Friends of the MFA Are Gathering Friday, Feb 4, at AWP Conference
The Spalding MFA Program invites all students, alumni, faculty and friends to an offsite gathering during the AWP Conference in Washington, DC. The gathering will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday evening, February 4, in the Langston Room of Busboys and Poets (14th & V., 2021 14th Street, D.C. (202) 387-7638. Please note that there are several Busboy and Poets locations.); Our gathering will feature a cash bar and very short readings by MFA faculty members who are attending the conference including Dianne Aprile, Louella Bryant, Debra Kang Dean, Kathleen Driskell, Jody Lisberger, Richard Goodman, Nancy McCabe, Joyce McDonald, Sena Jeter Naslund, Elaine Orr, Greg Pape, Molly Peacock, Charlie Schulman, Jeanie Thompson, and Neela Vaswani. We look forward to reuniting with everyone that night! (top)

MFA Announces Winner of First Facebook Fanpage Contest
Congratulations to Amy Hanridge, a fourth-semester student, for winning the first drawing for the MFA Facebook Fanpage contest. The winner of the contest receives a $100 gift card from the independent bookstore of the winner's choice. Amy's favorite independent bookstore is Bookworm of Pinetop, Arizona. The next drawing for the contest is April 15. To enter, take a picture of yourself with MFA items, such as T-shirts, bags, or umbrellas. Post the picture to the fanpage at http://www.facebook.com/spaldingmfa or send it to mfafacebook@spalding.edu to be posted on the fanpage. For each picture posted, the MFA staff enters the name of the MFAer (students, alumni, and faculty) into a drawing for the $100 gift card. Winners are chosen four times a year.

To find MFA wear or gear see http://www.cafepress.com/spaldingmfa. And if you haven't already done so, join the MFA Program fanpage now at http://www.facebook.com/spaldingmfa. (top)

Fall 2010 Residency: A Study in Contrasts
It was musical, sculptural, and writerly—and a commentary on the joys of being an odd duck.

The MFA Program’s Fall 2010 residency abounded with contrasts. On Saturday it was Tchaikovsky and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra; on Tuesday it was Dizzy Gillespie and the Black-Eyed Peas as interpreted by a group of elementary-school-aged percussionists. A lecture on Renaissance sculpture was less “David vs. Goliath” than “David vs. David” as lecturer Bob Stagg contrasted Michelangelo’s classical restraint with the dramatic style of playwright-turned-sculptor Bernini.

Standing in contrast to these stirring acts of human creation was a contemplative focus on the natural world. The emphasis on nature began with a lecture by CNF faculty member Bob Finch and continued with a public presentation and private Q&A session with featured author Barry Lopez, who spoke about our Program Book in Common, the National Book Award-winning Arctic Dreams. Lopez’s talk considered the role of the writer as pattern maker and the ethical obligations of writers as they add to and shape humanity’s body of knowledge, particularly in this time of global climate change and the dwindling diversity of life on earth.

A few changes marked the daily pattern of this residency. In a refinement of the program’s cross-genre philosophy, a new requirement had all students attend at least one lecture outside their area of concentration. In addition, the usual evaluation deadline of 10 a.m. Sunday was pushed back 48 hours, giving students and faculty extra time to complete their reports. The later deadline was an experiment that may be repeated in the future.

Special workshops offered at the Fall 2010 residency included a fiction/creative nonfiction cross-genre workshop led by Robin Lippincott and Dianne Aprile, and a teaching workshop led by Kathleen Driskell.

In a perhaps coincidental thematic confluence, Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund opened the residency by welcoming home the assembled faculty and students, pronouncing us odd ducks all; at the end of the residency, Spalding President and MFA alum Tori Murden McClure advised the graduating class that being “normal” is overrated, but a sense of being normal can be cultivated by surrounding yourself with people who consider you normal—other writers especially. McClure lectured in pink cowboy boots to accentuate her point.

Spring 2011 Residency Program Book in Common Is Adam & Eve
The MFA Program’s Program Book in Common area for the Spring 2011 residency is fiction. Our Program Book in Common is the novel Adam & Eve, by Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund, who will discuss her latest novel on the first evening of residency, Friday, May 13. She will also answer questions from students and faculty about the writing and publication of Adam & Eve. All students and faculty, regardless of concentration, should read Adam & Eve and prepare comments to add to this plenary discussion attended by all MFA students and faculty members.

Sena Jeter Naslund is a New York Times bestselling author and has published seven previous books of fiction including the short story collections Ice Skating at the North Pole and The Disobedience of Water and the novels The Animal Way to Love, Sherlock in Love, Ahab’s Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette. With Elaine W. Hughes, Naslund is coauthor of a stage version of her civil-rights novel Four Spirits, commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival Theatre and fully produced at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. Naslund is a recipient of the Harper Lee Award, the Hall-Waters Southern Prize, the Southeastern Library Association Award, and the Alabama Library Association Award, and she has held grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, the Kentucky Arts Council, and the University of Louisville.

Kentucky Poet Laureate during 2005–2006, Naslund is currently the Program Director of the Spalding University brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing and editor of Spalding’s Fleur-de-Lis Press and The Louisville Review, which she founded in 1976 with two undergraduate students at the University of Louisville. She is also Writer in Residence and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Louisville.
She has taught at the University of Montana, Indiana University (Bloomington), Vermont College, and the University of Montevallo. Sena Jeter Naslund was also Visiting Eminent Scholar at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Her work has been reprinted in Australia and in the United Kingdom, where Ahab’s Wife was a finalist for the Orange Prize, and translated into German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Danish, Greek, and Spanish.

