by Connie Pan

MFA alumna Maggie Glover.

Once, at AWP 2012 in Chicago, I met Maggie Glover. Rebecca Thomas, Jim Harms, and I were womanning and manning WVU’s table at the Bookfair. All I remember was a bright flash of red, a huge smile, and an infectious, bubbly personality. After she left, in the wake of her awesome, the three of us smiling, Jim said something like (excuse my hazy memory but I was starstruck), That’s Maggie. She took a different path. She’s great.

Well, I love people who take the road less travelled. Who doesn’t? When I discovered that, after her BA in English Literature from Denison University and her MFA in poetry from West Virginia, she was on the forefront of ModCloth’s pioneering days, warehouse-style in Pittsburgh (my favorite city), I was smitten. Now, she’s living in San Francisco (my second favorite city) and winning Pushcart Prize nomination after Pushcart Prize nomination (four total) and publishing her poems in Ninth Letter, Smartish Pace, Verse Daily, and other literary magazines. She was living the dream—my very detailed dream.

My second Maggie sighting was when my friend, Amanda Cobb, sent me a picture of her holding Maggie’s poem, “Jane Street, Mansfield Avenue.” The text read, This reminds me of us. As I read Maggie’s poem, my heart bloomed in my chest, and I felt lifted in the arms of her lines, clean and sharp. “Like all wild women, / we are sleepless, but not haunted….” The lines unzipped my skin and pointed at the parts of me that only the closest friends know exist. When I finished reading I thought, That is what a poet is supposed to do with a poem. And I was smitten again. When I discovered Maggie’s debut collection of poems, How I Went Red, was being published by Carnegie Mellon University Press in 2014 and that she’d be our Alumni Spotlight, I jumped at the chance to interview her. It’s been a delight corresponding with Maggie, my third encounter, and I am happy to share her answers to my questions with you.

CP: When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? Who or what influences you and your work?

MG: I’ve wanted to be a writer my whole life (although I also wanted to be an actress on Broadway, until I was in college and realized that I couldn’t sing or dance that well.) However, I would never have realized my hunger for poetry if it wasn’t for the incredible teachers I had to guide me at both Denison University and at WVU’s MFA program.

I think that my work shows the influence of Adrienne Rich and Lucille Clifton (or, at least, I hope is does.) Jorie Graham is a poet whose work opened up a door inside my head when it came to understanding what poetry meant, or could mean. She has had a huge influence on me, though it’s not necessarily palpable in my work.

CP:Could you talk about the origins of your forthcoming collection, How I Went Red, and its journey to publication?

MG: This manuscript has been through several revisions, and is an entirely different book from my original graduate thesis that I completed in 2008 at WVU, which might be considered a first draft. However, more than half of this book is made up of poems that I’ve written since that time. One poem was written my junior year of undergrad and one poem was written the week before I submitted it to CMU, who accepted it for publication during their open submission period in October of 2012.

Much of How I Went Red is an exploration of memory and identity (and hair dye), and the “how” of that exploration is, in my opinion, more interesting than any possible conclusion. So many things and places and people inspired this book; Morgantown is definitely one of them. Other inspirations include: transvestites, the 2007 October issue of Vogue magazine, amnesia, ice storms, horse placenta, Ecstasy, Phillip Levine, the UFC, Brooklyn, liposuction, human beings, hearts and Florence Nightingale.

CP: You’ve worked for ModCloth since 2008, can you see similarities between your writing style and your personal style? How does fashion appear in your writing?

MG: I like when I am asked about the connections between my day job in retail marketing and my poetry because I spend a lot of time thinking about how each world bleeds into the other. As the Head of Community at ModCloth, audience is intensely important. If it wasn’t for my background in poetry, I don’t think I would have as much of a grasp on how our actions and messages impact our community members. The language we use to speak to our customers is a critical component to our success.

In addition, I think that fashion intimidates people in the same way that poetry does. Some people are afraid that they won’t “get it,” and are therefore content to stay in their comfort zone of jeans, T-shirts and Twilight books out of fear of doing something wrong. I think it’s my job as a poet and my job as a community manager for a fashion company to encourage people to try something new, like a bright peplum skirt or fancy sestina. I want to encourage ModCloth customers and my readers to take risks and have some fun; we’ll all be dead soon, anyway.
As far as the similarities between my personal style and writing style go, I think I have a flair for the dramatic in both areas. Today, I wore platforms with spikes and rhinestones on the heel with a black vintage dress and bright pink tights. I could definitely picture one of my poems wearing this outfit.

I have some poems that were directly influenced by the fashion world, such as “That Bag is Sick in the Head: A Sonnet for Marc Jacobs,” which is an homage to the 2007 undefined116122.undefined116123.undefined116124.undefined116731.undefined213152.documentary, Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton. I was inspired by how similar Jacobs and his team’s design processes were to my own process for developing a poem. I love the wild abandon that they showed in their creative approach while simultaneously being very precise when it came to execution.

