We do not write as we want,
but as we can.

-W. Somerset Maugham

Of Interest: April 22, 2008

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Greetings Everyone!

We wanted to let you know and it is with deep sadness to write that SUSAN CONNELL-METTAUER ’05 died on March, 27, 2008. She is survived by her son David.

Thank you for sending updates regarding contact information and publications.

Continue to email your news, announcements, updated contact information, opportunities, recommended readings, inspirational quotes, favorite lines and sentences, sightings (natural and otherwise), strategies for surviving the post-Bennington literary life, and declarations of intentions or manifestos.

When you send information, please let me know what variation of your name you would like used in print. Thanks.

Please contact me at EMCFERRON@Bennington.edu.  

I look forward to hearing from you.

With warm wishes,

Elaine

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ALUMNI NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS

E. LOUISE BEACH ’07 spent two weeks in March as a resident at the Vermont Studio Center. While there, she wrote a series of poems (20) based on Muller/Schubert's Winterreise. Louise is currently looking for a composer to set her Winter Wanderer to music. She welcomes suggestions: ethelbch@aol.com.  

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WENDY CALL ’07 will be a Visiting Assistant Professor of English, teaching nonfiction writing, at Pacific Lutheran University near Tacoma, Washington, for the 2008-2009 school year. Wendy would love to hear from Bennington alumni who teach composition, autobiographical writing, or personal essay for suggestions regarding reading and/or assignments.

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KURT CASSWELL ’04 has two books forthcoming. His memoir/travelogue, which chronicles his year teaching on the Navajo Reservation, has been accepted for publication by Trinity University Press. And he is the lead editor of an anthology of nature writing, To Everything on Earth, accepted for publication by Texas Tech University Press.

His review of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman is in the April 2008 issue of Mountain Gazette.

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MERI NANA-AMA DANQUAH ’99 sends the following:

“www.ebonyjet.com just kicked off my new twice-monthly column, ‘Innervisions,’ which is about ‘setting out on the quest for a spiritual home.’ To read the introductory article, click this link: http://www.ebonyjet.com/politics/religion/index.aspx?id=6879.

While I do appreciate and welcome all feedback, please also send your comments, critiques, ideas, etc., to my editors so that they know people are reading: editors@ebony.com.”

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JOEANN HART ’00 will participate in the Newburyport Literary Festival from April 25 to 27th. She will be part of a panel on humor in literature and read from her novel, Addled (Little, Brown 2007). For more information: www.Newburyportliteraryfestival.org.  

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PAUL HERTNEKY’s (’01) true story, “The Village Kazani,” appears in The Best Travel Writing 2008, and was originally published by Traveler's Tales: http://travelerstales.com/.  

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PERRIN IRELAND ’96 sends the following:

My review of Stephanie Grant's novel, Map of Ireland (Scribner), appeared in The Boston Globe (April 6); she's a writer worth getting to know: 'The rifts and rhythms of a vanished Southie' - The Boston Globe.

My own novel, Chatter, received reviews in The New York Times Book Review and The Boston Globe: www.perrinireland.com; I'll be reading from Chatter at Newtonville Books on Sunday, May 4, at 2:00 PM: http://www.newtonvillebooks.com.  

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AMY L. JENKINS’s (’06) essay, “125 Miles,” will appear in the Seal Press anthology, The Maternal is Political, due for release this spring. Her essay, “Shepherded Flights,” was honored by the Ellis Henderson Outdoor Writing Award. This is the second year in a row she came in second place in blind judging and the 6th consecutive second place in various writing awards she's received.

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DANA KINSTLER ’00 and Ann Hood, MR. WRONG contributors, will be reading on Tuesday, April 29 at the Ordinary Evening Reading Series, 7:00 PM in the Mermaid Room at the Anchor Bar & Restaurant in New Haven, CT.

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AIMEE LIU’s review of Jhumpa Lahiri's new collection, Unaccustomed Earth, appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The review is posted online at: http://books.signonsandiego.com/.

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CAROL SKINNER LAWSON ’99 sends the following:

“One of the nonfiction articles in the magazine I edit, The Chrysalis Reader, will appear in a Japanese text book for high school students who are learning English and preparing for university entrance exams. Publisher is Kyogakusha Co. Ltd., in Kyoto.”

