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“Going Om: Real-Life Stories On and Off the Yoga Mat” by Melissa Carroll, “The Lost Ones,” anthologized in “All About Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color,” by Aracelis González Asendorf, “Nobody’s Looking” by J. R. Miller, “Love Fortunes and Other Disasters” by Kimberly Karalius, “Sofrito” by Phillippe Diederich
Creative writing master's students publish essays, fiction[04.13.2015]
TAMPA, Fla. -- The University of South Florida’s (USF) English Department is pleased to announce that five master's students have published first novels and story collections and edited or contributed to anthologies in 2014-2015. The students are either currently attending or are recent graduates from the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program.
“Going Om: Real-Life Stories On and Off the Yoga Mat” by Melissa Carroll
Melissa Carroll graduated from USF’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program in 2012. She is a writer and yoga instructor who believes in the power of being present. Based in Tampa, Fla., she guides more than 200 students every week at the largest yoga class in Florida and also teaches creative writing at the University of Tampa. Her poetry chapbook, “Karma Machine,” won the YellowJacket Press Peter Meinke Award in 2011. “Going Om: Real-Life Stories On and Off the Yoga Mat” is a collection of candid, witty and compelling experiences of yoga from renowned memoirists, including Claire Dederer, Dinty W. Moore and Neal Pollack. “Going Om: Real-Life Stories On and Off the Yoga Mat” was published by Viva Editions in October 2014.
“The Lost Ones,” anthologized in “All About Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color,” by Aracelis González Asendorf
Aracelis González Asendorf is a USF Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing candidate. Asendorf was born in Cuba, raised in Florida, and is a former English and Spanish teacher. Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in “Kweli Journal, Puerto del Sol, The Acentos Review,” and elsewhere. “All About Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color” features 27 stories by women writers of color. The pieces address such themes as racial prejudice, media portrayal of beauty and family relationships, spanning genres from the comic and the surreal to startling realism. “All About Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color” was published by University of Wisconsin Press in November 2014.
“Nobody’s Looking” by J. R. Miller
J. R. Miller graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in 2010. He was born and raised in the blue-collar suburbs of Detroit, Mich., but now teaches creative writing in central Florida. He is the founding editor of “(em) A Review of Text and Image” and the production editor for “Sweet Publications.” “Nobody’s Looking” is a collection of short stories centered around the tragedy of suburbia—characters in relationships that are not as close or memorable as once thought, characters pulling it all together and breaking out only to never escape, characters that face questions with no answers and decisions with life-changing trajectories. These stories explore, with a keen eye, the human relationship. “Nobody’s Looking” is forthcoming from ELJ Publications in March 2015.
“Love Fortunes and Other Disasters” by Kimberly Karalius
Kimberly Karalius graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in 2013. She is a young adult author who has been sharing stories on Figment.com with a strong following of enthusiastic readers since the site's conception. Her fiction chapbook, “Pocket Forest,” was published by Deathless Press in 2013. In “Love Fortunes and Other Disasters,” Karalius’s debut novel, Fallon Dupree has dreamed of attending high school in the town of Grimbaud for years. After all, generations of Duprees have successfully followed the (100% accurate!) love fortunes from Zita’s famous Love Charms Shop to happily marry their high school sweethearts. It’s a tradition. So, she is both stunned and devastated when her fortune states that she will NEVER find love. But Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible love fortune, and a rebellion is brewing. “Love Fortunes and Other Disasters” is forthcoming from Swoon Reads, an imprint of Macmillan, in May 2015.
“Sofrito” by “Sofrito” is forthcoming from Cinco Puntos Press in May 2015.
The University of South Florida’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing isoffers concentrations in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. The program emphasizes the craft of writing and concentrates on students’ original work. For more information, see http://english.usf.edu/graduate/concentrations/cw/degrees/.
Filed under:Arts and Sciences Arts and Sciences Alumni English Student Success CreditsAuthor:Christine M. Lasek Contact:clasek@mail.usf.edu