Kentucky Arts Festival at Spring 2014 Residency: Literature, Music, Art

The MFA Program, together with the Kentucky Arts Council, presents “Kentucky Arts Festival: Literature, Music, Art by Al Smith Fellowship Winners,” a trio of events during the Spring residency. The festival honors winners of the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship program of the Kentucky Arts Council. The fellowship program recognizes creative excellence and assists in the professional development of Kentucky artists.

A special reading by Al Smith Fellowship winners for literature features MFA faculty members Dianne Aprile, Silas House, and Crystal Wilkinson, as well as associate program director Kathleen Driskell and program director Sena Jeter Naslund. The hour-long reading takes place on Sunday, May 25.

Immediately following the reading, a concert features work by Kentucky composers Jeremy Beck, Gerald Plain, Steven Rouse, and Krzysztof Wolek. The hour-long concert takes place at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, a block north of Spalding’s campus.

And from May 24 to June 22, Spalding’s Huff Gallery hosts Uncommon Wealth, a traveling exhibit of visual art by 29 Al Smith Fellowship winners. A private reception for Spalding MFAers on Tuesday, May 27, features a gallery talk by several of the artists.

The MFA program places special emphasis on the interrelatedness of the arts, in the belief that writers can learn much about form, structure, image, rhythm, and other aesthetic considerations from other art forms.
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Transcendentalism the Focus of Spring 2014 Literary Explorations Lecture

The Literary Explorations lecture for Spring 2014 is “Transcendentalism: The First American Literary Movement,” given by fiction faculty member John Pipkin. During his talk, John will highlight the defining characteristics of American Transcendentalism, widely considered the first coherent literary movement in America. He will look at major influences of the early nineteenth century (in literature, history, politics, religion, and philosophy) in order to understand Transcendentalism as a cultural reaction to the movements that came before, and he will trace the origins of Transcendental thinking from Kant through Coleridge. John’s lecture will also show why it is important for contemporary writers to understand this movement, since our present ideas concerning the “Great American Novel” and the politics of American exceptionalism can trace their roots back to the Transcendentalists.

To prepare for this Literary Explorations lecture, all MFA students are required to read selections from Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller, found in the MFA portal by clicking through the “Preparing for Spring 2014 Residency” link. Students will also find posted suggested readings, if they would like a richer preparation for John’s lecture.
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The MFA Program Welcomes Guest Lecturers Michael Roberts, Danica Novgorodoff, and Keith Reddin

MICHAEL ROBERTS

During the spring 2014 residency, students have the opportunity to hear guest lecturer Michael Roberts on two occasions. Michael presents "Lyric Writing for the Stage," which is cross-listed as a playwriting and poetry lecture and provides an overview of the techniques, forms, functions, and styles of lyric writing for musical theater, highlighting the relationship of lyrics to poetry and playwriting. Recorded and live examples from Michael's work and the work of other well-established lyricists will illustrate the sung word's connection to spoken language, emotional development, and dramatic action.

Also during residency, Michael joins playwriting faculty member Charlie Schulman to present the plenary lecture “Writing and Producing the Off-Broadway Musical.” Michael (music and lyrics) and Charlie (book) are an award-winning writing and producing team (aka “The Schulberts”). Their first show, The Fartiste, named “Outstanding Musical” at the International NYC Fringe Festival, was produced Off-Broadway in 2011 and presented in concert at The Charing Cross Theater on London’s West End. Michael and Charlie will read/play excerpts from the recent workshop production of their new musical The Goldstein Variations. Following this presentation, they will discuss their creative/business collaboration and future plans for the show.

Michael is author, composer and lyricist of Greed: A Musical for Our Times, currently playing Off-Broadway at New World Stages. His newest musical, The Goldstein Variations (with book-writer Charlie Schulman) was produced at NYC’s Playroom Theater in 2014. Michael also is the composer, lyricist, and author of Golf: The Musical, which has enjoyed three Off-Broadway productions, forty U.S. productions, and six foreign productions. He was a composer for The Broadway Kids (Off-Broadway) and wrote the play Thanks for the Memories. His incidental music for stage includes My Secret Garden, Tidings Brought to Mary, and Jewtopia. Film composition credits include Love Walked In (Tri-Star) starring Denis Leary, and short films and documentaries. For four seasons, he composed for the Emmy Award-Winning Remember Wenn. Michael is a two-time winner of the ASCAP Award for Musical Theater. He was a 2012 Nominee (Best Music Director), Broadway World Awards.


