Elmaz Abinader,
Oakland, CA, completed When Silence Is Frightening, her second memoir about an Arab-American family and their travels in hostile territory both at home and overseas. She also completed her second poetry manuscript The Torture Quartet and Other Acts of Poetry.
Jessica Anthony,
Portland, ME, completed her first novel, The Convalescent. She also worked on a collection of short stories, two of which appeared recently in Best American Nonrequired Reading and Best New American Voices.
Quan Barry,
Madison, WI, worked on completing her first short story collection, Regions of Total Unlikeness. This past fall Quarterly West published “Daily at the Gate of the Temple Which Is Called Beautiful,” a story from the collection.
Jen Bervin,
Brooklyn, NY, embroidered two large works based on composites of the punctuation in Emily Dickinson’s 34th and 38th fascicles. The work will be shown at the group show Five Visual Poets at The Wright Exhibition Space in Seattle in 2006.
Paula Bohince,
Astoria, NY, revised poems from her first manuscript, Charity, and began a second manuscript. Her poems have appeared in Agni, Crazyhorse, Field, Shenandoah, Poetry Daily, and others.
Chris Bolin,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on poems for a new manuscript.
David Bond,
Carbondale, IL, continued work on his third collection of poetry, tentatively titled Now Accepting New Readers.
Betsy Bonner,
New York, NY, continued her work on a poetry manuscript and also began writing a novel for young adults about two time-traveling sisters. She will teach poetry at Hellenic International in Paros, Greece, in 2007.
Marie Carter,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on her book of creative nonfiction, The Trapeze Diaries, to be published by Hanging Loose Press in 2008.
Michael Chabon,
Berkeley, CA, started work on a new novel, Memoirs of a Secret Master of Destruction.
Bryan Charles,
Kalamazoo, MI, continued work on his second novel, Endless Nameless. His first novel, Grab on to Me Tightly as If I Knew the Way, was published in 2006 by Harper Perennial.
Heather Clay,
New York, NY worked on completing a final draft of a novel, tentatively titled The Crowded Hour.
Suzanne Cleary,
Peekskill, NY, wrote a flurry of new poems for her next book. Carnegie Mellon University Press recently published her second poetry book, Trick Pear.
Dorinda Clifton,
Brownsville, OR, worked on her second memoir, Dorinda Cat with Nine Lives. It is a continuation of her first published book, Woman in the Water: Growing Up in Hollywoodland.
Mark Conway,
Avon, MN, continued work on Necrologio, a book-length sequence of poems. Work from the sequence is forthcoming in the Alaska Quarterly Review and various other magazines.
Eduardo Corral,
Casa Grande, AZ, completed his first full-length collection of poems, Asleep Inside an Old Guitar.
Caleb Crain,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on the first draft of a novel. His essays on mass observation and on Andrew Jackson recently appeared in The New Yorker.
Lisa Selin Davis,
Brooklyn, NY, is the author of Belly (Little Brown, 2005), a novel about a 59-year-old man returning to his small town in the age of Wal-Mart. She works as a freelance journalist covering environmental, urban planning, and real estate issues for numerous publications.
Mónica de la Torre,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on the final revisions of her poetry manuscript Talk Shows, which will be published by Switchback Books in 2007. She also completed a new manuscript titled Public Domain, which focuses on the interaction between the public and private realms.
Thomas Devaney,
Philadelphia, PA, worked on a draft of his book Bears On and Off TV. He also wrote several poems, including “A Series of Small Boxes,” which will be published by The American Poetry Review, and will also be the title of his forthcoming poetry collection published by Fish Drum Press in 2007.
Polly Devlin,
Somerset, England, worked on her book about the O’Neills and Bagenals in 15th- and 16th-century Ireland. She also finished her book A Year in the Life of An English Meadow, which will be published by Frances Lincoln in 2007.
Robin Ekiss,
San Francisco, CA, completed her first book manuscript, The Mansion of Happiness. She also completed a collection of poems and started new essays.
Stephen Elliott,
San Francisco, CA, completed two essays and several poems. He also finished edits on a collection of stories titled My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up to be published by Cleis Press.
John Felstiner,
Stanford, CA, wrote two essays on translating poetry and an essay chapter on Derek Walcott for his book So Much Depends: Poetry and Environmental Urgency. He gave talks on that topic at the Sun Valley Writers Conference and Stanford in 2006.
