News

On Wednesday, April 24th, students including Gaines united through art at the “Mason Legacies: Listening to the Ancestors” event to highlight the lives of those enslaved by George Mason IV, the university’s namesake.

Mason's Creative Writing Program announced the winners of its annual spring writing contests. Ten lucky writers -- representing a mix of undergraduate and graduate students -- were awarded $500 each. The ten contests cover fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and many were established by Mason's acclaimed alumni authors and favorite former professors.

Congratulations to Art Taylor, associate professor and assistant director of the Creative Writing Program, on winning the Edgar Allan Poe Award for his short story “English 398: Fiction Workshop."

With visiting writers in three genres, a celebration for a long-time faculty member’s retirement, an afternoon workshop and panel discussion, and a documentary film screening, this year’s New Leaves Conference focuses on all aspects of writing: the craft, the business, and the life of the writer.

Mason’s Creative Writing Program will be hosting two events at this year’s AWP Conference in Portland Oregon: a reception on Thursday, March 28, honoring Robert Bausch, an alumni and professor, and a breakfast get-together on Friday, March 29, for alumni, faculty, and students.

Award-winning poet Ilya Kaminsky, celebrating his new book Deaf Republic, visits George Mason University on Thursday, March 21, at part of the Creative Writing Program’s Spring 2019 Visiting Writer Series, hosted for the first time this semester by George Mason University Libraries.

Poetry Daily recently announced the formation of a 16-poet editorial board to help steer the content and features of the 21-year-old online journal. 

Novelist and short story writer Rebecca Makkai, author most recently of The Great Believers, visits George Mason University on Thursday, February 28, at part of the Creative Writing Program’s Spring 2019 Visiting Writer Series, hosted for the first time this semester by George Mason University Libraries.

Mason Creative Writing is proud to announce Worlds in Words, our spring 2019 series of translation talks, sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, in collaboration with the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center.

Journalist, essayist, memoirist, and more—nonfiction writer Lyz Lenz kicks off the Creative Writing Program’s Spring 2019 Visiting Writer Series on Thursday, February 21, hosted for the first time this year by George Mason University Libraries.

Time Magazine recently published an excerpt from Tim Denevi's newest book, 'Freak Kingdom.' The excerpt discusses Richard Nixon’s 1969 Inauguration and the protests that accompanied it

Professor Art Taylor's story, "English 398: Fiction Workshop,” originally published in the July/August 2018 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, has been named as a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Short Story, the highest honor in the mystery fiction world

The New Yorker calls it "Diorama-like, this book displays what has been, in American culture, displayed, and thereby displaced. It is at once a natural history of American racism and colonialism, utterly devastating in its cumulative impact, and a gorgeous mash-up of genres and forms: bold, light, and ruthlessly smart."

"The City of Good Death is an expansive novel about the proprietor of a death hostel, Pramesh, in India’s sacred city of Benares, where Hindus come to die a holy death, and the sweeping journey of discovery he embarks upon after finding his cousin and childhood best friend drowned in the Ganges. Priyanka Champaneri beautifully explores the sacred and the afterlife in this cinematic and emotionally gripping work about living and dying with dignity."

Poetry Daily, the popular daily online anthology that has been promoting poetry since 1997 at www.poems.com, has begun the process of moving to George Mason University where it will be published in partnership with the Department of English’s Creative Writing Program and George Mason University Libraries. Founders Don Selby and Diane Boller, who are retiring at the end of the year after steering, editing, and growing the web-based journal for more than twenty-one years, will remain on the board of directors of Daily Poetry Association, the nonprofit organization that publishes Poetry Daily. Editors, students, and staff at Mason take on daily production as of January 1, 2019.

Robert Bausch, a three-time Mason alum and award-winning novelist who became well known and highly respected as a writer and teacher, influencing hundreds of young writers, and also as a friend and colleague to writers at Mason and throughout the region, died October 9 of multiple myeloma at a hospital in Fredericksburg, VA. He was 73.

On Thursday, October 11, 2018, Hernán Díaz, author of the novel In the Distance, was awarded the inaugural Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. Fall for the Book created this post-publication book prize to recognize recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing.

