Kathleen Driskell, Chair of the Spalding University School of Creative and Professional Writing and an award-winning poet, was recently elected as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), the nation’s foremost advocacy and professional organization for college and university writing programs and individual creative writers.

Driskell is believed to be the first representative from a Kentucky college or university to hold the position of Board Chair for AWP, whose membership includes more than 500 college and university writing programs, 130 writers’ conferences and centers and nearly 50,000 individual writers.

AWP’s mission is to foster literary achievement, advance the art of writing as essential to good education and serve the makers, teachers, students and readers of contemporary writing. AWP hosts ones of the nation’s largest annual literary conferences and is the publisher of the Writer’s Chronicle magazine, a leading source of articles, news and information for writers, editors, students and teachers.

Driskell, who also serves as AWP’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Council Chair, was elected to the top position on the national board of directors during AWP’s national conference last month in Kansas City.

“When one of our new AWP board members made the observation that many of us seem to have grown up with AWP, I couldn’t help remembering that I have attended nearly every annual conference since 1999 in Albany, New York,” Driskell said. “Each morning as I boarded a big yellow school bus that had come to pick us up at a Ramada Inn, tucked under a noisy highway overpass, I thought the whole thing was a marvel. I still do, and I’m honored to serve as chair for 2019-20. I promise to do my best to build on the significant legacy of AWP.”

Driskell is a longtime Spalding faculty member who has been teaching at the university since 1994. She was promoted to director of Spalding’s nationally ranked low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in January 2018 after previously serving as associate director from 2003 through 2017. During 2018, Driskell led the development of Spalding’s School of Creative and Professional Writing – Kentucky’s first school of writing – then was named its first chair once it was established in the spring of 2019. In that role, Driskell oversees the MFA program as well as two new programs – a Master of Arts in Writing and a Graduate Certificate in Writing.

Driskell is the author of the poetry collections Blue Etiquette: Poems, a finalist for the Weatherford Award; Next Door to the Dead, a Kentucky Voices selection by the University Press of Kentucky and winner of the 2018 Judy Gaines Young Book Award; Seed Across Snow, a Poetry Foundation national bestseller; Laughing Sickness and Peck and Pock: A Graphic Poem. Individual poems have appeared in The Southern Review, Shenandoah, North American Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Greensboro Review, Rattle and Mid-American Review, among others, and have been featured in anthologies and online at Poetry Daily, Verse Daily and American Life in Poetry.

Driskell, a Louisville native who received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville and an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is a recipient of the Spalding Board of Trustees’ Outstanding Faculty Award. She has also served as the faculty representative on the Board of the Trustees.

Read a recent profile of Kathleen Driskell from StyeBluePrint.
Get more information on graduate writing programs at Spalding on the School of Writing blog.

Spalding University’s Festival of Contemporary Writing, the state’s largest fall-spring reading series, takes place this Saturday, May 25, through Friday, May 31, with faculty and alumni of Spalding’s low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program.

The MFA program’s Distinguished Visiting Writer, Terese Marie Mailhot, delivers a public presentation on Thursday, May 30. She is the New York Times-bestselling author of Heart Berries, a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman’s coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Her book was also listed as a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Library Journal, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library and was one of Harper’s Bazaar’s Best Books of 2018. Mailhot is the winner of the inaugural Spalding Prize for Peace and Justice in Literature.

Festival events will be held at Spalding’s Egan Leadership Center and the Brown Hotel, as noted below. Plenty of free parking is available for the campus readings. All readings and events are free, ticketless, and open to the public.

5-6 p.m. Saturday, May 25. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.) Reading by Spalding President and MFA alum Tori Murden McClure, author of A Pearl in the Storm, which was released 10 years ago and which recounts her solo row across the Atlantic Ocean 20 years ago. A book signing will follow. Books available for sale until 2 p.m. at the Follett campus bookstore, which is located out the south door of the Egan Leadership Center.

5:15-6:15 p.m. Sunday, May 26. Faculty Reading. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)  Greetings by Associate Program Director Lynnell Edwards.

