Vol. 13 No. 1
January 2008

Spring BIC

AWP Conference

Metroversity Contest

New Writing Consultant

Adjustment in Reading Lists

ENG610s BIC Essay

Summer 2008 Residency Plans

Registration

New Hotel Rates

CNF/F Workshop

Because You Asked

Ass'tships & PGRA Deadline

Life of a Writer

Students

Faculty and Staff

Alumni

Pre-reading for Spring 08

Classifieds

Reminders and Notes

Apply for Passport Now for Summer 2008

Spalding Home

MFA Home

Previous Newsletters

Spring 2008 BIC Is Pico Iyer’s Sun After Dark
The MFA Program’s Book in Common selection for the Spring 2008 residency is Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign by Pico Iyer. A plenary discussion takes place Friday, May 23, the first night of spring residency. All students and faculty, regardless of concentration, read the book in advance of the residency and all prepare comments to add to the discussion. On the last Friday of the residency, Iyer visits Spalding’s campus to talk about his work as a writer, with a focus on his book Sun After Dark. During his visit, MFA students and faculty have a closed question-and-answer session with Iyer.

Iyer’s collection of travel writing, Sun After Dark, was first published by Bloomsbury in January 2005. Iyer is the author of many other books. Video Night in Kathmandu (1988), appeared on many lists of the top travel-books of the 20th century, and The Lady and the Monk (1991) was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in the category of Current Interest. His novels include Cuba and the Night (1995) and The Global Soul (2000). Since 1980, Iyer has also written for magazines in America, Europe, and Asia, publishing regularly in The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. He is also a contributing editor to Salon, Conde Nast Traveler, and Time. In 1995, the Utne Reader named Iyer as one of 100 visionaries worldwide “who could change your life.”

Iyer won a King’s Scholarship to Eton and then a Demyship to Magdalen College, Oxford. He earned a second master’s degree in literature at Harvard, where he taught literature and writing. Iyer was born in Oxford, England. He grew up in California and currently lives in Japan.

The paperback edition of Sun After Dark is available from Vintage (ISBN-10: 1400031036) and can be found at many bookstores (BookSense.com can locate an independent bookstore that carries Sun After Dark) or it can be ordered online from BN.com, Amazon.com, as well as many other online bookstores. All students should adjust their semester’s reading lists in order to add Sun After Dark to their cumulative bibliographies. (top)

AWP Conference In NYC January 30 - February 2
Several MFAers (faculty, students, and alumni) are attending the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Conference January 30-February 2 in New York City. For the first time, the conference is sold out at more than 7,500 attendees. For the conference schedule, see www.awpwriter.org/conference/2008awpconf.php.

Attendees should stop by the MFA in Writing and The Louisville Review tables 104/105 in Rhinelander Hall, 2nd floor, of the Hilton Hotel, to exchange messages with other MFAers. Several books signings also take place at the tables:

Friday, February 1
12-1 p.m. Robert Finch, author of The Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore
1-2 p.m. Luke Wallin, author of Conservation Writing: Essays at the Crossroads of Nature and Culture
2-3 p.m. K. L. Cook, author of The Girl from Charnelle and Last Call
2-3 p.m. Greg Pape, author of American Flamingo and Border Crossings
3-4 p.m. Jody Lisberger, author of Remember Love
3-4 p.m. Molly Peacock, author of Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems and Paradise, Piece by Piece

Saturday, February 2
10:30-11:30 a.m. Robin Lippincott, author of In the Meantime, Our Arcadia, and Mr. Dalloway
11 a.m.-noon Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, Four Spirits, and Ahab’s Wife (top)

Submission Deadline for Metroversity Creative Writing Competition Is February 14
The MFA Directors encourage all currently enrolled MFA Students to enter the Kentuckiana Metroversity 2008 Writing Competition. Judged categories included fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, as well as expository writing. Our MFA students have a track record of doing quite well in this contest which is free and offers cash prizes to those students in Metroversity institutions. For contest guidelines and a required entry form, log onto Blackboard and click through to Discussion Boards and then enter the forum Contests.