DANICA NOVGORODOFF

Graphic novelist Danica Novgorodoff discusses her creative process and shows examples of the methods she uses to create a graphic novel. With slides of early sketches, photographs, and in-progress pieces from her latest book, The Undertaking of Lily Chen, she will demonstrate some of the steps necessary to take this story from the spark of inspiration to a finished, 430-page book. She will talk about her artistic and literary influences and the research that went into this project, including two trips to China and a misguided attempt to master the art of Chinese brush painting.

Danica is an artist, writer, graphic novelist, graphic designer, and horse wrangler from Kentucky who currently lives in Brooklyn. Her graphic novels include A Late Freeze (2006), Slow Storm (2008), Refresh, Refresh (included in Best American Comics 2011), and The Undertaking of Lily Chen (2014). www.danicanovgorodoff.com


KEITH REDDIN

Playwright and screenwriter Keith Reddin presents “Adaptation and Inspiration,” a consideration of how existing texts (prose or classical drama) are best adapted for the stage and screen. During his talk, Keith will discuss several adaptations, including Too Much Memory, a new version of the Greek drama Antigone; Black Snow, an adaptation of the Russian novel by Mikhail Bulgakov; and All the Rage, an original play inspired by the comedies of Elizabethan playwright Ben Johnson. Other plays will be considered as well: Lynne Nottage’s Ruined and Mother Courage, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Fucking A and The Scarlet Letter, Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, and Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra; and, for the screen, adaptations of August: Osage County; Doubt; and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Before coming to the lecture, students should read Too Much Memory, by Keith Reddin and Meg Gibson, and Keith’s play All the Rage. If possible, students should also read Keith’s Black Snow. Links on the MFA portal page provide information for purchasing these titles.

Keith is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Yale School of Drama. His plays include Life and Limb, Rum and Coke, Big Time, Nebraska, Life During Wartime, Brutality of Fact, Innocents Crusade, Almost Blue, All the Rage, But Not for Me, Frame 312, Prophets of Nature, Human Error, The Missionary Position, Some Brighter Distance, Acquainted with the Night, and Solitary Man. His adaptations include Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid, Thornton Wilder’s Heaven’s My Destination, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Rich Boy, Cornell Woolrich’s Rear Window, and plays by Soviet playwrights Alexander Buravsky (The Russian Teacher), Mikhail Bulgakov (Black Snow), and Mikhail Shatrov (Maybe). His plays have been produced in the U.S., Canada, and Australia as well as in foreign-language productions throughout Europe. His film credits include All the Rage, with Joan Allen and Gary Sinise. Keith has been awarded an NEA Playwriting Fellowship, the San Diego Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Joseph Jefferson Award Best New Play, Joseph Kesserling Award, Whiting Foundation Grant, and Helen Merrill Career Award.


OTHER LECTURERS

Guest lecturers Loreen Niewnhuis and George Ella Lyon also present during the Spring residency. See their lecture descriptions and biographies, which appeared in the March issue of On Extended Wings, and also in the Residency Lecture Descriptions document, found on the MFA portal page. Click through "Preparing for the Spring 2014 Residency" link.
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Reminder! Lunchtime Open-Mic Sessions

The MFA Program is relaunching the five-minute student readings in a lively new format at the Spring 2014 residency. For the first time, student readers take the stage for open-mic reading sessions. Instead of signing up at the beginning of residency to read, students sign up at the beginning of each session for reading slots.

The open-mic sessions are to be held at lunchtime on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of residency. On Monday, an open-mic kick-off lunch is provided in the Egan Leadership Center, and everyone is welcome to eat lunch in the Lectorium during the readings.

