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About Wilkes
Home
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Graduate Academics
Academics
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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.
• Jack Butler
• Michelle
Chmielewski
• Karla Erdman
• Jessica Fisher
• Michael Hoarty
• Amanda Lance
• Sally Lehman
• Lori Mills
• Iris Ouellette
• Samantha
M.F.A.
• Aurora
Bonner
• Andre
Carter
• Bibiana Krall
• Ann Miller
• Pamela
Turchin
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
�ATTEND OUR CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS
Adults of any age or education level are welcome! Registration is $65 for each
series. Workshops take place on the campus of Wilkes University.
Writing Our Environments
6 to 8 p.m. on Mondays
Get Real! A Memoir Workshop
10 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturdays
Sept. 10 to Oct. 22
Sept. 8 to Oct. 20
Instructor: Aurora Bonner
Instructor: Rachael Hughes
Generating from the Senses
6:30 to 8 p,m. on Fridays
Jazz Poetry Workshop
1 to 3:30 p,m, on Saturdays
Sept. 21 to Nov. 2
Sept. 29 to Oct. 27
Instructor: Virginia G(ove
Instructor: Rashidah lsmaili Abubakr
Workshops are spOltSOfedby the Maslow Graduate Crearive
Writ/Ilg Program at Wilkes Ul'lilf&rS/ty.Follow your pauJon,
write your story and learn to Qet published. Earnyour M.A.
and M.F.A. Q11/me
w,tli limited campvs v1s,ts.
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WILKES
UNIVERSITY
REGISTER ONLINE AT WWW.WILKES.EDU/CW
Questions? Call us at (5701 408 4547
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
1lJ (iirCs
My
~
"WitlimdJI 1ltffla
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
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Wilkes University
84 West South Street
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
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<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
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Revise This! | 2018-09.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/504ec59e3b1cf4b808728f4c2d6aa212.pdf
c419e379c9f18e1a0284d2dc2eb36f8d
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
Summer 2018 - Revise This!
M.A. and M.F.A. Grads Walk in
Spring Commencement
Revise This!
2017
2018
Revise This! November 2019
Revise This! Archives
Photo credit: Patricia DeViva
From left to right, Tara Marta, Danie Watson, Margaret Hall, Karley Stasko, Jeffrey
Alves,
Robert Peck, Maura Maros, Donald Granza, Michelle Byrnes and Joseph Bryan.
Congratulations to the graduates of the Maslow Family Graduate
Program in Creative
Writing, who were awarded their diplomas at the
spring commencement ceremony at Wilkes
University:
M.A.
Jeffrey Alves – Creative nonfiction
Rodney Annis – Fiction
Jeremiah Blue – Creative nonfiction
n
2018
n
n
�• Margaret Hall – Creative nonfiction
• Crista Mallecoccio – Playwriting
• Tara Marta – Fiction
• Kathleen Rosa – Fiction
• Camika Spencer – Playwriting
• Karley Stasko – Screenwriting
• Danielle Watson - Fiction
M.F.A.
• Joseph Bryan
• Michelle Byrnes
• Deborah Canon
• Donald Granza
• Jennifer Judge
• Maura Maros
• Robert Peck
• Ronnie Stephens (diploma awarded during the 2018 winter
commencement ceremony)
Congratulations to each of these members of our Wilkes writing
community, and welcome
to the newest members of the Wilkes Alumni
Association!
Wilkes Ranked Third Best Online
Creative Writing Program
�:.
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61.02
Wilkes University
COST
~ $$$$
% ENROLLED ONLINE
LOCATION
14%
WIikes-Barre, PA
-
Serving fewer than 5,000 students, Wilkes is a small college with big impact. The Pennsylvania-based
institution delivers 42 bachelor's and 25 master's degrees rooted in the liberal arts and career
preparation. Wilkes offers graduate programs online, in fields like education, nursing, and creative
writing.
The university's on line
assembles a community of writers where
students receive one-on-one assistance in the creative process. Faculty mentor students in a range
of genres, from young adult and thriller to science fiction and playwriting. The program is distinct
from other on line creative writing programs due to its two delivery options: the "weekender" option
allows students to take their courses online with four weekend sessions per semester. Students who
choose the low-residency option attend eight-day residencies on campus in June and January. The
primary consideration for admission to the program is a 15-25 page writing sample.
In April of 2018, BestColleges.com released the "Best Online Master's in
Creative Writing Programs" and we're proud to announce that the
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
at Wilkes
University was ranked number three. The rankings were based on
academic
quality, affordability and online programming. Academic quality
made up 50% of the
score, while both affordability and online
programming made up 25% of the score respectively.
Wilkes and Etruscan Books
Take Flight
In March
of 2018,
Wilkes
University
and
program
partner
Etruscan
Press
entered
into
a
�Congratulations!
You'vechosena book
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in CreativeWritingat
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To learn more about the Maslow
Family Graduate Program in Creative
Writing and Etruscan Press, please
visit wilkes.edu/booksonthefly and
etruscanpress.org/booksonthefly
providea venuefor
writerswhotestthe
boundaries
of literature
andthe readerswho
appreciate
thoughtprovokinginsights.
partnership with United Airlines with their
initiative Books on the Fly--an outreach partnership based at Boston
Logan International Airport where passengers
on long-distance flights
can chose a free book before they board.
Books on the Fly was created by two United Airlines employees, Jen
Ruffini and Bob Di Rice, who noticed
books piling up in their break room
—going unread. Ruffini and Di Rice had the idea
to load these books
onto a cart and hand them out to passengers at the gate before
their
plane boarded.
The Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes
University and Etruscan
were the first outside partners to donate books to
the initiative. Each book donated
by Wilkes and Etruscan comes with a
bookmark highlighting the program and the press,
as well as QR codes
for passengers to scan and learn more about Etruscan and the Maslow
Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing.
"This innovative partnership provides a wonderful opportunity to share
the talents
of the Maslow Family program's faculty, alumni and publishing
�partners with a new
literary audience," says Dr. Bonnie Culver, cofounder and program director.
To date, Di Rice estimates that United Airlines has given away over
1,500 books to
passengers.
"I think there's a psychological aspect to having a book, something
tangible, when
you travel," Di Rice said. "It can be comforting. And when
you watch the customers
talk with each other about the books they've
read, you see their faces soften. It's
like the stress disappears."
Books on the Fly carts are popping up at United Airlines gates around the
country with more and more
books making the trip across the country.
AWP Provides Special Discount
for Recent Grads
Photo credit: AWP
Now through June 30, 2018, recent graduates of AWP affiliated creative
writing programs are eligible to continue
their membership with AWP at
the deeply discounted student rate of just $49 for the
first post-graduate
year—a 35% savings. AWP's extraordinary benefits include:
• Access to all of AWP's online benefits, including the AWP Job List and
Writer's
Calendar • Eligibility to apply for the Writer to Writer Mentorship
Program • Deep
discounts on registration for #AWP19 in Portland,
Oregon • A one-year subscription
to the AWP magazine, The Writer's
Chronicle • Access to AWP online webinars, including
the new Writer to
Agent Web Series • Discounts off the Award Series entry fees
�Join online today, and AWP will begin your individual membership from
the date your
personal or school membership expires. Simply enter the
code MFA18 + The Name of Your School. (i.e., MFA18 Wilkes
University)
and select the $49 student rate at checkout. This offer is
only valid through June 30, 2018.
While making your purchase, as a recent or prospective graduate you
can also opt in
to AWP's special monthly email series on "Life after the
Degree." Each month, starting
in late April, AWP will be discussing a
different topic from the writing life, guiding
you to resources that can help,
and presenting advice from respected teachers about
those "critical next
steps" to becoming the writer you want to be.
Take advantage of this great discounted rate today!
Faculty News
The second edition (revised and
expanded) of Gregory Fletcher's
Shorts And Briefs (a handbook on how
to write short plays) will be published
by Northampton House Press
in June
2018.
sv GREGORY FLETCHER
Faculty member Jean Klein (owner)
announces the merger of two dramatic
publishing companies: the new site of
Blue Moon Plays and HaveScripts is
officially live as of February 2018. The
Blue Moon
Plays imprint publishes
new, original, and provocative
comedies and dramas for
contemporary
community, regional,
and professional theater. HaveScripts
serves the educational
and community
�theater marketplace: scripts that educate and inspire schools, senior,
populations, spiritual communities, and community theaters. The press is
at about
90 scripts right now—including some Wilkes faculty members
and alums—and are continuing
to grow at www.havescripts.com). In
January 2018, Refraction of Light by Jean Klein
was read on Playwright's
Night at the Maslow Foundation Salon Reading Series. A reading
in NYC
by the Transcendence Theatre Collective on March 14, 2018 followed the
Wilkes
reading. A play based on William Heyen's Holocaust poetry—
Distant Survivors by June
Prager— and published by Blue Moon Plays
was featured at a book fair on April 14,
2018, at Barnes & Noble in
Poughkeepsie, NY, with readings and music to launch the
publication of
this stage adaptation.
J. Michael Lennon's essay on the library of Norman Mailer, "The Naked
and the Read," was published in the March 7 issue of the (London)
Times Literary Supplement.It
will eventually appear in his memoir-inprogress about Mailer's last days in Provincetown,
MA.
Nancy McKinley read from her short story "After All Danger of Frost" at
a celebration event for
the This Land is My Land exhibit, Museum of Art,
Fort Collins, CO.
Audio rights to David Poyer's Deep War have sold to Dreamscape
(same publisher that bought Hunter Killer last year). The publication date
will be December 2018, to coincide with the hardcover
publication.
Alumni and Student News
Molly Barari (M.F.A. '17) has been accepted into the Doctor of
Education program at the University
of South Dakota for the summer
2018 semester. She will focus on Adult and Higher Educational
Leadership in her doctoral studies.
Jennifer D. Bokal (M.A. '10) is now
writing a series for Harlequin
Romantic Suspense. The first book
in
the Rocky Mountain Justice series,
Her Rocky Mountain Hero, was
released in November
2107. The
second book, Her Rocky Mountain
Defender, was an April 2018 release.
Rocky
Mountain Valor, the third book
in the series, will be released in
September 2018.
Aside from writing,
Jen keeps busy teaching online
classes and is the President of
the
Southern Tier Authors of Romance (a
�chapter of Romance Writers of
America).
Aurora D. Bonner (M.A. '17) has been invited to attend the Summer
Workshop at Tin House this July
for creative nonfiction. At Tin House
she'll have the opportunity to hear and learn
from Dorothy Allison,
Camille Dungy, Melissa Febos, Tayari Jones, Lidia Yuknovitch,
and
others. Aurora's review of In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees by Jeff
Talarigo will appear in the Colorado Review. She has been asked to
become
a regular reviewer there.
Sam Chiarelli (M.F.A. '16) had his essay "When the Leaves Forget to Be
Green" published by Longridge Review.
Richard Fellinger (M.F.A. '10) published an op-ed on banning assault
weapons in the Lancaster paper.
Rachael J. Hughes's (M.F.A. '12) memoir of Us Girls: My Life without a
Uterus will be published by Big Table Publishing in May 2018. Us Girls:
My Life without a Uterus is a project that Hughes worked on at Wilkes
with Dr. J. Michael Lennon.
Lori A. May (M.F.A.'13) has new writing in Canadian Traveller, Explore
Magazine, and Seattle
Post. This spring, she is participating in a few
conferences on the west coast and
conducting local workshops in
Seattle.
Tara Marta (M.A. '18) had her short story "Strangers No More" published
in Adelaide Literary Magazine.
Dana Miller (M.F.A. '13) has been signed by Northampton House Press
for her new romantic novel,
tentatively titled Twisted Fate.
Jonathan Pierce's (M.F.A. '16) publication "PS, The Preventive
Maintenance Monthly," an Army technical
bulletin, won the Most
Improved Publication of 2018 for switching from a printed format
to a
mobile app format and adding videos and other interactive content to our
publication
The Secretary of the Army which annually holds a competition
among all of its official
publications and their editors. In June, Pierce will
be recognized as the Editor of
the Year for leading the effort.
Sara Pisak (M.A. student) will be featured in Glass Poetry Press'
Journal. Her review of Valerie
Fox's news chapbook Insomniatic [poems]
was published online March 25th as well as in their April issue. Sara's
work
can also be found in the upcoming issue of Moonchild Magazine for
a poetry/art collaborative feature.
�Dania Ramos's (M.A. '10) play Hielo placed third in the Henley Rose
Playwright Competition and was selected for Teatro
Vivo's Austin Latino
New Play Festival. Her one-act play Silent Aurora was one of six works in
Continuing the Conversation: An Evening of Short Plays Inspired by
Current Events produced by Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre.
Nisha Sharma (M.F.A. '13) received a
Kirkus starred review for her YA romcom My So-Called Bollywood Life, as
well as mentions in Buzzfeed, Teen
Vogue, Paste Magazine, NYPL,
Publisher's Lunch Spring Buzz Books,
MY SO-CALLED
BOLLYWOOD
LIFE
NISHA
SHARMA
Hypable and more. She went on tour
from May 15-20 and her final stop was
on May 20 in Wilkes
Barre, at the
Barnes & Noble Arena Hub Plaza. The
event included a discussion of her
book with mentor Cecilia Galante.
Ronnie K. Stephens (M.F.A. '18) has
recently joined At the Inkwell as a staff
book reviewer, and he has already
published reviews in non-fiction,
fiction,
and poetry. Working with
Edelweiss and NetGalley, Stephens is
working to establish
himself as a
steady reviewer of recent and
forthcoming titles. On the creative
front,
Stephens finalized the cover of
his debut novel, The Kaleidoscope
Sisters, and set a publication date of
August 21, 2018 with his publisher, Oddities KJB.
Pamela Turchin (M.A. '17) presented a portion of her MFA thesis "Cut
the Ending, Revise the Script,
The Man of Her Dreams is a Girl: The
Evolution of Lesbians in Literature From 1886-2018"
at the 2018
�Women's and Gender Studies Conference at Wilkes University on April
10.
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Revise This! | 2018-06.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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About Wilkes
Home
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Archives
Spring 2018 - Revise This!
Spring 2018
Revise This!
2017
2018
Revise This! November 2019
July 29 - August 3
August4 -10
Workshop sessions. Lectures. Group discussions.
Individual instruction.
Learn more at nmcenter.org
Norman Mailer Colony Comes to
Wilkes University
During the January Residency, Dr. Bonnie Culver, program director and
co-founder announced
the new partnership between the Maslow Family
Graduate Program in Creative Writing
and the Norman Mailer Center. By
partnering with the Norman Mailer Center, the Norman
Mailer Writers
Colony will now be permanently housed at Wilkes University.
The Mailer Center is an organization named for the late Norman Mailer
that offers
workshops, grants, awards, fellowships and other activities
that allow writers to
express themselves while provoking discussion and
calling for societal changes. This
new partnership bolsters the creative
writing mission to bring writing faculty to
the Wilkes University campus.
Revise This! Archives
n
2018
n
n
�Lawrence Schiller, founder of the Norman Mailer Center and the Norman
Mailer Writers
Colony, collaborated with Norman Mailer for more than 30
years. Originally, the summer
colony was held at the Mailer home in
Provincetown, MA. Past instructors include faculty
and board members J.
Michael Lennon, Kaylie Jones, Bonnie Culver, Beverly Donofrio
and
Colum McCann.
"Like the Norman Mailer Center, Wilkes University encourages and
celebrates writers
who challenge readers' perspectives on the world
around them," said Schiller. "Together,
Wilkes and the Center will
promote writers as people of action, and seek to support
those who are
driven by an endless curiosity to make sense of the times in which they
live."
The 2018 Norman Mailer
Writers Colony will be held in
two weeklong sessions
bookending
The
Pennsylvania Writers
Conference in August. In
week one, which will run from
July
29 to August 3, students
may take courses in memoir,
fiction, publishing, poetry,
nonfiction and self-promotion.
In week two, which will run
from August 4 to August
10,
students may take courses in
fiction, book reviewing, screenwriting, publishing,
and poetry. On August
3 and 4, the Pennsylvania Writers Conference will be held on
the Wilkes
campus, featuring keynote speaker Andre Dubus III.
Week 1 Classes:
Memoir with Beverly
Donofrio
Put pen to paper-or fingers to
the keyboard-in this writing
workshop with master
�memoirist
Beverly Donofrio.
Discover the life-changing
potential of memoir writing in
a workshop designed to take
you deeper into your hearts
and your pasts. Instructor
Beverly Donofrio creates a
supportive environment to
help mine and then develop
your material. Telling your stories
can be profound and transformative. All
that is required is a strong desire and the
courage to write the truth.
Through the in-class prompts, overnight assignments, and sharing our
work, we not
only learn craft, but develop camaraderie and have fun. We
may even find that what
made us rage and cry now makes us laugh.
Keep writing and you may even forgive life
for being life.
And throughout, we will have an ongoing discussion of the writing life and
how to
feed it outside of a workshop.
Elements of Fiction: Crisis
Conflict Character with
Marita Golden
This fiction workshop will
focus on the foundational
elements of compelling
fiction.
As we discuss your in
progress work, and do inclass exercises you'll learn
how to
give your characters
"character," how to push
them past the limits you
impose on them
and how to
create characters who can
both hurt and heal. For those
writing novels
and short
fiction.
�
Publishing with Philip
Brady
Ever wanted to start your own
press or literary magazine?
Or are you struggling as
a
fledgling editor or publisher to
make yours work and gain
more ground in the literary
landscape? This course will
also give you a hands-on insider's look at the way publishing
companies
work. Working with Etruscan Press, a non-profit literary press that has
produced over seventy-five titles in five genres since 2001, this course
will focus
on how to produce and market books/journals, zines, and how
to run a publishing house
in an increasingly competitive environment.
We'll explore editorial styles, marketing
plans, production schedules,
budgeting, design, and event-planning. We'll look at
the publishing
models from a close perspective, always returning to practical questions
such as: "How do things work?"..."How can I understand the process
from author-to-consumer?"...
"What is the right place for me in this
diverse and challenging industry?"
Poetry with Rashidah Ismail
Abubakr
We will start at the beginning,
with poems that have been
selected by each participant
to start of a book of poems.
We will discuss the various
concepts of producing
poems:
chapbook, collection,
themed, with or without
visuals and look at organizing
tools
that can lead to a
coherent body of work.
Poems will be edited and
�written then workshopped
during the sessions.
Creative Nonfiction: Types
and Techniques with J.
Michael Lennon
Following a brief survey of the
wide variety of forms that can
be fairly called creative
nonfiction (memoir, various
essay types, travel and place
writing, reviews, narrative
history, autobiography, and
biography), will be a
discussion of five elements of
craft
common to all types of
creative nonfiction: imagery,
voice and point of view,
character,
setting, and story. The session will also examine the blurred
boundary lines with
other genres.
Marketing Planning for
Writers, Online and Off:
Promotion, Publicity &
More with Donna
Talarico
Marketing and
communication planning is a
crucial component to the
�working writer
today. In this
session, you'll learn the
basics of building a marketing
plan, from
setting SMART
goals to analyzing your
success. Then we'll dive deeper into the many
tactics you can use, from
making connections with the media and brand ambassadors
to get
coverage -- reviews, feature stories, etc. -- to running successful events
and from managing your online persona to interacting with readers in
digital spaces.
We'll cover everything from Facebook pages and blogging
to email marketing and social
ads.
This session will give you a high-level overview of the tools and
techniques you can
use to market your work, from promoting a single
book to building general awareness
for yourself as an author and expert
in your field. We'll have in-class exercises
to help you spark some ideas
of where and how to promote your work -- no matter where
you are with
your project, this will be helpful in big-picture planning! Simply put:
You
have a great idea -- this session is about shooting that from the rooftops
so
others can share -- and enjoy -- your vision.
Week 2:
The Closer Class: A
Workshop on How to Finish
Your Book with Jacquelyn
Mitchard
You have a great concept.
You know what you want to
write. You know how you
want to
write it. You may
even have a great start. But you're afraid that you'll mess with
this thing
for the rest of your life and it will never see publication.
This workshop help you finally complete your fiction project - and help
you discover
what to do next on the path to publication, without
sacrificing artistic integrity
or neglecting the need to have a real life.
Some critical questions about structure,
contents, and even intention are
key to writing a book you can actually finish. And
there are some
elements you may not have considered.
�Bring pages to share in a full, frank, and nurturing critique with your fellow
writers
and be prepared to be overwhelmed by information - in a good
way.
Writing Book Reviews and
Breaking into that Market
with Maureen Corrigan
How does one claim the
cultural authority to become a
book reviewer? After all, there
are no dedicated graduate
programs or certificates in
"book reviewing;" nor is there
a clear route to regular
reviewing. In this course,
Maureen Corrigan, who has
been
the book critic for the
NPR program Fresh Air for
thirty years, explores some of
the
pathways to book review publication and discusses the intellectual
background and
the skills that it takes to write a worthwhile review. She
also gives some advice
about what never to do in a book review.
Screenwriting with Ross
Klavan
Screen language will go
deeply into how to get your
vision-and your story-onto
any
kind of screen. Through a
variety of exercises in class
and as homework, we'll begin
by working through the nature
of images, of film's birth in still
photography (instead
of the
novel or theater) and what
subtly changes when the
images begin to move. We'll
then shift into the structure of
storytelling through images, both conventional and
alternative, and the
creation of characters whose life may begin on the page but will
exist,
�through actors or animation, on some form of screen, large or small. A
final
project of a five-minute short or film segment will be written. There
will be a personal
meeting with the instructor on projects written in the
course or previously. Proper
format will be taught and the instruction will
be assisted by examples from films,
TV episodes and script pages.
To apply to the Norman Mailer Writers Colony at Wilkes University,
please download
this application. Please submit 10 pages of poetry,
single-spaced, or 10-20 pages
of prose or a screenplay sample,
double-spaced, in the genre to which you are applying.
Admission
to a workshop is based primarily on your writing sample.
For more information about the Norman Mailer Center or the Norman
Mailer Writers Colony,
please visit nmcenter.org. For more information
about the Pennsylvania Writers Conference, please visit wilkes.edu/pwc.
Students and alumni man the Wilkes-Etruscan booth at AWP18 in
Tampa, FL. From left
to right: Karla Erdman (M.A. student), Danie
Watson (M.F.A. student), Pamela Turchin
(M.F.A. student), Kristin Weller
(M.A. student) and Patricia Florio (M.F.A. '11).
Smooth Sailing: Maslow Family
Graduate Program in Creative
Writing Attends AWP18
By Kristin Weller (M.A. student)
Henry David Thoreau once said, "We are constantly invited to be who we
are." Like
many writers-in-progress, I have struggled with my identity. I
�teach full-time. I
am a wife. I am a daughter. I am a perfectionist. Making
a living from writing alone
is the road I have less traveled. While teaching
is a great gig, a gift in many ways,
teaching can create all kinds of conflict
for the writer-self, not the least of which
is getting the time off during the
academic year to attend conferences like AWP.
