GUARDIANS, the third and final book in the WASTELAND trilogy written by Susan Kim and her husband/occasional writing partner, Laurence Klavan, is out today from HarperTeen. (And two weeks ago, the second book, WANDERERS, came out in paperback) Blog tour is just beginning! Read an interview with Susan and Laurence on YA Series Insiders: Inside Secrets… Continue reading Susan Kim’s latest YA novel out today
Author: MFA Writing
Toklas, Stein and a literary Seance
I’m having some friends over tonight to plan a seance. Except it’s not really a seance; it’s just called it that to be silly and because it started with a ghost. The ghost of Alice B Toklas is rumored to haunt the Sorrento hotel in Seattle so the folks from APRIL (Authors, Publishers and Readers… Continue reading Toklas, Stein and a literary Seance
Registration Open for Clockhouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat
Wondering what to expect if you decide to attend? Read on! Each year’s Conference & Retreat opens with a Plenary Panel featuring essay presentations on a theme chosen by consensus the previous year, and this Plenary Panel presentation is followed by a question, answer, and discussion session. During the days that follow, there are… Continue reading Registration Open for Clockhouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat
Some of What A Faculty Advisor Does on Leave . . .
…well, at least some of what this Faculty Advisor does on leave. This past week Professor David Mitchell, George Washington University, brought his “Disabled People and the Holocaust” class to Berlin. The class is especially interested in how what happened to those with disabilities in Germany under the Third Reich still affects people today, something… Continue reading Some of What A Faculty Advisor Does on Leave . . .
The Goddard Salons and The Un-Book Tour
by Ann Hedreen I remember poring over my first Goddard MFA residency schedule and the way my eyes skidded to a stop at the word “salon.” We would have such things as salons? À la Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas? I felt a little frisson, a cocktail of thrill mixed with dread. My instincts… Continue reading The Goddard Salons and The Un-Book Tour
On Being Copy Edited
“I have performed the necessary butchery. Here is the bleeding corpse.” –Henry James, to his editor, after being asked to cut a few lines from a five-thousand-word article for the Times Literary Supplement For years on my syllabi for fiction workshops I’ve been including boilerplate about how rare a treat it is to be around… Continue reading On Being Copy Edited
Some [tiny] examples of the EXTREMELY AMAZING THINGS THAT HAPPEN CASUALLY AT GODDARD AND NOWHERE ELSE*
by Kristen E. Nelson I got to study with Rebecca (mother-f***ing) Brown. That’s sometimes how I say her name when I get excited about Rebecca, and once you read/meet/encounter/learn from Rebecca, you continue to be excited about her. I read her short story collection What Keeps Me Here and then read all of her books.… Continue reading Some [tiny] examples of the EXTREMELY AMAZING THINGS THAT HAPPEN CASUALLY AT GODDARD AND NOWHERE ELSE*
Alumni News: Michelle Embree Interviews Sarah Shellow
Michelle writes: “The week has gifted me with numerous pleasures. The best being an opportunity to ask a few questions of a fellow writer and Goddard graduate, Sarah Shellow. Her words always give me a sense of healing and I very much would like to share them with all of you. Thank you and enjoy.”… Continue reading Alumni News: Michelle Embree Interviews Sarah Shellow
So Someone Called Me a Narcissist…and other thoughts on writing, learning and teaching
My name is Regina Tingle and I write memoir. According to a recent statement by a fiction writer who will remain unnamed, this makes me an “attention-seeking narcissist.” Fine. I’ll step up to that. In fact, I’ll indulge my narcissistic self by sharing a story from my own experience. I don’t find it coincidental that… Continue reading So Someone Called Me a Narcissist…and other thoughts on writing, learning and teaching
Know Thy Characters – An LA workshop!
