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On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundation with support from the Lloyd H. Elliott Fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

JOSHUA EDWARDS directs and co-edits (with Robyn Schiff, Nick Twemlow, and Lynn Xu) Canarium Books. He’s the translator of Mexican poet María Baranda’s Ficticia (Shearsman Books, 2010), and the author of Campeche (Noemi Press, 2011) and Imperial Nostalgias (Ugly Duckling Presse, forthcoming 2013). From October 2012 through September 2013 he’ll be a fellow in residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany. He lives in Berkeley and teaches at Stanford.

ISH KLEIN is the author of the poetry books Moving Day (2011) and Union! (2009), both published by Canarium. She is a graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers Workshop for Poetry. A compilation of her recent videos, entitled Success Window, has been released by Poor Claudia of Portland, Oregon. Her work has screened at festivals and museums around the world (see some videos here). She lives in Amherst with the writer Greg Purcell. Together they produce the poetry podcast called Noslander.

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On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

Jason Canniff will read from his winning manuscript “Shading Strings” and David Trinidad will read from Dear Prudence: New & Selected Poems, published this fall by Turtle Point.

The event, which takes place on Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 4:30pm in the Soderberg Center Auditorium of Jenness Hall on the flagship campus of the University of Maine in Orono, is free and open to the public, though seating is limited.

The Frank and Helene Crohn Edna St. Vincent Millay Prize was established by the Crohns, of Rhinebeck, N.Y., through a $300,000 gift held at the University of Maine Foundation. The annual prize, which recognizes graduate student achievement in poetry, comes with a $1,500 cash award.

Jason Canniff grew up in a military family in the Mid Coast region of Maine, attending school in Brunswick and Bath, graduating from Morse High in 1997. As a young father, Jason attended the University of Maine, studying English and working as a photography editor for the Maine Campus and a part-time photographer for the Bangor Daily News. Taking some time off in 2002, Jason began a career in Hospitality Management, and became involved in various community projects, including a Culinary Arts jobs program for the homeless, and stint on the board of the American Cancer Society in Muscogee County, Georgia.

Resuming his coursework at the University of Maine in 2010, Jason quickly discovered his love for poetry. He began working with poet and Associate Professor Jennifer Moxley, and served as the Assistant to the New Writing Series. Jason also completed a term as President of the Non-Traditional Students Association, working with the administration to create further opportunities for non-traditional students and to enrich their overall experience at UMaine. He earned Highest Honors from the Honors College for his creative thesis Shading Strings, a collection of poems, and received his B.A. in English in May 2011.

When he is not writing, Jason likes to paint, hike, bowl, and cook Spanish food. He is currently pursuing an M.A in English with a concentration in Creative Writing at UMaine, where he teaches College Composition, and is the poetry editor for the graduate literary magazine, The Stolen Island Review.

David Trinidad’s most recent books are Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems (2011), The Late Show(2007), and By Myself (with D.A. Powell, 2009), all published by Turtle Point Press. His other books include Phoebe 2002: An Essay in Verse (with Lynn Crosbie and Jeffery Conway, Turtle Point, 2003), Plasticville (Turtle Point, 2000, finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets), Answer Song(High Risk/Serpent’s Tail, 1994), Hand Over Heart: Poems 1981-1988 (Amethyst Press, 1991), and Pavane(Sherwood Press, 1981).

Trinidad currently teaches poetry at Columbia College Chicago, where he co-edits the journal Court Green and is the 2011-2013 Distinguished Scholar. Previously, Trinidad was a member of the Core Poetry Faculty of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at The New School. He has also taught at Rutgers, Princeton, and Antioch (Los Angeles) universities.

In addition to his own books of poetry, he has edited A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos (Nightboat Books, 2011), Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry (with Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton, Soft Skull Press, 2007), and Holding Our Own: The Selected Poems of Ann Stanford (with Maxine Scates, Copper Canyon Press, 2001). His poems have appeared in such periodicals as The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Harper’s, The Paris Review, Tin House and TriQuarterly, and have been included in numerous anthologies, including Up Late: American Poetry Since 1970, High Risk: An Anthology of Forbidden Writings, The Best American Poetry,Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.

Originally from Los Angeles, Trinidad has been called “a master of the postmodern pop-culture sublime.” His work is also associated with the innovative formalism of the New York School. Alice Notley has written, “There is an unwavering light in all of Trinidad’s work that turns individual words into objects, new facts.” About The Late Show, the New York Times Book Review wrote that Trinidad’s “most impressive gift is an ability to dignify the dross of American life, to honor both the shrink-wrapped sentiment of the cultural artifacts he writes about and his own much more complicated emotional response to them.”

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On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

Joshua Corey graduated from Vassar College in 1993 and earned an M.A. in English literature and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Montana. He was awarded a Stegner Fellowship in creative writing from Stanford University in 1999, and received his Ph.D. in English from Cornell University in 2007. He is the author of Selah (Barrow Street, 2003), Fourier Series (Spineless Books, 2005), and two chapbooks. He teaches at Lake Forest College in Illinois.

Some links: Corey’s thoughts on American Poetry. Nora Delaney’s review of Severance Songs. Corey on Twitter.

