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The Spalding brief-residency MFA in Writing Program publishes a newsletter for its students, faculty, and alumni about four times a year. Below are entries for the Life of a Writer column for October 2009.

Life of a Writer

Students

Larry Brenner had a production of The King and the Condemned go up in Buckingham, Pennsylvania, with the Town and Country Players in September 2009. A new work, Excised, had a public reading with the WorkShop Theatre Company in Manhattan.

Kate Buckley announces that her second collection of poems, Follow Me Down, was released September 25 from Tebot Bach. In support of her book, Kate is doing readings at colleges, bookstores, museums and poetry venues throughout southern California and is planning a book tour in her native Kentucky next year. Please visit katebuckley.com for reading/events schedule. Advance praise for Follow Me Down includes the following from poet Elena Karina Byrne: “Fifteenth-century painter Cennini spoke of the art of ‘unseen things hidden in the shadow of natural ones.’ Like ‘a sea turning in on itself,’ Kate Buckley’s poems speak to this, moving together, folding and unfolding the echoes of a voice in place, a voice out of place, ‘salt licking salt—/coming home.’ Follow Me Down maps out the geography of longing where sometimes ‘you walk the yellow fields,’ sometimes ‘the moon sets itself on fire,’ lighting up the distances between the past and the future. Buckley’s parenthetical considerations, her ache and intellect coincide in a sensuous, revelatory motioning toward that inspired sanctuary of who we are.”

Eric Cravey began teaching a weekly basic writing class for the Clay County Literacy Coalition in Orange Park, Florida. The Literacy Coalition provides literacy skills to students representing forty-eight different languages from around the globe. This is the second writing class Eric has taught as a volunteer for the Literacy Coalition. Learn more online at clayliteracy.org.

Barry George won first prize in the 2009 Gerald Brady Senryu Contest, sponsored by the Haiku Society of America. This international senryu contest, and the companion HSA haiku contest, constitute the most prestigious Japanese short-form poetry competition outside Japan. Senryu are haikulike poems about human nature. Barry has previously received honorable mention in this contest. (top)

Amy Hanridge reviewed Lorrie Moore’s new novel, A Gate at the Stairs, in the September 2009 issue of Bookslut. The review can be found at bookslut.com/fiction/2009_09_015080.php.

Colleen Harris’s poem “The Laugh” appears in the next issue of the Sow’s Ear Review. Colleen also had the debut reading of her new poetry book, God in My Throat: The Lilith Poems, on September 20 at Quail Ridge books, an independent bookstore in Raleigh, North Carolina. The book is available through the publisher at bellowingark.com.

Angela Jackson-Brown read “Something in the Wash,” a story from her creative thesis, at the 2009 Southern Women Writer’s Conference at Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia, on September 26.

Lisa Jayne had a staged reading of her play The Obituary on September 21 at Northland College’s Performing Arts Center in Snowflake, Arizona.

Holly Jensen saw her play Vinum est Vita! produced by Exquisite Corps Theatre in Boston September 24-27.

Cindy Lane presented “Beyond Where and When: Writing Life into Your Settings” to a writer’s group in Chesapeake, Virginia, on September 14. She and writing friends attended the inaugural conference of the Hampton Roads Writers on September 19, where Sharyn McCrumb spoke on integrating folklore into your fiction. Cindy is also the proud recipient of a very nice rejection notice from Dos Passos Review, a fine Virginia literary journal. They said, in effect, “not this one, but send us something else.” Cindy takes any scrap of encouragement she can find. (top)

Rosemary Royston recently gave a reading of her poetry at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia. Rosemary is an alumna of the institution and was invited to read her work at a kickoff event for the new English major being offered. The work she read came from her creative thesis, and her poems also were discussed by faculty and students in class.

Barbara Sabol was a finalist for The Broome Review’s annual chapbook competition. She is helping to organize a mixed-genre writing group in Akron, Ohio. She also attended the Kentucky Women Writers Conference in September.