● Greg Pape (poetry), Four Swans: Poems
● Kira Obolensky (playwriting), Why We Laugh: A Terezin Cabaret
● Fenton Johnson (creative nonfiction, fiction), Everywhere Home: A Life in Essays; The Man Who Loved Birds
● Keith S. Wilson (poetry), Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love
● Leah Henderson (writing for children & young adults), One Shadow on the Wall
● Eleanor Morse (fiction), White Dog Fell from the Sky
● Kathleen Driskell (poetry), Blue Etiquette

5:30-6:30 p.m. Monday, May 27. Faculty Reading. Celebration of Recently Published Books by Faculty. Book signing to follow. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)

● Elaine Neil Orr (fiction, creative nonfiction;), Swimming Between Worlds, Gods of Noonday: A White Girl’s African Life
● Lynnell Edwards (poetry), Covet
● Kirby Gann (fiction, creative nonfiction), Ghosting; John Knowles’ A Separate Peace: Bookmarked
● Minda Reves (Bachelor of Fine Arts director)
● Robin Lippincott (fiction, creative nonfiction), Our Arcadia; Blue Territory: A Meditation on the Life and Art of Joan Mitchell
● Julie Brickman (fiction), Two Deserts: Stories
● Larry Brenner (screenwriting, playwriting), Bethlehem; Saving Throw Versus Love

5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 30. Presentation by Distinguished Visiting Writer Teresa Marie Mailhot, author of Heart Berries: A Memoir. Book signing to follow. Books must be purchased prior to the event at the Follett campus bookstore, located at the south door of the Egan Leadership Center. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)

● Terese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries: A Memoir

3:30-4:30 p.m. Friday, May 31. Session I. Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni. Book signing to follow. Books provided by Follett Bookstore. (Brown Hotel, 1st fl., Citation Room, 335 W. Broadway)

● Teneice Durrant (poetry), Glass Corset
● Angela Jackson-Brown (poetry), House Repairs
● Mary Popham (fiction), The Wife Takes a Farmer
● Karen George (poetry), A Map and One Year
● Katerina Stoykova (poetry), Second Skin

4:45-5:45 p.m. Friday, May 31. Session 2. Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni. Book signing to follow. Books provided by Follett Bookstore. (Brown Hotel, 1st fl., Citation Room, 335 W. Broadway)

● Paul Ruben (fiction), Terms of Engagement: Stories of the Father and Son
● Alice Gorman (fiction), Valeria Vose
● Heather Wyatt (creative nonfiction), My Life With(out) Ranch
● Phil Cohen (fiction), Stories in a Flash
● Savannah Sipple (poetry), WWJD and Other Poems
● Flora Schildknecht (fiction), Megafauna: Stories and Screenplay

The reading schedule may change without notice. Check Facebook.com/SpaldingSchoolofWriting for updated information under the “Events” tab. For more information, call 502-873-4400 or email schoolofwriting@spalding.edu.

The School of Creative and Professional Writing at Spalding University offers three low-residency programs, including the flagship 65-credit-hour MFA in Writing Program; a 35-credit Master of Arts in Writing, offering tracks in creative writing and professional writing; and a 15-credit graduate certificate in writing, also with two tracks. The School of Writing offers concentrations in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children and young adults, screenwriting, playwriting, and professional writing. Students begin the semester in the spring, summer, or fall with a residency in Louisville or abroad, then return home for an independent study with a faculty mentor for the rest of the semester. Students may customize the location, season, and pace of their studies. See spalding.edu/schoolofwriting for more information, or find us on Twitter @SpaldingWriting.

 

One privilege of being a student in Spalding’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program  is that I can attend some of the lectures of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program during its residencies. During the MFA fall residency, which took place Nov. 10-18, I attended two lectures.