MFA Program Welcomes New Expository Writing Consultant
Sue Collesano has just agreed to become the MFA Program’s new Expository Writing Consultant. Sue has many years experience helping students with their critical writing and an extensive background in teaching literary analysis and composition. Sue holds a bacelor’s in English literature, a Masters in Education, and a Rank I with a concentration in English, humanities, and education.

Sue replaces Nancy Bowden who recently resigned to take full advantage of a writing project grant she was awarded from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Nancy has done an admirable job helping our students with their critical writing, and we all wish her the best with her fiction writing. (top)

All MFA Students Need to Adjust Semester Reading Lists
The MFA faculty voted to add a semester requirement for all students, beginning with the Fall 2007 semester: all students write a 2-4 page short critical essay on the Faculty Book in Common to be discussed in their area at the subsequent residency.

For instance, all poetry students write a short critical essay on Maureen Morehead’s A Sense of Time Left, scheduled to be discussed at the Spring 2008 residency.

Students should submit the essay to their mentors as one of the 8-10 critical essays required during ENG610 and ENG620. ENG630 and ENG640 students should add this requirement to their semester plan and send it to the mentor during the semester. All MFA students add the Faculty Book in Common to their cumulative bibliographies. (top)

BIC Essay Assignment for Fall 2007 ENG610 Students
Those ENG610 students now enrolled in Fall 2007 or those Summer 2007 ENG610 students attending the upcoming Spring 2008 residency in Louisville or those students who are on leave and are entering ENG620 in the spring) are required to write a two to four-page critical essay on the Spring 2008 Book in Common: Pico Iyer’s Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign, a collection of separately published travel essays (which all students and faculty read and then discuss at our first Friday night meeting). ENG610 students and leave of absence students entering ENG620 should have received email instructions for writing and submitting this essay; the same instructions can be found under the appropriate semester under COURSES/ENG610 in Blackboard. This essay is due February 21. Please submit the essay through the digital dropbox on Blackboard (see Tools; remember to use the SUBMIT button; use a subject line with your name and “BIC essay.)

Each student essay is included in a workshop booklet with four to six other student essays; well before the Spring 2008 residency, the booklet is sent to students in their group. Students carefully review the essays in their booklet and annotate and make summary comments well before coming to the residency. During the residency, they attend a one-meeting essay workshop session conducted by Expository Writing Coach Marcia Dalton. Writing about and discussing an essay on the Book in Common provides students a unique opportunity to learn from and to inspire critical thinking among students. (top)

Summer 2008 Residency Plans Shaping Up
Plans are taking shape for the Summer 2008 residency in London and Bath, England, June 12-24. The residency is evenly divided between the two cities, with five nights in London and six in Bath.

Faculty members for the residency and semester are K. L. (Kenny) Cook, fiction; Molly Peacock, poetry; Robert Finch, creative nonfiction; Louella Bryant, writing for children; and Charlie Schulman, playwriting and screenwriting. Additional faculty will be added as needed.

Location of Classes
Classes in London take place at Birkbeck College, part of the University of London. The campus is located in the heart of London within a few steps of the British Museum. Students may visit the museum at breaks and over lunch periods. (top)

In Bath, classes are scheduled in a variety of locations, including Bath Spa University. Situated on a parkland estate a few miles outside the city center, the campus features a lake, nature preserve, woods, and farmland, along with a 14th-century castle tower. Another ancient monument, the Castle Gatehouse, houses BSU’s Creative Writing Centre, which is equipped with high-tech A/V and computers.

Workshop, Lectures, and Guest Lecturers
The residency also includes Workshops, led by the summer faculty, who provide plenary lectures similar to those given in spring and fall. Craft lectures, however, are to be delivered in a different format. Each faculty member delivers a 75-minute lecture focusing on craft and including time for a writing exercise. A follow-up session later in the residency allows time for discussion of the writing that came out of the writing exercise, and a second 45-minute lecture further investigates the aspect of craft introduced in the first lecture.