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LAURA OLIVER ’99 sends the following:

“I was notified this morning that I have won Top-25 Finalist in Glimmer Train’s “Family Matters” contest for a short story titled, 'Everything I Do Tonight.'”

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FIONNA MAAZEL ’02 will read from her novel, Last, Last Chance, at Newtonville Books on Thursday, May 1, at 7:00 PM:

http://www.newtonvillebooks.com.  

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CATHERINE SHERMAN ’06 has poems forthcoming this spring in The Dos Passos Review and later this fall in Poet Lore.

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ELIOT TREICHEL ’03 has a story forthcoming in Passages North: http://www.webdelsol.com/Passages_North.  

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SHUBBA VENUGOPAL ’08 sends the following:

Here is a link to an anthology that published a story that I did in workshop while at Bennington. The anthology also has a story by Irina Reyn ’06 and a blurb by Tom Bissell (Bennington Writing Seminars Faculty).

The anthology is titled: A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross-Cultural Collision and Connection, and my story is “Bhakthi In the Water.”

Reviews of the anthology will appear in the Utne Reader, Library Journal, The Harvard Review, PW, Bookform, and Booklist. This fall, the anthology will be used in critical reading and writing courses at Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, and UC Riverside-Palm Desert.

Here is the link: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/57hmt7bf9780976717737.html.  

I am also listed as one of the Top 25 in Glimmer Train's Fiction Open Contest, and received an Honorable Mention in the Atlantic Monthly's student writer’s contest.”

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FACULTY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

MICHAEL BURKARD was awarded a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship.

http://www.gf.org/newfellow.html  

http://www.bennington.edu/news_prfp_080411guggenheims.asp  

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MAJOR JACKSON sends the following:

I will teach a poetry workshop in beautiful, sunny Provincetown on Cape Cod, August 17-22, 2008 at the Fine Arts Work Center. See a description of the workshop below.

Doorways: A Poetry Workshop

AUGUST 17—22

9am–12N

Type: Poetry

Price: $600

Open to all

To write poetry is to engage in a life-long journey of honing one’s skills in attuning life to the basic workings of language. It is a kind of spiritual practice that requires a wild discipline. The task is to uncover the joys of making. In this poetry workshop, we will tap into what we collectively know about how poems function and offer feedback on how to enrich a poem’s ability to say what has not been said before.

Please bring: three recently written poems and a list of your favorite devices and techniques in writing poetry. We will communally share our ‘tricks’ of the trade, our enthusiasm, and our critical eye with the best intentions of helping each other grow in the art.”

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ALICE MATTISON will teach a fiction workshop at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, from Sunday, July 6 through Friday, July 11. While the workshop is open to anyone, it usually attracts some experienced writers, including several with MFAs. Information at http://www.fawc.org/summer.  

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MARTHA SOUTHGATE will teach a workshop at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA titled:

The Breath of Life: Writing Rich Fiction

JULY 13—18

9am–12N

Type: Fiction

Price: $600

Open to all

In this workshop, we will pay close attention to how to make your fiction come alive on the page and places where the writer can bring the breath of life (through conflict, character and other tools of the trade) to his or her work. We will spend some time discussing how the fiction one loves can help you with your own work. We'll also talk about how serendipity and openness are crucial in all forms of fiction writing, especially longer works. You never know what's going to come into a novel that you never expected to find there.

Please send: two copies of 15-20 pages of work in progress (either a story or the beginning of a novel) to FAWC by June 30 and bring 11 copies of the same piece to our Sunday orientation meeting. Also, please read The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter, paying particular attention to the essay “Creating a Scene.”

http://www.fawc.org/summer/writing.shtml#southgate  

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OPPORTUNITIES

MARK CONWAY ’98 sends the following:

Fine Arts Work Center’s Summer Workshops:

• WYN COOPER - BEYOND FORM: POETRY WORKSHOP
• MARK CONWAY - POETRY WORKSHOP:THE VISIONARY
• ALICE MATTISON - FICTION WORKSHOP
• CARL PHILLIPS - THE PART AFTER VISION: A POETRY REVISION WORKSHOP
• JEAN VALENTINE - POETRY WORKSHOP
• MARTHA RHODES - GENERATING AND REVISING POEMS: FINDING THE NEW IN THE OLD
• DAVID HAYNES STEPPING UP YOUR GAME: FICTION WORKSHOP
• PHILLIP LOPATE WRITING MEMOIR, PERSONAL NARRATIVE AND ESSAY
• MARTHA COLLINS - POETRY WORKSHOP: SENTENCE AND LINE
• MARIE HOWE - BREAKING THROUGH: A POETRY WORKSHOP FOR EXPERIENCED WRITERS
• MAJOR JACKSON - DOORWAYS: A POETRY WORKSHOP

For full information with dates: www.FAWC.org/summer.  