Novelist and short story writer Liam Callanan and poet Cynthia Marie Hoffman—both of them alumni of Mason’s MFA program in creative writing—will round out the Fall 2018 Visiting Writer series with a joint reading on Thursday, November 8. Their reading begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Fenwick Library Reading Room, second floor of Fenwick Library, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The reading is free and open to the public, and books by each author will be for sale during the event.

As an Indian-British-American girl, Rajpreet Heir didn’t feel like she fit anywhere. But 'Bend It Like Beckham' spoke to her across continents. The movie helped her embrace an important truth — that she was never defined by a single identity.

Art Taylor, MFA ’06, has been named the English Department’s 2018 Distinguished Alumnus. An Associate Professor of English here at Mason, he has taught creative writing, literature, and composition and now serves as Assistant Director of the Creative Writing program

Cheston Knapp kicks of the Fall 2018 Visiting Writers series on Thursday, September 27, with a reading at 7:30 p.m. in the Johnson Center, Meeting Room G, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The reading is free and open to the public, and books will be for sale after the reading.

J. Michael Martinez, MFA ’06, has been long-listed for the 2018 National Book Award for his third collection, Museum of the Americas, already a winner in the National Poetry Series.

"Afterward, as a dense blue string of thunderstorms rolled in from the south, drenching everything, I found myself thinking about a quote by the late David Foster Wallace: 'How do you promote democracy when you know that a majority of people will, if given the chance, vote for an end to democratic voting?'"

Alexandra Ruiz, BFA ’18 and an incoming MFA student in nonfiction, has been named the recipient of this year’s Robert Raymond Scholarship, established by adjunct professor Rosalind Gann to honor her father and encourage diversity in the graduate creative writing program.

Tom LeGro, BA English ’98, MFA Creative Writing ’01, is a senior producer for video at The Washington Post, part of a team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism. Photo credit: The Washington Post.

"What I remember most of all is washing Leo Tolstoy’s ears. The year is 1989, the mornings of revolution, the year when my birth country begins to fall apart. "

“Her presence is an argument for the visibility of those Britain has traditionally ignored."

"Jessica Kallista, founder, curator and art instigator of Olly Olly art gallery, craved to create a space that would not only highlight the energy in Fairfax, but also mold a sanctuary for artists to crawl out of isolation and 'create an experiment together.'"

In this translation of Tzara’s 1939 collection, in cosmic imagery beside communist imagery, we see Tzara’s peripatetic mind haunted by the death and destruction he’d witnessed in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

Fall for the Book will turn 20 years old in style with a star-studded lineup of headliners including novelists Tayari Jones, Elizabeth Kostova, and Elizabeth Strout; YA author Angie Thomas; and Congressman John Lewis. Other major writers will include Paul Hawken, Tom McAllister, Leslie Pietrzyk, Khaled Beydoun, and Katharine Weber.

At its degree celebrations, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences sends off its doctors, masters, and bachelors with an enthusiastic salute.

MFA Fiction Alum Lina Patton's "Carolina Hall Girls" excerpt is the story of the week on Narrative. Lina was also a finalist for their "30 below" contest.

Seven college graduate students have completed PROV 701: Preparing for Careers in the Academy, a professional development program geared towards success in obtaining and excelling in an academic job.

Poet, novelist and memoirist Jon Pineda, author of the new novel Let's No One Get Hurt, will read from and discuss his work as part of the Creative Writing Program’s Visiting Writer Series. The event—free and open to the public—begins at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 23, in Merten Hall, Room 1203, on Mason’s Fairfax campus.

Award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder comes to Mason Thursday, April 12, to share selections from his own poetry and discuss his new book 'Why Poetry'. The event takes place at 4:30 p.m. in Merten Hall, Room 1202.

Published by Literary Hub, "At the March for Our Lives, Registering the Next Generation of Voters" examines Creative Writing Professor Courtney Brkic's experience volunteering in DC during the historic march.

