News

Kristin Kaye, a Portland State University graduate, is set to release the first book out of PSU's graduate writing program, Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World.

Hitting bookstore shelves on September 13, 2005, Iron Maidens is a behind-the-scenes look at a Broadway performance Kaye scripted and directed in 1992, featuring 25 of the world's strongest women. The book, which Kaye originally wrote as her thesis at PSU, alternates accounts of the show with an exposé on women's bodybuilding, including the use of steroids, a lucrative side business of women wrestling men for money and the judging controversy that threatens to split the sport in two.

"Iron Maidens is an excellent example of the quality work students in our still-young program are doing," say Michael McGregor, head of the graduate nonfiction program at PSU and Kaye's thesis advisor. "It's entertaining, revealing, timely and provocative. It's exciting to see a real book come out of the program and to think about the others I'm sure will be published in the years ahead."

Kaye received her Master's degree in nonfiction writing in 2004 and taught as an adjunct professor in PSU's University Studies department last year. In addition to Iron Maidens, she has written several plays, including What is Done is Done, which has been staged in New York and Chicago; award-winning adaptations of literature for CD-ROM; and original shows for Interactive TV. Kaye will give a reading at Powell's bookstore on September 14, accompanied by local bodybuilder Sheila Bleck, who will demonstrate bodybuilding poses.

Established in 1999 in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as part of PSU's new graduate writing program (which includes courses of study in fiction, poetry, publishing, and technical and professional writing), the nonfiction strand is highly competitive, accepting fewer than 10 students each year. The dozen students who have graduated from the program so far have gone on to teach writing at the University of Portland, PSU and Clark College; work as editors; and write for various publications, including Portland Monthly, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Bear Deluxe and The Oregonian. Deadline for applications to the program is February 1 each year.

Copies of Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World ($15.95, 236 pages, paperback) are available from Thunder's Mouth Press, as well as local and online booksellers (ISBN: 1-56025-704-0).

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Source:
Michael McGregor (503-725-9408 or mcgregor@pdx.edu)
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

For Immediate Release (#05-124)