The Program Script in Common for Fall 2012 Is Winter's Bone

The Fall 2012 Spalding MFA residency Program Script in Common area is Dramatic Writing and features the script for the film Winter’s Bone by screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini. On the first Friday of Fall 2012 residency, after the general welcome, Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund leads a discussion on the novel, script, and film of Winter’s Bone during a plenary session. Later, creative partners Granik and Rosellini will visit the Fall 2012 residency to discuss their adaptation of Winter’s Bone with Spalding MFA students and faculty.

To prepare for next November’s residency, all students read the script (provided for download on the MFA portal page). Students also view the film Winter’s Bone at home before coming to residency and read the book from which the story was adapted for the screen, Winter’s Bone: A Novel by Daniel Woodrell.

Winter’s Bone, directed by Debra Granik, received four Academy Award nominations (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor) and won the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film and the Best Screenplay Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Winter’s Bone was directed by Granik and released in 2010 as an American independent drama. The film won a number of awards, including the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film and the Best Screenplay Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It received four 2011 Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor. The film also received two awards at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival in Germany. At the 2010 Stockholm International Film Festival, it won the awards for Best Film, Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), and the Fipresci Prize. The film won Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance at the 2010 Gotham Awards. Winter’s Bone earned seven nominations at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress. Debra Granik grew up in Washington, D.C., and received her BA from Brandeis University in 1985 and her MFA from the graduate film program at New York University (Tisch School of the Arts). Her first short, Snake Feed, was accepted into Sundance Film Festival’s labs for screenwriting and directing, and eventually this short grew into her first feature-length film, Down to the Bone (2004), based on an original screenplay written by Granik and Rosellini.

Rosellini grew up on Mercer Island in Washington state. She co-founded the 1 Reel Festival in Seattle and began work as a film programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival, Women in Cinema, and Arab Film Distribution and in acquisitions for Atom Films. She now lives in Brooklyn. MFA students and faculty may wish to visit these links for more information on Winter’s Bone:

http://www.npr.org/2010/06/16/127831931/a-saga-in-the-ozarks-suited-for-the-screen
http://www.npr.org/2006/08/05/5615980/winters-bone-superlative-teen-angst

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Fiction Writers, Creative Nonfiction Writers, and Poets! Adaptation for the Stage Workshop & Course Opportunity for Fall 2012

MFA students and alumni interested in adapting their own prose or poetry or the work of other writers for the stage have the opportunity this fall to take the Playwriting Adaptation Workshop led by a Spalding playwriting faculty member. During the Fall 2012 residency workshop, students are introduced to fundamental playwriting structure, technique, and craft. Students also attend lectures and sessions offered in playwriting.
After residency, students have the option of studying with a playwriting mentor during the at-home portion of the semester; or they may go on to be mentored in their major area of concentration for the at-home portion of the semester.

ENG610 is a prerequisite for this workshop or course; however, both opportunities are for beginning playwrights so no writing sample needs to be submitted to the program for approval. Students will need to submit script worksheets on September 26. Instructions are provided for the adaptation worksheet assignment.

Rising ENG620 students may take this course as a cross-genre area, allowed only for the second semester. Those who have already completed ENG620 may enroll in ENG650, the enrichment semester, taking it in addition to the four core courses. Alumni may wish to take the workshop alone as residency-only students.

Playwright and fiction faculty member Kira Obolensky sees that studying playwriting can be of great benefit to fiction writers, in particular. She says “Understanding dramatic structure, the ways in which scenes carry action, and how dialogue works as action and as characterization, are invaluable tools any fiction writer can have. At Spalding, the fiction students I've worked with who have studied playwriting or the skills of adaptation have a skill set that is exciting when they bring it to their fiction writing. And adaptation, the translation of one form into another form, is perhaps the best kind of study and undertaking for any writer.  Adaptation is a kind of school in and of itself: the great skill of adaptation allows a technical understanding and mastery of how digressions work, how to compress and condense, how to create tempo and urgency where perhaps there was none, and above all how to bring characters to life.”

Students with questions about the workshop or course should contact Kathleen Driskell. kdriskell@spalding.edu  Those interested in placement in this workshop or the course should email mfadropbox@spalding.edu by August 28. Include “adaptation workshop” as the subject line.
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Script-in-Common Essay Due from All MFA Students Planning to Enroll in ENG620 in Fall 2012

All MFA students who plan to enter ENG620 in Fall 2012 are required to write and submit a short critical essay on the Fall 2012 Residency Program Script in Common, Winter’s Bone. Students submit the essay through email to the program via mfadropbox@spalding.edu, but not to faculty mentors, no later than August 28. The short critical essays will be discussed in mini workshop sessions during the Fall 2012 residency.

Students were emailed details about this assignment by Kathleen Driskell on June 5. Any student who plans to enroll in ENG620 for the Fall 2012 semester and has not received instructions for this Program Script in Common assignment should email Kathleen Driskell at kdriskell@spalding.edu for details.
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Screenwriters Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini created the screenplay for Winter's Bone, adapted from a novel by Daniel Woodrell.