Graham Shelby wrote and delivered two sermons at Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church in Louisville over the summer. The first sermon, “The Gospel According to the Rolling Stones” is about the process of forgiving yourself for not living up to your dreams. It’s based on a radio commentary Graham did that originally aired on the NPR program Marketplace. The second, “The Lessons and Perils of Time Travel,” centers on the anticipation and anxiety surrounding his twenty-year high school reunion. It’s based on work he created and developed with mentors in the CNF program at Spalding. Graham has been invited to do an encore of the Rolling Stones sermon at the Unitarian Universalist church in Lexington, Kentucky, in October. Audio recordings of the sermons are online at the following link:
tjuc.org/sermons/?cat=30. (Each sermon starts about twenty minutes into the recording.) (top)

Julie Stewart reports that her short story “Bleeding” was a finalist in A Room of Her Own Foundation’s Spring 2009 Orlando Prize. An excerpt of the story, along with the other winning submissions, is posted at aroomofherownfoundation.org.

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer announces that her first full-length book of poetry, The Air Around the Butterfly, was released in August by Fakel Express. It is a bilingual collection, with each poem appearing side-by-side in Bulgarian and English. Originally written in English, each work has been translated by the author into her native Bulgarian. The book is distributed in both countries.

Tommy Trull reports that his play The Curio Shop was performed at The Players Theatre in Manhattan on October 8-11. He is also featured as a co-author and performer for the audio verse-play Prestidigitation in the September/October issue of Orson Scott Card’s online journal, The Intergalactic Medicine Show (intergalacticmedicineshow.com).

Charles White announces that his short story “Controlled Burn” was accepted by the North Carolina Literary Review and appears in a special edition featuring Appalachian writers in the summer of 2010. (top)

Faculty and Staff

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is to receive the Pennsylvania Carolyn W. Field Award for her latest novel, The Boy Who Dared (Scholastic 2008). This book has also been short-listed for several other state awards, and she is crossing her fingers that the book wins. This makes it hard to type, but she is hard at work on her next novel, due to her editor next June.

Ellie Bryant’s adult fiction manuscript, Chantal, was one of four finalists for the 2009 Gival Novel Award Competition. Currently she is teaching a course for the University of Vermont in writing instruction for high school teachers.

Kathleen Driskell read recently in The Art of Activism program at the IdeaFestival on September 23. The reading was broadcast live online across the country. She participates in the annual Kentucky Book Fair in Frankfort on November 7 and has been invited to give a reading there at 3:30. From January 6-10, 2010, she has been invited to lead a poetry retreat in the Poconos, an annual event organized by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. The retreat participants are authors of children's literature who have an interest in writing poetry. On February 22, she reads with Katy Lederer in the 21C Reading Series presented by Sarabande Books. She is presently serving as a grant reviewer for the Arts and Activism program of the Kentucky Foundation for Women. (top)

Richard Goodman’s essay, “The Hermit of Croisset: Flaubert’s Fiercely Enduring Perfectionism,” was published in the September issue of The Writer’s Chronicle.

Roy Hoffman’s essay “For So-and-So With Love,” about the art and emotion of book inscriptions, was published in the Los Angeles Times on August 2. latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-caw-off-the-shelf2-2009aug02,0,3532193.story. Roy’s review of Pat Conroy’s novel, South of Broad, is scheduled for the New York Times Book Review, Sunday, August 23. A half-hour interview with Roy about his literary endeavors will air on “Alabama Bookmark,” host Don Noble, Alabama Public Television, August 23, 11 a.m.

Cathy Medwick’s story “Art House,” about Washington, D.C., art collector and education activist Peggy Cafritz, appears in the August issue of O The Oprah Magazine. Peggy’s house, filled with early works by now-celebrated artists of color, burned down on the night of July 29. It was a tremendous loss. (top)

Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund’s novel Ahab’s Wife released with a new cover in Harper Perennial’s “Modern Classics” series; other titles include To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Native Son by Richard Wright. Sena recently read from the new edition in Mystic, Connecticut, and at the Museum of Natural History in Brewster, Massachusetts, introduced by Marcia Dalton, MFA expository mini-workshop instructor. Sena is writing an “MFA Insider” column for Writer’s Digest. Sena has submitted her new novel, Adam & Eve, to Morrow-HarperCollins. She served as honorary chair of Louisville’s first Festival of the Written Word on September 23 and gave the keynote luncheon address. On October 13, she gave a lecture and reading from her novels Ahab’s Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance at Kentucky Wesleyan College (Owensboro) and reads on October 25 at Assumption College (Worcester, Massachusetts). On October 16-18, Sena attends the Chicago Film Festival.

