Invitation to All MFAers
The Board of Trustees of Spalding University invites you to attend the inauguration of Tori Murden McClure, MDiv, JD, MFA, as the twenty-eighth president of the University at 2 p.m. October 17 at the Cathedral of the Assumption, 433 South Fifth St., Louisville, Kentucky. Reception follows from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Brown Hotel's Crystal Ballroom. RSVP to Bonnie Rafferty at brafferty@spalding.edu

The MFA Program Welcomes New Residency Faculty Members
The MFA Program is pleased to announce that Lesléa Newman joins Joyce McDonald to co-lead a Writing for Children and Young Adults' Workshop during this fall residency. Lesléa is the author of sixty books for readers of all ages, including the board books Mommy, Mama, and Me and Daddy, Papa, and Me; the picture books Cats, Cats, Cats!, Just Like Mama, Miss Tutu's Star, and Heather Has Two Mommies; the middle-grade novels Fat Chance and Hachiko Waits; the teen novels Still Life with Buddy (written in verse) and Jailbait. She is also the author of adult fiction, including the short story collection A Letter to Harvey Milk and the novel The Reluctant Daughter. She has published a collection of poetry and a nonfiction book as well. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, The Sun, Lilith Magazine, The Bark, Cimarron Review, Seventeen Magazine, and many other magazines, journals, and anthologies.

Her literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Foundation, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, the Americus Review Poetry Prize, National Christian School Association Children's Crown Honor, a Parents' Choice Silver Medal, an American Library Association Notable, and the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award.

From 2008-2010, Lesléa served as the Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts. She has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University, Yale University, Smith College, Princeton University, and The University of Judaica, among others. In addition, she has taught at Clark University, the University of Southern Maine, and The Frost Place. See more about Lesléa at http://www.lesleakids.com.

The MFA Program is pleased to welcome John Pipkin to the Spalding MFA residency faculty. John is the author of Woodsburner, a novel published in 2009 by Nan A. Talese Books, an imprint of Random House. Woodsburner has been awarded the Massachusetts Center for the Book 2010 Fiction Award, The Texas Institute for Letters 2010 Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction, and the 2009 First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction. John was recently awarded the Jesse H. Jones Writing Fellowship for spring 2011 from the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program.

Currently, he lives in Austin, Texas, where he has worked as the Executive Director of the Writers' League of Texas, a nonprofit literary arts organization. (top)

John has published articles in Studies in English Literature, Good Life Magazine, Austin Monthly, and The Common Review. He has taught writing and literature at Saint Louis University, Boston University, Southwestern University, and the University of Texas.
Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he attended Washington & Lee University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his PhD in British Literature from Rice University in 1997. Students and colleagues may read more about John and Woodsburner at www.johnpipkin.com.

MFA Program Welcomes New Expository Writing Coach
The MFA Program is happy to announce that Michael Jackman is joining the MFA faculty as our new expository writing coach. Beginning this Fall 2010 residency in Louisville, he will lead the small mini-workshops in expository writing that are required of all ENG620 students. Michael is a lecturer in writing at Indiana University Southeast. For four years, his short essays were featured each Friday on WFPL 89.3 FM and Kentucky Public Radio. He also has appeared as a featured storyteller and writer for the radio show Kentucky Homefront. His column "Technicalities" won a Kentucky Press Association award. Michael also directs the Writers Workshop Project. His fiction and poetry have appeared in many publications, including The Louisville Review, The Thomas Merton Seasonal, Pegasus, Scribblers on the Roof, and New Southerner.

AWP Conference in D.C. February 2-5, 2011
The annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference is set for February 2-5, 2011, in Washington, D.C., at the Marriott Wardman Park and Omni Shoreham Hotels. See http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2011awpconf.php for more information on the conference. It's not too early to make room reservations as the hotels generally fill up.
The MFA Program pays the registration fee for current students attending the conference. Students who are attending should let Katy (kyocom@spalding.edu) know by November 15. Students are responsible for transportation, housing, and any other costs.
The Spalding MFA Program invites all faculty, students, alumni, and friends of the program to an off-site reading and mixer at Busboys and Poets, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, February 4, Any alums or faculty who are attending, please let Kathleen (kdriskell@spalding.edu) know. (top)

MFA Program Welcomes Guest Lecturers
Gardner McFall presents the lecture "The Little Princess, The Wind in the Willows and the Golden Age of Children's Literature" at the Fall 2010 residency. Gardner is the author of two children's books, Jonathan's Cloud and Naming the Animals. In 2005, she edited the new edition of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows for Barnes and Noble's Classic Series. She teaches children's literature at Hunter College in New York City. In addition to her children's books, Gardner has published two collections of poetry, The Pilot's Daughter and Russian Tortoise. Gardner received her MA in the Writing Seminars of Johns Hopkins University and her PhD from New York University.

