’s copy chief, Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike—not to mention his followers on social media—for deconstructing the English language with playful erudition. Now he distills everything he has learned from the myriad books he has copyedited and overseen into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best prose foot forward. As authoritative as it is amusing, Dreyer’s English offers lessons on punctuation, from the underloved semicolon to the enigmatic en dash; the rules and nonrules of grammar, including why it’s OK to begin a sentence with “And” or “But” and to confidently split an infinitive; and why it’s best to avoid the doldrums of the Wan Intensifiers and Throat Clearers, including “very,” “rather,” “of course,” and the dreaded “actually.” Dreyer will let you know whether “alright” is all right (sometimes) and even help you brush up on your spelling—though, as he notes, “The problem with mnemonic devices is that I can never remember them.” And yes: “Only godless savages eschew the series comma.” Chockful of advice, insider wisdom, and fun facts, this book will prove to be invaluable to everyone who wants to shore up their writing skills, mandatory for people who spend their time editing and shaping other people’s prose, and—perhaps best of all—an utter treat for anyone who simply revels in language. Praise for Dreyer’s English “Playful, smart, self-conscious, and personal . . . One encounters wisdom and good sense on nearly every page of Dreyer’s English.”—The Wall Street Journal “Destined to become a classic.”—The Millions “Dreyer can help you . . . with tips on punctuation and spelling. . . . Even better: He’ll entertain you while he’s at it.”—Newsday |
florida mfa creative writing: Vida Patricia Engel, 2010-09-07 A New York Times Notable Book, an NPR Best Debut of the Year, and a PEN/Hemingway finalist. These linked stories follow Sabina as she navigates her shifting identity as a daughter of the Colombian diaspora, and struggles to find her place within and beyond the net of her strong, protective, but embattled family. In “Lucho,” Sabina’s family—already “foreigners in a town of blancos”—is shunned by the community when a relative commits an unspeakable act of violence, but she is in turn befriended by the town bad boy, who has a secret of his own. In “Desaliento,” Sabina surrounds herself with other young drifters who spend their time looking for love and then fleeing from it—until reality catches up with one of them. And in “Vida,” the urgency of Sabina’s self-imposed exile in Miami fades when she meets an enigmatic Colombian woman with a tragic past. “Vida calls to mind some of the best fiction from recent years. Like Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, Engel uses stories about connected characters to illuminate her main subject, in this case Sabina, who moves with her family from Bogotá, Colombia, to New Jersey. Engel brings Sabina’s family and culture to life with a narrative style reminiscent of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao . . . Vivid, memorable . . . An exceptionally promising debut.” —The Plain Dealer |
florida mfa creative writing: New York, My Village: A Novel Uwem Akpan, 2021-11-02 Exuberant storytelling full of wry comedy, dark history, and devastating satire—by the celebrated and original author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Say You’re One of Them. From a suspiciously cheap Hell’s Kitchen walk-up, Nigerian editor and winner of a Toni Morrison Publishing Fellowship Ekong Udousoro is about to begin the opportunity of a lifetime: to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry from its incandescent epicenter. While his sophisticated colleagues meet him with kindness and hospitality, he is soon exposed to a colder, ruthlessly commercial underbelly—callous agents, greedy landlords, boorish and hostile neighbors, and, beneath a superficial cosmopolitanism, a bedrock of white cultural superiority and racist assumptions about Africa, its peoples, and worst of all, its food. Reckoning, at the same time, with the recent history of the devastating and brutal Biafran War, in which Ekong’s people were a minority of a minority caught up in the mutual slaughter of majority tribes, Ekong’s life in New York becomes a saga of unanticipated strife. The great apartment deal wrangled by his editor turns out to be an illegal sublet crawling with bedbugs. The lights of Times Square slide off the hardened veneer of New Yorkers plowing past the tourists. A collective antagonism toward the “other” consumes Ekong’s daily life. Yet in overcoming misunderstandings with his neighbors, Chinese and Latino and African American, and in bonding with his true allies at work and advocating for healing back home, Ekong proves that there is still hope in sharing our stories. Akpan’s prose melds humor, tenderness, and pain to explore the myriad ways that tribalisms define life everywhere, from the villages of Nigeria to the villages within New York City. New York, My Village is a triumph of storytelling and a testament to the life-sustaining power of community across borders and across boroughs. |