Brad Riddell is thrilled about the August 11 release of his film Road Trip 2 through Paramount. He is revising his script Ms. Manhattan for MTV Films, writing a chapter on story ideation for the instructional screenwriting compilation Now Write! and tweeting far, far too often at twitter.com/bradriddell. (top)

Jeanie Thompson has toured extensively for her fourth poetry collection, The Seasons Bear Us, since May, with stops in New York at the KGB Bar in June and in Paris to put books on consignment in English-language bookshops. This summer and fall she has read from her work in Florida (Orlando) and Alabama (Selma, Fairhope, and Mobile). She did a north Alabama tour in the last week in September with Kathleen Driskell. Dubbed “The Poet Loves the Library Tour,” this swing took the two poets to Athens State College, the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, and the University of North Alabama. Find out about Jeanie’s upcoming appearances in Louisiana, California, Kentucky, and Alabama at jeaniethompson.blogspot.com, where you’ll also find recaps from previous events. In her work with the Alabama Writers’ Forum, Jeanie visited the Huntsville chapter of the Rotary Club on September 1 to present about the Writing Our Stories program for juvenile offenders. (top)

Luke Wallin wrote and recorded an original song at the request of a writer/performer in Atlanta for a new stage musical in progress. More on this as it develops. After attending Dope Thief author Dennis Tofoya’s mystery writing workshop at Pomegranate Books in Wilmington, N.C., Luke went on a mystery reading and writing adventure. He has completed a new story, “Monster,” and has others in the works. With a laptop trove of new songs, Luke traveled to New England to add tracks by percussionist Ivor Hanson (author of Living on the Ledge, about his days as a high-rise window washer in New York City) and keyboardist John Souza. Luke contributed guitar playing to an episode of Spalding MFA alum Deborah Begel’s (Spring 2006) new radio program Calling America, which has just been picked up for Sunday morning broadcasts. You can do a search and find episodes online.

Sam Zalutsky will direct playwriting alumnus Brian Hampton’s play The Jungle Fun Room for five performances in August at FringeNYC, the New York International Fringe Festival, the largest multiarts festival in North America. Sam worked with Brian in workshop and as his mentor on the play during Brian’s first semester at Spalding and is very excited to be working with him again. For more information, go to fringenyc.org or brianhampton.net. Sam recently completed a draft of his own first full-length play, currently titled 40 Weeks. (top) 

Alumni

Susan Christerson Brown (Fall 2003) has launched a web site and blog at kaboomwriters.com, along with her writing group, the KaBooM Writing Collective. Pam Sexton (Fall 2003) is also part of the group. Check out the blog to read about the group and the new anthology, When the Bough Breaks. Argiope Press published the book in collaboration with Larkspur Press in September.

David Carren (Fall 2005) presented the University of Texas-Pan American film The Red Queen at the University Film and Video Association Conference in New Orleans in August. David responded to another professor’s short, Dalitha’s Crossing, and sat on two panels, “Incorporating the Business of Screenwriting Into the Classroom” and “Producing the University Film Production,” moderating the latter. Also, his short story “Foundlings” was published in The Monitor. Read it at themonitor.com/articles/snow-30705-cold-runs.html.

