On a Rooftop, Shout it Out: Meeting the New MFA
by Connie Pan

Sometimes our greatest talent can be a curse. That period of time between receiving the acceptance letter from Mark Brazaitis and the first workshop, I was alone with the thing that got me here: my imagination. In my imagination, there were hobgoblin peers that crossed out my lines with their six-inch nails. I had daymares that my writing was a joke, that the only good idea I ever had was my portfolio, and I feared I was a fiction-hack. Then, it was August, and workshop was lovely. My peers had pleasant faces and well-kept fingernails. Then, it was the MFA Meet and Greet (an annual tradition) and I thought, I can definitely be friends with these rad people who can write, cook, and converse. Then, I eased slowly into this strange place that rejects grid-maps and swears by pepperoni rolls, and, a year later, it’s not so strange anymore.

To think, just last summer, I received that magic envelope that helped tame some of my fears. (Every year, The Council of Writers, otherwise known as COW, compile envelopes with letters to the new MFAs complete with bios and pictures of current second and third years, menus for local restaurants, and brochures for historical sites and landmarks.) Now, this past summer, I was a part of COW and scribbled notes on postcards and licked envelopes that would hopefully ease our soon-to-be-peers’ minds. I think we were talking about how much we loved receiving that envelope, and Lisa Beans suggested we ease the incoming MFAs’ nerves furthermore by having an informal reading before school started to qualm jitters and wild imaginations before the first day of workshops. That feeling was still new in our memories: the sensation of always having bile ready and threatening in the throat. (It stops. I promise—unless you have undiagnosed acid reflux.)

So, being the sympathetic feelers that we are, we planned it, and what started as an informal reading, turned into a sorta fairytale. Rachel King, COW President, made some calls, and The COW Street Team (Lisa Beans, Rebecca Thomas, Matt London, Justin Crawford, and I) spread the word. Then, there we were: on the rooftop of Hotel Morgan, at the swanky Montemarte with white tablecloth, string lights, and a hummingbird among friends, professors, loved ones, and MFAs: alumni, current, and incoming. One by one, we retrieved those sweaty pages of our words crumpled in our hands, folded in our pockets or shoved in our purses and man satchels, and introduced ourselves and what we would be sharing during our stay here: our words. And, now that the first year MFAs are settling into their new places here, they have taken the time to string together some words to introduce themselves to you!

CREATIVE NON-FICTION

Rebecca Doverspike joins us from a small town in southern Wisconsin. She graduated from Beloit College in 2007 where she studied literature and religious studies. During that time, she also studied Buddhism with Tibetan refugees in Sikkim, India. Rebecca’s interest in meditation, relationships between people and place, spirituality, and wilderness all find their way into her creative non-fiction essays. She’s working toward writing as a way of giving back, a tangible form of gratitude, a way of reflecting the beauty and magic she’s seen in the people she has met that they may not always see themselves. She’s inspired and influenced by many different writers such as: Mary Oliver, Dogen, Virginia Woolf, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Annie Dillard, and Rebecca Solnit, to name just a few.

Jessi Kalvitis, nonfiction writer, wouldn’t mind spending eighteen hours per day in her garden, but a) she lives in USDA growing zone 5-ish with no greenhouse, and b) writing is the obsession in which she had taken more undergraduate courses. She is a firm believer in the power of Stickee notes, thought Stephen King was underrated before it was cool (and still does, now that it’s not again), and likes to structure sentences around lists of three unrelated things. She is offering spider plant starts to anyone who wants one—inquire at 309 Colson during her office hours, which are currently 4 to 6 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.

FICTION

Nathan Holmes grew up in Howard County, Maryland, and lived in Baltimore City for a year before coming to grad school here at WVU. He’s an avid writer, but he swears, he doesn’t read as much as he should. He mostly writes speculative fiction, and the vast majority of it ends up in a folder entitled “the x-files” along with all of the other unfinished, unloved offspring of his imagination. Most never see the light of day again. He thinks writer’s block is a myth. He lives alone, which is good because he’s a super neat-freak and he typically sleeps all day and stays up all night. His dog doesn’t play fetch (more out of stubbornness than anything else). He downloads unbelievable amounts (like worried-about-the-FBI amounts) of music and movies. He likes ancient mythology, and he likes to read about cults and “new religions” (and mainstream religions for that matter). His favorite shows are Archer and Californication and he promises, “If you haven’t seen them, do yourself a favor.”

Jessi Lewis is a native of Virginia and an alumna of James Madison University’s Writing and Rhetoric program. While she claims influences of magical realism, Appalachian literature and Southern literature, her fiction has no true focus in any one of these. Instead, most of her plotlines are inspired by a childhood spent on a blueberry farm in rural northern Virginia. After her master’s thesis at JMU, Jessi found that her interests were not just in the study of research, but the creation of a three-dimensional character. Her life now revolves around her fiction, her family, the semi-colon/dash debate, Thai food and her dog-like cat, Lola.

Sara Lucas is from Greenfield, Ohio, a small town about an hour south of Columbus. It’s an interesting place full of interesting people and it shows up often in my stories, which tend to be more humorous than serious. I graduated from Ohio University in 2009 with a B.S. in Journalism, which is very serious and not so humorous. That’s probably why I’m getting my MFA – I want to write creatively. I like entertaining people and making people laugh. I also like dogs, farmers’ markets, bike trails, and all of my old lady hobbies.

POETRY

Evan Blake is a poet raised since age four in East Lansing, Michigan, almost smack-dab in the middle of the mitten. He was born in the small African country that is completely surrounded by South Africa called Lesotho (Leh-soo-too), the “Kingdom in the Sky.” He believes it’s also the lightning capitol of the world as it’s very mountainous; his parents once met a man who was struck by lightning seven times! Evan has never been struck by lightning, but he did graduate from Michigan State University, and likes the moment when he first gets an idea for a line.

At age four, Christina Seymour was told to ask a question about Santa Claus. She shrieked, “Why does—does people have—have eyes?!” At age nine, she wrote a poem about kisses, including the line, “[Kisses] are the, or one of the best things in one’s Love life.” This tendency to question things that no one wants to think about and this ability to fabricate an understanding of romantic intimacy were two warning signs of Christina’s destiny to be a writer (i.e. a life-long learner). She is happy to be here!

So, if you haven’t already, please introduce yourself to these crazy talented writers. Plus, they had enough guts to stand up in the middle of a rooftop in front of (almost) complete strangers and show us their chops. That takes, as we don’t say in Hawaii but it is often used in TV shows and movies and all those other popular places, “big kahunas.” Here’s to new traditions and old traditions with a batch of wonderful writers who I just met and, already, seem like old friends. Thank you for joining us here at WVU. We’re oh-so-very-giddy that each and every one of you picked us!