But as with anything else in life, the choices we make and where we
choose to put
our time and energy are often a reflection of our priorities,
and this year, I made
a commitment to put my writing ahead of all else.
Thanks to a one-semester sabbatical
and the student registration waivers
offered to Maslow Family graduate students, I
was able to make-good on
my self-promise and participate in AWP18 in Tampa.
The spring-like temperatures and cloudless skies of South Florida were a
welcome contrast
to the Pennsylvania Nor'easter I and my Wilkes
colleagues left behind us. Ahead, a
menu of more than 1000 panel
discussions, readings, activities, signings, and keynote
speeches from
which to choose, all in the service of enriching the writing community.
And the Book Fair! Over 800 exhibitors filled the main floor, showcasing
literary
presses and journals, independent publishers and freelancers,
writing programs and
writing residencies, poets and swag (think, free
totes, buttons, pens, and big price
cuts on books). Imagine the directory
portion of all of your favorite writing magazines,
online journals, and
publishing industry books coming to life and gathering together
around
tables and booths in one, massive room. I'll admit that I was both
overwhelmed
and impressed.
After registration and a quick tour of the vendor hall, I met up with cohort
member
Meg Hall and my mentor, Kaylie Jones. We headed over to the
Marriott across the street
from the Convention Center where a few dozen
meeting rooms held sessions of interest.
Outside of each salon and
meeting room was a full-sized poster with a list of the
sessions scheduled
in that room throughout the weekend. We perused the menus and ended
up popping into the tail-end of a panel discussion on contemporary
Southern literary
fiction. The panelists were discussing the ways poverty,
racism, and violence permeate
their works. Following their planned
discussion, the panelists opened up the floor
to questions. It wasn't long
before questions of culture appropriation arose.
We have all heard the advice to write what you know, but if you stick with
the process
of developing your craft, you will come to know that more
often than not, we use writing
to explore the questions we do not know
the answers to. What stuck with me after listening
to the open dialogue
about writing outside of your race or experience was this: if
you do the
work -- read everything you can in the cultural genre your story requires,
travel to and be with the people whose lives you want to represent with
fidelity,
and research your own personal biases alongside the historical
�events relevant to
your story -- than you have less chance of creating a
story that most readers will
view as culturally appropriated.
I found this topic to be extremely relevant beyond the cannon of Southern
fiction.
In my own experience as a Maslow Family Graduate student, this
topic has come up for
discussion within several of the residency courses I
have attended. Like it or not,
through our work we all become
ambassadors of our genres. Credibility is earned. Integrity,
demonstrated.
After the panel ended, Meg, Kaylie and I headed outside to look for a
place to eat.
The Marriott and the Convention Center are part of a
Riverwalk park where pedestrians
and exercise enthusiasts share
sidewalks and foot bridges that run along Tampa Bay.
In the center is a
cafe called The Sail where Kaylie, Meg and I ran into Bill Schneider
and
Pamela Turchin who had just flown in from Newark, NJ. After a few
laughs and some
catching up, we downed our burgers before splitting up
to attend different sessions
and man the booth. There's so much to pick
from, so having a minute to peruse the
registration materials was much
appreciated. I found the AWP app to be an especially
useful tool for
adding sessions of interest and building daily agendas. Maps, room
details, program descriptions, and schedules were all built-in to the app
giving me
easy access to necessary information quickly.
At 3:30 p.m. Kaylie and I made our way to the Book Fair floor so I could
start my
first shift at the Wilkes University-Etruscan Press booth. (Go
ahead. Say it. You
know you want to. "The (John) Wilkes Booth!" We
have the best name as far as booths
go.)
Maslow Family graduate students and alumni can attend AWP,
registration-free if we
commit to volunteering to work two hours each day
in the booth at AWP. Because Wilkes
is a major conference sponsor, the
program receives 45-60 conference registration
waivers so that our
students may attend. They want us there, networking and learning
from
and with each other. I was a little nervous about the work, but as it turned
out working in the booth was fun.
Working in the Wilkes-Etruscan Press booth was painless, even for
anxiety-prone personality
types like me. That's mostly because of the
great and magical duo, Danie Watson and
Pamela Turchin, who do most
of the on-site, logistical heavy-lifting, and our Associate
Director, Bill
Schneider, who orchestrates the rest. Working with the Wilkes-Etruscan
team was fun and at times, reminiscent of residency.
Booth required responsibilities included things like promoting the
inclusion of the
Norman Mailer Writing Colony at Wilkes, along with the
Pennsylvania Writers Conference
dates, and of course our fabulous
�MA/MFA programs, volunteers haggled over who was
the most outgoing
from our contingency (that would be Justin Kassab, Danie Watson,
and
Karla Erdman) and sent them off to wander the Book Fair, enticing
conference-goers
to sign up for the Old School Poetry Slam, which 2012
MFA graduate, Stanton Hancock,
hosted on March 9th and 10th following
the Keynote speakers. The rest of us remained
at the booth to answer
the questions of passersby.
Honestly, this task was no burden to bear. Both our programs and our
presses already
have a very strong reputation amongst those shopping
around for an MFA program. All
we needed to do was share what we
love about our writing program. Easy! Two of the
messages I found
myself repeating to potential students were how much our fabulous
faculty and our student participants value a respectful, collaborative
approach, and
how accessible and supportive we all are as a literary
community.
Even as I was sharing these points, I was flashing back to my first
residency in June
of 2016 and how many times I was approached by
upper-level graduate students who introduced
themselves and
congratulated me on entering the 501s. It happened in the dorm lobby,
in
the Henry Center, in the Starbucks, in the Darte before and after the
evening readings.
And, every faculty member made it a point to connect
with each of the 18 members of
my cohort over the course of those first
few days - no easy task given their own packed
schedules. What a
difference that kind of care and attention can make, especially
for a writer
so wrapped up in fear, rejection, and isolation. What an antidote that
kind
of attention can be!
At AWP, I got the chance to spend time with my mentor who has
committed her time and
attention to helping me develop my work and my
identity as a writer. Other faculty
members, like David Poyer who I hadn't
really had a chance to get to know at residencies,
showed up and
engaged with us too. He asked about the work I and my cohort members
were doing over lunch, thus giving Meg Hall, Jeff Alves and I a chance to
practice
pitching. The practice, like the process, never ends. Attending
AWP just verified
what I had already learned about our faculty: their
commitment to their students and
to writing is lifelong.
Investing my time in these three, glorious, twelve-hour days at AWP
Tampa as a writer
participating in this community of peers has reaffirmed
my commitment, not only to
the completion of my term project, but also to
my place in this community of writers.
I belong, and that is enough.
Kristin Weller is a Pennsylvania writer,
English teacher, and a graduate
student at
Wilkes University. Her
�essay, Life: What Writer and Teacher
Can Tell You about Craft,
was
featured in Craft section of the May
2017 issue of Hippocampus
Magazine. She earned
a Writing
Fellowship with the National Writing
Project in 2000, an organization for
which she has served as an Advisory
Board member and teacherconsultant. When she's
not grading
eighth grade English papers or running her two boxer dogs around agility
courses, she facilitated a local writing group called Write Nights in
Nazareth, PA.
She anticipates earning her Creative Writing Masters
degree in 2018.
Spring into Writing: Community
Workshops
Introduction to Fiction
Writing
From flash fiction to fullfledged short stories,
Introduction to Fiction Writing
covers the basics of
storytelling and the revision
process. The workshop
focuses on
the basic
elements of the genre and
provides participants with a
supportive environment
where they can explore their
literary interests and
experiment with character,
plot,
and language. Open to beginning writers and those looking to hone
their writing skills,
the workshop asks participants to come with an open
mind and be ready to read, write,
revise, and repeat. Adult learners of
any age may register for this workshop
Meetings: Tuesdays - 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. - Kirby Hall, Room 108
�April 3, 10, 17, 24, May 1 and 8
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Francisco Tutella
Memoir: Many Ways to Tell
Your Story
This class will explore writing
memoir by using a variety of
prompts and artifacts
to mine
your memories, from recipes
and photos to letters, diaries
and family heirlooms.
Adult
learners of any age may
register for this workshop.
Meetings: Tuesdays - 6:00
p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Breiseth
Hall, Room 209
April 10, 17, 24, May 1, 8
and 15
Cost: $65.00 for the entire
series
Instructor: Vicki Mayk
Preparing You and Your
Manuscript for Publication
This five-week workshop is
designed for adult learners
who are interested in the
submission
process and
developing the skills to enter
the world of publishing.
Participants will
be provided
an overview of how to
prepare literary projects for
submission to publishers.
Through a variety of lectures, workshop exercises, and group
�discussions, participants
will discover what it takes to prepare themselves
- and their work - for consideration.
A comprehensive look at industry
standards and best practices include crafting a project
synopsis, drafting
a query letter, understanding the author questionnaire process,
creating a
thumbnail, keynote, and writing the book description. Participants do not
need a completed manuscript for this workshop series.
Meetings: Wednesdays - 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. - Breiseth Hall, Room
211
April 11, 18, 25, May 2 and 9
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Bill Schneider
Playwriting How to Write a
Short One-Act or 10-Minute
Play
CURTAIN UP! Have you ever
imagined your story on a
stage? This workshop will
teach
ways to write a short
play in our first session. In our
second session, you will hear
your short play read alive and
envisioned. Bring yourself
and your own best characters
wanting a stage to our
playwriting workshop. This
workshop is designed for
adult learners.
Session 1: Learning how to write a play - short one-act or a 10-min play and assignment
to do so.
Session 2: Bring your assignment to workshop, and we read together,
critique, and
provide feedback.
Meetings: Saturdays - 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Kirby Hall, Room
108
April 21 and 28
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Jan Quackenbush
�Faculty News
Gregory Fletcher's short play Mapplethorpe's Flowers was produced by
Off-Off-Broadway's Artistic New Directions during the first two weeks
of
March in their Eclectic Evening of Shorts XI at the Theatre 54 in New
York City.
Lenore Hart and David Poyer taught at a writing retreat on Ossabaw
Island from February 22-28. Lenore was the
fiction instructor, presented
workshops and provided one-on-one manuscript consultations,
and
David presented publishing workshops and spoke on a larger panel of
regional editors
and publishers. They both gave evening readings during
the writing retreat.
Juanita Rockwell's libretto for composer Douglas Knehans' chamber
opera, Backwards from Winter, will premiere at Symphony Space, NYC
on May 25, presented by The Center for Contemporary
Opera and
directed by Jennifer Williams. This monodrama for soprano, electric cello
and video, traces a woman's year with her beloved, beginning in deep
winter where
she is in grief over his death, backwards through the
seasons to the heart-opening
birth of their love in spring. Juanita's play
with songs, Between Trains, was recently published by Blue Moon Plays,
and she was named a VCCA Fellow with her first residency at the
Virginia Center
for Creative Arts.
Student/Alum News
Amye Archer (M.F.A. '11) has co-edited an anthology about body image
titled My Body, My Words, which was released March 15th from Big
Table Publishing. Several Wilkes faculty
members and alums have
essays in the collection including Bev Donofrio and Kaylie
Jones.
Aurora D. Bonner (M.A. '17) recently had an excerpt from her memoir
published in the January/February
issue of Hippocampus Magazine. One
of her essays, "The Night we Ate Moussaka," will also appear in the April
publication
of Under the Gum Tree.
Brian Fanelli's (M.F.A. '10) essay, "Lessons on the Environment:
Revisiting Robert Bly," was recently published by The Schuylkill Valley
Journal. He also has three poems
in the anthology, Misrepresented
People: Poetic Responses to Trump's America(NYQ Books). Proceeds
from the anthology benefit the National Immigration Law Center.
Brian
recently joined 4squarereview as a staff book reviewer.
Richard Fellinger (M.F.A. '10) published an op-ed in the Lancaster
paper arguing for a better brand of national politics.
�R. Anthony Giamusso's (M.A. '15) debut
scifi/fantasy novel Under A Veil Of
Godswas published by BHCpress/Indigo
on March 8, 2018.
Tyler Grimm (M.F.A., '13) has accepted a
teaching appointment in the Composition
Program at University
of Delaware. He has
also begun writing craft columns for
Hippocampus Magazine, the first of which,
"Hooking Your Students, Hooking
Yourself" was published in September
2017. A subsequent column published in January 2018,
"The Trauma
Museum" has received considerable praise.
Gerald Gurka (M.A. '07) wrote and directed The Gold Wrapping Paper, a
play that was performed on Dec 24, 2017 in Larksville, Pa. His newest
play Relics of the Passion, both written & directed by Gerka was
performed on March 23, 2018 in Larksville,
Pa. His young readers novel
Freddie Foodmore's Menu of Unsavory Events will be published with
Overdue Books.
Monique Antonette Lewis (M.F.A '12) has three flash fiction stories from
her collection Looking for Mr. Wrong that have been published / are
forthcoming in lit zines: "Shall We Dance" (Polarity
eMagazine, sister
publication of PoetryBay, Winter 2017) and "A Waste of Your Damn
Time" and "A Mr. Right" (both forthcoming this year in American Writers
Review). Her
essay "How You Came to Love Me" will also be published
in the anthology My Body, My Words (Big Table Publishing, March
2018).
Mark Levy (M.A. '08) has joined the
Denver law firm of Block45Legal as
Intellectual Property
Counsel; and a book
of his essays, entitled Trophy Envy, is
scheduled to be published this April. The
essays are transcriptions of his tri-weekly
broadcasts on the public radio show,
Weekend Radio with Robert Conrad.
illustrahons by John Ed Bon Fed
Lori A. May (M.F.A.'13) has an essay
included in an upcoming anthology, Writing
Creative Writing: Essays from the Field,
scheduled for May 2018 publication with Dundurn Press. Her first novel,
The Profiler (2005), has been reissued in Australia with publisher Mills
and Boon. This spring,
Lori is speaking and reading at events throughout
Washington, California, and Nevada.
�Michael Nixon (M.A. '15) had a chapter from his memoir, a work (still in
progress) that was his
thesis project, published in the January/February
issue of Hippocampus Magazine. The piece was also a semi-finalist in
their "Remember in November" competition.
Christoph Paul's (M.F.A. '17) press CLASH Books recently put out the
poetry collection If You Died Tomorrow I would Eat Your Corpse, the
anthology for pre-order Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del
Rey and Sylvia Plath, and the pre-order for the magazine CLASH
Magazine: Issue #1. CLASH Books had a table again at AWP 2018 and
had an offsite reading. As an author,
his book A Confederacy of Hot
Dogs was featured in Powell's small press section, he sold a story to the
anti-fascist
anthology Engage! forthcoming from King Shot Press, and
found a home for his poetry collection At Least I Get You < In My Art with
Rooster Republic Press which is to be published in the summer of 2018.
Sara Shalom Scharrer's (M.A. '15) short story "Means of Escape" was
published on January 24 in STORGY online magazine.
C.A. Smith (M.A. '11) released her first
book LongNeck Bottles under the
pseudonym Phoenix Ash. She also has a
,~'~l
LONGNECK
podcast called "Life As P" that is
available
BOTTLES
"
~i
,1
,,
via iTunes, Google Play and iHeart Radio.
1
~
,,
'
)
Phoenix Ash
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Revise This! | 2018-03.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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About Wilkes
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Archives
Winter 2018 - Revise This!
November 2018
Check in: M.F.A. Internships Across
the Board
By Danie Watson
Revise This!
2017
2018
Revise This! November 2019
Revise This! Archives
(Left to right: Jeremiah Blue, Camika Spencer, Karley Stasko, Janine
Dubik, Danie
Watson)
During each Residency the 616 students introduce themselves to the
best practices
in both publishing and education in the hopes that they will
find a perfect internship
by the end of the week. Internships in education
can include adjuncting a class, holding
a workshop, or assessing current
classroom procedures. Publishing internships can
include working with
n
2018
n
n
�any of our program partners including: Akashic Books, At the Inkwell,
Etruscan Press, HaveScripts (formerly Blue Moon Plays), Hippocampus
Magazine and Books, Kaylie Jones Books, Michael Mailer Films,
Northampton House Press or SenArt Films on a number of projects.
This semester, M.F.A. candidates Jeremiah Blue, Janine Dubik,
Camika Spencer, Karley Stasko and Danie Watson are all working in
what they hope to be their future careers.
Jeremiah Blue is currently working with Donna Talarico (M.F.A. '10) at
Hippocampus Magazine and Books. Jeremiah has been working on book
launch support
and research for Dig: A Personal Prehistoric Journey by
Sam Chiarelli (M.F.A. '16) and another upcoming release for the press.
Jeremiah has also been working with faculty member Phil Brady at
Etruscan Press doing grant research and a review for Etruscan's
outreach program.
Of his experiences, Jeremiah says, "It's been a
revealing, challenging, and inspirational
process to assist in the final
moments before a book makes its official debut to the
public—in other
words, being published. Especially so for a book, though in my literary
genre of specialty, considerably different from my own work in topic and
theme."
Janine Dubik is currently working with Phil Brady at Etruscan Press.
Both Janine and Karley Stasko were copyeditors of Sixteen by Auguste
Corteau, a January 2019 forthcoming title from Etruscan. Together, both
Janine and Karley are now proofreading the final proof of the title. Janine
said she
is "amazed and proud of what our editing team has
accomplished." Janine also read
Phil Brady's upcoming book Phantom
Signs and has created study guides for the books she read to be used for
outreach and in
the classroom with Etruscan books. Of her experience,
Janine says, "My MFA publishing
internship with Etruscan Press has
given me an inside look at what happens to a writer's
words on their way
to becoming a book. A team of Etruscan editors and three interns
helped
revise a manuscript that is now quick-paced, touching, funny, and
historical
simultaneously. The Etruscan editors, Karley, and I are going
through a final proof,
and I am incredibly amazed by and proud of the
shape of Sixteen, compared to that ARC in June. I plan to use my
experience with Sixteen in my own writing."
Camika Spencer is creating a curriculum for a Reader's Theatre class at
her school because they
do not currently have an auditorium. Of her
experience, Camika says, "It's refreshing,
timely, and it's bringing me a
great deal of joy to be the creator, author and implementer."
Karley Stasko has been working at Etruscan Press alongside Janine
Dubik. As previously mentioned, Karley and Janine were part of the
editing team for Sixteen by Auguste Corteau, which is a forthcoming
�January 2019 Etruscan title. Karley is
on her third round of edits for this
title. When she wasn't serving as a copywriter,
Karley prepared for a
conference seminar on "Revising Like a Publisher" for the Kings
College
Creative Writing Alumni Conference in October. Of her experiences,
Karley
says, "Etruscan has opened my eyes to at least a dozen new
ways of reading and analyzing
a work. From the proofreader's careful
eye to the academic's cross-curricular perspective,
I won't be able to read
the same way again."
Danie Watson has been working at Lackawanna College as an adjunct
professor under Department Chair
Brian Fanelli (M.F.A. '10). Danie is
teaching a section of Introduction to Literature, two sections of Effective
Speaking and one section of College Writing, which serves as her
internship. Of her
experience, Danie says, "It's certainly been a challenge
to move from student to professor,
but I try to think of it as 'how would I
best learn this lesson?' and adapt that to
my student's needs. I'm having
a blast. I learn just as much from my students as they
learn from me and
I couldn't be happier with my internship, which I hope will one
day turn
into my career."
While the internship duties and tasks change each semester along with
the students,
there's no doubt that each student leaves with valuable
experience and excellent feedback.
Danie Watson (Goetz) is an adjunct professor at Lackawanna College,
where she teaches
writing, literature and communications classes. Danie
also serves as the Marketing
Coordinator for Oddities by Kaylie Jones
Books and a graduate assistant for the Maslow
Family Graduate
Program in Creative Writing. Her book review "Unmasking the Hermit"
was published in Tailor Made Magazine. Danie lives in Scranton, PA with
her husband
Daniel.
HippoCamp 2018: More of an Honor
than an Obligation
By Caitlin Downs
�(Caitlin Downs (M.A. student) (left) pictured with HippoCamp Director
Donna Talarico
(M.F.A.’10).
My role at Hippocamp 2018 was to act as an emcee in one of the
conference rooms at the large and somewhat labyrinthine
Lancaster
Convention Center that houses the annual weekend-long event series. It
was
more of an honor than an obligation to assist Donna Talarico in the
massive undertaking that is the system of operations at a creative nonfiction
conference that draws hundreds of attendees. My role was pretty
small and straightforward,
but both Donna and her trusted partner, Kevin
Beerman, graciously made sure to extend
access to the conference to
me in exchange for my assistance.
I missed the 2017 conference because of a conflict but I attended this
year to report
on the keynote speaker, the titan of the creative non-fiction
field who is Tobias
Wolff. More impressive than the headliner was the
community of writers in attendance,
many of whom didn't recognize me
from any previous events and welcomed me anyway.
People in the line
for book signing were so socially engaging, asking me if and what
I write,
talking about influential authors and events that they attended over the
weekend that inspired them. It struck me that Hippocamp has a very
different vibe
than what I was used to from past readings and
engagements. There, people became really
invested in one another's
stories.
My
first
�Hippocampus 2018 experience began once I had the pleasure of
introducing
my friend and fellow writer Tyler Barton to a room full of
enthusiastic writers and
professionals. Tyler is one half of the literary
organization Fear No Lit, and he
presented on organizational strategies
that can help bring members of the writing
community together. He
outlined his team's methods for coming up with unusual fundraisers
or
exhibits. He and partner Erin Dorney have organized many exciting
events I have
attended in and around Lancaster, such as an Adult
Spelling Bee, or a Page Match that
offers a Mexican wrestling style take
on a slam.
Athena Dixon was the next breakout session speaker I witnessed. Her
presentation spoke
to the unaddressed benefits of "navel gazing" and
reframed it as a worthy pursuit
for writers. Athena engaged her audience
with personalized bingo sheets that helped
attendees acknowledge the
key components of their identities. She also wove a beautiful
web of
anecdotes and examples to help her audience rethink their roles as
writers
and how their stories serve the wider community.
(Photo by Caitlin Downs)
Donna is
able to pull
together a
lineup of
presenters
that offers
something
for
�NAVEL
GAZING
everyone.
