AWP 2014 Registration and Spalding MFA Gathering

Registration is now open for the 2014 AWP Conference & Bookfair, to be held February 26–March 1 at the Washington State Convention Center & Sheraton Seattle Hotel. Information is available at https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/overview.

The MFA Program offers a registration waiver to the first 15 students or faculty members to request it. To request a waiver, email Associate Administrative Director Katy Yocom at kyocom@spalding.edu. Spalding handles registration directly for those who receive a waiver.

As a further benefit to students and faculty members, the MFA Program pays the early-bird conference registration fee to all students and faculty who register. The early-bird rate is available until October 31. Simply register for the conference, then forward your email registration confirmation to Administrative Director Karen Mann at kmann@spalding.edu for reimbursement. Those who register after the early-bird deadline has passed can still contact Karen to request partial reimbursement. In exchange for reimbursement or registration waiver, the Program asks students to consider volunteering to staff the MFA’s bookfair table for a 75-minute slot.

As a celebratory get-together, the program is sponsoring an event 4:30–5:45 p.m. Friday, February 28, at the Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage. Alums, faculty, students, and friends old and new are cordially invited to enjoy a drink compliments of the MFA program, listen to brief readings by Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund and other faculty members, mix and mingle, and generally kick off their AWP Friday evening in high spirits.

Our New Twitter Account @Spalding_MFA

    Spalding MFA  ‏ @spalding_mfa19h
Molly Power’s book DOWN AND UP WITH LENA LAROCHA is now available on Amazon. Check it out!http://www.amazon.com/Down-Lena-LaRocha-Molly-Power/dp/1491015446/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8

   Spalding MFA  ‏ @spalding_mfa20 Aug
The next Life of a Writer deadline is August 22. If you’ve got writerly news you’d like to share, send it to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu.

   Spalding MFA  ‏ @spalding_mfa19 Aug
Check out the newest post on the MFA blog. This one is from Edie Hemingway, and she discusses the Ireland residency!
http://blog.spalding.edu/mfainwriting/2013/08/19/a-new-perspective-on-time/

   Spalding MFA  ‏ @spalding_mfa15 Aug
The Palm Beach Poetry Festival is now accepting applicants for their January workshops. Apply now!

Please sign up as a Spalding_MFA Twitter follower today!

Fall 2013 Program Books in Common: The Paper Garden and The Books That Mattered

The Spalding MFA Program Book in Common area for Fall 2013 residency is creative nonfiction, and the program will feature two books in common: The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72, by Molly Peacock, and The Books That Mattered: A Reader’s Memoir, by Frye Gaillard. To prepare for November’s residency, all students and faculty read both books, regardless of a student’s area of concentration. All students place The Paper Garden and The Books That Mattered on their reading lists. 

On Friday, November 15, the first day of residency, after the general welcome, Sena Jeter Naslund leads a discussion of The Paper Garden. Students should prepare oral comments to contribute to that plenary session. Later in the residency, Molly gives a public talk about her experience researching and writing The Paper Garden and participates in a Q & A session the next morning that is open only to MFA students and faculty. Gaillard also visits residency to talk about his book, which is the basis of a cross-genre writing exercise during residency. 

Kirkus Reviews describes The Paper Garden as a “lyrical, meditative rumination on art and the blossoming beauty of self that can be the gift of age and love.” Published in 2010 in Canada by McClelland and Stewart and in 2011 by BloomsburyUSA, The Paper Garden was chosen by Maclean’s in Canada as one of the top 20 books of 2010 and reached No. 1 on Maclean’s nonfiction best-seller list. The Paper Garden  was chosen by The Economist  as a 2011 Book of the Year. Molly was awarded a fellowship from the Leon Levy Center for Biography, which helped her finish The Paper Garden. The book is a biography of 18th-century gentlewoman Mrs. Mary Delany and her invention of floral collages as well as a meditation on late-life creativity. It includes 35 color illustrations of floral collage.  The book began as an essay, “A Passion Flowers in Winter,” published in The Best American Essays 2007.