The daughter of a physician father and a musician mother, she grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, with her two older brothers: Marvin D. Jeter, an archaeologist and author of Edward Palmer’s Arkansaw Mounds; and John Sims Jeter, a retired engineer and author of the novel And the Angels Sang. The Jeter family also lived briefly in Loredo, West Virginia, and Jackson, Louisiana. Naslund attended public schools, Norwood Elementary and Phillips High School, in Birmingham and graduated from Birmingham Southern College, where she received the B.B. Comer Medal in English. She earned a master’s degree and a doctorate from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Students entering ENG620 in the spring are required to write a 2-4 page short critical essay on Adam & Eve and should send it to the MFA Office by February 28; these essays are forwarded to the MFA Program’s Expository Writing Coach, who conducts small expository workshops during the spring residency for ENG620 students.

All students should adjust their semester’s reading lists in order to add Adam & Eve to their cumulative bibliographies. (top)

Spring 2011 Residency Dates
The Spring 2011 residency takes place May 13-22. These dates fall earlier in the month than our usual schedule. Students and faculty, please be sure to mark your calendars. (top)

Books in Common For Spring 2011
All students and faculty read the Program Book in Common, Sena Jeter Naslund’s Adam & Eve, in preparation for a presentation and discussion led by Sena on the first night of residency. (Bring the book to this session.) (top)

FACULTY/GUEST BOOKS/SCRIPTS in Common for Spring 2011

In addition to the Program Book in Common, students also read a Faculty Book/Script in Common in their area of concentration. Rising ENG620, ENG630, and ENG640 students who are attending the Spring 2011 residency write an essay on the Faculty Book/Script in Common in their area. The Faculty Books/Scripts in Common are

Fiction: Silas House, A Parchment of Leaves

Poetry: Maureen Morehead, The Melancholy Teacher (To purchase, send orders to Larkspur Press, 340 Sawdridge Creek West, Monterey, KY 40359. Or call Gray Zeitz at 502-484-5390.)

Creative Nonfiction: Neela Vaswani, You Have Given Me a Country

Writing for Children: Joan Donaldson, On Viney’s Mountain
Playwriting: Charlie Schulman, Character Assassins (posted on Blackboard by midsemester)

Screenwriting: Sam Zalutsky, The Avenger-er (posted on Blackboard by midsemester) (top)

New Opportunity: Play Adaptation Enrichment Course
The Spalding MFA Program is offering an enrichment course in play adaptation during the Spring 2011 semester. This course is open to MFA students and alumni who concentrated in fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry and would like to learn how to adapt prose writing or poetry for the stage. At the Spring 2011 residency (May 13–22) in Louisville, the course begins with a small Play Adaptation Workshop led by a member of our playwriting faculty. During this workshop, students will be introduced to fundamental playwriting structure, technique, and craft. Students will also attend lectures and sessions offered in playwriting.

Students in the Play Adaptation Workshop will be asked to submit worksheets that follow the specific instructions of the workshop leader. These instructions will be available at midsemester, February 28, in order to give students enough time to complete their worksheets before the submission deadline on April 6, approximately six weeks before Spring 2011 residency.

For the at-home portion of the semester, students continue to work with a playwriting mentor and submit original scriptwriting for the stage in each packet. During the semester, students may wish to work on a script adapted from their own original ficion, creative nonfiction or poetry or from material written by another writer.

ENG610 is a prerequisite for this course, but students do not have to submit a writing sample. Students interested in registering for this course should contact Karen Mann no later than midsemester, February 28. Students will be enrolled in ENG650 (16 credits) as this course in addition to the four required core courses. ENG620 students may instead take this semester as a “minor” area. Space is limited. (top)

Film Production Seminar in Spring 2011 Open to All Students
Students in all areas of concentration may participate in the Film Production Seminar offered during the Spring 2011 residency in Louisville. ENG610 is a prerequisite for this workshop. Students participating in this seminar are not assigned to other workshops during residency, as this seminar is scheduled at the same time as Workshop.

After completing the workshop seminar, students are mentored by faculty in their major areas of concentration for the at-home portion of the semester. For their workshop submissions, FPS members present three two-page scripts to be considered for filming. In the first workshop, students discuss the scripts and, with the workshop leader’s guidance, choose one of the three to produce. Rehearsals, filming, and editing take place during the remaining workshop hours. Outside of the workshop, film production students attend other residency sessions, including plenary and craft lectures and panels, student and faculty readings, etc.

Before the residency, participants send in their three two-page scripts, which must use an indoor setting and employ not more than three actors. While the two pages may be excerpted from current work, they should form a certain unity or completeness: each short script should have a beginning, middle, and an end. Students may wish to reshape some of their original scenes from their own writing into scripts to fit these requirements. The screenwriting faculty and the program directors regard this activity as an enriching, optional experience for students in any area of concentration and are excited about this curriculum enhancement for our students. Interested students contact Gayle Hanratty at ghanratty@spalding.edu by February 10. Students who have met the ENG610 prerequisite will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. (top)

Contra Dance at Homecoming and Spring 2011 Residency
In the spirit of fun and festivity, a contra dance will close out Spring 2011’s residency. After the farewell dinner on Saturday, May 21, students, faculty, and all homecoming attendees are invited to participate in a dance at the Brown Hotel, with live music provided by a band whose members include MFA alum Joan Donaldson (Spring 2008). Dance experience not required!