Over thirtyfive events
and a
multitude of
speakers
address
issues of
craft as well
as entertain
with stories told either from the stage or in the more competitive slam
format. This year the keynote speaker, Abigail Thomas, spoke of a
lifetime of accomplished
writing, living up to the description of being an
inspirational and wisdom-filled
memoirist. My favorite line from Thomas's
talk on crafting memoir is "if you start
where you think you're going to
start and end up where you plan to end up, you're
doing something
wrong." Similarly, if you think you know where a conference is going
to
start and what you're going to learn then you probably haven't been going
to the
right kind of conference, because
Hippocamp changes every year. The community, and new speakers
bring new issues to
the floor that may very well change the way
attendees write in multiple ways.
Caitlin Downs teaches creative writing, literature, and communications at
the Pennsylvania
College of Art & Design in Lancaster, PA. She holds a
Master's in English from Arcadia
University and is currently pursuing an
MA/MFA in Creative Writing at Wilkes University.
Her poetry has
appeared in such places as Cease, Cows, The University of Edinburgh
Journal, and The Fiction Pool.
“Navel Gazing and Other Worthwhile
Pursuits” at HippoCamp18
Photo by Caitlin Downs
Taylor M. Polites Recognized by
Rhode Island Council for the
Humanities
�Faculty member Taylor M. Polites was awarded the Public Humanities
Scholar Award by
the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities in 2018.
From their website, "The Scholar Award recognizes outstanding public
humanities work
in teaching and scholarship that advances the civic and
cultural life of Rhode Island.
This year, the Award honors Taylor Polites
for his historical fiction writing, research,
teaching, and creative
interpretations of Rhode Island history for public audiences.
Polites
expertly bridges history, art, and literature working with artists, activists,
archivists, and scholars with boundless interdisciplinary imagination and
energy.
He partners with Ann Hood and Hester Kaplan in Goat Hill, a
collaboration dedicated
to bringing writers and writing professionals to
Southern New England, and works with
local organizations to cultivate
storytelling and community. He teaches in the Newport
MFA program at
Salve Regina University, in the Maslow Family Creative Writing MFA
program at Wilkes University, at the Rhode Island School of Design, and
at Roger Williams
University. Polites exemplifies an inclusive approach to
scholarship and public engagement
in the humanities and is a bridge
through his efforts to value individual voices."
Congratulations Taylor!
Wilkes at AWP 2019: Schedule of
Events
AWP
Association of Writers
& Writing Programs
The 2019 AWP Conference & Bookfair will be held at the Oregon
Convention Center in Portland, Oregon from March 27 –
30, 2018.
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)
Reinventing the Wheel: The Tradition of Innovation in Poetry
Friday, March 29, 2019
10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Portland Ballroom 256
�Oregon Convention Center
Level 2
Sidney famously writes, "And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my
way" ("Astrophel
and Stella"). However, one would only need to read
Homer, Virgil, and Dante, the letters
between Wordsworth and Coleridge
or Moore and Bishop, to recognize the long tradition
of poets mentoring
and inspiring other poets. The poets will challenge the notion
that
tradition and innovation are at odds by revealing how specific poems
influenced
them and led them to better understand different poetic
elements.
Fifty Years of FIELD: Contemporary Poetry and Poetics
Saturday, March 30, 2019
1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
B115
Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
Since 1969, FIELD Magazine has been known as one of the country's
leading journals
of contemporary poetry and poetics. In 2019, FIELD will
publish its 100th and final
issue. This panel, featuring two founding
editors and three later additions, will
discuss the magazine's history and
values, including its annual symposium of essays
on the work of a major
poet, its commitment to translation, and its openness to a
wide variety of
voices, both established and emerging.
Laurie Jean Cannady(Crave: Sojourn of a
Hungry Soul)
#MeToo, Girlhood: Writing and Subverting Childhood Sexual
Violence Narratives
Thursday, March 28, 2019
3:00 a.m. to 4:15 a.m.
E145
Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
Writers discuss creating narratives of girlhood sexual trauma, share
influences and
craft advice, and offer strategies for overcoming the
challenges of writing these
stories. The writers on this panel create works
that subvert common victim narratives—via
humor, style, non-linearity,
narrator agency, lack of disclosure, and more—as well
as examine the
intersections of gender, race, class, inherited trauma, and sexual
identity
on narratives of sexual violence.
Patti Horvath (All the Diference)
Rewriting History: Why It's Not Okay to Fictionalize Our Memories
Friday, March 29, 2019
9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.
B114
�Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
Every so often, literary scandals seem to surface, particularly when it
comes to memoirs.
Is there an unspoken code of ethics that exists for
memoirists and essayists? Or is
it something deeper, something
psychological that gives birth to the betrayal we feel
upon discovering
that a nonfiction writer has invented a character, setting, or memory?
In
this panel, nonfiction writers discuss the difficulty in cultivating memories
while
managing this genre's ethical demands and expectations.
David Lazar (Who's Afraid of Helen of Troy:
An Essay on Love)
Que savent-ils?: What Classic Essays Can Teach Contemporary
Essayists
Thursday, March 28, 2019
10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
B114
Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
When's the last time you sat down with an essay by Lamb? Or cracked
open The Rambler?
Maybe not recently enough. With so many exciting
new modes of the essay being written
today, it can be easy to forget
those of the past, but writers like Montaigne, Rousseau,
Hazlitt, and
Woolf have more bearing on contemporary essayists than you might
think.
This diverse panel of essayists writing in a variety of sub-genres
shows how the "classics"
inspire them—as perhaps they will inspire you,
too.
Paul Lisicky (The Burning House)
Endings for the End Times?
Thursday, March 28, 2019
4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Portland Ballroom 255
Oregon Convention Center
Level 2
As we reach the concluding lines of our own works, current ailments in
the body politic
may bend us toward chaos and despair. At the same
time, ever-present narrative and
commercial pressures may drive us
toward neatly resolved, even uplifting, endings.
How do we craft final
notes that imply light and dark, open and closed, emotional
and
intellectual complexity? We discuss struggles and strategies for endings
that
feel satisfying for readers, and yet true to the work, the moment, and
ourselves.
Am I Really Going to Do This Until I Die?
Friday, March 29, 2019
4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
�Portland Ballroom 256
Oregon Convention Center
Level 2
The longer a person teaches workshop, the more prone he or she is to
burn out; after
all, instructors tend to use the same format semester after
semester, and students
tend to need the same advice. How can
instructors keep workshops feeling relevant
and energized? Are there
new models that might reinvigorate our students and ourselves?
This
panel, featuring undergraduate and graduate writing instructors, will
address
strategies to keep everyone engaged, down to the most
exhausted teacher.
Diane Raptosh (AmericanAmnesiac
and Human Directional)
Reading: Unmasked: Women Write about Sex and Intimacy after 50
Thursday, March 28, 2019
5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Nuture Realty, 1100 SE Division St., #120, Portland, OR 97202
J. D. Schrafenberger (Saint Joe's Passion)
Impact and Empathy: Service-Learning and Creative Writing
Friday, March 29, 2019
10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
D139-140
Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
Service-learning and community engagement not only provide student
writers with real-world
experiences, applied skills, and opportunities for
personal growth, but their empathy
and perspectives are expanded in
ways that transform the creative process. Teachers
from various
backgrounds and institutions discuss the practical challenges and unique
benefits of service-learning in the creative writing classroom, including
work with
veterans, oceanographers, food co-ops, and refugee
organizations.
Changing of the Guard: Editors on Inclusion and Diversity in
Literary Journals
Saturday, March 30, 2019
3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Portland Ballroom 255
Oregon Convention Center
Level 2
The VIDA Count is an indispensable measure of gender diversity in
literary journal
publications. While the numbers layout disparities within
this community, the question
remains: how can we increase contributor
and staff diversity in areas such as race,
sexual identity/orientation, and
�disability? Where is the line between diversity and
tokenism? This panel
of literary journal editors will share their strides, missteps,
and questions
on inclusive staff and contributor practices.
Tim Seibles (Fast Animal and One Turn
Around the Sun)
Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology Reading
Thursday, March 28, 2019
10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Portland Ballroom 256
Oregon Convention Center
Level 2
Eco-justice poetry embodies justice, culture, and the environment. It is
poetry born
of ecological and social crisis, poetry that holds memory, fed
by a wealth of cultural
traditions, urgent in our time. Come listen to
contributing poets read from and discuss
the ground-breaking Ghost
Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, as each discusses
their
approach to writing in these troubled times and the traditions that feed
their
work.
How we need another soul to cling to: Writing Love Poems in
Difficult Times
Saturday, March 30, 2019
3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
D139-140
Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
When the news feels like a daily onslaught, it's hard to believe writing a
poem can
matter—let alone a love poem. Here, five poets will share their
own love poems and
discuss how writing about love also allows them to
explore everything from racism
to climate change to queerness to
personal grief, then offer strategies of how others
might do the same. For
how better to know why resistance is worth it? In this panel,
we'll discuss
not just what we're fighting against but what we're fighting for.
Shara McCallum (Poems and Their Making)
Boulevard 35th Anniversary & 100 Issues Reading
Saturday, March 30, 2019
4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
B116
Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
Founded in 1984, Boulevard magazine celebrates 100 issues and thirtyfive years of
continuously publishing the finest in contemporary voices in
fiction, poetry, and
definitive essays on the arts and culture. Featuring
writers from across our thirty-five
years, this reading reflects Boulevard's
mission to present a variegated yet coherent
ensemble of creative and
�critical writing by both emerging and established writers.
Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative
Writing:
Stanton Hancock (M.F.A. Alum)
AWP Open Mic and Old School Slam
Thursday, March 28, 2019 and Friday, March 29, 2018
B113
10:00 p.m. to 12:00 Midnight
Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
AWP welcomes students to return to the roots of Slam! Open mic special
guests and
then undergraduate and graduate students partake in a
hardcore-break-your-heart-strut-out-the-good-stuff
slam competition.
Students are welcome to sign up to participate on Friday, March
29, 2019
and Thursday, March 28, 2019 at the Wilkes University/Etruscan Press
booth
and read original pieces (three minutes or less with no props) at
the Slam later that
night. Sponsors: Wilkes University and Etruscan
Press.
Program Partners:
Ibrahim Ahmad (Akashic Books)
Can I Pick Your Brain? The Fine Line Between Giving Back and
Getting Paid
Friday, March 29, 2018
1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
B117-119
Oregon Convention Center
Level 1
The right connections in publishing can jumpstart your career and make
the journey
more enjoyable. But there is a fine line when asking for a
favor (or a freebie) and
networking. This panel looks at how emerging
writers can gracefully navigate the art
of "the ask" and how established
authors can balance their time and effort and meaningful
connections.
Five publishing insiders share secrets of effective networking without
looking self-interested—and when to say no without looking
unsupportive.
Ronnie K. Stephens (Kaylie Jones Books)
Author Signing--The Kaleidoscope Sisters
Thursday, March 28, 2018
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Bookfair Booth 3031 (Wilkes University/Etruscan Press)
Oregon Convention Center
�Level 1
For the full AWP19 schedule, visit the AWP Conference Schedule.
Faculty News:
Bonnie Culver, program director, will have her play Auto-Mated
performed as part of a 10-minute play festival at Caroll College in Helena,
Montana.
David Poyer's Hatteras Blue audiobook debuted in October by
Northampton House Press. This is their first audiobook.
Marketed under
NHP's Polyhymnia Books imprint, Dave Poyer's Hatteras Blue is an
exciting underwater adventure narrated by Edison McDaniels (available
on Audible,
iTunes, and other online sellers). Other Polyhymnia
audiobooks are in production,
narrated by McDaniels and by Julie Yelen
(M.A. '18), a program alum.
J. Michael Lennon, along with his wife Donna Pedro, published the
revised, enlarged version of Norman Mailer: Works and Days on
November 1. He is also doing a reading alongside authors John Winters
and Barbara
Burkhardt at a biographers' night on November 14th, 7-9 pm
at the WORD Bookstore in
Brooklyn, NY. It's in the Greenpoint
neighborhood.
Alumni and Student News:
Amye Archer (M.F.A. '11) will have her book If I Don't Make It, I Love
You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings released in Spring
2019 by Skyhorse Publishing. For this book, Amye and co-editor
Loren
Kleinman worked with over 90 survivors of school shootings and helped
them to
write their stories. Amye presented at PCTELA in Harrisburg on
October 18th with Wilkes
M.F.A. alums Dawn Zera (M.F.A. '13) and
Ginny Grove (M.F.A. '12). The three presented a panel titled "I, Too, Am
a Writer," which explored ways in
which teachers can bring their own
writing experience into the classroom.
Patrick Charsky (M.F.A. '17) finalized an agreement with The Bundy
Museum to do a film series on screenwriting
where most of the films are
based on the M.F.A. guide from Wilkes called "The Screenwriting
Biz."
The dates are November 13, December 11, 2018, January 8, February
12, March
12 and April 9, 2019 at The Bundy Museum in Binghamton,
NY. Charsky will curate and
present a series of films and lead
discussions after every screening.
Iris Ouellette (M.A. '17) is an adjunct professor at Lackawanna College
teaching Introduction to Literature
and Effective Speaking. Her nonfiction
piece "Finding
�Oscar Wilde" was published in July's issue of Parhelion Literary
Magazine.
Josh Penzone's (M.A. '13) short story "A Return" appeared in the
December issue of Blue Lake Review.
Ronnie K. Stephens (M.F.A. '18) recently published book reviews in
Lambda Literary Review andThe Los Angeles Review. His debut novel,
The Kaleidoscope Sisters, has received glowing reviews from Kirkus
Reviews, Booklist, and School Library Journal.
Donna Talarico (M.F.A. '10) presented for the eighth consecutive year at
the annual Higher Education Web Professionals
conference in
Sacramento, CA. She hosted a lightning round talk called "All Work and
No Play? Nonsense! — How Creativity, Curiosity, Surprise and Play Help
Us Work" and
a three-hour post-conference workshop called "Copy That!
Creating Ad Copy Headlines
and Other Content that 'Clicks' with Your
Audience." Donna also was interviewed for
the American Society of
Journalists and Authors (ASJA) podcast; the episode aired
to its
members in mid-October and a recording will be made public later this
fall.
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
Wilkes University
84 West South Street
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
1-800-WILKES-U
Contact Us
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Revise This! | 2018-01.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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About Wilkes
Home
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Revise This!
October 2017
M.A.
&
M.F.A.
Grads
Walk
the
Stage
in
Archives
Archives
2017
2018
Revise This! November 2019
Left to right: Anthony Kapolka, Pamela Turchin,
Janine Dubik, Sean Egan, Patrick Kelley,
Travis
Shick
n
2017
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n
�Summer Commencement
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 10, 2017, at
Wilkes University:
M.A.
Aurora Bonner (Creative nonfiction)
Andre Carter (Fiction)
Janine Dubik (Fiction)
Sean Egan (Screenwriting)
Patricia Florio (Fiction)
Patrick Kelley (Fiction)
Cooper Gorelick (Screenwriting)
Lisa Greim (Creative nonfiction)
Bibiana Krall (Fiction)
Ann Miller (Creative nonfiction)
Toni Muma (Creative nonfiction)
Travis Shick (Fiction)
Pamela Turchin (Fiction)
Carol (Christy) White (Poetry)
M.F.A.
Draper Brown
Jennifer Jenkins
Anthony Kapolka
Thomas Simko
Congratulations to each of these members of our Wilkes writing
community, and welcome
to the newest members of the Wilkes Alumni
Association!
James Jones First Novel Fellowship
Awarded for Quantum Girl Theory
Erin Kate Ryan, Minneapolis, MN, has been awarded the 2017 James
Jones First Novel Fellowship for
her manuscript Quantum Girl Theory.
Runners-up Glori Simmons, Oakland, CA is the first runner up with her
manuscript
Restell. Second runner-up Jennie Li, is from San Bruno, CA,
and was honored for her manuscript
The Unpassing.
The James Jones First Novel Fellowship is given annually for a novel-inprogress by
a U.S. writer who has not published a novel. Winners receive
�$10,000. Runners-up will
receive $1,000. A selection from the winning
work is published in Provincetown Arts.
The 2017 James Jones First Novel Fellowship was judged by Laurie
Lowenstein, James
Jones Society president, novelist and author
of Unmentionables; Greg Hrbek, novelist, author and past James Jones
First Novel Fellowship winner
with his novel, The Hindenburg; and Lisa
Greim, journalist and author.
The 27th Annual James Jones First Novel Fellowship will be awarded to
an American
author of a first novel-in-progress, in 2018, by the James
Jones Literary Society.
Eligible writers have never published a novel, are
U.S. citizens, and may have published
other types of work including nonfiction and short stories.
Big
.
Picture? The Little Things:
HippoCamp 2017 Wrap-up
By Aurora Bonner (M.A. '17)
The man in front of me squealed, "Oh my goodness, what are these?!"
Not waiting for
an answer, he grabbed two of the desserts, one, a
cupcake with a whipped chocolate
topping and the other, a slim slice of
cake so dense it was almost black.
•
Lisa Romeo and 2 others liked
Elane Johnson @Elane.Johnson • Sep 9
V
I kinda just want the literal and literary offspring of Tobias Wolff and Beverly
Donofrio. #dreaming #Hlppocamp17 #amwriting
Q1
tl,3
C)
9
El
"Oh! Tiramisu cupcakes and flourless cake," I heard the event organizer
say. Donna Talarico Beerman (M.F.A. '13) seemed to be everywhere
throughout the weekend, and always smiling, as if hosting Hippocamp
2017: A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers is her favorite way to
spend the weekend. I turned to say hello, but she was already
off,
carrying a load of conference materials through the crowd.
�•
Athena Dixon and 2 others liked
Yalonda Rice @yalondarice • Sep 10
I met the wondertul Beverly Donofrio today. Life is good. •
v
#hlppocamp17
There were crowds, but they're manageable. Unlike the annual AWP
conference, faces
of presenters and attendees became familiar,
prompting everyone to geek out. "Bev
Donofrio sat right next to me in the
last session. I was only a foot away from her!"
gushed one attendee, as
we made heaping lunch plates. When I told her I attended the
Maslow
Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University, she
shot
me rapid-fire questions.
•
LaurieJean cannady liked
Miranda Remington @missremington • Sep 9
v
With Laurie Jean Cannady, author of "CRAVE: Soujourn of a Hungy Soul."
AMAZING LADY! "If you're gonna tell it - tell it all.· #HlppoCamp17
•
HIiiary Mohaupt and 1 other liked
Justice Fisher @justicewrites • Sep 9
V
Rockin' it out with Laurie Jean Cannady. Perfect balance of humor and
information about writing trauma #hlppocamp17
"One of the things I like best about the program at Wilkes is the writing
community.
It doesn't matter where you are from or what you write, you
are immediately absorbed
into this giant, cable-knit sweater of a
community. Everyone is approachable and accessible,"
I said.
"Like Hippocamp?"
"Yes, I guess you could say that."
"Nice! So you're with your tribe."
"What's that?" I asked.
"You're with your tribe. This is your community!"
"Oh, yes! Yes, exactly!"
Later, I joined my tribe at the Wilkes booth. Vicki Mayk (M.F.A. '13) and
M.A. student Danie Watson were congratulating Sam Chiarelli (M.F.A.
'16) on his upcoming book, Dig: A Personal Prehistoric Journey, due out
from the Hippocampus Books Division in Fall of 2018.
�•
krlsttn shaw and 1 other llked
amy fish Oamyfishwrites • Sep 9
V
We use speculation when getting married. Based on the info we had up until
then, we thought this would be fine @VlckiMayk #HlppoCamp17
Q
t1,1
tl Holary Mohaupt
0
2
El
and 1 other Retweeted
Kelly Kautz @kellykautz · Sep 9
V
Use speculation to move from telling to shoWing. Use it when feelings are
stronger than facts: get at an emotional truth .. #hlppocamp17
Q
•
t1,2
oe
El
Hippocampus Magazineliked
Kristin Kelly @KellyKmkelly · Sep 9
V
@VickiMayk Great examples of speculation: Mary Karr, Darin Strauss, Michael
Ondaatje, Maxine Hong Kingston #hlppocampH
$ Translate from Dutch
Q
u
•
3
"Vicki, you're blowing up on Twitter," Danie said, turning her phone for
Vicki to
see. Vicki presented one of the first sessions early Saturday
morning, examining the
use of speculation in creative nonfiction.
As conversation shifted into Twitterland, my thoughts drifted to the work I
had at
home. Not only did I owe my mentor work, I also had papers to
grade. I'm in the 612
cohort of students, working on my M.F.A., while
juggling a bunch of adjunct classes
and momming it at home. Distracted,
I floated into the next session.
The woman presenting was ageless, somewhere between twenty and
fifty, soft-spoken
and a self-proclaimed bookworm. In a room full of
bookworms, not surprising. But what
was surprising was the passion that
erupted from her when she began presenting. Her
excitement about the
topic—and her enthusiasm to share her revelations with us—was
infectious. She explained how she applied the lesson to her own work,
and then gave
us a copy of her notes so we could see exactly what she'd
done. Seeing this helped
me imagine how I could apply her lesson to my
current the project at Wilkes. I skipped
through the rest of the conference,
with a grin perhaps only Donna surpassed.
�ft
AgentV @VeronlKaboom
· Sep 9
I miss this mashedpotato bar everyyear,and everyyear I hate myselfa little
more for missingit. #HippoCampl7
V
WIikes UniversityCW @WilkesUWrltlng
Isn't that #mashtinlbardelicious?Whenyou've had your
fill, pop over to the Wilkesbooth for your chanceto win a
#PWC18reg! #HippoCamp17
01
t1
1
•
7
amy fish
@amyfishwrites
f@j§!:i•V
Replyingto @VeroniKaboom
@lauriecann
I saved you one in my pocket. Marshmallows
might be a little squished but other than that
I'm sure it's fine. #HippoCamp17
My biggest take-away from Hippocamp? The little things. Mashtini bars,
tiramisu cupcakes
(okay, the food is really good), the blending of voices
and experiences, the sharable
moments, and the extraordinary buzz of
community. The ageless presenter with a soft
voice and a craft lesson
that knocked me into a permanent smile was not the only person
sharing.
The entire community, attendees, presenters, keynotes, volunteers, and
organizers,
shared. As a student, I was sitting in awe of greats like
Beverly Donofrio and Tobias
Wolff, but I was also learning applicable
lessons on craft and insight into the post-writing
world. The whole
conference screams community. Even the tweets.
Aurora D. Bonner (M.A. '17) is a writer and artist who teaches in the
Endless Mountains.
She is currently working on a memoir that follows her
through several National Parks
in the American West. Bonner is an
M.F.A. candidate at Wilkes University. Follow her
@aurora_bonner.
5
�From June 23 to 25, 2017, alum Vicki Mayk hosted
her first writing retreat "Healing
Through Our
Stories" in Bangor, PA. Eleven writers joined Mayk
at the Kirkridge Retreat
Center for the writing and
storytelling retreat.
