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HONORING AGHA SHAHID ALI (1949-2001)
December 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of the death of poet Agha Shahid Ali, a beloved member of the MFA Program's faculty from 1995 to 1999. Debra Allbery's ghazal honoring Shahid appears in the December 12, 2011 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, along with an appreciation of the poem written by Lisa Russ Spaar.
Shahid's poetry was included in the commemorative reading offered at the Program's 35th anniversary gala this past July. A reading of his poem,"Of It All," recorded during the January 1997 residency, is available here.
WARREN WILSON'S LOW-RESIDENCY MFA PROGRAM RANKED #1 BY POETS & WRITERS
Poets & Writers magazine has once again named the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers as the top-ranked low-residency program, out of a field of 49 such programs. A complete list of the 2012 rankings appears in the September/October 2011 issue of the magazine. Warren Wilson was also ranked #1 in selectivity.
“National recognition is gratifying,” said Program Director Debra Allbery, “but what matters most to us is how well we measure up to our own high standards. The fact that that measure is determined by our community as a whole — students, faculty, Academic Board — is central to our success. Everyone in the program is invested in, and involved in, making it the best it can be.
"We pioneered this model, and it has proven both remarkably stable and brilliantly adaptive; it also provides a nurturing and enduring community. Our students, faculty, staff, and alumni all consider it an exhilarating privilege to be part of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers."
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.”
LIA GREENWELL AWARDED THE RONA JAFFE CREATIVE WRITING FELLOWSHIP
We're delighted to announce our inaugural Rona Jaffe Graduate Creative Writing Fellow, poet Lia Greenwell. Lia will graduate in May with a B.A. from Michigan State University, where she has worked as a programming assistant at MSU's Center for Poetry, and will enter the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers this summer.
This new fellowship has been made possible by the generosity of the Rona Jaffe Foundation, which offers similar fellowships for women entering the MFA Programs at the University of Iowa and New York University. The fellowship covers tuition and fees for the first two semesters of study at Warren Wilson, and also includes a $4000 stipend toward costs such as books, travel to residencies, child care, or loss of income while attending each residency.
Lia writes, "I so appreciate the assistance provided by the Rona Jaffe Foundation and its partnership with the Warren Wilson MFA Program. The fellowship allows me to pursue my writing with a greater sense of stability as I join Warren Wilson's distinguished community of writers."
For more information on the generous support that the Rona Jaffe Foundation offers women writers, please visit their website.
13th RECIPIENT OF THE HOLDEN MINORITY SCHOLARSHIP ANNOUNCED
We're pleased to introduce our 13th recipient of the Holden Minority Scholarship, poet Tommye Blount. A Detroit native, Tommye graduated from Michigan State University in 2001. He has attended workshops led by diane Wakoski and Vievee Francis, as well as workshops with Carl Phillips at Cave Canem. In a letter expressing his deep gratitude to the MFA program, the alumni community, Friends of Writers, and the Holden Familu for this opportunity, Tommye writes, "I intend to be tenacious and diligent in upholding the vision and legacy set forth by Dr. Reuben Holden and Ellen Bryant Voigt." He will join the program this July. Inaugurated in 1995, this endowed scholarship provides full tuition and residency fees for a minority student's entire 4-semester degree program. Friends of Writers welcomes your continued support as we seek to endow a second Holden scholarship.
MFA FACULTY SELECTED AS FINALIST FOR THE 2011 PULITZER PRIZE
Poetry faculty member Maurice Manning was a finalist, along with Jean Valentine, for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his fourth collection, The Common Man (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010). Judges were Susan Stewart, Grace Schulman, and Ted Kooser.
Maurice is also among the 27 writers recently named by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation as winners of its 2011 fellowships. The fellowships, which avergage around $36,000, are awarded "on the basis of achievment and exceptional promise." Congratulations, Maurice!
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Fiction faculty member Anthony Doerr has won the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award for his story "The Deep." Tony’s award was announced on April 8 at a dinner at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival.
