WHIDBEY MFA NEWS
Graduates and almost-graduates of Whidbey MFA Program become editors of prestigious LA Review.
Ann Beman, Nancy Boutin, Tanya Chernov, Kelly Davio, Stefanie Freele, and Laurie Junkins, Whidbey students and alumni, are currently soliciting, editing, and arranging the content of the next issue of the Los Angeles Review for Red Hen Press.
WHIDBEY ISLAND MFA FACULTY
For publications and honors of students and alumni, see Students in Print
Kathleen Alcalá, Fiction
PUBLICATIONS
The Desert Remembers My Name, University of Arizona Press, 2007.
Treasures in Heaven, Chronicle Books, 2000; Northwestern Univ. Press, 2003.
The Flower in the Skull, Chronicle Books, 1998; Harvest Books, 1999.
Spirits of the Ordinary, Chronicle Books, 1997; Harvest Books, 1998.
Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist, story collection, Calyx Books, 1992.
AWARDS & HONORS
2008 – International Latino Book Award and Forward Magazine Award for The Desert Remembers My Name. The book was also recently selected as one of Margaret Guerrero’s “Top Picks” in the 2007 Southwest Books of the Year.
2007 – Washington State/Artist Trust Fellowship; Centro Cultural Hispano Americano Quimbaya Award.
Website for K. Alcalá
Bonny Becker, Childrens/Young Adult
A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton, Candlewick, 2008 Preschool-2
2009 Notables Book of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC); Oprah Children’s Book Club as a great read for 3-5 year olds; Winner of the Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text; Amazon.com best picture book of 2008; Blue Ribbon from the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books; Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art 2008 Picture Book of Distinction.
Also author of My Brother, The Robot; Holbrook: A Lizard’s Tale; An Ant’s Day Off; Just a Minute; The Christmas Crocodile.
Website for B. Becker
Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Childrens/Young Adult
PUBLICATIONS AND HONORS
Diego: Bigger Than Life (Marshall Cavendish, 2009) Illustrated by David Diaz. Ages 8-12.
Frida: ¡Viva la Vida! Long Live Life! (Marshall Cavendish, 2007) Illustrated by Frida Kahlo’s art. Ages 12-up.
Pura Belpré Honor Award; ALA Children’s Notable Book; NCSS-CDC Notable Social Studies Trade Book; Booklist Editor’s Choice; Booklist, starred review; Kirkus, starred review; 2008 Evelyn Sibley Lampman Award “For Significant Contributions to the Children of Oregon in the Field of Children’s Literature” by the Oregon Library Association’s Children’s Division.
César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can! (Marshall Cavendish, 2004) Illustrated by Caldecott medallist David Diaz. Ages 8-up.
Pura Belpré Honor Award; Eloise Jarvis McGraw Oregon Book Award Finalist; American Library Association Notable; Notable Social Studies Trade Book; Notable Book for a Global Society; Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Award Nominee; School Library Journal, starred review
Shake It, Morena: Folklore From Puerto Rico (Millbrook Press, 2002) Illustrated by Award winner Lulu Delacre. Ages 3-up.
In the Shade of the Níspero Tree (Orchard Books, 1999) Ages 8-up
Oregon Book Award Finalist; Capitol Choice; Smithsonian Notable
Who Helped Ox? (Scholastic Phonics Readers, 1997) Illustrated by Vivi Escrivá. Ages PreK-3.
Poet and Politician of Puerto Rico: Don Luis Muñoz Marín (Orchard Books,1995) Ages 10-up.
El Nuevo Día Book of the Year
Juan Bobo: Four Folktales from Puerto Rico (HarperCollins, 1994) Illustrated by Ernesto Ramos Nieves. Ages 5-up.
Américas Commended List; Blue Ribbon from the Bulletin of the Center of Children’s Books
Website for C. Bernier-Grand
Lawrence W. Cheek, Non-fiction
PUBLICATIONS
The Year of the Boat: Beauty, Imperfection, and the Art of Doing It Yourself, Sasquatch Books 2008
Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona, Rio Nuevo Publishers 2006
The Navajo Long Walk, Rio Nuevo Publishers 2004
Kokopelli, Rio Nuevo Publishers 2004
Nature’s Extremes, Arizona Highways 2000
Mesa Verde: The Living Park
A professional journalist and author since the age of 15, Lawrence W. Cheek spent 17 years reporting and editing for daily newspapers. In 1987, he went freelance and has written over 600 magazine articles for publications such as the “Los Angeles Times Magazine”, “Arizona Highways”, “Sunset”, “American Heritage”, and “Architecture”.
Website for L. Cheek
Bruce Holland Rogers, Fiction
PUBLICATIONS (selected)
The Keyhole Opera, (collected stories) introduction by Michael Bishop, Wheatland Press, 2005.
Thirteen Ways to Water, (collected stories) Wheatland Press and Panisphere Books, 2004.
Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer, (non-fiction) Invisible Cities Press, Montpelier, VT. 2002.
Lifeboat on a Burning Sea and other stories, (collected stories e-book) Alexandria Digital Literature, 2001, adapted for television by the Showtime cable company as “The Other Side.” Screenplay by Mary Stuart Masterson, directed by Mary Stuart Masterson. Starring Anthony LaPaglia. Premiered 29 June, 2001.
Flaming Arrows, (collected stories) introduction by Kate Wilhelm, IFD Publishing, 2001.
