Vol. 6 No. 2
September 2004
Students & Faculty Orientations
Life
of a Writer
Previous Newsletters
MFA Office to Move
Upstairs; Invitation to Help Move
The MFA Office is moving from the basement to the first floor (suite 104)
of the 851 S. Fourth St. building. The new suite of offices gives the
MFA staff more space with a separate area for The Louisville Review
and Fleur-de-Lis Press. Local students who would like to help pack
or unpack boxes should contact Katy at kyocom@spalding.edu. The staff
expects to pack the office on September 20 and October 1 and unpack October
7-8.
The new office space is available because the Spalding administration
is moving to a new office/classroom building on Third Street, just across
from the Spalding Library. The second floor of the new building is to
house administrative offices and admissions. The first floor of the new
building adds about 9 new classrooms, with space for 12 to 90 students. (top)
October Residency
Guests
In addition to our Book-in-Common author, Nancy Willard, the MFA
Program is very pleased to announce that the following writers give lectures,
presentations, readings, or participate in panels during the October residency
(students and faculty will receive more detailed guest biographies with
their workshop booklets):
Marie Bradby is author of the children's books More Than
Anything Else and Once Upon a Farm. In January 2004, Atheneum
Books/Richard Jackson published her first children's novel, Some
Friend. Her latest magazine piece, "Candyland," was published
in Louisville Magazine. (top)
Thomas B. Byers, Professor of English and Director of the Commonwealth
Center for the Humanities and Society at the University of Louisville,
has lectured and published on film in the US, Denmark, Sweden, Germany,
Austria, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Brazil.
Sneed B. Collard III is author of more than 45 children's
books including the award-winning Beaks!, Animal Dads, The Forest in
the Clouds, The Deep-Sea Floor, and Monteverde: Science and Scientists
in a Costa Rican Cloud Forest. (top)
Philip F. Deaver is the thirteenth winner of the Flannery O'Connor
Award for Short Fiction for his book Silent Retreats. His collection
of poetry, How Men Pray, will be out from Anhinga Press in the spring.
Kathi Ellis is a free-lance director and a board member of Pleiades
Theatre Company, Louisville's only women's theater company,
entering its eighth season, focusing on providing theater that focuses
on women's issues.
Nancy Gall-Clayton won the Streisand Festival of New Jewish Plays
for "General Orders No. 11," and the Eileen Heckart Drama for
Seniors Competition for "Felicity's Family Tree." Her monologue
"Dead Deer in the Dark" will have a reading at Triangle Theatre
in New York this October.
Karen Hadley, PhD, is Associate Professor of English at the University
of Louisville and an expert on William Blake. She received her PhD from
the University of California, Berkeley. (top)
Warren Hammack is the author of the play "Time and the Rock"
and The Founding Artistic/Producing Director of Horse Cave Theatre; he
produced over 135 plays before his retirement after twenty-five years.
Helena Kriel was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. A freelance
writer in Hollywood for the last fourteen years, she works with the studios
and in the independent film world. Her credits include: Torn, a
modern adaptation of Wuthering Heights; Sheherazade, an adaptation
of the Arabian Nights; Heated, an original screenplay; Ahab's
Wife, an adaptation of the novel Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter
Naslund; and The Other Woman, an original screenplay; "The
Good Soldier," based on the book by Ford Maddox Ford, among many
others.
Charissa Menefee has directed over thirty plays, performed as a
vocalist and improvisational comedian, and participated in the new play
development process as playwright, director, dramaturge, actor, and producer.
The Figurehead, about King James I of England, was featured in
the Plays-in-Progress Series at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. She was
a Tennessee Williams Scholar in playwriting at the Sewanee Writers'
Conference. She teaches at Prescott College in Arizona, and served for
several years as chair of the Arts & Letters Program. (top)
Dan O'Brien has had plays produced at numerous theaters, including
The Kennedy Center and Actors Theatre of Louisville. His play Key West
will premiere at the Geva Theatre Center this fall. In 2003-04 he was
the Tennessee Williams Playwright-in-Residence at the University of the
South; he will return to Sewanee for the Spring '05 semester.
Kathy Pories has edited fiction and nonfiction at Algonquin Books
since 1995. She has worked with a number of writers, including Silas
House, Daniel Wallace, Stacey D'Erasmo, Bob Tarte, Emyl Jenkins,
Stephen Marion, Wendy Brenner, and Steve Almond.
Frederick Smock has published four books of poems, and his work
has appeared recently in The Iowa Review, Notre Dame Review, and
The Southern Review. He has also published a memoir of the south
of France and edited The American Voice Anthology of Poetry (Univ.