florida mfa creative writing: Florida Lauren Groff, 2018-06-05 'Magnificent . . . Lauren Groff is a virtuoso' Emily St John Mandel 'A blistering collection . . . lyrical and oblique' Guardian 'Not to be missed . . . deep and dark and resonant' Ann Patchett 'It's beautiful. It's giving me rich, grand nightmares' Observer In these vigorous stories, Lauren Groff brings her electric storytelling to a world in which storms, snakes and sinkholes lurk at the edge of everyday life, but the greater threats are of a human, emotional and psychological nature. Among those navigating it all are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple; a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable conflicted wife and mother. Florida is an exploration of the connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury. 'Innovative and terrifyingly relevant. Any one of these stories is a bracing read; together they form a masterpiece' Stylist 'Lushly evocative . . . mesmerising . . . a writer whose turn of phrase can stop you on your tracks' Financial Times |
florida mfa creative writing: How to Behave in a Crowd Camille Bordas, 2017-08-15 A witty, heartfelt novel that brilliantly evokes the confusions of adolescence and marks the arrival of an extraordinary young talent. Isidore Mazal is eleven years old, the youngest of six siblings living in a small French town. He doesn't quite fit in. Berenice, Aurore, and Leonard are on track to have doctorates by age twenty-four. Jeremie performs with a symphony, and Simone, older than Isidore by eighteen months, expects a great career as a novelist—she's already put Isidore to work on her biography. The only time they leave their rooms is to gather on the old, stained couch and dissect prime-time television dramas in light of Aristotle's Poetics. Isidore has never skipped a grade or written a dissertation. But he notices things the others don't, and asks questions they fear to ask. So when tragedy strikes the Mazal family, Isidore is the only one to recognize how everyone is struggling with their grief, and perhaps the only one who can help them—if he doesn't run away from home first. Isidore’s unstinting empathy, combined with his simmering anger, makes for a complex character study, in which the elegiac and comedic build toward a heartbreaking conclusion. With How to Behave in a Crowd, Camille Bordas immerses readers in the interior life of a boy puzzled by adulthood and beginning to realize that the adults around him are just as lost. |
florida mfa creative writing: The Interrogative Mood Padgett Powell, 2010-11-11 'If Duchamp or maybe Magritte wrote a novel it might look something like this remarkable little book of Padgett Powell's: immensely readable, ingenious, witty, and ultimately important-feeling in a way you can't quite describe but don't need to' Richard Ford Are your emotions pure? Are your nerves adjustable? How do you stand in relation to the potato? Should it still be Constantinople? Does a nameless horse make you more nervous or less nervous than a named horse? In your view, do children smell good? ... Does your doorbell ever ring? Is there sand in your craw? Is it a novel? Whatever it is, The Interrogative Mood is stubbornly memorable. Through a seemingly random but infinitely artful series of questions this small masterpiece mysteriously, elusively, hilariously, compellingly lights up life. |
florida mfa creative writing: Tell the Machine Goodnight Katie Williams, 2019-06-18 FINALIST FOR 2018 KIRKUS PRIZE NAMED ONE OF THE BEST LITERARY FICTION OF 2018' BY KIRKUS REVIEWS Sci-fi in its most perfect expression…Reading it is like having a lucid dream of six years from next week, filled with people you don't know, but will. —NPR [Williams’s] wit is sharp, but her touch is light, and her novel is a winner. – San Francisco Chronicle Between seasons of Black Mirror, look to Katie Williams' debut novel. —Refinery29 Smart and inventive, a page-turner that considers the elusive definition of happiness. Pearl's job is to make people happy. As a technician for the Apricity Corporation, with its patented happiness machine, she provides customers with personalized recommendations for greater contentment. She's good at her job, her office manager tells her, successful. But how does one measure an emotion? Meanwhile, there's Pearl's teenage son, Rhett. A sensitive kid who has forged an unconventional path through adolescence, Rhett seems to find greater satisfaction in being unhappy. The very rejection of joy is his own kind of pursuit of happiness. As his mother, Pearl wants nothing more than to help Rhett--but is it for his sake or for hers? Certainly it would make Pearl happier. Regardless, her son is one person whose emotional life does not fall under the parameters of her job--not as happiness technician, and not as mother, either. Told from an alternating cast of endearing characters from within Pearl and Rhett's world, Tell the Machine Goodnight delivers a smartly moving and entertaining story about the advance of technology and the ways that it can most surprise and define us. Along the way, Katie Williams playfully illuminates our national obsession with positive psychology, our reliance on quick fixes. What happens when these obsessions begin to overlap? With warmth, humor, and a clever touch, Williams taps into our collective unease about the modern world and allows us see it a little more clearly. |
