MFAW-WA alumnus James Gapinksi has had two chapbooks published this year, Messiah Tortoise and Edge of the Known Bus Line. Here are the press releases for each: In Edge of the Known Bus Line, a woman’s daily commute takes an abrupt turn when she’s dropped off in a grotesque shantytown. The townsfolk live in… Continue reading MFAW-WA Alum James Gapinski Releases Two Chapbooks
Category: Alumni News
MFAW-WA Alumna Liz Kellebrew’s Anthology Contribution
MFAW-WA alumna Liz Kellebrew’s prose poem, “Flood, Fire, Mountain,” will appear in Writers Resist: The Anthology 2018, coming this October from Running Wild Press. There are also plans for a reading at AWP ’19 in Portland, OR. And here, from the publisher’s website, is how the anthology came into being: It began November 9, 2016, in a… Continue reading MFAW-WA Alumna Liz Kellebrew’s Anthology Contribution
Julia Bouwsma Wins Maine Literary Award in Poetry
MFAW-VT alum and former Visiting Alumni Writer Julia Bouwsma’s Work by Bloodlight won the Maine Literary Award for poetry. Work by Bloodlight, which began as Julia’s MFA creative thesis, was chosen by Linda Pastan for the Cider Press Review Prize and published by Cider Press Review. And, if that weren’t enough excitement, Midden, Julia’s second book of poems, was… Continue reading Julia Bouwsma Wins Maine Literary Award in Poetry
Maine Book Award Finalist Julia Bouswma!
MFAW-VT alumna Julia Bouswma’s first book of poems, Work by Bloodlight is a finalist for a Maine Book Award. The winners of the 2018 Maine Literary Awards will be revealed live at a ceremony at SPACE Gallery in downtown Portland. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the ceremony begins at 7:00 p.m. There will be hors d’oeuvres, a… Continue reading Maine Book Award Finalist Julia Bouswma!
MFAW-VT Alumna Lizz Schumer in Ploughshares!
MFAW-VT alumna Lizz Schumer’s essay, “Communion in Disability Poetics” appears in the latest issue of Ploughshares. Here’s a glimpse: “Many disabled poets also ascribe to the social model of disability, which emphasizes that disability is not an inherent “defect,” but is instead a reckoning with a set of barriers—both physical and behavioral—that have been erected… Continue reading MFAW-VT Alumna Lizz Schumer in Ploughshares!
MFAW Alum Justin Hall Interview at Lambda Literary!
MFAW Alum Justin Hall has an interview online at Lambda Literary. In 2006, Justin curated the art exhibition “No Straight Lines: Queer Culture in Comics” with Andrew Farago of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. This led to the 2012 book No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, a hardcover overview of LGBTQ comics history published by Fantagraphics, which… Continue reading MFAW Alum Justin Hall Interview at Lambda Literary!
MFAW-VT Alum Anne Boaden Publication News
Recent MFAW-VT Alum Anne Boaden’s essay, “Order Up” (a series of seven mini-essays) has been published by NELLE (Issue #1, 2018), the literary journal of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The issue is not yet on their website, but it will be shortly and their Facebook page has more information. Additionally, Anne will be featured… Continue reading MFAW-VT Alum Anne Boaden Publication News
Thomas Griffin Chapbook Pre-Orders Now!!
MFAW-VT alum Thomas Griffin’s chapbook of poetry All That Once Was You is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Preorders are now available.
Alumnus Charles Fairchild Short Story Published!
MFAW-WA alumnus Charles Fairchild’s short story “Bedeviled” has been published by The Santa Clara Review. Congratulations, Charles!
What Happens When Nothing Happens
Goddard College MFAW alumna Christine Kalafus: What happens when nothing happens has this practical, grown-up writer falling prey to childlike superstition. My jeans fit today with no evidence of muffin-top so clearly I will win Big Essay Contest! or My mother has called three times and I haven’t called her back; obviously Prominent Literary Magazines will say no. If my grown-up bargaining isn’t exactly like what I experienced as a kid, it feels unnervingly close. I am reminded that, whenever I wait for a subjective response, I’m in danger of handing someone else my self-esteem.
