ANNOUNCEMENTS
The summer 2012 residency/fall semester of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program will take place from July 6–15, 2012 on the Pine Manor College campus in Chestnut Hill, MA. The Solstice MFA Program accepts rolling admissions year round; applications for fall 2012 will be considered as long as space is available.
For more information and a downloadable application form, go to: http://www.pmc.edu/mfa-apply
Local writers are invited to audit graduate-level creative writing classes offered as part of the summer 2012 residency; sessions include several seminars taking place as part of State of the Union: Diversity & Poetic Craft, a two-day colloquium designed to encourage cross-pollination between styles and approaches to poetry. Classes are open to serious writers working at all levels; the registration fee is $30 per course for Solstice graduates/$40 per course for the general public.
For course descriptions, dates and times, a detailed audit policy, and a downloadable registration form, go to: http://www.pmc.edu/mfa-classes-for-audit.
The winner of the 2012 Lee Hope Fellowship for Diverse Voices is Cassandra Wright; Ms. Wright will be joining the MFA Program in summer 2012. The fellowship is underwritten by Lee Hope, Executive Editor of Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices, a sister publication to the MFA Program.
READINGS & EVENTS
MASSACHUSETTS
MFA Program Director Meg Kearney will read with Richard Hoffman and Jennifer Militello as part of the New England Poetry Club series, Monday, May 7 at 7 p.m. at the Harvard-Yenching Library, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA.
MICHIGAN
MFA faculty member Anne-Marie Oomen will be one of six Michigan poets reading in “A Saginaw Celebration: The Life and Work of Theodore Roethke,” on Sunday, May 20th at the Roethke Home Museum, 1805 Gratiot, Saginaw, MI. She will also be reading for the Made in Michigan Literature Walk (along with Solstice consulting writer M.L. Liebler) sponsored by Wayne State University Press, Wednesday, May 30th, in Detroit.
For more information, go to: http://wsupress.wayne.edu/ and/or http://www.roethkehouse.org
NEW JERSEY
MFA graduate Suzanne Deshchidn will be reading on Saturday, May 12 at 4 p.m. at Lawrenceville Main Street, 2683 Main Street, Lawrenceville, NJ.
For more information, go to: http://www.lawrencevillemainstreet.com/art/index.htm
NEW YORK
Suzanne Deshchidn will be reading on Thursday, May 10 at 7 p.m. at Cave Canem, 20 Jay Street, Suite 310A, Brooklyn, NY.
VERMONT
Meg Kearney will read with Joan Alshire on Wednesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. at the Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT. She will also be reading with Sydney Lea and Baron Wormser (among others) as part of A Memorial Celebration For Donald Sheehan, Saturday, May 26 at 2 p.m. at the Brown Public Library, 93 South Main Street, Northfield, VT.
For information about the Don Sheehan tribute, call: 802-485-4621
PUBLICATIONS
An audio recording of MFA graduate Angela Foster’s story “Shards of Glass,” will be published by The Drum literary magazine.
For more information, go to: www.drumlitmag.com
Meg Kearney’s new book, The Girl in the Mirror, a Novel in Verse & Journal Entries, is now available from Persea Books: http://www.perseabooks.com/. Her poem “Albatross Girl” appears in the current issue of MEAD: A Magazine of Literature & Libations: http://www.meadmagazine.org/Pure_Spirits.html.
To read reviews of The Girl in the Mirror, go to: http://www.megkearney.com/reviews.html
MFA student Lisa Mahoney’s story “The Front Page” was accepted for publication in the May 2012 issue of Parnassus: The Literary Arts Magazine of Northern Essex Community College.
For more information, go to: http://www.parnassuslitmag.com/
MFA student Margaret Ricketts has a poem forthcoming in Border Crossing.
For more information, go to: http://www.lssu.edu/bc/
MFA student Colleen Shanahan published a poem, “Sea Glass,” and three photographs in the 2012 Sandhill Review.