Guest lecturers include Bath Spa University creative writing faculty such as frequent New Yorker contributor Tessa Hadley, a fiction writer, and award-winning children’s author Nicola Davies.

Bath Spa University is one of the leading sponsors of the AWP 2008 conference in New York; Spalding attendees are encouraged to stop by their booth and say hello. (top)

Events and Outings
While in London, students and faculty attend a West End production (the equivalent of a Broadway show) as well as a fringe theatre production.
The residency schedule provides a day at Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace and home of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Students attend a matinee performance of The Merchant of Venice and spend the rest of the day exploring historic sites such as Shakespeare’s birthplace and Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, are buried. (top)

Another day’s outing takes students to Thomas Hardy country in Dorset, a southern county whose landscapes and villages Hardy fictionalized in works such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd. (top)

Housing
Students and faculty have a variety of housing options. In London, standard hotel rooms are available at the Jurys Inn Islington. Budget twin and double rooms, with bathroom down the hall, are available in the Youth Wing of the Lancaster Hall Hotel, a German-run YMCA. Both hotels provide easy access to our classrooms at Birkbeck College. Smoking is allowed in bedrooms (but not public spaces) at Lancaster Hall Hotel.

Our accommodations in Bath include a small cluster of well-reviewed hotels situated in or near Great Pulteney Street. Budget accommodations are located at the Bath YMCA.

Students are also welcome to book their own accommodations. (top)

Housing and Travel Worksheet
Those interested in more specific details about travel and housing should see the worksheet on the Summer Residency page or the MFA Alumni page of the MFA website: www.spalding.edu/mfa. Students, faculty, and alumni should apply early for passports.

Enrollment for Spring or Summer to Take Place in March
In March, all students receive instructions regarding online registration for the spring and summer semesters. At that time, a tutorial is to be posted on Blackboard giving step-by-step instructions with pictures to assist students with registration.

For planning, however, we need to know which students wish to take advantage of the “spring stretch” semester by February 21. Please notify Karen at kmann@spalding.edu (top)

Change in Brown Hotel Room Rates
Beginning in spring 2008, the cost of a 9-night stay at the Brown Hotel is $750 for a single room and $400 for a double room. Each additional night is $90. Despite this price increase, Spalding’s contract rate at the Brown remains substantially below the Brown’s published room rate.

Upon check-in, the Brown Hotel requires guests to present a credit card for incidentals (items other than the per night room charge). Students are responsible for canceling reservations 48 hours in advance or they are still responsible for first night room charges. (Students may also be responsible for room night charges when checking out prior to the end of the reservation.)

Students have the option of staying in the Spalding dormitory at $20 per night or finding their own accommodations. A list of nearby hotels and bed and breakfasts is available upon request. (top)

CNF/F Workshop Offered at Spring 2008 Residency
In keeping with the MFA’s emphasis on cross-genre exploration, the MFA faculty has expressed interest in offering cross-genre workshops from time to time. These workshops benefit students through cross-pollination of ideas and provide opportunities for students to further their knowledge and technique in a second area of concentration.

In Spring 2008, the MFA Program offers one such workshop. Students who have been accepted in fiction or creative nonfiction may sign up to take a fiction and creative nonfiction workshop (co-led by faculty members who teach in fiction and creative nonfiction).

It is not necessary for students in the workshop to have expertise in both areas. Students submit Worksheets in their major area of concentration.
Students interested in participating in a cross-genre workshop should email Karen Mann at kmann@spalding.edu by March 1. Not all eligible students may be assigned to a cross-genre workshop, as space is limited. (top)

Because You Asked
Q: Can you explain about the different Books in Common?
A: Here are definitions of several terms the Program uses to refer to books (or scripts) read by the entire program or by smaller groups within the program.

