call for information . . .

We have prepared a page below for Creative Writing alumni, arranged by class. We encourage you to send us a note including your name and date of graduation. We would also like to have news of recent publications, awards, readings, jobs, website address(es), and any other creative writing-related developments.

Please submit this information by email to: Suzanne.Overstreet@oberlin.edu or mail it to:

Suzanne Overstreet, Creative Writing Program
Rice Hall 13 -- Oberlin College
10 North Professor Street
Oberlin, OH 44074-1095

phone: (440) 775-6567

Note that Oberlin Online and the Oberlin Alumni Association now provide an Alumni Connection "Oberlin Online Community" for all Oberlin alumni, with news and contact information beyond the scope of the Creative Writing program's pages.

I am currently working at a literary agency, Sobel Weber Associates, and continuing to write and publish stories, with the novel still in the near future. I have a story forthcoming in Glimmer Train in 2004. I can be reached at jennilapidus@hotmail.com

Alison Alpert (entry updated 5-01)

I'm going to Western Michigan University in the Fall to study with Jamie Gordon and Stuart Dybek. I'll be there on a Teaching Assistantship. If folks want to get in touch with me I'll be at alisonalpert@yahoo.com.

Wayne Miller (entry updated 2-01)

I'm in my second year of the University of Houston's MFA program, and I just won a 2000 Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine and the Modern Poetry Association. I have poems out or forthcoming in Paris Review, Chelsea, Texas Review and Painted Bride Quarterly, and translations of Moikom Zeqo (which I started working on at Oberlin with Stuart and then Martha) in the current issue of Harvard Review. I should graduate from U of H in Spring of 2002 (barring extraordinary circumstances).

Numair Choudhury (entry updated 2-01)

After Oberlin, Numair completed his MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. He is currently enrolled in the University of Texas at Dallas for his PhD in Creativity: Writing and Translation, and continues to work on his first novel- an extract of which was published in the anthology "Babel". He has contributed fiction to magazines and newspapers in the US, the UK, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Most recently a short story of his was included in the anthology "Sulekha Select".

e-mail: numairchoudhury@hotmail.com

www.geocities.com/numairchoudhury

Jeff Patterson (entry updated 2-01)

I concentrated in Nonfiction and worked mostly with Stuart. I left Oberlin and went on to law school at the University of Kentucky. The time demands of law school unfortunately resulted in my "creative" writing falling by the wayside, but I have published a (less than stirring?) article on congressional options in light of a recent US Supreme Court opinion striking down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Now I am an associate with a major Kentucky law firm, and I practice in the areas of construction law and business litigation. I am the firm's most vocal advocate for abandoning legalese in favor of a more secular prose, and my first briefing effort to the state supreme court resulted in considerable success. It can at times be a challenge drafting a gripping legal brief on the nuances of the mechanics' lien laws, but so far the career has been very rewarding.

"Patterson, J. Jeffrey" JPatterson@stites.com

Elizabeth Scales Rheinfrank (entry updated 3-02)

After a Double Degree in English and Creative Writing from Oberlin College, I received an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. My work has been produced by the Women's Project & Productions, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Abraxxas Theatre Company, the InterArt Annex, Pulse Ensemble Theatre and Screaming Venus in New York. Regional credits include The Civic Theatre of Central Florida in Orlando, the CollaborAction Theatre Company in Chicago and Oberlin College, where I studied as a Battrick Poetry Fellow. My work has been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and the American Academy of Poets, and I'm a member of both the Women's Project & Productions' Playwrights Lab and the Youngblood lab, for writers under 30, at Ensemble Studio Theatre.

erheinfr@barnard.edu

David Ebenbach (entered 3-05)

David Ebenbach has recently been awarded the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for his short story collection Between Camelots, to be published in October 2005 (University of Pittsburgh Press).  His short fiction has appeared in the Denver Quarterly, the Beloit Fiction Journal, and Crazyhorse, among other places, and he authored the chapter on Plot in Writing Fiction (Bloomsbury USA), part of GWW's series of writing guides. His poetry has appeared in, among other places, Phoebe,  the Red River Review and La Petite Zine.  David holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from Vermont College and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin. E-mail: ebenbach@world.oberlin.edu

Thisbe Nissen (entry updated 1-01)