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Summer 2012 Residency Returns to Paris

Seventy students, faculty, alumni and guests travel to Paris July 18-30 for the Summer 2012 residency. This residency marks the sixth year of residencies abroad and the program’s return to Paris, site of the first residency abroad in 2007. As in 2007, the program will make its home in the very heart of Paris, near the Sorbonne, and hold classes in historic Reid Hall, just south of Luxembourg Garden.

Fiction receives special focus at the residency, with a writing exercise in which all students write a stream-of-consciousness passage based on a historical figure found in the Program Book in Common.

At Reid Hall, the usual rich residency curriculum takes place: workshops, lectures, book-in-common discussions, faculty and student readings, and more. Outside the classroom walls, special events include small-group walking tours designed especially for the MFA Program and focused on sites important to the Program Book in Common, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, by David McCullough. The tours are led by noted travel writer David Downie (author of Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light) and photographer Alison Harris.

Adding MFA Student Photos to Profile Page

Students should add pictures to their profile page on the MFA portal page. Your picture will show up when you send email from your Spalding account. It’s easy to do! On the MFA portal page, click on your name (to the upper right). Click on MY PROFILE. Click on EDIT MY PROFILE. Find the PICTURE section and add a picture. You may use the profile page as much or as little as you want..
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New Course for MFA Program: Service Learning

ENG625: Service Learning through Creative Writing has been added to our MFA program course offerings and may be taken beginning with the Fall 2012 semester.  ENG625 serves as an enrichment course and does not take the place of any of the four core required MFA courses.

In the past, MFA students have requested an enrichment course that allows them to earn academic credit at the graduate level for the development and implementation of service learning projects related to the literary arts.

Examples of projects might include a formal internship with a literary magazine, the development and programming of a literary reading series at a community library, or a writing workshop presented at a women’s shelter or in a school situation for a defined period. Many community volunteer positions are available only to students enrolled academically; a volunteer must be formally enrolled in an internship course and supervised by a faculty member at a post-secondary academic institution. The new course serves that purpose for MFA students.

Official course description for ENG 625: Service Learning through Creative Writing

The MFA in Writing student designs and executes a service learning segment concerning some aspect of creative writing for some segment of the community. Writing projects may be conducted in a school, prison, community center, nursing home, etc. The project consists of a proposal, the actual on-site activity, and a brief report with examples of community writing or outcomes from the project. The project is supervised by the MFA Program Director, Associate Program Director, or a designated faculty member. Projects may commence at any point in the semester for variable amounts of time; those continued over the end date of a fall, spring, or summer semester will have credit awarded at project completion. Prerequisite: ENG610, ENG620, and the permission of the Program Directors. Credit hours: 2-5.
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Spring 2012 Residency Wrap-Up
The residency had a special focus on Writing for Children and Young Adults. All students and faculty read the middle-grade novel Hush, by Jacqueline Woodson, which was the topic of the opening-night discussion. Later in the week, Program Director Sena Naslund delivered a lecture about picture books, and all students were given the assignment of writing a picture book featuring animals. Selected students’ picture books were read aloud at the end of the residency.

Continuing the focus on children’s writing, a panel of faculty members who teach in other areas talked about the influences of picture books on their own writing lives. Screenwriter Max Burnett gave a guest lecture on writing for children’s television. A panel of alumni who have published books for children or young adults spoke on the topic of the care and tending of books for young readers. (For more on this panel, see the Homecoming article below.)

Jacqueline Woodson, the inaugural Diana M. Raab Distinguished Writer in Residence, gave an inspiring presentation about Hush and the books that led up to it. In a follow-up Q&A session the next morning, she advised MFAers to take risks. “Believe that you’re here for a reason, and that your gift is yours for a reason,” she said. “Ask yourself, ‘How am I going to use it to change the world and make it safe and better for those coming behind me?’”

A second focus of the residency was the intersection of the written word with visual art. A gallery exhibit called “Books, Bookmaking, and Visual Art” featuring Kathleen Driskell’s Peck and Pock:A Graphic Poem, illustrated by AJ Reinhart; Richard Goodman’s The Bicycle Diaries: One New Yorker’s Journey through 9/11, illustrated with wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec; Nana Lampton’s Snowy Owl Gathers in Her Trove, illustrated with watercolors by the author; and the prints of Mary Lou Hess, featured in both Dianne Aprile’s The Eye Is Not Enough and Maureen Morehead’s A Sense of Time Left. A gallery reception took place Tuesday evening. The next morning, all the featured authors and artists (except Lampton, who could not attend) participated in a lively panel discussion on the process of collaborating on books using words and images.

Later that week, Jen and Eric Woods of Typecast Publishing gave a demonstration of the process of creating letterpress books, in a session titled “All That’s Fit to Print.”

The MFA Program welcomed new faculty member Larry Brenner (photo, right), a Spalding MFA alum, to the screenwriting/playwriting faculty. 

Homecoming 2012

With the spring residency’s 29 new graduates, the MFA Program now has a grand total of 411 alumni. On the final weekend of spring residency, dozens of them returned home to Spalding for Homecoming.

