Howling Bird Press’s 2020 nonfiction prize-winning book, “Self, Divided,” by John Medeiros, made the “Lambda Literary Review” list for most anticipated books of February! Congratulations to our author and, of course, our student editors!
In the spring of 2020, Augsburg alumna Tracy Ross ’19 found out she won the Presidential Graduate Diversity Scholarship from Bowling Green State University. This merit-based award is given to a student who plans to promote diversity within the graduate student population at Bowling Green.
Tracy wanted to go to Bowling Green to earn her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Writing. She heard it’s one of “the best hidden school in the country” from then MFA nonfiction mentor, Karen Babine. Tracy also has family who have attended Bowling Green. With the Presidential Graduate Diversity Scholarship, Tracy plans to combine her passion for poetry and community service to bring poetry to inner city youth and urban areas.
Tracy’s connection to diversity started as a young child and she believes her diverse background is what has helped her get to where she is today.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Tracy’s father is Black and her mother is European Caucasian. She attended school through her sophomore year of high school, then started her own path to higher education. Her father worked in the automotive industry and when economic hardship forced the automotive plants to close, Tracy’s family moved to Chicago so her parents could find work. Here, Tracy homeschooled herself. On her own, she learned what it would take to pass the equivalency test and she succeeded. With her GED, Tracy got herself into Roosevelt University in Chicago at an age when her peers were still in high school.
“Early on I realized that through my family’s economic hardship and inequalities, you can’t see the potential in yourself unless you see the potential in other people. I felt really blessed I have a diverse background, and that I was exposed not only to hardship, but I was blessed in having the fortitude and the privilege to be a thinking, aware human being,” Tracy says.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in English Literature, she went on to Bemidji State to earn a master’s degree in education. Tracy wanted to teach creative writing, but she realized that in order to teach creative writing at a post-secondary level, she would need a subject-specific degree. Tracy researched many universities and after reading Augsburg’s mission statement about its education to service, and seeing the diverse faculty in the MFA program, she decided the best fit would be Augsburg’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
“Between the residency and the remote technology, that’s a big part of the incentive of going to Augsburg University. Especially in an MFA program, you have to work alone as a writer and [the program] gave me so much time to go back and forth between the mentorship and working alone. Augsburg was very progressive with that style of teaching,” Tracy says.
Tracy’s focus was on poetry and publishing. She considers herself blessed to have had the opportunity to work with four different MFA mentors: Cary Waterman, Heid E. Erdrich, Karen Babine, and James Cihlar. Tracy was also part of Augsburg’s Howling Bird Press the entire time she was in the program, until she graduated in 2019 with an MFA in Publishing.
“Augsburg University was the best experience in my life,” Tracy says. “I’m so grateful to Heid Erdrich for editing my thesis which I was able to publish.”
Tracy’s focus during the Spring 2021 semester will be on publishing her next book, as well as focusing on her research and dissertation for her Ph.D. work.
Tracy Ross is a poet, writer, and humanist. She holds a B.A. in English from Roosevelt University and a Master’s in Education. She is also a graduate of Augsburg University’s MFA Program. Her work is paramount in fusing poetic purist tradition with the modern technological progress and its influence on the mind. Her first collection of poetry, Broken Signals (Trials of Disconnect) is available from Shanti Arts Press. Her novella, Certainty of One–A Tale of Education Automation was released in November of 2018 by Adelaide Press. James Dean and the Beautiful Machine was just released in February 2020. She currently lives and works in Minnesota.
We would like to extend a special THANK YOU to those who donated to Howling Bird Press for Give to the Max this year. The students and professors are all thrilled by your show of support. We greatly appreciate your gifts and what it means for our continued work, which includes publishing the winner of the 2021 Poetry Contest.
Last week was a historic Give to the Max for Augsburg. We raised the largest amount we’ve ever raised during Give to the Max from the most donors we’ve ever had. Here are the highlights:
This day continues to energize our students, faculty, and staff every year and we can’t wait to see what we can accomplish next year!
What is it about writing that energizes you?
