Low-
Residency MFA in Creative Writing

 

NEW WORK BY STUDENTS, ALUMNI & FACULTY ON THE SHELVES AND ONLINE: Nonfiction faculty Kim Dana Kupperman’s The Last of Her: A Forensic Memoir garnered a lovely review at the Portland Press Herald and is now available in print, and prose faculty Richard Schmitt’s story “Breathing,” read recently at Beer & Bards, is live in Shenandoah; Richard’s essay “Until the Morning Comes” appears in the current 34th Parallel. Read the poem “Tending” by Jeremy Bryant (Nonfiction 2017) in The New Verse News and work by Lara Lillibridge (Nonfiction 2016) in Door is a Jar Magazine, and Drunken Llama: “Cicadas” and “The Thesaurus Might Make Me Someone to Yearn for.” Check out poetry by Larry Thacker (Poetry 2018) in The Bookends Review, The Woven Tale Press, Eunoia Review, Glasgow Review of Books, Third Wednesday Literary & Arts Journal, The Hungry Chimera, Three Drops from a Cauldron Best of Anthology 2017, and Forage Poetry Journal; and read the poem “Your Last Chance to Read This” by Phill Provance (Poetry 2018) in the November 16, 2016 issue of the Rock River Times—you can also find Phill’s review of Joseph Farley’s Labor Day in the New Haven Review online edition. And don’t miss prose faculty Karen Salyer McElmurray’s “Hand-Me-Down”—shared at the Winter 2017 Residency & awarded the New Southerner Award for Creative Nonfiction.

FORTHCOMING WORK: Big congratulations to Lara Lillibridge on her contract with Skyhorse Publishing for Girl: A Memoir on Being Raised by Lesbians, scheduled for release in Fall, 2017. Also to Larry Thacker and poetry faculty Mark DeFoe on the selection of their work for Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Volume 9. Mark will have work included in two more upcoming anthologies—Forgotten Women (Grayson Books) and a collection on fast food in America (Main Street Rag Press)—along with poems forthcoming in Kestrel, Allegro, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, in which he will be the featured poet of the spring 2017 issue. Keep an eye out for fiction faculty Marie Manilla’s stories forthcoming in Solstice Literary Magazine and The New Engagement and Program Director Jessie van Eerden’s essay “Sunday Morning Coming Down” in the winter issue of Willow Springs, along with essays by Elizabeth Gaucher (Nonfiction 2015) in a spring 2017 Chop Suey Books anthology—the first for the online writing project Life in 10 Minutes—and in the Best of the Burlington Writers Workshop 2017 out of Burlington, VT. Also look for Richard Schmitt’s story “Living Among Strangers” in Sequestrum, Karen Salyer McElmurray’s essay “Outside the Outside” in the forthcoming anthology Guardians of Mediocrity (Foiled Crown Books), and Phill Provance’s poems “The Poem Is” and “Now” in Issue #19 of Vine Leaves.

ACCOLADES: Congrats to 2016’s Pushcart Prize nominees: Danielle Kelly (Fiction 2015) for her essay in r.kv.r.y, Mary Imo Stike (Poetry 2015) for her poem in Picaroon, and Elizabeth Gaucher for her essay in Still: The Journal; Still also awarded poetry faculty Doug Van Gundy the 2016 Poetry Prize for “Last Thoughts on Electronic Voice Projection.” More kudos also to Lara Lillibridge whose “Essay Notes on Attachment Disorder” won The American Literary Review Contest in Nonfiction.