Molly recently retired from her position as faculty member of the Spalding MFA Program, where she taught poetry and creative nonfiction. She has published six books of poems, most recently The Second Blush (W.W. Norton and Company), and is now at work on a sequence of new poems titled Alphabetica: The Stories of the Letters. From 2002 to 2006, Molly performed her one-woman show in poems, The Shimmering Verge, throughout North America. She served as Poet-in-Residence at the American Poets’ Corner (Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City) from 2000-2004 and is one of the creators of Poetry in Motion on the nation’s subways and buses. Molly’s other books include Cornucopia: New and Collected Poems (Norton, 2002), How to Read a Poem & Start a Poetry Circle (Riverhead), four other collections of poems, and a memoir, Paradise, Piece By Piece (Riverhead). She is also the editor of The Private I: Privacy in a Public Age (Graywolf Press, 2001) and co-editor of Poetry in Motion: 100 Poems from the Subways and Buses. Her articles have appeared in Elle, O the Oprah Magazine, Mirabella, New York Magazine, and House & Garden. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review, and other leading literary journals. She is former president of the Poetry Society of America and has been visiting poet at numerous colleges and universities, including Bennington and Bucknell. Molly has been awarded fellowships from the Danforth, Ingram Merrill, and Woodrow Wilson foundations as well as from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in Toronto with her husband, James Joyce scholar Michael Groden. In Canada, she is general editor of The Best Canadian Poetry in English series and contributing editor of the Literary Review of Canada. Her website can be found at www.mollypeacock.org.
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In a plenary session at the Fall 2013 residency, Frye Gaillard discusses his latest book, The Books That Mattered: A Reader’s Memoir, which pays tribute to the books that enriched and altered his life. The Books That Mattered was published by New South Books in 2012. Author Jill McCorkle says, “Frye Gaillard’s The Books That Mattered is one to join the ranks of those mentioned within. Combining personal and literary memories, he carves out his own landscape as a reader. The result is entertaining and enlightening. This book will inspire you to reach for old favorites as well as those you have missed along the way.” During his session, Gaillard will offer his personal reflections on the greatness of such iconic titles as All the King’s Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, and more recently, Year of Wonders and Ahab’s Wife.  He will also discuss such lesser-known works as Larry L. King’s collection of profiles The Old Man and Lesser Mortals and Richard Wright’s Uncle Tom’s Children.

Frye Gaillard is writer in residence at the University of South Alabama and the author of more than twenty works of nonfiction, including Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America, winner of the 2005 Lillian Smith Award for best Southern nonfiction. Frye’s other award-winning books include Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music; If I Were a Carpenter: Twenty Years of Habitat for Humanity; and The Dream Long Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a native of Mobile, Alabama, and former Southern editor at the Charlotte Observer. He has written for such diverse publications as Oxford American, Parade, The Washington Post, Us magazine, and The Journal of American History. His 2008 book, With Music and Justice for All: Some Southerners and Their Passions, has twice been a featured selection of the Progressive Book Club, and in 2013, the documentary film adaptation of his book In the Path of the Storms won a regional Emmy.

Essay Due from MFA Students Enrolling in ENG622 in Fall 2013

All MFA students who plan to enter ENG622 in Fall 2013 are required to write and submit a short critical essay on the Fall 2013 Program Book in Common, Molly Peacock’s The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72. No later than August 28, students were to have emailed the essay to the program via mfadropbox@spalding.edu, but not to faculty mentors. The short critical essays will be discussed in mini workshop sessions during the Fall 2013 residency. Students were emailed details about this assignment by Associate Program Director Kathleen Driskell on July 30. Any student enrolled in ENG622 for the Fall 2013 semester who has not received instructions for this Program Book in Common assignment should email Kathleen Driskell at kdriskell@spalding.edu for details. (top)

Interrelatedness-of-the-Arts Event: War Horse

MFAers attending the Fall 2013 residency attend a touring production of the play War Horse on Tuesday, November 19, at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. The MFA Program places a special focus on the interrelatedness of the arts in order to encourage students to seek inspiration from the other arts in terms of subject, style, structure, and significance and to consider questions of creative process.

In conjunction with the play, faculty member Kira Obolensky lectures on the use of puppetry in playwriting and screenwriting.

War Horse is billed as “a remarkable tale of courage, loyalty and friendship. As World War One begins, Joey, young Albert’s beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped from England to France. He’s soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary journey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man’s land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.

“This powerfully moving and imaginative drama, filled with stirring music and songs, is a show of phenomenal inventiveness that is currently playing to packed houses in London and New York. At its heart are astonishing life-sized puppets created by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company that bring to life breathing, galloping, charging horses strong enough for men to ride. (top)

War Horse received five Tony Awards in 2011, including the Tony for Best Play.

Fall 2013 Residency Students and Faculty Can Get Extra Dining Dollars

Students and faculty who purchase an item of MFA wear from CafePress (http://cafepress.com/SpaldingMFA) valued at $15 or more receive an extra $15 in dining dollars for meals at the Fall 2013 residency. Dining dollars are used like money at several restaurants near campus. Dining dollars are intended to be used for residency lunches; however, the same restaurants (if open) also accept them for breakfast and dinner. Dining dollars are found in the Welcome Envelope, which is distributed the first day of residency.

Complete information about dining dollars is available in the Res idency Arrival Information document (posted on the MFA portal about six weeks before residency) and the Residency Curriculum and Events Schedule (posted a few days before residency).

To receive the extra $15, email Karen Mann ( kmann@spalding.edu) proof of purchase of an item of MFA wear valued at $15 or more before Wednesday, November 6. In the subject line, type “extra dining dollars.” (top)

New Students Attend Google Hangouts Information Sessions

Each session will be offered twice. Students should decide which time best suits their schedule and email their preferred time to Kathleen. Each session can accommodate up to 10 participants. Sessions will be filled  on a first-come, first-served basis. Students who miss a hangout session or who have scheduling conflicts that prevent their participation at the times available should email Kathleen at kdriskell@spalding.edu to arrange a make-up session.