First, I got to know Maggie the person, then Maggie the poet. If you don’t already have the pleasure of knowing her, I hope after this article, you get the chance to meet Maggie the person. Both Maggies are charismatic, powerful, genuine, daring. My moments involving Maggie are shining memories that I can pluck out like diamonds from the bedlam of faces and words floating around in me.

And Maggie, a woman who has been here and done this, wants you current MFAs to know, “I am incredibly jealous of you right now. I wish I could be back in the program, learning, reading and discussing poems with you. Enjoy the hell out of this time of your life – it’s incredibly special and goes by much too quickly!” Make sure to keep tabs on Maggie, who is going places, at her website. So are you smitten, too?

by Connie Pan

Last year it seemed like The Council of Writers (widely known as COW), the WVU MFA graduate organization, couldn’t get any more busy and fun and productive. But coming to the end of another academic year, we’ve outdone ourselves. Again.

In July, several officers met at Gene’s Beer Garden to stuff envelopes—with the intention of calming some of the incoming MFAs’ pre-move nerves—full of Morgantown maps, brochures, menus, and the annual “COW Welcome Directory” complete with our head shots, thoughts, inspirations, and advice.

Before the first week of classes, we hosted the Second Annual MFA Rooftop Reading at the Montmartre, where MFAs, new and old, braved a lull in the summer storm to kick-off the year with the Bam! Crash! Crack! Boom! of our words. Thank the sky, it stayed clear for us.

The first weekend of the Fall semester, we lugged gifted furniture, books, jewelry, hats, knick-knacks, jewelry, and thing-a-ma-bobs galore for a garage sale fundraiser on Rebecca Thomas’s porch for the South Park-wide sale. With two-times the sales as the previous year, COW’s pockets were padded with more than lint and paperclips. After closing up our garage sale shop, we set up for our yearly MFA Meet-and-Greet, where the newbies join the oldies and our lovely professors in a laid-back party setting to eat writing, drink writing, speak writing, hear writing, and dream writing.

In October, we held two additional fundraisers. First, we held a bake sale, pushing goodies to the hungry Mountainlair passersby. Second, we collaborated with EGO for the EGO/COW Book Sale/Bake Sale. Due to hurricane wind and rain, we extended the sale for the week. It was wonderful seeing Colson frequenters fingering, coveting, and purchasing books all hours of the day.

We held our Formal Fall MFA Reading at the Arts Mon. The reading was emceed by first-year MFA candidate in creative nonfiction, Hannah McPherson, whose thoughtful introductions warmed up not only the stage but our hearts.

In December, Jeremiah Shelor hosted our holiday party. But this wasn’t just any holiday party, this was Whitmania, where everyone brought not only a dish and drink to pass but also the songs of themselves, which some read and some recited.

During the first week of March, a dozen MFAists travelled to Boston for AWP to sing the praises of our university, our department, our programs, our professors, our colleagues and alumni, and our spankin’ new journal, Cheat River Review. In tow we had Cheat River Review’s Head Editor/Fiction Editor, Jessi Lewis; Nonfiction Editor, Rebecca Doverspike; Poetry Editor, Morgan O’Grady, as well as Rebecca Thomas and myself (WVU MFA Table spearheaders), COW Officers galore, and literature enthusiasts. Oh, did we sing, and 90% of us returned without voices.

On April 5, COW’s Visiting Writer, Stephen Kuusisto, joined us from Syracuse to read. Rebecca Childers, a third-year candidate in Creative Nonfiction, introduced him.

And with a few weeks left of this academic year, we’re still going. On April 28, COW’s annual real-in-the-flesh Formal Spring MFA Reading will take place on Sunday at 2PM (last year’s fell near Valentine’s Day) on Chaang Thai and Chillberry’s balcony. Our featured Spring Readers are Shane Stricker (Fiction), Andi Stout (Poetry), and Sara Kearns (Poetry). Also reading are Jessica Guzman, Nathan Holmes, Jesse Kalvitis, Sadie Shorr-Parks, among others.

I would love to take this opportunity to thank the COW officers—Shane Stricker (vice-president), Christina Seymour (secretary), Rebecca Thomas (treasurer), Sara Lucas and Jesse Kalvitis, (publicity)—and all of the MFAists who donated their time, fingers, money, and baking skills to supporting and repping our fantastic MFA Program and all of its good work.