This year’s New Leaves week, April 2-6, brings reading by visiting writers in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in addition to special events and talks on making your way in the world as a writer. Watch creativewriting.gmu.edu soon for full details on individual events.

Fiction Alum and PEN winner, Rion Amilcar Scott, inks deal for his second book of short stories and debut novel.

Gregg Wilhelm, who will become the new director of Mason’s Creative Writing Program in May, will be joining us at AWP on Thursday night, March 8, for our reception and reading—5-7 p.m. at Bernini or Ybor, 1702 East 7th Avenue in Tampa, co-hosted by Stillhouse Press.

Last summer’s first recipients of travel research grants from the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center are already demonstrating the success of the program’s goals—giving student writers the benefit of travel abroad and direct immersion in their creative projects.

Acclaimed poet Lisa Russ Spaar will be reading on Thursday, February 22, as part of the English Department’s Spring 2018 Visiting Writers series. The reading begins at 7:30 p.m. in George’s, 3rd floor of the Johnson Center, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus, and is free and open to the public. Books will be for sale after the reading.

Bullets into Bells, a book of poems and prose calling for an end to gun violence in America, will be the focus of a reading on the Mason campus at 7:30pm on Thursday, April 5, in the Main Reading Room of Fenwick Library during the spring series New Leaves week.

Faculty member Timothy Denevi is finishing work on a book reassessing the well-known activist and writer Hunter S. Thompson, looking beyond the cartoonish figure he often is portrayed as being.

Jeannie Vanasco continues the Spring 2018 Visiting Writers series with a reading on Thursday, February 15, at 7:30 p.m. in George’s, 3rd floor of the Johnson Center, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The reading is free and open to the public, and books will be for sale after the reading

Courtney Brkic's story 'The Translator' was recently published in the anthology, Crossing Borders: Stories and Essays about Translation.

Rosalind Gann may not seem to be a game-changing donor but, truth be told, she is just that.

Okey Ndibe kicks of the Spring 2018 Visiting Writers series with a reading this Thursday, February 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Merten Hall, Room 1203, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The reading is free and open to the public, and books will be for sale after the reading. 

Art Taylor’s story, “A Necessary Ingredient” from Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea' has been named as a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award for Best Short Story.

Puente-Lay is the first designated recipient of the newly established Robert Raymond Scholarship.

This spring, Mason's Creative Writing Program welcomes visiting writers in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry throughout the semester and hosts the annual New Leaves Conference, April 2-6.

Susan Tichy’s “To Speak of One Is to Speak of the Other” won the First Annual Tupelo Broadside Prize.

Lina was a finalist for an excerpt from her novel "Carolina Hall Girls."

The Well Library houses the research, scholarship and creative works of Mason's faculty, staff, and alumni that are contained within the books they have published. On December 5, the work of Robert Matz and Jason Smith joins the collection.

Kelly's essay was published by Longreads.

On Thursday, November 16, the Creative Writing Program welcomes novelist and short story writer Hannah Tinti to campus for a reading and discussion of her work. A meet-and-greet reception for Tinti takes place 7 p.m. in George’s in the Johnson Center, 3rd Floor, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. Her presentation follows at 7:30 p.m. Both events are open to the public.

The New American Voices Award highlights the recently published works of literary fiction or creative non-fiction from immigrant writers. It will be awarded for the first time at next year's Fall for the Book festival.

On Thursday, November 9, the Creative Writing Program welcomes two visiting writers for readings and discussions of their recent work. Avant-garde poet Myung Mi Kim and graphic memoirist Kristen Radtke will make a joint appearance at 7:30 p.m. in Johnson Center Meeting Room G. The authors will also be part of a meet-and-greet reception at 7 p.m. in the same space.

In Eric Pankey’s latest book of poems, Augury, revelation is found in nature's smallest details. Coming out from Milkweed Editions this fall, Augury is Pankey’s twelfth collection.

On Wednesday, October 11, as part of the Fall for the Book literary festival, Mason’s MFA faculty writers presented the inaugural event of Life on the Line, a series of talks and readings that promises to become an important component of literary and intellectual life at Mason.