On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

Photo by Phoebe Gloeckner

On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

Produced in collaboration with the Cave Canem Writers Circuit initiative.

On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

September 15   Amina Cain
September 22   Laura Mullen & Kathleen Ossip
September 29   Ken Irby & Pierre Joris
October 13        Ed Roberson
November 03   Ted Pelton
November 10   Joshua Corey
November 17   David Trinidad & Jason Canniff

Readings start at 4:30PM in the Soderberg Center Auditorium
Jenness Hall, University of Maine, Orono

All events are free & open to the public, though seating is limited.

Check this blog regularly for individual event information & updates.

On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

If you’re familiar with competitive ping pong, you’ve heard of Brad Beauregard who grew up in Skowhegan, Maine, on a street aptly named the “Back Road.” He came to the University of Maine as an undergraduate in 2006. He decided to continue as a graduate student at the University of Maine because he already had an apartment, which was as good a reason as any other. He started writing fiction with hopes of one day bringing back the long overlooked “Choose Your Own Adventure” genre, which he considers the only true form of art. He has worked as a hunting guide, dog trainer, part-time cowboy, and full time dishwasher. He has been known to take significant creative liberties when writing his own biography. When asked about his recent fiction, the New Yorker, the Boston Globe, and Home and Garden Quarterly all responded the same, saying, “We have absolutely no idea who that guy is.” Beauregard took second place in the Master’s-level fiction category.

James Brophy, a lifelong Maine native, graduated from UMaine last fall with a degree in Classical Languages and Literature. He now studies early 20th-century literature in the Masters program at the English department, and can’t help but notice how little has really changed in 2,500 years. James looks forward to working with the National Poetry Foundation next fall as Editorial Assistant, and continuing to discover new and interesting things about modernity. Brophy won first place in the Master’s-level poetry category.

Jason Canniff is an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in Political Science. This year, Jason has served as the President of the Nontraditional Students Association, and was a charter member of the English Student Advisory Board. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, winning at chess, and hanging out with Atreyu, his geriatric Yellow Lab. Jason will be graduating from the Honors College this May. Canniff won first place in the Bachelor’s-level poetry category.

Sadie Jane Fenton grew up in a Coast Guard family before settling down in Jonesport, Maine. She graduated from Jonesport-Beals High School and went on to graduate from St. Joseph’s College of Maine with a Bachelor’s Degree in English, concentrations in literature and creative writing, and a minor in Classics. She is currently a Graduate Assistant in the English Master’s Degree program here at the University of Maine. Fenton took second place in the Master’s-level poetry category.

Joanna Hynd is a fourth year English major concentrating in poetry.  If all goes well, she will have received honors for her poetry manuscript/honors thesis a few minutes before reading at the Grady’s. She has been published in The Maine Review in 2010 and Cenacle in 2005. She hopes to take a semester abroad to complete the two remaining general requirements she needs to graduate. If not, she will be found wandering the Maine landscape for her 24th consecutive year. Hynd took second place in the Bachelor’s-level poetry category.

Samuel Lavoie is a fourth year English major with a concentration in creative writing and a double minor in History and Business Administration. A native of Frenchville, Maine, he spent his time as an undergraduate dabbling in a number of majors before finally converting to English. He spends his off-time voraciously reading to make up for all the time he’s spent not doing so, as well as working on numerous writing projects, including a novel and several short stories. Taming and reworking these projects, as well as expanding his all-too-short reading resume, is a major goal for the summer. Lavoie took second place in the Bachelor’s-level fiction category.

Joe Mayers is from Elsberry, Missouri. This fall, he will be entering the University of Utah’s PhD in Creative Writing Program. Mayers won first place in the Master’s-level fiction category.

John Shannon is a senior undergraduate student with a major in English and a minor in Theater. He writes film reviews and other articles for the Maine Campus Newspaper, including reports on the New Writing Series. He is honored to be reading at the same podium that held notes for the many talented writers he witnessed over the years. He would like to thank Professor Margery Irvine, whose assignment provided the spark that became “As The Saints Go Marching,” as well as his friends and family for their support and criticism. Shannon won first place in the Bachelor’s-level fiction category.

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On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).

Brock Clarke is the author of five books, most recently Exley and An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England, which was a national bestseller and has appeared in a dozen foreign editions. His stories and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, OneStory, The Believer, the Georgia Review, and the Southern Review and have appeared in the annual Pushcart Prize and New Stories from the South anthologies and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. He lives in Portland, Maine, and teaches creative writing at Bowdoin College.

Click here for Brock Clarke’s recent conversation about Exley on the WCSH newsmagazine 207. You can hear him discuss the book with NPR Weekend Edition’s Rebecca Roberts here.

Check this blog regularly for individual event information & updates.

On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series is sponsored by the English Department and the National Poetry Foundationwith support from the Lloyd H. Elliott fund, the Milton Ellis Memorial Fund, the Honors College, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Pulp & Paper Foundation for the use of the Soderberg Center. FMI contact Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that may require accommodation for a NWS event, please contact Ann Smith in the office of Disability Support Service, 121 East Annex, 581-2319 (Voice) or 581-2311 (TDD).