Just this past Monday, I hosted my last meeting. We’re leaving COW with the highest bar ever. I’ve seen the ballot for next year’s officers, and there’s no doubt in my mind that next year COW will continue raising that bar.

by Shane Stricker

Mark Brazaitis won the Iowa Short Fiction Award in 1998 for his collection, River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala. Since then he has published four books, with his novel Julia & Rodrigo forthcoming from Gival Press later this year. His latest collection, The Incurables, recently won the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction from Notre Dame Press and arrived on shelves to critical acclaim. It is currently is a finalist for the 2012 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award in short stories. Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind described this book as “a wonderful collection of stories about life, mental illness, and the human condition. The stories are wry, compassionate, and provide a deep understanding of the strengths and frailties of human nature and the ways in which individuals play out the hard cards they are dealt. Or don’t.”

Mark teaches creative writing and until May, at least, serves as the Director of the Creative Writing Program here at West Virginia University. He is the one who, in February of 2010, reached out to an aspiring young writer and told him he was accepted into the MFA program at WVU. This kept the young man from selling his soul and returning to the pharmacy program he had opted out of in favor of an English degree just four years prior. For the sake of full disclosure, I was this writer and will always be grateful for his phone call, for this voice on the other end of the line that did not rescind the offer when I had a semi-meltdown and began sharing more than was appropriate with this man I did not know.

SS: Who influenced you in your writing as you were starting out?

MB: My biggest influences were my father, because he was a writer I respected, and my maternal grandmother, who loved poetry and novels and short stories and spoke of writers with reverence.

SS: What do you see in your writing that connects with the written words of your father?

MB: My father had a concise, lucid style. I don’t think I’ve ever been as concise or lucid as he was, though I’ve tried. My father also loved humor, and he wrote funny stuff. I’ve certainly tried to carry on this tradition.

SS: How have these influences changed as you’ve gotten older/more experienced? What writers inspire you today?

MB: When I was in high school, I read Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Lermontov, Chekhov—all the Russians—as well as Kafka, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Henry James, Ralph Ellison, Stephen Crane, William Styron, V.S. Naipaul. Kate Chopin, Jane Austen…As you’ve probably guessed, I was not very social in high school.

My influences since high school: Lorrie Moore, Mary Gaitskill, Janet Peery, Philip Roth, John Updike, José Saramago, Gabriel García Marquez, James M. Cain, Walter Mosely, James Baldwin and hundreds more.

SS: Vonnegut says, “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.” What are your impressions of this statement? Do you have a specific reader in mind when you write?

MB: It seemed to work for Vonnegut. I don’t think I picture a particular reader. I guess I write the thing as it needs to be written and hope someone likes it.

SS: What is the most difficult thing to do in fiction?

MB: The most challenging thing to do in fiction is write a satisfying ending. The second most challenging thing to do is write an opening. The middle is important too, of course. It’s just easy to write (especially if you’ve come up with a good opening).

SS: Is writing a selfish act?

MB: It depends on what you would do with the time otherwise. If the answer is, “Find a cure for cancer,” then, yes, it’s a selfish act. Otherwise, no. The best fiction teaches us—or reminds us, anyway—what it means to be human. It gives us insight into the human condition, expands our ability to sympathize with our fellow human beings. And it entertains.

SS: What can make you turn away from a well-written story (either your own or a piece belonging to another)?

MB: Clichés and an insensitivity to suffering.

SS: Is writing a therapeutic act? Can it, from your view, help to rid the mind of its demons, of the evils that come when we close our eyes?

MB: I think it can. But writing that arises strictly out of a therapeutic need probably isn’t going to be that “good”—i.e. it probably isn’t going to be something we’d want to publish. But if it makes us feel better—bravo!

SS: Do you ever find yourself writing out of a sense of wish fulfillment?

MB: Possibly. But my characters have their own destinies, and they can’t save me or redeem my sins. The only time I’ve ever revised a story to fulfill a wish was several years ago when I allowed my older daughter to read a piece I’d written about a feuding couple. She wanted them to live happily ever after. So I wrote a happily-ever-after ending. But a few days later, unbeknownst to her, I revised the story so it had the appropriate not-so-happy ending. I’m sorry, Annabel!

SS: Can you ever come to know a place as well as, if not better than, the place that is home, whether this place be your actual home or an adopted home?

MB: Yes, providing you make a serious effort to get to know it. I know Santa Cruz, Verapaz, Guatemala circa 1990 as well as I know any place on earth. I wasn’t born in Santa Cruz. I wasn’t born in to a Spanish- or Pokomchi-speaking family. But I lived in Santa Cruz for three years, and I absorbed everything.

SS: A woman, in your story, “The Bridge,” mentions that a possibility of the cause for the rash of suicides is that the world has lost Jesus and Satan has taken hold. What role do you feel religion plays in your writing? If any.

