Laura Mullen
Encyclopedia
Laura Mullen in Los Angeles
, is a contemporary American poet working in hybrid genres and traditions. As with the poetry of (among many others) Cole Swensen
, her work is considered Postmodern and post-Language
school, but it also takes a lot from her interests in Henry James
, Edgar Allan Poe
and numerous authors and visual artists who fall outside of the poetic cannon. This explains that, among her five published books, one finds the post-modern gothic, The Tales of Horror (Kelsey St. Press), traditional formed poems such as the "sestina in which my grandmother is going deaf" in The Surface, and a prose-poetry-crime novel-postmodern language text: Murmur (Futurepoem Books, 2007). In fact, Mullen’s work holds the mirror up to language, attempting to find out (and find ways out of ) the limits of the wor(l)ds we are sentenced to. The lyric
impulse exists in her writing, but the surface is rough, like her jagged language use at times, reflecting the violence of the effort to see into seeing itself.
Mullen received her BA in English from UC Berkeley and her MFA
in Poetry from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop before going to teach at, among other places, Colorado State University
, where her courses included seminars on Modernism
, Postmodernism
, and Cross-Genre Writing. She’s also been invited as a guest author to teach at Naropa
University's Summer Writing Program (1996, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008), Columbia College
– Chicago - (spring semester 2003), Brown University
(2001), and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop Summer Program, (1998). She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowship, 1988 and has since received numerous ôther fellowships in the United States and abroad.
She is currently on the permanent faculty at Louisiana State University
where her teaching and research interests include Creative Writing
, Literature
, Translation
, Poetry
, Fiction
, and Film
.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, is a contemporary American poet working in hybrid genres and traditions. As with the poetry of (among many others) Cole Swensen
Cole Swensen
Cole Swensen is an American poet, translator, editor, copywriter, and professor. Swensen was awarded a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and is the author of more than ten poetry collections and as many translations of works from the French. She received her B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State...
, her work is considered Postmodern and post-Language
Language poets
The Language poets are an avant garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
school, but it also takes a lot from her interests in Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
, Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
and numerous authors and visual artists who fall outside of the poetic cannon. This explains that, among her five published books, one finds the post-modern gothic, The Tales of Horror (Kelsey St. Press), traditional formed poems such as the "sestina in which my grandmother is going deaf" in The Surface, and a prose-poetry-crime novel-postmodern language text: Murmur (Futurepoem Books, 2007). In fact, Mullen’s work holds the mirror up to language, attempting to find out (and find ways out of ) the limits of the wor(l)ds we are sentenced to. The lyric
Lyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
impulse exists in her writing, but the surface is rough, like her jagged language use at times, reflecting the violence of the effort to see into seeing itself.
Mullen received her BA in English from UC Berkeley and her MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in Poetry from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop before going to teach at, among other places, Colorado State University
Colorado State University
Colorado State University is a public research university located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The university is the state's land grant university, and the flagship university of the Colorado State University System.The enrollment is approximately 29,932 students, including resident and...
, where her courses included seminars on Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, Postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
, and Cross-Genre Writing. She’s also been invited as a guest author to teach at Naropa
Naropa
thumb|right|NaropaNāropā was an Indian Buddhist yogi, mystic and monk. He was the disciple of Tilopa and brother, or some sources say partner and pupil, of Niguma. Naropa was the main teacher of Marpa, the founder of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism...
University's Summer Writing Program (1996, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008), Columbia College
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
– Chicago - (spring semester 2003), Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
(2001), and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop Summer Program, (1998). She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship, 1988 and has since received numerous ôther fellowships in the United States and abroad.
She is currently on the permanent faculty at Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
where her teaching and research interests include Creative Writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
, Literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, Translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, Poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, Fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
, and Film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
.
Books
- Murmur, http://www.futurepoem.com/bookpages/murmur.html(futurepoem books http://www.futurepoem.com/index.html, New York City, 2007)
- Subject http://www.ucpress.edu/books/sale/pages/10287.html University of California Press, New California Poetry Series, 2005 --The Miller Theatre in New York City will produce a song cycle by composer Jason EckardtJason EckardtJason Eckardt is an American composer. He began his musical life playing guitar in heavy metal and jazz bands and abruptly moved to composing after discovering the music of Anton Webern.-Compositions:...
based on the final poem in Subject in fall 2008. - After I Was Dead (University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA, 1999)
- The Tales of Horror, http://www.kelseyst.com/tales.htm (Kelsey Stn Press, CA, 1999)
- The Surface (University of Iowa Press, 1991)--National Poetry SeriesNational Poetry SeriesThe National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program.Every year since 1979 it has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry...
selection
Anthologized works
- Poems for Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, edited by Cole SwensenCole SwensenCole Swensen is an American poet, translator, editor, copywriter, and professor. Swensen was awarded a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and is the author of more than ten poetry collections and as many translations of works from the French. She received her B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State...
and David St John, (forthcoming from W.W. Norton & Company, 2008) - Prose: "Torch Song" in Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action (Coffee House Press, 2004).