Press of KY). He teaches at Bellarmine University, Louisville.
Matt Stevens is a Los Angeles-based writer and producer who has
sold both fiction and documentary projects and has worked as a script
analyst for Creative Artists Agency and other companies. He has produced
biography shows for E! Entertainment Television and is a contributing
writer for E! Online and numerous new-media outlets. Two screenplays,
Obscenity and Altar Ego (co-written with Claudia Johnson),
were 2002 finalists for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and Altar Ego
was recently optioned by a producer in London. (top)
New Residency Lecture
Reports
Each student, regardless of semester status, is required to write reports
(previously referred to as evaluations) on five lectures during the residency.
These reports summarize and discuss faculty lectures or plenary sessions
conducted by Spalding faculty or the Program Director. If the student
prefers, one of the lecture reports may be written about a faculty lecture
outside the student's area of concentration.
Submission of the
ECE
The MFA Office has reduced the required number of copies of the Extended
Critical Essay that the student sends to the mentor. The new policy requires
students to send only one copy of the ECE to their mentor in the fourth
packet, along with an envelope addressed to the MFA Office and stamped
for the mentor's use in sending the signed copy of the ECE to the
MFA Office. If the final copy submitted in the fourth packet is returned
for additional changes, a corrected copy must be resubmitted in the fifth
packet. For their own safekeeping in case of misdirected mail, students
must also retain a hard copy of the ECE. (top)
Student and Faculty
Orientations
New faculty attend orientation at 3:30 p.m. Friday, October 29. Students
beginning their first semester in the Spalding MFA Program attend a New
Student Orientation at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 29. Returning students
attend orientations by class at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 30.
Friday Night Movie:
Lost in Translation
On the first evening of residency, the Program screens Lost in Translation,
the 2003 film by writer/director Sofia Coppola. Coppola won the Academy
Award for Best Original Screenplay for the script. The movie received
a nomination for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading
Role. Playwriting/ screenwriting faculty member Claudia Johnson leads
a discussion afterward.(top)
Cross-Genre Exercise
in Writing for Children
Every semester, all students are required to experiment in a cross-genre
activity, which is, for October 2004, writing text of less than 250 words
for a picture book based on an animal character.
In preparation for the writing exercise, Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund
gives a plenary lecture on several animal picture books. Faculty and guests
in the writing for children area of concentration participate in a panel
discussion of some of their own favorite animal picture books. Library
displays of such books are made available for browsing and additional
inspiration.
Student writing, to be turned in at a date listed in the residency schedule,
grows out of these introductory experiences. Toward the end of the week,
writing for children faculty select some of the texts to be read aloud
by their authors in a plenary session. (top)
Sign-up for Residency
Student Readings
All students (except graduating students) are encouraged to sign up for
a five-minute reading. Because there are limited slots for these evening
readings, third and fourth-semester students sign up at the Friday afternoon
reception. Students willing to be moderators also sign up on the reading
schedule during the Friday reception. (Moderators introduce students before
the reading and time the students during the readings.)
First and second-semester students may sign up for a five-minute student
reading in the MFA Office after Friday if slots are still available.
Students who wish to read need to bring their material with them to the
residency. Practicing beforehand insures that the reading is within the
five-minute limit. (top)
Dinners at the
Brown
During our October residency, the Program will provide not two, but three
dinners at The Brown Hotel: our opening night dinner; a "mixer"
by semester, and the farewell dinner. To encourage students to get to
know the widest possible number of people both inside and outside of their
areas of concentration,
students are assigned seats at the opening night dinner and at the mixer.
At the opening night dinner, students are seated with students and a faculty
member in their area of concentration--usually a faculty member
who is not the student's workshop leader. This arrangement allows
students the opportunity to speak with a faculty member they might not
otherwise get to meet and to converse with other students in their chosen
area.
Sunday night's "mixer" dinner, by contrast, is designed
to let students get to know classmates in their semester who are in different
areas of concentration. (top)
Tuesday Night Dinner
on Your Own
Many students and faculty have expressed a desire to have a free night
during the residency. In order to accommodate those wishes for more unscheduled
time, the Program has decided to give all residency participants a free
evening on Tuesday night, November 2 (Election night). All faculty and
students need to make their own plans for dinner. Many new restaurants
are within walking distance from The Brown Hotel at Fourth Street Live!,
including TGIFriday's, Hard Rock Café, and Red Star Tavern.
Students may also wish to make reservations at The English Grille in The
Brown Hotel (no jeans, please!). Other restaurant possibilities are available.