Questions for Vicki Mayk (M.F.A.
'13): On Hosting a Writing Retreat
Mayk is a memoirist, nonfiction writer and magazine editor whose work
has appeared
in print and online publications
including Ms. Magazine, Hippocampus Magazine, Literary Mama,
and the Manifest-Station. She created and teaches a memoir workshop
for the bereaved at St. Luke's Hospice
in Bethlehem, PA, and teaches
writing workshops for those dealing with loss under
the umbrella of her
business, Write To Heal. She is the editor of Wilkes, the
University Magazine at Wilkes University, where she also teaches adult
creative nonfiction workshops
and a class about the power of story for
first year students. We asked her a few questions
about hosting a writing
retreat, and how her M.F.A. internship blossomed into a full-fledged
retreat.
1. What was the catalyst that made you want to host a writing
retreat?
After participating in a writing residency at the Mailer Center in
Provincetown in
summer 2013 and a second residency in summer 2015
at the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow
in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, I
realized how valuable it is for a writer to be able
to "get away" for some
focused writing time. A year later, in August 2017, I attended
a session
on starting a writing retreat given by Joanne Lozar Glenn at HippoCamp,
the nonfiction conference started by Wilkes creative writing alumna
Donna Talarico-Beerman.
Those experiences showed me how hosting a
retreat could be a natural extension of
one of the things I like to do best –
teach – while providing that "away time" for
fellow writers similar to what I
�enjoyed in my residency.
2. What benefits do you think a retreat has for a writer?
There are two benefits for writers: it gives them some time away from
home and their
daily routine to dedicate to writing and it also offers an
opportunity to interact
with other writers. It's kind of a yin/yang type of
thing: time alone and time with
like-minded people.
3. What are the
logistics of planning a
retreat?
Well, it can be a bit
daunting because there
are a lot of logistics! The
session I
attended at
HippoCamp was helpful
because the presenter
provided a sample
timeline
and
summarized the steps.
You have to find a venue
and reserve the date.
Then there
is planning
the program for the
weekend (since my
retreat is a weekend), which includes
a mix of workshops and prompts
and down time for people to do their own work. As organizer,
I have to
also coordinate food and refreshments, advertise and promote the
retreat,
take registrations and answer the 1,000 questions that your
attendees may have. And
you have to pay attention to all kinds of things
like whether attendees have food
allergies, if one of them has to leave
early (or arrive late), and bring along all
the materials you will need for
the weekend.
4. How/Why did you pick your venue?
I teach a memoir workshop for St. Luke's Hospice in Bethlehem, PA, and
a social worker
there, hearing that I was planning to offer a retreat,
suggested Kirkridge Retreat
Center. I also had found a retreat center in
New York state that I considered. But
Kirkridge ended up being a great
choice: it's in a lovely country setting that allows
writers to get away from
it all. They also can provide all the food, and the cost
is relatively
reasonable for attendees. It's not as luxurious as a hotel, but people
were
willing to have more modest accommodations for a more reasonable
price. However,
I'm also experimenting with using a bed and breakfast for
�an upcoming retreat. There
are a lot of options – and there's no single
"right fit." One of the biggest challenges
is that almost everyplace
requires you to guarantee a certain minimum number of people
staying at
the location in order for you to use the facility.
5. What is
the return
on your
investment?
Well – you asked why I do this in addition to everything else I'm involved
with, including
having a day job. So the first answer that came to my mind
was that I'm crazy! But
all joking aside: it gives me great satisfaction to
put together an event for a group
of writers. It allows me to expand the
community of writers that I am a part of and
it also allows me to expand
my teaching. I also should note that my first retreat
was designed for both
writers and non-writers and was aimed at helping people use
writing as a
way to heal from grief, trauma and other challenges. It's part of an
initiative of mine that I call Write to Heal, which focuses on using writing
as a
way to process our experiences. It grew out of my hospice workshop
– which I created
as part of my M.F.A. teaching experiences. Talk about
coming full circle! If anyone
in my Wilkes family is interested in receiving
information about my upcoming retreats
in June and September 2018,
they can email me at vicki.mayk@gmail.com. For more information, visit
Vicki's website.
Danie Watson is a freelance writer based in Scranton, PA. She is
currently pursuing
her M.A. in fiction from Wilkes University, where she
serves as a graduate assistant.
Faculty,
Student, and
Alumni News
Faculty News:
�Gregory Fletcher directed
the play Image by Jack
Rushen for the Broadway
Laurie
Bound Theatre Festival in
Sojourn
Jean
NYC in August.
discussed her writing process
and
of
Cannady
a
Hungry
(Crave:
Soul)
signed books at the Wilkes and
Lenore Hart's short story
Etruscan booth at AWP17
"Thirteen Ways of Living" was
a finalist for The Florida Review's 2017 Editors' Awards.
Ross Klavan wrote "Act Two: A Craft Essay" that was recently published
in the magazine for Down and Out Books.
J. Michael Lennon moderated an event focusing on "fake news" at the
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
on October 1. The event was organized
by Laura Moran (M.F.A. '12). Lennon will speak
at an event in
Washington, D.C. commemorating the 1967 March on the Pentagon,
sponsored
by the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee, along
with Daniel Ellsberg and Peter
Yarrow (of "Peter, Paul and Mary), and
Vietnam War vets. The event will be at the
Western Presbyterian Church
in Washington on Saturday, October 21st. The Norman Mailer
Society is
co-sponsoring the event, which will conclude with a March to the
Pentagon,
and a gathering at the Vietnam Memorial.
David Poyer will be republished in Hungarian in Galaktika this fall.
Student and Alumni News:
Jennifer D. Bokal's (M.A. '10) newest book, Her Rocky Mountain Hero,
will be released by Harlequin Romantic Suspense in November, 2017.
HRMH is the first
book in the Rocky Mountain Justice series. The second
book in the series, Her Rocky Mountain Defender, will be released in
April, 2018.
Craig Czury's (M.F.A. '08) new book Fifteen Stones has been published
by NYQ Books.
Cindy Dlugolecki (M.A. '11) will have her "Ghosts of Mechanicsburg"
produced at the Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg
the last two weekends in
October and her "ANGELs INC. produced at the same community
theater
�the first two weekends in December. ANGELs INC. is published by Blue
Moon
Plays.
Richard Fellinger (M.F.A. '10) published an op-ed on responding to
racial hatred in the Lancaster paper after the events in Charlottesville.
Vicki Mayk (M.F.A. '13) presented the writing retreat "Healing Through
Our Stories" from June 23-25 at Kirkridge
Retreat Center in Bangor, Pa.
In 2018, she will be offering retreats once again at
Kirkridge in June, and
in September at the New Jersey shore. Vicki also presented
"Maybe,
Perhaps, Possibly,... Using Speculation In Creative Nonfiction" at the
HippoCamp
Creative Nonfiction Conference from Sept. 8-10 in
Lancaster, Pa. She is teaching "Life
Stories: A Memoir Workshop" at
Union United Church of Christ in Neffs, Pa., in October.
Lori A. May (M.F.A.'13) has an essay included in an upcoming
book, Writing Creative Writing: Essays from the Field, scheduled for 2018
publication with Dundurn Press.
Margaret McCaffrey (M.A. '14) had two memoir pieces read on Vision
Australia Radio in celebration of Father's Day:
'Poultry Farm' and
'Leaving for London'.
Donna Talarico (M.F.A. '10) has the cover story in the November 2017
issue of The Writer (available in October),
which focuses on technology
and the writing life. She'll also have a story in the
same magazine in the
December 2018 issue, on literary magazines and website accessibility.
She continues to write a monthly marketing column for Wiley's higher
education newsletter,
"Recruiting and Retaining Adult Learners." She
presented "Interview Like a Journalist,
Write Like a Marketer" at two
higher education marketing conferences: WPCampus in
June and
HighEdWeb in October. Donna was the featured guest on two creativenonfiction
themed podcasts in August, the Brevity Magazine podcast with
Allison K. Williams and #CNFpod with Brendan O'Meara.
Patti Taylor (M.A. '15) had two books published over the summer.
Making Miracles: 1st I Cured My IN-Curable
Blindness, So Why the HELL
Am I Still Fat? and Slip Away: 11 Escape Stories under
her entire
name: Dr. Patti Novotny Taylor. Taylor also delivered a keynote speech
July at an event for Courage to Change Enrichment Leadership &
Mentoring, LLC and
received an award for the speech. She also received
the Stephen Shank award for teaching
for the third time this summer.
Taylor is also being included in Who's Who in the
World for the second
time.
Danie Watson (M.A. student) had her book review of Stranger In the
Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit featured in the
�Fall 2017 edition of Tailor Made Magazine.
Quick Links
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and Internships
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Programs
E.S. Farley Library
Human Resources
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Offices & Administration
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Jobs
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Visit Quick Links
Schedule a Visit
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Make A Gift
�Wilkes University
84 West South Street
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
1-800-WILKES-U
Contact Us
Wilkes University ©
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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
<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
Subject
The topic of the resource
<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
Description
An account of the resource
An archive of past issues of <em>Revise This!</em>, the official newsletter of the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing.
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Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
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Revise This! | 2017-10.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
-
https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/d494e48f2e81490339ee5918dbd0be54.pdf
eb1e486f5be4cee0b53db179c5aef9ec
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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!
September 2017
Archives
Pennsylvania Writers Conference Held on Wilkes Campus
Characters at the Conference
Creative Writing Program Renamed
Archives
Mailer Conference Returns in October
Fall Creative Writing Workshops
AWP18 Schedule Full of Wilkes Names
News From Faculty, Students, And Alums
Pennsylvania
Writers
Conference
Held on Wilkes
Campus
The 2017 Pennsylvania
Writers Conference was held
from July 31 to August 5,
2017
2018
Revise This! November 2019
n
2017
n
n
�2017.
Featuring a 4-day class
on memoir taught by Judy
Mandel, and a 2-day
conference filled
with over 20
panels, craft classes, and
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
Natasha Trethewey.
workshops, PWC17 was a hit.
Friday morning kicked off with a 9 a.m. plenary session by four-time
National Slam
Finalist and 2007 Legend of the Slam Jason Carney
(M.F.A. '13) and the first day ended with an Open Mic/Poetry Slam held
hosted by Carney, with
seven hours of conference activities in between.
Saturday morning began with a plenary
session featuring book critic for
NPR's Fresh Air, Maureen Corrigan and ended with a keynote address
by Pulitzer-winning
poet and the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States,
Natasha Trethewey.
Wilkes alums and students were well-represented in both the Open
Mic/Poetry Slam on
Friday night, hosted by Carney, and over 20 craft
classes, workshops, panels and discussions
throughout the conference.
Save the date for PWC18, which will be held from July 29,
2017 to
August 4, 2018. We hope to see you there!
Characters at
the
Conference:
PWC
By C. P. Gorelick (M.A. '17)
Anna Karenina. Captain
Ahab. Blanche DuBois.
Hamlet. Norma Desmond.
Ebenezer Scrooge.
A
Left to right: Jeff Minton, Vito
Gulla, and Tyler Grimm presented
a team-taught session
on viewing
Characters as Objects at PWC17.
disparate group at first
glance, am I right? They are all fictional characters,
but they are from
such varying backgrounds. They all have problems, but who doesn't?
�The unifying trait of these characters is that they remain in readers' (or, in
the
case of Blanche, Hamlet, and Norma, viewers') memories long after
their stories are
done. So, how do authors create such vivid figures?
Such achievements are, perhaps, lofty goals when writing, but why not
aim high? As
a writer of plot-driven farce, character work is something I
have always needed improve
in my work. So, at the 3rd Annual
Pennsylvania Writers Conference, I attended Wilkes
Alumus Jennifer
Bokal's (M.A. '10) class on writing Goal Statements and the team-taught
session on viewing Characters
as Objects, led by Tyler Grimm (M.F.A.
'10) , Vito Gulla (M.F.A. '13), and Jeff Minton (M.F.A. '13). After the
latter had ended, I realized how well the two discussions complimented
one another.
Each dissected one aspect of character. Bokal focused on the technique
of clarifying
goals of the people within stories, whether it be protagonists,
antagonists, secondary
characters, etc. as well as the necessity of writers
doing this for themselves. Grimm,
Gulla, and Minton took a more clinical
approach by examining and analyzing the various
types of characters
and their various functions in relation to the protagonist and
his/her goal,
and they emphasized that this technique helped maintain efficiency within
a story by pinpointing repetitious or superfluous elements.
While the craft classes provided seemingly divergent perspectives on
character, all
four writers emphasized that each character's actions must
be rooted in goals. Moreover,
their views on figures within stories can be
utilized from early stages of writing
to late-in-the-game revisions.
Needless to say, I will be using these lessons in my
writing.
Local business man and philanthropist Richard
Maslow, of Dallas, PA. and Naples, Fla.
gave a
significant financial support to benefit the graduate
creative writing program.
In Maslow's honor, the
program was renamed to the Maslow Family
Graduate Program in
Creative Writing on June 23,
�2017.
Graduate Creative Writing Program
Renamed
"My family has a deep appreciation for
the arts," said Melanie Maslow-Kern,
daughter
of Richard Maslow and
board of trustee member at Wilkes
University. "We know that
the Wilkes
creative writing program is like no
other, and we're excited to see how
this
gift provides new opportunities for
students to realize their writing
dreams."
During the June 2017 Residency, something huge was announced: the
Wilkes University
Graduate Creative Writing was shedding its name. On
June 23, 2017, the program was
renamed the Maslow Family Graduate
Program in Creative Writing in honor of Richard
Maslow, who gave a
seven-figure gift to the graduate creative writing program. Maslow's
donation will be used to enhance the creative writing program through
innovative classes
and workshops, student scholarships, faculty
development, and extended programming
for the community at large.
"Wilkes University thanks Dick Maslow for his vision in giving this gift to
the graduate
creative writing program, which now will bear the Maslow
name," said University President
Patrick F. Leahy. "This investment
continues his lifelong commitment to the arts and
reflects his enthusiasm
for a program that has generated incredible student success.
His
generosity is a vote of confidence in the future of this program and arts
education
at Wilkes University."
Maslow is the former CEO of InterMetro and the founder of the Maslow
Family Foundation,
which funds programs in the arts, education, special
needs education and other charitable
giving. The creative writing
program is no stranger to the Maslow Family Foundation,
which
financially supports the Maslow Foundation Salon Reading Series, held
�during
the residencies in January and June.
Creative writing program director Bonnie Culver said the gift provides
valuable programmatic
support to aspiring writers who come to Wilkes to
develop their craft, learn the business
of writing, and earn their master of
arts and master of fine arts degrees. "The entire
creative writing
community joins me in thanking the Maslow family for their support.
With
their dedication to the arts, represented in this generous gift, we can
open
up more opportunities for students to hone their craft, provide
resources for faculty
passion projects, and continue our mission of
becoming one of the best creative writing
programs in the country."
Mailer
Conference to
be held in
October
The 15th annual Norman
Mailer Society Conference
will be held at the Sarasota
Lido Hotel, in cooperation
with the University of South
Florida Sarasota-Manatee in
Sarasota, FL from Oct. 2628, 2017.
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
During
the
2016
Mailer
Conference, held in Long Branch,
NJ, the annual Wilkes reading
featured Mailer's unpublished first
novel, No Percentage. Alumni
Hillary Transue (M.F.A.
'17) and
Caleb Sizemore (M.F.A. '17), Matt
Hinton (M.F.A '10) read along with
program
director
Dr.
Bonnie
Culver and faculty member Ken
Vose.
and performed his work for
the last 14 years as part of the Wilkes U Readers Theatre.
This year
faculty, alums and students will read from various writers who eulogized
Mailer after his death in 2007. The 2017 conference will celebrate and
remember Mailer
following the 10th anniversary of his death.
Fall Creative Writing Workshops
Course Name: First Steps in Fiction
An introductory workshop in fiction writing. Students of all experience
levels and
genres are welcome. You may bring a project you already
have in the works, or develop
one in class. The focus will be on
�description and detail, character and dialogue,
setting and place, and
voice and point of view. The class will consist of topic discussions,
a
short writing segment, constructive feedback, and revision.
Meetings: Saturdays 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Kirby 108 September 16,
23, 30, October 7, 14,
21
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Jennifer Jenkins
Course Name: Beginner's Blogging Workshop
The internet and the blogosphere have given everyone the option to selfpublish their
writings, thoughts, ideas, and opinions for the world to see.
Blogging can connect
you with your audience, with fellow writers, and
with your creative spirit. In this
course, we will learn the basics of
blogging, set up your first personal blog, and
learn about the many ways
you can create engaging content to build and maintain an
audience.
Each six-week session begins with a lecture on the topic at hand,
followed
by a guided activity session with the instructor and your fellow
classmates. Some
social media experience suggested but not required.
Meetings: Tuesdays 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. – Breiseth 108 September 12, 19,
26, October 3, 10, 17
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Angela Greco
Course Name: Playwriting – Playwriting in Two
Parts
This two part playwriting workshop will teach students how to write a
play, with an
assignment to write a short one-act or 10-minute play (part
one) and return the following
week for a read through and critique of their
work (part two).
Meetings: Saturdays 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Kirby 103 and Kirby Salon
September 16 and 23
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Jan Quackenbush
Course Name: Elements of Narration
Narration frames the reader's experience and forms the foundation of
your story, yet
many writers give narrative structure little thought.
Through examples and exercises,
this workshop will teach you how to
choose and better employ narrative techniques
(such as point of view
and voice) to engage the reader with your fiction.
Meetings: Wednesdays 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Kirby 108 September 13, 20,
�27, October 4, 11, 18
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series Instructor: Dr. Anthony Kapolka
Master Class If You Know What I Mean: Writing
Young Adult and Middle Grade Fiction
The workshop will focus on both genres fairy-tale and mythical
underpinnings, their
characters and plots and settings, and the qualities
editors tend to look for in historical
or contemporary work. Also, we'll
discuss crucial craft issues such as point of view
and mixing genres, and
what themes are allowed -- or not -- in the contemporary publishing
marketplace. Participants will submit a 15 to 20-page writing sample – a
short story
or opening chapter – by September 7. During the workshops,
we will engage in readings,
discussion, critique, revisions, and planning
for post-workshop manuscript completion
and submission.
Meetings: Evenings (Oct 2-5) – 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Kirby 103 *Note:
Class will meet in Breiseth
Hall, Room 316 on Oct. 2 ONLY from 6:00 –
8:00 p.m.Saturday (Oct. 7) – 10:00 a.m.
– 4:00 p.m. – Kirby 103 October
2, 3, 4, 5, 7
Cost: $125.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Lenore Hart
AWP18
Schedule
Filled with
Wilkes CW
Names
-
Gradua
The 2018 AWP Conference &
Bookfair will be held at the
Tampa Convention Center &
Marriott Tampa Waterside
from March
7-10, 2018.
Current students are invited
to apply for an AWP17
Laurie
Sojourn
Jean
of
Cannady
a
Hungry
(Crave:
Soul)
discussed her writing process
and
signed books at the Wilkes and
Etruscan booth at AWP17.
registration waiver, which
covers
the cost of conference registration; housing will be provided for
graduate assistants,
interns, and staff working at AWP. Transportation
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
Remica Bingham-Risher (What
We Ask of Flesh) signed books at
AWP17.
Creative Writing to
potential
students.
The full AWP18 schedule will be released in October, and more
information can be found
at www.awpwriter.org.
While you're in Tampa, swing by these sessions and support the Wilkes
CW family, including
program partners Akashic Books, Etruscan Press,
and Kaylie Jones Books:
Wilkes:
Jason Carney
•
Old School Slam and Open Mic
Susan Cartsonis
•
Adapting Your Work for TV, Digital and Feature Film Mediums
• The Hollywood Equation: Building Your Screenwriting Career and
Finding Your Writer's
Voice through Peer, Mentor and Comm
Kaylie Jones
•
Tearing Down Societal & Family Myths in Creative Writing
Program Partners:
AKASHIC BOOKS:
Ibrahim Ahmad (Editorial Director)
• Collaboration on Creative Publishing: Supporting New and Diverse
Voices
•
TECHNO BLACK: Connecting the Mobile Reader to Globally Diverse
Writers
�Johnny Temple (Publisher and Editor-in-Chief)
• Getting the Word Out: How to Approach Book Promotion to Actually
Reach Readers
• Political Pivoting: Literary Publishing at the Pace of Politics
ETRUSCAN PRESS:
Kazim Ali (The Disappearance of Seth)
• Muslim Writers Speak Out
• Two-countries. U.S. Daughters and Sons of Immigrant Parents. An
Anthology of Flash
Memoir, Personal Essays and Poetry
• The Future of Forms
• Wesleyan University Press Poetry Reading
Nin Andrews (Advisory Board Member)
• Hair as Myth and Metaphor: Five Women Poets on Cultural
Transgression
Remica Bingham-Risher (What We Ask of Flesh)
•
Stay In Your Lane Or...
Bruce Bond (Choir of the Wells, Cinder, The Other Sky, and Peal)
• 30 Years of Influence Across Genres in Indigenous Literature: Tribute
for Diane Glancy
Laurie Jean Cannady (Crave: Sojourn of a Hungry Soul)
• Tearing Down Societal & Family Myths in Creative Writing
David Lazar (Who's Afraid of Helen of Troy: An Essay on Love)
• More and Different: Literary Nonfiction and the University Press
Paul Lisicky (The Burning House)
•
How to Hit the Ground Running: Strategies for Building Better
Workshops
• Fierce Muses: Inspiration During Times of Social Unrest
J. D. Schraffenberger (Saint Joe's Passion)
�Stealing from STEM: Applying Pedagogies From Other Disciplines in
the Creative Writing
Classroom
Tim Seibles (Fast Animal and One Turn Around the Sun)
Stay In Your Lane Or...
What We Really Tell When We Tell of Home: The Resonant Poetics
of Narrative
KAYLIE JONES BOOKS:
Patricia Smith (The Year of Needy Girls)
If You Haven't Lived It, Can You Write It?
J. Patrick Redmond (Some Go Hungry)
•
Tearing Down Societal & Family Myths in Creative Writing
Faculty, Student, and Alumni News
Faculty News:
Blue Moon Plays recently published Bonnie Culver's play Sniper. Sniper
has been produced at college, community theatres, and professional
companies since
1995 when it opened in Los Angeles. In 2005, it was
produced in NYC at Center Stage
when it was a play of the week by The
Star-Ledger. Visit nytheater.com for more information.
