INTERSEX: A MEMOIR
Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2015
From the publisher: "What happens when a child is born with ambiguous genitalia? What happens when a body is normalized? INTERSEX provides tangled and shifting answers to both of these questions as it questions our ideas of what is natural and normal about gender and personhood. In this hybrid-genre memoir, intersexed author Aaron Apps adopts and upends historical descriptors of hermaphroditic bodies such as 'freak of nature,' 'hybrid,' 'imposter,' 'sexual pervert,' and 'unfortunate monstrosity' in order to trace his own monstrous sex as it perversely intertwines with gender expectations and medical discourse. INTERSEX leaves the reader wondering: what does it mean to be human?"
Susanne Aspley (BA 1988)
Ladyboy and the Volunteer [fiction]Peace Corps Writers, 2014
From the publisher: "Early 1990 Susan is a guileless young graduate out to save the world. Except, that doesn’t work out as planned. Nor can she hold her liquor, but not for lack of trying. In a land of five-foot-tall Thai men, her search for a Western man becomes almost as desperate as her longing for a cheeseburger. Christine, the ladyboy, is a transgender Thai prostitute who has plenty of suitors. . . . Christine shares her own world, exposing the quirks and complexities of life and love in Thailand. Together, starting in a remote fishing village filled with both lovable and annoying characters, Susan and Christine embark on adventures that lead to loud arguments, a mysterious briefcase, alluring men and bittersweet enlightenment."
Two One-Act Plays: The Lawn Auction & Would You Like to Go Out Shoveling Tonight? [drama]
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015
From the publisher: "Both of the one-act plays present a cooperative setting and the dynamics within it. Personal aims and relationships reveal discreet happenings that cause characters to take sides. Rumors and scheming build to intrigue and comic turns. The first play concerns an auction where dealers from an antiques store are part of the bidding. Becca is a new counter clerk, learning the ropes which include dealer provenance in the aftermath of a divorce. The second play takes place in an apartment building where tenants air their frustrations and attempt to goad the caretaker. Hazie wants to be on her own side when pressures from her neighbors and the caretaker force her into involvement."
Silent Running: Our Family's Journey to the Finish Line with Autism
Triumph Books, 2015
From Peter F. Gerhardt, Ed.D., Chairman, Scientific Council, Organization for Autism Research: "Silent Running is an absolute must-read for anyone who has ever heard the word 'autism.' . . . [A]n honest and moving portrait of how, over time and with significant effort, the true potential that lies within each of us, independent of a diagnostic label, can be discovered and developed beyond most people's expectations. There are no quick fixes or miracle interventions here. Instead what we find is how, with dedication and patience, individuals with autism and their families can begin to change the misperceptions of those around them and, in so doing, discover included lives of competence, dignity, quality, and maybe even some medals along the way."
John Jodzio (BA 1999)
You Cannot Give Yourself a Nickname [fiction chapbook]
Rusty Toque, 2015
Winner of The Rusty Toque's 2014 Fiction Chapbook Contest. From Lee Henderson, 2014 Fiction Chapbook Contest Judge: "The stories in the collection You Cannot Give Yourself A Nickname are all perfectly flawless, flawless portraits of deeply flawed characters, unlucky as well as making bad decisions—these are funny, true, candid, often absurd vignettes of real life."
Brian Laidlaw (MFA 2011)
The Stuntman [poetry]
Milkweed Editions, 2015
Carrie Lorig (MFA 2014)
READING AS A WILDFLOWER ACTIVIST [poetry chapbook]
H_NGM_N Chapbooks, 2015
An Arab Ambassador in the Mediterranean World: The Travels of Muhammad Ibn 'Uthmān Al-Miknāsī
Routledge, 2015
From the publisher: "Translating excerpts from his three travelogues, this book tells the story of Al-Miknāsī's travels from 1779-1788. As an ambassador, Al-Miknāsī was privy to court life, government offices and religious buildings, and he provides detailed accounts of cities, people, customs, ransom negotiations, historical events and political institutions. Including descriptions of Europeans, Arabs, Turks, Christians (both European and Eastern), Muslims, Jews, and (American) Indians . . . An Arab Ambassador in the Mediterranean World explores how the most travelled Muslim writer of the pre-modern period saw the world."
Borrowed Wave [poetry]
Kore Press, 2015
From the publisher: "In three sections linked by the metaphor of water and the wave, these poems explore how places of the past are mapped spatially in our minds, how experience creates an emotive imprint on the self, and how awakening to desire embarks us on a journey of bewilderment. These haunting, luminous poems consider the spirit’s place in the body of childhood and the queer experience and call on the traditions of lyric experiment in American poetry stretching back to Emily Dickinson."
Professor Paula Rabinowitz, co-editor with Howard Brick and Robbie Lieberman
Lineages of the Literary Left
Maize/University of Michigan Press, 2015From the publisher: "The essays in this volume in honor of Alan M. Wald investigate aspects of intellectual, literary, and cultural movements and figures associated with left-wing politics beginning in the early twentieth century and continuing into our own time. The critics and historians participating in this tribute--including contributors Tariq Ali, Michael Löwy, Rachel Rubin, Dayo Gore and many others, attest to the varied lineages comprising myriad scholarly traditions as well. The collection stresses 'lineages' and 'traditions' in the plural, to indicate the multiple tendencies, fields and methods that serve to expand notions of the Literary Left."
Professor Madelon Sprengnther
Great River Road: Memoir and Memory
New Rivers Press, 2015
From The Star Tribune: "Madelon Sprengnether’s
memoir Great River Road gets its title from a meandering scenic byway
running from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It is this road
on which the author sets off at the beginning of the book, and on which
she again finds herself in its final pages, standing by the car gazing
out at the water in all of its mysterious and unpredictable beauty. In
between, she invites the reader to share in a meandering rumination on
memory and longing, family and aging, and all of the complex and
wonderful things that make us human. . . . Sprengnether is a writer of deep and varied intellect. In the space of
this book, she wends her way around Freud, Shakespeare, Italian
Renaissance painting and cognitive neuroscience. She is at her most
compelling, though, when she writes as a mother, particularly in the
chapter in which she chronicles the experience of traveling to England
for her daughter's wedding. Here is where the intellect falls away and
the heart emerges, raw and real, on the page."
Near Solstice: Prose Poems
Holy Cow! Press, 2015
From Patricia Kirkpatrick, author of Odessa: "A fierce question propels the poems in Madelon Sprengnether's new book: 'So tell me. What on earth God wants from us?' Is it love, beauty, pleasure, duty? As Sprengnether explores that question, alert to life routines, rituals, sacrifices, even pilgrimages--driving, swimming, caring for an aging parent, exploring landscapes and ancient mythologies--her poems reveal striking layers of desire, grief, and tenderness."