For more information, go to: http://www.sandhillreview.org/
Writer-in-residency Michael Steinberg published a talk, “The Narrative Selves Within: Crafting Multiple Personae in Literary Memoir” (originally presented at AWP Chicago) in Triquarterly. He also recently launched a bi-weekly blog, “The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction.” http://www.mjsteinberg.net/blog.htm
For more information, go to: http://triquarterly.org/views/multiple-selves-within-crafting-narrative-personae-literary-memoir.
CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, & SEMINARS
MFA faculty member Dzvinia Orlowsky is hosting the third of a three-part poetry workshop on Saturday, May 5 from 10-12 p.m. at the Kingston Public Library, 6 Green Street, Kingston, MA.
For more information, go to www.kingstonpubliclibrary.org
OTHER NEWS
Reviews of Anne-Marie Oomen's new play, “Secrets of Luuce talk Tavern,” can be found on the following sites:
· http://www.oldtownplayhouse.com/pdfs/Bruce%20Makie%20Review.pdf
· http://www.tctheatrescene.com/
· http://www.facebook.com/people/Wayne-Erreca/1070108881
MFA graduates Jina Ortiz and Peggy Sue Dunigan will be participating in Marilyn Kallet's “O Taste and See” poetry workshop in Auvillar, France, from May 14 -21, 2012.
MFA student Von Thompson’s poem “May Day” was aired on The View From Planet Nancy Podcast, Friday, April 27. Ms. Thompson will join the MFA Program in July.
For more information, go to: www.authornancycasey.com/may-day
GUEST COLUMN
The Gift of Curiosity
—by Kerry Beckford
Each spring, I teach a first-year college writing course where the focus is the research paper. Not once in my more than 15-year career have I encountered an entire classroom of students who are eager to write research papers. As expected, we focus on thesis statements, finding credible sources, and the wonders of MLA citation.
Yet we begin with curiosity. Writer Bruce Ballenger talks about curiosity as a “driving force.” Without curiosity, I tell my students, you will not have the motivation to commit to your writing. This never goes over well in the beginning. All my students want to know is what topic I’ll assign and what they have to do to reach their final destination: the research paper.
At the time I applied to the Solstice MFA Program, I had specific questions about writing and I was certain that this graduate program would help me with the answers. In many ways I was like my own undergraduate students, seeking a certain roadmap to a specific destination. I just wanted someone to give me clear direction about how to write essays.
But a funny thing happened along the road to getting my degree. I became curious. Reading the work of nonfiction writers like Amy Hempel, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary Gordon, and James Baldwin made me want to know how they wrote delicate or probing prose, how they placed me in a position to feel rage, humility, grief. I poured over lengthy essays and short poems. I spent long weekends trying to interpret a writer's decision to include dialogue and scenes where it would have never occurred to me to do so. Somehow my stoic approach to creative writing shifted toward a far more relaxed and open way of thinking. If I was ever able to appreciate the ways in which I could stretch my own capabilities as a writer and as a reader, I had to allow curiosity to be my driving force. It wasn't magic, but it felt that way.
To be a writer means being curious —not just about what has been written but also about what can be written. The notion of satisfying curiosity through observation of human behavior, coupled with the desire to be a better writer and reader, are intrinsic parts of what I learned at Solstice. When I graduated in the summer of 2010, I was sad that I would no longer be a student. But I humbly accepted the gift of curiosity.
A year and a half later, I found that attending an intensive weekend residency in Florida satisfied my curiosity about showing my work to an entirely new group of writers: VONA, The Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting writers of color. Others may find that curiosity urges them to cross genres for creative exploration; as a fiction writer, for example, you may take some time to delve into the wonders of poetry. And the poet might spend some time reading memoirs. The point is to keep asking questions, to keep taking risks.
At the end of a long semester, my students often write research papers that lead to more questions than answers. Thankfully, they don't find this frustrating. In fact, they are invigorated and often have a hard time submitting the paper. I have so many questions I want to find the answers to, Professor Beckford. I never tire of hearing that. The writing projects they initially dread become papers of which they are proud. That, I tell them, is the gift of curiosity. Whenever curiosity taps you on the shoulder, the results are bound to help your writing. You don't have to think of yourself as a perpetual student. Just think of yourself as someone for whom curiosity is never satisfied. Your writing will thank you for it.