A winner of four Pushcart Prizes, she is currently an associate professor at the University of Texas, also actively involved in the education program she started at a local prison.

Unferth is a rebel. She ventured to Central America after dropping out of college at 18 years old to “join the revolution,” as she says in an interview on Stop Smiling Online. After hopping from El Salvador to Nicaragua to Panama to El Salvador to Costa Rica, she finally came

back to the states to begin her writing career.

She is known for her unapologetic fiction and nonfiction—vinegary, dark, and humorous. For instance, Voltaire Night, which appeared in the Paris Review, narrates a tradition of a teacher and her adult-ed class has, in which they share their terrible experiences, starting as a “recent bad experiences” to “worst ever.” One can imagine the strange places to which this narrative would lead.

In these stories, one might notice Unferth’s omission of names. In The Rumpus interview, she ascribes this choice to the feeling that names make a story sound synthetic.

I always felt that putting names in a story is artificial. It feels like, Oh, now I’m writing a story when I include a name. It feels phony. If I use a name, I have to feel like it’s almost in quotes. Any name that I use has to be doing other work. The work cannot be that it’s just a name for my character. It’s never that easy. –from “It’s Never That Easy: Talking with Deb Olin Unferth”, The Rumpus, 24 Jan 2018. 

Though not many would describe their writing or reading experience as auditory, Unferth does. In an interview with Nate Martin on Stop Smiling Online, she describes remembers how reading biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright involved sound—”the hum of the words on the pages were coming up at me and making almost a song.” –-“The Contestant: Deb Olin Unferth,” Stop Smiling Online, 17 August 2007. She further depicts her writing experience as not a result of one sound, but “It is more like I hear the story before I start writing it. Sometimes I hear the entire story before I write it down.”

Also reading at Prairie Lights that evening is Andrea Lawlor from Massachusetts, who teaches creative writing and edits fiction for Fence.

Lawlor has published a chapbook, Position Papers, and the recent Paul takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Rescue Press. According to an interview in the Vesto P.R. and Books, Lawlor mentions that this debut novel is a “thinly veiled memoir” –“A Q & A with Andrea Lawlor,” Vesto P.R. and Books, Claudia Acevedo, Jan 2018.

Written by a devoted professor and enthusiastic human being, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is the product of personal experience, meticulous research, and years of rich stop-and-go writing.

The major part of this book and Lawlor’s efforts are the LGBTQ experience, and Lawlor has often spoken about how the writing scene can become more accessible and friendly to up and coming LGBTQ writers, voicing the hope that

“Once people are writing and getting support to write, maybe the biggest challenge is to make something good, to be an artist rather than a content producer? That’s a good problem to have.”

I advise you not to miss seeing these thrilling authors read at Prairie Lights—mark your planners! Calendars! Put up a sticky note!

Check out this and more events the Mission Creek Lineup Page.

The post Mission Creek Festival: Deb Olin Unferth and Andrea Lawlor @ Prairie Lights appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Ah, yes, Spring Break. Possibly the pinnacle of the college experience, legendary enough to inspire questionable movies (James Franco in corn rows, anyone?) glorifying the week in mid-March during which college students everywhere invade the coastal sands of North and South America to drink, make bad choices, and straight up #RAGE. You know, like college but in swimsuits, duh. (I mean, at least I’m pretty sure that is what spring break is meant for—I’ve never properly participated.)

By the time you’re reading this, your Spring Break may very well over, but don’t fret, you can use this guide for future reference (sorry seniors, enjoy the real world). Or, if you go to a college that actually takes a spring break in the season it’s named for rather than early March, this is perfect timing. You can get college spring break packages for much better prices and get everything all included such as hotel, airplane tickets and food. Either way, if you’re a college student like me who is bewildered at the fact that fellow students can afford to go on Spring Break vacations to wild and warm locations (I thought we were all in this “broke college student” thing together guys?? PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU *sobbing*) and intend to spend your #SpringBreak2k16 on the same couch you wallowed on avoiding your midterms, then look no further: my Broke Spring Break How-to Guide is here for you to read at your leisure. (AKA this is basically a list of all the things I’ve done with my break. Enjoy.)

1. Nature Walks

Nothing is freer in both a monetary sense and soul-searching sense as a stroll through your local nature preserve/state park/mostly grassed patch of land. You may not be on a beach, but you can still feel the sunshine on your face and hear the wind whispering in your ear—weather permitting of course. Get out, look at some plants because plants are rad as hell, and feel your soul become lighter. And a giant plus to enjoying nature this time of year is that demon spawn, more commonly known as “bugs,” are still not quite ready to be resurrected from there hellish graves yet. ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN.

2. Mall Trips

There’s a point you reach in your break where anything sounds better than staring at the walls of your apartment day-dreaming about Florida—even making laps through the local mall. So, when someone says, “Hey do you want to go to the mall?” you say yes. Not actually having cash to blow is reminiscent of the good old mall rat days from your childhood and might even make you want to listen to some Fall Out Boy and Paramore on the way there to really set the mood. Also, since everyone else is enjoying themselves elsewhere, the crowds will actually be tolerable. Wild!

3. Midnight Food Runs

This may not count exactly for Broke Spring Break because food costs money, and having money to go get food implies you are not, in fact, completely broke. However, fast food is generally cheap, and even if I don’t have money to treat myself to some new socks at Target, I can almost always scrape up some money for a midnight food run. And the best part is, you can say “You want to do something fun? You want to go to Taco Bell?” with the utmost sincerity.

4. Alcohol

(Somehow my guides always lead to alcohol. It’s whatever, don’t read into it too much…)

Listen, just because you’re not on a beach doesn’t mean you can’t still #RAGE. Make some homemade margaritas (or drink whatever you prefer), put on some Jimmy Buffet, and waste away in Margaritaville. (Or share a bottle of wine with your roommate and watch New Girl, same thing.) The best part is that there is a very slim chance you’ll get a wicked sunburn if you happen to drunkenly fall asleep in the middle of your drink fest. (Drink responsibly, people.)

5. Bake Stuff

No beach means no beach body readiness preparation. (Although every body is beach body ready, no matter what it looks like. Body positivity y’all.) That means use your free time to whip up all those wild concoctions you’ve been craving. We’re talking cupcakes, chocolate chip muffins, brownies, whatever dessert of the day Buzzfeed has on their Snapchat story. Go crazy. Although, if you’re not personally into baking, find a friend who is and hint at them that you wouldn’t exactly be upset if they turned your kitchen into a personal bakery. Either that, or test out some other frivolous hobby you’ve been wanting to try all semester: painting, tie-dying, knitting, underwater basket weaving. If you can dream it, you can do it.

And that concludes this month’s How-to Guide. I hope it was at least a little informative, and if not that is basically exactly how I spent my spring break AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME I DID IT WRONG. Now I’m off to stalk the Instagrams of everyone who actually went on cool trips. Peace out.

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The post The Walking Contradiction’s How-To Guide: Broke Spring Break appeared first on KRUI Radio.