Vol. 5 No. 3
May 2004
The MFA Program Welcomes New Faculty Member
Changes in Lecture Evaluation Requirements for Residency
New Course To Be Added to Program Catalog
Poetry: Cross-Genre Exercise and Interrelatedness of the Arts
Book in Common Author: Naomi Shihab Nye
Music and the Written Word: Special Session for Students & Faculty
May 2004: Celebration of Recently Published Books
Writing for Children Conference
Returning Students Receive MFA Student Handbooks at Residency Orientations
Opportunity for Alumni & Students on Leave
Passport Reminder for AWP Conference in Vancouver
Life
of a Writer
Students
Faculty
Alumni
Previous Newsletters
The
MFA Program Welcomes New Faculty Member
Silas House, MFA, joins Spalding’s
brief-residency MFA in Writing Program as a member of the fiction faculty.
A recent graduate of the Spalding’s MFA Program, Silas is the author of
two novels, Clay’s Quilt and A Parchment of Leaves (both
from Algonquin), and Coal Tattoo, forthcoming from Algonquin. He
has published short stories in magazines including Bayou Magazine
and The Southeast Review. His short story “Coal Smoke” (first
published in The Louisville Review) received a Pushcart nomination
and is included in New Stories from the South (forthcoming
September 2004). A frequent contributor to National Public Radio, his
writing has been nominated for many awards including Appalachian Book of
the Year. Silas has taught workshops at the Antioch Writer’s Workshop at
Antioch College and the Appalachian Writers Workshop at the Hindman
Settlement School and Cumberland College. (Silas will be co-leading a
workshop during residency, but will not be mentoring students during the
May 2004 semester.) (top)
Changes in Lecture Evaluation Requirements for Residency
The MFA Program Directors have changed the policy regarding the number of lectures we require students to evaluate during residency. Beginning May 2004, students will need to complete and submit the appropriate number of evaluations to the MFA Office before leaving the residency in order to receive full credit for the residency:
First Semester: 5 FACULTY Lectures (or plenary sessions)
Second Semester: 4 FACULTY Lectures (or plenary sessions)
Third Semester: 3 FACULTY Lectures (or plenary sessions)
Fourth Semester: 3 FACULTY Lectures (or plenary sessions)
Fifth Residency (Graduating): 3 FACULTY Lectures (or
plenary sessions) (top)
New Enrichment Course To Be Added to Program Catalog
The MFA in Writing Program will add a new course to its program offerings: ENG650 (pending final approval by Spalding’s Graduate Committee). ENG650 is an optional enrichment course and is not required for graduation. This course benefits students who wish to receive additional practice writing in their genre or do additional work in a minor or another genre, provided they apply and are accepted to study in that area of concentration. Packets include original writing only. By taking the additional fifth semester before the MFA degree is conferred, students may qualify to receive financial aid to help defray tuition costs while enriching their course of study. For more information on this opportunity, contact Kathleen Driskell, Associate Program Director, at kdriskell@spalding.edu.
Course Description: ENG650—Creative Writing—MFA Residency 6 & Semester 5 Credit: 16 hours
This course includes a 10-day residency of workshops, lectures, conferences, and readings followed by a semester during which the student completes the Student Semester Study Plan. The Plan, which is created by the student and mentoring instructor, includes no more than five packets of original writing. Students submit residency, midsemester, and end-of-semester evaluations; and a Worksheet for their subsequent residency, when appropriate. ENG650 does not substitute for ENG610, ENG620, ENG630, or ENG640. Prerequisites: ENG610 and ENG620. (top)
Graduates of an MFA program may take a post-graduate semester(s) if they would like further enrichment.
