Last month I attended a writing workshop as a student for the first time since becoming an MFA advisor nine years ago. That’s embarrassing to admit. Not that I went but that it took me so long. I should have known better. I’d delayed decades before getting my MFA. For years I’d told myself that… Continue reading On Being a Student Again
Author: MFA Writing
Of CLOCKHOUSE and Modern Slavery
Dare. Risk. Dream. Share. Ruminate. How do we understand our place in the world, our responsibility to it, and our responsibility to each other? 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. Join in. Such is the mission of Clockhouse. James… Continue reading Of CLOCKHOUSE and Modern Slavery
Quest Writer’s Conference 2015
The Quest Writer’s Conference 2015 launches this June, founded by Goddard alum Jessamyn Smyth. Dates for the conference will be June 21-28 in Squamish, British Columbia (just north of Vancouver). They are rapidly approaching the application deadline of May 1st and encourage writers in all phases of their work to apply. This conference might really… Continue reading Quest Writer’s Conference 2015
Tyler Whidden Headlines Playwriting Festival
Playwright and Alum Tyler Whidden with a young actor… In an interview for the upcoming Festival, Whidden expounds on his newest play, ChocolateSexPuppyTacos (a Non-Denominational Play): Can you talk about the idea behind your play “ChocolateSex…” ? I think it’s a conglomeration of two of the many lives I’ve lived. When I was a kid,… Continue reading Tyler Whidden Headlines Playwriting Festival
How to Survive Winter with Just Your Own Mind…
This past weekend, it snowed on the Vermont campus! If you’ve still got the chills, or are dreading next winter, or summer is your winter, learn how to survive winter in this now-classic essay by Rebecca Brown in The Stranger: “It’s dark outside… Continue reading How to Survive Winter with Just Your Own Mind…
A Master Class with Mozart
By Deborah Brevoort It is often said that Mozart is the greatest composer to have ever lived. After writing a new libretto for his comic opera The Impresario I understand why. I got the first inkling of his genius when I began work on the first aria sung by Madame Heartmelt. There was something in… Continue reading A Master Class with Mozart
Art As a response to Planetary Emergency
Although both had been feminist writers and peace activists living in Brooklyn, NY for many years, playwright Karen Malpede and poet/novelist Jan Clausen didn’t know each other very well until they spent a night in jail together following a civil disobedience arrest at the time of the Iraq invasion in 2003… Kenyon Review has just… Continue reading Art As a response to Planetary Emergency
Goddard College MFA in Writing Program Offers TV and Libretto Writing
Plainfield, Vt., and Port Townsend, Wash.—Goddard College announced that its low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFAW) program will offer two new areas of study, television writing and libretto writing, beginning in June of 2015, the start of its fall semester. The program already offers a robust dramatic writing concentration in screenplay and… Continue reading Goddard College MFA in Writing Program Offers TV and Libretto Writing
HARIBO to publish “B-61” by Douglas A. Martin
This is a new publishing idea (“a new place for writing that I am making online”). More from editor Jacob Severn: “I would hesitate to call it a journal, because it will have no archive, no collection. Only a single piece will be made available to read at any given time.” I first met Jacob… Continue reading HARIBO to publish “B-61” by Douglas A. Martin
Stations of the Word: A CWC Tradition
By Sam Sherman Sam Sherman, a former co-coordinator of the conference and a past member of the Board of Stewards, has designed these sessions for the last several years, and she’s now at work on Stations of the Word 2015. The first year I attended the CWC Conference & Retreat, I didn’t go… Continue reading Stations of the Word: A CWC Tradition
Rebecca Brown on Opera Diva Worship
Check out Faculty member Rebecca Brown’s essay on opera diva Stephanie Blythe in The Stranger… “…The word “diva” is Italian for “goddess,” and human culture is full of humans who, if they try to approach the divine too closely, get burned (though not always literally). You’re supposed to behave reverently when you want to meet… Continue reading Rebecca Brown on Opera Diva Worship
Chera Hammons: The Descent of the Germanwings
Congratulations to MFAW-VT alum Chera Hammons who just had the following poem published at Rattle.com.To mark National Poetry Month, here is the poem, in its entirety: THE DESCENT OF THE GERMANWINGS Musicians know how to write silence, how to lay lines and measures across a white landscape, to show where music is… Continue reading Chera Hammons: The Descent of the Germanwings
National Poetry Month – WeHo Lamppost Poetry Project and Reading
MICHAEL KLEIN is one of 23 poets (W.S. Merwin, Marie Howe, Toi Derricotte, Mark Doty, Sharon Olds among them) who, for National Poetry Month, has their photo image (by MFAW student Shef Reynolds) and line from one of their poems as part of their own banner which graces a lamppost along Santa Monica Boulevard in… Continue reading National Poetry Month – WeHo Lamppost Poetry Project and Reading
Coping Skills
by Christine Kalafus The first day I was to lead my writing workshop, I arrived at the library early and precisely arranged eight chairs in a circle. My workshop bible: Writing Alone and With Others by Pat Schneider was next to me. I couldn’t wait. In just a few moments my participants would arrive. To… Continue reading Coping Skills
Goddard Alum/Faculty Reception at AWP
Calling all Goddard College Faculty and Alums who will be attending AWP this year! As members of this elite squad, you are invited to our reception, to be held at the Conference. This is a great way to catch up with old friends, meet some new ones and generally feel more at home while browsing the… Continue reading Goddard Alum/Faculty Reception at AWP
Autumn Phillips on John Edgar Wideman
From an article by Goddard student Autumn Phillips, a journalist in southern Illinois: I’ve been reading a book by John Edgar Wideman called “The Homewood Books.” It’s a collection of stories about Homewood, a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh. It’s some of the best writing I’ve encountered in years, because Wideman is somehow able to… Continue reading Autumn Phillips on John Edgar Wideman
The Graphic Novel with Susan Kim and Rachel Pollack
An Interview by Beatrix Gates Vermont Graphic Novel faculty Rachel Pollack and Susan Kim attended the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) Fest with MFA Graphic Novel grads Anne Bean and Ryan Wynns, ’13, see pix below. Bea Gates: How would you describe what the… Continue reading The Graphic Novel with Susan Kim and Rachel Pollack
Of Plenary Panels Past and Future
Last week, I mentioned that the Conference & Retreat opens with a Plenary Panel session followed by a question, answer, and discussion period. There’s no pressure that evening or in the following days to come up with a new topic for the next year’s Plenary: From past experience, we know the topic will make itself… Continue reading Of Plenary Panels Past and Future
To Read Is to Dream, Guided By Someone Else’s Hand
by Traci Dolan-Priestley Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet, published after his death and put together by assembling notes that he left behind, was the first book I read about what it meant to be a writer. Not how to write, no, no, not even mentioned. I’ve quoted this particular passage many times. “One of the… Continue reading To Read Is to Dream, Guided By Someone Else’s Hand
Trusting the Process in Tucson
by Kristen Stone One of the most amazing things about my Goddard experience (beside the invective to TRUST THE PROCESS, something I still wrestle with, on the daily, in my writing and non-writing lives) is the connections I made with writers—who became friends—around the country. One such friend is Kristen Nelson, founder and Executive Director… Continue reading Trusting the Process in Tucson