I often say that I don’t like writing but I like having written. The actual writing is sometimes transcendent, sometimes painfully hard, and most of the time it’s just okay—like life, I suppose. But I just don’t feel right when I haven’t written. I am taken over by a general malaise. When I’ve written, I feel better. It’s the feeling of finally having your ears pop on the way down from the mountain after being at a higher altitude.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Well, I know one trap for me was thinking I had to make everything up. I thought that, in order for my writing to be worthy, everything in it had to be 100 percent invented, 100 percent original. I don’t believe that anymore. We just need to have an original voice. Basically, stop worrying so much about having something to say and figure out a way to say what you already know.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Self-doubt. I can always think of a million reasons why my voice doesn’t matter. Ultimately, I have to do it for me and hope it matters to someone.
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
Most of my author friends are people I met in my MFA program. Because we all came up in the program together and we’ve been pals for quite some time now, there’s no competition, just camaraderie. They are humans to me first, writers second. We exchange work but mostly we commiserate. The main thing I usually need is emotional support.
Do you want each of your books/stories to stand on their own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between them?
I’m trying to do both. I want each story to have its own legs, but I also want it to be able to get into that line and kick like the Rockettes along with all the other stories in my book. I’ve only written the one book, but I like to think that when I do have a body of work, all the books will echo off of each other.
Did publishing with Howling Bird Press change your process of writing?
I don’t think many writers get into the profession because they are really jazzed about marketing. Turns out writing a book and selling a book are two completely different animals. I am completely inept at the latter. And maybe the former, too, but shhhhhh. What publishing with Howling Bird Press taught me is that, although writing is, by nature, solitary, getting a book out into the world is very much a collaboration. I have depended so much on the expertise and hard work of the press. It’s such a relief to not have to go at it alone. It takes the pressure off and lets me focus on the actual writing.
What have you done since you won the Howling Bird Press prize?
Weathered a pandemic. Seriously, all of the events I had lined up were (rightly!) canceled. But that’s the case for every writer, every artist right now. It’s good, in a way. There’s only one thing to focus on: new work. And my day job. And taking care of two semi-feral kids.
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot?
A house cat. Cats do not care what anyone thinks of them and they do what they want when they want. They start licking themselves in random places out of nowhere. They can be purring and rubbing up against your legs one minute and then clawing and biting your ankles the next. They cough up hairballs and don’t apologize! They find joy in the slightest wiggle of a string. They take lots of naps. And they are deeply weird.
How many unpublished and half-finished books/stories do you have?
Two half-finished books, I guess. But half-finished would be a generous assessment. One is a memoir and the other is a work of fiction. But lately, I’ve been sampling from one to use in the other, so maybe just one. Two disparate halves make a whole, right?
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
I mostly research random things that come up, like “What did the little adoption certificates that came with Cabbage Patch dolls say?” or “How would you drive to Graceland in the 1980s and how long would it take to get there?” I did a lot of research for the story “Irreversible Things”—which is based on a real murder that happened on the side of my house when I was seven—but I didn’t end up using much of it. Maybe a partial line from an article in the newspaper. The research was mostly because I wondered whether the way I remembered those events was accurate.
Do you read your book reviews? Why or why not?
I do because I can’t not look. I have to know what people are saying about me! I did have one friend forward me an email his mom wrote in response to my book and I gave it to another friend first so she could make sure there wasn’t anything in it that would break me (there wasn’t).
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
Oh! I like this question. I guess the biggest secret of my book—the thing people are most curious about—is what is truth and what is fiction. Even my family members don’t always know the answer to that question. My lips are sealed.
Howling Bird Press is proud to reveal our newest book cover! Self, Divided by John Medeiros.
What is it about writing that energizes you?
Otherwise I might have to actually work for a living. Besides, I get to transform all of my enemies into characters they can’t recognize and then have them kidnapped by pirates or trampled by elephants.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Marriage. Children. Employment. The usual suspects. Alas, they’re generally unavoidable, so the trick is to write as quickly as possible until you find yourself with a mortgage and a golden retriever, and then to rest on your laurels.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Death. That’s going to be a major distraction. Although my agent often tells me my balance sheet is more likely to reach the black posthumously. Pretty women are also a nice distraction, but as one gets older, death increasingly nudges them out of the picture.
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
I dare not share their names because being known as a friend of mine might bring their literary careers to a grinding halt. I sometimes have that effect on people.
Do you want each of your books/stories to stand on their own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between them?