The band Puddingstone will play traditional Irish, Scottish, and American fiddle tunes. The movements will be taught and prompted so that anyone can participate and enjoy the fun. Some of the dances will resemble the Virginia Reel, where partners face each other in two lines and, through the steps, move up and down the “contra lines.” In other dances, such as Kentucky Running Set or Big Set, couples progress around a circle as they dance the figures. And to add variety to the night, the band will play waltzes, schottisches, and polkas.

Puddingstone’s musicians are John Van Voorhees on piano accordion, Glenn Hendrix on fiddle, and at times, Joan Donaldson on button accordion and folk harp. Other musicians pending are Robin Tinholt on Irish flute and concertina and Nancy Patton on keyboard.

All are heartily encouraged to join in the dance. (top)

Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) for Fall 2010
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.

• Rachel Harper, fiction
• Greg Pape, poetry
• Nancy McCabe, creative nonfiction
• Ellie Bryant, writing for children and young adults
• Brad Riddell, playwriting/screenwriting

(top)

www.facebook.com/SpaldingMFA and mfafacebook@spalding.edu
MFAers have a new way to share their writerly news on the MFA fanpage (http://www.facebook.com/SpaldingMFA). Send news about readings, blog entries, pictures, or other items of interest to mfafacebook@spalding.edu. (top)

Alumni trip to Rome and Tuscany
For the first time, a group of MFA alumni will be traveling to Italy with the MFA summer residency abroad. This summer, ten alumni will be immersed in the culture, art, and fellowship of writing in the city of Rome and the hills of Tuscany. Writers from a variety of genres will have opportunities to be a part of some residency events and their own literary activities and will enjoy retreat time alone to write. Sena and Kathleen will deliver lectures/workshops to alumni at their villa in Tuscany. Tours of the Colosseum, Forum and the Vatican and the Vatican museums are set for Rome, and day trips to Florence and Siena are scheduled for the Tuscany portion of the trip. 

Homecoming 2011: May 20-22
Plans for the MFA Alumni Association’s Homecoming 2011 are in the works. Set the dates, May 20-22, aside now.

Homecoming sessions include a seminar by Kenny Cook, a publishing session, a selection of faculty lectures in a variety of genres, an alumni 5-minute reading, and more. The Alumni Association will again sponsor a Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni which will take place on Friday, May 20, at the Brown Hotel.

The Celebration will be followed by a new and innovative session called SPLoveFest, a writers’ fair, where Celebration readers will sign books but also where any alumni can promote books, literary journals, writing websites, blogs, podcasts, or other writing activities. There is no fee for space at SPLoveFest, but reservations are required and space is on a first come, first served, basis. Look for more information in upcoming issues of Soaring, the newsletter of the MFA Alumni Association, and on the alumni website at http://www.spaldingmfaalum.com.

Alumni, Spring 2011 graduates, and faculty are invited to attend a free brunch on Saturday, May 21, in the Spalding mansion, hosted by the MFA Program.
There is no registration fee to attend Homecoming; however, to allow the Homecoming Committee to better plan the events, attendees are asked to register. Registration forms are forthcoming.

(top)

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. (top)

Life of a Writer

Jerriod Avant is the new house manager for the InKY Reading Series, which happens every second Friday at The Bard’s Town in Louisville. Jerriod is a Longtown, Mississippi, native and has been living in Louisville for two years.

Shannon Cavanaugh published her poem “To My Thief” with a small independent online publication at http://www.thesurvivorchronicles.org . The poem was written before enrolling at Spalding University, but faculty mentor Mary Yukari Waters encouraged Shannon to submit the poem for publication. The Survivor Chronicles publishes short stories and poetry about the survival of trauma.

Ted Chiles announces that his story “A Recursive Love Affair,” published in Vestal Review, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize (http://www.vestalreview.net/pushcart.html). His 30-word story, Buck Season in McKean County Pennsylvania 1946, was one of five winners chosen from a pool of 1,400 submissions in Smokelong Quarterly’s Thirty-Word Story Contest (http://www.smokelong.com/flash/30word30q.asp). (top)

Vicki Combs announces that her creative nonfiction piece “Miss Ida’s Moon” won honorable mention in the New Southerner magazine 2010 Literary Prizes. It is her first publication. Fellow student Diana McQuady sent her the contest notice, so she says she owes her a nice dinner. The story is up online at http://www.newsoutherner.com/submissions/the-2010-literary-prizes/.

Eva Sage Gordon won first place in the New Southerner magazine 2010 Literary Prizes for her creative nonfiction piece, The Heart of the Woods. It is available online at http://www.newsoutherner.com/submissions/the-2010-literary-prizes/.

Jason Harmon announces that his poem “rented” appears in the October issue of Yes, Poetry. http://yespoetry.com/

Caroline LeBlanc announces that she has led her program, Writing for Your Life©, for an ongoing writing circle of military family members since Spring 2010. Since Fall 2010, she has led the circle for rotating groups of active duty soldiers. In the fall, she was one of several hundred writers and scholars of war literature invited, along with Air Force Cadets, to attend the War, Literature and the Arts conference at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Her paper, “The Regional and Beyond: Franco-American Poetic Voices in New England, Louisiana and Across the United States,” has been accepted for presentation at the March/April Louisiana Conference on Literature, Language and Culture, sponsored by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She reads her poetry at the conference. Later in April, she reads at BodySoul Community Conference: Honoring Roots, Nurturing New Life, near Chicago. (top)
 
Erin Meadows-Tallant attended a conference of the Tennessee Mountain Writers in Sweetwater in January. (top)

Laura Morton co-produced the short film We’re Leaving, which has been accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. (top)

Tommy Trull’s new musical Silent Pictures, which is based on a short story by Spalding alum AshleyRose Sullivan (Fall 2010), is scheduled to be presented at the 2011 Greensboro Fringe Festival. (top)