This fall, two Call-and-Response exhibitions feature collaborative work between Mason writers and visual artists. These exhibitions seek to raise awareness of "invisible crimes" such as human trafficking and crimes against marginalized communities.

His collection, Museum of the Americas, was chosen by Cornelius Eady for Penguin Books.

The PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize honors a first novel or collection of short stories.

The $25K prize recognizes the finest literary work of Roman Catholic intelligence and imagination. Callanan is an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Laura Ellen Scott, author and professor of creative writing at George Mason University, just released the much-anticipated second installment in her New Royal Mysteries series, "Crybaby Lane."

Art Taylor’s story "Parallel Play," won the 2017 Macavity award for Best Mystery Short Story at the opening ceremonies of Bouchercon.

The essay was published on Lithub.

McCabe's "His Other Life: Searching for My Father, His First Wife, and Tennessee Williams," recipient of the UNO 2016 Lab Prize, was published this month.

Scott talks about his new short story collection, "Insurrections"

The Mason Library’s Special Collections Research Center has purchased work by Book Beast students Jordan Keller-Martinez and Sarah Laing for its archive of artists’ books.

Fall for the Book’s 19th annual festival at George Mason -- and locations around Northern Virginia -- runs from October 11-14, and welcomes a robust list of poets, historians, novelists, memoirists, children’s authors, YA writers, and more.

Madison Gaines is a first year student at Mason, a creative writing major, and Honors College member who is enthusiastic for the opportunities that Mason offers.

Dubbed an “electro-folk drama” by theatre-maker Patrick Eakin Young, director of the company Erratica, "Remnants" is a work that resists categorization – a potent tapestry of song, electronic music, dance and recorded interviews. "Remnants" runs until July 1st in London.

The mood in EagleBank Arena was lively on May 18 and 19, as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences held its degree celebration ceremonies. Congratulations again to all of our graduates! We are pleased to welcome you to an impressive community of alumni, made only stronger by the class of 2017.

Students and alumni sat down with agents from New York’s Folio Literary Management to talk about how to make their manuscripts appealing and marketable to readers as part of the 2017 New Leaves Writers' Conference this spring.

The founding director of The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center has been following the Gallaudet University football team, the world's only college football team for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, for the past three years. The culmination of this effort is featured in The Atlantic this month.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is pleased to announce the May 2017 degree celebrations will be led by two outstanding alumni: chief historian for the White House Historical Association, Edward Lengel, and Lt. Col. Suzanne Devlin, a former acting chief of police for the Fairfax County Police Department and the current supervisor of safety and security for Loudoun County Public Schools.

"Remnants" is performed by ERRATICA, a London-based arts company. "Remnants" is an electro-folk opera, re-arranging traditional Balkan vocal music and combining it with bass-heavy electronics. It opens on June 12th in London.

The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center at George Mason University will present an evening with acclaimed American novelist Richard Ford. One of the preeminent writers working in the United States, Ford will be in conversation with Maureen Corrigan of NPR's "Fresh Air" about his new memoir Between Them.

"'Bend It Like Beckham' and the Art of Balancing Cultures" was published in the Atlantic.

The Cheuse Center and The Spanish Cultural Center will present Spanish writer Andrés Barba at Upshur Street Books in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C. There Andrés will talk about his latest novel "Such Small Hands."

Readings, panels, and presentations highlight the 2017 New Leaves Festival, to be held Monday, April 3 - Friday, April 7, and hosted by the Creative Writing program at George Mason University. Except as noted, all events are open to the public and take place at locations on Mason’s Fairfax, VA, campus.

The Cheuse Center, in partnership with the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco, will be holding a Day of Translation to discuss the art and issues of literary translation.

The video is produced as a part of the New York Times' "This Week In Hate" series.

The Jean Feldman Poetry Prize is given out by the Washington Writers' Publishing House

Poet Suzanne Buffam, the Creative Writing Program’s third visiting writer this spring, will share her work, including selections from her latest collection, A Pillow Book (2016), on Thursday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Research Hall, Room 163, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. The event is open to the public.