Homecoming events kicked off on Thursday, May 24, in inspirational fashion with a panel by five alums and one current student who have found success in writing for children and young adults. Panelists Kelly Creagh (W4C ’08), Marjetta Geerling (W4C ’11), Edie Hemingway (W4C ’04), Cory Jackson (F), Roland Mann (W4C ’11), and Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (W4C ’03) gave advice on getting to publication; tending to published books by maintaining a good website, marketing wisely, and holding successful book signings; and continuing to work on new projects even after signing a contract.

Following the panel, featured author Jacqueline Woodson continued the inspiration with her discussion of her writing life and her belief that writers should use their gifts to make the world a better place (for more on Woodson’s comments, see the previous article).

The next day, Richard Goodman offered advice and observations gleaned from a lifetime spent as a working writer. Alums then had the option to attend a publishing session with Kate Gale of Red Hen Press, followed by faculty lectures.

At that point, events moved to the Brown, where things took a festive turn with the Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni. Poetry and fiction were well represented as eight readers read from their new works: Pamela Steele (P ’04), Jill Kelly Koren (P ’08), Al DeGenova (P ’05), Chris Helvey (F ’06), Julia Schuster (F ’07), Adriena Dame (F ’07), Daniel DiStasio (F ’05), and Jonathan Weinert (P ’05). Matt Ryan (F ’06) was scheduled to read but was sadly unable to attend.

After the reading, the Celebration gave way to SPLoveFest, a book fair in which alumni and students displayed and sold their books, journals, and other artistic creations or provided information about their literary or artistic endeavors,  mentoring and coaching services, and more, while the Celebration readers signed books.

That evening, Teneice Delgado (P ’06) hosted an after-hours alumni reading at Theatre Square Marketplace.

Saturday’s events began with a breakfast mixer for alums, new graduates, faculty, and staff. Afterward, Vickie Weaver (F ’05) offered one-on-one coaching on how to pitch to agents. Teneice Delgado (P ’06) and Erin Keane (P ’04) convened the first Spalding MFA Un-Conference, an engaging, creative, high-energy event in which participants chose topics on the fly, then held focused discussions on those topics. Revision and social media were in the mix.
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Deadline Dates and the MFA Calendar
MFA deadline dates and other MFA information are now available on the MFA calendar on the top left side of the MFA portal page. Mouse over the entries in any particular day to identify dates that are specific to you. Double-click on entries for more information. For longer entries, such as midsemester or end-of-semester entries, there may be a document attached to the date entry that you can open. Future months can be accessed by clicking the forward arrow to the right of the current month.
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Spalding Email Accounts
The MFA staff use student and faculty Spalding email accounts to communicate. Please check your account regularly. To forward your Spalding email to your home email account, see http://spalding.edu/about/technology/portal/. To receive your Spalding email account on your phone (or iPod or iPad), see http://spalding.edu/about/technology/spalding-mobile-access/.
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Check Out the MFA Blog
MFA faculty and alumni blog at blog.spalding.edu/mfainwriting. New posts are added weekly. The comment feature is now available.
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Facebook Fanpage Now Posting Contest and Other Information
The MFA Program has begun posting announcements regarding contests, calls for submissions, and grants on the MFA Facebook Fanpage. MFAers are invited to share their writerly news on the MFA fanpage. Send news about readings, blog entries, pictures, or other items of interest to mfafacebook@spalding.edu.
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MFA Alumni Association
The website for the MFA Alumni Association is http://www.spaldingmfaalum.com. If you have questions or are interested in working with this group, send Terry Price an email at terry@terryprice.net. Check out the Spalding MFA Alumni Facebook page.
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Alumni Access to MFA News and Residency Lectures
MFA alumni may access the MFA portal page to listen to residency lectures and to see the latest in MFA news. Go to my.spalding.edu. Username: MFAportal and Password: MFAportal! (Note: the password is case sensitive and there is an exclamation mark at the end of it.)

Life of a Writer

Kait Ballenger (W4C) is excited to announce that the first three books of her adult paranormal romance series, The Execution Underground, have sold to Tara Parsons at Harlequin’s HQN line for publication beginning in September 2013. The deal was repped by Kait’s agent, Nicole Resciniti of The Seymour Agency. Kait notes that her adult novels, including this paranormal series, will be published under her married name, Kait Ballenger, while her YA novels will use her maiden name (Kaitlyn Schulz).
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Drema Drudge (F) has a poem, “Skateboarders,” appearing in Manchester University’s 2012 Spectrum. This is her first published poem.
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Shanon Huston-Willis (F) is happy to announce that her first story, “Hollow Shadows,” was accepted for publication. The creative nonfiction piece appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of Jenny Magazine, an online literary journal ( http://www.jennymag.org/).
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Corrine Jackson (F) is pleased to announce the German publication of her young adult novel, Touched, with Thienemann Verlag. The launch was supported with a website (http://www.remy-und-asher.de) and a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/RemyundAsher). In addition, she sold audiobook rights to the second book in the Touched trilogy to Hörbuch Hamburg. This July she’ll be visiting Stuttgart, Germany, to promote the series. Touched will release in the U.S. on November 27 with KTeen. This June Cory will participate in the YA Debut Fiction Author Reception at the American Library Association Annual Conference to promote her U.S. young adult debut novel, If I Lie (Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster). The event is hosted by teen bestselling author Deb Caletti and includes a panel with five other YA debut authors, followed by a “speed-dating” event with librarians.
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Rick Neumayer’s short story “The Expert” has been accepted for publication in The Tulane Review. That makes four stories published this year, with others in 34th Parallel Magazine, Euonia Review, and Bartleby Snopes. Rick’s short story “Robin’s Installation” has been selected by Bartleby Snopes as one of the magazine’s favorite stories of the past six months. The story, which appeared in April, will be published in the online literary journal’s eighth issue of favorites in July.(top)