Program Book in Common: A book selected by the Program Director for all students and faculty in all genres to read. The genre of the book changes every semester. On the first night of the residency, the Program Director conducts a plenary discussion of the book for students in all genres. The author of the book usually comes to the residency to give a presentation and to talk with students in an informal Q & A session. Students entering ENG620 are required to write a short essay on this book; the essay is reviewed during the residency in a special mini-workshop conducted by the Expository Writing Coach.

Faculty/Guest Book in Common: A text written by a faculty member or guest of the MFA Program in a particular area of concentration. There is usually only one such text in each area of concentration. Students in playwriting/screenwriting read texts in both areas. The author of the text conducts an informal session (not a lecture) during the residency to discuss the process of writing and publishing that particular book or script. Students come prepared to ask questions about choices that have been made in the text or about the process of writing or about the publication of the text. Beginning with the Fall 2007 semester, students write an essay on the Faculty/Guest Book in Common (see article on page 2).

This Faculty/Guest book or script is generally selected by a drawing, with faculty sending in the name of a single work to be considered, until all faculty have participated in this forum; for areas with a small faculty, guest authors are sometimes featured so as to give students the experience of speaking with several different authors. The Program Director chooses the guest but is open to suggestions from the faculty.

Mentor Group Anthology: An anthology and/or three or more short scripts assigned at the group conference during the residency to all members of a single mentor group. Students write a 2-4 page essay about their two favorite works from the anthology/collection and send the essay to the mentor and all students in the group. (top)

Graduate Assistantship and PRGA Deadline February 21
Second-, third-, and fourth-semester students who wish to apply for a graduate assistantship submit their materials to Karen by February 21. See in Blackbaord the Documents folder under your SEMESTER for the instructions and assistantship form.

Students who have graduated from the MFA Program may apply for a position as a Post-Graduate Residency Assistant at the spring residency. PGRAs prepare for and assist in a Workshop by participating in the discussion, assist in the MFA Office, and/or may perform other duties such as recording lectures or hosting residency guests or prospective students. Graduates may feel such a position would be beneficial to their vitae.
Post-Graduate Residency assistantships are awarded to the graduates of the MFA Program who have proven to be good citizens during their tenure as students in the Program. Usually they have excelled in their graduate coursework, have been superior participants in residency workshops, or otherwise shown themselves capable of performing the duties described above. The applicant list is narrowed to include qualified candidates. Most residencies, the Program usually appoints up to eight PGRAs, and if possible, a PGRA is appointed to each area of concentration. (If the pool of qualified candidates is larger than the number of PGRA positions available, then a random drawing will be used to select the PGRAs.)

Post-Graduate Residency Assistants receive $50 in compensation and are included in residency meals and events. Meals or events not included as part of the group experience are the Post-Graduate Residency Assistant's responsibility. Post-Graduate Residency Assistants are provided a single room at the Spalding dormitory or $180 toward incurred housing costs (a receipt must be provided for reimbursement). Post-Graduate Residency Assistants may request up to $300 in transportation costs toward coach airfare or reimbursement at 48.5 cents a mile for the round-trip journey between home and Spalding.

To apply, graduates send a letter or email to Kathleen by by February 21 stating the desire to be a Post-Graduate Residency Assistant and the area of concentration. The letter may be mailed or emailed. Faculty members in the area of concentration rank the applicants and state whether they are willing to have the applicant assist in their Workshop. Post-Graduate Residency Assistants are offered the position shortly after midsemester. (top)

Life of a Writer

Students, faculty, and alumni: Please email writing news to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu

Students

Priscilla Atkins has poems appearing in recent journals: “Mother and Me, by Hockney,” The Los Angeles Review (2007); “Anniversary” and “La Veta,” Diner (2007); “Black Swallow,” Folio (Spring 2007); “The Death of Albert Camus” and “The Recovery Room,” Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review (Fall/Winter 2007). On December 20, 2007, along with Spalding classmate Jill Koren, she participated in Wisconsin Public Radio’s Winter Solstice Poetry Circle, co-hosted by Jean Feraca and Molly Peacock.

