Author Archives: Liz

MAPH Alumna Featured in Tableau Magazine!


This month’s Tableau Magazine features an article by a MAPH alumna about another MAPH alumna! Emily Riemer ’09 has written a profile about Justine Nagan ’04 that discusses her work as a documentary filmmaker, focusing on her 2009 documentary Typeface, a project that involved even more MAPHers: she collaborated with Starr Marcello, Tom Bailey, and Brendan Kredell, all ’04.

MAPH Alumni Reading on May 13

Published this month by Random House/Delacorte, Anna Jarzab’s “All Unquiet Things” was once a MAPH Thesis:

Winner of a First Novel Contest from Chiasmus Press, Kate Zambreno’s “O Fallen Angel” will be published in March:

Jarzab (MAPH 07) and Zambreno (MAPH 02) will be here May 13 to read their work.

Both novels reached bookstores this year to the fanfare of blushing reviews, and on Thursday their authors will return to the University of Chicago–where both earned master’s degrees–to read.
Anna Jarzab (’07) and Kate Zambreno (’02) will read at 4:30 p.m. in Classics 10, 1010 E. 59th Street, hosted by the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities, which some consider an alternative approach to creative writing. The reading is free and open to the public.
The novels, both dark and psychologically complex, are very different.
Jarzab (pronounced as a spoonerism of Czar Jab) developed All Unquiet Things as her MAPH Thesis project under the program’s creative thesis option. The book, which came out this January, is a young adult mystery novel about an unlikely pair of California prep school students that team up to solve a friend’s murder.
Publisher’s Weekly said Jarzab’s “confident, literary prose makes for a tense and immersive thriller.”
Zambreno’s novel, O Fallen Angel, was born into print last month after it won Chiasmus Press’s “Undoing the Novel Contest.” Chiasmus describes it as “an anarchic literary sacrilege…an exorcism of the culture wars and pop-cultural debris.” Zambreno calls it a “triptych of modern-day America” and a “grotesque homage to Mrs. Dalloway.”
Writing in the Chicago Reader, S.L. Wisenberg said, “I found myself mesmerized, mostly by the rhythm and occasional whimsy of the prose. Zambreno breathes life into her characters with language alone.”

Missing your coursework? Take a class from a MAPHer!

MAPH alum Hallie Palladino is teaching a six-week playwriting class through Loyola Continuum.

Have you been putting your writing on the back burner and you’re looking for a way to push yourself back into it? Do you have an idea that would make a great one-act play? Or maybe you know someone else who might be interested. If you can pass the word along I would be very grateful. The class will be an introduction for beginners and an opportunity to continue an ongoing project for more experienced writers. Either way it will be lots of fun!

The class meets on Monday nights from 6:30-8:30pm at the Lakeshore Campus (that’s the big Loyola Campus in Rogers Park) March 15 – April 26 (don’t worry, no class on Passover, March 29th).


Reading by MAPH Novelists

Published this month by Random House/Delacorte, Anna Jarzab’s “All Unquiet Things” was once a MAPH Thesis:

Winner of a First Novel Contest from Chiasmus Press, Kate Zambreno’s “O Fallen Angel” will be published in March:
Jarzab (MAPH 07) and Zambreno (MAPH 02) will be here May 13 at 4:30 in Classics 110 to read their work. Save the date!
We did this last year with MAPH poets, and it was amazing.
Brought to you by MAPH and the Committee on Creative Writing.

Looking for something to do tonight? Check out Tuesday Funk

If you subscribe to the Irony list (and if you don’t, why not?), you may have already seen this, but just in case some of you don’t, I’m posting it anyway.

Tuesday Funk is a monthly reading series that features fiction, essays, and poetry, and has a strong MAPH connection. Not only is one of its organizers a MAPH grad, but tonight’s reading also features another MAPH grad, Kristin Lueke, reading her poetry. Plus, it’s at the Hopleaf, which means you can enjoy stilton mac and cheese while listening to local writers read their work. What could be better?

The details:

Please join us on Tuesday, January 5th for the first Tuesday Funk of 2010.
Hopleaf Bar at 5148 N. Clark Street
Reading starts 7:30 PM.
Upstairs room opens 7:00 PM.
Come early to get a good seat.
Cash only at the bar upstairs.

Phoenixfest Alumni Event

092409_phoenixphest_460_v3

Join us September 24 or 25 for the University of Chicago’s annual Phoenixphest event in 15+ cities across the U.S. and around the world. Phoenixphest is a decadelong tradition bringing graduates together for refreshments, conversation, and networking in their own cities.

Chicago’s event will be held on the 24th, at
Eivissa
1531 N Wells Street
Chicago, IL 60610
It will run from 6:30 to 8:30PM.

According to the website, “it’s one party you won’t want to miss.” Especially enticing for recent grads is the fact that members of the class of ’09 don’t have to pay the admission charge, which is $15 in advance, or $20 at the door.

You can find more information (and register for the event) at the alumni website.