LIFE OF A WRITER: April 2017

 

Here’s what Spalding MFA students, alumni, faculty, and staff have been publishing, producing, and doing since our last update!

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LIFE OF A WRITER: February 2017

Here’s what our Spalding MFA students, alumni, faculty, and staff have been publishing, producing, and doing since our last update!

— STUDENTS —

THE WORLD IS OUR CLASSROOM: Spalding’s Residency in Edinburgh, July 2017

By Katy Yocom
Spalding MFA Associate Administrative Director

“While in Edinburgh, we’ll stay at a hotel overlooking the Princes Street Gardens, with a view of the imposing Edinburgh Castle. Our classroom space is a few minutes’ walk away, through the gardens and past the Scottish National Gallery.”

At Spalding, we believe the best writing springs from a rich accumulation of life experiences.

That’s why we take our low-residency MFA in Writing program overseas to study creative writing while exploring the literature, art, and culture of a different locale each summer. In 2017, we travel to Edinburgh, the historical and cultural heart of Scotland.

LIFE OF A WRITER: October 2016

SPALDING MFA NEWS & EVENTS

Here’s what our Spalding MFA students, alumni, faculty, and staff have been publishing, producing, and doing since our last update!

BEAUTY & TRUTH

By Robin Lippincott
Spalding MFA Faculty, Fiction

“Who or what inspires you?”

In her most recent post on this blog, my friend and colleague Eleanor Morse asked the question, “Who and what inspires you?” I thought then and still think that would make a strong series for faculty and students to respond to and continue: who or what inspires you?

ANNOUNCING THE SPALDING MFA BLOG RELAUNCH

By Katy Yocom
Spalding MFA Associate Administrative Director

The Spalding MFA blog has a new home and a new look! The blog now resides at https://spaldingmfablog.wordpress.com. If you’re looking for it at spalding.edu/mfablog, that link will still work—it now takes you to the new site.

SPECIAL EVENTS AT THE FALL 2016 RESIDENCY

by Katy Yocom
Spalding MFA Associate Administrative Director

A priceless Shakespeare first folio, the new and improved Speed Art Museum, and a musical interlude with the Louisville Orchestra all figure into the Spalding low-residency MFA in Writing program’s Fall 2016 residency. The residency will include dozens of special events and sessions, acclaimed guest speakers, faculty craft lectures, and a special focus on “Will in the Ville.” Residency takes place November 11-20 in Louisville, Kentucky.

THE ESSENTIALS: Creating a Poem with Rhythm and Music

by Kathleen Driskell
Spalding MFA Faculty, Poetry

“…it’s usually the music that takes the poem from proficient to unforgettable.”

Recently, I was asked to judge a poetry competition that called me to read and think about hundreds of poems. Sifting through heaps of entries, I found, as I usually do when judging a poetry contest (or when I’m looking through submissions for The Louisville Review) that nearly all poems submitted are proficient, obviously made with some know-how. And because of that it might seem an impossible task to choose a handful of “winners” and “honorable mentions” from the many, but surprisingly, it never really is.

JUST HOW CROSS-GENRE IS THE SPALDING MFA PROGRAM?

by Katy Yocom
Spalding MFA Associate Administrative Director

Occasionally I get calls from prospective students who worry about the cross-genre exploration built into the Spalding low-residency MFA in Writing curriculum. “I want to be able to focus on my own area,” they’ll say. Their concern raises two questions: Just how cross-genre are we? And why do we emphasize cross-genre at all?

Welcome Home: A Writer’s Return To Rome

By Sena Jeter Naslund

Spalding MFA Program Director

It’s a bit odd to say to a group of students and faculty, recently arrived in Rome, “Welcome Home!” But you know how that goes: wherever the Spalding Master of Fine Arts in Writing gathers, I always say, as program director, “Welcome Home!” and we are at home when we’re with each other.