Ellen Foos,
Princeton, NJ, worked on new poems. Her poetry collection Little Knitted Sister was published in 2006 as part of the Ragged Sky Poetry Series, a collective effort of five New Jersey poets.
Serena Fox,
Washington, DC, inspired by the location of her studio, started a new series of poems about beauty and peace contrasted with the effects of the war in Iraq. She also revised and wrote new poems for a manuscript in progress. She was nominated for a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award in 2006.
Kenny Fries,
Northampton, MA, worked on Genken: Entries into Japan, a new book of creative nonfiction. He was a Fulbright scholar in Japan during 2005–06. His new book, The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory, is forthcoming from Carroll and Graf.
Mary Gaitskill,
Rhinebeck, NY, worked on two stories for a collection to be published by Pantheon. Her fourth book Veronica was nominated for a National Book Award in 2005.
Sarah Gambito,
New York, NY, worked on a new collection of poems. Her first book, Matadora (Alice James Books), was published in 2004.
Beatrix Gates,
Accord, NY, worked on a new collection of poems titled Bonfire. She also began a memoir titled School for Misfits and did reading and extensive research on Persian poetry. Her fourth collection of poetry, Ten Minutes, was released in 2006.
Steve Gehrke,
Columbia, MO, worked on completing his fourth collection of poems, tentatively titled The Machine Gunner’s Letters.
Olivia Gentile,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on a draft of her first book, a biography of a housewife and naturalist from St. Louis. The book will be published by Bloomsbury in 2008.
Andrew Sean Greer,
San Francisco, CA, completed a draft of his new novel to be published by FSG in 2008.
Jennifer Haigh,
Hull, MA, continued work on her third novel, The Condition. Her most recent novel, Baker Towers, which was completed at MacDowell in 2003, won the PEN/Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her short story “Deadbeat” was published in Five Points.
Melissa Haley,
Queens, NY, worked on drafts of two essays (one history, one memoir) and developed new project ideas. Her work has appeared in Common-place, The American Scholar, and Post Road.
Mark Harman,
Lancaster, PA, continued work on translating Franz Kafka’s first novel, The Missing Person (Amerika), and writing an introduction to the book, which is forthcoming from Schocken Books. His previous translation of Kafka’s novel The Castle won the MLA’s first Lois Roth Award.
Ryan Harty,
San Francisco, CA, continued working on his first novel, Searching for Gabriel. His story collection, Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona, won the John Simmons Award for Short Fiction in 2003.
John Haskell,
Brooklyn, NY, completed a version of his novel Out of My Skin to be published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux in 2008. He also wrote an essay for the catalogue to All the More Real, an exhibit at the Parrish Art Museum that will open in 2007, and finished an essay on Eadweard Muybridge.
Adam Haslett,
Brooklyn, NY, continued work on a novel. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2005–06 and recently won the PEN/Malamud Prize for accomplishment in short fiction. A story of his is forthcoming in the 2007 Pushcart Prize Anthology.
Jennifer Hayashida,
Brooklyn, NY, completed two translations of contemporary Swedish poetry: As soon as I go out by Kerstin Norborg, and Clockwork of Flowers: Explanations and Poems by Fredrik Nyberg. A bilingual edition of his translation of Nyberg’s debut collection, A Different Practice, is forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Press in 2007.
Maria Dahvana Headley,
Seattle, WA, completed the first draft of her second book, a memoir about her family’s experiences raising sled dogs in the high desert of southern Idaho. She also finished a draft of a screenplay, began work on a stage play, and started a novel.
Zoe Heller,
New York, NY, worked on a novel provisionally titled The Believers. The film adaptation of her last novel Notes on a Scandal (published in the U.S. under the title What Was She Thinking?) was released in 2006.
Sean Hill,
Bemidji, MN, continued to revise his first poetry manuscript, Blood Ties & Brown Liquor. He also wrote poems for a second manuscript tentatively titled The Distance Between Desires. His poems have recently appeared in Ploughshares and Indiana Review.
John Hoppenthaler,
Haverstraw, NY, wrote 13 new poems and significantly revised two others. Recent poems have appeared in Ploughshares, McSweeney’s, and Virginia Quarterly Review.
Yvonne Jackson,
Talladega, AL, completed a third of the first draft of Jesus Jones, a novel that re-imagines the gospels.
Joy Jacobson,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on a book-length series of elegies tentatively titled Always.
