Disable the Stairs. Disable the Stares. Disable the Barriers. This summer MFAW-VT faculty member Kenny Fries advised a great team of Master’s Branding students at SVA. Their thesis project, Disable the Barriers, is now up and running. Disable the Barriers is an unaffiliated global collective that aims to provide tools in support of people… Continue reading MFAW-VT Faculty Member Kenny Fries Advises SVA Students’ Project on Disability
Tag: teaching
A Farewell to Rebecca Brown–From Rebecca Brown
After almost twenty years of teaching in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Goddard, I am going to retire. When I first started working at Goddard, there was one campus only, in Vermont. I went to Plainfield, where I’d never been, and started to work with a bunch of people I’d never met before. … Continue reading A Farewell to Rebecca Brown–From Rebecca Brown
On Writing, Politics, and the Tarot
What do writing, politics and the Tarot have in common? On November 7th, 2017, I was elected Town Supervisor of Pine Plains, New York.
FIVE STORIES OF THE BODY: Anecdotes of Academia, Sexual Harassment and Abuse
I walked away and sat trembling on the back step of an abandoned building on campus, embarrassed. Later, at home, still thinking about it and unable to shake the feeling of being somehow exposed to view, I made myself a cup of tea and ate a slice of buttered toast…
Poetry as a Tool for Educational Equity
By Simone John Who gets permission to be a poet? Which kids are told to aspire to be artists, and which kids are told to seek menial work? How can educators teach in a way that is liberatory? How can we interrupt thought processes born from the seeds of internalized oppression? I teach poetry out… Continue reading Poetry as a Tool for Educational Equity
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
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
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
WHEN POEMS COME BACK
Besides teaching at Goddard, I teach at Sheridan College, a small community college in Sheridan, Wyoming. Every once in a while we get an amazing student. T. is one of the student-consultants in our writing center. He is a music major who is an excellent percussionist, but he has suddenly discovered literature. He comes… Continue reading WHEN POEMS COME BACK
Welcome Laleh Khadivi
Novelist and documentary filmmaker Laleh Khadivi is joining the faculty in Port Townsend this semester. Introducing herself in her own words, Laleh writes: “I came to literature through film. My documentary work has focused on the criminal justice system and immigration and I have directed pieces for A&E and produced work for HBO and Sundance.… Continue reading Welcome Laleh Khadivi
Faculty, Student and Alumni Achievements, July-August 2014
FACULTY Ryan Boudinot‘s story “Readers and Writers,” originally published in Post Road and nominated for a Pushcart Prize, is a story of the month on the Committee Room. An interview with Ryan appears in the inaugural issue of online magazine Moss. Deborah Brevoort’s backstage farce The Velvet Weapon was produced at the Trustus Theatre in… Continue reading Faculty, Student and Alumni Achievements, July-August 2014