On Extended Wings: Newsletter of the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at Spalding University.
       

Vol. 21 No. 2
April 2012

Revisions to MFA Student Handbook and Faculty Guidelines

Proposals for the 2013 AWP Conference and Bookfair

New MFA Faculty Books Webpage

Congratulations to Kentuckiana Metroversity Prize Winners

Spring Guests Lectures

Books, Bookmaking, and Visual Art

Novel Chapter Workshop

Celebration of Recently Published Books by Faculty

Homecoming 2012: Alums and Students to Exhibit at SPLoveFest

Homecoming 2012 Schedule

Special Alumni SPLove in Orlando

Summer Program Book-in-Common

Spring 2012 Residency Books-in-Common

Shop Til You Drop at cafepress.com/SpaldingMFA

Check Out the MFA Blog

Facebook Fanpage Now Posting Contest and Other Information

Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC)

Alumni Assoc

LIFE OF A WRITER

Students

Faculty and Staff

Alumni


Corrections

Personals

Reminders and Notes

Spalding MFA Home

Previous Newsletters

See other issues of On Extended Wings

 

 
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Revisions to the MFA Student Handbook and Faculty Guidelines
The MFA directors and staff have recently revised the MFA Student Handbook and Faculty Guidelines to reflect curriculum and policy changes beginning with the Spring 2012 semester. The most significant revisions to the MFA Student Handbook concern submission changes for the Creative Thesis and how student assignments will be affected as the program transitions its online presence from Blackboard to the MFA portal page and Moodle. Students should read the handbook to familiarize themselves with these changes. Faculty should read both the MFA Student Handbook and the revised Faculty Guidelines to learn of new policies.
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Proposals for the 2013 AWP Conference and Bookfair
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) will accept panel proposals online until May 1 for the 2013 conference, which is March 6-9 in Boston.

AWP seeks a wide range of unique, diverse, informative, and intelligent programming that helps it better serve its large and growing constituency. At the 2012 conference in Chicago, AWP hosted more than 10,000 attendees, 1,600 presenters, and 420 events. The proposal process is competitive. Visit http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2013proposal.php to find out more about the types of events eligible for submission, guidelines for listing participants, information about the selection and scoring process, sample panel proposals, and details about notification of submission results.
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New MFA Faculty Books Webpage
The MFA staff is pleased to announce the launch of a new webpage listing all MFA faculty books. See it at http://tinyurl.com/7mrzg5b.

The next project is to complete the alumni/student book webpage. The MFA staff has a long list of alumni and student book publications and play/movie production, but in order to be sure the staff has a complete list, email Karen Mann (kmann@spalding.edu) with the author's name, the title, and where applicable, the link to order the book or production. Attach a .jpg of the cover of the book (sized 100 pixels wide, if possible). Please include "book title for webpage" in the subject line.
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Congratulations to Kentuckiana Metroversity Prize Winners
The following MFA students placed in the Kentuckiana Metroveristy Writing Competition Contest: Jessica Caudill (fiction) won second place in graduate fiction with her story "The Motherly Epistles." Amy Miller (creative nonfiction) won second place in graduate academic writing with her essay "The Use of Conceit in 'Ghosts' by Marion Winik and 'Keeping Records' by Dianne Aprile."

Jessica and Amy read from their pieces at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 12, at the Schnitzelburg Heine Brothers, 822 Eastern Parkway, Louisville. Kentuckiana Metroversity, a consortium of seven higher education institutions in the Louisville Metro area, holds a writing competition each year.
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Spring 2012 Residency Guest Lectures
Holter Graham, “Murdering Beauty: How to Avoid Destroying Your Great Writing by Performing It Badly”
Professional actor Holter Graham visits the Spring 2012 residency to present the plenary lecture “Murdering Beauty: How to Avoid Destroying Your Great Writing by Performing It Badly” which offers writers “tools and tips” to help them best perform their own work. Holter is the President of AFTRA, the performers’ union, in New York. As an audiobook narrator, he has won numerous headphone awards, been multiply nominated for and won one Audie award, and has used his performance skills to make bad writing better and stay out of the way of good writing on a daily basis. In college his poetry professor said to him “I wish you were not such a good reader, because it would be easier to see how much work that poem still needs. Cut it out.” Graham has taken the advice to heart as both a writer and a performer and strives to use performance skills and tactics to improve work—or not degrade it—whenever possible.

Kate Gale, “From Private Writing to Public Writing, Pen to Printed Page”
Kate Gale, managing editor of Red Hen Press in Los Angeles, visits the Spring 2012 residency to present the plenary talk “From Private Writing to Public Writing, Pen to Printed Page,” which focuses on the published writer’s responsibility to participate in publicity, marketing, promotion, and networking. Kate Gale holds a PhD in English from Claremont Graduate University and along with her husband, Mark E. Cull, founded Red Hen Press in 1994. Kate is also the editor of the Los Angeles Review and the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Composers Forum. She was the 2005-2006 president of PEN USA and serves on the board of the A Room of Her Own Foundation. She has published several books of poetry, including Mating Season, which was published by Tupelo Press in 2004. She has also written the librettos to two operas. Rio de Sangre, with composer Don Davis, was showcased at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2005 and by the New York City Opera VOX in May 2007 and had its world premiere on October 22, 2010, with the Florentine Opera Company in Milwaukee. Paradises Lost, co-written with Ursula K. Le Guin with composer Stephen Taylor, was showcased at the New York City Opera VOX in 2006.

Max Burnett, The Why-Fors and What-Nots of “Beating Out” a TV Show for Kids
Writer’s Guild of America Award-winning executive producer and writer Max Burnett presents a screenwriting talk that explores the thrills and challenges of creating a TV show for kids. (Writing for Children and Young Adults students may be interested in attending this lecture as well.) Max will include an overview of the current kids’ TV market and then move into a deeper examination of character, structure, and formatting as it applies to kids’ TV.  Max Burnett has been writing, producing and directing family-friendly films and television programs for over fifteen years. Max began with his feature film, Possums, whichtoured several festivals including the Sundance and Seattle film festivals before Lion’s Gate Entertainment, who gave it theatrical and wide DVD releases, acquired it.

Books, Bookmaking, and Visual Art
In response to the interest in recent innovative projects by MFA faculty members who have collaborated with visual artists to create books that feature prose or poetry and art, the MFA Program presents a series of curriculum sessions that focus on art and writing and the history of bookmaking during the Spring 2012 residency in Louisville.