MB: I grew up in a house divided by religion. My father was Catholic, my mother was Protestant, and their families didn’t particularly care for the other’s religion. I wasn’t raised in any particular faith. But the religious faiths of my characters sometimes plays a critical role in who they are and what choices they make. In my forthcoming novel, Julia & Rodrigo, Julia’s family has converted to Evangelism, but she secretly holds on to her Catholicism—to the point of sneaking off to pray by herself in her town’s small calvario. Of course to write a novel about Guatemala without addressing the religion of one’s characters would be like writing a book about Shakespeare and failing to mention he was a playwright.

SS: Could you describe your process for ordering stories in a collection?

MB: There are a few things I consider when ordering a collection: length of the stories; tone; chronology (in a linked collection); point of view (first person, second person, third person); and, in the case of my first book, whether a character dies in the story. (In The River of Lost Voices, I alternated between stories where people died and where they didn’t. But then I ran out of stories where people didn’t die.) I guess I’m hoping to provide variety for people who read the collection straight through. But readers may not read a collection straight through.

SS: How do you decide when it’s time, when a story must be put down because it is finished?

MB: I find that when I am making my story worse, then it’s time to call it finished. A story—one of my stories, anyway—is never going to be perfect. The goal is to find out how close to perfect it can be, then quit when I reach that point. I was telling my undergraduate students the other day about Bruce Springsteen listening to recordings of some of his famous songs. For “Thunder Road” (or “Born to Run”—one of the big ones), he and the E Street Band recorded something like 35 takes. Take number 35 was the version that made the album. But when he listened years later to all the takes, he said the previous take, take number 34, was the one he should have used. He’d revised too much!

To hear more about Mark’s thoughts on his collection, his writing, and life, listen to his interview on The Diane Rehm Show

by Connie Pan and Rebecca Thomas aka RebCon

MFA students Sara Lucas and Christina Seymour at the WVU table

AWP Boston was a smashing hit. The panels were hopping. The readings were inspiring. The bookfair was…booking. For four straight days, scarves, glasses, and bookbags filled The Hynes Convention Center. Outside, it may have been a snowpocalypse, but inside, we had enough literary talk and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to feel warm and alive.

So much snow!

This year, WVU returned to the Bookfair armed with a dozen MFAs and a brand-spanking-new litmag—Cheat River Review! It was glorious and next year will be, too. Even if it is twenty-five hundred miles away in Seattle, there are plenty of reasons to attend. Based on this year’s conference, here are a few:

1. The Bookfair.
It’s only growing people. Kindle, what? E-readers didn’t seem to scare away the independent and university journals and presses. We saw some gorgeous books out there this year, and you better believe, our suitcases were filled to the max when we returned. 50 pounds isn’t nearly enough of a weight limit when we’re dealing with books.

Once again, WVU was able to participate in the bookfair with our beautiful table. Morgan O’Grady, an MFA candidate in Poetry, loved working the table. She said, “my favorite part of AWP was manning the table and spreading word about our program and the journal. Shaking hands with people and meeting prospective applicants made me happy to be in such a close knit cohort.”

MFA candidate in Fiction Connie Pan

2. Panels.
The panels in Boston seemed to be the best yet, and we can only imagine that it’s going to get better. This year, RebCon saw panels on grief (Reb cried, Con hugged Nami Mun and told her their protagonists would be best friends), place (where our own Glenn Taylor got a shout out), place as character (where MFA candidate in Fiction Sara Lucas asked Richard Russo and Jennifer Haigh a question so fabulous she got business cards after), folklore, and fabulism, which was fabulousome. We spent our time furiously jotting down notes and becoming inspired.

Rebecca Doverspike, an MFA candidate in Nonfiction, agreed that the panels stuck with you. She said, “Even though there’s so much swirling around at once, it’s an immersion such that just by be being in it, you’re bound to absorb some sparks. One such spark, for me, was a panel of poets in homage to Adrienne Rich. One of the panelists mentioned her initial skepticism of ‘political’ poems, in that they too often say what’s already been said and lose the very emotional impact they’re trying to impart. At the end of her paper, though, she arrives at the realization that any poem of the body is inherently a political poem. I find myself daily thinking about the last line of her presentation: ‘And how, to be American, is to be inevitably and inextricably stitched to the world.’ That word, ‘stitched,’ made me feel the chair beneath me, the floor and walls of the room I sat in—yes, we are ‘stitched’ to this world, and I remind myself what kind of responsibility that holds. Whether we’re aware of it or not, our actions affect this world we’re stitched to—and part of that responsibility resides in being aware. Such a quote reminds me, too, of the intricacy in relationships, between one another, between ourselves and the world—to be ‘stitched’ here means that that web of connection holds us, too, just as we enact within it.”

