Vol. 4 No. 2
August 2003
Alumni Trip Planned to Ireland
Guest Speakers at the October 2003 Residency
Life of a Writer
Students
Faculty
Alumni
Previous Newsletters
Welcome
to New Faculty
The MFA Program announces the hiring of three additional faculty for
the October 2003 residency.
Debra Kang Dean, MFA, Univ. of Montana, poetry, has published three books of poetry including Precipates (BOA) and News of Home (BOA). She has published in many literary journals including The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Puerto del Sol, and Tar River Poetry. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies The Best American Poetry and Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. Recent awards include the Sheila Margaret Motton Prize from the New England Poetry Club and three Pushcart Prize nominations. She was also selected to participate in the Blumenthal Writers & Readers Series sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network and was a finalist for the Paumonok Poetry Award. Debra has presented at many workshops and conferences and has been a writer-in-residence at several schools. She is a past visiting professor at East Carolina University.
Crystal Wilkinson, MFA, Spalding University, fiction, has published two books of short stories: Blackberries, Blackberries (Toby Press) and Water Street (Toby Press), which is a finalist for the Zora Neal Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation’s Legacy Award in Fiction, and was named Best Debut Fiction by Today’s Librarian Magazine. Crystal has presented workshops and readings throughout the country including the Sixth International Conference on the Short Story in English at the University of Iowa and the African American Women Writers Conference at the University of the District of Columbia; and she has published in the anthologies Confronting Appalachian Stereotypes: Back Talk from an American Region (University of Kentucky Press 1999); Gifts from Our Grandmothers (Crown Publishers, a Division of Random House, May 2000), among others. Crystal is the former creative writing chair of the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts and recently served as writer-in-residence at Eastern Kentucky University.
Sam Zalutsky, MFA, NYU: Tisch School of the Arts, screenwriting, has been a writer, director, and videographer for numerous short films and video projects, which have been screened at various festivals, including the Clermont Ferrand (France), The New York Festival (New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival), Sonoma Valley, Newport International, and the BAM Cinematek. He has also had screenings in Montreal, Seoul and San Francisco. His short film Stefan’s Silver Bell was a semifinalist for the Wasserman Award. Sam has been a freelance script reader for Miramax and has been awarded artist residencies. His feature-length screenplay Mama’s Boy was a finalist in the 2000 Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab and the 2001 Richard Vague Award at New York University. He is a member of the Makor Artists Networks at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. His short film Targét was recently shot in New York.(top)
Alumni
Trip Planned to Ireland
Spalding’s MFA in Writing Program is planning its first alumni
trip to Ireland in July 2004. Though more specific details are forthcoming,
graduates should begin thinking about their summer travel calendar for
next year. The trip is for 8 or 9 days with time spent in Dublin, Sligo,
Mayo, Cork, and Limerick.
In Dublin, the group takes Joyce’s “Bloomsday Walk”
and tours Swift’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as well as the
Dublin Writers’ Museum. Also, a trip to the Abbey Theatre is planned.
After leaving Dublin, the itinerary includes visits to many other sites
of literary interest: Yeats’s home at Thor Ballylee, his grave
at Drumcliffe, and Lough Gill, “the lake isle of Innisfree.”
The alumni group will tour villages, cities, and locales that inspired
the writings of Edna O’Brien, Frank McCourt, Roddy Doyle, Nuala
O’Faolain, Frank O’Connor, Elizabeth Bowen, and others.
Spalding alumni travel together as a group and airfare, first-class lodging, touring in Ireland, breakfasts, lunches and most dinners are included in the package price to be announced shortly. Additionally, books-in-common provide literature for discussion and optional writing exercises will be offered during our travels. Anyone with questions or who has interest in taking this trip, please contact Kathleen Driskell at kdriskell@spalding.edu or (502) 585-9911 x2231. (top)
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Students to Graduate in October 2003
The October 2003 Graduation takes place at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, October
18, in the Mezzanine Ballroom at the Seelbach Hotel. The graduation event
consists of two parts. The graduation ceremony is followed at 5 p.m. by
a Celebration of Recently Published Books instead of a traditional graduation
speaker. (top)
Guest
Speakers at the October 2003 Residency
Among our guests for the October 2003 residency are New York literary
agent Joy Harris of the Joy Harris Literary Agent and Marjorie Braman,
an executive editor from HarperCollins. Joy and Marjorie will share a
session during which they discuss the role of agent and editor in publishing.
For poets and others interested, Marilyn Kallet will speak on “The
Long and Short of It: How/Why/Where Do You Break the Lines?” This
talk covers William Carlos Williams’s idea of “Finding the
Measure” or the importance of shaping the right line for your poem.
Marilyn is the director of the creative writing program at University
of Tennessee and is the author of nine books, including her most recent
book of poems, How to Get Heat Without Fire. With Judith Ortiz
Cofer she co-edited Sleeping With One Eye Open: Women Writers and the
Art of Survival. (top)
Bobbi Buchanan read with a small group coordinated by Rae Cobbs who participated in a reading at the Hideaway Saloon in Louisville Aug. 16. The reading was part of a fund raiser for a local woman, Running Heart, who had heart surgery and will be off work for a while as a result. The money will help with her medical bills and lost work time. In addition to the prose and poetry readings, there were raffles, bluegrass music, food, and a silent auction.