I am not nearly organized enough to be building a body of work. I just churn it out and hope some of it sticks. It helps that I have a team of elves and reindeer working alongside me.
What have you done since you won the Howling Bird Press prize?
I have a new short story collection, Winter Honeymoon, coming out with Black Lawrence in 2020. I’ve published nine additional books—four more story collections, three novels, a collection of poetry, and, most recently, Who Says You’re Dead?, an ethics book for laypeople. It’s amazing how much writing one can accomplish when trying to overcome one’s deep-seated childhood fears of inadequacy.
What did you do with your first advance?
I made a down payment on a gumball. The great thing about New York City is you can even buy candy on layaway.
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot?
Debra Winger. Especially if the honor comes along with a date. (Apologies to her husband, who I’m sure is a swell fellow, but this is my moment in the spotlight, not his.)
How many unpublished and half-finished books/stories do you have?
Hundreds of stories. Maybe thousands. And my editor has a brand-new novel on her desk, in case you know of a major publisher interested in making an offer. Okay, it’s not exactly new. But it was written this century, so it’s not that old . . .
What did you edit out of this book, The Topless Widow of Herkimer Street?
The original version contained the location of the Holy Grail and a translation key to the Rongorongo glyphs of Easter Island, but I’ve decided to save them for the sequel.
Do you read your book reviews? Why or why not?
You assume that my books get reviewed. To the limited extent that they do, I pretend that they don’t. But I always make a point of thanking the reviewers, if I can find their addresses. I suppose that means I am occasionally thanking a reviewer who has panned my book, but that probably makes them rethink their vitriol, so it is still energy well-spent.
What is it about writing that energizes you?
What I appreciate most about writing is that I always discover something new in the process. Whether it’s a brand new idea that starts a new project, or a revision of an ongoing project, or an idea that wakes me up in the middle of the night for how to resolve a writing problem, I am always learning something new. New about the world, myself, ideas, the human condition. Writing is a way in to all of that.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
I think this really varies writer to writer, but I see some commonalities among my students. For instance, believing in “writer’s block” seems to trip up many aspiring writers. I personally do not believe in “writer’s block.” I might have at one time long ago, but a stint in writing on deadline for a local newspaper cured me of writers block forever. There’s really no such thing, in my opinion. There may be problems writers face—like, how to describe that person, that moment in time; or, how to shoo away all the distractions in life to get some quiet uninterrupted hours at your desk; or, how to write about a very difficult experience—but those are problems that are solvable. I think if aspiring writers thought not of “blocks” but rather of “solvable problems” it might help.
Another trap is worrying too soon about publication. I have a friend, a dear friend, who is writing a memoir. Someone in our writing group suggested she get an agent, and find a publisher, now. I shook my head: No, not yet. You haven’t even figured out the arc of the story yet. Write the memoir first. Then worry about the agent, the publisher, publishing. Just write.
Another trap, and this is corrosive, is envy. Someone somewhere is always going to get a prize or a publication or a review that you don’t get. That’s just life. If you constantly compare yourself to the next new writer, you’ll eat yourself up with envy. Don’t do it. Applaud everyone’s success, and get back to your desk.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
I had to look up what Kryptonite does! “Deprives Superman of his powers.” Hmm. I don’t think I have a writing Kryptonite. That doesn’t mean I’m Superman (or Supergirl), not at all. What it means is that writing is how I think about the world. I’m constantly writing inside my head, casting experience into sentences. I may be sitting in a meeting looking attentive about whatever my department chair is talking about, but really I’m writing a scene for my novel, or revising a sentence, or turning a word over in my mind, like a cool pebble inside my mouth. Writing is just who I am. Nothing can deprive me of that power.
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you be a better writer?
Oh, so many writers, really. I have two wonderful poet friends I met some years ago at a writing workshop, and we stay in touch by email, getting together in real time and space as often as we can. We send each other drafts of writing, sometimes just fragments, sometimes the whole thing. And we just talk about life too. The frustrations of getting it all done, what we are reading, recipes for all those tomatoes we’ve grown.
I have another writer friend who is very strategic about her career as a writer; she is probably about twenty years younger than I am, and I just watch in a kind of wonder at her energy and determination. I take a lot of inspiration from our friendship, and she kind of views me as her academic mentor. It’s a really interesting relationship.