Lowry will talk about her new book "Who Killed These Girls? Cold Case: the Yogurt Shop Murders," on Thursday, February 16th.

The short story, "Parallel Play," was originally published in the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning.

Mason fiction alumn Rion Amilcar Scott's collection, "Insurrections," is a finalist for the 2017 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.

Publication date January 31, 2017. After a ruptured pituitary tumor leaves Mike Scalise with the hormone disorder acromegaly at age 24, he must navigate a new, alien world of illness maintenance. His mother, who has a chronic heart condition and a flair for drama, serves as a complicated model. A moving, funny exploration of how we define ourselves by the stories we choose to tell.

Helon Habila’s new book recounts the horror and revives the call to take notice.

Sheila McMullin's poetry collection, "daughterrariums", was selected from nearly 1,000 manuscripts and will be published in Spring 2017. McMullin is a graduate of Mason's MFA program, a poet, and an intersectional feminist. She is Managing Editor at VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.

Mason poetry faculty Sally Keith is among the ten poets awarded Fellowships by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

MFA faculty member Courtney Angela Brkic's memoir, "The Stone Fields," will be produced by a London-based performing arts company in 2017.

Read Mori's essay "Pet Grief" in The Harvard Review, and Denevi's essay "Pigs, Sea" in The Normal School.

AWP comes to D.C. for its 50th anniversary and its annual conference, and Mason is there as a major sponsor. Alums, faculty and students appear on conference panels and at off-site events, and the creative writing program and some of its community partners have three spaces in the Bookfair. Here’s where you’ll find us and when.

Winn's collection "Alma Almanac" will be published in 2017.

Peter Ho Davies, author most recently of the novel The Fortunes, visits George Mason University on Thursday, February 2, for an afternoon workshop with MFA students and a public reading at 7:30 p.m. in Merten Hall, Room 1203, on Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

Two MFA alums, both writers and editors, discuss their fascination with the short form's possibilities.

"Things I Never Told Her" appears in Granta 136.

Thursday 12/8, 12:30-1:30 pm: Discussion with Alexis Okedowo at The New America; Saturday, 1/7, 6:00-7:00 pm: Discussion with Emmanuel Ogebe at Politics and Prose

Ranjani's book will be published in 2017.

The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center will encourage Mason's graduate creative writing students to study abroad, offer a home for established writers with residencies at Mason, and provide a hub for diverse conversations about art, literature and international issues, said Matthew Davis, the center’s founding director.

Mason’s creative writing program offers an array of events featuring visitors that come to the campus to read from their work and conduct workshops or master classes for students.

Ashatha Press releases Cobb's third full-length collection of poems this month.

Her nonfiction manuscript, "His Other Life: Searching for My Father, His First Wife, and Tennessee Williams," will be published by UNO Press in 2017.

Hosted by the local literary journal Barrelhouse, the conference brings together writers, editors, and publishers from across the region—in conversation and connecting with one another.

Her book "Zero," bought by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, is about a girl who believes the answer to her problems lies in speaking zero words a day.

The Juliet appeared in March and The Mean Bone In Her Body will be out in December—the latter the start of a new series, the New Royal Mysteries, set in a fictional college/prison town in Ohio.

Welcome to Mason Matthew Davis, who has been named director of the new Alan Cheuse International Writers Center—building on his twin interests in creative writing and international relations.

Art Taylor's new story, “The Great Detective Reflects,” appears in the November 2016 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

"Before We Met" appears in Juked Magazine and "Why I Gave Up Match.com" was published in the Washington Post.

Episode two of Mason Out Loud is available for listen! Mason Out Loud features creative writing and scholarship from GMU's English department faculty, students and alumni.

Fall for the Book brings writers, readers, and scholars together like no other event in the region. In its eighteenth year, Fall for the Book is a weeklong literary festival with events taking place on Mason's Fairfax campus and at other venues across the region between September 25 and September 30.

Mason's Office of Graduate Admissions cordially invites you to attend our largest annual event for prospective graduate students. Learn about graduate degree programs, graduate certificates, and professional degrees. Come see the excitement of our campus, meet our faculty, and speak with admissions representatives.

