Marianne Murphy Zarzana
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Thomas Maltman to Read from Little Wolves at SMSU, 4/22

4/20/2013

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Thomas Maltman will be reading from his new novel, Little Wolves, at Southwest Minnesota State University on Monday, April 22 at 7 p.m. in Charter Hall 201. 

Cindy Votruba at the Marshall Independent recently wrote a feature article about Tom, "Exploring His Imagination."

While I was a graduate student working on my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Tom was also earning his MFA. I've always been impressed with Tom's fine writing, and it's an honor to be able to invite him to read at SMSU and meet with our creative writing students.

This afternoon Tom gave a terrific presentation about writing as the keynote speaker for the 9th Annual Creative Writing Contest Awards Ceremony co-sponsored by SMSU and the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative. It's one of my favorite annual events of the academic year. This contest was established as a partnership between SMSU's Creative Writing Program and the SW/WC Service Cooperative to encourage a love of language and writing for all students and as a way to recognize the talented young writers in southwest and west central Minnesota.

Students from 3rd to 12th grade submit their stories, poems and essays, then SMSU students serve as the first-tier judges, and our English faculty serve as the second-tier judges. Steve Pacheco judged fiction, Jim Zarzana judged non-fiction, and I judged poetry.  I love meeting these students after reading their work, meeting their parents, and watching their excitement as they walk to the front of the room to receive their medal and pick up the Creating Spaces anthology with their published work. 

Writing is a solitary activity, but it is fueled by community, by connection. By a sense that writing matters. As the Director of Creative Writing at SMSU, I thank all those parents, teachers, and writers who encourage and mentor young writers, who tell them to "keep writing, keep going." We need their words, stories and poems. 
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SMSU Reading from Memoir, "My Mother Is Now Earth," by Mark Anthony Rolo, Minnesota Book Award Finalist

1/28/2013

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Mark Anthony Rolo, author of the remarkable memoir My Mother Is Now Earth, will read at Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minn., as part of the Visiting Writers Series on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 in Charter Hall 201 at 7 p.m. The reading is free and open to the public. 


Rolo's book was named a finalist for the 2013 Minnesota Book Awards in the category of memoir and creative nonfiction. After the reading, you may purchase Rolo's book and have it signed. Please join us for an amazing evening.
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Reading with Sherry Quan Lee, Anya Achtenberg, and Christine Stark, Sunday, May 20, Minneapolis

5/16/2012

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Three award-winning writers with connections to North Minneapolis will read from their work this Sunday, May 20, 3:00 p.m., at Homewood Studios, 2400 Plymouth Ave. North, Minneapolis.

Sherry Quan Lee, Anya Achtenberg and Christine Stark all are writers who view writing as an act of social consequence.
For more information about each of them, click on their names to reach their web sites.

This past January Christine Stark read at Southwest Minnesota State University from her new novel, Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation. My freshmen composition students and creative writing students who attended her reading were riveted by her writing as were all of us in the audience. Published by Modern History Press, Christine's novel was recently named as one of  the finalists for the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards in the category of Lesbian Debut fiction, and the award ceremony will be held this June in New York.

 * * *

The end of my spring semester at SMSU was particularly busy, so I'm happy to be back posting on Fly-over Country now that my time has opened up more. It's good to connect with you and other writers and readers. I've posted two more of my published poems in the Poem Gallery, "Hawks on Guard" and "Bill Holm Joins Us at the Nail Salon." I hope you enjoy them.

I'll be getting back to a more regular schedule of posting on my blog several times a week between my summer writing projects, reading, prepping for fall classes and travels.

* * *
Today on The Writer's Almanac there were two quotes by Adrienne Rich, one of my favorite poets, whose birthday is today, May 16. I liked them so much I've added them to my email signature and share them with you here:

Adrienne Rich said, "You must write, and read, as if your life depended on it."
And "Poetry is the liquid voice that can wear through stone."



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Christine Stark to Read from New Novel at SMSU in January 2012

12/14/2011

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Christine Stark, author of the groundbreaking new novel Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation, (published by Modern History Press) will read at Southwest Minnesota State University on Monday, January 23, 2012 at 7 p.m. I'll be posting the location soon and hope that many of you will be able to join us.

Here is a review of Nickels: "This is the book we've been waiting for. Christine Stark has crafted a language and a diction commensurate with the shredding of consciousness that is a consequence of childhood sexual abuse. She brings us a wholly original voice in a riveting novel of desperation and love. Stark enables the reader to inhabit the intricacy and chaos of this potent inner landscape, and we have not seen this before. Every sentence vibrates with a terrible beauty. Every sentence brings the news." - Patricia Weaver Francisco, Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery

According to Reader Views website, "Christine is an award-winning writer and visual artist whose work has been published in numerous periodicals and anthologies. Christine has also spoken at numerous conferences, rallies, and universities nationally and internationally. She has been on National Public Radio's Justice Talking and she has appeared on national TV. She has been a community organizer and activist for nearly twenty years. She is a 2009 Pushcart Prize nominee and a 2010 Loft Mentorship winner in creative non-fiction. In 2011 her poem, 'Momma's Song,' was released as a CD in collaboration with musician Fred Ho. Christine teaches writing at Metropolitan State University. She lives in Minneapolis with her partner, April, and their dog and cat."

Here is the synopsis of Nickels from the Reader Views website: "Nickels follows a biracial girl named 'Little Miss So and So,' from age 4-1/2 into adulthood. Told in a series of prose poems, Nickels' lyrical and inventive language conveys the dissociative states born of a world formed by persistent and brutal incest and homophobia. The dissociative states enable the child's survival and, ultimately, the adult's healing. The story is both heartbreaking and triumphant." 

Christine is also a co-editor (with Rebecca Whisnant) of Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography,an international anthology about violence against women. 

I'm looking forward to reading my copy of Nickels when I finish grading end of semester finals, research papers and journalism portfolios. 

Best wishes to all the other teachers out there wrapping it up for the semester and heading into the victory lap.


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    Author

    I love to play with words. To capture moments on the page. To explore the physical and spiritual geography of what I call "fly-over country." I write from imagination, observation and my own experience of wandering in fly-over country--the literal, physical spaces of my life on the Minnesota prairie and the inner territory of the soul. 

    I teach writing at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. I enjoy cooking and traveling with my husband Jim, reading, practicing yoga, playing tennis, biking, hiking and gardening.

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