As always, students come prepared with readings of no more than five minutes, including opening comments. Students practice beforehand to ensure that their piece, which should not be taken from the workshop submission, fits within the time allotment. Five minutes of reading equals about two-and-a-half pages of prose.
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Creating Community

Showing Up to Write
by Janet Schneider (F '13)

Coaching Berkeley High School freshman and sophomores in writing both thickens my skin and makes me feel more raw than a therapy session. The students are rarely glad to see me—even though I begin each session with “I’m here for you. How can I help you today?” Their looks range from skepticism and indifference to downright hostility. I never take it personally.

Together we work on an essay, usually based on the book they are reading. It could be a first draft or a final. My heart aches when the student hasn’t even started the book they should’ve finished by now. Often I read the book aloud to them. The students seem to enjoy being transported from their everyday lives—lives filled with trauma, neglect, and violence.

The books we have read are not the books I read in high school. I’ve engaged in lively discussions about colonialism, racism, sexism, revolution, communism, homophobia, rape, and the Holocaust with these bleary-eyed teens. Often these stories trigger their painful memories and we both blink back our tears. From these kids I’ve learned about empathy, forgiveness, and the value of vulnerability.

I love when we work on their short stories. During one session, in my excitement, I violated all the rules. I pushed the student hard, pressed my own ideas, corrected too many things. I suggested characters, inciting incidents, and plot points. Afterwards, she told the teacher she didn’t want to work with me again. I worried I turned her off to creative writing due to my overenthusiasm.
I’m asked to give the student a list of their strengths, make suggestions, and outline next steps. Often their strengths were that they just showed up or they knew what they wanted to write about. I’m concerned that their writing quality will prevent them from getting hired after high school. 

Recently, I bumped into the student who rejected me. She’s now a senior. I reintroduced myself and asked her how she was doing. She replied she was doing well and thanked me for my help way back then. It’s those moments that keep me showing up.

Tell Us About Your Service Projects!
Spalding University tallies students' service hours and has the goal of reaching 1.3 million hours this year. MFA students report their service hours by emailing mfadropbox@spalding.edu with the subject line "service hours." Include the dates of service, total number of hours, the organization, and a brief description of the service. Hours can be added up and reported every few weeks or every few months.
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Deadline dates
MFA deadlines are found in course syllabi (for deadlines involving the independent study course) and on the portal’s “Preparing for the Residency” page (for deadlines related to an upcoming residency). Students are responsible for keeping track of and meeting all deadlines that apply to them. As a courtesy, some deadline reminders appear in the Thursday Memo, but students should not rely solely on the Thursday Memo for deadline information. Faculty find deadline information via the “Faculty” link on the MFA portal page, as well as in course syllabi and on the “Preparing for the Residency” page.
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My Profile on MFA portal page
MFA students and faculty should add their pictures to their profile page on the MFA portal page. This picture shows up when emailing from Spalding email accounts. 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 the picture.
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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 Posts 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

