Endless Knots

Always recommended: Solstice January '11 Reading Series

Never to be missed, this series sponsored by my friends at Solstice Creative Writing Program:

[Chestnut Hill, MA, December 2010]  The Solstice MFA Program announces its winter Reading Series, taking place January 1–7 in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College, located at 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill. *All readings are at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Author’s books will be available for sale; a cash-bar reception will follow the reading on Thursday, January 6. Plenty of free parking!

 

Saturday, January 1 at 7:30 p.m.     David Yoo, Venise Berry, & Anne-Marie Oomen

David Yoo (author of Girls for Breakfast and Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before); Venise Berry (author of four novels, including the forthcoming Pockets of Sanity); & Anne-Marie Oomen (poet and author of three essay collections, including An American Map: Essays).

Sunday, January 2 at 7:30 p.m  Dzvinia Orlowsky, Randall Kenan, & Mimi Schwartz

Dzvinia Orlowsky (author of four poetry collections, including Convertible Night, Flurry of Stones); Randall Kenan (author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including Let the Dead Bury Their Dead and The Fire This Time); & special guest Mimi Schwartz (author of Good Neighbors, Bad Times and Thoughts From A Queen-Sized Bed).

 

*Monday, January 3 from 3:45–5:15                    Graduating Student Readings

 

Tuesday, January 4 at 7:30 p.m.                           Jacob Paul & Meg Kearney

Jacob Paul (author of Sarah/Sara) & MFA Director Meg Kearney (author of The Secret of Me,             An Unkindness of Ravens and Home By Now).

 

Wed, January 5, 7:30 PM     Tanya Whiton, Laura W. McCaffrey, & Terrance Hayes

MFA Assistant Director Tanya Whiton (published in Crazyhorse and Northwest Review); Laura Williams McCaffrey (author of Alia Waking and Water Shaper); & 2010 National Book Award Winner Terrance Hayes (author of four collections of poetry, including Lighthead).

*Thursday, January 6 from 4:15–5:45 p.m.       Graduating Student Readings

  

Thursday, January 6, 7:30 PM Laban Carrick Hill, Amy Hoffman, & Mark Turcotte

Laban Carrick Hill (author of numerous books for young people, including Dave the Potter); Amy Hoffman (author of the memoirs Hospital Time and An Army of Ex-Lovers); & Mark Turcotte (author of The Feathered Heart and Exploding Chippewas).

 

Friday, January 7 at 7:30 p.m.       Sandra Scofield, Marilyn Kallet, & Steven Huff

Sandra Scofield (National Book Award Finalist for Beyond Deserving; author of seven novels, a memoir, and a craft book); special guest Marilyn Kallet (author of fourteen books, including four books of poetry and two children’s books); & Steven Huff (author of two poetry collections and the short fiction collection A Pig in Paris).

 

Directions to Pine Manor College, complete bios of our authors, and more information about the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program can be found at www.pmc.edu/mfa.

Stage and screenwriters -- Solstice is for you!

Solstice Low-Residency MFA innovates again--this just in from my friends there:

The Solstice Seminars: two-day intensives that offer writers the opportunity to explore and deepen their knowledge of craft. The Seminars are designed to build upon and expand the concentrations of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program by focusing on one aspect or sub-genre of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or writing for young people.
 
Join us for “Writing for Stage & Screen,” October 29 through 30, 2010. Participants will learn playwriting or screenwriting basics, generate new material, and revise newly created scenes for a staged reading. In addition, students will attend a play in nearby Boston, and enjoy a screening of a film with commentary by distinguished guest Richard Wesley.
 
Faculty & Guests:
Playwriting instructor Anne-Marie Oomen has written and produced seven plays, including the award-winning “Northern Belles,” inspired by oral histories of women farmers. Her most recent, “Whaddaya Give,” a play with music, continues her dramatic series inspired by Michigan’s history.
 