florida mfa creative writing: Broken Ground William Logan, 2021-05-11 In Broken Ground, William Logan explores the works of canonical and contemporary poets, rediscovering the lushness of imagination and depth of feeling that distinguish poetry as a literary art. The book includes long essays on Emily Dickinson’s envelopes, Ezra Pound’s wrestling with Chinese, Robert Frost’s letters, Philip Larkin’s train station, and Mrs. Custer’s volume of Tennyson, each teasing out the depths beneath the surface of the page. Broken Ground also presents the latest run of Logan’s infamous poetry chronicles and reviews, which for twenty-five years have bedeviled American verse. Logan believes that poetry criticism must be both adventurous and forthright—and that no reader should settle for being told that every poet is a genius. Among the poets under review by the “preeminent poet-critic of his generation” and “most hated man in American poetry” are Anne Carson, Jorie Graham, Paul Muldoon, John Ashbery, Geoffrey Hill, Louise Glück, John Berryman, Marianne Moore, Frederick Seidel, Les Murray, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, Johnny Cash, James Franco, and the former archbishop of Canterbury. Logan’s criticism stands on the broken ground of poetry, soaked in history and soiled by it. These essays and reviews work in the deep undercurrents of our poetry, judging the weak and the strong but finding in weakness and strength what endures. |
florida mfa creative writing: A Key to Treehouse Living Elliot Reed, 2019-09-18 An Indies Introduce Pick, Indie Next Pick, and an Amazon Best Book of the Month, A Key to Treehouse Living will introduce you to a modern Huck Finn—an unforgettable voice that will stay with you long after you finish the final page. A Key to Treehouse Living is the adventure of William Tyce, a boy without parents, who grows up near a river in the rural Midwest. In a glossary-style list, he imparts his particular wisdom on subjects ranging from ASPHALT PATHS, BETTA FISH, and MULLET to MORTAL BETRAYAL, NIHILISM, and REVELATION. His improbable quest—to create a reference volume specific to his existence—takes him on a journey down the river by raft (see MYSTICAL VISION, see NAVIGATING BIG RIVERS BY NIGHT). He seeks to discover how his mother died (see ABSENCE) and find reasons for his father’s disappearance (see UNCERTAINTY, see VANITY). But as he goes about defining his changing world, all kinds of extraordinary and wonderful things happen to him. Unlocking an earnest, clear-eyed way of thinking that might change your own, A Key to Treehouse Living is a story about keeping your own record straight and living life by a different code. |
florida mfa creative writing: Distant Mandate Ange Mlinko, 2017-07-11 A shimmering collection of poems-- |
florida mfa creative writing: Space Struck Paige Lewis, 2019-10-08 This astonishing, self-assured debut leads us on an exploration to the stars and back, begging us to reconsider our boundaries of self, time, space, and knowledge. The speaker writes, “...the universe/is an arrow/without end/and it asks only one question;/How dare you?” Zig-zagging through the realms of nature, science, and religion, one finds St. Francis sighing in the corner of a studio apartment, tides that are caused by millions of oysters “gasping in unison,” an ark filled with women in its stables, and prayers that reach God fastest by balloon. There’s pathos: “When my new lover tells me I’m correct to love him, I/realize the sound isn’t metal at all. It’s not the coins rattling/ on concrete, but the fingers scraping to pick them up.” And humor, too: “...even the sun’s been sighing Not you again/when it sees me.” After reading this far-reaching, inventive collection, we too are startled, space struck, our pockets gloriously “filled with space dust.” |
florida mfa creative writing: River of Shadows Rebecca Solnit, 2004-03-02 A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, The Mark Lynton History Prize, and the Sally Hacker Prize for the History of Technology “A panoramic vision of cultural change” —The New York Times Through the story of the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the author of Orwell's Roses explores what it was about California in the late 19th-century that enabled it to become such a center of technological and cultural innovation The world as we know it today began in California in the late 1800s, and Eadweard Muybridge had a lot to do with it. This striking assertion is at the heart of Rebecca Solnit’s new book, which weaves together biography, history, and fascinating insights into art and technology to create a boldly original portrait of America on the threshold of modernity. The story of Muybridge—who in 1872 succeeded in capturing high-speed motion photographically—becomes a lens for a larger story about the acceleration and industrialization of everyday life. Solnit shows how the peculiar freedoms and opportunities of post–Civil War California led directly to the two industries—Hollywood and Silicon Valley—that have most powerfully defined contemporary society. |
florida mfa creative writing: The Best American Short Stories 2017 Meg Wolitzer, 2017-10-03 The New York Times–bestselling author of The Interestings compiles a stunning anthology of literary short fiction with T.C. Boyle, Emma Cline and others. “If you know exactly what you are going to get from the experience of reading a story, you probably wouldn’t go looking for it; you need, in order to be an open reader of fiction, to be willing. To cast a vote for what you love and then wait for the outcome,” writes Meg Wolitzer in her introduction to this volume. The Best American Short Stories 2017 casts a vote for and celebrates all that is our country. Here you’ll find a man with a boyfriend and a girlfriend, naval officers trapped on a submarine, a contestant on America’s Funniest Home Videos, and a gay man desperate to be a father—unforgettable characters waiting for an outcome, burning with stories to tell. The Best American Short Stories 2017 includes entries by T.C. Boyle, Jai Chakrabarti, Emma Cline, Danielle Evans, Lauren Groff, Eric Puchner, Jim Shepard, Curtis Sittenfeld, Jenn Walter and others. |