J. Michael Lennon is editing
the first two of several
volumes of the works of
Norman Mailer to be
published by the Library of
America, the non-profit
publisher of major American
authors such as Emily
Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe,
Mark Twain, Herman Melville,
Susan
Sontag and other
canonical writers. Volume
one will contain four Mailer
works from
the 1960s: An
American Dream, Why Are
J. Michael Lennon's Norman
We In Vietnam? The Armies
Mailer: The 1960's Collection.
Of The Night And Miami and
�The Siege Of Chicago (all
four won, or were nominated for, the National Book Award). Volume two
will contain
36 of Mailer's essays from the 60's, beginning with
"Superman Comes to the Supermarket."
Publication date for the boxed
set is February 27. Order your copy here.
Lenore Hart Poyer had two
poems ("The Well-Shooter's
Wake" and "On Visiting the
Castle of My Drawn
and
Quartered Ancestor")
accepted for publication in
Alternating Current, and so
are also finalists for this
year's Charter Oak Prize for a
historical poem.
Another
poem, "Cthulhu, Call Your
Mother," will appear in the
annual Horror Writers
Association HWA Poetry
Anthology, later this year.
Lenore's short story Thirteen
Ways of Living With a Wolf"
(read
at the June Residency)
is a semi-finalist for the
David Poyer's Hinter Killer.
Florida Review's 2017
Editor's Award
in Fiction.
David Poyer's newest novel in the Dan Lenson series Hunter Killer is set
to release on November
28, 2017, but has already received praise from
Publisher's Weekly. "Each book moves
the story forward and primes
readers for the thrills that are sure to come in future
entries." Read the full
review here.
Student and Alumni News:
Molly Barari (M.F.A. '17) has been selected to teach a memoir writing
workshop for the 2017 South Dakota Festival
of Books in Deadwood,
S.D., in September.
Cheryl Bazzoui (M.A. '14) had two reviews posted in Story Circle at
storycirclebookreviews.org in June. Bazzoui is featured in Jewels of San
Fedele, edited by Donna Ferraro and Roads by Marina Antropow
Cramer.
Lauren Carey (M.F.A. '11) has accepted a position as part of the writing
faculty at the University of North
Florida in Jacksonville, FL.
�Cindy Dlugolecki (M.A. '11) was invited to stage Violet Oakley Unveiled,
her full-length one-woman play, at Drexel University, Philadelphia, for a
sold-out
audience on May 20 for Alumni Weekend. Cindy also had a
staged reading of her new
ten-minute play, Blocked, during Mt. Gretna's
August Cicada Festival.
Brian Fanelli (M.F.A. '10)
has been awarded the 2017
Devil's Kitchen Poetry Prize
for his latest collection
of
poems, Waiting for the Dead
to Speak (NYQ Books). He
will receive a cash prize and
give a reading and serve on a
panel
at the Devil's Kitchen
Literary Festival at Southern
Illinois University in
Carbondale
in late October.
Patricia Florio (M.F.A. '11) :
The Coaster, a Jersey Shore
weekly, ran pictures and
shared an interview by
reporter Denise Herschel
focused on Florio's
involvement in creating the
Brian Fanelli's Waiting for the
Dead to Speak.
Jersey Shore Writers back in
2001
with Alum Carol MacAllister and Gayle Aanensen. Florio's
children's book entitled Puppy in My Pocket, published by Alum Wendy
Decker at Serenity Books Publishing and illustrated by AnnMarie Freda
was also featured
in the article.
Lori A. May (M.F.A. '13) has an essay on whale spotting in an upcoming
issue of Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. She was also
recently contracted for a story on Oregon surfing. Lori has recently
returned from a trip to the Canadian Maritimes, where she was aboard a
whale research
vessel, attended a shark autopsy, and fit in a little bit of
teaching, too.
Oliver Reilly (M.F.A. '13) read and performed in Basement
Poetry's OUT on August 25th and 26th. OUT is a performance art
production featuring original poetry
that delves into the vast experiences
of members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Anthony Dolan Scott, (M.F.A. '14) started a brand-new full-time faculty
position teaching composition and literature
classes at the Maine School
of Science and Mathematics this fall. It's an award-winning magnet high
�school with some of the most talented
students and faculty in the state of
Maine, named the #1 high school in the state,
#19 high school in the
nation, #6 magnet school in the nation, and #10 STEM school
in the
nation.
Joseph Schwartzburt (M.F.A. '13) serves on the board of the Flannery
O'Connor Childhood Home, which was proud to present
the 2017 Ursrey
Memorial Lecture with author Ann Hood on Friday September 1st, 2017.
The lecture was the 8th iteration
of a series whose past presenters have
been Roxane Gay, Jaimy Gordon, Luis Urrea,
and Robert Olen Butler.
Ronnie K. Stephens (M.A. '17) completed a 22-week poetry curriculum
for Young DFW Writers, a non-profit bringing
weekly writing workshops to
20 schools in the Dallas area.
Ahrend Torrey (M.F.A.
'16) is currently working on a
collection of poems titled City
Monk, which is scheduled to
be complete by the end of
this year. Over the last month
his
poems have appeared
in Sweet Tree
Review, Beneath The
Rainbow, and Edify Fiction. In
August, he
launched Colloquial, which is
a poetry review that exalts the
ordinary
and every day. To
find out more
MA Student Kristen Weller.
about Colloquial visit: www.colloquialpoetry.org.
Kristen Weller (MA Student) was featured in Hippocampus Literary
Journal with her essay entitled What Writer and Teacher Can Tell You
About Craft in the Craft column. The piece explores the inner conflict
most of us experience
who have a passion for honing our craft while
managing so many demands from others.
Included in the essay is an
exploration of Annie Dillard's The Writing Life.
On June 14, 2017, Weller was awarded the Mortimer S. Schiff Award for
Reducing Hatred and Prejudice in Northampton, PA. Weller wrote a
comprehensive, Holocaust education program for
middle school students
in my district called "Learn, Listen, Lead: Honoring the Survivors
Among
Us." The one-day student conference offers nearly 500 eighth graders
the chance
to see the play, Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, a literary
�drama they had all read and studied as part of their English classes,
meet first, second, and third generation Holocaust survivors, and
participate in several,
art, writing, and discussion activities in small
groups.
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Title
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<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
Subject
The topic of the resource
<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
Description
An account of the resource
An archive of past issues of <em>Revise This!</em>, the official newsletter of the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wilkes University
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English
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Revise This! | 2017-09.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
-
https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/66fb6bec4238a3a9e94353aaa28ef847.pdf
b4b2e91faa71c0946ef1e72ebeaa205b
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
l;t'!l:t: \
ll'-'.ll'lt
l~1 1Zld2'1.
J2)'
Patricia Florio
"Celebrating
the Poetic
t"-lnalod by Annlbno frodo
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
.j:"("J
J,©Veiso
book, Puppy
in My
~
Pocket, will
be
published in
'
June.
Pat Florio
and D
(~.I
~
L
f
J
Ferrara
(M.F.A. "13)
edited
Jewels of
r
I
-~
-. ·1r""'""J7
_\
,
San Fedele,
an
anthology of
work
'D 'Fcrrarnand Patricia 'Fforio,'.Editors
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
�SHELLY'S
HEART
MA\JREL'<
O'Nuu H00<£11
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
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Revise This! | 2017-06.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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About Wilkes
Home
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Graduate Academics
Academics
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Graduate Admission & Aid
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About Our Students
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The Arts
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Archives
Revise This!
April 2017
Archives
Wilkes at AWP in Washington, D.C.
Call for Papers for Mailer Conference
Take Credit for Your Talent
Archives
Community Workshops for Spring
PWC Returns in August
News From Faculty, Students, And Alums
2017
2018
Wilkes at AWP in Washington, D.C.
Our nation's capital welcomed more than 12,000 writers, publishers,
creative writing
faculty, and students to the Annual Conference of Writers
and Writing Programs held
February 8-11, 2017 at the Washington
Convention Center and Washington Marriott Marquis
Hotel. Wilkes and
program partners were among the thousands of literary lovers in
D.C.
Revise This! November 2019
n
2017
n
n
�AWP17 kicked off on Wednesday evening with the 50th Anniversary
Gala, benefitting
the Association's mentorship program. Etruscan Press
and Wilkes University co-sponsored
a table at the Gala. Table guests
included Program Director Dr. Bonnie Culver; Founding Advisory Board
member Dr. J. Michael Lennon; Advisory Board member Tim Seibles;
Faculty Members Dr. Phil Brady, Kaylie Jones, Dr. Robert Mooney;
Program Partner Johnny Temple; NPR's Maureen Corrigan; Man
Booker Prize winner Marlon James (M.F.A. '06); and Associate Director
Bill Schneider (M.F.A.'14). Wilkes also provided student volunteers for
the Gala, including Etruscan
intern Justin Bodnar; M.A. students Aurora
Bonner, Lisa Greim, Christopher Owens, Pamela Turchin, and Danie
Watson; and alumnae Kelly Clisham and Vicki Mayk, who all donned
their cocktail attire and manned the Gala desks.
Thursday morning the Bookfair began. Wilkes and Etruscan cosponsored a booth where
Wilkes alumni, current students, and faculty
answered questions, recruited new students,
and networked. Faculty
members Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr, Gregory Fletcher, Lenore Hart,
Kaylie Jones, Jean Klein, J. Michael Lennon, David Poyer, and Bill
Schneider answered the questions of prospective students and faculty.
Alumni Austin Bennett, Kait Burrier, Wendy Decker, Brian Fannelli,
Pat Florio, Stanton Hancock, Tony Kapolka, Donna Mailes, Jonathan
Pierce, and Joseph Schwartzburt, along with current students Whitney
Brimat, Melody Breyer-Grell, Bibiana Krall, Pamela Turchin, and
Danie Watson manned the booth in shifts throughout the Bookfair. Lisa
Greim hopped from event to event, snapping photos of all Wilkesaffiliated presenters.
Wilkes faculty, staff, and alumni participated in more than 15 panels,
readings, and
off-site events. Faculty members Laurie Jean Cannady,
Susan Cartsonis, Gregory Fletcher, Kaylie Jones, Jean Klein, Laurie
Lowenstein, and Tim Seibles presented or read during the conference.
�Alumni Viannah Duncan, Lori Myers, Nisha Sharma, Donna Talarico,
Barbara J. Taylor, Jim Warner, and Morowa Yejide represented Wilkes
on panels across the convention schedule. Alumni Jason Carney hosted
the AWP Old School Slam, sponsored by Wilkes and Etruscan, which
boasted an
impressive 26 poets who presented their work.
Program partners—Akashic Books, Blue Moon Plays, Etruscan Press,
Kaylie Jones Books,
and Northampton House Press—were all
represented at AWP17. Etruscan Press hosted book
signings in the
booth, including authors Remica Bingham-Risher, Bruce Bond, Laurie
Jean Cannady, David Lazar, J.D. Schraffenberger, Tim Seibles, and
D. M. Spitzer. Kaylie Jones Books hosted a book signing after their
reading, including authors
Laurie Lowenstein, J. Patrick Redmond,
Patricia Smith, and Barbara J. Taylor. Literary agent and outside
reader Albert LaFarge stopped by the booth to engage current students
and alumni about their current projects.
Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing
Program Founding Advisory Board Member Colum McCann and alum
Marlon James were featured speakers.
AWP17 also marked Program Director Bonnie Culver's final year as
Chair of the AWP Board of Trustees. Dr. Culver has served on the Board
of Trustees for four years as Chair, and will now be serving as Vice
Chair. Of her
service, Dr. Culver says, "The board I serve with is one of
the most diverse, committed,
and experienced groups I have had the joy
of joining." In her final words as Board
Chair, Dr. Culver says, "Our
association's new story can only be written by all of
us, through
conversations, engagement, philanthropy, and your own writing and good
works."
Next year's AWP will be held in Tampa, Florida from March 7-10, 2018.
The 2018 Conference
Subcommittee is seeking proposals that feature
panelists who are diverse in their
backgrounds, pursuits, affiliations, and
ages, and who represent a broad range of
perspectives and experiences.
AWP encourages participation from current and recent
graduate
students. Successful proposals observe the guidelines and modules by
which
the Subcommittee receive and review proposals. Please read the
Event Proposal Guidelines
carefully as well as information about How
Events Are Selected.
If you have questions about submitting a proposal, please email the AWP
2018 Conference
Subcommittee at events@awpwriter.org. Event
proposals for the 2018 conference may
be submitted until Monday, May
1, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. ET (8:59 p.m. PT).
Call for Papers for Mailer Conference
The 2017 Norman Mailer Society Conference will be held Oct. 26-28 at
�the Sarasota
Lido Hotel, Sarasota, Fla., in cooperation with the University
of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee.
Two or three papers will be presented in one-hour time slots, with the
remaining time
going to participant discussion and audience questions.
To accommodate all presenters,
paper presentations should be no longer
than ten minutes. Panels will also run for
one hour, as will most video
screenings. Please indicate media requirements in your
proposal. $100
travel grants are available for students whose proposals are approved.
Guidelines for submission: Email a 50-word biographical statement and a
150-200 word
abstract of the proposed presentation to the program cochairs by June 1, 2017. Phillip Sipiora (psipiora@gmail.com), Maggie
McKinley (mmckinle@harpercollege.edu), and J. Michael Lennon
(jmlennon1@charter.net) are the program co-chairs. Please email them
with ideas for
panels, papers, or special events.
Take Credit for Your Talent
By Danie Watson
It's no secret that to receive an M.F.A. at Wilkes University, students
must complete
a six-credit internship. What is a secret are the number of
hours each graduate student
puts in for their internship.
According to Megan Boone Valkenburg, the Coordinator of Student
Development, each graduate student at Wilkes completes
an average of
70 to 75 community service hours per year, but this number doesn't
include
the Graduate Creative Writing Program.
Valkenburg isn't just interested in the hours each student puts in every
year. She
also wants to focus on the impact of the service to our writing
community and beyond.
"We want to tell the story of Wilkes University and the story of how our
students
impact their communities and communities of origin. To be able
to tell that story
of the good works students are doing; their ingenuity and
inspiration—it's amazing,"
says Valkenburg. "Once you get that synergy
going, amazing things start to form—marginalized
students find a voice,
prisoners have an outlet. It's so important for community-minded
people
to step up."
Education Internships
And they have. In the education track of the M.F.A., internships have
included developing
curriculums, teaching creative writing to underserved
populations, and much more.
A few examples of outstanding internships
�include:
John Winston conducted a middle school creative writing program for
underserved students at Gompers
Elementary/Middle School in Detroit,
Mich. The craft- and reading-based class included
interaction with a local
author via Wikispace, and culminated with a presentation
of work for
parents and guardians. John also sponsored Adopt-An-Author, a free
nationwide
nonprofit program designed to excite young adults about
reading and writing through
the use of best-selling thrillers, heroic
nonfiction stories, motivational books and
direct contact with the authors
via personal appearances, classroom phone calls, emails,
and interactive
websites. He also designed and taught several workshops for adult
learners at the Las Vegas Writer's Conference: World Building in Fiction;
Poetry as
Fiction Workshop; and The Journey to IA: From Recording
Artist to Author.
Vicki Mayk designed, implemented, and taught a memoir workshop for
the bereavement program of
St. Luke's Hospice, which is part of St.
Luke's University Hospital in Bethlehem,
Pa. The sessions covered the
building blocks of memoir, aimed at introducing participants
to the tools
needed for crafting essays or beginning full-length memoirs about family
members they have lost.
Vylinda Bryant designed and implemented creative writing classes that
emphasized the use of the
Visual Arts as a springboard for the writing
process. Vylinda developed units and
lesson plans for elementary school
students through adults at The Hermitage Museum
and Gardens in
Norfolk, Va.
Bill Schneider instructed a creative writing workshop series for veterans,
held at the West Pittston
Library in Pennsylvania. Bill designed the
sessions to help veterans find a voice,
enhancing his instruction with
video clips and readings, prompting participants to
bring their words to
the page.
Rachel Strayer instructed a playwriting workshop for grades 7-12 at the
South Abington Library,
Clark Summit, Pa. Rachel designed lessons for
playwriting format; identifying theatrical
ideas; developing character;
using stage directions to create setting, tone, and visual
aesthetic;
crafting good dialogue; writing a beginning, middle, and end; and revising
a final script. Each workshop included writing prompts, followed by a craft
lesson
focusing on a particular skill or element of playwriting. Students
staged a public
reading of their scripts. In addition, Rachel completed a
two-week internship at the
Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, MN.
Rachel assumed administrative duties, facilitated
the workshop and
staged reading of the visiting playwrights, and supervised a PlayLab.
�Ashley Supinski developed a fiction writing workshop for teenage
writers in Northampton, Pa., in
which the group worked on aspects of
craft and produced a final publication. The class
met Saturday mornings
at the public library and included oral delivery and reading
components.
Dr. Nancy McKinley says, "I could provide 30 or more examples. The
interns have done amazing community
service, and many have reached
out to underserved communities. In fact, one of my
personal goals is to
help facilitate ways for bringing The Arts to underserved populations.
Thus, by helping to prepare interns, I make inroads, and we spread the
power of the
word."
Publishing Internships
In the publishing realm, interns have written grants, copyedited, launched
publishing
endeavors, developed podcasts, and more. Some Etruscan
interns have even gone on to
work for a press. Dr. Phil Brady describes
a few success stories below:
Molly Barari accomplished something very special; she turned her
activities with senior citizens
into a unique project, and somehow got the
project finished on schedule. Dakota Heirlooms
has been submitted to
the publisher and is now available. I couldn't be prouder or
happier for
Molly and for her publisher, Jean Klein.
Austin Bennett came up with one of the best capstones for an internship
I've seen. His portfolio
included an extensive guide to researching grants,
and also included particular grant-targets
and strategies. He's taken on
possibilities for River and South as well as Etruscan.
He wrote a concise
and commanding rationale for writing book reviews, and wrote a
publishable book review. He also researched the work of H. L. Hix—a
daunting task—and
is preparing, post-internship, to interview Hix. He has
just accepted a tenure-track
assistant professor position at City College
at Montana State University Billings.
In addition, Austin was very
supportive of his colleagues on the bulletin board. He
is a talented and
charismatic young man, and I predict a great future in writing and
teaching for him.
Leah Vernon took on so many new occupations: copyediting, reviewing
memoir, writing study guides,
following production, assisting with
marketing, and supporting the work of her fellow
interns on the bulletin
board. All this, she accomplished—and did it on the run, since
our
original plan was to work with KJB as well as Etruscan. To top it off, she
took
a trip to Minneapolis and attended AWP, where she met a number of
authors and publishers,
including Laurie Jean Cannady, whose book
Leah had been working on all term. I'm confident
that Leah learned as
much as possible from this internship. She's a powerful, talented
young
writer and I think she will accomplish whatever she sets her mind to.
�Johanna James demonstrated the most essential qualities in the
dynamic and challenging world of
publishing: she is imaginative, intrepid,
flexible, and endowed with big-picture vision.
She launched a new
publishing endeavor, Black Ink, which promises to offer new opportunities
to writers of diverse backgrounds and points of view. Most importantly,
Johanna brought
about a new enterprise that has promise and
participation from an impressive community.
She is a model for what the
M.A. in Literary Publishing can be and I have no doubt
that she will
continue to work with Wilkes and to share resources and encouragement
with members of the program and candidates for the publishing degree.
Suzanne Ohlmann accomplished something very special; she
conceived, developed and produced her first
podcast—first in a series I
expect, called Storycatcher, which brings together writers,
readers, and
ordinary (and weird) folk to discuss the activity of making and hearing
stories. Suzanne's gifts—her performance background, her talent as a
writer, her community
building talent, her wit and charm—are all part of
story catching. This project has
legs, and will far outlast its beginnings as
an internship.
Of her publishing internship, April Line says, "I loved the real-world
experience of writing grants with Etruscan. I have
not since felt as
professionally validated and useful as I did during my internship.
Both Bill
Schneider and Phil Brady were incredibly encouraging and positive,
and I had pretty broad autonomy to make
things happen, which I also
appreciated because it signaled that they trusted me and
my instincts."
These amazing internships completed by M.F.A. students are not
counted in the average
number of hours at Wilkes. To include the
Graduate Creative Writing Program in the
student averages, each
student needs to complete a quick survey outlining the type
of service,
number of hours, and where the service was completed.
Please watch for the forthcoming survey from the Creative Writing
Program. Your responses
will help Valkenburg share our success stories.
The results will be shared with the
Institutional Research Department at
Wilkes, and help showcase how our writing community
has achieved
many of the University's core values.
Danie Watson is a graduate assistant for Etruscan Press and an M.A.
student in creative
nonfiction at Wilkes University.
Community Workshops Offered in
Spring 2017
�As the snow melts and the flowers begin to bloom, Wilkes is once again
offering community
writing workshops for adult students, taught by
program alums and faculty. The cost
for each workshop series is $65.00.
Poetry Workshop
This adult workshop will focus on the construction of a poem from a
single word or
idea to a fully developed piece. Using short verse to create
a compact image/thought,
participants will explore narrative poems to
create and develop dramatic poetry and/or
story.
Requirements: Each participant is expected to write at least ten short
poems and two longer narratives
during the workshop series. Reading
and discussions of poetry handouts and participation
in workshopping
individual poems and critiquing others. Final presentation of work
should
be in the form of a chapbook that workshop participants will compile
throughout
the workshop series.
Meetings: Tuesdays – 6-8 p.m., April 25, May 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30
Instructor: Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr
Social Media Workshop: How to Leverage Social
Media to Publish Your Work and Promote
Yourself
Social media isn't just for liking photos of your second-cousin's lobster
dinner or
watching hilarious cat videos—you can learn to wield the social
sphere to your professional
and creative advantage! This six-week adult
workshop introduces you to the various
social media platforms that are
popular today, and will teach you how to market yourself
and your writing
in unique and exciting ways. In this class, your instructor will
work with
you to build your online persona and show you how to reach out to new
communities
and new readers. Classes are divided into lecture and
activity sessions, and each
class will have a take-home assignment.
Requirements: Each participant should have access to a computer and
the internet. Please bring
a smartphone to class.
Meetings: Tuesdays – 5:30-7:30 p.m., May 2, 9, 16, 23 30 and June 6
Instructor: Angela Greco
The Poetry of Revision: What Fiction Writers Can
Learn from Ezra Pound
This adult workshop will focus on applying certain elements to prose from
poetry,
such as word play and concision, to help fiction writers revise
their stories. Workshop
participants will look at several poets, especially
more modern ones, in addition
to Ezra Pound's The ABC of Reading.
Requirements: Each participant should have access to a computer and
�a printer; bring copies of
three consecutive, double-spaced pages of a
work-in-progress to the first workshop;
and carry a folder, notebook, and
colored pen (not black ink) to each workshop.
