Faculty
Robert Boswell
Professor
Director of Creative Writing
Email:
rboswell@nmsu.edu
Office Address:
New Mexico State University
Department of English
P.O. Box 30001, MSC 3E
Las Cruces, NM 88003
Phone:
(575) 646-1968
Fax:
(575) 646-7725
Biographical Statement
Robert Boswell's most recent novel is Century's Son. He is the author of six other books of fiction: American Owned Love, Living to Be 100, Mystery Ride, The Geography of Desire, Dancing in the Movies, and Crooked Hearts. He is publishing two books of nonfiction in 2008, a collection of essays on writing called The Half-Known World, and a book about a real-life treasure hunt in New Mexico: What Men Call Treasure: The Search for Gold at Victorio Peak. He has received two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Iowa School of Letters Award for Fiction, the PEN West Award for Fiction, and the Evil Companions Award. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, Pushcart Prize Stories, Best Stories from the South, Esquire, Ploughshares, Harvard Review, Colorado Review, and many other magazines. He has published a sci-fi novel Virtual Death (under the pseudonym Shale Aaron) was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. His play Tongues won the John Gassner Prize.
Teaching Emphases and Interests
I teach graduate and undergraduate fiction and playwriting workshops. I teach the “Form and Technique in Fiction Writing” class to grad students. I direct masters theses for graduate creative writing students. Now and again I teach a literature course.
The graduate creative writing program here is one of the best in the country, and it’s a pleasure to teach in it. Antonya Nelson, Kevin McIlvoy, and I teach fiction writing here on a regular basis; Denise Chavez, and Don Kurtz teach fiction writing on an irregular basis; and Connie Voisine and Kathleene West teach the writing of poetry.
The program is small by design (we only accept 30 or so total) so that the students get individual attention. We keep the workshops small. We do not encourage competition among the students. Everybody who is eligible for a teaching assistantship tends to get one, and even those who are deemed ineligible by the graduate college (a low GPA can do it) can become eligible after one good semester as a grad student.
Practical and theoretical instruction in how to teach (as well as supervised guidance) is provided by the department. The teaching assistantship we offer is outstanding – better than you’ll find anywhere else. Plus, good teachers typically get the opportunity to teach a variety of courses.
We offer six prizes a year (judged by writers outside the program) for the graduate creative writing students, totaling over $5000. The department is friendly to writers and very supportive. Our colleagues in literature, rhetoric, and professional writing are outstanding (and good eggs).
The writing community is wonderful here. There are many informal gatherings of graduate students and faculty off-campus, either at somebody’s house or in a friendly bar or even across the border in Juarez. Much pool is played. Much salsa is consumed. Long conversations over managing the unreliable narrator. There is a weekly basketball gathering, and a weekly gathering at a bar after workshop. Some years we’ve had poker nights, and for a while there was a regularly scheduled cross-dressing party.
The reading series here (La Sociedad para las Artes) is terrific. We have 5 or 6 readings a semester. Visiting writers are paired with graduate students in their final year of study. Our audience averages about 200. Visiting writers may also read grad student manuscripts and hold individual conferences. Recent visitors include the following:
Fiction: Michael Martone, Thom Jones, Charles Baxter, Tom Perrotta, Richard Russo, Andrea Barrett, Stuart Dybek, Debra Spark, Christopher McIlvoy, Abraham Verghese, and many others.
Poetry: Robert Pinsky, Rodney Jones, Mary Leader, Carl Phillips, Alan Shapiro, Mary Ruefle, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Dean Young, Agha Shahid Ali, Valerie Martinez, Steve Orlen, Marie Howe, Miriam Sagan, and many others.
La Sociedad also provides grad students the opportunity to teach creative writing in the public schools.
The Border Book Festival is located here in Las Cruces and is a big and popular event. In recent years guests have included the following: Tim O’Brien, Ana Castillo, Barbara Kingsolver, Linda Hogan, Demetria Martinez, Leslie Marmon Silko, and many others.
This is a good place to study creative writing.
Selected Publications
Century’s Son, a novel, Alfred A. Knopf, 201 E. 50th Street, New York, NY 10022, April 2002.
American Owned Love, a novel, Alfred A. Knopf, 201 E. 50th Street, New York, NY 10022, April 1997. Paperback edition, Harper Collins, 10 E. 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, April 1998. British edition, Quartet Books, October 1997.
Living to Be 100, a collection of stories, Alfred A. Knopf, April 1994. Paperback edition, Harper Collins, 10 E. 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, April 1995.
Mystery Ride, a novel, Alfred A. Knopf, January 1993. Big print edition published in 1993. Paperback edition, Harper Collins, January 1994. British, Japanese, Italian, and German editions published in 1996.
The Geography of Desire, a novel, Alfred A. Knopf, September 1989. Paperback edition, Harper Collins, January 1994. British edition, Quartet Books, 1997, German language edition forthcoming.
Crooked Hearts, a novel, Alfred A. Knopf, June 1987. Paperback edition, Harper Collins, January 1994. Dutch language edition, 1988. British edition, 1998. MGM film released in September 1991.
Dancing in the Movies, a collection of short stories, University of Iowa Press, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, January 1986. Paperback edition, New American Library, 1633 Broadway, New York, New York 10019, January 1987.
Virtual Death, a novel written under the pseudonym Shale Aaron, Harper Collins, August 1995. Leather-bound limited edition by Easton Press, Norwalk, CT, August 1995. Czech language edition forthcoming.