Monday, February 14, 2011

March Castalia


We have another fabulous line up for Castalia in March: UW professor David Shields, alum Peter Mountford, first year MFA prose writer Cecilia Kiely, second year MFA poet Matt Muth, and second year MFA poet Zebulon Huset.

WHEN: Tuesday, March 1, 8 pm
WHERE: Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Avenue
FREE and open to the public.
Co-sponsored with Richard Hugo House

More on our readers below:
David Shields’s most recent book, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (Knopf, 2010), was called “mind-bending” (The New York Times) and “the most provocative, brain-rewiring book of 2010” (GQ); it was also named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews, the Guardian, New Statesman, and two dozen other publications. His previous book, The Thing About Life is That One Day You’ll Be Dead (Knopf, 2008), was a New York Times bestseller; Amazon, Artforum, Salon, TimeOut Chicago, and the Seattle Times named it one of the best books of 2010. He is the author of ten other books, including Black Planet, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Remote, winner of the PEN/Revson Award; and Dead Languages, winner of the PEN/Syndicated Fiction Award. His essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Salon, and Slate. Shields’s work has been translated into fifteen languages.

Since earning his MFA from the University of Washington in 2006, Peter Mountford's short fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices 2008, Conjunctions, Michigan Quarterly Review, Phoebe, Seattle Review, and Boston Review, where he was the runner-up in the 2007 contest, judged by George Saunders. A 2010-11 writer-in-residence at Seattle Arts and Lectures, he is a two-time fellow of Yaddo and won 2010 grants from the city of Seattle and the Elizabeth George Foundation. Peter’s first novel, A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism, will be published on April 12 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Cecilia Kiely is a first-year MFA student at the UW. She is a New England transplant from the small town of Manchester-by-the-Sea. Her work frequently appears in such places as workshop classes and late-night emails. She serves as the editor of the Pacific Northwest’s premiere sailing club e-newsletter. Receiving national recognition for her work, Cecilia has been awarded several Stafford Loans.

Matt Muth is a narcissist, and often refers to himself in the 3rd person. His activities include being handsome, making Italian hand gestures, and hating on hipsters. Matt was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will lecture you freely on why you should buy American automobiles, and is a proud member of UAW Local 4121. His attempts at collective bargaining his thesis requirements have been rebuffed, and he is plotting a sit-in in the graduate lounge as a result. When not preening, he teaches Intro to Poetry at the UW, plays hockey, and wastes time on the internet like there will be no more internet in the near future. Matt's lifelong ambition is to be Mr. Halle Berry.