Huff Gallery: A Celebration of Art and the Written Word
During the spring residency (May 18-27), the Huff Gallery (located on campus in the Spalding library) will feature a show celebrating the collaborative efforts of visual artists and writers. Featured artists include engraver Gaylord Schanilec midnightpapersales.com; tinyurl.com/79onatk), who collaborated with Richard Goodman on The Bicycle Diaries: One New Yorker's Journey Through 9/11; print maker Mary Lou Hess, who collaborated with Dianne Aprile on The Eye Is Not Enough and with Maureen Morehead on A Sense of Time Left; graphic artist AJ Reinhart (ajreinhart.com), who collaborated with Kathleen Driskell on Peck and Pock: A Graphic Poem; and MFA alum Nana Lampton (P '06), who contributed her poetry and painting to the book A Snowy Owl. At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 22, MFAers attend a gallery show in the Huff Gallery and a reception in the adjacent Library Lecture Lounge. The reception features heavy appetizers.

Collaborations between Artists and Writers
The following morning at 9 a.m., a plenary panel of artists and writers features Gaylord Schanilec with Richard Goodman, Mary Lou Hess with Dianne Aprile and Maureen Morehead, and AJ Reinhart with Kathleen Driskell. Panelists discuss practical and creative concerns that developed while merging art and writing within one publication project.

All That's Fit to Print: A Seminar
From 2-4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 24, a session for MFA students presents Jennifer and Eric Woods, the bookmaking team behind Typecast Publishing. Jen and Eric present "All That's Fit to Print," a plenary seminar that explores the history of bookmaking and print arts from the earliest printing techniques through modern-day applications. This session also includes a concise but thorough lesson in how a designer/typesetter makes decisions on every aspect of bookmaking from what paper to choose, to what binding technique is best, to typography. The session ends with a demonstration on the letterpress and a hands-on lesson in booklet construction for all MFA students.
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Novel Chapter Workshop
The MFA Program offers a novel chapter workshop during the Spring 2012 residency in Louisville. This workshop includes up to 10 students and is co-led by two fiction faculty members. Students interested in participating in this workshop should clearly mark the first page of their submitted worksheets, indicating in the righthand corner that the Worksheet is indeed a chapter. They should also include a statement (one paragraph to one page) that discusses the scope of the novel. The worksheets are due with all other workshop submissions on April 6. Space for this workshop is limited. Should there be more students wishing to participate than the workshop can accommodate, students will be included on basis of their seniority in the program.

The novel chapter workshop is expected to be offered regularly (though not necessarily every semester) and fiction students may attend this type of workshop twice while in the program. In the future, the MFA Program may offer chapter workshops for creative nonfiction, as well.
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Celebration of Recently Published Books by Faculty, Spring 2012
Five MFA faculty members read from recently published and produced works at the Spring 2012 residency at 5 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at the Brown Hotel, 335 W. Broadway. Readers include

  • Nancy McCabe (nonfiction), Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge: A Journey to My Daughter's Birthplace in China
  • Silas House and Neela Vaswani (middle-grade novel), Same Sun Here
  • Richard Goodman (nonfiction), The Bicycle Diaries
  • Lesléa Newman (poetry), I Remember: Hachiko Speaks
  • Kathleen Driskell (poetry), Peck and Pock: A Graphic Poem
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Homecoming 2012: Alums and Students to Exhibit at SPLoveFest

MFA students and alums who have books, literary journals, or writing or visual art projects to share are invited to exhibit their work at the second annual SPLoveFest on Friday, May 25, at the Brown Hotel. Exhibitors get a table to display their work, which might also include business endeavors such as literary services, websites, or blogs.

To reserve a table at SPLoveFest, send an email to splovefest@gmail.com. Exhibit space is available at no charge. Reservations are first-come, first-served.

True to its name, SPLoveFest is intended to be a joyous celebration of the Spalding MFA community and its support and encouragement of students' and alums' literary and other creative endeavors.

SPLoveFest immediately follows the Alumni Celebration of Recently Published Books. Any MFAer attending the Celebration while wearing Spalding MFA logo apparel or carrying Spalding MFA logo gear will receive a ticket for a free drink from the bar during SPLoveFest.

Alums who wish to reserve hotel rooms at the Brown call 502-583-1234 and request the Spalding Friends & Family rate. Alums are encouraged to reserve soon, as the hotel is expected to fill up on Homecoming weekend. For the full Homecoming schedule, see below. (top)

Homecoming 2012 Schedule

Thursday, May 24
4:50-5:30p.m.Panel on Care and Tending of Books. Panelists: Kelly Creagh (W4C '08), Marjetta Geerling (W4C '11), Edie Hemingway (W4C '04), Cory Jackson (W4C), Roland Mann (W4C '11), Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (W4C '03) (University Center Building Auditorium)
6:15 p.m. Featured Author Presentation by The Diana M. Raab Distinguished Writer in Residence: Jacqueline Woodson, author of Hush (University Center Building Auditorium)


Friday, May 25
9:00-9:45a.m.Private Q&A session with Jacqueline Woodson open to all MFAers (ELC Lectorium)
12:45-1:45p.m.Faculty Presentation for alumni and Spring 2012 graduates only (ELC Lectorium)
2:15-3:00p.m. Publishing session with Kate Gale of Red Hen Press (ELC Lectorium)
3:15-4:00p.m. A smorgasbord of MFA faculty lectures (various locations)
4:30-5:45p.m. Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni. All students, alumni, and faculty welcome. Book signing to follow. Books provided by Carmichael's Bookstore. Cash bar and SPLoveFest after the event. (Brown Hotel, 1st floor, Citation)
  • Pamela Steele (Spring 2004), Greasewood Creek: A Novel
  • Jill Kelly Koren (Spring 2008), While the Water Rises Around Us: Poems
  • Albert DeGenova (Spring 2005), Postcards to Jack (poetry chapbook)
  • Chris Helvey (Fall 2006), On The Boulevard (poetry chapbook)
  • Julia Schuster (Spring 2007), The Ingredients of Gumbo: Stories, Poems, Sassy Opinions and Sketches
  • Adriena Dame (Fall 2007), The MOO: Stories and a Novella
  • Daniel DiStasio (Fall 2005), Facing the Furies: A Novel
  • Matt Ryan (Fall 2006), Read This or You're Dead to Me: Prose Poems, Flash Fictions, Words
  • Jonathan Weinert (Fall 2005), Until Everything is Continuous Again: American Poets on the Recent Work of W.S. Merwin
6:00-7:00p.m.SPLoveFest. Alumni and students display their books, journals, and anthologies and/or bring promotional material regarding any artistic endeavor such as plays, movies, podcasts, literary services, blogs, websites, and more. Cash bar. MFAers who attend the Celebration wearing MFA logo apparel or carrying MFA logo gear receive a free drink ticket for use at the bar during SPLoveFest. See cafepress.com/SpaldingMFA for a selection of MFA wear and gear. (Brown Hotel, 1st floor, Secretariat)
10pm-?Alumni After-Party Literary Reading hosted by Teneice Delgado (Fall 2006) Theatre Square Marketplace, 651 S. 4th Street (just down from The Brown).

Saturday, May 26
9:15-10:15a.m.Breakfast Mixer for alumni, new graduates, faculty and staff (Mansion Drawing Room). No charge to registered alumni, compliments of the MFA Program.
10:30a.m.-?Vickie Weaver to work with alumni on agent pitches (by appointment only)
12:30p.m.First Alumni Un-Conference (Third Street Building)
6:00p.m.Graduation (Brown Hotel, 16th floor Gallery)
After graduation reception (Brown Hotel, 1st floor, Citation)
7:45p.m.Farewell Dinner (Brown Hotel, 1st floor, Secretariat). Tickets for alums and guest are $55. To reserve your ticket, contact Katy Yocom at kyocom@spalding.edu.
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Special Alumni SPLove in Orlando
Spalding MFA alumni and students from across Florida gathered on March 10 at Urban Re-Think in Orlando for the first Spalding MFA Regional Alumni Event, thanks to Marjetta Geerling's (W4C '10) organizing efforts! Twenty-two attendees gathered to hear special guest MFA fiction faculty member Phil Deaver read from his work and give a brief craft lecture. Afterwards, the group (along with Kathleen Driskell who traveled from Louisville to attend this event) heard readings from MFA alumni Darlyn Finch (CNF '09), Cole Bellamy (P '09), Amy Watkins (P '06), and Roland Mann (W4C '11). Other MFA alumni and students in attendance were Renee Anduze (F), Vanessa Gonzales (F), Diane (Himes) Sweeney (F '07), Sandi Adams Hutcheson (CNF), and Issac Stolzenbach (CNF). Alumni, students, faculty, and their guests "schmoozed" afterwards, catching up on one another's most recent literary news.

Terry Price, president of the Spalding MFA Alumni Association, and Marjetta would be happy to help any Spalding MFA alum plan a similar event in your region. Those interested can contact the Spalding MFA Alumni Association at terry@terryprice.net.
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Summer Program Book in Common
The Program Book in Common for the Summer 2012 residency in Paris is the creative nonfiction book The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough. Students may purchase the hardcover book or purchase the text in e-reader form. Everyone attending the Paris residency reads this book, regardless of the student's area of concentration. All students should prepare oral comments for the plenary Program Book in Common (PBIC) discussion which takes place early in the Paris residency. Students should place The Greater Journey on their reading lists and Cumulative Bibliography.

Students who are entering ENG620 in the Summer 2012 semester and attending the Paris residency should have received an email from the directors detailing the Book in Common essay instructions. If rising ENG620 Summer 2012 students have not received that email, they should contact Kathleen Driskell for that information. kdriskell@spalding.edu.

Summer students who attend the residency abroad also are required to read a Genre Book in Common and a Faculty Book in Common in the student's area. These titles for the Summer 2012 residency in Paris will be announced no later than May 1.
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Spring 2012 Residency Books in Common

In addition to the Program Book in Common, Jacqueline Woodson’s Hush, students also read a Faculty Book/Script in Common in their area of concentration. The Faculty Books/Scripts in Common are:

  • Fiction: K.L. Cook, Love Songs for the Quarantined
  • Poetry: Kathleen Driskell, Seed Across Snow
  • Creative Nonfiction: Roy Hoffman, Alabama Afternoons: Profiles and Conversations
  • Writing for Children and Young Adults: Ellie Bryant, The Black Bonnet
  • Screenwriting: Sam Zalutsky, Stefan's Silver Bell (posted on the MFA portal page)
  • Playwriting:Kira Obolensky, Raskol (posted on the MFA portal page)
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Shop Til You Drop at cafepress.com/SpaldingMFA
Check out the MFA wear and gear at long- and short-sleeved shirts in men's, women's and maternity styles. MFA gear includes a variety of sleeves, covers, skins, bags, sigg bottles, mugs, glasses, journals, and aprons. Besides the regular MFA logo, MFAers can choose the summer logo or the colorful MFA birthday logo. For pictures of items, see here. To order and see a full selection, go to http://www.cafepress.com/SpaldingMFA.

MFAers who attend the Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni or SPLoveFest on Friday, May 26, wearing MFA logo apparel or carrying MFA logo gear receive a free drink ticket for use at the bar during SPLoveFest.
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Check Out the MFA Blog
MFA faculty and alumni are now blogging at blog.spalding.edu/mfainwriting. New posts are added weekly. The comment feature is now available.
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Facebook Fanpage Now Posting Contest and Other Information
The MFA Program has begun posting announcements regarding contests, calls for submissions, and grants on the MFA Facebook Fanpage. If you have not already joined, please join the fanpage at http://www.facebook.com/spaldingmfa to access this information.

MFAers are invited to share their writerly news on the MFA fanpage. Send news about readings, blog entries, pictures, or other items of interest to mfafacebook@spalding.edu.
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Faculty Advisory Committee(FAC) for Fall Semester 2011
FAC members are announced by the MFA Office at the beginning of each semester. The Program Directors consult with the FAC about recommendations for admissions and about programmatic and administrative development and changes. Both faculty and students are invited to make suggestions to the FAC for exploration by the Program Director and larger faculty. However, students and faculty should directly and immediately consult the Associate Program Director about any issues concerning specific individuals' performance in the program.

