Elective Seminars

Arts Administration & Community Programming

The Telling Room: Building A Grass-Roots Community Writing Center

Guest Faculty: Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
Writing is solitary and can have little to do with the community in which the writer lives. Founded in Portland, Maine by three accomplished writers, The Telling Room aims to create community among local writers and put kids ages eight to 18 in contact with authors & mentors. The Telling Room provides free writing workshops, brings award-winning writers to town, and publishes anthologies of student work. Director Gibson Fay-LeBlanc will talk about why (and how) his organization does what it does and what it’s like to write and do nonprofit work.

Poetry In The Air: From the Fishouse

Guest faculty: Matt O'Donnell
“The ear does it. The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader,” wrote Robert Frost. Poetry is meant to be heard; there is no substitute for the sound of the poet’s own voice saying his or her work. In the beginning, of course, poetry was completely oral. Poets created poems anew each night around the fire from memory. Homer’s retelling of the Iliad or the Odyssey was a social event. With the rise of literacy and the printing press, poetry moved from a primarily oral art form to one consumed silently. We transformed from a culture of listeners to a culture of readers. Nevertheless, poetry retains the power of its oral origins.

Matt O’Donnell will explain how From the Fishouse, an online audio archive of emerging poets, provides a modern platform for poetry in the air, employing technology to gather poets and audiences around a virtual campfire and how that creates a real sense of community. As an extension of this discussion, he will also touch upon non-teaching academic opportunities for writers and writing-related opportunities outside of academia.

Higher Ground: How To Enrich Your Community And Make A Difference Through Your Art

Guest faculty member: M. L. Liebler
This course will demonstrate and teach you specific ways to make your MFA degree work for you while creatively enriching and educating your community. I will show you how to more effectively use your talent and time to start community workshops and programs for children, teens, adults, seniors, and nontraditional populations (in abuse shelters, prisons, hospitals, etc.) where you live. As a literary arts activist and working writer for close to 40 years, I can share with you ideas, experiences and methods on how to create programs in your community that will be both personally and financially rewarding for you. These positive programs can also create greater visibility for you as a writer. There are many advantages to taking this “road (often) not taken,” but let me help you see a new way to a future of success and fulfillment as an MFA, professional writer, and citizen.

Recommended reading: Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint by June Jordan

Teaching Creative Writing Behind The Walls

Faculty member: Helen Elaine Lee
In this seminar we will discuss the experience of teaching creative writing to people who are incarcerated. I will share my background teaching in Massachusetts prisons and houses of correction. We will discuss the assigned texts and talk about the questions which arise from the readings. What can you expect from this endeavor? Why do it? What is different about the classroom behind the walls? What kinds of exercises are effective? What particular sensitivity and awareness are required? What kinds of writing do prisoners produce? How can writing change lives?

Required reading:

X, Malcolm, “Coming to an Awareness of Language”
Lamb, Wally, ed. Couldn’t Keep it to Myself (read at least three pieces in this anthology)

Pedagogy & Literacy Studies

Creative Writers In The Classroom: A Teaching Practicum

Writer-in-Residence: Mike Steinberg
Suppose you’re in a low residency program (like this one) and you want to teach at a university, small college, community college, or adult education program? Since you can’t realistically compete (for tenure-stream jobs) with TA’s who have extensive, hands-on experience, your best asset/qualification will still be your familiarity with the kinds of composing processes and strategies it takes to teach writing workshops of all kinds. That said, the positions you’ll most likely qualify for are with English departments that need adjunct writer/teachers—teachers, that is, who can and want to teach freshman writing—and possibly advanced composition*. In this session, I’ll provide examples and prompts, in addition to sharing strategies and exercises that have worked well in both composition and creative writing workshops. And of course we’ll talk about the vagaries of the job market: more specifically, the ways in which you’ll need to present yourself when you’re looking for a job.

*Aspiring K-12 teachers will need additional course work for certification, but the things we’ll discuss can be adapted to teaching writing at all levels, K-graduate school.

Suggested Readings: A bibliography will be distributed at the class.

Mentoring Young Writers

Faculty member: Laura W. McCaffrey
For five years, Laura Williams McCaffrey has mentored kids and teens aged 10 to16 in writing. She has worked both within established mentoring programs and independently, as well as with a learning center for homeschoolers. In this session, she will discuss considerations for prospective writing mentors and ways to find mentoring opportunities. She’ll also facilitate a discussion on the kind of writing mentors kids and teens are looking for, and the kind of mentors session participants wish to be for young writers.

Publishing

Editing The Literary Anthology: From Inspiration To Publication

Faculty member: Kathleen Aguero
In this seminar we will discuss the process of compiling and editing literary anthologies. How do you begin? What do you gain from the process as an editor? What kinds of difficulties might you experience along the way? I will draw on my experience as co-editor of three anthologies of multi-cultural literature for the University of Georgia Press, but please think about your favorite anthologies, what makes them successful, and what kind of anthology you might like to publish if you had the opportunity.

Required Reading: Revisit and, if possible, bring along a copy of your favorite literary anthology.

Publishing Forum

Faculty Panel: An Na, Ray Gonzalez, Amy Hoffman, Randall Kenan, Laura Williams McCaffrey, and special guest Dorothy Allison
Now that you’ve dedicated a significant amount of time to the craft of writing, some of you might want to begin thinking a bit about the business of writing. We have invited our second-half faculty members (including founder of Tiger Bark Press & former executive director of BOA Editions Steven Huff; founder of LUNA and Bloomsbury Review poetry editor Ray Gonzalez; editor of the Women’s Review of Books Amy Hoffman; and former editor at Knopf publishers Randall Kenan) to join students in an informal discussion of the whys and hows of publishing.

Required reading: There is no required reading for this session. However, we do suggest that—as writers considering the market—you look at some back issues of Poets & Writers magazine, specifically the grants and awards section, and the “Practical Writer” column featured in each issue. Also, take time to look at Poets Market or Writers Market, either of which might be found in your local library.

Field Skills

The Art Of The Interview

Faculty: Randall Kenan
This seminar will focus on the practical skills, techniques and strategies for interviewing various types of subjects for different formats and publications, from oral histories to profiles to other forms. We will review basic questioning practices, the psychology of the interviewee and the interviewer, and the importance of equipment and preparedness. We will look at the work and styles of significant interviewers—Truman Capote, Studs Terkel, Adrianne Nicole LeBlanc, Joseph Mitchell, Susan Orleans, John McPhee, and others. The class will employ a few in-class interview exercises to illustrate points.

Required reading: Joe Gould’s Secret by Joseph Mitchell

Phone 617-731-7000 | Fax 617-731-7199 | 400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

Pine Manor College