Session 1: Worksheet Preparation and Submission Hangout

New students choose one and email Kathleen with preference: 10:00 a.m. (Eastern) Saturday, September 21, or 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) Tuesday, September 24.

Session 2: Workshop Preparation and Workshop Comments

New students choose one and email Kathleen with preference: 10:00 a.m. (Eastern) Saturday, October 26, or 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) Tuesday, October 29.

Students who have not previously participated in a Google Hangouts session may learn more about joining the video meeting by reading “Screenshot document for adding Google+” located on the MFA portal page. Students may need to download programs, so we suggest reading and following the directions well before joining the meeting.

Google+ can be accessed through the Spalding MFA portal page (the icon can be found in the bottom right section). Google+ programs are supported by Spalding’s IT team.

About fifteen minutes before the session is scheduled to begin, Kathleen will email a link to each participant at the student’s spalding.edu email address. Students join the hangout by clicking through that link. The hangout can be accessed through a computer, but students may also access Google Hangouts through a smart phone or tablet.

Please contact Kathleen with questions about these sessions at kdriskell@spalding.edu.

New! Office Hours Held through Google Hangouts

Summer 2014 Residency Abroad: Information Forthcoming

Information is forthcoming about the Summer 2014 residency abroad, which takes place in Prague and Berlin. In order to reduce time spent in transit, a previously announced stop in Leipzig has been cancelled. (top)

Alumni Regional Events: Lexington, Kentucky, and California

Northern California: Socializing and Social Media
 
From 1:45 to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, October 5, all MFA alums, students, and faculty are invited to the Northern California alumni regional event. Friends, especially those who love to write, are welcome! The event takes place at Fort Mason Center, Building C, Room C370, near Fisherman’s Wharf.
MFA alum Corrine Jackson, author of If I Lie and Touched, will present “Social Media for Writers: Before Publication and After.” The presentation breaks down the major tools of social media and how to begin to build an audience before or after publication. Tools needed after publication to leverage an author’s presence and book visibility will be discussed, as well as blog tours and what they mean for promotion efforts. In addition, there will be time for socializing, refreshments, and brief readings.
RSVP by Friday, September 20, to Karen Mann at kmann@spalding.edu  or 502-873-4399. Karen will send parking and other information to attendees.

Want to Throw Your OWN Alumni Regional Event?

Alumni regional events are a new innovation for the MFA Program—the first one took place in 2012—but the idea is taking off. Alumni regional events have taken place in Orlando and Los Angeles and are upcoming in Lexington and Northern California. A Louisville alumni regional event is in the works and will be announced in the next issue of this newsletter. Events can be built around a reading or author appearance, or they can take place for their own sake. Either way, alumni regional events are open to all Spalding MFAers (students and faculty included!) and friends. If you would like to host or help organize an event in your area, contact Marjetta Geerling at marjettag@gmail.com. (top)

Creating Community

Somerset Shakespeare Camp: Helping Kids Perform Shakespeare Without a Net
by AshleyRose Sullivan (F ’10)

In 2003, I founded the Somerset Shakespeare Camp in conjunction with Somerset Community College in Kentucky. We do an hourlong cut of a Shakespearean play in just one week, and we’ve been going strong for ten years. With local kids aged 11-18, we’ve produced A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, and Romeo & Juliet, among others. This year we broke with tradition for the first time and, in honor of our tenth anniversary, did a comedy revue of Shakespeare’s tragedies, written by my husband, Scott Sullivan.

Of course, the fact that it was a comedy revue doesn’t mean anything about the week was lax. We still cast the production, conducted rehearsals, designed and fit the costumes, built the set, and lit it—all within six days. The actors were all off-book by Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday, we were running full dress rehearsals. Every year, the kids perform these shows without a net, without any prompting from the wings, and they handle it like pros. They do it because they can and no one ever told them that they couldn’t.

We have a very high retention rate. Even actors who have aged out of the program still return to intern and direct. We’re so proud of all our actors and their accomplishments. One of our students, who attended the camp in its inception year at the age of eight, graduated from high school this year, and we’re extremely proud to see her starting college on a full scholarship. Several of our students have been involved in Governor’s School for the Arts and (whether majoring in Theatre or Chemical Engineering—the majors of two past students who now serve as assistant directors) have continued to study the arts in their college careers.

Scott and I hope to branch out in the next year, starting our own nonprofit program, which would bring arts opportunities to children in the underserved communities of rural Appalachia.

 

AshleyRose Sullivan (seated, second from left) with the
cast of Somerset Shakespeare Camp.

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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. (top)

Deadline Dates and the MFA Calendar

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. (top)

Spalding Email Accounts

Check Out the MFA Blog

MFA faculty and alumni blog at the following web address: http://blog.spalding.edu/mfainwriting. New posts are added weekly.(top)

Facebook Fanpage Posts Contests and Other Information

The MFA Program posts 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.

