Tim Wheeler, creative writing and Playwriting alumnus

Central Michigan University's radio broadcasting network airs Obstructed View, Tim Wheeler's weekly take on the world of Pop-Tarts, five-bladed razors, nefarious condiments and an overwhelming array of life's underwhelming distractions. Catch him on Kalamazoo's airwaves Wednesdays at 12:15 p.m. on WGVU and you can learn more about such exciting topics as pickled eggs, Boo-Berry and Little Toe Day. For more information: obstructedviewstudios.com
He's in print:
Mondays, The Grand Haven Tribune
Monthly - Brought to you by Riversedge Photography
Women's Lifestyle - Northshore Edition

Kristin Berger

For the Willing is the first chapbook of poetry by Portland poet and essayist, Kristin Berger. In the 26-poem collection, Berger maps the arc of motherhood into childhood, from the outer world of lunar eclipses and seasonal migrations to the inner world of sleepless nights and caring for children. From the simple pleasures of digging in spring soil and cooking for a family to the complexities of global warming and life's unexpected turns, these poems are strung on a steady and sure thread.

Kristin Berger lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two young children. A Creative Writing graduate of Western Michigan University, her poems and non-fiction have been published in numerous journals and reviews, including CALYX, Hip Mama, New Letters, The Rockhurst Review and Sea Stories. She received First Place in the Oregon State Poetry Association's New Poets category in 2006. To sample more of her writing, visit her weblog at www.kristinberger.wordpress.com.

Published by Finishing Line Press of Georgetown, Kentucky, this handcrafted, soft-bound, 6' x 9' chapbook also features original cover-art by Michigan artist, Cindy Mom.

more news about Darrin Doyle

Our PhD alumnus (fiction) Darrin Doyle had his first novel taken by LSU Press. Revenge of the Teacher's Pet: A Love Story will appear in March 2009. He has been a visiting assistant professor at the University of Louisville, and next year will be teaching in the creative writing program at Kansas State.

Ron Riekki

Our recent PhD graduate Ron Riekki has just published a novel: U.P., a novel by R.A. Riekki. Order from Ghost Road Press, 5303 E. Evans Ave., #309, Denver, CO 80222, ISBN 0-9796255-5-6, $19.95, ghostroadpress.com. Says Christopher Tilghman, "Ron Riekki takes us to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and shows us a world that is at once banal and horrific. Part Celine, part Henry Miller, Part Cormac McCarthy, Riekki delivers his vision with high intelligence and relentlessly powerful prose."

Kristen Tracy, MFA 2005

Kristen Tracy's first teen novel, Lost It, was published last year by Simon & Schuster. It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, was selected by the New York Public Library as one of their "Books for the Teen Age," and is already in its third printing. Her second teen novel, Crimes of the Sarahs, was also published by Simon & Schuster and came out this spring (It's set in Kalamazoo). Her first middle-grade novel, Camille Mcphee Fell Under the Bus, will be published next year by Random House with a second novel to follow in 2010. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, New York Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, and AGNI. She recently found out that Ted Kooser has selected her poem "Rain at the Zoo" to be reprinted in American Life in Poetry. She lives and writes in San Francisco, where she is very very happy.

Roy Seeger Publishes Poetry

Charlotte, NC October 21, 2008—Main Street Rag Publishing Company to release Roy Seeger’s The Boy Whose Hands were Birds, the winner of their 2008 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Contest. The book will be available through Main Street Rag’s online bookstore and through select bookstores nationwide with a suggested cover price of $14. Roy Seeger is a. English Instructor at the University of South Carolina Aiken and the winner of the 2007 Gribble Press Chapbook Contest forThe Garden of Improbable Birds. He received his Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from Western Michigan University in 2005 and his Masters of Arts in Poetry from Ohio University. He was also co-winner of the 2008 Society for the study of Midwestern Literature’s Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, a finalist for the 2007 Chicago Poetry Center Juried Reading, and his work has been featured on Verse Daily as well as in numerous poetry journals such as Gulf Coast, The Laurel Review, Versand The Mississippi Review. Bob Hicok, award winning author of This Clumsy Living, says of the collection that, “There is a quiet optimism to these poems, a product of Seeger’s awareness that ‘between the clay/& the syllable that breathes/what we make/alive’ we are, as he points out, ‘little gods.’ Where others see language as limiting, he understands language as that which allows a level of ontological choice...This is an engaging first book.” William Olsen, poetry editor of New Issues Press, says of Seeger’s collection that, “These poems instruct not so much by example as by mishap, jerry-rigged allegory, domestic fluke. The result: a poetry that is itself a credible way to live, uniquely.” Roy Seeger was a Kalamazoo resident for over a decade. He received his Bachelors Degree in English at Western Michigan University, and then returned to receive his Masters of Fine Arts. He is a former poetry editor of the award winning literary journal, Third Coast. The Boy Whose Hands Were Birds is scheduled for release onOctober 20, 2008 through Main Street Rag Publishing Company for $14. For orders contact M. Scott Douglass through www.mainstreetrag.com or by phone at 704-573-2516. You may contact Roy Seeger for autographed copies, readings, book signings, and workshops at 803-226-0245 or by email at roydseeger@hotmail.com.