Katie Boyer’s (F) novella “Bartleby the Scavenger” is included in the May / June 2014 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story was workshopped at the Spring 2012 residency. Katie also recently taught a creative writing workshop for junior high students at the Columbiana, Alabama, public library.
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Mitch Fields’ (SW) short film “Yours and Mine” screened at the Fort Myers Beach Film Festival (http://www.fmbfilmfest.com/) on April 24. The film was shot on Spalding’s campus late in 2012 and completed its post-production in late 2013.
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Jeffrey Fischer-Smith (PW) short play, “Reservations,” was included in The Apron Strings Project, at the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall in Jeffrey’s hometown of Riverhead, New York. The play was performed on May 2, 3 and 4 (http://apronstringsproject.com). An all-female version of “Reservations” has been accepted in The Fresh Fruit Festival’s Annual Ten-Minute Play Contest (http://www.freshfruitfestival.com). It will be performed on May 12 at the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City. The same all-female production of “Reservations” will be included in Manhattan Repertory Theatre’s Spring One-Act Play Competition in New York City. Performances will be on May 29, 30, 31, and June 1, with possible performances in the semi-finals and finals on June 4 and June 6. More information can be found at http://manhattanrep.com. “Reservations” was workshopped at the 2013 summer residency in Ireland. Jeffrey also had two short poems published online in Issue #25 of Three Line Poetry (http://threelinepoetry.com). A print version of the issue is forthcoming.
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In celebration of World Poetry Day on March 21, Alice Catherine Jennings (P) read a selection of her own poems and the poetry of Li-Young Lee and Gary Snyder at public events at Biblioteca Henestrosa and La Plaza de la Cruz de Piedra in Oaxaca, Mexico. In addition, Alice is pleased to announce that she has been admitted to the 2014 summer program in Medieval Studies at Central European University (Budapest). As a part of her studies, she will be working on a series of poems based on the twenty-five multidisciplinary lectures on “Geographical, Ethnic, Social, and Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity.”
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Jessica Love Kim’s (W4CYA) second young adult novel, In Real Life, was acquired by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press for a 2015 release. In Real Life was workshopped at the Paris residency in 2012. Her debut novel, Push Girl, will be released from Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press on June 3.
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Amy Miller’s (CNF) essay “Swimming Lessons” will be published in MotesBooks’ upcoming anthology Motif, Volume 4.
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Reba White Williams’ (F) first novel, Restrike (Delos, 2013), published in June, was reissued in April with its sequel, Fatal Impressions (The Story Plant, 2014). Reba recently attended Sleuthfest, where she served on a panel on cozy mysteries. She attended Left Coast Crime, where she served on a panel on selecting a publisher, and will attend Malice Domestic, where she will serve on a panel on mysteries involving art. In April, she visited a classroom to talk about writing at Hotchkiss.
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The screenplay for Leslie Daniels’s novel, Cleaning Nabokov’s House (http://www.lesliedaniels.com/book/) is complete. Tatiana Pilieva, the director who co-optioned the novel with Gill Dennis, is known for her short film, “First Kiss” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpbDHxCV29A), which, like Daniels’s novel, has a theme of intimacy between strangers. The film seems to have caught the zeitgeist, receiving sixty million hits in the first few days of posting.
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Kathleen Driskell’s poem “Love Poetry” is included in The Book, an art book co-edited by CNF mentor Dianne Aprile and internationally known artist Julius Friedman. The Book includes art photographs by Friedman, and its text was hand-set and letterpress printed by Larkspur Press in Monterey, Kentucky. Kathleen’s poem “Living Next to the Dead Acre” was accepted for publication by the literary journal Narrow Fellow. Narrow Fellow’s editors have asked artists to create a painting to accompany each poem. The poem and artwork will appear in a limited-edition full-color journal issue to be published in fall 2014. In November, an art exhibit of paintings paired with the texts of the poems will be featured at a downtown gallery in Louisville. Kathleen’s poems “Epitaph for Colonel Harland Sanders,” “Unused Grave,” and “At the Grave of the Girl Slave” (all from her recently completed manuscript Next Door to the Dead) were included in the most recent issue of Poems & Plays. She recently presented her work with poets Debra Kang Dean, Lynnell Edwards, and Adam Day at The Louisville Conference of Literature and Culture since 1900 at the University of Louisville. She read new work with fellow MFA faculty members Greg Pape, Dianne Aprile, Kenny Cook, and Sena Jeter Naslund at the South Bookfair Stage of the 2014 AWP Conference in Seattle.
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Helena Kriel has just returned to the U.S. from teaching for two months in Johannesburg, South Africa. She conducted four consecutive workshops with working screenwriters and directors. She was the guest speaker at a forum called “At the Table,” where she was invited to talk about her research into the teachings of the Kama Sutra for the purpose of writing a screenplay for director Mira Nair. She has just completed a rewrite for Out of Touch, a screenplay that is slated for production this summer in France. She was featured in the South African magazine Sarie in an article about ex-pats who live and work abroad.
