Vol. 10 No. 1
July 2006
Students, Alum Books for Spalding Bookstore
Life of a Writer
Change of Address and Personals
Previous Newsletters
W. S. Merwin’s
Migration Is Book in Common
In preparation for the opening night plenary discussion of W.S. Merwin’s
Migration: New and Selected Poems, students and faculty are asked
to focus particularly on the poems listed below. Four of the titles were
selected for us by Merwin himself, the others by the MFA poetry faculty
and the Program Directors.
Students are asked to find three additional unlisted poems that they especially
admire.
“On the Subject of Poetry” 25
“Leviathon” 29
“Learning a Dead Language” 41
“Low Fields and Light” 42
“The Drunk in the Furnace” 76
“Lemuel’s Blessing” 82
“Departure’s Girlfriend” 92
“The Last One” 116
“It Is March” 118
“The River of Bees” 121
“The Room” 129
“For the Anniversary of My Death” 131
“In the Winter of My Thirty-Eighth Year” 132
“When You Go Away” 133
“For a Coming Extinction” 137
“Fly” 139
“Envoy from D’Aubigne” 155
“The Gardens of Zuñi” 166
“Homeland” 167
“Little Horse” 168
“Search Party” 212
“Apples” 220
“Migration” 221
“An Encampment at Morning” 222
“Strawberries” 237
“Berryman” 255
“Late Spring” 265
“Rain at Night” 273
“Before Us” 276
“Anniversary on the Island” 278
“Black Jewell” 280
“Place” 285
“Witness” 286
“Losing a Language” 286
“Chord” 286
“Snake” 381
“Vixen” 394
“Testimony” 419
“Waves in August” 477
“A Term” 493
“Before the Flood” 494
“Unknown Bird” 497
“To the Consolations of Philosophy” 523
“To Impatience” 528
Students entering ENG620 in the fall write a 2-4 page essay (due August 3) and should also focus primarily on poems from the list. Approaches to the required essay may be chosen from the following possibilities: (1) a close reading of any one poem, (2) a comparison of two poems in terms of subject, structure, and style, (3) imagery and/or tonal variety in several poems, (4) Merwin’s ideas about language and poetry, about nature, about other thematic matters, (5) technique in line length or line breaks, (6) organizational principles. (top)
Cross-Genre
Assignment for Fall Residency
As the cross-genre exercise for the Fall 2006 residency, all students,
regardless of area of concentration, write a poem based on an art object
or painting. Preparation for the writing assignment includes a plenary
lecture by Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund. In addition, all students
are taken by chartered bus to visit Louisville’s Speed Art Museum
to find a subject for their poem. All poems are read by the poetry faculty,
and some are selected for presentation at a follow-up plenary session
near the end of the residency.(top)
Students
to Get Spalding Student Email Accounts
By August 1, all students are required to have a Spalding email account.
In August, the MFA Program begins using Blackboard, an online teaching
management system, and students need a Spalding email account to access
Program information. In addition, in Spring 2007, students may register
online and must have a Spalding email account to do so.
Students who have a personal or preferred email account may forward the
Spalding student email account to their preferred account, and by doing
so do not need to access the Spalding email account to check their email.
Please email Katy at kyocom@spalding.edu
with the Spalding student email address.
Here’s how to create the student email account.
• Go to http://www.spalding.edu
• Mouse over the Current Students tab.
• Click on Spalding Student Email.
• Choose “Setup your email account.”
• Enter name (usually student’s legal name).
• Enter either social security number (no dashes)
or student ID in the appropriate field.
• Click Submit.
• Click Accept under the license agreement.
• Enter a password.
• Confirm the password.
• Click Submit.
The email account has now been established and is ready to use. To forward email to a home or preferred email account, students log into the student email account by following these directions.
• Go to http://www.spalding.edu
• Mouse over the Current Students tab.
• Click on Spalding Student Email.
• Choose “Login to your email account.”
• Enter user name (usually first initial last name).
• Enter password (the password established
by the student).
• Click Login.
• When mailbox opens, select “Settings.”