Dianne Aprile is one of 16 Washington state artists from the disciplines of music, literary, craft, and media to be awarded a 2012 Artist Trust Fellowship. The annual merit-based prize includes a $7,500 stipend and sponsors one public reading within the state of Washington for each recipient. In other recent good news, Dianne led an all-day writing workshop on March 31 in Lacey, Washington, at The Priory Conference Center. On April 28, she participated in a weekend writing conference at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island, Washington. Dianne took a 10-week poetry workshop this spring with Elizabeth Austen at Seattle’s Hugo House. Dianne’s book with Mary Lou Hess, The Eye Is Not Enough: On Seeing and Remembering, was released in paperback in May.
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K. L. (Kenny) Cook served on a panel, “Writing the American West,” at the 2012 AWP Conference in Chicago. He was also a guest author and panelist at the 2012 Get Lit! Festival in Spokane in April, where his recently published book, Love Songs for the Quarantined, winner of the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction, was honored. This book has also been named to the long-list of the 2011 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize.
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In March, Joyce McDonald gave a presentation, led a workshop, and participated on a panel at the annual two-day Write Stuff Conference, sponsored by the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers. Other news: A new trade paperback edition of Swallowing Stones was released in early May under the Random House Ember imprint.
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Lesléa Newman’s short story, “A Letter to Harvey Milk,” has been turned into a musical. The story has been chosen as a Next Link Show of the New York Musical Festival and will enjoy six performances in Manhattan in July 2012 at the Alice Griffin Theatre. Tickets went on sale June 15 (http://www.nymf.org).

In other news, Lesléa’s sonnet, “Paradise Found,” has been accepted for publication in Lavender Review (http://lavrev.net). Lesléa was featured on Sylvia Vardell’s Poetry for Children website, discussing her forthcoming book, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard (http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/2012/04/5q-poet-interview-series-leslea-newman.html). Her essay, “How Do I Love Marge Piercy? Let Me Count the Ways,” was featured on the website, Jewesses with Attitude (http://jwa.org/blog/how-do-i-love-marge-piercy). Lastly, she is thrilled to be traveling to Brazil this summer on a Book-in-a-Day Poetry Fellowship (http://www.bookinaday.org/index.php?page=about&family=BID).
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Molly Peacock ‘s latest work of  creative nonfiction, The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72, was featured as Harrod’s and Selfridge’s Book of the Month for May in the United Kingdom. She has given readings and workshops both in poetry and in creative nonfiction in San Francisco and Davis, California; in Seattle; and in Minneapolis. Her next two stops are Philadelphia and Dublin.
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Sam Zalutsky was recently awarded a grant from the Jerome Foundation to produce his short film script, How to Make It to the Promised Land, based on Ellen Umansky’s short story of the same name. In other news, Sam was interviewed for the new website and blog, The Most Talented People in the World: http://tmtpw.com/interviews/interview-with-a-filmmaker/?utm_source=Group+3&utm_campaign=4307b72947-Test_24_1_2012&utm_medium=email.
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Alumni

Cynthia Rausch Allar (P ’04) is a finalist in the Tupelo Press Winter Poetry Project, a contest for erotic poems. The poem, “Ether,” was published online (http://www.tupelopress.org/poetryproj_201202.php) and also will appear in print.
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Deborah Begel (CNF ’06) recently completed a radio documentary on challenges former prisoners face getting jobs, apartments, and opportunities. Part of a half-hour program called “Ban the Box,” it was distributed nationally by the public radio show Making Contact. Deborah co-produced it with producer Francesca Rheannan. It is the segment titled “Massachusetts Leads the Way in CORI Reform” at: http://www.radioproject.org/2012/03/ban-the-box-the-campaign-for-post-prison-employment/.