Meetings: Tuesdays – 6-8 p.m., May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 and June 6
Instructor: Francisco Tutella
Blueprints to the Silver Screen: An Intro to
Screenwriting
The screenwriter is the first person to see the movie. In this six-week
adult workshop,
we'll explore the art of crafting compelling stories,
characters, and images from
your imagination to the page, ready for the
silver screen. Course participants will
utilize the learnings gained from
these discussions to craft individual short screenplays
ready for
presentation at the workshop's conclusion.
Course Text:The Screenwriters Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing,
Formatting, and Selling Your
Script, 6th edition. by David Trottier
Meetings: Wednesdays – 6-8 p.m., May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 and June 7
Instructor: Robert Holly
Personal Histories
Each participant in this adult workshop will create their own personal
history of
their families, passed down to create a legacy, tracing their
ancestry and location
in the Wilkes-Barre area, using all family records,
Bibles, census information, school
and public records, as well as family
lore. A major source for their writing will
be the stories that have been
handed down for generations, songs, crafts and recipes.
Each participant
will bring all these elements to write their own personal history
and will
share in workshop their process of collection of materials, means of
archiving
stories, and discussions around regional histories and persona
identities within various
communities.
Supplemental sources may include interviews with elders in families,
religious leaders,
priests and ministers, old photographs, videos, letters,
personal materials (such
as clothes and household possessions),
handouts about online genealogy searches, as
well as local libraries.
Requirements: Each participant will maintain a notebook or folder as a
permanent record of their
heritage. The type of notebook is up to the
workshop participant, but it should be
such that one can add to and is
sturdy to last for years to come.
Meetings: Wednesdays – 6-8 p.m., April 26, May 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31
Instructor: Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr
From Plot to Page: Turning an Idea into Prose
This adult workshop is designed to help writers turn ideas into stories. In
�the first
week, we will begin by discussing where ideas come from. Then
we'll introduce organizational
techniques such as outlining and other
prewriting strategies. Finally, we'll write,
read, and workshop the stories
we create from those original ideas.
This workshop can accommodate new writers, writers looking to start a
new project,
or writers deep into revision. Weeks two to six will focus on
workshopping work at
the author's discretion.
Meetings: Thursdays – 6:30-8:30 p.m., May 11, 18, 25, June 1, 8 and 15
Instructors: Robert Antinozzi and Alyssa Waugh
PWC Returns to Wilkes
Mark
your
calendars for the 3rd Annual Pennsylvania Writers Conference, which is
set
to launch July 30 and wrap up August 5, 2017. Pulitzer Prize-winning
poet Natasha Trethewey is slated as the keynote speaker, and a
schedule is in the works to include weeklong
workshops in a variety of
writing genres as well as a two-day conference with craft
classes, panel
discussions, guest speakers, and pitch sessions with agents. For more
information, visit http://wilkes.edu/pwc.
Faculty News
Bonnie Culver, program director, was elected to the Executive
Committee of the AWP Board of Trustees.
She will serve as vice chair of
the board.
Gregory Fletcher (Playwriting faculty) made his short story debut with
his story "Friends of Vera"
in the anthology The Night Bazaar, published
�by Northampton House Press.
Lenore Hart has a poem in Forgotten Women: A Tribute in Poetry,
edited by Ginny Lowe Connors
and published this spring by Grayson
Press. The book was available in time for International
Women's Day
(March 8). Some of the contributors read at a book launch in Connecticut
through the Riverwood Poetry Series on March 9.
J. Michael Lennon reviewed Joan Didion's new book, South and West,
in the (London) Times Literary Supplement
Feb. 2. "Editor, edit thyself,"
Mike's review of Robert Gottlieb's memoir for the
TLS, pulls no punches:
"Avid Reader: A Life is full of stale phrases, sketchy anecdotes
and
perfunctory accolades for all the wonderful guys and gals he's worked
with over
the years." Nevertheless, Dr. Lennon writes, Gottlieb tells
fascinating stories about
the writers he coddled, cajoled, and
masterminded into print, including Chaim Potok,
Lauren Bacall, and
Robert Caro. Lennon's edition of Norman Mailer's The Fight (about
"The
Rumble in the Jungle," the Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman
championship bout
in Zaire in 1974) has just been published by Taschen
Books in an oversized edition
with hundreds of photos.
David Poyer did a long interview with the Center for International
Maritime Security about his
writing process and the background for his
Modern Navy novels, specifically the latest,
Onslaught, which was
published in December.
Student and Alumni News
Austin Grant Bennett (M.F.A.'15) began work in January as an
instructor for City College at Montana State
University Billings.
Tom Borthwick (M.F.A. '09) published a short story, "Silencing the
Machine," in Altered States
II: a Cyberpunk Anthology. It's available on
Amazon in print and digital formats,
and was cited as a standout and
favorably reviewed at the Cyberpunk website, Neon
Dystopia. Another
short story, "Long in the Dying," was published in Phantaxis Magazine.
It's available for purchase on Amazon.
2017 M.F.A. grad Gabrielle
D'Amico's(pictured right)
screenplay, Plan B, has been
optioned by Intuition Media, a
production company whose
partners include Susan
Cartsonis, Suzanne Farwell
�and Brent Emery.
Angela Eckhart, "one of the
Original Tattooed Wilkies from
the Class of 2009," doesn't
have any
news but writes, "I
am thrilled to be connected
with this writing community,
even
though I haven't visited a
residency for quite some time."
Brian Fanelli (M.F.A. '10)
recently had an essay on Thoreau, Emerson, and the American poetic
tradition
accepted for publication by the Philadelphia-based Schuylkill
Valley Journal. A preview
of the essay appears online, and the print
version will be published in June.
Richard Fellinger (M.F.A. '10) has signed a contract with Open Books to
publish his debut novel, Made
To Break Your Heart. Publication is slated
for June 2017.
D Ferrara's (M.A. '13) screenplay, Arvin Lindemeyer Takes Canarsie,
won the Outstanding Feature-Length
Screenplay at the Oil Valley Film
Festival. This piece had formed the basis of her
thesis at Wilkes. With
Pat Florio, she is also editing a book of short fiction and memoir created
by participants at
a workshop with Kaylie Jones and Judy Mandel in
Tuscany, due out later this year from Wendy Decker's Serendipity
Press.
Sandee Gertz (M.F.A. '12) hosts "Everyday Poetry: Poetry for the
People!" on Radio Free Nashville
-- available worldwide on the net. She
says: "It's a live call-in show and features
Working Class Poetry—and
poetry rooted in place, work, blue-collar, white-collar,
pink-collar
concerns, etc. It also features place-based and Americana travel poetry."
She's looking for submissions of work in any genre (especially interested
in working
people, parenting, domestic labor and Southern stories),
author interviews, and music.
"I'd be happy to have any alums send work
for consideration on the show. I also play
roots music so am always
looking for submissions for that as well!" Send submissions
(poetry,
stories, books, recordings) to Sandee Gertz, 1805 Cahal Ave, Nashville,
�TN
37206 or sandeegertz@gmail.com.
Cooper Gorelick (M.A. student) continued his research for his thesis
project—a screenplay about a
theater company—by playing the role of
Juror No. 9 in Rutgers-Camden's production
of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry
Jurors, Feb. 22-26.
The launch for Heather Harlen's (M.A. '08) latest book, Shame, Shame,
I Know Your Name, was March 4 at the Moravian
Book Shop in
Bethlehem, Pa.
Paul Jackson (M.A. '14) had 3 poems published in Fictional Café in
January.
Nichole Kanney (M.F.A '15) had her feature-length comedy screenplay
Shady Birch selected as a finalist
for the 2017 Nashville Film Festival.
Kimberly Behre Kenna (M.A. '15) had her poem, "Spirit's Stream,"
published in the January edition of GFT
Press. She was recently hired to
write humanities curriculum, and teach for the Pathfinder
program at
Hopkins School in New Haven, Conn. Pathfinder is a free academic
enrichment
program for middle school students, attending city schools,
who have a strong desire
to prepare for and attend college.
Monique Antonette Lewis (M.F.A. '12) was a featured reader for Great
Weather for MEDIA in New York and the
FBomb and The Art of
Storytelling reading series, both in Denver. Her flash fiction
story, "You're
Cursed," was published by PoetryBay in December. She also spoke on
a
panel during Regis University's Mile-High MFA residency to discuss At
The Inkwell.
Lori A. May (M.F.A.'13) has an essay in the latest quarterly issue of
Panorama: The Journal of
Intelligent Travel. She was recently
interviewed about her book The Write Crowd for
Understorey Magazine.
She is currently working on a series of podcasts as part of
her project
grant with King County.
Todd McClimans' (M.A. '12) latest novel, Time To Heal (Overdue Books,
2017), the third installment
in his American Epochs series, was reviewed
in the February issue of VOYA, a library
journal devoted to young adult
literature. "McClimans paints a vivid picture of the
bloodiest time in
American history—the Civil War," reviewer Richard Vigdor writes.
Kirkus
Reviews liked it too, saying, "He writes in a sharp, energetic prose ('Kristi
Connors lunged to catch a rolling can of Coca-Cola as it spread a fizzling
brown wave
across her desktop'), and the novel's quick pace and
unusual chronology make for an
engrossing read. ... lively and fun ... A
well-constructed, compelling addition to
an ongoing time-travel tale."
�Josh Penzone's (M.A. '13) short story "Artificial Tree" appeared in
Eunoia Review. Also, his short
story "A Soldier's Story" kicks off the
anthology The Neighbors, produced by Zimbell
House Publishing.
Dania Ramos' (M.A. '10) short story "Vista Eterna" was published in the
anthology The Night Bazaar:
Eleven Haunting Tales of Forbidden Wishes
and Dangerous Desires (Northampton House
Press). Her short musical
Work With Us, co-written with Michael Aquino, was featured
in
Continuing the Conversation: An Evening of Short Plays in Response to
the Election
(Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre). Dania's book Who's Ju,
also from Northampton House,
has won or been a finalist for several
international awards, including Best Hispanic
YA eBook 2016, finalist for
the Mariposa Prize, and now a finalist for the 2017 Sakura
Prize in
Japan.
l)k\',\l)S,
·----·---.--
M.F.A.
---·-------------
student
Ronnie
_,.
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---------
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----_,__,,,
Stephens reports, "My second poetry collection, They Rewrote
Themselves Legendary, is now
available via my website. The collection
is a fully illustrated collaborative work,
pairing ekphrastic poems with
artwork by Desarae Lee, and was released in late February
by Timber
Mouse." Timber Mouse is an independent publisher, based in Austin,
Texas,
that promotes the work of spoken-word artists. (pictured right)
Donna Talarico (M.F.A. '10) edited Selected Memories: Five Years of
Hippocampus Magazine, the first
release from Hippocampus' books
division. The book was officially launched with a
live event and reading at
AWP 2017. Also at AWP, she served on a panel about grassroots
conference promotion. In spring 2017, Talarico is teaching "Marketing
Books and Magazines"
at Rosemont College, and personal branding
workshops at Pennsylvania College of Arts
and Design.
Quick Links
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<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
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Revise This! | 2017-04.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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Revise This! - Winter 2017
Winter 2017
5.5 Questions for Jacob Hebda: On
Mailer Conferences
Jacob
currently a
2018
512/514
Revise This! -
student and
November 2019
Wilkes
University
graduate
assistant
who has
attended
three
Mailer
Society
Archives
2017
Hebda is
Norman
Archives
"Whether I discover how writers are inspired by
each other or how critics interpret
their art,
participating in this vast web of interaction remains
n
2017
n
n
�a powerful and humbling
experience, as well as an
opportunity to learn." - Jacob Hebda
Conferences. In 2014, Hebda presented
a paper on Mailer's cosmology
compared to that of Ralph Waldo Emerson titled, "Clashing
Cosmologies:
Mailer's An American Dream as a Romantic Nightmare."
In 2016, Hebda presented a paper on John Milton's influence on Norman
Mailer titled,
"The Mailerian Ego and the Problem of Evil in the Modern
World: A View of the Russian
Section of The Castle in the Forest through
the Authorial Ego of D. T." In 2017, Hebda presented a paper on the
characteristics
of the epic tradition evident in Mailer's Ancient Evenings
titled, "A Novel of Epic Proportions: Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings
and the Epic
Tradition."
Hebda earned his B.A. in English from Misericordia University in 2014,
and his M.A.
in English from the State University of New York at New
Paltz in 2017.
Danie Watson is a freelance writer based in Scranton, PA. She is
currently pursuing
her M.A. in fiction from Wilkes University, where she
serves as a graduate assistant.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START RESEARCHING
s
THE WORK OF NORMAN MAILER?
WHAT GOES INTO WRITING A PAPER FOR THE
s
NORMAN MAILER SOCIETY CONFERENCE, AND
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE
PROCESS?
WHAT ARE YOUR RESEARCH INTERESTS IN
s
NORMAN MAILER, AND HOW HAVE THEY
EVOLVED OVER TIME?
HOW DID YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH THE
s
NORMAN MAILER SOCIETY BRING YOU TO THE
MASLOW FAMILY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN
CREATIVE WRITING?
WHICH MAILER WORK WOULD YOU RECOMMEND
s
�FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO JUMP INTO THE
WORLD OF NORMAN MAILER?
WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR THOSE WHO
s
ARE INTERESTED IN PRESENTING AT THE
NORMAN MAILER SOCIETY CONFERENCE?
From PA
to FL:
Wilkes
at Mailer
Wilkes
faculty,
alums, and
students
participated
in panels
and
From left to right: Jan Quackenbush, Carol Lavelle,
Matthew Hinton, Patricia Florio,
Dale Louise
Mervine, Richard Priebe, and Nicole DePolo
attended the 13th Annual Norman
Mailer
Conference, which was held in Provincetown, MA in
2015.
presentations at the
15th Norman Mailer Society Conference held
October 26 to 28 in Sarasota, Florida,
sponsored by the University of
South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus. The annual Wilkes
University
Readers Theatre reading featured Dr. Bonnie Culver and Matthew
Hinton (M.F.A. '10) in a performance and discussion titled
"Remembering Norman." Program co-founder and
founding faculty
member Dr. J. Michael Lennon presided as president of the Norman
Mailer Society and stepped down during the conference.
Maggie
McKinley was elected in his stead. Current M.A. student Jacob Hebda
presented a paper on the characteristics of the epic tradition evident in
Mailer's
Ancient Evenings titled "A Novel of Epic Proportions: Norman
Mailer's Ancient Evenings and the Epic
Tradition."
Winter Reminders
PAY IT FORWARD INITIATIVE
Alumni 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.
Lisa Greim was a recipient of the Pay It Forward
scholarship from faculty member Kaylie
Jones.
If you know a
writer who would be a great asset to our program, you have the power
to
pass along a $2,500 program award. This one-time payment is used to
offset tuition—
an incredible benefit when you consider that most creative
writing students pay tuition
out of their own pockets. The deadline for
applications is December 15, 2017 for the next January residency.
To Pay It Forward, share our program's successes with a prospective
student. Send me their contact
information and we'll track them through
the admissions process. Or, simply ask them
to reference your name
when completing their application. The Pay It Forward award will be
applied to their first bill once they are accepted into the program
and
begin their studies.
ETRUSCAN PRIZE
Students: The
w
annual
Etruscan Prize
for the best
single page in
any genre will
be judged this
year by
Etruscan author
Bruce Bond.
Winner
receives a $100
honorarium, a
complimentary
subscription of
Etruscan titles,
and a limited
edition
Etruscan Press Executive Director Dr. Phil
Brady(left) and Executive Editor Dr. Bob
Mooney
(right) awarded Ronnie K. Stephens (M.A. '17) the
2017 Etruscan Prize for his
poem "What I Know
Now.
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."
Deadline is April 15, 2018 | Please submit entries
to: etruscanpress.submittable.com
Beat the winter blues with a creative writing
workshop!
Nonfiction Places and Spaces
Place plays an important role in both fiction and nonfiction writing, often
assuming
the role of another character in novels, short stories, memoir,
essays and literary
journalism. In this adult workshop, we'll consider
writers who have made place and
location central to to their writing.
Participants will write about personal and public
landscapes from a
variety of perspectives, from memories of home to capturing places
visited. Exercises will include incorporating multi-sensory detail, the role
of research,
and using place to support character description. Fiction
writers who are setting
their work in real-life places also will benefit from
this workshop.
Meetings: Mondays – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Kirby Hall, Room 108
January 29, February
5, 12, 19, 26, and March 5
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Vicki Mayk
Social Media for Beginners
Social Media isn't just for liking photos of your second-cousin's lobster
dinner or
watching hilarious cat videos -- you can learn to wield the social
sphere to your
professional and creative advantage! This six-week adult
workshop introduces you to
the various social media platforms that are
popular today, and will teach you how
to market yourself and your writing
in unique and exciting ways. In this class, your
instructor will work with
you to build your online persona and show you how to reach
out to new
communities and new readers. Classes are divided into lecture and
activity
sessions, and each class will have a take-home assignment.
Meetings: Tuesdays – 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. – Breiseth Hall, Room 108
January 23, 30,
February 6, 13, 20, and 27
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Angela Greco
�Preparing You and Your Manuscript for Publication
This five-week workshop is designed for adult learners over the age of
18. Participants
will be provided an overview of how to prepare
completed literary projects for submission
to publishers. Through a
variety of lectures, workshop exercises, and group discussions,
participants will discover what it takes to prepare themselves – and their
work –
for consideration. A comprehensive look at industry standards and
best practices include
crafting a project synopsis, drafting a query letter,
understanding the author questionnaire
process, creating a thumbnail,
keynote, and writing the book description.
Meetings: Wednesdays – 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Breiseth Hall, Room
106 January 31,
February 7, 14, 21, and 28
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Bill Schneider
Creative Nonfiction: Memories and Memoir
Writing memoir requires transformation of complex, often
incomprehensible emotions
into clear words with which a reader could
empathize. Learning from our memories comes
from allowing ourselves
to explore the gray areas and know that feelings – good or
bad – are
important. Understanding memories and perceptions is essential to this
process.
The writer needs to be sensitive to the idea that others involved
in these may have
different perceptions and memories and may not want
to share their personal matters
with the world. Open to adults of any age.
Meetings: Thursdays – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Breiseth Hall, Room 106
February 1,
8, 15, 22, March 1 and March 15 (No meeting on March 8)
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Joyce Victor
Realistic Fiction: Employing Reality and Real Imagery into Fiction
Writing
This adult workshop will focus on using real environments to cultivate
scenes in realistic
fiction writing. During the six-week workshop series,
participants will focus on imagery,
dialogue, character, timeline, and
studying the "greats" (imbuing inspiration from
great writers). Each
workshop will include exercises, free writing, discussion, and
takeaways
for continued writing.
�Meetings: Saturdays – 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - Karambelas Media
Center, Room 135
February 3, 10, 17, 24, March 3 and 10
Cost: $65.00 for the entire series
Instructor: Rachael J. Hughes
Faculty, Alumni, and Student News
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FACULTY NEWS:
Lenore Hart and David Poyer taught at the Ossabaw Writers Workshop
on Ossabaw Island, GA from 27-30 October.
Lenore Hart's The Night Bazaar sets up its tents at KGB Bar on
December 13. Six anthology authors will present individual
and group
dramatic readings (some in costume, of course) selected from stories in
the anthology. The reading will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Red
Room. Readers
include Wilkes faculty, alums, and NHP authors Gregory
Fletcher, Mau VanDuren, Naia Poyer, Frances Williams, Corinne
Nulton, and Lenore Hart.
The Night Bazaar is nominated
for the 2017 James Tiptree
Award, specifically for the story
"The Kindly Ones" by Naia
Poyer. The James Tiptree Jr.
Award, since 1993, has sought to
promote and recognize works of
speculative fiction
that 'explore
and expand our understanding of
gender.
Chapter one of Troublesome
Creek, Lenore's novel currently
in-progress, will appear in the
Spring 2018 issue of The Virginia
�Literary Journal. Lenore's poem
"Struck By Light" was named the
winner of the 2017 Connecticut River Review Poetry Prize. The judge
was Benjamin Grossberg. The prize was $400, and the poem will be
published in the
spring edition of the Connecticut River Review.
J. Michael Lennon has
edited The 1960's
Collection--a boxed set
containing the works of
Norman Mailer to be
published by the Library
of America. Volume one
Four Books of the 1960's,
will contain four Mailer
works from
the 1960s: An
American Dream, Why
Are We In Vietnam?The
Armies Of The Night and
Miami and The Siege Of
Chicago (all four won, or
were nominated for, the
National Book Award). Volume two, Collected Essays of the 1960s, will
contain 36 of Mailer's essays from the 60's, beginning with "Superman
Comes
to the Supermarket" and gathers for the first time all the essential
essays from the
classic collections The Presidential Papers, Cannibals
and Christians, and Existential Errands. Publication date for the boxed
set is February 27, 2018.
Associate Program Director Bill Schneider (M.F.A. '14) was invited to be
a reader of United Airlines employee entries for the anthology
Farewell to
the 747: Queen of the Skies. He attended a farewell event held aboard a
United 747 at Newark Liberty International
Airport on October 24, where
�many of the entries selected for the anthology were presented.
ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWS:
J.C. Alonso Jr. (M.F.A. '14) had
his poem published in Haiku
Journal Issue 52. His novel
Murderer's Wake, a sea story of a
merchant marine was published
----MURDERER'S
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by Northampton House Press
(print
date Jan 1, 2018.) Alonso
was also hired as Adjunct
Professor at Nova Southeastern
University, and hired as Writing
Lab Instructor at Broward Colle.
Molly Barari (M.F.A. '17) led two
book discussions on the South
Dakota One Book, Kitchens of the
Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal,
as a South Dakota Humanities
Council Scholar this fall. Barari
was selected by the Humanities Council
earlier in the year to receive the scholar
honor.
Maxwell Bauman (M.F.A. '15)
had his collection of Jewishthemed short stories The
Anarchist Kosher Cookbook
published by CLASH Books.
The book is available for
preorder via Amazon and B&N,
and will officially be for sale on
Dec 5th.
D Ferrara's (M.A. '14) short
story "The Bookkeeper" has
been accepted for publication
by Duct, a journal of
stories. Cheryl Bazzoui (M.A.
'14) had her new novelPressure
Cooker Christmas come out in
November. It is a satisfyingly realistic contrast from the usual sugarcoated
Christmas novels. It is told through the voice of Marlene O'Malley,
wife, mother,
grandmother, daughter, nurse, friend, etc., as she and her
husband, Bob, close in
on their most unforgettable Christmas. Marlene
insists she loves Christmas. Bob hates
Christmas. He wants to cancel
their annual Swearing in of the Christmas Tree party,
but it's become a
Willow Lane tradition. Their far less than perfect family is irresistibly
�lovable, despite their many foibles. This story will help even the most
Scrooge-like
reader find a generous helping of Christmas spirit. Bazzoui
writes under the penname
of Ann McCauley. Learn more about her at
www.annmccauley.com
Patricia Florio (M.F.A. '11) co-founder of the Jersey Shore Writers
(2001) was asked by the Bradley Beach library,
Fourth Avenue Branch,
to form a monthly writing group on Thursday, November 9 at 6:30
pm.