Anna M. (Mary P.) Carroll’s story, “My Aunt Sis,” has been accepted for the One for the Road anthology. In December, she attended the MLA convention in Chicago.

Kristin Doherty’s short story “There Is More to Be Done” appears in the next issue of Zone 3.

Ann Eskridge is a semifinalist in the amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award. Five thousand entrants uploaded their novel and were accepted into the contest, a little more than 800 semifinalists were chosen. Each semifinalists’ work is excerpted and available to read on line. From now until March 2, Amazon.com customers can download, read, and review excerpts from the semifinalists and help decide who will make it to the Top Ten. Ann’s novel, The Raven, is historical fiction. Go to the official site for all the entrants and click historical fiction and The Raven: http://www.amazon.com/abna (top)

Mitch Fields’s play Permit to Conceal is to be produced as part of Finnigan Productions’ Festival of Fresh and Funky Fun, March 21-22, at the Rudyard Kipling in Louisville. The 10-minute play dramatizes the struggle of an Appalachian family against an encroaching strip-mining operation and its tragic consequences.

Barry George’s haiku appear in the 2007 annual Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, and, translated into Romanian, in Greieri Si Crizanteme, an anthology published by the Romanian Haiku Society. One of his tanka was a winner in the 2007 Tanka Splendor Contest, sponsored by the journal Lynx.

Colleen Harris’s poem “Disobedience” has been accepted for publication in the Winter 2008 issue of kaleidowhirl. Her poem “Refrigerator Borealis” has been accepted for publication in the Spring 2008 Ruminate magazine. (top)

Two of Amy Hanridge’s short stories, “Ladylike” and “Erecting Fences,” were selected as finalists in the 2007 Short Story Contest sponsored by Lunch Hour Stories Short Fiction Magazine.

Jimi Izrael has secured literary agent Claudia Menza to represent two works of nonfiction, one of them a memoir. Izrael is on the board of the Hip-Hop Journalism Association and gave the keynote address at the October 19 convention held in Miami. He also was a panelist at the Watergate Conference on Political & Congressional Reporting last fall in Washington D.C., to be simulcast on C-SPAN. Jimi, who left the Lexington Herald-Leader in August, continues to freelance opinion coast to coast and host “The Barbershop” segment of National Public Radio’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin every Friday. He completed coursework on his MFA in the fall but is taking an enrichment semester. (top)

Jill Koren visited Pope John XXIII Elementary School in Madison, Indiana, as guest writer for National Children’s Book Week. She was also chosen as a KIPP Writers House Fellow for 2008. KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) is a national network of charter schools.

Trish Lindsey Jaggers has had two poems accepted for publication: “Bare” was chosen by Wolverine Farm Publishing for their biannual journal’s eleventh edition: Matter 11: The Woods (due out in February). Also, her poem “While I Wait” was accepted by The Briar Cliff Review for its next edition. Both of these poems were part of the first packet workshopped while she was an MFA student at Spalding University. Prior to the MFA workshop, attempts to publish them proved unsuccessful. Following some of the excellent revision advice of the fellow workshop students and leaders, the poems were accepted “right away.” She’s especially pleased about the revised “Bare,” a five-page poem. Matter’s poetry editor wrote (about “Bare”), “It stood out.”