MFA Alumni Association

The website for the MFA Alumni Association is http://www.spaldingmfaalum.com. Contact Terry Price with questions at terry@terryprice.net. Check out the Spalding MFA Alumni Facebook page.

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 MFA news. Go to my.spalding.edu. Username: MFAportal and Password: MFAportal! (note: the password is case sensitive and contains an exclamation mark).

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Elizabeth M. Dalton’s (F) creative nonfiction piece “Long Hair” was published this summer in All That Glitters, an anthology of creative nonfiction originally published in Sliver of Stone Magazine (http://sliverofstonemagazine.com/elizabeth-dalton/). “Long Hair” is part of a collection-in-progress titled Burying Molly, a series of essays about the author’s relationship with her sister.

Katie Darby-Mullins (F) has recently been long-listed in the Ropewalk Fiction Chapbook contest with her collection, Caravan of Predators and Other Stories. She has also had several poems picked up at journals including Naugatuck River Review, Cider Press Review, Poetry Quarterly, Birmingham Arts Journal, Harpur Palate, and The Waterhouse Review, and, most recently, she’s had a poem published through Midwestern Gothic and done a reading with them in Indianapolis.

Alice Catherine Jennings (P) wrote and directed her first play for The 20th Annual: 24 Hour Plays 2013. “In Search of a New Home” had its premiere at the Crowley Theater in Marfa, Texas, on August 10. As founder of the Global Reading Group, an online book group, she is excited to announce the group’s upcoming selections: The Aeneid of Virgil (September) and Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (October). The group is free and open to interested readers worldwide. To join, send Alice an email at alicejjennings@gmail.com.

Jessica Love Kim (W4CYA) is co-writing a YA novel with Chelsie Hill, star of Sundance Channel’s hit reality TV series Push Girls. The novel, titled Push Girl, will be released on March 11 from St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne and is based on Chelsie’s experience with paralysis as a result of a drunk-driving accident.  (top)

Heather Meyer’s (PW) romantic comedy about the mayor of Minneapolis, RT+MPLS: The Legend of R.T. Rybak, had a successful (artistically and commercially!) run at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, including having the actual mayor attend the show twice. Also this August, her article, “Putting Emilie in a Lecture Hall: Making Theatre in Non-Theatre Spaces”was published in [Breaking Character], Samuel French’s online magazine. Heather is also a collaborator and performer in the upcoming devised performance piece CHIEF with The Buoyant Group in Minneapolis.

Paul Alan Ruben’s (F) short story “Father, Son, and the Holy Obit” (http://www.pifmagazine.com/2013/08/father-son-and-the-hold-obit/ )appears in the August issue of the literary online publication Pif Magazine. The story is part of a nearly completed collection of thematically linked short stories that interrogate father and son, tentatively titled Hope Springs External. Paul would like to thank Mary Clyde for her close readings of his work and her encouragement.
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Susan Campbell Bartoletti was presented with the Royden B. Davis, S.J. Distinguished Author Award from The University of Scranton on September 7. She is the first children’s book author to be presented with the award. Past recipients have included Emmy, Oscar, and Golden Globe-winning author and actor Jack Palance, Malachy McCourt, Mary Higgins Clark, Carol Higgins Clark, Lisa Scottoline, Linda Fairstein, James Grippando, Phillip Margolin, Mary Gordon, William Bernhardt, Steve Berry, and Jay Parini. The award was first presented in 1997.
http://www.scranton.edu/academics/wml/distinguished/index.shtml

Roy Hoffman’s essay, about being both 19 and 59, “A Reunion With My Younger Hitchhiking Self” appeared in the New York Times on August 6.(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/booming/a-reunion-with-my-younger-hitchhiking-self.html?pagewanted=all) (top)

Sena Jeter Naslund’s latest novel, The Fountain of St. James Court; or, Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman, launches September 17 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her tour schedule is as follows. She would love to see members of the Spalding family as she tours the country:

