Presenting the Clemson Literary Festival

1. Presenting the Clemson Literary Festival March 6-8, 2008Presented by The Greenville News

2. Festival Sponsors Presenting Sponsor: The Greenville News Clemson University: College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities English Department Performing Arts Department Brooks Center for the Performing Arts Strom Thurmond Institute Center for Electronic and Digital Publishing Friends of The South Carolina Review Children’s Literature Symposium City of Clemson The Arts Center Clemson University Bookstore

3. Steve Almond Steve Almond grew up in Palo Alto, California, and studied at Wesleyan University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has taught creative writing at Boston College and Emerson College and spent seven years as a newspaper reporter in El Paso and Miami. His short stories have appeared in Zoetrope, Tin House, Ploughshares, Playboy, and many other periodicals. Selected Works: My Life in Heavy Metal (stories) The Evil B.B. Chow (stories) Candyfreak: Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America (nonfiction) Which Brings Me to You (novel; with Julianna Baggott) Not That You Asked (essays)

4. Catharine Savage Brosman Catharine Savage Brosman was born in Colorado and spent most of her childhood there and in Trans-Pecos, Texas. She studied at Rice University and in France and is now a chaired professor emerita of French at Tulane University, New Orleans. Brosman’s poetry and stories have been published widely in the U.S., England, and France. She has been a frequent contributor to Clemson University’s literary journal, The South Carolina Review, beginning with the journal’s second issue in 1969. Selected Works: Essays:The Shimmering Maya and Other Essays; Finding Higher Ground: A Life of Travels Poetry: Watering; Journeying from Canyon de Chelly; Passages; Places in Mind; The Muscled Truce; Range of Light

5. Wayne Chapman Festival co-organizer Wayne Chapman is Professor of English at Clemson University. He is the founding director of the Center for Electronic and Digital Publishing and executive editor of Clemson University Digital Press. He is also the author of a number of books and articles on such writers as W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, James Dickey, Virginia Woolf, and Leonard Woolf. Chapman has edited The South Carolina Review since 1996. Selected Works: Yeats and English Renaissance Literature The W. B. and George Yeats Library: A Short-title Catalog An Annotated Guide to the Writings and Papers of Leonard Woolf (with Janet M. Manson) “The Countess Cathleen” : Manuscript Materials

6. Kim Chinquee Kim Chinquee, a native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, teaches creative writing at Central Michigan University. She has a particular penchant for hyper-short stories known as “flash fiction.” Each flash fiction piece gives a brief glimpse into a seemingly ordinary event whose significance the reader must ponder. Chinquee’s published work includes flash fiction, short stories, novels, nonfiction, and poetry. Over two hundred of her works have been published in various journals, and she won the Pushcart Prize in 2007. Selected Works: Oh, Baby! (flash fiction; forthcoming, March 2008)

7. Brock Clarke Brock Clarke hails from upstate New York. He currently directs the creative writing program at the University of Cincinnati, where he is the founding editor of the Cincinnati Review. Clarke’s writing has earned him many awards, and his stories and essays have appeared in publications too numerous to list here. When previously on the English and Creative Writing faculty at Clemson University, he served as fiction editor for The South Carolina Review. Selected Works: An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England (novel) What We Won’t Do (stories) Carrying the Torch (stories)

8. Frank Day Professor Emeritus Frank Day was born in 1932 in East Parsonsfield, Maine. He taught at Clemson University for more than three decades and was Head of the English Department from 1994 to 1997. The author of books, articles, and essays on authors as diverse as Melville, Balzac, DeLillo, and Naipaul, Day served as an editor of Clemson University’s literary journal, The South Carolina Review, for nearly twenty years. Selected Works: Sir William Empson: An Annotated Bibliography A Reader’s Guide to Arthur Koestler Melville’s Use of “The Rebellion Record” in His Poetry

9. Camille Dungy Camille Dungy is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at San Francisco State University. She has been the recipient of various fellowships and awards, and her writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and other publications, including The Missouri Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Mid-American Review, Poetry Daily, Tarpaulin Sky, and at fishousepoems.org. Dungy is a graduate of Stanford University and earned her MFA degree at the University of North Carolina—Greensboro. Selected Works: What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (poetry)

10. Dave Eggers Dave Eggers’s first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, earned him tremendous critical acclaim and commercial success and made Eggers a 2001 Pulitzer Prize finalist. In addition to having authored numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, Eggers is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publisher. He also runs a writing lab, called 826 Valencia, where he teaches writing to high school students and runs a publishing program in the summer. Selected Works: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (memoir) What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (novel)