Please see the listing of restaurants in your Residency Welcome Packet
or ask for suggestions from the concierge at The Brown. (top)
Changes in Spalding
Food Service
Spalding has revamped its dining services. Food preparation, previously
outsourced, is now handled by an in-house dining services team. Weekday
lunches will be served 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., though MFA lunch hours will
remain their usual length. As in the past, lunch tickets will also be
good for $5 off at several nearby restaurants.
Breakfast is served Monday through Friday from 7:30-9 a.m. On Saturdays,
brunch will be served, with breakfast items as well as some lunch
items. On Sunday, because of limited time for lunch, a box lunch has been
arranged.
Dinner is offered five nights in the Spalding cafeteria, and each
of these dinners will be catered for our group. Students usually rate
these catered dinners higher than standard cafeteria meals. More vegetarian
and vegan options are planned.
The deli is now closed permanently; however, expanded vending
services are in place in the old deli area, where students and faculty
can buy snacks, sandwiches, fruit bowls, milk, coffee, and soft drinks.
Coffee service, afternoon snacks, and evening receptions at Spalding remain
the same. (top)
Updated Information
on Voting
Students and faculty members who live outside Jefferson County, Kentucky,
and have not yet arranged to get an absentee ballot, need to check with
their county election board now. Depending on the laws in each state,
out-of-town guests may qualify for absentee ballots OR may be required
to vote early, which means casting a ballot at their polling place before
leaving town.
Jefferson County residents do not qualify for absentee ballot, but may
vote early at the main election office, 810 Barret Ave., any time between
now and election day. Voting hours are weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. Beginning October 9, voters can cast their ballots on Saturdays from
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Those waiting to vote until Election Day, may do so before
workshop begins at 9:10 a.m. or over the lunch break. (top)
Graduation Ceremony
Details Set
The MFA program graduates 20 students at the end of the upcoming residency.
The ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday, November 6, at Greater Bethel
Temple Apostolic Church, 834 S. Third Street. Located in the same block
as Spalding's Administration building, Bethel Temple was the site
for the May graduation. The ceremony will be followed by a champagne toast
and farewell dinner at The Brown Hotel. (top)
Books in Common:
Definitions
Here are definitions of several terms the Program uses to refer to books
read by the entire program or by smaller groups within the program.
Program Book in Common: A book selected by the Program Director
for all students in all genres to read. The genre of the book changes
every semester. On the first night of the residency, the Program Director
conducts a plenary session of oral discussion of the book for students
in all genres. The author of the book usually comes to the residency to
give a presentation and to talk with students in an informal Q & A
session. Students in their first semester are required to write a short
essay on this book; the essay is reviewed during the upcoming residency
in a special mini-workshop conducted by the Expository Writing Coach.
Faculty/Guest Book in Common: A text written by a faculty member
or guest of the MFA Program in a particular area of concentration. There
is usually only one such text in each area of concentration. Students
in playwriting/screenwriting read texts in both areas. The author of the
text conducts an informal session (not a lecture) during the upcoming
residency to discuss the process of writing that particular text. Students
come prepared to ask questions about choices that have been made in the
text or about the process of writing or about the production of the text.
Students do not write an essay on the Faculty/Guest Book in Common. (top)
This book is generally selected by a drawing, with faculty sending in
the name of a single book to be considered, until all faculty have participated
in this forum; for areas with a small faculty, or just one faculty member,
that faculty member's work of choice is considered at a residency,
and then, if possible, a guest is brought in for the next session, so
as to give students the experience of speaking with several different
authors. The Program Director chooses the guest, but is open to suggestions
from the faculty.
Anthology for Mentor Group: An anthology assigned at the Group
Conference during the residency to all members of a single mentor group,
and/or three or more short scripts assigned by a mentor to his/her specific
group. Students write a 2-4 page essay about their two favorite works
from the anthology/collection and send the essay to the mentor and all
students in the group. (Because the program tailors reading lists to the
individual needs and interests of the students, only one or a few books
on the semester study plan are read in common by the whole group. Individual
mentors may assign several titles to all students in their groups. If
the mentor chooses to assign an additional text to all members of the
mentor group, it too may be the
subject of an essay written by and sent to all members of the mentor group.) (top)
Parking Permits
We are pleased to announced that Spalding parking permits are provided
free of charge to students and faculty members who wish to park on campus.
Although the permits are free, student and faculty cars must display a
permit when parked on campus. Cars not displaying permits are ticketed.
Students and faculty may obtain their parking permits in the MFA Office.