The Center celebrates the art of creative writing as a means of international dialogue, education and understanding.

The Mason MFA program is pleased to announce that Tania James will join the fiction faculty as a full-time professor starting this fall.

Read The Root's review of Scott's debut book "Insurrections."

The piece was featured in the Washington Post

"daughterrariums" will be published in Spring 2017.

In a poem, it is possible to talk to someone who is dead, and maybe even to reach some kind of tentative, hard-won reconciliation or understanding. This poem is the final entry of Sally Keith’s collection about the loss of her mother.

Since 2014, the Jack Wood Award for Town Gown Relations has honored individuals, groups, businesses and nonprofits that demonstrate leadership in fostering mutually beneficial relationships between the university and the community.

Art Taylor has won a 2015 Agatha Award for Best First Novel for "On the Road with Del and Louise: A Novel in Stories."

Sally Keith, poet and faculty member in the Departments of English and Creative Writing, has received a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. The author of four collections of poetry, Keith teaches graduate and undergraduate students.

Brian Teare will be reading from his work on Tuesday, April 12, at 7:30 in Research Hall, #163.

The Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship winning poet will read her own and others' work and speak about the importance of poetry and the humanities in today's world at The Vernon and Margarette Gras Lecture in the Humanities. It takes place on Thursday, April 21st, at 7:30 in the Center For The Arts, Grand Tier III.

"Consequence" is published by SmokeLong Quarterly.

The conference began Monday night with a reading from Porochista Khakpour, author of two novels, Sons And Other Flammable Objects, a New York Times “Editor’s Choice” book, and The Last Illusion, which was named by NPR as one of the “Best Books of 2014.” Readings and celebrations continue through Thursday.

Professor Bill Miller is the 2016 winner of the Jack Wood Award. The award, which recognizes leadership in strengthening university relationships with the community.

Two editors, Kristen Radtke and Ariel Lewiton from Sarabande Press, and D.C.-based literary agent Howard Yoon will visit the Mason campus next Wednesday and Thursday as part of the New Leaves week celebration.

Organized by Barrelhouse magazine and sponsored by the English Department, the conference will take place on April 23rd, 2016.

It was standing room only on Wednesday evening, March 2nd for a spirited reading by poet Philip Metres.

Philip Metres will be the next writer to speak as part of the Visiting Writers Series on Wednesday, March 2nd, in Research 1, Room 163 at 7:30 p.m.

The Spring 2016 Visiting Writers' Program begins with a reading from Leslie Pietrzyk

GMU Professor Jennifer Atkinson will be speaking in celebration of the birthday of poet Elizabeth Bishop

The new MFA Application deadline will be Tuesday, March 1st.

The essay was published in the Washington Post.

If you have begun an application to the MFA in Creative Writing program but have not yet submitted your portfolio, writing sample, or teaching assistantship application, you still have time. We ask that any applicants who have not yet submitted these materials do so as soon as possible.

Helon Habila is that rare combination of storyteller and stylist who challenges expectations while deepening our empathy for ordinary people confronting extraordinary times.

The article appears in the American Scholar.

Ten years in the making, WoO (work without opus number) is a creative translation of the first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon that were lost by Joseph Smith, never found, and subsequently rewritten as The Book of Mormon that is now circulated for free around the world in 110 languages.

This article is from the International Poetry Studies Institute.

George Mason University Associate Professor and alumnus Art Taylor has recently released his novel, On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories.

Charles (C. K.) Williams, a renowned poet and former faculty member in George Mason University's Department of English, died on September 20, 2015. The college and the English department mourn the loss of a former colleague and friend.

From September 27 to October 3, Fall for the Book will host its 17th Annual Festival with nearly 150 authors at George Mason University and other locations around Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

Sunday, September 27 - Saturday, October 3, 2015

The college is saddened to share news of the passing of George Mason University Professor Alan Cheuse, who died on Friday, July 31, as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident two weeks ago. Professor Cheuse was a writer, teacher, longtime literary commentator, and a friend and colleague. His creativity and insight will be missed by all of those who were fortunate to have known him.