11. Skip Eisiminger Sterling “Skip” Eisiminger is a seasoned writer as well as a professor emeritus of English and humanities at Clemson University. While teaching at Clemson, Skip earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina under the direction of poet James Dickey. Over the past few years, Eisiminger has written or edited three monographs for Clemson University Digital Press, including Integration with Dignity, a book about Clemson’s peaceful approach to desegregation in 1963, and Felix Academicus, an anthology of essays and poems. Eisminger has also published over 25 reviews, poems, and personal essays with The South Carolina Review. Selected Works: Integration with Dignity (nonfiction; edited) Felix Academicus (essays)

12. John Idol John L. Idol is a fourth-generation native of the Blue Ridge region whose writing focuses on the work of Thomas Wolfe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He has written or edited twelve books and penned dozens of articles on these two writers, in addition to serving terms as editor of the Thomas Wolfe Review and the Nathaniel Hawthorne Review. A professor emeritus at Clemson University, where he taught for over thirty years, Idol is also the author of award-winning novel Blue Ridge Heritage. Selected Works: Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition (edited, with Melinda M. Ponder) Blue Ridge Heritage: An Informal History of the Family of John Nicholson Idol (novel)

13. Major Jackson Major Jackson is an established poet and a professor of English and creative writing. Jackson has published his poetry in the American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Callaloo, Post Road, Triquarterly, and The New Yorker,among many other anthologies and journals. An award-winning writer, his poems have attracted national attention. Currently, Jackson is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University as well as a professor at the University of Vermont. Selected Works: Hoops (poetry) Leaving Saturn (poetry)

14. Bill Koon A South Carolina native and a professor of English at Clemson University, where he teaches courses in American and southern literature, Bill Koon is the author of Hank Williams, So Lonesome, a biography about the life and music of the country music legend. Formerly head of the English department, Koon was a Fulbright Professor in southern studies to Austria and director of a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute on southern studies. Along with his duties at Clemson University, he writes a weekly column for the Greenville Journal, usually on southern topics. Selected Works: Hank Williams, So Lonesome (biography) Classic Southern Humor (anthology; edited) Old Glory and the Stars and Bars (anthology; edited)

15. Laurence Lieberman Laurence Lieberman is a professor of English at University of Illinois. He has published fourteen books of poetry and three books of criticism. His poems have appeared widely in numerous journals and anthologies. Lieberman’s poetry was featured in the spring 2006 and fall 2007 issues of The South Carolina Review, and the covers of those numbers were graced with reproductions of such art by Barbados painter Ras Ishi as inspired the poems. Selected Works: Carib’s Leap: Selected and New Poems of the Caribbean (poetry) Hour of the Mango Black Moon (poetry) Flight from the Mother Stone (poetry) Beyond the Muse of Memory: Essays on Contemporary American Poetry (criticism)

16. Karon Luddy Karon Luddy grew up in Lancaster, South Carolina, then moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, which has become her second hometown, and where she worked for over twenty-five years in sales and marketing. During a mid-life renaissance, Luddy left her corporate job to focus on writing. In 2002, The South Carolina Review published her first short story, “And Here’s To You, Mrs. Robinson.” In May 2005, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University as well as a book contract for her first novel. Her first poetry collection, Wolf Heart, was published by Clemson University Digital Press in 2007. Selected Works: Spelldown (novel) Wolf Heart (poetry)

17. Kevin McIlvoy Kevin McIlvoy is the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Puerto del Sol. His teaching at New Mexico State University has won awards; he also teaches in the creative writing program at Warren Wilson College. McIlvoy is the author of several novels, and his short stories have appeared in such literary journals as The Southern Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, The Missouri Review, and Chelsea. Selected Works: A Waltz (novel) The Fifth Station (novel) Little Peg (novel) Hyssop (novel)

18. Michelle Martin Festival co-organizer Michelle Martin is an associate professor in the English department at Clemson University and Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, as well as a writer on various topics, her foremost being children’s literature and African American studies. In addition to her two book-length works, Martin’s scholarship has appeared in numerous literary journals and scholarly publications. Selected Works: Brown Gold: Milestones of African American Children’s Books Sexual Pedagogies: Sex Education in Britain, Australia, and America, 1879-2000 (co-edited)

19. Richard Michelson Whether as a poet or a children’s author, Richard Michelson proves that talent cannot be limited by medium. As a poet, Michelson has won numerous awards and was a finalist for the Pablo Neruda Prize. As a children’s author, his acclaim may be even greater: Michelson is the winner of a New Yorker Best Book Award and a Children’s Book Committee Book of the Year. He is also known for his collaborations with artist Leonard Baskin, experiences which he recounts in the forthcoming issue of The South Carolina Review (spring 2008). Selected Works: Battles and Lullabies (poetry) Too Young for Yiddish (children’s) Masks (poetry) Semblant (poetry)