My short story collection, Out of the Girls' Room and into the Night, won the 1999 John Simmons Short Fiction Award and was published by the University of Iowa Press in Oct of '99. It was subsequently picked up and reissued (in a somewhat slimmed down volume) in the fall of 2000 by Vintage/Anchor. A novel, The Good People of New York, is being published by Knopf in May 2001, followed by a collaborative project (with fellow Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate, Erin Ergenbright) entitled The Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook, a mixed-medium work of fiction, collage and recipes (?!) due out from Harper Collins in time (we hope) for Christmas 2001.

onegreytoe@home.com

Peggy Munson (entry updated 1-01)

BA in Creative Writing '91 - studied both poetry and fiction

Awards: San Francisco Bay Guardian Fiction Contest winner Winner of writing fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, and Cottages at Hedgebrook Editor of the book Stricken: Voices from the Hidden Epidemic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (The Haworth Press, 2000 - web site: www.angelfire.com/ri/strickenbk/index.html). Published in anthologies such as Hers3: Brilliant New Fiction by Lesbian Writers (Faber & Faber), Perceiving the Elephant (Cleis Press), Our Own Voices (Alyson), Best Lesbian Erotica (various years, Cleis Press) and others. Also in publications like Literature and Medicine (Johns Hopkins University Press), Margin: Exploring Modern Magical Realism, the Spoon River Poetry Review, On Our Backs, and 13th Moon. Working on a collection of poetry and one of short stories.

pmunson333@aol.com

Gwendolen (Wendy) Gross (entry 01/07)

After graduating double-degree from Oberlin in '90, I worked in publishing and as an opera singer, received a PEN West Emerging Writers Fellowship, and went on to earn an MFA at Sarah Lawrence College. My first two novels, "Field Guide" (Harvest paperback) and "Getting Out" were published by Henry Holt. My third, "The Other Mother", (a suspenseful literary novel that takes both sides of the mommy wars) is due out in August 2007 from Shaye Areheart/Crown Books. I teach workshops privately, through community schools, and at UCLA extension online, and live in New Jersey with my family.

Cheryl Brundage (entry 03/06)

As a few of my classmates and professors may recall, during my last two years at Oberlin I became obsessed with learning Spanish (partly through a translation workshop at the department, and in spite of the fact that I had no background in the language). After living in Spain during most of the nineties, I held a number of bilingual positions in Houston upon my return, including 2 years as an Officer at the Consulate General of Spain and some time as a translator/writer for a law firm (I translated employee manuals and ghostwrote articles for the lawyers). Since 2002 I have taught high school Spanish, and by spring 2007 I should complete a Master's in Spanish Literature and Linguistics at the University of Houston.
I have written sporadically (including a bilingual novel that will remain--thankfully the way I see it now--unfinished and unpublished) and taken a few writing workshops, including one offered fall semester 2005 as part of my Master's program (and to see, out of curiosity, if I could write anything in Spanish besides academic papers). I have published several essays in The Houston Chronicle, and I just learned that I will make my fiction debut--in Spanish-- in the March/April 2006 issue of The Barcelona Review. (Vaya...apparently I can write in my second language. Maybe I'll keep doing it.)

Wendy Brenner (entry updated 5-00)

I'm a professor in the MFA program at University of North Carolina-Wilmington now, received a 2000 NEA Fellowship, and am completing my second collection of stories to be published by Algonquin. The first, Large Animals in Everyday Life, won the Flannery O'Connor Award and was published by W.W. Norton in 1997. I'm a contributing writer for Oxford American magazine and have stories in the 1998, 1999, and 2000 editions of Algonquin's New Stories From the South anthology.

Cara Diaconoff (entry updated 1-01)

I graduated from Oberlin with an English major and much coursework in creative writing and subsequently earned an M.A. in English at U. of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.F.A. in fiction at Indiana University, where I served as editor of *Indiana Review.* After graduate school, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English at universities in Cheboksary, Russia, and I am now employed as a lecturer at Texas Christian University, where I teach creative writing and introductory literature. My writing has received recognition in the form of residencies at the MacDowell Colony and a fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission, and I hope that before much longer I can say I've published fiction as well! I am currently finishing a story collection and have begun to draft a novel based on my experiences in Russia.

cdiacono@mac.com

c.diaconoff@tcu.edu.

Mary Burger (entered 8/05)

After graduating from Oberlin, Mary earned an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University, and an MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. Her latest book "Sonny", a novella about the Manhattan Project and the Trinity atomic bomb test, was published in early 2005 by Leon Works. Since 1998, she has edited Second Story books, featuring short works of innovative narrative. She is co-editor of "Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative", from Coach House Books (2004). She teaches intermittently (most recently at the Naropa Univiersity Summer Writing Program) and lives in Oakland, California.

