Office: Keezell 408
Phone: 540-568-1643
Email: martintm@jmu.edu
Office Hours: MWF 9AM-10AM & 11AM-12PM
Courses: Fall 2008
ENG 393, Introduction to Creative Writing, Fiction, 2 Sections
Each student will workshop at least two pieces of fiction and do many writing exercises from The Lie That Tells a Truth: A Guide to Fiction Writing by John Dufresne. In discussions we will explore the underlying architecture of stories and find constructive ways to improve them. “The first quality of good storytelling,” according to John Gardner, “is storytelling.”
GENG 236, English Literature 18th century-Modern, 2 Sections
Fields: Fiction Writing; Modern English and American Literature
Education:
PhD, English, Western Michigan University, 2007
BA, English Language and Literature, University of Maryland, 1985
Teaching Experience:
James Madison University, 2007-present
GHUM 200, Prophetic Writers: DH Lawrence, Dostoevsky, Melville, Emily Bronte, 2 Sections
GENG 236, English Literature 18th century-Modern, 5 Sections
GENG 248, American Literature 1865-Modern, 2 Sections
ENG 393, Introduction to Creative Writing, Fiction, 4 Sections
Western Michigan University, 2003-2007
ENGL 266, Introduction to Creative Writing, Poetry & Fiction, 3 Sections
ENGL 366, Advanced Fiction Writing, 3 Sections
ENGL 566, Graduate Fiction Workshop, 1 Section, co-taught with Dr Jaimy Gordon
Nova Southeastern University, Fall 2002
READ 1000, Developmental Reading, 2 Sections
Florida International University, 2000-2003
ENGL 1101, Freshman Composition, 2 Sections
ENGL 1102, Literary Analysis, 2 Sections
ENGL 1930, Essay Writing, 1 Section
Honors:
Finalist, 2004 Seattle Review Fiction Contest, “Live Bait”
Third Place, Fiction, 2003 New Century Writer Awards, “Live Bait”
Finalist, 2003 Reynolds Price Short Fiction Award, “The Lost Country”
First Place, Fiction, 2003 Flyway Sweet Corn Prize, “Guerrillas”
Finalist, 2002 James Jones First Novel Fellowship
Honorable Mention, 2002 Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards
Novel excerpt selected by Chris Offutt
Related Experience:
Modern Language Association Member, 2007-present
Judge for Western Michigan University Undergraduate Fiction Awards, 2005-2006
Associate Fiction Editor for Third Coast, 2004-2007
Volunteer at WMU Used Book Sale, 2004-2006
Graduate of University of Washington Extension Program in Fiction Writing, 1998
Apprentice to Antiquarian Bookseller at Magus Books, Seattle, 1991-2000
Promoted to Manager in 1995
Publications:
Fiction:
“The Tomahawk Chop.” Passages North: A Literary Journal. Ed. Kate Myers Hanson. (Winter/Spring 2009):
“Guerrillas.” Flyway: A Literary Review. Ed. Stephen Pett. (Spring 2004): 63-75.
Poetry:
“New Smyrna Beach, 1989.” Wild Goose Poetry Review. Ed. Patricia Bostian. (Winter 2008): http://www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com
“Vikings.” Calvert: A University of Maryland Literary and Arts Review. Ed. Tom White. (Fall 1984): 36.
“The Watercolor.” Calvert: A University of Maryland Literary and Arts Review. Ed. David Swerdlow. (Spring 1983): 55.
Non-Fiction:
“Violence as an Objective Correlative in the Western Novels of Cormac McCarthy. The Hilltop Review: A Journal of Western Michigan University Graduate Research. Ed. Roy Henry. (Spring 2007): http://www.wmich.edu/gsac/Publications.htm
Work in Progress:
Steeped in the bedlam of Guatemala’s civil war, The Tomahawk Chop is a novel about Henry Foster, a seventeen-year-old boy from Maryland who tries to hold his family together during a crisis in his father’s sabbatical year. Astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins University, Dr Milton Foster takes Henry and his family to Lake Atitlan, a body of water encompassed by mountains and volcanoes in western Guatemala, where he can research the celestial maps of the ancient Maya. The family arrives in 1978, before the presidential inauguration of General Lucas Garcia, whose administration would soon become a chronological marker for the onset of widespread repression and violence against Native Americans.
After Henry is accosted by a roadside soldier while defending his nine-year-old brother Jason, their mother insists upon leaving the country at once. But their father refuses to go before his research is complete. Caught in the crossfire, the brothers must choose between their parents.
Near the San Bernardo Catholic school the next morning Henry sees a military assistant harassing Maria—the twenty-two-year-old Mayan who runs the comedor behind the church—and unleashes his pent-up frustrations on the young man in a vicious, back-and-forth fight, ultimately killing him. Afterward he becomes terrified that he has put his family into grave danger. Now his father insists that they leave the country, saying he will follow as soon as he can hastily wrap up his research. Jason and his mother fly back to Maryland. Henry and Maria travel to the ruins in Palenque, Mexico. But when they hear that an American professor has been arrested at Lake Atitlan, they feel they must go back despite the danger.
|