And there are writers out there who I have met, who are kind of giants in their genre (I won’t drop names); I’ve learned something so very valuable from the “famous writers”: the best writers are often the most generous of human beings, willing to help in so many ways— making connections, championing your work, encouraging you to keep going, to keep writing. If I ever become a “famous writer” I shall use these wonderful human beings as my model. There is no place for arrogance in writing, only generosity.
Do you want each of your books/stories to stand on their own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between them?
Very good question. I think my first and second book are linked, but they each also stand on their own. I am very interested in a number of intersecting subjects: women, the Midwest, courage, kindness, and, of course, horses.
The two projects I’m working on now are 1) about women and courage; 2) about horses and a girl and courage. So I suppose there is a connection between all of this.
Did publishing with Howling Bird Press change your writing process?
I think a lot more now about the internal design of a piece. The editors working on Still Life with Horses were so acutely aware of how various parts of the story fit together (or didn’t) and made the book so much better by their attention. I think about this a lot more now as I revise, which is really a gift.
What have you done since you won the Howling Bird Press prize?
I have been working on two writing projects: One, a nonfiction narrative about five generations of women in my family, going back to the wife of a whaleship captain in the mid-1800s. And, two, a novel set in Kentucky in the 1970s about a young girl and her father and their hopes pinned on a racehorse. I’m really enjoying working on the novel. It’s a delightful departure from nonfiction. The joy of inventing is delicious.
What did you do with your first advance?
I don’t remember, honestly! I probably did something horse-related. I currently have a Welsh Pony/Quarter Horse cross who is just amazing. I might have bought him a present, maybe a new saddle pad. Or, more likely, I put the advance in the bank!
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot?
My father lived the last ten years or so of his life in a large apartment overlooking a turn and pool in the Assabet River in Concord, Massachussetts. The view from his window was so lovely, and Dad was always especially thrilled to see the resident Great Blue Heron wading and feeding in that pool. He took, literally, hundreds of photographs of that sinuous bird. My father loved photography, birds, science, nature, gardening, physics, music. Everything. He was curious about the world and delighted by all of life. Dad died in 2016, and when I see a Great Blue Heron now, I think of my dad.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
For the horse novel, I spent several years making trips to Kentucky, hanging around race tracks, talking to horse people, watching races, and training sessions, and just absorbing as much as I could. And, of course, reading a lot, and widely.
For the nonfiction narrative about the women in my family, I made a number of research trips to New England, to archives and libraries that had all kinds of holdings, from whaling logs, to letters my great great grandparents had written, to photographs. And, reading everything I could get my hands on.
I also take the advice of Nathaniel Philbrick who has said “You have to buy the books.” So, I have a really incredible library of books. I think every writer should. And not Kindle or e-book versions. Books. Things you hold in your hand, turn the pages of. There’s a tactile experience there that helps with memory and imagination. I say this anecdotally, but I suspect there are studies too.
What did you edit out of your book, Still Life with Horses?
I edited out things that were too self-absorbed, maudlin, maybe motivated more by reprisal than art. For me it was most important to tell a balanced story, not one that cast me as a victim-turned-hero and anyone else into a villain. That’s not really how real life works, most of the time. We’re all a lot more complicated than that. I wanted to honor that complication, reveal it, share it.
Do you read your book reviews? Why or why not?
Sure, I read my book reviews. And I remember that behind every review there is a person, with their own idiosyncratic points of view, or dislikes, or preferences. That person also may or may not care about trends in writing. That person may or may not be drawn to the subject matter. I read the review, and put it away, and that is that.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
There’s really only one “secret” and it’s not really a secret. The end of the book, the very last scene, is a reference to a gorgeous poem by James Wright, “The Blessing” that beautifully describes an encounter of the speaker of the poem with two ponies in a field. The poem ends as one of the ponies walks over to the speaker:
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.
And Still Life with Horses ends like this:
The horse lowers his great head, and flows softly on my outstretched hands. The faint trace of whiskers on my skin, the warm living breath. A blessing. It feels like that. Exactly like that.