Robert Stagg will lecture on Renaissance sculpture at the Fall 2010 residency as part of the interrelatedness of the arts emphasis. Bob is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. Stagg holds MA degrees in art history and studio from the University of Louisville and an MFA in painting from the University of Kentucky. He was a professor of fine art at Spalding University for twenty-four years. Research for an art history thesis in Florence, Italy, led to a continuing interest in Italian art and culture. Stagg's painting, reading and cooking have all benefitted from extended stays in Tuscany and Umbria.

Russians and Leopards
As part of the MFA Program's emphasis on the interrelatedness of the arts, faculty and students at the Fall 2010 residency attend two distinctly different musical performances. The first features a world-renowned symphony orchestra known as one of the premier interpreters of Russian classical composers. The second features an improvisational percussion group made up of Louisville elementary and middle-schoolers who once opened for My Morning Jacket, the American alt-country band whose hometown is Louisville. (top)

About the Russians . . .
The first performance is by the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, under the musical direction of Pavel Kogan. The performance takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, November 13, at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Buses transport students and faculty to the performance venue.

For sixty-seven years, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra has celebrated the rich heritage of classical music from Russia and around the world. The performance marks the orchestra's debut at the Kentucky Center. The program for the evening is classical favorites, including works by Tchaikovsky and Grieg, as well as the Mussorgsky/Ravel "Pictures at an Exhibition."

. . . and the Leopards
The Louisville Leopard Percussionists are a performing ensemble of about sixty-five student-musicians, ages seven to twelve, living in and around Louisville. Led by director Diane Downs, the Leopards learn, perform, and improvise on jazz compositions using instruments such as marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, drum set, timbales, congas, bongos, and piano. The June 2010 issue of Louisville Magazine lists the Leopards as number eight of fifty experiences everyone in Louisville should have to be a true Louisvillian. Los Angeles studio musician Brad Dutz calls them "groovy kids playing difficult music."

In an article titled "Performers to Be Jazzed About," The Washington Post wrote, "To hear these kids play 'Take Five' entirely on percussion is pretty stunning." The Leopards have starred in an HBO Family special and once opened for My Morning Jacket. The Post article continues, "Did we mention they've learned songs by Santana and Duke Ellington by ear?"

The MFA Program attends a private performance by the Leopards at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 16 at First Unitarian Church, near campus. (top)

Cross-Genre Assignment for Fall 2010
The cross-genre area for fall is creative nonfiction. All MFA students, regardless of area of concentration, should read the following essays from The Norton Book of Nature Writing. This reading is to be completed before students arrive at residency in preparation for Bob Finch's lecture on nature writing, which will also include the cross-genre writing assignment for residency.

On Blackboard, under SEMESTERS/FALL 2010/ BOOKS IN COMMON AND OTHER PRE-READING REQUIREMENTS FOR FALL 2010 RESIDENCY, students will find PDFs of these essays to be downloaded, printed, read, and brought to Bob Finch's plenary lecture, "Being at Two with Nature":

Henry David Thoreau, "Brute Neighbors," pp. 172-80; and "KTAADN," pp. 205-11
Samuel Clemens, "The Book of the River," pp. 236-37
Virginia Woolf, "The Death of the Moth," pp. 343-44
Aldo Leopold, "Thinking Like a Mountain," pp. 381-82
Edward Abbey, "The Serpents of Paradise," pp. 614-20
Maxine Hong Kingston, "A City Person Encountering Nature," pp. 787-90
Alice Walker, "Am I Blue?" pp. 863-67
Annie Dillard, "Total Eclipse," pp. 880-91

Directly following Bob's lecture, students will be given instructions and a deadline for a one-page cross-genre assignment to be submitted during the fall residency.