Poetry: Cross-Genre Exercise and Interrelatedness of the Arts
The cross-genre exercise for May ‘04 is for all students, regardless of area of concentration to write a poem based on an art object or painting. Preparation for the residency cross-genre writing assignment includes a plenary lecture by Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund and a panel discussion by faculty poets Richard Cecil, Kathleen Driskell, Greg Pape, and Jeanie Thompson on published poems about art objects. In addition, all students are taken by chartered bus to visit Louisville’s Speed Museum of Art to find a subject for their poem. Poems are due after lunch on Thursday, Mary 27. All poems are read by the poetry faculty and some will be selected to be presented at a follow-up plenary session near the end of the residency. (top)
Book in Common Author: Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye, Arab-American author of May 2004’s Book in Common, 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East (Greenwillow), speaks Friday, May 28, at 7:30 pm at The Brown Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom. The community is invited to this MFA event. (The Program’s Book in Common discussion takes place on the opening night of the residency, Friday, May 21, in the Lectorium at 7:00 p.m.) In addition, Nye meets with the writing for children students and faculty at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 28, for a question-and-answer session about her work. This session is open for all MFA students. Those interested in attending are encouraged to read Sitti’s Secrets, a picture book by Nye. (top)
Music and the Written Word: Special Session for Students &
Faculty
At the May 2004 Residency, guest Sarah
Hassler presents an exploration of the interrelatedness of music and
writing. The audience participates through the use of improvisatory
writing, percussion and movement. Meter, subject, and voice are addressed.
Sarah is the music specialist at Cherry Tree Elementary School in
Carmel, Indiana. She also is assistant conductor of the Indianapolis
Children’s Choir. She holds her Bachelor’s of Music Education from The
Ohio State University and her master’s of Education with Kodaly Emphasis
from Capital University (both in Columbus, Ohio). In addition, she has
certification as an Orff Schulwerk specialist from the University of St.
Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. She also teaches movement and recorder at
the Orff levels at Anderson University, Anderson, Indiana. Sarah believes
in the extensive use of literature and poetry in the classroom as a basis
for musical exploration. (top)
Cross-Genre Experience: Film
On the opening night of the residency, following the discussion of the
Book in Common, everyone attends the screening of the film Election
at The Brown Hotel. Popcorn and cookies will be served. After the film,
screenwriting faculty member Sam Zalutsky leads a discussion of the script
and other aspects of the film. (top)
The MFA Program is pleased to present the following guests to lecture,
read, or participate in panels during our May residency (for more
extensive bios, see the May 2004 Lecture Descriptions):
Amalia
Rosenblum is co-owner of Kiosk Productions, Inc., a film production
company based in NYC. Amalia wrote and produced Holy For Me, which
won awards at the Chicago International Film Festival and The Jerusalem
International Film Festival. She worked on two documentary films that were
sold to television and won an award at The San Francisco International
Film Festival. In 2000-2001, Amalia produced Run, currently
screening in competition at the Mannheim-Heidelberg film festival.
Run was pre-sold to Israeli television and is making a highly
successful festival round. a.k.a., a feature film currently
completing financing, is Amalia’s next project. The trailer she produced
for a.k.a. won The Golden Trailer Award in early 2001. Amalia holds
a graduate degree from the New School University in New York.
Kentucky playwright Nancy Gall-Clayton won the Streisand
Festival of New Jewish Plays (General Orders No. 11) and the Eileen
Heckart Drama for Seniors Competition (Felicity’s Family Tree). She
has had a mainstage production at Kentucky Repertory Theatre (Just
Taking Up Space). In July 2004, her one-act about a school shooter,
Baby Joe’s Song, will be produced in Seattle during the Mae West Fest.
Nancy was chosen as a Tennessee Williams Scholar at Sewanee Writers’
Conference and has been a finalist three times for the Actors Theatre of
Louisville National Ten-Minute Competition. Pleiades Theatre Company has
commissioned and produced her work, and she has received grants from the
Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Kentucky Arts Council. (top)
Kate Gleeson, MAW (nonfiction writing) is co-author with Janusz
Bardach of Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag (University of
California Press, 1998/Scribner’s U.K. 1999) and Surviving Freedom:
After the Gulag (University of California Press, 2003). Man is Wolf
to Man was published to wide acclaim and translated into five
languages. It received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and
has been used as a primary source in works on the Stalinist era. Kate is a
graduate of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program and works
as a medical and freelance writer and editor. She has taught in the
University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival for six years and has given
numerous lectures on the subjects of collaboration and biographical
writing. Currently, she is at work on the book Healing Invisible
Wounds (Harcourt, 2005) with Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Richard Mollica.
The book documents his work with traumatized refugees.