The first was titled, “1798: Poetry’s Punk Moment: Lyrical Ballads With A Few Other Poems,” and was given by MFA program director Kathleen Driskell, who is an award-winning poet. The lecture was very relevant to me at the time because I was taking a Romanticism class during which we studied many of the poems that were mentioned in Driskell’s lecture. It was exciting for me to hear the information I learned as a BFA creative writing student being applied in an MFA lecture. Attending the lecture made me appreciate my BFA class even more because I could see the value of what I was learning. The “punk” aspect of the lecture was taken from a quote by a Guardian book reviewer and referred to the influential and liberal language used by poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge during the age of Romanticism. Wordsworth and Coleridge were essentially hippies or punks because of the way they looked at the world differently.

LEARN MORE | Spalding’s BFA in Creative Writing program

LEARN MORE | Spalding’s MFA in Creative Writing program

The second lecture I attended was, “What Happened to My Essay? How to Survive Writing for Magazines,” by Cathy Medwick. Medwick is former senior editor at Vogue and Vanity Fair, so she really knew what she was talking about. This lecture was very informative — I took a full page of notes. Even though I am fairly new to creative nonfiction and have not written very many essays that could be published, I found it valuable to hear how to deal with editors and the process of submission.

ALSO FROM ALLISON CAMPBELL  | Why transferring to Spalding was the right choice for me

Being able to participate in the MFA residency was a great way to learn new information while being exposed to what an MFA program is really like. The experience made me want to go to grad school even more to further my education. I am always looking for ways to improve my writing, so I really appreciated this awesome opportunity.

Allison Campbell is a senior in Spalding’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. 

 

A presentation by British novelist Rachel Seiffert on May 30 will highlight Spalding University’s upcoming Festival of Contemporary Writing, the state’s largest fall-spring reading series. It will take place May 26-June 1 and also feature faculty and alumni of Spalding’s low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program.

Seiffert, the MFA program’s Distinguished Visiting Writer, is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary novelists in the United Kingdom. Her book The Dark Room, which is about the Holocaust and the Third Reich, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2001. Her 2017 novel, A Boy in Winter, which also explores the Holocaust and World War II, was among The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of last year. She’s also written Field Study, a collection of short stories published in 2004, and the novels Afterwards (2007) and The Walk Home (2014).

Festival events will be held at Spalding’s Egan Leadership Center and the Brown Hotel, as noted below. Free parking is available for the campus readings. All readings and events are free and ticketless.

4:00-4:45 p.m. Saturday, May 26. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)

Robin Lippincott (fiction, creative nonfiction), In the Meantime; Blue Territory; Rufus + Syd

Larry Brenner (playwriting, screenwriting), Saving Throw vs. Love

Jody Lisberger (fiction), Remember Love

Michael Roberts (playwriting), Goldstein

4:45-5:45 p.m. Sunday, May 27. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)

Dianne Aprile (creative nonfiction), The Book: A Collaboration with Photographer Julius Friedman

Charlie Schulman (playwriting, screenwriting), Goldstein

Beth Bauman (writing for children & young adults), Jersey Angel

Crystal Wilkinson (fiction), The Birds of Opulence

Kathleen Driskell (poetry), Blue Etiquette

5:30-6:45 p.m. Monday, May 28. Celebration of Recently Published Books by Faculty. Book signing to follow. Books provided by Follett Bookstore. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)

Douglas Manuel (poetry), Testify

Lesléa Newman (poetry, writing for children and young adults), Lovely

Pete Duval (fiction), Strange Mercies

Kiki Petrosino (poetry), Witch Wife

5:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 29. Selected readings by MFA alumni. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)

Sonja de Vries (’09), The Hour of Departure

Danette Haworth (’16), A Whole Lot of Lucky

Michael Premo (’14)

Janet Harrison  (’16)

Kelly Hill (’13)

Leslie Lynch (’17), Hijacked

5:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 30. Distinguished Visiting Writer presentation. Book signing to follow. Books provided by Follett Bookstore.  (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)

Rachel Seiffert, The Dark Room

5:30-6:45 p.m. Friday, June 1. Celebration of Recently Published Books by Alumni. Book signing to follow. Books provided by Carmichael’s. (Brown Hotel, 1st fl., Citation Room, 335 W. Broadway)