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Young Writers’ Week at Toad Hall

(2330 Benton Road, North Haverhill, NH)

June 7 to 14, 2008

Young Writers’ Week at Toad Hall is a special opportunity for young people (ages 18 to 30) to receive individualized instruction in a beautiful setting. Toad Hall is situated on 100 acres of lawn and forest, with formal and kitchen gardens.

Attendees have full use of the exercise room, indoor pool, pond, and hiking trails. All meals are provided. Attendees are responsible for their travel costs and the $525 tuition.

This year’s instructors are Karren Alenier and Grace Cavalieri, both of whom are nationally recognized poets, writers, and dramatists. Toad Hall offers an extraordinary opportunity for young people concentrating on poetry, fiction, or drama/screenwriting to advance their work.

Contact Maria van Beuren by phone -- (w) 410.269.0978, (cell) 603.236.9885 – or e-mail mariac@indexing.com.  

Anyone who would like to apply for Young Writer’s Week need only send a brief introductory letter to mariac@indexing.com. Please include your age, your area of study, and a brief explanation of what you would like to accomplish at Toad Hall. Deadline for applications is May 15, 2008.

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SALLY ASHTON ’03 sends the following:

In celebration of April, National Poetry Month, the Sherry French Gallery, of NYC, is featuring Painting=Poetry, Ut Pictura Poesis: Realism in Paintings & Sculpture, an exhibit of poetry with art. The show runs from April 2nd - April 26th. Artists in this show experiment with combining these art forms and we're very pleased to announce that painter Nick Patten will be collaborating with poet Sally Ashton of the DMQ Review.

Sherry French Gallery, Inc

601 West 26th Street 13th Floor

New York NY 10001-1101

212-647-8827

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The Department of English at Kansas State University invites applications for a visiting assistant professor serving as a one-year replacement in fiction writing beginning August 10, 2008. Teaching load is 3-3, including introductory and advanced fiction writing, and possible graduate teaching. For a full job description, go to: http://www.k-state.edu/english/positions/index.html.  

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The Solstice Creative Writing Programs of Pine Manor College enables aspiring writers to pursue their interests in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and writing for young people while balancing the demands of work and family life. Emphasizing diversity, community-building, and craft, we seek writers committed to their art.

The Low-Residency MFA application deadline for the summer/fall 2008 semester is April 28, 2008 (not a postmark). For detailed faculty bios and an application: www.pmc.edu/mfa.  

For those looking to recharge their creative energies, we are now accepting applications to our 4th Annual Solstice Summer Writers’ Conference, June 22-28, with a stellar faculty including: Julia Glass, Stephen Dunn, Tor Seidler, and special guest Dennis Lehane.

For detailed faculty bios and an application: www.pmc.edu/solstice.  

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The 2008 Newburyport Literary Festival:

A Celebration of Literature, Readers, and Writers

April 25-27, 2008

This year’s festival pays tribute to Rhina Espaillat, who has been widely hailed for her bilingual poetry and her service to Dominican culture and education.

Joining the festivities are poets Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, X. J. Kennedy, Erica Funkhouser, and Lewis Turco, along with Powow River Poets and others.

Over forty authors of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature will be in venues throughout downtown Newburyport discussing books, writing, and the love of reading. Join the likes of Anne Easter Smith, Andre Dubus, Anne Hood, Alan Weisman, Patricia O’Brien, Maryanne Wolf, Frank Schaeffer, Keith Ablow, Robert Finch, JoeAnn Hart (00), Mameve Medwed, Sergio Troncoso, and many more.

All events are free to the public with the exception of Friday Night Dinner with the Authors. For tickets to the dinner, call 978-465-1257.

For complete schedule of events, please go to www.newburyportliteraryfestival.com.  

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