Download William Orem, Ph.D., M.F.A. Writer-in

William Orem, Ph.D., M.F.A.
Writer-in-Residence, Emerson College
williamorem.com
5 Judith Lane #12 Waltham MA 02452
(781) 647-4833 [email protected]
Ph.D.
M.F.A.
B.A.
English, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1999
Creative Writing, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1994
Psychology and Neuroscience, Hampshire College, 1988
Dissertation: A New Poetics of Silence: Joyce, Beckett, Cage.
NOVEL-IN-STORIES:
My second novel-in-stories, Across the River, won the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize from
Texas University in 2009.
My first novel-in-stories, Zombi, You My Love, won the La Questa Press national first book
competition in 1999. It also won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers' Award,
formerly given to Louise Erdrich, Richard Ford, Sherman Alexie, and Alice Munro.
The review in Choice called it “wondrous,” a “masterful use of language,” and “highly
recommended for all public and academic collections.” I later received a fellowship from the
Christopher Isherwood Foundation on its merit.
FICTION:
Sou'wester, Alaska Quarterly Review, Willow Springs, The Potomac Review, Plot, Dream
International Quarterly, The Wolf Head Quarterly, The Paradoxist, Blue Lady, Robin's Nest,
Sulphur River Literary Review, Parnassus Literary Journal, After Hours, 360 Degrees: Art and
Literary Journal, The Tome, Midnight Zoo, Rural Medicine, Sinister, Los Pescadores, Flying
Island: The Writers’ Center of Indiana, Me Three Literary Journal, Westview: A Journal of
Western Oklahoma, Cabal Asylum, Night Train, Fortney Publishing's Holiday Stories, The
Sycamore Review, Barkeater: The Adirondack Review, Margin, Hospital Drive, Improper
Bostonian, Boston Fiction Annual Review, Emerson Review, Survivor's Review, Inflight
Magazine, Oregon Literary Review
FICTION AWARDS:
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Texas Review Novella Prize, 2009
Short-Listed for the Tom Howard short story contest, 2009
Reading by Invitation at the Boston Fiction Festival, 2007
Improper Bostonian Fiction Award, 2006
Semifinalist, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship in Fiction, 2006
Improper Bostonian Fiction Award, 2004
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2nd place, Powells Books Literary Essay Contest, 2004
Honorable Mention -- New Century Writers' Award for the Short Story, 2003
3rd Place, New Century Writers' Award for the Novel, 2003
2nd place, Hemispheres Magazine Faux Faulkner Contest, 2003
Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers' Award in Fiction, 2000
La Questa Press National First Book Competition, 1999
Pushcart Prize Nomination by Alaska Quarterly Review, 1999
Honorable Mention in Datlow and Windling's The Year's Best (fiction), 1995
Honorable Mention in The Missouri Review Short Story Awards, 1990
POETRY:
Windhover, The Princeton Arts Review, Sulphur River Literary Review, The Piedmont Literary
Review, The Comstock Review, Midwest Poetry Review, The Yalobusha Review, Onionhead
Literary Quarterly, The Wolf Head Quarterly, Rafters, The New Press Literary Quarterly,
Liberty Hill, The Penware National Poetry Award, Confluence, Pike Creek Review, Minimus,
Raconteur, Poetic Space, Wire, Rain Dog Review, 360 Degrees, Pleiades, Baybury Review, The
Slate, Neologisms, Poetpourri, Sparrowgrass, Parting Gifts, Fledgling, The Stable Companion,
Poetry Bone, Verse Unto Us, The Talking River Review, Poetry Motel, KYEzine, The Cracked
Kettle Review, black bough, Point Judith Light, Haiku Headlines, Brussels Sprout, Frogpond,
Modern Haiku, Smartish pace, Golden Apple Press' Skipping Stones, Runes, Purple Mountain,
Exquisite Corpse, The Curbside Review, Knoxville Writers Guild, Grub Street Free Press, The
No Tell Motel, The Southern Anthology, Potpourri, The Rockhurst Review, Erotic Readers and
Writers Association, Oyez Review, Dogwood, Caesura, The Bellevue Literary Review, Color
Wheel, Wisteria, J Journal, Rock & Sling, Hotmetal Press, New Verse News, Prune Juice,
The New Formalist
POETRY AWARDS:
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Semi-Finalist, Dorset Prize, 2009
Finalist, Tampa Review Prize, 2008
Reading by Invitation: Cape Cod Cultural Center, 2008
Semi-Finalist, Pablo Neruda Prize, 2008
Highly Commended: Open Poetry International Sonnet Competition, 2008
Residence with Artist’s Grant in Poetry, Vermont Studio Center, 2006 (declined)
Finalist, the Pablo Neruda Prize, 2006
Semifinalist, Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, 2006
Inclusion in The Treasure Chest (best of ERWA poetry online), 2006
First Honorable Mention -- Oregon State Poetry Association Awards, 2005
The Grub Street Free Press Poetry Award, 2004
First Alternate, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship in Poetry, 1998
Pushcart Prize Nomination by Sulphur River Literary Review in Poetry, 1997
Midwest Review Editor's Prize: nominated in Poetry, 1997
Honorable mention in the Writer's Digest Magazine Writing Competition for poetry,
placing within the top 100 out of 12,000 submissions nationwide, 1996
The Penware National Poetry Awards, 1995
Featured Poet: Sulphur River Literary Review, 1994
My poetry has been featured on the NPR-based radio broadcasts The Linen of Words and
The Poet’s Weave.