Linda Cruise (Spring 2008) recently edited an 80-page art catalogue, The Art of Action, for the Vermont Arts Council. It accompanies a traveling-art exhibition through 24 Vermont communities, plus Washington, D.C. Also, starting mid-October, Linda teaches another of her mini-courses, “Developing a Writer’s Craft & Critical Eye,” via a local adult education program in Vermont. (top)

Dave DeGolyer’s (Fall 2006) alterego, Lafayette Wattles, has six poems appearing in a handful of journals, as well as two poems forthcoming in Poemeleon. He also has a new poem on display in Woodlawn Cemetery, as part of a poetry-in-the-parks grant project. But Lafayette’s biggest coup recently occurred when “Blueberry Patch,” a poem from his work-in-progress young adult novel-in-verse, A Boy Called Mo, was accepted for publication in one of the premier culinary journals, Gastronomica. The story is about a high school football player who is bullied. Lafayette says that appearing in a culinary journal is proof that football and food go together!

Daniel DiStasio (Fall 2006) has been hired by Keiser University as a full-time faculty member.

Kathryn Eastburn (Spring 2006) is teaching “Introduction to Journalism” at The Colorado College during October. While in Colorado, Kathryn also presents a creative nonfiction seminar and serves on a panel on memoir at Authorfest of the Rockies in Manitou Springs. Last month, Kathryn was part of a celebration of the publication of After Ike, a collection of photographs and essays by elementary school students in Galveston, Texas, documenting their experiences returning home to their hurricane-devastated island home a year ago. Kathryn wrote the introduction to the book. (top)

Ann Eskridge (Fall 2007) announces that Friends School in Detroit is to perform a children’s play she wrote for its annual fundraiser. Eskridge began the play as part of a playwriting exercise when she was at Spalding. Eskridge is also one of the founding members of a new playwriting group in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. The Extra-Mile Playwrights Group took its lead from award-winning playwright and Spalding faculty member Sheila Callaghan’s group 13P and decided to develop staged readings and performances of their own works.

Sandra Evans Falconer (Spring 2005) is happy to announce that her book The Six O’clock Siren was published this fall by Otter Bay Press, a Baltimore publisher. Sandra’s book of poems, which she wrote at Spalding, is a first-person account of her experience battling breast cancer in 2003. Sandra has a book signing in Baltimore on November l.

Stacia M. Fleegal (Fall 2006) has recently had poems accepted by Pemmican, Prick of the Spindle, Blue Collar Review and The Louisville Review.

Amanda Forsting (Spring 2009) won first place in the Carnegie Center for Literature and Literacy Short Stories Only! Contest with an excerpt from her historical novel, Becoming Georgia. (top)

Karen George (Spring 2009) is judging a poetry contest for The Greater Cincinnati Writers League. She attended the Kentucky Women Writers Conference in Lexington, where she enjoyed a workshop with Nikky Finney and a seminar with Susan Vreeland. She read at a poetry open mic along with several other Spalding MFA students. Another highlight was a panel discussion on poetry and spirituality led by Elizabeth Alexander, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, and Nikky Finney.

Jeanne Haggard (Fall 2006) led two playwriting workshops for the Texas University Interscholastic League high school fall workshops at Texas Tech University in September. She also directed the staged reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later at Texas Tech University on October 12 as part of the international event sponsored by Tectonic Theater Project. Tectonic returned to Laramie, Wyoming, and its playwrights have written a powerful epilogue to The Laramie Project, which was read at theatres and universities across the United States and around the world on October 12. All of the sites were linked together via the web and it promised to be a very exciting and moving event.

Edie Hemingway (Spring 2004) is pleased to announce the publication of her middle-grade novel Road to Tater Hill by Delacorte Press, a division of Random House children’s books, on September 8. She has a number of signings set up in Maryland and North Carolina. She spoke at the Carolina Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in Durham, North Carolina, on September 26 and at a reception at the Appalachian State University Library on September 28. Edie recently took on the position of regional adviser for the Maryland-Delaware-West Virginia chapter of SCBWI. (top)

Bonnie Johnson (Fall 2004), Susan Masters (Spring 2007), Aimee Zaring (Spring 2005), and Vickie Weaver (Fall 2005) attended the Kentucky Women Writers Conference on September 10-12, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Kaylene Johnson’s (Fall 2003) memoir, A Tender Distance: Adventures Raising My Sons in Alaska, is now available in bookstores. Four of the chapters have been previously published, two in The Louisville Review. Most of the chapters were written as part of Kaylene’s studies in Spalding’s MFA in Writing Program. She gave a reading and a talk at the University of Alaska bookstore on October 14. For information about other events related to A Tender Distance, please visit Kaylene’s web site at kaylene.us.