• Enter the home or preferred email account after
the line which says “Forward Address.”
• Click Update.
Students encountering problems in setting up the email accounts should
email webguys@spalding.edu (top)
Faculty
to Get Spalding Email Accounts
By August 1, all faculty are to have a Spalding email account. Faculty
members are to be notified before August 1 of their email account information.
Changes
in Housing Fees to Begin in Fall 2006
Because of contract changes with the Brown Hotel, student room rates are
increasing slightly beginning in Fall 2006. Students booking a single
room are charged $700, and students booking a double room are charged
$380. Given the accommodations and the fact that the rate includes tax,
the Program is pleased to offer such a competitive rate.
In addition, the dorm rates are to be $20 a night (or $180 for the nine
nights of the residency).
The MFA Program is pleased that tuition remains the same for Fall 2006.
Fees, such as the graduation fee and the creative thesis fee, are included
in tuition, as are many of the residency meals. (top)<
Student,
Alumni Authors Encouraged to Consign Books
Nick Woodring, manager of Spalding’s bookstore, encourages MFA students
and alumni who have published books to contact him about consigning copies
for sale. Nick reports that other Spalding students are often interested
in reading books by their MFA colleagues. Students and alumni interested
in consigning books may reach Nick at bookstore@spalding.edu or 800-896-8941
x. 2286. (top)
Life of a Writer
Students, faculty, and alumni: Please email writing news to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu
Priscilla Atkins’s poems are featured in the Spring 2006 issues of several literary magazines. Publication credits include Poetry London: “The Kitchen,” “The Day I Made Potato Latkes;” Prairie Schooner: “Last Rites,” “We Thought ‘O’,” “The Baboon Spirits of the First Hour of the Night;” The Bellingham Review: “It Begins with M,” “I Wake in Twilight;” and The Midwest Quarterly: thirteen poems, under the title “Drinking the Dark.”
Teneice Delgado’s chapbook, Flame Above Flame, has won second honorable mention in the New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition at Finishing Line Press in Georgetown, Ky. It is to be published this year in their New Women’s Voices Series.
Joan Donaldson was given a scholarship to attend the University of Michigan’s Bear River Writing Conference held the first weekend in June. She studied nature writing with Jerry Dennis. Joan signed on with Bennett and West Literary Agency to represent the YA novel that she worked on with Luke Wallin.
Ann Eskridge won two awards at the Moondance International Film Festival, also known as the American Cannes. Her play Downhearted Blues was a semi-finalist in the stage play category and won a Gaia award. This award is given to “encourage and inspire contemplative, meditative, spiritual and inspirational films and scripts.” Her film script No Thanks, written with her partner Brian Webster, was a finalist in the Kid’s Feature Screenplay. It also won the Sandcastle Award “for male and female writing or filmmaking teams.” (top)
Darlyn Finch is the December 2006-February 2007 Jack Kerouac writer in residence. Writers from all over the world competed for a chance to live and write for three months, rent-free, in the College Park, Fla., house where famous Beat Generation writer/poet Jack Kerouac wrote Dharma Bums and where he was living when he got word that On the Road had been published. Writers are selected on the basis of work samples and letters of intent. The residency also includes a food stipend. Finch is the first Central Florida writer to be selected for the residency program. Darlyn also won Honorable Mention in the Thomas Burnett Swann Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Gwendolyn Brooks Writers Association of Florida, for her poem “Slumming.” The poem was published in the 2006 issue of Revelry.
CoCo Harris-Ogugua was selected to participate in Hurston/Wright Writer’s Week 2006. Writer’s Week takes place during the week of July 17-21 at the American University in Washington, D.C. The Zora Neal Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation was founded by award-winning author Marita Golden as an encouraging breeding ground for up-and-coming African-American writers. The Foundation offers annual literary awards as well as workshops instructed by esteemed African-American authors. Writer’s Week alumni include Spalding’s own Crystal Wilkinson.
