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A 35th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
THE WARREN WILSON MFA PROGRAM TURNS 35
On June 29, nearly 200 alumni, currently-enrolled students, and past and present faculty of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College gathered on the campus to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the nation’s first low-residency MFA program. This summer also marked our Program’s 30th anniversary at Warren Wilson, having relocated there from Goddard College in 1981. The Gala provided the culmination of the annual Alumni Conference and a chance to include others in the lively conversations, the deep sense of community, and the renewal of commitment to our art. The slogan on T-shirts, tote bags, and coffee mugs was an appropriate one: Write Revise Dance Repeat.
The morning was devoted to a series of sessions called “Five Questions”: three pairs of veteran faculty and longtime friends interviewed each other in front of the assembled alumni, students, and other faculty. Robert Boswell and Tony Hoagland (read an excerpt here), Stephen Dobyns and Tom Lux, and Heather McHugh and Ellen Bryant Voigt each offered wide-ranging discussions on influence and aspects of the writer’s craft while providing illuminating (and often hilarious) anecdotes about the Program’s history, the differences between poets and fiction writers, and the abiding and rich friendships the Program fosters and sustains.
The afternoon began with concurrent panels: editors and faculty represented in the recently-published A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers Discuss Their Craft and the forthcoming The Ragpicker’s Guide to Poetry discussed their contributions to those volumes and invited questions from the audience. Poet Steve Orlen was honored in the next hour, with colleagues and former students offering tributes to his life and work.
Live and silent auctions in the Pavilion followed these conversations, with offerings ranging from signed first editions and original art to vacations in Vermont, Vancouver, and Paris. Thanks to the generosity of our community, Friends of Writers raised almost $10,000 for the Program’s scholarship funds.
The day concluded with a banquet which featured a slideshow of images from the Program’s history); a brief account of the Program’s origins offered by founder Ellen Bryant Voigt; a commemorative poetry reading drawn from archived recordings of Agha Shahid Ali, Tom Andrews, Larry Levis, Steve Orlen, and Renate Wood; as well as musical performances by alumni and faculty. In honor of her leadership and her vision, Ellen was presented with a walking stick adorned with messages, mementos, and gifts from scores of esteemed writers who have taught in the Program over its 35-year history.
If the celebration documented the rich development of the Warren Wilson MFA over time, it also emphasized the Program’s remarkable constants in ambition and achievement: the steady emphasis on the writer’s craft, an unwavering commitment to excellence, and the close-knit community it fosters and sustains. “What holds us together, what makes this,” Ellen said to those assembled at the banquet, “is our passion for our art. It’s as simple as that.”