• 2:00 p.m., Friday, September 6, Lexington: Live, in-studio at Accents Radio, WRFL, 88.1 FM, Lexington, Kentucky. Listen live on your radio or stream from http://wrfl.fm. 
• 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 10, 2013, Louisville: 30-minute Facebook chat, Book Club Girl Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BookClubGirl.
• 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, September 17, Birmingham: Birmingham Southern College, Norton Theatre: Convocation reading and speech.
• 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 17, Alabama Booksmith, 2626 19th Place Street, Birmingham, Alabama 35209. Book launch!
• 7:00 p.m., Thursday, September 19, Louisville: Carmichaels, 2720 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky 40206: Reading and signing.
• 2:00–4:00 p.m. Saturday, September 21, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboil Circle, New Orleans 70124: talk, slide show of paintings of Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun, reception, signing.
• 8:00 a.m., September 22, New Orleans: Author Breakfast at SIBA.
• 6:00 p.m., Monday, September 23, Fairhope: Page & Palette, 32 S Section Street, Fairhope, Alabama 36532: Reading, discussion and signing.
• 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 24, Atlanta: Carter Library, 441 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, Georgia 30307. Reading, discussion and signing.
• 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 25, 2013, Macon: Lanier Center For Literary Arts Presents, Library Ballroom, 652 Mulberry Street, Macon, Georgia 31201: Reception, reading and signing.
• 7:00 p.m., Thursday, September 26, Salt Lake City: Salt Lake City Museum Of Fine Arts: talk, slide show of paintings of Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun, book signing.
• 6:00 p.m., Friday, September 27, Los Angeles: Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, California 92651.
• 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Saturday, September 28, Los Angeles: Women & Words, The Olympic Collection, 11301 Olympic Blvd, West Los Angeles, California 90064: Sena talks on the writing life.
• 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, October 1, Lexington: Joseph-Beth & Davis-Kidd Booksellers, 161 Lexington Green Circle, Lexington, Kentucky 40503: Discussion and signing.
• 1:00–3:00 p.m. Friday, October 4 and 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Saturday Oct 5, St James Court Art Show, Porch of Conrad-Caldwell Historical Mansion, meet the author, book signing.
• 2:00 p.m., Sunday, October 6, Washington, DC: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005. Talk, slide show of paintings of Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrun, book signing.
• 6:00 p.m., Thursday, October 10, Bowling Green: Warren County Public Library, 1225 State Street, Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101. Reading, discussion and signing.
• Friday, October 11, Nashville: Southern Festival of Books, Tennessee Humanities Council, War Memorial Plaza.
• Saturday, October 12, Nashville: Southern Festival of Books, Tennessee Humanities Council, War Memorial Plaza.
• 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, October 15, Lexington: Carnegie Center For Literacy & Learning, 251 W Second Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40507: Literary tea.
• Thursday, October 17 through October 19, North Dakota: 3.2.1: 3 Communities (Fargo, West Fargo, and Moorhead), 2 Books (Moby-Dick and Ahab’s Wife), 1 Art Exhibit (surrealist painting of T.L. Solien). http://321fm.org/ Public reading, book signing, and writing workshop with local teachers from the Red River Valley Writing Project.

Also watch for radio interviews by Bob Edwards and by Spalding MFA alum Erin Keane, and for public television interviews by Spalding MFA alum Bill Goodman on KET and by Don Noble on Alabama public television’s “Bookmarks.” (top)

Lesléa Newman presented “He Continues to Make a Difference: The Story of Matthew Shepard” at the New York Public Library for the Association for Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA) conference in New York City and gave her lecture “The Gender Dance: Smashing Gender Stereotypes in Picture Books” at the Nehirim World Conference of GLBT Jews, held in Winnipeg, Canada. Her poem “Viet Nam” was published in the 2013 summer edition of Spoon River Poetry Review, and her poems “The Fence,” “13 Ways of Looking at 9/11,” and “Sestina for Buddy” were published in Flicker and Spark: A Contemporary Queer Anthology of Spoken Word and Poetry. Four poems from her recently completed collection, I Carry My Mother,have been accepted for publication in Adrienne: A Poetry Journal of Queer Women (named after Adrienne Rich).
In June, she had two essays posted on Huffington Post: “Coming Full Circle: My Mother, Stonewall, and Me” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslea-newman/coming-full-circle-stonewall_b_3403261.html) and “A Supremely Big Day” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslea-newman/a-supremely-big-day_b_3508696.html).

Katy Yocom was a featured poet at “In Our Living,” an event of I.D.E.A.S. 40203 that featured poets’ and artists’ investigations of what it means to be a contemporary Kentuckian. The August 1 event also featured MFA alums Katerina Stoykova-Klemer (P ’09) and Sonja de Vries (P ’09) as well as former Kentucky Poet Laureate Richard Taylor. Her essay “Tiger Women,” originally published last year on the award-winning blog StyleSubstanceSoul, was republished in August on the new blog Midlife at the Oasis http://midlifeattheoasis.com/stuff-i-love/guest-posts/tiger-women-by-katy-yocom/). She recently immersed herself in revision during a two-week writing retreat at Hopscotch House, a program of the Kentucky Foundation for Women. (top)

Alumni

Linda Bilodeau (F ’11) is pleased to announce that her short story “White Lies” was accepted for publication by Paradise Review, an electronic literary journal. The story was workshopped during Linda’s graduation residency, and she thanks her mentor, Robin Lippincott, and workshop leaders Julie Brickman and Phil Deaver for their helpful comments.

Sarah H. Boatwright (P ’12) will serve as a guest blogger in October on Poetry Matters (http://readwritepoetry.blogspot.com), created by Nancy Long (P ’12) and other  Spalding poets, reviewing Jeff Dolven’s new book of poems, Speculative Music. Later in the fall, Sarah will participate in Dave Harrity’s (P’07) spiritual formation organization, ANTLER (http://thisisantler.com), by reviewing her recent class “Making a Joyful Noise: The Poetry of Lutheran Hymns.”