Kilean Kennedy’s short story “Summer Hits” is forthcoming in the September issue of Hobart online (http://www.hobartpulp.com ). (top)
Patricia McFadden’s early chapter book, Dragon Dilemma: Book One of the Magic Pet Shop Chronicles, is to be performed as a children’s play on July 22-23 at the Blue Sage Center for the Arts in Paonia, Colorado. It was first performed last December by the Shoestring Children’s Theater in Denver. The second book in the Magic Pet Shop series, Unicorn Upset, is scheduled for publication in October by Green Turtle Press.
Beth Newberry’s article on the history and significance of the word “Affrilachian” appeared in the Encyclopedia of Appalachia (University of Tennessee Press, 2006) this spring. She has been named vice-president of the Louisville chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She received a grant from the Toyota Alumni Fund, a program of the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, to attend the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writer’s Conference of the Southwest in Dallas in July.
Rick Neumayer, for the second year in a row, has an original new
musical drama produced this summer on the riverfront in Jeffersonville,
Ind. Little Bear of the Miami: The Frances Slocum Story, written
with Bill Corcoran, is to be performed at 8:30 p.m. on July 8, 9, 15 and
16 at RiverStage. The summer ampitheatre series is free and open to the
public. Last summer, Neumayer’s David and Bathsheba premiered. (top)
Bob Olive recently spent two weeks doing pre-writing with the creative
writing class of English teacher Thane Trotter at Presentation Academy
in Louisville, Ky. He reports that the high school students know more
about writing than he does. Bob is looking forward to the fall semester
with Spalding MFA.
Rosanne Osborne was guest lecturer in June at Wartime in America, an institute for teachers sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Osborne lectured on poetry written in response to the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and Vietnam. (top)
On April 19, Dianne Aprile hosted a tribute to National Poetry Month as part of her Jazz & The Spoken Word reading/improvisation series at The Jazz Factory, which she co-owns with her husband. Invited readers included Kathleen Driskell and Erin Keane (Spring 2004) and Laverne Zabielski (Spring 2004). MFA alumnus Frank X Walker (Spring 2003) also appeared at The Jazz Factory in April with a touring group of four poets (and a pianist) reading from work inspired by African-American jazz and blues musicians. Dianne published an essay with photos in The Courier-Journal on Sunday, June 18, after returning from the Kentucky Authors Mountaintop Removal Tour, a two-day trip through Eastern Kentucky inspired by Wendell Berry to increase awareness of the economic and cultural violence created by mountaintop removal mining. ( http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/OPINION04/60617022/1054/OPINION In the August issue of Pitch, a new arts magazine, Dianne has a story on Joan Didion, based on an interview with the author, and in the same issue, a story she wrote on Flamenco appears. On June 21, Dianne hosted a tribute to the poetry and nonfiction of Kentucky author and monk Thomas Merton, and on April 19, she organized a National Poetry Month tribute as part of the Jazz & The Spoken Word reading/improvisation series at The Jazz Factory. Dianne also gave a reading on June 4 at an event in Louisville, sponsored by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
Julie Brickman has published two reviews in the Sunday Books supplement of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Four Play,” a review of Julia Glass’s new novel, The Whole World Over, appeared on June 18, and “A Bridge Between Eras,” a review of Emily Barton’s Brookland, on March 19. She was also the guest fiction editor of the Spring 2006 issue of The Louisville Review. (top)
Ellie Bryant’s short story “Dare’s Tractor” is to appear in the upcoming Tartts 2 Anthology, which includes stories chosen from collections submitted to the University of West Alabama’s Tartt Award competition.
Richard Cecil, who was awarded an Indiana University Traveling Fellowship to follow in the footsteps of Odysseus, is currently in Greece, doing same. He taught a workshop this June at the Indiana University Writers’ Conference.
