In Memoriam of Ray Bradbury

June 11, 2012, by

I picked up Fahrenheit 451 at fifteen years old during one of my many summer trips to the neighborhood library. It was the first book I read that summer, and I still cannot say why my hands grabbed that ratty paperback. Perhaps I had heard of it before, listed with the likes of other childhood favorites, Animal Farm or Brave New World. Or maybe I was drawn to the title which seemed appropriate to read during a stifling Houston June. Whatever the case, I kept that book for over a month after I finished it (racking up a whopping three dollar late fee). Though I was done with the book, I couldn’t convince myself that it was time for the book to end. Continue reading

Life As An Emerging Poet Part 2

June 6, 2012, by

Here is Part 2 of our story, Life As An Emerging Poet. On Monday, we posted Part 1 featuring an interview with Glenn Shaheen. Poets Glenn Shaheen and Lauren Berry will give a reading from their work on Thursday, June 7th, 7 pm at Brazos Bookstore. For more information, visit www.brazosbookstore.com

Lauren Berry, who received her MFA from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, was a National Poetry Series winner in 2009 for her first collection of poetry, The Lifting Dress. Her book was selected by Terrance Hayes and published by Penguin. Among the many eminent names that Lauren lists in her acknowledgements page, we are proud that Inprint is the first! Lauren was the recipient of the Inprint Paul Verlaine Prize in Poetry and served as poetry editor of Gulf Coast, the nationally renowned literary journal published by the graduate students in the UH CWP. We are happy to have her back in Houston after a year teaching in Wisconsin, and were able to catch up with her this week.

Inprint:  Can you tell us what you are doing now, career-wise?

Lauren: Right now I have the pleasure of teaching twelfth grade English and ballet at YES Prep North Central. Our campus is a charter school with a drive to get low-income students in Houston into college with the expectation that they will return to our beloved city and devote themselves to better serving its community. YES is an acronym for Youth Engaged in Service, a commitment which informs much of the work that we do. In the fall, I will start my third year with the school. Continue reading

Life As An Emerging Poet

June 4, 2012, by

As summer begins, a pool of recent grads, especially those with liberal arts or creative writing graduate degrees, will begin to ponder the timeless question—What do I do with this degree?

At Inprint, we are lucky because we interact with graduate students in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston all the time. We are proud to be able to give fellowships, prizes, and other support to these students because we know how important they are to the literary life of this city; we know how much they give back to the community; and we know how important they are to the creative world in general. We can’t help but feel pride as they graduate and go forth into the universe and fulfill their artistic destinies. It isn’t easy for them–the publishing world and the academic creative writing job market is a competitive one, and for poets it is often tougher.

This week, however, we get to highlight two UH Creative Writing Program alums who are making their mark in the world of poetry. Lauren Berry and Glenn Shaheen, authors, respectively, of the poetry collections, The Lifting Dress and Predatory, will read from their work on Thursday, June 7, 7 pm at Brazos Bookstore.  For more information, visit  www.brazosbookstore.com.

We had a chance to talk to Glenn over the weekend.

Inprint:  Glenn, can you tell us a little bit more about your and Lauren’s Texas book tour? What will you be reading from?  You have old friends and professors in Houston, does reading in front of them have more meaning for you or does it make you more nervous?

Glenn: We’re just hitting up a few places in east/north Texas, starting with Houston, then moving on to Austin, Dallas, and Denton. We’ll both be reading from our new (and only) books, Predatory (me) and The Lifting Dress (Lauren). Probably some new stuff, too, though that’s always nerve wracking, but maybe in a good way. Continue reading