  • Kirby Gann, fiction
  • Debra Kang Dean, poetry
  • Dianne Aprile, creative nonfiction
  • Joyce McDonald, writing for children and young adults
  • Helena Kriel, playwriting/screenwriting
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MFA Alumni Association
The website for the MFA Alumni Association is http://www.spaldingmfaalum.com. If you have questions or are interested in working with this group, send Terry Price an email at terry@terryprice.net. Check out the Spalding MFA Alumni Facebook page.
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Life of a Writer

Students

Jerriod Avant (P) has been invited to join Callaloo (Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters) for its workshop at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, June 3-16. At the workshop, Jerriod is set to participate in group workshop and discussions, individual conference/instruction, and a reading on the closing evening. The two-week workshop accommodates two ten-member groups for poetry and two six-member groups for fiction. Applications are open to the general public. Include a cover letter and writing sample. http://callaloo.tamu.edu/node/195.
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Jessica Caudill (CNF) placed second in the Kentuckiana Metroversity 2012 Writing Competition for her short fiction piece, “The Motherly Epistles.” Jessica read a sample of her winning piece at Heine Brothers in Louisville on March 24.
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Emmy-nominated TV writer Susan-Sojourna Collier (SW) hosted the panel discussion “The Evolution of the Black Woman’s Voices from the ’60’s to the Present” at National Black Theatre in New York on March 22. Panel guests include Micki Grant, writer/producer of five Broadway plays, including Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope and Your Arms Are Too Short To Box With God; Grammy-award winner and Tony-award nominee Radha Blank, recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Nickelodeon’s Writers Fellowship, The Public Theatre’s Emerging Writers Group Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Award. Plays include American Schemes, SEED, HappyFlowerNail, nny & Casket Sharp, Accept/Except, and Under the Rug.

Susan’s new short film, Yubelis’ Pink Bandana, screens at Good Shepherds Teen Summit on March 30 in New York. The short film is about the south Bronx teen Yubelis and her initiation into the all-girl street gang.

On February 20, the featured documentary that Susan wrote and produced, Charge It to the Game: The Effects of Gun Violence in Brooklyn, screened at the New York Downtown Film Festival at the Duo Theatre in the East Village. The film was an official selection of the festival as well as of the New York Metropolitan Film Festival. Susan was commissioned by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office to produce the gritty, dramatic documentary. After opening with the stunning statistic that approximately every two days a life is claimed by gun violence in Brooklyn, the film offers an insider’s look at the consequences of gun violence from an array of viewpoints. Dispersed throughout the film are penetrating questions that cut to the heart of the issue and engage the viewers in critical analysis of themselves and their communities: “What causes gun violence?” And most pointedly, “What’s your decision?”
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Michael Jackman (P) has two forthcoming publications, “My Orthodox Bar Mitzvah” in the March 2012 issue of Poetica, and “Ice-Bound Sister” in issue #2 of The New Sound: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Art and Literature.
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Nancy Long (P), recovering from the whirlwind of the Associated Writers & Writing Programs conference in Chicago, is delighted that the poem “Backyard Buffet” is set to be published in the inaugural issue of The New Sound Journal and the poem “On the lake, under the fog, with blue skies” will be published in the next issue of Roanoke Review. Also, she received joyful news in late December that her poem “A Fine Meal” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and that the poem “Hold On Lightly” was nominated for the AWP Intro Journals Award.
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Amy M. Miller (CNF) received second place in the Metroversity Writing Contest in the category of Graduate Academic Writing for her critical essay “The Use of Conceit in ‘Ghosts’ by Marion Winik and ‘Keeping Records’ by Dianne Aprile.” In addition to this award, Amy, who just completed her second semester in the Spalding MFA program, published her essay “Chipattis” in the January issue of online journal Under the Gum Tree (http://underthegumtree.com).
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Rosanna Staffa (PW) announces that in the 2012-2013 season the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis is re-mounting its production of “The Biggest Little House in the Forest,” which she adapted from the book by Djemma Bider. The play is included in the Plays for Early Learning Anthology published by the University of Minnesota Press.
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Patsi B. Trollinger (W4C) is the author of a middle-grade novel, Thrill in the ’Ville, scheduled for a March 26 release by Benjamin Press. The book is set in a fictional Kentucky town during a presidential election year, and the main character, a sports-minded sixth-grader named Doug, offers humorous and sometimes unflattering commentary on political campaigns. Advance orders can be placed with the publisher or Amazon, and bookstores carry Thrill in the ’Ville by late March. Trollinger also is the author of a picture-book biography, Perfect Timing (Viking, 2006), honored as a Junior Library Guild selection. Find out more at http://www.patsibtrollinger.com.
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Faculty and Staff

Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s picture book, Naamah and the Ark at Night, has been named the following: a Charlotte Zolotow honor by the Cooperative Children’s Book Council; a Sydney Taylor honor by the Jewish Library Association; a Notable Children’s Book by the Association for Library Service to Children; a Horn Book Fanfare; a Kirkus Best Children’s Book, and a Booklist Top Ten Religious Book for Children.

In March she traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, to receive the Zolotow Honor award, and she’ll accept the Sydney Taylor honor in Los Angeles in June. She’ll participate on a nonfiction panel with author Marc Aronson and librarians Jonathon Hunt and Nina Lindsay at American Library Association in June. Recently, she returned from South Carolina, where her novel, The Boy Who Dared, was selected as a community read.

Somehow over the past few months, she has managed to compete a historical fiction novel, tentatively titled The Diary of Pringle Rose, for the Dear America series, to be published by Scholastic in the fall. She is happily at work, rewriting another novel and beginning research on a new nonfiction project.
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Ellie Bryant attended a workshop in February on “Metaphors and Mindfulness” at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Massachusetts. The workshop, led by Dr. Arnold Kozak, integrated meditation sessions with discussion of how the mind constructs metaphors and why it is impossible to think, feel or act without the use of metaphors.
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In her role as chair, Kathleen Driskell led the Low-Residency MFA Directors’ Caucus meeting on March 2 at the AWP conference in Chicago. She read with Maureen Morehead at the main branch of the Louisville Public Library on March 14. On Saturday, March 31, she presented with other women artists during the 5th annual SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day celebration at Pyro Art Gallery on Main Street in Louisville. Her blog entry “Why I Teach Poetry” was featured April 4 at http://creativecommonwealth.ky.gov, the blog of the Kentucky Arts Council. The Kentucky Arts Council will also reprint her poem “Why I Mother You the Way I Do” in celebration of Kentucky Writer’s Day, April 24. On April 19, Kathleen will be featured at a poetry reading  at the Hardin County Public Library in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  On April 26 at 7 pm, she joins Katerina Stoykova-Klemer and other writers who have been featured on the Accents radio program in a reading which also celebrates the launch of the newly renovated theater of the Central Public Library in Lexington. Her poems “In the Oak Room” and “Church of the Absent Mother” have been published in the latest edition of Poems and Plays. She has work forthcoming in the summer issue of Rattle. Her publication Peck and Pock: A Graphic Poem is due out in April.
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Creative nonfiction faculty member Robert Finch announces that a newly commissioned choral work, “North Beach Journal,” with music by Boston composer William Cutter and text by Bob, will be given its world premiere by the Chatham Chorale (with whom Bob has sung for 30 years) on May 19 and 20 at the Chatham High School in honor of Chatham’s 300th birthday.
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Kirby Gann’s new novel, Ghosting, publishes April 10. Recently it scored a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which called the book “Violent, bloody, and darkly beautiful . . . a fascinating novel depicting the seedy bottom of an America in decline.” So far events are scheduled in Louisville, Lexington, Nashville, Denver, San Francisco, Portland (Oregon), San Diego, New York, and Boston. For event dates and other information, please visit the website http://www.kirbygann.net.
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Nancy McCabe has been busy promoting her new book, Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge: A Journey to My Daughter’s Birthplace in China, which has most recently been reviewed in Adoption Today and at Yahoo.com. Her piece “Threads,” which is the book’s prologue and which appeared in the fall issue of Prairie Schooner, has also received favorable reviews at Newpages.com (http://www.newpages.com) and The Review Review (http://www.thereviewreview.net).