K. L. (Kenny) Cook’s novel, The Girl From Charnelle, was published in April 2006 by William Morrow/Harper Collins. Kenny’s articles “Every Student Is an Honors Student: Advising at Prescott College” and “Interdisciplinary Team Teaching: Family Systems in Film & Literature” (co-authored by Dr. Wayne Regina) appeared in the anthology Teachable Moments: Essays on Experimental Education (University Press of America 2006). He chaired two panels at the March 2006 Associated Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Austin: “What’s in a Name?: Short Story Cycles, Linked Stories, & Novels-in-Stories” and “Developing an Excellent Undergraduate Creative Writing Program.” On April 18, he was one of the featured authors for the Southwest Writers Series in Prescott, Ariz. On April 26, he was a featured author for the Library Trustees Luncheon at the Texas Library Association Conference in Houston. And on May 6, he was a guest author at Springridge Academy, a therapeutic boarding school for teenage girls, in Mayer, Ariz. For more details, visit Kenny’s website at http://www.klcook.net (top)
On June 13, Debra Kang Dean read with Richard Cecil and Richard McCann as part of this year’s Indiana University Writers’ Conference. She also taught introductory poetry and fiction classes during the conference. On June 18, Debra read with Jonathan Weinert (Fall 2005) in the Poetry Factory Reading Series at the Box Factory for the Arts in St. Joseph, Mich. Marci Johnson (Spring 2004) hosted the reading, which was sponsored by the Berien Artists’ Guild. “Single-lens Reflex,” originally published in River Styx 71 (2005), was reprinted online at Verse Daily, and “Hail,” included in Precipitates, was reprinted in Never Before: Poems about First Experiences (New York: Four Way Books, 2005). She also received two Pushcart Prize nominations for poems published in 2005. She is to teach an undergraduate workshop this fall at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Connie May Fowler recently gave a reading from her latest novel, The Problem with Murmur Lee, at Malaprops in Asheville, North Carolina. The novel’s paperback edition, which was published in late March, is now in its third printing. Connie May blogs at www.conniemayfowler.com
Richard Goodman is to teach a weeklong course, “Using the Techniques of Fiction to Make Your Creative Nonfiction Even More Creative,” at the Cape Cod Writer’s Conference, August 20-25 in Osterville. (http://www.capecodwriterscenter.org/Writers%20Conference.htm ) His recent essay, “A Modest Addition: Renzo Piano Transforms the Morgan Library,” was the cover story for the May/June 2006 issue of Fine Books & Collections.
Roy Hoffman’s feature story, “Mending Time at Beauvoir,” about efforts to rebuild Jefferson Davis’s antebellum home in Biloxi, Miss., in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is in the July/August issue of Preservation: The Magazine of the National Trust of Historic Preservation. Roy’s article “No Closure,” about the murder of civil rights marcher William Moore in Alabama in 1963, was a Sunday front page story in the Mobile Press-Register on June 18. “No Closure” was based on a visit with Moore’s widow in Pennsylvania and her anguish that her husband’s killer was never brought to justice. This link is to a Newhouse News wire version of the story: http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/hoffman062906.html (top)
Silas House is collaborating on a film with actress Ashley Judd that is to begin filming in spring 2007. The movie is being produced by Alex Rose, producer of such films as Norma Rae and The Other Sister. Silas was recently honored by the Kentucky Highway Department when they erected a sign identifying Lily, Ky., as his hometown. In the past semester, he has spoken at more than a dozen venues, including the Tennesee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans, the University of South Carolina, Western Carolina University, the University of Louisville, and others.
Joyce McDonald co-chairs the 35th annual One-on-One Plus Conference, sponsored by the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature, held on October 21, 2006. One-on-One Plus is a unique one-day conference that gives aspiring children’s book writers an opportunity to work one-on-one with editors, agents, and published authors. A record number of editors and agents (50) and authors (25) have volunteered their time for this year’s conference. For information on how to apply, visit http://www.ruccl.org. Joyce’s Devil on My Heels has been nominated for five state awards.