Program Book in Common for Fall 2010
To prepare for the Fall 2010 residency, all attending students should read the Plenary Book in Common: Arctic Dreams, by Barry Lopez. Bring the texts to the Book in Common discussion the first evening of residency. (top)

Faculty/Guest Books/Scripts in Common for Fall 2010
In addition to the Program Book in Common, students also read a Faculty Book/Script in Common in their area of concentration. The Faculty Books/Scripts in Common are

Fiction: Marcia Dalton, The Ice Margin (This session will be facilitated by Sena Jeter Naslund, Karen Mann, Julie Brickman, and Eleanor Morse.)
Poetry: Richard Taylor, Rail Splitter
Creative Nonfiction: Robert Finch, Nature Writing: The Tradition in English (hardcover) or The Norton Book of Nature Writing (softcover); students may purchase either edition. The list of essays to be read is posted on Blackboard.
Writing for Children & Young Adults: Joyce McDonald, Devil on My Heels
Playwriting: Eric Schmiedl, Browns Rules (posted on BB)
Screenwriting: Helena Kriel, Ahab's Wife (posted on BB)

Critical Writing Lecture for New Students at Residency
All new Fall 2010 students are required to attend Kathleen Driskell's lecture, "Writing about Writing: Introduction to Critical Analysis" during the residency. New students should log onto Blackboard and click through SEMESTERS/FALL 2010/BOOKS IN COMMON AND OTHER PRE-READING REQUIREMENTS FOR FALL 2010 RESIDENCY/ALL NEW STUDENTS: PRE-READING AND PRE-ASSIGNMENTS.
New students should also download, print out, and read "Cathedral," by Raymond Carver and complete the worksheet outline on that story. Please bring "Cathedral," and its worksheet to the lecture at residency. (top)

New Submission Process for the ECE and Creative Thesis
Students in ENG630 and ENG640 should review the new processes for submitting the Extended Critical Essay and the Creative Thesis. Students are to email final drafts of both documents as attachments to the Associate Program Director for approval before sending the finalized hard copies on to the MFA Office. Full details on the new submission processes can be found in the revised MFA Student Handbook (Fall 2010, Spring 2011, and Summer 2011) posted in Blackboard.

Fall Residency Checklist
The MFA Program directors strongly encourage all students to prepare for the residency well in advance. As a guide to finalizing preparations approximately one week before residency, the MFA Office posts a checklist of all documents and other texts students need to download, print out, and bring to residency. All students are expected to check this list to ensure they come to residency with all necessary materials. We recommend students hole punch (or print out on hole-punched paper) all documents and place them in a binder to keep materials organized. (top)

Change in Thursday Memo
Two years ago, we instituted the Thursday Memo in an effort to consolidate the information we put out to faculty, students, and alumni. However, many MFAers have commented that the Thursday Memo repeats information is available in the syllabi, making it difficult to detect information that is not included in the syllabi.
In response to these comments, the MFA staff has decided to limit the Thursday Memo to announcements of information not available to students in their syllabi. This change took place September 2.

Syllabi are available on Blackboard under MFA in Writing Program, SEMESTERS/[your semester]/COURSES/[your course]. Packet Submission Schedules are available for faculty under MENTOR GROUPS/FACULTY.

The MFA staff remains open to suggestions of ways to streamline or better administer the Program.

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

Facebook Fanpage Contest
Take a picture that includes MFA items, such as T-shirts, bags, or umbrellas and send it to mfafacebook@spalding.edu to be posted on the fanpage.

For each picture posted, the MFA staff enters the name of the MFAer into a drawing for a $100 gift card to the independent bookstore of the winner's choice. Winners are chosen every six months.

And if you haven't already, join the MFA Program fanpage now.

Discussion Board for Contests, Deadlines, and More
The “Contests” section of the discussion board on Blackboard has much more information than contests. It includes calls for submissions or papers, information on grants and residencies, fellowships, etc. Check in from time to time to find out what opportunities are out there. Faculty, students, and alumni may also post information to this discussion board. (top)

MFA Alumni Association
The website for the MFA Alumni Association is http://www.spaldingmfaalum.com. If you have questions or are interested in working with this group, send Terry Price an email at terry@terryprice.net. Check out the Spalding MFA Alumni Facebook page. (top)

Life of a Writer

Shawna Casey (Kehler) was invited to participate at Loyola Marymount Extension's Open House in Los Angeles for the second season in a row along with Mariano Zaro and headlining poet Brendan Constantine. Musician Paul Humphreys also performed. Shawna was honored to be in such formidable company. She read her short story, "Going off the Board," and could not have asked for a more receptive audience. The wine tasting may have helped. Great fun!

Third-semester student Shannon Cavanaugh received honorable mention for her essay, "Fire in the Belly," from Whispering Prairie Press of Kansas City in August. Cavanaugh's essay was chosen from among 500 contest entries from 32 states. Her essay focused on her hot love affair with her wood stove and the chimney smoke that chased the ghost of an old woman up and down Berthie's Hollow in the Ozark mountains.

