Do you think you
could beat me up?

Books and Stories

The Letter Parade

Scribner Publicity Kit

A few photos

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bonniejo@iserv.net

Books

The novel Q Road has been published in hardcover by Scribner (2002) and was named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. The paperback version has now been published with a reader's group guide (2003). Sarah McGrath is my editor. The German-language edition, retitled Ein Wilder Tag has been published by Schneekluth, Munich (2004). Tony Earley and Carolyn Chute have nice things to say about Q Road. Click to read the following reviews:

Women and Other Animals, my collection of stories, won the AWP Short Fiction Award and has been published (1999) by the University of Massachusetts Press. Simon and Schuster has released the trade paperback version, which includes a reader's guide (2002). The German translation, retitled Gorilla Girls, has been published (2001) by Schneekluth, Munich. Joyce Carol Oates and Stuart Dybek have nice things to say about this collection. Click to read the following reviews:

Along with Larry Smith, I co-edited Our Working Lives: Short Stories of People and Work, Bottom Dog Press, Huron Ohio (Nov. 2000.) This is a 232-page anthology of fiction which includes stories by Stuart Dybek, Percival Everett, and Jim Daniels.

Selected Shorter Works

  • "Sleep-over" won the 2003 World's Best Short Short Story contest, Southeast Florida Review.
  • "The Smallest Man in the World" (originally published in Southern Review) appears in Pushcart 2001, and was singled out in a Booklist Review as one the anthology's highlights.
  • "Circus Matinee" and "Blood Work" appeared in Story (Summer 1998, Winter 2000).
  • "Fuel for the Millennium" and "Children of Transylvania" Southern Review, (Winter 2000 and Summer 2002)
  • "Natural Disasters" Mid-American Review, Vol. XIX, Number 2
  • "The Bridesmaid," Michigan Quarterly Review, Winter 1999
  • "Shifting Gears" won the 1999 Detroit Automobile Dealers Association Award, making it the official story of 1999 Detroit Auto Show.
  • "Selling Manure," a short essay, appeared in Getting By: Stories of Working Lives,and has been reprinted in the August 1997 Utne Reader, as well as in several writing textbooks.
  • "My Dog Roscoe" appeared in the Witness: Animals in America, December 2001 and has been republished in Bark Magazine's anthology of dog fiction.
  • "Candy" (fiction) and "Burying the Dead" (non-fiction) will appear in upcoming issues of Ontario Review.
  • "Family Reunion" was read as part of Stories on Stage, WBEZ, Chicago.

Teaching

  • Visiting Assistant Professor at Kalamazoo College, 2005-2006. Taught creative writing, intermediate and advanced fiction writing, and contemporary writing, including the course "Rural Fiction by Women."
  • Visiting Assistant Professor at Bowling Green State University, 1999-2000 academic year, teaching graduate and undergraduate fiction workshops and a contemporary fiction class, as well as advising on MFA and BFA projects. Student evaluations are available.
  • Visiting Writer at Western Michigan University, Winter 2002. Taught a graduate writing workshop and a contemporary literature course.

Education

1998 M.F.A. Creative Writing, Western Michigan University. 4.0 g.p.a. Got awards from department as well as student awards from Playboy and the Atlantic.

1984 B.A. Philosophy, University of Chicago. Graduated with honors.

1992 B.A. Mathematics Education, Western Michigan University. Graduated with 4.0 g.p.a. and was named Presidential Scholar of the Math Department.

1995 M.A. Mathematics, Western Michigan University.

Other

I've written reviews, and given and organized readings; I've taught at workshops (Third Coast Writers Workshop, Controlled Burn Young Writers' Seminar, Ludington Writers Workshop, and Michigan's Summer Institute program), and participated in two panels at the 1999 AWP conference ("The Female Grotesque" and "Big I, Little Me.") I presented work at a DePaul University Philosophy Department conference "Minding the Borders: Animal Epistemology and the Human-Animal Distinction" in April 2001. I've received a Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo

Since 1987, I've edited and published The Letter Parade, my own little newsletter, which has been written up by the Village Voice.

My bicycle touring company, Goulash Tours Inc., when active, organizes trips in Russia, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe. Between 1980 and 1994, I led self-contained tours (with no support vehicle) through those regions and gave people a hell of an adventure.

References

  • Regarding my representation, contact Amanda Urban at International Creative Management
  • At Kalamazoo College, Gail Griffin, Director of Teaching Development (griffin@kzoo.edu) or Department Head Andy Mozina (amozina@kzoo.edu)
  • At Bowling Green State University, contact Professor Wendell Mayo, Creative Writing Department
  • At Scribner's Sons contact Sarah McGrath
  • At University of Massachusetts Press, contact Bruce Wilcox, Editor
  • At Western Michigan University, contact Professors Stuart Dybek, Jaimy Gordon, or Arnie Johnston (Chairperson) of the English Department
  • Graduate and undergraduate student recommendations are available