Elizabeth Kadetsky,
New York, NY, began work on a novel. She received a fellowship to the Camargo Foundation in France in 2006 and has signed with Inkwell Management for her work on a novel-in-progress set in Tibet. Her work has been chosen for the Iowa Prize and nominated for Best New American Voices 2008.
Suki Kim,
New York, NY, worked on completing her second novel. The author of The Interpreter (FSG, 2003), she was a 2006 Guggenheim fellow in fiction.
Grace Krilanovich,
Los Angeles, CA, completed a draft of her first novel, The Orange Eats Creeps.
Nancy Kuhl,
New Haven, CT, completed a first draft of a new collection of poems tentatively titled Mischief by Thunder and Lightning. Her first full-length book of poetry, The Wife of the Left Hand, will be published in 2007 by Shearsman Books.
Kim Lambright,
Minneapolis, MN, completed a book of poems titled The Good Drift and continued work on a collection of short stories.
Anne Landsman,
New York, NY, began work on a new novel, her first work of fiction intended for children. She completed her second novel, A Monkey’s Wedding, earlier in 2006. Her first novel, The Devil’s Chimney, was nominated for four awards including the Pen/Hemingway Award for first fiction.
Joan Larkin,
Brooklyn, NY wrote and revised poems and completed a book-length manuscript entitled My Body: New and Selected Poems. This collection will be published in 2007 by Hanging Loose Press.
Maria Lauenstein,
Beverly, MA, worked on the second draft of her memoir Sikkimese Lessons.
Charlene Logan,
Davis, CA, completed revisions to her novel The Wardrobe. She also completed a first draft of a new novel, The Pyre of Baby Jane Doe.
Paolo Manalo,
Fife, Scotland, continued work for a second poetry collection tentatively called Bahala Na (Come What May). He was recently accepted as a fellow at the University of the Philippines National Summer Writers Workshop.
Shivani Manghnani,
Brooklyn, NY, completed a novella and several short stories for her first short story collection.
Sarah Manguso,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on a memoir. The book of stories she finished at MacDowell in 2005, Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, is forthcoming from McSweeney’s Books in 2007.
Wyatt Mason,
New York, NY, a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine, worked on a book about 20th-century American writers. He received the 2005 National Book Critics Circle citation for criticism and a 2006 National Magazine Award.
Michael Massing,
New York, NY, worked on a book about the rivalry between Erasmus and Luther and how it shaped Western culture and society. It will be published by HarperCollins.
Bradford Matsen,
Seattle, WA, completed the first chapters of a biography, Sea King: Jacques Cousteau and the Ocean Century (Pantheon, 2008), and worked on The Trees of Niue, a novel set in Polynesia.
Katherine Min,
Plymouth, NH, wrote 90 pages of her second novel, The Suicide Sonata: A Comedy. Her first novel, Secondhand World, was published by Knopf in 2006.
Michele Morano,
Chicago, IL, completed an experimental essay that uses an unreliable narrator. She also outlined a new novel entitled Fire in the Hold and began working on a conference paper about the place of artist colonies in American literature.
Meera Nair,
Queens, NY, continued work on her novel tentatively entitled A Harvest of Stones, which will be published by Pantheon in 2007–08. Her collection Video was released in paperback in 2003.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil,
Dunkirk, NY, completed a chapbook of poetry as well as three nature essays about India. Her second collection of poetry, At the Drive-In Volcano, will be published by Tupelo in 2007.
Nuala O’Faolain,
County Clare, Ireland, completed the first draft of a comic novel about middle age, which will be published in 2008. In 2006, her novel The Story of Chicago May won the Prix Femina. Her memoir Are You Somebody is currently being adapted as a one-woman show by Oscar nominee Mary McDonnell.
Karen Olsson,
Austin, TX, worked on her second novel, All the Houses. Her first novel, Waterloo (FSG, 2005), is now out in paperback.
Julie Orringer,
San Francisco, CA, worked on a draft of her first novel, which is set in Budapest and Paris during the Second World War. Her short story collection How to Breathe Underwater (Knopf, 2003) was a New York Times Notable Book and the winner of
the Northern California Book Award.
Rajesh Parameswaran,
Missouri City, TX, worked on various short stories about immigrants and elephants, which he hopes to publish as part of a collection.
Silvia Pareschi,
Laveno, Italy, finished the Italian translation of Rachel Cusk’s novel Arlington Park, which will be published by Mondadori Publishing in 2007. She also started work on the Italian translation of Nathan Englander’s novel The Ministry of Special Cases.