In another collaboration, Deborah co-directed and produced Four Stories About Water, a 37-minute video about water pollution problems on Navajo lands. As part of a rolling Earth Day premier, screenings took place this spring at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and at the University of New Mexico-Gallup, Santa Fe Community College, Diné College in Shiprock and on campuses of Northern New Mexico College in Espanola and El Rito. Several Navajo chapter houses have also shown it. Much of the narration is offered in Navajo with English subtitles. A screener for the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival has recommended that Four Stories About Water be shown during its 2012 festival in December.
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In March, Roy Burkhead (F ’04) published the first issue of 2nd & Church, a literary journal by, for, and about writers and readers throughout Tennessee. The second (Q2) issue comes out at the end of June, containing a column on Edgar Allen Poe by Charlotte Rains Dixon (F ’03) and a feature story on Terry Price’s  (F ’06) new creative writing retreats and workshops. In May, Roy participated on a publishing panel discussion at the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild, and he attended/covered public readings by novelist Gary Slaughter at Parnassus Books in Nashville. In addition, he covered the opening day of the new Sigourney Cheek Literary Garden at the Cheekwood Garden and Museum in Nashville, including a reading and discussion by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Massie;  the presentation of Herman’s Journey by children’s authors Jamina Carder and Kaaren Engel; and the third installment of Southern Word’s Future Break series. (Future Break was a series of seven performances by Nashville writers, poets, musicians, essayists, and other artists.) All three events will be covered in detail in the Q4 issue of 2nd & Church.  And at the end of May, he attended another installment of Future Break, held at the Dark Horse Theater in Nashville. Roy continues to be a full-time writer and editor at Hewlett-Packard, serving on the company’s Editorial Review Board. In August, he will resume teaching English literature and research classes at Western Kentucky University.
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David Carren’s (SW ’05) article, “Big Ideas in a Small World, Trapped by Alfred Hitchock,” was published in Cinesource in its December 31 issue. The article focused on how the use of tight and limited environments enhanced and empowered the great director’s films. In other news, David’s screenplays Call Me Luke and Mutant Snakeoid Zombie Bikers were finalists in the 2011 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition. The competition attracted 5,800 entries, and only 35 were named as finalists. David was the first contestant to have two screenplays achieve this distinction at the same time. David will be directing his original screenplay, Waiting for Sandoval, for UTPA Productions this summer. The feature, which is a Twilight Zone-style thriller, started production June 4 and finishes July 13.
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Eric Cravey (CNF ’11) served as a judge for sixth- through eighth-grade poetry submissions as part of Duval County Public Schools’ Second Annual Published Poets Award Contest, sponsored by Read It Forward Jax!, the Jacksonville (Florida) Public Library, and Bank of America. This year’s theme was “Reading Takes Me.” The contest culminated with a May 31 awards ceremony and presentation of the winning poets’ works in a printed anthology. Eric also served as a judge for the annual Women of Color Cultural Foundation’s annual student scholarship essay contest in Jacksonville.
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Linda Cruise (F ’08) taught a one-day workshop, “Developing a Writer’s Craft,” at the Bixby Memorial Library, in Vergennes, Vermont, on June 9.  The workshop was geared toward making the student-writer more knowledgeable about the process of crafting high-quality stories, in order to apply those skills to his/her own writing. The four-hour workshop was broken into two parts, with a focus on mastering the following seven story elements: plot, conflict, characterization, setting, point-of-view, story structure, and narrative forms.
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Adriena Dame (F ’07), author of The MOO: Stories and a Novella (ShadowPrint, 2012) and newly hired adjunct assistant professor for Spalding University’s BFA in Writing Program, is opening 94 Creations Studios. It is the home of a cornucopia of artistic adventures, including creative and academic writing explorations for adults, precocious young adults, and homeschooled students in grades 9-12; 94 Creations literary journal; and Damejoyas jewelry art. Adriena is hosting a PB&J (Poetry, Books, & Jewelry) open house June 29th, 5-9 p.m., with poetry readings beginning at 6 p.m. Sign up to read or find out more at http://www.94creationsstudios.com.
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Dave DeGolyer (P and W4C ’06) and his partner, Cathy Shap (P ’06), have created The Best Me, a holistic coaching service that draws upon their experience as teachers, writers, and coaches with their training in holistic health, ecopsychology, yoga, and creativity to help people reconnect with their dreams, reimagine possibilities, and rewrite their stories.

Together with fellow alum Terry Price (F ’06), Dave and Cathy are hosting a writing retreat in Historic New Harmony, Indiana, August 13-17. The retreat offers optional morning yoga and meditation, traditional craft workshops, special Yoga as Muse workshops (blending yoga and writing in a single flow), holistic health presentations, special mini-breakout sessions, and free time for writing, all in an ideal setting. To learn more about the retreat, visit http://creativeandhealthy.com/writers-retreat-in-historic-new-harmony.

For information on a special discount available to Spalding MFA students, alumni, and faculty, contact Dave (dave@creativeandhealthy.com) or Terry (terry@terryprice.net). And check out The Sweet Spot blog (http://creativeandhealthy.com/the-sweet-spot-blog) for interviews, ponderings, and a whole lot of curiosity.
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Charlotte Rains Dixon (F ’03) will have her novel, Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior, published in February of 2013 by Vagabondage Press. Learn more about the novel and Charlotte’s work at http://www.charlotterainsdixon.com.
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Catt Foy (F ’12) invites everyone to follow her blog,  Embrace the Woo-Woo, as she shares the journey from homeowner to RVer and spiritual seeker.
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Karen George’s (F ’09) poem “Crowning” was chosen as one of four winners in the Cincinnati Public Library’s first Poetry in the Garden contest. She was invited for a public reading, and the poem was posted on the library’s website (http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/news/2012/poetrycontestwinners.html).

