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2010 Alumni Conference Details We are pleased to announce that the 2010 Post-MFA Conference will be held at St. Mary’s
WHERE: St. Mary’s College is located in WHEN: July 25-31 (full stay) or July 28-31 (short stay) COSTS: $750 for full stay (single room, all meals, facilities, events), $525 for short stay (same amenities), $475 for commuters (facilities and meals). SCHOLARSHIPS: Eight (8) scholarships are available through Friends of Writers for the full-stay option: three (3) unrestricted of $400 each; two (2) for recent graduates (July '08 or later) of $400 each; two (2) for attendees living 2000+ miles from conference, one of which is strictly for a recent graduate (July '08 or later) of $300 each; and one (1) to a poet in name of Linda Dyer for $400. REGISTRATION MATERIALS AND DEADLINES: Registration for the 2010 Warren Wilson MFA Alumni Conference is now open. Those interested in attending should print and fill out the registration form, dowloadable here: 2010 conf packet.pdf Registration & $250 deposit deadline is April 23; late registration (with higher fee) runs through May 7. If you are a class agent or know of other alums who may not be in contact through these means, please share the information with them. Everyone is welcome, and we appreciate everyone's help in getting the word out. WE WILL HAVE CLASSES, PANEL DISCUSSIONS, AND CAUCUSES. Please begin to think about teaching or leading one yourself; what was that class you always wanted to take? – who’s that writer you’re always wanting to tell people about? Here’s your chance! Please remember the caliber of students you’ll be teaching.
Proposals are due by April 23. You may send them in with your registration, which is due April 23, or email them to Peg at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Differences between panel discussions and caucuses, you ask? Caucuses are discussion sessions for the entire community and can be scheduled ahead of time, like a class, or the group can spontaneously decide to gather to discuss a particular topic. (Past topics: the writing life, overcoming resistance, marketing books.) Panels are discussions you organize ahead of time with your friends and colleagues. All scheduled events -- classes/lectures, panel discussions, caucuses -- are 50 minutes long, unless some good reason in your proposal dictates longer. The best classes are typically like the best books – like the book you write because it's the one you've wanted to read, so is the class you teach because it's the one that you always wanted to take. Please give that class! Also, this year we'll add another idea. Is there a class that you wish another alum would teach? Say you've read ___________ by fellow alum ______ and wish you knew how said alum approached or mastered ______? If you're coming to the conference and you would like us to politely request of your fellow alum such a class, we'll be happy to give it a try. The sooner you come up with such a request the better chance it has of working out, obviously. Also, you need to do this quickly enough so that your fellow alum will have enough time to respond and register by April 23 – in other words, get your requests in now! Here is a sample of the dozen classes and discussions offered at last year’s conference: Panel: Subject Matter – presented by Robin Black, Ross White, Tracy Winn. Two fiction writers and a poet explore ways in which subject matter matters. Or doesn't. Caucus: Putting Together a Prose Collection: Are These Random Stories and Essays, or Do They Belong Together? – presented by Susan Sterling, and Natalie Harris. Class: W. S. Merwin’s The Shadow of Sirius – presented by Bob Ayers. Approaching Merwin’s recent work through close readings of several favorite poems from this remarkable collection. Class: Lewis Hyde’s “The Gift” – presented by Janet Holmes. We'll review the content of the book and then address in discussion the larger issue of the role of the artist (that is, our role) in society. Class: Trouble Brewing in the Kitchen: A Domestic Strife Revue, Starring John Updike and David Means – presented by Catherine Brown. “Modernist" techniques we “realist” writers might employ when we want our stories to have just the subtlest turn away from straight narrative – and why. Class: Regretfully Yours – presented by Robin Black. An exploration of what narratives of wrong choices and lost opportunities can teach us about telling stories in which regret doesn’t play an overt role. THERE WILL BE WORKSHOPS – fiction, poetry, and mixed as interest dictates. Likewise, for full-stayers, a Manuscript Review for poets and Fiction Roundtable for fiction or memoir writers. THERE WILL BE WE'LL HOLD A SILENT AUCTION to benefit the Holden Minority Fund. Bring your items to sell and your checkbook to buy. An added enticement: last year a couple of faculty offered for auction personal manuscript or packet reviews MORE. You can sleep, write, sun, swim. Your week, you can be involved as you want to be, or as hermetic as you choose – or maybe you’ll find your perfect blend of the two. Whether you decide to teach a class, participate in a workshop, or run a caucus, your time is your own. See the end of this announcement for what your fellow alums have said about previous conferences. WHY SPEND MONEY AND TIME ON THIS CONFERENCE? We are post-MFA writing peers. No other program fosters a gathering exclusively for its grads. The conference could be mistaken for a Warren Wilson residency, but there are no faculty, no deadlines, no jitters over mentor assignments, and the food is decent. It is remarkably intense and fun. Some of us come to attend classes and workshops (which we run and lead); others use the time to write all day, emerging only for meals and the evening readings; others who may live in rural or other isolation spend the time gadding about and talking, soaking up the company of writers. Most of us do some of each. Usually forty to sixty of us attend and we range from some of the earliest to the most recent grads and everyone in between. The conference has been held for about twenty years and is run by a volunteer coordinator and a committee. Our location rotates during a five year cycle. Every fifth year we are on the WW campus in Swannanoa, so the end of our conference overlaps with the program's five year anniversary festivities (next anniversary: 2011). Usually three out of the five years we will be at Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions you might have. Besides convincing you this is the year you need to get to the conference, we're here to assist you any way we can. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Peg and Cass WHAT A FEW OF YOUR FELLOW ALUMS HAVE SAID ABOUT THE CONFERENCE: Attending the Alum Conference has been an absolutely essential part of my development as a writer, both in terms of the work itself, the wonderful classes and conversations, and also in terms of learning ever more about what it means to continue on with this pursuit year after year - the being a writer part. It's a real gift to have the chance to interact with and observe others who have been through the same program and are also taking that experience out into the "real" world. I've made wonderful friends and learned a lot and n many ways the Conference has become as important to me as the original residencies in Swannanoa were. Robin Black fiction '05 Going to the alum conference last summer was my writer’s retreat where I connected with the larger writing community and left feeling full. And I loved that I guiltlessly decided how I would use the time. I decided to attend only one class and to give most of my attention to the fiction workshop; is there a greater feeling than contributing to and partaking of the WW thoughtfulness and generosity? The alum conference was an opportunity to be with my tribe. During the Silent Auction, I won a bid on a screenplay reading, and since then, have worked on a rewrite. As I consider attending the alum conference this coming summer, I’m reminded that I continue to reap the benefits from being with the WW writing community last summer. Margaret Serich fiction '04
Want to spend a week or weekend with people who care as much as you do about what words can and can’t do? Want to eat meals with people who have not only heard of Swannanoa but have stories to tell about their adventures there? Want to participate in stimulating workshops or write on your own, your choice? Want a flaming angel of poetry to introduce you as lovely and talented at the evening reading? Want to find out if this tribe is your tribe? If so, come to the Wally Conference in See you there! Janet Thornburg fiction '07 After being thrust out into the world with my walking stick in the summer of '08, I was a bit skeptical that the alumni conference could even hold a candle to the residencies I'd adored so much, but determined that I'd give it a whirl. The alumni conference was its own animal, but so much of what made the student residencies a source of spiritual sustenance has been preserved and extended. The full-stay days were rich and relaxing ways to connect with working writers, but the short-stay days had some of the intensity and rigor of student residencies. I felt welcomed into old friendships, and was elated to find that conference attendees ranged from the first students at Goddard to the most recent winter's graduates. For those graduates who have participated only electronically as alumni, listen up (and remember that this comes from one of the biggest e-nerds to have graduated from Warren Wilson): the conference, and not the listserv, is the true heart of the alumni community. Ross White Poetry '08 Wallies are special. To go to the alumni conference is be among one's clan. To be rejuvenated as a writer and a person by the good thinking and the lively talk. And the staying up too late, too many nights in a row. It's residency with all the bad parts - green sheets and mysterious bedding - cut out. Don't miss it. Catherine Brown Fiction '07 Hello fellow Wallies, Thinking about the summer conference? Not sure whether to go or not? It’s a wonderful week – like a residency without the pressures and tensions. Here are seven reasons that I love being there: The readings. There’s nothing better than being at a reading where the poems and stories are terrific, and the room is alive with the energy of attentive and perceptive listeners. A word-sparked electricity in the air. The workshops. The deep pleasure of examining words together, getting down inside how they’re working. And these people are so *smart.* (Although there’s no obligation to participate in a workshop – or to use the week in any way other than you’d like.) The friends. I’ve loved reconnecting with old friends at the conferences, and making new friends. I confess to being nervous the first summer, about being a new kid on the block, and whether I’d feel included. I did. The conversations. In the lounge, with excellent junk food passed around, and the wine bottle discreetly down by the side of the sofa. At lunch – or breakfast, for early risers. On the way to and from readings. In the john in the middle of the night. Serious conversations, and silly ones, all with people who care about writing. The chance to hole up and write for a week with no distractions, if that’s what you’d like to do. The book table. A chance to buy wonderful books by wonderful Wally authors. The dance! This alone is enough reason to come to the conference. I’m absolutely convinced that a Wally dance is *the* best place to dance in the entire universe. Sue Chenette Fiction '96 It's hard to say just a few words about the conference, but I'll try. For me, the central pull is the deep sense of community. Newcomers, whether new graduates or long time graduates who are venturing for the first time, are welcomed in a way I've never experienced elsewhere. The result is a deepening and widening of friendship and knowledge and affection. And the classes and discussions and workshops are first rate. I return home filled up in every good way. Pam Bernard Poetry '95
Consider a residency that's all about you. You can choose what to attend, what to read, whether or not to participate in a workshop. You can teach a class or lead a discussion on a writing topic which engages you. You can have time to write. You can connect with friends from your time at Wally, and meet dynamic graduates from other years. You can choose the dance music! This is your residency, with your community of peers. A few snapshots from the 2009 conference at Samn Stockwell, graduate of the first class at Goddard, with newly hatched Helen Hooper. Eighty-something Anne Knox teaching us how to belly-dance in the hallway.The trees, gardens, lilypads, lakes, and birds on the idyllic to allow a recent graduate to attend the next conference, and people immediately took out their wallets. Come! Kathy (Lester) Collisson Fiction '97 |
