Posts by Inprint Staff

Inprint Staff

About Inprint Staff

The Inprint Staff is a bit nerdy, a bit quirky. They read too much, don't sleep enough, and love dark chocolate. But seriously, they are an all around great group of people. The staff include Executive Director Rich Levy, Associate Director Krupa Parikh, Development Director Ricardo Rivera, Communications Manager Ellie Mix, Business & Accounting Manager Ginnie Muller, and Inprint/UHCWP Intern Katie Edkins Milligan. If you come to Inprint events, you'll see them in action.

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 →

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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 →

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Books, movies, videos, oh my!

March 21, 2012, by

In the age of YouTube and other video hosting sites, it’s easier than ever to watch movie previews. These previews give you a feel for the film, its cinematography, its characters, and its plot. This idea of video based previews is now seeping into the literary world.

Gary Shteyngart, who is appearing as part of the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series on March 26th with Orange Prize winner Téa Obreht, has some of the funniest book promo videos around for his novel Super Sad True Love Story. We had to share them.

This video has James Franco in it, who was a student of Gary’s at Columbia.  Other literary notables featured are Mary Gaitskill, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Jay McInerney. It doesn’t tell you what the book is about, but definitely gives you a glimpse into Shteyngart’s wacky sense of humor. Click here to watch the Super Sad True Love Story promo video.  Continue reading →

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New Works by Inprint Faculty

March 14, 2012, by

Most of Houston is on spring break, but at this time of year we begin lining up our summer 2012 Inprint Writers Workshop. We are grateful and inspired by the number of Houstonians that value creative writing and sign up for these workshops. Their popularity continues to grow and demand is far surpassing supply, which of course we are thrilled about. But truth be told, we cannot take the credit for this ourselves. The real success of these workshops proceeds from the talented instructors that teach them. Our workshops instructors are amazing people, some of the city’s top writers, and they are receiving national acclaim for their talent. Luckily for us, these writers are not reclusive luddites. You will see a few of them around Houston this week.  Continue reading →

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An Open Book is now open

March 5, 2012, by

Welcome to Inprint’s new blog An Open Book. For close to three decades Inprint has been lucky enough to provide Houston with readings, writing workshops, fellowships for emerging writers at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, and much more. We’ve witnessed other literary initiatives take root and flourish, and we’ve seen Houston develop into a great city for readers and writers. So much is happening in Houston’s literary scene, we can barely keep up ourselves.

Not only is there exciting local news, but Houston’s literary community has a synergistic relationship with national literary events and trends. We’re influenced by what is happening nationally, but Houston writers and our events are having a direct impact on shaping the global literary scene too, and that is something we are very proud of. We are part of it, not just a result of it. Continue reading →

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