Karen’s poem “Vertigo” was published in Words 2012, Thomas More College’s literary journal. Her poems “Give and Take” and “Without Child” were published in the anthology For a Better World 2012, and she was invited to read at the SOS Art 2012 event in June. She is serving as judge and editor for poetry submissions to an upcoming Cincinnati Writers Project anthology, A Few Good Words.
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Brian Hampton’s (PW ’06) award-winning play, The Jungle Fun Room, will be presented Off-Broadway on July 31 at 7:30 p.m. at New World Stages, Stage 2 (340 West 50th Street, NYC) for one night only to benefit the Long Island Bulldog Rescue. The production is sponsored by Petco. Brian will reprise the role of Screg in the production. Tickets and information can be found at www.brianhampton.net.
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Dave Harrity (P ’07) has started a blogging and teaching venture called Antler (http://thisisantler.com) and was recently interviewed by Ruminate Magazine about the project and his writing. In April, he attended the Festival of Faith and Writing, where he co-sponsored a writing workshop and panel with Scott Cairns, Marilyn McEntyre, and Walt Wangerin. Dave’s next book is Making Manifest: Toward Sacred Collisions of Faith and Imagination (Fall 2012, Seed Bed), a 28-day book of devotional meditations and writing exercises designed for personal spiritual growth and innovative community building.
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Lora Hilty (F ’12) is thrilled that her short story, “Big Time,” has been accepted for publication in the summer issue of 94 Creations. The literary journal was created by Spalding MFA graduate Adriena Dame (F ’07).
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Marci Rae Johnson (P ’05) recently gave a presentation titled “A Day in the Life: The Joys and Challenges of Publishing Poetry,” at the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her poems “Failed Icarus” and “Separation: Time Travel” will be published in an upcoming issue of The Louisville Review, and her poems “Conversion” and “Music of the Spheres” will be published in an upcoming issue of Relief journal.
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Rob Kaiser (CNF ’10) has signed with Kendall Hunt Publishing Co. to write a textbook titled What the Baboon Was Hiding: Narrative Journalism and the Art of Truth. On May 17, Rob is scheduled to present a paper at the International Association of Literary Journalism Studies conference in Toronto. In July, a piece he wrote about the seismography station on the campus of Canisius College is set for publication in Buffalo Spree, the monthly magazine of Western New York.
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Caroline LeBlanc’s (P ’11) essay, “Writing an Ethnic Identity between Worlds: Claiming and Maintaining a Franco-American Self,” was published in the International Journal of Canadian Studies in the Spring 2011 (Vol. 44) issue. Her poems “Glazed,” “Broke,” “Feathered Candy,” “Fashion,” and “Whole Milk sounds” were included in the notes accompanying the essay. 