I worried a little that this might be too obvious, but only one person (a horse lover, and a poet) has caught it . . . that I know of. For me, the story had to end that way. I adore horses, all horses, and have a vast respect and deep admiration for horses’ ability to truly see people for who they really are. Horses never lie. They always tell the truth. I aspire to be that clear myself.
What is it about writing that energizes you?
Three things come to mind, one of which is sort of selfish—that feeling you get when you’re in “the zone” and everything else falls away—it’s just you and the words and the pleasure of creating something that sings. The second is the people you meet—for me, as a writer in community with other local writers, writers I’ve studied with and learned from in the past, as well as a teacher of students who are eager to learn more about the craft. Third is the pleasure of knowing that someone who doesn’t know you or anything about you may pick up your book or hear you read from it and have that unmistakable zing of recognition, of connection. That’s golden.
What are common traps for aspiring writers?
Being in too much of a hurry. Yeah, I know, we could all die tomorrow (more true now than the last time I said that, I’m sure . . .) But so many writers want to send things out immediately after writing them without giving them time to breathe and reveal more of their nature. Closely related is the desire to publish without the desire to read the published work of other writers. Writers who do this are depriving themselves of a way to learn more about how to get their work out into the world, and they are depriving themselves of the chance to be an actual part of the community of writers, who read every chance we get. A third trap that I frequently see in students is a reluctance to revise, which is closely related to the first trap. Revising takes time—words need time to sink in. It’s true that you won’t have that rush of initial creation you got from your first draft, but you’ll have something different that you will probably come to appreciate over time if you stick with writing.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Lack of focus and an urge to do household tasks or work related to the courses I teach during the time I have set aside to write. Not even setting the time aside sometimes, to be honest, and then being surprised by how little work I have produced.
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
I have been part of an ongoing group of writers for maybe fifteen years now. Current members are Morgan Grayce Willow, Rita Schweiss, Elissa Cottle, and Rondi Atkin. We meet monthly and read each other’s work and appreciate and critique and laugh and recommend books to read and support one another through challenges, both those related to writing and other things. Kate Kysar was a part of this group for a number of years and is still a good friend. Other writers I have met through taking classes and/or doing readings together and consider friends include Kris Bigalk, Paige Riehl, Michael Kiesow Moore, Michael Walsh, Tony Plocido, Tish Jones, Andrea Jenkins, John Medeiros, Steve Healey, and Heid Erdrich. Influential friends from my graduate school years at the University of Oregon are Susan Rich and Phil Memmer, as well as my teacher/mentors Garrett Hongo, T.R. Hummer, and Dorianne Laux . All of these writers have helped me learn how much I still have to learn, and encouraged me that it is worth it to try. Now I’m afraid I’ve forgotten someone, so please forgive my lapses in memory.
Do you want each of your books/stories to stand on their own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between them?
The first two books (Sleeping Upside Down, Silverfish Review Press, 2006, and Sweet Weight, Tiger Bark Press, 2012) are connected to some extent by their focus on love, self-discovery, and relationships, as well as a poetic approach that tries to heighten the tension inherent in oppositions, and in some cases, to challenge the way we conceive of things as opposites (male/female, queer/straight, for instance). Simples, which HBP so wonderfully published in 2018, is a complete ringer—it is historical poetry based on the lives of women of the Great Plains around the turn of the twentieth century. I don’t know why that happened. That’s what you get for majoring in history and creative writing, I guess. My fourth book, which is not really a book yet, will likely be more like the first two, dealing with age and the body and pushing against oppositions.
Did publishing with Howling Bird Press change your process of writing?
I don’t know if it changed my writing process, but it made me much more aware of all that goes into the editing process. I’m so grateful for all the energy and expertise and care I received from the student editors and of course the amazing Jim Cihlar.
What have you done since you won the Howling Bird Press prize?
Well, life pretty much has gone on as it had before. I teach full time at Minneapolis College, and in addition to that, I’m trying to write more poems for another collection. I’ve also done some fun readings to promote the book, as well as co-teaching a workshop at the Ghost Ranch education center in New Mexico, entitled “The Poetry of Stone,” where class members wrote poems and learned how to do stone carving for a week. I am giving a socially distanced reading later this month at an artist’s salon called “The River’s Edge” in Minneapolis, and I’ll be appearing in an online reading sponsored by the Syracuse, New York, Downtown Writer’s Center in October.