Bones of the World: Tales from Time’s End, (editor, anthology) SFF Net, Plano, Texas, 2001.
Wind Over Heaven and Other Dark Tales, (collected stories)introduction by Alan Rodgers, Wildside Press, 2000.
Bedtime Stories to Darken Your Dreams, (editor, anthology) IFD Publishing, Eugene, Oregon, 1999.
Ashes of the Sun, a novel in the Magic: The Gathering Universe (bylined Hanovi Braddock, pseudonym), HarperPrism, February 1996.
Mind Games, book number ten in the new Tom Swift series (bylined Victor Appleton, house pseudonym), Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Other film adaptation: “Fear of Falling” has been adapted for a KulaMedia film of the same title. Screemplay by Bradd Graves. In current production.
Over 200 works of short fiction in numerous prestigious literary publications
HONORS (selected)
Fulbright Teaching Fellowship – In 2010, Bruce Holland Rogers will travel to Eotvos Lorand University, ELTE in Budapest, Hungary to teach writing.
First Annual Micro Award for “Reconstruction Work,” 2008.
World Fantasy Award for The Keyhole Opera, 2006.
World Fantasy Award for “Don Ysidro,” 2004.
Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship, 1999.
Pushcart Prize for “The Dead Boy at Your Window,” 1999.
Bram Stoker Award for “The Dead Boy at Your Window,” 1998.
Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Short Story of 1998
Website for B. Rogers
Wayne Ude, Fiction, Director of Whidbey Island MFA Program
PUBLICATIONS
Becoming Coyote, a novel, Lynx House Press
Buffalo and other stories, Lynx House Press
Three Coyote Tales, Lone Oak Press, hand-printed, hand- bound, hand illustrated limited edition
Maybe I Will Do Something: Seven Stories of Coyote (ages 10 and up), Houghton Mifflin
HONORS
Previous to the MFA program on Whidbey Island, Wayne Ude co-designed (with Bill Tremblay) the Colorado State University MFA program and was lead designer of the Old Dominion University MFA program. For seven years he served as fiction and managing editor of the Colorado State Review (now Colorado Review) literary magazine.
In 1998 Ude was among the founding members of the Whidbey Island Writers Association.
In 2002 and 2003, he led the design team for the Whidbey Writers Workshop low-residency MFA Program which he now directs. Ude holds a Masters in Not-for-Profit Leadership from Seattle University.
Website for W. Ude
David Wagoner, Poetry
PUBLICATIONS
David Wagoner has published 18 books of poems. Most recently: A Map of the Night, U. of Illinois Press, 2008.
He is also the author of ten novels, one of which, “The Escape Artist”, was made into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola. He won the Lilly Prize in 1991 and has won six yearly prizes from POETRY (Chicago).
His poetry continues to appear in numerous prestigious publications.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets for 23 years.
Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize (once) and the National Book Award (twice).
Editor of POETRY NORTHWEST from 1966 to its end in 2002.
Professor Emeritus of English at the U. of Washington.
His first professionally produced play, FIRST CLASS, a one-man show about his teacher, Theodore Roethke, had a successful run at A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle in the summer of 2007 and by Bainbridge Island Theatre in 2009.
Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, one of about 100 from all disciplines.
Website for D. Wagoner
Carolyne L. Wright, Poetry
January – March 2008 – Thornton Writer (Poet) in Residence at Lynchburg College in Virginia.
March – mid-June 2008 – Distinguished Northwest Poet at Seattle University
Just published translation: Majestic Nights: Love Poems of Bengali Women anthology (White Pine Press, 2008).
PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS
A Change of Maps , Lost Horse Press, 2006
Nominated for the LA Times Book Awards, and was a finalist for the Idaho Prize and Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America. It won the 2007 Independent Book Publishers Bronze Award for Poetry
Seasons of Mangoes and Brainfire Eastern Washington UP/Lynx House Books, 2nd edition 2005)
Winner of the Blue Lynx Prize, Oklahoma Book Award in Poetry, and American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
Premonitions of an Uneasy Guest (AWP Award Series)
Stealing the Children (Ahsahta Press)
Carolyne Wright: Greatest Hits 1975-2001 (Pudding House)
A Choice of Fidelities: Lectures and Readings from a Writer’s Life (Ashland Poetry Press)
and volumes of poetry translated from Spanish and Bengali.
Website for C. Wright
Susan Zwinger, Non-fiction
2008 essay in Teaching About Place, edited by Laird Christensen and Hal Crimmel, University of Nevada Press. The book focuses on teaching students about their local ecology, geology, economics, community planning and sociology in order to, as Susan says, “restore a powerful belief in our connection to the landscape which holds us.”
PUBLICATIONS
The Last Wild Edge: One Woman’s Journey from the Arctic Circle, Yukon to the Olympic Peninsula, Washington Johnson Books, 1999
Stalking the Ice Dragon: A Journey through Alaska and British Columbia U. of Arizona Press, 1991
Winner- 1992 Governor’s Author’s Award for Washington State
Susan’s work also appears in numerous magazines and anthologies
Website for S. Zwinger
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
Lorraine Healy, MFA (New England College), the newest member of the MFA Governing Board, has recently been awarded the Lois Cranston Poetry Prize by Calyx Press as well as the PostRoad Poetry Prize, awarded by the journal of Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. Ms. Healy, a native of Argentina and a resident of Freeland, Washington, teaches poetry at Antioch University in Seattle and through the Whidbey Island Writers Association’s community classes.