Caroline delivered an adaptation of her senior lecture, “Writing For Your Life: A Grassroots Spin-Off of Operation Homecoming,” at the Midatlantic Popular American Culture Association Conference in Philadelphia in November. In other news, The Journal of War, Literature and the Arts has notified Caroline that they will publish her poem “Mission Creep” in a future issue.
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During National Poetry Month, Nancy Long (P ’12) facilitated a one-day workshop on the haibun for the nonprofit art-education organization Writing for a Change Foundation of Bloomington. In addition, she recently received the news that her poem “round-robin, bluebonnets” was accepted for publication in Adanna. Also, she is delighted to report that she has been awarded a scholarship by the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, to attend a weeklong workshop with poet Victoria Redel.
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“Corn on the Cob,” a poem by Susan Mallory (P ’11), was selected to appear in the Spring 2012 issue of the online journal Persimmon Tree (http://ww.persimmontree.org/) based in Berkeley, California.
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Chris Mattingly (P ’10) has recently given readings at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the Chicago High School for the Arts. Chris also read at Dodo Cafe in Chicago, House of Wax in Louisville, and the Second Sunday Series in Frankfort, Kentucky, and he is scheduled to read at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City, all in support of his recently published collection of riddles: A Light for Your Beacon. Chris has also had poems published by Singlehound, Trigger, Sawmill, and Forklift: Ohio. He has been invited to include an essay on Robert Hayden in a new anthology edited by Ross Gay and Patrick Rosal.  Chris is pleased to announce that his first full-length book of poems, Scuffletown, will be published by Typecast in 2013.
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Angie J. Mayfield’s (CNF ’09) new memoir Love, Loss & Lunacy in a Small Town (Infinity Publishing) was released in March in soft cover, hardback, and ebook editions and is also available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Angie’s website (http://www.angiejmayfield.com). Also, she was recently promoted to Associate Professor of English at Vincennes University and has a monthly column, “The Converted Cynic,” in Boomer magazine. Her article “Crazy Mule People” was published in Mules and More magazine in February. Angie read two pieces from her new book in March at the Southern Indiana Authors’ Showcase at Jasper Arts Center. On June 1, she appeared on WNIN television station program “Trends” in Evansville, Indiana, performing her John Denver essay titled “Poems, Prayers, & Promises.” Angie is also part of a fundraising group called “Will Read (and Sing) for Food” that performs monthly at various venues reading humorous essays and singing and playing 70s hits to raise money for area food banks and charities.
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Michael Morris’s (F/PW ’10) short story, “Jesus Called,” which was critiqued in Sena’s workshop in Barcelona, will be published in IMAGE journal in September (http://imagejournal.org/).
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Loreen Niewenhuls (F ’07) is blogging (http://LakeTrek.blogspot.com) as she completes a 1000-mile Great Lakes Walk this summer along the shores all five Great Lakes.
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Frances Nicholson (P ’04), in her capacity as a Los Angeles-area theater critic, was asked by the L.A. Stage Alliance to be one of five panelists at L.A. Stage Talks: Arts Criticism in Los Angeles. The two-hour discussion had a large live audience and also was broadcast on a live feed. The discussion is now featured on the L.A. Stage Alliance website (http://www.lastagetimes.com/2012/05/%20la-stage-talks-criticism-in-la/). A theatre critic for more than 30 years, Frances’ recent work can be accessed most easily at her blog (www.stagestruckreview.com).
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Karen Patterson (CNF ’04) was invited to present her recently released travel book, Eating Your Way Across Ohio, at the Ohioana Book Festival on May 12 in Columbus. She participated on panels that addressed the publishing industry in general and the particular challenges and rewards related to writing about Ohio. Karen covered more than 7,000 miles last summer reviewing over 160 restaurants in the state, of which 101 were included in the book. She also recently attended the Nonfiction Writers Conference sponsored by Stephanie Chandler, CEO of Authority Publishing. And finally, as a faculty member at Ohio University teaching composition and communications, Karen participated in a conference that focused on writing about the Holocaust through the Ohio University Appalachian Writing Project (OUAWP). Her involvement contributed to her body of research for a new textbook on the theme of teaching tolerance. To this end, she is currently searching for personal narratives related to various forms of social injustice including bullying, domestic violence, sex trafficking, slavery, genocide, and women’s issues, as well as other areas to be addressed in the book. Please send relevant stories to her at jkjpatt@bright.net.
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Mary Popham (F ’03), as of May 2012, has her manuscript, Landing Run, available as an e-book through Kindle Direct Publishing, a division of Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00820SE30/ref=cm_sw_su_dp). Earlier in the spring, in mid-April, she read a scene from the manuscript and presented an award to Dr. J. Blaine Hudson in the Written Word category of the Janet Irwin Peace Prize, sponsored by Interfaith Paths to Peace. In other recent news, Mary introduced Glynis Ridley, author of The Discovery of Jeanne Baret, at the Sixth Annual Kentucky Women’s Book Festival in mid-May at the University of Louisville. Mary continues to write book reviews for the (Louisville) Courier-Journal and does freelance editing of memoir and fiction.
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Terry Price (F ’06) recently led a workshop on creative writing at the Willow Oak Center for Arts and Education in Springfield, Tennessee, and will present a second workshop in June. He also has been elected to the board of directors of the Willow Oak Center. In April, Terry led a retreat jointly with fellow Spalding MFA graduate Carolyn Flynn (F ’12) at the Penuel Ridge Retreat Center in Tennessee. Terry and Carolyn have two retreats planned in 2013, one in New Mexico and another in Tennessee. Terry had an excerpt from his novel in progress published along with his photography in the first quarter issue of the literary journal 2nd & Church.

