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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A Higher Level: Southwest State Women's Tennis 1979-1992

11/6/2012

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Picture
Dana Yost, an award-winning journalist and an SMSU graduate, has just published a new book, A Higher Level: Southwest State Women's Tennis 1979-1992, "a classic college sports story,"
according to Dr. Jon Wefald, former SMSU president from 1977-82 who went on to serve as president of Kansas State University for 23 years.


In 1989-90, when my family moved to Marshall, Minn., I served as the assistant coach of the team under Dr. Hugh Curtler, SMSU philosophy professor and director of the Honors Program, who won NAIA Coach of the Year in 1990. The women tennis players were from Minnesota as well as all around the world. Having played on the fledgling women's tennis team at the University of Notre Dame during 1974, my freshman year, I appreciated the chance to once again experience the thrill of college level competition, this time from the sidelines helping to coach these outstanding women athletes. If you like tennis and you like a good story about a team winning against all the odds, this is a book you'll want to pick up.

Dana will be in Marshall to sign his new book on Saturday, Dec. 15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Marshall Area Fine Arts Center, 109 N. Third Street, and from 6-10 p.m. at the SMSU Men's Basketball game on campus.

Here's a blog post about the book on the Argus Leader website by Jill Callison:
http://arguscallison.tumblr.com/post/35070070444/tennis-in-marshall-minn

Here's an article about the book on the website of the United States Tennis Association:
http://www.northern.usta.com/news/dana_yost_publishes_new_book_about_sw_state_womens_tennis/

And here's a guest blog by Dana Yost about his book on Holly Michael's Writing Straight website:
http://writingstraight.com/

A Higher Level can be purchased online through www.ellispress.com or www.amazon.com and at select local retailers. An e-book version is also available for the Kindle e-reader.
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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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2012 Annual AWP Conference - Chicago

2/26/2012

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This week I'm traveling with two other SMSU professors, Jim Zarzana and Neil Smith, and 12 English majors and Creative Writing students to Chicago for the 2012 AWP Annual Conference and Bookfair, Feb. 29-March 3 (Association of Writers and Writing Programs). 

In past years, SMSU faculty and students have attended AWP Conferences in Austin, Atlanta, New York, Chicago and Denver. Although graduate students typically attend this conference along with Creative Writing faculty, it's unusual for undergraduates to get this opportunity. But the SMSU Creative Writing Program faculty believe first-hand exposure to internationally acclaimed writers is one of the best ways to connect our students with the tribe of writers and motivate them to do their best work. And our English majors work hard on fund-raisers to make the trip happen.

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, spent a lot of time in the city, and I love Chicago--the lakefront, the architecture, the Art Institute, the restaurants, and the parks. This trip I'm hoping to make time to tour the new home of the Poetry Foundation, which opened last June. 
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Writer Christine Stark to Read at SMSU on Jan. 23

1/6/2012

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Here's an article below reprinted from SMSU Today. I hope you'll be able to join us for Christine's reading on the 23rd, which is being hosted by SMSU's Creative Writing Program and the New Horizons Crisis Center. It is free and open to the public. And if you're not able to attend, I urge you to read this beautiful, heartbreaking, triumphant novel (see below) and share it widely.
*  *  *
Writer Christine Stark will read from her debut novel, Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation, at 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23 in Charter Hall 201.

Stark wears many hats. Besides being an award-winning writer and visual artist, she is also a public speaker and advocate for the sexually abused. Her fiction, poetry and nonfiction have been published in a variety of periodicals and anthologies, including the University of Pennsylvania Law Review; Poetry Motel; Feminist Studies; Birthed from Scorched Hearts; The Progressive Woman’s Magazine; Hawk and Handsaw; Journal of Creative Sustainability; Narratives of Modern Slavery; Woman and Earth: An Almanac in Russian and English; and many others.

She is a coauthor of the groundbreaking research entitled “Garden of Truth: The Prostitution and Trafficking of Native Women in Minnesota.” She is also a coauthor (with Rebecca Whisnant) of Not for Sale, an international anthology about sexual violence.

Stark has won numerous awards for her writing, including a Pushcart nomination, a McKnight Award and a Loft Mentor Series in creative nonfiction. She has also won a McKnight Award for her visual art. She lives in Minneapolis with her partner and teaches writing at Metropolitan State University in the Twin Cities.

Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation follows a biracial girl named Little Miss So and So from age 4 into adulthood. Told in a series of prose poems, Nickels’ lyrical and inventive language conveys the dissociation 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 content is both heartbreaking and triumphant. For further information, call 507-537-7251.


*  *  *


 Yesterday an article by Kathleen Barry, professor emerita of Penn State University, entitled "Sexual Politics at Penn State--An Inside Look" published on The Women's Media Center website, referred to Christine's novel Nickels: 


"To break through the mainstream media’s problematic language and get a sense of the depth of harm the victim experiences in sexual abuse, I suggest reading Christine Stark’s new novel, Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation. The author, also a poet and visual artist, manages to bring the experience of sexual abuse into a present moment reality through the first-person narrative of Little Miss So and So, from age five to twenty-five, from surviving her father’s sexual abuse at various ages to a world of support created by feminists and lesbians.

"Since feminism broke open this best kept secret decades ago, we have been heartbroken and angered by the testimony and memoirs of women who as children fell victim to a father, stepfather, grandfather or uncle. The effects could be so severe that memory might not contain it—until some experience in adulthood provides the trigger and floods of anguish take over. So the story, Nickels, is not new. But Christine Stark has chosen a style and genre—a stream of consciousness novel—that keeps Little Miss So and So in the present tense.

"Her reality is not segmented into sentences or paragraphs; its monologue is born in experience and expressed in a voice authentic to her heroine at various ages. Nothing could bring her reality—the abuse, the doctors, the courts, her escape, breakdown and recovery—closer to our consciousness. The author knows something about survival, about putting one foot in front of the other to move through a situation we are never meant to experience.  Little Miss So and So’s present moments yield immediately to new present moments that the reader cannot escape; yet the pace is fast enough to relieve us of the need to “get through it.”

"This book and its empathetic engagement will be a treasure to anyone working with victims of sexual abuse. And if we want to truly understand the failure in the Penn State scandal, we will look closely to its victims."

* * *
I hope to see you on Jan. 23rd for what I know will be a phenomenal evening.

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SMSU Poetry Slam on Jan. 5

1/3/2012

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Happy New Year! I hope your year is off to a bright, warm start.

My holiday break was filled to the brim with friends and family, great food, and lots of reading. Now I'm re-charged to begin the spring semester teaching writing at SMSU.

To get 2012 rolling on a creative high note, plan to stop by the SMSU Poetry Slam hosted by Nick White, a creative writing major at SMSU, this Thursday, Jan. 5, 7:30 p.m. at The Daily Grind, 316 W. Main Street, Marshall, Minnesota. 


Last semester when Nick initiated the Poetry Slam nights at The Daily Grind, he packed the seats  by featuring talented student slam poets and by opening the mic to student poets ready to go public with their work. I hope to see you there on Thursday either as a performer or audience member. Thank you for supporting the arts and joining the big dance!  

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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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The News in Southwest Minnesota and "Sticky Stories"

11/27/2011

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These are busy days for all us teachers as the end of the semester approaches, so I'm keeping this post short. 

I've added one of my published poems, "The News from Southwest Minnesota" to the Poem Gallery page on my website. It appeared in Farming Words: The Harvest of Literature at a Prairie College edited by Bill Holm and David Pichaske and published by the SMSU Foundation. The poem sprouted from a disturbing news article about a fatal accident I'd read about in the Marshall Independent. 

If you're searching for a good prompt for a poem, story or essay, the newspaper--print or online-- is a great place to start. What story bothers you, grabs your attention, keeps you awake and wondering at night? A writer friend of mine likes to use "sticky words" as prompts, so why not use "sticky news stories"? Start writing about it, and see where it takes you. When I started writing about the Buddhist monk's accident, I had no idea where the poem was going and was surprised when the words came to me. Surprise yourself, surprise your reader.
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A Modern-day Pilgrim's Journey to Giving Thanks

11/24/2011

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Happy Thanksgiving! The pilgrims celebrated to give thanks for their survival after a brutal winter and for a bountiful harvest. This holiday gives me many reasons to be grateful after surviving life's challenges and embracing abundance. 