Drew Lackovic’s story “Abject Objectivity Goes for a Walk” appeared in the November 15 edition of Wordriot.org. Also, his story, “(Un/Re/I) Do,” which originally appeared in this year’s issue of Alligator Juniper was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. (top)

Cristina Trapani-Scott’s poems “Sewing Pins and Salamanders” and “A Photo on the Cellar Wall” were published in the Writers Reading at Sweetwaters Anthology, which was released in December. She read from the anthology, along with many of the other contributors, at a book release celebration held December 18 at Sweetwaters Cafe in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Cristina is to be a featured reader for the March regular meeting of the Writers Reading at Sweetwaters series. (top)

Faculty & Staff

Julie Brickman’s “Magnificent Obsession” a review of The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa, appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune on Sunday, November 4. “The Examined Life,” her review of Annie Dillard’s The Maytrees, appeared on Sunday, June 17, in the Books supplement of the San Diego Union-Tribune. On November 26, Julie was interviewed about writing, reviewing and teaching writing on the Internet radio show “Shelf Life,” hosted by Arthur Salm, Books editor of the San Diego Union Tribune. Julie’s short story, “The Rainbow Range,” appeared in the November/December issue of The Barcelona Review, http://www.barcelonareview.com/61/e_jrb.htm.

K. L. Cook’s story, “The Man Who Fell from the Sky,” appeared in the Winter issue of Glimmer Train Stories. He is doing a book signing on Friday, February 1, at the AWP Conference (at the Spalding MFA table) in New York City and giving a reading on February 7 in Canton, New York, as part of the St. Lawrence University Reading Series.

Kathleen Driskell’s book of poems Seed Across Snow will be published in early 2009 by Red Hen Press. She recently read at the Filson Club and Jazz Factory in Louisville; and she made a visit to a creative writing class at Assumption High School in Louisville. She judged the 2008 Literary Leo poetry competitions and is to judge Heartland Magazine’s Joy Bale Boone Prize for 2008. Her poem “With a Shiner, My Husband Enters the Flower Shop” recently appeared in RiverStyx. (top)

Robert Finch’s new book, The Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore (Counterpoint, 2007) has been named as one of “100 Best Books of the Year” by The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071201.BK100S01/TPStory/Entertainment/?pageRequested=all.

Richard Goodman’s essay “Tortola” appears in The Best Travel Writing 2008, from Travelers’ Tales, due out this month. His essay, “The Man in White,” appears in the new Harvard Review. It’s available online at http://hcl.harvard.edu/harvardreview/issues/33/goodman.html.

Roy Hoffman’s series of articles, “Deliver Us From Evil,” http://blog.al.com/pr/2008/01/deliver_us_from_evil.html, appeared in the Mobile Press-Register January 6, 7, and 8, and was distributed to papers nationally by Newhouse News Service. The series is about two men who first confronted each other in high school in Mobile in 1964 when one of them, Jewish, was assaulted by the other, a right wing militant who would become a Klansman and later undergo a spiritual transformation. The men met again in Mobile, in November 2007, in very different circumstances. (top)

Sena Jeter Naslund is in residence this spring at the University of Alabama in Huntsville as its Eminent Scholar. UAH is presenting fully staged production of Four Spirits: The Play, coauthored by Sena and Elaine Hughes, on February 7, 8, 9, and 10 (http://theatre.uah.edu). At AWP, Sena will be signing books at MFA/The Louisville Review tables from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday, February 2. She will be the keynote speaker at the San Miguel (Mexico) Workshop on February 23. Other presentations of her novels include Ottawa (Kansas) University on February 27 and the California Association of Teachers March 7 at Long Beach.

Luke Wallin’s novel The Soul Tree is a semi-finalist in the Amazon.com Breakthrough Award competition, which is being judged in part by the public. The excerpt may be downloaded free at their site, and a short review could help the novel’s chances. http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Tree-Official-ABNA-Entrant/dp/B00121SFQ2/ref=br_lf_m_1000189191_10_276_ttl?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=books&pf_rd_p=358559401&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1000189191&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1GS69J3EB6DSFJX16WFY

Sam Zalutsky’s film You Belong to Me screened January 12 and 13 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The film was recently acquired for distribution by Wolfe Releasing. Stay tuned for information about the DVD release and TV airings. Sam was also recently one of 15 people shortlisted for the Film Independent’s “Someone to Watch” Independent Spirit Award. (top)

Alumni

Andrew Beahrs’ (Fall 2004) second novel, The Sineaters, was accepted by Toby Press. The Sineaters was Andrew’s creative thesis at Spalding.