Fourth-semester student Mandy Yates recently had five separate poems accepted for publication by Highlights High Five children’s magazine. (top)

Faculty and Staff

Dianne Aprile has been awarded an artist-in-residency at Hedgebrook, a women writers’ retreat on Whidbey Island in Washington State. The Writers in Residence Program is Hedgebrook’s core program, supporting no-cost residencies of 30-40 women writers from around the world at the retreat each year. For more information on Hedgebrook programs, go to http://www.hedgebrook.org/programdetails.php?id=1&PHPSESSID=394731e16931c905dab0bb59aa43fb1b

Dianne is also one of the authors signing books as part of Accents Publishing’s booth at the AWP Conference in Washington, D.C. (top)

Ellie Bryant gave a school assembly on her book The Black Bonnet to elementary students at Newcomb School in Newcomb, New York, followed by a writing workshop for fifth-graders, all of whom had read the book. Fortunately, her book-signing hand was in good form.

K. L. Cook’s third book, a new collection of stories titled Love Songs for the Quarantined, won the 2010 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction and is set to be published in early fall by Willow Springs Books. Stories from the book appear in upcoming issues of The Louisville Review, Prairie Schooner, and One Story. His story, “Bonnie and Clyde in the Backyard,” was listed as a distinguished story in the 2010 Best American Short Stories. (top)

Debra Kang Dean delivered an essay on literary citizenship as part of the “Citizenship in the U.S.A. Conference” at Indiana University in September. Two of her poems recently appeared in Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review: “Juniper,” which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and “Song,” which was featured on “Verse Daily” on January 12. She is also one of four poets responding to questions about place, outside interests, form, and the relationship between poetry and politics in the journal’s “4 x 4” section.

Kathleen Driskell was recently awarded a grant by the Kentucky Foundation for Women to publish a graphic poem. She presents during several sessions at the AWP Conference in Washington, DC, February 2-5. On Thursday, February 3, she moderates the panel “Scripting Curriculum: Integrating Playwriting and Screenwriting into the MFA in Writing Program.” MFA Faculty member Charlie Schulman is a member of this panel. She is a panelist on Lori May’s panel “Closing the Distance: Innovations in Low-Residency MFAs” on Friday, February 4. On Saturday morning, February 5, she will present at the Low-Residency MFA Program Directors’ Caucus. She will visit the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford to give a reading on February 22. On Saturday, March 19, The Carnegie Center in Lexington and the Kentucky Arts Council have invited her to lead a poetry workshop during the Kentucky Crafted Market at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville. (top)

Richard Goodman’s book, The Bicycle Diaries: One New Yorker’s Journey Through September 11th, publishes in spring in a fine press, limited edition by Midnight Paper Sales, with six original wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec. For the book’s prospectus, visit this site: www.midnightpapersales.com/media/bicycle%20prospectus%202.pdf.

Roy Hoffman’s essay on the 1950s rock ’n’ roll group, The Crazy Teens and their song “Crazy Date” is in the current, 12th annual Southern Music issue of the Oxford-American, with accompanying CD for all music featured in the magazine. Among his recent features for the Press-Register in Mobile is a religion story about the author of the memoir The Devil in Pew Number Seven, reprinted in the Huffington Post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/29/author-tells-personal-tal_n_776259.html. (top)

Silas House recently accepted the position of National Endowment in the Humanities Chair of Appalachian Studies at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. In December, the National Council of Teachers of English awarded Silas with the Intellectual Freedom Prize.

Two of his poems were chosen for The Southern Anthology of Poetry, which was released in December. His short story “Total Immersion” was recently anthologized in the book Degrees of Elevation, edited by Spalding alum Charles Dodd White and Spalding student Page Seay.

In February, the paperbacks of his Eli the Good (Candlewick) and Something’s Rising (University Press of Kentucky) are set to be released, along with the audio for Eli the Good (Brilliance Audio), which he reads.

In March, Larkspur Press releases a limited-edition letterpress book of his short story “Recruiters,” which was first published in The Anthology of Appalachian Writing: Silas House Issue. Also in March, the University Press of Kentucky releases the posthumous manuscript of James Still’s Chinaberry, which Silas edited.

Among other events, Silas was recently invited to give the prestigious keynote speech to the Southern Environmental Law Center and is the featured reader at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference in March.

His books Clay’s Quilt and Eli the Good have been selected for a variety of school-wide reads this spring. He and co-author Neela Vaswani recently sold their young adult novel Same Sun Here to Candlewick Press. It is set to be released in early 2012. (top)

Helena  Kriel is presently in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she will be holding a workshop on the writing of memoirs. She will make use of the techniques of screenwriting for this purpose. While in Johannesburg she is completing the manuscript of her own memoir. Toward the end of January she will go to India to attend the International Book Fair in Jaipur and then travel to Mumbai for meetings with a film studio. (top)

Robin Lippincott announces that an excerpt from Joan of Art: A Meditation on the Life and Work of Joan Mitchell appears in the current issue of The Lumberyard (#7).
 
Nancy McCabe’s book, tentatively titled Over Our Heads and Across the Sea: A Journey to My Daughter’s Birthplace in China, is set to be published by University of Missouri Press in the fall. Her essay, “Can This Troubled Marriage be Saved: A Quiz,” which she read from at the fall residency, has been nominated for a Pushcart by Bellingham Review. And finally, the undergraduate magazine she advises at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Baily’s Beads, received an award for Best College Magazine from the American Scholastic Press Association. (top)

Joyce McDonald led a three-day workshop on writing young adult and crossover novels and served on a panel at the 18th annual Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway held in Cape May, New Jersey, from January 14–17.  Joyce also participated in the 8th annual Poetry Retreat organized by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and held in Mendham, New Jersey from January 6–9. Jeanie Thompson was this year’s workshop leader.