On Thanksgiving Day 1982 in Indianapolis at the home of my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Tom Jeffers, with my large Irish-American Catholic clan gathered, Jim Zarzana, the love of my life, and I announced our engagement. It hadn't been an easy road for either of us to reach that "YES!" moment, each of us having learned many hard lessons from earlier relationships by the ages of 27 and 33. Our wedding's theme, "In the Fullness of Time," indicated the long, winding path that brought us to that moment. Right after our vows and first kiss as husband and wife in Sacred Heart Church at the University of Notre Dame, we surprised family and friends by connecting our right hand palms in a resounding, perfect high-five, something we'd been practicing privately for months but were unsure we'd actually pull off. But the moment came, and just as each couple makes a wedding their own, all our elation at finding each other, putting aside our fears, and saying "I do!" burst through in that high-five moment. At our wedding, the centerpieces were cornucopia-shaped baskets spilling with bright mesh bags bursting with Jordan almonds. This tradition from my husband's Sicilian ancestry reminds new couples that life is both sweet like the sugary coating and hard like the nut inside. 

Today 28 years later, Jim and I will be feasting at the home of our friend Susan McLean with other dear friends and SMSU colleagues  in Marshall, Minnesota with lively banter, laughter and stories around our table. Along the way, we've had to move literally and figuratively out of our comfort zones. We've received pink slips and, as writers, lots of rejection letters, but we've also been blessed with good work we love, our teaching and our writing, travel abroad with our students through SMSU's Global Studies Program, good health, and a wonderful faith community in Marshall.

On Thanksgiving Day 1985, 10 days overdue with our first child, I felt my permanent status would be walking blimp. We'd been invited to the home of good friends, but I worried my water might break right on their brand-new white dining room carpet. Thankfully, it broke at home while I was taking an afternoon nap. Finally! Jim and I packed and drove to the hospital. Elaine May Zarzana, arrived 8 hours later on November 29, 1985 at 12:24 a.m., 7 lbs., 5 oz., with a thick cap of black hair. With Jim by my side through it all, including cutting the umbilical cord, I was elated, couldn't sleep, just wanted to stare at our beautiful new daughter, to call and wake everyone in my family and tell them the good news. No one takes a birth for granted, but since we had a miscarriage with our first conception, we were especially grateful for our healthy girl. Now in a couple days, Elaine will turn 26. She has blessed our married life abundantly. We were both from big families--I have five siblings, Jim has three--and we planned to have three of our own children and adopt two. But life had other plans. Because we had a second miscarriage in 1988 and were unable to conceive again even after medical procedures, Elaine is our only child. But as one of her childhood friends once proclaimed, "Having Elaine must be like having 10 kids!" Yes, with dear friends of Elaine's who've been like "daughters and sons of our heart," our family has grown and expanded in ways we never imagined. And wherever Elaine goes, she has the gift of creating a sense of family and community. Currently working in Marshall at New Horizons Crisis Center as the Relationship Series Director, she's travels throughout southwest Minnesota teaching high school freshman how to become more knowledgeable about their own bodies and to embrace their sexuality in healthy ways. In a society that struggles mightily with unhealthy attitudes about sex, we're grateful Elaine has this opportunity to use her gifts and her passion for teaching teens as well as to connect with other people statewide in this field. 

Synchronicity weaves through my days like a bright thread, and last week I experienced one of those moments. Elaine and I had driven up to the Twin Cities because she was serving on the statewide annual conference planning committee for Teenwise. On the way up, she asked me, "What's new?" I told her about the SMSU FOCUS piece that features the English Department, including Jim and myself. I also told her about a writer friend from grad school at Minnesota State University, Mankato who had a new book and was going to do a reading at SMSU as a visiting writer in the spring semester. On the way back to Marshall, Elaine said, "You know your writer friend who's reading at SMSU? She might be the keynote speaker at the Teenwise annual conference." As mother and daughter, I felt like we were on parallel paths, both following our passion for teaching, writing, and creating in different, life-giving ways. 

Today the sun is shining in Marshall, our first snow has already melted off, and the air is crisp and clear. Overnight, we brined our 19.5-pound Heritage Grove Farm Bronze turkey in a spicy brown bath of broth, "flipped the bird" this morning from breast to back, will wrangle it into the oven this afternoon, load it in our car, and drive over to our friend Susan's home. 

The journey to this Thanksgiving Day has been filled with God's "amazing grace," a song I've been drawn to play lately on our piano. I wish you a Thanksgiving filled with many reasons to give thanks and to stay wide open to God's amazing grace.
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    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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