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot?
This is a hard question. I think some kind of perennial Midwestern plant, like bee balm, that blooms profusely for a few months, then dies back and goes dormant for half the year, but during that time, rich things are fermenting beneath the snow.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
Simples took me about twelve years from its conception to its completion. My initial inspiration was a bit I heard on The Writer’s Almanac about the great locust invasion of the 1870s. That sent me down an insane rabbit hole of books about locusts, about Minnesota history, about women and settlement on the Great Plains, about Native people’s role in helping settlers and how they were displaced by settlers. I read a manuscript at the Minnesota Historical Society on a woman missionary in Northern Minnesota. I read prayer books and Bible verses. Eventually, based to some extent on my reading, the focus of the book became how women coped with the exigencies of life on the prairie. I can’t really recall a time when the research stopped and the writing began—both activities fed off of each other. I did have to make myself stop researching periodically, because it is sometimes tempting to think that because you have read so much, you have written an equal amount, and that, of course, is not the case.
I also do brief research for non-historical poems, which usually involves a short dive down the Google hole.
What did you edit out of this book, Simples?
I don’t think I actually took any poems out, but I was helped immensely by the suggestions I got about reordering the collection. I also changed the point of view of one or two poems based on editorial feedback, and added some end notes to make the historical context clearer for readers.
Simples is now available on Amazon as an e-book. Check it out here.
The inaugural winner of Howling Bird Press’s award was Marci Vogel with her book of poetry At the Border of Wilshire & Nobody. Since 2015, Vogel’s writing career has continued to bloom. She finished her Creative Writing and Literature Doctorate with the University of Southern California in the poetry and literature track.
After graduating, she started serving as a Post- Doctorate Scholar Teachin.g Fellow at USC. It was supposed to be a two-year position, but they have asked her to extend her time into a third year
“Having the book was an important part of having that job. It’s like you’re teaching artists, teaching poetry writing for the creative writing majors and fiction writing. I wouldn’t have been asked to do that without a book,” said Vogel.
She has also been invited for readings and talks at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, the University of Strasbourg, Kelly Writers House, the University of Pennsylvania, the School of Beaux- Arts in Tours, France, and the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. She is currently working on a new book-length manuscript engaged with questions of language, displacement, ecosystems, and the redwoods of California.
“Planet Earth poetry. Environmental, ecological, ecojustice poetry,” says Vogel. “It’s my way of giving another resource to climate change.”
When asked what is it about writing that energizes her, Vogel replied, “Writing makes me feel better than not writing! I don’t feel like I’m in my own skin if it’s been too long from writing.”
Whether she is writing a syllabus, a course description, or a memo, for Vogel, it’s all writing.
“It doesn’t have to be a collection or great American novel. It’s writing an email to students. You can have someone feeling really supported because you know your audience. Real-world writing energizes me.”
Vogel believes poetry is for all people. Someone might not be a poet, but a poem can nourish them, sustain them, give them a way to say, “Oh, that’s what I’ve been feeling!”
Vogel likes to write at her own desk, surrounded by things she’s collected over the years. This includes her completely restored 1952 Olympia typewriter, which she purchased with some of the money from her first writing advance.
“I’m not working on my own work every day, that’s why I like to acknowledge how much work I put into an email or writing a class or student work. It’s all writing practice.”
Vogel is careful about structuring elements so that all readers, whether consciously or unconsciously, experience a process of development in the work. She says she is “careful that the little seeds are planted.”
Marci Vogel is the author of Death and Other Holidays, winner of the inaugural Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize, and At the Border of Wilshire & Nobody, winner of the inaugural Howling Bird Press Poetry Prize. Her poetry, prose, translations, and cross-genre inventions appear in Jacket2, FIELD, VIDA, Plume, Quarter After Eight, Poet Lore, Colorado Review, and Seneca Review, among other publications. She is the recipient of a Willis Barnstone Translation Prize, a Hillary Gravendyk Memorial Scholarship from the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and residencies at North Street Collective in Mendocino County and CAMAC Art Center in Marnay, France.