An interview with her appeared on the University of Missouri Press blog, and she wrote a guest blog for adoption.com (http://international.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/school-musicals-and-homeland-visits). She has done radio interviews with stations in Bradford, Pennsylvania; Ocala, Florida; Detroit/Port Huron, Michigan; Knoxville, Tennessee; Washington, D.C.; Milwaukee; Poughkeepsie, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and a nationally syndicated show, Daybreak USA, among others. The book was also the subject of a documentary titled My Native Home, which aired on “What’s It to Ya?,” a nationally syndicated show at Cybernation USA (https://www.cyberstationlive.com/WhatsItToYa).

In February, she did a workshop on memoir at the Olean Public Library in Olean, New York, and judged a creative nonfiction contest for Coastlines, a magazine from Florida Atlantic University. She has been chosen as the speaker for the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford honors convocation in April.
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Lesléa Newman is pleased to announce that her children’s book, Donovan’s Big Day, has been named a top ten title for the 2012 Rainbow List, which is part of the Rainbow Project, a joint task force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table and the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Queer Round Table of the American Library Association (http://glbtrt.ala.org/rainbowbooks/archives/953).

She is also thrilled to report that “A Letter to Harvey Milk,” a new musical based on her short story of the same title, has been selected as a New York Musical Festival Link Project (out of 400 entries, 10 shows were chosen). The show will have six full productions in a mid-town Manhattan theater during July. For more information, go to http://www.nymf.org/Story-615.html. The musical was also a finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre.

Lesléa’s poetry chapbook, I Remember: Hachiko Speaks, which consists of poems all written in form from a dog’s perspective, was published by Finishing Line Press in January 2012 and received a lovely review from Say Hello Spot. Read it at http://sayhellospot.com/say-hello-spot-book-pick-i-remember-hachiko-speaks. And lastly, Lesléa’s newest picture book, A Sweet Passover (Abrams), launched on March 1. An essay about the inspiration of the book can be found on the Children’s Literature Network website (http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/magazine/just-launched/tag/leslea-newman).
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Molly Peacock participated in the Taylor Mali’s “Page Meets Stage” extravaganza at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference in Chicago, with a thousand people in attendance for her reading with Mark Doty, Marilyn Nelson, and Roger Bonair.
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In February, Neela Vaswani read on the “Off the Beaten Path” panel at the Asian American Writer’s Workshop in New York City (with Alica Albinia and Sabina Murray). Neela was the Caxton Reader at Knox College and a diversity panelist at the Dalton School, New York City (with Christopher Meyers and Rita Williams-Garcia).  Her middle-grade novel, Same Sun Here (co-written with Silas House), had its New York City book launch at Gallery MC, featuring debut compositions by Milica Paranosic and members of Composers Concordance and a film by Carmen Kordas.

In March, Neela was the featured author on KDVS at University of California, Davis. She spoke at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City on March 8 as part of the “After 1989: Race After Multiculturalism” series. On March 14, she read at Morehead University, in Morehead, Kentucky, and on March 28, she reads at SUNY Oswego in New York.

Also, she is serving as a judge for the Open City fellowship.
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Alumni

Larry Brenner (PW ’10) announces that his screenplay, Bethlehem, was on the 2011 Black List, Hit List, and Blood List. In Fall 2011, he was hired to write the screenplay of Angelology for Sony/Columbia Pictures, Overbrook Productions, and Apparatus Productions.
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David Carren (SW ’05) announces that his essay, “Big Ideas in a Small World: Trapped by Alfred Hitchcock,” has been published in the January issue of Cinesource, a Northern California film journal.
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Veronica Castro (F ’10) announces that her short story “Lucy” was a finalist in the annual Alligator Juniper writing competition. “Lucy” publishes in the Spring 2012 edition of Alligator Juniper, published by Prescott College.
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Linda Cruise (F ’08) began teaching a college-level, six-week course, “Creative Writing: Developing a Writer’s Craft & Critical Eye,” at her local adult-continuing education program, called Access to CVU, offered at the Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, Vermont. This course helps the writer develop a more critical eye while reading literature as a means to gaining insight about specific craft techniques. This course is designed to accommodate a student’s desire to experiment in fiction and/or creative nonfiction genres (because information gained from lectures, reading material, and discussions apply to both). Ideally, the student comes away more knowledgeable and passionate about literary writing, with greater willingness to take risks in his/her own writing.
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Dave DeGolyer (W4C, P ’06) and Cathy Shap (P ’09) have launched a new business called The Best Me that provides coaching, mentoring, and editing services, as well as workshops and retreats that focus on creativity and health.
They offer special programs for writers, for artists & entrepreneurs, and for people in transition. This summer they begin offering retreats that incorporate writing, yoga, holistic health, and wellness. The retreats offer a unique combination of guided daily workshops, time on your own for exploration or reflection, and some pretty remarkable settings to make the experience beneficial, as well as something to remember.

The June retreat is set in “America’s Coolest Small Town” (just voted so in Budget Travel magazine) and includes overnight accommodations at Historic Black Sheep Inn (http://www.stayblacksheepinn.com), located in Finger Lakes Wine Country (just minutes from world-class wineries and museums) near Hammondsport, New York.