Maureen Morehead announces that The Melancholy Teacher, her most recent book of poetry, is available from Larkspur Press. Like all Larkspur publications, the book itself is a work of art. It was handset in Cloister Lightface type, printed on a hand-fed C&P, then hand-bound. It includes wood engravings by Alex Brooks. The book comes in three editions: paper ($26); cloth ($34); and a special edition that is hand-bound at the press in paper hand-marbled by Debbie Shannon ($130). Larkspur has a website at http://www.larkspurpress.com.

To purchase books, however, send orders to Larkspur Press, 340 Sawdridge Creek West, Monterey, KY 40359. Or call Gray Zeitz at 502-484-5390. (top)

Sena Jeter Naslund read and spoke in January about Adam & Eve at the invitation of alum Alice Gorman in Boca Grande, Florida, and also at the Bookmania festival in Stuart, Florida. Adam & Eve was an Editor’s Choice for the New York Times Book Review. At AWP, Sena participates in a panel on Moby-Dick and her novel Ahab’s Wife, at 3 p.m. Thursday, February 3, in the Omni West Lobby.

Lesléa Newman has received and accepted an offer from Candlewick Press for her young adult poetry collection, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard.(top)

Kira Obolensky announces that The Oldest Story in the World was produced at the Southern Theatre in Minneapolis by Theatre Novi Most in September; Cabinet of Wonders by Open Eye Figure Theatre in October; a new play, The Secret Lives of Doubles and Invention of the Third Dimension, was presented at PlayLabs in October; and Why We Laugh was workshopped with funds from the Rimon Foundation. Why We Laugh is set to receive its world premiere in Prague in June.

Molly Peacock announces that The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 is set to be published in the U.S. by Bloomsbury Books on April 5. The book already has been on the bestseller list in Canada for six weeks. (top)

Brad Riddell announces that faculty member Sam Zalutsky and he were recently published in a screenwriting book called Now Write! Screenwriting (http://nowwrite.net). It came out January 6 from Tarcher/Penguin. Now Write! Screenwriting is an essential handbook featuring never-before-published writing exercises from the acclaimed screenwriters of hit films and television shows.

One of their Spalding screenwriting students, Michael Dougan, also was published in the book.

In addition, as the writer of Slap Shot: The Junior League, Brad was featured in the new book, The Making of Slap Shot: Behind the Scenes of the Greatest Hockey Movie Ever Made by Jonathon Jackson.
Brad has started a blog at http://www.bradriddell.com, “in case that’s ever newsworthy on a slow day.”

Luke Wallin announces these publishing events: His poem “The Sparrowhawk,” Pot Luck Magazine: Conversations Around the Table, print, Winter 2010; “The Names in the Barn,” The Toucan online literary magazine, October 2010. His story “Watermelon Love,” Muscadine Lines: a Southern Journal, online, Jan.-March edition, 2011. His book The Everything Guide to Writing Children’s Books, second edition, January 2011, Adams Media, co-written with Eva Sage Gordon. Visit: http://lukewallin.com.

“The Names in the Barn” was the poem of the week in The Toucan. See http://thetoucanonline.blogspot.com/2010/10/poem-of-week-names-in-barn-luke-wallin.html or The Toucan facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=456161664381.

Luke’s essay, “Writing ‘God’s Fine Wilderness’: John Muir in the Mountains of California,” was included in Nature and Identity in Cross-Cultural Perspective, GeoJournal, Library #48, softcover edition, Nov. 2, 2010, co-edited with Ann Buttimer. It is published by Springer.

Luke was the final judge in Moon Milk Review’s November “prosetry” contest.

Alumni

Miranda Barnes (Fall 2005) announces that her poem “After-Work Witness” appears in Ruminate Magazine’s Winter 2010/2011 issue (see more at http://www.ruminatemagazine.org/). She was featured reader at the bi-monthly reading series of Two With Water Journal in Chicago in November, reading her poem “Diving into the Dumpster.” (top)

Myra Bellin (Fall 2005) announces that her essay “Tanked” was published in the Fall 2010 issue of Slow Trains (read it at http://www.slowtrains.com/vol10issue1/bellinvol10issue1.html). Her essay “Shattered Illusions”was published in Diverse Voices Quarterly (Vol 11:7 54-56). Read it at http://www.diversevoicesquarterly.com/2010/diverse-voices-quarterly-iss-7/. Myra attended the Chautauqua Literary Festival in June, where she attended a workshop led by Tom French, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. (top)

Larry Brenner (Fall 2010) announces that his film script, the soon to be retitled Flesh and Blood, is in development with Roth Films. His play Saving Throw Versus Love also is in development with producers. The Three Little Wolves was selected for New York University’s Theatre for Young Audiences Development Series and is set to have performances in June. In December, Larry won first place in the Back in the Box Screenplay Competition. Larry was interviewed in Script Magazine, in an online article and on page 80 of the January/February printed issue. (top)

Amy M. Clark (Fall 2004) has had a poem nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize by the editors of Tuesday; An Art Project. Garrison Keillor has selected her poem “Arc” for inclusion in his forthcoming anthology Good Poems, American Places (Viking, April 2011). In March she reads from her book Stray Home (University of North Texas Press) in St. Louis, Missouri; Reno, Nevada; and Concord, Massachusetts; and in May in Lowell, Massachusetts, as part of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival.
 