Since its inception five years ago, Howling Bird Press has published five winning manuscripts, all with authors who have gone on to do wonderful things. The press has also been recognized for its work in Poets & Writers, Kirkus, Foreword Reviews, Columbia Journal, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Literary Review, and The St. Paul Pioneer Press.
2020 marks the five-year anniversary of Howling Bird Press, the publishing house of Augsburg University’s Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Started by former MFA Director and Professor Emerita Cass Dalglish, Howling Bird Press is a student-run publishing program that offers an annual book contest where the winner is awarded a $1,000 cash prize along with book publication and distribution.
Students enrolled in the Publishing Concentration, a two-semester course sequence taught by poet James Cihlar, run the press while studying the publishing profession and the book trade. The students handle all the work of running a press, including acquisitions, editing, graphic design, production, marketing, and fundraising. Howling Bird Press books are distributed by Small Press Distribution and are available online and in bookstores nationwide.
The annual nationwide contest is open to manuscripts of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on an alternating basis and is judged by the student editors and senior faculty of the MFA program. Along with the prize and publication, the winning author is invited to read at the MFA program’s summer residency in Minneapolis.
This year’s title, Self, Divided by John Medeiros, is the winner of the 2020 Nonfiction Prize.
Previous winning books are Irreversible Things, by Lisa Van Orman Hadley, winner of the 2019 Fiction Prize; Simples, by KateLynn Hibbard, winner of the 2018 Poetry Prize; Still Life with Horses, by Jean Harper, winner of the 2017 Nonfiction Prize; The Topless Widow of Herkimer Street, by Jacob M. Appel, winner of the 2016 Fiction Prize; and At the Border of Wilshire & Nobody, by Marci Vogel, winner of the 2015 Poetry Prize.
This fall, students will be reading poetry manuscripts in preparation for the 2021 prize.
The first three students to sign up for Howling Bird Press’s publishing concentration were not only adding a concentration on to their creative writing master’s program, they were helping develop the program for future publishing students. Amanda Symes, Ashley Cardona, and Kevin Matuseski are photographed with Marci Vogel at her book launch party in 2015.
It was quite lovely to be part of the first Howling Bird Press cohort of editors. The idea was to study everything in bookmaking from the initial manuscript to marketing after publication, so it seemed like a worthwhile endeavor for someone like me who wanted to eventually publish his own book. I even ordered a cake for the book launch! Those are things you don’t really imagine doing when you think of the book business, but there are many little tasks like that in publishing.
The most grueling aspect was the sheer quantity of reading we did to select a manuscript to publish. I was reading poetry manuscripts almost everyday—from right after work until I went to bed—for about a month. Then we came together as a team, with professors as our guides, to decide on the winning manuscript.
This was the most memorable to me—to have several people in one room with different tastes, values, and backgrounds—and to try to agree on the best manuscript. It was no easy task, but I think all of us were proud of our choice, Marci Vogel’s At The Border of Wilshire & Nobody.
Her book is now one of my most cherished possessions. Yes, it’s beautiful work, but it became even more valuable when we sat down as an editing cohort to read through it line by line. I think voracious readers often don’t slow down to do this, but it’s a rewarding process, especially with a text as beautiful and layered as Marci’s. You become more present with the text, you notice things, and you guess (sometimes incorrectly) at the intention of the author. It’s critical reading to the extreme.
Our appreciation for Marci’s work was compounded when we met the person behind the manuscript—a kind, humble, and wise person with a true passion for language. She even recommended a few books that I ordered for my daughter. It’s nice to have made a connection with someone so genuine. I see now that she has another book out, Death and Other Holidays. My copy has been ordered. I can’t wait to read it! It’s gratifying to see her continued success having been part of her first book release.
Being part of the team responsible for creating and running Howling Bird Press is one of those experiences that I’m grateful for in ways that I’m only now fully realizing.
I learned what it takes to make a book happen. Proofing, layout, printing, cutting, binding—it was a fascinating process. And then, seeing Marci’s work finally transform from a PDF into a beautiful, tangible piece of art gave us all such a feeling of accomplishment and pride. To be able to bring her poetry to the page was a gift.
Promoting and celebrating the book came naturally for us. We were excited about sharing her work and ours with the world. Designing a promotional broadside felt like the right way to showcase the beauty of language and image that runs throughout Marci’s poetry. The bird of paradise image (below) plays with the language of the poem and serves as a reminder of place for much of her book.
