Dear John McCain:
I think of your tap code late at night when I am lonely. You broken and spent in the Hanoi Hilton tapping out “Are you okay?” to the guy on the other side of the wall.
“My name is Ernie Brace,” the taps from the prison cell next to you kept declaring. “My name is Ernie Brace.” “My name is Ernie Brace.” Then sobs. Ernie Brace so overwhelmed by human contact he could only tap his name.
Clockhouse, the national literary journal published by the Clockhouse Writers’ Conference in partnership with Goddard College, is extremely pleased to announce the publication of Volume Five. Please visit the Clockhouse website for a glimpse of its contents, to place orders, and to find information about submitting work for next year’s Volume Six!
Goddard MFA alum Cheryl Heller received a fellowship at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. Cheryl, Chair of MFA Design for Social Innovation program at the School of Visual Arts, will complete a month-long residency in Bellagio, Italy, to advance her work on a book to be published in 2018. The Intergalactic Design Guide, a journey thorough… Continue reading Goddard MFA Alum Cheryl Heller Receives Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at Bellagio
Goddard MFA alumna Laurel Radzieski‘s Red Mother will be published by NYQ Books in early 2018. Red Mother, Laurel’s first book of poems, weaves a love story told from the perspective of a parasite. This series of short poems explores the intimacy, desire and devotion we all experience by following the sometimes tender, often distressing relationship… Continue reading Goddard MFA Alumna Laurel Radzieski’s Red Mother to be Published by NYQ Books
Last night around a campfire, I bonded with our Bedouin guide (عبت) over Arabian Sands. He said the book, which he re-reads often, captures Bedouin culture like a zoom lens (his words) and the changing culture of Arabia like a crystal ball (mine). Thesiger wasn’t the first explorer to cross the Empty Quarter, but he has become arguably the most famous. And he opened up this place for me. Last night I danced in a dishdasha, drank fresh milk from goats, and watched the sunset from towering dunes of powder-like sand.
On behalf of the Clockhouse Writers’ Conference Board of Stewards and the alumni community of the Goddard College MFAW program, I want to extend my congratulations and warmest welcome to those who graduate during the current Port Townsend residency: Ariel Basom Bronwynn Dean Sam Gritt Carol Harblin Elizabeth Heckman Meghan O’Neil Jalyn Powell Tawnya Renelle… Continue reading Congratulations to the Newest MFAW Alumni!
Aristotle’s Poetics. Horace’s Ars Poetica. Freytag’s diagram. Syd Field’s paradigm. Frank Daniel’s sequence approach. For more than two millennia dramatic theorists have sought to trace, map and/or illustrate the shape and technical elements of a story told in dramatic form. Exposition, rising action, climax, dénouement and resolution are the elements of what I’ll call visible… Continue reading Notes on Invisible Structure
Driver’s Seat I had a difficult time learning to drive. For sixteen years I had sat in the back seat reading while others mysteriously conveyed me to my destinations, so I arrived unprepared to the front left quadrant of the car. I couldn’t even see the terrain properly. The car needed to be in the… Continue reading Introducing CWC’s New Lead Steward!
I’ve got a lot to gain by leaving my own borders every now and then. So maybe it’s time for me to read something other than plays. Time to step out of my zone and experience different things for a while. As I’m putting together my summer reading list, I’m going to select some good novels, some collections of short stories and yes, some poetry. And for Diana, a memoir or two.
It was as beautiful as we’d hoped it would be. All photos are courtesy of Wanda Pothier-Hill. MFAW Program Director Elena Georgiou and the MFAW Program hosted the CWC Community, MFAW Faculty and Students, and Goddard… Continue reading CWC’s 20th Anniversary Celebration
Dear MFAW people,
I’m guessing that, for the majority of you, your first desire to write was a way to express an emotion that you were having difficulty feeling or understanding.
Goddard College MFAW faculty member Kenny Fries: The editor wanted to crop the photograph so it only showed, close-up, the lower portion of the photograph, which showed my cane and shoes. Next to it would be a similarly cropped version of a photo of South African Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius, taken long before his trial for murdering his girlfriend.
Clockhouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat July 3 – 7, 2017 Plainfield, Vermont This 2017 Clockhouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat schedule includes our time-honored traditions: Plenary Panel Presentation, Stations of the Word, craft-centered workshops, quiet times for writing, Works in Progress, a Preview Reading from CLOCKHOUSE Volume Five, and evening readings. It also includes an Anniversary… Continue reading The Schedule! Clockhouse Writers’ Conference & Retreat 2017
Goddard MFA faculty member Susan Kim has been hired as head writer for the third season of Amazon‘s children series, Creative Galaxy. Creative Galaxy follows the adventures of Arty and his sidekick Galaxy as they travel around the galaxy to solve problems using art and creativity. Samantha Bee, Cloris Leachman, Lisa Loeb, and Donovan Patton, have been… Continue reading Goddard MFA Faculty Member Susan Kim Head Writer For Amazon’s Creative Galaxy
I am a self-taught writer. There are many of us out there, though possibly not so many who are teaching creative writing in an MFA program. I wrote my first novel because I had to; it was a story that I had to unravel in order to understand my mother and her family through a… Continue reading From the Beginner’s Mind and Back Again
It’s my very great pleasure to announce that the Clockhouse Writers’ Conference will be honoring the following people during the CWC 20th Anniversary Celebration on Wednesday, July 5, 4:30-6:00 in the Manor House. We have tried to locate every past Lead Steward and Conference & Retreat Coordinator, but we may not have succeeded. If you… Continue reading Preparing to Celebrate – And You Can Help!
Goddard MFA Alum Alexis M. Smith wins a Lambda Literary Award for Marrow Island, a novel published by Houghton Miflin Harcourt. Alexis won in the Bisexual Fiction category. O, the Oprah Magazine, describes Marrow Island‘s story as “A faltering journalist returns to an island abandoned after an earthquake released a toxic spill. That’s the beautifully wrought setting of… Continue reading Goddard MFA Alum Alexis M. Smith Wins Lambda Literary Award
Goddard MFA alum Kevin Rabas has been named Kansas Poet Laureate. He will serve in this position for two years. Kevin Rabas teaches at Emporia State University, where he leads the poetry and playwriting tracks and chairs the Department of English, Modern Languages, and Journalism. He has seven books, including Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, a Kansas… Continue reading Goddard MFA Alum Kevin Rabas Named Kansas Poet Laureate
Casey worked as a journalist in the Marines until, in the late l970’s, she attended a writing conference in California where one of the faculty told her she should, be writing poetry instead. Casey took this person and their work and when she returned to base, declared herself resident poet, meaning she would no longer report to duty.
I gave my name
rank an serial number,
said I was a poet. Beyond
that I refused to speak.
Rather than send her to the brig for going AWOL, Casey’s superior officers sent her to the psych ward. Part of her time in the psych ward is a subject of this book.
The Clockhouse Writers’ Conference is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year, and CLOCKHOUSE–the national submissions literary journal published by CWC in partnership with Goddard College–will also be celebrating a milestone of its own with the publication of its fifth annual volume. To give a sense of what we can all look forward to, here’s CLOCKHOUSE… Continue reading CLOCKHOUSE Volume Five–Sneak Preview!