Angela Elson's essay "Keeping Up With the Coles" is set to be published in Oil and Water . . . and Other Things That Don't Mix, an anthology being released in October by LL Publications benefiting those affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This is her very first publication, and she reports she is appropriately geeked out. (top)

Eva Gordon's poem "Death of a Dove" has been published in the August issue of Dew on the Kudzu. Her short story "Graceland University" is set to be published in the December issue of The Battered Suitcase, and her personal essay, "Books That Changed My Life," is to be published in the fall 2010 issue of Pot Luck Magazine.

Mary Knight was recently hired as a writing tutor for University of Kentucky student athletes.

Caroline LeBlanc announces that her poem "Housing Discrimination" was published in the Spring 2010 issue of Le Forum. In May 2010 she delivered her paper "Writing a Franco-American Identity Between Worlds: Reclaiming and Maintaining An Ethnic Self," as part of a Franco-American panel at the bilingual conference, "Canadians in the United States: American Dreamers in the Social and Economic Context," at Université de Montreal, Quebec. In June 2010, she offered "Writing for Your Life, A Creative Writing Workshop" at the McEwen Library on Fort Drum, New York, for soldiers and their families. Soldiers from Fort Drum have been among those most deployed to combat zones. She is offering the workshop again this fall.

Anne Pecaro received a commission to write her one-act play, The Mother of God Has a BIC Pen Tattoo, which ran the month of August at The Bird and Baby Theatre in South Carolina. Also in August, The 56th View of Edo had a reading by F.A.C.T. in New York City, and her one-act play BLOOGS Blowing By was named a finalist for the Estrogenius Festival at Manhattan Theatre Source. (top)

Faculty and Staff

Dianne Aprile has been named editor/writer of a book about The Parklands of Floyds Fork, Louisville's four- thousand acre, Olmsted-inspired urban habitat. The book tells the story of the natural and cultural history of the Floyds Fork landscape from the point of view of residents, naturalists, writers and visual artists, and documents the process that led to the linking of scattered fragments of forest at the city's edge, the preservation of countless species and the creation of a continuous corridor of public greenspace.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is excited about her newly designed website, found at http://www.scbartoletti.com. (Please check it out!) On her site, you can read about her research for her newly released nonfiction book, They Called Themselves the K.K.K. (Houghton 2010), including a four-part series detailing the three-day Klan meeting she attended in Arkansas. She also reports progress on her novel-in-progress for Scholastic, The Sheet in the Attic (working title); a spanking new contract for another historical fiction novel (also for Scholastic); and interest from Candlewick in a picture book.

In a feature called "The Best Writing Advice I Ever Received," published in the August 2010 issue of The Writer, best-selling author Susan Vreeland (Luncheon of the Boating Party; Girl in Hyacinth Blue) cites Julie Brickman and discusses her ideas. (top)

Louella Bryant's story collection, Full Bloom (Brown Fedora Books), won the 2010 Premier Book Award for Best Novel of the Year in the category of General Fiction. The award honors books of outstanding merit by independent publishers and small presses.

K.L. Cook's essay "Narrative Strategy and Dramatic Design" appeared in the May/Summer issue of The Writer's Chronicle. He began a five-year term on the advisory board of the Prairie Schooner Book Prizes, including service as a judge for the 2010 Book Prize in Fiction. He also served as a judge for the 2009 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. His short story, "Bonnie and Clyde in the Backyard," has been selected for the 2011 edition of Best of the West. (top)

On September 12, Kathleen Driskell read new work with Crystal Wilkinson and C.E. Morgan in the Accents with Stars Program presented as the closing session of the Kentucky Women Writers' Conference in Lexington. She is a panel member taking part in the conversation "What is Literary Louisville?" presented by the Festival of the Written Word in partnership with the IdeaFestival on October 2. She will be a visiting writer at Middle Tennessee State University and present a reading there on November 1. Her poem "Cupid" recently appeared in The Cortland Review, which can be read at http://www.cortlandreview.com.

Robert Finch is the featured writer in the Visiting Writers Series at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, on November 4. He is giving a reading from his work, visiting a creative nonfiction writing class, and meeting with literature and writing faculty. At 7 p.m. November 3 ,he is scheduled to be interviewed on North Country Public Radio's "Readers and Writers on the Air."