GIGS: Have a listen to BBC’s radio show The Response featuring “America’s Story” which includes thoughts from Vince Trimboli (Poetry 2013) who was interviewed in response to his flash essay on America/Appalachia’s response to the election of Donald Trump. Get these upcoming events on your February calendar: Marie Manilla will be the guest author at the literary series “More than Words,” the brainchild of Mary Imo Stike and memoirist Cat Pleska, on February 14 at Books & Brews, 2759 Main Street, Hurricane, WV, 6-7:30 pm. “More Than Words” launched with a reading by WV Poet Laureate Marc Harshman in January, and Mary Imo Stike was also featured with poet Haley Haugen in Empire Books’ Writers Read Series in December. Kevin Chesser (Poetry 2015) will be reading at the launch party for Keegan Lester’s new book this shouldn’t be beautiful, but it was & it’s all I had, so I drew it on February 18 at 123 Pleasant Street, Morgantown, WV. Chris Chapman’s (Fiction 2015) Music & Blood book release (chapbook published by nonfiction faculty Eric Waggoner’s Latham House Press) is set for February 21 at Beer & Bards at 8 pm at the 88 Restaurant & Lounge in Buckhannon, and Chris will also read on March 18 for the Black Bear Club at 123 Pleasant Street. Upcoming in County Cork, Ireland, Susan (Krakoff) Good (Nonfiction 2015) be teaching a ten-week creative writing course for an adult education program! And looking forward to the fall, Lara Lillibridge will present her WVWC MFA graduate seminar, “The Genre Blender: An Exploration of the Hybrid Form and How It Can Be Used to Evoke Emotional Resonance,” in September at HippoCamp 2017 where she will also give a reading and participate in the New Authors Panel.

WVWC MFA AT THE 2017 AWP CONFERENCE IN DC: 

You can find us throughout the conference at AWP Bookfair Table #313-T!

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9:

10:30-11:45 am. “Four Indigenous Writers, Not Just Simple Indian Stereotypes: A Reading” (Susan Deer Cloud, Monty Campbell, Jr., Mary Carroll-Hackett, Meta Commerse)

12-2 pm. Co-editors Doug Van Gundy and Laura Long signing for Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Fiction and Poetry from West Virginia, West Virginia University Press/Vandalia Press (Bookfair Table #436)

1:30-2:45 pm. “Triggered Writing/Creative Warnings: Trauma and Trigger Warnings in Creative Writing Classrooms and Communities” (Lee Ann Roripaugh, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Natanya Pulley, Lori Horvitz)

4:30-5:45 pm. “United Artists: Creative Writers in the Trenches of the American Education System” (Paula Whyman , Ellen Hagan, David Mura, Parneshia Jones)

5-7 pm. WV Wesleyan MFA Open House. A meet-and-greet with students, alums & faculty of WV Wesleyan’s low-res MFA. Come and enjoy conversation, free food, & a low-key reading from faculty if noise-level allows. All are welcome! Teaism Penn Quarter, 400 8th St. NW, Washington DC, 20004

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10:

1-4 pm. Kim Dana Kupperman signing for The Last of Her: A Forensic Memoir, Jaded Ibis Press (Bookfair Table #745-T, shared with Kim’s Welcome Table Press)

4:30-5:45 pm. “Place as Wellspring: Reimagining Local Fiction” (Laura Long, Pinckney Benedict, Jonathan Corcoran, Ann Pancake, Natalie Sypolt)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11:

9-10:15 am. “Parenting the Poems and the Babies” (Ellen Hagan, Matthew Shenoda, Maya Pindyck, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Kelly Norman Ellis)

9-10:15 am. “Opening the Doors to Discovery: The Generative Writing Workshop” (Rachel Basch, Baron Wormser, Rebecca McClanahan, Dustin Beall Smith, Kim Dana Kupperman)

12-1:15 pm. “Essaying the Body Electric: A Reading & Conversation” (Kim Dana Kupperman, Therése Halscheid, Sheryl St. Germain, Thomas Gibbs, Colin Hosten)

3-4:15 pm. “Mother Lode, Mother Load: Writing Difficult Mothers and Others” (Janice Gary, Lisa Chavez, Luisa Igloria, Karen McElmurray, Sue William Silverman)

You can keep up with regular MFA news blasts at: www.heartwoodlitmag.com/wvwcmfa/