Susan
Duff, a nonfiction writer, has covered general-interest subjects for
over twenty years, with particular expertise in medical and health issues,
including nutrition, fitness, and women’s health. A resident of the New
York City area, she has published in magazines and newspapers on topics
ranging from wine to money management, travel, beauty, and fly-fishing, as
well as editing, ghosting, and rewriting book projects for literary
agents. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday,
Ladies’ Home Journal, Redbook, Village Voice, Ms, and The National
Enquirer (“Eat Chocolate and Lose Weight”), among others. Her most
recent book publication is The AMA Home Medical Encyclopedia,
Random House, 2003.
Prior to becoming a literary agent in affiliation with Carlisle & Company in 2002, Paul Bresnick was Fiction Editor at Penthouse, Associate Editor at Simon & Schuster, Editor at Henry Holt, Senior Editor at Doubleday, Executive Editor at William Morrow, and Publisher at LiveREADS, the enhanced e-book publishers. He published fiction by a distinguished group of writers including Philip Roth, James Baldwin, John Hawkes, James Purdy, T. C. Boyle, Don DeLillo. At Simon & Schuster and Holt, he edited such major bestsellers as The Cinderella Complex by Colette Dowling, The Second Stage by Betty Friedan, and Catch A Fire: The Life Of Bob Marley by Timothy White. His bestsellers at Doubleday include Fatherhood by Bill Cosby, Grace: The Secret Lives Of A Princess by James Spada, Drive by Larry Bird, and On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates. Some highlights at Morrow: Forever Barbie by M. G. Lord, Model by Michael Gross, Black Profiles In Courage by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jackie After Jack by Christopher Andersen, King Con by Stephen J. Cannell, Hit Man by Lawrence Block, Poachers by Tom Franklin, Hell’s Angel by Sonny Barger, and Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund. (top)
Sarah Gorham is a publisher and poet who currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky. In March 1994, Gorham founded Sarabande Books, Inc., a small press devoted to the publication of poetry, short fiction, and literary nonfiction. Gorham serves as President and Editor-in-Chief. She is the author of three collections of poetry: The Cure, The Tension Zone, and Don’t Go Back to Sleep. She co-edited the anthology Last Call: Poems on Alcoholism, Addiction, and Deliverance, with Jeffrey Skinner, published in 1997 by Sarabande Books. Gorham’s poems and essays have been published widely in such magazines as Poetry, The Nation, American Poetry Review, Grand Street, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, Southern Review, Ploughshares, Poets and Writers, and Poetry Northwest, where in 1990 she won the Carolyn Kizer Award.
Writer, director, and educator Felix Brandon Lloyd received his Bachelor of Arts in Television and Film Writing from Syracuse University. In 2000, he and three partners began UpRising Films with the mission of promoting art that brings balance to the film world through three-dimensional characters and untold stories. In August of 2003, FB began a one-year residency at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts in Mount Saint Francis, Indiana, where he is working on the novel Between Dark Spaces and four related screenplays. (top)
Peter Ackerman wrote the off-Broadway play Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight, which ran in New York, London, throughout the U.S., and was broadcast on NPR. He co-wrote the Academy Award nominated movie Ice Age and wrote the screenplay for Jumanji 2. He has rewritten the still-to-be-released movies Family Jewels for Paramount and Leisure World for New Line. His radio-play I’d Rather Eat Pants was commissioned by NPR and broadcast on Morning Edition. As an actor, he has appeared regionally and in New York, most notably off-Broadway in Visiting Mr. Green with Eli Wallach and in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). He lives in New York.