Attention LA writers! Goddard faculty member Aimee Liu is offering one of her most popular workshops at Beyond Baroque in Venice, CA on Sunday, April 26. All are welcome — especially those who might be interested in Goddard’s Writing Programs. Please spread the word! Here’s the scoop: Know Thy Characters – From the Inside-Out Analyzing Characters’… Continue reading Know Thy Characters – An LA workshop!
Preparing for the Teaching Practicum
The teaching practicum is one of the cornerstones of Goddard’s MFA. Students graduate from Goddard having developed and conducted a writing workshop in their communities. As she gets ready for her own practicum, current student Catherine Aarts is reading Wallace Stegner, and here she shares her musing about her upcoming role as facilitator. “Stegner reminds… Continue reading Preparing for the Teaching Practicum
Narrative Permission Slip
First week of March, still frigid in New York, where it feels like someone in the sky kitchen said, “There’s hardly any winter left in the pot–you finish it,” and dumped a double helping on our plate. Still the same ice ridges and filthy snow heaps, still the pedestrian sidewalk rage at being trapped behind… Continue reading Narrative Permission Slip
Autumn in Tuscany – A Writing Retreat
If inspiration, landscape, mouthfuls of words and food and wine are what you’re looking for. If getting away, delving deep, writing, being heard, writing some more and attentive feedback are what you’re looking for. If gentle morning yoga, invigorating hikes, days of sun and the occasional afternoon rain are what you’re looking for. If unexpected… Continue reading Autumn in Tuscany – A Writing Retreat
EMILY STERN IN ENTROPY MAGAZINE
An excerpt from MFAW-VT alum Emily Stern’s memoir When Doves Cry, which is the evolution of her thesis, is in Entropy Magazine today. Author’s Note from Emily: “When Doves Cry is about my mother and her death from complications of HIV/AIDS in 1993. Beneath all of this, When Doves Cry is a story about the indestructible,… Continue reading EMILY STERN IN ENTROPY MAGAZINE
Lucy Snyder’s Double Win
MFAW-VT student Lucy Snyder’s recent nonfiction book (Shooting Yourself In The Head For Fun And Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide) and her short story collection (Soft Apocalypses) have both received Bram Stoker Award nominations.
Traveling Toward Publication
by Kristen Ringman From the moment I arrived on campus, I felt the magic of Goddard. It wasn’t just the gorgeous woods fringing the campus. It wasn’t the music building, where the students gathered every evening and often remained until morning. It wasn’t Darla, the little dog that Program Director Paul Selig always had by… Continue reading Traveling Toward Publication
Where writers are actually writing
reposted from Bhanu Kapil’s blog Dear Ryan, You taught on another coast, it’s true. We once shared a shower. Well, you came downstairs and used the downstairs shower on the occasion we shared a dorm. Your brother showed up out of the blue, and we all welcomed him and shared our snacks. You were at… Continue reading Where writers are actually writing
Love by Drowning
“BETTER THAN GONE GIRL” proclaimed the headline on the Huffington Post story about the new novel by my longtime friend, writer C. E. “Buzz” Poverman, and I had to agree. I’d read and blurbed Love by Drowning in galleys and was blown away by the power and beauty of the writing, especially in the sea episodes. The reviewer, Melanie… Continue reading Love by Drowning
CLOSING NIGHT
I’m on a train on my way into the city. I’m leaving behind my daughter who is five months old and has a respiratory virus. My wife will be alone tonight to take care of her. What is about to happen will never happen again, so I leave them behind because I have little choice.… Continue reading CLOSING NIGHT
Deborah Brevoort’s “The Blue-Sky Boys” at the Bickford Theatre
There will be a reading of Deborah Brevoort’s play The Blue-Sky Boys at the Bickford Theatre in Morristown, NJ on Monday March 2nd at 7 pm. The Blue-Sky Boys dramatizes the imaginative and unorthodox creative process used by the group of maverick NASA engineers to land a man on the moon. There are extended sequences… Continue reading Deborah Brevoort’s “The Blue-Sky Boys” at the Bickford Theatre