3. Celebrity Sightings.
We might have been in Boston, but this AWP felt like we were in Hollywood. Sara Lucas ran into, literally, Chris Cooper. James Franco made an appearance—in person and on fans (on sale at a booth for only two dollars!). But movie celebrities aren’t half as sexy as literary ones, and boy were there a lot of literary icons. The highlight for RebCon was when Rita Dove stopped by the WVU table, admiring our Cheat River Review pens, which perfectly matched her blue suit, glasses, and nails (aka, she has the same color pallete as us; we belong together). Rita Dove brought the man in the booth next to us to squeals: there was an “oh my God” and there was running. And rightly so.

MFA students Sara Lucas and Jessi Lewis in disguise at the WVU table.

4. Readings.
The readings are always spectacular at AWP, and this year was no exception. Christina Seymour, MFA candidate in Poetry, described seeing Jorie Graham and Terrance Hayes as the highlight of her trip. Christina said that the two “SOUND amazing, especially together. Widely different influences between them, but a central desire for music in their language that was enthralling and emotional.”

But of course, the off sight readings are almost just as hot as the onsite ones. Connie and Sara Lucas were lucky enough to get two of the hottest tickets in town. They saw McSweeneys and the Rumpus Rock AWP at 826 Boston. Sara and Connie are still trying to find a way to make Thomas Page McBee, Paula LeGault, Roxane Gay, Amy Fusselman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates their best friends. It can happen!

5. Community.
Finally, nothing reminds you how strong and vibrant the writing community is like seeing 11,000-plus (the largest attended AWP yet) people stream the convention center’s halls. So many glasses, Morgan said, “and each pair was more quirky than the last. I was in love.”

Christina Seymour felt inspired by this community. She said, “AWP enlivened my sense of creative writing as a profession. Especially being affiliated with a university and a magazine, I felt worthwhile, which is no small feeling for an MFA student, I think! The experience also gave me faith that I made the right decision to be a writer. Our community is varied, sassy, undervalued, but we make up for all of that by meeting in the middle about the pleasures and challenges of writing (which is living) today.”

So, if Seattle is even half the conference that 2013 Boston was, you should still cash-in your miles, buy a new scarf, and bring an extra bag for all of the lovely treats you’ll pick up. See you next year!

by Connie Pan and Rebecca Thomas aka RebCon

It seems like just yesterday that we arrived to the Mountain State friendless and unsure of ourselves. Somehow, three years has passed, and we find ourselves with amazing friends, a little more certainty, and a lot more knowledge. Some of the highlights: Jaimy Gordon imparting knowledge while we ate pizza and drank champagne, AWP…all of it, our wonderful COW parties (no party’s like a COW party ‘cause a COW party don’t stop. Moo), our fabulous folklore tour of 2012 and 2013 with Shane Stricker with conference stops at OSU and Duquesne, and the countless workshops, classes, and readings we’ve had the honor of attending. We could not list them all. We’d be writing this for another three years. But we do have to say that neither of us anticipated such a warm and welcoming program and cohort. We’re lucky; we know. So, as we begin to say goodbye, we thought we’d let you, the Internet World, learn a little more about these wonderful people we’ve had the pleasure of working with. Here are their thoughts on their time here and what’s to come:

CREATIVE NONFICTION

Rebecca Childers
1. What are your plans after you become Masters of writing?
In terms of writing, I’d like to write a book of essays about my brother. And several hundred romance novels for Harlequin.
2. What is your favorite memory at WVU?
Teaching at Evansdale at the same time as my big sis, and sneaking off to Zenclay between classes. Also—listening to Troy Copeland read his work in workshop. I clap everytime. Also, watching Ellissa Hofman at readings.
3. What will you miss the most?
Kevin Oderman’s nonfiction workshop and Laura Brady.
4. What is your biggest accomplishment here?
I can walk up to the third floor of Colson without panting.
5. What is your favorite piece that you’ve workshopped here at WVU?
“Air Dog in nonfiction.” It was about my uncle’s invisible dog and how the dead never really go away.
6. Do you have any advice for future MFAs?
Take your cross-genre class early, it can change everything. Also, taking a non-English class (Woodshop, Pottery…) can do wonders for the soul. I just built a bookshelf!

Jeremiah Shelor
1. What are your plans after you become Masters of writing?
To have a room with paper windows.

FICTION

Connie Pan
1. What are your plans after you become Masters of writing?
After becoming a Master of writing (eeep!), my immediate plans involve bikinis, pina coladas, naps, and pleasure reading. Long-term plans include getting my novel find-an-agent-ready, returning to my collection of stories, and trying to find a gig with health insurance.

2. What is your favorite memory at WVU?
My favorite memories at WVU are talking about writing over drinks. I can’t choose a favorite. Those moments are like children, and that’s just mean.

3. What will you miss the most?
Mostly, I will miss the community. Writers are crazy. It’s nice being able to walk down the hall, open a door, close a door, and have someone understand your crazy. I’m inspired by projects and deadlines, so I think I’ll miss someone or something constantly stooping over me to tell me, Produce! Luckily, I’m certain my fiction cohort will share work long after our degrees hit our hands.