“Latin Lovers,” Cathleen Medwick’s review of Jaime Manrique’s novel, Our Lives Are the Rivers, appeared in the June 4 issue of The New York Times Book Review. Her article “Workaholics’ Dream: Fixing Up a Fixer-Upper” appeared in the June 9 issue of The New York Times (“Escapes” section), and her summer books roundup, “What You’re Really Going to Want to Read This Summer” appeared in the July issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
Sena Jeter Naslund has returned from travels in Sweden, Russia, and Portugal, where she spoke and read from The Disobedience of Water: Stories and Novellas at an international meeting of the Society for Studies in the Short Story in English. Sena’s new book, Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette (pub date October 3, 2006), has received starred pre-publication reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Her national book tour begins October 7; the next newsletter is to carry a list of dates and places on the tour. (top)
Molly Peacock finished a successful run of her Off Broadway show, The Shimmering Verge, and lectured as the Elliston Poet at the University of Cincinnati. In June she was the Poet-in-Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace.
Charlie Schulman’s musical The Fartiste premieres
in New York City at the Harry De Jur Playhouse, 466 Grand Street (at Pitt
Street on the Lower East Side): Friday, August 11, at 10:15 p.m.; Sunday,
August 13, at 3:45 p.m.; Friday, August 18, at 9:45 p.m.; Saturday, August
19, at 5:15 p.m.; and Sunday, August 20, at 7 p.m. All tickets are general
admission, $15, and may be bought in advance beginning July 30 by going
to http://www.fringenyc.org
Jennifer Anthony (Spring 2005) recently published a short story titled “Tessa Rae” in the summer issue of The First Line ( http://www.thefirstline.com ). She was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune about her experience sharing her teenage “angst-written” material in San Francisco’s production of Mortified (http://www.getmortified.com). She has also published new travel stories in two webzines: a story about Argentina in the June issue of http://www.pology.com and another story in the June issue of http://www.tangodiva.com . An upcoming trip in July to Vietnam to volunteer with children in Hanoi should provide her with more stories.
Myra Bellin’s (Fall 2005) essay “Birds in Bloom” was published on April 11 in the Philadelphia Inquirer under the headline “Lessons in a Window Box.” Her essay “Living Among Tourists” appeared on June 14 in the Philadelphia Inquirer. (top)
Holly Brockman (Fall 2003) conducted an interview with Wendell Berry that was published in the February issue of New Southerner and is to be anthologized in the magazine’s first print edition. The interview was short-listed for inclusion in University of Mississippi Press’s upcoming anthology Conversations with Wendell Berry, edited by Morris Grubbs. Her essays “She’s a Mom/Writer,” “Rejection Letter,” “Rejection Letter II,” and “Country Girl” aired in May 2006 on WFPL’s (Louisville) community commentary. “The Cape” and “On the Wagon” aired in June. She currently teaches in Spalding’s School of Liberal Studies and is to teach freshman composition and freshman literature at Oldham County High School this fall in a new program designed for high school students who want the rigors of college courses before high school graduation.
Susan Christerson Brown’s (Fall 2003) essay “Circling the Center” is forthcoming in Branchwood Journal and was recently part of a salon-style reading at the Carnegie Center in Lexington, Ky.
Bobbi Buchanan (Fall 2004) participated in a reading on June 20 at Indiana University Southeast. She and Cameron Lawrence read essays and literary nonfiction to Michael Jackman’s creative writing class. Bobbi is working on the print edition of New Southerner, which debuts this summer and includes works by Spalding MFA graduates Heather Shaw, Leslie Townsend, Erin Keane, Katy Yocom, Terry Price, Zola Noble, Aimee Zaring and Holly Brockman and essays by Spalding MFA faculty members Dianne Aprile and Silas House. The print edition is available for purchase online, by mail and at bookstores. (top)
R. L. Burkhead (Spring 2004) published the summer 2006 issue of The Trunk, the official literary journal of The Writer’s Loft creative writing program. The issue included creative work from such Spalding MFA students and alumni as Charlotte Rains Dixon, Terry Price, Diana M. Raab, Bobbi Buchanan, and Janelle Rodgers. In addition, Roy helped the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company promote their Summer 2006 Travel Writing Festival by writing the store’s press release, publicizing the event to United States Internet and media outlets, and working with event participants to write a feature story on the event, which he is shopping around to American magazines. Starting July 5, Roy is to leave MTSU and return to a corporate writing career as a technical writer with American Standard/TRANE in Clarksville, Tenn. In April, Roy participated in a literary night with other area writers in the home of Nashville writers Walt and Sue Schaefer in celebration of the arrival of Charlotte Rains Dixon, who came to town for a weeklong writing sabbatical. MFA alumnus Terry Price (Spring 2006) attended the event as well. Roy also attended the Tennessee Writers Alliance’s inaugural Writers’ Conference, held June 9-10 at Cumberland University. He attended a photography exhibit at MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery titled “The Face of Poetry.”
