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Writing Programs Calendar - Past Events for this Academic Year

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4/19/07 (Thur)

CANCELED: Hammer Poetry Series - Terrance Hayes

7:00PM until 8:30PM
In Hammer Museum
Terrance Hayes has won the Whiting Writers Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, the National Poetry Series Open Competition, and a Pushcart Prize. His most recent work is Wind in the Box. Mr. Hayes teaches at Carnegie Mellon University.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

5/20/07 (Sun) through 5/25/07 (Fri)

Award Winners Announced for Humanities' Essay Contest

In 146 Humanities
Five students have been chosen as winners in the 2007 Teague-Melville-Elliott and Peter Rotter Essay Competition honoring superior achievement in undergraduate writing in the humanities.

This year's recipient of the $1,000 Teague-Melville-Elliott Prize is Manoa W. Hui for "Structural Role of the Dedication in Wallace Stevens' ‘Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction.’ ” The essay, written for English 182C, was nominated by Professor Stephen Yenser.

The following students are winners of the $500 Peter Rotter Prize:

Katie Boyden, nominated by Professor Calvin Bedient for her English 165 essay “Poetry, Truth, and the Feminine Voice: A look at ‘Triptych’ by Seamus Heaney”

Roanne Sharp, nominated by Professor Kathleen L. Komar for her Comparative Literature 163 essay “It happens I’m tired of being a man: The uncanny experience as a point of crisis”

Audrey Kuo, nominated by Professor Michael North for her English 10C essay “Akin Do What I Want: The struggle for individuality and freedom within familial relationships in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre”

Melissa Townley, nominated by Professor Gina Shaffer for her English 3 essay “The Criminalization of Media Violence”

The Teague-Melville-Elliott and Peter Rotter Essay Competition is sponsored annually by UCLA Writing Programs in recognition of outstanding student essays produced for lower- and upper-division humanities courses.

-- submitted by Candace (candace@humnet.ucla.edu@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact WPinfo@humnet.ucla.edu

5/24/07 (Thur)

Hammer Poetry Series - James Longenbach

7:00PM until 8:30PM
In Hammer Museum
James Longenbach is the Joseph H. Gilmore Professor of English at the University of Rochester. His most recent publication is a new book of poems, Draft of a Letter. He has received awards from the Guggenheim, Mellon, and Whiting Foundations.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

6/7/07 (Thur)

Prize-Winning Student Poetry

7:00PM until 8:30PM
In Hammer Museum
Join Professor Stephen Yenser, Director of the Creative Writing Program at UCLA, and the recipients of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Prize for Poetry, the Fred Weld Herman Memorial Prize from The Academy of American Poets, and the May Merrill Miller Award.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

9/23/07 (Sun)

Festival of California Poets

6:00PM until 7:30PM
In Hammer Museum
Contemporary California poets discuss and read from canonical California poets.

Harryette Mullen on Bob Kaufman: Kaufman (1925-1986) attended The New School in New York where he met Ginsberg and others. There he became a founding figure of the Beat movement.

Carol Muske-Dukes on Ann Stanford: Stanford (1916-1987) authored six volumes of poems and won many awards for her beautifully crafted work, including the DiCastagnola and Shelley Memorial Awards from the Poetry Society of America. She was also a Professor of English at California State University in Northridge.

Stephen Yenser on Robinson Jeffers: Jeffers (1887-1962) is known for his long narrative poems, drama, and lyrics. A harbinger of ecology and a participant in the philosophical tradition that propounds the divinity of the non-human, he was an anti-Modern Modernist.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

10/2/07 (Tues)

Hammer Poetry Series - John Kinsella

7:00PM until 8:30PM
In Hammer Museum
John Kinsella is a poet, novelist, critic, and journal editor. He is the author of more than 30 books; his most recent volume of poetry is The New Arcadia. His awards include the Grace Leven Poetry Prize, the John Bray Award for Poetry, and the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award for Poetry. He is the editor of the international literary journal Salt. John Kinsella is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University, and he is also a Professor of English at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. His website can be viewed at http://www.johnkinsella.org

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

10/18/07 (Thur)

Some Favorite Writers - Amy Hempel

7:00PM until 8:30PM
In Hammer Museum
Amy Hempel will join UCLA faculty member and novelist Mona Simpson for a reading and discussion of her work. Ms. Hempel is a short-story writer and journalist. Her most recent collection of stories is The Dog of the Marriage; her other collections are Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, and Tumble Home. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Harper’s, and The Yale Review. She teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Bennington College. She has won several prestigious literary awards for her work, including the Hobson Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

10/23/07 (Tues)

Mark Z. Danielewski reading: Only Revolutions

5:00PM until 6:30PM
In 193/199 Humanities Building
Mark Danielewski’s first novel, House of Leaves, quickly became a national bestseller and cult classic. His new novel, Only Revolutions, was a 2006 National Book Award finalist. Danielewski’s work is characterized by experimental choices in form, such as intricate and multi- layered narratives, typographical variation, and inconsistent page layouts that include colored text, font play, and upside-down passages. The website for his latest novel can be viewed at http://www.onlyrevolutions.com.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

10/25/07 (Thur)

Hammer Poetry Series - Cathy Park Hong

7:00PM until 8:30PM
In Hammer Museum
Cathy Park Hong’s two books of poems are Translating Mo’um and, most recently, Dance Dance Revolution, which was chosen for the Barnard Women Poets Prize. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Village Voice Fellowship for Minority Reporters. She teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Her website can be viewed at http://cathyparkhong.com/.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

11/1/07 (Thur)

A Tribute to the Life and Poetry of Gene Frumkin

4:00PM until 5:30PM
In 306 Royce Hall
Noted poet, professor, literary editor, and UCLA alumnus Gene Frumkin will be honored by fellow poets, contemporaries, and students. Included in the program are:

Mel Weisburd, as co-founder with Gene of Coastlines Literary Magazine, will host the program.

