MFA Writing Program at Greensboro

MFA Greensboro Alum Lynne Barrett’s story “When, He Wondered” is in the March/April issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, on newsstands, and at B&Ns, Borders, now.  Lynne is a previous winner of the Edgar Award for best mystery short story from the Mystery Writers of America.

THE EVER BREATH
by Julianna Baggott
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385737616
Ages 9-12
240 pages

Truman Cragmeal and his twin sister, Camille, go to stay with their odd Grandma Swelda over the holidays. Things haven’t been right at home after their father disappeared a month ago. Their mother needs to work extra hours, and leaving the twins with their grandmother — even though they haven’t seen her since they were very young — seems like a natural choice. What Truman and Camille would never guess is that their grandmother is more than just odd. She holds the secrets to a magical world — and now, more than ever, she needs their help.

Read the entire review here:
http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/9780385737616.asp

Find out more about the MFA Writing Program at Greensboro here:
http://mfagreensboro.org
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Remembrance of Candy Bars Past
How a wave of consolidation lay waste to regional treats like the Fig Pie and the Seven Up Bar
By STEVE ALMOND

In Merriam, Kan., the Russell Sifers Candy Company produces what must be the messiest candy bar in the United States. The Valomilk, first introduced in 1931, is a thin cup of chocolate filled with vanilla syrup. It is virtually impossible to eat without getting syrup on your face. For years, the bar came with its own cautionary slogan: “When it runs down your chin, you know it’s a Valomilk.”

Read the full article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704878904575031093196328372.html

Find out more about the MFA Writing Program at Greensboro here:
http://mfagreensboro.org

Technorati Tags: Steve-Almond, MFA-Writing-Program-at-Greensboro-alumni, mfagreensboro, MFA, creative-writing, North-Carolina, UNCG

An Interview with Steve Almond About Technology, Loneliness and the Splinter Generation
by Antonia Crane

Steve Almond is a journalist, commentator, fiction and non-fiction writer, and all around super-fox. I first met him when I had the enviable pleasure of introducing him before he read a brilliant essay called “About My Sexual Failure” in which hot tubs and jerking off play a central role. By reading all of his books and stalking him, I learned that he has this rare gene that enables him to stand up for what he believes, regardless of the consequences. He’s also a loyal friend to writers everywhere, he loves Rock and Roll, and he’s one of the best sex scene writers out there.

He recently self-published a freaky little chapbook called This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey, in which he gives advice to fledgling writers. He has a forthcoming book about music called Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life due in April by Random House.

Read the entire interview here: http://www.splintergeneration.com/2010/01/21/an-interview-with-steve-almond-about-technology-loneliness-and-the-splinter-generation/

Find out more about the MFA Writing Program at Greensboro here: http://mfagreensboro.org

Slantwise by Betty Adcock      

Slantwise
by Betty Adcock
83 pages
LSU Press, 2008

The title of course directs us to Dickinson’s truth, also to the truth that to be slant is somehow to repose, diagonally, in wisdom. There is in fact so much mojo in the title that we are hooked up with poetic goodness before we even venture into the first poem. Betty Adcock has been writing an agreeable brand of poem for years and has built a fan base that would make a Republican candidate sit up and beg for buttermilk. In Slantwise, she doesn’t disappoint.

Read the entire review here:
http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/45/rigsbee_r.html

Find out more about the MFA Writing Program at Greensboro here:
http://mfagreensboro.org
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Short and strong

Kat Meads creates alternative realities, and amazingly, it takes her four pages, max. “Little Pockets of Alarm” (Main Street Rag Publishing Co.: Charlotte; 146 pages, paper, $14.95) is a smart and feisty collection of what she calls “tales short and shorter.”

A customer service clerk grants and denies units of time, according to strict Bureau guidelines. People must make their requests at the counter in Bldg. F in person. A Cinderella loses her self-confidence and hesitates about attending the ball. A road rage encounter, California style, on U.S. 1 involves an oh-so contemporary couple in a Miata and a biker and his babe on a Harley. The East Coast, West Coast cultural clash in the car careens the encounter with the bikers into a strip-show burlesque.

Read the entire review here:
http://www.news-record.com/blog/63640/entry/76316

Find out more about the MFA Writing Program at Greensboro here:
http://mfagreensboro.org

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Stone Animals
by Kelly Link

Henry asked a question. He was joking.

“As a matter of fact,” the real estate agent snapped, “it is.”

It was not a question she had expected to be asked. She gave Henry a goofy, appeasing smile and yanked at the hem of the skirt of her pink linen suit, which seemed as if it might, at any moment, go rolling up her knees like a window shade. She was younger than Henry, and sold houses that she couldn’t afford to buy.

“It’s reflected in the asking price, of course,” she said. “Like you said.”

Henry stared at her. She blushed.

Read the entire story here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114251245

Find out more about the MFA Writing Program at Greensboro here:
http://mfagreensboro.org

Technorati Tags: Kelly-Link, mfagreensboro-alumni, MFA-Writing-Program-at-Greensboro-alumni, mfagreensboro, MFA-Writing-Program-at-Greensboro, MFA, creative-writing, North-Carolina, NC, UNCG, UNC-Greensboro, University-of-North-Carolina-at-Greensboro