Dave DeGolyer (Fall 2006) is set to have his first freelance travel article published in Spring 2011. The feature article appears in the inaugural issue of Finger Lakes Wine Country Magazine, which is put out by the publishers of Hour Detroit. Dave’s alter ego, Lafayette Wattles, has poems in the current issues of Inkwell and Plain Spoke. (top)

Sonja de Vries (Fall 2009) announces that her poem “Herbert’s Little Sister” won honorable mention in The Ledge poetry competition and is set to be published in the next issue. Her book Planting a Garden in Bagdad is being released this month by Finishing Line Press is being translated into Spanish by Cuban writer/poet Lizbet Gispert.

Daniel DiStasio (Fall 2005) announces that his short story “Tupper Lake” has been accepted for publication in The Chaffey Review and is set to appear in the Spring 2011 issue.(top)

Stacia M. Fleegal (Fall 2006) announces that her first full-length collection of poems, Anatomy of a Shape-Shifter, was published in November 2010 by WordTech. Visit http://www.staciamfleegal.com to read reviews or purchase a copy directly from her. Her poem “Post-Apocalyptic” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by decomP.

Barry George (Fall 2009) has had three poems from his chapbook, Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku, nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His poem “Five Portraits in Tanka” has been accepted by The Louisville Review.(top)

Karen George (Spring 2009) announces that three poems are set to be published in the June 2011 issue of Still: The Journal. Her poetry chapbook, Into the Heartland, will be available from Finishing Line Press for pre-publication sales now until March 2 at http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm. Click on “Releases and Forthcoming.” Authors are listed alphabetically. Release date is April 29. (top)

Joe Gisondi (Spring 2010) received an Achievement and Contribution award for research from Eastern Illinois University, where he teaches journalism, for the 2009-10 academic year.

Jackie Gorman (Spring 2010) announces that her short story, “Ghost Dance,” from her thesis is being published in Slake magazine, a new Los Angeles quarterly. The magazine is due out in February.(top)

CoCo Harris (Fall 2006) has launched Telling Our Stories Press, a new imprint with a focus on showcasing literary personal narratives. Visit http://www.TellingOurStoriesPress.com. The inaugural publication, Resurrecting Proust: Unearthing Personal Narratives through Journaling by CoCo is being released January. To enjoy a SPLOVE 20 percent discount, use code ALPGFG82 at direct purchase site. Visit http://www.ResurrectingProust.com. Telling Our Stories is constantly receiving numerous quality submissions and in need of more volunteer editors. Inquire via to Staff@TellingOurStoriesPress.com . Please also visit the Submissions page of the website to view guidelines and submit short memoirs.(top)

Colleen S. Harris (Fall 2009) has placed her first-ever short story, “A Hound That Does Not Hunt,” in the January 2011 issue of Midnight Screaming. She is also happy to report that her poem “When You Came Home from the War” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Lamplighter Review. This is Colleen’s second Pushcart nomination is as many years.

Her third book, The Kentucky Vein, a collection of poems and essays, is set to be published by Kentucky’s Punkin House Press in the summer. Her author page is available at http://www.punkinbooks.com/Colleen_Harris.html.

Her second collection of poems, These Terrible Sacraments, is now available through Bellowing Ark Press (http://www.bellowingark.org). She conducted her first reading from the newly published collection with other Chattanooga poets on December 5.

In addition, her group of sonnets collectively titled Gentle Cycle appears in the sunset issue of Bellowing Ark. Colleen also has a sonnet, “Idolatry,” and a creative nonfiction essay, “Of Blue Collars and Electrical Tape,” in The Sequoya Review. (top)

Chris Helvey (Fall 2006) recently published the inaugural issue of the literary journal Trajectory. Copies are $12 each (or $20 for two issues) and can be obtained from several bookstores or by contacting Trajectory, P.O. Box 655, Frankfort, KY 40602, or by emailing adobechris@hotmail.com . The website is http://www.trajectoryjournal.com. The magazine “absolutely” does take submissions from Spalding alums, faculty, students, friends, etc.

His poem “Into the Sun” was selected and published in Moments of the Soul, Poems of Meditation and Mindfulness by Writers of Every Faith (Spirit First Press, 2010). (top)

Edie Hemingway (Spring 2004) recently attended the National Council of Teachers of English convention in Orlando, Florida, where, as part of a group of young-adult and middle-grade authors, she presented a roundtable discussion on “The Other Happily Ever After: Transforming and Empowering Readers Through a Re-Tooling of the Female Hero’s Journey.” While there, she also participated in several signings and a Random House dinner for authors and educators.

Edie had her article “Read as a Writer to Improve Your Own Writing” published in the Spring 2010 volume of The Leaflet, Journal of The New England Association of Teachers of English. (top)

Patty Houston (Fall 2008) announces that her story “Not By Nectar Alone” is forthcoming in a 2011 issue of Louisiana Literature. She presents her creative nonfiction essay “The Poof Under Cadence O’Carrol’s Chemise: Reflections on Gifts, On Why We Really Write” in February at the Louisville Conference on Culture & Literature since 1900. In March she presents “For the Love of Reading” at the College English Association’s Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. (top)

Cyn Kitchen (Spring 2005) celebrated the publication of her first book, Ten Tongues (MotesBooks), on October 30 with a Caxton Club reading at Knox College, where she is assistant professor of English. She has participated in several bookstore signings, been interviewed for radio and newspaper, and begun scheduling book club and workshop gigs.

