Creative Writing at Illinois State University

01/14/2025

Holms Troelstrup will be deeply missed by the entire creative writing community here at Illinois State University.

It may be the start of a new semester, but it's the end of an era at the Publications Unit, as longtime Assistant Director Holms Troelstrup has embarked on a new role with the University of Illinois Press. And they are certainly lucky to have her on the team!

It's nearly impossible to put into words all the amazing contributions Holms has made to the Publications Unit and Department of English at Illinois State University since she started in 2015. Daily and without fail, Holms brought her trademark good-natured, infectious positive attitude, indefatigable spirit, and immense talent and passion for literary and scholarly publishing to every book, journal, and newsletter project she led; every editor and author she interacted with; and, most especially, to every intern and graduate fellow she taught and mentored over the years.

While the Publications Unit will soldier on without her in the coming weeks and months, there's a lot less luster around Williams Hall Annex without Holms holding it down back in WHA 167. We are so grateful for her contributions and wish her nothing but the absolute best for her next chapter!

(Pictured: former Assistant Director Holms Troelstrup (left) with her Faculty Appreciation Award from alum Kylie Hagmann (right).)

09/17/2024

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Join us for the Latinx Heritage Month celebration, September 17 through November 1.

09/13/2024

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The Publications Unit is hosting a bilingual poetry reading featuring award-winning Venezuelan poet Oriette D’Angelo and poet/translator Lupita Eyde-Tucker on Thursday, September 19 at 4 p.m. at University Galleries in Normal (next week!). A flyer is attached and an article with more information about the reading and guests can be found here: https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2024/09/award-winning-author-translator-team-to-visit-isu-september-19/

The reading celebrates the translation of Homeland of Swarms (Cardiopatías), one of the first few single-author poetry collections by a Venezuelan woman to be translated into English. Print copies of the book will be given away to the first twenty-five people at the reading (If you would like a free PDF of the book, please backchannel me). A conversation and Q&A with Oriette and Lupita follows.

I hope you will attend if you can and help spread the word to colleagues, students, and friends.

06/25/2024

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Outta Sight: Black Listening in Performance, an Obsidian Event with Duriel E. Harris, Tracie Morris, Sylvia Ewing, Me’Chelle, Sterling Plumpp and more

04/29/2024

Congratulations to Professor Gabriel Gudding on the recent publication of his translation of Norwegian poet Gunnar Wærness's amazing book FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE, published earlier this month by Action Books. This is a bilingual edition set in recto-verso at 253 pages with an extensive afterword contextualizing Wærness's work for anglophone readers.

11/06/2023

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NEXT WEEK! in celebration of the Furious Flower Poetry Prize! An online reading & conversation with Ariana Benson & Benin Lemus, moderated by L. Renée. RSVP: https://buff.ly/3Mu3skx

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10/27/2023

04/04/2023

Today in the Publications Unit!

All English Department faculty, graduate and undergraduate students are warmly invited to attend a poetry reading by Dr Marty Cain of Cornell University on Tuesday April 4 at 4:30 pm in the Publications Unit. Dr Cain will read from his latest book THE PRELUDE (Action Books 2023). Books will be for sale! See attached flyer. ❤️

From Vermont, Cain is also the author of Kids of the Black Hole (2017) and The Wound Is (Not) Real: A Memoir (2022), both from Trembling Pillow Press, as well as a chapbook, Four Essays (Tammy, 2019).

Zoom: https://illinoisstate.zoom.us/j/91009588739