20. Ronald Moran Ronald Moran spent his youth in the Northeast but has lived much of his life in the South. He spent twenty-five years as a member of Clemson University’s faculty, assuming numerous positions before retiring in 2000. An award-winning author, Moran has published nine books of poetry, and his poems and essays are frequently published in journals and magazines. He has been a regular contributor to The South Carolina Review ever since Volume 1 appeared in 1968. Selected Works: Sudden Fictions (poetry) Getting the Body to Dance Again (poetry) Diagramming the Clear Sky (poetry) Saying These Things (poetry) The Blurring of Time (poetry)

21. Keith Morris Festival co-organizer Keith Lee Morris is a professor of creative writing at Clemson University. He is also the author of one novel (with a second in the works) and an anthology of short fiction. His stories have appeared in numerous publications—including New Stories from the South, The Sun, Ninth Letter, and The New England Review, among others—and his work was recently recognized with a Eudora Welty Prize in fiction. Morris is the fiction editor for The South Carolina Review. Selected Works: The Greyhound God (novel) The Best Seats in the House and Other Stories (stories)

22. Darlin’ Neal Darlin’ Neal is an author of both fiction and nonfiction; in addition to her completed novel and collection of short stories, she is currently at work on a memoir. Her work has been published in many literary journals, and her short story collection, Rattlesnakes and the Moon, was selected as a finalist for the G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction. Neal, who is a lecturer in the creative writing and literature program at Clemson University, has been equally successful as an educator. To date, her students have gone on to win O’Henry and Mary McCarthy awards. Recently, she edited a special online issue of The Mississippi Review. Selected Works: Rattlesnakes and the Moon (stories)

23. Ron Rash Raised in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, Ron Rash currently holds the John Parris Chair in Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University. Rash is the author of novels, poetry collections, and short story collections. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the O. Henry Prize, the Appalachian Book of the Year Award, the Southern Book Award, and the Sir Walter Raleigh award. Selected Works: One Foot in Eden (novel) Saints at the River (novel) The World Made Straight (novel) Eureka Mill (poetry) Among the Believers (poetry) Chemistry and Other Stories (stories)

24. Tom Rash Tom Rash is the Basic Skills Coordinator at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. Over the years, he has written a variety of literary essays and book reviews, and he has worked as a professional proofreader. Presently, he is working on a documentary film, with Steve Agnew, on the influence and reputation of Thomas Wolfe’s famous first novel, Look Homeward, Angel. The film is entitled Look Homeward, Angel: A Buried Classic. He is also leading a campaign to save the cabin Wolfe lived in during his last visit to Asheville.

25. Vivian Shipley Vivian Shipley is the editor of the Connecticut Review at Southern Connecticut State University. She is the Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor. She is also the author of five chapbooks and seven books of poetry. Shipley is the recipient of numerous awards and has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize. Selected Works: Hardboot: Poems New and Old (poetry) All of Your Messages Have Been Erased (poetry; forthcoming) When There Is No Shore (poetry) Gleanings: Old Poems, New Poems (poetry)

26. Elizabeth Stansell Elizabeth Stansell grew up in the Southeast and has resided in the Upstate of South Carolina for the last ten years. She received her master’s degree in English from Clemson University, where she currently teaches full-time. At Clemson, Stansell won the 2005-06 Shilstone Memorial Award for outstanding master’s thesis with her work entitled “Saintly Virgins, Demon Lovers, and Ideal Mothers: Representations of Women in Neo-Victorian Fiction.” During her graduate studies, Stansell visited the Ted Hughes papers at Emory University, which resulted in an essay—“Ted Hughes and the Evolution of ‘Skylarks’”—subsequently published in the Spring 2006 issue of The South Carolina Review. Her continued interest in Ted Hughes has led to a study of the collaboration between Hughes and artist Leonard Baskin, as well as between Baskin and Richard Michelson.

27. Mark Winchell Mark Royden Winchell has taught at Clemson University since 1985 and currently directs Clemson’s program in the Great Works of Western Civilization. His writing includes several award-winning biographies and books of criticism, among other works. Over the past quarter-century, Winchell has published over 120 essays and reviews in periodicals of all types. He has also edited twelve issues of the South Carolina Review and served as the journal’s long-time book-review editor. Selected Works: Talmadge: A Political Legacy, A Politician’s Life (biography; with Herman E. Talmadge) Cleanth Brooks and the Rise of Modern Criticism (criticism) Reinventing the South (essays) The Cause of Us All: Cultural Politics and the American South (nonfiction; forthcoming)