Terry is a part of several upcoming retreats, including the “It’s Not Just Creative Writing, It’s Creative Living, Come Play With Us” Writer’s Retreat in New Harmony, Indiana, August 13-17, with fellow Spalding MFA graduates Dave DeGolyer (P and W4C ’06) and Cathy Shap (P ’06). For more information on this retreat and other upcoming events, visit www.terryprice.net and click on “Working with Terry.”
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Diana M. Raab (CNF ’03) facilitated a workshop at the Santa Barbara Healing Sanctuary on Embodied Imagination and Journaling and co-taught with Jungian psychologist Robert Bosnak. Her latest poetry collection, Listening to Africa, was released in April by Antrim House, and Molly Peacock was instrumental to its final touches. In May, Diana was interviewed by Justine Toms of New Dimensions Radio regarding her book, Writers on The Edge (http://www.newdimensions.org/wp-content/uploads/mp3/sa-3431.mp3). New Dimensions is a nationally distributed radio series. Diana blogs at http://dianaraab.com/blog/.
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Dania Rajendra’s (CNF ’11) essay “Blue Coat” appeared in the Spring 2012 edition of Streetlight Magazine, an online literary magazine based in Charlottesville, Virginia (http://www.streetlightmag.com). Later this year, Dania will lead a storytelling and writing workshop with Midwestern workers organizing to improve their job conditions and accountability in the global supply chain.
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Brian Russell (CNF ’10) will be attending this year’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Dallas, July 19-21. This month, his essay “Winter Garden” will be published in the summer issue of Ten Spurs: The Best of the Best from the Literary Nonfiction of the Mayborn Conference. He continues to teach English at DeVry University in Chicago.
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Lauren Shows (F ’09) has just published the first issue of a new literary journal, Drip Castle. The journal seeks to celebrate and immortalize the evolution of creativity by showcasing both early and recent works of artists, and their commentary on the works. The first issue includes work from Shows and from Spalding alumnus Anthony Fife (P ’10). Drip Castle lives at http://www.dripcastlejournal.com. Spalding writers are highly encouraged to submit.
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Savannah Sipple (P ’08) had a poem, “After Reading Sylvia Plath in Appalachia, 2005,” published in Motif 3: All the Livelong Day, an anthology about work. She also has been named the new faculty advisor for the journal Kudzu. Savannah has four poems featured in the June 2012 issue of Still, which can be read at http://www.stilljournal.net/. The poems are “Aaron Shepherd,” “Ann McIntosh,” “Randy Moore,” and “Ruth,” all of which are persona poems from the collection Savannah is currently writing and revising.
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Katerina Stoykova-Klemer (P ’09) has a new poetry book available. The Porcupine of Mind was published by Broadstone Books in May.
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Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (W4C ’03) has signed a four-book deal with Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan for a middle-grade series pitched as The Swiss Family Robinson meets Lost, with the first book to be out in 2014. Her first young adult novel, The Compound, won the 2011-12 Nebraska Golden Sower Award, and she will be attending the Nebraska Library Association conference in October, where she will accept the award.
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Kathleen Thompson (F ’03) published a review of Almost Home, new and selected poems by Sue Scalf, on May 22 in First Draft Online, the newsletter for the Alabama Writers’ Forum.
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Cristina Trapani-Scott (F/P ’09) spoke about writing poetry to students at Lincoln Middle School in Ypsilanti, Michigan, for National Poetry Month. She read poems at the Baker College Celebration of Poetry held in May. In addition, Cristina has written several features and columns for special projects for the Adrian Daily Telegram. Her story about Tecumseh specialty foods shop Boulevard Market was picked up via Associated Press by the Detroit News on March 17 (http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120317/BIZ/203170319/Tecumseh-market-turns-making-foods). Also, the Daily Telegram ran her column titled “Lessons from a Leap of Faith” in its special section focused on small business. The column, which was published online March 1, chronicles the events leading to her opening of a food cart in 2011 with her partner/husband, Jay, as well as lessons they learned in their first year of business (http://www.lenconnect.com/newsnow/x1142167640/Cristina-Trapani-Scott-Lessons-from-a-leap-of-faith).
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Gretchen Tremoulet (F ’07) has had her short story “Amongst Trees” published in cream city review, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Fall 2011): 7-21.
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Colleen Wells (CNF ’10) taught College for Kids, June 18-22 at Ivy Tech State College in Bloomington, Indiana. The creative writing course was themed “Mad for Music.” In other news, her poems “Baby Sisters in the Bassinet” and “Group” appeared in the fifth issue of Psychic Meatloaf, which was edited by George McKim. (http://www.psychicmeatloaf.com)
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Corrections

None

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Personals

Our heartfelt sympathy to Sherry Palmer (CNF ’11) on the death of her father, Robert McCauley, on June 5.
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Our heartfelt sympathy to Deidre Woollard (F ’03) on the death of her brother, Russell A. Young Jr., in April.
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Our heartfelt sympathy to Sandra Havriluk (W4CYA ’09) on the death of her mother, Pansy Hardman Armistead, on June 15.
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Classifieds

None

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Reminders and Notes

Faculty Advisory Committee FAC) for Spring 2012
FAC members are announced by the MFA Office at the beginning of each semester. The Program Directors consult with the FAC about recommendations for admissions and about programmatic and administrative development and changes. Both faculty and students are invited to make suggestions to the FAC for exploration by the Program Director and larger faculty. However, students and faculty should directly and immediately consult the Associate Program Director about any issues concerning specific individuals’ performance in the program.

• Robin Lippincott, fiction
• Greg Pape , poetry
• Richard Goodman, creative nonfiction
• Ellie Bryant, writing for children and young adults:
• Sam Zalutsky, playwriting/screenwriting

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

Federal student loans are available to all eligible graduate students and are available for the fall, spring, or summer semesters. For help with financial aid questions, call Vickie Montgomery at (800) 896-8941, ext. 4330 or 502-873-4330 or email vmontgomery@spalding.edu. Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
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For Fall 2012 semester: Fill out the FAFSA for the 2012-13 school year, using 2011 tax information. Refer to MFA Financial Aid FAQs on the MFA portal page.

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 www2.spalding.edu/newsletter/menu.htm.
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Life of a Writer: Please remember to email Life of a Writer news to the program because this is a vital part of our community—sharing writing successes. The program wants to share good news with everyone and compiles records of publications, presentations, readings, employment, and other related information on faculty, students, and alums.

Life of a Writer pieces should be written as a paragraph in third person. Include area of concentration in parenthesis after name. For example, (F) for fiction, (P) for poetry, (CNF) for creative nonfiction; (W4C) for writing for children and young adults, (SW) for screenwriting, and (PW) for playwriting. For alumni, please include the year of graduation, such as Jake Doe (SW ’08). Spell out month and state names. Include title(s) of the work, publishers, date of publication, and complete web site addresses when appropriate. Send to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu.

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

Patsi Trollinger, Newsletter Editor
Nancy Long, Web Editor
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Direct No.	Person	Toll Free Ext. 800-896-8941
502-873-4400	Katy Yocom	4400
502-873-4396	Kathleen Driskell	4396
502-873-4397	Gayle Hanratty	4397
502-873-4398	Ellyn Lichvar	4398
502-873-4399	Karen Mann	4399
502-873-4330	Vickie Montgomery	4330

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

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

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