Richard Goodman is giving a lecture at Monticello, Virginia, "Thomas Jefferson in New York," at 4 p.m. September 28. The lecture is free and all are welcome. (Please see Monticello's website for further details: http://www.monticello.org/.)
Richard is discussing his new book, A New York Memoir, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. September 29 at The Fountain Bookstore (www.fountainbookstore.com/) in Richmond, Virginia. He is reading from and signing copies of A New York Memoir from 6 to 7:30 p.m. October 12 at the New York Academy of Medicine (1216 Fifth Avenue at 103rd St.).
Richard's essay "Chester and Me" has been accepted for publication by Chautauqua.
His essay, "The Ceiling Leak," has been named a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2010. (top)

Roy Hoffman's review of Monique Truong's novel Bitter in the Mouth appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Sunday, September 12: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/books/review/Hoffman-t.html. Roy's personal essay, "Tom's World," which he read at the faculty reading at summer residency in Buenos Aires, is being reprinted in November in the anthology, More New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times, NYU Press. To read a Publishers Weekly review of the anthology, noting Roy's essay, see this NYU Press page: http://www.fromthesquare.org/?p=1118. On Sept. 1 Roy was on a panel at Spring Hill College in Mobile to discuss To Kill a Mockingbird on the fiftieth anniversary of its publication.

Joyce McDonald participated as guest faculty at the 2010 Sentences Conference at Drew University on August 2–6. During the weeklong conference, Joyce gave a lecture on "The Music of Prose: Enhancing Meaning with Rhythm," ran two writing workshops on point of view, met with students for manuscript consultation, and gave an evening reading that was open to the public.

Sena Jeter Naslund's new novel Adam & Eve is an alternate Book of the Month Club Main Selection and an October "Indie Next" pick for independent book stores nationwide and was included in O, The Oprah Magazine's "10 Titles to Pick Up Now." Sena's interview with Katerina Stoykova-Klemer can be heard at http://www.katerinaklemer.com/audio/accents_092410.mp3.

Molly Peacock read from The Second Blush at The Plasty Awards in Toronto on September 19. Her upcoming readings from The Second Blush take place September 29 at Oakland University, Michigan; October 7 at Vanderbilt University; and October 23 at the University of Tulsa for the Nimrod Poetry Awards, of which she was this year's judge.
Please visit Molly's website for details, and for upcoming readings from The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72. (top)

Jeanie Thompson contributed an article about the photo collage work of Alabama photographer Wayne Sides for his "Human Traces" exhibition catalog. The exhibit opened September 18 in Pietrasanta, Italy, under the auspices of the Mayor and the Comune di Piestrasanta as part of the continuing Alabama/Italy arts exchange. Jeanie was the guest poet for the Eastern Shore Pensters at Fairhope Public Library on September 11, where she read from The Seasons Bear Us and her Helen Keller poem cycle in progress. Her blog on sculpture and poetry for the Birmingham Museum of Art is online at http://www.artsbma.org.

Neela Vaswani is reading October 9 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City as part of a multimedia book launch for her memoir, You Have Given Me a Country. See here for more information: http://www.92y.org/shop/92Tri_event_detail.asp?productid=T-MM5PT06. Other upcoming tour dates are September 22, University of Maryland, College Park; September 22, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore; 8 p.m. October 19, Skidmore College; 7 p.m. November 3, DeSales University; and 4 p.m. November 21, Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville. For more information, go to http://neelavaswani.com and look under "Appearances."

Luke Wallin's poem "Grand Arms Holding Shadows" was published at www.DewontheKudzu.com, on September 3. He participated in a long-running writers' workshop in the Orinda, California, home of poets Gail and Charles Entrekin, in August.
Luke is working with Steve Williams (http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=409157) mixing and mastering a CD audiobook of three of Luke's stories and three associated songs. The project is called Monster and Other Stories. The title story is to be published this fall in Moon Milk Review's 2010 print anthology of selections from its online magazine. (top)

Alumni

Deborah Begel (Spring 2006) was recently elected to a three year term on the board of directors of the Association of Independents in Radio, an organization she helped found in 1988.

Amy Watkins Copeland (Spring 2006) had an essay featured on the parenting 'zine Offbeatmama.com (http://www.offbeatmama.com/) in August. Her poem "What Bleeds Through" is in Motes Books' anthology on "Chance, Come What May." Red Lion Square, the poetry podcast she and Jae Newman (Fall 2006) have co-edited since June, is averaging more than 100 visits per day.

