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Contact Information
Moderator First Name: / Charles
Moderator Last Name: / Burm
Institutional Affiliation: / Southeastern Community College
Address 1: / 1500 West Agency Road
Address 2: / P.O. Box 180
City: / West Burlington
State: / IA
Zip Code: / 52655
Phone: / 319.752.2731
Email: /
Event Title:
Southern Lights: Community College Instructor-Writers and Experiments in Poetry and Prose
Event Type:
Cross Genre Issues
Event Description:
The AWP Two-Year College Caucus presents six cross-genre instructor-writers who have personal and professional ties to the South. Panelists will read and discuss original experiments and traditional influences in new Southern poetry and prose, offering insight with regard to the construction of fractured narratives and the discovery of new positive/negative values in white space and punctuation, including the virgule, as well as the effect of the community college experience on their work.
Statement of Merit:
Because universities cannot provide enough full-time positions for the number of MFA and Ph.D. students who graduate each year, terminal degrees are being discovered in increasing numbers on two-year college office walls. This panel will demonstrate that creative writing does not evaporate at the two-year level of instruction; indeed, it may flourish. Conference attendees who are considering community college positions will experience the work of two-year instructor-writers from the South.
Panelist 1 Information
First Name: / Jill
Last Name: / Karle Leahman
Institutional Affiliation: / Piedmont Virginia Community College
Address 1: / 501 College Drive
Address 2:
City: / Charlottesville
State: / VA
Zip Code: / 22902
Phone: / 434.977.3900
Email: /
Biographical Note:
Jill Karle Leahman teaches composition and creative writing at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Her poems have recently appeared in Comstock Review and Sojourn, and her essays have been featured on National Public Radio.
Panelist 2 Information
First Name: / Sandy
Last Name: / Longhorn
Institutional Affiliation: / Pulaski Technical College
Address 1: / 3000 West Scenic Drive
Address 2:
City: / North Little Rock
State: / AR
Zip Code: / 72118
Phone: / 501.812.2302
Email: /
Biographical Note:
Sandy Longhorn's first book, Blood Almanac, was selected by Reginald Shepherd as the winner of the 2005 Anhinga Prize for Poetry (Anhinga Press). She is the Coordinator of Composition II at Pulaski Technical College, where she also teaches.
Panelist 3 Information
First Name: / Al
Last Name: / Maginnes
Institutional Affiliation: / Wake Technical Community College
Address 1: / 9101 Old Lafayette Road
Address 2:
City: / Raleigh
State: / NC
Zip Code: / 27603
Phone: / 919.662.3500
Email: /
Biographical Note:
Al Maginnes has authored three full-length poetry collections: Taking Up Our Daily Tools (St. Andrews College Press), The Light On Our Houses (Pleiades Press), and Film History (Word Tech Editions). A recipient of a 1999-2000 Individual Artist's Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, he teaches at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh.
Panelist 4 Information
First Name: / Kelly
Last Name: / McQuain
Institutional Affiliation: / Community College of Philadelphia
Address 1: / English Department, BR-21
Address 2: / 1700 Spring Garden Street
City: / Philadelphia
State: / PA
Zip Code: / 19130
Phone: / 215.751.8346
Email: /
Biographical Note:
Kelly McQuain is an associate professor of English at Community College of Philadelphia and a contributing editor to the Harrington Gay Men's Literary Quarterly. A 2005 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellow, his stories have appeared in such anthologies as Skin & Ink (Alyson), Best American Erotica (Simon & Schuster), and Obsessed (Plume).
Panelist 5 Information
First Name: / Brett Eugene
Last Name: / Ralph
Institutional Affiliation: / Hopkinsville Community College
Address 1: / P.O. Box 2100
Address 2:
City: / Hopkinsville
State: / KY
Zip Code: / 42217
Phone: / 270.707.3700
Email: /
Biographical Note:
Brett Eugene Ralph teaches English at Hopkinsville Community College, where he directs the Hoptown Reading Series and oversees publication of The Round Table. His work has been featured in journals such as Exquisite Corpse and The American Poetry Review, and he has poems forthcoming in the inaugural poetry issue of McSweeney’s.
Panelist 6 Information
First Name: / Lois
Last Name: / Roma-Deeley
Institutional Affiliation: / Paradise Valley Community College
Address 1: / 18401 North 32nd Street
Address 2:
City: / Phoenix
State: / AZ
Zip Code: / 85032
Phone: / 602.787.6577
Email: /
Biographical Note:
Lois Roma-Deeley is the author of two poetry collections, northSight and Rules of Hunger, and she is a National Book Award nominee. Her poems have won numerous honors, including prizes in the 2004 Emily Dickinson Poetry Award Competition and the 2005 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards Competition. She is Poet-in-Residence at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona.
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