24 Oct

Introducing Our New MFAs!

Rebecca | October 24th, 2010

By Heather Frese, COW President

This year WVU welcomed an even dozen writers to the MFA program in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. I asked this diverse and talented group of new MFAs to answer some questions about themselves. When threatened with imminent cyber-stalking, eight of them answered. They get to go first.

Ben Bishop: Ben is a poet with an eye for the middle of the road between lyric and narrative, where fact and fiction blend together to form a bitingly poignant emotionally introspective piece. Ben is from Burlington, Kentucky. When he’s not grading or reading for classes, he’s playing bass or guitar, browsing the depths of the web for funny pictures or epic music videos, or fixing computers.

Rebecca Childers: A fiction writer currently inspired by the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books—colors, colors, colors, upside-down houses, and growing vegetables in your skin, Rebecca hails from Huntington, West Virginia. Three years ago, Rebecca inherited about two thousand romance novels from her granny. Rebecca reports that Baby Cop is a must read.

Sara Kearns: Sara’s hometown is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sara is a poet whose short-term goals include getting back to writing as much poetry as she was before grad school and teaching began, as well as to resume submitting her work for publication. Her longer-term plan is to have a manuscript for a full length collection complete and ready to be submitted by the end of her second year here. Some favorite poets include Anne Sexton, Theodore Roethke, Lucille Clifton, Sylvia Plath, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Carolyn Creedon, Larissa Szporluk, Frank O’Hara, Etheridge Knight, Bob Hicok, and Sharon Olds. Prior to Morgantown, Sara lived in Hong Kong for two months and in Nanjing, China for almost a year. If you want to cyber-stalk her, you can find her blog at http://revolutionarysweetheart.blogspot.com.

Jamie Kegg: Jamie’s official genre is fiction, though she writes in all three genres. Jamie has a strong interest in lyricism and place-based writing, especially works set in rural areas of the United States. Much of her work addresses the influence and consequences of sex and drug culture on young adults growing up in tired, empty, dead-end worlds—where the nearest town is thirty miles away, and nobody has the gas money to get there (or any real reason to try). Jamie is from a small town in south-central PA called Pleasantville. Her (very) ambitious goal is to write theses in at least two of the three genres; in a perfect world, she’d get to write all three theses! Jamie has two bachelor’s degrees from WVU, one in English (creative writing) and one in music (vocal performance).

Connie Pan: Connie is bi-hometown-al, hailing from both Lahaina, Maui and Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is a fiction writer who has never done a cartwheel.

Shane Stricker: A fiction writer from Sikeston, Missouri, Shane completed three years in the University of Missouri-Kansas City Pharmacy Program. He also holds a minor in chemistry. Shane came to WVU under the alias of Shane Strickler, as a misbegotten “l” was added to all of his welcome materials.

Rebecca Thomas: Rebecca is from Orange County, California (the land of Disney, The OC, and Arrested Development). She is a fictioneer who just likes to write and possibly dabble with how setting influences story. She was married in Yosemite National Park and she and her husband’s first place as newlyweds was a repurposed old church for migrant workers.

Christina Wulf: Our only non-fiction writer, Christina comes from Staunton, Virginia. She googled herself to be reminded of her own interesting facts.

Non-responders who risk having hometowns, genres, and interesting facts about themselves invented include Melissa Atkinson, Anthony Fabbricatore, Jeremiah Shelor, and Andi Stout. I’ll refrain, though, because who knows—maybe MIX ate my e-mails queries to them, as MIX is wont to do.

At any rate, here’s a hearty welcome to the class of 2013. Write on.

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