Laura Yeager (entered 10/04)

After graduating from Oberlin, Laura Yeager received a M.A. in English from Iowa State University
and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, The North American Review, Kaleidoscope, Ohio Short Fiction and Beacon.
She teaches writing at Kent State University and Gotham Writers' Workshop. In 1997, she married
Stephen Dolan. lauried710@att.net

Dave Maine (entry 3/04)

David majored in Creative Writing and English. His first novel, "The Preservationist," is being published by St. Martin's Press on July 1, 2004; his next book, tentatively entitled "Fallen," is due to be published in 2005. These are all suitably highbrow lit-fic type novels, though other projects in the works are somewhat less ethereal. David has been living in Pakistan since 1998.

Roberto Santiago (entry updated 1-01)

Roberto is a staff writer for the New York Daily News. He is the editor of the award-winning anthology, "Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings" (Ballantine/1995).

Jena Osman (entered 5-03)

Jena majored in Creative Writing (poetry) and English. After Oberlin, she obtained her Master's of Creative Writing (poetry and playwriting) at Brown University. She followed that up by getting a Ph.D. in English/Poetics at SUNY-Buffalo. Her book, The Character, was published by Beacon Press in 1999. She edits the literary magazine Chain (www.temple.edu/chain) with Juliana Spahr and teaches in the graduate Creative Writing Program at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Class of 1984

JANA MARTIN (entry 11-13-06)

I was known as Jane Martin when I graduated from Oberlin in 1984. But in 1994 I changed to my nickname, Jana, when I kept getting credit for a monologue I didn’t write. (Also, I’m of Hungarian descent, and it was time to address that, given the proliferation of goulash and odd syntax in some of my stories.) As Jana Martin (rhymes with Donna; J pronounced like a Y) my first collection of stories and short prose, Russian Lover, comes out in Spring 2007. I was lucky: the publisher, Yeti Books, asked me to be part of their inaugural roster. Like Oberlin’s CW department they are small, powerful and giving. Along with my collection they’re publishing the essays of Luc Sante and some other really interesting books.

Some stories in the collection were originally published in Glimmer Train (I won their new writer award in Fall ‘99), Yeti, Spork, Willow Springs, Turnstile, Pretty Decorating and Tucson Weekly. Another is forthcoming in Five Points (Winter issue). I also write a regular fiction installment for sporkpress.com called “Is Mink Hollow,” after the road I live on in Woodstock, N.Y. I have done some independent mentoring and teaching, and am working on the next book, a novel.

Now for some reflection: It’s taken many turns to get back to a place of quiet. I am frequently reminded of the amazing atmosphere and people at Oberlin, and moving to a small town full of artists and writers was, in part, an attempt to emulate that. After staying in Oberlin after graduation to teach (an invaluable honorarium for which I am eternally grateful to Stuart and Daine), I then proceeded to live a life that was anything but quiet: I burned a few years in Miami, then moved to Brooklyn and was a managing editor at Simon & Schuster. I also freelanced, and played in lots of bands. I won an NEA for a book on design. I wrote fiction too, but real life is not necessarily a writer’s life. So I escaped to the MFA program at the University of Arizona and worked with Joy Williams, among others. And I taught. Oberlin had prepared me well not just for the rigors of grad school workshops, but for knowing what it takes to be a good teacher. I won something called the Outstanding Woman Writer Award in 1994 and left with a big manuscript of short stories—some of which had been started, in another form perhaps, way back when.

After that I moved back to Brooklyn, worked like crazy, wrote, did a lot of readings (Nuyorican Poets Café, Jefferson Market Library), played in more bands, landed on The Geraldo Rivera Show and Good Morning America with my nonfiction book about a cat saved from a fire by a fireman, wrote for glossies (Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, etc.), and for a while was publisher/editor in chief of a fancy magazine for college students. Then I broke the wrist of my left hand (I’m left-handed) and was evicted along with about 55 other people from my loft building in DUMBO. And got on the news again. Thought that soon, it would be good to try for a quieter life.