Erin Chandler (’17), June Bug vs. Hurricane

Holly Gleason (’15), Woman Walk the Line: How the Women of Country Music Changed Our Lives

Gayle Hanratty (’06), Gray Hampton

R.J. Harris (’12), The Spirit Breather

Claudia Love Mair (’17), Don’t You Fall Now

Aimee Mackovic (’05), Love Junky

Barbara Sabol (’10), Solitary Spin

Sara Truitt (’15), More: A Memoir of Hungers

The reading schedule may change without notice. Check Facebook for updated information: Facebook.com/SpaldingMFA. For more information, call 502-873-4400 or email mfa@spalding.edu.

RELATED: Program Director Kathleen Driskell on winning book award, her plans for the MFA program

About Spalding’s MFA in Writing: Recognized as a top-10 program of its kind by Poets & Writers, Spalding’s four-semester, low-residency MFA in Writing program offers concentrations in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children and young adults, screenwriting and playwriting. Students begin the semester in the spring, summer or fall with a residency in Louisville or abroad, then return home for an independent study with a faculty mentor for the rest of the semester. Students may customize the location, season and pace of their studies. A post-baccalaureate certificate in creative writing is also available. See spalding.edu/mfa for more information.

The Kentucky Arts Council will celebrate Kentucky Writers’ Day on Tuesday, April 24,  with an event at the Spalding Library, capping off a week of literary events around the state that recognize the Commonwealth’s literary tradition.

The Kentucky General Assembly established Kentucky Writers’ Day in 1990 to honor Kentucky’s strong literary tradition and to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Kentucky native Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate of the United States and winner of three Pulitzer Prizes.

Current Kentucky Poet Laureate Frederick Smock will be among the readers and panelists at the Kentucky Arts Council’s Kentucky Writers’ Day celebration, beginning 6 p.m. in the Spalding Library’s Kentucky Room, 853 Library Lane.

Maureen Morehead MFA faculty headshot
Maureen Morehead, Spalding MFA faculty member and past Kentucky poet laureate

Following poetry readings by Smock and former poets laureate Maureen Morehead (2011-2012) and Joe Survant (2003-2004), poet Lynnell Edwards, Spalding’s associate program director for the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program, will moderate a discussion about Kentucky’s literary tradition. Morehead is a member of the Spalding MFA faculty.

As Kentucky’s literary ambassador, Smock urges all Kentuckians to celebrate Writers’ Day, no matter where they are.

“On Kentucky Writers’ Day, turn off the phone. Log off the computer. Do not turn on the television. For a few minutes, just read a poem. Let it sink in,” Smock said. “Follow where your mind goes with it, for you are the only authority on what the poem means to you.

“As with love, the feeling of having read a good poem can induce a certain inner radiance. The poem sinks in and transforms itself from words on a page to a deep interior shift. After all, we go to poetry not to find out about the poet’s life, but to find out about our own.”

Next Door to the Dead got a new breath of life earlier this month, and it was a pleasant surprise to Kathleen Driskell.

The director of Spalding’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing program was delighted to get the news that her Next Door to the Dead, a 2015 collection of poems inspired by Driskell’s observations of an old cemetery that’s next to her house, was named the winner of Transylvania University’s Judy Gaines Young Book Award. The award honors an outstanding recent work from the Appalachian region.

“It just kind of dropped out of the sky for me,” said Driskell, who had been unaware that her 3-year-old book was even eligible for the award. “But it’s a really important book to me, a book about where I live.

“I’m glad for (the award) to give the book a little more attention. I feel like it’s going to give it a little more lift. It got some good attention when it came out, and this extends its life in the public eye.”

Driskell will accept the Judy Gaines Young Award and read from her book at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 21 at Transy’s Cowgill Center, Room 102. It’s the second straight year a member of Spalding’s MFA in Writing faculty has won the award, following Crystal Wikinson in 2017 for her novel The Birds of Opulence.

Driskell and her family have lived for more than two decades in an old former church. Beside it is the Mount Zion Lutheran Cemetery, and the graveyard is “always in my mind,” she said. She was first moved to write the book after the tragic death of her neighbors’ 23-year-old son and the subsequent process of mourners visiting his grave.

“Mostly the people who are buried there were really old, and this was a younger person,” Driskell said. “So there was more activity around it, and balloons tied here and there, and I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. I kind of conceptualized the book from that.”

Driskell researched and imagined other stories about the graves in the cemetery. The book, published by the Lexington-based University Press of Kentucky, has poems about family relationships, the Civil War, slavery and many other issues.

Driskell was pleased to see a book from UPK earn the recognition.

The governor’s proposed budget has called for eliminating public funding for the nonprofit publisher, which for 75 years has printed scholarly works and literature by regional writers and about regional topics. Wilkinson’s The Birds of Opulence was also a UPK production.

“The University Press of Kentucky is really important to the commonwealth,” said Driskell, whose book is part of UPK’s “Kentucky Voices” series of literary titles. “I’m hoping the legislature will continue to support it. It’s good for all us. It fights, frankly, the stereotype of Kentucky. We have an amazing literary heritage.”

Driskell is the author of five books, including most recently Blue Etiquette, published by Red Hen Press. That book was a finalist for Berea College’s Weatherford Award, and Driskell won an award from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs earlier in her career. Driskell currently serves as vice chair for the Mid-Atlantic region of AWP.

Plans for MFA program

As for her teaching career, Driskell was promoted to director for Spalding’s top-10 national low-residency MFA in Writing program in January after serving as the longtime associate director under the program’s co-founder Sena Jeter Naslund, who retired. Driskell’s first residency as director will be in May.

“I’m really excited to grow (the program) and put my own spin on it,” Driskell said.

A past recipient of the Spalding Trustees Outstanding Faculty Award, Driskell plans to add optional programming intended to polish students’ professional writing skills and make the MFA program more attractive to potential students who are eager to learn creative writing but may work in a field outside of teaching.

“I think there’s just such a lack of good writing in the business world, communication-wise,” she said. “I think our students can really benefit from learning how to write grants, learning how to do profiles and interview pieces, learning more of the ins and outs of publishing and editing, even copy editing, which is a skill that most people don’t have any more and can be incredibly valuable.

“I’ve told my own kids, ‘You can do OK in school, but if you know how to write well, you can do whatever you want.’ … I’m really looking forward to establishing that and fostering that along for our students. I think it’ll be a good service to them.”

Along those lines, Spalding has begun offering a post-baccalaureate certificate in creative writing. Students are fully integrated into the MFA program, taking courses in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting or writing for children. The certificate, however, requires fewer semesters and credit hours for completion than the master’s degree.

Driskell said she also wants Spalding’s MFA students to learn how to write speeches. Alumnus Graham Shelby, who is a speechwriter for Louisville Metro Government, has been invited to do a lecture.

Writing book reviews will be taught, too. Driskell said book reviews are “a dying art” that can provide a way for writers to break into the business and make connections with editors and magazines.

Driskell is also excited about the MFA’s program’s residency abroad in Japan this summer.

The group of 40-50 will visit Hiroshima, the gardens of Nara and the former imperial capital of Kyoto.

The MFA program takes a 10-day trip abroad every summer to learn about culture and gain inspiration. Previous stops have included Edinburgh, Dublin, Rome, Athens and Crete, and Berlin and Prague.

MORE INFORMATION: Register at this link for the Spalding MFA in Writing program’s spring open house, to be held May 27. Read more about the program at Spalding.edu/MFA.

Author Kathleen Driskell, who is the director of Spalding’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing program, has won Transylvania University’s 2018 Judy Gaines Young Book Award for her collection of poems, “Next Door to the Dead.”

Now in its fourth year, the Judy Gaines Young Book Award recognizes recent works by writers in the Appalachian region.  It’s the second straight year a member of the Spalding MFA in Writing faculty has won the award, following Crystal Wilkinson in 2017 for her novel “The Birds of Opulence.”

Driskell found inspiration for her book while visiting a cemetery next to a former country church where she lives outside Louisville.

Transylvania professor Jeremy Paden praised her work. “In ‘Next Door to the Dead’​ Kathleen has written eloquent, gripping, tender and even humorous poems that explore loss and longing,” he said. “This is a wonderful collection of poems that have much wisdom and art to teach the reader. Death can pull us apart; it can bring us together.”

According to the book’s publisher, University Press of Kentucky, Driskell often strolls through the cemetery, imagining the lives and loves of those buried there. “’Next Door to the Dead’ transcends time and place, linking the often disconnected worlds of the living and the deceased. Just as examining the tombstones forces the author to look more closely at her own life, Driskell’s poems and their muses compel us to examine our own mortality, as well as how we impact the finite lives of those around us.”

Driskell, who is also associate editor of the Louisville Review, was a longtime associate director of the Spalding MFA program before being promoted to director in January. She has written numerous books and collections, including “Laughing Sickness” and “Seed Across Snow.”

Driskell will give a reading and receive her award on March 21 at 5 p.m. in Transylvania’s Cowgill Center, Room 102. The event will be free and open to the public.

Driskell will be introduced by this year’s judge, Jason Howard, editor of Appalachian Heritage at Berea College.

Transylvania’s annual book award is funded by Byron Young, who graduated in 1961, in honor if his late wife Judy Gaines Young, a ’62 graduate.

Driskell’s award comes with a cash prize, and a signed copy of the volume will be preserved in the Transylvania Special Collections.

A reception and book signing will follow the ceremony.

The Cowgill Center is in Old Morrison Circle off West Third Street. Free, nearby parking is available.

Read more about Spalding’s low-residency MFA program, which has been ranked in the top-10 nationally by Poets and Writers, at Spalding.edu/mfa. Here is the Amazon.com link for Driskell’s “Next Door to the Dead.”

Spalding University’s low-residency MFA in Writing program has added experienced educator and accomplished poet Lynnell Edwards to its leadership staff. Edwards steps into the role of associate program director, replacing Kathleen Driskell, who was promoted to program director on Jan. 1.

Edwards brings more than 20 years of teaching experience to the job. Since Fall 2010, she has served as associate professor of English at Spalding, where she directed and taught first-year writing as well as other creative writing and literature courses. From 2013 to ’15, she served as Faculty Senate representative for the School of Liberal Studies.

Edwards has written four collections of poetry. Her most recent is the chapbook “Kings of the Rock and Roll Hot Shop” (Accents, 2014). She is also the author of three full-length poetry collections: “Covet” (2011), “The Highwayman’s Wife” (2007) and “The Farmer’s Daughter” (2004), all from Red Hen Press. Her short fiction and book reviews have been published in literary journals such as New Madrid, Connecticut Review, Cincinnati Review and Pleiades, as well as in numerous anthologies. Her poems have been featured on Verse Daily. She writes a monthly book column for Louisville Magazine.

Edwards has been an active member of the Kentucky literary community. She is a founding member of Louisville Literary Arts, which produces the InKY Reading Series and the Writer’s Block Literary Festival. She served as president of Louisville Literary Arts from 2008 to ’13 and currently serves on its advisory board. She was also a member of the Kentucky Women Writers Conference Board of Directors (2012-17).

“Lynnell is an accomplished writer and a qualified, gifted teacher,” Driskell said. “I’ve long admired her dedication to undergraduate students at Spalding. As a literary arts leader, she is a force to be reckoned with in our city, state and nation. We couldn’t be more pleased that she’s agreed to join the graduate faculty and leadership team of Spalding’s MFA program.”

