Presented By: English Language & Literature - MFA Program in Creative Writing
Zell Visiting Writers Series Presents: Suzanne Hancock and Valerie Laken
Alumni Reading
Cast From Bells, Suzanne Hancock's second collection of poems, was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in April 2010. Poems from her first collection, Another Name for Bridge, were nominated for the Bronwen Wallace Award, a National Magazine Award, and they won a number of Hopwood Awards at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where she received an MFA. She now lives in Montreal with novelist Colin McAdam and their daughter Lola.
Valerie Laken's work has been published in such places as Ploughshares, the Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and the Chicago Tribune, and has received a Pushcart Prize, the Missouri Review Editors' Prize, and two Hopwood Awards. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Russian Literature from the University of Michigan. Her first novel, Dream House (Harper, 2009), received the Anne Powers award and was named among Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2009 and Booklist's Best Debut Novels of 2009. Her story collection, Separate Kingdoms, will be published by Harper Perennial in February, 2011. She is an Assistant Professor in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.
Valerie Laken's work has been published in such places as Ploughshares, the Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and the Chicago Tribune, and has received a Pushcart Prize, the Missouri Review Editors' Prize, and two Hopwood Awards. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Russian Literature from the University of Michigan. Her first novel, Dream House (Harper, 2009), received the Anne Powers award and was named among Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2009 and Booklist's Best Debut Novels of 2009. Her story collection, Separate Kingdoms, will be published by Harper Perennial in February, 2011. She is an Assistant Professor in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.