Maureen Morehead has published three books of poetry: In a Yellow Room (Sulgrave Press, 1990), Our Brothers’ War (Sulgrave Press, 1993), and A Sense of Time Left (Larkspur Press, 2003). Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, The California Quarterly, The Greensboro Review, The Iowa Review, The Louisville Review, Poet and Critic, Poetry, and other literary magazines. She has won fellowships for her poetry from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. She has taught at Western Kentucky University, the University of Louisville, and for the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville. She earned a PhD in English, with creative thesis, from the University of Louisville in 1986. (top)
Jon Klein is the author of twenty produced plays, produced Off-Broadway and at many prestigious regional theatres, with two plays in the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, as well as Center Stage, Arena Stage, Alliance Theatre, and the Alley Theatre, among many others. Jon adapted his play T Bone N Weasel for a film on the TNT Network, starring Gregory Hines and Christopher Lloyd. Jon has received both the HBO Playwrights USA award and the Midwest Author’s award for T Bone N Weasel, a CBS New Play Award for Losing It, and three National Endowment of Art Fellowships. Upcoming stage productions include the revival of Bunnicula at Seattle Children’s Theatre, and the premiere of Suggestibility at the Victory Theatre in Los Angeles. Jon has been a Playwright-in-Residence at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge and the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and has taught playwriting and screenwriting at the University of Texas in Austin and currently at Ohio University. Jon holds an MFA in Film and Television from UCLA and an M.A. in Theatre from Indiana University.
Thomas B. Byers is Professor of English and Director of the
Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society at the University of
Louisville, where he has won both the University-wide Distinguished
Teaching Award and the Alumni Association’s Red Apple Award. He has
lectured and published on film in the US, Denmark, Sweden, Germany,
Austria, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Brazil.
Iverson
Warinner is Professor of Communication and Theatre Arts at Spalding
University. A native of Kentucky’s Clinton County, Professor Warinner
earned his MFA in Theater from the University of Louisville and
Educational Specialist’s degree from Spalding University. He received his
bachelor’s degree from Berea College. Professor Warinner also has
completed graduate work at Indiana University and Eastern New Mexico
University. A professional actor and director, Professor Warinner has
extensive experience in university, community, and professional theatre,
directing such plays and musicals as The Odd Couple, Never Too Late,
The Wizard of Oz, The Miracle Worker, The Glass Menagerie, Othello,
and Fiddler on the Roof. Professor Warinner also earned his Screen
Actors’ Guild card with appearances in NBC’s The Pretender and
Fox’s The X-Files. (top)
May 2004: Celebration of Recently Published Books
On Tuesday, May 25, at 7:30 p.m., the MFA Program presents the “Celebration
of Recently Published Books” in the Crystal Ballroom at The Brown Hotel.
Neela Vaswani reads from her collection of short stories, Where the
Long Grass Bends (Sarabande Books, 2004); Elaine Neil Orr reads from
her memoir Gods of Noonday: A White African Girl’s Life (University
of Va., 2003); and Debra Kang Dean reads from her collection of
poetry, Precipitates (BOA, 2003). This program will be recorded by Public
Radio South for future broadcast on The Spoken Word, a syndicated radio
program featured on more than 40 public radio stations in the Southeastern
United States. (top)
Writing for Children Conference
On May 22 and 23, the MFA Program hosts a Writing for Children Conference. In addition to the Spalding MFA writing-for-children faculty, guests include children’s authors Jack Gantos, Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, and Alexandria LaFaye; children’s author and anthologist Lisa Rowe Fraustino; Harcourt children’s editor Michael Stearns; and literary agent Rosemary Stimola. The conference includes two panels, “Breaking in to the Writing for Children Business” and “Discoveries in Journaling.”
The sessions for the conference take place in The Brown Hotel. Spalding writing-for-children students attend for free. Further information, including a schedule of events, is available by brochure and on the website. For more information, email Karen Mann.
W4C Conference Guests
Lisa Rowe Fraustino, an assistant professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University, has published in multiple genres for all ages, from her ALA Notable picture book The Hickory Chair to her ALA Best Book for Young Adults Ash to her award-winning young adult fiction anthologies, Dirty Laundry: Stories about Family Secrets, Soul Searching: Thirteen Stories about Faith and Belief, and her latest, Don’t Cramp My Style: Stories About That Time of the Month.