Opportunity for
Alumni and Students on Leave
Any alumni or student on a leave of absence during the October residency
who would like to attend lectures (which are normally closed to all but
residency attendees) may do so in exchange for assisting in the MFA Office
for a day or two during residency. Helping in the office includes answering
questions, making copies, duplicating tapes, selling tapes or pictures,
giving directions, collecting papers, and other clerical duties. (top)
Graduate Assistantships
The MFA Office is pleased to announce the graduate assistants for the
October 2004 semester.
Life of a Writer
Amy Clark was a featured reader in September at the InKY series at the Rudyard Kipling in Louisville.
Constance Darnell's story, "Special Delivery," --written in collaboration with her mother, Martha Reusser Cox--has been nominated for a Gold Medallion Book Award by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.
Kathryn Eastburn has been in Georgia, the former Soviet republic, reporting on the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees from regional wars over the past twelve years. She is headquartered in the capital city of Tbilisi, where most people live in hospitals, schools, or hotels built during the Soviet era, but left unfinished when Georgia achieved independence and simultaneously experienced a complete collapse of the economy and all social services. The Dart Center at the University of Washington School of Journalism sponsored her trip, as they seek to send working journalists to parts of the world that have experienced great trauma and violence. (top)
Troy Ehlers's short story, "Negative Spirits," is to be published
in the fall issue of The Dogtown Review.
Sandra Falconer's poem titled "Solids" recently appeared in the
September/October 2004 issue of Coping with Cancer. On October
14, she is to give a poetry reading and workshop to breast cancer survivors
at the Barry D. Brown Health Education Center at Virtua West Jersey
Hospital in Voorhees, New Jersey.
Marci Johnson's "Pillar of Salt" is forthcoming in Christianity and Literature. Also, "Waiting for the Bell" was published in Issue No. 5 of Full Unit Hookup. (top)
Cyn Kitchen has been invited to read from her fiction in an alumni reading event at Knox College's Homecoming Celebration in October.
Lisa Levine is to perform her original monologue, "The Consummate Meal," at the October installation of the Odyssey Storytelling Series, hosted by the Wilde Cafe in Tucson, Arizona.
Colleen Well's article, "Making Writers' Dreams Reality--Publishing with Author House," appeared in NUVO on September 15.(top)
Dianne Aprile is to give the keynote speech at the Seventh Annual Project Women Luncheon on October 26 at the Galt House Hotel. Project Women helps previously homeless single mothers to pursue college degrees. Beginning October 7, Dianne is to teach a series of five adult writing classes sponsored by The Speed Art Museum, in conjunction with the traveling exhibition Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Painting from Southeastern Museums, circa 1800-1950. (MFAers are encouraged to check out the exhibition during the residency.) On August 18, Dianne launched a monthly series, Jazz & The Spoken Word. The Jazz Factory--the jazz club she and her husband own--hosts the Wednesday evening readings by regional writers accompanied by jazz musicians. The first series was devoted to recent Spalding MFA graduates. For future dates and readers, check out www.jazzfactory.us On August 12, Dianne presented a reading and lecture to the faculty of Louisville's Maryhurst School at their back-to-school conference held at The Louisville Zoo.
Ellie Bryant's new picture book, Two Tracks in the Snow,
has been released by Jason and Nordic. In September she read her essay
"Parade Rest," which appears in the anthology Far from Home,
at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont. (top)
Richard Cecil's poem, "Evolution in Indiana," was featured on
Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac on September 4.
Kathleen Driskell's poem "To the Outdoor Wedding" will be published in The Southern Review in Spring 2005.
Richard Goodman's "Virginia Beach, Virginia" is to appear in In Pieces: An Anthology of Fragmentary Writing, due out in Summer 2005. His essay, "Long Ago," is to be published in Maize next spring.
Silas House's new novel, The Coal Tattoo, released September 24, was one of six novels recommended for fall reading by USA Today, is a Booksense Top Ten Pick, and has received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. (top)
Sena Jeter Naslund's civil rights novel, Four Spirits, has just come out in paperback (Harper Perennial), with a special section in the back that includes an interview and a time line of the triumphs and tragedies of the Movement, from 1954 to 1968. The Northeastern Booksellers Association already ranks Four Spirits as No. 14, and it is also doing very well on the Book Sense paperback list. Sena has speaking engagements coming up in Montgomery, Ala., Lexington, Ky., Columbus, Oh., New York City, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Louisville, Indianapolis, and Charlotte, NC. For specific info see www.senajeternaslund.com. She receives the Hall-Waters Prize for Four Spirits in Montgomery, and the Southeastern Library Association Prize in Charlotte.