David Brasfield (Fall 2004) had two fake news stories, “Fourth Grade Quiz Bowl Rocked by Doping Scandal” and “Stokes Flushes Jones in Dekalb County Death Match,” posted on impeachedmagazine.com on January 1. Another article, “What’s the Best Part About Sports? Manship!” is set to appear on January 8th in the same online magazine.

Adriena Dame (Fall 2007) recently founded 94 Creations, Inc., an independent publishing house designed to celebrate creativity, diversity, and the power of the written word. The editors include familiar talents of the Spalding family, as well as a handful of literary educators. While all genres will be represented throughout the life of this venture, the house is currently accepting works of fiction and nonfiction to consider for publication in An Anthology of Short Prose, debuting in print this summer. Visit www.94creations.com for submission guidelines and opportunities to win up to $500 cash.

Dave DeGolyer’s (Fall 2007) alter-ego, Lafayette Wattles, has had three poems accepted for publication by Slurve, a literary journal disguised as a baseball publication (although his poems have nothing to do with baseball or disguises or, some might suggest, anything literary). “Dirt, Air, Shadow, Light” and “The Turtle is Unable to Leave Hardness Behind, the Man Unwilling” will appear in a Spring 2008 issue (January or March), while prose poem “A Cloud in a White Room: Or What I Learned Working on the Set of a Low-Budget Movie” will appear later in 2008. Lafayette will also have the good fortune of having one of his photographs, “Scholar,” appear on the cover of the next issue of Blood Lotus. (top)

Kathryn Eastburn (Spring 2006) is celebrating the release of her book Simon Says with a brief book tour of Colorado. She signed and read at Poor Richard’s Books in Colorado Springs on January 3 before a crowd of more than 100, then signed at Hamlet’s Booksellers in Breckenridge. On January 9, she signed at Tattered Cover in Denver. She has been interviewed by several radio and television outlets, including a New York station, and is meeting with producers from ABC’s 20-20 for a possible news magazine treatment of the story. In February, Eastburn is to teach Intro to Journalism at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Her second book, A Sacred Feast, is featured in the Spring/Summer 2008 University of Nebraska Press catalog. Anticipated release date is March 1. Simon Says is available online at Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble as well as at numerous independent sites.

Stacia M. Fleegal (Fall 2007) has poems appearing in upcoming issues of Here and There, Minnetonka Review, and Elsewhere: A Journal for the Literature of Place.

David Harrity’s (Fall 2007) chapbook Morning and What Has Come Since was nominated for three awards—the Conference on Christianity and Literature’s Book-of-the-Year Citation, The Kentucky Literary Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He has recently accepted a part-time teaching position at Asbury College and has several other teaching engagements scheduled for the spring, including appearances at The Carnegie Center and Asbury Theological Seminary. (top)

The result for Cyn Kitchen (Spring 2005) of accepting a writing challenge, posted on Crystal Wilkinson’s Myspace, was publication. Her flash fiction story, “Doxology” was picked up by The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. You can find it at www.deadmule.com. Cyn’s essay, “Remembering What’s to Come” appears in the Winter issue of New Southerner.

Dan Nowak (Spring 2007) is the winner of the 2007 Quercus Review Poetry Series Annual Book Award, and his full-length collection of poems, Recycle Suburbia, will be published in 2009. He is also the recent recipient of a grant from the Center for Great Plains Studies. He is working on a series of poems about the late poet Thomas McGrath and plans to use the grant to fund a trip to McGrath’s North Dakota farm.

Rosanne Osborne (Spring 2007) has had a poem selected for the Summer 2008 issue of Thema. (top)

Terry Price’s (Spring 2006) story “Eminent Domain,” which was published in volume 12, number 4 edition of Timber Creek Review has been nominated for the 2007 Pushcart Prize.