The August retreat will take place in Historic New Harmony and includes overnight accommodations at the New Harmony Inn (http://www.newharmonyinn.com). For the August retreat, Dave and Cathy will have the pleasure of facilitating with fellow Spalding alum Terry Price (F ’06).

If you’re looking for some quiet time to work on your creative projects and want to experience workshops exploring new ways to engage your mind by engaging your body or you’re looking for a creative approach to a life in transition, then check out Dave and Cathy’s website http://www.creativeandhealthy.com or email them at thebestme@creativeandhealthy.com.
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Stacia M. Fleegal’s (P ’06) poem “Post-Apocalyptic,” originally published in and nominated by the editors of decomP, was selected by Mary Biddinger for inclusion in Best of the Net 2011, an anthology of  writing published online last year (http://www.sundresspublications.com/bestof/poetry.htm).

She has also been selected as Western Kentucky University’s 2012 Goldenrod Visiting Poet and travels to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to lead a poetry workshop, participate in an awards ceremony for the annual Goldenrod undergraduate poetry contest, and give a public reading at 7 p.m. April 9.

Lastly, she has a poem and a review forthcoming in Poetry City, U.S.A, vol. II, an anthology of poems presented at the Second Annual Great Twin Cities Poetry Read last April.
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Thea Gavin (P ’05) served as final judge of submissions to the annual creative writing journal King Author, which features the work of students of Lutheran High School of Orange County in Orange, California. She has poems forthcoming in two themed anthologies: a collection of poetry about the Grand Canyon, and a collection of humorous writing about the American West.

At a recent monthly meeting of the Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS), she presented poems and images from her time as artist-in-residence at Grand Canyon National Park. For the CNPS triennial state conference in January, she served as coordinator of the poetry night; Santa Barbara poet laureate Paul Willis was the featured reader, followed by an open mike for CNPS members.
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Karen George (F ’09) had a poem, “Posing,” published in Issue 15 of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, and another poem, “Crossing With You,” has been accepted for Issue 10 of Memoir (and).

In February, she was invited to read along with Richard Taylor, Pauletta Hansel, and Richard Hague at the 2012 Annual Caden Blincoe Outloud Festival at Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. She has been chosen for the 2012 Wildacres Residency program, one week in October at Owl’s Nest Cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
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Colleen S. Harris (P ’09) has received notification that three of the sonnets from her collection-in-progress, Some Assembly Required, have been accepted for publication in the anthology “Sonnets in the New Millennium.” Colleen has also been invited to be the poetry guest editor for issue XVI of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review.

Her co-edited collection, Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching, which boasts a foreword by faculty member Molly Peacock and chapters by Spalding MFA alum Rosemary Royston (P ’09) was published in January 2012 by McFarland. Colleen has been offered the opportunity to teach an upper-level undergraduate seminar in creative nonfiction at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Fall 2012 and was asked by the women’s studies department to design an upper-level literature course titled “Modern Women Poets and Mythology” after the success of her freshman seminar of the same title in Fall 2011. That new class is likely to be offered by the university and cross-listed between the women’s studies and classics departments in Spring 2013.
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Chris Helvey (F ’06) was award honorable mention by the 2011 New Millennium Writings Fiction Contest for his short story “Work Gloves.”
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Marci Rae Johnson (P ’05) has several poems published in an upcoming issue of Avatar Review. Her poem “Parallel” appears in the upcoming 32 Poems magazine anthology (Summer 2012). Marci works as poetry editor for WordFarm press, whose latest book, titled Until Everything is Continuous Again: American Poets on the Recent Work of W.S. Merwin, includes essays by Spalding professors Debra Kang Dean and Jeanie Thompson, and is co-edited by Spalding grad Jonathan Weinert (poetry, Fall ’05).
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Christopher Klim (F ’10) moderated a panel at the Associated Writers & Writing Programs conference in Chicago on “Robert Gover: A Life of Radical Realism.” Panel members included Gover, Thomas Kennedy, Duff Brenna, and Matt Ryan. Here is the description from the AWP program: “In the early 1960s, Robert Gover’s first novel, the best-selling satire One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding, changed the literary world by introducing caricatures of white and black stereotypes, helping to crash barriers and launch race relations into the public discourse. Gover’s work has continued to lambaste public perceptions up until present day. The panel will discuss Gover’s groundbreaking career as a writer and mentor; the author will give selected readings.”
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JoAnn LoVerde-Dropp (P ’10) has been hired by National American University as an online faculty instructor. She has four poems forthcoming in the Summer 2012 issue of Gargoyle Magazine. Dr. Bruce Gillett credited her as a mentor in his newly released book of poems, “Quarter-Peeled Oranges.”
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Joan Gumbs (F ’09) facilitates a Writers’ Retreat in Montego Bay, Jamaica, from August 5-12. The seven-day retreat allows emerging and established writers to work with a visiting guest artist to create new story ideas, finish first drafts, and polish existing manuscripts. Visiting guest artists include Spalding faculty member Crystal Wilkinson and alum Bonnie Omer Johnson (F ’04). Students, faculty and alums can contact retreat coordinator Amina McIntyre (PW ’09), for additional information or to sign up. The website is also available at http://jovialspirit.com/registration/ for registration.
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Edie Hemingway (W4C ’04) has been invited to speak at the Beulah Campbell Children’s Literature Conference at Campbellsville University, Campbellsville, Kentucky on April 21. She also has accepted a position as an adjunct instructor in the Writing for Children and Young Adults graduate certificate program through McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland, beginning in June 2012 with an eight-week writing workshop.
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Stephanie C. Horton (F ’06) produced the 2011 documentary film “No More Selections! We Want Elections!” on the historic 2005 Liberian election that brought Africa’s first woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to power. The film screened in February at the 2012 Africa World Documentary Film Festival, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and is slated to screen in March at Cornell University, Harvard University and the 2012 New African Films Festival at AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland.
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Cyn Kitchen’s (F ’05) short story, “A Man on One Knee is Considered Down,” appears in the Fall 2011 issue of Midwestern Gothic (http://www.midwestgothic.com). An interview with Cyn appears in the Midwestern Gothic website’s Contributor Spotlight. The Winter ’12 issue of Still Journal (http://www.stilljournal.net) is home to Cyn’s brief essay, “Long Lost.”