This comes on the heels of her library readings to children from her
current children's
book, Puppy in My Pocket.
Rachael J. Hughes's (M.F.A. '12) Memoir Us Girls is slated for
publication this fall with Big Table Publishing.
Maureen Hooker (M.F.A. '09) will be the keynote speaker for a state
conference of Vidant Hospitals' Information
Technology Systems
Managers on January 18, 2018 at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro,
NC. (Book signing too).
Jennifer Jenkins (M.F.A. '17) had her story "Ambulance" printed in
Parentheses Journal in October 2017. Her book reviews have appeared
in Hippocampus Magazine in April, July, and October 2017. She was also
awarded an honorable mention for Glimmertrain's Very Short Fiction
Award in September 2017.
Mark Levy (M.A. '08) joined Messner Reeves LLP, a Denver law firm, in
October as Intellectual Property
Counsel. That's a rare situation in which
being 68 years old is an advantage.
Lori A. May (M.F.A. '13) has an essay, "This is What it Sounds Like," in
the latest issue of Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel.
Nisha Sharma (M.F.A. '13) sold at auction The Singh Family Trilogy, in
which three Sikh-Punjabi brothers bound by tradition and love pursue the
ultimate
act of revenge by taking down an empire in the name of honor to
Avon Impulse, a Harper
Collins Imprint.
Christy White (M.A. '17) had three poems from her thesis, Unexpected
Comfort, chosen to be published in the Fall 2017 online zine, The Blue
Guitar Magazine. The poems are: "Blessing," "Reading a Used
Paperback at Midnight" and "On This Earth
We Call Home."The Blue
Guitar Arts and Literary Magazine is a project of The Arizona Consortium
for the Arts.
�Quick Links
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and Internships
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Jobs at Wilkes
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Jobs
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Visit Quick Links
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Wilkes University
�84 West South Street
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
1-800-WILKES-U
Contact Us
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Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
Subject
The topic of the resource
<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
Description
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An archive of past issues of <em>Revise This!</em>, the official newsletter of the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing.
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Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
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Revise This! | 2017-01.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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https://omeka.wilkes.edu/omeka/files/original/784ccffcf42aee30c864476c014d342d.pdf
76967549641fd69fa03a41d0f8298706
PDF Text
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About Wilkes
Home
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Graduate Academics
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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
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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.
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[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!
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Revise This! | 2016-12.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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About Wilkes
Home
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Archives
Revise This!
October 2016
PAY IT FORWARD SCHOLARSHIP; NEW FACULTY/ALUM
Archives
Archives
SCHOLARSHIP
Tim seibles HONORED BY THE STATE OF virginia
fanelli's "waiting for the dead to speak" RELEASED BY NY Quarterly
BOOKS
2017
2018
Revise This! November 2019
21 summer grads receive diplomas
NEWS FROM FACULTY, STUDENTS AND ALUMS
Scholarship programs turn writers
into graduate students
n
2016
n
n
�Now entering its second year, the $2,500 Pay It Forward scholarship
grant has helped
attract 15 students to the Wilkes University Graduate
Creative Writing Program by
using marketing's most powerful medium:
word of mouth.
Pay
It
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Jan Quackenbush and Kaylie Jones display the James
Jones Literary Society's donation
to the new
Faculty/Alum Scholarship fund.
Forward puts scholarship money in the hands of every Wilkes Creative
Writing
faculty member and alum, who can nominate one student per
term for the award. The
$2,500 defrays a portion of tuition in a student's
first semester in the program.
Another scholarship initiative now in development got a boost in June
with a $5,000
donation from the James Jones Literary Society. The
Faculty/Alum Scholarship Fund,
organized by Dr. J. Michael Lennon
and Jan Quackenbush, will be added to the merit awards given each
June to continuing students. Those scholarships
are based on faculty
nominations, and include the Beverly Hiscox, Norris Church Mailer,
and
Jennifer Diskin Scholarships, and the Bergman Family Foundation
Award.
In its first semester, 10 students in the Jan. 2016 cohort received Pay It
Forward
awards, including seven in the low-residency cohort (faculty and
alums who referred
them are in parentheses):
•
•
Cooper Gorelick (referred by Anne Henry)
•
Christopher Owens (Bill Schneider)
Lisa Greim (Kaylie Jones)
• Patrick Kelley (Rachel Strayer)
• Bibiana Krall (David Poyer)
•
Mark Rivera (Danielle Poupore)
�•
Pamela Turchin (Nichole Kanney)
Janine Dubik of the new Wilkes-Barre weekender program (referred by
Sam Chiarelli) and Mesa weekenders Toni Muma (referred by Austin
Bennett) and Christy White (referred by Bonnie Culver) also received
$2,500 scholarships.
In June, four more low-residency students and one Wilkes-Barre
weekender received
Pay It Forward scholarships:
• Todd Conaster (Phil Brady)
• Christa Mallecoccio (Rachel Strayer)
• Camika Spencer (Lori A. May)
• Lindsey Wotanis (J. Michael Lennon)
• Amanda Cino (Rick Priebe)
Know someone who would benefit from the program? Let them know
about the $2,500 scholarship,
and pass along their names and contact
information to Program Director Dr. Bonnie Culver.
Tim Seibles named Poet Laureate of
Virginia
Etruscan Press author and Wilkes Creative Writing Advisory Board
member Tim Seibles was named Poet Laureate of Virginia July 15 by
Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Seibles read from his National Book Award-nominated collection, Fast
Animal (Etruscan Press, 2012), at the June residency, and spoke at the
closing banquet.
Here's a video of him reading "Ode to My Hands" from Fast Animal at the
National Book Awards Finalists Reading in 2012.
A dedicated ambassador for poetry, Seibles has won fellowships from the
National Endowment
for the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work
Center. He received his bachelor's
degree from Southern Methodist
University and his MFA in creative writing from Norwich
University/Vermont College of Fine Arts.
He teaches in the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at Old Dominion
University in
Norfolk, Va. Sheri Reynolds, a colleague at Old Dominion,
called Seibles "a visionary
writer and teacher ... a generous mentor to his
students and a much-loved colleague."
�Five and a half questions for Brian
Fanelli (M.F.A. '10)
by Lisa Greim
A literal shout-out to a Wilkes poet happened Sept. 20 when The Writer's
Almanac, a daily update produced by American Public Media and
sponsored by the Poetry Foundation,
featured work from Brian Fanelli's
new book. Click this link to hear "Raking Leaves," read by a familiar
voice, A Prairie Home Companion's retired host, Garrison Keillor.
Brian Fanelli's Waiting for the Dead to Speak.
Waiting for the Dead to Speak is Fanelli's second full-length book of
poetry, published Sept. 12 by the New York
Quarterly Foundation's
imprint, NYQ Books. Reviewer Maria Mazziotti Gillan calls Fanelli's
work
"vibrant, muscular, carefully crafted poems rooted in working-class rural
Pennsylvania."
Links to order from your favorite bookseller may be found at New York
�Quarterly's website. You can also find both the book and its author at a
launch party Oct. 7 at the Olde
Brick Theater in Scranton, or at readings
in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York
this fall. The full schedule
is on his website: brianfanelli.com/events/
Fanelli holds a Ph.D. from Binghamton University, along with his Wilkes
M.F.A., and
is Professor of English at Lackawanna College. We asked
him a few questions about
the pieces in Waiting for the Dead to Speak
and the life of a poet.
Has your writing process changed since you started
your M.A.?
My schedule is vastly different now than when I enrolled in the Wilkes
program and
even different from when I finished the M.F.A. in 2010. I
have a full-time teaching
load and committee responsibilities that come
with the job. So, I tend to write around
my teaching schedule, often in the
morning and then later at night. When I was in
the program, I worked a
few part-time jobs and had more time for writing. That said,
I still follow a
routine of writing first thing in the morning, before I do anything
else.
Often, my thoughts are most fluid in the morning.
How has your poetry changed?
My poetry has changed drastically since I enrolled in the Wilkes Creative
Writing
Program. I have deepened my knowledge of the poetic tradition,
for one, thanks to
the reading lists that my mentors gave me while in the
program. It has also deepened
because of my experience finishing my
doctorate at Binghamton University. I had to
take a variety of courses and
read poets that I may not have read if not for the program.
I have always
written narrative poetry. I like poetry that is accessible in its language
and
democratic. I also like poetry that tells a story in whatever form that may
take.
I think, however, that I am getting more comfortable writing longer,
meditative poems.
I used to write far shorter narrative poems, but now I
try to push deeper. I'm also
more comfortable trying different forms.
I thought the most evocative line was, "The worst
thing to do is to forget." Is that
why you write?
That line comes from the book's title poem, "Waiting for the Dead to
Speak," and it
was about my father, specifically how I never dreamt about
him after he died, unlike
my other family members. I had this fear that I
would forget certain memories of him,
and I felt this frustration because I
didn't dream about him. This book, more than
anything else I've written,
is about the past, about the different ways that the dead
speak to us,
either through dreams or through memories. It is also about the idea
of
not forgetting, which is what that line is all about.
�The personas in your poetry are so representative of
the diferent selves we try on
as we go through life:
punk rocker and homeowner, working-class kid and
overworked
adjunct. Was this a conscious choice as
you wrote, to set up these parallels?
I wrote the poems over a span of five or six years, through different
workshops, including
some of the workshops I completed in the Wilkes
program. I don't think I intentionally
meant to represent the different ideas
of self, since the poems were written over
a longer period of time.
However, when I started organizing the collection, which
was a long
process, I was conscious of how the poems interacted and spoke to each
other, even worked against each other at times. To paraphrase Frost, the
order of
a book of poems should act like the final poem.
Who and what are you reading now?
I have always been interested in issues of class and labor, so I just
finished two
books that got a lot of buzz within the last year, Nancy
Isenberg's book White Trash: A 400 Year History of Class in America and
JD Vance's book Hillbilly Elegy. I liked them both. I was drawn to
Isenberg's historical lens of class issues, which
was a nice contrast to
Vance's personal account of growing up poor in rural Ohio.
I think both
books are so important now, in the context of this election cycle and
the
rise of Trumpism, more specifically the anger of the white working-class.
I also just read and plan to re-read Ross Gay's Catalog of Unabashed
Gratitude. It is a wonderful, moving collection of poems. The poems are
about gardening, but
they're about more than that. They are these long
narratives that use gardening as
an entry point to talk about memories of
the poet's family or friends long gone. I'm
going through an anthology
called The Fire This Time, which was just released and deals with
matters of race in America. Other than that,
I've been reading in
preparation of what I'm teaching this semester, so a lot of American
literature, going back to the Puritans, to Anne Bradstreet's poems, to
Phyllis Wheatley,
to Native American accounts of the American
experience. It's been helpful when trying
to figure out where we've been
as a country and where we may be headed.
Is there a moment or an experience from your Wilkes
program that has stuck with you?
I remember sitting down with my poetry mentors during some of my first
residencies.
I remember Christine Gelineau and Neil Shepard handing
me lists of books that I needed to read. I realized how much I didn't know
and how much I wanted to learn. All of us are always learning. There are
writers we
haven't read yet. The Wilkes program is really great at pushing
you, expanding your
knowledge, and pulling you out of your comfort zone
as a writer and reader. I am forever
grateful for that.
�Lisa Greim, a freelance journalist and content marketing writer in Denver,
is a graduate
assistant pursuing her M.A. degree in Creative Writing
from Wilkes University.
Summer Commencement includes
21 creative writing degree recipients
Three cheers for the following members of the Wilkes writing community,
who completed
their work at the June residency and received degrees
Sept. 11 at Wilkes' summer graduation
ceremony.
Master of Arts
• Anna Laurene Arnett (Creative Nonfiction)
• Spencer Aubrey (Poetry)
• Michelle Byrnes (Screenwriting)
• Wendy Decker (Fiction)
• Kayleigh DeMace (Fiction)
• Brianna Eller (Fiction)
• Joshua Horwitz (Creative Nonfiction)
• Jennifer Jenkins (Fiction)
• M. Anthony Kapolka (Fiction)
• Nathalie O'Brien (Fiction)
• Dale Louise Mervine (Fiction)
• Kerri Miller (Poetry)
• Michael Mortimer (Screenwriting)
• Donna Talarico (Publishing)
• Kristin Vath (Fiction)
Master of Fine Arts
• Caryn Devincenti
• Megan Haikes
• Corinne Nulton
• Vanessa Taylor-O'Connor
• Ezzel Thomas
• John Winston
Faculty News
Screenwriting faculty member Ross Klavan is one of three authors,
along with Charles Salzberg and Tim O'Mara, in Triple Shot, a new
compilation of three novellas just published by Down and Out Books. His
�noir-ish
story of cops who go bad, and then worse, is called "Thump Gun
Hitched."
Fiction faculty member Lenore Hart's narrative poem "Crazy Quilt 1918"
was selected for inclusion in the upcoming anthology
Forgotten Women,
forthcoming later this year from Grayson Books. A novel manuscript, The
Alchemy of Light (formerly Dead Light), which Hart has read from several
times at residencies, was a semifinalist for the
Faulkner-Wisdom Novel
Award.
Galleys are completed for faculty member Nancy McKinley's short story
"The Dog" in the canine-themed anthology To Unsnare Time's Warp. She
promises, "The collection of dog stories and poems will make you howl
with literary
delight." You can get a pre-publication discount at Main
Street Rag Publishing's online bookstore.
Playwriting faculty member Juanita Rockwell was awarded the 20162017 Marion International Fellowship to write a play with songs set on the
day of the bombing of Hiroshima, from the perspective
of various women
whose work led to its detonation. She just returned from "Scientific
Delirium Madness 3.0," the third annual July residency at the Djerassi
Resident Artist Program, with a dozen
scientists and artists working on
projects that bridge the (imaginary) gap between
science and art.
Student and Alumni News
Cheryl Bazzoui (M.A. '14) has been busy writing book reviews on the
Story Circle Network's website: Hope You Guess My Name by Heather
Harlen; Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover &
Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother by Lillian McCloy; and In
Robin's Nest by Elizabeth Sumner Wafler. Her review of Tipping Point by
fiction faculty member David Poyer aired on WPSU's BookMark.
Jennifer D. Bokal (M.A. '10) gave a presentation on character
development at the Lilac City Fiction Writers August
meeting. In early
September she presented on writing love scenes at the Connecticut
Fiction Fest. Jen also signed a three-book contract with Harlequin's
Romantic Suspense
line, with the first one released for the holidays in
2017. Jen is represented by
Chris Tomasino of the Tomasino Agency.
M.A.
�Todd Conner appears this fall in Metamorphoses.
student Todd Conatser, whose stage name is Todd Conner, will
present three performances of Metamorphoses Sept. 27, Oct. 25 and
Nov. 15 at the Players Club,16 Gramercy Park South, New York
City.
Seats are available by guest RSVP only at
mayasphereproject@gmail.com. A $15
cash admission will be asked at
the club, whose dress code is business casual. Conner
premiered his
solo storytelling version of Ovid's epic mythology in 2000 at the S.
Mark
Taper Foundation Amphitheatre in Beverly Hills, Calif. Entertainment
Today in
L.A. called it a "grand combination of art and entertainment."
Conner learned to play
the harp for this production, and composed new
music to accompany his live storytelling.
Wendy Decker (M.A. '16) will teach a young adult workshop at Neptune
Public Library in Neptune, N.J., 6-8
p.m. on Sept. 29.
Cindy Dlugolecki (M.A. '11) had her 10-minute play, A Matter Of Taste,
produced in August at Hershey Area Playhouse. The Bombcatchers,
another 10-minute work, had two staged readings, at Mt. Gretna
Playhouse in August
and Hershey Area Playhouse in September. Cindy
also signed a contract with Once-in-a-Blue
Moon Plays to publish her
one-act Christmas comedy, A.N.G.E.L.s Inc.
Gale
�NHA
EDUCT
~~
0~
OMANCE
MADNESS!
IMUSIC
BY
Gale Martin's Don Juan in Hankey, Pa.
Martin's (M.F.A. '10) novel Don Juan in Hankey, Pa., has been reissued
in a newly revised edition by Northampton House Press. Editor
Lenore
Hart says: "Peek beneath the surface of an extraordinary small-town
opera company,
and get to know a fabulous cast of characters:
determined flirts, a lusty singing
gaucho, ingenious manipulators, a
bipolar ketchup heiress, devious lovers, and some
very determined
ghosts. Delve into high society in Hankey, Pa.—a world of simmering
seductions, convoluted mysteries and entertaining intrigues. Don Juan in
Hankey, Pa., will delight readers everywhere, opera lovers or not!"
Janine P. Dubik (M.A. student) is among 16 writers whose poems were
selected for the 2016 Poetry in Transit program with the Luzerne County
Transportation Authority in Wilkes-Barre. In its 10th year,
Poetry in
Transit displays the poems in each LCTA bus route from September
through
August. The 2016 program launched Aug. 19.
Richard Fellinger (M.F.A. '10) published a pair of op-eds on the
presidential race in July and August in the Lancaster paper,
lancasteronline.com.
M.A. student Cooper Gorelick is now working for the Theater
�Department at Rutgers University Camden as a production
stage
manager and event staff crew, starting with their production of Little Shop
of Horrors, which runs Oct. 26-30. He adds: "It's what I'll be contending
with while I write
an M.A. screenplay about putting on a play."
Heather Harlen (M.A. '08) participated in the Collingswood Book Festival
Oct. 1 in Collingswood, N.J., showcasing
her novel Hope You Guess My
Name: A Thriller, from Northampton House Press. Heather also wrote an
essay for Yoganonymous called "Closer To Quiet: How Meditation
Helped Me Heal My Grief."
Scenes from Lit Crawl Sept. 2 in Denver, organized by
Monique Antonette Lewis
M.F.A. student Jennifer Jenkins is teaching "Thinking and Writing" at
King's College for the fall 2016 semester,
while she continues to write for
the marketing/communications department at Wilkes
as a graduate
assistant.
Monique Antonette Lewis (M.F.A. '12) was the lead organizer for the
first annual Lit Crawl Denver, a project of the Litquake
Foundation. The
Sept. 2 event featured more than 30 local writers holding readings
across
six venues in northwest Denver. Her organization, At The Inkwell, also
held
a reading which included Aurora, Colo., poet laureate Jovan Mays.
Lori A. May (M.F.A.'13) has new writing in the Seattle Post Intelligencer
and Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. She will be at AWP
2017, speaking on the panel "Don't forget the day job: preparing
creative
writing graduates for lifelong careers." In October, Lori is presenting at
�three writers' conferences: Write on the Sound, Surrey International
Writers' Conference,
and BinderCon NYC. She is also a featured reader
at the WordsWest Literary Series
in Seattle, taking place October 19.
Josh Penzone's (M.A. '13) short story "After Zion" appears in the
October issue of FICTION Silicon Valley. His short story "The Scratch"
will appear in an upcoming issue of Chantwood Magazine.
Jim Scheers (M.A. '08) showcased his novel This Is What You Want,
This What You Get (Northampton House Press) at the Collingswood
Book Festival Oct. 1 in Collingswood,
N.J.
M.A. student Karley Stasko has been appointed a graduate assistant to
Dean Paul Riggs in the Wilkes University
College of Arts, Humanities and
Social Services.
M.A. student Ronnie K. Stephens reports: "I've had numerous posts
from my blog picked up by various outlets over
the last couple of months,
including Scary Mommy and The Good Men Project. The topics range
from the dreaded sex talk and parenting through divorce to Pokemon
Go
and mental health. I even had my son's birth story circulated by the You
Share Project!"
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September 2016
Archives
James Craig M.A. '10 passes away
Pennsylvania Writers Conference recap, award winners
Community programs panel
Norman Mailer Society Conference, Sept. 28-Oct. 2
Fall Community Workshops
AWP17 schedule, call for student volunteers
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�
James Craig came to Wilkes to study playwriting,
but majored in fiction and wrote
mystery novels
as well as plays.
Playwright and novelist Jim Craig
M.A. '10 passes away
by Lisa Greim
A familiar presence at almost every residency, James Craig, M.A. '10,
died unexpectedly July 30. He was 69.
A self-described "recovering advertising man," Jim Craig spent 14 years
teaching middle
school English and social studies in the Ephrata School
District after leaving the
advertising world. He is survived by his wife of 47
years, Sandra of Lancaster, Pa.;
sons Ryan of Lancaster and Jared of
Millersville, Pa.; his sister Karen Craig of Cleveland,
Ohio; and one
granddaughter.
"Jim had the soul of a writer, a teacher, and a friend," said Todd
McClimans, M.A. '12. "He always had an encouraging word for others
and loved to share his gifts with
the world."
"Jim came to the Wilkes Creative Writing Program to write plays," said
Program Director
Bonnie Culver, and several of his plays were
produced while he attended Wilkes, but he chose to
major in fiction
instead. He came back each January and June, to catch up with
members
of his cohort, other alums, staff and faculty.
Faculty member Jean Klein
�said Jim was "one of the
brightest lights in the
playwriting foundations
course."
Klein said she waved
to him across the cafeteria in
June, but he didn't see her. "I
B
l
thought, 'Okay, catch you
later, Jim,'" Klein said. "But
somehow I didn't. Not that
time. I look forward to it one
day and hearing the new
stories [he will] have to tell."
Jennifer Bokal, M.F.A. '10,
recalls catching up over lunch
at the program's 10th
anniversary celebration.
Blue Lines Up in Arms (Sunbury Press,
2015)
"Every
few minutes our
conversation ceased. It
wasn't that we lacked something to say. It
was because someone new
had stopped by to say hi to Jim. To each and every person,
Jim had a
smile, a handshake or a hug. He was as excited to learn of the
successes
of others as he was to share his own."
His mystery novel, Blue Lines Up in Arms (Sunbury Press, 2015),
launched last fall at Barnes & Noble in Wilkes-Barre, in cooperation
with
the Penguins hockey team—its protagonist is an ex-hockey player from
Wilkes-Barre.
Lawrence Knorr, Sunbury's president and CEO, described
Jim as "completely in as an
author," traveling to minor-league hockey
rinks, street fairs and bookstores around
Pennsylvania to promote his
work.
Funeral services were held Aug. 3 in Millersville. Memorial contributions
may be made
to the children's ministries at Grace Community Church,
212 Peach Bottom Rd., Willow
Street PA 17584. Online condolences
may be left at the Charles F. Snyder Funeral Home's website.