Bobbi Buchanan’s (CNF ’04) chapbook Listen: Essays on the Good Life will be published by Ginkgo Leaf Press in September. The chapbook is a collection of Bobbi’s previously published and slightly altered columns from New Southerner Magazine. Bobbi is the founding editor of New Southerner, which is holding its annual literary contest now through September 30. Final judges include Spalding faculty member Crystal Wilkinson, Maurice Manning (poetry) and Julie Marie Wade (nonfiction). A $200 prize is awarded in each category. Submissions are accepted electronically and by mail. For more information or to submit work, go to www.newsoutherner.com/contest.
Bobbi’s review of Janna McMahan’s new novel, Anonymity, appeared in the July issue of Sojourners Magazine. Her essay “The Mother Class Load” appears in the Fall issue of Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers.  In May, Bobbi helped launch and host a new multi-genre performing arts series in her hometown of Shepherdsville, Kentucky. The bimonthly series, called the Homegrown Art, Music & Spoken Word Show, features an open mic for writers, artists, and musicians. The next show is 6:00–8:00 p.m. September 20 at Cedar Grove Coffee House. For more information, go to www.facebook.com/homegrownshow.

Linda Cruise (F ’08) will be teaching her popular college-level, 6-week course, Developing a Writer’s Craft & Critical Eye, sponsored by Access to C.V.U. continuing-education program, held in Hinesburg, Vermont, September 30–October 4.

Dave DeGolyer (W4C & P ’06) has created a new website for his pseudonym, Lafayette Wattles (http://lafayettewattles.com) and invites his Spalding family to stop by for a visit. The blog, Write Side Up, is dedicated to the writer’s life. Lafayette recently had two poems, “Patterns” (http://www.sundresspublications.com/stirring/archives/v15/e6/wattlesl.htm) and “In the Stillness of the Frog Pond” (http://www.sundresspublications.com/stirring/archives/v15/e7/wattlesl.htm) published in the online journal Stirring: A Literary Collection (http://www.sundresspublications.com/stirring). In May, Dave guest lectured at Elmira College, where he led a workshop on similes, then held a public reading as Lafayette. In June, Lafayette was the featured reader at the Youth Poetry Award Ceremony at the Elmira Center for the Arts. In August, he was featured performer for the Watkins Glen Writers Group in Montour Falls, New York. Dave recently led the second annual Extraordinary Time Writer’s Retreat with fellow Spalding alum Terry Price in New Harmony, Indiana. Though re-immersing himself in his own writing after a few years away from the page, Dave has also been busy mentoring writers http://atthepagecoaching.com) and finds the blend of teaching, writing, and idea exchange to be extremely rewarding and fun.

Troy Ehlers (F ’04) won Crab Orchard Review’s 2014 Jack Dyer Fiction Prize with his short story “Five Deaths of Ellie Marsh.” The prize includes publication and $2,000. He also sold a story titled “Glimmering Places” to the Love Free or Die volume of a New Hampshire-based pulp fiction anthology series. In July, he attended a writer’s workshop at Saint Anselm’s College in New Hampshire.

Omar Figueras (F ’13) was part of a panel discussing Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio show Books and Arts Daily. Presenter Michael Cathcart hosts an hourlong program discussing theme, plot, characters, and broader issues for the monthly selection for their Great American Classics book club. The show aired in Australia on Friday, August 30.

Stacia M. Fleegal (P ’06) recently received an honorable mention by judge Natasha Saje in the Crab Creek Review’s 2013 poetry contest for her poem “Snap.” The poem will be published in a forthcoming issue. She also had two poems in the June issue of Stone Highway Review, and two more are forthcoming in Barn Owl Review. (top)

Carolyn Flynn (F ’12) won second runner-up in the 2013 Pinch Literary Awards in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for “Resurrection,” a piece she wrote during her first semester at Spalding. The creative nonfiction judge was Abigail Thomas, author of A Three Dog Life, which was named one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. Of “Resurrection,” Thomas said, “I loved it,” in congratulating Carolyn in a Facebook post. “Resurrection” is part of Carolyn’s work-in-progress essay collection, Straight to Heaven. Here’s more about the winners: 
http://www.thepinchjournal.com/2013winners/. Carolyn also has paired up with Terry Price to found The Writing Space, which offers retreats, such as the Magic Time Writing Retreat, and The Writing Life, a free weekly talk for writers, available live as a teleconference on Thursdays or as a downloadable podcast. Carolyn and Terry return in September with a new series called The Writer as a Spiritual Creature. Each month, writers receive an inspiration focus, storytelling tips, a craft talk, and an author interview. September’s author interview is Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer.
Find out more at http://terryprice.net or http://carolynflynn.com, or join The Writing Spacepage on Facebook at http://facebook.com/thespaceforwriters.