- Poems in The Book of Irish American Poetry (University of Notre Dame Press)
- Prose in Paraspheres (Omnidawn Press).
- Artist's statement and seven poems in The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries (University of IA Press, 2004)
- Poems: "House,” “For the Reader (Blank Book),” “Self-Portrait as Somebody Else,” and “After I Was Dead” in The Extraordinary Tide (2001)
- “Museum Garden Cafe” collected in Night Out (1997)
- Prose: “His Father” in Chick-Lit: Post-Feminist Fiction (1995)
- “They,” in The Best American Poetry 1990 edited by David LehmanDavid LehmanDavid Lehman is a poet and the series editor for The Best American Poetry series. He teaches at The New School in New York City.-Career:...
and Jorie GrahamJorie GrahamJorie Graham is an American poet. The U.S. Poetry Foundation suggests "She is perhaps the most celebrated poet of the American post-war generation". She replaced poet Seamus Heaney as Boylston Professor at Harvard, becoming the first woman to be appointed to this position...
(Scribner’s, 1990).
Periodicals
- Poems, Prose and Poetry Reviews have appeared in numerous print and online periodicals such as Bomb http://www.bombsite.com/ducornet/ducornet.html, Denver Quarterly, Ping Pong, Lingo http://www.cultureport.com/NEWHP/lingo/authors/mullen.html, Fencehttp://www.fencemag.com/v1n2/work/lauramullen.htmlhttp://www.fencemag.com/v2n2/work/lauramullen.html, Xantippe, Aufgabe, New American Writing, Ploughshareshttp://www.pshares.org/Authors/authorDetails.cfm?prmAuthorID=1097–including also articles on her work, etc.--, Mipoesiashttp://www.mipoesias.com/Volume19Issue3Gudding/mullen.html, How2http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/archive/online_archive/v1_1_1999/lmtales.html, Talisman, Cranky, on poets.orghttp://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16958, BookForumhttp://www.bookforum.com/Warn.html, and in the Iowa Review.
- See also a Hypertext piece by Laura Mullen on the AltX site: AltX.com
Grants, fellowships, literary awards & prizes
- Louisiana Board of Regents ATLAS grant;
- Manship Summer Research Fellowship (Louisiana State UniversityLouisiana State UniversityLouisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
) 2005; - MacDowell ColonyMacDowell ColonyThe MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
Fellow: 2003, 1996, 1994, 1991, 1988; - Professional Development Grant for travel to FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(2003); - Professional Development Grant for Travel to the ValparaisoValparaísoValparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
Foundation in SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(Mojacar, Spain), 1998; - Career Enhancement Grant, 1998;
- Professional Development Program Fund Award, 1997;
- Rona JaffeRona JaffeRona Jaffe was a popular American novelist, publishing numerous works from 1958-2003. She may have been best known for her controversial novel, Mazes and Monsters...
Award, 1996; - Max Orovitz Fellowship (University of MiamiUniversity of MiamiThe University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
) 1993; - National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship, 1988; - Karolyi Foundation Fellowship: 1989, 1988, 1987.
- Linda Hull Memorial Prize, The Denver Quarterly (for “The Selected Letters”), 1996;
- National Poetry SeriesNational Poetry SeriesThe National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program.Every year since 1979 it has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry...
winner (for The Surface), 1990; - Denver Quarterly Prize, 1986;
- EisnerEisnerThe surname Eisner could mean any of the following people:* Alexey Eisner - Russian poet, translator and writer.* Breck Eisner - son of Michael Eisner and film director.* Clara Eissner, see Clara Zetkin...
Prize (University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
), 1984; - Chauncy Wetmore Wells Prize (U.C. Berkeley), 1984;
- Stanford Prize, Ironwood Review, 1983.
External links
- Homesite with selected works and an interview about Murmur: http://www.lauramullen.biz/
- LSU teaching homesite: http://www.english.lsu.edu/dept/programs/creative_writing/mullen.htm
- Interviewed on her thoughts on Barthes & Derrida at: http://www.pw.org/mag/dq_mullen.htm
- Interviewed by Cactus May at http://nieveroja.colostate.edu/issue4/mullen_interview2.htm
- Critical Reviews of the book Subject by Amy Newlove Schroeder for Slope at http://www.slope.org/archive/issue22/schroeder.html, or read in print version reviews in Tears in the Fence, UK.
- An interview with Colleen Fava at [www.brlagniappe.com]
- Critical Reviews of Murmur by Emily Warn at http://www.bookforum.com/Warn.html, or by Jennifer K DickJennifer K DickJennifer K Dick, American poet, translator and educator/scholar born in Minnesota, raised in Iowa and currently living in Mulhouse, France. Jennifer K Dick has been classified as a post-L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school poet with a strong background in lyric and narrative tradition.She has taught American...
for How2 at http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/vol_3_no_1/alerts/dickmurmur.html - PENInternational PENPEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
Writers Site on Laura Mullen at http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1459/prmID/1165 - Find a general résumé for Laura Mullen online, with a more complete list of prizes and fellowships, at: http://appl003.ocs.lsu.edu/paws005.nsf/$Unique/lmullen?OpenDocument