florida mfa creative writing: Appropriate: A Provocation Paisley Rekdal, 2021-02-16 A timely, nuanced work that dissects the thorny debate around cultural appropriation and the literary imagination. How do we properly define cultural appropriation, and is it always wrong? If we can write in the voice of another, should we? And if so, what questions do we need to consider first? In Appropriate, creative writing professor Paisley Rekdal addresses a young writer to delineate how the idea of cultural appropriation has evolved—and perhaps calcified—in our political climate. What follows is a penetrating exploration of fluctuating literary power and authorial privilege, about whiteness and what we really mean by the term empathy, that examines writers from William Styron to Peter Ho Davies to Jeanine Cummins. Lucid, reflective, and astute, Appropriate presents a generous new framework for one of the most controversial subjects in contemporary literature. |
florida mfa creative writing: The Best American Short Stories 2020 Curtis Sittenfeld, Heidi Pitlor, 2020 Presents a selection of the best works of short fiction of the past year from a variety of acclaimed sources. |
florida mfa creative writing: In Transit Nicholas Pierce, 2021-11-30 In Transit, Nicholas Pierce’s debut poetry collection, charts the poet’s maturation across three sections, each centering on a different kind of love, from the pedagogical to the romantic to the familial. Form and subject are inseparable in poems that consider the complex power dynamic of an older man befriending a younger one, that draw on such classic texts as Plato’s Symposium and Homer’s Odyssey to make sense of the seemingly random encounters and missed chances that, as one poem puts it, “make up a life.” As the book’s title suggests, these poems take place on the move, in cars, on boats and planes. They find the speaker abroad, as in “The Death of Argos,” a sonnet sequence that invents a new configuration for the form. Above all, though, the poems of In Transit attempt to capture a world in flux, turning to form as a stay against the transitory nature of experience. |
florida mfa creative writing: One Lark, One Horse Michael Hofmann, 2019-07-16 A new collection of poems by Michael Hofmann—his first in twenty years Michael Hofmann, renowned as one of our most brilliant critics and translators, is also regarded as among our most respected poets. Hofmann’s status—he is the author of “one of the definitive bodies of work of the last half-century (The Times Literary Supplement)—is all the more impressive for his relatively concentrated output. One Lark, One Horse is his fifth collection of poems since his debut in 1983, and his first since Approximately Nowhere in 1999. Tt is also one of the most anticipated gatherings of new work in years. In style, his voice is as unmistakable as ever—sometimes funny, sometimes caustic; world-facing and yet intimate—and this collection shows a bright mind burning fiercely over the European and American imaginations. The poet explores where he finds himself, geographically and in life, treating with wit and compassion such universal themes as aging and memory, place, and the difficult existence of the individual in an ever-bigger and more bestial world. One Lark, One Horse is a remarkable assemblage of work that will delight loyal readers and enchant new ones with Hofmann’s approachable, companionable voice. |
florida mfa creative writing: Double Cup Love Eddie Huang, 2016-05-31 From the author of Fresh Off the Boat, now a hit ABC sitcom, comes a hilarious and fiercely original story of culture, family, love, and red-cooked pork Eddie Huang was finally happy. Sort of. He’d written a bestselling book and was the star of a TV show that took him to far-flung places around the globe. His New York City restaurant was humming, his OKCupid hand was strong, and he’d even hung fresh Ralph Lauren curtains to create the illusion of a bedroom in the tiny apartment he shared with his younger brother Evan, who ran their restaurant business. Then he fell in love—and everything fell apart. The business was creating tension within the family; his life as a media star took him away from his first passion—food; and the woman he loved—an All-American white girl—made him wonder: How Chinese am I? The only way to find out, he decided, was to reverse his parents’ migration and head back to the motherland. On a quest to heal his family, reconnect with his culture, and figure out whether he should marry his American girl, Eddie flew to China with his two brothers and a mission: to set up shop to see if his food stood up to Chinese palates—and to immerse himself in the culture to see if his life made sense in China. Naturally, nothing went according to plan. Double Cup Love takes readers from Williamsburg dive bars to the skies over Mongolia, from Michelin-starred restaurants in Shanghai to street-side soup peddlers in Chengdu. The book rockets off as a sharply observed, globe-trotting comic adventure that turns into an existential suspense story with high stakes. Eddie takes readers to the crossroads where he has to choose between his past and his future, between who he once was and who he might become. Double Cup Love is about how we search for love and meaning—in family and culture, in romance and marriage—but also how that search, with all its aching and overpowering complexity, can deliver us to our truest selves. Praise for Eddie Huang’s Double Cup Love “Double Cup Love invites the readers to journey through [Eddie Huang’s] love story, new friendships, brotherhood, a whole lot of eating and more. Huang’s honest recounting shouts and whispers on every page in all-caps dialogues and hilarious side-commentary. Huang pulls simple truths and humor out of his complex adventure to China. His forthright sharing of anecdotes is sincere and generates uncontrollable laughter. . . . His latest memoir affirms not only that the self-described “human panda” is an engaging storyteller but a great listener, especially in the language of food.”