Public Readings: Thursday, January 4
In Canon Lounge, Gladfelter, 8:15 p.m.

Michael Parker
Martha Rhodes
Marisa Silver
Daniel Tobin

The public is welcome to attend the morning lectures and evening readings in fiction and poetry offered during the Master of Fine Arts Program winter residency.  Events last approximately one hour. Admission is free. The schedule is subject to change.

For more information, call the MFA Office: (828) 771-3715.

Readings will begin at 8:15 PM in Canon Lounge, Gladfelter, unless indicated otherwise.

READINGS by FACULTY

Wednesday, January 3—8:00 PM

Lesley Nneka Arimah, Christine Kitano, Bennett Sims, Dana Levin, Anna Solomon

Thursday, January 4

Michael Parker, Martha Rhodes, Marisa Silver, Daniel Tobin

Friday, January 5

C.J. Hribal, Marianne Boruch, Nina McConigley, Maurice Manning

Saturday, January 6

Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Robert Boswell, Connie Voisine, Antonya Nelson

Sunday, January 7

Jeremy Gavron, Daisy Fried, Megan Staffel, Alan Williamson

Monday, January 8—no readings

Tuesday, January 9

David Haynes, Debra Allbery, Dominic Smith, Matthew Olzmann

READINGS by GRADUATING STUDENTS

 Wednesday, January 10

Kathleen Crowley, Gregory Miller, Kristen Hewitt, Christina Ward-Niven

Thursday, January 11—Fellowship Hall, behind Ransom Chapel

Kate Kaplan, Robin Rosen Chang, Kate Lister Campbell, Shannon Winston

Friday, January 12—4:30 PM, Fellowship Hall; followed by graduation ceremony

Sonya Larson, Carlos Andres Bates-Gómez, Meghan Williams  Read more

The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College is delighted to announce that one of its alumni, Trish Marshall (poetry, ’17) will return as its new MFA Project Manager: Academic Affairs.  Her office expertise, knowledge of MFA practices and policies, and abiding passion for the program will all be invaluable assets in this role. Trish will join the office team on September 12.

Pictured: Trish and her fellow Project Manager, Caleb.

The program website includes a link to a bibliography of all alumni book publications of which the program is aware, currently well over 700 books:

http://www.wwcmfa.org/alumni/alumni-bibliography/

Please help us keep this list as complete as possible by uploading your new publication information through a form on the site:

https://docs.google.com/a/smith.edu/forms/d/1YazT-pftQh3Syg9q34Iesy26vqqsQDWAP11dFdeos1U/viewform

The form will ask for your:

1. first name, last name,
2. the year in which you graduated,
3. the genre in which you graduated, fiction or poetry,
4. whether you graduated from Warren Wilson or Goddard,
5. the title of your book,
6. the name of your publisher,
7. year of publication, and
8. specify novel, short fiction, novella, book of poems, chapbook, anthology, translated poetry, translated fiction, or “other” (explain).

Please also share any additional information regarding awards the publication received. And thank you for helping us to keep the bibliography as up-to-date as possible.

Thank you for helping to maintain the bibliography, which is one of the resources that attracts new writers to the program.

Patrick Donnelly

http://www.patrickdonnellypoems.com

  Warren Wilson Commencement Address   7/14/17

To our amazing class of graduates, and to their devoted, forbearing, patient and generous parents, children, spouses and friends, I want to begin by saying how privileged I am to be up here to officially congratulate you all on this happy day of celebration. This achievement surely belongs to all of you. Think back, beloved graduates, to the day you announced to your families your intention to pursue an MFA, or even further back when you revealed to them your passion for writing. In my case, I was sixteen years old when I let slip to my parents that I intended to make my way in the world as a poet. I come from a long line of MD’s, not doctors, but meat dealers. You can imagine how my parents took the news. My father said, “A what?” as if I’d just announced plans to become a shepherd or a male belly dancer. “A poet.” I said. I want to write poetry for a living. Was I joking? Was I trying to disprove the stereotype that all Jews make money? Didn’t I realize I wouldn’t make enough to buy a pair of slippers. I said something to the effect that making enough isn’t what I want from life. My dad shot back, “Then be a lawyer for god’s sake, you’ll make more than enough!” Your families, I’m sure, weren’t quite as nonplussed as mine. For here they all are, today, not just to applaud your achievement, how far you’ve come, how hard you’ve worked, but to give you hope and courage for the marathon you’re about to run.

The undeniable and irreducibly unique abilities that got you accepted to this program in the first place have now been challenged, cajoled, goaded, and “annotated” into what I think of as the two ingredients indispensable to a writer’s life: humility and arrogance, humility that acknowledges the need to never stop learning, and the arrogance that assumes you’ll always be smart enough to learn anything that someone else is smart enough to teach you. Above and beyond refinements of craft, this program has taught you that writing is itself a life long non-degree conferring program from which there is no graduation, and that the longer you work at the art we love, the more of a beginner you become. As graduates of Warren Wilson, you have now officially entered the Ground Hog Day Academy of the writing world, in which everyone’s a permanent freshman and every day’s the first day of class. Read more