Mason alumni Nicole Idar and Elizabeth Gutting have established the Alan Cheuse Literary Review, and ask the Mason community of writers, faculty and students alike, to submit written work to share their thoughts with Professor Cheuse as he recovers from a serious automobile accident.

"Wedding Pulls" will be published by Hub City Press in Summer 2016.

The college boasted solid representation at this George Mason University's 2015 Celebration of Distinction event, with six alumni noted for their accomplishments and contributions to the university.

Readings every night, events all day Friday.

With two donations from alums, the MFA program has created the new Wendi Kaufman fund to honor the late alumnus whose short story collection, "Helen on 86th Street and Other Stories," became last summer the first title published by Stillhouse Press.

"Inspired by Harper Lee, Other Literary Sequels," looks at other sequels set for publication in the summer of 2015.

"When I think about duende, I think of the poet Larry Levis, because as an undergraduate it was from Levis that I first heard of duende."

"Crow-Work" comes out on February 1st.

Robert Stone, who died on January 10, was a member of the all-but-vanished tribe of hard-living, two-fisted, wildly ambitious American novelists who grew up in Hemingway’s slipstream, writes Goodwin.

"Paper Doll Fetus" was published by Persea

"Missed" was originally published in The Master's Review.

Taylor won Best Mystery Short Story for his story "The Care and Feeding of Houseplants," originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for their March/April 2013 issue.

Marcus talks about her recent essay "The Night Facebook Suggested I ‘Might Know’ My Rapist," and the culture of rape in America.

"Green Oil" is out now on Further Other Book Works

The Phoenix Award is given to the author of a book for children published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award at the time of publication, but which, from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special recognition for its high literary quality.

Finishing Line Press will be publishing "My Mine" in January 2015

"Dialogue With The Dead" will be on January 23rd on Finishing Line Press.

In celebration of American Archives Month, the National Archives has partnered with the Academy of American Poets to present original poems inspired by the holdings of the National Archives. Here, Eric Pankey reads his poems about three Civil War photos by Mathew Brady.

Revise, revise!

On September 17th, five pairs of artists and writers from the Call & Response exhibit delivered an engaging discussion of their work to a packed house. The collaborators — whose work is exhibited as part of the “6th Annual Call & Response: In 24 hours, everywhere the dawn rises again” — spoke about their inspirations, their early discussions over coffee, and the surprises that came about as a result of working together in a call and response tradition.

"Noontime's Won" will be published by Octopus Books as the inaugural volume in its new Poetry in Translation Series.

"Traveling" will be put out by Hyacinth Girl Press and "Imaginary Kansas" from Dancing Girl Press.

Fall for the Book, George Mason University's annual week-long festival of reading, has announced its schedule and participants for its sixteenth event. Nearly 150 writers and more than 20,000 attendees are expected to enjoy the festival's offerings held around Washington, Virginia, and Maryland.

Interested in joining the English Alumni Society? The English Department Outreach Committee needs your help! To create the best programs possible, alumni of any English department program are invited to complete a very brief outreach questionnaire. Your feedback will help us greatly!

"Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself" and "Vacuum Cleaner Salesman"

The week-long series of events for writers is, like much at Mason, ever-growing.

Winners from the English Department include MA students Paul Michiels and Ryan Sheehan, and BFA student Julia Douglas

"Dismantling The Angel" is the winner of the New Measure Poetry Prize.

"Every Bird, To You" is being published by Crisis Chronicles Press.

"the obligatory garnish argument," will be published as part of SpringGun Press' 2014 catalog, along with "States of Grace" by Stephen Graham Jones, and "V : WaveTercets / Losing L'una" by Stephanie Strickland. You can see an excerpt from the obligatory garnish argument in issue one of DREGINALD.

Poet, Professor of English, and Heritage Chair in Writing at George Mason University, Eric Pankey, will lead a semester-long poetry workshop for D.C. Metro area poets. The workshop is free and open to poets not currently enrolled in an MFA program.