—Chicago Tribune “An elaborate story of love and self-discovery . . . Huang’s writing is wry and zippy; he regards the world with an understanding of its absurdities and injustices and with a willingness to be surprised.”—Jon Caramanica, The New York Times “Huang is determined to tease out the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which Asian-Americans give up parts of themselves in order to move forward. . . . Fortunately for us, he’s not afraid to speak up about it.”—The New Yorker “Huang connects in Chengdu the same way he assimilated in America—through food, hip-hop and a never-ending authenticity, which readers experience through his hilarious writing voice and style.”—New York Daily News |
florida mfa creative writing: Magenta Fleurs Caroline Clemens, 2021-05 College students read Shakespeare's To Be or Not To Be while 1984 paints a canvas in the swamp as Miss 007 solves mysteries. Kristan sets off to college and meets new friends amidst a whole new world. Simultaneously missing her mother she embarks upon her future with classes, Shakespeare, sonnets, old loves and new friends. By Christmas break her world takes a new direction and with help from strangers she meets a fate almost destined for this worldly young girl. Her friends Scarlet and Jeremy begin to date in Savannah while a trip to an island bares a story no one saw coming. How delightful! This is a man and women's fiction read with tragic elements, romance, and even cyber crime. A perfect summer read with the magic of many feels as your heart repeatedly reels again and again. Try an indie author today! Set in the south this parallel sequel to Three King Mackerel and a Mahi Mahi can be read alone or in opposite order. Caroline Clemens has written seven novels in the thriller, historical fiction, and family drama genre. She has a short story collection titled Kiss Ride as well as a poetry collection. |
florida mfa creative writing: Writing for the Screen Anna Weinstein, 2017-02-17 Writing for the Screen is a collection of essays and interviews exploring the business of screenwriting. This highly accessible guide to working in film and television includes perspectives from industry insiders on topics such as breaking in; pitching; developing and nurturing business relationships; juggling multiple projects; and more. Writing for the Screen is an ideal companion to screenwriting and filmmaking classes, demystifying the industry and the role of the screenwriter with real-world narratives and little-known truths about the business. With insight from working professionals, you’ll be armed with the information you need to pursue your career as a screenwriter. Contains essays by and interviews with screenwriting consultants, television writers, feature writers, writer-directors of independent film, producers, and professors. Offers expert opinions on how to get started, including preparing your elevator pitch, finding mentors, landing an internship, and moving from an internship to the next step in your career. Reveals details about taking meetings, what development executives are looking for in a screenwriter, how and when to approach a producer, and how to pitch. Explores strategies for doing creative work under pressure, finding your voice, choosing what to write, sticking with a project over the long haul, overcoming discrimination, and reinventing yourself as a writer. Illuminates the business of screenwriting in the United States (New York and Los Angeles) as compared to other countries around the globe, including England, Ireland, Peru, France, Australia, and Belgium. |
florida mfa creative writing: From Where You Dream Robert Olen Butler, 2007-12-01 The Pulitzer Prize–winning author “shares his insights into—and passion for—the creation and experience of fiction with total openness” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Robert Olen Butler, author of Perfume River, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and A Small Hotel, teaches graduate fiction at Florida State University—his version of literary boot camp. In From Where You Dream, Butler reimagines the process of writing as emotional rather than intellectual, and tells writers how to achieve the dreamspace necessary for composing honest, inspired fiction. Proposing that fiction is the exploration of the human condition with yearning as its compass, Butler reinterprets the traditional tools of the craft using the dynamics of desire. Offering a direct view into the mind and craft of a literary master, From Where You Dream is an invaluable tool for the novice and experienced writer alike. “Incisive and provocative, Butler’s tutorials are a must for anyone even thinking about writing fiction, and readers, too, will benefit from his passionate exhortations.” —Booklist |