K. Shaver’s (Fall 2004) story “Lipstick Peonies” was selected by Pablo Medina as winner of Inkwell Magazine’s 2007 Fiction Contest.

Heather Shaw (Fall 2004) recently attended Robin Lippincott’s reading at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Robin read from his new novel, In the Meantime. The food columns Heather wrote for New Southerner magazine in 2006 recently appeared in the annual print version of the magazine, available through the website, www.newsoutherner.com.

One of Amanda Sledz’s (Fall 2007) essays appeared in the Voicecatcher Anthology, published in November. On November 27, she read at Powell’s City of Books as part of the promotion for the anthology. In December, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for the published essay.

Pamela Steele (Spring 2004) has been traveling and reading to promote the release of Paper Bird, her first book-length collection of poems, published by Wordcraft of Oregon. In October, after a release party held at the Fishtrap House in Enterprise, Oregon, she was a featured reader at the InKY Reading Series in Louisville. In November, Pam read and signed books at Wordstock, an annual writing festival held in Portland. (top)

Kathleen Thompson (Fall 2003) judged a poetry contest for the Wetumpka High School Literary Club in Wetumpka, Alabama. She presented awards to the winning students on December 13 at the school. Her stint as a Road Scholar for the Alabama Humanities Foundation has been extended to run through 2009.

Leslie Smith Townsend (Spring 2004) received a Kentucky Foundation for Women grant to complete a revision of Body Beautiful: A Memoir of Depression, Addiction, and Redemption. She was also accepted for a Vermont Studio Center residency with a partial fellowship. Check out her column, “The Half-Empty Mason Jar” at www.newsoutherner.com. (top)

Recently, Zola Troutman Noble’s (Spring 2005) short essay, “Finding a Heritage of Faith,” was published in Just Beyond the Passage: Life’s Changes in Art and Story, a collection of essays compiled, edited, and illustrated by David Liverett and published by Chinaberry House, Anderson, Indiana. In addition, Noble received a Falls Fund Faculty Development Grant to attend Glen Workshop: An Image Summer Institute for Artists, Writers, and Wayfarers, July 29-August 5, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Noble presented her essay, “My Mountain Grandmothers, Prudent and Cantankerous,” and participated in a spiritual writing workshop led by Ann McCutchan. Zola also received a stipend to write her essay for the workshop. . (top)

Books/Scripts in Common for Spring 2008
All students and faculty read the Book in Common, Pico Iyer’s Sun After Dark: Flights Into the Foreign, in preparation for a book discussion led by Sena Jeter Naslund on the first night of residency. (Bring the book to this session.)

Faculty Books/Scripts in Common
Students read the Faculty Book/Script in Common in the area of concentration they are to study in the Spring 2008 semester in preparation for a discussion with authors at the Spring 2008 residency. (Bring the book to the residency session.)

During the fall semester, students also write a 2-4 page short critical essay on the Faculty Book in Common. In one of their packets, students submit the essay to their mentors as one of the 8-10 critical essays required during ENG610 and ENG620. ENG 630 and ENG640 should add this requirement to their semester plan and send it to the mentor during the semester. All MFA students add the book/script to their cumulative bibliographies. (top)

Fiction: Kirby Gann’s Our Napoleon in Rags
Poetry: Maureen Morehead’s A Sense of Time Left (order from Spalding Bookstore by calling 800-896-8941, ext. 2284)
Creative Nonfiction: Robert Finch’s The Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore
Writing for Children: Joyce McDonald’s Shades of Simon Gray
Playwriting: Charlie Schulman’s The Kitchen (posted on BB)
Screenwriting: Sam Zalutsky’s You Belong to Me (posted on BB)

Students should check Blackboard for a complete list of pre-reading assignments. (top)

Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) for Fall 2007
FAC members are announced by the MFA Office at the beginning of each semester. The Program Director consults 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.