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Karen Mann announces the publication of two novels. The Woman of La Mancha (Fleur-de Lis Press) is a companion book to Don Quixote. The Saved Man (Page Turners) is the first in a paranormal romance series and will be available as an ebook from amazon.com. Karen reads from The Woman of La Mancha in Bloomington, Indiana, at 7 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the Sweet Claire Gourmet Bakery, 309 E. Third St. Also reading is Michael Jackman (P ’12). This reading is part of a series organized by Nancy Chen Long (P ’13). For more info, see http://writersguildbloomington.com/. Karen has another reading in Indianapolis at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, June 8, at Indy Reads, 911 Massachusetts Ave. She also reads with MFA faculty members Roy Hoffman, Shane McCrae, and Sam Zalutsky at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 24, in the Lectorium at Spalding as part of the Celebration of Recently Published Books.
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Jeanie Thompson has published poems from her Helen Keller sequence, The Myth of Water, during the past year in KROnline (http://www.kenyonreview.org/writer/jeanie-thompson/), The New Sound, and The Louisville Review.  Her essay on the collaborative nature of the arts and humanities appears in the current issue of the Alabama Humanities Foundation’s journal Mosaic (http://www.alabamahumanities.org/news/mosaic/). Jeanie continues to promote and recognize Alabama writers through the awards programs of the Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts. She curated the poetry tent again this year for the 9th Annual Alabama Book Festival, April 19, in Montgomery.
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Katy Yocom hosted the first edition of Spalding at the Speed: A Gathering of MFA and Community Writers, on April 18. This new reading series, a partnership between the MFA Program and the Speed Art Museum, features MFAers and community writers. It takes place the third Friday of each month, April through September, at the Local Speed Art Gallery in Louisville.  April’s readers included Karyl Anne Geary (CNF), Angie Mimms (CNF), Ashlee Clark Thompson (CNF), Michael Jackman (P ’12), Bonnie Johnson (F ’04), and Mary Popham (F ’03) as well as Kentucky poet Leatha Kendrick. The next reading is May 16. Also, Katy’s poem “To the Way I Walk” appears in the Spring 2014 issue of The Louisville Review.
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Priscilla Atkins (P ’08) has poems published: “An Ordinary Morning in Woodbridge,” The New Haven Review (2013); “Hospitals & Guns,” The New Poet (Issue 6, September 2013); “Postcard to Rosemary After Her Mother’s Death,” Barrow Street (Winter 2013/14); “Eclipse of the Sun,” The Chaffin Journal (2013); “Pink Cakes,” Tapestry (Number 25, 2012-2013); “Anything You Want,” “Japanese Princess,” “Stay Against Oblivion,” Heavy Feather Review (2013); “The Candy Store,” Mom Egg Review 12 (2014).
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Ruby Berryman (PW ’13) will present on the Holocaust Theatre panel at the Evil Incarnate Conference in July at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She will present her essay “Distilling Genocide Into Drama: Adaptation of Holocaust and Slave Narratives to the Stage.” An excerpt from her play Fish on Friday is forthcoming in the spring issue of The Louisville Review.
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Shawna Casey (PW ’12) was awarded the 2nd place honor in The Ebell of Los Angeles Playwright Prize competition in April, for her full-length play Night Becomes Day. Another two-act play of hers, Strong Force, received a rousing public reading by the Echo Theater Company of Los Angeles in June 2013 and inspired the artistic director to invite her to become part of their writers’ group. She sends her love and gratitude to all at the Spalding MFA! www.shawnacasey.com
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Shannon Cavanaugh (F ’13) received honorable mention for her short story “Buck Snort” in the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, in which 1,197 stories competed from around the world. Winners were announced in March. This story is part of her short story collection, Pull Me a Green Onion, which she wrote during her last semester at Spalding. She wishes to thank her mentor, Luke Wallin, for his support and encouragement.
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Lafayette Wattles, alter-ego for Dave DeGolyer (W4C & Poetry ’06), recently published three poems in the wonderful new online magazine for children and teens, Stone Crowns, edited by Spalding alum Matt Jaeger (F ’03), and two other poems in Stirring: A Literary Collection, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart. Lafayette has had several guest bloggers (i.e. Elizabeth Wein, Ron Koertge . . .) on his blog Write Side Up (http://lafayettewattles.com/blog/), including an intimate piece by former Spalding MFA mentor Philip F. Deaver titled “Why Write Fiction.” On March 1 (in honor of his late grandmother’s birthday, as her grandfather was the original Lafayette Wattles), Lafayette launched a new website devoted to art and artists called Other Cool Birds (http://othercoolbirds.com/) with the intention of creating a gathering place for talented creatives where they can share their unique and sundry voices. Writers, painters, illustrators, musicians, and artists working in other media from all over the world (including Japan by way of Canada, Lithuania, The UK, South America, the US, and more) are winging their way in every day. So far dozens of birds have landed, with art from college students to award-winning picture book illustrators to renowned painters.
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Drema Drudge (F ’13) spent March and April writing in Changzhou, China, with her husband, Barry, who will begin the Spalding MFA program this summer in Prague. While in China she added over 100 pages to her work in progress and now prefers eating with chopsticks.
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Karen George (F ’09) won third place in National League of American Pen Women’s Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition for her prose poem “Emergence,” and honorable mention for her poem “Calving at Alaska’s Glacier Bay.” Her poem “Ode to Color” appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of The Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and “Dreaming” in Words 2014. She interviewed poet Elizabeth Oakes and reviewed her collection, Leave Here Knowing, on POETRY MATTERS at http://www.readwritepoetry.blogspot.com/. In March, she judged the Cincinnati Public Library’s “Poetry in the Garden” contest and was a featured reader at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, as part of Thomas More College’s Creative Writing Vision Program.