florida mfa creative writing: The Restaurant Inspector Alex Pickett, 2021 |
florida mfa creative writing: The Oldest Hands in the World Daniele Pantano, 2010 The Oldest Hands in the World is the debut collection of a respected and accomplished translator. Having steeped himself in the canon for years and learning the craft of poems from the inside out, it is no wonder that this collection reads like a book written by a seasoned, celebrated poet. We expect more great things from this new voice. |
florida mfa creative writing: How Distant the City Freesia McKee, 2017-11-18 *Finalist for the Charlotte Mew Prize The poems themselves are archives, of the body, of place, of the body's gestures and movings through the city of these poems. The images are electric with worry and wonder, memory and possibility, and through it all, love. -Natalie Diaz, judge of the Charlotte Mew Prize What does courage mean anymore? asks the speaker in Freesia McKee's How Distant the City, a question that pulses through the nuanced body of this book to its profound extremities. She would fly home more, but TSA never knows who to get to do the pat-down, comes one moment of revelation. You realized your pain isn't the only pain/ worth knowing, comes another. How Distant the City is a courageous and arresting debut. -Julie Marie Wade, author of When I Was Straight and SIX: Poems Freesia McKee's How Distant the City is a city of questions, asking us to account for how we pay attention to our small wild moments in a time made strange by war. This poet pushes us to keep circling around what most would pass by to mark our stains on each page, to turn our ears to notice who has gone by and who has gone missing. -Ching-In Chen, author of The Heart's Traffic and recombinant Freesia McKee's debut chapbook, How Distant the City, illuminates geographical, emotional and psychic spaces to expose the alienation and displacement we create when we substitute apathy and avoidance for empathy and connection. This collection shines most brilliantly in poems that connect the quotidian to the remarkable, traversing with linguistic adroitness through representations of loss, rape, racial injustice, murder and commonplace acts such as getting a haircut or setting a Thanksgiving table. In the juxtaposition of everyday acts to acts of terror, McKee draws attention to the dialectics of the self's most private desires, struggles and traumas with those of the displaced and terrorized others in our villages, in our hearts, in our local and national news, and in our global community. McKee boldly makes connections across differences with a poetic fluency that is vibrant, honest, inspiring and chock-full of integrity. -Donna Aza Weir-Soley, author of First Rain, Eroticism, Spirituality and Resistance in Black Women's Writings, The Woman Who Knew and co-editor of Caribbean Erotic. |
florida mfa creative writing: Little Book of No Consolation Becka McKay, 2021-05-15 Poetry. 'How strange it is to live in these bodies /and pretend we are not judged;' writes Becka McKay in her newest collection; THE LITTLE BOOK OF NO CONSOLATION. McKay's imagination takes us far away from our earthly bodies through dreamscapes of terror and possibility. With a fanciful Dictionary of Misremembered English and mistranslated phrases as her guide; she reimagines Biblical figures; governments; and language's very syntax. McKay spins her poems as though spinning plates; on a pole of syntax all her own; the gyroscopic effect dazzling.--Denise Duhamel |
florida mfa creative writing: Ivory Shoals John Brandon, 2021-06-15 In Ivory Shoals, twelve-year-old Gussie Dwyer--audacious, resilient, determined to adhere to the morals his mother instilled in him--undertakes to trek across the sumptuous yet perilous peninsula of post-Civil War Florida in search of his father, a man who has no idea of his son's existence. Gussie's journey sees him cross paths with hardened Floridians of every stripe, from the brave and noble to a bevy of cutthroat villains, none worse than his amoral shark of a stepbrother. Rich in visceral details and told with a pulse-quickening pace, Ivory Shoals is a distinctly American story, in the tradition of Mark Twain and Cormac McCarthy. The novel is also a timeless epic, tracking Gussie's odyssey from childhood toward adulthood. Will he survive his quest, and at what cost? |
florida mfa creative writing: White Lung Kimberly O'Connor, 2021-10-15 |
florida mfa creative writing: The Insider's Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing Seth Abramson, 2018 A brief history of creative writing programs -- Applying to creative writing programs -- Application requirements -- Cohort -- Selectivity -- Cost of living -- Funding -- Student-faculty ratio -- Assistantships -- Curriculum -- Fellowships -- Job placement -- Low-residency programs -- Creative writing doctoral programs -- Applicant and faculty surveys -- Popularity rankings -- Program rankings -- Program features |
