The Live Nude Girl in the Devil's Territory Book Tour

Kathleen Rooney and Kyle Minor will read from their new books as The Live Nude Girl in the Devil's Territory Book Tour arrives in Champaign on Monday, March 2, 2009, 4:30pm, at the Illini Union Bookstore. Jodee Stanley, 9L's editor, is the featured guest reader on this tour stop.

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press and the author of Reading with Oprah, Something Really Wonderful (with Elisa Gabert), That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness (also with Gabbert), Oneiromance (an epithalamion), and her latest, a memoir, Live Nude Girl.

Kyle Minor is the author of In the Devil's Territory, a collection of short fiction, and co-editor of The Other Chekhov, an anthology of Anton Chekhov's lesser known stories. Other recent work appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2008, The Southern Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers.

Jodee Stanley is the editor of UIUC’s own Ninth Letter, and has previously worked for other literary journals including Ploughshares and New England Review. Her short fiction and book reviews have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, 580 Split, North Atlantic Review, Cincinnati Review, Book/Mark Quarterly, and other journals.

This event is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

The VOICE Reading Series in Champaign

The first VOICE reading of the semester is on Friday, Feb. 27 at 3:30pm at the Krannert Museum of Art – Contemporary Gallery.

Join us to hear University of Illinois MFA candidates read their work.

Featured readers: Aaron Burch, Lindsey Drager and Sean Karns

Hosted by Matt Minicucci

This event is free and open to the public.

Janet Burroway Reading

Janet Burroway will read on Tuesday, February 24 at 4:30pm at the Illini Union Bookstore as part of The Carr Reading Series. This event is free and open to the public.


Janet Burroway is the author of eight novels, plays, poetry, essays, texts for dance, and children’s books. Her latest novel, Bridge of Sand appears in March from Houghton Mifflin. Her Writing Fiction : A Guide to Narrative Craft, is the most widely used creative writing text in America, and her multi-genre Imaginative Writing is in preparation for a third edition. She is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita of the Florida State University.

We're back from AWP!

Whew, it was busy and a lot of fun. AWP 2009 was one of our most successful conferences ever. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the 9L table and/or attended our events. We were thrilled to see you all, both new and familiar faces.

Congratulations to our three silent auction winners! Each of them won a messenger bag handmade by the outstanding designers of the current issue.

If you didn’t get a chance to see them, here they are.





Again, thank you for all your kind words and support. See you next year in Denver.

AWP Chicago

Ninth Letter will be at AWP Chicago! You can find us at booth #219 in the Southeast Hall. We'll have AWP specials on the current issue, back issues, and an awesome gift with subscription purchases. And, we're really excited about this, stop by for our silent auction of wickedly cool, limited edition Ninth Letter merchandise.

There are great events all week, sponsored by Ninth Letter, the Carr Reading Series and The University of Illinois Creative Writing Program. Featured events include a tribute to William Gass (Friday, February 13), a reading by internationally acclaimed poet Tomaz Salamun (Saturday, February 14), and readings by University of Illinois creative writing faculty (Thursday, February 12, and Saturday, February 14). Visit awpwriter.org for a complete schedule and more information.

See you in Chicago!

Andrew Porter Reading in Urbana

Andrew Porter, author of The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the 2007 Flannery O'Connor Award in Short Fiction, will be coming to read at the Author's Corner of the Illini Union Bookstore on Monday, February 9 at 4:30 p.m. After reading, he will autograph copies of his book, which will be available for purchase at the event. The event is free and open to the public.

Andrew Porter grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three children. He earned a B.A. in English from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the 2004 W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts from Vassar College, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee' Writers' Conference, an Artist Foundation of San Antonio Award and the Glenna Luschei Award, among others. Porter's fiction has appeared in One Story, Epoch, The Ontario Review, Prairie Schooner, The Antioch Review, StoryQuarterly, The Threepenny Review, Others Voices, Story and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. He also has had his work read on NPR's "Selected Shorts." Currently, Porter lives in San Antonio, where he is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Trinity University.