Jack Gantos says the seeds for his writing career were planted in sixth grade when he read his sister’s diary and decided he could write better than she. He begged his mother for a diary and began to collect anecdotes he overheard at school, mostly from standing outside the teachers’ lounge and listening to their lunchtime conversations. Later, he incorporated many of these anecdotes into stories. In 1976, he published his first book, Rotten Ralph, which was followed by many other books, including Jack Henry, Joey Pigza, and the young adult memoir Hole in My Life. Jack now devotes his time to writing books and educational speaking. Mr. Gantos is known nationally for his educational creative writing and literature presentations to students and teachers. He is a frequent conference speaker, university lecturer, and in-service provider. (top)
Alexandria LaFaye is a professor of creative writing, children’s literature, and young adult literature at CSU San Bernardino, but when she’s not in the classroom, she’s at the keyboard. Worth, her seventh novel for young readers, will be out this summer (Simon and Schuster). Her other novels include The Year of the Sawdust Man, Strawberry Hill, and Dad, in Spirit.
Rosemary Stimola, a former professor of language and literature and an award-winning children’s bookseller, formalized the Stimola Literary Studio in 1997, offering representation to writers and writer/illustrators of children’s books. A member of AAR, her Studio represents both fiction and nonfiction, from preschool through young adult, and counts Carol Carrick, Suzanne Collins, Ken Mochizuki, James Proimos, and Matt Tavares among its list of published clients.
Michael Stearns works for Harcourt Children’s Books, where he is Senior Editor and Director of Paperback Publishing. Among his recent picture books are Dinosailors (by Deb Lund, illustrated by Howard Fine), Big Brown Bear’s Up and Down Day (by David McPhail), and Sixteen Cows (by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Kurt Cyrus). Among the novels are A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (a Michael Printz honor book) and East by Edith Pattou, as well as the Chet Gecko Mysteries by Bruce Hale, and novels by Bruce Coville and Edward Bloor. (top)
Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen is author of the award-winning Elizabeti’s Doll picture book series, inspired by her Peace Corps experiences in Tanzania. Her other picture books include Babu’s Song, We’ll Paint the Octopus Red, and the forthcoming A Home For Salty. She is also author of a story in the middle grade anthology Memories of Sun: Stories of Africa and America. Stephanie has an MFA in Writing from Spalding University and currently lives on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
Returning Students Receive MFA Student Handbooks at Residency Orientations
New student orientation takes place Friday, May 20, at 4:30 p.m. Orientations for first, second, third, fourth, and fifth residency students take place Saturday, May 21, at 9:30 a.m. Returning students will receive the revised MFA Student Handbook at orientation.
Opportunity for Alumni & Students on Leave
Any alumni or student on a leave of absence for the May 2004 semester who would like to help in the MFA Office for a day or two during the residency may also attend lectures (which are otherwise closed to all but residency attendees). Helping in the office includes answering the phone, answering questions, helping students, making copies, selling tapes or pictures, giving directions, collecting papers, and other clerical duties. (top)
The MFA in Writing Program is pleased to announce the graduate assistants for the May 2004 semester. The Louisville Review student editors: Richard Newman, Amanda Sledz, Sharon Thomson. The Louisville Review student assistant editors: Amy Clark, Cyn Kitchen, John Schuler. Newsletter editor: Jamey Temple. Office assistant: Liz Nethery. Publications assistant: Jasmine Grimmett.
Graduate assistantships result in tuition remission for students. For information about graduate assistantships, click here. The deadline to apply for the October 2004 semester is August 2, 2004.
Passport Reminder for AWP Conference in Vancouver
Those planning to attend 2005’s Associated Writing Program’s conference
in Vancouver, British Columbia, will need a passport to enter Canada.
Betsy Woods Atkinson accepted a mentor position at The Writer’s Loft at Middle Tennessee State University. Her ECE, “The Water Mystic: Birth, Death and Transformation in Children’s Literature,” was accepted for presentation at the 31st Annual International Conference of the Children's Literature Association at California State University in Fresno.
Amy Clark won first place in the graduate poetry category of the Metroversity Competition with her poem “Bird Outside the Window.” Her poem “Arc” received an honorable mention in the Wednesday Club of St. Louis’s 78th Poetry Contest.
Dan DiStasio participated in the Tennessee Williams Symposium in Key West led by Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner.
Sandra Falconer has three poems forthcoming in the Nov 2003 issue of The Oncologist, an international health care journal. Her poem “Venus” is forthcoming in The Potomac Review.