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Amy Hanridge’s (F ’11) story “Starter” was published in April in the anthology Living in the Land of Limbo: Fiction and Poetry about Family Caregiving. More information on the anthology can be found at Vanderbilt University Press’s website: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/university-press/book/9780826519702. The anthology was reviewed in the New York Times: http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/sharp-truths-only-fiction-can-tell/. Amy’s story is referenced in this interview with the anthology editor: http://www.cfha.net/blogpost/753286/184386/Reading-Through-Limbo
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Marci Rae Johnson’s (P ’05) poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in The Collagist, Hobart, Redactions, Dappled Things, and 491 Magazine. Her first book of poetry, titled The Eyes the Window, was released by Sage Hill Press this winter and recently received a glowing review in The Philadelphia Review of Books. She is on two panels at this April’s Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is teaching at the New England Young Writer’s Conference at Breadloaf in May.
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Erin Keane’s (P ’04) new book of poems, Demolition of the Promised Land, was released by Typecast Publishing in March. It’s a collection about loss and love, with Bruce Springsteen acting as spiritual guide and accidental superhero. She threw a “Greetings from Cherokee Park” evening of Springsteen remix and homage at The Bard’s Town in Louisville on April 22 and will be appearing with Louisville’s Project Improv in May. In February, she gave a reading and a talkback at Monmouth College in Illinois.
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Mary Knight (WCYA ’13) and her middle grade novel, The Unabridged Dictionary of Curley Hines, are now represented by Brenda Bowen at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.
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Rick Neumayer’s short story “Stalking Jennifer Lawrence” was published in Deep South magazine on February 28.
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Loreen Niewenhuis (F ’07) spent part of the winter in Chicago, where she attended several cool poetry events at the Poetry Foundation and a couple of lectures at Columbia College’s Story Week Festival of Writers. She also took time to work on the manuscript about her 1000-Mile Great Lakes ISLAND Adventure. This hiking/kayaking odyssey began last year and will be complete by the end of 2014. In May, she will hike the largest and wildest island in Lake Superior: Isle Royale. There are moose and wolves on this island, and scientists have been studying their interaction for over 50 years. Loreen will hike along with researchers and gather the bones of moose taken down by the wolves. Also in May, Loreen will give a lecture during Spalding’s Homecoming called “How to Connect Your Work with a Targeted Audience and Still Honor the Creative Bubble.”
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Dan Nowak’s (P ’07) most recent chapbook, the hows and whys of my failures, is available from Hyacinth Girl Press (www.hyacinthgirlpress.com). His press, Imaginary Friend Press, is currently reading for its second full-length poetry book contest. He’s also moving to Pittsburgh, so if anyone is ever in the area, get in touch.
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Janet Schneider’s (F ’13) graduate reading story, “The Gift,” was published in April in the inaugural issue, titled In Translation, of the online magazine Fish Food and Lava Juice. You can read it at www.fishfoodandlavajuice.com. She also coordinated in March what she hopes to be a quarterly Writers Read series at a club in Berkeley, California. She joined seven other readers onstage in front of friends and family.
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LaEsha Sanders (F ’12) is thrilled to report that her short story “Child of the Sun” will be published in Twisted Vine Literary Journal, set for their second online publication in mid-May. She wrote this story in her final two semesters under the direction of Robin Lippincott and Julie Brickman. LaEsha is also excited to announce that she has accepted a third offer of a 12-hour teaching position of freshman composition courses at Lee University starting this fall. Finally, LaEsha is overjoyed to announce that in August 2014 she will marry the treasure of her heart, David Williams. They are both thrilled to start this new adventure together, and they look forward to a bright and full future.
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Peg Tilley (F ’12) is the second runner-up for fiction in Poets & Writers 2014 Maureen Egan Writers Exchange contest. 
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Gary Walker (F ’09) has accepted a full-time position on the English faculty at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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Amy Watkins’ (P ’06) chapbook Milk & Water is now available from Yellow Flag Press. Her work was featured in Sundress Publications’ “The Wardrobe” segment the week of March 17.
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Vickie Weaver (F ’05) received honorable mention in the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition 2013 for her short story “The Shootist.” Vickie also attended the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans in March.
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Jonathan Weinert (P ’05) has had poems on Poetry Daily (http://www.poems.com) twice recently, on November 27 and February 25, and on the Mass Poetry website (http://www.masspoetry.org). His essay on poems by Fulke Greville and Brenda Hillman was posted on Voltage Poetry (http://www.voltagepoetry.com) in March. His work is featured in an exercise by Victoria Redel in Wingbeats II: Exercises and Practice in Poetry, forthcoming from Dos Gatos Press. An extensive interview with the poet H. L. Hix, conducted at the 2014 AWP Conference in Seattle, is scheduled to appear in the May issue of the online journal The Conversant (http://theconversant.org).
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Lauren Young (P ’10) has had her book of poetry, Elemental Facets, published by Tate Publishing. It will be officially released May 27. The book will soon be available at Tate’s website: http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/.
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Personals