Screenwriting instructor Lesley Alicia Tye’s film and television credits range from Costume Designer for the feature Two Coyotes, to Below-the-Line Agent with Casala, Ltd. She has written several feature length screenplays, and was co-writer for the television pilot Devin’s Chronicles for Caspian Sea Entertainment.
 
Guest Director Bob Owczarek has taught theatre at Dean College, the Boston Conservatory, and Boston University, and is currently retired as professor of drama at Pine Manor College. He has performed in over 25 industrial films, appeared in television commercials, and done extensive radio, TV, and film work.
 
Richard Wesley, Chair of NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing, has penned numerous motion-picture screenplays, including Uptown Saturday Night; Let's Do It Again; Native Son; and Fast Forward. His teleplays include Mandela And De Klerk and Bojangles. In 2005 he co-authored (with Jacqueline Woodson) the teleplay for Miracle’s Boys, directed by Spike Lee.

Application deadline: September 24. For more information and complete bios of our faculty, go to: www.pmc.edu/mfa.

Solstice Summer Reading Program

Posting the latest from Solstice, a great line-up of writer/readers, as always:

(Chestnut Hill, MA, June 2010):  The Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College announces its July Reading Series. All readings begin at 7:30 p.m. and are held in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College located at 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill. Copies of the authors’ books will be available for sale after all readings, and there is plenty of free parking!

Friday, July 9 at 7:30 p.m.: Poet and creative nonfiction writer Anne-Marie Oomen (An American Map: Essays and Un-coded Woman), & multi-genre writer Jaime Manrique (Our Lives Are the Rivers and Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig, & Me)

Saturday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m.: Poet Kathleen Aguero (Investigations: The Mystery of the Girl Sleuth and Daughter Of); author and illustrator Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and The Year of the Rat); & fiction and nonfiction writer Randall Kenan (Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Century and Let the Dead Bury Their Dead).

Sunday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m.: YA novelist Laura Williams McCaffrey (Alia Waking and the forthcoming Lyla’s Flight); Special guest Patrick Donnelly (The Charge and the forthcoming Nocturnes of the Brothel of Ruin); & fiction and nonfiction writer M. Evelina Galang (Her Wild American Self and One Tribe).

Tuesday, July 13 at 7:30 p.m.: Solstice Assistant Director and fiction writer Tanya Whiton (published in Crazyhorse and Northwest Review); multi-genre writer Laban Carrick Hill (America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s and Casa Azul); & poet and fiction writer Steven Huff (A Pig In Paris and The Water We Came From).

Wednesday, July 14 at 7:30 p.m.: creative nonfiction writer Michael Steinberg (editor of Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction and author of Still Pitching); Special guest Lesléa Newman (Nobody’s Mother and The Reluctant Daughter); and poet Laure-Anne Bosselaar (A New Hunger and The Hour Between Dog & Wolf).

Thursday, July 15 at 7:30 p.m.: Special guest Kevin McLellan (Round Trip); YA writer David Yoo (Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One Before and the forthcoming The Choke Artist); & Program Director Meg Kearney (Home By Now and the forthcoming Trouper the Three-Legged Dog).

Friday, July 16 at 7:30 p.m.: Novelist Sterling Watson (The Calling and Sweet Dream Baby); fiction writer Helen Elaine Lee (Water Marked and The Serpent’s Gift); & Dennis Lehane (The Given Day, Mystic River, and Shutter Island).

Directions to Pine Manor College, complete bios of our authors, and more information about the Solstice MFA Program can be found at www.pmc.edu/mfa.

Meg Kearney wins Winship/PEN New England Award

Yes! My friend Meg Kearney is 2009 winner of The L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award in poetry for Home by Now (Four Way Books). Fine poet. Great reader of her poetry too. Great choice, PEN New England.

Meg is director of the Solstice Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College.

And she's got a new picture book coming: Trouper the Three-Legged Dog, which will be illustrated by E.B. Lewis, forthcoming, Scholastic, 2012. The real Trouper has been to our house and is deserving of a book.

