WMU News

Pulitzer Prize winner among those featured in Third Coast

Nov. 16, 1999

KALAMAZOO -- A poem by Pulitzer Prize winner Carolyn Kizer and three poems by prolific Arab poet Saadi Youssef are among the highlights of the fall 1999 issue of Third Coast, the literary magazine published by Western Michigan University's Department of English.

Kizer's "Jill's Toes" and Youssef's "The Gardener," "The Flags" and "The Moment" are among the 35 poems, five fiction stories and one essay featured in the latest issue of the biannual Third Coast.

The soft-cover journal, edited by graduate students in WMU's master's and doctoral English programs, features the work of seasoned and emerging writers from around the country. Invitations to submit are included in each issue and manuscripts are welcome throughout the year. WMU faculty members in the English department serve as advisory editors.

Kizer, the author of seven books of poetry and two books of essays, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for "Yin, New Poems."

Youssef, who now resides in Jordan after being exiled for his activism in socialist circles in his birth country Iraq, has published 20 volumes of poetry, a novel and three books of criticism and translations.

Other writers featured in the fall 1999 issue include Heidi Bell, a recipient of an Irving S. Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo; Susan Varon, runner-up for the 1998 New Voice Award of the Writer's Voice and Mary Ruefle, recipient of both the National Endowment for the Arts and Whiting fellowships.

Ruefle, the author of four books of poetry and the essayist in this issue of Third Coast, will be a visiting writer at WMU during the winter semester.

The journal's front and back cover art is by Mary Manusos, professor of art at Ohio University. Manusos' work has been shown in more than 300 exhibitions throughout the world and in the collections of eleven American embassies abroad.

Third Coast costs $6 per issue and is available in Kalamazoo bookstores and cafes including Athena Book Shop, Michigan News Agency, John W. Rollins Bookseller and the gift shop at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Subscriptions are $11 for two issues.

Individuals also can secure a copy of the issue by sending a check for $6, along with their name and address, to Third Coast, Department of English, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5092.

For more information, contact Kathleen McGookey at (616) 387-2675.

Media contact: Pauline Oo, 616 387-8400, pauline.oo@wmich.edu


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