I’m on pace to read 116.8 books in 2015. It feels like something of a failure. In the U.S., 300,000 new titles were published last year. If all goes well, I’ll end the year having read 0.039 percent of that number. Globally, it’s in the millions. Some years back Google released what they considered to… Continue reading 116.8 Books in 365 Days
Author: MFA Writing
Congratulations to the Newest MFAW Alumni!
Congratulations and warmest welcome to those who graduate in Port Townsend, Washington, this residency: Sharon Chirichillo Lew Humiston Bill McCausland Liz Kellebrew Frank Graham Randy Shinn Theresa Barker Trina Emami Allison Hawkins Once again, welcome to the alumni community and our heartiest congratulations!
And have you read… Be Safe I Love You?
Goddard College alum Cara Hoffman’s latest book, Be Safe I Love You is a breathtaking thriller about a returning female veteran, set in upstate New York. The Sunday Telegraph (UK) called it: “One of the Five Best Modern War Novels.” When Lauren Clay arrives home from her tour of duty in Iraq, it is clear to many… Continue reading And have you read… Be Safe I Love You?
The Writer’s Road Trip
By Ron Heacock Descended at least culturally if not genetically from the ranks of our most exulted literary road warriors – writers like John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey – my wife Karen Walasek and I have exercised and exorcised our wanderlust cyclically throughout our forty year marriage. There have been many, many journeys… Continue reading The Writer’s Road Trip
“Spotty-Handed Villainesses” Revisited
“[F]emale bad characters can…act as keys to doors we need to open, and as mirrors in which we can see more than just a pretty face. They can be explorations of moral freedom — because everyone’s choices are limited, and women’s choices have been more limited than men’s, but that doesn’t mean women can’t make… Continue reading “Spotty-Handed Villainesses” Revisited
It’s Here: CLOCKHOUSE 2015!
Once again, thanks and congratulations to editor Julie Parent and the CLOCKHOUSE staff for a beautiful and thought-provoking issue of CLOCKHOUSE. Thanks also to our wonderful contributors, the CWC community, and to the MFAW program and Goddard College. Selected content and purchasing information is available at the CLOCKHOUSE website.
On Writing and Vincent Van Gogh
By Tyler Whidden 1.) Write every day. Every goddamn day. What many don’t remember (or even knew to begin with) is that Vincent Van Gogh produced most of his body of work – over 2,000 pieces of art – in the last ten years of his life, and most of those were done in… Continue reading On Writing and Vincent Van Gogh
Limboland
Most writers live in Limboland. Limboland is that place you go to while waiting for someone (anyone!) to get back to you with a response to your work. The good thing is that it’s full of people just like you doing exactly what you’re doing…waiting for a response from a publisher or a theater. The… Continue reading Limboland
From the CWC Conference & Retreat
Photos by Sam Sherman, unless otherwise noted As you’ll see from the following photos, it’s been a wonderful week! If you were part of it, many thanks. If you weren’t able to come this year, we hope you’ll consider joining us next year. We’ll post the 2016 dates here and on the CWC website as… Continue reading From the CWC Conference & Retreat
Em Bowen on Marriage Equality
When the Supreme Court issued its historic decision affirming marriage equality on June 26, the MFAW-VT residency had just gotten underway. Taking time out from her G-4 study planning, Em Bowen answered a request from the National Journal for an opinion piece reflecting on the event. Focusing on her own evolving relationship to marriage as… Continue reading Em Bowen on Marriage Equality
Amelia Earhart Didn’t Crash!
…and other thoughts on Making IT On graduation morning in July of 2011, a Goddard College advisor asked me how I felt about my post-Goddard future. There wasn’t a feeling. Just an image. A few weeks prior to graduation I had seen the Amelia Earhart biopic, starring Hilary Swank, and the final scene aptly depicted… Continue reading Amelia Earhart Didn’t Crash!
Congratulations to the Newest MFAW Alumni!
by Kathryn Cullen-DuPont On behalf of the Clockhouse Writers’ Conference and the alumni community of the MFAW program, I want to extend my congratulations and warmest welcome to those who will graduate in Plainfield, Vermont, this weekend: Elizabeth Browne Liliana Escobedo Robert Goodman Juanita Kirton Anne Marie Lavalette Bridgette LaVictoire Kita Mehaffy Elizabeth Melvin Maria… Continue reading Congratulations to the Newest MFAW Alumni!
The Original World Wide Web
By Lucas M. Peters My polyglot wife is fond of telling me that as you are learning a new language, you are learning a new culture. Language, she says, is an extension of the culture of a place and its people. It is an unwieldy thing that has many strange branches and rules. It simultaneously… Continue reading The Original World Wide Web
Kick off July with Dani Shapiro
Dani Shapiro will be joining the summer residency in Vermont! Join us on Wednesday, July 1st at 7 pm in the Haybarn Theater for a reading and booksigning, courtesy of our Visiting Writer series. Open to the public. And don’t forget, if you are an alumni of the MFAW program on either campus, you are… Continue reading Kick off July with Dani Shapiro
Why Write Fiction?
I had an interesting conversation with someone recently, a conversation I have actually had with this person several times before, about a novel she was reading. She remarked that she didn’t know how the author knew the things he has written. In this case, it was how some Germans had behaved in WWII. The author… Continue reading Why Write Fiction?
How I Picked Up a Spade and Became a Writer
by Kimberly Mayer The year was 2000. The end of the second millennium, the beginning of the third. A recent transplant from Philadelphia to Seattle, one of the first things I did in my new land was enroll in The Master Gardener Program. King County is where the international program originated in 1973, and to… Continue reading How I Picked Up a Spade and Became a Writer
Trapped in the Iron Maiden
For the last year, my body’s felt like it’s been trapped inside its own iron maiden. You know, one of those medieval torture devices the size of the human body with spikes in the interior. I read that the device was entirely made up, and that it wasn’t. I read that the first one, in… Continue reading Trapped in the Iron Maiden
How to Rewrite
A few weeks ago, a student wrote and asked me why I had given him an A- instead of an A as a final grade. This wasn’t at Goddard, obviously. I also teach television at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, which is far from our program and not just because of the letter grades, urban… Continue reading How to Rewrite
Sneak Preview: CWC Conference & Retreat
Co-Coordinators Carolyn Locke and Lucy Turner have done a wonderful job organizing this year’s CWC Conference & Retreat. While there may still be a little tweaking of the times listed below, I couldn’t wait any longer to give everyone a sneak preview of what to look forward to: Monday, June 29th 11:00 – 1:00 Arrival… Continue reading Sneak Preview: CWC Conference & Retreat
The X-men and Women in Us All
JC Sevcik on the writer in the world, the hero in us all… All my life, I’ve been a loner. As far back as I can remember, I’ve felt like an outcast. I did not have what anyone could possibly mistake for a happy childhood, but I always had stories. My father died when I… Continue reading The X-men and Women in Us All