In February, Cyn hosted Neela Vaswani as a guest of Knox College’s Caxton Club Reading Series. In addition to reading from her books, You Have Given Me a Country and Same Sun Here, Neela participated in a Q&A with Cyn’s beginning and workshop-level creative nonfiction writing classes.
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Jill Kelly Koren (P ’08) has a poem, “In Search of Durable Sleep,” featured on Indiana’s poem-a-day project website in April. The poem is from her chapbook, While the Water Rises Around Us, which was released in January from Finishing Line Press. Jill also attended the AWP conference in Chicago in March.
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Kelly Martineau (CNF ’10) announces that her essay “Bounty and Burden” has won the Teresa A. White Literary Award and publishes in the upcoming issue of Quiddity. Her essay “Turbulence” is forthcoming in the April 2012 issue of Barely South Review, which will be available at http://barelysouthreview.digitalodu.com.
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Deborah Zarka Miller (W4C ’05) spoke at the Anderson Belles Lettres meeting February 13, offering a brief talk on her young adult novel, A Star for Robbins Chapel. In May, she will deliver a similar program at a local Professional Educators Organization meeting. Her article, “Letting Students Feel the Injustice of Plagiarism,” appears in the Faculty Focus Newsletter in March, an online publication for teachers in higher education. Find it at http://www.facultyfocus.com.
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Loreen Niewenhuis (F ’07) begins her 1,000-mile hike along the shores of all five Great Lakes in April. The book about her first hike, A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach, was a Heartland Indie Bestseller in 2011 and her publisher, Crickhollow Books, plans to publish the book about this year’s hike. Follow her adventure on her blog at http://LakeTrek.blogspot.com or her Facebook fan page http://facebook.com/LakeTrek.
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Deanna Northrup’s (F ’06) poem “Assault” appears in issue #6 of Handful of Dust magazine, online beginning in February 2012.Find it at http://hofd.wordpress.com.
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Linda Busby Parker (F ’03) is the new editor of Views & News, a 40-page magazine of book reviews, author interviews, and articles about books, writers, writing groups, book clubs, and readers. Views & News comes out quarterly and is distributed in the Sunday edition of the Mobile Press Register (Eastern Shore). Circulation is approximately 85,000. Views & News is a joint venture of Page & Palette Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama, and the Mobile Press Register. With bookstores closing all over the country, Views & News demonstrates the vitality of independent bookstores and the passion of avid readers. Linda reports that it’s fun to see the names of Spalding alums and faculty in the books she reviews— for example, Same Sun Here, the young adult book by Silas House and Neela Vaswani, appears in the spring issue, which comes out April 1.

Linda continues to write and teach. She teaches creative writing at the University of South Alabama (Eastern Shore) and mentors students in The Writer’s Loft at Middle Tennessee State University. Linda was the January speaker for the Friends of the Library—Mobile Public Library (she discussed writing her novel Seven Laurels) and was the January speaker for the Pensters (she discussed incorporating young adult literature into creative writing courses).

She attends a writing conference in New York this month.
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Joe Peacock (F ’08) read his poem “The Dying” in Lexington for the premiere of Katerina Stoykova-Klemer’s Bigger Than They Appear: Anthology of Very Short Poems. More recently, “Raking Miss Hannah’s Leaves,” a short story, has been accepted for the upcoming publication of 94 Creations. Joe is working on a poetry chapbook that he will be submitting to several contests.
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Mary Popham (F ’03) will be a judge for the Janet Irwin Award for Creativity in Peacemaking, sponsored by Louisville’s Interfaith Paths to Peace. She continues to write book reviews for Louisville’s Courier-Journal and does freelance editing of memoir and fiction.
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Terry Price (F ’06) is now writing, coaching, and mentoring writers and creatives and is leading retreats that focus on finding your true north, in your life and in your art.

The Magic Time Writing Retreat is scheduled April 19-22 at the Penuel Ridge Retreat Center in Ashland City, Tennessee, and features author and Spalding MFA student Carolyn Flynn (F). The WriterSpace retreat is a mentored, contemplative retreat designed to help you unplug from the world and reconnect with your muse, yourself and find the story you were destined to tell.
Terry facilitates a retreat for writers with Spalding graduates Dave DeGolyer (W4C, P ’06) and Cathy Shap (P ’06) at the New Harmony Inn in New Harmony, Indiana, in August.

If you need help in finding your story and getting it onto the page, learn more about Terry’s work and retreats at www.terryprice.net, send him an email at terry@terryprice.net or connect on Facebook at TerryPriceStoryteller or Twitters @jterryprice.
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Diana M. Raab’s (CNF ’03) received a ‘recommended’ review from Library Journal for her book Writers on the Edge: 22 Writers Speak on Addiction and Dependency. To launch the book she had a reading/signing at Book Soup in Los Angeles and Tecolote Book Shop in Montecito, California. She participated in an event called, “Meet the Authors” at Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena, where she spoke about Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal, a book which was the basis for her thesis at Spalding. In February she gave a teleseminar entitled, “Journaling As a Springboard for a Writer’s Life” for the International Association of Journal Writers (https://www.iajw.org/members/login.cfm?hpage=Telechats.cfm). She had two contributions in a recently released anthology called, Women and Poetry (McFarland), in which Molly Peacock wrote the Preface. The essays were called, “Nourishing Your Muse” and “Self-Promotion and Marketing.” Her poem, “Truth Serum,” was published in New Mirage.
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Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (W4 ’03) has signed with Macmillan to write (as S.A. Bodeen) the sequel to her first young-adult novel, The Compound, which won the 2011 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award and was a finalist for more than 15 other state reading awards, including the 2011-12 Connecticut Nutmeg Award. Her second young-adult novel, The Gardener, is a finalist for 2013 state reader awards in Arkansas and Missouri, and her third young-adult novel, The Raft, releases in August.