Cyn was a featured reader in December for the InKY Reading Series and enjoyed an overnight in Louisville for old time’s sake. Reaction to her book has been largely positive except for the one reader who burned a copy of a story in front of her on the day the book was launched (in the presence of some of Cyn’s Spalding peers, which was spectacular!) and her own mother, who has denounced the book as “smut” and proclaimed that Cyn had written the book she never would have allowed Cyn to read. All in all, however, Cyn takes it in stride and is enjoying the adventure. Plus, she is still hammering away on her second book, a novel that, incidentally, features a mother who’s rather difficult to get along with. (top)

Katrina Kittle (Fall 2008) is pleased to report that her first young-adult novel, Reasons to Be Happy, is set to be published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky in October. Katrina recently visited Spalding faculty member Nancy McCabe’s creative writing classes at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. Katrina’s most recent novel, The Blessings of the Animals, was selected by the National Women’s Book Association as a Great Group Read for 2010. (top)

Jill Koren’s (Spring 2008) poem, “On Our Way Back from the Compost Heap Tonight,” appears in the December of Literary Mama.

Mindy Beth Miller (Spring 2009) visited Silas House’s Appalachian Literature class at Berea College and talked to the students about the new generation of Appalachian writers. She followed up on that visit with a phone interview in which she fielded the student’s questions about her short story, “Entangled Roots.” Also, Mindy was featured in Kentucky Monthly Magazine’s November literary issue as one of the state’s five up-and-coming writers. Her hometown newspaper, The Hazard Herald, later ran a front-page interview with Mindy about the honor. And, in December, her short story, “Real Good Man,” was published in Degrees of Elevation: Stories of Contemporary Appalachia. (top)

Veronica Munn (Spring 2008) took third place in the fiction category at Indiana University Southeast’s 2010 Writing Competition for her short story, “Disasters in the Sun.” She was honored for her submission at the annual English Department gala on December 2 and received a cash prize.

Richard Newman (Fall 2004) has poems appearing in Sou’wester’s upcoming formal poetry issue. His poem “Bellefontaine Cemetery” won the $1,000 First Place prize in The Ledge 2010 Poetry Awards Competition and appears in The Ledge magazine next year. (top)

Loreen Niewenhuis (Spring 2007) has two books coming out this year. The first, A 1000-Mile Walk on the Beach is an adventure/memoir about her hike entirely around Lake Michigan. It is set to be released by Crickhollow Books of Milwaukee on March 1. The second is set to be published by Main Street Rag Publishing this summer in its novella series. That book is her novella, Atlanta. It is available at http://www.mainstreetrag.com. Get more info about these books and developing book tour at her website: http://www.LNiewenhuis.com.

Loreen was interviewed by Lori A. May on her blog: http://loriamay.blogspot.com/2010/11/q-with-author-loreen-niewenhuis.html.

Loreen also had her strange story “Woman, Water Tower, Man” (which originally appeared in print in the anthology Women. Period.) transformed into spoken form at Red Lion Square, volume 1 episode 12 (http://www.redlionsq.com ). (top)

Dan Nowak (Spring 2007) announced that his second chapbook of poems, Of a Bed Frame, publishes in this spring by Accents Publishing.

Molly Power (Spring 2007) announces that her poem “Sea Turtle Hunting” appears in the upcoming issue of the Evening Street Review, a biannual journal published by Evening Street Press. (top)

Diana Raab (Fall 2003) moderates a panel at the 2011 AWP in Washington, D.C., and is honored to have two of Spalding’s faculty on the panel. The panel is “The Art of Rejection: Giving and Receiving,” at 10:30 a.m. February 4. Panelists include Molly Peacock, Philip F. Deaver, Kevin Watson, Geeta Kothari, and Wendy Call.

Raab’s self-help memoir, Healing with Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey, is a finalist in the 2010 Best Books Award sponsored by USA Book News in the health category. Her article “Boosting Your Creativity” was published in the Allbooks Review Newsletter (December 2010). Read it at http://allbooksreview.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/boosting-your-creativity-allbooks-review/. (top)

Brian Russell (Spring 2010) is delighted to report that Chapter 2 of his chapbook, Meeting Dad: A Memoir (Accents Publishing, 2010), has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Barbara Sabol’s (Fall 2010) debut poetry chapbook, Original Ruse, has been released and is now available for shipping from Accents Publishing (http://www.accents-publishing.com). Her poem “Over-Easy at the All-Night Diner” appeared in the January inaugural issue of the online literary journal, Blast Furnace Press (www.blastfurnacepress.com). (top)

Julia Schuster’s (Spring 2007) second book, The Ingredients of Gumbo, a collection of her short stories, poetry, and sketches, is set to be released from BelleBooks in June. Her first book, Flowers for Elvis, has received wonderful reviews and has enjoyed several appearances on Amazon’s Paperback and Kindle Bestseller Lists, among others.

On January 20, Julia spoke at the “Memphis Book and Author Affair” at the Racquet Club of Memphis. Joining her on the podium was Beth Hoffman, author of Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt, and Jennifer Chandler, author of Simply Suppers. The event benefited Literacy Mid-South and Reading is Fundamental. She was interviewed on WKNO’s “Checking on the Arts,” which aired January 14. (top)

Pamela Steele (Spring 2004) has signed a contract with Counterpoint Press of Berkeley. Her novel, Greasewood Creek, publishes in the fall. This is her first novel.