florida mfa creative writing: Club Q DAVIS, 2020-10-15 Poetry. LGBTQIA Studies. Winner of the 15th annual Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, judged by Edward Hirsch. CLUB Q is a book of mid-American yearning for both exceptionalism and belonging. Beginning as a coming-out narrative, the poems track the story of a gay boy growing up in Colorado Springs, under the spectres of the U.S. military, megachurch Christianity, and chain-restaurant capitalism. As the speaker ages, he examines his complicity in his isolation and struggles to define community on his own terms. Through formal invention, high- and low-culture references, and deep wordplay, CLUB Q invites the reader to inhabit the precise imprecision of our human situation. CLUB Q is an elegant, unsparing book of inquiry, where 'curiosity / is the recognition of ignorance / as a kind of sickness.' One eyebrow cocked, queer as fuck, James Davis lays bare our various longings to connect, and the attendant absurdity: men in a hotel room who 'shared a queen / and left no stain;' the internet that, 'like water, / transmits the smell of blood in all directions.' This droll and formally promiscuous poet lets 'desire // italicize our somberest sentiments.' It's hard not to love this nerdy, sexy, vulnerable first book.--Randall Mann Reading James Davis' CLUB Q reminds me of slipping, long ago, into that mysterious Houston bar Marfreless (which literally possessed no address): once inside the utterly dark, soft ambiance, you felt your way through its space to settle onto the most forgiving of couches, down stiff drinks, luxuriate in the most animated and revealing of conversations. CLUB Q is one of the funniest and sharpest books of poems I've read in a long time. James Davis possesses a killer intellect, and his formal chops are bar none.--Cate Marvin In this incredible debut, James Davis catalogs the excesses and deficits of American culture, from the schlock of millennial childhoods (Fruitopia! Alpha-Bits! Street Fighter II!) to the confounding terms of our present moment, in which 'creative is a noun.' These ingenious poems tackle sticky questions about family and class, and what it means to be 'queer / in a military town where cadets / count out football scores in pushups.' They also celebrate letters and words themselves--the sheer abundance of language and the worlds it makes possible. CLUB Q is funny and wise, and it blew me away.--Caki Wilkinson |
florida mfa creative writing: Graduate Programs in the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences 2014 (Grad 2) Peterson's, 2013-11-22 Peterson's Graduate Programs in the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences 2014 contains comprehensive profiles of more than 11,000 graduate programs in disciplines such as, applied arts & design, area & cultural studies, art & art history, conflict resolution & mediation/peace studies, criminology & forensics, language & literature, psychology & counseling, religious studies, sociology, anthropology, archaeology and more. Up-to-date data, collected through Peterson's Annual Survey of Graduate and Professional Institutions, provides valuable information on degree offerings, professional accreditation, jointly offered degrees, part-time and evening/weekend programs, postbaccalaureate distance degrees, faculty, students, requirements, expenses, financial support, faculty research, and unit head and application contact information. There are helpful links to in-depth descriptions about a specific graduate program or department, faculty members and their research, and more. There are also valuable articles on financial assistance, the graduate admissions process, advice for international and minority students, and facts about accreditation, with a current list of accrediting agencies. |
florida mfa creative writing: The Creative Writing MFA Handbook, Revised and Updated Edition Tom Kealey, 2008-10 The Creative Writing MFA Handbook guides prospective graduate students through the difficult process of researching, applying to, and choosing graduate schools in creative writing. This second edition updates and builds upon the first edition, which was published in 2005 to great acclaim. |
florida mfa creative writing: The Insider's Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing Seth Abramson, 2018-06-14 There are so many different graduate creative writing programs out there! How do I find the right one for me? Bringing together data from both Master's and doctoral creative writing programs and interviews with program applicants, students, and faculty, this is a complete practical guide to choosing a graduate creative writing program and putting together a successful application. The Insider's Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing answers frequently asked questions on such topics as: · Application prerequisites · Program sizes and durations · Funding · Acceptance rates · Cost of living · Program curricula and demographics · Workshopping techniques · Student-faculty ratios · Residency options · Postgraduate fellowship placement · Postgraduate job placement · Programs' reputations and histories The book also includes comprehensive and up-to-date hard data on the hundreds of terminal-degree graduate creative writing programs available throughout the US, UK, and internationally, making this an essential read for anyone planning to pursue a low- or full-residency graduate creative writing degree. |
Florida - Wikipedia
Florida (/ ˈ f l ɒr ɪ d ə / ⓘ FLORR-ih-də; Spanish: [floˈɾiða] ⓘ) is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, …
Florida | Map, Population, History, & Facts | Britannica
3 days ago · Florida, constituent state of the United States of America. It was admitted as the 27th state in 1845. Florida is the most populous of the southeastern states and the second most …
Florida Vacations, Travel & Tourism Guide | VISIT FLORIDA
Official state travel, tourism and vacation website for Florida, featuring maps, beaches, events, deals, photos, hotels, activities, attractions and other planning information.