Daniel DiStasio (Fall 2005) has two works of short fiction scheduled for publication. "Careless Time" appears in Stone Canoe, A Journal of Arts, published by Syracuse University. His short story "My Father's Nose" was selected for publication in Gertrude 2011 (guest editor is Jillian Lauren, author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, the No. 10 New York Times bestseller in nonfiction). Dan was also named department chair for general education for Keiser University Online Division. (top)

Rod Dixon (Fall 2007) and Drew Lackovic (Spring 2008), founders of The Warrior Poet Group, have just released the second issue of their literary journal, Ontologica. It features work from several Spalding MFA alums. See it at http://www.warriorpoetgroup.com/Ontologica.

Thea Gavin (Spring 2005) has been selected by the National Park Service as one of five artists-in-residence at the North Rim of Grand Canyon for summer 2011; she is set to stay in a cabin near the rim for three weeks of hiking, writing and leading three public programs while in residence, followed by an Orange County presentation about the experience later that fall. Thea's poem, "Mystery Rider," appears in the recently published anthology New Poets of the American West (edited by Lowell Jaeger, Many Voices Press). Along with other poets in the anthology, Thea is reading her work at Southern California venues in the coming months, including Vromans Bookstore in Pasadena (September 1), Borders Books in Goleta (September 3), Pasadena Public Library (November 6), Beyond Baroque in Venice (March 26, 2011), and the Santa Monica Public Library (April 13, 2011).

Mike Hampton's (Fall 2005) essay "25 Things About My Ninja Training" appears in The Iron Horse Literary Review's Facebook issue. (top)

Gayle Hanratty (Fall 2006) was the co-winner of Trajectory journal's inaugural fiction contest for her short story "Yorkie Mills's Hindrance" (http://www.trajectoryjournal.com). Gayle shared the honor with Joe Peacock (Fall 2008) for his short story "Barn Cats."

Colleen S. Harris (Fall 2009) reports that her poems "Domestic Soldiers" and "No Relation" appear in the next issue of The Potomac: A Journal of Poetry and Politics. Both poems are out of Colleen's collection These Terrible Sacraments, slated to go to print out of Bellowing Ark Press in November. Colleen also just signed a contract with Punkin House Press, which publishes The Kentucky Vein: Reflections, a collection of poetry and essays influenced by the ten years she lived in the Bluegrass state. The book is slated to be released as both an ebook and in print in 2011. Colleen has published her first academic peer-reviewed article! "Matrix Management in Practice in Access Services at the NCSU Libraries" appears in vol. 7 issue 4 of Journal of Access Services. She is also currently co-editing a collection titled Women and Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful Women Poets with Carol Smallwood. The book has just received a contract from McFarland Publisher, and is expected to go to print in late 2011.

Robin Heald (Fall 2006) announces that her picture book, Pat, Roll, Pull, for preschoolers, has been accepted for publication by Hachai Publishing. (top)

Patty Houston's (Fall 2008) story "Wargasm" is published in the September issue of Oxford American. She recently accepted a position at the University of Cincinnati, in addition to her full-time teaching postion there, as a writing consultant for the College of Allied Health Sciences as it implements a Writing Across the Curriculum Initiative.

Russ Kesler's (Spring 2009) second poetry collection, As If, is set to be published by Wind Publications in late spring 2011. About half of the poems in the collection were written while he was a student at Spalding.

Kelly Martineau (Spring 2010) announces that her essay "Out of Space - Out of Time" is published in the forthcoming anthology Oil and Water . . . And Other Things That Don't Mix. She has also launched a blog about music: http://www.lyricmoment.org.

Deborah Zarka Miller (Fall 2005) announces the publication of her young adult novel, A Star for Robbins Chapel, by Chinaberry House in September. She is scheduled to speak about her book at several local schools and appear in October as a featured speaker for Anderson University's Brown Bag Lunch Series. Deborah's work also appears in a forthcoming collection, Questions for God, an anthology of brief essays, compiled and illustrated by Indiana artist David Liverett. (top)

Richard Newman (Fall 2004) had his poem "Bless Their Hearts" selected by Ted Kooser for American Life in Poetry and "Home" by Garrison Keillor for Writer's Almanac. Both of these poems are from his latest book Domestic Fugues (Steel Toe Books, 2009).

