An online home for the American University Creative Writing MFA community
By Tara Campbell If one were to write a list of literary accolades for contemporary writers, it would read a lot like Min Jin Lee’s biography. Her work has garnered fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard. With …
By Austine Model Fady Joudah is a poet living in Austin, Texas. His most recent collection, Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance, was published earlier this year by Milkweed Editions. Joudah has three other collections of his own work published, in addition to extensive works …
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 …