Author: MFA Writing

Last Call: Lighthouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat

On the fence about attending the second annual Lighthouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat?  It’s time to decide!  Registration closes on Sunday, January 15th, so if you’d like to join us, be sure to have your registration form postmarked by that date.  We’re at 60 percent registration capacity, so we still have room for you! We’re… Continue reading Last Call: Lighthouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat

Anne Bean Releases Comics

Anne Bean, Goddard MFAW-WA alumna, has released four short run comics, two of which were scripts from her Goddard thesis, and three of which were funded with a Washington Artist’s Trust GAP Grant. Anne’s four comics are:  Wild Beasts / drawn by Laura D. Graves / debuted at Emerald City Comic Con 2016; Shorbat Rumman / drawn… Continue reading Anne Bean Releases Comics

Ni’Ja Whitson’s A Meditation on Tongues

Goddard MFAW student, choreographer Ni’Ja Whitson’s “A Meditation on Tongues” is a live adaptation of “Tongues Untied,” Marlon Riggs’s 1989 documentary about gay black men amid the AIDS crisis. An interdisciplinary piece about black and queer masculinity, this production, at the Abrons Arts Center, is a world premiere. (American Realness, Saturday through Monday)

Kirsten Childs: Underneath It All

Goddard MFAW faculty Deborah Brevoort gave her Fall 2016 advising group the extraordinary opportunity to connect with the prolific writer, Kirsten Childs. Her credentials span various works, but we had the pleasure of examining her musical, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. This is a funny and poignant story about a little black girl named Viveca Stanton and her journey of self-discovery.

Richard Panek’s Tribute to Vera Rubin on ScientificAmerican.com

“Vera Rubin Didn’t Discover Dark Matter,” MFAW-VT faculty member Richard Panek‘s tribute to revolutionary American astroner Vera Rubin, is live at ScientificAmerican.com. Rubin (1928-2016) pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates and uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion by studying galactic rotation curves.  Initially, Rubin’s galaxy rotation problem was met… Continue reading Richard Panek’s Tribute to Vera Rubin on ScientificAmerican.com

CLOCKHOUSE: Words for a Year’s End and Beginning

“This issue celebrates the pain and brilliance in the breaths we take or don’t. See how much time has to offer in the 2016 issue of Clockhouse.”  So says Editorial Director Sarah Cedeño in her reflection on what so many wonderful writers contributed to Clockhouse’s Volume Four.  Sarah’s “Moments, Lapses, and Spans” feels timely as… Continue reading CLOCKHOUSE: Words for a Year’s End and Beginning

CLOCKHOUSE Volume Four

Copies of 2016’s  Clockhouse Volume Four are available, and submissions are still open for what will be Clockhouse’s 2017 Volume Five.   Published in partnership with Goddard College by the Clockhouse Writers’ Conference, Clockhouse is an eclectic conversation about the work-in-progress of life–a soul arousal, a testing ground, a new community, a call for change.    Volume Four’s… Continue reading CLOCKHOUSE Volume Four

A Gift for Yourself: The Lighthouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat

Lighthouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat Fri, Feb. 10 – Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, Port Townsend, Washington Registration is still open for the second annual Lighthouse Writers Conference and Retreat (LWC&R). Revitalize your own work amid the richness of Goddard’s Port Townsend writing community at Fort Worden, while developing strong connections with fellow alumni and Goddard… Continue reading A Gift for Yourself: The Lighthouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat

The Octavia Project Receives Full Funding for 2017

The Octavia Project, co-founded by MFAW-VT alumna Chana Porter, has received full sponsorship for their 2017 program from Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, of VanderMeer Creative.  The sponsorship will enable sixteen Brooklyn girls to have a summer of interdisciplinary creative writing and art workshops, focusing on sparking a love of science and tech while valuing their imagination.… Continue reading The Octavia Project Receives Full Funding for 2017

Writ in Air

Goddard MFAW Faculty Keenan Norris: While life still goes on as unpredictably as ever, the sabbatical itself is proving to be the perfect vehicle for productivity. It’s the safest means of going off the grid that I think exists outside of utilizing all that trust fund money I don’t have and selling my majority share in that wildly successful company of mine that doesn’t exist. In all seriousness, I feel really privileged to have this time away from teaching to write, to read, to explore some new creative directions for my work and to assess and re-develop my teaching strategies.

Rogelio Martinez’s PING PONG published by Broadway Play Publishing

MFAW-VT faculty member Rogelio Martinez’s play Ping Pong has been published by Broadway Play Publishing. Ping Pong, based on true events surrounding the groundbreaking table tennis tournament that marked a new chapter in U.S. – China relations, tells the story of the young man who played the game and the political actors who were playing him.  With… Continue reading Rogelio Martinez’s PING PONG published by Broadway Play Publishing

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.

Election Anxiety

Goddard MFAW faculty Susan Kim: I saw a cartoon on Facebook last week of Bart Simpson by his usual blackboard. Only this time, he has written “I will not compulsively check FiveThirtyEight.com” over and over.

The New American Story Project

Goddard MFA in Creative Writing faculty member Micheline Aharonian Marcom, along with four other artists and writers, for the past year and a half has been working on The New American Story Project, a digital oral history project recording the stories of children who have fled violence in Central America and have come to the United States as refugees. JoAnne Tompkins, a current student in the Goddard MFA in Writing Program in Port Townsend, WA, interviews Aharonian Marcom about The New American Story Project.

Read Aimee Liu’s Opinion Piece in the L.A. Times

Goddard MFA in Creative Writing Program faculty member Aimee Liu has an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. In “From Internet Porn to Love at First Sight,” Aimee searches for a new home but along the way discovers how the search reveals values, inherited and learned, way beyond real estate.  She writes, “When my mother was… Continue reading Read Aimee Liu’s Opinion Piece in the L.A. Times

Sherri Smith wins Southern California Independent Bookseller’s Assocation Award

MFAW-VT faculty member Sherri Smith‘s middle grade novel, The Toymaker’s Apprentice, won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award for Middle Grade. Described as “Part Nutcracker with a dash of Pinocchio” by School Library Journal and “an inventive fantasy” by Booklist, The Toymaker’s Apprentice was published as a hardcover by Putnam and recently released in paperback by Puffin Books. Congratulations, Sherri!

The Seep, October 8-20, 2016

Goddard MFAW faculty Beatrix Gates: There’s a drought here in Maine, and lately I’ve been studying a seep in the backfield. A seep is a moist or wet place where water, usually groundwater, reaches the earth’s surface from an underground aquifer and pools in a depression. A seep will be found quickly by wildlife and bring new birds and animals to the area. There is every sign that’s true.