Lisa Greim is working on her M.A. degree in creative writing from Wilkes
University.
She is a journalist in Denver.
Art, craft and love of writing
celebrated at PWC16
The annual
�Lenore Hart (left) and Dania Ramos (right) listen to Todd McClimans
during the PWC
panel "The World of Between: Writing for Middle
Grade Readers in the 21st Century"
Pennsylvania Writers Conference Aug 5-6 attracted 124 attendees to the
Open Mic, Poetry Slam and all-day conference.
Maureen Corrigan, from
NPR's Fresh Air, delivered the opening plenary session, noting how
dedicated folks were to the literary
world. "Why else would you be in the
Darte on a Saturday morning?" Corrigan asked
the crowd.
Wilkes Provost Anne Skleder opened the evening event by affirming the
University's
and President Leahy's commitment to the arts to a round of
applause. Jay Parini closed
the conference with a heartfelt keynote that
expanded on his life, writing career,
dual citizenship, invitation to a dinner
at the White House, and the pride he continues
to feel as "a
Pennsylvania writer."
Wilkes
alums and
students
were wellrepresented
among the
winners of
both the
Open
Mic/Poetry
Slam on
Friday night,
hosted by
alum and
Barbara Taylor (left) and Chris Campion (right) listen to Cheryl
Bazzoui (center)
during the Pennsylvania Fiction writers panel at
PWC
former slam
star Laura
Moran,
and the three-genre Writing Competition announced on Saturday.
PWC Open Mic/Poetry Slam
Host: Laura
Moran
(M.F.A. '12)
�OPEN MIC
•
First
Place –
$150
Award:
Gale
Martin
(M.F.A.
'10)
•
(Left to right) Lenore Hart, J. Michael Lennon, and Kaylie Jones
during the PWC "Publishing
Pathways" panel
Second
Place –
$100
Award:
Robert
Fillman
•
Third
Place –
$50
Award:
Ginger
Laura Moran hosts the PWC Open Mic and Poetry Slam
Marcinkowski (M.F.A. '11)
POETRY SLAM
•
First Place – $150 Award: Lauren Gonsalves
•
•
Third Place – $50 Award: Richard Aston
Second Place – $100 Award: Stephen Taren
PWC Writing Competition: Creative Nonfction
Judge: Dr. J. Michael Lennon of the Wilkes faculty, who said, "All
show talent and
narrative sophistication."
First Place – $150 Award - "Last Supper" – Aurora Bonner (M.A.
student)
Second Place – $100 Award: "American Buffalo" – W. Y. Fellenberg
Third Place – $50 Award: "Their Man" – Anne Henry (M.F.A. '11)
Poetry
Judge: Dr. Phil Brady (Wilkes faculty, Etruscan Press Executive
�Editor)
• First Place – $150 Award: Robert Fillman
• Second Place – $100 Award: W. Y. Fellenberg
•
Third Place – $50 Award: Eric Chiles
Fiction
Judge: Barbara J. Taylor (M.F.A.'15)
• First Place – $150 Award: "Automation" – Olivia Smialek
• Second Place – $100 Award: "An End to War" – Anne Henry (M.F.A.
'11)
• Third Place – $50 Award: "Redemption" – Janine Dubik (M.A.
student)
Save the date for PWC17: Aug. 4-6, 2017 at Wilkes University.
2016 PA Writers Conference Winners:
PWC panel on community programs
sparks new ideas
by Pamela Turchin
�As a Wilkes creative writing student and a teacher, I feel not just the the
tight-knit
sense of community among faculty and students, but also how
alums return this gift
by promoting writing and reading in their own
communities.
I have been thinking about asking my old high school if they will let me
volunteer
to teach an after-school creative writing program. I remember
how much I wished we
had an opportunity like that when I was a student
there.
This idea led me to the PWC panel "Beyond Putting Words on the Page:
Hosting a Reading
Series and Teaching in Community Spaces" with
Wilkes faculty member Christine Gelineau and M.F.A. graduates Dawn
Leas ('09), Brian Fanelli ('10) and Patricia Florio ('11).
Fanelli and Leas host opportunities for writers to participate in open mic
events
through the Writer's Showcase at the Old Brick Theatre in
Scranton. Florio co-founded
the Jersey Shore Writers, and organizes
writing events at the Jersey Shore Arts Center,
both in Ocean Grove, N.J.
The panel members shared their experiences, while offering valuable
practical advice:
• Establish ties with community members who are vested in supporting
the arts, which
can lead to finding affordable, and sometimes even
free, local venues for a reading
series or writing workshop.
• Start small. Once you have formed a steady group that meets on a
regular basis, begin
thinking about inviting outside published writers
to read their work at your events.
• Don't be afraid to approach your local library about teaching a writing
workshop.
Most libraries are thrilled to hear from writers seeking this
kind of opportunity.
Workshops that are open to the public give people
a chance to write their stories
and share them. Teaching a three- to
five-week workshop is the norm.
•
Although it is important to be a good literary citizen, be careful not to
over-commit
to giving back to your community, so much that you
begin to neglect your own writing.
These writers inspired me by creating their own writing spaces to share
with others.
They convinced me that someday I can do the same.
Pamela Turchin, a Northeastern Pennsylvania native, is a graduate
assistant pursuing
her M.A. degree in Creative Writing from Wilkes
University.
�Norman Mailer Society conference
meets Sept. 28-Oct. 2
The 14th annual Norman Mailer Society Conference will be held at
Monmouth University, Long Branch, N.J. from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. Mailer
was the first founding advisory board member of the Wilkes University
Creative Writing
Program, and students and faculty from the CW program
have read and performed his
work for the last 13 years as part of the
Wilkes U Readers Theatre. This year faculty,
alums and students will
read from his unpublished novel No Percentages.
The conference will open Thursday evening with a workshop production
of Norris: A Ticket to the Circus, a one-woman show written by Bonnie
Culver, based on Norris Church Mailer's memoir.
K.C. Lieber, a New
York City-based actress, will read the role. The performance will
be in the
Wilson Hall auditorium on the Monmouth University campus, beginning at
8
p.m. The reading is open to the public.
Faculty, alums, and current students participating in either the readers
theatre or
giving papers this year include: Bonnie Culver, Nicole
DePolo, Matthew Hinton, Kaylie Jones, Michael Mailer, Caleb
Sizemore, Hillary Transue, and Ken Vose. Dr. J. Michael Lennon is
the organizer of the conference and the current president of the Norman
Mailer
Society.
Register now for Fall Community
Workshops
Once again this fall, seven non-credit community workshops will be
offered on the
Wilkes University campus, taught by Wilkes faculty and
M.F.A. alums. The cost of each
workshop is $65. Advance registration for
all of the fall workshops is available at wilkes.augusoft.net. We welcome
your help to support and stimulate interest in our writing community.
Word of mouth is our best referral source, so please share the news with
anyone interested
in the writer's craft.
Screenwriting – Basics and Format
Throughout this six-week workshop, participants will learn the proper
format for a
screenplay and why that format is used. They will engage in
exercises designed to
progressively develop a more succinct writing style
for the movie script page. Participants
will develop a story idea, and
transform that idea into a beat sheet that will aid
in completing five to 10
pages of a first draft.
• Meetings: Mondays 6 – 8 p.m. – Breiseth 108
• Sept. 12, 19, 26, Oct. 3, 10, 17
�• Cost: $65 for the entire series
• Instructor: Draper Brown
Playwriting 101
Learn the basic elements of writing a play while learning the formatting
rules and
conventions of theatre. Each student will complete a 10- to 15minute play. All plays
will have formal staged readings in the last week of
class, where playwrights will
be guided through the entire process of
writing a play and hearing their play read
by actors.
•
Meetings: Tuesdays 6 – 8 p.m. – Kirby 108 (except on Oct. 4, which
will be held in
Dr. Harold Cox Hall – 245 S. River St.)
• Sept. 20, 27, Oct. 4, 11, 18, 25
• Cost: $65 for the entire series
• Instructor: Dr. Bonnie Culver
Creative Nonfction – Writing Memoir
The late author William Zinsser said, "Writers are the custodians of
memory." In this
non-credit workshop, participants will learn the basics of
crafting memoir. Through
in-class exercises and weekly assignments,
students will learn the foundations of
memoir—one of today's most
popular forms of non-fiction writing. Ways to structure
and approach a
book-length work also will be explored. Issues of truth-telling and
the
challenges of memory also will be discussed. The instructor will address
attendees'
individual projects, allowing both beginning and more
advanced writers to participate
at their own level.
• Meetings: Wednesdays 6 – 8 p.m. – Kirby 108
• Sept. 21, 28, Oct. 5, 12, 19, 26
• Cost: $65 for the entire series
• Instructor: Vicki Mayk
Poetry
This workshop will focus on two main elements of creating a poem:
crafting the poem
and reading poets. There will be a balance between
writing new poems, critiquing old
poems in a workshop format and
discussing poets, their poems, as ways of enhancing
individual skills and
information. Our goal is to have a completed collection of poems
that
may be the beginning of a future chapbook and further studies.
• Meetings: Wednesdays 6 – 8 p.m. – Kirby 103
• Sept. 21, 28, Oct. 5, 12, 19, 26
• Cost: $65 for the entire series
• Instructor: Dr. Rashidah Ismaili Abubakr
�Intro to Screenwriting (Tools and Techniques)
This six-week workshop will explore writing for the big screen. We'll
examine the
tools and techniques screenwriters use to tell effective
stories. We'll cover screenplay
genre, formatting and structure. Students
will write a short or begin a feature-length
screenplay. We'll work on
pieces together during class and have table reads of each
work during
the final session.
• Meetings: Thursdays 6 – 8 p.m. – Kirby 108
• Sept. 15, 22, 29, Oct. 6, 20, 27 (No meeting Oct. 13)
• Cost: $65 for the entire series
• Instructor: Kelly Clisham
Fiction
The workshop will cover the foundations of fiction writing and include inclass writing
exercises and group workshops to give both beginning and
established writers opportunities
to expand their knowledge of the writing
craft and enhance their skills. In-class
workshops of students' writing are
designed to provide honest feedback in a casual,
supportive, and
respectful environment. Participants will be expected to share their
work
aloud and offer insightful comments on how to improve their peers' work.
•
Meetings: Fridays 6 – 8 p.m. – Kirby 108 (except on September 30,
held in Farley Library
LL-002)
• Sept. 16, 23, 30, Oct. 7, 21, 28 (No meeting Oct. 14)
•
Cost: $65 for the entire series
• Instructors: Alyssa Waugh and Robert Antinozzi
Writing the YA Novel
In this intensive five-week workshop, students will learn the components
of a YA novel
while building an outline. Class will include a combination
of lecture, discussion
and critiquing. To conclude the class, students will
receive a brief overview of publishing
opportunities available for those
interested in shopping their novel after it's completed.
•
Meetings: Saturdays 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Kirby 108 (except Oct.
1: Farley Library
LL-002)
• Sept. 17, 24, Oct. 1, 8, 15
• Cost: $65 for the entire series
•
Instructor: Nisha Sharma
AWP17 schedule includes many
Wilkes CW names
�Wilkes and Etruscan Press will have a robust list of presenters at the
Association of Writers and Writing Programs' 50th annual conference,
which takes place Feb. 8-11, 2017, at the Washington, D.C., Convention
Center and
Washington Marriott Marquis Hotel.
Current students are invited to apply for an AWP17 registration waiver,
which covers
the cost of conference registration; housing will be provided
for graduate assistants,
interns, and staff working at AWP. Transportation
will be at your expense. Contact
Associate Director Bill Schneider at
bill.schneider@wilkes.edu before Thursday, Sept. 15 to reserve a
registration waiver.
In exchange
for your
waiver, you
will be
required to
spend a
minimum of
two hours
each day on
the
convention
floor,
working in
(Left - right) Tim Seibles and Laurie Jean Cannady
the
Susan Cartsonis
Wilkes/Etruscan booth. The Bookfair
is a great opportunity to meet
�authors and publishers, and network with other graduate
students, writers
and industry professionals from all over the world. You will promote
the
Wilkes Creative Writing Program to potential students and faculty, host
Etruscan
Press book signings, and provide a positive presence to the
literary community. Your
registration gives you access to the full schedule
of workshops, readings, keynotes and social events.
Wilkes alums and faculty appearing at AWP17 include:
• Laurie Jean Cannady (faculty, Etruscan author): Two sessions, But
That's Not How It Was: Memoir Writers
on Pushing Back Against
Expected Narratives and Celebrating the Hurston/Wright Foundation:
Twenty-Seven Years of Literary Legacy
•
Jason Carney (M.F.A. '13): Hosting the Old School Slam on both
Thursday and Friday, Feb. 9 and
10
• Morowa Yejidé (M.F.A. '12): Two sessions, Come Firewalk With Me:
The Black Mind and A Reading and
Conversation from Paycock
Press
• Viannah Duncan (M.F.A. '10): Gender and Genre: How Do Our
Prejudices Affect Our Preferences?
•
Donna Talarico (M.F.A. '10): Starting Small: Grassroots Workshops
and Conferences
•
Susan Cartsonis (faculty): The Hollywood Equation: Combining
Community and Mentorship to Take Control
of Your Screenwriting
Career
•
Jim Warner (M.F.A. '09): Variations on Audionarrative: The Next
Wave of Literary Podcasting
• Jean Klein, Gregory Fletcher (faculty), Lori Myers (M.A. '09): Why
Every Writer Should Construct at Least One Play
•
Nisha Sharma (M.F.A. '14): Writing the South Asian Diaspora in
Young Adult Fiction
• Kaylie Jones (faculty), Barb Taylor (M.F.A. '15), Laurie
Loewenstein (faculty): Kaylie Jones Books: A Reading
• Dr. Bonnie Culver, as chair of the AWP Board of Trustees, will be a
conference host.
Etruscan Press authors and contributors at AWP17 include:
• Remica Bingham-Risher, Tim Seibles (advisory board): Beyond
Sex: The Poetics of Desire
• Paul Lisicky: Looking Outward: Avoiding the Conventional Memoir
• Jeremy Schraffenberger: Old Journals, New Writing: Editors on
History and Discovery
• Julie R. Enszer: Recovering Out of Print Queer Literature
• Diane Thiel: The Influence of Introductory Creative Writing Textbooks
• Bonnie Friedman: Tips and Tricks from the Trenches: Lit Mag
Editors Share Funding, Staffing, and
Operational Strategies for
�Survival and Compassion Fatigue: Avoiding Vicarious Traumatization
in the CNF Classroom
•
Kazim Ali: Two sessions, Translating Contemporary African Poetry
and Dance and Movement and
Meditation as Part of the Writing
Process
•
Shara McCallum: Women and their Bodies
Faculty News
Carrie Pilby,
produced by
Susan
Cartsonis,
will have its
world
premiere at
rn
the Toronto
International
Film Festival
in
September.
Directed by
Susan
Johnson,
the film
stars Bel
Powley,
Nathan
Lane,
Vanessa
Bayer and
Gabriel
How Does That
Make You Feel?
TRUE CONl'ESSIONS !'ROM BOTH
SIDES 01' THE THERAPY COUCH
i:omo av Shetry Amatenstein
Byrne. On
Aug. 8,
Cartsonis
completed
Beverly Donofrio appears in the anthology, "How Does That Make
You Feel?"
production
on Deidra and Laney Rob a Train in Salt Lake City. Directed by Sydney
Freeland, it will be released as a Netflix
Original Movie in spring 2017.
Cartsonis also produced Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life,
which opens in theaters Oct. 7. Directed by Steve Carr, the film stars
Lauren Graham.
Bonnie Culver's one-woman show, Norris: A Ticket to the Circus, was
given an invitation-only staged reading at the Drama Book Shop's Arthur
Seelen
Theatre on June 14. A workshop production of the play will be
given at the Mailer
Conference Sept. 29 at Monmouth University.
�"My Serial Therapists," an essay by Beverly Donofrio, appears in the
anthology, How Does That Make You Feel?, a shockingly honest look at
the therapeutic experience from both sides of the couch.
It will be
released in September by Seal Press, with readings in New York City
and
vicinity in September and October, listed on the book's website and
Facebook page.
Gregory Fletcher published an essay, manhood / ˈmanˌho͝od / noun, in
Longridge Review, Creative Nonfiction #4, edited by Elizabeth Gaucher.
He interviewed Arthur Kopit for A Conversation Between Two
Playwrights, which appeared in the Jerome Robbins Foundation
newsletter (volume 3, no. 1), edited by Gregory Victor.
Faculty member Sara Pritchard's "Bell Bottom Blues" was published in
the Spring 2016 issue of Crossborder Journal. "Notes on Rudolph
Nureyev's Hat" is forthcoming in The Cossack Review. Sara was the
judge for the recent Leapfrog Press book prize and The Cossack
Review story prize. She will be reading in Richmond, Va., on Sept. 17, at
the launch of At the Inkwell's newest venue.
Student and Alumni/ae News
Amye Archer (M.F.A. '12) had a craft article, "Writing the Truth in
Memoir," published in Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction.
Amye was also the guest speaker for the National Association of Memoir
Writers' Public Roundtable Series in June.
M.F.A. student Molly Barari has developed a new creative writing
course for senior citizens in collaboration
with Agape Spiritual Center of
the Black Hills in Rapid City, S.D. The course, titled Thus Far, focuses on
obituary writing as seniors make end-of-life preparations.
M.A. student Melody Breyer-Grell published a review of Dr. Rashidah
Ismaili Abubakr's Autobiography of the Lower East Side in the
Huffington Post.
Chris Campion (M.A '13) recently published an article titled "Don't
Chase Belts, Chase Experiences" on JiuJitsuTimes.com and spoke at the
Pennsylvania Writers Conference on the challenges
of writing a novel
based in Pennsylvania.
Jason Carney's (M.F.A. '13) nonprofit, Young DFW Writers, starts its
third year with 16 high schools participating
in Louder than a Bomb DFW.
Its civic engagement focus for this year will be domestic
violence and
other forms of violence, partnering with the North Texas Food Bank and
�the Genesis Women's Shelter to give students space to turn the poet into
an activist
and their art into activism. Young DFW Writers will hold the
largest youth poetry
festival in Texas this year. Carney will be lecturing at
the University of Arkansas
Sept. 20 and Drake University Oct. 5.
M.F.A. student Gabrielle D'Amico had her screenplay, Plan B, selected
as a semifinalist for the 2016 CineStory Feature &
Fellowship Competition,
earning her an invitation to the CineStory retreat
in Idyllwild, Calif., this October.
Brian Fanelli's (M.F.A. '10) new collection of poems, Waiting for the
Dead to Speak, will be published in September with NYQ Books.
A personal essay by D Ferrara (M.A. '13) will appear in The Storyteller
Magazine's anthology. The essay, "The Tyranny of Memory," is a
whimsical look at how our memory
tricks and traps us.
Patricia Florio (M.F.A. '11) introduced the Jersey Shore Writers to a new
open mic series at Danny's Steak House
in Red Bank, N.J., reading from
her first memoir, My Two Mothers. On Sept. 25, alums Barb Taylor and
Brian Fanelli will read from their new books at
the Jersey Shore Arts
Center.
In June,
M.A.
student
Lisa
Greim's
\I
story,
"Charley
Says Good
Morning,"
was among
10 prose
pieces
selected for
a juried
workshop
taught by
Steve
Almond at
Lighthouse
(Left - right) London Co-hosts Patricia Foster, Gemma Weekes and
Rachel Rigby and
founder Monique Antonette Lewis
Writers
Workshop's
annual
LitFest
conference
�in Denver.
Tara Lynn Marta
Monique Antonette Lewis (M.F.A. '12) launched her reading series, At
The Inkwell, in London on July 21. The reading, "A Tribute to Prince and
David Bowie," attracted
a standing crowd. The London series will be held
every third Thursday at Counter Albion.
She also formed a partnership
with the Visual Arts Center of Richmond to host quarterly fiction and
poetry readings and writing workshops, launching Saturday,
Sept. 17.
Ginger Marcinkowski (M.F.A. '12) presented a writing workshop Aug. 6
at the Pennsylvania Writers Conference and will
teach three classes
about writing for the Christian market at the Hampton Roads Writers
Conference in Norfolk, Va., Sept. 15-17.
M.A. student Tara Lynn Marta's short story, "Beyond the Gates," was
published last March in The Gorge, online publication in Northeastern
Pennsylvania. Another short story, "A Writer's
Life" will be published by
Aaduna in August.
Lori A. May (M.F.A. '13) has accepted a position on the Board of
Directors for the Canadian Creative Writers
and Writing Programs
(CCWWP). She will present a session at the first annual Creative
Writing
Studies Organization conference this fall at Warren Wilson College in
North
Carolina. Lori was recently a guest speaker at the Pacific
Northwest Writers Association
conference, and will speak this fall at a
number of writing festivals, including the
Surrey International Writers'
�Conference in British Columbia, and BinderCon in New
York City. Lori is
currently finalizing edits on a new book, with more details to
come soon.
Vicki Mayk (M.F.A. '13) published "Writing Grief: A Memoir Workshop in
a Hospice Bereavement Program" in
Chrysalis, a journal of
transformative language arts, published by Goddard University. The
article discusses the workshop she developed
as part of her M.F.A.
teaching project.
Danielle Poupore (M.F.A. '13) has accepted a new job at Coker College
as director of institutional identity.
The literary non-profit Seersucker Live: A Literary Performance, of which
Joseph Schwartzburt (M.F.A.'13) is a board member, will present The
Tin Curtain Episode, featuring Tin House managing editor, Rob Spillman,
author of the new memoir All Tomorrow's Parties. The event will also
feature authors Julia Elliott (The New and Improved Romie
Futch) and Regina Bradley (Armstrong State professor and 2016 Harvard
Hiphop Fellow). The
event takes place Aug. 31 in Savannah, Ga.
Douglas Troxell's (M.A. '14) story "Snow Day" was the featured story in
Flash Fiction Magazine July 29. His short story "Epidemic" will appear in
the short story collection Infected in the fall. You can visit his new website
at douglasjamestroxell.com.
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Revise This! | 2016-09.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing
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About Wilkes
Home
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n
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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.
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Revise This! | 2016-07.pdf
Creative Writing
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Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
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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
w
WILKES
�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.
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Revise This! | 2016-05.pdf
Creative Writing
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Revise This
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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.”
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<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
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<em>Revise This!</em> Archive
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An archive of past issues of <em>Revise This!</em>, the official newsletter of the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing.
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Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
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Revise This! | 2016-03.pdf
Creative Writing
Maslow
Maslow Family
Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing
Revise This
Writing