$115 billion budget approved by Florida lawmakers. Here's a
16 hours ago · Florida lawmakers approve $115 billion state budget 00:36. On the 105th day of what was supposed to be a 60-day session, Florida lawmakers gave final approval to a leaner …
Florida Maps & Facts - World Atlas
Nov 27, 2024 · Florida, nicknamed the Sunshine State, is a peninsula located in the Southeastern United States. It shares a border with both Alabama and Georgia in the North and is the only …
The 12 Best Places to Visit in Florida - Travel + Leisure
Jul 9, 2024 · Best tourist destination: Florida Keys; Underrated hidden gem: Crystal River; Best for families: Orlando and Central Florida; Best for couples: Naples; Best for solo travelers: Miami …
Visit Florida USA | What to Do in Florida Tourist Guide - Visit The …
Located in the southeastern USA with coastlines on both the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America, sunny Florida is home to plenty of surprises. Visit perennial Florida favorites such as beaches …
Florida State Map | USA | Detailed Maps of Florida (FL) - World …
The state of Florida occupies a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, extending into the southeastern United States. It covers approximately 65,758 square miles , …
Florida State Information – Symbols, Capital, Constitution, Flags, …
Lowest Point: Florida; sea level, tied for 3rd lowest. Geographic Center: Hernando, 12 miles northwest of Brooksville. Blank Outline Maps: Find printable blank map of the State of Florida, …
Our A to Z of Florida - Escape to the sun
Dec 11, 2020 · Sandwiched between the rolling Atlantic waves and the warm Gulf of Mexico, Florida is a major international tourist destination, and no wonder. The Sunshine State is …
Florida - Wikipedia
Florida (/ ˈ f l ɒr ɪ d ə / ⓘ FLORR-ih-də; Spanish: [floˈɾiða] ⓘ) is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, …
Florida | Map, Population, History, & Facts | Britannica
3 days ago · Florida, constituent state of the United States of America. It was admitted as the 27th state in 1845. Florida is the most populous of the southeastern states and the second most …
Florida Vacations, Travel & Tourism Guide | VISIT FLORIDA
Official state travel, tourism and vacation website for Florida, featuring maps, beaches, events, deals, photos, hotels, activities, attractions and other planning information.
$115 billion budget approved by Florida lawmakers. Here's a
16 hours ago · Florida lawmakers approve $115 billion state budget 00:36. On the 105th day of what was supposed to be a 60-day session, Florida lawmakers gave final approval to a leaner …
Florida Maps & Facts - World Atlas
Nov 27, 2024 · Florida, nicknamed the Sunshine State, is a peninsula located in the Southeastern United States. It shares a border with both Alabama and Georgia in the North and is the only …
The 12 Best Places to Visit in Florida - Travel + Leisure
Jul 9, 2024 · Best tourist destination: Florida Keys; Underrated hidden gem: Crystal River; Best for families: Orlando and Central Florida; Best for couples: Naples; Best for solo travelers: Miami …
Visit Florida USA | What to Do in Florida Tourist Guide - Visit The …
Located in the southeastern USA with coastlines on both the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America, sunny Florida is home to plenty of surprises. Visit perennial Florida favorites such as beaches …
Florida State Map | USA | Detailed Maps of Florida (FL) - World …
The state of Florida occupies a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, extending into the southeastern United States. It covers approximately 65,758 square miles , …
Florida State Information – Symbols, Capital, Constitution, Flags, …
Lowest Point: Florida; sea level, tied for 3rd lowest. Geographic Center: Hernando, 12 miles northwest of Brooksville. Blank Outline Maps: Find printable blank map of the State of Florida, …
Our A to Z of Florida - Escape to the sun
Dec 11, 2020 · Sandwiched between the rolling Atlantic waves and the warm Gulf of Mexico, Florida is a major international tourist destination, and no wonder. The Sunshine State is …