Author Ty Roth Visits Campus

On February 26, Ty Roth, AU College Credit Plus English instructor at Port Clinton High School, came to campus for professional development activities. Also a published novelist, Roth shared his experiences as an author with the English 405: Problems in Creative Writing class (pictured above). Roth, author of So Shelly (Delacorte, a division of Random House, 2011), gave students extensive advice about everything from finding an agent to maintaining a writing routine in the midst of job and family responsibilities. We are grateful to Mr. Roth for sharing his writer's wisdom with us in addition to teaching for the AU English Department!

Ashland University MFA Program to Hold Information Session on Campus

Those interested in the English Department's MFA Program are invited to attend an informational session on Thursday, February 28 from 12:00-1:00 PM in room 226 of the Schar College of Education building.

Ashland Poetry Press Welcomes Managing Editor Paige Webb

The Ashland Poetry Press welcomes Paige Webb as the new Managing Editor. According to her bio on the Press's website,

She also serves as the Administrative Director of Ashland University's low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program. Her work has appeared in Blackbird, DIAGRAM, Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, Kenyon Review Online, Poetry Northwest, Vinyl, on the Academy of American Poets website, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Tussle, is forthcoming from dancing girl press in 2019. She is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Award and the Howard Nemerov Poetry Prize. She received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. 

In addition to her writing and editorial expertise, Webb has offered outstanding mentorship for the Press's undergraduate interns. 

English Department Announces Spring Reading Series

From the AU News Center

The Ashland University English Department has set its Spring 2019 Reading Series that will feature a fiction reading by Robert Olmstead on Feb. 21, a nonfiction reading by Elissa Washuta on Feb. 27 and a poetry reading by Mark Jarman and celebration of Ashland Poetry Press’s 50th Anniversary on April 8.

All readings are free and open to the public, and will be held in the Ronk Lecture Hall in the Dwight Schar College of Education. For more information, contact Lindsay Brandon-Smith at 419.289.5110 or lbrando2@ashland.edu.

Robert Olmstead will present the fiction reading at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21. He is an award-winning fiction writer and educator. His publications, Coal Black Horse, was the winner of the Heartland Prize for Fiction; The Coldest Night was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; and Far Bright Star was the winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award. Olmstead is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant and is a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Elissa Washuta will present her nonfiction reading at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27. Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and a nonfiction writer. She is the author of Starvation Mode and My Body Is a Book of Rules, named a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. With Theresa Warburton, she is co-editor of the anthology Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Trust, 4Culture, Potlatch Fund and Hugo House. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Ohio State University.

Mark Jarman will present his poetry reading at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 8, and the event also will feature a celebration of Ashland Poetry Press’s 50th anniversary.

Jarman has published 10 collections of poems, a book-length poem, and two collections of essays on poetry, including The Heronry, Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems, Epistles and To the Green Man. Honors for his work include a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Joseph Henry Jackson Award and the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets and The Nation magazine. He is a professor of English at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.