An online home for the American University Creative Writing MFA community
By Austine Elizabeth Chilton Model Earlier this month, the campus was abuzz with two much anticipated Teju Cole Visiting Writing Series events, which drew full houses both nights. A lesser-known event was also a part of Cole’s time spent at American University. On Wednesday afternoon,…
By Nick Chhoeun Teju Cole was our second Visiting Writer this year, for two sold-out events on October 3rd and October 4th. His extensive and groundbreaking work as an author and as a photographer for the New York Times make the large crowds unsurprising. I recently read parts of his…
By Tara Campbell Photographer, novelist, essayist, art historian and critic, Teju Cole is a master of many genres. His novel (Open City), novella (Every Day is for the Thief), and essay collection (Known and Strange Things) have won enough awards and accolades to take…
By Yohanca Delgado As the semester enters full swing (and everyone recovers from Saturday night’s literary sugar coma) we’ve all got another wonderful event to look forward to, our first Visiting Writers event featuring Fatimah Asghar. Asghar is a nationally touring poet, performer, educator, and writer.…
By Nick Chhoeun Nnedi Okorafor is our guest at tomorrow’s AU’s Visiting Writers Series event and to prepare, I’ve started reading her Binti series. Tara Campbell’s post gives a great overview of Okorafor’s life, writing, and thematic interests, but here, I’ll be looking more closely at Binti. …
By Tara Campbell Nnedi Okorafor is a prolific Nigerian-American writer of science-fiction, fantasy and magical realism. With over a dozen books to her credit, and stories in the top sci-fi and fantasy publications around the world, Okorafor is a powerful player in the ever-diversifying world…
By Amy Trotter In anticipation of her visit to American University’s Visiting Writers Series this Wednesday, Mai Der Vang graciously answered a few questions about her explosive new collection, Afterland, and her involvement in the Hmong writer’s community. AT: Have you been busy…
By Vince Granata Stephanie Elizondo Griest is the award-winning author of three travel memoirs: Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana; Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines; and All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands (2017); as well as the best-selling guidebook…
By Yohanca Delgado Last Wednesday, we gathered for a cherished AU MFA tradition: an annual faculty reading to benefit the magical 826 DC. Prospective students, current students, alumni, and faculty mingled over wine and cheese before the reading—and few of us could resist the gravitational…
By Vince Granata In advance of Wednesday’s Visiting Writer event, I had the opportunity to ask Jan Wagner several questions about his new collection of poetry, collaborating with David Keplinger, object studies, the challenge of translation, and dachshunds. Join us on Wednesday to continue the conversation with Wagner…