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News & Events

Poets & Writers gave the University of Montana Creative Writing Program a highly-selective rating in its recent article, "2010 MFA Rankings: The Top Fifty." The poll was based on a survey of recent applicants to creative writing MFA programs. Click here to read the complete article.

  Simon Ortiz with creative writing students and Director, Prageeta Sharma

Poet Simon Ortiz with creative writing students and Director, Pragaeeta Sharma, at the November 13 reading sponsored by Native American Studies and the Creative Writing Program

                                            Peter Orner
PETER ORNER:

Award-winning fiction writer and oral historian Peter Orner will read from his recent work and sign books Friday, Dec. 4, 7 p.m. at the Dell Brown Room, Turner Hall of the University of Montana .                                                       

Click here for a complete schedule of University of Montana Creative Writing Program events.

The University of Montana Creative Writing Program is a sponsor of the 2010 AWP Conference in Denver, April 7 - 10. Featured presenters at the conference are Michael Chabon, Rick Bass, Rita Dove, Etgar Keret, George Saunders, Terry Tempest Williams and Achy Obejas.

Fall 2009

Featured Books

CutBank  71 is now available! The issue features the winners of the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, the Montana Prize in Fiction, and the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, as well as work and commentary by Joe Sills, Melissa Kwasny, and Joy Williams.

 

Where the Money Went by Kevin Canty

Kevin Canty's new collection of stories entitled Where the Money Went was published in July 2009 by Nan A. Talese / Knopf. Jay Stevens of the Missoula Independent describes Where the Money Went as Canty at his best. Click here to read Steven's review. Click here to read a review of Canty's work in the Los Angeles Times.

 

Judy Blunt's Breaking Clean

Judy Blunt's Breaking Clean (Knopf, 2002) was recently mentioned by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five best books evoking the Modern American West. The list also includes books by Gretel Ehrlich, James Galvin, Geoffrey O'Gara and Terry Tempest Williams. To read the full article, visit the WSJ here.

 

Language for a New CEntury

Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond, a landmark anthology, providing the most ambitious, far-reaching collection of contemporary Asian and Middle Eastern poetry available, is now available from W.W. Norton. The anthology, co-edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar, includes the work of 400 writers, including Creative Writing director Prageeta Sharma. For more information, visit the Norton website here.

Karen Volkman's Nomina

Karen Volkman's Nomina has been released from BOA Editions as part of their American Poets Continuum Series. Nomina, Volkman's third full-length collection of poems, Nomina is a book of sonnets, yet sonnets that "far from a tidy closed form ... are volatile, sometimes violent instruments, resounding with struggle and shock."--to read the review of Nomina in Time Out New York, visit here.


THE PROGRAM

The University of Montana's writing program began formally in 1965 with the establishment of the M.F.A. degree, and has been shaped and influenced over the years by the likes of Richard Hugo, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and Leslie Fiedler. Today it is nourished by a talented, committed, and accomplished group of faculty-writers, as well as by an increasingly distinguished community of alumni. Together with the talents and accomplishments of our current students, this community is continuing the M.F.A.'s program as one of the oldest and most prestigious programs in the country. Prageeta Sharma is the Director of the Creative Writing Program.