Next Up | Deb Olin Unferth

The New Writing Series presents a reading by fiction writer and memoirist Deb Olin Unferth on Thursday, April 3, 2014. The event will be held at 4:30pm in the Hill Auditorium of Barrows Hall and is free and open to the public. Fiction writer and Creative Writing faculty member Greg Howard will host.

Deb Olin Unferth is the author of the story collection Minor Robberies and the novel Vacation, winner of the 2009 Cabell First Novelist Award and a New York Times Book Review Critics’ Choice. Her memoir, Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War, was published by Henry Holt in 2011 and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work has been featured in Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Believer, and the Boston Review. She has received two Pushcart Prizes and a 2009 Creative Capital grant for Innovative Literature and was a Harper’s Bazaar Editors’ Choice: Name to Know in 2011. She teaches at Wesleyan University and currently lives in New York.

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On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series was founded in 1999 and 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, the University of Maine Humanities Initiative, the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the IMRC, and to donors Allen and Sally Fernald, for use of the AP/PE Black Box space. For more information contact NWS Coordinator Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that requires 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).

The University of Maine does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender status and gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information or veteran’s status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies: Director, Office of Equal Opportunity, 101 North Stevens Hall, 207-581-1226.

Next Up | Christine Hume

The New Writing Series presents a reading by poet and sound artist Christine Hume on Thursday, March 27, 2014. The event will be held at 4:30pm in the Hill Auditorium of Barrows Hall and is free and open to the public. Fiction writer and Creative Writing faculty member David Kress will host.

Christine Hume is the author of three volumes of poety, Musca Domestica (Beacon, 2000); Alaskaphrenia (New Issues, 2004); and Shot (Counterpath, 2010). A chapbook with CD, Lullaby: Speculations on the First Active Sense, was released by Ugly Ducking Presse in 2008. Her most recent chapbooks are Ventifacts (Omnidawn, 2012) and Hum (Dikembe, 2013).

Hume has published, installed, and performed sonic work in galleries and at conferences such as MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit), Chicago Cultural Center, SPACES Gallery in Cleveland, Centro Nacional de Cultura in Lisbon, Residency College Gallery at University of Michigan, Poetry Off the Page Symposium at University of Arizona, Small Press Fest at University of Colorado, &Now Conference at University of Buffalo, Poetry of Plays at Barnard College; and online at TextSound, Women Studies Quarterly, Requited, InDiget and on numerous radio programs.

She has performed and given lectures or workshops on sound poetry at University of Georgia, Boise State University, University of Montana, School of the Art Institute in Chicago, University of Houston, Pomona College, University of Miami, Otis School of Art and Design, and Cooper Colored Mountain Arts Center.

Hume received her BA from Penn State University, her MFA from Columbia University, and her PhD from University of Denver. She is Professor of English at Eastern Michigan University, where she directs the interdisciplinary creative writing program, co-directs BathHouse Events, and hosts Poetry Radio, which features contemporary and historic sound art, performance art, sound poetry, and collaborations between writers and musicians. She lives in Ypsilanti, Mich., with her daughter, Juna, and partner, Jeff Clark.

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On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series was founded in 1999 and 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, the University of Maine Humanities Initiative, the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the IMRC, and to donors Allen and Sally Fernald, for use of the AP/PE Black Box space. For more information contact NWS Coordinator Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that requires 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).

The University of Maine does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender status and gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information or veteran’s status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies: Director, Office of Equal Opportunity, 101 North Stevens Hall, 207-581-1226.

Next Up | Tracie Morris

The New Writing Series, in collaboration with the Honors College, presents a performance by poet Tracie Morris on Thursday, March 20, 2014. The event will be held at 4:30pm in the new Black Box performance space in 104 Stewart Commons and is free and open to the public. New Writing Series coordinator Steve Evans will host.

Tracie Morris is a poet who has worked extensively as a sound poet, bandleader, actor and multimedia performer. Her sound installations have been presented at the Whitney Biennial, MoMA, Ronald Feldman Gallery, The Silent Barn, The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, The Drawing Center, The Gramsci Monument with Thomas Hirshhorn for the DIA Foundation and other galleries. She also leads her own eponymous band and is lead singer for Elliott Sharp’s group, Terraplane.

Morris is the recipient of numerous awards for poetry and performance and has contributed to, and been written about in, several anthologies of literary criticism. Her most recent poetry collection, Rhyme Scheme, includes a sound poetry CD. She is currently working on two books about the philosopher J.L. Austin and Black vernacular, a creative project on Ira Aldridge and recently completed tracks on 4am Always, a new recording with Terraplane, She holds an MFA in Poetry from Hunter College, has studied classical British acting technique extensively at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and holds a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University. She is Professor and Coordinator of Performance + Performance Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.

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# # #

On Facebook? Consider joining the NWS group here.

The UMaine New Writing Series was founded in 1999 and 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, the University of Maine Humanities Initiative, the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost, and the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the IMRC, and to donors Allen and Sally Fernald, for use of the AP/PE Black Box space. For more information contact NWS Coordinator Steve Evans at steven dot evans at maine dot edu or at 207-581-3818.

If you have a disability that requires 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).

The University of Maine does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender status and gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information or veteran’s status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies: Director, Office of Equal Opportunity, 101 North Stevens Hall, 207-581-1226.