The community of writers I began in at Oberlin still bolsters me—through bouts of insecurity or those nagging questions like “is it prose or is it poetry”? Were it not for the inclusive intelligence of Stuart, Diane and others I learned from there—David Young, Etheridge Knight come to mind—I’m not sure I’d be writing short prose. I still remember Stuart’s boundless enthusiasm over a prose piece I wrote called “The Baby.” He knew so much more about what I was doing than I did, but I promised him I’d keep doing it—whatever it was. And Diane once said something so interesting to my mother--about my writing--that my mother saw fit to use it in nearly every conversation about writing that came up. Two gifts still giving. janamart@earthlink.net

Class of 1983

BRIAN BLUM (entry updated 10/03)

After many years writing hi-tech business plans, marketing collateral and magazine articles about technology, Brian Blum '83 has returned to his creative writing roots and is now writing a "web column." Entitled "This Normal Life," the column presents reflections on what passes for "normal" life in Israel, where Brian has lived since 1994 with his wife Jody and their three children -- Amir (11), Merav (9) and Aviv (4).

This Normal Life alternates between serious essays (Marla Bennett, who was one of the five Americans killed in the July 31 terror attack at Hebrew University, was Brian's cousin), and more lighthearted topics (a recent column entitled "Bedtime for Gar-Bonzo" discussed new age Tel Aviv falafel). Since it began in August 2003, it has developed a dedicated following on the web.

"This Normal Life" is published two to three times a week at http://brianblum.blogspot.com. His columns also appear regularly online at Israel Insider (www.israelinsider.com) and Jewsweek (www.jewsweek.com). An audio version can be found at the Jerusalem Post Online (www.jpost.com). Selected columns have also appeared in Jewish newspapers around the U.S. and Canada.

When he's not writing "This Normal Life," Brian is currently in charge of content management for the web properties of a large telecommunications value added service provider in Tel Aviv. After Oberlin, he spent many years writing and producing CD-ROM titles and won a number of awards in the early 1990s. He then founded and served as CEO of an Internet startup from 1997-1999 and was subsequently Entrepreneur in Residence for a Jerusalem-based Venture Capital firm. Brian taught multimedia for many years at San Francisco State University, and Ziff-Davis published his book "Interactive Media: Essentials for Success" in 1995.

Brian can be reached at brianblum@mail.com or, if you're in the neighborhood: +972-2-672-9340. He'd love to hear from other Creative Writing program colleagues.

Deborah Artman (entry updated 1-01)

M.F.A. Freelance writer and book editor. Has published poems, stories and interviews; written and directed theater pieces; collaborated on numerous film and theater projects; and written librettos for opera and music/theater works. I recently sent more detailed news to the Alumni News section of the Oberlin Review, so that's probably enough about me.

BRUCE BEASLEY (entry updated 6-01)

Bruce recently published his fourth collection of poems, SIGNS AND ABOMINATIONS (Wesleyan University Press). He is also the author of SPIRITUALS (Wesleyan, 1988), THE CREATION (Ohio State University Press/Journal Award in Poetry, 1994), and SUMMER MYSTAGOGIA (selected by Charles Wright for the 1996 Colorado Prize in Poetry). He is a professor of English at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Among his awards are a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a fellowship from the Artist Trust, and a Pushcart Prize for poetry.

ALICE GEORGE (entry updated 2/03)

Since graduating, I've continued to write and publish poetry, most recently in the current issue of "Another Chicago Magazine," and Fall 2002 "Denver Quarterly." I received my MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001. I have co-edited RHINO, an award-winning literary magazine, since 1997. Check us out at www.rhinopoetry.org. Still waiting for that first book, still fondly reminiscent about Oberlin's role in first inspiring me to think of myself as a writer. Contact me at aliceg@speakeasy.net

Franz Wright (entry updated 4-04)

Franz has won the Pulitzer Prize for WALKING TO MARTHA'S VINEYARD, a collection of haunting poems that explore life and death. Oberlin College Press published my ILL LIT: SELECTED & NEW POEMS in December 1998. I have a new collection, THE BEFORELIFE, from Knopf (2001). My poems have appeared in recent issues of The New Yorker, The New Republic, DoubleTake and numerous other places including Field Magazine. I have received the following awards/fellowships etc:

National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Writing (1985)

Guggenheim Fellowship (1989) Whiting Fellowship (1992)

National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1992)

Witter Bynner Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters (1995)

The PEN/Voelcker Award in Poetry (1996)

I work as a consultant at Center for Mental Health in Lexington, Mass. and as a volunteer facilitator at The Center for Grieving Children, in Arlington Mass.

franzwright@earthlink.net

Bruce Makous (entered 10/04)

Riding the Brand, the mystery thriller by Bruce Makous, received some terrific publicity in the weeks
prior to release. At the top of the list was a nice feature in the September 10 Wall Street Journal
entitled "Dangerous Liaisons". Also in September, Bruce appeared on Your Morning, a CN8 TV
talk show that aired from Washington DC to Boston. Other broadcasts include guest appearances
on WAIC radio Boston, "The Stock Doctors," a nationally syndicated radio talk show, and "The
Technology and Poetry Hour" radio show out of Sacramento. www.brucemakous.com

Melissa Fay Greene (entry updated 10-01)

Melissa Fay Greene was born in Macon, Georgia, in 1952, graduated from high school in Dayton, Ohio, in 1971, and from Oberlin in 1975, and returned to Georgia to work in the Savannah office of the statewide legal aid program in 1975. She began the research which became the basis for her first book in those years.