Yay, Meg!

More on Solstice Seminars

Detail from Solstice on its new seminars, the first on stage and screenwriting via its press release. NB: I don't normally post press releases but I'm such a fan of Solstice that they get the exception.

THE SOLSTICE MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM OF PINE MANOR COLLEGE
ANNOUNCES NEW PROGRAMMING FOR WRITERS
 
[Chestnut Hill, MA, February 2010] The Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College is pleased to announce the launch of the Solstice Seminars — two-day intensives that offer writers the opportunity to explore and deepen their craft — beginning with “Writing for Stage & Screen,” to be held on the Pine Manor College campus October 29–30, 2010.
 
An affordable, high impact, and low time-commitment alternative for busy working writers, the Solstice Seminars are designed to build upon and expand the concentrations of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program by focusing on one aspect or sub-genre of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or writing for young people.
 
Participants in “Writing for Stage & Screen” will learn playwriting or screenwriting basics with faculty members Anne-Marie Oomen and Lesley Alicia Tye; rehearse newly created scenes with guest director Bob Owczarek; attend a play in nearby Boston; and enjoy a screening of a film with commentary by a special guest.
 
About our faculty:
Anne-Marie Oomen has written and produced seven plays, including the award-winning “Northern Belles,” inspired by oral histories of women farmers; “Wives of An American King,” based on the James Jesse Strang story; and “Recovering Ruth.”
 
Lesley Alicia Tye has written several feature length screenplays, was co-writer for the television pilot Devin’s Chronicles for Caspian Sea Entertainment, and was a recipient of the Stephen C. Gentry Award for Excellence in Screenwriting. Her film and television credits range from Costume Designer for the feature Two Coyotes to Below-the-Line Agent with Casala, Ltd.
 
Bob Owczarek has taught theatre at Dean College, the Boston Conservatory, and Boston University, and Pine Manor College. He has appeared on stage, film, radio, and television.  He is a member of the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, the Screen Actors’ Guild, and Actors’ Equity Association.
 
ABOUT PINE MANOR COLLEGE
As an undergraduate institution consistently ranked among the most diverse in the country, Pine Manor College emphasizes an inclusive, community-building approach to liberal arts education. The Solstice MFA in Creative Writing reflects the College’s overall mission by creating a safe, welcoming environment in which writers of all backgrounds are encouraged to take creative risks. We strive to instill in our students an appreciation for the value of community-building and community service, and see engagement with the literary arts not only as a means to personal fulfillment but also as an instrument for real cultural change.
 
Directions to Pine Manor College, complete bios of our authors, and more information about the Solstice Seminars and Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program can be found at www.pmc.edu/mfa.

Solstice writing seminars

Big news from Solstice. No more Summer Writers' Conferences but it appears that some practical weekend-long workshops will take their place. Here's the latest--this first one is very appealing!

Dear Solstice Friend:
 
We would like to invite you to take part in the first Solstice Seminar — Writing for Stage & Screen — to be held on the Pine Manor College campus October 15 and 16, 2010.
 
The Seminars, weekend-long intensives designed to build upon and expand the concentrations of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program, will replace the annual Solstice Summer Writers’ Conference with an affordable, high impact, and low time-commitment alternative for busy working writers. For more information about our Seminar faculty and programming, please go to: www.pmc.edu/mfa.
 
The Solstice Seminars will be offered in addition to our bi-annual course audit program, which welcomes members of the New England writing community to audit graduate-level courses at our Solstice MFA Program’s summer and winter residencies. As one local writer said: "…Solstice MFA classes can fill an unmet need — to provide bursts of momentum to working writers who may not want the intensity of instruction found in a long-term advanced level workshop but can benefit immensely from individual master classes.” To see descriptions of classes offered at our January, 2010 MFA Residency, go to: www.pmc.edu/mfa-classes-for-audit. We will be posting a list of auditable courses for our July Residency at the end of April.
 
