Laura Mullen

Laura Mullen (b. 1958 — ) 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.

Publications and Literary awards

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 Eckardt 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 Series selection

Anthologized works

*Poems for "Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry", edited by Cole Swensen 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 Lehman and Jorie Graham (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] , "Fence" [http://www.fencemag.com/v1n2/work/lauramullen.html] [http://www.fencemag.com/v2n2/work/lauramullen.html] , "Xantippe, Aufgabe, New American Writing, Ploughshares" [http://www.pshares.org/Authors/authorDetails.cfm?prmAuthorID=1097] –including also articles on her work, etc--, "Mipoesias" [http://www.mipoesias.com/Volume19Issue3Gudding/mullen.html] , "How2" [http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/archive/online_archive/v1_1_1999/lmtales.html] , "Talisman, Cranky", on "poets.org" [http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16958] , "BookForum" [http://www.bookforum.com/Warn.html] , and in the "Iowa Review".

*See also a Hypertext piece by Laura Mullen on the "AltX" site: [http://www.altx.com/profiles/archives/artdiss/mullen/index.html AltX.com]

Grants, fellowships, literary awards & prizes

*Louisiana Board of Regents ATLAS grant;
*Manship Summer Research Fellowship (Louisiana State University) 2005;
*MacDowell Colony Fellow: 2003, 1996, 1994, 1991, 1988;
*Professional Development Grant for travel to France (2003);
*Professional Development Grant for Travel to the Valparaiso Foundation in Spain (Mojacar, Spain), 1998;
*Career Enhancement Grant, 1998;
*Professional Development Program Fund Award, 1997;
*Rona Jaffe Award, 1996;
*Max Orovitz Fellowship (University of Miami) 1993;
*National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1988;
*Karolyi Foundation Fellowship: 1989, 1988, 1987.
*Linda Hull Memorial Prize, "The Denver Quarterly" (for “The Selected Letters”), 1996;
*National Poetry Series winner (for "The Surface"), 1990;
*"Denver Quarterly" Prize, 1986;
*Eisner Prize (University of California, Berkeley), 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 Dick for "How2" at [http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/vol_3_no_1/alerts/dickmurmur.html]
*PEN Writers Site on Laura Mullen at [http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1459/prmID/1165]
*Find a General Resumé for Laura Mullen online, with a more complete list of prizes and fellowships, at: [http://appl003.ocs.lsu.edu/paws005.nsf/$Unique/lmullen?OpenDocument]

: