RENEE MARIE ZEPEDA
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 355-0928
ReneeZepeda@netscape.net

EDUCATION

The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan

B.A. in English & German

September 1997-May 2001

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The Summer Writing Program
Naropa University
Boulder, Colorado

Courses in Creative Writing & Journalism

June-July 2001

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Junior Year in Munich in Conjunction with
Wayne State
Munich, Germany
Certificate of German Proficiency

September 1999-August 2000

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SKILLS

Organizational

· Organized promotional events at
Georgetown Country Club for Ann Arbor Financial

· Coordinated author spreadsheets for the book Multicultural Social Work Practice

· Taught Creative Writing to 70 Detroit students, produced Digging Up, a book of student work

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Communication

· Edited monthly client newsletter for Ann Arbor Financial Services

· Corresponded with authors for Multicultural Social Work Practice

· Researched data for German-speaking online consumer reporting firm

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Computers
· Experienced in Mac Os and PCs
· Proficient in Microsoft Windows 2000
· Knowledge of QuarkXpress, HTML, Adobe
PhotoShop, MS Excel, Access


EXPERIENCE

The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan
Caterer

April 2003-September 2003

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Ann Arbor Center for Financial Services
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Public Relations Assistant

April 2003-September 2003

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InsideOut Detroit, Michigan
Writer-in Residence

September 2001-June 2002

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The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan
Editor

September 2000-2001

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Vocatus Munich, Germany
Public Relations/
Business Intern

January-June 2000

S. Cisneros Reading
from Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003

Reading in MLB, about 200 people
here to hear MacArthur Recipient
read from new book--
lots of buzz around her--
she doesn't start on time.

Intro: Thank you Shaman Drum...
Anthro prof wears low-cut v-neck
with red and gold stripes to introduce
author.

House on Mango Street is required
reading in many places. She calls
it "naughty." There are many
high school students here.

The new book is called
Caramelo.

She grew up in Chicago.
"English was the language
to talk to dogs."
She has a little voice and is
well-spoken.

When you write a novel
you walk around in a state
between waking and sleeping.

She reminds me of Gilda.
Performing.

It is easy to be beautiful
but more difficult to appear so.

She intermingles Spanish and
& receives wholesome laughter
from audience. Storyteller
quick changes in tone of voice
reading passage about a
famous dancer...male/female
relationships.

I wish she didn't have to sell
the book so much. It doesn't
make me feel good to see her
try to sell it, yet I understand
the predicament and I don't
know what to do about it myself.

If you don't try to sell it, no one
will know about it. If you do
try to sell it, it may lose integrity.
If you don't sell it, you don't eat.
If you do sell it, you eat alone.
And you value your life, you LOVE
yourself, so
you sell it.

That 's what you do.

M. Moore Lecture Notes
from Sunday, Oct. 12, 2003

The oscar winner makes his entrance with lifesize cardboard couple
Hussein & Bin Laden

He reports on the pres’s “Marriage Protection Week”

Talks about the recall election and the “Governator,” how Americans like
leaders who will lead, how selfishness is the defining trait of conservatives

His book includes An examination of the Pathology of the American Mentality.

Why do we allow the government to damage the least of us?

Tells how Limbaugh’s in rehab

There are 3 million Americans, many of them manipulated by lies and fear

Before Colin P. spoke at the UN, he requested that they cover the reproduction of Picasso’s Guernica (which would have countered his war pitch)

“You’ve got to follow your conscience.”

An interesting clown/prophet/filmmaker, he reads from his book, does not endorse
Any of the presidential candidates, wants Dean to address NRA, death penalty, increasing deficit

He leads a rousing rendition of “O, Canada”

Asks: Did the pres know something was going to happen before 911?
Asks: Why was Arnold S’s assault of women not problematic?

“Appeal to women and people of color.”

“There is a better place to be….It’s called Norway.”

He’s planning a documentary on Washington, D.C.
He encourages bootleg of “TV Nation”
Everyone who has lived in Michigan since _____ probably has pbb in their bodies.
We need to support unions.
Anne Coulter should stop speaking on behalf of women.

“Their desire to make money off of me is greater than their desire to shut me up.”

Today I missed you
and I did not miss you at all.
What is it with you and those
huge flowers
that stand in my way demanding all your attention.
Even after hours
of connubial bliss
I still can't take your eyes back
because they're sewn up
just like the cubs game.
All too soon come the days
of the dead
but for today
we are watching baseball
and Sammy Sousa's up to bat
and I am wondering
if my little finger
fits in the pocket of your sweater, which is red, but
not as red as me
because I am scarlet
and you are a hand
navigating a small desert
wherein lies a tiny cactus
with a soft pink baby flower
on top.

Notes From Friday, October 3rd, C.B Reading new Saul and Patsy

Begins with passage regarding California brother's surprise visit
in black BMW

Seems to emphasize Midwestern depth vs. Western superficiality

Such funny pretentiousness

"dorialium"-- ?

Obsessively detailed & still witty

Reminiscent of Palmer's "take nothing as yours" &
Hemingway's "Hawks don't share"

What he is selling: familiar middle class existence, also contemporary
sense of isolation, yet depth of nuptial relationship
see also L.M.

Gist of book: familiar, sturdy, dependable, if slightly
neurotic depiction of "normal" (bland?)
Midwesterners vs. the rest of the world

The A2 audience reaction: Everyone loved him.

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In other news...
I learned a new word from Matt the other day:

Pithy.

To which I would counter with another adjective:

Eleemosynary.

(my dear watson)

Here is a poem I sent to my Dad today. It is from Rilke's
Sonnets to Orpheus:

10 -

The machine threatens all we have gained, so long as it dare
become the tyrant of spirit, rather than its servant.
Rather than let us linger to savor a master's deft care,
it rigidly cuts the stone for structures ever more adamant.

Omnipresent, there is nowhere we might escape, just once,
as, self-lubricating, it rules itself within its silent factory.
It is life itself --convinced of its own omniscience;
with equal resolve able to order, build or destroy.

But for us, existence is still enchanted; in any number
of places, it is still the origin. A playing
of pure forces untouched except by one who kneels in wonder.

Words still serenely approach the unsayable. . .
And music, ever new, out of the most trembling
stones, builds her home in those regions least usable.

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Notes from Michael Palmer Reading at the UM Business School

(Introduction by Keith Taylor & Linda Gregerson)

He reads from The Lion Bridge

calm, nice tenor.

The curious, mutinous venture in Iraq

12,000+ human beings have been slaughtered.

He reads poem written for Vietnam War.

(voice somewhat hesitant, why I wonder, and then oh
inexpressable sadness I have never known
but is that true)

"Song of the Round Man" is an example of poem
that borrows from children's literature.

Just back from Beloit, Wisconsin Poetry Festival

I have left my head in a Japanese box and cannot see.

We will puff cigars from noon till night as if we were alive.

My eyes have grown hollow like yours.

Orpheus, Euridice, Hermes:
a poem inspired by them.
(O Rilke! There you are)

"Take nothing as yours."

Austere, somewhat, and complex
laments--

See The Anthology of Brazilian Poetry.
See Sao Paulo.
and Mario Andratti, Brazilian poet.

"I do not know English":
Hypnotic, sensual, rapid--

"a naked violinist"

"Breath

it is

white...

not quite

white...

small paintings

all of these

each one the same."

--from The Company of Moths

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see W.G. Sebald.
see a poem about a Blackbird
(reminiscent of Wallace Stevens, The Beatles, and a children's song about a king and blackbird pie...)
the Blackbird is a Merle.

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"Have you not noticed how the notes fall through the air onto clouds?"

beautiful.

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"Stop playing the flaming fool--
How is that done?"

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"The lyric sings in the war machine."

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He integrates Spanish words into his poetry.
He reads a wooing poem. a seductive poem:

"Let's drop it all
and head up North
where at least
there's a breeze."

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"You cannot stop time, but you can smash all the clocks."

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I liked him very much and if he finds out that I've taken notes on him I hope he will email me. In return I will paint him one of Georgia's Red Poppies.