Oakland, CA - Graduate English students at Mills College are gaining significant artistic recognition by publishing, performing, and producing in a full range of professional venues. The following are highlights of their recent achievements:

Leila Abu-Saba has a poem in the upcoming Anglophone Arab Writers collection.

Erin Addiego’s poem 'man on street' was published in potion magazine and his poem 'addition' has been accepted into arch and quiver, an erotic poetry journal.

Gaina Barlow published her story in Agni Magazine (Issue 62), and was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Alyson Bingham booked acapella vocal groups Solstice, and Clockwork, and helped to coordinate a silent auction.

Robyn Brooks has published poems in The Womanist and in the Walrus, and made her acting debut in a Magical Act Ritual Theater production of “Equus.”

Sarah Busselle presented her paper "The Crisis of Feminism: Questions of Responsibility in New Feminist Writing" at the Graduate Student Conference "Passing and Questions of Legitimacy" at the University of Tulsa.

Sara Campo’s story “Domingo” is forthcoming in St. Anne’s Review.

Laura Davis’ story “Touched” is forthcoming in the Cricket Online Review.

Melissa Eleftherion’s poetry has been published in The Paterson Literary Review and other small presses. She will have four poems published in the Winter 2006 issue of Big Scream, four poems forthcoming from Defenestration, and several poems have been accepted by DEFECT CULT, a new journal to be released by Red Hen Press in February 2006.

Liz Green was invited to perform her poetry at the Women's Writer's Conference’s first annual "Gypsy Slam.”

Michelle Hansen will present a paper on Mary Wilkins Freeman at the College English Association conference in San Antonio this April.

M. Mara-Ann recently sang with the Jazz Vocal Ensemble in a concert featuring Terry Riley and gave a final performance entitled “Flux” with the Ensemble. She gave several solo spoken word-vocal performances in collaboration with electronic musicians to benefit charities such as the NextAid Foundation, Iraqi and Afghan families affected by the war, and Hurricane Katrina and Kashmir earthquake survivors.

Teresa Miller and Meg Hamill have published poems in Shampoo (Issue 26).

Benjamin L. Perez’s experimental, transgressive book, The Evil Queen: A Pornolexicology, was published by Spuyten Duyvil Press (New York, 2005).

Alison Peters has an article about hirsutism coming out in Curve magazine.

Stephanie Pullen’s paper “Intimate Distance: Interpol, Fandom, and the Re-interpretation of Media Messages in Online Music Fan Communities” was accepted for the 2006 National Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference to be held in Atlanta, GA in April.

Julia Rubin recently created a benefit, "Hurricane Katrina Relief: An Evening With Our Local Arts” at Studio Z in San Francisco. Mills English graduate students Dillon Westbrook and Liz Green helped produce the event in which they and the following Mills students performed: Julia Rubin, Alyson Bingham, Aimee Suzara, Hilary Hayes, Kim Johnson, Cindy Emch, Robyn Brooks, M. Mara Ann, Alexandra Kostoulas, Warren Longmire, and Tshaka.

Aimee Suzara was accepted in the STREAM/Emerging Performance Festival at Counterpulse! QueerPin@y Conference (UC Berkeley).

Rachel Swirsky has published poems in Talking Back anthology and Abyss & Apex; as well as a short story in Subterranean Magazine.

Sarah Trott published her poems in Watchword (Issue 8) and Shampoo (Issue 26), and has a book review forthcoming in the Cricket Online Review.

Patty Tumang and Jinky de Rivera have personal essays published in Waking Up American anthology (Seal Press).

Lizette Wanzer has been named to a fiction panel at the annual Sigma Tau Delta conference in Portland, to a creative writing panel at the Graduate English Association Writing the Regions Conference, where she will also present stories, and to a fiction panel at the Annual 20th Century Conference on Languages & Literature. She was a second-place winner in the southeast Porter Fleming Writing Competition; her story “Gills” appeared in the Tampa Review (December), her story “Ricochet” will appear in the Apalachee Review (#56), and her poem “Crystal Ball” appeared in Small Brushes (December).

Dillon Westbrook’s article about the Community Teaching Project was recently published in Oakland Magazine. Dillon was stage manager for seven musical acts and was also involved in booking Solatido funk band.

Patty Tumang, Diana Ip, Aimee Suzara, Robyn Brooks, Jenesha de Rivera, Kira Allen, Alison Peters, Jasmine Dawson, Suzanne McFayden-Smith, and Meeta Kaur read at the VONA presentation at LitCrawl in the fall.

Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering innovative degree programs for undergraduate women, and graduate degree and certificate programs for women and men. Consistently ranked among the top 75 liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Mills is also recognized as one of the country’s 20 most diverse liberal arts colleges. The Princeton Review selected Mills as one of 11 colleges for first-time inclusion in its Best 361 Colleges–2005. Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California on 135 lush acres, Mills provides a dynamic liberal arts education fostering women’s leadership, social responsibility, and creativity.

PRESS CONTACT:
Deborah Dallinger
Communications Consultant
925.788.9131