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CAROL MUSKE-DUKES is an OWL (Old Wise Lady or OWW, Old Wise Woman) now officially retired from USC, after over thirty years as a full professor with tenure and SOLO founder of the PhD program in Creative Writing/literature. Glad to be free!

Glad to be free to express myself beyond the restrictions of academia within the Corporate University - and also glad to be able to share my thoughts on the Demise of Creative Writing.

Besides my many years at USC -- (I've taught at Columbia Univ. MFA program, Univ. of Iowa Writers Workshop, UC Irvine MFA Program, Univ. of Virginia, George Washington Univ. (Jenny McKean Moore Lecturer) etc.

I have published 16 books, poems, novels and essay collections - as well as co-edited anthologies. Most recent book of poems, BLUE ROSE, (Penguin) was a long list Pulitzer prize finalist in 2019. Other awards, etc. Guggenheim, NEA, Ingram Merrill, Castagnola award, 7 Pushcarts , Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers award, etc. National Book Award finalist, LATimes Book Prize finalist, Witter Bynner Library of Congress award. California Poet Laureate (2008-2011) + NYTimes Most Notable Books. Published & anthologized widely + also: I write & review for the NYTimes Book Review, LATimes, (former Poetry columnist, LA Times),. NY Times Op Ed, + Magazine, The New Yorker, Huffington Post, etc. Rea Visiting Distinguished Writer, Univ. of Virginia , + Harmon Writer Residency, Baruch College, NY.

But I remain a writer first - teachers of CW aren't always loyal to writing itself - says the OWL.



*Older biography with extra information

Carol Muske-Dukes is a professor at the University of Southern California and a former Poet Laureate of California. She is an author of 9 books of poems - most recent is Blue Rose, which is a 2019 Pulitzer Prize short-list finalist. Earlier books of poems include Twin Cities (2011), Sparrow (2003), from Random House, a Nat. Book Award finalist, and others. She has also published four novels, inc. Channeling Mark Twain from Random House, 2003. She is also an essayist and anthology editor. Her two collections of essays, include Married to the Icepick Killer: a Poet in Hollywood (S.F. Chronicle (Best Book) -- and an anthology of poems, co-edited with Bob Holman - Crossing State Lines: an American Renga (from Farrar, Strauss & Giroux) + two children's poetry "handbooks" - The Magical Poetry Blimp Pilot's Guide, 1 & 2. Many of her books have been NY Times Most Notable Books.

She is professor of English/Creative Writing at the University of So. Calif. where she founded the PhD Program in CW/Lit. She completed her term as Poet Laureate of the state of California.

She writes for the NYTimes Book Review & Op Ed, the LA Times (where she was poetry columnist for some years), the Huffington Post, and the New Yorker, Page-Turner on-line, the Wall St. Journal, the Atlantic, etc.

She has been the recipient of many awards & honors, inc. a Guggenheim fellowship, Nat. Endowment for the Arts grant, Library of Congress award, Castagnola Award, Ingram/Merrill, award, etc. Finalist, Nat. Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, etc. She is anthologized widely and published her poems and essays widely as well, from the New Yorker to SLATE to the Atlantic, APR, etc. Also poems in BEST AMERICAN POETRY, 2012 - and the 25th Anniversary edition of BAP.

She is bi-coastal - NY & L.A. - and has completed a play called "I Married the Icepick Killer". Carol has been a professor for many years at USC, but has also taught at Columbia's MFA Program, the Iowa Writers Workshop, the Univ. of Virginia grad MFA, UC Irvine's MFA Program and the New School's MFA."

Her website is www.carolmuskedukes. She has been interviewed by Terry Gross, Michael Silverblatt -- also Morning Edition with Renee Montaigne, "On Point' and interviews (with cover) of Poets & Writers Magazine, the LA Times, L.A. Magazine, etc.




*Another older biography with extra information

Carol Muske-Dukes is a professor at the University of Southern California and a former Poet Laureate of California. She is also a co-editor of two anthologies and an author of eight books of poetry, four novels, and two essay collections.

Her latest book of poetry is Twin Cities (Penguin Poets Series, June 2011). Her other recently released books are two anthologies: Crossing State Lines: An American Renga (co-edited with Bob Holman, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, May 2011) and The Magical Poetry Blimp Pilot's Guide (co-edited with Diana Arterian, Figueroa Press, June 2011).

Carol's other books of poetry include An Octave Above Thunder, New & Selected Poems (Penguin, 1997) and Sparrow, a National Book Award finalist published by Random House, 2003. Her four novels are Channeling Mark Twain (Random House, 2008), Life After Death (Random House, 2001), Saving St. Germ (Penguin, 1993) and Dear Digby (Viking, 1989). Dear Digby has been re-issued by Figueroa Press in 2003.

Carol's collection of essays entitled Married to the Icepick Killer, A Poet in Hollywood was published in August of 2002. Her collection of reviews and critical essays, Women and Poetry: Truth, Autobiography and the Shape of the Self was published in the "Poets on Poetry" series of the University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Many of her collections have been "New York Times Most Notable Books" or listed in the current year's "Best Books".

She is a regular critic for the New York Times Book Review and the LA Times Book Review. Her work appears everywhere from the New Yorker to L.A. Magazine and she is anthologized widely, including in Best American Poems, 100 Great Poems by Women and many others.

She is professor of English and Creative Writing and founding Director of the new PhD Program in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.

She has received many awards and honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, an Ingram-Merrill, the Witter Bynner award from the Library of Congress, the Castagnola award from the Poetry Society of America and several Pushcart Prizes.

On November 13, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Carol as California's Poet Laureate.

Annie Muske-Dukes, after graduating from USC in May of 2005, will re-locate to Boulder, Colorado, where she will be pursuing a PhD in molecular biology at the Institute for Cellular, Developmental, Molecular Biology at the Univ. of Colorado.