MSU FACULTY READING

Poet and creative nonfiction writer

Candace Black

Poet

Richard Robbins

Fiction writer

Roger Sheffer

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Talk on craft
3:00 P.M.—CSU Ostrander Auditorium
Reading
7:30 P.M.—CSU Room 253

Candace Black’s poems and essays have appeared in many literary journals, including Chariton Review, Milkweed Chronicle, Ninth Letter, Quarterly West, and War, Literature and the Arts. The Volunteer, her first book of poems, won the Minnesota Voice Poetry Prize in 2000 and was published by New Rivers Press in 2003. She is a recipient of a Loft Literary Center Creative Nonfiction Residency, a SASE/Jerome Foundation Fellowship, a McKnight Individual Fellowship, and a Loft-McKnight Award in Poetry.

Richard Robbins grew up in Southern California and Montana. He studied with Richard Hugo and Madeline DeFrees at the University of Montana, where he earned his MFA. He has published two books of poems—most recently Famous Persons We Have Known. A new book, The Untested Hand, is forthcoming in 2008. He has received awards from The Loft, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Society of America. He directs the creative writing program and Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Roger Sheffer has taught at Minnesota State University since 1980. His short stories have appeared in three collections, the latest in 1999, in Music of the Inner Lakes from New Rivers Press. His most recent magazine publication was a story in summer 2007 issue of Harpur Palate, and was a finalist for the John Gardner Award.

See a writing sample by Black. To learn more about her, see this website.

See a writing sample by Robbins. To learn more about him, see this website.

See a writing sample by Sheffer. To learn more about him, see this website.

Listen to the interview, craft talk, or reading with the Black, Robbins, and Sheffer.

If you attended any component of this residency, please offer your comments.

This year's Good Thunder Reading Series is funded by the Minnesota State University Department of English, the College of Arts and Humanities, the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment, the Robert C. Wright Endowment, and individual donors. This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council from funds appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature and the McKnight Foundation. This activity is also made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. MSU Library Services and Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Minnesota State offer additional support.