Catt Foy (F ’13) recently published her novel Bartleby: A Scrivener’s Tale on Amazon’s Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Bartleby-A-Scriveners-Tale-ebook/dp/B00DPVNTZE). The novel, set in 1841, is based on Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” The Kindle price is $3.99. Catt is currently touring to promote her previous book, Psycards–A New Alternative to Tarot, and working on new material, including a novel of Kokopelli, a tale of the ancient Southwest, and Wildwood Awakening, a YA novel about a teenage psychic discovering her own powers and her adult self, set in the 1970s at the Jersey Shore. (top)

Robert X. Golphin (SW ’13) has released the sneak preview for his documentary The Other Side of Hollywood: Do or Die, which features a bevy of entertainment legends and rising stars, and explores the realities of survival and success in La La Land. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Mc_jWLprY
Robert’s project has also launched a fan page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OtherSideofHollywood

Karen George (F ’09) had the poems “Embryos” and “Your Spirit Animal” accepted for the next issue of Adanna Literary Journal and “Vandalism” and “Re-creation at Red River Gorge, Kentucky” for The Journal of Kentucky Studies. In June, she participated in Lexington Poetry Month, a project sponsored by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer  (P ’09), editor-in-chief of Accents Publishing, and Hap Houlihan of Morris Book Shop, writing a poem a day. Twenty-eight of her poems were published on Accents Publishing’s blog: http://accents-publishing.com/blog/lexington-poetry-month/lpm-2013-registrants/#karen, and her poem “What to Do During a Summer Rain” appeared in a limited-edition chapbook, See How We Are: Selected Works From Lexington Poetry Month.

Brian Hampton’s (PW ’06) play The Jungle Fun Room is now published by Original Works Publishing (available at http://www.originalworksonline.com). He recently taught playwriting workshops at Christopher Newport University and at NYC’s On Broadway Performing Arts Training Program. His one-act play Gossip will be produced at Matoaca High School as well as Wright State University’s MAPP program this fall/winter, and his independent film adaptation of his play Checking In received its first screening at ReRun Gastropub Theatre in Brooklyn this July.

Michael Wayne Hampton (F ’05) has placed three books this year. His chapbook Bad Kids from Good Schools was released this February from Winged City Chapbook Press. His short story collection See How Much I Love You is due out in December from Foxhead Books. Nine of the stories were part of his graduate thesis. Lastly, his novella Roller Girls Love Bobby Knight won the Deerbird Novella Prize and will be released next summer by Artistically Declined Press. In other news, he recently accepted a tenure-track teaching job at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College. He continues to review books for journals such as Necessary Fiction and Fjords Review.

Michael Jackman’s (P ’12) poem “Diagnosis” was recently published in Hospital Drive. You can read it here: http://news.med.virginia.edu/hospitaldrive/2013/06/12/diagnosis/. He gave a reading at the Bloomington, Indiana, 4th Street Festival on September 1, along with the Spalding Brewhouse Poets, a group of current and former area Spalding MFA students. He’ll also be the featured reader at Subterranean Phrases at Decca restaurant on October 9, 8:00–10:00 p.m. (top)

Corrine Jackson’s (F ’12) debut young adult novel, If I Lie, was released August 6 in a paperback edition from Simon Pulse. If I Lie recently appeared on the 2013 International Reading Association’s Young Adults’ Choices Reading List, KALW’s Your Call Best Books of 2012 list, and the Los Angeles Public Library’s Best Teen Books of 2012 list. The Denver Post and Statesman-Journal included If I Lie in separate newspaper articles on the best YA books dealing with dark issues. Corrine also recently appeared on a YA issues book panel at the RT Convention in May, along with Gayle Forman, CJ Omololu, Jennifer Brown, Jackie Kessler, and moderator Melissa Marr. Her third novel, Pushed, was released in German on January 14 and will be out in the U.S. on November 26 from KTeen. In June, she presented a “Social Media for Writers” workshop to a regional Bay Area SCBWI chapter, and she led a writing workshop for veterans on July 29 as part of the Arts Celebration of Service in San Francisco.

Katrina Kittle (F ’08) has been chosen as the John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence for the month of October at The Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio.

Kelly Martineau’s (CNF ’10) essay “A Grief Unraveled” was published in Front Porch Journal, Volume 23, earlier this year. Her essay “The Guide” will appear in the forthcoming book  Birth Ambassadors: Doulas and the Re-Emergence of Woman-Supported Childbirth in America.

Chris Mattingly (P ’10) recently had two poems taken for an anthology by the University of South Carolina Press. The anthology, Grit Po: Rough South Poetry, is a companion to their Grit Lit: A Rough Southern Reader, which was released in 2012.

Loreen Niewenhuis (F ’07) has had a busy spring and summer touring with her new adventure memoir, A 1000-Mile Great Lakes Walk. She had more than 40 appearances (readings, signings and lectures) in three states. The book won the Great Lakes Great Reads Award from independent booksellers in the Midwest. In addition, she is beginning her third Great Lakes adventure. This one will explore many of the islands of the Great Lakes. To reconnect with her writing in the midst of all of this, Loreen attended the Extraordinary Time Writer’s Retreat in New Harmony, Indiana. 

