University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Assistant Professor Kerry Madden, MFA, of Homewood has been named the new editor of the UAB women’s literary magazine, Poemmemoirstory (PMS).

 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Assistant Professor Kerry Madden, MFA, of Homewood has been named the new editor of the UAB women's literary magazine, Poemmemoirstory (PMS).

PMS is an award-winning, national literary journal of women's poetry, memoirs and short stories that is published annually by the UAB Department of English. The journal has earned awards from New Stories From the South and several national awards from The Best Creative Nonfiction, The Best American Essay and The Best American Poetry.

Madden teaches creative writing in the UAB Department of English. She is the author of the new book Harper Lee: Up Close (Viking). The book made Booklist's Top 10 Biographies of 2009 for Youth and received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews.

The book focuses on the life of Monroeville native Harper Lee, whose1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize and became an international bestseller. Lee's book later became an Academy Award-winning film.

Madden also is the author the Maggie Valley Trilogy, published by Viking Children's Books. The trilogy includes Gentle's Holler (2005), Louisiana's Song (2007) and Jessie's Mountain (2008), set in the heart of Appalachia in the Smokies. Her first novel, Offsides, was a New York Public Library Pick for the Teen Age in 1997. Madden's book Writing Smarts, published by American Girl, is a guide for young writers.

Madden taught fiction and creative writing at the UCLA Writers Program, Sewanee Young Writers Conference, University of Tennessee-Knoxville and at Ningbo University in the People's Republic of China. She has written for Salon.com, LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and Five Points. She earned her bachelor's degree and an MFA in playwriting from the University of Tennessee. She joined the UAB Department of English this fall.

To learn more about Madden's new book, Harper Lee: Up Close, visit her Web site http://www.kerrymadden.com/books/bk_harp1.html

About the UAB Department of English

The UAB Department of English offers an undergraduate degree in English with concentrations in creative writing, linguistics or professional writing and public discourse, and graduate degrees in literature, rhetoric and composition, and creative writing.