Amy Clark (Fall 2004) participated with other staff members of Poetry International in a reading at Barnes & Noble in San Diego. She has a poem forthcoming this summer in the Sow’s Ear Poetry Review.
Amy Watkins Copeland (Spring 2006) has poems forthcoming in the Dos Passos Review and the Blue Collar Review.
A second edition of Albert DeGenova’s (Spring 2005) book Back Beat (including new work since the 2001 edition) has been released by Fractal Edge Press (http://www.fractaledgepress.com ). Back Beat combines poetry with memoir to trace the influences of two contemporary poets (Albert co-authored with Charles Rossiter) who continue the Beat tradition in their work. Of Back Beat, Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote, “Back Beat beats everything for being beater than the Beats.” Albert performs his poetry regularly throughout the Chicago metro area in a poetry duo with Charles Rossiter. The poetry duo is called AvantRetro; a spoken word CD titled AvantRetro was released in April and is available at http://www.cdbaby.com . The CD features Albert reading his poetry and playing saxophone. (top)
Kathryn Eastburn’s (Spring 2006) story “The Sacred Feast,” about a sacred harp singing and dinner on the grounds in northern Alabama, appears in the June issue of Saveur magazine. Saveur is a beautiful glossy food magazine, usually found next to Bon Appetit and Gourmet at newsstands. Kathryn’s story is a twelve-page spread beginning on page 78.
Lucrecia Guerrero (Fall 2005) was awarded a fellowship ($5,000) from the Montgomery County Cultural Arts District based on an excerpt from her novel, Tree of Sighs.
Marci Rae Johnson’s (Spring 2005) poem “Parallel” was recently published in the Spring 2006 issue of 32 Poems magazine. Marci is director of the Poetry Factory (http://www.poetryfactory.net ) reading and workshop series in St. Joseph, Mich., and poetry editor for WordFarm publishers, http://www.wordfarm.net .
Cyn Kitchen’s (Spring 2005) essay, “The Ugly Truth Behind My Adorable Neighborhood Coffeeshop” appears in the June/July 2006 issue of New Southerner magazine.
Michi Haza Lafuente (Fall 2004) received her MA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University. She also is working as an editor for a creative design firm in Bethesda, Maryland.
Aimee Mackovic’s (Fall 2005) poem “Encounter with Priscilla” was published recently in the online journal Blood Lotus. In addition, Aimee’s poem “Exercise in Futility” is forthcoming in Barbaric Yawp. (top)
Cate McGowan’s (Spring 2003) pedagogical piece, “Micro-Papers: Rhetoric in Creative Nonfiction and Students Finding Their Place,” appears in the most recent collection of the AWP’s Pedagogy Forum Papers, an annual anthology of the year’s best creative writing teaching essays. She also had a short story, “Come to Me,” published in the January edition of Tank Magazine, a fashion magazine in England. Another story, “It’s Not Your Hat,” appears in the current print and online issues of the Vestal Review (Issue 26) http://vestalreview.net When she’s not writing her novel (a neverending prospect), she’s toiling away as a full-time free-lance travel writer and as an editor for the online lit mag at http://www.sfwp.org .