Susan Reed (F ’04) gave a reading at the Friday Harbor, Washington, Public Library on July 27. She served as a judge for a San Juan County writing contest on August 8. (top)

Catherine “Cappy” Rush (PW ’12) has had a busy second half of 2013. Her play  The Loudest Man on Earth  was a 2013 recipient of the Edgerton New American Plays Award and subsequently enjoyed a successful world premiere at TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley in California. Cappy also won the Arts and Letters Prize in Drama from Georgia College and State University for her one-act play The Sum of Me. The prize comes with a production in March. It will be published this fall in their literary magazine, Arts and Letters.

Judy Shearer’s (CNF ’06) book, All Bones Be White, was nominated and placed on the Kentucky Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (KSDAR) book list. The KSDAR includes 84 chapters.

Graham Shelby (CNF ’10) was invited by producers of The Moth Radio Hour to perform an original story at the Moth Mainstage in New York City in July. The Moth Mainstage series has featured writers and performers including Malcolm Gladwell, Margaret Cho and Neil Gaiman. 
The story Graham told was one he’d developed as part of his creative thesis in the Spalding MFA program. The Moth’s executive director, Sarah Haberman, called Graham’s story “moving and memorable,” and the show was recorded for possible future use on The Moth Radio Hour and The Moth Podcast. Graham wrote about the surprising lessons he learned from the Moth, including new insights into storytelling and his own family history, in the essay “Telling Stories,”  (http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130825/OPINION04/308250023/Telling-stories-Graham-Shelby-went-New-York-share-story-Moth?gcheck=1) published in the Louisville Courier-Journal. 

Rosanna Staffa’s (F ’13) short story “The Ghost of Chendu” appears in the fall issue of The Baltimore Review.

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer (P ’09), Bill Goodman (CNF ’12), and K. Nicole Wilson (P ’05) are organizing an alumni regional event. Spalding students, faculty and alums are warmly invited to an informal reading and reception with Molly Peacock at 5:45 p.m. Friday, September 20th, at in the Carnegie Center in Lexington, Kentucky. A brief Q&A session follows the reading. The event is free and open to the public.

Lori Tucker-Sullivan (CNF ’11) will speak during a panel discussion at the Business of Writing Symposium presented by the University of Michigan Undergraduate Writing Program. The symposium focuses on the future of writing and publishing. Lori will talk about the relationship between author and bookstore and the future of independent bookselling. (top)

Colleen Wells (CNF ’10) has an essay called “Other Lives” forthcoming this winter in an anthology called Reverse Culture Shock (http://rcsanthology.wordpress.com/). Her poem “Morning Pills” will appear in an anthology called Veils, Halos & Shackles, a collection of international submissions on women and oppression. You can read more about it at http://www.charlesfishman.com/charles_fishman_projects.htm. She is currently taking a multi-genre creative writing class online through Ivy Tech Community College.

Jonathan Weinert (P ’05) has new poems forthcoming in Harvard Review, Pleiades, and The Louisville Review and has an old poem appearing online at Redux (http://www.reduxlitjournal.com) sometime this fall. Jonathan’s manuscript Replacement Heaven was a finalist this year for the Dorset Prize from Tupelo Press.
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Personals

Our heartfelt sympathy goes to Carolyn Flynn (F ’12) on the death of her mother, Bonnie Belle Ritchie Flynn, on July 31.

Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) for Spring 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.

• John Pipkin and Mary Clyde, fiction
• Debra Kang Dean, poetry
• Roy Hoffman, creative nonfiction
• Leslea Newman, writing for children and young adults:
• David-Matthew Barnes, playwriting/screenwriting (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 (mfa@spalding.edu). Information for assistantships is on the MFA portal page.

Federal student loans are available to all eligible graduate students and are available for the fall, spring, or summer semesters. For help with financial aid questions, call Vickie Montgomery at 800-896-8941, ext. 4330 or 502-873-4330 or email vmontgomery@spalding.edu. Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at fafsa.ed.gov.

For Summer 2013 and Fall 2013 semesters: Fill out the FAFSA for the 2013-14 school year, using 2012 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.

Like our Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/SpaldingMFA

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

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

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

Examples of kinds of activities that might be included in the Life of a Writer column are publishing in journals or magazines or in book form, winning awards or other prizes, giving a public reading, visiting a classroom to talk about writing, judging a writing competition, attending a writers conference, serving on a panel about writing, or volunteering in a project about writing or literacy.
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About The Masthead: The image in our masthead is the emblem of a photograph of a Louisville fountain, "River Horse," by Louisville sculptor Barney Bright. The sculpture references both the location of Louisville as a river city on the banks of the Ohio and as the host, for more than 125 years, of the Kentucky Derby. The winged horse Pegasus, of Greek mythology, has long been associated with the literary arts and the wings of poesy.
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Sena Jeter Naslund, Program Director
Karen J. Mann, Administrative Director
Kathleen Driskell, Associate Program Director
Katy Yocom, 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	Vickie Montgomery	4330

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