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December 08, 2006
Julie Shigekuni, Editor, Blue Mesa Review, and Associate Professor of English, University of New Mexico, 12-8-06
The Blue Mesa Review is a literary journal published by the creative writing department at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Blue Mesa Review was founded by UNM’s Rudolfo Anaya, Gene Frumkin, David Johnson, Patricia Clark Smith, and Lee Bartlett in 1981 as a way to bring national recognition to writers from the American Southwest. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Blue Mesa Review remains committed to publishing regional writers alongside nationally recognized artists and exceptionally talented newcomers. Distinguished by the multi-ethnic and diverse cultural heritage of its contributors, Blue Mesa Review strives to combine personal vision and aesthetics with a high degree of intellectual curiosity.
Upcoming issues will include an interview with Native American scholar and novelist Gerald Vizenor, and as part of BMR’s new translations section, renowned Chinese poet Ting Shu’s debut in English. Also featured will be the work of highly regarded poets Mary Ruefle and Hilda Raz and emerging poet Lauren Goodwin Slaughter. Fiction contributors include Jacob M. Appel, Dulcie Leimbach, and Anis Shivani. Nonfiction essays and book reviews round out every volume.
Julie Shigekuni has won several awards for her writing, including the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature, a Henfield award, and the Japanese American National Literary Award. Ms. Shigekuni’s first novel, A Bridge Between Us, was published by Doubleday/Anchor in 1996 and received favorable reviews in the New York Times Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, and other major publications, and was translated into German, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. It was featured by Barnes & Noble Booksellers in their first Discover Great New Writers series and was selected as a finalist for that award.
In addition to her literary endeavors, Ms. Shigekuni is currently co-producing, directing, and writing a 60-minute video documentary. Manju Mammas and the An-Pan Brigade is the story of three Nisei Christian women and their nontraditional offspring. In Manju Mammas, Ms. Shigekuni explores how Christianity moved from a religion taken on for convenience to true belief in the Nisei women’s Fundamentalist offspring.
Posted by David Lemberg at December 8, 2006 08:27 AM Return to ARTSCAPE home page