Amy Clarke’s poem “Monkey With a Cup” will be forthcoming in the Seattle Review.
Albert DeGenova was named ChicagoPoetry.com’s August Poet of the Month. Beyond his work as a poet and performer, this honor paid special tribute to his ongoing efforts publishing the magazine After Hours, a literary journal that focuses on Chicago-area writers and artists. DeGenova was also a finalist in the recent Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Open Mic competition (sponsored by The Guild Complex literary arts organization in Chicago) for his poem “On Memorial Day.”
Anne Marie Fowler’s poem “Freebird” has been accepted for publication by Upstairs at Duroc, a literary and arts journal based in Paris, France.
Silas House’s A Parchment of Leaves was recently nominated for the William Sayoran International Book Prize and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. In July, he accepted his nomination for a second term as president of the Appalachian Writers’ Association. The paperback of Parchment will appear in late August 2003, from Ballantine/Random House and his story “Total Immersion” was recently published in Night Train Magazine.
Erin Keane recently read in the River Styx Hungry Young Poets series in St. Louis and at the Running Heart benefit in Louisville.
Frances Nicholson attended the Napa Valley Writer’s Conference, held in California during the last week of July. She worked individually with Marilyn Nelson. The conference also included lectures and readings by Jane Hirshfield, Stephen Dunn, Dorian Laux, and Marilyn Nelson.
Mary O’Malley’s poem “As I Walk On Whiskey Island in Winter, I Think of James Wright” received an honorable mention in Whiskey Island magazine’s poetry contest, sponsored by The Cuyahoga Valley National Park Service, Greater Cleveland Writer’s and Poets League, and The Cuyahoga National Valley Nature Writers in honor of Ohio’s bicentennial and the current publication of I Have My Own Song For It, an anthology of Ohio poets writing about Ohio. She read with the other honorees on August 8th and a broadside of the work is forthcoming.
Linda Busby Parker’s short story “Little Rock’s Fire” (First Place Fiction, Metroversity Competition 2003) appeared in the spring/summer issue of Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley. She was also a contributor in fiction at the Sewanee Writers Conference at the University of the South from July 15-28.
An excerpt from Deborah Reed’s novel Grass-roots won 2nd place in the 2003 Appalachian Writers Association Harriette Arnow Award for the Short Story.
Mark Rudolph’s poem “How to Talk to the Dead” has been accepted for publication in Magazine of Speculative Poetry.
Joe Schmidt has poems forthcoming in Full-Unit Hookup.
Pam Steele has poems forthcoming in Riven magazine, and her little poem “Note” is on display on a marquis in Corvallis, Oregon.
Katy Yocom’s essay “A Mother Like No Other,” published in the May 2002 issue of Louisville Magazine, was awarded second place in the column-writing category at the Society of Professional Journalists' annual Metro Journalism awards, held June 26 in Louisville. (top)
Richard Goodman wrote the introduction for a book that’s just been published: Travelers’ Tales Provence, a book of essays about the south of France. Authors include M.F.K. Fisher, Peter Mayle, and Alain de Botton. It’s published by Travelers’ Tales Books, and a part of their ongoing series of travel books. A link to the introduction can be found at www.travelerstales.com.(top)
Frank X Walker (’03) read from his book Affrilachia at the Lincoln Center in New York City (at the La Casita Festival) in August. His new book, Buffalo Dance, the Story of York, is forthcoming from University Press of Kentucky. Excerpts from this book and other work (as well as upcoming reading dates) can be found online at www.frankxwalker.com.
T-shirts: Shirts from the last two residencies are available for $10, plus $2 shipping, while supplies last. The shirt from October 2002 is a long-sleeved black turtleneck in sizes L, XL, and XXL. The shirt from May 2003 is a yellow T-shirt in sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL. New shirts are not available for October 2003.
Financial Aid: For help with financial aid questions, call our Financial Aid Specialist Niki Leckrone at (800) 896-8941 ext. 2359 or (502) 585-9911, ext. 2359. Or email her at nleckrone@spalding.edu. You may enter or update your FAFSA information for 2002 online at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
Travel Arrangements: Faculty and students who wish help in booking an airline ticket to Louisville for the residency may call our travel agent. Ask for Debbie Lay at (800) 928-8888, ext. 208 or (502) 425-4464, ext. 208 or email her at debbie@itcruises.com or fax (502) 423-0540. Website: www.itcruises.com. Students need to identify themselves as students.
AWP Conference: AWP’s 2004 Annual Conference & Bookfair
takes place March 24-27, 2004 in Chicago. Register online at http://awpwriter.org
Online information: MFA in Writing forms, deadlines, and other student
and faculty information is available
online. The MFA Office is happy to mail forms or newsletter, if
requested. Email mfa@spalding.edu.
Change in Contact Information: Heather Shaw’s email has changed to HeatherShaw@comcast.net.(top)
Our heartfelt sympathy to Holly Brockman on the death of her father Frederick Bahr Brockman, who died August 24, 2003.
Our heartfelt sympahty to Roy Hoffman on the death of his mother Evelyn Hoffman, who died August 18, 2003. (top)
Victoria Moon gave birth to Max Moon on Saturday, August 23,
2003. (top)