Kathleen Thompson (Fall 2003) held a poetry workshop for the entire freshman class (86 students) of LAMP Magnet High School in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 6. This was her second consecutive year to be there as a Road Scholar with the Alabama Humanities Foundation. Of particular joy was utilizing a poem by the U.S. Poet Laureate, W.S. Merwin, whom she had had the privilege of meeting at Spalding while serving as a post-graduate residency assistant, fall 2006. Merwin personalized her copy of his Migration with a thank-you for locating a copy of a poem by his friend, Louis Simpson, in the then-current Hudson Review.(top)

Vickie Weaver (Fall 2005) hosted a launch party in her hometown, Hagerstown, Indiana, in September and a second launch in Louisville on September 28 for Billie Girl, her first novel. Please check her website, www.vickieweaver.com, for book tour details. Weaver was interviewed by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer (Fall 2009) on “Accents: A Radio Show for Literature, Arts and Culture” on December 10. Weaver was also featured in an interview on the online IU Home Pages under “At Work.”

Charles Dodd White’s (Fall 2009) novel Lambs of Men was nominated for the prestigious Weatherford Award for Best Appalachian Fiction of 2010. In November, he co-edited with current MFA student Page Seay an anthology of contemporary Appalachian short fiction called Degrees of Elevation. In December, his story “A World of Daylight” was published in Fugue, and another story, “The Sweet Sorrowful,” appeared at Necessary Fiction.(top)

Kit Willihnganz (Fall 2008) announces that she is about to sign a three-book deal with St. Martin’s Press, which has accepted her young-adult novel Dream Walker and asked her to write two sequels. She says she is delighted and very grateful to the MFA program, “especially to Sena and Karen, for all the support and encouragement.”

Lauren Young (Spring 2010) recently transferred to the training and curriculum development department of Colonial Property Group Inc., which involves more research and writing and puts her degree to use. Previously, she was in accounting and invoicing. The transfer involved relocation from Virginia to southern Indiana. If you’d like Lauren’s new address, see the PDF version of the newsletter on Blackboard or contact the MFA Office. (top)

Lucinda Ziesing (Spring 2006) won Best Young Adult/Family prize in the 2010 Gotham Screen Screenplay contest for Strike. The $2,500 cash award was sponsored by Triboro Pictures. Judges described the screenplay as “the true story of an honest, ambitious man who seeks his fortune in the expanding West, from silver mining in New Mexico to the land boom in Los Angeles in the late 1880s, and onward to the discovery of oil in California and Mexico. His quest for fortune, however, is realized only when he loses his wife, the one fortune he cannot reclaim.” (top)

Personals

Our thoughts are with Victoria Moon (Fall 2004) as she recovers from a severe head injury that left her in a coma, from which she recently emerged. Those who would like to read about Victoria’s progress may go tohttp://www.caringbridge.org/visit/victoriamoon/mystory. A family assistance fund has been created at Helping Hands Ministries to collect tax-deductible donations for the Moons’ expenses. To make a donation at the Helping Hands web site with a credit card, go to www.hhmin.org and click on Make a Donation. From there, select “Donate to Helping Hands Ministries Approved Projects.” Under project category, select medical projects, and then under project, select “Moon Family.” Or checks can be mailed to Helping Hands Ministries, Box 337, Tallulah Falls, Ga. 30573. Be sure to note “Moon Family Medical Project” on the check.

Our deepest sympathy to Elizabeth Guertler on the passing of her mother, Florence Guertler, who was nearly 101 years old at the time of her death. (top)

Spalding's Flickr Group
The MFA Program has a Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/spaldingmfa/. The MFA staff encourages all students and faculty to join the group and post their MFA-related photos. (Photos may also be posted, or linked to, on the MFA Facebook Fanpage by emailing the information to mfafacebook@spalding.edu .) (top)

Spalding’s MFA in Writing Reading Trail for MFA Authors
When one of our faculty, students, or alumni publishes a book, thew MFA Program celebrates that success. In keeping with the community spirit fostered by the Spalding MFA Program, the Program wants to support actively those authors when they travel to promote their books. Please send information to Karen Mann to help create a Reading Trail of possible reading opportunities.

Spalding students and faculty hail from all over the United States and beyond. Many participants live in communities that offer reading series, which are affiliated with a local independent bookstore or university or are run on their own, such as Louisville’s own InKY (founded by Spalding alums).

MFAers can support Spalding authors by providing an introduction to reading series organizers or simply passing along information about reading opportunities in your area. Providing this information does not commit anyone to anything he/she is unable to do. The Program simply hopes to put together a list of possibilities that will help authors market their books successfully.

Anyone who has ideas to share should email Karen Mann at kmann@spalding.edu to request the Reading Trail form to complete and return.

Thank you for being an active part of our Spalding MFA community!

Anyone who has a new book our may request a copy of the Reading Trail from Karen Mann at kmann@spalding.edu. (top)

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. Information for assistantships is on Blackboard under SEMESTERS/ [your semester]/ DOCUMENTS: GENERAL INTEREST.

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. 2731 or email vmontgomery@spalding.edu. Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at fafsa.ed.gov.

All Spring students: Fill out the FAFSA for the 10-11 school year, using 2009 tax information. (top)

All Summer (and Spring-Stretch) students: Fill out the FAFSA for the 11-12 school year, using 2010 tax information.

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. For convenience, bookmark this page. The web address is case sensitive. (top)

Life of a Writer: Please remember to email Life of a Writer news to the program at mfanewsletter@spalding.edu because this is a vital part of our community—to 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 web site addresses when appropriate.

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. (top)

About The Masthead: The image in our masthead is 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. (top)

Sena Jeter Naslund, Program Director
Karen J. Mann, Administrative Director
Kathleen Driskell, Associate Program Director
Katy Yocom, Program Associate
Gayle Hanratty, Administrative Assistant
Carolyn Flynn, Newsletter Editor

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

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 Carolyn Flynn at mfanewsletter@spalding.edu

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