Russ Kesler (Spring 2009) published the poem 1964 in New South 2.2 and a review of Peter Campion’s The Lions in First Draft, the online publication of the Alabama Writers Forum, at writersforum.org/books/default.aspx.

Katrina Kittle (Fall 2008) teaches a fiction craft class and leads a workshop at the Word’s Worth Writing Center in Dayton, Ohio. She also has completed her fourth novel, Dancing at the Church of St. Equine, which is scheduled for a Summer 2010 release from HarperCollins. (top) 

Nana Lampton (Spring 2004) announces the publication of Snowy Owl Gathers in Her Trove, a limited edition book of poems and illustrations that she created in collaboration with Gray Zietz of Larkspur Press and designer/photographer Julius Friedman. Each book, considered an objet d’art, contains forty-one poems that are hand-set type with forty-three illustrations by Nana. A book signing and cocktail reception was September 27 held at Chapman Friedman Gallery in Louisville.

Anna C. Morrison (Fall 2008) was recently hired as adjunct English professor for Barstow Community College at Fort Irwin in Barstow, California. Also, her picture book Silly Moments, acquired by Guardian Angel Publishing, has a new illustrator and is due to be released before Christmas. She recently signed up to attend the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Editor’s Day event at the Santa Ana Zoo in Santa Ana, California, on October 3 and submitted three manuscripts for critique and consideration by the editors at the event. She now also features children’s book reviews on her blog and invites any and all to come take a look at blog.annacmorrison.com.

Richard Newman (Fall 2004) has poems appearing in new issues of Boulevard, The Louisville Review, Pleiades, and Valparaiso Review. His second full-length collection of poems, Domestic Fugues, was just published by Steel Toe Books, and in October had scheduled readings in Kansas City, Louisville, and St. Louis. (top)

A poem by Frances Nicholson (Spring 2004), “On Motherhood,” appears in the journal Margie. The journal’s editor called the piece “the most stunningly poignant poem I’ve ever read.” Frances also co-teaches a course through Pasadena Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, California, centering on writing as a way to access spirituality. She leads the poetry portion, while her co-teacher discusses journaling.

Dan Nowak (Spring 2007) has a chapbook called Burning the Arson Dictionary: Poems for Thomas McGrath forthcoming from Rocksaw Press in fall 2009.

Nancy O’Connor (Spring 2008) recently presented for the Mountain-Desert Reading Council in Victorville, California, for its kickoff meeting of the school year. Her talk, “Getting Serious About Humor: Using Funny Books in Your Reading/Writing Classroom,” was based on her graduation lecture. Nancy has also volunteered to assist the English department chair of her local Redlands High School with their online gallery of writing, which is part of the National Council of Teachers of English Writing Galleries being launched in October. At the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in Los Angeles in August, Nancy was pleased to spend time with other Spalding W4C-ers, Lydia Griffin-Hudacsko (Fall 2008) and Edie Hemingway. (Spring 2004) Nancy’s article “Confessions of an Old-Timer,” about her experience at this year’s conference, has just been published in the organization’s newsletter, Kite Tales.

Molly Power (Spring 2007) has had her story “Unsuitable” published in the summer edition of The Adirondack Review, a publication of Black Lawrence Press. (top)

Diana Raab’s (Fall 2003) second book of poetry, The Guilt Gene, was set to be released in October 2009. Her poem “Incense and Peppermints” was published in Common Ground Review. Her recipe “Wiener Schnitzel” (along with a bio about her Austrian roots) was published in Literary Feast: The Famous Authors’ Cookbook. On October 4, Diana facilitated a workshop called “Writing Your Life” at the West Hollywood Book Festival. On October 24 she facilitates a workshop called “The Healing Notebook” at The Wellness and Writing Connections Conference in Atlanta for the second year. In September she helped organize an “Out of Darkness” community walk in Santa Barbara, California, that raised funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the organization to which she donates the proceeds of her memoir, Regina’s Closet. She sold twenty copies of her book at the event. Check out Diana’s web site at dianaraab.com and keep up with her blog at dianaraab.wordpress.com.

