From The Director

Welcome to the new online version of Marginalia, the magazine of creative writing and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU. Here you’ll find information about upcoming literary events, interviews, reviews, and opportunities to get involved.

Our year got off to an exciting start, as Distinguished Visiting Writer Stephen Dobyns literally packed the (Piper) House for an afternoon Q&A, then read to a standing-room-only crowd at the Memorial Union. (If you missed it, we recommend Velocities: New and Selected Poems as an introduction; but keep an eye out for Dobyns’ new book of long poems, two of which, “Ducks” and “Rhinoceros,” he read to finish the evening.) You’ll want to be sure to come early to get a seat for poet Kimiko Hahn and her husband, novelist and true crime writer Harold Schechter, when they read together in the Ventana Room of the Memorial Union on October 14th. Each of them will also hold a craft Q&A at the Piper House earlier that afternoon.

In Marginalia, you’ll find a full listing of events we host, events we co-sponsor, and other things we think you might find interesting, including select readings at area bookstores and productions by one of our newest Piper Friends partners, the award-winning Stray Cat Theatre. For even more news, be sure to have a look at the blog of our literary journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review. And if you’re interested in meeting ASU’s MFA students, drop in on one of their wildly popular Thursday night readings at The Tavern on Mill. If you prefer a quiet night at home, you can still join in the discussions of books by our visiting writers via the Piper Online Book Club.

As you may have read elsewhere, there will not be a Desert Nights, Rising Stars conference this spring, but there will be no shortage of opportunities for writers and readers. Late this fall we’ll announce a new list of classes offered by the Piper Writer’s Studio, some as short as a few hours, others as long as several weeks; and next semester we’ll host a literary version of March Madness, with visits by fiction writer and essayist Francine Prose, poet Bob Hicok, and fiction writer and essayist Charles D’Ambrosio. Throw in a trip to the Tucson Book Festival (where you can see some of our faculty and some of our guests) and you’ll have enough new titles on your reading list to get you through the summer.

We’ll be happy to hear your comments on this new format for Marginalia, and we look forward to seeing you at a reading or class sometime soon. If you’re on campus later this month, be sure to have a look in the library at the exhibit in honor of the 25th anniversary of the MFA Program in creative writing. We’ve got a lot of history behind us, and an exciting future ahead.

All the best,

Peter Turchi
Director of Creative Writing
Director, Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing