232 15 4134 https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/fb41f53d4e4fdf60dc9fb497f89424b9.pdf e2e79ee6552df5d7a68c6fe61b68698a PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives Revise This - May 2016 Revise This! | May 2016 Adding Years: An Interview with Mrs. Anna Arnett Archives Archives By Dale Louise Mervine 2017 "Finding Wilkes has added years to my life," said Mrs. Anna Arnett, who, at age 91, will be the oldest student to graduate from Wilkes this June. 2018 While she did mention that she wishes she had heard of Wilkes Revise This! - University in Mesa sooner, she asserts, "I was really ready for Wilkes and November 2019 have not regretted a moment of my enrollment. It came fairly late in my life, but definitely has enriched it." Mrs. Arnett first heard of Wilkes at a church Christmas breakfast. It was the same morning her daughter told her to "quit fiddling around with fiction and poetry until you have written every story you know about the family." It just so happened that Wilkes had an open house that day. So she went directly from the breakfast to the campus to get more information. As Mrs. Arnett recalls, "I talked with Bonnie [Culver], and left with a student ID!" "Wilkes offered me exactly what I was looking for, and in a format to fit my n 2016 n n �capabilities. How could I not be a fan of the university that has given me a new lease Anna Arnett at Tortilla Flat, Ariz. during March 2016 Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program Mesa Weekender ethnography site inspection. Photo credit: Michael Mortimer on life? I am thrilled with the way I've been treated, or should I say babied, all the way through. I have never had more delightful people to work with. Dr. [J. Michael] Lennon has been absolutely fantastic. I doubt I've ever had more fun than I have had since I enrolled in Wilkes." When speaking of Dr. Lennon, Mrs. Arnett exuded excitement, saying that he, "epitomizes what Ella Wheeler Wilcox said: 'A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results.' Dr. Lennon is profuse with his praise. He truly inspires me to keep improving." While Mrs. Arnett knew she would focus on her family history and try to make it readable to teens, she mused, "I don't think I needed to be told what to write, but Dr. Lennon continually points ways to write it better." "Miss Anna" as her fellow classmates call her, was born in Rexburg, Idaho. In the middle of her senior year of high school, December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, changing her world. "I was taking shorthand and typing to earn a civil service stenographer rating. I worked for a couple of years and happened to meet my future husband, Air Cadet Charles Arnett, at Sunday School in Indianapolis. I saw him a second time the next weekend then not again until I went to Seymour to see him get his wings on my 19th birthday. I didn't lay eyes on him again for 22 months. On his third bombing mission out of England, over Germany, fighter planes hit three of his engines. Charles made it back to the coast but crash-landed in occupied Holland, and became a prisoner of war for eleven months and eleven days, but who's counting? Almost as soon as Charles got back to his home in Arizona, on Wednesday, June 5, 1945, while I was attending Utah State, he proposed, by mail and phone, that we get married in the Arizona Temple on June 15th. I agreed, flunked all my finals, lost ten pounds, made frantic preparations, caught a bus for Arizona and when I stepped out of the bus into his arms, I knew I'd made the right choice. We were married for time and eternity on the fifteenth. �I've detailed my story in Lolly's Yarns. Charles died March 8, 2008, but I still feel married. He's only on another overseas assignment. I've always regarded Charles as the most perfect man I could have stood to live with." Growing up on a farm just south of Rexburg, Mrs. Arnett fondly remembered the area, but was more interested in sharing tidbits from her thesis project, which concerns the history of her family. "They were real pioneers," she emphasized. "My mother was born in 1886...on a cattle ranch in a two-room log cabin with a dirt floor and a dirt roof. But a nice fireplace," she laughed again. When I asked her from where her lineage stems, she quipped, "How far back?" and then proceeded to fill in her impressive ancestry. On her father's side, her grandfather was born in Sweden and her grandmother in Denmark. "They joined the Mormon church there," she went on, "[and] came to Utah—before the railroads— so they were real pioneers there." Her mother's immigrant ancestor, she recalled, "was not on the Mayflower, but he built a house in Connecticut in 1650...that was her Wilcox line." This long line of Americans originated in England. "My mother's mother was born after the Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo [Illinois]. She was born in Winter Quarters and arrived in Salt Lake in September 1847, making her one of the earliest Utah pioneers, I knew her; I think I was about in seventh grade when she died. It's been wonderful to learn more about her." When I asked about her experience at Wilkes and working on her manuscript, she noted that, "It's just been delightful and besides that, having goals I needed to meet helped me make a lot of progress that I have procrastinated for decades in organizing my parents' histories. It has given me a closeness to them that surprises and delights me. I've made field trips into Utah to see where my mother was born and then again where she got her elementary education." When asked to give advice to those considering the program, Mrs. Arnett replied thoughtfully, "I think everyone has a story to tell. It might be a very short story, but every individual is completely unique. Well, maybe not completely unique, because we follow the trends of our society but we each do it in our own unique way. And each person has agency to decide, and is responsible for their own decisions. For instance, nobody can force you to do anything you don't want to do. They might force you physically, but they cannot take away your agency to decide what you will do, or how you will react. Therefore, each one of us is totally responsible for our own decisions." As a woman who has lived "for at least six weeks in sixteen different states and two foreign countries (Australia and Japan)," Mrs. Arnett does not shy away from new experiences. "I love all people, but I think it's a treat when I'm with (or reading about) people who have the same general objectives, namely to express themselves vocally and in print and thus pass on ideas and ideals." Dale Louise Mervine is completing her M.A. in the Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program. She lives in York, Pa. �AWP16 - Los Angeles The City of Angels welcomed Etruscan authors, Wilkes students and staff alike for the 49th annual AWP Conference and Bookfair. The Wilkes students enjoying dinner break at AWP. Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference and Bookfair, or AWP16, boasted over 12,000 attendees—in the form of authors, publishers, presses, writing programs, and staff. AWP16 featured 550 events, with over 2,000 presenters, and Etruscan authors participated in various ways: panels, book signings, and readings...both within the conference and at off-site events in the Los Angeles area. Etruscan, in conjunction with partner Wilkes University, hosted book signings featuring: Bruce Bond, Laurie Jean Cannady, Renée D'Aoust, David Lazar, Diane Raptosh, and Tim Seibles. Cannady and Lazar were also seen signing books at other booths around the Book Fair, while Diane Raptosh and Tim Seibles read and signed books at offsite events. Kazim Ali, Bruce Bond, Renée D'Aoust, David Lazar, Paul Lisicky, and Tim Seibles also served on panels throughout the weekend. Etruscan also co-sponsored the AWP Old School Slam and Open Mic which was held on both Thursday and Friday nights. Winners of the slam were awarded Etruscan gift bags, complete with their choice of three Etruscan books. Slam attendees flocked to Twitter, using #AWPOldSchoolSlam to enter their name for an Etruscan sponsored contest. One winner was named each night of the Slam, and the prize was a book of the winner's choosing. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of AWP, and the staff is already looking forward to the event, which will be held in Washington, D.C. from February 8-11, 2017. �Patience and Persistence: Making a Living With Writing Writing can be a lonely endeavor. When working on an individual piece, writers might easily find themselves cocooned Lori A. May. up in their own world. Eventually a writer may work with editors, agents, or others to get their writing into print, but the initial creativity and reshaping and editing the work is done in a somewhat lonely place. Not that we necessarily mind. We often need that quiet and alone time to get ideas down and to shape our writing. But then there are times we need each other, and we need a community to remind us that we share our lonely pursuit with many others. For those who have jobs outside of "just" writing, we share in those communities and can learn and grow in them, but these places are filled with all kinds of people, not just writers. When we come together at Wilkes for residencies, we are hyper-focused on our writing, our writing peers, and our writing experiences. We push aside the day-to-day issues of running a household, of working a nonwriting job, of caring for aging parents, growing children, and various pets. We take that time for ourselves, to focus on and revel in the one thing we all have in common: our love for writing. The Wilkes community is strong, and we feel that strength in January and June during our residencies. For the writers with non-writing careers, they need to shift their focus back to their regular lives once they return from residency. For those with writing-careers, perhaps they slide back into their lives a little more slowly, being able to savor the momentum they picked up at residency. In either situation, the time comes to turn back home and get back to work. Instead of waiting for the next six months to pass, however, and the next residency to begin, there are things a writer can do to enhance their creative side. Lori A. May, Wilkes alum and faculty member, has crafted a career out of her writing and has built that career out of patience and persistence. Below is an interview with Lori about her many hats as writer as well as how she balances her �professional work with personal writing, and advice for those just stepping in to freelancing shoes. What are your "writer" hats? I'm a big believer in diversifying one's portfolio, so I practice what I preach and wear many different writer hats. My main focus, of course, is on my own work: creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, occasionally. My work extends into freelance writing and editing, and I also travel extensively to guest lecture and teach at a variety of conferences and residencies across North America. Those are activities specific to my personal writing life, things that are important to my own development and role as a writer. I also teach and my primary gig is being a mentor in the University of King's College nonfiction MFA program in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I have a wonderful cast of students I adore and it's incredibly fulfilling to work with them as they craft their nonfiction books. Of course, the Wilkes community also knows I teach at the Wilkes residencies and I supervise publishing internships for River & South Review, our studentrun literary journal. So, yes, I diversify my workload, and always seem to be shuffling and adding shiny new things to my plate. What local communities do you involve yourself in as a writer versus "writer" as a job? It's a challenge being a "local" writer when I travel so much. I'm on the road for about 30,000 miles each year, and then in the air several thousand miles more, attending and speaking at a variety of events, so my "region" is North America. I'm a Canadian writer, transplanted to Seattle now after a near-decade in Detroit, and never seem to be in one place for very long. That being said, I feel it's important to involve myself in my many communities, so I have a sense of place and belonging among my peers. Wherever I am at the moment, I participate in reading series, both at the mic and attending in support of other writers. I'm also a member of a number of writing groups, both online and in person, that keep each other motivated and informed about writing craft, publication opportunities, and more. This can be incredibly fulfilling, and I value these connections I maintain. That sense of belonging in a community is important to me as we feed off one another's successes and cheer each other on during challenges. I hope I contribute to others' writing lives as much as others contribute to mine. I'm also a fan of book reviewing, and contributing to the conversation about contemporary publishing. Book reviewing keeps me connected to what's current, and is also a way I offer my time to the community. I also have to say how much I have valued the Wilkes community, both the experience of being at residency and keeping relationships with faculty and alums during the terms away. We have a �great source of inspiration among us and I am grateful for the many lasting friendships that have developed over the years. How do you balance your own writing: do you set aside time every day for journaling, for a specific writing piece you are working on, for this job, for that job--and how do you get yourself to focus on each individually and not get hooked up by one or another? Maintaining a specific schedule is not my forte, thanks to my travel itinerary. What I am consistent about, though, is making sure the writing always comes first. That may mean focusing on one larger project for the bulk of the day, or dabbling at a few smaller writing tasks, but writing is always number one. Whether I am traveling or at home, I try to start my day with writing new draft material each morning. This is the really rough stuff that wouldn't see the light of day, possibly for a time, or perhaps ever. This is my time to create, to be inventive, and to give myself permission to play. After that, I focus on the projects at hand, and that may mean an entire morning is spent on editing or revising a book project, then the afternoon is spent on promotional work or business matters. When I have student work come in for review, I schedule my time accordingly so they become a priority on my to-do list. When that happens, I'll usually do my morning writing first and then work on student material for the rest of the day. I also carve out a great deal of time for play and napping. Finding balance is always a challenge, but if I feel good and treat myself well, I work so much better. For those just getting into freelancing, or attempting to make writing their job, what advice do you have? What have you found works when it comes to balancing the work side of writing with the job side of writing? My biggest advice is to take it one thing at a time. A writer can't do everything all at once. Even though I am an advocate for diversification, I am not a big fan of multi-tasking. Writing, and its related activities, takes focus and time. Beyond running the laundry while I edit, I am not a very good multi-tasker. It makes me feel too disoriented. Instead, I tackle one to-do list item at a time, pay it the attention it deserves, and then move on to the next. For new writers, it can seem especially overwhelming to consider the writing, editing, pitching, social media and more that comes with the job, but everything is manageable in steps. Set goals for what you want to accomplish, then create a plan to make it happen. Strategic planning and realistic goal-setting are critical to keeping my writing life in order. That to-do list should also include friend and family time, quiet thinking time, and time for anything else that's important for self-care. That will help create a sense of balance. Any other anecdotal insights into making writing a full time job, or �how you weave your various hats together? I often have emerging writers come to me for advice on how to make a living and how to make writing their full-time profession. I'm always happy to hear about their goals and share some of my experiences, while perhaps offering insight into how to get things off the ground. What is most frustrating to me, though, is the impatience factor. So many times, a new writer wants everything to happen all at once, without paying mind to how long it can take to make a living out of this craft. Sure, for some people, it can seem to happen overnight. That was not my experience. My first paying publications were more than twenty years ago, but it has taken me years—decades—to get to where I am today. A livable wage didn't come to me overnight and even after my first and second novel, I was still maintaining non-writing jobs to pay the bills. I definitely want to encourage emerging writers on their paths, but I also hope to offer some reality checks that patience is necessary, and so is persistence. Writing can be a long-term profession if you go that route, but like anything else it takes perseverance to build a career. It's incredibly rewarding, but it takes time to make writing a full-time career. Lori A. May writes across the genres in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She edits, teaches, and travels as a frequent guest speaker--all the while drinking copious amounts of coffee. 
Her latest book, The Write Crowd: Literary Citizenship & The Writing Life, is now available from Bloomsbury. Also new from 2014 is Square Feet, a full-length poetry book, available from Accents Publishing. Lori is also the author of The Low-Residency MFA Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Creative Writing Students (Continuum/Bloomsbury), stains: early poems, and two crime novels. She's polishing up a travel/immigration memoir and, under the influence of caffeine, is at work on another manuscript. From 2004 to 2016: PWC Then and Now by Danie Watson The �Pennsylvania Writers Conference will be returning to the Wilkes University campus from August 5 to August 6, 2016. The conference is a two-day event designed to engage, educate, and empower the literary community. However, PWC 16 is not the first of it's kind. In 2004, Wilkes first hosted PWC, which featured Norman Mailer as the keynote speaker. Dawn Leas, Assistant to the President and M.F.A '09, attended the conference, which was held from June 25-26, 2004. She said that her most memorable moment was hearing Mailer speak, which was one of the last times he was on the Wilkes campus. "Norman Mailer is one of those literary icons you grow up hearing about. He is always larger than life, whether it be in interviews, or in real life, or in the stories Bonnie [Culver] and Mike [Lennon] tell." Mailer's speech, which concerned point of view, plot, realistic characters, and the unconscious mind as part of the writing process, was so dynamic, Leas can remember where she was sitting in the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center. This year, PWC's keynote speaker will be Scranton native and poet, novelist, and biographer, Jay Parini. His works include Robert Frost: A Life, which won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for best nonfiction in 2000, New York Times bestseller One Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner, and Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal. Parini's keynote address will take place at 7 PM on Saturday August 6, 2016, in the Henry Student Center Ballroom. Behind the scenes of both PWC 2004 and 2016 is Margaret Petty, Director of Continued Learning. Petty is in charge of registration for 2016, and played a key role in 2004. She reminisces about 2004, noting that once Mailer was announced as the keynote, the registrations came tumbling in. However, the registration and submission process in 2004 was a little different. It was all done manually through snail mail. "People were mailing in manuscripts in boxes and envelopes, and we sent out invoices and welcome letters. All I remember is that submissions were stressful. They were in limbo in the mail—sometimes they were not received, or we would get them late." Petty says PWC 16 is a streamlined registration process since it's all done online—even submissions for the writing competition. Although registration is just like online shopping—cart and all—the Center for Continued Learning will be accepting calls to register those who are not comfortable with the online system. Like PWC 2004, this year's conference will include workshops, panels, �and craft classes in the genres of creative nonfiction, fiction, playwriting, poetry, and screenwriting. PWC 16 will also contain two plenary sessions: "Reviews that Mattered" by NPR's Fresh Air Book Critic, Maureen Corrigan, and another by the Wilkes faculty. When Leas attended the conference in 2004, she took a poetry workshop with Rashidah Ismaili, who urged Leas to apply to the program. Because of her obligations, Leas wasn't able to attend the program until January 2006, but her time at PWC 2004 sealed the deal with Wilkes. PWC 16 will include an element of competition. Like 2004, there will be a writing competition, in the genres of creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Submissions may not exceed five pages, and are due by July 22, 2016 with a $5 entry fee. Attendees may submit in all genres, $5 per entry. Winners will be awarded following the keynote address on August 6, and the awards are: $150 for first place, $100 for second place, and $50 for third place. Not only will there be a writing competition, PWC 16 will also include an open mic and poetry slam on Friday, August 5, from 7 PM to 9 PM. The events are open to the public for a $5 admission fee, and attendees may present for $5 per event. The influence of the Pennsylvania Writers Conference can be as large or as small as you make it. For Leas, PWC 2004 is still impacting her life today. Her latest poetry collection, Take Something When You Go, concludes with that very poem she wrote in Ismaili's poetry workshop at PWC 2004. Leas is excited that the conference is returning to Wilkes. "Bringing the conference back is a great idea; not just to recruit more students, but to provide more literary events in the area, and to offer an outlet to be part of a writing community." For more information about the Pennsylvania Writers Conference, and the schedule of events, please visit the Wilkes website. Danie Watson is currently working towards her M.A. at Wilkes University. She currently lives in Nanticoke, PA. Faculty News Faculty member Robert P. Arthur, with former Wilkes student, Francis Williams, won Chanticleer Book Award for PASSOVER in category of ghost novel. Arthur was also nominated for Library of Virginia Book Award (poetry) and Mary Lynn Kotz Book Award (poetry). �Faculty member Gregory Fletcher had an essay, Thanks, Dad, I Think published in Diverse Voices Quarterly, Volume 8, Issue 28. His short play Hangman is having its second production of the year in the festival Take Ten at the 13th Street Repertory at the end of April. Faculty member Rashidah Ismaili was part of a panel Saturday, April 2, held at City College, CUNY and Columbia University. She was also part of the PEN Voices International Festival April 25 – May 1 in New York City at various locations. Faculty member and M.F.A. alum Lori A. May taught a Master Class at The Banff Centre this spring, as part of the Creative Nonfiction Collective Conference. Other recent events include a reading at Seattle's At The Inkwell reading series, launched by Wilkes alum Monique Antoinette Lewis, and a workshop at Book Publishers Northwest. Lori is also attending the Canadian Book Summit in Toronto, Ontario, and presenting at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference this summer. Student News Molly Barari, M.A. alum '15 has been selected as a 2016 South Dakota Humanities Scholar. She has also been accepted to The Writer's Hotel Conference in NYC in June, under the mentorship of Scott Woven and The New Guard Literary Review. Over the winter, Molly created and taught a class for Community Education of the Black Hills called Heirlooms: Creative Life Writing for Seniors. Kimberly Behre Kenna, M.A. alum '15 had her poem, "First Day at St. Margaret's Shelter," published in East Meets West American Writers Review 2015 Winter Edition. Her poem, "Neap Tide," was selected for publication in the upcoming issue of Rubbertop Review. Craig Czury, M.F.A. alum '08 had Thumb Notes Almanac translated into Italian by Aldo Villagrossi and published as Non Pensare Ai Camion (Milano). Craig has poetry performances with actors & musicians in Soncino, Romanengo, Goito, Salsomaggiore, and Crema, with interviews on LOMBARDIA TV and Radio Alta in May-June. Brian Fanelli, M.F.A. alum '10 will have his new book of poems, Waiting for the Dead to Speak, published in September by NYQ Books. His poem, "What Our Cat Teaches Me in Dreams," was published in the spring issue of Stone Canoe out of Syracuse, and another poem, "Trying to Call Forth a Ghost," was recently published in the print anthology of the Kentucky Review. The anthology is a "best of 2015." The poems in it originally appeared on the journal's website. �Tyler Grimm, M.F.A. alum '13 will have his short story "Broken Smile" published by VOX, Elizabethtown College's literary magazine, in April. He has also been nominated for the 2016 Elizabethtown College Student Senate Engaging Educator Award. Nichole Kanney, M.F.A. alum '15 had her short screenplay, Fridge Mates, selected as one of two finalists for the 2016 Nashville Film Festival Family/Animated Screenplay Competition. At press time, we learned Nichole won this award. Congratulations! Dawn Leas, M.F.A. alum '09 released her poetry collection, Take Something When You Go, in mid-April by Winter Goose Publishing. She also recently had three poems, "Day Job," "Last Sunday in August," and "Sinew," published in Clear Poetry, an online journal based in the UK. Mark Levy, M.A. alum '08 has a book of essays, Trophy Envy, now at the printer. Monique Antonette Lewis, M.F.A. alum '12 At The Inkwell reading series launched in Denver, in February, and in Seattle, in March. She also welcomed Wilkes alumnae Kait Burrier and Andi Talarico, in March, as the new co-hosts for At The Inkwell New York. This July, Monique will launch the reading series in London, which will be At The Inkwell's first international presence. Learn more at www.attheinkwell.com. Margaret McCaffrey M.A. alum '15 had her story "Original Sin" - written in Taylor Polites fiction class - commended and accepted for publication in an anthology by Melaleuca Blue. Josh Penzone, M.A. alum '13 will have his short story "Rose" appear in The Critical Pass Review's upcoming winter magazine. Dania Ramos, M.A. alum '10 had two short plays in the 6th Annual OneMinute Play Festival at Luna Stage. Her play Hielo was featured in the New Jersey Women Playwrights Reading Series co-presented by Writers Theatre of New Jersey, Speranza Theatre Company, and Jersey City Theater Center. Lynne Reeder, M.A. alum '10 earned first place for her poem "Of Green Stuff Woven" and her poem "Colored" earned her the title of 2016 Perry County Poet Laureate in the 18th annual Perry County Council of the Arts Poetic Excellence Awards. Julia Steier, M.A. alum '10 had her essay about "Facing my Fear" featured in The Guardian.  �Heather A. Taylor, M.F.A. alum '14 has been promoted to Director of the McCann Learning Center at Bethany College. She has also joined the Etruscan Press staff as Production Editor.  Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! May 2016 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/9bc34c02b5ce7b847cbd3b49515ef061.pdf cb627b15a923ff94e46abe39bcbbcf8b PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives Revise This - March 2016 Revise This! | March 2016 Archives Archives 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 Marlon James with Kaylie Jones. Rearranging the Deck Chairs: An Interview with Kaylie Jones By Dale Louise Mervine When I first sat down with Kaylie Jones, it was to discuss Marlon James and his success. I knew she was writing a piece for Wilkes Magazine, but I didn’t know what it encompassed, and was uncertain what direction the n 2016 n n �interview should take. While Kaylie began with meeting Marlon, the conversation evolved into a discussion of work ethic, inherent talent, and frustration with the publishing industry. I had tapped into a side of Kaylie Jones that pulsed with the energy of her passion. That frustration led, in part, to the creation of Kaylie Jones Books, an imprint of Akashic Books. The masthead of the website reads, “The list of brilliant novels unable to find homes within the mainstream is growing every day. It is our hope to publish books that bravely address serious issues—historical or contemporary—relevant to society today.” While relating the story of meeting Marlon and reading what would become his first published novel, John Crow’s Devil, Kaylie tapped into that passion for finding and publishing a damn good novel. John Crow’s Devil is Marlon’s first book, published in 2005. His second book, The Book of Night Women was published in 2009. A Brief History of Seven Killings was released in 2014. In publishing, do you see a change happening? I spoke with Susan Cartsonis about the push in Hollywood for more diversity, and she noted that it’s not really happening yet. Do you see it changing in publishing at all?  Mainstream publishing to me looks like they’re rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It seems to me that the model is no longer working but no one has figured it out—they’re trying to figure out ebook lines, selfpublishing lines, the self-publishing Penguin line, Booktrope, whatever, but there are several problems. It’s a brand new world, like the Wild West with the Internet. This advent of self-publishing. It’s so easy to go onto Amazon and publish your own book that every idiot in the world who thinks they have a book is self-publishing. It used to be called “vanity press” publishing in the old days. And it’s still vain—egotistical and vain to think you can just slap a cover on your work and call it a book. I’ve always discouraged people from [self-publishing] because it’s creating a tsunami of really mediocre books and blocking the way of serious publishers who want to help get independent books out there to their audience. There’s a kind of disingenuous feel to self-publishing these days—which really annoys me personally—where writers don’t tell you honestly they’re self-publishing. The books are disguised. [Self-publishing] is very discouraging, and, in a way, has changed publishing. The whole picture has changed and no one really knows yet where it’s going to go. But hopefully, eventually, it will even out. I feel like I’ve had amazing students and amazing books published from the programs where I teach, and many successful books. I believe some people are lacking the willingness to do the work. Many want to be writers, but they don’t want to do the work; they don’t want to write. �Marlon does the work. He works tirelessly, all the time. How much of that do you see in the programs where you teach, where someone comes in with the talent and they don’t have far to go? There is a great spectrum with writing and it’s very interesting that you can compare it to ballet school. Kids will get sent at six years old to ballet school and the professional ballet teacher will pick out from that group ones who have the right body type, who have special agility, special grace. The teacher will start nurturing and grooming the ones who are going to be ballerinas. With fiction, you don’t need to be eight years old to start, but there’s the same idea: you start out with a certain proclivity, a certain talent, and a certain ear. Some people have an ear and some people don’t; I believe that can’t be taught. You can teach a decent writer to be a very good writer, but you can’t give somebody greatness, that magic. But I know a lot of writers I never thought would amount to anything—and I don’t mean in this program, I mean in my life—who have become bestselling, very successful writers. Marlon already had that in place, he just needed an opening. All doors were closed because our publishing industry is filled with cowards. They pigeonhole everybody. If you’re a black writer they’ll put you in a press called “Armistead Press;” if you’re gay, they’ll put you in an LGBT press, which is limiting. They’re curtailing readership by focusing on getting the readers that they think they’ll get. It seems Marlon wants to push against that assumption in the publishing industry. Yes, and he’s right. He’s pushing against 400, 500 years of colonialism too. All you have to do is look at The Last of the Mohicans for two minutes to see what the opinion of the “great white male” is, and what a woman’s role is. It’s horrifying. Marlon’s point is very interesting … he’s very brave … because he’s going against even the Jamaican conception of color and hierarchy. Being gay is illegal [in Jamaica]—you go to jail for life if you’re gay. Marlon is at risk for his life. He came out in a major New York Times article this year. Now, he’s like a different person, he’s so free from the weight of this. In school Marlon read all the classics, all the British writers, the colonials. Then he started branching out into anti-colonial African, AfricanAmerican, and Caribbean writers, who are pushing back against that sort of ingrained philosophy. �Did Marlon have that work ethic? He already had it. He’d already written a novel, he’d already revised that novel, and that novel needed a little work but it didn’t need substantial work, just a little revision. The Book of Night Women was his thesis from Wilkes. He wrote it in a year, so he really had the discipline and he really worked. Different people work at different paces; it’s not about speed. It’s about dedication and ambition and a willingness to really put that first in your life. Marlon was that dream student who has done the work already and is not coming to [their program] having watched too much TV and thinking “I’m going to write a sitcom and it’s going to be a novel,” but never having read a novel. That’s the worst possible situation because they’ve never read. They don’t know what it entails; they just know they want to be a writer, but they don’t know why. Marlon already had that dedication. He didn’t learn that from us, we just opened the door for him. That’s what we should be doing, opening the door for people who are really serious about pursuing a literary writing career. He does such a fantastic job with writing in dialect, when some writers struggle with that kind of writing. Marlon has such an ear for dialect, such a talent writing that. That was in John Crow’s Devil too, you could immediately see that he understood how to translate dialect into a readable English. I don’t find that dialect difficult at all. I think people resist it because they’re not used to it. That’s one of his great talents, and it’s unapologetic. Why would Marlon conform to our English when he’s Jamaican? When his Jamaican dialect comes from African tribes, and many sources who had English imposed on them when they were brought as slaves? There’s something very unapologetic about the way he uses dialect; it works very well. Marlon studied a lot of different colonial, as well as non-colonial, writers who used dialect in their fiction and adapted it to his own style. I don’t think there’s any rule that you shouldn’t use dialect; using it well is the problem. It could be terrible. Some people don’t do it well and they shouldn’t [use dialect.] It’s a question of ability. ABrief History Of Seven Killings is a demanding book and he’s not apologizing for it, making the book very thick, demanding, and emotionally painful for the reader. No Hidden Secrets: H. L. Hix on �Process, Publishing, and Reviews American Anger Etruscan Press, 2016 Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program advisory board member H. L. Hix teaches in the creative writing MFA program at the University of Wyoming. His latest collection of poetry, published by Etruscan Press, has garnered literary accolades and has achieved a trifecta of literary mentions: American Anger received reviews in Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and on NPR. In Library Journal, American Anger was included as a “Spring 2016 Poetry: Top Picks,” where it was described as “Instead of being downbeat…this dried-eyed collection is positively energizing.” �Publisher’s Weekly, points out that, “Hix’s book-length project joins other recent volumes in its corrosive anguish about a society both unequal and heavily armed,” and that it is “nothing if not unified: eight parts, each with many short segments in prose and verse, examine the word and the idea of anger.” NPR, which included American Anger in their 2016 poetry review, points out that Hix, “a prolific wellspring, froths, rages, boils over,” and that “unless you are made of stone, you will find, in these troubled and troubling times, some of your heart echoed here.” NPR, incorporated on February 26, 1970, has been in the forefront of public radio since its inception and it now utilizes the power of digital media to reach people all over the world. As H. L. Hix alludes to below, their power to introduce people to new types of literature gives writers of all genres hope for reception across the globe. Having published over 11 books of poetry and literary criticism with Etruscan Press, and over 30 books of translation, prose, and anthology in total, Hix isn’t slowing down. What are your thoughts on these accomplishments? It’s very gratifying. Poetry books receive very little attention in the world, so any notice or review is good news! And it is great in this case to be featured in these venues, because they are venues addressed to a broad public, not only to poetry readers, and this book does not only address regular readers of poetry. It is, for instance, a book about the election. The anger that is so prominent a part of the campaign rhetoric, and that is being expressed by voters, is not new or exceptional, and American Anger tries to understand it by putting it into a larger context. Can you give me some insight into your writing process, and perhaps some advice for other writers? Probably neither my process nor my advice is very remarkable, but maybe that’s good news: it suggests that there’s no secret that some writers have access to but that is hidden away from others. But the main feature of my process and my first piece of advice are essentially the same. The advice would be to find a time when you can secure “mental space” on a regular basis. For me, for my process, that’s way early in the morning, because it’s BEFORE frustrating committee meetings and before phone calls and so on, and because I can claim that time every day. But the advice is not early morning per se: the advice is whatever time you can make work in your life on a regular basis, whether that’s late at night or early in the morning or at lunch or (like William Carlos Williams) between appointments. Now that you've reached this level in your writing, do you think �about things like this when you are writing or working on publishing a book? I don’t think about things like book publicity at all while I’m writing. While I’m writing, I’m only trying to understand the world and my life, not to appeal to anyone. Once the book is written and the publication process kicks in, though, one has to “shift gears” and try to find and occupy those points of common ground that give others reason to engage with the work. What is the impact of being reviewed in publications such as these? Especially for poetry, the impact is great. Most people these days have been bullied away from poetry by bad experiences in school and by its erasure from popular culture, so few people will venture a new poetry book without some assurance that it might be understandable, for one thing, and might be worthwhile. To have Library Journal and NPR lend their authority to it greatly improves its odds of finding a readership. The Weekender is Off and Running in Wilkes-Barre Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Weekender Program Mesa Cohorts – March 5, 2016 In 2015, the Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program expanded its offerings with a new Weekender program in Mesa, Arizona. �During November 13-14, 2015, Wilkes hosted the Arizona Writers Conference to showcase the hallmarks of the program to members of the Mesa community. With various workshops and panel discussions on fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and poetry, Wilkes also offered instant enrollment decisions. The Arizona Writers Conference was designed in part to attract prospective students from Mesa into the low-residency graduate program and to provide a second option for those not able to come to Pennsylvania for the January and June residencies. The Weekender format delivers the class modules of each residency throughout four faceto-face weekends during each project term. Students complete their online work in the foundations classes while meeting faculty on the ground every seven weeks. While online learning enables students to engage with others in any part of the world, the one-week residencies in January and June facilitate interactions between students and faculty and allow everyone to enjoy the community of which they are now a part. The Weekender now takes that eight-day residency and stretches it out over the eighteen-week semester. This benefits local students who cannot take a full week off two times each year. In January, Wilkes expanded the Weekender format to the Wilkes-Barre campus. Two inaugural Weekender students, Janine Dubik and Samantha Patterson, began their project term with the rest of the 501 cohort in January—but their first Weekender ended on Sunday, January 10. They returned to campus February 26 –28 for the second Weekender. Janine described their experience: Our second residency weekend was fun. On Friday night, we attended the musical "Dogfight" at the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center for the Performing Arts. The student production was excellent; its small ensemble cast handled multiple roles as well as stagehand duties. The pit orchestra, under the direction of Ken McGraw [adjunct instructor], was outstanding. Since the weekend focused on Image and Voice, it was the perfect field trip. Bill Schneider is always thinking of ways to convey writing fundamentals as well as create interesting writing prompts. On Saturday, Samantha Patterson and I visited the Polish Room in the Eugene S. Farley Library, and we brainstormed our Archetype presentation, which is due during our May residency weekend. The creative writing program continues to be a learning experience. Some cobwebs still exist in parts of my brain. During my college days, I wasn't working full-time as I do now. It's a balancing act. �And now with the Weekender available in both Mesa and Wilkes-Barre, it’s a slightly easier act to balance. AWP 2016 Preview: Wilkes & Etruscan Press Ready for L.A. Dr. Bonnie Culver, Wilkes Creative Writing Program Director and CoFounder with Marlon James at the April 8th opening celebration of AWP's 2015 Annual Conference and Bookfair in Minneapolis. Photo credit: Robb Cohen It’s the biggest academic writing event of the year. More than 13,000 writers and publishing professionals from around the world will take part in the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s Annual Conference & Bookfair, happening in Los Angeles, CA, March 30 through April 2, 2016. The event attracts undergraduate and graduate students of all ages, faculty and staff members from creative writing programs around the nation and beyond, accomplished authors, publishing professionals from independent presses, literary magazine editors, and many other literaryaffiliated people. From hundreds of panels and a massive book fair to dozens of off-site events, it’s no wonder this conference is one of the most-awaited literary events of the year—whether for learning the craft and business of writing, browsing books and publishing opportunities, meeting friends, or networking with peers. The Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program is proud to once again be a benefactor of this literary event, and also to share a �book fair booth (1100) with one of their publishing partners, Etruscan Press. Not only will members of the Wilkes and Etruscan community be greeting attendees from their home base on the exhibit hall floor, they also will be educating and entertaining as part of panels, readings and other conference-related events. Here’s a preview of where you can find our Wilkes and Etruscan presenters: Meet Etruscan Authors One benefit to attending AWP is that you can meet Etruscan authors. Check the printed program and the AWP Facebook page. Below is the schedule, where you can meet authors and snag a copy of their work: THURSDAY, MARCH 31 1 p.m.– Laurie Jean Cannady (Hippocampus Magazine Booth, Table 118) 2 p.m. – Diane Raptosh FRIDAY, APRIL 1 9 a.m.– Renee D’Aoust 11:30 a.m. – David Lazar 2:30 p.m. – Bruce Bond SATURDAY, APRIL 2 10:30 a.m. – Laurie Jean Cannady & Tim Seibles Hear from Authors, Faculty Members, Students and Alumni at 20+ events Thousands and thousands of people submit proposals to present at AWP each year, and only several hundred are selected. Some panels that feature Wilkes and Etruscan authors are below, including Bruce Bond, Beverly Donofrio, Marlon James, Paul Lisicky, and Lori A. May; follow the links to learn more about the session and co-panelists. THURSDAY, MARCH 31 Noon to 1:15 p.m. – Bruce Bond: Dynamic Duos: Art & Words Collaborations, or How Prompted Inspiration Leads to Exhibition– Room 410 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. – Rachel Eliza Griffiths: Poetry, Politics, and Place: A Reading and Conversation with Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Luis J. Rodriguez, Sponsored by Poets House– Petree Hall 3 to 4:15 p.m. – Renee D’Aoust: Old Neighborhoods, New Locales: How Place Shapes Our Writing and Our Literary Identities – Room �408 B 3 to 4:15 p.m. – Tim Seibles: Beyond Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll: Far Out Poets Read Poems About the '60s.– Room 515 B FRIDAY, APRIL 1 9 to 10:15 a.m. – Kazim Ali: Necessary Hybridity: The Politics & Performance Of Making Multi-Genre, Multi-Media, Multi-Ethnic Literature Visible – Room 502 A 9 to10:15 a.m. – Fred Courtright: Phoning It In: Using QR Codes to Bring Poetry to a New Audience– Room 511 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. – Lauren Cerand: The Author as Entrepreneur: How to Build Your Writing Business– Room 408 A 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. – Marlon James: The New Globalism – Room 502 B 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. – Jim Warner: Two Sides of the Mirror: Writing About Body Image Across Gender– Room 402 AB 3 to 4:15 p.m. – Paul Lisicky: Story as Survival: LGBTQ Memoir–  Diamond Salon 6&7 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. – David Lazar: After Montaigne, Before Sunrise: Teaching and Writing about the Essays– Room 515 B 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. – Lori A. May: Should I Know Who You Are? Book PR for the Modern Age– Room 408 A SATURDAY, APRIL 2 9 to 10:15 a.m. – Beverly Donofrio: Writing the Spiritual Memoir– Gold Salon 1 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. – Shara McCallum: West Virginia Writers’ Workshop: How We Made It to Year 20; How Your Writing Conference Can Too!– Room 404 AB Noon to 1:15 pm. - Marlon James: Helping: A Tribute to Robert Stone– Diamond Salon 6&7 3 to 4:15 p.m. – Kazim Ali: A Tribute to Donald Revell– Room 403 A 3 to 4:15 p.m. – Julie R. Enszer: 40th Anniversary Celebration of Calyx and Sinister Wisdom– Room 407 3 to 4:15 p.m. – Toi Derricotte: (Still) Got the Juice: Fierce Writing by Women Poets of a Certain Age– Room 515 A 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. - Tim Seibles: Calling White Allies: What White Writers Can Do to Foster Inclusion and Support People of ColorRoom 409 AB Old School Slam The trend of having a Wilkes-affiliated, award-winning slam poet host the AWP Old School Slam continues. This year, Jeremiah Blue—a student from the Wilkes University Mesa, AZ, location—will host the Slam in Room 511, on both Thursday, March 31 and Friday, April 1, from 10 p.m. to midnight. �Off-Site Events Here are three events featuring Etruscan Press authors: March 31, 7 to 9 p.m. – Diane Raptosh & David Lazar reading at Gatsby Books April 1, 7 to 9 p.m. – Diane Raptosh reading at Flintridge Books & Coffee House April 3, 2 to 4:00 p.m. – David Lazar and Tim Seibles at June 2013 The conference program lists hundreds of other events in all sorts of genres at all sorts of venues; give it a look and make the most of your time in LA by attending events beyond the conference walls. Other AWP Announcements In addition to our program staff, there are a few members of the Wilkes Creative Writing faculty attending AWP. If you stop by Booth 1100, you might run into a few familiar faces including Becky Bradway, Susan Cartsonis, Beverly Donofrio, Rashidah Ismail Abubakr, Lori A. May, and Neil Shepard and two dozen students and alumni who will be representing Wilkes. Etruscan Press will be selling books at the booth with an option to ship the purchases home instead of stuffing them in overpacked luggage. On the Wilkes side, they will be sharing information about the lowresidency creative writing programs in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. and Mesa, Ariz. —including the new Weekender programs. Genres include creative nonfiction, documentary studies, fiction, playwriting, poetry, publishing and screenwriting. There will be details about the upcoming Pennsylvania Writers Conference (happening this August), and info about the various community workshops Wilkes has to offer. Follow Along with Us on Social Media Whether you’re right there with Wilkes in California or watching from afar, be sure to follow along with the action in LA on social media using the official conference hashtag, #awp16. Reps from Wilkes and Etruscan will be sharing moments from AWP, too. Follow along on Twitter with @WilkesUWriting and @Etruscan_Press—and also use hashtag #wilkesAWP. They’ll also share photos and updates on Instagram, and both Facebook pages: the public program and the private community Facebook group. �To learn more about Etruscan’s AWP activity and its featured authors, visit the Meet Us in LA page. Planning Ahead for 2017 If you won’t be in L.A. this year, it’s not too early to begin planning for 2017, when AWP heads back east, to the nation’s capital—perhaps more within driving distance for the majority of community members. The dates for AWP 2017 are Feb. 8-11, 2017—and it will be the 50th anniversary of the AWP conference. A limited number of conference registrations are available to students and alumni to help make professional development possible. Check with the Creative Writing office in fall 2016 to find out how you can get more involved with AWP.   Pennsylvania Writers Conference Returns to Wilkes University The Pennsylvania Writer’s Conference is returning to Wilkes University on Friday and Saturday, August 5 and 6. Faculty and alums are invited to submit their workshop, panel, or craft class proposal to Bill Schneider by April 1, 2016. The two-day conference is designed to engage, educate and empower the literary community. Last held on the Wilkes University campus in 2004, when Norman Mailer was the keynote speaker, the conference is open to adults of all ages, and includes an open mic and poetry slam, craft classes, writing workshops, and literary panels hosted by editors, film producers, literary agents, publishers, and writers. Scranton native and poet, novelist and biographer Jay Parini will deliver the keynote address. Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air book critic, will conduct craft sessions. $100 early bird registration is available until June 30. General registration $130 and students with valid school ID $40. Faculty News Faculty member Philip Brady's poetry received a 2016 Ohio Arts Council $5,000 Individual Artist Fellowship. This is his sixth OAC Individual Artist Fellowship. In addition, his essay, "The Man of Double Deed" was accepted for publication in Hotel Amerika. His essay, “That Lamp is from the Tomb,” is forthcoming in Poet's Quarterly and an essay, “Basketball at Sixty” appeared in Best American Poetry's Blog. Faculty member J. Michael Lennon has contributed the introduction to a new illustrated edition of Norman Mailer’s The Fight, his account of the “Rumble in the Jungle,” the 1974 championship match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. It will be published by Taschen �Books in the summer of 2016. Faculty member and MFA alum Lori A. May will be at AWP in Los Angeles, presenting on the panel “Should I Know Who You Are? Book PR for the Modern Age.” You will also find her signing books at Bloomsbury’s Bookfair booth #1207. Her book, The Write Crowd: Literary Citizenship & The Writing Life, was nominated for a 2016 Michigan Notable Book Award. She will be giving a featured reading at the Seattle Public Library, Ballard branch, this March. In April, she will be teaching a Master Class at The Banff Centre, as part of the Creative Nonfiction Collective Conference. Lori is also pleased to be a founding member of the Creative Writing Studies Organization, a new U.S. nonprofit focused on creative writing pedagogy. Faculty member Gregory Fletcher had a short play, Hangman, produced in March by Artistic New Directions in New York City. Entertainment attorney Jared Bloch is a New York based attorney who works with our program, He specializes in film and television development, production, distribution and financing. Jared has worked on such films as The Birth of a Nation, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival; Maggie’s Plan, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival; and the upcoming All We Had and Wolves, each of which will have their premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. Student News Amye Archer, MFA ‘11, had her memoir, Fat Girl, Skinny, selected as second runner-up for the Red Hen Press Nonfiction Manuscript Award. She will also be participating in the Woodstock Writer's Festival on April 10th as part of the panel: “Memoir A Go-Go.” Jeremiah Blue, current MA student, will have his spoken word video-one part of a dual, multi-media presentation on the intersection of social justice and slam poetry--published by TEDx, on their official website. A link to the video will be posted online soon. Blue has accepted the invitation to host the Old School Poetry Slam at the 2016 AWP conference in Los Angeles. Cindy Dlugolecki, MA ‘11 had her short play, “Birthday Surprise,” garner an "Honorable Mention" as one of the top ten plays submitted to the Jewel Box New Play Festival in Oklahoma. Robert Holly, current MFA student saw his Masters capstone screenplay, The Champion of The World, accepted as "Official Selection of the 16th Beverly Hills International Film Festival." Robert was also �hired by Penn State Worthington-Scranton this semester as an instructor in Communications. Paul Jackson, MA ‘14 had an article, “The Devaluation of the Written Word,” published in March in the journal, Elite Critiques Magazine (both a print and electronic journal). http://elitecritiques.com/ecm-magazine/ He also has a short story, “Hostility Issues,” published in the journal Our Write Side http://ourwriteside.com/ Nichole Kanney, MFA ‘15 has been accepted to The Writer’s Hotel Conference in NYC, under the mentorship of Scott Woven and The New Guard Literary Review. She will be reading at KGB Bar in June. Monique Antonette Lewis, MFA ‘12, saw her reading series, At The Inkwell, expand to Denver and Seattle. The reading series is also held in New York and San Francisco. Josh Penzone, MA ‘13, saw his short story "Falling Away" appear in the March edition of Five on the Fifth's online magazine.  Anthony Dolan Scott, MFA ‘14, had his poem "The Power of Heritage" published in the Winter issue of Echoes Magazine. His chapbook, The Year Things Came Apart, has been published by Maine Author's Publishing. Dates for a launch at the local university and for a reading at the local library to be announced soon. Nathan Summmerlin, MFA ‘16 has had three scripts selected as Quarterfinalists in three separate competitions. His short film script, Catcophany in the Blue Cat Screenplay contest; his sitcom pilot script, Empire Cafeteria, in the CineStory TV / Digital contest; and his web series pilot, Meat, in the Screencraft Pilot Launch contest. Ahrend Torrey, MFA ‘16 had his prose poem, “The Bird & I,” appear in issue 6 of Guide to Kulchur Creative Journal. Ahrend was also selected to write a featured prose piece “Three Little Words,” which now appears in issue 2 of Wildness. His poems, “Anorexia” and “It’s All About The Cards—” were published in POMPA 2015. Upcoming Workshop Opportunity: MFA student Caryn DeVincenti will be teaching a FREE three-hour workshop at Florida's Wellington Library on Saturday, April 9th, 2016. “Bewitched With The Wicked: How To Create Memorable Villianesses In Fiction & Non-Fiction, A Craft Workshop.” �Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! March 2016 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/9ccfdb0bbf60d0fd45bd85fcb8ffef47.pdf 106ccffca0ddb9eefa886303f56fa666 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives n Revise This - March 2015 Revise This!   |   March 2015 Revise This! Revise This Archives Archives Marlon James Continues to Knock ‘em Dead with Seven Killings Cracking Open Nesting Dolls More and More Alums Migrating “Home” to Wilkes Gaia: A Story of How Human Gardens Can Make for a Successful Screenplay 2017 2018 A Talk with Gregory Fletcher about his Shorts Revise This! - Guidance by Mentorship by Austin Bennett November 2019 Faculty/Staff Notes Student/Alum Notes Revise This! Archives Marlon James Continues to Knock ‘em Dead with Seven Killings  UPDATE Oct. 13, 2015: Creative Writing grad Marlon James '06 has won the 2015 Related Links Calendars & Schedules Campus Map Centers for Excellence 2015 n n �Man Booker Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings. He is the first Jamaican author to win the Man Booker Prize, considered one of the most prestigious prizes in literature. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Faculty Publications Graduate Bulletin (.pdf) Graduate Bulletin Online Graduate Student Handbook Library Office of the Registrar ------------ Online Learning Recently, Wilkes alum Marlon James has been making international Application news in the literary world with the release of his latest novel A Brief History of Seven Killings, which has been featured in numerous media outlets from The New York Times to BuzzFeed. The novel takes readers from the violent streets of West Kingston to New York, and then within the scope of a 30-year span, back to a drastically changed Jamaica. The story reveals the perspectives of a wide range of characters including gunmen, drug dealers, CIA agents, and spectral beings. The “briefness” insinuated in the title as well as its specificity of body count are belied by its near 700-page length and abundant body count, which immediately signals the reader to the novel’s weight, both metaphorical and literal. Even though James was born and raised in Jamaica, he has stated that his fiction is only minimally related to his own life story. In an interview with Biographile, he detailed how he (along with four other researchers) did extensive studies on the time period of the book, from the history of the CIA and The Cold War to back issues of High Times and Bob Marley books. Not incidentally, A Brief History of Seven Killings begins with the attempted assassination of Bob Marley and his family. James made an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, on March 3rd, and spoke candidly about the inspiration for the novel: “I was writing a story about this sexually-conflicted gay man in Chicago trying to kill this Jamaican guy.” He tells about how he “kept running into dead ends,” not only with this character but another, and he thought they were simply failed attempts at novellas until his friend Rachel told him, “You know this is one story,” which helped him bring it all together. Additionally, he relates that there are actually eight killings in the novel, but he retained its title because A Brief History of Eight Killings would be “so unsexy.” A Brief History of Seven Killings has been named one of the best books of 2014 by The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, The Huffington Post, The Seattle Times, The Houston Chronicle, Publisher’s Weekly, and many more. It also brought in the New Year by placing on the BBC’s list “The Top Ten Books of 2014.” Additionally, it was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, the second time he has been nominated for this award. The Book of Night Women, his Professional Pharmacy School of Nursing - Graduate Program Student Handbook Schools, Departments, Divisions �second novel, was also a finalist. James received his master’s in creative writing from Wilkes University in 2006, as a member of the first cohort and joined Macalester College’s English faculty in 2007. His writing has since earned an impressive list of accolades. John Crow’s Devil, his debut novel, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and The Commonwealth Writers Prize. It was also a New York Times Editors’ Choice. His later novel, The Book of Night Women won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award. Considering his continually growing array of success that is bolstered with each new release, Marlon has evolved from a student into a beacon of the program’s excellence. Cracking Open Nesting Dolls Salena Fehnel’s novel, Nesting Dolls, recently received the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and has served as a platform to talk about the cyclical nature of domestic abuse. Her novel starkly illustrates the patterns of behavior caused by parental influence through the narrated accounts of three generations of women and further highlights the struggles of the younger generations to forge a new path against the tide of those patterns. Fehnel explains, “domestic abuse is one of those imprints that seems to stick from generation to generation, with primarily the women choosing abusive partners. I wanted to write a story about breaking that cycle.” Nesting Dolls does just that by demonstrating the connection between mothers and daughters, and the trials they face. Fehnel continues, “since Nesting Dolls came out, I have had so many women come up to me at events and tell me that they are the first generation to break the cycle of abuse, which is incredibly gratifying to hear, since the book was inspired by such stories.” When Fehnel first started writing this story in 2004, Valentine’s perspective was dominant, but as she continued the story, issues of Valentine’s past left Fehnel with so many unanswered questions, other points of view began to emerge. Valentine, one of three main characters in Nesting Dolls, comes from a long line of dysfunctional relationships and neglect. In caring for her sixyear-old brother for the entirety of his young life, she comes to realize �how devastating and dysfunctional her family’s behaviors have been and commits to making change. The story shifts back to her mother Theresa, a pregnant thirteen-year-old and shifts again to her grandmother Caroline, who herself is in the midst of an abusive marriage. Each character’s narrative takes place in a similar age bracket, which helps to depict the divergent characteristic of the various time periods. Fehnel said her biggest challenge was “separating them enough that they felt like individuals.”  As the plot formed and their circumstances became more vivid, their voices evolved in riveting dialogue and subtext. “We all have family ‘stuff’ that we don’t share with other people that lies deeply hidden and is sometimes never spoken about,” Fehnel says. “Valentine’s is more visible to the outside world, but who she chooses to become, how she chooses to break the cycle, and ultimately what she does for the generation that will follow her and her brother, is done through love, a lot of bravery, and heart.” Fehnel’s second novel, The Payment Plan, is in the final stages of editing and will be released this summer. Her third novel Fortunemaker is in progress. When Fehnel isn’t writing, she is teaching fiction and aiding her students in finding their voices. Fehnel is also proud to be working on a project called A New Day, which is a GoFundMe campaign that finances domestic abuse kits for women in difficult and potentially dangerous situations. “It’s just getting started,” she says, “but I am dedicated to making it work because, like Valentine, Theresa, and Caroline, it could make the difference in entire generations to come.” More and More Alums Migrating “Home” to Wilkes “Attending Wilkes is my No.1 hobby!” says Florida native Michael Soloway, who has returned to the program to study fiction writing. While many alums stay both active and vocal in the Wilkes community beyond graduation, Soloway is a part of a trend of alums returning to the program to pursue additional degrees in either different genres or the recently added track in publishing. Alums are awarded for returning with a reduced tuition �rate and the advantage of knowing the ins and outs of the program and its substantial successes. For Michael, writing is no hobby; it’s a profession (though he does list among his hobbies a proclivity to the infamous Talarigo naps). He is the editor of Georgia Southern Magazine at Georgia Southern university as well as their assistant director of University publications. Among his current works in progress are a full-length play, two 10-minute plays, and a novel to boot. He also maintains a healthy habit of reading most recently with Gregory Fletcher’s new craft book, Shorts & Briefs, among others. Soloway was originally inspired to apply to Wilkes University after researching Beverly Donofrio. When he saw that she “teaches at the lowres writing program” at Wilkes, he “instantly applied.” Now he “can’t seem to stay away.” He compares it to a family like in the Godfather that keeps pulling him back in and challenging him in new ways.  As an ambitious student, Soloway originally studied creative nonfiction/memoir, which led to his own memoir, Share the Chameleon, about his attempt to liberate himself from the previous patterns of family abuse after he became a father for the first time at 41. He continued to explore this theme in his M.F.A. analytical paper, which examined the “masks [both literal and figurative] that people wear to hide fear, shame and guilt growing up in an abusive household.” Soloway was also fortunate and driven enough to have received a double concentration in playwriting with Greg Fletcher, who was instrumental in helping Soloway shape his memoir. He had a love for both genres, and, after writing the first draft of his memoir, he “wanted to let it sit, take a break from prose, and explore more of [his] love for the stage.” Soloway then developed, as the final piece of his M.F.A. creative work, a full-length play titled, “The Flower Rules,” which he composed under the tutelage of Jean Klein.  �Soloway notes that the Wilkes creative writing program has fulfilled all of his expectations so far, and though he has participated in other lowresidency writing programs at both Hollins University and Lesley University, which have been ranked as the “best,” Soloway believes, “Wilkes supersedes them in every way. This is one case in which numbers do lie. Rankings are nice to look at and brag about and refer to, but ultimately it’s all about comfort, structure and guidance.” He continues saying that “the ‘top’ programs are only tops if they’re the best fit for you.”  Beyond the curriculum, he stresses the importance of finding the right mentor (or mentors) to guide student writers. He also praises the cohort model, saying “lifelong friendships are made that way; it’s what gives Wilkes that family feeling.” Soloway admits to being a bit of workaholic having originally drafted his memoir in three months, and he has written in several genres. He says, “ultimately, I decided to return because I trust the people at Wilkes. It’s home. And I needed help in finishing a novel, something with a longer narrative arc.” He hopes to one day teach, and he knows that a M.A. in fiction will better his resume. If you are you a Wilkes alum, and you are toying with the idea of returning to Wilkes to pursue an additional degree, Soloway says, “I’m not a Nike guy; I like Adidas. But I say, ‘Just do it!’” “With the wide variety of mentors, genres, and experience Wilkes never runs out of skills to add to a writer’s toolbox and that makes it well worth the tuition.” Soloway knows that his time at Wilkes has been a cornerstone to his goals of publishing, producing, and teaching. He has been on the journey to becoming an author and full-time writer since the third grade, and he concludes with “even on those days when I’m not following my dream, I know it’s still following me.” Gaia: A Story of How Human Gardens Can Make for a Successful Screenplay Over the past year, Autumn Stapleton-Laskey’s science-fiction screen play Gaia has been the recipient of numerous awards such as first place in the Science Fiction category at the World Series of Screenwriting and first place in The Indie Gathering’s Sci-fi Feature Contest. Currently, it is publicly available to read, free of charge, on the Screen Writer’s Showcase and The Black List. The screenplay is set in a near-future world where human clones are grown in gardens to provide organs for non-clone citizens. The �very first clone, Gaia, “wakes up” at the beginning of a harvest season and head scientist Cecillia Roden, who happens to be Gaia’s creator, endeavors ceaselessly to understand how. Stapleton-Laskey worked on Gaia, which was originally her thesis at Wilkes, for about a year to a year and a half. During that time she lived on steady flow of Monster beverages. She ate, drank, and breathed the story as she fostered its evolution into what it is today.   Her original inspiration for Gaia came from an image while completing her screenwriting course. This image consisted of a body, lying in an incubator, and generating organs like a plant in a greenhouse. This became the basis of her “human garden” concept and the screenplay quickly grew from that image. According to Stapleton-Laskey, she outlined, wrote, edited, revised the outline, wrote, edited, revised the outline again, wrote, edited and repeated- again and again and again until Gaia was completed. She struggled with every aspect of this initial foray into screenwriting. She fought the expansive urges of the text and her own anxieties to limit her scope, though the world of the text invited so many other areas of exploration Additionally, crafting natural dialogue was an unfamiliar enterprise. However, despite the difficulties, she found that the process itself was a font of excitement. Supplementing its awards, Gaia also became a quarter-finalist for Shore Scripts, and when it took its initial top placement in the Science Fiction portion of the World Series of Screenwriting Competition, it garnered her screenplay further recognition which put it in the quarter-finals of both Shore Scripts and Story Pros International’s 2014 screenplay contests. She added, “I'm extremely proud that Gaia is appreciated by these separate groups, and the recognition gives me an extra grain of confidence that's so beneficial to the writing process.” Stapleton-Laskey advises novice screenwriters to stay true to themselves because “writing a screenplay that you hope others will enjoy is much like a relationship. You have to lean into preferences and expectations of others, but you also have to stay true to yourself, and you can't do that unless you know yourself.”  While writing Gaia, which is a sci-fi screenplay on the surface, many elements of horror found their way into �the script.  When faced with whether or not to cut these so that it would better fit the genre, Stapelton-Laskey, herself inclined toward themes of horror genres, decided to keep them. Her instinct helped distinguish her screenplay from others in the genre and shape Gaia’s success. Stapleton-Laskey hopes to one day see Gaia on a 20x50 foot screen in theaters, but she is currently working on several other projects, including an experimental film about a woman who accidently runs over her own son. Aside from that, Stapleton-Laskey is serving as the secretary for the board of the Dallas Screenwriters Association, which is a non-profit organization that serves the needs of the Dallas/Fort Worth screenwriting community. A Talk with Gregory Fletcher about his Shorts Recently released by Northampton House Press, Gregory Fletcher’s new craft book, Shorts and Briefs, highlights various concepts and tools for the aspiring playwright’s toolbox. He discusses “tips for story structure, building a character, discovering an individual’s vocabulary, and creating action within dialogue” within the framework of “short” plays. These kinds of plays are “a great place to begin as a playwright,” he says. “[They’re] the perfect learning tool before taking on a one-act or fulllength play.” Raised in Texas, Fletcher’s New Yorker parents brought with them their love of theater, and that love was quickly instilled in young Gregory. Such was his early fervor for the stage, that he was writing scripts while attending elementary school. This devotion, however, was merely a candlelight in comparison to the fire that would be ignited when he connected with his great aunt and uncle, Matilde and Theodore Ferro. Both incredibly successful screenwriters, they wrote for “such series as Peyton Place, The Patty Duke Show, Dr. Kildaire, Guiding Light, etc.” They also had a radio serial that ran for 14 years and wrote many teleplays for live television. At 10, Fletcher “discovered gold” in finding one of their actual scripts for Leave it to Beaver. He has been driven to write ever since. Conceptually, Shorts and Briefs is a craft book in two parts. First, �Fletcher uses nine of his own short plays as examples, not only for writers, but also beginning directors and actors to hone their own skills. He uses the term “short” as opposed to the more traditional “10-minute play,” because, while the traditional term relies on a stopwatch, a “short” play is limited to 10 pages and may or may not fall under the time restraints, given the choices of the director. The second portion of the book is a series of brief tips and principles that Fletcher uses when he writes. “[So] Shorts and Briefs not only became a literal description of the book, but also a play on words with men’s underwear. Which makes me smile. Not that men’s underwear makes me...next question?” Fletcher has had seven of his plays produced Off-Off-Broadway with several others produced in regional and university theaters, and he is currently a professor teaching playwriting at CUNY - Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. Shorts and Briefs is currently available on Amazon, and a reading will be held the At The Inkwell Reading Series at KGB Bar on East 4th Street in New York on Thursday, June 4th at 7 pm. Beyond the stage, Fletcher has also recently completed a fourth draft of his memoir entitled, Skipping a Generation and plans to begin a YA manuscript as well. Guidance by Mentorship by Austin Bennett Knowledge can be obtained through books and experience, but empowerment–that is beyond self. It is the parent who says, “I love you;” or the teacher who says, “I believe in you;” or the coach who says, “You got this;” or the spouse who says, “I trust you.” Trusting your own abilities does not come easy. Confidence is gained through failure. It also comes by way of continued encouragement and guidance. Mentorship is essential to success. There once was a particular academic tradition where professors referred to their students as “distinguished comrades.”* Education was built on mutual trust and respect. It was �a mutual endeavor built around camaraderie not mere selfreliance. Similarly, in the Ancient Near East, the Hebrews viewed those who pursued scholasticism as part of a family unit. Instructors were referred to as “fathers.” Students were referred to as “sons.”* Much like a child learning from a parent, students were guided by teachers for the betterment of self and community. In both traditions, a close-knit-community was formed around scholasticism and teachers were viewed as mentors. When I chose to pursue my M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Wilkes University I was promised a mentor-based education. At that time, I did not fully know what that meant nor did I whole-heartedly buy the rhetoric knowing the competitive nature of colleges. Yet, what I found was something closer to camaraderie and kinship than cool academia. I became at once a peer and a son. When I wrestled with choosing my creative thesis, fearing I was out of my depth, encouragement came in the most unlikely of ways. I had a dream. The program director, Bonnie Culver, came to me like a fairy-god-mother and squelched my fears by pointing to mentorship. She said, “That’s why we’re here.” When my wife gave birth to our first child mid-way through my creative thesis, my mentor, Jeff Talarigo, offered more than advice on writing: he offered fatherly advice. *Kuper, Abraham. Scholarship: Two Convocations Addresses on University Life. Trans. Harry Van Dyke. Grand Rapids: Christian’s Library Press, 2014. Kindle file. Originally published on the Wilkes Mesa blog:https://wilkesumesa.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/guidance-bymentorship-by-austin-bennett/ Faculty/Staff Notes Faculty member Beverly Donofrio was interviewed in HBO's series, Road Trip Nation, which was broadcast in January 2015. Donofrio's children's book, Where's Mommy? published by Random House, was selected as one of the 10 Best Children's Books of 2014 by the New York Times. Donofrio's essay, "Choosing," appeared in the anthology, Faith: Essays from Believers, Agnostics, and Atheists, edited by Victoria �Zackheim and published by Atria Books. Faculty member Christine Gelineau has an essay, "The Courtesy of the Gravedigger," posted on the New York Times Opinionator Blog: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/ courtesy-of-thegravedigger/ (December 21, 2014).  Faculty member Gregory Fletcher had his essay The Sealed Envelope read at KGB Bar for At The Inkwell Series on December 10, 2014. The essay will appear in the soon-to-be-released Anthology Being: What Makes A Man, published by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Gender Programs. Faculty member Wendy Hammond’s play, What You Will, opened on February 19, 2015 at the Cunningham Theatre in Davidson, NC. Staff member Dawn Leas read in January at the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival at Bridgewater College in Virginia. Her poem “Slipstream” appears in the 14th anniversary issue (December 2014) of ThePedestalMagazine.com. She has also received two Pushcart nominations this year: one from SwanDive Publishing for “Seaside Heights, 2012,” which appeared in Everyday Escape Poems, and another that allowed her to select and submit three poems for consideration. Faculty member Michael Lennon’sSelected Letters of Norman Mailer, published by Random House on December 2, 2014, was chosen as a book of the week by Publishers Weekly (December 8, 2014); and selected as an Amazon book of the month (December 2014) in the biography/memoir category. It has been widely reviewed, including the following: New Yorker, Esquire, TLS, New York Times, Weekly Standard, Washington Times, The Guardian, and The Artery (WBUR-FM), The Tablet, and the Daily Beast. Staff member Lori A. May has received two Pushcart Prize nominations this year: one for an essay, “The Comfort of Ignorance” published in the fall issue of Border Crossing, and another for a poem, “Place Settings,” from her new full-length poetry collection, Square Feet. Her latest book, The Write Crowd: Literary Citizenship & The Writing Life, was published by Bloomsbury in December. Lori’s work has also recently been published in Tahoma Literary Review, 1966 Journal, Pine Hills Review, and in issue 52 of Creative Nonfiction. Her next book, Creative Composition: Inspiration and Techniques for Writing Instruction, co-edited with Danita Berg, will be published in May 2015 with Multilingual Matters. Lori will be presenting a panel on literary citizenship at the AWP conference in Minneapolis and reading at Subtext Books. Faculty member Taylor M. Polites participated in a reading from the �anthology Knitting Yarns at the Wellfleet Preservation Hall in Wellfleet, MA on October 26th, a panel discussion on historical fiction at the Providence Public Library on November 2nd, and a talk at Roger Williams University on November 18th as part of the Mary Tefft White Reading Series. Faculty member Richard Uhlig's comedy film Can’t Dance was a 2014 Festival Finalist for Public Broadcasting's Shorts Showcase. Richard wrote the screenplay while at a Wilkes residency. In August his novel Mystery at Snake River Bridge earned a four and a half star review from IndieReader and made the IndieReader Approved list for best books of the year. Richard's feature screenplay Tammy is currently in development with Dikenga Films. Student/Alum Notes M.A. student Molly Barari was published in the Holiday 2014 edition of East Meets West literary journal. Her essay on South Dakota life appeared in the "Bridging the Gap" section. She also completed the Norman Mailer Center's memoir writing workshop with Kaylie Jones in Salt Lake City in July 2014. M.F.A. student Austin Bennett published his article, “Guidance by Mentorship,” on the Wilkes Mesa blog. It can be found at the following link: https://wilkesumesa.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/guidance-bymentorship-by-austin-bennett/ M.F.A. alum Kait Burrier has launched Union Square Slam, a weekly open mic and reading series, in New York City. Kait hosts the series, which features curated readings and poetry slams, each Monday at Bar 13 near Manhattan's Union Square. Two of Kait's latest poems, "On the Queensboro Bridge" and "The Earrings," were published online by Germ Magazine. She reads regularly, most recently at :Kiss*Punch*Poem:. M.F.A. alum Tara Caimi's memoir Mush: from sled dogs to celiac, the scenic detour of my life was published by Plain View Press, and her essay "Lucky Teeth" was published in Oh Comely magazine. M.A. alum Cindy Dlugolecki had an excerpt of her one-woman play, Violet Oakley Unveiled, performed at the grand opening of The Underground Student Union in the Capital Blue Cross Theatre of Central Penn College (Summerdale campus) in mid-January. Violet shared the spotlight with only one other performer: Maestro Stuart Malina, conductor of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. M.F.A. alum Brian Fanelli's poem, "Surviving Winter," was published in �the December issue of Two Cities Review, and another poem, "956 Johler Avenue," was published in the fall issue of Slipstream. M.A. alum Donna Ferrara’s short story “Arms Raised in America” was published by Amarillo Bay and her short story “Fairy Godmother” placed second in East Meets West Holiday Short Story Contest and will be published in Spring of 2015. M. F.A. alum Patricia Florio has been hired as an adjunct in the English Department of Brookdale Community College. M.A. student Kimberly Behre Kenna’s short story “Grotta Azzurra” won honorable mention in the East Meets West Holiday Contest. M.A. alum "11" Donna Malies had a production of her one-act play, "Broken," as part of Pensacola 24 Hour Theatre, March 21, 2015. M.A. student Margaret McCaffrey's story "Ironing" was read on the 'Cover to Cover' program for Vision Australia Radio (1179 am) and Iris (DAB+) on Sunday 11 January  2015. M.F.A. alum Linda M.C. Nguyen's short story "'A' Like in Math" was published by Every Day Fiction in September 2014. M.F.A. alum Laurie Elizabeth Powers' short script "The Importance of Sex Education" closed out 2014 by winning best short screenplay in the 16th LA Comedy Fest and was an official selection for the Houston Comedy Film Festival in February 2015. M.F.A. alum Michael Soloway’s essay “Share the Chameleon” has been selected for inclusion in the 2014 Sundress Press Best of the Net Anthology. M.F.A. alum Joseph J. Schwartzburt was featured in Savannah Magazine's January 2015 issue along with other local Savannah writers who are "the young cubs reclaiming [Savannah's] storied history from the South's literary lions—and rewriting it for the future." Also, as board member and performer with Seersucker Live, Joseph hosted an allWilkes line-up in February 2015 featuring Beverly Donofrio, Neil Shepard, David Poyer, and Lenore Hart who were nearby teaching workshops at the Ossabaw Island Writers' Retreat. M.A. student Ann Von Mehren is revising an article that's been accepted for publication by the Hellenic Mathematical Society International Journal for Mathematics in Education. �M.F.A. alum Alyssa Waugh's short story "The Stranger In The Glass" was published by Beyond Science Fiction Literary Magazine in December 2014.  M.A. alum Barry Wolborsky’s essay, “Like a (Pizza) Virgin,” appears on Medium, https://medium.com/@barrywolborsky/like-a-pizza-virgin7896d1b6a461. M.A. student Emily Wolfel’s short story,"His Tears Tasted like the Sea,” appears in issue 10.5 of Cactus Heart. Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! 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Archives Astonished: A New Memoir by Beverly Donofrio | Kaylie Jones Launches New Imprint Thom Ward on Tour with Etcetera’s Mistress | Faculty and Alum Work With Northampton House Press Announcements | Faculty & Staff Notes | Student and Alumni Notes   Astonished: A New Memoir by Beverly Donofrio Attendees of recent Wilkes residencies have had the pleasure of hearing excerpts of Beverly Donofio’s then workin-progress memoir. Now, readers around the world will be able to see the final result in print. The hardcover edition of Astonished: A Story of Evil, Blessings, Grace, and Solace has a release date of n 2013 n n �March 7, 2013. “It’s all so exciting,” Donofrio said of her reading tour. “There’s often a flurry of activity surrounding a book’s release, interviews and invitations to read or give talks. It’s a time of angst—am I doing enough?—and also the excitement of great possibility. Not only that the book catches on and sells like gangbusters but that my experience of discover and healing will illuminate, help, resonate with, encourage others on their own journeys.” Donofrio will be going to Washington State, California, Colorado, Texas, New York, and Connecticut on her book tour. “I’ll be seeing many dear old friends and even staying with a few of them along the way—even the little cat I had to give to my friend when I left my life to join a monastery. I tear up every time I think of the reunion,” she said. “It’s always so interesting to meet the people at the events and to hear a bit of their stories. In the past, and I suspect it will happen this time too, I am dumbstruck by how much we all have in common and I end up with a delicious familial feeling that I can carry with me for a while.” Donofrio’s Astonished is featured in the March issue of O Magazine in the list of must-read books for International Women’s Day. Kirkus Reviews has called this latest memoir “Honest, engaging, and cathartic.” As for the cover design, Donofrio said, “This book possesses, by far, the most gorgeous book jacket of any I’ve written, and it’s in the top ten of any book jacket I’ve ever seen. It’s the color of sunrise and has milagros sprinkled on it. Milagros are the little metal charms you find all over Mexico—of a lung, a foot, an arm, a head, a car, a pig, a key, a girl praying on her knees, you name it, whatever a person might pray for. It’s thought that the milagros, or miracles, bring miracles. On my book they are raised up so that they look like you can almost lift them off and put them in your pocket.” Astonished follows Donofrio’s spiritual path and how, during her continued search to strengthen her faith, she comes face to face with a rapist holding a knife to her throat. The journey that follows includes time spent at five very different monasteries. Readers are guided through the author’s experience of healing and learning to love life again. �Beverly Donofrio’s first memoir, Riding in Cars with Boys, has been translated into 16 languages and made into a popular motion picture. Her second memoir, Looking for Mary, began as a documentary on NPR and was chosen as a Discover Book at Barnes & Noble.     Kaylie Jones Launches New Imprint Wilkes faculty member Kaylie Jones has launched a new imprint with Akashic Books. Kaylie Jones Books aims to work with a cooperative of dedicated emerging and established writers who will play an integral part in the publishing process, from reading manuscripts, editing, offering advice, to advertising the upcoming publications. “Our first release will be Laurie Loewenstein’s Unmentionables, which is slotted for January of 2014, and will be a traditional publication with an ebook option,” Jones said. “However, we are currently hard at work developing an effective e-book strategy, which could speed up the process and allow us more publications.” In addition to Loewenstein’s book, other publications include Wilkes alum Barb Taylor’s The Sawdust Trail and alum Jason Carney’s Starve the Vulture. Also scheduled for release is J. Patrick Redmond’s Feeding the Christians. “No one will ever be able to pigeonhole KJB into one genre,” Jones said. “Our focus is to publish quality books that have a message that needs to be heard. We are a collective of dedicated writers taking a stand toward helping one another achieve our literary goals and dreams without answering to mainstream, ‘big business’ publishing.” For more news and information about the press, visit kayliejonesbooks.com.   �  Thom Ward on Tour with Etcetera’s Mistress Advisory Board member Thom Ward has been busy touring with his latest poetry book, Etcetera’s Mistress (Accents Publishing). On February 7, 2013, Ward read and recited poems at Georgia Tech’s McEver Poetry reading series at Kress Auditorium in downtown Atlanta. Ward said it was “a great crowd of students and the general public. It was the largest of the year with 318 people in attendance.” An AV of the event and Ward’s reading is available online here. The event began with an introduction by Thomas Lux. Our Wilkes advisory board member read with Georgia poets Laura Newbern and Dan Veach to a standing room only crowd. Ward sold more than forty copies of Etcetera’s Mistress, though he says he “did not have enough time this time around to rap Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.’” Thom Ward is also the author of Small Boat with Oars of Different Size, The Matter of the Casket, and Various Orbits.     Faculty and Alum Work With Northampton House Press New titles from Northampton House Press LLC, a company founded in 2011, includes Blood & Honor by Wilkes alum Chelle Ang, Ordinary Angels by Joan La Blanc, and Empyres: Bloodblind by Wilkes alum John Koloski. “It’s thrilling to see my book become a reality,” Koloski said. “I thought nothing could compare to seeing the ebook online, but then I held my first galley copy! That beautiful glossy paperback came with a note from Dave Poyer stating that there’s nothing like a new book in one’s hand. He was absolutely right!” Koloski has also taken on the role of Science Fiction and Horror �acquisitions editor, while Joan La Blanc acquires Romance, Wilkes faculty member Bob Arthur manages Poetry acquisitions, and David Poyer acquires all other genres. The Wilkes connection to Northampton House Press doesn’t end there. Poyer said, “Works are in production from Neil Shepard, Rashidah AbuBakr, and Ken Vose, along with several books by graduated program members.” This semester, Wilkes student William Horn is interning with the publishing house. “Northampton House publishes carefully selected fiction—historical, romance, thrillers, fantasy—and lifestyle nonfiction, memoir, and poetry,” Poyer said. “Its mission is to discover great new writers, especially those graduated from accredited MA/MFA programs who have not yet achieved commercial recognition, and give them a chance to springboard into fame.” The publisher aims to bring something new to the marketplace and to readers, particularly the kind of works that may be overlooked by large trade houses. “Watch the Northampton House list at www.northamptonhouse.com,” Poyer said, “and Like us on Facebook to discover more innovative works of high quality from brilliant new writers.”     Announcements Watch for an important new program announcement in the next issue! If you plan on attending the annual AWP Conference and Bookfair, taking place in Boston MA, March 6-9, 2013, you’ll find ample Wilkes representation. Faculty Gregory Fletcher and Jean Klein, and alum Laurie Powers are on the panel “The Ten-Minute Play: the Essential Ingredients,” Nancy McKinley is presenting on the panel “International Women’s Day Reading from Becoming: What Makes a Woman,” and Christine Gelineau will present on the panel “Second Sex, Second Shelf? Women, Writing, and the Literary Marketplace.” Jim Warner, alum and former assistant program director, will once again host the All-Collegiate Poetry Slam and Open Mic every night of the conference. Bonnie Culver, program director, is on the AWP national Board of Trustees and was a member of the Boston Conference committee. She noted, “There are more presentations this year than any other year in AWP history. It promises to be another fantastic conference.” For more information about AWP and the conference schedule, visit awpwriter.org. Don’t forget to stop by Wilkes/ Etruscan Press booth in the Bookfair! �    Faculty/Staff Notes Philip Brady took part in “The Next Big Thing” project and his interview is available at The Write Life. Bev Donofrio’s new memoir, Astonished: A Story of Evil, Blessings, Grace, and Solace, is now available. Christine Gelineau has a poem about Wilkes-Barre in North American Review. Jean Klein had a production of a 10-minute play, Life Swap, at the annual Short Shorts at The Venue on 35th in Norfolk VA. Dawn Leas has two poems, “Current” and “A Lesson on Resilience,” included in the special flood edition of Word Fountain. Her review of Ghosts in a Red Hat by Rosanna Warren appears in the January 2013 issue of Poets’ Quarterly, and her essay, “A Running List,” was recently featured on the blog, and i ran. J. Michael Lennon reports that Simon and Schuster announced a publication date of November 1, 2013 for his next release, Norman Mailer: A Double Life. The official biography of Mailer (who died in 2007), the founding chair of the Advisory Board of the Wilkes MA/MFA Creative Writing Program, took six years to write, and is approximately 340,000 words in length. Mailer was the keynote speaker at the June 2005 writing conference that kicked off the Program. His wife, Norris Church Mailer (also a distinguished novelist) succeeded him on the Advisory Board, and regularly attended graduation ceremonies for the Program until her untimely death in November 2010. Lennon’s biography is the first to use Mailer’s extensive correspondence (45,000 letters) and unpublished manuscripts, as well as interviews with his nine children and ex-wives. Mailer was married six times. His longest marriage was to Norris, from 1980 to his death. The Mailers established a scholarship in her name shortly after the Program was founded. Lennon co-founded the Program with current Director, Dr. Bonnie Culver. Nancy McKinley’s short story, “Sweet the Sound,” was published in Blue Lake Review. Kevin Oderman’s essay, “Trips Not Taken,” has been published in �shadowbox. David Poyer’s new book, The Whiteness of the Whale, was reviewed in Publishers Weekly. The book will be officially released April 3, but is available for pre-order now and David would like to remind everyone that pre-orders are a great way to help an author. Juanita Rockwell contributed a piece, “A minute comes and goes with all its possibility,” to OneMinutePlays.wordpress.com. Neil Shepard was interviewed in Delphi Quarterly. Thom Ward’s poetry book, Etcetera’s Mistress, was reviewed by George Wallace in BigCityLit. Student/Alumni Notes M.A. alum Jennifer Bokal worked as the managing editor for Paddlewheel, a literary anthology. Jennifer’s short story, “Infinity Plus One,” also appeared in the book and had its beginnings as an exercise in the Fiction Foundation course at Wilkes University. M.F.A. student Kait Burrier co-founded “Sixteenhundred,” a collaborative column that covers concerts and festivals across the country. “Sixteenhundred” features an event review by Kait and photos by Jason Riedmiller. It is currently published online and in print via The Weekender. M.A. alum Bobbi Button is hosting a series of “Write With Your Child” evenings for her 7th and 8th grade students and their parents. The first evening was a success with 26 people in attendance. M.F.A. alum Tara Caimi’s personal essay, “Lucky Teeth,” is forthcoming in the March issue of Fire & Knives. M.F.A. student Chris Campion has an essay, “Back to the Start: Reclaiming Your Voice and Confidence in Writing,” in The Write Life. M.A. alum Joe Cetta’s episodic novel, Parade Day: A Wholly Remarkable and 33% Non-Fictional Account of Scranton and its St. Patrick’s Day Parade, is now available on Amazon, published under the pseudonym Joe Goats. M.A. alum Kevin Conner recently had a short film produced; Pitchfork is �currently in post-production. Also, his poem “Translating” was featured in Naugatuck River Review, and another poem, “Skinny,” was featured in The New Guard Review. M.F.A. alum Craig Czury was a featured poet at the 2012 Semana de las Letras y las Lecturas, International Poetry Festival in Rosario, Argentina. His poems appear in the online anthology ¡Ríoparaná! and Aldebaran Review. His book, Kitchen of Conflict Resolution, was published as La Cocina de Resolución de Conflictos, translated into Spanish by Esteban Charpentier y Griselda García, ArbolAnimal Ediciones, Buenos Aires, Argentina. M.F.A. alum Brian Fanelli has poems forthcoming in the spring/summer issues of Poetry Quarterly, Popshot, and Eunoia Review. M.F.A. alum Patricia Florio is working with publisher Sue Richter on a literary journal. They recently worked on a special Valentine’s Days Issue of East Meets West, American Writers Review, available from Sera Publishing. M.F.A. alum Rachael J. Goetzke is working with The Osterhout Free Library on an in-house literary magazine. Word Fountain has just released a special full-color issue to benefit local flood victims. Copies of the magazine can be obtained from the Osterhout Free Library for a donation of at least $5 per copy. All proceeds will go to an account via the Luzerne Foundation to help still-recovering flood victims. M.F.A. alum Michelle Henriques-Wilson’s debut martial arts fantasy novel, Blood & Honor, has been e-published by Northampton House Press under the pseudonym Chelle Ang. The book is available on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo. The author has recently been interviewed by Monique Lewis for At The Inkwell. M.A. student Paul Jackson was interviewed by Monique Antonette Lewis for At The Inkwell, about his novel A Servant’s Story and the sequel which he is writing now. The sequel is called: A Servant’s Story: The War Years. M.F.A. alum John Koloski has e-published his first novel, Empyres: Bloodblind. It is the first book in the Empyres trilogy, with the next two books to follow in 2013 and 2014. The book is available for Kindle, Nook, and Kobo readers. M.F.A. alum Ginger Marcinkowski is now a monthly health columnist for Bookfun.org, whose readership is over 30,000. Her first novel, Run, River Currents, was a semi-finalist in the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Genesis Contest and received an Honorable Mention at �the New England Book Festival. M.A. alum Lori A. May wrote new book reviews for Los Angeles Review, Northern Poetry Review, and The Review Review. M.F.A. alum Jeff Minton was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s November 2012 Short Story Contest. His story, “Fake Rubber,” was written in his Fiction Foundations course. M.A. alum Lori M. Myers has a short story, “Cooking in a Room with Strangers,” included in the anthology Forever Families published by Mandinam Press. Also, her play Eleanor and the Christmas Carol, a modern comedic twist on the Dickens’ classic, premiered at the Grace Milliman Pollack Performing Arts Center in Camp Hill PA. M.A. student Linda M.C. Nguyen’s short story, “The Blind Side of Control,” has been accepted for publication by Notes from the Underground Magazine for March 2013. She was also the recipient of the Bergman Foundation Scholarship. M.A. alum John Plucenik’s quarterly magazine, IndependentNEPA, will top the $1 million mark in subscription/advertising revenue by the May 2013 issue. He credits his time in the Wilkes program for his continued success. M.F.A. alum William Prystauk’s short film Too Many Predators won Third Place at MoviePoet.com. The short will be entered in upcoming festivals. His quirky drama short film, Go Blue! A Post-Apocalyptic After School Special, is in production. His crime thriller, Bloodletting, will be shot by LGG Digital Films later this year. M.A. alum Dania Ramos’ play Hielo received public readings at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey’s FORUM Reading Series at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison NJ and the Arts on Division Festival in Somerville NJ. Mi Casa Tu Casa, a bilingual holiday show she cocreated, had its second production at Luna Stage in December 2012. M.A. student Nisha Sharma’s poems “Synesthesia” and “Perfect You” were accepted for publication by YA Review Network, an award winning literary magazine for teens. M.F.A. student Michael J. Soloway’s most recent essay, “Sticks and Stones,” will be published by Split Lip magazine in March 2013. M.F.A. alum Donna Talarico, founding editor of Hippocampus Magazine, reports that Hippo has received great media coverage recently, including coverage in Wood Stove House. �M.A. alum Barb Taylor recently sold her first novel, The Sawdust Trail, to Kaylie Jones Books and Akashic Books. Her novel will be released in May of 2014. M.A. alum Kevin Voglino’s second book, Times Square Kiss, is now available from Rogue Phoenix Press.   Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! March 2013 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/06ac23a5b711ee9fedbe116ac83d178c.pdf e4b4ac879b6cd17dd692e8118b38e249 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives Revise This! June 2017 Archives Pennsylvania Writers Conference Returns, July 30-August 5 Five and a Half Questions for M. Kilburg Reedy Here's to the Graduates! Archives News From Faculty, Students, And Alums Pennsylvania Writers Conference: Bigger and Better Than Ever 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 n 2017 n n �  Registration is open for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey. Pennsylvania Writers Conference! For the first time, four-day intensive workshops will be held before the weekend conference, offering participants small-group instruction and critiques. Spend a summer week in Wilkes-Barre honing your craft with expert teachers and motivated peers. Sign up now – space for the preconference workshops is limited! Register Now The weekend PWC event on the Wilkes University campus, August 4-5, will offer �craft classes in creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and National Slam Champ Jason Carney. screenwriting, pitch sessions with agents, a keynote reading by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, the annual open mic and poetry slam hosted by Def Poetry star and National Slam Champ Jason Carney, and literary panels with editors, film producers, literary agents, publishers, and writers, including a plenary session with Fresh Air reviewer Maureen Corrigan. Sign up at wilkes.edu/pwc by June 30 for the $116 early-bird registration rate for the two-day pass, which covers all conference events including the open mic/poetry slam and keynote reading. Regular price (after June 30) is $145, $75 for students 18 or older with a valid college I.D. The $395 PWC all-access pass includes the kickoff reception July 30, one four-day workshop July 31-Aug. 3, plus all conference events Aug. 45. Learn more about the four-day workshops and register here.  Preconference Workshops Ofer Four-Day Intensives Four-day pre-conference workshops will make the PWC experience richer and more personal for participants. Each workshop runs from July 31 to Aug. 3 and is open to adults of any age. Putting Together a Poetry �NPR Fresh Air reviewer Maureen Corrigan. Chapbook with Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr Participants will discuss and organize poems for a chapbook, begin a narrative poem to be completed and read on the final day of class, and read poets who may not be known to them. Each day will consist of homework, readings, personal work and guided instruction to increase each participant's ability to conceive a chapbook. Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr is a poet, playwright and writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her latest work is Autobiography of the Lower East Side, a novel in linked stories (Northampton House Press). Keeping Them Up All Night: Crafting the Thriller, Adventure, and Military Action Genres with David Poyer This four-day master class focuses on exciting stories told in an accessible way. Participants will learn the requirements and vocabulary of the genre, and craft an elevator pitch, scene outline, short chapter outline and the opening pages of a novel or novella, the basic tools to work on a full-length project of their own. David Poyer is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 40 books, including the Tiller Galloway diving adventures, the Dan Lenson novels of the modern Navy and Marine Corps, and sailing adventures such as �Ghosting and The Whiteness of the Whale. His military career included service in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Pacific, Pentagon, Arctic, and Middle East. Screenwriting: 5 Films/4 Days with Ross Klavan A deep reading and lasting look at five films that concentrate on structure to help you put together a film of your own. Screenwriting is about three things: "Structure, structure, and structure." Find out what that means, learn to use it, and get to see some terrific films. Ross Klavan wrote the film Tigerland (starring Colin Farrell) and the novel Schmuck (Greenpoint Press). He has been a voice actor, journalist, and screenplay writer for New Regency, Paramount and Miramax, among others. Creative Nonfction: Types and Techniques with J. Michael Lennon Understand varieties of creative nonfiction while learning about the key elements of craft: imagery, voice/point of view, character, setting, and story. Each participant should bring six copies of a nonfiction piece for discussion and a private critique with the instructor. J. Michael Lennon is the late Norman Mailer's archivist and editor, and author of the biography Norman Mailer: A Double Life. His work has appeared in Paris Review, The New Yorker, Times Literary Supplement and Creative Nonfiction, among others. He co-founded the Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program and has taught in it since 2005. Creating the World of Your Memoir with Judy Mandel You have a story to tell, a unique journey that can illuminate a path for others. In this workshop, we will discuss and write about issues for memoir writers, including choosing structure, events and scenes, narrative and commentary, theme, details, and perspective. When to tell and when to show, and what's the difference? What will your family say, and should you care? Judy Mandel is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Replacement Child (Seal Press, 2013). She is a writing coach, teacher and editor whose essays, articles and short stories have appeared in Kveller.com, Tishman Review, ASJA Monthly, The Southampton Review and elsewhere. Wonder, Disbelief and Fantastic Fiction: Writing the �New Supernatural, Dark Fantasy, and Fabulist Genres with Lenore Hart Forget the old tropes of shambling zombies and evil demons with bad manicures. More and more writers are creating deep, powerful stories with supernatural or magical elements, suspending disbelief and evoking wonder and unease, in realistic settings inhabited by well-crafted characters. Participants will create a project pitch, step sheet, complete synopsis, and the opening pages of a short story or first chapter while participating in brief readings and critiques. Lenore Hart is the author of seven novels, including Becky and The Raven's Bride, plus YA and children's books, short stories, poetry and nonfiction. She's the editor of the 2017 fiction anthology The Night Bazaar. People and Place with Nicole Dennis-Benn Setting provides a world for the story to take place. But more than that, setting reveals character—who they are, their culture and the social circumstances that shape them and affective the decisions they make. Through reading, writing, and discussion, we will explore how to use the physical environment as a characterization tool. Each student will write at least 10 short poems and two longer narratives, be critiqued twice in class, and have an individual conference with the instructor. Nicole Dennis-Benn is the author of Here Comes the Sun, a New York Times Notable Book and NPR Best Book of 2016. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Elle Magazine, Electric Literature, and others, and she teaches as visiting faculty in the M.F.A. Fiction program at Sarah Lawrence College. �Certifcate Workshops For an additional fee, two workshops offer university-granted certificates in either noncredit or graduate credit (3 credit hours) options. Each program runs four days (July 31-Aug. 3) and includes PWC registration. Certifcate in Literary Publishing with Philip Brady ($675 noncredit, $1,500 graduate credit) The certificate offers an in-depth, intensive immersion into the world of literary publishing, from large to small presses and various business models. Participants will have the unique opportunity to see two literary presses in operation, Etruscan Press and Akashic Books, and hear from professionals working in all areas of the publishing world. Philip Brady's latest book is To Banquet With the Ethiopians: A Memoir of Life Before the Alphabet (Broadstone, 2015). He is a distinguished professor at Youngstown State University and executive director of Etruscan Press. Certifcate in Arts Education with Barbara Taylor ($475 noncredit, $1,500 graduate credit) Invigorate your classroom and engage your students through creative writing. Learn to establish a writers' workshop or take your workshop model to the next level. Generate ways to manage grading, and leave with practical lesson plans to incorporate into your district's curriculum. Writers and nonwriters welcome. Barbara Taylor has taught English for 30 years in the Pocono Mountain School District. Her most recent novel, All Waiting Is Long (Akashic/Kaylie Jones Books, 2014), is the sequel to Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night, named a "Best Book of Summer 2014" by Publishers Weekly. Five and a Half Questions for M. Kilburg Reedy By Lisa Greim One of the special advantages of studying �for an M.A. or M.F.A. in the Wilkes University Creative Writing Graduate Program is the access the program gives to creative Attorney M. Kilburg Reedy teaches a legal issues seminar at each residency and makes herself available to answer questions one-on-one for students in the program. professionals. These people, involved in the marketplace for creative work, can give students realistic feedback on their projects. Each M.A. candidate's thesis draft is read by an outside reader—an agent, editor, theatrical or film producer—who also participates in pitch panels, question-and-answer sessions, and seminars. Attorney M. Kilburg Reedy teaches a legal issues seminar at each residency and makes herself available to answer questions one-on-one for students in the program. Along with expertise in entertainment law as a partner in the New York law firm of Feldman, Golinski, Reedy + Ben-Zvi PLLC, Reedy is a published playwright, songwriter, and theatrical producer with three shows in production in New York: the Broadway premiere of the new musical Come From Away; Nevermore—The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe; and Shear Madness. Somehow, she found the time to answer five and a half questions. 1) Attorney, producer, playwright, songwriter. What's the common thread? What makes you good at all these things? �I started off wanting to be a playwright, and moved to New York after college to pursue that goal. I was able to get a play produced when I was 25, for which I got a great New York Times review calling me a "promising playwright," and that play was successfully produced all around the U.S. and internationally, but I wasn't able to get the next few plays produced, so because I had to earn a living I went to law school and became an entertainment lawyer. I later became a producer because I love the business of theater and wanted to expand my role to including choosing and managing shows (elements that just being the lawyer doesn't offer). And I've continued to write, as and when I've found the time. I have a new play I'm trying to launch now called The Daughter of Time, based on a well-known British mystery novel that I got the rights to adapt.  2) Tell us about your three 2017 productions. What appealed to you about Come From Away, Shear Madness and Nevermore? They're all such different projects, but if there's a common thread in shows I choose to produce or co-produce, it's that they have to be unique in some way. My motto is, "Show me something I haven't seen before." Come From Away is a beautiful and uplifting story about the small town in Canada that welcomed 7,500 stranded travelers on 9/11, where the locals and the "Come From Aways" cared for and comforted each other during a dark time. Nevermore is a gorgeously designed, beautifully composed and written gothic opera about the tormented and transcendent life of Edgar Allan Poe. And Shear Madness is a one-of-akind theater experience in which the audience solves the show's murder mystery. 3) How does the role of a theatrical producer differ from a film or television producer? The two businesses are very different. My legal practice includes film production counsel work, but I've yet to produce a film. There is a filmed version of Nevermore in the pipeline that, if all goes according to plan, will be screened in cinemas in October 2018. 3.5) Come from Away has 40 producer credits, Nevermore 12. Do these producer roles mostly represent a financial investment, or are you involved in the creative or business development of a show? On Come From Away, my producing partner and I are co-producers of the show, not lead producers. Even though we were involved with the show starting in 2013, through its pre-Broadway development, up until it opened in March 2017, our creative and business input was not extensive. On the other hand, for Nevermore, we were the lead �producers, so we made virtually all the creative and business decisions on the project, and were responsible for raising all the money. You can tell our relationship to each project by the positioning of our credit— on Nevermore, our production company name (Radio Mouse Entertainment) is first, whereas on Come From Away we're somewhere in the middle of the pack.   4) As a playwright, what comes first to you in the creative process: characters or story? I think as a playwright I tend to be very story- and message-driven. I write when I have something I want to say, which I think sometimes means my characters suffer, because I don't do what some writers do and start by listening to the characters and letting them do what they want to do naturally.  In fact, the last two projects I wrote are based on pre-existing stories. One is a musical based on a Greek myth, and The Daughter of Time is based on a novel published in the 1950s about a 20th century Scotland Yard inspector who investigates whether Richard III really killed the Princes in the Tower or if he was framed by the Tudors, who succeeded him as rulers of England. It's a timely tale because it's about how a falsehood, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, without contradiction, can become accepted as fact. They say history is written by the victors. 5) What legal issues should rookie writers be paying the closest attention to?  It depends on what the rookie writer is writing. If it's something entirely original, there are very few issues that a writer has to worry about—the main advice I could offer there is, don't plagiarize. If a writer wants to do what I did and adapt an existing literary property that's still in copyright, the writer needs to hire a lawyer to negotiate and draft a license or purchase agreement with the owner of the property, to obtain the necessary rights. And of course, if a writer is writing a memoir or something else based on true events and living people, there are a host of legal issues that the writer should be aware of. All of these are issues that I cover in my presentation for Wilkes during the residency two times a year. After this interview was conducted, Ms. Reedy's Broadway musical Come From Away was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including Best Original Musical. It was awarded one for "Best Director for an Original Musical." Lisa Greim is an M.A. student in Creative Nonfiction at Wilkes University. She lives in Colorado. �Here's to the Graduates We congratulate the graduates of the Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program, who were awarded their diplomas at the spring graduation ceremony on Saturday morning, May 20, in Wilkes-Barre! M.A. Darcy Breault  Joseph Bryan Melody Breyer-Grell Deborah Canon Jeffrey Ford Allison Foulke Donald Granza Carol MacAllister Maura Maros Luke Morris Robert Peck Donald Roe Joseph San George Ora Smith Michael Soloway Ronnie Stephens Brian Thomas M.F.A. Anna Arnett Molly Barari Renee Butts Patrick Charsky Gabrielle D'Amico Robert Holly Suzanne Ohlmann Christopher Purita Martha Rallison Caleb Sizemore Hillary Transue Faculty News Kaylie Jones had three personal essays from "a series of essays on my bad mothering" published this spring. The Rumpus published "The Day the FBI Tapped Our Phones," Hippocampus ran "Bad Mother" in its June issue, and The Southampton Review's 10-year anniversary issue features "One True Friend."     �Dr. J. Michael Lennon is editing Norman Mailer's works for the Library of America, an anticipated 8- to 10-volume collection. The first two volumes, covering the 1960s, will be released in early 2018.  Before Harry Turtledove and Cherie Priest, there was The Shiloh David Poyer's latest book, The Shiloh Project. Project. David Poyer's alternate history begins with the victory of the South at Gettysburg in 1863. Today the Mason-Dixon Wall divides Union and Confederacy ... and many other things are different from the world we know. Available again in a new trade paperback edition from Northampton House Press, $12.95. Student and Alumni News Molly Barari (M.F.A. '17) has published her first book, Dakota Heirlooms: Stories from the Past. The book was published in April by Jean Klein's Script Works Press, a division of Blue Moon Plays. The book started as Molly's M.F.A. publishing project, mentored by Dr. Phil Brady. �Writing as Ann McCauley, Cheryl Bazzoui (M.A. '14) produces a monthly blog at www.annmccauley.com. She had two reviews published this month: Shame, Shame, I Know Your Name by Heather Harlan was posted on Story Circle, and The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah was posted on Writer Advice  (click Hooked on Books and scroll to the review).  Cheryl also recorded four book reviews for BookMark at WPSU, her regional NPR station: Time to Heal, American Epochs, Vol. 3, by Todd McClimans; Shame, Shame, I Know Your Name, by Heather Harlan; To the Stars Through Difficulty by Romalyn Tilghman; and Mom, Mania and Me, by Diane Dweller. Randee Bretherick (M.F.A. '13) signed a three-book deal with Camel Press. The first Carrie Shatner Mystery novel, Criminal Misdeeds, will be released in Fall 2018 under the name Randee Green. You can follow Randee at www.randeegreen.com and www.facebook.com/RandeeGreenAuthor. Last fall, Randee also worked as the script supervisor/PA/clapboard extraordinaire on the set of the Blue Iron TV pilot. Wendy Decker (M.A. '15) and her young-adult novel Sweet Tea were the subject of a feature story in The Link News, covering Monmouth County, N.J. Richard Fellinger's (M.F.A. '10) debut novel, Made to Break Your Heart, has been published by Open Books.  Brian Fanelli (M.F.A. '10) participated in two panel discussions at "Celebrating the Poetic Legacy of Whitman, Williams, and Patricia Florio's (M.F.A. '11) picture book, Puppy in Ginsberg: A My Pocket, will be published in June. Literary Festival and Conference," which was held at the beginning of June in Paterson, N.J. The panels were "Building Literary Citizenship and Expanding Poetry's Audience in Unlikely Places," which he moderated, and "Democratic Vistas: Whitman, Ginsberg, and Williams Among the Poets." In addition, he recently had poems published in Freshwater Literary Journal, Gravel, and Connecticut River Review. There was also a review of his latest book �of poems, Waiting for the Dead to Speak (NYQ Books), in the spring/summer issue of The Paterson Literary Review. Patricia Florio's (M.F.A. '11) picture book, Puppy in My Pocket, will be published in June. Pat Florio and D Ferrara (M.F.A. "13) edited Jewels of San Fedele, an anthology of work created at a memoir retreat in Chianti, Italy, led by Kaylie Jones and Judy Pat Florio and D Ferrara (M.F.A. "13) edited Jewels of San Fedele, an anthology of work created at a memoir retreat in Chianti, Italy, led by Kaylie Jones and Judy Mandel.  Mandel. Wendy Decker's Serenity Books was the publisher. Alums whose work appears in Jewels of San Fedele include Margaret McCaffrey (M.A. '15), Vicki Mayk (M.F.A. '13), Joanne Biles (M.A. '14), Carol McAllister (M.A. '17) and Beverly Major Schwartz (M.A. '09), who also designed the cover.  In July, M.A. student Lisa Greim has been invited to attend the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley's 2017 Writers' Workshop in memoir/nonfiction.  Gerald Gurka (M.A. '07) wrote and directed the play Portraits of the Passion, which was presented on April 7. Redemption, a collection of his Easter plays, was recently reissued by WordsOnStage,  and he's working on a Young Readers story for Northampton Press. Jerry adds: "My �greetings to all in the program which is an awesome part of my life!" Maureen O'Neill Hooker (M.F.A. '09) reports: "I am happy to announce the birth of my new book, Shelly's Heart, which weighs 8 ounces, and contains at least 50,000+ multi-syllable bon mots. It is a memoir of my heart transplant adventure that includes humor, horror, and useful information. It is a page-turner, perfect for a plane trip or afternoon on a porch. The profit will help the Shelly Whitman Endowed Scholarship for the child of an organ donor. To read it may inspire someone to become an organ donor (i.e. Hero!) and it will definitely help a deserving student at East Carolina University. My M.F.A. from Wilkes in 2009 and my post degree mentoring from Dr. J. Michael Lennon are the reason I persisted until now." Shelly's Heart is available on Amazon. Since graduating, Kamron Klitgaard (M.A. '11) has published 23 plays. The latest, Complaint Department and Lemonade, was the most produced play for the publisher, Pioneer Drama Services, with 178 productions in its first year (Sept. 2016 to April 2017). Mark Levy (M.A. '08), a registered patent attorney and member of the New York and Florida bars, has moved to Evergreen, Colo., and been admitted to the Colorado bar.  Dan MacArthur (M.F.A. '12) has started The Cookie Dude business, specializing in handmade, gourmet cookies. With funky names and descriptions for his creations, the business fuses his love of cooking and ridiculous word play. Check out www.thecookiedude.com.  M.A. student Tara Lynn Marta published a short story in The Humor Times, "A Day in the Life of a Would-Be Writer." Tara is also a contributing blogger for the American Writer's M.A. student Tara Lynn Marta published a short story in The Humor Times, "A Day in the Life of a Would-Be Writer." �Museum, and will do a reading for the Writer's Showcase at the Olde Brick Theatre in Scranton. Lori A. May (M.F.A.'13) spoke on a panel, "Don't Forget the Day Job: Preparing Creative Writing Graduates for Lifelong Careers," at the annual AWP Conference in D.C. That discussion is now online as part of AWP's Podcast Series. She has additional podcasts on the writing life available at SoundCloud, as part of her project grant with King County 4Culture. Lori recently led a workshop at Book Publishers Northwest and, as a board member of CCWWP, will be attending their national writing conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Vicki Mayk (M.F.A. '13) is teaching a memoir retreat, "Healing Through Our Stories," June 23-25 at the Farmhouse at Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center in Bangor, Pa. More info: vickimayk.com/healing-throughour-stories/ Linda Nguyen (M.F.A.'14) taught a workshop earlier this year about Cinematic Writing in Video Games for Montreal's Pixelles Game Writing Incubator. She recently sold reprint and anthology rights to her short story "Pre-Elementary, My Dear Monkey," which first appeared in RicepaperMagazine. She also became a Scriptwriter this year at Ubisoft Montreal. It's been a long-kept secret, but not anymore: she's working on Far Cry 5. Here's the official announcement trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdaoe4hbMso     Christoph Paul (M.F.A '16) edited and published the anthology This Book Ain't Nuttin to Fuck With: A Wu-Tang Tribute Anthology for CLASH Books. His nonfiction story "The Boy From Military School" was published in Civil Coping Mechanism's anthology, A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault and he is now a columnist for the writing and teaching site LitReactor.  Josh �Maureen O'Neill Hooker (M.F.A. '09) reports: "I am happy to announce the birth of my new book, Shelly's Heart, which weighs 8 ounces, and contains at least 50,000+ multi-syllable bon mots." Penzone's (M.A. '13) short story "The Storyteller" will appear in an upcoming issue of Junto Magazine. Lynne Reeder (M.A. '08) will have her poems appearing in three anthologies: The Soapbox Official Vol. 2, The Howl of the Wild by Winterwolf Press, and [Insert Yourself Here] by The Paragon Journal. Her book, Found Between the Lines, is available now on Amazon, featuring erasure poetry paired with short stories and personal essays. Bill Schneider's (M.F.A. '14) short story "The Funicular" was accepted for publication by Hamline University's HamLitJournal.  Ahrend Torrey (M.F.A. '16) is currently working on a collection of poems titled City Monk, which he plans to complete by the end of this year, and hopes to have published sometime in 2018. In April, his poems "Walking the Dog," "City Monk," and "Feeding Ducks at Lafreniere Park" were published in Anti-Heroin Chic. His poem "Tiny Dancer" was also published in April by The Ravens Perch. Forthcoming in June. His poems will appear in One Person's Trash, The Seethingographer, Edify Fiction, Clear Poetry, and Young Ravens Literary Review. �Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Make A Gift Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map 84 West South Street �Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! June 2017 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/50fcdb221e6b0c8abd61efe21dbed52e.pdf ddba5096f0ff2431e917d18ec30e4385 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives Revise This - June 2013 Revise This! Revise This! 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 Revise This!   |   June 2013                                                                  Revise This Archives Revise This! Archives Book Trailers Trending at Wilkes | Wilkes Grads Earn National Recognition Post-Grad, Post-Production: Kevin Conner and the Big Screen Fantasy Comes To Life for Alum Lauren Catron | Success with MFA Internships in Education Announcements | Faculty/Staff Notes | Student/Alumni Notes |     Book Trailers Trending with Wilkes Writers Savvy writers are taking word-ofmouth promotions to a new level and reaching wider audiences through multi-media and social platforms. To support faculty member David Poyer’s n 2013 n n �latest novel, alum Laurie Powers produced a trailer for The Whiteness of the Whale. ”She was an incredibly hard charger to get this trailer done before the book came out,” Poyer says of Powers. While no one seems to be sure yet how such media impacts book sales, with the trend too early to completely monitor, Poyer says it’s a great addition to his promotional platform. “Macmillan linked their book sites to the trailer and it has already had over a thousand hits.” Powers has twelve years experience in visual effects and read an advanced reading copy of Poyer’s book to gather ideas. “I looked for phrases and images that stood out to me, or somehow defined the characters or storyline,” she says of her process. Her familiarity with the art form was also helpful in determining what would work for the project. “I know book trailers are becoming really popular as I see them everywhere, and I can say that I personally bought a couple of books after seeing promotional videos that friends posted on Facebook.” Short videos are easy to share on social media sites, Powers says, so the portable versatility lends itself to word of mouth promotion. “You can watch a small video on your iPhone on the bus for example. You probably wouldn’t open up a website and read book reviews on your phone,” Powers says, adding that “everything these days is promoted via multi-media, why should books be any different?” Justin Kassab, whose debut novel is scheduled for publication with Kaylie Jones Books, an imprint of Akashic Books, has latched onto the trend as well. Kassab says a book trailer was appropriate for his book, Foamers, as his “target audience isn’t the group reading book reviews; they are the people surfing Youtube for the next great clip to share with all of their friends. A book trailer has the potential to spread faster, farther, and to �more audiences, than traditional promotions.” Jones says Mark Dennebaum, Jr. and Twenty Five/Eight, a Scranton company, volunteered their studio and crew to produce the trailer. While the video is in its final editing, photos of the shoot are available on the publisher website and Facebook page. “With the younger generation of readers, who often choose their books based on trailers or on on-line marketing,” Jones says, “book trailers are much more effective than for older readers who still rely on book reviews and blogs, or word of mouth, to determine what they will read.” Kassab says the production experience was positive and a part of his creative process. He wrote the trailer draft and then Dennebaum finessed the final script “into something shootable,” Kassab says. “They let me stay on set and consulted me for decisions. Overall, I felt like a kid in a candy store watching something I had written come to life.”   Wilkes Grads Earn National Recognition M.A. alum Todd McClimans and M.F.A. alum Sandee Gertz Umbach have each recently been honored with national recognition for their creative works. While in the program, McClimans worked with Lenore Hart and David Poyer on his alternate-history middle grade manuscript, Time Traitor. The manuscript has been declared one of five finalists in the 2013 National Association of Elementary School Principals Children’s Book Award competition. “I couldn’t believe that my manuscript, Time Traitor, had been named one of the finalists,” says McClimans. ”I’ve been struggling to get my manuscript noticed in the slush piles of many agencies. Becoming a finalist let me know that I had written a viable story and that I do have a chance at achieving my dream.” Sandee Gertz Umbach took 2nd place in the Working Class Studies Association’s national “Tillie Olsen” Award for Creative Writing for her published book of poetry, The Pattern Maker’s Daughter. Each year, the WCSA issues a number of awards to recognize the best new work in the field of working-class studies. The review process is organized by the past-president of the WCSA, and �submissions are judged by a panel of three readers for each of the five categories of awards. Comments from judges included this remark: “Sandra Gertz Umbach has a fresh way of seeing the everydayness of working lives.” While in the program, Gertz Umbach worked with Neil Shepard. The alum says her mentor “helped me to push to the finish line on this book when at times it seemed impossible.” McClimans also credits the Wilkes writing program for the development and success of his project. “I can’t overstate how much I learned from David Poyer and Lenore Hart,” the alum says. “Dave taught me how to take an idea from beginning to end with the dreaded outline, to hone my voice for brevity and exactness, to trust my story and myself, and to push through self-built walls. With Lenore, I learned to pull my language together and to further hone my voice to reach younger readers. I’m so grateful for their guidance, support, and friendship. I wouldn’t be here without them.”       Post-Grad, Post-Production: Kevin Conner and the Big Screen   M.A. alum Kevin Conner’s film, “Pitchfork,” is in post-production. The film began as a short film project during his time in the Screenwriting Foundations course taught by Ross Klavan. Conner says the film has a simple premise: “A no-luck farmer finds happiness again. It’s a basic love story, with just a few twists.” Since graduating, Conner has continued working with artistic directors Todd Oravic and Ryan Wood, both recent undergraduate Wilkes �students. “Working with Todd and Ryan has been great,” Conner says. “Their energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge made completion of the film possible. I learned an awful lot from them. They are two talented gentlemen.” Conner is thankful for his time in the Wilkes program for connecting him with the greater writing community. “In my opinion, this is the great intangible of the Wilkes program,” he says. “We all need help from others to keep projects moving along, and the program provides writers with the community necessary to see ideas through. It’s a very valuable resource.”   Fantasy Comes To Life for Alum Lauren Catron M.A. alum Lauren Catron says the Wilkes creative writing program has prepared her for what’s about to happen this summer: her debut novel, Changeling Eyes, will be published by indie press Booktrope Publishing. Between preparing the manuscript and planning for post-publication marketing efforts, Catron feels better educated about the publishing process thanks to her time at Wilkes. “It’s important to learn how to promote myself and do some of the work on my own,” she says, adding that contemporary publishing relies so much on the author’s efforts. Catron said David Poyer was “the most amazing mentor ever” as he helped her finesse her editing skills and make her manuscript the best possible prior to publication. “I still find myself reading books and thinking, ‘Poyer would never have let this slide’… I realized that when my book got published, it meant my books stood a better chance by comparison because I had Poyer in my corner. Thanks for getting me started, Dave.” Changeling Eyes is the first book in her series, The Aesir Chronicles, and “focuses on Lrill, her struggle with her powerful heritage, and the revelation that there is a core of truth at the center of every legend.” Catron says the series will offer an alternate history of Earth, spanning from the creation of the world to its destruction and rebirth. The alum says her favorite memory of attending the Wilkes program was “the moment when I realized any random member of the CW program was probably going to understand me better, as a person and a writer, �than anyone else I had ever known.” She is currently at work on the sequel to Changeling Eyes.   Success with MFA Internships in Education Earning real world experience is part of the Wilkes creative writing curriculum. In their final term, M.F.A. students have the option to pursue Education or Publishing internships as part of the 620 project semester. As a faculty supervisor, Nancy McKinley has seen many of her mentored students go on to secure post-graduate positions in local colleges. One college in particular, Elizabethtown College, has four Wilkes grads on their payroll: Rick Fellinger, Jeff Minton, Donna Talarico, and Tyler Grimm. ”I’m thrilled to see so many interns get hired for teaching positions,” McKinley says. “Their placement speaks to the value and professionalism of the M.F.A. Internship in Education. The interns receive training and experience in the Best Practices of Teaching that can be applied at the college level, Artists-in-the Schools, workshop groups, and secondary levels.” Alum Rick Fellinger tends to two roles at Elizabethtown College. He’s both an adjunct writing professor and a faculty fellow in The Writing Wing. “In the latter, I oversee the college’s writing tutors, mentor advanced writers, and hold writing workshops for faculty and community members,” he says. Fellinger credits his Wilkes internship for equipping him with the experience and practical tools to serve his students needs. “From the start, I was able to teach with a firm grasp of the writing process and I felt completely comfortable leading a classroom.” Such comfort and confidence is something alum Jeff Minton says not everyone possesses, which is why the internship experience is so valuable. “If your goal is to teach, take 620. There is just too much to know,” Minton says. “You need experience. Many applicants don’t have it, and given the extreme competitiveness in academia for English teachers, this will give you a crucial leg-up—not to mention a world of connections.” Many of those connections begin in the Wilkes program, and Nancy McKinley says the internships offer not only professional guidance, but also skills in balancing the creative success of graduates. “Throughout the internship semester,” she says, “the M.F.A. students have regular �online discussions that foster a community of writers-as-teachers wherein they share ideas, garner support, and remind one another about the importance of making time for their own writing.” Alum Donna Talarico combines her creative and professional skills in a position outside of the classroom. Talarico chose the Internship in Publishing and worked with Phil Brady to offer social media and website support for Etruscan authors. Now Talarico applies her combined skills as the integrated marketing manager in the Office of Marketing and Communications at Elizabethtown College. “Today, marketing writing is more about story-telling and less about selling,” she says. “I was able to contribute to establishing a new voice and personality for the college, and completely revamp our messaging and style. The craft portion of the M.F.A. program no doubt played a big role in this transition.” Talarico says her work day encompasses creative writing in every aspect. “I think the M.F.A., coupled with my communications background, gives me such a unique perspective on marketing—so much so that it has allowed me to innovate and, often, allow my institution to stand out from others.” The internship experience provided through Wilkes offers students concrete skills for the workplace—and a supportive learning environment that often translates to confident and compassionate instruction. After only two semesters of teaching, alum Tyler Grimm was recognized for his classroom presence when he was nominated for the Richard Crocker Outstanding Service to Students Award. Grimm says the annual award is decided by the students. “It is so important to me that these nominations come from the students and not from other faculty,” Grimm says. “It tells me I’m doing something right and making a positive impact even as I’m still honing my classes and teaching methodology.” Grimm credits his success to the Wilkes residency and internship, while giving a nod to faculty members Nancy McKinley, Lenore Hart, and Kaylie Jones. “Both Nancy and Lenore provided such insight and knowledge during 616 that I did not feel that overwhelmed when beginning my internship,” he says, adding that the development of syllabi, lesson plans, rubrics, and his pedagogical practices were also supported by Jones. “Throughout the program, she taught me how to provide feedback on students’ writing, which is obviously invaluable. The rest, though, came from working through questions and concerns with Nancy. Her approach to the internship is as individualized as possible.” An important part of the internship experience is encouraging M.F.A. students to balance their professional obligations with their creative ambitions. After all, our students are writers who came, first and foremost, to our program to explore their craft and pursue their personal writing dreams. “Our interns learn how to navigate time constraints whereby they find ways to balance writing with working as a teacher-ofwriting,” says McKinley, arguing that fulfilled writers create fulfilled �instructors. “Thus the interns bring a level of enthusiasm to the teaching environment that heightens their instructional delivery. I think that’s a key aspect of our success and why so many of our graduates get hired for teaching jobs.”   Announcements New Program Tracks: Ever thought you wanted to start your own press, e-zine, or literary journal? Thanks to the initiative of Akashic Books editor Johnny Temple and Etruscan’s founding editor Phil Brady, alums and current students now have the option of pursuing a Master of Arts in Publishing! This new track will open at the June 2013 residency. Wilkes alums will take only an additional 18 credits to earn the M.A. in publishing. Have you found the world of documentary film fascinating? The Wilkes low residency program has also added a Master of Arts in documentary film, which will begin in January, 2014. Like the new publishing degree, alums need only take an additional 18 credits to earn this degree. The curriculum is being developed now working with Robert May and SenArt Films and other to be named companies. Other program updates: Due to student requests, all M.A. graduates will have their area of study on their diploma, beginning with the fall graduation. For example, if you complete a screenplay for your thesis, your diploma will now read: “Master of Arts in Creative Writing specializing in screenwriting.” Beforehand, all diplomas simply read, “Master of Arts in Creative Writing.” Should you wish to return to Wilkes and specialize in another area of study, you need only take the last 18 credit hours to earn a second M.A. For more information on any of these new possibilities or to apply to any of the newly revised program tracks, please email or call Dr. Culver or Ms. Dawn Leas. Deadline to apply is May 31, 2013. Etruscan Press is delighted to announce that Dr. Jaclyn Fowler has agreed to accept the position of Managing Editor of Etruscan Press. Jackie received her M.F.A. and M.A. from Wilkes University’s Creative Writing program. Prior to coming to Etruscan Press, Dr. Fowler taught English, Creative Writing, and Education to K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and adult learners in both the traditional ground and asynchronous online classrooms. She also served several independent schools as head of their academic programs and sits on the PA State Board of Private �Schools. Dr. Fowler received her doctorate in Education and Second Language Acquisition from The Pennsylvania State University.   Faculty/Staff Notes Bob Arthur is heading up The Edge Theater, a new theater on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. His first show included two short-shorts: “GPS” by Bonnie Culver and “LifeSwap” by Jean Klein. Susan Cartsonis, faculty and advisory board member, was recently honored for her accomplishments in film by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America at their 6th Annual Women of Distinction luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The speech she gave is shared online on The Write Life. Susan also attended the Forbes’ Women’s Summit in NYC. Bonnie Culver has an essay in an upcoming anthology, Writing on the Water: Words on the Allegheny River, which is scheduled for publication with Mayapple Press. The anthology will include a CD with poetry and music from Jerome Rothenberg and Pete Seeger. Her essay, “Moon on the Water,” is about a month-long canoe trip Bonnie took in 1969 on the river. Gregory Fletcher’s short play, “The Moon Alone,” was produced in March by Artistic New Directions at the Shetler Studio Theatre, Off-OffBroadway. Jean Klein is coordinating HaveScripts.com, an e-catalog of plays available for stage, readings, and classrooms. Current Wilkes faculty plays available with HaveScripts include selections from Bonnie Culver, Jan Quakenbush, Robert P. Arthur, and Jean Klein. Dawn Leas has a poem, “Bonfire,” forthcoming in the 2013 issue of Connecticut River Review and two poems, “A Winter Conversation” and “The 6:45 Train,” forthcoming in the upcoming issue of Word Fountain. Her review of Water-Rites by Ann E. Michael appears in the April 2013 issue of Poets’ Quarterly, and she has work included in the forthcoming anthology, A Commonplace Book: A Community Memoir Project edited by Jennifer Hill. Dawn also wrote a feature article about the Wilkes Creative Writing Program for The IndependentNEPA magazine, owned and published by alum John Plucenik. She will also have a poem, “Seaside Heights, 2011,” in the Harbors and Harbor Towns-themed issue of San Pedro River Review, scheduled to be released in June. �J. Michael Lennon has a number of events planned for the summer and fall, leading up to the October release of his Mailer biography, A Double Life. Lennon also has a new website. Nancy McKinley’s short story, “No Matter Where,” received an Honorable Mention in the Westmoreland Arts & Heritage 2013 Poetry and Short Story Contest. Dave Poyer debuted two new books this spring: a novel, The Whiteness of the Whale, for which he was touring on Cape Cod and Nantucket recently, and an oral history, Happier Than This Day and Time, which he will be reading from on Hatteras Island, Kitty Hawk, and Manteo Island next month. M. Kilburg Reedy, our frequent visiting entertainment lawyer, is coproducing a new Broadway play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, starring Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce. The show has been honored with six Tony nominations, including Best Play, as well as Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics’ Circle nominations for Best Play. Juanita Rockwell was granted a writer’s residency at Wildacres Retreat, NC, and is directing Jordan Harrison’s Act A Lady for Iron Crow Theatre, playing May 25-June 8 at Baltimore Theatre Project. Neil Shepard’s new e-book, Scavenging the Country for a Heartbeat, is available from Northampton House Press.   Student/Alumni Notes M.F. A. alum Amye Archer was a featured reader at KGB in New York, as part of the At The Inkwell series. M.A. student Cheryl Bazzoui’s essay, “On Becoming Unplugged,” was published under her pen name, Ann Mccauley, in the February 2013 issue of Working Writer. M.F.A. alum Chris Bullard has had his chapbook, Dear Leatherface, accepted for publication by Kattywompus Press later this year. His fulllength collection, Back, is also scheduled for publication this year with WordTech Communications. M.F.A. student Kait Burrier’s monologue, “Gin on the Rocks,” was �produced by the Jason Miller Playwrights Project in Rock Bottom: Monologues About Starting Over at the Scranton Public Theatre. Her one act play “Spill” will be produced by Gaslight Theatre Company in their Playroom series during the last two weeks of June at Downtown Arts. Kait also had an article about The Office wrap-up party published in The Weekender. M.F.A. alum Tara Caimi’s memoir excerpt, “Without Words,” was published in Outside In Literary & Travel Magazine. M.A. alum Chris Campion, along with many other Wilkes creative writing alum, read the opening chapter from his new novel in progress, Office Fire, at New Visions Art Gallery for its bi-monthly writers and poets showcase. M.F.A. alum Jason Carney has three poems in the latest issue of Union Station Magazine. He is also now a contributing editor at Poets’ Quarterly. M.A. alum Erin Delaney was recently featured at the April Faculty Poetry Feature at Misericordia University’s Speaker Series, “From Mouth to Mic: Waxing Poetic II,” and was a Poetry Feature at New Visions Monthly Writers Showcase and Poetry Reading. She is currently working at Misericordia University teaching African American Literature, American Immigrant Literature, and Modern World Literature. She is currently teaching Sophomore Seminar at Southern New Hampshire University. M.F.A. alum Brian Fanelli’s poem, “Writing the Last Word,” has been accepted for the June issue of Spillway, and his poem, “Temp Worker,” has been accepted by The Oklahoma Review. A third poem, “Goodbyes in a Blackout,” was accepted by North Chicago Review. In addition, Brian recently enrolled in SUNY Binghamton’s Ph.D. program and completed his first semester in May. M.F.A. alum Patricia Florio’s short story, “Golden Boy,” was published in the summer issue of Newtown Literary. M.F.A. alum Jenn Freed recently published her young adult historical fiction novel, The Last Encampment, with Northampton Press. M.F.A. alum Sandee Gertz Umbach’s book, The Pattern Maker’s Daughter, received 2nd place in the national Tillie Olsen Award competition for Creative Writing given by the Working Class Studies Association. M.F.A. alum Virginia Grove published an excerpt of Break in the latest issue of Survivor’s Review. She was also a reader at Misericordia �University’s series, “From Mouth to Mic: Waxing Poetic II,” in celebration of National Poetry Month. M.A. student April Line’s column “Understanding Henry” will come out in the maiden issue of West Branch Life, a new publication of The Williamsport Sun-Gazette. She has also recently accepted a position as staff editor at Evolved Publications. M.F.A. alum Bill Lowenburg’s monograph, “Crash Burn Love,” was recently featured with a 14 picture spread on Slate.com’s photo blog, Behold. M.A. alum Laurie Loewenstein had a short story published in the Mondays Are Murder series from Akashic Books. M.F.A. alum Carol MacAllister was recently accepted in the Horror Writers Association. Alum Monique Lewis also conducted an author interview with Carol and wrote a review of her e-book, Mayan Calendar Reveal, which can be found at attheinkwell.com. M.F.A. alum Ginger Marcinkowski is now a regular column contributor to Book Fun Magazine. M.A. alum Gale Martin was featured at the Annual Book and Author Luncheon of the Willingboro chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) on April 26, where she gave an author talk, followed by a book signing. She will appear at the fourth annual BookFest PA, part of the 2013 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, on Saturday, July 13, 2013, sponsored by the Schlow Centre Region Library. M.A. alum Lori A. May was featured in an interview at r.kv.ry Quarterly Literary Journal, where she has new poetry in the latest issue. She also has an essay in a recent issue of Northern Cardinal Review. M.A. alum Todd McClimans’s alternate-history middle grade manuscript, Time Traitor, was declared one of five finalists in the 2013 National Association of Elementary School Principals Children’s Book Award competition. M.F.A. alum Chad Mullen’s book, The Mirror of Aberrantine, is scheduled to be published by Northampton House Press. M.A. alum Lori M. Myers had her short story, “Dante’s Window,” published in the inaugural issue of Rock Bottom Journal. She also recently interviewed singer Helen Reddy for an article in B Magazine. �M.F.A. alum Adrienne Pender’s thesis play, “Somewhere in Between,” will be produced at Theatre in the Park in Raleigh this September as part of their 2013-14 mainstage season. M.F.A. alum Sarah Pugh’s original series, “Killjoy,” made the Top 25 Semi-Final round of the Austin Television Festival’s Pitch Competition. M.F.A. alum Carrie Reilly will be teaching and writing in South Africa for two years while serving in the Peace Corps. M.A. student Bill Schneider has traded his surfboard for the Stylebook. He accepted a graduate assistantship with the Wilkes University Marketing and Communications Department beginning in late May. M.F.A. alum Joseph Schwartzburt reports that Amelia Gray, recent PEN/Faulkner finalist for her novel Threats, will be the headliner for Seersucker Live: A Literary Performance, Episode 7. M.F.A. student Michael J. Soloway will have an excerpt from his memoir, Share the Chameleon, published by Split Lip magazine in September 2013. Also, his latest essay, “I Submit to You,” is online at The Write Life. M.F.A. alum Rachel Luann Strayer has entered into an official agreement with Ellery Schaar of Repurposed Theatre in San Francisco, California, for the production of her play, Drowning Ophelia. Performances will be scheduled for the fall of 2013. M.F.A. student Edith Ajoke Morenike Trenou will provide editing, writing, and translation services at Saahelia.com. Edith, who is fluent in six languages, holds a master’s degree from the Sorbonne Nouvelle as well as an advanced translating and interpreting degree from Georgetown University. M.A. alum Kevin Voglino’s second book, Tea Time Boys, is now available from Rogue Phoenix Press. M.F. A. alum Jim Warner was a featured reader at KGB in New York, as part of the At The Inkwell series. M.F.A student Barry Wolborsky wrote an article for EW.com about The Office wrap-up party in Scranton. M.F.A. alum Morowa Yejidé joined University of Maryland University College (UMUC) as an online Adjunct Professor. She is teaching Advanced Technical Writing. �M.F.A. student Dawn D’Aries Zera had her work, “Disillusionment,” presented in May as part of a production of monologues at The Olde Brick Theater in Scranton. Also, her short story “Cuffs,” initially prepared for an oral presentation class during a residency, is in the summer 2013 edition of Big Pulp magazine. She also offered a reading in April at KGB bar, NYC, as part of alum Monique Lewis’s reading series At the Inkwell.     Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! June 2013 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/9a0aba5e6473c45a22cd4e2490411002.pdf d954f835073bf639142e3e6adff81671 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives Revise This - July 2016 Revise This! | July 2016 First Mesa Cohort Don Their Caps Archives Archives By Danie Watson   Three 2018 members of the first Revise This! - weekender November 2019 cohort of the Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program received their 2017 The first Mesa cohort graduates from the Wilkes degrees University Graduate Creative Writing Program on following a June 4. Left to Right: Anna Arnett, Michael ceremony Mortimer, Spencer Aubrey. held June 4 at the Mesa Center for Higher Education. These students enrolled in 2014, when the Weekender Program debuted at the Wilkes satellite campus in Mesa, Arizona. Among the M.A. recipients was 91-year-old Anna Arnett, who became the oldest Colonel to join the Wilkes Alumni Association with an M.A. in creative nonfiction. Arnett earned a B.A. in English education with a n 2016 n n �minor in history in 1970, and an M.A. in English education in 1973, both from Arizona State University. Two members of her cohort also completed their M.A. requirements: Spencer Aubrey in poetry and Michael Mortimer in screenwriting. Arnett worked with Dr. J. Michael Lennon to complete her creative nonfiction manuscript Forever Endeavor, which depicts the life and travels of her Mormon family, beginning with her grandparents, who moved out west 150 years ago. "She is a superb writer with an eye like a pair of tweezers for the telling detail," Lennon said. "She takes us through bad weather, swollen streams, Indian visitors, runaway horses, and lots of warm family stories of struggle and perseverance. She has polished and edited the story beautifully, and it will be of interest to all readers interested in the amazing pioneers of the westward movement in the midnineteenth century." Spencer Aubrey was mentored by Dr. Philip Brady to create his chapbook apokalupsis, which addresses the themes of walking through the stages of Christian life and homelessness through the eyes of someone who experiences both. Brady had nothing but praise for Aubrey's poetry. "Spencer is the real thing," he says. "He brings passion and urgency to his work, and he is in possession of an original voice that comes across on the page and through the air. His project has spirit and depth, and he brings an original perspective to age-old questions about love, God, and the power of the soul." Aubrey says that the relationships he made at Wilkes are paramount to his development as a poet and as a person. His advice to other students: "Build relationships beyond your cohort. I love my cohort, though building community with others beyond it has given me the opportunity to gain perspective on my writing and life in general from multiple angles." Michael Mortimer worked with Ross Klavan to create his screenplay An Idiot's Tale, which is a murder-mystery plot involving neo-Nazis, drug cartels, B-movie makers, illegal immigrants, and a possible war with Mexico. According to Klavan, "Mike writes like a pro and he works like one, too. He didn't hold back and he wasn't afraid of making mistakes so he trusted his own process. ... He worked draft after draft, understood the notes I gave him and made good use of that critique, and I got to watch him sculpt his story from an initial idea to a fully working narrative." Of the mentor/mentee relationship, Mortimer says, "As you work one-on-one with a mentor, the crucial thing becomes being open to constructive criticism and being willing to explore facets of your ideas that you never even thought of, as painful as that process can sometimes be." Arnett, who received a shout-out from Wilkes Provost Anne Skleder �during the May 21 commencement in Pennsylvania, said that Wilkes has kept her on target. The most important advice for anyone considering Wilkes, she said: "Know yourself. Figure out what you want to learn, find out if Wilkes offers it, and whether you can and will follow their lead, then have at it." Mortimer agrees. "This program reinvigorated me and, with the help of the awesome faculty, upped my creative abilities, while at the same time giving me a lot more confidence and opening my range of professional possibilities. On top of all that, it has introduced me to a whole community of like-minded individuals. As Wilkes Creative Writing Faculty member Sara Pritchard told me, 'You're now officially one of the creative freaks! Welcome to the tribe.'" Danie Watson is pursuing her M.A. degree in creative writing from Wilkes University. She has no idea what she wants to do when she grows up, and currently resides in Nanticoke, Pa., with her similarly named boyfriend Daniel and her two nerdy cats, Optimus Prime and Albus Dumbledore. Summer Creative Writing Workshops The Wilkes University Graduate   Creative Writing program continues to offer its writing workshop series, with three workshops this summer. Two workshops will take place on the Wilkes University Wilkes Creative Writing faculty member Kaylie Jones and her master class work on their memoirs in Spring 2016. campus, while one will be conducted online. Take a look at what we're offering this summer �and hear from the instructors themselves, all Wilkes Creative Writing alums. Adults of any age 18 or older, regardless of their education level are welcome. Registration is $60 for each series. Follow your passion, write your story, and learn to get published. Register for these summer workshops here. The Craft of Comedy 6-8 p.m. on Mondays – conducted online July 11 to Aug. 15 Instructor: Nichole Kanney M.F.A.'15 As a master's student, Nichole Kanney helped create a cooperative weekly online writing group, in which cohort members from all over the country still participate every Thursday. That activity spawned the idea of running an online workshop. "Since we're a low-res program, it makes sense to incorporate the online component students will experience, should they enroll in the program," Kanney says. To facilitate the class, Kanney says, "Every writer who signs up for the class will need a valid email, internet connection, and access to Google Hangouts. Hangouts allow us to see each other face to face, provided the users have a webcam, and has proven effective for three years with my weekly workshop. It's simple to use, and rarely has technical difficulties." Material to be workshopped will be emailed to class participants. Because her workshop will focus on comedy, Kanney will "examine the different craft elements that make comedy effective in writing: character, setting, and dialogue. Since comedy is not limited to one genre, I will pull examples from popular film/television (screenwriting), fiction, and creative nonfiction. The point is to go beyond the 'situation' and make the funny happen naturally, instead of feeling forced." Kanney disputes the notion that comedy isn't teachable. "I think that once you understand what comedy is and go below the surface jokes, it becomes easier to recognize what will make others laugh. This class is also great for the writer who may not necessarily be writing a straight comedy work, but wants to find a way to reduce tension in their story." Kanney recalls pitching a comedy script to Stephen La Rue, former creative director at 20th Century Fox TV. "I was laughing during the pitch. I apologized for laughing at myself, and he said, 'If you can't laugh at your own work, no one else will.'" Nonfiction Places and Spaces �Wednesdays, 6–8 p.m. July 13 to Aug. 17 Instructor: Vicki Mayk M.F.A.'13 Vicki Mayk, Director of Public Relations for Wilkes University and editor of Wilkes magazine, says she "wanted to teach a workshop that would allow writers—and me—to focus on one aspect of creative nonfiction. I actually saw a similar workshop offered online and thought a workshop that explores setting would be fun." She's excited to work on the various writing exercises with students. "Exercises involving setting, really any location, make for something that allows a writer to do something that is more physically experiential. It's a nice change of pace to do exercises that aren't just 'in our heads' or growing out of research." She's planning a field trip for one of the exercises as well. One of her goals for the class is "to see fellow writers have insights about how setting can better inform their creative nonfiction, whether they are working on memoir, a research work, or essays, and that they will think about setting in different ways." Essential Elements of Creative Nonfiction Thursdays, 6–8 p.m. July 14 to Aug. 18 Instructor: Sam Chiarelli M.F.A.'16 Workshop veteran Sam Chiarelli will be teaching his third class at Wilkes. For "Essential Elements of Creative Nonfiction," Chiarelli says, "I've taken both what I've learned, and ideas from my students, to create this new series. I want students to think of this as a six-week CNF boot camp." In this class, Chiarelli explains, "We are going to cover everything from structure and setting to dialogue and characterization. If that sounds like a lot to cover in six weeks, it is." Chiarelli notes that the class will be both enjoyable and intense because he will be assigning readings between workshops. "The concept behind this workshop is to learn to read like a writer, to take apart published works of creative nonfiction and find out how they work and why they're effective. Finally, we'll apply that knowledge to our own writing and editing," he says. Fiction and creative nonfiction use the same approaches to get different results, Chiarelli says. "The invented worlds of fiction are assembled to divulge great truths. Creative nonfiction is more about personal experience, connecting with other people through a journey that the �reader is invited to take." Nonfiction is powerful, he says, because the reader knows that the story is true. "The elements of fiction and creative nonfiction are similar, but the ultimate objectives are not the same. Whether students are working on chapters for a book-length memoir or just looking to create some essays, I think this workshop will be very beneficial to them. I'll be using a variety of sources—both essays/memoirs/books and craft materials." Chiarelli is excited about this workshop series, and looks forward to working with new students. "The students I've had in previous workshops have been so excellent. I know they are going to be up for this challenge. This is also a great workshop to take if you're new to creative nonfiction. Whether this is your first workshop or your tenth, you'll take away plenty to help with your own work," he says. Register for these summer workshops here. PWC: Catching Up with Corrigan and Parini  By Danie Watson   Designed to engage, empower, and educate the literary community, the Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, will host a plenary session entitled "Reviews that Mattered." Pennsylvania Writer's Conference is a two-day event held on the Wilkes University campus Friday and Saturday, Aug. 5–6. This conference will include a morning plenary session, hosted by Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, and feature a keynote address by Scranton native, biographer, novelist, and poet Jay Parini. Corrigan and Parini �are both   excited to return to the WilkesBarre area. Something about this area keeps him coming back again and again, Parini says. "I always feel drawn to northeast Jay Parini will deliver the keynote address following dinner on August 6. Pennsylvania, as I was born in Pittston and raised in Scranton—and I still have relatives in the Wilkes-Barre area." Because some of his work is set in the area, he believes it's important to come back to his roots. "It's important to keep in touch—physically—with this region," he says. On the other side of the coin, Corrigan is looking forward to her return to Wilkes to "speak to and hear from writers of all ages, at all stages of their careers, and from diverse backgrounds." Corrigan says that her job at Georgetown University surrounds her with students from 18 to 25, so she is enthusiastic about branching out and speaking to writers at all different stages of their lives. The Pennsylvania Writer's Conference will combine the literary communities of both Wilkes-Barre and the Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program. Corrigan and Parini touched on the importance of community and competition, and how this assists the writing process. Corrigan says, "It is crucial for writers to find a community of other writers and readers that they trust, in order to brainstorm, test out drafts of works in process, and get advice about agents, editors, and fellowships, among other things." �Parini also stresses the importance of finding a literary community, and says that he likes the idea of community-based writing. Since PWC is open to a wide range of adults, Corrigan says she's excited to meet conference-goers, "get recommendations for the work of writers [she] is not familiar with, and to be exposed to new voices and small press authors." To get the most out of the Pennsylvania Writer's Conference, Corrigan advises, "Attend as many events as you possibly can, and talk to strangers." Because the Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program is a community-based experience, the fun doesn't end with PWC. The Wilkes satellite campus in Mesa, Arizona, will host the Arizona Writer's Conference, Nov. 11– 12, at the Mesa Center for Higher Education. Keynote speaker will be Alberto Álvaro Ríos, who holds the Katharine C. Turner Endowed Chair in English and is a Regents' Professor at Arizona State University. Ríos' most recent book of poems, A Small Story About the Sky, was published in 2015 by Copper Canyon Press. Along with nine books of poetry and three short story collections, Ríos's memoir about growing up on the border, Capirotada, won the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Award and was the OneBookArizona choice in 2009. His honors include Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, PEN/Beyond Margins and Walt Whitman awards, the first Western States Book Award for fiction, selection as a National Book Award finalist, and six Pushcart Prizes in poetry and fiction. Danie Watson is pursuing her M.A. degree in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. Giving Back to the Literary Community by Danie Watson It's no secret that the Wilkes community fosters a love of literature �and the act of putting words on a Jason Carney (left) is the director of the Young page. What DFW Writers, which urges students to use their sets our writing to define themselves and their community surroundings. apart is what we do with that love and passion: share it. Two Wilkes alumni give back so often, it's become part of their jobs. Jason Carney M.F.A.'13 and John Winston M.F.A.'16 spend their time working with youth, encouraging them to read and use their skills to write about change. Carney is the founder and director of Young DFW Writers, which runs writing programs in high schools across the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, including the Dallas edition of the national Louder than a Bomb program. Young DFW Writers urges students to use their writing to define themselves and their surroundings. Winston founded the "Adopt an   Author" program to bridge the gap between authors and their young readers, and to create a John Winston (center) created the "Adopt an place Author" program, to create a place where girls where girls and boys learn to love reading and writing. and boys learn to love reading and writing. This program was born out of the first outreach �program he was ever involved in, which involved motivating middle school-aged boys to read. "The discovery of your own voice is one of the most powerful tools a person can have," Carney says. "When you define who and what you are. the world is powerless to strip those definitions from you. We live in a society where bias is the norm, the foundation, and we have to break that cycle. Writing is one tool to help break this cycle." Winston believes writing in underserved communities helps to foster "an essential and vivid imagination, something sorely missing in underserved communities. Seeds are planted in the writing process that germinate and grow through the reading process and have an immeasurable effect on the community as whole." For Carney, the most meaningful part of his outreach is the creation process. "Seeing a young person catch fire with poetry is so energizing. Watching them find belief in their abilities and who they are as people is a real gift." At the end of the process, not only have the students changed, they have changed him, he says. Winston was touched by a 15-year-old high school freshman who attended one of his workshops on poetry as lyrics and music in literature. This young man was so inspired that he attended the rest of Winston's workshops, and took his suggestion to put an element of music in his work. "He had even altered a piece of his own work by my last workshop to reflect that sentiment, and presented it to the rest of the attendees." Carney says that he believed his students had a larger impact on him than he had on them. In South Dakota, Carney worked in a juvenile detention center, where a 14-year-old boy made an impression on him. This boy had ties with the Aryan Nation, and had not been on a good path for quite some time. Carney "planted some seeds," and says that the last he heard, the young boy was improving his attitude, his grades, and his acceptance of other people. Wilkes has impacted both Winston and Carney's outreach. Carney says that Wilkes has "given him legitimacy," and he has become "an allaround better human being," who uses Wilkes as a standard in his outreach. "They set the bar high," he says. "I have to live up to those examples. Invest in other writers. Cultivate those examples. I need to give freely what was given to me." Winston agrees that he has to follow the example set by Wilkes. He says, "They lead by example and I will follow suit accordingly when it comes to my own outreach, and the various programs that present themselves." �Their advice for those who want to involve themselves in outreach: Get out there and do it. Carney comments that it is important to give on more than just Christmas and Thanksgiving. Danie Watson is pursuing her M.A. degree in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. Faculty News Faculty member J. Michael Lennon's review of Don DeLillo's new novel, Zero K, appeared in the May 6 issue of the (London) Times Literary Supplement.His review of Charles Strozier's Your Friend Forever, A. Lincoln appeared in the May 5 issue of Illinois Times. Student News Cheryl Bazzoui M.A.'14 reviewed two novels, All Waiting is Long by Barbara J. Taylor, and Tipping Point, David Poyer's new naval adventure, on the BookMark program of NPR affiliate WPSU. Under her pen name, Ann McCauley, she placed an essay, "Worse than Writer's Block," in the May/June issue of Working Writer Newsletter; reviewed Dimestore by Lee Smith in the summer issue of Writer's Advice; and reviewed All Waiting is Long on StoryCircle.org. She will be part of a panel, "Pennsylvania Fiction: What It Is and What It Does," at the Pennsylvania Writers Conference at Wilkes Aug. 5–6. Wendy Lynn Decker, M.F.A. student and author of YA novel Sweet Tea, shared writing tips at the Neptune Library in Neptune, N.J., in May, and discussed her novel with the library's young adult book club in June. Richard Fellinger, M.F.A.'10, has published a number of opinion columns on the presidential race in the Lancaster, Pa., newspaper LNP/LancasterOnline.com. Donna Ferrara, M.A.'14, saw her short story "Lucille" published in an anthology, Crack the Spine: XII. Her essay, "Snow White and the Art of Toyota Maintenance," was published in Stirring: A Literary Collection.  M.F.A. alumna Lori A. May had an essay published in Off the Shelf, the book blog of Simon & Shuster. She has jointed the masthead as a contributing writer for Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. Lori recently attended the Northwest Travel Writers Conference, and is wrapping up a series of events related to a new project supported by a creation grant from 4Culture, an arts organization in King County, Washington. Finally, Lori is quite pleased to have checked State No. 50 off the to-travel list. �Vicki Mayk, M.F.A.'13, published the personal essay "Shared History" on Literary Mama. Adrienne Pender, M.F.A.'11, reports that her play N is a finalist and will be performed in a staged reading at the Dayton Playhouse's FutureFest New Works Festival July 21-24. N is also scheduled for a staged reading at the Eugene O'Neill Festival in September in Danville, Calif., and will receive its fully staged world premiere at Theatre in the Park in Raleigh, N.C., in February 2017. Caleb Sizemore, M.F.A. student, had his dark comedy Stripped workshopped in July at Wolfbane Theatre Co.'s New Works Festival in Appomattox, Va. Donna Talarico M.F.A.'10 was published in mental_floss, The Guardian, Higher Education Network, Currents (trade journal in higher ed communications), and the Los Angeles Times, with forthcoming work in Games World of Puzzles, The Writer, and Currents. Donna appeared on ABC 27 in January and February for a social media segment, gave a writing presentation to NYU's social media group, spoke about communication planning at Leadership Lancaster's 2016 Leadership Advantage Summit, and presented at Wilkes' Tom Bigler High School Journalism Conference. She's scheduled to present twice at the Elements Web Conference at Penn State, and she had a storytelling workshop accepted for the HigherEdWeb Conference in Memphis in October. M.A. student Alan Yount created and published an adult coloring book, A Walk Around Nantucket, with his husband Scott Widmeyer. It is the first resort-centric coloring book in the United States. You can learn more about it here. Dawn D'Aries Zera, M.F.A. '13, was one of 10 finalists for the prestigious 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for socially engaged fiction. The award, founded by novelist Barbara Kingsolver, is presented biennially to the author of a previously unpublished novel of high literary caliber that promotes fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships. Zera's manuscript, titled Earth Teach Me, focuses on issues concerning the environment. Quick Links �Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Make A Gift Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map 84 West South Street �Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! July 2016 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/35da4df30c1966b0d3205caea73fb6de.pdf 343266765fc6e605ebf336aeba0eeb06 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives n 2012 Revise This - July 2012  Revise This! Revise This! 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 Revise This Archives Revise This! Archives Writing Program Welcomes Dawn Leas as Associate Director | Jim Warner Roast Boosts Jennifer Diskin Memorial Scholarship | Announcements | Faculty/Staff Notes | Student/Alumni Notes Writing Program Welcomes Dawn Leas as Associate Director The Wilkes Creative Writing program is growing and with progress comes change. The position of Associate Director was recently added and in a national call for applicants, Dawn Leas rose to the top and was selected to join the Wilkes team. As a Wilkes M.F.A alum, Leas is no stranger to the program and she admits her personal experience will influence her new administrative role. “This new position will give me the opportunity to talk about the strengths of the programs,” Leas said, “to share my own personal experiences as a student and alum; to provide support in terms of navigating LIVE, our online platform; to assist Dr. Culver in building new programs as well as managing daily office operations; Related Links Calendars & Schedules Campus Map Centers for Excellence Faculty Publications Graduate Bulletin (.pdf) Graduate Bulletin Online Graduate Student Handbook Library Office of the Registrar Online Learning Professional Pharmacy Application School of Nursing - Graduate Program Student Handbook Schools, Departments, Divisions n n �and to nurture a growing writing community.” In her past lives, Leas has worked in PR and marketing, actively using social media and community events to engage audiences. Leas said, “I will take this experience and apply it to my new position working closely with University Relations on marketing and social media, and with Dr. Culver, Joyce Anzalone and the graduate admission office on admissions. I am also learning the tech side of LIVE so that I can help guide faculty and students through its terrain.” In her role as Associate Director, Leas will build on the current strengths of the Wilkes program “while also looking at other avenues to best reach these groups to bring them together as a vibrant, dynamic writing community that interacts not only within itself, but also with the larger literary world,” Leas said. “I see the Wilkes Creative Writing programs as a place where we can all communicate about craft, trends in publishing, continued learning experiences, successes and milestones to help support one another in what is otherwise a rather solitary pursuit.” Jim Warner Roast Boosts Jennifer Diskin Memorial Scholarship The summer 2012 residency kicked off with a night of celebration, memories, and philanthropy. M.F.A. Alum Amye Archer planned an evening to honor the departure of one of its admins, but the night soon became more than a simple send-off. “The roast was initially conceived as a unique way to say goodbye to Assistant Director Jim Warner,” Archer said. “It was Jim’s very generous decision to donate all funds raised to a scholarship honoring Jennifer Diskin, Jim's friend and program alum who passed away in December 2011.” News of the fundraiser garnered huge support and the party was wellattended by faculty, alums, current students, and advisory board members. In addition to straight-up donations, a number of items—such as gift baskets and signed books—were donated for a silent auction. Archer said the goal of the evening was to raise $2,000, but the event brought in well over $4,000 in honor of Jennifer Diskin. “Jennifer was a bright light in our community,” Archer said, “and with the help of those who generously donated their time and money for the roast, as well as with the support from Jennifer's family and friends, it is a light that will continue to glow.” Announcements Faculty members who included students on AWP 2013 panel discussions are eligible to apply for student funding support from the Wilkes �University Mentoring Committee. Please contact Program Director Bonnie Culver for more details. Faculty/Staff Notes Gregory Fletcher’s new play, Uploaded, was read in New York this July. The play was read by Michael Learned, June Gable, and Phil Mills. Christine M Gelineau’s poem “Sockanosset,” published by The Paterson Literary Review, has been selected for the 2012 Pushcart Prize anthology. The anthology will be available in November. William Heyen, Advisory Board member, has just released Straight’s Suite for Craig Cotter & Frank O’Hara from Mayapple Press and Hiroshima Suite from Nine Point Publishing. A third title, The Football Corporations, is available from Etruscan Press this summer. Also, The Cabin: Journal 1964-1984 will be out from H_NGM_N Press by the end of the year. Ross Klavan’s film Tigerland is being remastered on blu-ray and includes an interview with Ross. Jan Quackenbush had a play performed in Germany this summer. Student/Alumni Notes M.F.A. alum Christopher Bullard has new poems accepted by Rattle, Waccamaw, Trincaria and Slipstream. One of his poems was chosen for the anthology The Best of the Barefoot Muse, edited by Anna M. Evans. M.A. student Kait Burrier will premiere a ten-minute play this September at Dionysia 12, the second-annual Jason Miller Playwrights Project Invitational. She will also be collaborating with The Pop Up Studio this October to introduce a theatrical component to Scranton’s Harvest Festival. M.A. student Christopher J. Campion’s short story, “Angel,” was selected as a finalist for East Meets West, American Writers Review Spring/Summer 2012 contest. M.A. alum Cindy Dlugolecki was the featured speaker in May for Sunday at Museum Square in Mechanicsburg PA. She presented a series of vignettes dramatizing the town’s colorful history and just as colorful citizens. Cindy’s M.A. thesis/play SNAP! was produced as a staged reading at the Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg in July. M.F.A. alum Jaclyn Fowler won first place in the East Meets West �Spring 2012 contest for her short story, “Swing Topping and Red Shoes.” She was also invited to attend this summer’s Norman Mailer Writers Colony workshop on Historical Fiction. M.F.A. alum Wendy Garfinkles’ poem “Stronger Than You Think” was selected as a Finalist in the East Meets West, American Writers contest and will be published in the Spring/Summer 2012 issue. M.A. alum Jerry Gurka’s play The Prodigal Sons was performed at Saint John the Baptist Church, Larksville PA this past spring. He has an article forthcoming in Celebration Magazine and Scripts Works Press will be publishing a second collection of his Passion Plays in 2013. Also, his play Murder at the Pierogie Wedding will be performed this August. M.F.A. alum Matthew S. Hinton developed PLAYROOM: An Evening of One-Act Plays by Regional Authors. The program ran this June at Kings College Theater, Wilkes-Barre. M.A. student Lori A. May has new creative nonfiction in Passages North, Hippocampus Magazine, and The Smoking Poet. New poetry has been published at Lansing Online News and she has new reviews published in Rattle, Los Angeles Review, and Northern Poetry Review. M.A. alum David McDonald’s short film, Choker, was a finalist in the 2012 Beverly Hills Film Festival. This piece was inspired by his work in the Wilkes Creative Writing/Screenwriting Program. Janis Productions is currently budgeting the project and several more producers in Texas and California are reading it. M.A. alum Lori M. Myers’ play The Serpents Egg will be produced by fellow alum Matthew Hinton at Gaslight Theatre in Wilkes-Barre. Her short story “Smoke” was recently published by Sunbury Press in the anthology A Community of Writers. M.A. alum Dania Ramos’ play Frozen War was read at the Arts on Division Festival this past May at the PCNJ Pop-Up Art Gallery, Somerville NJ. This was Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey’s second round of readings for the New Jersey Emerging Women’s Playwrights Project. M.F.A. alum Jonathan Rocks’ screenplay Luke Whimsey, which was his capstone for the Wilkes program, has been optioned by Triboro Pictures, and they are currently representing it at the 2012 Cannes Film Market in France. Program Note �The Write Life blog welcomes guest posts from faculty, students, and alumni. Email lori.may1@wilkes.edu for details.   Weekly interviews and literary news are shared online at http://wilkeswritelife.wordpress.com. Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! July 2012 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/810171703145a864e5b08bb128a96261.pdf 05d98eabd1fa8cd89d16ab59451e822c PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n Pay It Forward Introduced during the Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! Revise This! | January 2016 10th n The Arts n Archives Archives Archives Anniversary celebration of the Wilkes Creative Writing Program, Pay It Forward is a scholarship initiative for alumni and faculty to award new students entering our program. The $2,500 scholarship is credited toward the student’s first semester tuition expense. Sam Chiarelli, MFA ’16, was the first Wilkes alum to utilize Pay It Forward. “As a Graduate Assistant, I'd heard a lot about Pay It Forward and I thought it was a great idea. The Creative Writing program has been such a gift to me and I wanted to give that gift to others,” he says. “I taught a creative nonfiction workshop in the autumn of 2015 and I was fortunate to have an exceptional set of writers attend. They were a lively bunch,” says Chiarelli. "Janine [Dubik] didn't make a lot of noise during our workshop sessions, but as I read through the submitted essays and exercises, her work struck me. She tapped into some really universal themes, some transcendent fragments of reality that resonated with me. She had moments of absolute brilliance on the page, and yet I could see she had so much room to grow and become an even better writer. That's why I chose Janine for my Pay It Forward. She was ready to take the next step in her development as a writer.“ 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 n 2016 n n �Janine Pokrinchak Dubik, Wilkes '78, offers her perspective. “Until Sam's e-mail, I knew nothing of the Pay It Forward program, and I am honored he selected me. This was a deciding factor in why I applied for the creative writing program at this time. I have looked at the program for a number of years but hadn't applied until completing the five-week creative nonfiction workshop with Sam. If I hadn't taken the five-week workshop, I doubt I would have applied for the creative writing program now. I am grateful for the nudge from Sam to apply.” “The benefit for me will be watching Janine grow,” says Chiarelli. “Joining the Wilkes Creative Writing program was a major turning point in my life - the people, the environment, the inspiration is absolutely priceless for someone who wants to harness their creative energies and push themselves to become a better writer. What happens in our program goes beyond degrees and publications. It's about taking your passion seriously, about pushing yourself to places you didn't know you could go. It's about finding people who not only understand you, but know how to get the best out of you, and help you excel. It's about being a writer, not just saying you're one or wishing you were one -- actually doing it. “In writing, it's very easy to get down on yourself when things aren't turning out how you imagined. I think anyone who comes into the program through Pay It Forward will have some extra incentive in those difficult times. They can take solace in knowing that someone believed in them, and their work. This is a very special entryway into our community.” Photography with Jeff Talarigo How did you get into photography, and how do you view it as part of your artistic life? Is it just something you do for fun, or do you take it as seriously as you take your writing? �I have enjoyed photography on and off over the years. I had a camera with me on my research trips for my novels on Gaza, the China/North Korea border and to Nagashima Island, which was a leprosarium. I got away from taking photos mainly because of the expense of having them developed. A couple of years ago, after coming back to California from the winter Wilkes residency, I found a small digital camera waiting for me, a gift from my son. I started carrying the camera with me almost everywhere I went. Is a talent necessary to take good photos? I think a good photographer or writer sees everyday things differently, but I also believe that there must also be a great deal of passion and empathy for the project. This is what I hope comes out of my photos and sentences. Are there specific things you like to photograph? I love doing nature and wildlife photos, but also photos of people when I travel. Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California is heaven for me, truly my favorite place on earth, a place that, when I am there, I feel that I am a better person. Do you do anything with your photos beyond taking them for your own use? At this point, I do it for the pleasure and as a way to create. I am mulling the idea of incorporating some of my photos into a memoir/family history/novel I am slowly chiseling away at. Or maybe a book of photos and writing. Do you use a lot of equipment? About five months ago I bought a 35 mm digital camera which is really sweet. I have two lenses: a standard 16-50 lens and a 55-210 lens, which has a bit of a zoom, but for wildlife photos I still need to get fairly intimate �with the animals. I think it is really good to learn on smaller lenses, much like when I began to golf when I was 12, I only carried three clubs with me: a 7-iron, a 9-iron and a putter. But photography, like golf, like writing, you always want that giant zoom lens, that new driver, to write Moby Dick. Do you wait long for the “perfect” shot? I have been known to wait quite a long time for that perfect shot, or, at least anticipating it, for it doesn’t always happen. How do you view your photography in the scope of your artistic life? For the past year or so, photography has been a savior for me, allowing me some peace of mind and a way to express myself creatively while I try and figure out how to find some time and money to do my next book project, a novel on human trafficking. How does photography affect your writing; do you think your photography brings things to your writing that you might otherwise miss? About three times a month I drive the sixty miles up to Point Reyes, leaving a little before five in the morning and coming back home well after dark. When I am there things slow down for me and I try to tell a story with the photos. But I am also writing as I trek through the forest, along the beach, atop the mountains; in fact, last weekend while walking through a field trying to photograph a Harrier Hawk, the ending of the four act play on Gaza I have been working on came to me. In both photography and writing I am patient and I don’t rush, allowing a scene to wash over me whenever it is ready. Sara Pritchard: Thurber Writer-inResidence 2016 The John E. Nance Writer-in-Residence program is an annual residency of four weeks where recipients are housed in a two-bedroom apartment in the family home of author and New Yorker cartoonist, James Thurber. The fellowship is designed to provide a writer with the gift of time to develop a work in progress. The writer-in-residence for 2016 is Sara Pritchard, faculty member in the Wilkes Creative Writing program. What does a residency like this mean to you as a writer? �Pritchard says, “A conventional residency (like the Thurber House ones) provides a writer with a respite from his/her daily routine, an opportunity to steal away, be alone, engage a bit with other writers, and just write. Residencies provide housing. Some also include meals. Many residencies provide a stipend (which varies wildly, anywhere from a few thousand dollars for a month, with some paying as much as $60,000 for a full academic year). Some stipends are without any strings attached, while others are with the agreement that a writer give a public reading and/or teach something like a weekend workshop for members of the community or for an affiliated school. Some require the writer to teach a class all semester and work one-on-one with graduate or undergraduate students. “Some residencies like VCCA (Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, vcca.com) ask their residents to contribute to their stay according to their own ability to pay. Residencies vary in length, generally, from a few weeks to a full year. The venues vary, too, from remote areas like ranches (New Mexico, Wyoming) to intercity (D.C.), to trains (AMTRAK: http://blog.amtrak.com/general-faqs/), ships and research stations, hotels (http://www.theparisreview.org/standardculture), and even shop windows (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/from-shopwindows-to-prisons-writers-in-residence-find-new-homes/article535465/). Check this out: http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/10/10/9amazing-writers-residencies-from-around-the-world/” For a comprehensive list of artist residencies, see the website of the Alliance of Artist Communities at http://www.artistcommunities.org/residencies. According to the AAC website, there are: an estimated 500 artists’ communities in the US and more than 1,500 worldwide 30,000 artists are provided residencies each year (~10,000 in the U.S.) residencies in the U.S. provide an estimated $40 million in support to �artists annually 70% are multidisciplinary, serving visual artists, writers, composers, filmmakers, choreographers, and others 60% are in rural areas and small towns, while 40% are in urban areas 90% have public programs that engage the local community Do you go on writing retreats in general? No. In general, I prefer to stay home. I live a quiet life without the demands that many of my colleagues and students face, so residencies for me at this point in my life (semi-retirement) are more about earning some extra income and taking a little vacation, meeting other writers and interesting people, and spending time in a different place (walking around, visiting cemeteries and museums, etc.). I’ve done one other residency—a semester-long one in 2012 as the Thornton Writer-inResidence at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, VA. I taught one workshop for three hours each week. I had great students, made some lifelong friends, lived in an apartment in an antebellum mansion, and loved exploring Lynchburg. Residencies are exciting, inspirational, rewarding, relaxing (for the most part), and yes, a bit stressful at first--like any adventure or travel. I’m really looking forward to spending a month in the “slightly haunted” James Thurber house in Columbus, Ohio. Stories always come to me when I’m away from home. The next one just may have a ghost (or two). Wilkes Workshops in Mesa, AZ In the spring of 2015, Austin Bennett MFA ’15, under the direction of Dr. Culver, developed a series of low-cost, four-week continuing education classes in the genres of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting at the Wilkes University Mesa Campus. The founding instructors included: Bennett, alum Rene Allen MA ’15, and graduate assistant Mike Mortimer. These initial classes attracted beginning writers, journalists, selfpublished authors, and a New York Times bestselling children’s author. Primarily marketed through listservs, word-of-mouth, and Meetup.com, the classes averaged a 4:1 ratio which allowed for an intimate atmosphere to workshop student projects. Consistent with the graduate program goals, the classes were designed to produce a community-based atmosphere where students sharpened their craft while being encouraged. Several highly motivated and talented workshop participants have gone on to apply and enroll in the Wilkes graduate program. Children’s author Nate Evans says, “This was an incredibly helpful series �of classes. I went in with a story idea that had been stalled for months and this workshop got me thinking in new ways, gave me a lot of inspiration, and got me writing again. It also gave me a more nuanced critical lens through which to examine my own writing as well as new strategies to deal with my weaknesses and build on my strengths as a writer.” Now, with over 200 members on Meetup, Bennett notes, “We didn’t want to just be a resource, we wanted to break down those walls that divide writer from writer and writing group from writing group.” Through the program’s growing reputation, partnerships have formed with other local writing groups such as the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers where, this January, Wilkes alum Rene Allen will serve as the keynote speaker. This spring marks the program’s first anniversary and the third round of classes will feature two six-week long sessions in the most popular genres: fiction and memoir. Faculty News Faculty member Christine Gelineau has a new book in production: Crave. Gelineau's third full-length collection of poetry will be published in early February by NYQ Books. Faculty member Nancy McKinley's short story “The Dog” was selected to be included in the upcoming Dog Anthology, published by Main Street Rag.  Faculty Member Sara Pritchard will be the 2015 John E. Nance Writerin-Residence at the James Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio. Sara will be moving into the "slightly haunted" third-floor apartment of Thurber House for a month, beginning in mid-January, 2016.  Faculty member Jan Quackenbush’s short play “Attack at the PierreFontaine,” published by Blue Moon Plays, was recently produced by a newly formed senior drama group at the Perry County Opera House and Cultural Arts Center in Ohio.  Student News Amye Archer, MFA ’11 will have her memoir, Fat Girl, Skinny, published by Big Table Publishing this spring. Jennifer D. Bokal, MA ‘10 is pleased to announce the February 9 release of The Gladiator’s Temptation. It is the second book in The Champions of Rome series published by Montlake Romance. Jennifer’s novella, To Catch a Thief, a Romantic Thriller, will also be released in February as part of the Royals of Monterra Kindle World. Jennifer is also �the head of the steering committee for Lady Jane’s Salon of the Southern Tier, New York. LJSSTNY is a satellite of Lady Jane’s Salon, NYC © which brings writers of romance together with readers in a monthly reading series. LJSSTNY is held at Endicott Performing Arts Center on the second Saturday of each month. Tom Borthwick, MFA '09 has a flash fiction piece "You Belong to Me" appearing in Perihelion Science Fiction Magazine. David R. Brubaker, MA ‘14 is publishing his thesis, Liberace's Filipino Cousin, in early 2016 with ThingsAsian Press. Jim Craig, MA ’10 / James Craig Atchison officially launched his first crime novel, Blue Lines up in Arms, in Wilkes-Barre December 4-5. Published by Sunbury Press, and featuring fictional “Wavy Ray Beck” of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL hockey team, promotional events included a radio interview on WILK (Sue Henry’s AM talk show), a Jumbotron announcement during a WBS Penguins home game Friday, December 4, and a book signing at the downtown Barnes & Noble. Brian Fanelli, MFA ‘10 had his poem, "Lady Day Sings the Blues on YouTube," published in the winter issue of The Museum of Americana. Another poem, "What I Imagine My Parents Did After Dinner," was published by The Lascaux Review. Patricia Florio, MFA ‘11 is returning to the Wilkes family as a student again, this time to get her M.A. in Fiction. Gerald Gurka, MA '07 had his short play "A Christmas Card Portrait" recently produced and performed in Larksville, PA, as well as featured in various local media. Dawn Leas, MFA ‘09 will have her full-length poetry collection, Take Something When You Go, published by Winter Goose Publishing in 2016. Lori Myers, MA ‘09 short story "The Kindest Cut" will be published in the anthology Bad Neighborhood by Spooky Words Press. Christoph Paul, MA ’14 had his Bizarro Horror novel Slasher Camp for Nerd Dorks published by Eraserhead Press in November. It won the Black Book Award for best satire. The same month Social Media for AntiSocials: #HowToUseTwitter was published by Riot Forge. Christoph Paul was also featured in a Huffington Post feature about The Miami International Book Fair: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/renee-loiacono/11-secrets-on-how-to-mark_b_8626322.html Christoph has �officially started the imprint New English Press with the help of hiphop artist, bizarro author, and Navy man Grant Wamack. The press will focus on publishing Black, Hiphop and Bizarro Fiction. The two titles planned for 2016 are This Book Ain't Nuthing to Fuck With: A Wu-Tang Tribute Anthology and Booty Holocaust by Patrick Scott Barnes. Under the pen name Mandy De Sandra, Christoph published the political satire-erotica novella Fox News Fuckfest with New Kink Books, an imprint of Rooster Republic Press. It is Mandy's tenth book. MA student Ronnie K. Stephens recently had an essay published in Hippocampus Magazine and two poems published in Paper Nautilus. He has another essay forthcoming in The Good Men Project. He will part of a poetry panel/reading discussing body dysmorphia and gender at the International Annual AWP Conference and Bookfair in Los Angeles, March 30- April 2. Rachel Luann Strayer, MFA '12 is celebrating the East Coast premiere of her play, Drowning Ophelia, produced by Gaslight Theatre Company. Drowning Ophelia will be performed at the Theater at Lackawanna College in Scranton, PA, January 28-31. Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Make A Gift �Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map 84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! January 2016 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/396540e8d9595772e81cd23011bc6a44.pdf 4c0ceb346950307b88da41ff35e968a5 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives n 2014 Revise This - January 2014 Revise This! Revise This! 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 Revise This!   |   January 2014                                               Revise This Archives Revise This! Archives Third Novel for Alum Gale Martin | M.F.A. Analytical Papers in the Community Page and Stage: Alum Creates Opportunities | Announcements Faculty/Staff Notes | Student/Alum Notes   Related Links Calendars & Schedules Campus Map Centers for Excellence Faculty Publications Graduate Bulletin (.pdf) Third Novel for Alum Gale Martin Graduate Bulletin Online Graduate Student Handbook Library   Office of the Registrar Online Learning In Gale Martin’s newest novel, Who Killed Professional Pharmacy ‘Tom Jones’?, receptionist Ellie Overton is Application gaga for the pop singer Tom Jones. She School of Nursing - Graduate meets a handsome impersonator at a Tom Program Student Handbook Jones Festival but when he’s accused of Schools, Departments, killing the competition, Ellie’s not quite sure Divisions n n �he’s the one for her. Enter M.A. alum Gale Martin and her romantic, comedic, and curious personality.   “When I was in college, my closest childhood friend married an Elvis impersonator—when white-fringed-jumpsuit Elvis wannabes were popular,” Gale says. “I saw how women behaved around these impersonators and wondered what my friend’s married life must have been like. This notion stayed with me, for decades longer than my friend’s marriage lasted, until I was searching my soul for a hook for a NaNoWriMo book in 2008, and this idea popped into my head.” Tom Jones is Gale’s third novel. Since graduating from Wilkes, the author has steadily worked on one project after another, kept up her blogging and social media efforts, and tried to be as active in the community as possible. “Life after Wilkes is as challenging as I thought it might be,” Gale says. “At first I missed the Wilkes CW Program terribly— the interaction with other writers and faculty—but found ways to ameliorate my separation anxieties.” Gale has participated in a number of reading events and also started a writing workshop to continue the exchange of constructive feedback. Many of the participants are fellow Wilkes members. “In fact, this group, which now includes Nancy McKinley and Donna Talarico-Beerman,” Gale says, “were so helpful with my finishing and polishing Who Killed ‘Tom Jones’? that I dedicated the novel to them.” What’s next for Gale Martin? She says, “you’re only as good as your last novel,” so she’s already at work on her next manuscript.     M.F.A. Analytical Papers in the Community As part of the M.F.A. program, students a 6-credit course in literary analysis. The culmination of this term is an analytical �paper of publishable quality. Yet some graduates are taking their thesis topics off the page and into the community. M.F.A. alum Erin Miele built a course based on her topic for Misericordia University. “As someone who both paints and writes,” Erin says, “I chose to explore affinities between visual art and literature in my M.F.A. thesis, Painted Words. Under the excellent Nancy McKinley’s mentorship, I devised a syllabus for a college course on the theme, with a plan to include a range of writers and visual artists.” Some of the writers Erin included are Yeats, Walcott, Sexton, Italo Calvino, and Flannery O’Connor. The painters ranged from Van Eyck to Anselm Kiefer. “The primacy of the visual image in writing was emphasized, as was ‘reading’ a painting,” Erin says. “We also took a look at a variety of ekphrastic works.” Erin is teaching two sections of the course this spring. Alum Jeff Minton’s analytical paper included a discussion about music and writing and, specifically, about “scoring a narrative in a similar way as orchestral music is scored.” Together with alum Joseph Schwartzburt, faculty member Nancy McKinley, and one of Joe’s colleagues from Savannah, Zach Powers, the team will present a panel based on this topic at the upcoming AWP Conference in Seattle. “For those of us who double as musicians and writers,” Jeff says, “I feel we have a composer’s toolkit that transfers over to writing. I wanted to make that accessible to non-musicians.” The panel, Orchestration for Writers 101, will be presented on Saturday, March 1 at 9 a.m. “The panel itself focuses on applying musical ideas to better construct a narrative for both writers and teachers,” Jeff says. “We’ll perform, discuss, demonstrate, chat with the audience, laugh a little, have a good time, and ultimately explore these ideas in ways I hope the attendees can bring back home.” Nancy McKinley will add pedagogical perspective to the panel. “Writers and teachers of creative writing often listen to music as a warm-up, a springboard for bringing words to the page,” she says. “Jeff’s approach is the next logical step: using the analytic mode of musically scoring words on the page so that writers can see the progression of a piece. In the process, writers and teachers gain insight for heightening passages whereby the words and their placement enliven the musicality, in essence, the rhythm and soul of a piece.” �    Page and Stage: Alum Creates Opportunities When Monique Antonette Lewis was in the education internship term of her M.F.A., she encouraged her students to read their creative works in front of an audience. The venue she secured for her students’ reading was the notable KGB Bar in New York City. Since developing a rapport with the KGB management and demonstrating her ability to fill a room, Monique has successfully been running a monthly reading series. At The Inkwell is a two-part success story for this M.F.A. alum. Monique simultaneously runs the reading series—featuring indie locals and notable authors such as Wilkes’ own Beverly Donofrio and Kaylie Jones —alongside a website, attheinkwell.com, that features book reviews and interviews with up and coming writers. “I started At The Inkwell because I missed writing stories that helped people,” Monique says. “I’m a financial news journalist in NYC and before that I used to cover education and local government for newspapers. I loved that my stories sparked a change in people and the community I lived in, and the positive feedback that I received for the stories. I wanted to feel that passion again.” Monique’s goal with At The Inkwell is to serve both the local arts community and her own creative ambitions. “I love creative writing and hope to transition into it full-time one day, so I thought I could interview authors about their books, write book reviews, and host readings.”   Announcements   River & South Review , our new student-run literary journal, has launched its second issue. The editorial team is derived of current students in the M.A. and M.F.A. Wilkes writing programs. Each issue features poetry, fiction, and nonfiction—as selected by student editors— �and special theme issues will include additional genres. The journal website is hosted at http://riverandsouth.blogspot.com. New Program Tracks and Updates: Ever thought you wanted to start your own press, e-zine, or literary journal? Thanks to the initiative of Akashic Books editor Johnny Temple and Etruscan’s founding editor Phil Brady, alums and current students now have the option of pursuing a Master of Arts in Publishing! Wilkes alums need only take only an additional 18 credits to earn the M.A. in publishing. Have you found the world of documentary film fascinating? We have also added a Master of Arts in documentary film, which will begin in 2014. Like the new publishing degree, alums need only take an additional 18 credits to earn this degree. The curriculum is being developed now with Robert May, SenArt Films, and others. Due to student requests, all M.A. graduates will have their area of study on their diploma. For example, if you complete a screenplay for your thesis, your diploma will now read: “Master of Arts in Creative Writing specializing in screenwriting.” Beforehand, all diplomas simply read, “Master of Arts in Creative Writing.” Should you wish to return to Wilkes and specialize in another area of study, you need only take the last 18 credit hours to earn a second M.A. For more information on any of these new possibilities or to apply to any of the newly revised program tracks, please email or call Dr. Culver or Ms. Dawn Leas.   Faculty/Staff Notes   Lenore Hart will be teaching at the Ossabaw Island Writer’s Retreat in Savannah, GA, Feb 16-21. The five-day writing retreat also includes faculty members Neil Shepard and David Poyer. Rashidah Ismaili has a new website in development: http://about.me/rashidaismaili. Dawn Leas has an interview with Lori A. May and a review of Waking My Mother by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell in the winter issue of Poets’ Quarterly. Her poem “Pairs” appears in the January 2014 issue of Cumberland River Review, and “Explorer” is part of the Luzerne County �Poetry in Transit 2013-2014 program.Swandive Publishing will be releasing its first collection in spring 2014, which will include work by alums Kait Burrier, Stanton Hancock, Dawn Leas, and Jim Warner, and current student, Andrea McGuigan. Other poets in the collection are Barbara DeCesare, Sarah Zane Lewis, Dale Wilsey, and Eric Wilson.   Ross Klavan ’snew novel, Schmuck, is now available from Greenpoint Press. Kaylie Jones will be teaching a Norman Mailer Center workshop in Salt Lake City, Utah this summer. She also participated on a panel at Vogue Knitting Live, reading from her essay in Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, published by W.W. Norton. Karen McElmurray has a short story, “That Night,” included in Red Holler: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Writing, published by Sarabande Books. Nancy McKinley ’s short story “Ramp” will appear in the spring issue of The Blue Penny Quarterly. Taylor Polites participated on a panel at Vogue Knitting Live, reading from his essay in Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, published by W.W. Norton. David Poyer ’s new novel, The Cruiser, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in May. Sara Pritchard ’s story collection Help Wanted: Female, published by Etruscan Press in July 2013, is now available as an audiobook (with Sara reading) through Amazon and Audible.com. A story from Sara’s first book of stories, Crackpots, is included in Red Holler: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Writing, new from Sarabande Books. Jeff Talarigo was interviewed by Jennifer De Leon in AGNI Online where his story excerpt, “The Night Guardian of the Goat,” is also published.   Student/Alum Notes   �M.F.A. alum Chris Bullard ’s first full-length book of poetry, Back, was published in November of 2013 by CW Books, an imprint of WordTech Editions. Kattywompus Press recently published his chapbook, Dear Leatherface, for publication in January of 2014. Minor Arcana Press accepted his poem, “Sidekick,” for the anthology, Drawn to Marvel: Poems from the Comic Books, to be published in February of 2014. Fledgling Rag, a literary review, will feature a selection of his poems in its Issue 13 which will appear in April of 2014. M.F.A. alum Craig Czury has poems from “American Know-How: Patent Pending” in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Gazette. M.A. alum Jason Donnelly ’s novel, Gripped, was released by Perfect Edge Books in September. He has also released his creative thesis as a Kindle book. M.F.A. alum Brian Fanelli ’s full-length book of poems, All That Remains, was recently published by Unbound Content. The book has been nominated for the Working Class Studies Association’s Tillie Olsen Creative Writing Award. Brian was recently interviewed by Open Alphabet about the book, as well as by Boston Literary Magazine, and Poets’ Quarterly. He will be doing several readings for the book in 2014, including at the KGB Bar in New York City. M.F.A. alum Tyler Grimm is currently designing a brand new class for Elizabethtown College, The Psychology of Creative Writing. Tyler will also begin teaching Writing and Analysis of Short Story and advising students beginning in the summer. M.F.A. alum Matthew S. Hinton has accepted the position of Coordinator of Writing at Misericordia University. M.F.A. alum Laurie Loewenstein ’s debut novel, Unmentionables, the inaugural novel in Akashic’s Kaylie Jones Books imprint, has received a starred review in the January 15 th, 2014 issue of Library Journal. The book was also selected as a Midwest Connections Pick for January. M.F.A alum Carol MacAllister ’s short story, “Upgrade,” will be included in The Upcoming speculations anthology. Her book, Mayan Calendar Reveal, prompted an invitation by UFO Magazine editor and TV personality Bill Byrnes to be his guest on their 90-minute radio theater call-in show to discuss her research for the novel. Her collection of horror, The Blackmoor Tales, published by Northampton House Press, has received good press particularly though the Horror Writers Association membership. MacAllister’s poems have been included in the recent issue of Word Fountain. �M.F.A. alum Lori A. May has an essay, “After the Winds Die Down,” in the February issue of 1966 Journal (Trinity University); her essay, “Independence Road,” in the December issue of Northern Cardinal Review; and another essay,“Motor City Redux: In Pursuit of the American Dream,” in the winter issue of Midwestern Gothic. Her latest poetry book, Square Feet, was published in January with Accents Publishing. M.A. student Andrea McGuigan published an interview with Ross Klavan in The570.com. She was also awarded the Jennifer Diskin Memorial Scholarship at the January residency. M.A. alum Lori M. Myers had her play “91366” accepted for publication by HaveScripts. Lori wrote the play while attending Wilkes and in Jean Klein’s foundations class. Also, her short story, “Heartland Flyer,” was published by Alban Lake Publishing in Disturbed Digest.   M.F.A. alum Richard Priebe ’s short story, “A Bilingual Battle,” was recently published as part of the Terrible Tuesdays series by Akashic Books. M.F.A. alum William Prystauk recently conducted an interview with horror director Stuart Gordon (of Re-Animator fame) for The Last Knock podcast. His essay, “How to Prepare Students for Their Online Experience in Converge: A Journal of Faculty Collaboration for Distance Education,”has just been published. He has written and will direct the short film, Tigers in the Soup, a family drama, in January. He is currently developing Kickstarter campaigns for the crime drama CASE #591, which he will direct this June, and for the animated comedy-fantasy he has written, MegaClimax 5000. M.A. alum Dania Ramos was selected as a finalist in the 2013 MetLife Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition at Repertorio Español. M.F.A. alum Carrie Reilly has a poem, “Hesitation Wounds,” in Apiary 7: The Power Issue. She recently read at the launch party in Philadelphia. M.F.A. alum Jonathan Rocks recently signed with the Silver/Bitela Agency in Los Angeles, California. M.A. student Bill Schneider ’s short story, “Yesterday Once More,” will appear in Silly Tree Anthologies in January 2014. M.F.A. alum Michael J. Soloway will have his essay, “Women and Children First,” published by Hippocampus Magazine in January. Michael �was also recently promoted from Managing Editor to Editor-in-Chief of Split Lip Literary Magazine. M.A. student Francisco Tutella had a poem included in the Luzerne County Poetry in Transit 2013-2014 program. M.F.A. alum Morowa Yejidé ’s novel, Time of the Locust, was covered by books editor Patrik Henry Bass in the January print edition of Essence Magazine. Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! January 2014 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/cae7df6a0fa75227d6457949d2053583.pdf 9971f265501fb37cc367e02ee6fe9f70 PDF Text Text Search... About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA n About Our Students n Revise This! October 2020 Cha-Cha-Changes! This year, more than most, has been a year of lasts…and firsts. CoFounder and Program Director, Dr. Bonnie Culver, celebrated her last About Our Students Get Social with term before retirement. The Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing Creative Writing hosted its first online Residency. Associate Director Bill Revise This! Schneider accepted another position in the airline industry, and Joyce Anzalone orchestrated her last groups of cohorts, as she too retired. And, Revise This! for the first time in program history, the Wilkes creative writing community Archives welcomes its new director, Dr. David Hicks. River & South Review In this edition of Revise This!, Bill Schneider shares his tale of transition in Onward and Upward. Vicki Mayk (M.F.A. ’13) shares news of her debut book, Growing Up on the Gridiron (September 2020). You can read our interview about her Wilkes experience, her pathway to publication, and her advice for worried writers still wrestling with the first-draft process. Best-selling author and recent Wilkes alum Jennifer McLaughlin explores how her Wilkes writing life continues on, even after graduation. Finally, three current students reveal how a virtual residency compares to a traditional one. Testimonials Apply Online Request More Information g �Program Updates The January 2021 Residency will take place online, from January 816.  Morgan M.X. Shulz of Wilmington, NC is this year’s winner of the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, a $10,000 prize. Jessie Roy of Chicago, IL is the runner-up ($1000). Michael Mailer (Film) and Nina Solomon (Fiction) have decided not to teach for our program any longer. We thank them for their superb teaching and wish them all the best. Beginning next fall, we will be offering online Master Classes (CW 698: Post-Graduate Project Revision) in every genre for graduates of MA/MFA programs like ours. In this six-credit class, students will receive expert guidance on how to advance a manuscript to its final version and how to submit it to agents and editors. Also beginning next fall, we will offer online 15-week versions of our Foundations classes as part of a “4+1” (a combined BA/MA) class at several universities, as well as to adults interested in an introduction to creative writing. The MFA “Letter of Intent,” for all students in the MA program who would like to continue to the MFA program, is due November 1. Onward and Upward Refections from Bill Schneider (M.F.A.’14) Thursday, June 4, 2020 More than 1.8 million cases and over 101,000 deaths related to COVID19 in the United States were reported today by the CDC. Today is my first day of retirement following my seven-year affiliation with Wilkes University where I served as a graduate assistant in Marketing Communications, Managing Editor for Etruscan Press and Associate Program Director for the Creative Writing Program. I had hoped today would be the start of a new life chapter: traveling all around the world while I savor the cocktail hour of my life journey, similar to The Life of Riley. Boy was I wrong! �Since being quarantined on March 17th, I got a head start on being home full-time as life dramatically changed. Program alum and Wilkes University’s Executive Director of Communications and Graduate Marketing — Gabrielle D’Amico M.F.A.’17 — said it best of all in a recent email: “I'm sorry your final weeks at Wilkes feel like the Twilight Zone.” Earlier this year, I accepted an offer to be a consultant with my former employer from the 1970s. This new opportunity is based in Chicago, the headquarters and a major gateway for United Airlines, where I will have access and resources to produce video segments about airline employees and retirees and their travel experiences. With nearly 100,000 employees on the United team, storytelling is integral to the culture of this legacy airline. The stories I will share through the company’s intranet portal have a common theme: heartache and hope. My commitment is to bring light to the United community, especially because too much darkness clouds the horizon. Preparing for the transition Working with co-founder and program director Bonnie Culver since January, when I announced my retirement, we focused on developing a handbook to provide the new program director with a road map for the day-to-day activities to support the Maslow Family Creative Writing Graduate Program. To provide some context, Bonnie and I were retiring at the same time as Joyce Anzalone who oversees administration of our program. Ross Klavan says, “Between Bonnie, Bill and Joyce, the entire knowledge of how the program works is in their hands … each of them connecting/networking, and talking the faculty in and out of corners.”  By mid-March, our focus shifted. We began to prepare for the June residency to be delivered entirely online. This tireless effort required all hands-on-deck while each day brought more grim news about the pandemic.  Preparing for a virtual residency Bonnie immediately reached out to the entire faculty to begin discussions, brainstorm, and conceptualize online residency modules. The transition from face-to-face teaching to a virtual Zoom platform provided Bonnie and the faculty with the perfect opportunity for the program to re-emerge as the first-class program it is. This seamless transition evolved because of one component: the sense of community that permeates throughout the Wilkes Creative Writing Program. I think of this as harmony and grace, the ingredient that first attracted me to the Wilkes program in 2011. A major challenge in rolling out the June residency as a virtual experience was how to replicate that special ingredient that creates �community. As I prepared to retire from Wilkes, the world began to change as the pandemic closed international borders. Throughout the country, cities and states continued to escalate self-quarantine mandates. The entire world was on lock-down.  As Memorial Day arrived, the June residency was about to begin. The community of writers that comes together twice a year to share work and renew friendship continues to be the fabric of a tapestry woven from the spirit of our remarkable faculty. Friday, June 5, 2020 The stay-at-home order was lifted today for Pennsylvania residents in Luzerne County. This release from home confinement was conditional because I still do not have the freedom to travel anywhere in the world. There is no longer a welcome mat for Americans in many other countries, and most domestic travel requires a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. Flying for a weekend getaway is something from the past. Fortunately, I am a writer and an editor, both of which require solitary confinement. Instead of packing for my move to the Windy City, today is the day my movers notified me they will not travel to Illinois because of the high number of COVID-19 cases. Tuesday, September 1, 2020 More than six million cases and over 183,000 deaths related to COVID19 in the United States were reported today by the CDC. It has been 13 weeks since my retirement began. Every day it has been buns on the bench. I have focused on my writing and the never-ending connection to the Wilkes Creative Writing community. This is the connective tissue that keeps me grounded, hopeful, and confident. As coffee percolates, or later in the day, a martini shakes, I recall the advice offered by my Wilkes mentors. One of the most resonate suggestions came from Dr. Nancy McKinley during my first CW-501 workshop. The writing prompt, about the beauty of Wilkes-Barre in the middle of winter, forced me to look beyond the potholes. Writing is about doing the best you can and making the most with what you have.  What is certain about tomorrow is that it will be a better day than today. Bill Schneider (MFA’14) is the managing editor of Etruscan Press. He served as the associate program director of the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Creative Writing Program from 2015 through 2020. His �previous experience includes a three-decade long career in the music industry accompanied by extensive travel throughout six continents. Interview with Vicki Mayk (M.F.A. ’13) For any bibliophiles that get the opportunity to sit down with their favorite authors for a Q&A, one of the questions that is bound to come up is something along the lines of “Where do you get your inspiration, your ideas?” While this might be a fascination topic to dig into, what I find more fascinating is learning, as a writer, how the story chooses you. I recently had the opportunity to work with Vicki Mayk on her Write Life post, “When the Story Chooses You.” We were discussing her writing experiences as a student at Wilkes and her pathway to publishing Growing up on the Gridiron: Football, Friendship, and the Tragic Life of Owen Thomas, published and released by Beacon Press in September. Our phone conversation stretched from one hour to two and her story about learning how to tell someone else’s true story emerged, along with several challenges unique to the nonfiction genre. I invite you to sit in on part of our conversation about the art of research and the craft of creative nonfiction. Who or what drew you in to the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing? I had always wanted to earn an MFA in writing. I actually had entered a program at the University of Pittsburgh back in the 1970s (yes, I’m that old), but that was before there were low-residency programs. Unable to go to school and work full-time, I put the dream on hold after one semester. Fast forward to 2009: When I was hired by Wilkes University, I realized that I could finally earn the master’s degree I had always wanted. I had worked as a writer for my entire career – but the program changed my life, opening up new ways to tell a story. You have some exciting news...a recently published on book! Can you �tell us a little bit about that project? What is this book about? Growing Up On The Gridiron: Football, Friendship and the Tragic Life of Owen Thomas is about University of Pennsylvania football player Owen Thomas who died by suicide in 2010. After his death, he was found to be the youngest amateur player at that time found to have the traumatic brain injury CTE – which was being found in former pro players and was linked to playing football. The book is about his short but remarkable life and about young men’s love affair with the game for football.  What was it about this story that sunk its hooks into you and drew you into this commitment to another long form project? This was a case of “the story chose me.”  What really drew me in was Owen Thomas, the young man who is at the center of my book. When he died by suicide in April 2010, I was invited to join a private memorial page that friends set up for him on Facebook. The way that everyone talked about him – from his teammates at his high school near Allentown, PA, and on the University of Pennsylvania Quakers team to friends, former teachers, casual acquaintances – haunted me. They told stories about him being a warrior on the field and one of the kindest humans off the field. One girl in his high school said Owen changed the energy when he entered a room. I wanted to answer the question: Who was Owen Thomas and how did his life come to this tragic end? When it emerged that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, what we know as CTE, that added another important dimension to the story.  The path to publication is unique for every author. Can you tell us a little about your path to publication? What kinds of challenges did you fnd your way around with this project? Because I had a full-time day job, the interviewing and research for this book had to be done at night and on weekends. What I had originally envisioned as a two- to three-year project actually took nearly eight years �from the time I started interviews and research to a finished draft. (And we all know that there is always more revision ahead.) I was dragging my heels, so I took an independent study with Mike Lennon and was able to complete a draft. He urged me to submit to agents and I was signed by one in 2018. But I was far from done. Everyone who had seen the manuscript – me, Mike and my agent– envisioned a significant revision. I worked with my agent to create a book proposal that outlined a slightly different direction for the book. The book was actually sold on the basis of that proposal – not on the manuscript. When I began working with my editor at Beacon Press, Joanna Green, she and I had a similar vision for the book. It involved developing the stories of Owen’s friends and required me to do some additional research and interviews. Yes, more research after nearly eight years of working on the book.  I completely revised the existing manuscript in about six months in 2019. What did you learn about yourself as a writer through the many stages of creation, revision, and release?  I learned that it was a good thing that I had a long career making my living as a writer who was required to meet deadlines. (I’m laughing as I answer this.) All joking aside, I now see that all those years of writing on deadline have made me a slave to deadlines. If I have a deadline, I will meet it. That is why I finally took an independent study to finish the book. The deadline forced me to do it. I was able to revise it in six months because my editor was holding me to specific deadlines. Even after all these years as a writer, I’m trying to figure out how to create a structure that puts me in the deadline mindset – even when there’s no “real” deadline. I guess that’s a challenge we all face About craft? The biggest takeaway about craft was that we always have something to learn. I had been a journalist for years before entering the program, but in writing this book, I realized that I was able to write it because of what I learned studying creative nonfiction in the program. Day-to-day journalism can fall into a “just the facts” approach. The craft elements that I learned at Wilkes – to use the techniques of fiction to tell a true story -allowed me to do things in the book I might not have attempted earlier in my career. It includes things like recreating scenes and dialogue.  If you could offer a few words of wisdom or a piece of advice that has served you well through the rough parts of the writing process, what would you most like to gift to other �writers hitting those rough patches? Don’t doubt yourself: it’s really easy to fall prey to impostor syndrome. You’ll hear your inner critic asking, “Who do you think you are to write this book?” While working on my book, I came across a quote from LinManuel Miranda, who wrote “Hamilton.” He said, “You have to live with the notion of, ‘If I don’t write this, no one’s going to write it. If I die, this idea dies with me.’” Remember that you have a story that only you can tell. How have the members of our Wilkes community supported you as a writer? Is there anyone you would like to give a shout-out to? Perhaps a few key people? I received so much encouragement from so many people in our creative writing community. If you read the  ments in my book, I call Mike Lennon my “literary godfather.” I think there were times I kept going because I couldn’t stand the idea of disappointing Mike. I also received sound advice from Bev Donofrio, Kevin Oderman, Kaylie Jones and Jeff Talarigo. Dawn D’Aries Zera was the person who first told Mike about my book and she insisted I talk to him about it. And my writing group was an important source of support. They are all Wilkes alums from many different cohorts: Aurora Bonner, Kelly Clisham, Jennifer Jenkins and Francisco Tutella. The book title came out of a brainstorming session with them. Wilkes and the Afterlife By Jen McLaughlin A lot of people (or, at least, I’m assuming a lot of people) think that once you leave the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program…it’s game over. You never speak to your faculty again, never see your cohort, forget all your friends, and cry into an endless eternity of deadlines and graded papers. I’m here to tell you… YOU’RE WRONG! That’s right, I said it. You’re wrong.  Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Who is this Jen girl anyway? Who is she to tell me what I know and what I don’t know?” Well, I’m you. Or, I was you, depending on where you are in the program. Whether you are entering it now, considering entering it, in it, or recently graduated, I’m here to tell you that what you’re getting from the program isn’t just some fancy letters or some sharpened writing tools…though those are �pretty amazing, too. What you’re getting is a community. Friends. A family. You see, my cohort (arguably the best cohort EVER…just ask anyone on the faculty—especially Nancy McKinley) graduated with our M.A. in September 2019, and those of us who went on to earn our MFA will graduate this September (in 2020, the cursed year that will forever live on in infamy). Though some of my cohort has been done for over a year, guess what? We are still friends. We still write together. Not even a pandemic stopped us. Let that sink in for a minute. I’ll wait. While the world was begging for us to stop writing, to lose our creativity because who the heck could create anything among chaos and pain and fear…we did it. We created, we supported one another, and we didn’t give up.  Because we’re family. Sure, we did it via Zoom once a week (something we will be continuing once we all return to the classrooms to teach and learn), and sure, we talked about a lot more than just our work, but you know what? It kept me going, kept me thinking, and most importantly? My cohort/friends/family kept me writing. The writing life is so valuable to us as writers and artists, and when you lose that, you lose a piece of yourself. Well, fear not. When you enter this program, and when you leave it, you will maintain a strong bond to those who went through those residencies with you, who poured over your words as if they were your own, and who cheered you on as you read your work out loud for a room full of people…and so will the faculty.  My mentor, the amazing and indestructible Nancy McKinley, never stopped having my back, or offering me opportunities, and quite frankly, I truly hope my time in the program, though officially finished, never ends. Rather, I hope it expands in many other ways, and that I can take the knowledge this program and my forty-nine published books have given me, and I can continue to build that community, friendships, and family the program gave me. My only remaining question to you, if you’re not with us yet, is… What’s holding you back, besides perhaps yourself? About Jen McLaughlin Jen McLaughlin is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of many genres and types. The Unforgiven Kingdom came to life when she couldn’t find her daughter’s bedtime story, and by the end of the "bedtime story" she realized she �had the first chapter of a book. As a lover of adventure and chaos, she strives to tell tales of strong female leads that take readers to unseen worlds. Jen was mentioned in Forbes alongside E. L. James as one of the breakout independent authors to dominate the bestselling lists. Jen resides in Pennsylvania with her husband, four kids, one dog, and five cats. She spends her time writing, and teaching high school and college students how to write creatively. Jen earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Wilkes University and is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Education. She is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency. Faculty News Gregory Fletcher’s short story “Ismene in Venice” is included in the new anthology The Night Bazaar: Venice, published by Northampton House Press. Lenore Hart is pleased to announce a new volume in The Night Bazaar series, Northampton House Press' fantastic fiction anthologies. Volume two is entitled The Night Bazaar Venice: Thirteen Tales of Forbidden Wishes and Dangerous Desires. Hart is the series editor and contributor of the story, "Plenty of Fish in the Sea". Short stories by Wilkes alums Dana Miller, Corinne Nulton, Frances Williams (writing as Aphrodite Anagnost), and Carol MacAllister, along with faculty members Kaylie Jones and Gregory Fletcher, are featured as well. Additionally, Hart has published two poems, "Looking Into the Eyes of a Woman I Must Tell She's a Writer" and "Hypatia in the Library" in AMERICAN WRITERS REVIEW 2020 (San Fedele Press). Two Poems, "The Well-Shooter's Wake" and "On Visiting the Castle of My Drawn and Quartered Ancestor" were published in *FOOTNOTE 4: A LITERARY JOURNAL OF HISTORY (Alternating Current Press). Ross Klavan has a new novella due to be published in October by Down & Out books. It's another in a series of noir crime stories, this one entitled, “Cut Loose All Those Who Drag You Down”. It is part of a compilation– three authors, three crime novellas– the book is called Third Degree. David Poyer via Northampton House Press announced the publication of the trade paper edition of Susan Mailer's memoir In Another Place; With and Without My Father, Norman Mailer, available worldwide beginning September 1. The 2019 hardcover was critically praised, and the new edition contains all the text and photos of the original $27.95 edition. It is also available in e-book format. �Additionally, Poyer also published a short story in the latest edition a dark fantasy anthology entitled The Night Bazaar Venice: Thirteen Tales of Forbidden Wishes and Dangerous Desires. Set in 1348, the year the Black Plague arrived in Italy, "The Thousand Injuries of Fortunato" prequels Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" in explaining exactly why Fortunato richly deserved to be bricked up in Montresor's catacombs. Alumni News Jennifer Bokal (M.A. 2010) will release her eleventh novel, Colton's Secret History, in September 2020 and her twelfth novel, Agent's Mountain Rescue, in November 2020. Both are being released by Harlequin Romantic Suspense. This fall, Jennifer will be teaching online workshops at Broome Community College; Painless Novel Writing and Solving the Publishing Puzzle. Jennifer is currently president of RWA's newest chapter, Aged to Perfection Seasoned Romance Writers of America--where they believe that love is timeless. Todd Conner (M.A. 2019) launched an audio podcast called The Cariorker in December 2019.  For Season One he translated, produced and performed 13 short stories by Machado de Assis, Brazil’s most renowned literary son. Season One was cut short by the pandemic, but Season Two is slated to begin in November on location from Rio de Janeiro, when he will deconstruct and interpret the early classics of Samba and Choro for American ears. The Cariorker is available on major podcast platforms and at www.thecariorker.com. Two poems by Caitlin Downs (M.A. 2020) were included in the anthology Erase the Patriarchy published by University of Hell Press, which is available for purchase (August, 2020). She was awarded a new contract and faculty status at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and will be establishing the new writing center this fall. Cooper Gorelick (M.A. 2017) wrote a one-act play titled "A Fragment of the Day" (which was specifically written for "drive-by" theater). His play is set to be produced in early October in Cherry Hill, NJ. Tara Marta (M.A. 2018) had her first novel, Look Back to Yesterday, published in June. She was recently interviewed about her book on PA Live and VIA Radio. On Thursday, August 27th she offered a virtual reading and Q&A for the Abington Community Library. Bill Schneider (M.F.A. 2014) announced his retirement as assistant program director of the Maslow Family Creative Writing Graduate Program at Wilkes University. Ora Smith (M.A. 2017) is pleased to announce her book, The Pulse of His Soul: The Story of John Lothropp, a Forgotten Forefather was released on September 8, 2020. This is Ora's first historical novel to be published. Previously, she has illustrated and written a children's picture book titled A Christmas Story of Light released in 2018. �Michael Soloway (M.F.A. 2014) founded a digital magazine in June at AuthenticityMags.com. The goal is to publish articles with unique voices from authentic people, so others can find their authentic selves. Their motto is: For the People. By the People. They have several Wilkes alumni contributing, but they always need more. Please reach out via michael@authenticitymags.com! He would love your feedback and participation! Student News Andree Catalfamo won Honorable Mention for her poem, "Expendable", in the annual Passager Journal poetry contest. The poem was published in September 2020. She also had a short story, "Blooms," published in June 2020 in Yellow Arrow Journal. Tonya Chadi’s poem Lately was accepted for publication by IndolentBooks.com What Rough Beast. It was posted 7/11/20. Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Make A Gift �Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map 84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! Fall 2020 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/fda291aa9475af5eb06c28a4d2a7066a.pdf 8eb5b54d2dbb45594a5de141aa0298a7 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives Fall 2018 - Revise This! September 2018 M.A. and M.F.A. Creative Writing Graduates Don their Caps in Summer Commencement   Revise This! 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 Revise This! Archives From left to right: Aurora Bonner, Pamela Turchin, Andre Carter, Samantha Patterson, Samantha Stanich, Julie Yelen and Kristin Weller. We congratulate the graduates of the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing, who were awarded their diplomas at the summer commencement ceremony on Sunday afternoon, September 9, 2018, at Wilkes University: n 2018 n n �M.A. M.F.A. Jack Butler Aurora Michelle Bonner Chmielewski Andre Karla Erdman Carter Jessica Fisher Bibiana Krall Michael Hoarty Ann Miller Amanda Lance Pamela Sally Lehman Turchin Lori Mills Iris Ouellette Samantha Patterson Caterina So Samantha Stanich Cameron Thrall Kristen Weller Julie Yelen Alan Yount Congratulations to each of these members of our Wilkes writing community, and welcome to the newest members of the Wilkes Alumni Association! PWC and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony at Wilkes �  Andre: Andre Dubus III (The House of Sand and Fog) was the 2018 PWC keynote speaker. Jackie: Jacquelyn Mitchard (The Deep End of the Ocean) taught a workshop on "leaning into the pain" at PWC18 and taught a 4-day fiction workshop as part of the Norman Mailer Summer Writers Colony. Marita: Marita Golden (The Wide Circumference of Love) also taught fiction at the 2018 Norman Mailer Summer Writers Colony. The Pennsylvania Writers Conference is a yearly event hosted by the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. Writers near and far come together for two days of craft, pedagogy, workshop, performance and of course, writing. This year's conference was held on August 3-4, 2018 and featured keynote speaker Andre Dubus III (The House of Sand and Fog) along with Jacquelyn Mitchard (The Deep End of the Ocean). The two-day conference featured classes on publication, a pitch session, writing through chaos and rebirth, teaching with rubrics and office hours with a publishing house editor (Nicole Frail, Skyhorse Publishing). With nearly 100 writers in attendance, PWC was a success. In January of 2018, program co-founder Dr. Bonnie Culver worked with Lawrence Shiller of the Norman Mailer Center to bring the Norman Mailer Writers Colony to Wilkes University. Previously held at the Mailer house in Providence, RI, the Norman Mailer Writers Colony classes are weeklong workshops taught by distinguished members of the writing �community. This year, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Marita Golden (The Wide Circumference of Love) and faculty member Ross Klavan taught classes in fiction and screenwriting. The weeklong classes bookended PWC with Golden teaching during week 1 (July 29-August 3) while Mitchard and Klavan taught during week 2 (August 5-10). For more information on the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, please visit nmcenter.org. Sanding the Rough Edges: PWC and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony By Iris Ouellette (M.A. '18) The Pennsylvania Writers Conference took place during the first weekend in August, flanked by two weeks of workshops at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony. Featuring an engaging keynote address by Andre Dubus III, author of The House of Sand and Fog, PWC gave both regional and national writers the opportunity to interact with their peers and role models. The weekend, full of classes and comradery with fellow writers, instilled in me (and presumably in each of the attendees) a sense of community and belonging. The first PWC workshop I attended, on Historical Narrative, was taught by Joseph Kraus, one of the foremost experts on Jewish gangsters in Chicago. He spoke to us about weaving seemingly scattered pieces of history into a cohesive narrative, referencing the boxes and boxes of material he had to sort through to form the narratives of his first and second novels. Educators in attendance were treated to a workshop on teaching with rubrics that proved invaluable as I began my career as a professor in September. We were given sample rubrics and taught how to break them down into understandable terms for our students. As a new teacher, I was incredibly thankful for this opportunity because it's difficult to get hands-on experience with grading tools before being thrown into the classroom. Jacquelyn Mitchard, waylaid by weather, unfortunately missed the plenary session originally in the schedule. Fortunately, this meant that she led a workshop – one that ended up being the weekend's most memorable for me. Her workshop dealt with "leaning into" the pain we so often shy away from as writers. She stressed the importance of writing about our traumas and painful experiences and asked each person in attendance (there were at least twenty) to write down five topics about which we've never written. She then asked us to share one. What happened as a result was an intense sense of love and understanding within the room. People spoke about divorce, disease, abuse, mental health, family relationships, and more with unflinching �honesty and courage. On the final night of PWC, Andre and Jackie shared the stage, offering readings that left us in the audience perhaps teary but feeling whole. Following their readings, the two authors, both with books in Oprah's Book Club, offered a Q&A and engaged with the audience for nearly an hour. It was incredibly valuable to those of us in the audience who are unpublished to see two published authors describe their writing processes since they were so very different. Seeing established authors explain that they, too, experience self-doubt is a pleasant reminder that we're all right. That night, with the encouragement of Jackie, I was able to write about a topic I've avoided for years. Her workshop during PWC proved a successful audition for the class I took with her and three other people during the Norman Mailer Writers Colony. Jackie then led a four-day Mailer Colony class on story endings, during which four attendees shared the first 25 pages of our current projects and offered critiques. A successful writing workshop such as this one has the potential to sand the rough edges of our projects without killing the spirit that caused us to create in the first place. We were also given well-known first and last sentences of stories and novels and asked to mimic them, because as Jackie taught us, writing like the masters makes our own writing much better. The most valuable aspect of this class for me was my individual meeting with Jackie. We spoke, of course, about my project, but also about my overarching aspirations as a writer. She provided me with both encouragement and concrete tips for reaching my goals, as well as sharing more than a few laughs and tears. I cannot recommend the Pennsylvania Writers Conference and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony enough. If you are a writer in any sense of the word, you must surround yourself with like-minded individuals periodically, even if only once a year. It recharges your writerly batteries. It makes you feel less like an impostor. It reminds you of your purpose. �Mailer Conference returning in October The 16th annual Norman Mailer Society Conference will be held at the Macon City Center Marriott Hotel, in Macon, GA from Thursday October 25 to Saturday October 27, 2018. Mailer was the first founding advisory board member of the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing, and students and faculty from the CW program have read and performed his work for the last 15 years as part of the Wilkes U Readers Theatre. This year faculty, alums and students will read from a script based upon Mailer's Why Are We in Vietnam? The Norman Mailer Summer Writers Colony is now held at Wilkes University! We will once again be offering two weeks of craft, pedagogy and workshops with New York Times and members of our faculty. For more information about the Norman Mailer Writers Colony at Wilkes University, please visit this link.  Fall �Community Workshops Sharpen your skills and jump into writing with our Fall Community Writing Workshops! Generating from the Senses With Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses as our guide, we will explore the common five senses: smell, touch, taste, hearing, and vision. This workshop for adults of all ages is meant to be generative in nature, enabling writers the option of composing in any genre they see fit for a given assignment. This workshop is appropriate for anyone looking to create a more regular space for writing, anyone looking to enrich an inprogress piece, and anyone wanting to learn more about themselves and how memory and our senses connect. Students will be expected to purchase a copy of A Natural History of the Senses and to complete readings within each of the five-sense sections, in addition to weekly writing assignments. Meetings: Fridays – 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Dates: September 21, 28, October 5, 12, 26 and November 2 (No meeting on October 19) Cost: $65.00 for the entire series Instructor: Virginia Grove Get Real! A Memoir Workshop Want to write memoir but don't know where to start? Afraid to? Great. Join me on a six-week journey on opening up and facing the hard stuff that just needs to be told. The premise of most memoir is to write it out to �get past it, but to leave a trail of wisdom and comfort for your readers to follow you into your next creative work. This workshop for adults of all ages will rely on writing prompts, sharing of works, and tips and advice from someone in the field who's "been there and done that!" Another component of this will be to tear down the insecurities of being a writer who writes about sensitive material. It is my hope this workshop will empower you to share your story, so that you and your readers will benefit from your journey. Meetings: Saturdays – 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Dates: September 8, 15, 22, 29, October 13 and 20 (No meeting on October 6) Cost: $65.00 for the entire series Instructor: Rachael Hughes Jazz Poetry Workshop This five-week workshop for adults of any age will be a combination of looking at the genre of Jazz Music as an eclectic way of being that permeates lifestyle, fashion, language, culture and poetry. The goals of the workshop are to increase the appreciation for and knowledge of this genre of music and the integration of poetry within that frame, to have basic information of the history of Jazz and the musicians who created this art form and the culture it spawned for over one hundred years. To look at the early poets who used the language, signature rhythms and styles to craft a new way of writing and seeing. To look at the performative aspects of Jazz Poetry as its own art form and appreciate the contributions of those early musicians and poets. To have each participant create a chapbook of Jazz poems. Using various techniques of poetry and oral recitation, participants will create and hone their poetic muscles into crafting Jazz Poems and at the same time critical skills to help write and listen to the music and poetry of this uniquely American art form. Selected music and poetry will be listened to in workshops. Handouts and a schedule of both works to be listened to, articles on the subject as well as in depth focus on stages of development of chapbook and rewrites as a result of the workshop process. Budding poets, closet poets and intimidated poets of all levels are welcome. Meetings: Saturdays – 1:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Dates: September 29, October 6, 13, 20 and 27 Cost: $65.00 for the entire series �Instructor: Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr To register for a community workshop, please visit wilkes.augusoft.net. Wilkes at AWP19 The 2019 AWP Conference & Bookfair will be held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon from March 27 – 30, 2018. Current students are invited to apply for an AWP19 registration waiver, which covers the cost of conference registration. Transportation and housing will be at your expense. Contact Associate Director Bill Schneider at bill.schneider@wilkes.edu for more information. In exchange for your conference waiver, students are required to spend a minimum of two hours each day working at the Wilkes/Etruscan booth. Working the booth is a great way to network with authors, publishers, and other graduate students from around the country while promoting the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing to potential students. The full AWP19 schedule will be released in October, and more information can be found at www.awpwriter.org. While you're in Portland, swing by these sessions and support the Wilkes CW family, including program partners Akashic Books and Etruscan Press: Etruscan Press Authors Kazim Ali (The Disappearance of Seth) • Fifty Years of FIELD: Contemporary Poetry and Poetics • Reinventing the Wheel: The Tradition of Innovation in Poetry Patti Horvath (All the Difference) • Rewriting History: Why It's Not Okay to Fictionalize Our Memories David Lazar (Who's Afraid of Helen of Troy: An Essay on Love) • Que savent-ils?: What Classic Essays Can Teach Contemporary Essayists Paul Lisicky (The Burning House) • Endings for the End Times? J. D. Schraffenberger (Saint Joe's Passion) • Changing of the Guard: Editors on Inclusion and Diversity in Literary Journals • Impact and Empathy: Service-Learning and Creative Writing �Tim Seibles (Fast Animal and One Turn Around the Sun) • How we need another soul to cling to: Writing Love Poems in Difficult Times • Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology Reading Shara McCallum (Poems and Their Making) • Boulevard 35th Anniversary & 100 Issues Reading Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing  Jason Carney and Bill Schneider (Wilkes University Alumni) • AWP Open Mic and Old School Slam Program Partners Ibrahim Ahmad (Akashic Books) • Can I Pick Your Brain? The Fine Line Between Giving Back and Getting Paid Faculty News Lenore Hart's short story, "Thirteen Ways of Living With a Wolf, appeared in the July issue of The Florida Review. It was a finalist for their 2017 Editors' Fiction Prize. Her poem "The Well-Shooter's Wake" was a finalist for the Charter Oak Prize for Historicals. That poem and another, "On Visiting the Castle of My Drawn and Quartered Ancestor", will be published in Alternating Current's Notes #4 this fall. Lenore was also invited to attend the annual gathering of the Connecticut Poetry Society in New Haven, CT. There, she gave a reading of "Struck By Light", which won the 2017 Connecticut River Review Poetry Prize. Lenore also was featured in The Horror Tree, which is a resource for both new and experienced writers. Ross Klavan's new noir novella, I Take Care of Myself, which is out in September, received a favorable review from Publisher's Weekly. Jean Klein published a new blog on Havescripts/Blue Moon Plays with mention of both Wilkes and Dr. Culver. Nancy McKinley's short story "Hand Against the Horn" is published in the Timberline Review Issue 7, with the theme of Rebirth, August 2018.  Student/Alumni News Molly Barari (M.F.A. '17) has been chosen to speak about the �importance of life story writing for the 2018 Black Hills Aging Gracefully Expo in September. Randee Bretherick (M.F.A. '13) under the name Randee Green published her first mystery novel on July 1, 2018. CRIMINAL MISDEEDS is the first novel in the Carrie Shatner Mystery series. Janine P. Dubik (M.A. '17) is among the poets selected for the 2018 Poetry in Transit in conjunction with the Luzerne County Transportation Authority in the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, area. The 2018 theme is unbreakable, and Janine's poem is entitled "Touchstone." This is the third consecutive year that Janine has been part of Poetry in Transit. The six-line poems are displayed on illustrated panels that rotate among all LCTA bus routes for the next year. The official launch of the 2018 Poetry in Transit was held at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17, at the Wilkes University/King's College Barnes & Noble on South Main Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre.  Rachael Hughes (M.F.A. '13) will be launching her debut memoir Us Girls: My Life Without a Uterus at the Barnes & Noble Wilkes Kings Bookstore on September 22, 2018 at 7 p.m. Tara Lynn Marta (M.A. '18) had an essay "The Dream Lives On" included in the I Am Strength anthology, which was released on August 26th, in honor of Women's Equality Day. Tara read her essay at KGB Bar in NYC on August 29, 2018. Josh Penzone's (M.A. '13) short story "A Soldier's Story" appeared in the July issue of Blue Lake Review.    Donna Talarico (M.F.A. '15) coordinator and creator of Hippocamp, A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers was featured in the Living section of the Lancaster Paper. Donna's publishing �endeavor, Hippocampus Magazine and Books, was featured in LNP as well, along with an interview with Hippocampus Magazine and Books' flagship author Rebecca Fish Ewan.        Alyssa Waugh (M.F.A. '15) curated and edited an anthology titled I AM STRENGTH, which was released on August 26, 2018. I AM STRENGTH is a collection of true stories, poems, and art created by women from all walks of life, championing our everyday struggles and triumphs. Alan Yount (M.A. '18) had an essay, "Syllogisms" published by Not Your Mother's Breast Milk in June and "The Paddle" was published August's Hippocampus Magazine. Danie Watson (M.A. '18) began teaching at Lackawanna College as an adjunct instructor in August 2018. Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Online Nursing Make A Gift �Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map 84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © �e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! Fall 2018 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/5e83e6821dcddcce5f8dab3c5d72d80d.pdf a1fa7586e79f965b6bd6d092ab8c6996 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives Revise This! December 2016   Archives E. S. Farley Library Collection Of Published Works Grows Five And A Half Questions For Susan Cartsonis Warm Your Winter With Wilkes Community Writing Workshops Archives Norman Mailer Conference Student Reminders News From Faculty, Students And Alums 2017 2018 Clearing a section of the stacks: the E.S. Farley Library Collection of Published Works by Danie Watson During the 10th anniversary celebration of the Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program in 2015, Director Dr. Bonnie Culver Revise This! November 2019 n 2016 n n �discovered a way in which Wilkes could set itself apart from all other creative writing programs. "As I was looking through our program materials including bios, Revise This! and alum notes, I began a bibliography that included nearly a thousand items—books, films, collections, published plays, chapbooks, memoirs— physical pieces of published, produced work," Dr. Culver said. "We then tried to find any program, anywhere—residency or low-residency—that had amassed a collection of its creative works. We could find none, certainly nothing like what our program offered." Our goal was to create the largest single collection of a creative writing program in the world. By end of last year, the E. S. Farley Library Collection of Published Works was launched with donations received from faculty, alums, current students, and Advisory Board members. When I began my graduate assistantship in February 2016, the Library Collection was my first assignment. At the time, there were about 150 titles in the collection, and very few copies in the archive. My first goal was to review the list of titles in the collection, determine what was in the library, and what we were missing. From there, I determined how many copies we had of each title. Our goal was to obtain two copies of each title: one for circulation, and one for the archives. Along with the Program's library liaison, Carl "Eddie" Clem, I pored through the books donated to the Creative Writing Program. We also spent time searching the Farley Library shelves. We discovered that 248 titles were already in the collection. Many of these titles have copies in both the archives and on the shelves; but our work is not over, as there are many works not included in the collection. "The Library will include these works within its local catalog, as well as in WorldCat (www.worldcat.org), making the items discoverable worldwide. This collection will also become usable to those patrons outside of the Wilkes-Barre area via interlibrary loan, increasing discoverability and �exposure to the worldwide library community," says Clem. "We encourage the donation of a second copy for [the library's] Archives and Special Collections, to preserve the impact of the University and its graduates." The Library Collection has grown significantly with donations of published works by authors affiliated with the program, including Blue Moon Plays, Etruscan Press, Kaylie Jones Books, Northampton House Press, and SenArt Films, but we are far from reaching our goal. More than 1,000 titles are needed. Everyone can leave his or her mark! We're asking that current students, faculty, and alumni donate copies of their favorite work by a program-affiliated author. Each piece of the collection is notated with a golden medallion on the cover. Donated books contain a nameplate before the title page, stating who donated the book to the collection and recognizing the importance of good literary citizenship. The E.S. Farley Library Collection of Published Works cannot grow to be the largest collection without your help. The current list of published works in the collection may be found at http://wilkes.libguides.com/creativewritingcollection. Danie Watson is a graduate assistant for Etruscan Press and M.A. student in creative nonfiction in the Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing Program. She lives in Nanticoke, Pa. Five and a half questions for Susan Cartsonis by Lisa Greim Producer Susan Cartsonis has had a busy 2016. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life opened Oct. 16; Carrie Pilby premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September; and Deidra and Laney Rob a Train finished principal photography in Utah last summer, and will be released as a Netflix Original in 2017. A member of the Creative Writing Program faculty and advisory board, Cartsonis founded Storefront Pictures to make "smart, high-quality films that appeal to female audiences." Along the way, she has championed the need for women in all aspects of the film industry – female directors, producers, screenwriters and investors. �I'll lead with a self-serving question. I write fction and memoir. What will make my manuscript something you want to option? If there's a good and original, and in some way, universal idea at the center of your story, then it might be a good prospect for adaptation to screen. That's not to say it can't be unique, but there has to be some core notion that is relatable. For example, everyone has felt "less than" or like an outsider, and so The Duff found a wide audience beyond its core of teenage girls. Deidra and Laney Rob a Train is a Netfix Original. Are projects for online distribution handled diferently than those for theatrical release?  I will let you know when I get through this process, but YES, I can tell it's different already. Netflix considers the online launch every bit as important as a premiere in movie theaters. There are different priorities surrounding publicity materials. And online distributors seem particularly knowledgeable about demographics that they can reach that might be ignored by theatrical distributors. The credits list for Carrie Pilby is full of women — director Susan Johnson, screenwriter Kara Holden (from the novel by Caren Lissner), and producing partners Suzanne McNeil Farwell and you. Is the needle for women in Hollywood moving at all, or are people just talking about this issue more? Talking about the issue creates awareness, which makes the needle move—but the needle or the proportions of women in film are the same paltry proportions as in the government and in big business. Interestingly, that proportion is healthier in independent film, where the financial barrier to entry is not as high. There's a Sundance/Women in Film study that looks at those stats—and endeavors to improve them. The main focus being: get women access to funding. I noticed all three of your current projects have YA roots. What about YA titles and topics appeals to you? I'm just a YA magnet because I'm immature. Seriously, I think that the vulnerability, questions about identity, and worldview of YA material appeals to me as something that we carry with us our entire lives. I like to think that the themes we explore will speak to audiences of all ages. Please tell a story that will make Wilkes screenwriters feel good about what they do. Wilkes screenwriters come from diverse perspectives and bring all sorts �of fresh experiences to the world of film. I personally now have two projects set in the Scranton area. Not being from Hollywood (and very few people are actually from Southern California) is an advantage in my opinion. We get tired of movies that reference the 405 freeway...and we long for stories that we connect with, that allow us to "take a vacation" to other places! What is it about movies? Why are they your life's work? I'm a storyteller and have been one since I was a small child. I started by telling stories to my four younger brothers and sisters to entertain them, wrote and performed plays in school and after school, and made my first film at 12. I love movies because they allow a storyteller to connect with a large audience, and create a shared perspective that has power to transcend differences of culture and specific experience. I've always known that storytelling and connecting with an audience is powerful and important. And I believe that in ways small and large, we can affect culture and influence the world. Lisa Greim is working on her M.A. in creative nonfiction from Wilkes University, when she isn't writing something else in Arvada, Colo.  Community Workshops will warm the winter Community Creative Writing Workshops will be offered on the WilkesBarre campus in February, March, and April. The six- and seven-week sessions, which cost $65, include: Intro to Poetry with Dawn Leas, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Mondays, Feb. 20 March 27 Advanced Techniques in Memoir Writing with Vicki Mayk, 6-8 p.m., Mondays, Feb. 27 - April 3 Playwriting Workshop: The One Act Play with Bonnie Culver, 6-8 p.m., Tuesdays, Feb. 21 – March 28 Creative Nonfiction: Taking the "I" and "Me" Out of Memoir with Rachael Hughes, 6-8 p.m., Tuesday, March 14 – April 25 (7 sessions) Intro to Screenwriting (Tools and Techniques) with Kelly Clisham, 6-8 p.m., Thursdays, Feb. 23 – March 30 Word Watering: Storytelling, Healing, and (Re)Constructing Identity with Virginia Grove, 9-11 a.m., Saturdays, March 4 – April 8 In addition, Dawn Zera will teach two Saturday sessions for children and teens on Feb. 4, Getting Serious About Creative Writing and Putting the Fun Back in Writing. Each are $10. �Full info and registration can be found on the Wilkes Creative Writing website. Wilkes Creative Writing Program at Mailer Conference Wilkes faculty, alums, and students participated in panels and presentations at the 14th Norman Mailer Society Conference, "Return to Long Branch," held Sept. 29 - Oct. 1 on the Monmouth University campus in West Long Branch, N.J. A panel, "Remembering Muhammad Ali" included Michael Mailer and John Buffalo Mailer. K.C. Leiber performed Bonnie Culver's one-woman play A Ticket to the Circus, based on Norris Church Mailer's memoir. The annual Wilkes reading  featured Mailer's unpublished first novel, No Percentage.  Student reminders Alums and faculty may nominate one incoming student in each cohort for the Pay It Forward scholarship, which applies $2,500 against his or her first semester's tuition. Students: The annual Etruscan Prize for the best single page in any genre will be judged this year by Etruscan author Myrna Stone. Deadline �is April 15, 2017. Winner receives a $100 honorarium, a complimentary subscription of Etruscan titles, and a limited edition broadside of the winning piece. "Send us one page: your best page, in any genre. It can be beginning, middle or end. It can be prose, script, or poetry. Send us a page that sings." Email your page as an attachment to books@etruscanpress.org. [ABOVE] David Poyer and Lenore Hart Poyer. Faculty News Gregory Fletcher's play Family of Flechner appears in the newly published anthology The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2016 by Smith & Kraus, Inc. Christine Gelineau's book Crave was a finalist in the poetry category for the 2016 CNY Book Awards, a program of the Syracuse YMCA's Downtown Writers Center. Winners were announced Dec. 8. Lenore Hart Poyer has a lot going on. Connecticut-based Graystone Press will include her poem "Crazy Quilt 1918" in Forgotten Women, an anthology due in early 2017. Her novel in progress, The Alchemy of Light, about a photographer of the dead who clashes with Thomas Edison, as the Great Genius is inventing the electric chair, was a semi- �finalist in the 2016 Faulkner-Wisdom "Words & Music" Novel Competition in August. Lenore gave a talk Oct. 6 at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin, where she and David Poyer addressed a group there on – among other topics – the current American publishing landscape, and the necessity of book promotion for authors. She was invited to join the Irish Writers Union, and did so on Nov. 1. Finally, Lenore's latest Elisabeth Graves novel, published earlier in Norway by Egmont Boker (Oslo), was released in a first North American edition Oct. 11.  For the first time ever, Kaylie Jones and two Kaylie Jones Books authors were invited to participate at the Miami Book Fair in November. Kaylie moderated a panel with Barb Taylor (M.F.A. '15) and J. Patrick Redmond, on the important role indie presses like Akashic Press play in the increasingly commercialized world of fiction.  J. Michael Lennon's review of Avid Reader: A Life by Robert Gottlieb, former editor of The New Yorker, and editor-in-chief at Simon and Schuster and Alfred Knopf, will appear in an upcoming issue of the Times Literary Supplement (London). On Nov. 3, David Poyer and Lenore Hart attended a book launch at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, for On War and Politics (Naval Institute Press, November 2016), which Dave co-authored with General Arnold Punaro. Lenore also provided editorial assistance, received credit in the book, and got to meet her longtime hero, John Warner! Dave's new novel Onslaught (St. Martin's, 2016) received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which described the 16th novel in the Dan Lenson series as "superb." Quarterdeck magazine said, "David Poyer's page-turning Lenson series, featuring all-too-real scenarios relating to current world affairs, sets the standard for present-day naval fiction."  Student and Alumni News Maxwell Bauman (M.F.A. '14)reports that Baphomitzvah won Best Screenplay in the November IndustryBOOST Audience Awards competition on GetIndieWise.com. Tom Borthwick's (M.F.A. '08) film Solacium, based on a previously published short story by Borthwick, debuted at the Belin Film Festival in October. Kait Burrier (M.F.A. '14) recently relocated to Madison, WI, where she �joined Ideas That Evoke, an award-winning boutique social media agency, as their first full-time copywriter. Tara Caimi (M.F.A. '10) presented "Fiction Techniques in Memoir: Using Craft Elements and Privileged Perspective to Engage Readers and Gain [ABOVE] Poem Fusion, Sangue della Radici Festival. Trust" at HippoCamp 2016. She developed and taught the five-week workshop "Crafting Creative Personal Essays and Memoir" for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Penn State. On Nov. 3, Tara visited the English 212 Introduction to Fiction Writing class at Penn State to speak about guidelines for submitting short stories and essays. As an independent contractor, Tara took on the temporary role of managing editor for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, leading the charge to turn the association's member newsletter into a professional, broader-reaching journal. Craig Czury (M.F.A. '08) conducted a public Poem Fusion—multi-lingual poetry performance—at the Sangue della Radici Festival, Sept. 23, in Soncino, Italy. On Nov. 19, Czury presented his Coal Mines / Gas Lines at the British Council in Milano. Screenwriter Gabrielle D'Amico (M.A. '15) attended CineStory in October. Look for a future blog post about the experience on the redesigned Wilkes Write Life blog. Heather M. Davis (MFA '12) says: "You can now watch Completely Normal on Amazon and Vimeo! I helped with an early draft of the script and have a 'Story By' credit." Brian Fanelli (M.F.A. '10) During the September 20 program of "The Writer's Almanac," Garrison Keillor read Brian's poem, "Raking Leaves." He had a poem, "Halloween," published on Verse Daily. His �new book, Waiting for the Dead to Speak, was reviewed on the Best American Poetry blog, and he gave a radio interview for the program "Weekly Reader," hosted by graduate students at the University of Minnesota, Mankato. The Jersey Shore Writers held their first Holiday Book Convention & Open Mic on Dec. 11 at 3 p.m. at the Jersey Shore Arts Center. More than 20 New Jersey authors offered books for sale. Monique Antonette Lewis (M.F.A. '12) is now a travel writer for The Huffington Post. April Line (M.F.A. '15) has a new job, writing for the development and marketing department of the YWCA. Her Adipocere handmade vegan soap and Dr. Fictitious line of body care products are for sale at adipoceresoap.net. Donna Malies' (M.A. '11) one act play, Secrets She Kept, was produced for the Pensacola Little Theatre on Oct. 15. Gale Martin (M.F.A. '10) taught a creative writing workshop Nov. 26 at the Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, Vt. Lori A. May (M.F.A. '13) has new writing in Time Out New York. She will be in New York this January leading a number of workshops and lectures. She is also a featured reader for January's At The Inkwell reading series at KGB Lit Bar, founded by alum Monique Antonette Lewis and hosted by alum Andi Talarico. In February, Lori will be speaking on a panel at AWP and signing books at the Bloomsbury booth in the AWP book fair. Todd McClimans' (M.A. '12) novel Time Underground, the second in a time-travel American History series, was named a Silver Medalist in the 2016 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards. The third book in the series, Time to Heal, will be released by Overdue Books on January 1, 2017. Two Wilkes writers were finalists in New Millennium Writings' 42nd contest:Ginger Marcinkowski (M.F.A. '11) in Flash Fiction for "Tsunami615" and Lisa Greim (M.A. student) in Fiction for "Walter Says Good Morning." Linda M.C. Nguyen (M.F.A. '14) will have a science-fiction short story published next year with Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things. She also worked on the WatchDogs 2 video game as a Legal Coordinator on the Narrative Team at Ubisoft Montreal. The game was released Nov. 15 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.  �Josh Penzone's (M.A. '13) short story "Falling Away" has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It appeared in Five on the Fifth, an online journal. Josh's words of encouragement about submitting stories to literary magazines is the December feature on the Wilkes Write Life blog. The Importance of Sex Education, a short film written and directed by Laurie Elizabeth Powers (M.F.A. '13), was a top 21 finalist in the 2016 Louisiana Film Prize and took a Best Actress award at the festival. The film will begin making the festival rounds starting with the Lone Star Film Festival in Ft. Worth, Texas, where the filmmakers will be appearing for a Q&A, and the Idaho Laugh Fest in January, with others TBA. Screening schedule and trailer at www.importancemovie.com. Laurie's feature script Who I Am Now was an official selection in the LA Lift Off Film Festival and a top 10 finalist in the Northern Lights Screenplay contest. Dania Ramos (M.A. '10) was one of seven contributing playwrights for Women Rising: Stories of Hope, which was produced by Speranza Theatre Company in October.  Joy Smith (M.F.A. '13) had her article "Getting Students Excited About Analytical Writing" published in the September edition of AMLE Magazine (Association of Middle Level Educators). The article outlined a process for teaching students how to analyze literature in their writing and how individual conferencing and student ownership of the revision process served to improve academic writing and standardized test scores.  Donna Talarico's (M.F.A. '10, M.A. '16) article "What Does an Author's Website Need to Succeed?" was featured in the November edition of The Writer Magazine. She also presented a content writing workshop and conducted a multimedia storytelling workshop at the Higher Education Web Professionals' annual national conference in Memphis in October.  Douglas James Troxell's (M.A. '13) short story, "Epidemic," appeared in The Book of the Macabre, a morbid collection of twisted tales published by Dreamfusion Press. Ordering information can be found on Amazon or dreamfusionpress.com. Don't forget to like his author page on Facebook!  Quick Links Career Development �Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Make A Gift Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map 84 West South Street �Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! December 2016 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/3c45b30a8c0e378d3c3ff7505671bb45.pdf 17726ef4ff34e97e45bab55c3cdc5070 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives n 2012 Revise This - December 2012 Revise This! Revise This! 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 Revise This!   |   December 2012                                       Revise This Archives Etruscan’s Tim Seibles a National Book Award Finalist | Morowa Yejidé Signs Book Contract | New Michael Mailer Production Stars Alec Baldwin | Persistence Pays Off for Alum Tara Caimi | Announcements | Faculty/Staff Notes | Student/Alumni Notes | Program Notes Revise This! Archives Related Links Calendars & Schedules Campus Map Centers for Excellence Faculty Publications Features Graduate Bulletin (.pdf) Graduate Bulletin Online Graduate Student Handbook Etruscan’s Tim Seibles a National Library Book Award Finalist Office of the Registrar It’s been another busy year for Etruscan Online Learning Press! The press was honored with the Professional Pharmacy National Book Award Finalist nod for Fast Application Animal, by author Tim Seibles. The fine School of Nursing - Graduate folks at Etruscan share their news and Program Student Handbook excitement in the following Q&A. Schools, Departments, Divisions n n �Q. Fast Animal already had so much positive response. What has the National Book Award Finalist nod done for the book? A. This is the strongest collection yet from an important American poet at the height of his powers. Being chosen as one of five finalists for this prestigious award focuses attention on the book, on the press, and on the poet’s body of work so far. Q. What about for Etruscan? Has anything changed or is it just another day in publishing? A. This is a huge thrill and an important milestone for us. Etruscan seeks not only to encourage a dialogue among genres, but also to nurture a dialogue among writers at different stages of their careers. We have published work by some of America’s best known poets and writers, and we have also introduced first books by the next generation of writers. Having another National Book Award finalist is a boost for all our writers, and an encouragement of the dialogue which they conduct. Q. How has the designation influenced any post-publication activity? A. Because of the award, we’re in the process of doing a large reprint of Fast Animal. Seibles is already a much sought-after performer and advocate for poetry; his schedule will only get busier as he promotes his latest book. Q. Now, this isn’t the first time Etruscan has received such an honor, is it? A. This is our third National Book Award Finalist, following William Heyen’s Shoah Train in 2004 and H.L.Hix’s Chromatic in 2006. To put this in context, only one other independent press in the country has placed three NBA finalists in the last eight years; and no other press has ever had three in their first eleven years of existence. Q. Any other comments? A. We’re delighted to share this celebration with Wilkes M.F.A. Program, whose continued support helps Etruscan thrive. The partnership with Wilkes has blossomed in many ways: this year we are publishing two books by Wilkes faculty, Kevin Oderman’s novel White Vespa and Sarah Pritchard’s short story collection, Help Wanted: Female. Two Etruscan authors, H.L. Hix and William Heyen, serve on the Wilkes Advisory Board; our co-founding Editors, Phil Brady and Bob Mooney, serve on the faculty. Our Managing Editor, Starr Troup, is a Wilkes M.F.A. alumna. Over twenty Wilkes graduates have interned for Etruscan, gaining professional experience and credential in all aspects of publishing, from editing to educational outreach to design to production to fund-raising; many more students have learned about publishing with our Literary Publishing class. With Akashic Books’ Johnny Temple, we are launching a new branch of the M.A. in Literary Publishing. Entering our seventh year, The Wilkes-Etruscan partnership is stronger than ever. �  Morowa Yejidé Signs Book Contract “When you work so hard at something and constantly dream and strategize about it and then you finally do get a YES, it’s hard to believe it,” Morowa Yejidé said. “That was my initial reaction to hearing that my novel, Time of the Locust, was going to be published by Atria/Simon & Schuster. Disbelief.” The Wilkes alum said the premise of her novel had been floating around her mind for several years before she even put pen to paper. It’s the story of an autistic boy living in the universe of his mind and his supernatural relationship with his incarcerated father. Prior to focusing on her thesis, Morowa had a few sample chapters that were published as short stories. With that early success and encouragement, she took the project further. “I decided to give a complete manuscript a serious effort through the Wilkes M.F.A. The faculty really seemed to be in the trenches as working writers—which was what attracted me to the program,” she said. “I listened to Robert Mooney read one of his powerful, visually-driven narratives and knew right away I wanted to work with him as my Faculty Mentor.” Morowa was determined to strengthen the story, but she was also eager to have an audience. “I continued revisions along the way, working with Mooney, sending the manuscript out, sort of building the plane while I was flying it. After many rejections from various agents and publishing houses large and small, I decided to try some national competitions.” That’s when she began making headway. “Time of the Locust placed as a finalist in the 2012 PEN/Bellwether Prize and the Dana Awards.” The Wilkes alum had already seen success in other venues. Her short stories have appeared in the Istanbul Literary Review, Ascent Aspirations Magazine, Underground Voices, the Adirondack Review, and others. One of her stories had been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, too, but she still wanted the book manuscript to strike a chord with publishers. Once she had the selling point as a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize and the Dana Awards, Morowa took another chance. “I sent out more queries. The rest is, as they say, history. Time of the Locust is forthcoming Spring 2014.” More about Morowa Yejidé can be found on her website at http://morowayejide.com. �  New Michael Mailer Production Stars Alec Baldwin Faculty member Michael Mailer has produced more than twenty features and leads Michael Mailer Films. He has been busy with a new project, starring Alec Baldwin and James Toback, and we were pleased to find out more about this unique production. Q. Can you tell us about Seduced and Abandoned? A. Seduced and Abandoned is a non-fiction film, part mediation on film and the filmmaking process consisting of interviews of film legends such as Polanski, Bertolucci, Scorcese, Copola, and part adventure tale following the ups and downs of Alec Baldwin and James Toback as they attempt to set up a remake of Last Tango in Paris (but this one is set in Iraq called Last Tango in Tikrit) at the Cannes Film Festival. Q. What was the reaction to the process while filming at Cannes? A. Shooting a film about the making of a film at a filmmakers festival was highly stimulating both for all of those involved but for the denizens of Cannes as well. We had great support from the head of the festival himself, Thierry Fermaux. Q. Would you say the project was a success—either in terms of the project itself or in raising money for the ‘undisclosed future film’? A. So far yes. The film we shot turned out well. It’s compelling and will be of interest to anyone interested in film and the filmmaking process. Q. When and where can audiences see the film? A. We’re in post production. The movie will be finished at the end of January, then hopefully viewable in theaters initially, followed by VOD, and other ancillaries.   Persistence Pays Off for Alum Tara Caimi M.F.A alum Tara Caimi has a craft essay in the December 2012 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle (AWP). It took time and patience to see “Privileged Perspective in Memoir: Building the Bridge of Trust by Trusting the Reader” in print, but Tara was determined and persistent in her submission process. �“I think it was fourteen months after I submitted the article before I heard from The Writer’s Chronicle. By that time I assumed the article had been rejected and that the letter had somehow gotten lost in the mail,” Tara said. That’s when she received an email from the editor requesting a few verbiage adjustments. Tara sent in the edited essay and then waited another eight months to hear back from the magazine. This time, they accepted her piece but not for immediate publication. “It didn’t seem real, but the wait was not yet over. Another full year passed before the editors found a place for it in the journal. It took three years total from submission to publication. I can say now with confidence, it was well worth the wait.” On the topic of patience, Tara says “being impatient doesn’t change most outcomes.” She considers the revision process and waiting game part of the job, acknowledging that much of the editorial side of things is out of a writer’s control. “I think we, as writers, do best to focus on the parts we can control—the writing, the submitting, the querying—and we should try not to worry about those parts of the process that depend on others. Of course, this is easier said than done.” The Wilkes alum also believes perseverance is a necessity for writers. “We can’t know with any degree of certainty how the work will be received by others, and we get far more rejections than acceptances. Without perseverance, we would not be writers.” Tara’s professional attitude has netted positive results. The alum has also had success with placing excerpts from her memoir in literary journals. Tara credits her Wilkes education and experience for developing her skills as a professional writer. “Being among this community of supremely talented writers with the students, alum, and faculty provides both support and inspiration and helps me to continue moving forward. Writing can be a lonely endeavor, and I’m encouraged by reading about the work that others are doing. I continue to learn from this community through reading the newsletter and following discussions on various social media platforms on a regular basis. It is part of my ‘writerly’ life and I’m happy to be able to give back by sharing my experiences as well.” �Announcements The Wilkes Creative Writing Program is thrilled to again receive a grant from the Maslow Foundation. The grant is $17,000, which helps underwrite the costs of our visiting writers and public evening readings, aptly titled, the Maslow Evening Reading Series. This is the seventh year in a row the Maslow Foundation has supported our program and we are grateful and honored for their continued support and enthusiasm for what we’re doing here at Wilkes. The Wilkes program will again offer a one-week in-depth literary publishing seminar. The Art and Science of Literary Publishing will take place from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday, Jan. 7 through Friday, Jan 13, 2013 on the Wilkes University campus. The course includes information about the current publishing environment from large to small presses, including corporate, independent, non-profit, university, multi-media and selfpublishing models. There will be discussions about editorial policies, book design, distribution, business models, marketing, sales of manuscripts, legal issues, author events, and much more. Instructors are Phil Brady (executive director of Etruscan Press) and Johnny Temple (publisher and editor of Akashic Books). The course may be taken for four graduate credits in conjunction with Wilkes’ creative writing degree programs. Those not taking the course for graduate credit will receive a certificate of completion following receipt of their final portfolio of written work. For more information, or to register, call the Wilkes University graduate creative writing program at (570) 408-4547 or email cwriting@wilkes.edu. If you plan on attending the annual AWP Conference and Bookfair, taking place in Boston MA, March 6-9, 2013, you’ll find ample Wilkes representation. Faculty Gregory Fletcher and Jean Klein, and alum Laurie Powers are on the panel “The Ten-Minute Play: the Essential Ingredients,” Nancy McKinley is presenting on the panel “International Women’s Day Reading from Becoming: What Makes a Woman,” and Christine Gelineau will present on the panel “Second Sex, Second Shelf? Women, Writing, and the Literary Marketplace.” Jim Warner, alum and former assistant program director, will once again host the All-Collegiate Poetry Slam and Open Mic every night of the conference. Bonnie Culver, program director, is on the AWP national Board of Trustees and was a member of the Boston Conference committee. She noted, “There are more presentations this year than any other year in AWP history. It promises to be another fantastic conference.” For more information about AWP and the conference schedule, visit www.awpwriter.org. Don’t forget to stop by Wilkes/ Etruscan Press booth in the Bookfair! Faculty/Staff Notes �Bonnie Culver’s 10-minute play GPS was recently produced at The Venue, Norfolk VA. Cecilia Galante’s sixth book, about a girl who unknowingly gets involved with an exorcism, was recently acquired by Random House. It is scheduled to be released in fall 2013. Christine Gelineau’s poem, “List for a Blue Day,” was published in Women’s Voices for Change. Dawn Leas has two poems, “Hibernia” and “East West,” included in the anthology Forever Families (Mandinam Press). Nick Mamatas has several short pieces in various recently released anthologies: the novelette “Arbeitskraft” appears in Steampunk: Revolutions (Tachyon Publications); the short story “Avant-n00b” can be found in Bloody Fabulous (Prime Books), which collects short fantasies about fashion; the suspense story “Willow Tests Well” was published in Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen, and the Criminally Insane (Black Dog & Leventhal); and “The Big Blue Peacock” appears in Dark Faith: Invocations (Apex Publications), which collects horror stories on religious themes. Nancy McKinley’s short story, “Sweet the Sound,” has been accepted by Blue Lake Review for publication in February 2013. Kevin Oderman has a new novel, White Vespa, available from Etruscan Press. David Poyer has increased his backlist. His novel Stepfather Bank is now available on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo readers. Neil Shepard has seen a number of book reviews for his fourth collection of poetry, Travel/Untravel. These appear in the American Book Review, Colorado Review, Rain Taxi Review, Rattle, Provincetown Arts, The Journal (Ohio State U), and PANK. Shepard’s radio interview with the SUNY-Binghamton radio program, Eggshell Parade, was recorded in October. He has new poems in two online literary magazines Mead and Per Contra, as well as in an upcoming anthology of TV poems. His poetry readings in the coming months include gigs at the University of Vermont, The Vermont Studio Center, The Writers Place (Kansas City MO), The Cosmopolitan Club (NYC), and Barnes & Noble (Burlington VT). He will be teaching poetry workshops at The Writers Place in Kansas City MO and at the Ossabaw Writers’ Retreat in Savannah GA. �Richard Uhlig’s novel, Mystery at Snake River Bridge, was recently acquired by Wild Child Publishing and is set for a 2014 release. Student/Alumni Notes M.A. student Kait Burrier’s short one act play, Patient/Fracture, was recently staged during the 2nd annual JMPP invitational, Dyonisia ‘12. She also wrote and directed three site-specific monologues for Scranton’s 2nd annual Bonfire at the Iron Furnaces. She continues to review arts and entertainment for NEPA’s Weekender. Kait’s poetry will appear in forthcoming issues of Ruminate Magazine, Word Fountain, and NAP lit mag’s e-chapbook, #GOODLitSwerveAutumn. M.F.A. alum Tara Caimi has a craft essay, “Privileged Perspective in Memoir: Building the Bridge of Trust by Trusting the Reader,” in the December issue of AWP’s The Writer’s Chronicle. Her short story “Chicken Divan,” which first appeared in Fire & Knives, is forthcoming in Oh Comely magazine. M.A. student Christopher J. Campion’s short story “That Familiar and Dissonant Tune” has been accepted for publication by Fiction365.com. M.F.A. alum Brian Fanelli has three poems published in Foliate Oak. His poem, “After Working Hours,” has been nominated for a 2012 Pushcart Prize. The poem first appeared in the fall 2012 issue of Boston Literary Magazine. M.F.A. alum Patricia Florio’s story “Golden Boy” will appear in the Spring 2013 edition of Newton Literary. “Golden Boy” is based on a family member who was a professional dancer in the 1940s, and the rest of the story bears a bit of truth and a lot of fiction. M.F.A. alum Wendy Garfinkle’s debut novel, Serpent on a Cross, has been e-published by Northampton House Press, under the pseudonym Darya Asch. It’s available on Nook, Kindle and Kobo. M.F.A. alum John Koloski has e-published his first novel, Empyres: Bloodblind. It is the first book in the Empyres trilogy, with the next two to follow in 2013 and 2014. The book is available for Kindle, Nook, and Kobo readers. M.F.A. alum Carol MacAllister’s sci-fi e-book, Mayan Calendar Reveal, is available on Kindle and scheduled for all popular reading devices. Her short story “Blood Pine” is part of the prestigious trade collection The Call of Lovecraft, from Evil Jester Press. “Under Nighttime Rainbows,” an erotic horror story, is part of the upcoming UK collection Peep Show �Vol.2.edited by Paul Fry. Several of her poems and a foreword are slated for the collection of inspirational work Light Within, from Ireland. A shared poem with Adrian Spendlow, official town bard of York England, will appear with other work in Word Fountain. M.A. student Lori A. May has new critical essays and reviews in New Orleans Review, The Iowa Review, and Los Angeles Review. Her poem “Drinks Among Friends” was published in a special anthology by Pirene’s Fountain. Her personal essay “Out of a Suitcase and Into the Vortex” was published by Passages North. Another essay, “The Stamp,” was published by Connotation Press. M.F.A. alum William Prystauk presented a critical paper, “Disturbing Cinema: Why We Watch,” at the EAPSU Fall Conference. He is currently filming his horror short, Too Many Predators. Also, Fantastic Horror is publishing his short story “Food” in the upcoming “Blood” issue. M.A. alum Joseph Schwartzburt is working with Seersucker Live, a Savannah Literary group. They will be putting on a show in January featuring writers from The Georgia Review: Liza Wieland, Alice Friman, and editor Stephen Corey. M.F.A. alum Donna Talarico was one of seventeen higher ed professionals contracted to write a chapter for the forthcoming book from mStoner, Social Works: How #HigherEd Uses #SocialMedia to Raise Money, Build Awareness, Recruit Students and Get Results. Her chapter is a case study of a shared social media campaign/contest between MIT and Cornell. She also presented “No Such Thing as TMI: How to Create a Culture of Content Sharing” at the 2012 Higher Education Web Professionals annual conference held in October in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Talarico won Best of Track for the Marketing, Content and Social Strategy track, which allowed her to give her presentation two more times during special “Red Stapler Sessions” on the final day of the conference. Talarico also gave this presentation at the eduWeb conference in July and was asked to give an abbreviated version of it in October for the higher ed software company, OmniUpdate. M.A. alum Kevin Voglino’s second novel, Tea Time Boys, will be released by RoguePhoenix Publishing in January 2013. M.F.A. alum Morowa Yejidé’s debut novel, Time of the Locust, which tells the story of an autistic boy who lives in a world of his own making and his supernatural relationship with his incarcerated father, will be published by Atria/Simon & Schuster in spring 2014.   �  Program Notes   The Write Life blog welcomes guest posts from faculty, students, and alumni. Email lori.may1@wilkes.edu for details. Weekly interviews, literary news, and calls for submissions are shared online at http://wilkeswritelife.wordpress.com. Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! December 2012 - Wilkes University.pdf https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/ffd6d63b3d64e04e2007d6d56aa89ef7.pdf 34eabf61f823058e355080e5bc65be54 PDF Text Text About Wilkes Home n Graduate Academics Academics n Graduate Admission & Aid Graduate Programs n Graduate Life Master's Degree Programs About Our Students n n The Arts Creative Writing MA/MFA Revise This! n Archives Revise This - December 2011 Revise This! Revise This! 2017 2018 Revise This! November 2019 Revise This Archives High Praise for Advisory Board Member William J. Kennedy's Latest Book | Alum Lori Myers' Essay Nominated for a Pushcart Prize | Faculty/Staff Notes | Student Alumni Notes High Praise for Advisory Board Member William J. Kennedy's Latest Book William J. Kennedy, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Ironweed, has seen glowing reviews for his recent book, Chango Beads and Two-Tone Shoes. The New York Times, Paris Review, and many more media outlets are praising Kennedy’s latest publication, with USA Today calling this an “ambitious, mature work.” In Chango Beads and Two-Tone Shoes we see Hemmingway make chatter with Castro, and a witty reporter, Quinn, settle into Cuba because it’s “closer than Paris.” “The Cuban element in my book had its origin in personal experience,” Revise This! Archives n 2011 n n �Kennedy said in a recent interview. “I covered the Cuban revolution in Miami and later in San Juan, PR, in the 1950s as a newsman, first on the Miami Herald, then on the San Juan Star, and as a correspondent for Time-Life. The experience nagged me for years, and eventually I took up the challenge.” While the personal angle may have prompted the book’s creation, it did not make the journey any easier. “I witnessed much suffering and heroic behavior among people in the movement; also much repression and virulent racism, and that became central to the new novel. The book in progress turned into a story of two revolutions; and what then loomed was the reimagining of both, and fitting them into my story about a journalist and a revolutionary debutante. And nine years later I finished it.” Wilkes writing students were honored with a featured reading at a recent residency, wherein Kennedy shared a few scenes from Chango Beads and Two-Tone Shoes. For students wishing to merge nonfiction elements with fiction, Kennedy has this advice. “The novel usually wants to be as true as possible to historical reality, but not at the expense of the story. The writer is getting at the truth of what he/she knows and wants to put on the page; but the reimagining of history, or even our own past, is necessary if this work aspires to be literature,” Kennedy said, “for such work is not the transcription of history but is experience that has passed through the center of our being, and been transformed into a story, play, novel that never was—a work created from the argument that the creative element in the writer’s brain is having with imagination, memory, and the implacable drive to be authentic.” This can prove to be a challenge for writers, young and experienced. “History is always malleable to the novelist. Being scrupulously, morally faithful to it can involve distorting or even eliminating what was actual. The writer’s quest is to be true to what is more important: the literary synthesis of all that internal torsion—the truly new story.” With all the media and publicity, Kennedy is settling in to getting back to what matters most. “I just finished my book tour about two weeks ago and am still not quite settled into the next phase of my life, which is to get back to writing,” Kennedy said in a recent interview. “Hemingway said that after you finish a novel you have to let the well fill up again; and that’s what I’m doing. But I have resumed something I started years ago and never finished—a play. I will finish it this time, and I will be satisfied, I think. I’m never satisfied with anything, but at least this time I will not consider what I write to be a provisional draft. This will be it, and I’ll have a staged reading. Then, of course, I’ll start the rewriting.” Alum Lori Myers' Essay Nominated for a Pushcart Prize When Hippocampus Magazine published Lori Myer’s essay, “Word,” in September 2011, the author and �Wilkes alum would have never guessed so much attention would come her way. “I am beyond thrilled to receive a Pushcart nomination and be part of this select group of writers,” Myers said recently. From the year’s submissions, Hippocampus selected six pieces of non-fiction, including Myers’ essay exploring the power of word play. “Words can affect us, cut like a knife, or perhaps even change our lives, our philosophies, our paths,” Myers says in her essay. An award-winning writer of creative nonfiction, fiction, essays, and plays, Myers has seen her work published in more than 40 national and regional publications. A graduate of the Creative Writing masters program at Wilkes University, she is now part of the writing faculty at York College of Pennsylvania. Even with her continued stream of success, this author is modest and appreciative of the attention she is earning for her writing— and for the genre as a whole. “Honestly, I have no idea when the winners will be announced. Just being nominated has meant so much! Besides, these types of awards place the literary arts center stage!” In her reflection on words and their weighty meaning, Myers has this to say in her essay: “Like a rock thrown into the literary pool, words cause the waters to ripple; they have power and weight, which is why writers ache and moan and starve and revise, revise, revise to make certain they use just the right words in a scene, in dialogue, in verse.” To read the full essay, visit Hippocampus Magazine at http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com. More information about the Pushcart Prize may be found online at http://www.pushcartprize.com/index.htm. Faculty/Staff Notes Robert P. Arthur has again been nominated for Poet Laureate of Virginia. He was a runner up for the post in both 2008 and 2010. Taschen Press has just published a new, revised edition of Norman Mailer’s 1973 biography, conceived by Advisory Board member Larry Schiller, and edited by J. Michael Lennon, who also contributed a biographical note on Mailer. The new edition contains heretofore unseen photographs by the great photographer, Bert Stern, from the last sitting with Monroe just before she died in 1962. The oversize, clamshell-boxed, limited edition of 125 copies sells for $1,000. A trade edition is six languages for a much lower price will appear in a few months. Go to �Taschen.com for details. Lennon reports that he is six months from completing a draft of the authorized biography of Mailer, to be published by Simon & Schuster next year (or maybe early 2013). Nancy McKinley’s short story “Navidad” appears in Issue 53 of The Cortland Review. Thom Ward has given a number of readings around the country, and has scheduled more for 2012, for his new poetry book, Etcetera’s Mistress, published by Accents Publishing. A review written by Brian Fanelli is available at pankmagazine.com. Student/Alumni Notes M.F.A. alum Chris Bullard’s second poetry chapbook, O Brilliant Kids, was recently released by Big Table Publishing. His poem “Miss Ross” was selected for inclusion in the poetry anthology, Best of the Barefoot Muse. His poems currently appear in 32 Poems, Plainsongs, Pleiades and Think Journal, and have been selected for future publication by River Styx, New York Quarterly, Unsplendid, fourteen magazine and Blue Unicorn. M.A. student Kait Burrier’s poem, “The Angler’s Gaze,” was accepted into Dionne’s Story: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose for the Awareness of Relationship Violence, Volume 2. Proceeds from anthology sales benefit Dionne’s Project for Safe Relationships. M.A. student Christopher Campion had two short stories, “Debt” and “Opened,” accepted by www.fiction365.com for 2012 publication. M.F.A. alum Craig Czury has been named Laureate and Honorary Member of the largest Albanian celebration of poetry in the world, the XV “Days of Naim” International Poetry Festival in Tetovë, Macedonia. Czury is the first poet from the United States to be awarded this laureateship. M.A. alum Alessandra Djordjevic has two poems, “Love’s Androgynous” and “Poetic Countenance” published on the website wordathering.com. He also has a short story, “Black Agate,” published in an anthology of short stories, The Smartest Kid in the Bronx. M.F.A. alum Brian Fanelli’s poem “After Work” has been accepted for publication in the winter issue of Harpur Palate, and his poem “How I Remember Her” is forthcoming in the next issue of Evening Street Review. M.F.A. alum Patricia Florio’s memoir, My Two Mothers, is now �available. She is working on a follow-up, with the working title Sundays with My Father. Her short story, “The Blonde I Loved to Hate,” has also been recently published. M.A. student Lori A. May was a guest presenter at the fall College Student Literary Magazine Conference in Danville IL. She also had a recent poetry reading at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, during the Michigan College English Association conference. M.F.A student Vicki Mayk’s essay “Verismo” was awarded third prize in Hippocampus Magazine’s “Remember in November” contest. M.A. alum Lori Myers’ short story “Maneuvers” was published in the anthology Off Season. Her children’s musical GLEE-ful Rapunzel was staged at Gretna Theatre, Mt. Gretna, PA, and her short play Sight Unseen was staged at Gamut Theatre, Harrisburg, PA as part of Sonnet Inspirations. She also had sketch-plays Miss Information and No Way staged at The Academy Theater, Meadville, PA. M.F.A. alum Taylor Polite’s The Rebel Wife has been named one of the best southern reads for 2012 by The Atlanta Journal – Constitution. M.F.A. alum William D. Prystauk’s dramatic horror Ravencraft was a Top-20 Finalist at Shriekfest in Hollywood and a review of his screenplay Risen appeared on Horrorphilia.com. He has also recently published reviews in Hippocampus Magazine and PANK Magazine, and presented the paper, “The Kids Aren’t All Right: Horror Movies Remind Us that Protecting Our Children in the Home is a Delusion” at the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association’s Annual Conference this past November in Philadelphia. M.A. student Joseph Schwartzburt’s literary group Seersucker Live ran a successful event that brought out more than 110 literary lovers to Kevin Barry’s Bar in Savannah, GA. Featured writers were novelist Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket), poet Patricia Lockwood, novelist Jonathan Raab, and poet/memoirist Chad Faries. M.F.A. student Sandee Umbach’s full-length poetry collection, The Pattern Maker’s Daughter, is being released in February of 2012 by Bottom Dog Press Program Note The Write Life blog welcomes guest posts from faculty, students, and alumni. Email lori.may1@wilkes.edu for details. Weekly interviews and literary news are shared online at http://wilkeswritelife.wordpress.com. �    Quick Links Career Development Campus Safety and Internships Centers & Institutes Online Programs Programs E.S. Farley Library Human Resources Jobs at Wilkes Online Nursing Offices & Administration Accessibility Statement Financial Aid Adobe Acrobat® Reader Registrar's Office Finance Office Investor Relations Student Work Study Jobs Veterans Services Visit Quick Links Schedule a Visit Parking Information Virtual Tour Campus Map Make A Gift �84 West South Street Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 1-800-WILKES-U Contact Us Wilkes University © e © d c f � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Revise This! December 2011 - Wilkes University.pdf