Joy Harjo, the celebrated poet and musician, will discuss Gene’s career as the head of the University of New Mexico’s Creative Writing Program as both his student and colleague.

Martin Brower, who was a fellow UCLA student and Daily Bruin editor with Gene in the 1950s when the student paper was being unjustly attacked by The Los Angeles Times and The Saturday Evening Post as being infiltrated with Communists and politically biased.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

11/15/07 (Thur)

Hammer Poetry Series - Terrance Hayes

7:00PM until 8:30PM
In Hammer Museum
Terrance Hayes’ first collection, Muscular Music, won the Whiting Writers’ Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Hip Logic, his second volume, won the National Poetry Series Open Competition and was runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets as well as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in Poetry. His most recent work is Wind in a Box (2006). A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Pushcart Prize, he teaches at Carnegie Mellon University.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

1/14/08 (Mon)

Paul Auster film screening: The Inner Life of Martin Frost

7:30PM until 10:30PM
In James Bridges Theater - 1409 Melnitz Hall
The UCLA Department of English and the Friends of English invite you to a reading, film screening, and discussion with

PAUL AUSTER

THE INNER LIFE OF MARTIN FROST

Monday, January 14, 2008 at 7:30 P.M.

in the James Bridges Theatre (1409 Melnitz Hall)

Parking Available in Lot 3, $8

Following Paul Auster’s now legendary collaborations with Wayne Wang on Smoke (for which Auster won the Independent Spirit Award for best first screenplay) and Blue in the Face, as well as his solo debut as writer and director of Lulu on the Bridge, THE INNER LIFE OF MARTIN FROST represents Auster’s most original and captivating work in the movies to date.

Film synopsis: Novelist Martin Frost has just published his latest book. He decides to rest his mind alone in a country house. The dawn of his first day, he discovers with amazement a mysterious and astonishing woman lying next to him. Fascinated by her beauty and intelligence Martin falls deeply in love with her. He has found the muse that helplessly drives him to write his most perfect piece. But is Claire really the person she claims to be? A philosophical mystery that asks us to question the manner in which we define reality and the way we choose to see the world around us, THE INNER LIFE OF MARTIN FROST is at once tender, moving, and devilishly funny.

RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED

This Event is Free and Open to the Public - RSVP to friends@english.ucla.edu

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

2/14/08 (Thur)

Hammer Poetry Series - Clayton Eshleman

7:00PM until 9:00PM
In Hammer Museum
Poet and essayist Clayton Eshleman reads from his critically acclaimed work, "César Vallejo's Complete Poetry." This is the first complete translation of poetry by the Peruvian poet and includes the groundbreaking collections "The Black Heralds," "Trilce," "Human Poems," and "Spain, Take This Cup from Me."

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

2/19/08 (Tues)

Some Favorite Writers - Amy Hempel

7:00PM until 9:00PM
In Hammer Museum
Amy Hempel is a short-story writer and journalist. Her most recent collection of stories is "The Dog of the Marriage"; her other collections are "Reasons to Live," "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom," and "Tumble Home." Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Harper’s, and The Yale Review. She teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Bennington College. She has won several prestigious literary awards for her work, including the Hobson Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Mona Simpson, organizer of the Some Favorite Writers series, is the author of "Anywhere But Here," "The Lost Father," and "Off Keck Road."

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

2/21/08 (Thur)

Ryan Knighton, Author of acclaimed memoir, "Cockeyed"

4:00PM until 6:00PM
In Grand Salon, Kerckhoff Hall
On his 18th birthday, Ryan Knighton was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic condition that slowly blinded him over fifteen years. Cockeyed, Knighton's hilarious and observant memoir about the trials and misadventures that made him an off-beat writer and an even more off-beat blind man, was recently published internationally to rave reviews.

People magazine named Cockeyed one of the hottest reads of the summer of 2006 and The Boston Globe described it as "an unexpectedly wry view of a life that twisted into the extraordinary." Known for his wit and peculiar perspective, Ryan Knighton is a National Magazine Award- nominated journalist. He has written about popular culture, politics, education and disability for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and Saturday Night.

A frequent contributor to CSC radio, Knighton is also a faculty member in the English Department at Capilano College, where he teaches literature and writing, both creative and destructive. He also collects tattoos and hopes they resemble what he imagines.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact egremse@support.ucla.edu

5/8/08 (Thur)

Hammer Poetry Series - Heather McHugh

7:00PM until 8:30PM
In Hammer Museum
Heather McHugh’s books of poetry include Eyeshot (2004), which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize; The Father of Predicaments (2001); and Hinge & Sign: Poems 1968-1993 (1994), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Pollock/Harvard Book Review, and named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. She is also the author of literary essays and three books of poetry in translation.

Her honors include two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, and a United States Artists Award. From 1999 to 2006 she served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and in 2000 was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and is the Milliman Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Washington in Seattle.

-- submitted by Susan Skarzynski (susan@humanities.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact friends@english.ucla.edu

 
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