And last month Tony’s most recent collection of stories, Memory Wall, won the Story Prize, an annual book award which honors the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction with a $20,000 cash award. The judges cited Doerr for poetic skill and evocative prose:
It is the shimmering space between the two planes of reality and memory that Doerr captures with immense sensitivity. He is adept at evoking a variety of places and different times in history, conjuring sharp settings in which the fragility of his characters is played out. The diversity of backgrounds underscores his poetic skill at illustrating his themes of emotional distancing and the resilience of hope. While he displays a rare imagination in the handling of his subjects, he maintains a beautiful and quiet grace in his precise, spare style, providing a harmonious resonance to all of the stories.
Congratulations, Tony!
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A KITE IN THE WIND: FICTION WRITERS ON THEIR CRAFT
NOW AVAILABLE
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, the nation’s first low-residency MFA program, as well as the publication of the fifth anthology of essays by members of its faculty, A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on their Craft. Edited by Andrea Barrett and former MFA director Peter Turchi, the anthology gathers essays by Maud Casey, Stacey D’Erasmo, Anthony Doerr, Kevin McIlvoy, and fifteen others. Each of the essays were presented as lectures during recent Warren Wilson MFA residencies.
As Barrett and Turchi note in their introduction, the anthology is less an instruction manual than an intimate visit with twenty very different writers as they explore topics that excite, intrigue, and puzzle them. These are, as they say, “personal investigations,” and the passion and close study that drive them embody the spirit of the Warren Wilson MFA program itself.
"It's impossible to recreate the intensity of one of the program's ten-day residencies on paper,” Peter Turchi says. “To be there, on campus, is to feel—and be a part of—a large, unpredictable, and enormously provocative conversation unfolding. But these anthologies of essays based on residency lectures come close, and they have the advantage of allowing the reader to go at his or her own speed: making notes, re-reading, stopping to think. A Kite in the Wind also offers some indication of the wide range of voices, approaches, and topics the Warren Wilson MFA residencies bring together.”
He adds, “It's worth noting that a lot of these essays—and many of the lectures that preceded them—would most likely never have been written if not for the unique occasion of (and the remarkable audiences at) the Warren Wilson residencies. While it may sound presumptuous, after thirty-five years, I think it's fair to say that the Warren Wilson MFA program, by providing a forum for faculty and students to challenge themselves, by giving them an occasion to rise to, has made a significant contribution to the writing and thinking about poetry and fiction in the United States."
A Kite in the Wind offers its hard-earned insights with humility, wit, and compassion. It provides as well a glimpse into the rich, ongoing discussion of the writer’s craft at Warren Wilson. The anthology is available now from Trinity University Press.
· Poet’s Work, Poet’s Play: Essays on the Practice of the Art edited by Daniel Tobin and Pimone Triplett (University of Michigan Press, 2008)
· Poets Teaching Poets: Self and the World, edited by Ellen Bryant Voigt and Gregory Orr (University of Michigan Press, 1996)
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WARREN WILSON MFA PROGRAM FOR WRITERS RANKED #1 BY POETS & WRITERS
The Warren Wilson MFA Program For Writers was recently ranked #1 of the 46 low-residency MFA Programs in the U.S by Poets & Writers magazine. The rankings appear in the magazine's September/October 2010 issue.
Warren Wilson's MFA Program tied with Vermont College of Fine Arts for the top spot overall, and was ranked first as well in selectivity. Warren Wilson's MFA Program was previously named one of the top five low-residency programs in the Country by Atlantic Monthly in its August 2007 survey of "The Best of the Best."
MFA Program Director Debra Allbery said, "We're very pleased by this national recognition of the truly exceptional quality of the Warren Wilson MFA Program For Writers - a distinction steadily proven by the remarkable literary achievments of our graduates. As the oldest of the low-residency programs, we're proud that we're continuing to set the standards for the model."