Edwards is one of four prominent poets taking on a new role in the Spalding MFA in Writing program for the spring. The others are Driskell, who was elevated to replace author Sena Jeter Naslund in running the program, and Kiki Petrosino and Douglas Manuel, who have joined the teaching faculty. (Read more about Driskell’s promotion, Petrosino coming to Spalding and Manuel coming to Spalding)

The recipient of the 2007 Al Smith Fellowship Award, Kentucky’s highest state-awarded fellowship for artistic achievement, Edwards has presented her work in a variety of noted curated reading series, including the Sarabande Reading Series, the Axton Reading Series at the University of Louisville, the KGB Reading Series in New York, the Annenberg Beach House Reading Series and Spalding at the Speed. In 2011, she was Featured Writer at the Kentucky Women Writers Conference.

Prior to teaching at Spalding, Edwards served as adjunct professor of English at U of L (2005-10). She was director of the writing center and parent communication at Bellarmine University in 2008-09. From 1994 to 2005, she served as professor of English and director of the writing center at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon.

She holds a doctorate in rhetoric and composition and a master’s degree in creative writing, both from U of L, as well as a bachelor’s in English from Centre College.

The deadline to apply for the Spalding MFA in Writing program’s spring semester is Feb. 1.

Spalding University’s low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program has announced that poet and teacher Douglas Manuel has joined its faculty. He will lead a poetry workshop during the spring 2018 residency, which runs May 25-June 3 on campus.

Manuel is author of “Testify,” a full-length collection of poems, released by Red Hen Press in 2017. (Here’s Manuel’s personal website.) Born in Anderson, Indiana, he received a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Arizona State University and a MFA from Butler University, where he was the managing editor of “Booth: A Journal.” He is currently a Middleton and Dornsife Fellow at the University of Southern California, where he is pursuing a doctorate in literature and creative writing. Manuel has been the poetry editor of Gold Line Press as well as a managing editor of Ricochet Editions.

His work is featured on the Poetry Foundation’s website and has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, Los Angeles Review, Superstition Review, Rhino, North American Review, The Chattahoochee Review, New Orleans Review, Crab Creek Review and elsewhere.

“Doug is a fantastic poet, scholar and editor, and he’s an expert, encouraging teacher,” Spalding MFA in Writing Program Director and fellow poet Kathleen Driskell said. “He’s a perfect addition to our faculty at Spalding, and we’re excited that our graduate students will soon have the opportunity to be mentored by him during workshop and one on one during their independent studies.”

The application deadline for the Spalding MFA in Writing program’s spring semester is Feb. 1. For more information, see the MFA program’s admission requirements or call (502) 873-4400.

Related link: List of Spalding MFA in Writing faculty

 

Accomplished poet Kiki Petrosino has joined the poetry faculty of Spalding University’s low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing program. She will start teaching in the Spring 2018 semester, which begins with a residency in May.

Petrosino is author of the poetry collections Witch Wife (2017), Hymn for the Black Terrific (2013) and Fort Red Border (2009), all from Sarabande Books. She is also author of three chapbooks: Black Genealogy (Brain Mill Press, 2017), Doubloon Oath (Flying Objects Press, 2016) and The Dark Is Here (Forklift, Ink, 2011). Her poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, Best American Poetry, The New York Times, FENCE, Gulf Coast, Jubilat and Tin House and online at Ploughshares. She is founder and co-editor of Transom, an independent online poetry journal. Her work has received three nominations for the Pushcart Prize and was listed as Notable in The Best American Essays 2016.

Since 2014, Petrosino has served as associate professor of English and director of creative writing at the University of Louisville, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate creative writing courses as well as literature courses. From 2010 to ’14, she was an assistant professor at U of L.

Petrosino serves on the advisory board of Louisville Literary Arts and on the board of the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. She is series editor of the Mineral Point Poetry Series of Brain Mill Press. She is a committee member for the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900 and is a manuscript evaluator for the Korea Literature Translation Institute.

Petrosino received her MFA from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She holds a master of arts in humanities degree from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s in English from the University of Virginia. Her awards include a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat and research fellowships from U of L’s Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Find more about Spalding’s MFA in Writing program and the poetry concentration here. Learn more about Kiki Petrosino and her work at KikiPetrosino.com.