Richard Newman (Fall 2004) is to be a Walter E. Dakin Fellow this summer at the Sewanee Writers Conference. Garrison Keillor recently selected and read one of his poems on Writer’s Almanac. This summer, he and co-editor Erin Keane (Spring 2004) put out a new edition of Garbanzo! at http://www.garbanzo.us
Linda Busby Parker’s (Fall 2003) novel Seven Laurels has been selected by the Spartanburg, South Carolina, school system as part of their required reading program for high school students. The novel is to be read by rising seniors and by honors and AP English classes. The Spartanburg School Board appropriated funding for each high school student to receive one summer reading book. The Spartanburg program, which requires and supports summer reading, is being reviewed by the National Blue Ribbon Commission on Schools as a model for the nation. Linda travels there in August for the opening days of school to meet with students and faculty. Beginning in the fall of 2006, she is to teach fiction writing at the University of South Alabama (Fairhope campus). Also, she was on the program of the Baldwin Writers Annual Writing Conference at Bay Side Academy in Daphne, Ala. Her topic was “Conflict: The Foundation of Fiction.” Linda also received a scholarship for the RopeWalk Writers Retreat in New Harmony, Ind., and was there from June 11-17. From there, she traveled to a short story workshop in Columbus, Ohio taught by C. Michael Curtis, former fiction editor of The Atlantic Monthly. (top)
Mary Popham (Fall 2003) reviewed Frank X Walker’s (Spring 2003) poetry collection, Black Box, for The Courier-Journal on January 1. In March, her poem, “Fragile,” was published in Pegasus, from the Kentucky Poetry Society. Mary’s profile of playwright Nancy Gall-Clayton appeared in the June/July issue of New Southerner magazine, and on June 21, she read from her novel, Landing Run, at the Jazz Factory’s “Jazz and the Spoken Word,” as part of a tribute to the Trappist monk Thomas Merton.
Michele Ruby (Spring 2005) has poems forthcoming in Roanoke Review, Dogwood, and Pearl. Her short story “Visiting Hours” was a finalist for the Inkwell prize.
Heather T. Shaw’s (Fall 2004) poem “Wilson’s Cove” is forthcoming in The Antigonish Review. She continues to serve as food editor at New Southerner magazine, where her bi-monthly column also appears, http://www.newsoutherner.com
Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (Spring 2003) was guest author for two weeks at the Singapore American School and did a reading/book signing at Wordstock Literary Festival in Portland. She is a new faculty member in the Whidbey Writers Workshop low residency MFA on Whidbey Island, Wash.
Kathleen Thompson’s (Fall 2003) essay, “Aim for Love:
A Tribute to Arthur Gordon (1912-2002),” was published in the spring
2006 Oasis Newsletter. She judged the junior high division of the Network
Newspaper Essay Competition in April. That month she also presented a
workshop, “Let’s Write a Pantoum,” for the Alabama State
Poetry Society. Kathleen is a “Road Scholar” for the Alabama
Humanities Foundation Speakers Bureau for a two-year term beginning in
November 2006. Her poetry workshop, “Nine Bean Rows: “Planting
the ‘Divine Detail,’” is to be listed as a teacher in-service
program in conjunction with the new SUPER (School and University Partners
for Educational Renewal) program. (top)
Vickie Weaver (Fall 2005) won the $500 first prize in the Alligator
Juniper contest for her short story, “Distance.” It is to
appear in the 2006 issue of the journal. The story also was nominated
for a Pushcart Prize by the editors. She has two other short stories forthcoming
this summer: “Neighbors,” in Timber Creek Review, and
“Feeding the Dog,” in Roanoke Review.
Jonathan Weinert (Fall 2005) has poems forthcoming in Pleiades and The Louisville Review.
Tina Wilson-Pleiness (Fall 2003) gave a reading of her short story “Across a Crowded Room” at the SPACE Art Opening, sponsored by Crossroads Community Church, on May 8 in Cincinnati. SPACE is a community of people from Crossroads who explore the creativity of God through art; creative writing, poetry and music have recently been included as a part of this quarterly event. This is the second time Tina has read at SPACE; back in February she read the opening of her novel-in-progress, Cuchina Dreams, to a warm and receptive audience.
Deidre Woollard’s (Fall 2003) story “Natural Resources”
won third prize in the Seacoast Writers Association Writing Contest. Her
story is to be published in their next anthology. (top)
Faculty
Advisory Committee (FAC)
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.