Frances Nicholson's (Spring 2004) poem "Letter from the Battlefield" is published in Evening Street Review, where it joins work (already acknowledged here) written by her wife, Cynthia Allar (Spring 2004). Both have become active in the poetry workshops of the famed Beyond Baroque in Venice, California, an institution they discovered when attending a reading there by faculty member Molly Peacock. Both have also read their poetry recently as part of the Second Sunday Reading Series at Alibi Cafe in Pasadena, California. (top)

Karen Patterson (Spring 2004) has been teaching composition, rhetoric and literature for Ohio University for the past five years and recently affiliated with Ohio Christian University. In promoting her most recent book—Allies Forever: The Life and Times of an American Prisoner of War—she has given readings and spoken at the Ohio Ex-POW Conference (August 2010), the VA POW Recognition Conference (September 2010), and other regional veterans organizations, as well as Ohio University, central Ohio high schools and libraries. This summer she participated in post-graduate work with the Summer Institute of the Ohio University Appalachian Writing Project (OUAWP), an affiliate of the National Writing Project (NWP), during which time she continued work on her upcoming textbook on social justice. As an OUAWP graduate, she conducts writing workshops and teacher outreach conferences at schools and affiliates of NWP throughout the country. Check out her website: www.karenapatterson.com.

Joe Peacock (Fall 2008) announces that his short story "Barn Cats" is co-winner of the short-story contest at Trajectory. His story won a cash prize and is set to be published early this fall.

Tom Pierce (Fall 2005) was a finalist in the Santa Fe Writer's Project 2010 Literary Awards for his (unpublished) short story collection, Sleeper Hold. The competition was judged by Robert Olen Butler. (top)

Mary Popham (Fall 2003) published book reviews in the Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky): Body and Blood, by Charlie Hughes (August 14); Wendell Berry: Life and Work, edited by Jason Peters (August 7); and The Storm Generation Manifesto by Ron Whitehead (July 31); and for ForeWord Reviews: I'm Black When I'm Singing, I'm Blue When I Ain't, by Sonia Sanchez (September/October 2010); The Price of Liberty by Keir Graff (September/October 2010); The Quickening by Michelle Hoover (July 15).
On August 21, her interview given to Causeway Hospital Radio (http://chradio.org/) aired on the program, "From the Inkwell," and is now available from the archives of the United Kingdom-based radio program. She performed in a skit with the Cherokee Roundtable writers' group June 23 at The Rudyard Kipling in Louisville and again on August 23 at the Kentucky State Fair.

Brian Russell (Spring 2010) joined the faculty of DeVry University in Chicago in July. During the July/August semester, he taught freshman English to high school students as part of an innovative program called the DeVry University Achievement Academy, whereby Chicago public high school students complete their final two years of high school and earn an associates degree simultaneously. He also taught "Introduction to the Humanities" to third-year undergraduates. He is taking the September/October term off from teaching in order to complete his memoir-in-progress. (top)

Michele Ruby's (Spring 2005) short story "Souvenir" came out in the spring issue of Nimrod International Journal, and she has flash fiction forthcoming in The Los Angeles Review and The Potomac Journal. She recently attended the InKY workshop featuring Kate Gale of Red Hen Press on publishing and the advantages of becoming a literary citizen—interesting and valuable information.

Jenn Sherlock (Fall 2006) is attending The Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature One-on-One Plus Conference this fall.

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer's (Fall 2009) poem "Mermaid in the Cornfield" was included in Red Lyon Square's podcast. Barrow Street accepted the poems "Conversation I" and "Lullaby," and The Journal of Kentucky Studies accepted the poems "Cyrillic Letters," "Your Fate Whispered In Your Ear," "Retirees in the Gym," and "Praying Skills Differ." Katerina and her independent press Accents Publishing were featured in an interview on KET television's "One to One" with Bill Goodman (August 8-August 14). You can watch a recording of the episode here: http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=KONON+000529&altdir&template. Katerina's first full-length book, The Air Around the Butterfly (Fakel Express, 2009) won the 2010 Pencho's Oak award, given annually to recognize literary contribution to contemporary Bulgarian culture. (top)

Cristina Trapani-Scott (Spring 2009) won third place for column writing in the 2010 Michigan Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. In addition to her individual award, the Tecumseh Herald (the newspaper she's worked at for eleven years) earned third place for general excellence and the magazines, Homefront and the NASCAR Fan Guide, to which she regularly contributes articles and photographs won first place and second place in the special section category. Cristina also is on the faculty of Community Arts of Tecumseh and has taught fiction writing as well as a found poetry/altered books workshop for the organization. She will be teaching a three-day creative writing workshop in November. In September, she attended the Art-a-licious arts festival in Adrian, Michigan, where she was part of a Meet the Authors event and signed copies of Cup of Comfort for a Better World, which includes her essay "The Power of Pebbles." Finally, Cristina will be a regular feature writer and photographer for a new Lenawee County magazine called Simply Hers. Her first feature will be on handbag designer Jenna Kator.