ACADEMIC WORK:
Chosen to adjudicate the Tennessee Arts Commission Prize in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and
Poetry. 2008
ACADEMIC WRITING :
“John Cage.” Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The 20th Century. Haralson, Eric, Ed. 2001
Masticatione Mortuorum: A Source for "Corpsechewer"? Currently accepted with edits at
James Joyce Quarterly
DRAMA:
 My play Trofimov, A Student was performed at the Boston Theatre Marathon at Boston
Playwrights' Theatre in May of 09.
 My play Cabman was performed at the Boston Theatre Marathon at Boston Playwrights'
Theatre in May of 08.
 My play The Seabirds won the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition at Alleyway
Theatre in Buffalo, NY. It received its world premiere in September 07, and was given three
and half star reviews.
 My play Suspension was one of 14 chosen from a pool of over 1,200 for production at City
Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival in Miami, FL. It received its world premiere in July 07
at the Carnival Center Studio Theatre in Miami.
 Suspension was produced again in January 08 by Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Semi-finalist, The Source Festival, Source Theatre, Washington, DC, 2008
o Winner, the Wonderland One-Act Festival, New York, NY, 2007 (declined)
Finalist, The Boston Theatre Marathon, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 2007
Finalist, The Curan Repertory Company One-Act Festival, New York, NY, 2006
Finalist, The Boston Theatre Marathon, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 2005
DRAMA IN ANTHOLOGIES:
Best Ten-Minute Plays 2009: Three or More Actors. Smith & Kraus, 2009.
CREATIVE NON-FICTION (general essay):
“Darkness of Mind: How Dostoyevsky Helps Us Understand Timothy McVeigh” (Ryder
Magazine); “When I Met The Exorcist” (Los Pescadores Magazine); “In Memoriam” (Non Satis
Scire); “Mary’s Shelley’s Fatal Attraction” (Mystery Scene Magazine); “Genocide Machines:
IBM and the Holocaust” (STNews). "Hut of the Wanderer" TransitionsAbroad.com. Visual and
performing arts reviews available on request.
CREATIVE NON-FICTION AWARDS:
My travel essay "Basho's Hut" won runner-up status un the 2008 Transitions Abroad travel
writing contest.
CREATIVE NON-FICTION (essays on film):
“The Monsters of Race: from Nosferatu to Blade” (Ryder Magazine); “The Aesthetic Defense:
the Death of Leni Riefenstahl” (Dayton City Paper); “Terror Anonymous: John Carpenter’s
Halloween and the Malling of America” (Dayton City Paper); “Spencer Tracy’s The Power and
the Glory” (Loews Anthology); “Peaceful Warrior and American Buddhism” (STNews.com);
“Why We Don’t Need Superman” (Free Inquiry)
SCREENWRITING:
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Finalist, Chesterfield Film Co. Screenwriting Fellowship, 2000.
Finalist, Chesterfield Film Co. Screenwriting Fellowship, 2003 (top 50 out of 2,593
applicants).
CREATIVE NON-FICTION (science writing):
Science and Theology News, Research and Creative Activity, A Moment of Science, The College
Magazine, Dayton City Paper, Science and Spirit Magazine, Indiana University Alumni
Magazine, Society for Neuroscience, Vol. 15 (coauthor), Society for Neuroscience Vol. 16
(coauthor), First Annual Meeting of the Society for Biological Rhythms, Vol. 1 (coauthor),
Science and Religion Articles of Distinction; The Foundational Questions Institute;
Skeptical Inquirer
BLOG:
http://www.fqxi.org/community/blogs.php
REPRINTS:
Frontier Science, Christian Science Monitor; Institute of Philosophy, University of
Zielonogorski; Altruists International; Scriptorium; Freerepublic; Tendencias21.net
ANTHOLOGIES:
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And Know This Place (Indiana Historical Society Press), 2008
Hand Luggage Only (Open Poetry Ltd.), 2008
Rural Medicine (Hiram College Press), 2008
The Body (University of Tennessee Press), 2006
Exit Laughing (Hellbound Books), 2006
The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel (No Tell Books), 2006
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS:
 Thomas Williams Fellowship, The Christopher Isherwood Foundation, 2003
 Fiction Fellowship at the Herzen University Summer Literary Seminar in St. Petersburg,
Russia, 2005 (declined)
 Wilson Fellowship, given by Indiana University to one entering student each year in
recognition of her or his merit as a creative writer.
TEACHING AWARDS:
Nominated for the Parker Award for Outstanding Teaching, Indiana University, 1996.
Nominated for the Parker Award for Outstanding Teaching, Indiana University, 1995.
Courses taught/designed include:
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Literature at the End of the World: British and American Modernism (Graduate Seminar)
Existentialism and Literature (Graduate)
Playwriting Workshop with A Focus on Arthur Miller (Graduate)
Playwriting Workshop with a focus on Tennessee Williams (Graduate)
Gothic Literature (Undergraduate)
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Fiction Workshop
Advanced Fiction Workshop
Playwriting Workshop
The Short Story (Writing Intensive)
Topics in Modern Fiction: Modern Autobiography
Introduction to Literature: Fiction
1 Poetry Workshop
2 Advanced Poetry Workshop
3 The Poem (Writing Intensive)
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Introduction to Literature: Poetry
Introduction to Shakespeare
Shakespeare Survey
Modern Drama 1
Modern Drama 2
SOCIETIES:
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Modern Language Association
The Academy of American Poets
REPRESENTATION:
Loretta Barrett Books
Literary Agency of New York
101 Fifth Avenue NY, NY 10003
REFERENCES:
Cornelia Nixon, Professor, Letters Division Chair, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd.,
Oakland, CA 94613. [email protected]
Peter Lindenbaum, Professor, Indiana University English Department. 408 Ballantine Hall,
Bloomington, IN 47408. [email protected]
Stephen Watt, Chair, Indiana University English Department, Ballantine Hall, Bloomington, IN
47408. [email protected]
Full dossier available on request from Indiana University.