During the month of March, Anne Marie Fowler gave a reading of her poetry at The Bowery Poetry Club in New York City and presented her ECE “Authority and Identity in the Poetry of Arab Women” at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. During the month of April, in celebration of National Poetry Month, she spearheaded a celebration of poetry in the Kaiserslautern Military Community in Germany. She created a poetry contest for all ages, read selected poets’ work on the Armed Forces Network radio, and will emcee the poetry awards ceremony in early May. Additionally, Anne Marie has been accepted for doctoral study at The Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and will begin her studies in September. The focus of her doctoral study will be contemporary ethnic and women’s literature.
John Grant and partners recently started a film production company called Barbary Coast Films (more information at barbarycoastfilms.com).Their first short film is called “The Mad Scientist.”
Mike Hampton's story short story "Slow Day at the S.A." has been accepted for publication in 3AM Magazine.
Erin Keane read at the Poets’ Day celebration at the Louisville Public Library Bon Air branch on April 24 and with the Viking Hillbilly Apocalypse Revue on April 29 at the Rudyard Kipling in Louisville. She appeared as a guest lecturer in Kim Crum’s creative writing class at Spalding on April 22.
Cyn Kitchen’s short story “How to Avoid Sex with a Man Who Weighs 300 Lbs. More than You” was short-listed for the 2004 Raymond Carver Short Story Award. Her story will appear in the September 2004 issue of Carve Magazine.
Richard Newman won an honorable mention in the graduate poetry category of the Metroversity Competition. He has work forthcoming in Seattle Review.
Mark Rudolph’s poem “Summoning the Dead” is forthcoming in the Magazine of Speculative Poetry. His poem “Tarot Cards and UFOs,” published in Strange Horizons, took first place in the 2003 Strange Horizons Readers’ Choice Awards and was nominated for the SFPA Rhysling Award in the short poem category.
Pam Steele won the 2004 Jim Wayne Miller Poetry Prize and the Kentucky Writers’ Coalition Poetry Chapbook Prize, and continues to organize (with K. Nicole Wilson and Erin Keane) the monthly InKY Reading Series at the Rudyard Kipling in Louisville.
Sharon Thomson has work forthcoming in BigCityLit.com and the anthology Intermediating Surfaces; The Sk(in) Between (Headwaters Press). Her three following works won Metroversity graduate writing awards: a memoir piece, “What I Never Said,” an essay on breast cancer, “One More Story,” and her ECE, “Art of the Literary How-To Book.”
Laverne Zabielski’s essay “A Great Mother” is forthcoming in the Kentucky Feminist Writers Series’ collection I to I: Life Writing by Kentucky Feminists.(top)
Dianne Aprile was invited by the Frankfort Arts Foundation to introduce the 30th annual Henry K. Leadingham Prose-Poetry Reading, on April 24 at the Kentucky History Center, featuring Kentucky author Fenton Johnson. On April 27, Dianne was guest lecturer at a Spalding English Comp class taught by recent MFA grad (and former Dianne mentee) Kim Crum. On May 10, Dianne read and signed books at the Italian-American Association Book Talk & Dinner, along with Donna Valtri Crane, the new president of Sulgrave Press, a Louisville-based small press. On May 22 at 7:00 p.m., Dianne will sign books at the Merton Book Festival at Bellarmine College in Louisville.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s picture book The Flag Maker, illustrated by Claire A. Nivola (Houghton Mifflin 2004), received a starred review in Booklist. Susan will also be a featured breakfast speaker at the International Reading Association annual conference in Reno, Nevada in May.
Ellie Bryant has been named to the faculty of the New England Young Writers Conference at Bread Loaf, which convenes in May at the Middlebury College Bread Loaf campus. She will be reading her Hunger Mountain and Far From Home anthology pieces at bookstores in Vermont and Virginia in the coming months.
Kathleen Driskell had poems recently published in Arable. Her work is forthcoming in The South Carolina Review. She read at the Arnoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati on April 24.
Richard Goodman’s essay, “Paris, When It Drizzles,” was published in Best Traveler’s Tales 2004. He will give a reading, along with other contributors to the book, at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Center in New York City, July 14, 7:00 p.m. His essay on hawks in Central Park is forthcoming on the op-ed page of The New York Times.