Christamar Varicella (Fall 2004) had a humor piece appearing in the mid-September issue of the Cynic Online. "An Open Letter to Dave Eggers" can be viewed at http://www.cynicmag.com/feature.aspx?articleid=3560. He also continues to regularly post genre parodies, fake book reviews and open letters to celebrity authors to his humor blog, "The Daily Brass" (http://dailybrass.blogspot.com/).

Vickie Weaver (Fall 2005) attended the Midwest Writers Workshop in July in Muncie, Indiana. Her comment: This proves that there is more than corn in Indiana!
Vickie's award-winning novel, Billie Girl, can now be ordered through at Amazon.com. It is available at many indie and chain bookstores. Details about readings and other events are on her website, http://www.vickieweaver.com. Good friends Bonnie Johnson (Fall 2004) and Lisa Marzano (Spring 2007) attended Vickie's first book signing for Billie Girl. They all enjoyed a sunny Sunday at Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 12. (top)

Anna West (Spring 2010) gives a poetry reading at Court Street Gallery in Saginaw, Michigan, on October 29 as part of the gallery's Last Fridays poetry series.

Charles Dodd White (Fall 2009) read an excerpt of his story "Controlled Burned" from the 2010 edition of North Carolina Literary Review during that publication's launch party held at Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina. His story "Give Up and Go Home, Jasper" also recently appeared in Fried Chicken and Coffee. (top)

Aimee Zaring's (Spring 2005) short story "Cruise" appears in The Adirondack Review's fall issue. The link is http://www.theadirondackreview.com/Fall2010.html. Her review of Neela Vaswani's book You Have Given Me a Country appeared in the September 4 issue of the Courier-Journal, and her interview with Vaswani appeared in The Rumpus online in August and can be read at http://therumpus.net/2010/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-neela-vaswani.

Personals

Our heartfelt sympathy to Lori Tucker-Sullivan on the death of her husband, Kevin, on September 7.

With great sadness, the MFA staff announces the death of Anne Axton (Fall 2003) on September 17.

Congratulations to Kelli Ohrtman on her marriage to Mike on September 26.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reminders and Notes

Financial Aid: The MFA Program offers scholarships to students entering their first semester in the program. Returning students who desire financial assistance other than student loans should apply for graduate assistantships. Applications for scholarships and assistantships should be directed to the MFA Office. Information for assistantships is on Blackboard under SEMESTERS/ [your semester]/ DOCUMENTS: GENERAL INTEREST.

Federal student loans are available to all eligible graduate students and are available for the fall, spring, or summer semesters. For help with financial aid questions, call Vickie Montgomery at (800) 896-8941, ext. 2731 or email vmontgomery@spalding.edu. Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at fafsa.ed.gov.

All Fall 2010 students: Fill out the FAFSA for the 10-11 school year, using 2009 tax information. (top)

Classifieds in the newsletter: Submissions of writing-related advertisements, such as calls for submission, services for writers, etc., may be made to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu

Online information: Newsletters are archived online at spalding.edu/mfanewsletter. For convenience, bookmark this page. The web address is case sensitive. (top)

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

Life of a Writer pieces should be written as a paragraph in third person. If you are an alum, please alum include your graduation semester, such as Jake Doe (Fall 2003). Spell out month and state names. Include title(s) of the work, publishers, date of publication, and web site addresses when appropriate.

Examples of kinds of activities that might be included in the Life of a Writer column are publishing in journals or magazines or in book form, winning awards or other prizes, giving a public reading, visiting a classroom to talk about writing, judging a writing competition, attending a writers conference, serving on a panel about writing, or volunteering in a project about writing or literacy. (top)

About The Masthead: The image in our masthead is a photograph of a Louisville fountain, “River Horse,” by Louisville sculptor Barney Bright. The sculpture references both the location of Louisville as a river city on the banks of the Ohio and as the host, for more than 125 years, of the Kentucky Derby. The winged horse Pegasus, of Greek mythology, has long been associated with the literary arts and the wings of poesy. (top)

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

Master of Fine Arts in Writing •Spalding University
851 S. Fourth St. • Louisville, KY 40203
(800) 896-8941, ext. 2423 or (502) 585-9911, ext. 2423
mfa@spalding.edu • www.spalding.edu/mfa

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

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

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

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