MFA Residency: Saturday, July 4th

Public Event Schedule
9:30 AM
Ransom Fellowship Hall
Debra Spark: Jump Already
I am interested in looking at moments in artists’ lives when they move significantly forward, when they realize that, for whatever reason, the old way of doing things or thinking about things is not working, and they need to try something else. I’m interested in dead ends that are opportunities in disguise, failures that are, in hindsight, the necessary step to a new way of creating. To this end, I want to look at artistic leaps, particularly ones that bring students out of their apprenticeships and into their full creative selves and more seasoned writers through and beyond their talents to their most distinctive, original work. The focus will be on the material and craft “a-has!” that occasion development. I’ll be considering the work of Rick Russo, Joan Silber, Steve Stern, and Joan Wickersham, as well as a few painters. No reading required.
10:45 AM
Ransom Fellowship Hall
Rodney Jones: Overriding the Autobiographical First-Person Default: Writing Poetry in Fictional Points-of-View
This lecture will discuss the predominant use of autobiographical first-person point-of-view by contemporary poets as an outgrowth of both the Romantic poetic sensibility and of the contemporary workshop, discuss the difficulties of overriding that model, and argue for the advantages of using points-of-view usually associated with fiction. It will feature close readings of several pertinent texts, including selections from Ann Carson’s The Beauty of the Husband, Ellen Bryant Voigt’s Kyrie, and Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.

Then join us at 8:15pm in Gladfelter, Cannon Lounge for a reading featuring faculty members:
Brooks Haxton
Caitlin Horrocks
C. Dale Young
Peter Turchi
For more information, including a full schedule of public events, please visit the program website at http://wwcmfa.org/.