Spalding Universitylow-residency MFA in Creative Writing: Alumni

MFA Alumni

Opportunities for Graduates

As of August 2011, the Spalding MFA Program has 363 alumni. Our alumni and students have published and produced more than 230 books/plays/films.

Our alumni association has a website and newsletter, called SOARING. See http://www.spaldingmfaalum.com. The association also maintains a Facebook page for alumni, students, and faculty.

Alumni are encouraged to continue sending their writing news to the Program newsletters On Extended Wings. With each issue, many alums are included in our Life of a Writer column. To submit to the newsletter, alumni send their writerly news to mfanewsletter@spalding.edu.

Alimni visit at Homecoming each May.

During each spring residency we have a Homecoming weekend, where alumni can visit with each other, students, faculty, and staff. At Homecoming the program provides a variety of special events, such as Life after MFA talks, social gatherings, lectures, panels discussions, readings, lectures on the craft or the writing life, discussions on publishing, and other events.

The alumni assocation sponsors a reading Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni, where our alumni read from books published within the last year. The Celebration Reading is followed by a book signing. Since the Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni began in 2008, about ten alumni have published books each year. Each reading has included 6 to 9 alumni (not all alumni can return for the readings). The Celebration reading is followed by SPLoveFest, a sort of book fair that offers books by alumni and students and that allows alumni and students to display their artistic ventures or to promote their blogs, websites, online journals, and more.

A Post-Graduate-Residency-Assitant at the PGRA reading.

A alum reads at the PGRA reading at the end of the residency.

At each residency up to eight Post Graduate Residency Assistants, who are alumni, are selected to attend. These PRGAs assist with Workshops and help the MFA staff in many ways. At the end of the week, if time allows, they participate in a public reading of their own work-in-progress. We continue to look for ways to support our alumni; it is a goal of our Program.

Through Blackbaord, alumni have a discussion board where they can keep informed of one another’s activities and discuss books, craft issues, other topics of interest, and find deadlines for contests and about other publishing opportunities. Through online writing groups, alumni may exchange materials and critiques. Other groups of alums have begun writing groups and book discussions in their regional areas.

For information about participating in the residency as a residency-only student, contact Karen at kmann@spalding.edu. Residency-only students are included if space is available in the workshop and participate in the residency as any student. The fee is $1,300 for the entire residency, which include residency meals, events, and curriculum sessions.

Alumni and guests may attend summer residencies as vacationers. Previous destinations have been London and Bath, Barcelona, Buenos Aires,and Rome/Tuscany and future international destinations are Paris, 2012, and Galway/Dublin, 2013.

The 2012 Summer Alumni Trip to Paris

Events and Exploration

Our Paris residency combines the time for your writing with time set aside for exploration of French culture and the sister arts.The museum pass allows alumni to visit museums on their own and perhaps take an optional literary walking tour, tracing the steps of American expatriates from Hemingway and Fitzgerald to David Sedaris. Alumni receive a museum pass granting admission to four of Paris’s most important museums: the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Rodin, and the Pompidou Center.

Alumni may spend a second day exploring Paris independently, or they may choose between the optional guided excursions: a trip to Giverny, the home of Claude Monet; or a visit to the Loire Valley, with a stop at the cathedral at Chartres as well as the spectacular Château de Chenonceau.

Near the end of residency, the group travels together to Versailles, visiting the opulent palace and grounds in a guided tour culminating with a musical fountain display.

The MFA group dines together twice, at an opening meal on arrival day and at a closing meal.

Housing and Guests

The Spalding group will stay in two three-star hotels, one in Saint-Germain des Pres and one in the Latin Quarter—within fifteen minutes’ walking distance of each other and of our classroom space near the Jardins du Luxembourg.

Students and alumni may invite family or friends to Paris according to the policy explained in the document titled “FAQ – Traveling with EF Tours – the Essentials for alumni.” Guests may participate in off-campus activities and meals described above. Guests are at their leisure while students are in class—normally 9 a.m. until 6 or 7 p.m., with a break for lunch. For more information, click here.

Costs

The EF Tours travel package includes air travel, ground transportation, housing, museum and Versailles entries, a metro pass, breakfasts, and two dinners. Students may opt to purchase a land-only package, which excludes air travel and transportation to/from the airport. Additional meals, tips, optional excursions, and free-time activities are not included in the trip price. To see the costs, click here.

Enrollment and Deadline

Students register via WebAdvisor for the Summer 2012 semester, then sign up for the Paris trip at efcollegestudytours.com/enroll (enter the trip number, 1123785) or via the toll-free phone number, 1-877-485-4184. Participants flying from airports other than Louisville are advised to call the toll-free number for pricing from their home airport.

Registration for the Summer 2012 semester is open now. Deadline for current students to enroll for the trip is February 1. Incoming students have until March 30 to enroll.

Passport Information

A passport is needed to travel abroad. The length of time it takes to receive a new or renewed passport can be unpredictable. The MFA staff recommends you check the status of your passport now and, if needed, apply for a new or renewed passport immediately. For more information, visit http://travel.state.gov

For more information about travel to France, visit the U.S. Department of State’s Consular Information Sheet for France site.

For information on travel tips to destinations abroad, visit http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html

(top)

Visit our MFA Store.