PRAYING FOR SHEETROCK (Addison-Wesley, 1991, Fawcett paper, 1992)) is the story of the political awakening of the rural African-American community of coastal McIntosh County and the downfall of the corrupt courthouse gang. The book was a National Book Award finalist and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. It won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Lillian Smith Award, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, the QPB New Voices Award, the Annisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Georgia Author Award, the first Reginald Heber Smith Book Award (sponsored by the National Equal Justice Library and American University), and a Lyndhurst Prize Fellowship. It premiered as a play in the spring of 1997, produced by Lifeline Theater in Chicago. It was named one of the top 100 works of American journalism in the 20th century, the "J List," by a panel of judges under the aegis of New York University.

THE TEMPLE BOMBING (Addison-Wesley, 1996, Fawcett, 1997) is about the attack on an Atlanta synagogue in October 1958, part of the violent white backlash to desegregation in the wake of the Brown decision. The Temple Bombing was also a National Book Award finalist and won the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, the Georgia Author of the Year Award, the Georgia Historical Society Book Award, Hadassah's Myrtle Wreath Award, and the National Equal Justice Library Book Award. It was one of half-a-dozen newspapers' "Best Books of 1996." including The L.A.Times, and was a N.Y.Times Notable Book.

Greene has written for The New Yorker, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Life, Ms, The Chicago Tribune, The L.A. Times, Good Housekeeping, and Parenting. She has appeared as a guest on the Today Show, CNN & Co., and NPR's Weekend Edition, and has been a guest teacher or writer-in-residence at Columbia University, Boston University, University of Califormia at Irvine, Trinity University, Oberlin College, Antioch College, Old Dominion, University of Georgia, and Emory. She is this year's recipient of ACLU's National Civil Liberties Award. Greene is married to Donald F. Samuel, a criminal defense attorney; they have five children and live in Atlanta.

Her new book, THE DREAM OF THE MINER'S CHILD, about the 1958 Springhill, Nova Scotia, mine disaster will be published in 2002 by Harcourt-Brace.

mfgreene1@aol.com

Dzvinia Orlowsky (entry updated 2/03)

Dzvinia is a founding editor of New York City-based Four Way Books, and currently teaching poetry at the low-residency Stonecoast MFA Program for Creative Writing through the University of Southern Maine. She has published three full-length collections (all from Carnegie Mellon University Press) including "A Handful of Bees" (1994), "Edge of House" (1999), and "Except for One Obscene Brushstroke" (2003). Both Dzvinia's poetry as well as translations of contemporary Ukrainian poets have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including "The American Poetry Review," "Agni," and "Leviathan Quarterly." She lives on the south shore of Massachusetts with her husband Jay, and their two children. Her e-mail adress is: dzvinia.orlowsky@verizon.net

Mary Anne Cartelli (entry updated 1-01)

I have a PhD in East Asian studies from Columbia University. I'm a professor of Chinese literature at Hunter College, City University of New York. I've published my poems and translations (from the Chinese) in variety of magazines over the years. I'm working on a scholarly book of Chinese Buddhist verse from the Dunhuang manuscripts.

mcartell@hejira.hunter.cuny.edu

Dr. Lauri Ramey (entry updated 6-04)

After leaving Oberlin, I received an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. My dissertation was the first authorized full-length critical study of poet Michael Palmer. In my writing and teaaching, I continue to combine creative and critical writing, and have published poetry, essays and reviews in Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Facture, Poetrybay, nthposition, Portland Review, BlackWater Review, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, BigCityLit, BMa: The Sonia Sanchez Literary Review, Wasafiri, Textual Practice and many others. I've edited an anthology of formally innovative post-World War II African American poetry titled Every Goodbye Ain't Gone (with Aldon Lynn Nielsen), and a collection of essays titled Black British Writing (with Victoria Arana). I am a faculty member at California State University, Los Angeles, in creative writing, African American literature and culture, and American studies. Email: Lmramey@aol.com