Sonia Rapaport (Spring 2007) attended Sewanee Writers’ Conference as a Tennessee Williams Scholar in Poetry in July. In August, she attended Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (also in poetry). Her chapbook, A Density of Ghosts, was published by Finishing Line Press in June and is available on Amazon.com (amazon.com/Density-Ghosts-Sonia-Rapaport/dp/1599244500).

Savannah Sipple (Fall 2008) is a finalist in the New Southerner Literary Contest. Winners are be announced in mid-November.

Pamela Steele (Spring 2004) read at the Blackbird Wine Shop in Portland, Oregon, on October 9. The following day, she was a featured reader at the Wordstock Writing Festival, also in Portland. (top)

Kathleen Thompson (Fall 2003) participated in a book signing at Cyrano’s Bookshop in Highlands, North Carolina, on August 15. Robert Gray reviewed her poetry book The Shortest Distance at the Alabama Writers’ Forum, First Draft Reviews Online, n September 2009. On September 16, Kathleen and her husband visited Helen Norris, 93, in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Helen is a dear friend, the former poet laureate of Alabama, a short story and novel writer, and subject of Kathleen’s critical thesis.

Leslie Smith Townsend (Spring 2004) read an excerpt of her unpublished memoir, Lucky Girl, Guilty Woman, at Highland Baptist Church’s contemporary worship service. Her latest essay, “Ain’t It Great to Be Smug,” can be found under Half-Empty Mason Jar in the fall issue of New Southerner (newsoutherner.com).

Cristina Trapani-Scott (Spring 2009) organized a reading and presentation of local authors for an outdoor fine arts fair called Art-a-Licious on September 18, in Adrian, Michigan. As part of the reading, she collected poems she was commissioned to write for various issues of Homefront magazine and put them in a small booklet that she had printed to hand out at Art-a-Licious. She emceed the event and read several of the poems from the booklet. In addition, Cristina attended a free poetry workshop taught by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, a poet she’s certain she must have mentioned in her graduate lecture on Italian-American women writers. The event was hosted by Chelsea District Library Artist in Residence, poet M.L. Liebler. Cristina also was recently hired as an adjunct composition instructor at Baker College in Auburn Hill, Michigan. (top)

Al Waller (Spring 2005) recently received news that his film BugWorld was nominated as a Best Film by the Kids First Film Festival. This award is given annually to films and screenplays that have been accepted and showcased at their various festivals and special screenings nationally and worldwide. BugWorld is a thirty-minute educational/comedy film he created based on characters from the middle-grade novel that he wrote as his creative thesis at Spalding. The winners are announced at the Santa Fe Film Festival in December. He also launched a web site called VarmintBytes.com. This comic/educational site is for booksellers, librarians, teachers, and other reading facilitators who seek to get middle-graders hooked on knowledge exploration through children’s literature. You may also follow Varmint Bytes on Twitter at twitter.com/VarmintBytes. Al has also been accepted into the Big Sur Children’s Writers’ Workshop held in Monterey, California.

Amy Watkins (Copeland) (Spring 2006) has two poems in the new anthology poem, home: An Anthology of Ars Poetica, available now from Paper Kite Press at wordpainting.com/shop.shtml.

In March, Jim Wilson (Spring 2007) served as a judge for the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma’s Youth Creative Writing Contest. In June, Jim and his wife, LeAnne Howe, hosted their second annual Salon Ada for writers with creative and scholarly interests in Indian Territory, Oklahoma. In July, Jim taught creative writing again in the Chickasaw Nation’s Summer Arts Academy in Ada, Oklahoma. Also in July, Jim and other Salon participants read from their work to a large public gathering at East Central University in Ada. This fall, Jim is directing a combined archaeological excavation and creative writing project in Ada for Chickasaw Nation youth. (top)

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