Roosevelt MFA Program Reading featuring Guest Artists

As a fitting capstone to the newly created Masters in Fine Arts program in Creative Writing, the Guild Complex is proud to present the work of some of the most outstanding students and talented faculty at Rooosevelt University. The reading will include poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and screen writing. Come and hear some of the newest, most exciting voices in Chicago as they read alongside their teachers.

Beatriz Badikian, writes poetry and fiction in both English and Spanish. She has published internationally. Her honors and fellowships include a Pushcart nomination, the Time Inc. Fellowship, Bennington College; the Fanny Butcher Fellowship, Ragdale Foundation; and Illinois Arts Council Grants. She is the author of two books of poetry, and her numerous poems, stories, and articles have appeared in collections, anthologies, and journals in eight countries.

Mary Ber has taught poetry and fiction to writers of all ages for more that 20 years. She is the coeditor of the journal Prairie Moon and her own poems and stories have appeared in Pudding Magazine, 13the Moon, Moon journal, and Broken Mirrors: When Life Mates Die (Stillpoint Press, 1997).

Joseph Fedorko is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatist?s Workshop, a member of The Dramatists Guild, and a Board Member of Chicago Alliance of Playwrights. His play Scrimmages, earned him a finalists monimation in The National Youth Theater Playwriting Competion sponsored by Indiana and Purdue Universities. His plays have been produced around the country, notably in Chicago and New York, for ten years.

Ivoe Irwin is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays for which he has won numerous fellowships and awards, including three Pushcart nominations, and the Weisman Award for film. His work has appeared widely in journals, magazines, and anthologies. Norman Leer, a recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Illinois Significant Poet Award, and an eleven-time winner of the salute to the Arts Poetry Competition, is the author of three collections of poetry and more that 80 of his poems have appeared in New Review, Jazz Beat, Spoon River Quarterly, Oyez Review, Rhino and Willow Review.

Frank Rogaczewski is a talented poet who has worked and taught in the Chicago area for more than ten years. His latest works explore th comic potential of horror writing. His numerous poems have appeared in Private Arts, Bleeding Sheep, Another Chicago Magazine, Wire, and Private.