Public Event Schedule

Join us for a faculty lecture at 11 a.m. in Canon Lounge in Gladfelter:

DEAN BAKOPOULOS: They Threw Me Off the Hay Truck: On Bafflement and Difficulty

In this lecture, we’ll examine the state of bafflement that is often the genesis of lasting literary work, and the slippery concept of difficulty, particularly when writing about the struggle for justice in times of violence and upheaval (political or personal). We’ll begin with a section of Ralph Ellison’s essay “Harlem is Nowhere,” and go from there, with a focus on the genres of magical realism and noir mystery. The lecture will likely refer to the fiction of Haruki Murakami, Helen Oyemi, James Cain, Valeria Luiselli, and Alain Mabanckou, and poems by Kevin Young, Jericho Brown, Tarfia Faizullah, Maram Al-Massri, and Ada Limón. No advance reading is necessary; handouts will be provided.

—

Join us at 8:15 p.m. in Canon Lounge in Gladfelter for a reading featuring faculty members:

David Shields
Chase Twichell
Megan Staffel
Alan Williamson

For more information, including a full schedule of public events, please visit the program website at http://www.wwcmfa.org/public-schedule-for-mfa-winter-residency-is-here/.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2017-18 Joan Beebe Graduate Teaching Fellowship. The Beebe Fellowship is available to all alumni of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, including those who received the degree during the years the program was at Goddard College. Some teaching experience is required. This year’s Beebe Fellow will have a concentration in poetry, though a facility with multiple genres is most beneficial for the program. The Fellow will teach the equivalent of five four-credit undergraduate courses in composition and creative writing, including the mixed-genre advanced MFA Residency/Workshop course, which is tied to the MFA Program’s winter residency. He or she will also supervise the undergraduate literary journal. The fellow will work under the supervision of the Director of the Creative Writing Program and will receive a stipend of $34,500 and full faculty benefits. On-campus housing for the fellow is available at a modest rental rate. Relocation assistance is also available.

An applicant should submit the following:

• a letter of application which discusses:
• teaching philosophy, especially in relation to a work college’s undergraduates
• relevant teaching experience
• areas of expertise, including experience and confidence teaching in multiple genres
• the relationship the applicant sees between his or her creative work and teaching
• current writing projects
• a current CV
• a writing sample of no more than 25 pages

An applicant must also have three letters of recommendation addressing his or her experience/ potential as a teacher sent directly to the Program office. Letters of recommendation may not be submitted by members of the MFA Program’s Academic Board, which includes Debra Allbery, Marianne Boruch, Liam Callanan, Christopher Castellani, Jennifer Grotz, Brooks Haxton, David Haynes, C.J. Hribal, Kevin McIlvoy, Debra Spark, Daniel Tobin, Peter Turchi, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and C. Dale Young.

While the fellowship may be received only once, previous applicants are encouraged to reapply. Applications will be reviewed and finalists chosen by the Academic Board; advancing candidates will be interviewed by phone and/or brought to campus for interviews and a teaching demonstration. The final decision will be made by a committee of the Undergraduate Writing Program, with the approval of the Dean of the College.

Applications for the 2017/2018 academic year must be received by February 1, 2017. All application materials should sent to Debra Allbery, via email to [email protected], indicating Beebe Fellowship Application in the subject line—or via US mail to Beebe Graduate Teaching Fellowship;  c/o Debra Allbery, Director;  MFA Program for Writers; PO Box 9000; Warren Wilson College; Asheville, NC 28815-9000.  Electronic submissions are preferred.

2016-17 Beebe Fellow Alain Park at his Warren Wilson campus reading, 10/27/16.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2017-18 Joan Beebe Graduate Teaching Fellowship. The Beebe Fellowship is available to all alumni of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, including those who received the degree during the years the program was at Goddard College. Some teaching experience is required. This year’s Beebe Fellow will have a concentration in poetry, though a facility with multiple genres is most beneficial for the program. The Fellow will teach the equivalent of five four-credit undergraduate courses in composition and creative writing, including the mixed-genre advanced MFA Residency/Workshop course, which is tied to the MFA Program’s winter residency. He or she will also supervise the undergraduate literary journal. The fellow will work under the supervision of the Director of the Creative Writing Program and will receive a stipend of $34,500 and full faculty benefits. On-campus housing for the fellow is available at a modest rental rate. Relocation assistance is also available.

An applicant should submit the following:

• a letter of application which discusses:
• teaching philosophy, especially in relation to a work college’s undergraduates
• relevant teaching experience
• areas of expertise, including experience and confidence teaching in multiple genres
• the relationship the applicant sees between his or her creative work and teaching
• current writing projects
• a current CV
• a writing sample of no more than 25 pages

An applicant must also have three letters of recommendation addressing his or her experience/ potential as a teacher sent directly to the Program office. Letters of recommendation may not be submitted by members of the MFA Program’s Academic Board, which includes Debra Allbery, Marianne Boruch, Liam Callanan, Christopher Castellani, Jennifer Grotz, Brooks Haxton, David Haynes, C.J. Hribal, Kevin McIlvoy, Debra Spark, Daniel Tobin, Peter Turchi, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and C. Dale Young.

While the fellowship may be received only once, previous applicants are encouraged to reapply. Applications will be reviewed and finalists chosen by the Academic Board; advancing candidates will be interviewed by phone and/or brought to campus for interviews and a teaching demonstration. The final decision will be made by a committee of the Undergraduate Writing Program, with the approval of the Dean of the College.

Applications for the 2017/2018 academic year must be received by February 1, 2017. All application materials should sent to Debra Allbery, via email to [email protected], indicating Beebe Fellowship Application in the subject line—or via US mail to Beebe Graduate Teaching Fellowship;  c/o Debra Allbery, Director;  MFA Program for Writers; PO Box 9000; Warren Wilson College; Asheville, NC 28815-9000.  Electronic submissions are preferred.

Friends of Writers mourns the loss of our colleague, poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly.

Kelly has been a friend, mentor and muse to many in the Warren Wilson family, and social media is filled with reminiscences from many of us who have been inspired by her poetry and her teaching.

Brigit Pegeen Kelly taught with the MFA Program for Writers in 1992 and 1993 and has remained a beloved member of the community since that time. When asked to contribute a gift for 2016’s 40th Anniversary celebration, she selected this lovely bird’s nest…

…found on her farm, a keepsake she’d kept for many years.

Visit the Poetry Foundation website for a full appreciation of her accomplished life: Brigit Pegeen Kelly.  The article includes links to some of her most beloved poems.