Jayne Anne Phillips,
Brookline, MA, continued work on her novel Termite, which is forthcoming from Knopf. She is the author of the story collections Black Tickets and Fast Lanes, as well as the novels Machine Dreams, Shelter, and MotherKind.
Tom Piazza,
New Orleans, LA, continued work on his novel High Water Everywhere; about the experiences of two families, one black and one white, going through Hurricane Katrina. His books Understanding Jazz (Random House, 2005) and Why New
Orleans Matters (ReganBooks, 2005) won awards in 2006.
Sharon Pywell,
West Newton, MA used her second stay at MacDowell — after a 17-year hiatus — to work on her third novel. Her new work takes place in the American Southwest and Long Island, where a middleaged Jewish veterinarian discovers that she is in fact an Oglala Sioux.
Emily Raabe,
New York, NY, finished a poetry manuscript entitled Union, began a new book of poems called Fox, and started a book of short stories tentatively titled Alaska Airlines.
Emily Raboteau,
New York, NY, began work on her second novel, tentatively titled Echolalia. Her first novel, The Professor’s Daughter, was published by Henry Holt in 2005.
Katherine Russell Rich,
New York, NY, finished the book she’d been working on for six years — Unspeakable: A story about India, and life in other words.
Robin Romm,
Berkeley, CA, continued work on her short story collection, currently titled The Mother Garden. It is forthcoming from Scribner in 2007.
Martha Ronk,
Los Angeles, CA, worked on a new manuscript of poems based on the landscape and in response to language in Sir Thomas Browne’s 17th-century essay “The Garden of Cyrus.” She also began work on a short fiction piece, “Déjà vu.”
Julian Rubinstein,
New York, NY, worked on his second book and a documentary film about the last three years of his father’s life.
Mary Ruefle,
Bennington, VT, completed a book-length manuscript of poems and two erasure books, one of which is exhibited at the Williams College Art Museum. Her latest book is Indeed I Was Pleased With the World (Carnegie Mellon, 2007).
Toni Schlesinger,
New York, NY, continued work on her nonfiction book, The Mystery of Pearl Street. She also wrote and performed a play at Colony Hall that was inspired by the landscape at MacDowell. She is the author of Five Flights Up (Princeton Architectural Press, 2006).
Grace Schulman,
New York, NY, finished a new section in her book of poems, The Broken String, scheduled for publication in 2007 by Houghton Mifflin. Her books include Days of Wonder: New and Selected Poems and The Paintings of Our Lives.
Steven Schwartz,
Fort Collins, CO, completed a collection of stories titled The Last Communist. Stories from this collection are forthcoming in TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, North American Review, and Crazyhorse.
Brian Seibert,
Brooklyn, NY, continued work on What the Eye Hears, What the Ear Sees, a history of tap dancing to be published by Faber and Faber. His two children’s books about dance were published by Rosen Books in 2005.
Ravi Shankar,
Chester, CT, worked on completing his second manuscript of poems, a collection that comprises a series of pastorals and ekphrastics. His poems have appeared in Brooklyn Rail, the Cimarron Review, and Connecticut Review.
Brenda Shaughnessy,
Brooklyn, NY, completed her second book of poems, Human Dash with Sugar, for publication by Copper Canyon Press in 2008. She also completed a new draft of her first novel, Vanisher.
Hampton Sides,
Santa Fe, NM, put the finishing touches on his narrative history, Blood and Thunder (Doubleday, 2006), about Kit Carson and conquest of the West. It has since been optioned by Steven Spielberg for Dreamworks and was named one of the top ten books of the year by Time.
Nina Siegal,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, completed revisions of her first novel, A Little Trouble With the Facts, to be published by HarperCollins in 2008. She also began writing her second novel, provisionally entitled Anatomy: The Lost Rembrandt Papers. She was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship.
Barbara Sjoholm,
Port Townsend, WA, did some final polishing on her travel narrative, The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland, which will be published in 2007. She also continued work on her translation of painter Emilie Demant Hatt’s With the Lapps in the High Mountains.
Charlie Smith,
New York, NY, worked toward completing a new poetry book. He recently completed a new novel titled Kixote. His latest book of poems, Women of America, was released by WW Norton in 2004.