Like the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing and the Solstice Summer Writers’ Conference, the Solstice Seminars will provide a supportive, welcoming environment in which writers of all backgrounds are encouraged to take creative risks. We would like to thank all of the faculty members, guest writers, and participants who contributed to the Solstice Summer Writers’ Conference, along with a special shout out to all of those who generously donated funds so that other writers could attend. To see a list of our past donors, go to our site.
 
 
We look forward to hearing from you,

Tanya  Whiton
Assistant Director
Solstice Creative Writing Programs of Pine Manor College
400 Heath Street
Chestnut Hill, MA  02467
(617) 731-7697

Inspire your inner writer -- audit at Solstice!

I've posted about the value of the Solstice programs many times before and recommend this generous offer without reservation. Read this notice from them and take advantage!

Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Mass, is making a select number of its graduate-level creative writing courses open to the public for auditing during the January Residency of its Solstice MFA Program, scheduled from January 1–10, 2010.

One local writer, a post-graduate student, said: “…I think Solstice MFA classes can fill an unmet need for Boston’s writing community —to provide bursts of momentum to working writers who may not want the intensity of instruction found in either an MFA Program or a long-term advanced level workshop, but can benefit immensely from individual master classes.”

Classes are open to serious writers working at all levels; auditors are encouraged to complete the advance preparation requirements for any MFA class they wish to attend.

January 2010 MFA classes that are open to the public include:

Cross-genre courses:
An Eye for an I: Lyrical Elements in Poetry — A Gift for the Prose Writer
Narrative Arrival: A Craft Class for All Genres

A course on film adaptations of the novel:
Is the Book Always Better?•

Two classes on creative nonfiction:
Every Word Counts: Crafting Nonfiction That Sings
Maxine Hong Kingston: A Trans-Genre Memoirist•

Two fiction courses:
Place in Fiction: Larry McMurtry and Thalia, Texas
Action that Shakes the Page

An in-depth look at poetic structure:
Structure & Artistic Memory

A class on how writers can engage with their communities:
Higher Ground: How to Enrich Your Community and Make a Difference Through Your Art

January 2010 Classes are now available for registration; the deadline for enrolling as an auditor for the Winter 2009 Residency is December 28, 2009. For course descriptions, our audit policy, and a downloadable registration form, go to: www.pmc.edu/mfa

Listening to their words

The talented writers who read--and teach--in the Solstice MFA program will warm up the winter nights of January. Plan ahead. I always publish the press release from the program (the only program for which this is so) because I love this series and have been going since it started.

THE SOLSTICE MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM OF PINE MANOR COLLEGE
ANNOUNCES ITS JANUARY READING SERIES

[Chestnut Hill, MA, November, 2009]  The Solstice MFA Program announces its Winter Reading Series, taking place January 1–8 in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College, located at 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill. *All readings are at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Authors’ books will be available after all readings; cash-bar receptions will follow the readings on January 3 & 7. Plenty of free parking!
 
Friday, January 1 

Tanya Whiton & Dzvinia Orlowsky
MFA Assistant Director and fiction writer Tanya Whiton & Dzvinia Orlowsky (author of four poetry collections, most recently Convertible Night, Flurry of Stones).
 
*Saturday, January 2 at 8:00

Venise Berry, Meg Kearney, & Laban Carrick Hill
Venise Berry (author of four novels, including the forthcoming Pockets of Sanity);
MFA Director and poet Meg Kearney (author of An Unkindness of Ravens & Home By Now); & Laban Carrick Hill (author of America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s).
 
Sunday, January 3

Anne-Marie Oomen & Special Guest M.L. Liebler
Memoirist and poet Anne-Marie Oomen (author of the forthcoming An American Map) & special guest poet (with musical accompaniment by Anthony Kaczynski) M.L. Liebler (author of 13 books, including Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream).
 