Our heartfelt sympathy  to Shelda Hale (P) on the death of her father, Sheldon G. Hale, on March 31.
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Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) for Fall 2013

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.

• Pete Duval, fiction
• Greg Pape, poetry
• Dianne Aprile, creative nonfiction
• Susan Campbell Bartoletti, writing for children and young adults
• Kira Obolensky, playwriting/screenwriting

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 (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 Michelle Standridge at 800-896-8941, ext. 4333 or 502-873-4333 or email mstandridge@spalding.edu. Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at www.fafsa.ed.gov.

Student Loans for Spring 2014 semester: If you have not already filled out the FAFSA for the 2013-14 school year, using 2012 tax information, do so now. Refer to MFA Financial Aid FAQs on the MFA portal page.

Student Loans for Summer 2014 semester: Fill out the FAFSA for the 2014-2015 school year, using 2013 tax information. Refer to MFA Financial Aid FAQs on the MFA portal page.
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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.
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Newsletter Archive: Newsletters are archived online at http://spalding.edu/mfanewsletter.
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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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Like our Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/SpaldingMFA

Find MFA gear and wear
http://www.cafepress.com/SpaldingMFA

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, Associate Administrative Director
Ellyn Lichvar, Administrative Assistant
Taj Whitesell, Newsletter 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
502-873-4398	Ellyn Lichvar	4398
502-873-4399	Karen Mann	4399
502-873-4330	Michelle Standridge	4333

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