Neela Vaswani's short story appeared in the latest Epoch (Volume 53, Number 1), and she has a short story forthcoming in Mixed, an anthology to be published by Norton.
On Friday, September 24 Luke Wallin is to host Mary Yukari Waters as a visiting writer at UMass Dartmouth. His 300-level writing class, "Language and Culture," is to spend two weeks reading and writing about her stories. She is to visit the class and give a public reading in the library. On Friday night, Luke is to host a party for Mary. Guests include both recent and incoming SU students, and writers and musicians from the Rhode Island/Massachusetts borderlands area. Each guest is invited to read for ten minutes. (top)
Cynthia Rausch Allar (May 2004) has had a poem from her creative thesis accepted for publication by the new journal Bloom. "Loud Hollow Tone" is expected to appear in the journal's winter issue. (top)
Roy Burkhead (May 2004) recently accepted a book reviewer position with PopMatters--an international magazine of cultural criticism. Its scope is broad and covers most cultural products including music, television, films, books, video games, computer software, theatre, the visual arts, and the Internet. Its goal is to reach the broadest possible audience with intelligent and thought-provoking writing that is often not readily available within the mainstream mass media.
In August, Charlotte Rains Dixon (October 2003) delivered a lecture titled "Going Deeper: Beyond the First Draft" at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN, where she is a mentor in The Writers' Loft program.
Linda Busby Parker (October 2003) was a semi-finalist in the William Faulkner creative writing competition hosted by Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society in New Orleans for her short story, "The Book of Days." She has sold a piece titled "Reading with the Eyes of a Writer" to Writer's Digest and a piece about low-residency writing programs to First Draft. Her book review of a Civil War soldier's journal was published in the Mobile Register, and she recently gave a lecture at Middle Tennessee State University titled "Fiction: The Premise from which All Things Dangle." (top)
Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (May 2003) sold her picture book manuscript, A Small Brown Dog With a Wet Pink Nose, to Little, Brown Children's Books.
Kathleen Thompson (October 2003) recently won four awards in the Alabama Writers' Conclave 2004 Literary Competition: second in short fiction; second in juvenile fiction; first in essay; and honorable mention in creative nonfiction. A poem was published in Spanish Moss 2004. She is to give the program, "Crazy for (or Cursed with) Cross Genre" at the fall meeting of the Alabama State Poetry Society.
Katy Yocom (October 2003) read a monologue and a poem at The Jazz Factory's "Jazz & the Spoken Word" event on August 18 in a line-up that included more than a dozen of her fellow Spalding MFA alums. She found the combination of spoken word and live jazz to be a total kick.
Laverne Zabielski (May 2004) is to teach this fall at Lexington Community College. (top)
New Job
Title
Katy Yocom's job title has changed from Assistant to the Directors to
Program Associate. Congratulations, Katy!
Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) Members
for October 2004 Semester
Both students and faculty are invited to make suggestions to the FAC for exploration by the Program Director or Associate Program Director and larger faculty. However, students and faculty should directly and immediately consult the Program Director about any issues concerning specific individuals' performance in the program. (top)
A Reminder About
Financial Aid
The MFA Program offers scholarships to students entering their first
semester in the program. Returning students who desire financial assistance
should apply for graduate assistantships. Applications for scholarships
and assistantships should be directed to the MFA Office. Federal student
loans, which are handled through Spalding's financial aid office and
not through the MFA program, are available to all eligible graduate
students.(top)
Financial Aid: For help with financial aid questions, call Kristan Adams at (800) 896-8941 ext. 2359 or (502) 585-9911, ext. 2359 or email kadams@spalding.edu. Students may enter or update their FAFSA information online at www.fafsa.ed.gov
MFA Scholarship Fund: Donations to the MFA in Writing Scholarship Fund may be made "in honor of" or "in memory of" a friend or loved one or organization. To make a donation, contact Theresa Raidy in the Advancement Office. Email: traidy@spalding.edu. Phone: (800) 896-8941, ext. 2601, or (502) 585-9911, ext. 2601.
Online information: MFA in Writing forms, deadlines, and other student and faculty information are available online at http://www.spalding.edu/mfaforms Newsletters are at http://www.spalding.edu/mfanewsletter For convenience, bookmark these two pages. Both web addresses are case sensitive. The MFA Office is happy to mail program forms or the newsletter, if requested. Email kyocom@spalding.edu.
Sena Jeter Naslund, Program DirectorKaren Mann,, Administrative Director
Kathleen Driskell, Associate Program Director
Katy Yocom, Program Associate
Liz Nethery, Newsletter Editor
Email Life of a Writer information to Liz Nethery at lifeofawriter@hotmail.com