4. What is your biggest accomplishment here?
I applied to MFA Programs because I was working on a project that, with two jobs, kept me from sleep and wasn’t progressing the way that I had hoped it would. I arrived knowing what story I wanted to write, but that makes the process sound easy and it wasn’t. I didn’t start working on the project until the middle of my second year (big mistake, but silver lining—I have a second project). In those fifteen months, I had two month-long-plus periods of bad-and-no-writing. I thought, 160 pages by July, and the story said, 285 pages by the end of March. I bought two mouth guards here, and I’m lucky I’m leaving with hair. I don’t want to scare anyone. Be aware that I’m the worst boss to myself (think drill sergeant with a To-Do list that would scare people into hermitage), but both surviving and accomplishing the thing I came here to do was the best feeling.

5. What is your favorite piece that you’ve workshopped here at WVU?
My last workshop was my favorite workshop. I frantically workshopped three times before Spring Break, hoping to finish my thesis, and thought I had failed. After I turned in my last workshop, I kept writing. I wrote five endings and hated most of them. In workshop, as everyone got out their copies of my chapters, they talked about it like it was the end. I started to butt in, then realized it was the end. How hadn’t I known? I guess I had gotten so used to failing at my own deadlines that I assumed I’d never finish. My whole workshop I smiled. And who smiles during a workshop?

6. Do you have any advice for future MFAs?
My advice for future MFAs is to be the best version of yourself. Be the best writer you can be. Always that first. Be the best teacher you can be. Be a good friend and colleague. Attend the readings. Take vitamins. Get sleep. Wear sunscreen. Exercise. Call your family. Volunteer. Treat yourself. Don’t forget to live.

Shane Stricker
1. What are your plans after you become Masters of writing?
I hope to continue teaching and I will definitely persevere in my writing. The ideal situation would be to live in a beautiful area of the country, wherever that may be. There, I would teach creative writing and be surrounded with a collection of writers who encourage and push me to be a better writer, teacher, and person.

2. What is your favorite memory at WVU?
I think it involves the West Virginia Writers Workshop. Rebecca Thomas and I were volunteering at the event and so were able to participate in the Fiction workshop with Robert Olmstead. When we had finished for the day, and I was chatting with Robert, he told me that we must have compassion for our characters. This wasn’t new advice. But what he said next was new to me. He said, in paraphrase, when we kill, or rape, or harm our characters in anyway, it is us, the author, who is doing these things, not the other characters in the story. While I may not agree wholeheartedly with this statement, the advice took root within me and made me more considerate, more compassionate, to my character’s wants and needs. I think this advice lead me to create a greater number of happy endings than I had prior to our conversation.

3. What will you miss the most?
I will miss my community. The two fiction writers who came into the program with me, Connie Pan and Rebecca Thomas, have been there to comment on my stories, to support my writing, and to comfort and console me when I needed someone who understood what it is to fail over and over again. Though I know they will continue to be a part of my life moving forward, it can never be the same as it has been here at WVU. I am forever grateful for their influence on my work and for their support of me as a person.

4. What is your biggest accomplishment here?
I have written twenty-three stories since arriving in Morgantown. Though not all of these made it into my thesis, I feel that the sheer bulk of these shows I have spent my time here wisely. My biggest accomplishment, then, is creating characters who I care about, over and over, and knowing, when everything is said and done, that I used my three years at WVU to do what I was brought here to do.

5. What is your favorite piece that you’ve workshopped here at WVU?
This is a tough question. As I mentioned in my last answer, I care deeply about all of the characters with whom I’ve spent my time. But if I had to choose just one story, it would be have to be, “The Gospel According to Charlotte Atwater.” Through thirteen drafts, I never tired of spending time with Charlotte, the protagonist of the piece. I grew fonder of her as we went along. I love Charlotte as one would love their mother, or sister, or grandmother.

6. Do you have any advice for future MFAs?
Work. This isn’t the place to come and bullshit around. If you aren’t writing, you’re wasting a space in the program that could have gone to someone who actually cares. There are so many people who wanted your spot, who needed your spot, who fucked at the dream of being in this program and did not get accepted. Don’t take this for granted.

Rebecca Thomas
1. What are your plans after you become Masters of writing?
After this, I know I will write; I hope to keep on teaching. I extra hope to find a job with health insurance and retirement and other such grown up things. I also plan on sleeping. A lot. And reading. A lot.

2. What is your favorite memory at WVU?
Well, that’s just impossible to answer. A few of my favorites: Connie and I driving to AWP Chicago, and the many times we nearly died; rooming with Kelly Sundberg and Connie this year at AWP; ending up drinking champagne with Jaimy Gordon after Sturm with Sara Lucas and Connie; driving around Columbus, OH after a folklore panel presentation with Shane, Connie, and Micah Holmes; the dinner parties; the COW parties; workshop banter; talking about writing over drinks; general hilarity. All of these memories involve the amazing people I’ve met here.