Her picture book A Small Brown Dog with a Wet Pink Nose was a finalist for the 2011 Oregon Book Award and 2011 Utah Beehive Award, and won the 2011 Peace Corps Writer Award. In the past year, Stephanie visited schools in China, Brazil, Texas, Florida, Kansas, Connecticut, Washington, and Oregon, where she did presentations and/or conducted writing workshops for nearly five thousand K-12 students.
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Kathleen Thompson(P ’03) published an essay, “Alabama’s Man of Letters: Remembering Hudson Strode (October 31, 1892–September 22, 1976)” in the Mobile Press-Register on December 25, 2011. As a contributing writer to weld, a new Birmingham weekly in hard copy and online (http://www.weldbham.com), she has had seven essays/articles published since August 2011. The one for March 1-8 was “The Romantic Rotarian, or How to Milk Your Audience When Poems Are All You’ve Got.” Glenny Brock (CNF ’07) is the founding editor.
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Vickie Weaver (F ’05) read her short story, “Another Easter Birthday,” at the Louisville Conference of Literature and Culture in February.
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Jonathan Weinert (P ’05) wishes to thank the many members of the Spalding MFA community who attended the launch party for his new book, Until Everything Is Continuous Again: American Poets on the Recent Work of W.S. Merwin, at the Associated Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Chicago on March 3. Poetry faculty member and contributor Jeanie Thompson emceed with grace and aplomb. The book will be available shortly from publishers WordFarm, Amazon.com, and the other usual outlets.
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Jim Wilson (CNF ’07) teaches composition and technical writing on the faculty of Seminole State College in Seminole, Oklahoma. Wilson also teaches creative writing to high school students in the Chickasaw Nation’s Summer Arts Academy in Ada, Oklahoma, where Wilson makes his home.

Wilson serves as a judge for Anoli (“to tell”), an annual creative writing contest for youth throughout the Chickasaw Nation in south central Oklahoma. The following are Wilson’s forthcoming works in short nonfiction: “A Study in Gray,” for Platte Valley Review (University of Nebraska at Kearny); “And So You Run,” for The Muse (Seminole State’s annual literary anthology); and “Son of Something: Missed Opportunities in Hidalgo,” for Seeing Red (Michigan State’s anthology of reviews on American Indians in film).

Wilson recently participated on the Associated Writers & Writing Programs panel, “Writing the Middle East, Crossing Genres, Crossing Borders,” organized by his wife, Oklahoma Choctaw writer LeAnne Howe. Howe and Wilson host Salon Ada, an annual summer gathering of writers with ties to Indian Territory/Okla Huma.
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Corrections

None
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Personals

Veronica Castro (F ’10) and her husband, Ryan, welcomed their son, Evan, (2 pounds, 8 ounces) on February 16. Evan arrived twelve weeks early and is doing well in the intensive care nursery.
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Our deepest sympathy to Erin Reid (F) on the death of her grandmother, Viola Irene (Dunham) Lenz, who passed away on December 11.
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Our deepest sympathy to Leslie Smith Townsend (CNF ’04) on the loss of her mother, Cynthia Smith, on March 1.
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Our deepest sympathy to Dianne Harrison Timmering (F ’06) on the loss of her mother, Joan Pinaire Harrison, born Dec. 5, 1936, and passed away on January 15.
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Our deepest sympathy to Julie Brickman on the death of her husband, Robert Hoyk, Ph.D., who passed away on March 12.
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Classifieds

None

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Reminders and Notes

Financial Aid: The MFA Program offers scholarships to students entering their first semester in the program. Returning students who desire financial assistance other than student loans should apply for graduate assistantships. Applications for scholarships and assistantships should be directed to the MFA Office (mfa@spalding.edu). Information for assistantships is on the MFA portal page.

Federal student loans are available to all eligible graduate students and are available for the fall, spring, or summer semesters. For help with financial aid questions, call Vickie Montgomery at 800- 896-8941, ext.  4330 or 502-873-4330 or email vmontgomery@spalding.edu. Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at fafsa.ed.gov.
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All Spring 2012 students: If you did not fill out the FAFSA for the fall semester, fill it out now for the 11-12 school year, using 2010 tax information.

For Summer Semester 2012/Summer Semester 2012 with spring residency (formerly call spring stretch): Fill out the FAFSA for the 2012-13 school year, using 2011 tax information. Students who enroll in the summer semester who may enroll in the Spring 2013 semester should check with Vickie Montgomery about loan disbursements for two semesters instead of one.

Classifieds in the newsletter: Submissions of writing-related advertisements, such as calls for submission, services for writers, etc., may be made to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu

Online information: Newsletters are archived online at spalding.edu/mfanewsletter.
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Life of a Writer: Please remember to email Life of a Writer news to the program because this is a vital part of our community sharing writing successes. The program wants to share good news with everyone and compiles records of publications, presentations, readings, employment, and other related information on faculty, students, and alums.

Life of a Writer pieces should be written as a paragraph in third person. If you are an alum, please alum include your graduation semester, such as Jake Doe (Fall 2003). Spell out month and state names. Include title(s) of the work, publishers, date of publication, and complete web site addresses when appropriate. Send to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu.

Examples of kinds of activities that might be included in the Life of a Writer column are publishing in journals or magazines or in book form, winning awards or other prizes, giving a public reading, visiting a classroom to talk about writing, judging a writing competition, attending a writers conference, serving on a panel about writing, or volunteering in a project about writing or literacy.
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About The Masthead: The image in our masthead is the emblem of a photograph of a Louisville fountain, "River Horse," by Louisville sculptor Barney Bright. The sculpture references both the location of Louisville as a river city on the banks of the Ohio and as the host, for more than 125 years, of the Kentucky Derby. The winged horse Pegasus, of Greek mythology, has long been associated with the literary arts and the wings of poesy.
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Sena Jeter Naslund, Program Director
Karen J. Mann, Administrative Director
Kathleen Driskell, Associate Program Director
Katy Yocom, Program Associate
Ellyn Lichvar, Administrative Assistant
Gayle Hanratty, Administrative Assistant

Carolyn Flynn, Newsletter Editor
Nancy Long, Web Editor

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Master of Fine Arts in Writing •Spalding University
851 S. Fourth St. • Louisville, KY 40203
(800) 896-8941, ext. 2423 or (502) 585-9911, ext. 2423
mfa@spalding.edu www.spalding.edu/mfa

Direct No. Person Toll Free Ext.
800-896-8941
502-873-4400 Katy Yocom 4400
502-873-4396 Kathleen Driskell 4396
502-873-4397 Gayle Hanratty 4397
502-873-4398 Ellyn Lichvar 4398
502-873-4399 Karen Mann 4399
502-873-4330 Vickie Montgomery 4330


On Extended Wings archives: To see previous issues of the newsletter, click here

Sena Jeter Naslund, Program Director
Karen Mann, Administrative Director
Kathleen Driskell, Associate Program Director
Katy Yocom, Program Associate
Gayle Hanratty, Administrative Assistant

Email Life of a Writer information, Because You Asked questions, or classifieds to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu
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