"Alternates" comes off the heels of Knorr's first book of poetry "Annotated Glass," published earlier this year.

The column is titled "I Like Big Brass and I Cannot Lie: Confessions from the Tuba World"

Elizabeth’s chapbook will launch this June.

"Causualties," was selected as the First Runner-Up in Ropewalk Press' Editor's Chapbook Prize.

English professor Alan Cheuse, a popular book reviewer on NPR's "All Things Considered," discussed the work and legacy of novelist Tom Clancy, who died October 2.

Come hear readings by faculty and Alums as we celebrate the first three Alumni to be inducted into the Well Library at the Mason Inn.

This semester Mason will be visited by Poets Robyn Schiff and Dawn Lundy Martin, Authors Mary Kay Zuravleff, Bonnie Jo Campbell, and Howard Norman, and Editor and Publisher Patricia O'Hare.

Two Mason graduates and feminist poets – Alyse Knorr and Sarah Marcus – have just added their voices to the world of feminist poetry. Their poetry collections (Knorr’s Annotated Glass and Marcus’s Backcountry), both recently published, began while the two women were students in George Mason University’s MFA program.

Starting in Fall 2013, the English Department will be offering a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

The MFA program at Mason is pleased to announce the hiring of poet Peter Streckfus to join its faculty, effective Fall 2014.

English Major Paul Laudiero won The Great Tumblr Book Search contest, a collaboration between Chronicle Books and Tumblr. The Tumblr is now being published in print by Chronicle Books.

New Mason English Professor Peter Streckfus has been awarded the "Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize" to work on his new book of poetry, "Water and Plastic." Steckfus will spend the year in Rome at the American Academy in Rome.

Brenda Koenig, who received an MFA in creative writing in 1997 from George Mason University, was interviewed the East Central Illinois' The News Gazette.

Creative writing (MFA) graduate Melissa Tuckey, a poet, has appeared in several prominent publications and has a chapbook, “Rope as Witness.” She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Ohio Arts Council and the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities, as well as a residency at Blue Mountain Center. She is also the co-founder of Split This Rock Poetry Festival where she freely exercises her political aspirations.

Alan Cheuse, an acclaimed novelist, critic and professor, appeared at George Mason’s Center for the Arts on April 20. National Public Radio's longtime “voice of books,” Cheuse was the eighth and final speaker in the university’s “Vision Series” – an eight month series of lectures that sheds light on the real world research and creativity that takes place every day on Mason’s campus.

Wendy Bilen, MFA '06, has had a memoir, Finding Josie, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society. "Much more than mere memoir or family history, this dual story about Bilen's journey illuminates the surprising ways our lives intersect with our ancestors'. An extraordinary story about a seemingly ordinary woman, Finding Josie will inspire readers to explore their own family history in their own way."

Laura Ellen Scott, MFA ’93, has had a flurry of success recently. “From Laura’s Pocket Guide…” was published in Hobart; “Exoskeletal”was published in Behind the Wainscot; “Felly Stories” was published in Storyglossia; “Do you know what it means to miss,” an excerpt from her novel-in-progress, was published in Juked; “Render, or to transmit to another” was published in the December issue of elmmae; and she has stories forthcoming in the “future” issue of Barrelhouse and in the anthology Gravity Dancers: More Fiction from Washington Area Women.

New story publications by Kirsten Clodfelter', Alyson Foster and Nat Foster.

Temporary Lives & Other Stories by Ramola D (MFA '91) won AWP's Grace Paley Prize in short fiction.

Two Minutes of Light by Nancy K. Pearson was chosen by Marie Howe as winner of the 2008 Perugia Press Prize. Other Latitudes by Brian Brodeur was chosen by Stephen Dunn as winner of the 2007 Akron Poetry Series.

Author of The Lake, the River & the Other Lake (Pantheon), Steve Amick, has a second novel Nothing But a Smile (Pantheon), due out in March 2009. "It's 1944 and Wink Dutton, a former illustrator for Stars and Stripes has returned to Chicago after an injury to his drawing hand gets him an unwanted discharge from the service.