• Connie May Fowler, Fiction
• Greg Pape, Poetry
• Dianne Aprile, Creative Nonfiction
• Luke Wallin, Writing for Children
• Charlie Schulman, Playwriting/Screenwriting (top)
Books in Common
for Fall ’06
All students and faculty read the Book in Common, Migration: New and
Selected Poems by W. S. Merwin, and students read the Faculty/Guest
Book in Common in the area of concentration they are to study in the
Fall 2006 semester in preparation for a discussion with authors at the Fall 2006 residency.
Fiction: Kenny Cook’s The Girl from Charnelle
Poetry: Richard Cecil’s Twenty First Century Blues
Creative Nonfiction: Molly Peacock’s Paradise, Piece by
Piece
Writing for Children: Candice Ransom’s Finding Day’s
Bottom (available for purchase only from the Spalding bookstore beginning
in June. The bookstore ships to any US location.)
Playwriting: TBA
Screenwriting: Sam Zalutsky’s Mama’s Boy (to be
mailed by the MFA Office)
Financial Aid: The The MFA Program offers scholarships to students
entering their first semester in the program. Returning students who
desire financial assistance should apply for graduate assistantships.
Applications for scholarships and assistantships should be directed
to the MFA Office. Check the MFA forms page on the MFA website (http://www.spalding.edu/mfaforms)
for deadlines.
Federal student loans, which are handled through Spalding's financial
aid office and not through the MFA program, are available to all eligible
graduate students..
Students need to re-file the FAFSA for each new school year (the school
year is fall/spring). Students who received finanical aid for the Spring
2006 semester need to re-file for the Fall 2006 semester. (top)
For help with financial aid questions, call Vicki Montgomery at 800-896-8941 ext. 2731 or 502-585-9911, ext. 2731 or email vmontgomery@spalding.edu Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at www.fafsa.ed.gov (top)
Deferment Form. For students who receive notice their loans have gone into repayment while still enrolled in school. Fill out deferment form (click here) and fax to Jennifer Gohmann at 502-992-2424. Include the address and/or fax number of where the deferment form should go to in Section 7 (on the 2nd page). For multiple loans, fill out one deferment form per loan company. On the fax cover sheet, state that you are an MFA student. If you have questions, Jennifer's email is jgohmann@spalding.edu
MFA Scholarship Fund: Donations to the MFA in Writing Scholarship
Fund may be made “in honor of” or “in memory of”
a friend or loved one or organization. To make a donation, contact Cindy
Schnell, Donor Relations Coordinator in the office of Development and
Alumni Relations. Email: cschnell@spalding.edu
Phone: (800) 896-8941, ext. 2505 or (502) 585-9911, ext. 2505.
MFA Students/Faculty/Alums Discussion Board. The MFA Discussion Board is off to an energetic start. Currently, the most active topic is Publishing Opportunities, which lists contests and calls for submission, for example, a call for submissions from Alligator Juniper, the national literary journal at Prescott College, where Kenny Cook is fiction and creative nonfiction editor. Students and faculty are welcome to post information in this area and others. See the MFA Discussion Board at:
http://eres.spalding.edu/bboard.asp?cid=246&cname=ENG001MFAFor easy access to the Discussion Board, students and faculty are encouraged
to bookmark the site. (top)
Online information: MFA in Writing forms, deadlines, and other student and faculty information are available online at http://www.spalding.edu/mfaforms Newsletters are at http://www.spalding.edu/mfanewsletter For convenience, bookmark these two pages. Both web addresses are case sensitive. The MFA Office is happy to mail program forms or the newsletter, if requested. Email kyocom@spalding.edu. (top)
Life of a Writer is an important newsletter column that reports
on experiences around the writing life of our students, faculty, and
alums.
Email submissions to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu
Life of a Writer pieces should be written as a paragraph in third person. It is helpful for alums to include their graduation semester, such as Jake Doe (Fall 2003). Spell out month and state names. Include name of work, publisher, date of publication, and Website addresses, when appropriate. (top)
Below is a list of some of the kinds of activities that might be included in the Life of a Writer column.
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
Email Life of a Writer information to Jamey Temple at mfanewsletter@spalding.edu