Sheila Curran Bernard Receives NYFA Award
Sheila was awarded a named collaborative fellowship from NYFA: the Geri Ashur Screenwriting Award (established in 1984) in memory of Geraldine Ashur, for Playwriting/Screenwriting.
Alexis Smith’s Second Novel Published
We’re happy to celebrate the publication by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt of Goddard MFA in Creative Writing alumna, and recent Visiting Alumna, Alexis Smith’s second novel, Marrow Island.
John Hadden’s Memoir Published by Arcade
Goddard alumus John Hadden’s book Conversations with a Masked Man: My Father, the CIA, and Me was published by Arcade Publishing. James Carroll, author of An American Requiem, says John’s book is “a poignant encounter” in which he “shows how the wounds of the past refuse to heal, and how acknowledging that truth can open into hard won wisdom — and even love.”
MFAW Student Anaïs Mitchell in The New Yorker
“Hadestown” began in Vermont, in 2006. “The original was a D.I.Y. theatre project,” Mitchell said. “It was a lot of, like, wild cabin-fever Vermont artists coming together, fringe people who have chosen this off-the-beaten-path life style—homesteading, chickens, stacking their own wood.”
Goddard Poets in the House
Goddard MFA alumna Teresa Mei Chuc writes, “If you’re in NYC on Sat., July 30th, I hope you can join us for a poetry reading at Poets House. Several Goddard College MFA in Creative Writing alumni will be there: Drew Dillhunt (Port Townsend, WA), David Giver (Plainfield, VT), Susan Deer Cloud (Plainfield, VT) and Teresa Mei Chuc (Plainfield, VT).
Days for Girls: Q & A with Celeste Mergens
Celeste A. Mergens (MFAW ’06) of Lynden, Wash., is the executive director and founder of Days for Girls International (www.daysforgirls.org), which was featured in the January 2014 issue of Oprah Magazine. Global Washington, a Seattle-based organization whose mission is to promote international development by coordinating the efforts of other globally-minded philanthropic, research and business organizations… Continue reading Days for Girls: Q & A with Celeste Mergens
And have you read… The Glass Jar? Poet’s Resume (An excerpt)
LANGUAGE SPOKEN
Port, starboard, forward, aft, bow, stern, fo’c’sle, lazarette, half hitch, clove hitch, bowline, lovers knot, freeboard, false deck, fairlead, deck-winch, vanging-winch, picking boom, power block, davit, dump-box, buoy stick, PTO, chiller, seacock, shaft, rudder, keel, magnetic north, true north, degrees of variation, aurora borealis, bio luminescence, Morning Star.
And have you read…Fire Sale? (an excerpt)
Goddard MFA alumna Brianna Johnson’s thesis, Fire Sale, was recently published as a digital chapbook with Essay Press. Here’s how it begins: “I come from whiteness, which is not innocent. If I speak of things which cause intense pain, it is because I have felt pain because of them. Not feeling would cause greater pain to the memory of those brutalized. I don’t condone evil, but I acknowledge it. I am here to acknowledge it.”
#Space#Poetry
NASA asked us what might this mission teach us about ourselves and our universe. NASA asked us how are we as a people are stretched and deepened by explorations beyond our Earthly home. And we have answered—collectively, surrealistically, idealistically. We are ready for our words to ride aboard the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft on its journey to the asteroid Bhanu/Bennu.
If The Launch Pad Is Aligned
IF THE LAUNCH PAD IS ALIGNED
by Rob Bass, MFAW ’09
If the launch pad is aligned, then we’ll always be able to find it.
If the engines are kind, then we’ll have no problems in the world achieving escape velocity.