Suzanne Snider,
Brooklyn, NY, continued work on a nonfiction book that revolves around a 100-year history of a communal society. Her essay “The Mammoths” will appear in artist Clare Rojas’ catalogue Hope Springs Eternal in 2007.
Joanna Solfrian,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on editing her first collection of poems, tentatively entitled Visible Heavens. Her work has appeared in various journals and anthologies including The Southern Review and Shade 2006 (edited by David Dodd Lee).
Martha Southgate,
Brooklyn NY, worked on a draft of her as-yet-untitled fourth novel. Her most recent novel, Third Girl from the Left, was published in 2005 by Houghton Mifflin, and was short listed for the PEN/Beyond Margins Award and the Hurston/Wright Foundation award.
Debra Spark,
Yarmouth, ME, worked on a draft of her third novel, Good for the Jews. Her lectures on writing were recently published as Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing (University of Michigan, 2005).
Amanda Stern,
Brooklyn, NY, worked on a draft of her second novel, The Guthrie Test. She was recently featured in The New York Times Magazine as a “New Bohemian” helping to keep downtown alive. She runs the popular Happy Ending Music and Reading Series in New York.
Judith Stone,
Brooklyn, NY, finished When I Was White (Miramax Books, 2007), a nonfiction book about race classification in South Africa. She is a contributing editor for O, The Oprah Magazine.
Ginger Strand,
New York, NY, worked on a nonfiction book, Unnatural Niagara, to be published by Simon & Schuster. The book takes a look at some of the untold stories of Niagara Falls as a way of examining America’s odd relationship with nature.
Katherine Sturtevant,
Berkeley, CA, finished the first draft of a literary novel titled A Gravitous Star. Her historical novel for children, A True and Faithful Narrative, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and featured on the cover of Booklist.
August Tarrier,
Philadelphia, PA, worked on a novel entitled Va La and completed a story to be included in her collection Are You Decent?. In 2005 she won the Zoetrope Prize for her short story “I Hold You Harmless.”
Craig Morgan Teicher,
Brooklyn, NY, completed a new manuscript of poems and fables, as well as an autobiographical lyric essay. New poems are appearing in Yale Review, Boston Review, Seneca Review, and other publications.
Kenneth Turan,
Pacific Palisades, CA, completed work on an oral history entitled Free-for-All: Tales From the New York Shakespeare Festival. He also wrote an introduction to a book of photographs by Anthony Hernandez. His latest collection of film criticism, Now in Theaters Everywhere, was published in 2006 by PublicAffairs.
Jennifer Vanderbes,
New York, NY, completed work on a draft of her second novel tentatively titled Desertion. She is the recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship.
Ayelet Waldman,
Berkeley, CA, began an as-yet-untitled novel to be published by Doubleday. Her previous novel, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, was written in large part at MacDowell.
G.C. Waldrep,
Mt. Vernon, OH, completed his third full-length poetry collection, Archicembalo. His second collection, Disclamor, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in 2007.
Wendy S. Walters,
Providence, RI, continued work on essays and poems. Golden Motors, a musical for which she wrote the book and lyrics, will be produced by the Music Theatre Group during the 2007–08 season.
Rachel Wetzsteon,
New York, NY, worked on poems for her fourth volume of poetry, Silver Roses. She is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Sakura Park (Persea, 2006).
Joan Wickersham,
Cambridge, MA, worked on a group of linked short stories. Her book The Suicide Index, most of which was written during a previous MacDowell residency, will be published by Harcourt.
Anne Winters,
Evanston, IL, continued work on a book of poems, tentatively entitled The Owl-Glass. Most of the poems she worked on derived from a fascination that had begun about two years earlier with Northern European Renaissance prints and drawing
.
Kim Wood,
Brooklyn, NY, began an experimental biography of 1920s daredevil Lilly La France that weaves elements from La France’s unpublished archive with Wood’s accounts of her own haunting by this enigmatic figure. Wood’s film about La France, Advice to Adventurous Girls, previously premiered at Sundance.
Linda Yablonsky,
New York, NY, worked on her second novel. She also wrote a story for an anthology to be published next year by Da Capo Press and completed an essay on the work of artist Elena del Rivero to be published in IVAM’s museum catalogue.
Monica Youn,
New York, NY, completed a draft of her poetry manuscript Ignatz, which is based on George Herriman’s classic comic strip Krazy Kat. Her first book of poems Barter was published by Graywolf Press in 2003.