We felt like we knew Marci before we ever met, and when we finally did meet for the book launch, we were met with warmth and grace—she is truly a delightful person and artist.
It was exciting to join the inaugural Howling Bird Press group. We not only got the chance to learn about publishing, we had the opportunity to help design the program. Our first assignment was to come up with the publishing house’s name. That was an exciting task that many other MFA students participated in.
To say we got a crash course in publishing is a bit of an understatement. The three of us in that first cohort had full-time jobs, families, were in different tracks in the MFA program (Nonfiction, Poetry, and Fiction), and were embarking on publishing the first Howling Bird Press book.
We were doing more than just a publishing job, though. And we were doing a few years’ worth of publishing work in two short semesters. We read over ninety poetry manuscripts, had back-and-forth meetings to whittle the list down to ten finalists, worked with professors in an all-day discussion to pick the winning manuscript, drafted a contract for winner Marci Vogel, edited her manuscript, designed an entire book—cover, layout, text—to print, finalized details with a book printing company, developed a marketing plan, implemented that marketing plan, and organized a book launch party.
For me, this process was terrifying and also one of the most rewarding experiences of my writing life. I didn’t have a background in poetry or in publishing, so everything was new. And while it was daunting, I was reassured working with Ashley, Kevin, and Marci, all who are phenomenal writers. We found a way to work together, and work with the professors, to publish what has turned into one of my favorite books: At the Border of Wilshire & Nobody.
In the end, I learned more than I could have dreamed about the publishing process. It’s helped shape my writing and prepared me for what to expect when my manuscript is finished. It’s also been deeply rewarding to see the great things Marci has done with At the Border of Wilshire & Nobody, and her continued success since.
Howling Bird Press authors have accomplished so much in the short time since winning the annual publication award.
Howling Bird Press authors are not the only success story, however. The publishing alumni have gone on to great things as well!
The Master of Fine Arts program at Augsburg University is designed to accommodate writers who work full-time, live outside of Minnesota, or simply desire the flexibility of a low-residency experience. This two-year program—run jointly by Stephan Eirik Clark and Lindsay Starck—offers one-on-one work with mentors throughout the year, features an annual ten-day summer residency, and provides the opportunity to join a lifelong community of writers.
Students typically begin the program with a ten-day summer residency in Minneapolis, participating in daily workshops, readings, and mini-courses that focus on literary craft as well as career skills in teaching, editing, publishing, book arts, and advertising. The program includes three summer residencies in Minneapolis.
The first and second residencies are each followed by two off-campus semesters of work with faculty mentors in virtual classrooms that make use of online and other technologies. Each semester, MFA candidates register for a Mentorship and Creative and Critical reading course. In addition, students complete a craft paper during their third off-campus semester and prepare a craft talk in the fourth. Cross genre work is encouraged. By their third and last residency, students are expected to have produced a bound creative thesis.
Students are also given the opportunity to specialize in one or more career concentrations: Teaching and Publishing (Howling Bird Press). Classes are planned with a 5-to-1 student-to-mentor ratio for the close relationship needed throughout the course of MFA studies.
Howling Bird Press is excited to publish Self, Divided by John Medeiros in fall 2020. Here is early praise for the winner of the 2020 nonfiction prize!
“Self, Divided is an immersive journey to the self’s ‘true north’ against the backdrop of identical twinship, growing up working class, coming out, and living with HIV/AIDS. Captivating not only for Medeiros’s evocative lyricism, but also for his original and imaginative use of narrative space, his quest to create an identity all his own is a sad, funny, and memorable story of growth against the odds, written in the language of hard-won victory.”
—Brian Malloy, author of The Year of Ice and After Francesco
“Most memoirs grapple with the individual seen again, but for John Medeiros this mirroring is literal. Self, Divided considers the author’s life as an identical twin. One brother is gay and HIV-positive, the other a straight Christian, each part of a whole that will not divide, even in times of desperate separation. How can two men, intermingled since birth but whose life paths diverge, come to truly brother one another? Rendered in lyric form that is at once severed and continuous, this memoir pulses deep.”
—Barrie Jean Borich, author of Apocalypse, Darling and Body Geographic