University of New Mexico Press Announces Lay-offs

For the most part, I’ve chosen to remain positive about the current state of the economy–  it’s not that I am naive. I’ve been through recessions and layoffs before.  Been laid off twice myself.  It’s not fun.  But the fact is that eventually we come though these things.   I don’t have any answers, but the more we know, the more we can prepare ourselves or come up with creative solutions.

I wanted to share this news here because it is important.  We all know the publishing industry is changing.  Print may not be dead, but in some ways it’s on life support.  Small presses are struggling and as writers this affects us greatly.  For many of us, small presses like the University of New Mexico Press are our first line of publication.  And for the university the UNM Press brings a certain amount of prestige– sure it’s no football team, but isn’t having the UNM name stamped on quality literature the kind of noteriety a university should be proud of?

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALBUQUERQUE—Despite months of budget-cutting and assurances from upper management that jobs were not in jeopardy, employees of UNM Press were left stunned yesterday by announcements of layoffs and possible outsourcing of their jobs.

UNM Creative Writing Blog Getting Noticed

And some other good things about the UNM Creative Writing Program.

From UNM Today:

Soon after first year M.F.A. student Tanaya Winder came to UNM this semester, she told Julie Shigekuni, new director of the creative writing program, about a Stanford program called the Levinthal Tutorials that helped her prepare for graduate school. Winder’s suggestion led to the creation of the Russo Tutorials, an independent study pairing creative writing graduate students with seniors who are developing a portfolio and graduate school application.

M.F.A. student Valerie Santillanes will participate in the tutorials next semester. In her final year, Santillanes said she wants to pass on the mentorship she received. “Having someone that believed I could do it made me believe I could do it,” she said. “It’s exciting to think I could be that for somebody.”

She’s also excited about a new retreat for graduate students that will be held at Ghost Ranch during intercession so they can work intensively on their dissertations. Santillanes said it will be great to go somewhere without distractions and concentrate on writing.

While acknowledging the UNM creative writing program has had a controversial year with serious issues to be resolved, these students are bringing new ideas and energy to help the program live and grow.

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