Roy Hoffman’s essay, “My Own Private New York,” which originally appeared in the New York Times, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2002, was a notable essay of the year in Best American Essays 2003. On Feb. 22, at the University of Alabama, he gave the keynote address to the yearly convention of Alabama high school newspaper and literary magazine editors. On March 19, also at U. of A., he was on a panel, “Let’s Talk About Writing,” along with fellow Alabama non-fiction writers Rick Bragg and Diane McWhorter, in memory of journalist Bailey Thomson. On April 30 he moderated a panel of Southern magazine editors at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville, Al. Among his recent Sunday Mobile Register stories was “Keeping the Faith,” Jan. 18, about the last Jewish family in Eufaula, Al., and “When a Banner Was Born,” about the Prussian portrait artist who designed the original Confederate flag, and is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.
Sena Jeter Naslund has recently given readings at AWP in Chicago, at the Literary Feast library benefit in Fort Lauderdale, FL, at a fundraiser for Brandies University held in Tuscon, AZ, for Veritas at Bellarmine University in Louisville, and for the Southern Voices festival in Birmingham, AL. Her novel Four Spirits has appeared on the notable book of the year lists of The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, The Louisville Courier-Journal and has been nominated for a SEBA Book Award. Sena is just back from a research trip to Paris for her new writing project, a slender novel on Marie-Antoinette, and she is being commissioned to write a stage version of Four Spirits for The Southern Project of Alabama Shakespeare Festival Theatre.
Elaine Orr gave a reading from her memoir, Gods of Noonday: A White Girl’s African Life, in her Nigerian hometown of Ogbomosho on April 13. The city has a population of 1,000,000; Elaine was born there in 1954. She met the King of the city and did research for her next project, Searching for Lurana (the story, drawn from her diary, of the wife of the first Baptist missionary to Yoruba land, 1853-56). The book is a hybrid of creative nonfiction, diary, and fiction. Since her memoir came out in September, Elaine has given readings and lectures in Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina. Kentucky, Texas, and Virginia. Before the residency, she will be in the D.C. area. Gods of Noonday is nominated for a SEBA Book Award in Creative Nonfiction.
Greg Pape’s new book of poems, American Flamingo, was selected for the Crab Orchard Review Award Series in Poetry and will be published by Southern Illinois University Press in April 2005. His book Border Crossings was selected for publication in the Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporaries Series, and will be published in Fall 2004. He has new poems forthcoming in The Evansville Review, Field, and Lake Effect. His poem “Flamingos” will appear in the anthology Bird in the Hand edited by Kent and Dylan Nelson, due this Spring from Farrar, Strauss,& Giroux. His poem “My Happiness” will be reprinted in Writing Poems, 6th edition, and his poem “American Flamingo” has been reprinted in Literature for Composition, both from Longman. His 2003 small press and magazine publications have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Jeanie Thompson and mixed media artist Pinky Bass of Fairhope participated in “Arts and Letters” a pairing of writers and visual artists at the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts in March. Thompson’s poem “Spring Night, Rain” (first published in The Louisville Review) was presented in Bass’s hand-stitched frame and hung with the artist’s self-portrait photography. Thompson has poems in current issues of River Styx and Maize. Her first published prose, “For Mike Kusmahn, Wherever You May Be,” appears in the 2004 issue of the annual PoemMemoirStory. (top)
Susan Christerson Brown’s (Oct. ‘03) essay “In Search of the Good Life” won the Alice A. Dunnigan Award for creative nonfiction, sponsored by the Kentucky Writers’ Coalition. It will be published this spring in the premier issue of Arable.
A 30 minute documentary on the life and writing of Silas House (Oct. ‘03) was recently filmed and will air on KET later this year. House's story “The Cool of the Day,” originally published in Bayou magazine, has been selected for The Alumni Grille, an anthology of modern Southern writing to be published this summer by MacAdam/Cage. The Summer issue of Appalachian Heritage magazine will be devoted to House with a feature interview, essays by his students and colleagues, and poetry that was inspired by House’s novels. House recently accepted a position as associate professor of Creative Writing and Appalachian Ambassador at Eastern Kentucky University.