Tuesday, January 5

Special Guest Melissa Stewart & Steven Huff
Melissa Stewart (author of numerous children’s books, including Under the Snow) & Steven Huff (author of two poetry collections and the short fiction collection A Pig in Paris).
 
Wednesday, January 6

Laura W. McCaffrey, Ray Gonzalez, & Sandra Scofield
Speculative fiction writer Laura Williams McCaffrey (author of the forthcoming Lyla’s Flight); Ray Gonzalez (author of Faith Run and Cool Auditor: Prose Poems); and Sandra Scofield (National Book Award Finalist for Beyond Deserving; author of seven novels, a memoir, and a craft book).
 
Thursday, January 7

Randall Kenan & Special Guest Dorothy Allison
Multi-genre writer Randall Kenan (author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including Let the Dead Bury Their Dead and The Fire This Time) & special guest Dorothy Allison (author of National Book Award finalist Bastard Out of Carolina; Cavedweller; and the forthcoming She Who.
 
Friday, January 8

An Na, Amy Hoffman, & Special Guest Ira Sadoff
An Na (author of The Fold; Wait For Me; and A Step From Heaven); Amy Hoffman (author of the memoirs Hospital Time and An Army of Ex-Lovers); & special guest Ira Sadoff (author of seven collections of poetry, including the recent Barter and Grazing).
 
Directions to Pine Manor College, complete bios of authors, and more information about the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program can be found here.

Great readers, great writers at Solstice MFA series

I regularly post these announcements from my friends at Solstice because I know that if you go you won't be disappointed.

THE SOLSTICE MFA PROGRAM of PINE MANOR COLLEGE
ANNOUNCES ITS JULY READING SERIES

[Chestnut Hill, MA, July 2009]  The Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College announces its July Reading Series. All readings begin at 7:30 p.m. and are held in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College located at 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill. Copies of the authors’ books will be available for sale after all readings, and there is plenty of free parking!

Friday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m.: Author and illustrator Grace Lin (The Ugly Vegetables, and The Year of the Rat) & poet and fiction writer Steven Huff (A Pig In Paris and The Water We Came From).

Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m.: Poet Kathleen Aguero (Investigations: The Mystery of the Girl Sleuth and Daughter Of); novelist & young people’s writer Laban Carrick Hill (America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s and Casa Azul); & fiction and nonfiction writer Randall Kenan (Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Century and Let the Dead Bury Their Dead).

Sunday, July 12 at 7:30 p.m.: Program Director and poet Meg Kearney (An Unkindness of Ravens and The Secret of Me); novelist Helen Elaine Lee (Water Marked and The Serpent’s Gift); & special guest poet Bruce Bennett (Funny Signals and the forthcoming Subway Figure).

Tuesday, July 14 at 7:30 p.m.: Program Administrator and fiction writer Tanya Whiton (published in Crazyhorse and Northwest Review) & creative nonfiction writer Michael Steinberg (editor of Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction and author of Still Pitching).

Wednesday, July 15 at 7:30 p.m.: YA novelist Laura Williams McCaffrey (Alia Waking and the forthcoming Lyla’s Flight); multi-genre writer Ray Gonzalez (The Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape and Cool Auditor: Prose Poems); & poet & memoirist Anne-Marie Oomen (Uncoded Woman; House of Fields).

Thursday, July 16 at 7:30 p.m.: Special guest poet Jeffrey Thomson (Birdwatching in Wartime and Renovation) & multi-genre writer Joy Castro (The Truth Book).

Friday, July 17 at 7:30 p.m.: Novelist Sterling Watson (The Calling and Weep No More, My Brother) & special guest M.L. Liebler (Written In Rain: New & Selected Poems 1985-2000 and Greatest Hits: 1984-2004).

Directions to Pine Manor College, complete bios of our authors, and more information about the Solstice MFA Program can be found here.
###

Solstice bloggers in training

Happy proto-bloggers at Solstice Summer Writers' Conference after our session today

Solstice Director Meg Kearney