3. What will you miss the most?
The support of this community. I am a fairly shy person, so I came here expecting to fly under the radar. From the moment composition training started in August 2010, I have been blown away by how friendly and warm everyone here is. I can’t get over how supportive and generous our professors are. I am constantly amazed by how wonderful my cohort is. I would be lost without Connie and Shane.

4. What is your biggest accomplishment here?
I think my biggest accomplishment would be that I’ve pushed myself in ways I was not expecting. Like I mentioned above, I am not an outgoing person. I don’t like to speak out, but I made myself do things that scared me here: taking out of genre workshops, volunteering, organizing events. I’d also have to say that my biggest accomplishment is the body of work I produced here. I’ve written a lot. I came in being unsure about my ability to write. While I still question that from time to time, I’ve gained the confidence to at least call myself a writer. That’s something.

5. What is your favorite piece that you’ve workshopped here at WVU?
While I don’t think it’s my best story, I have a soft spot for “Quince.” It felt like that story just unfolded as I was writing it. I also think my favorite pieces I’ve workshopped are the ones that have scared me or frustrated me the most—“Between Sets” and “Surviving the Postseason” in fiction—but especially in my nonfiction and poetry workshops. I am such a poetry newbie, so sitting in poetry workshop, hearing people’s responses allowed me to learn so much. I love that I had the time to try new things while I was here and workshop them. That’s what I love about workshop: you get to take risks and are rewarded with feedback.

6. Do you have any advice for future MFAs?
Say yes to as much as you can. Say yes to Sturm, to the West Virginia Writer’s Workshop, to readings, to volunteer opportunities, to writing. Write. Work with as many of the professors as you can. Write. Take out of genre workshops. Write. Embrace the community. Write. Sleep. Breathe. Take moments for yourself. Take time to be in the world. Then, write some more.

POETRY

Melissa Atkinson was not able to respond in time, but she’s a wonderful person who you should get to know. Read her recent student spotlight.

Ben Bishop
1. What are your plans after you become Masters of writing?
My plan is to get out of the world of academia and venture into the realm of “normal life.” I will be taking my MFA toolbox with me, and crafting poems at my own pace when I’m not fixing computers.

3. What will you miss the most?
The people, and a workplace environment where social justice is a requirement.

4. What is your biggest accomplishment here?
I learned how to produce poems that come off the page almost exactly how I want them to.

5. What is your favorite piece that you’ve workshopped here at WVU?
An absurdist (and humorous) list poem by Matt London where the speaker was picking up some things from a grocery store.

Sara Kearns
1. What are your plans after you become Masters of writing?
My priority will be to fine tune my thesis and try to get it published as my first
full length collection. Everything else is up in the air, but I’ll be in Pittsburgh for a while and then hopefully move to NYC.
2. What is your favorite memory at WVU?
There are so many, but if I had to choose I guess right now I’d have to say
successfully defending my thesis.
3. What will you miss the most?
Melissa, Rebecca, and Jessi, as well as learning about poetry from Mary Ann and
Jim.
4. What is your biggest accomplishment here?
Not giving up.
5. What is your favorite piece that you’ve workshopped here at WVU?
Hmm, right now I’m kind of fond of a poem called “Maybe God does exist.”
6. Do you have any advice for future MFAs?
Morgantown can be a frustrating place to live, especially if you’re used to living in a city, so when it gets difficult to embrace, remember Whitman and try to “be curious, not judgmental.” I’d apply that to WVU and graduate school, as well. Also, remember that things will get easier after the first year: It may not seem like it at first, but you will become acclimated and find your groove.

Andi Stout
1. What are your plans after you become Masters of writing?
After graduation, I plan to adjunct for a year while I prepare applications to Ph.D. programs in Film and Television Studies. Currently, I’m working with Ken Robidoux, Editor in Chief of Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, to turn my thesis into a chapbook.

2. What is your favorite memory at WVU?
My favorite memory at WVU is taking my first seminar class with Dr. John Ernest. I was the only MFA in a room. At first, it was a little scary, but I held my own. I couldn’t comment much about lit. theory, so I stuck with what I knew. Craft. Soon, Ph.Ds in the room were taking notes. I found a direction for my work and confidence in my ability as a scholar.

3. What will you miss the most?
I will miss wearing my pjs to work the most. Student is one of few job titles which permit this luxury.

4. What is your biggest accomplishment here?
My biggest accomplishment here at WVU is personal growth. I have a greater understanding of myself, my work, and the world I play in. I’m a little more comfortable in my own imperfect skin.