Kaylene Johnson’s (Oct. ‘03) “Skiing on the Wild Side” article and photos were accepted for publication in the December travel section of the Los Angeles Times’ annual ski issue. Johnson’s article “Race Makers” appeared as the cover story to the March issue of Alaska Airlines Magazine. Her essay “Ghost Bear” was accepted for publication in the upcoming anthology Voices from Within.
Cate McGowan’s (May ‘03) collection of short stories, Everything’s Lighter in Water, is forthcoming from Thunderegg Press. She won second prize in the Santa Fe Writer’s Project Writing Awards last spring, the Porter Fleming Prize last fall, and was a top 25 finalist for my story “All the Birds in Shakespeare” for the latest Very Short Fiction Award in Glimmer Train. Her story “Arm, Clean Off” appeared in Glimmer Train Issue 47, “While Doing My Hand Washables on Wednesday,” appeared in Snake Nation Review Issue 17, “In the Yard,” was featured as a story by a “Southern author of importance” in The Sunday Reader in the Raleigh News and Observer on July 13, 2003.
Linda Busby Parker’s (Oct. ’03) novel Seven Laurels, which she completed during her time at Spalding, has been published by Southeast Missouri State University Press. The release date was April 30. Seven Laurels was winner of the James Jones First Novel Award; contest judge J. Michael Lennon called it “one of the most moving we have seen in the ten years of the Jones Fellowship.” The novel is available on Amazon.com.
Deborah Reed’s (Oct. ‘03) short story “Grassroots,” from her novel in progress, has been accepted by the Knoxville Writers’ Guild for their anthology Migrants and Stowaways, forthcoming in October 2004.
Joe Schmidt’s (Oct. ‘03) “The Good Bachelor's Poem” is forthcoming in River Styx.
Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen’s (May ‘03) picture book Babu’s Song
won the 2004 Children’s Africana Book Award for Young Readers, ceremony
to be held at the Library of Congress May 1. The same book also has been
named to the Master List for the Pennsylvania Children’s Choice Award,
and was included in the Children’s Cooperative Book Center “Choices.”
She recently sold her picture book Isaac and Emma, the sequel to
We’ll Paint the Octopus Red.
In February, Kathleen Thompson (Oct. ‘03) read for “Lunch With
A Poet” at Hoover High School in Birmingham, and in March, for the Poetry
Society of Georgia in Savannah. She was awarded First Prize in the Eugene
Walter Writers’ Festival Poetry Competiton 2004 from the University of
South Alabama, Mobile. Her short story, “Living Like the Lilies,” has
been chosen as a finalist (among about ten) for the Writers@Work Fiction
Fellowship Competition at Westminister College, Salt Lake City.
Deidre Woollard’s (Oct. '03) story “Where Is Home?” won second
place in the Spanish Moss Literary Competition for fiction. Her story
“Barrydapple Road” won third place in the Clark College Fiction contest.
She will have a story in the premiere issue of Heat City Review.
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Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) Members for May 2004 Semester
- Kirby Gann, Fiction
- Richard Cecil, Poetry
- Roy Hoffman, Creative Nonfiction
- TBA, Writing for Children
- Charles Gaines, Screenwriting
Both students and faculty 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 Program Director about any issues concerning specific individuals’ performance in the program.
Faculty Books in Common for May 2004
Students order and read the book in their area of concentration before coming to the May 2004 residency. The screenplay and play are available from the MFA office.
- Carolyn Crimi, writing for children, Don’t Need Friends
- Robin Lippincott, fiction, Our Arcadia
- Elaine Orr, creative nonfiction, Gods of Noonday: A White Girl’s African Life
- Greg Pape, poetry, Storm Patterns
- Charles Gaines, screenplay, Indeh-the Dead
- Claudia Hunter Johnson, playwriting, Propinquity and Paternity
Financial Aid: For help with financial aid questions, call Christina Guarachi at (800) 896-8941 ext. 2494 or (502) 585-9911, ext. 2359 or email cguarachi@spalding.edu. Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/.
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 Theresa Raidy in the Advancement Office. Email: traidy@spalding.edu. Phone: (800) 896-8941, ext. 2601 or (502) 585-9911, ext. 2601.
Online information: MFA in Writing forms, deadlines, and other student and faculty information are available online. 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 programs forms or the newsletter, if requested. Email kyocom@spalding.edu.