5. What is your favorite piece that you’ve workshopped here at WVU?
My favorite piece I’ve workshopped here is “Folding Paper.” Others seem to like it, too. It was published in Scissors and Spackle in their August 2012 issue (print and online).

6. Do you have any advice for future MFAs?
Dean Young writes, “the error is not to fall but to fall from no height.” My advice for future MFAs is to take risks. Make every class count. Talk. Send your work out constantly. Send it to magazines and contests you think you haven’t got a shot in. Build a thick skin for rejection.

So, before we make this a giant Oscar acceptance speech, thanking everyone we know. We want to thank all of the professors, our cohort, and the staff of Colson Hall for making this such a life-changing experience. We arrived here thinking we were hacks, and we’re leaving knowing we’re writers. That’s a big change. So, thanks. RebCon: MFA believers.

by Morgan O’Grady

When I started reading John Williams’ Stoner with the half-heartedness I feel after a long semester, I wasn’t expecting to become enthralled with the story. A very dear friend had been raving about this particular novel for over a year, and I had brought it with me on my winter break trip. William Stoner goes off to college with his parents’ hopes in his back-pocket. The novel follows his life from 19 to death. He was supposed to learn about soil conservation, and after four years come home to help the family farm. Instead, he falls in love with literature. He goes on to get his Phd, and becomes a professor at a southern university. He gets married, has a child, an affair, worries about being a good teacher, and gets sick. The quiet nature of suffering propels this novel into being the type of read that is hard to put down. I became addicted to what would happen to Stoner and the choices he would make along the way. If you are looking for a novel to read, want to go on a journey with a character, then pick up or check out a copy of Williams’ Stoner.

by Christina Seymour

This book is stunningly obscure. Poem after poem, Fulton invents syntactical combinations that ring true both in their subversive logic and their propulsive sound. My favorite is “Fierce Girl Playing Hopscotch” which ends with the beautifully musical “While the sea’s jewels build shells and shells / change to chalk and chalk to loam and gold / wheat grows where oceans teetered.” Fulton’s playfulness and gravity encourage each reader to personalize their reading experience, to choose favorite words, favorite rhythms, and favorite truths.

While perusing the Poetry Foundation website for 60s-80s decade poems—as we are all wont to do—also check out (or revisit) Stephen Dobyns, James Wright, Robert Creeley, Raymond Carver, and H.D.

Mary Ann Samyn on My Life in Heaven

Many thinks to Lisa Russ Spaar, author of several gorgeous collections of poetry, including most recently Vanitas, Rough, and of the essay collection The Hide-and-Seek Muse, for “tagging” me for The Next Big Thing. I keep getting confused and calling it The Next Best Thing, or even Next-best, but in any case, here are some thoughts about my latest book, My Life in Heaven, just out from Oberlin College Press.

Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?

Though I don’t think of ideas as the origin of poems, I can say that the images and sensations and language that I attend to come from my daily life.

Q: What genre does your book fall under?

The book “falls under” poetry—which sounds rather dramatic, doesn’t it?

Q: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Oh dear. I don’t think I’d consent to that. But I have always liked Natalie Wood, especially in This Property Is Condemned.

Q: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

It’s quite lovely to come to know oneself.

Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

The book won the 2012 FIELD Poetry Prize and was published by Oberlin College Press.

Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

These poems were written from early spring 2009 through August 2010.

Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I’m inspired by everyone who and everything that weaves in and out of my daily life.

Q: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Oh, I don’t know…there’s a feather on the cover…feathers are intriguing…they’re about time, right? Before and after. Beauty. Generosity. Happenstance.

Again: thanks to Lisa, always an inspiration. Her post can be found here

And now it’s my turn to tag:

Read about Kelly Moffett’s next big thing here.

Good news fresh off the internet presses: Mark Brazaitis’s collection The Incurables is a finalist for the 2012 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award in short stories!

ForeWord says that its Book of the Year contest “was created to highlight the year’s most distinguished books from independent publishers. The awards announcement provides an additional publicity opportunity for publishers long after a book’s initial publication date. After months of perusing the list of submissions, librarians and booksellers eagerly anticipate this announcement of finalists—a valuable resource for discovering obscure titles from the world of indie publishing.” Over the next few months over sixty bookstore owners and librarians (some of our favorite people) will judge the finalists and announce the winner at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago in June.

Congratulations, Mark, on this well-deserved recognition!

It’s cold and snowy outside, and we’re all trying to find our way to Boston (we have a backup pack of sled dogs just in case the whole plane thing doesn’t work out). To provide some sunshine in our lives this morning, the Council of Writers is proud to announce that our Spring Featured Reader will be the amazing Stephen Kuusisto! So, mark the date in your date book: Friday, April 5th at 7:00p.m. in the Gold Ballroom of the Mountainlair. Until then, check out his work on Poetry Daily; he was the featured poet yesterday!
Stay warm and safe, Mountaineers!