The Port Townsend residency, happening now, is excited to be welcoming two of our Vermont alumni, Mary Johnson and Cara Hoffman, who will be reading and doing workshops Monday through Thursday next week. The readings are open to the public, and offer a great time to come see the campus, walk the beach, and get to know the program.
BUT…the workshops are open to all MFAW alumni and currently enrolled students in the area. Which means, if you graduated from Goddard’s Port Townsend campus, we invite you to come home and immerse yourself in the Goddard experience once again. If you graduated from, or are currently studying in, Vermont, and are in the area, come visit! We’d love to see you.
Here’s the schedule:

Cara Hoffman, author of the critically acclaimed novels Be Safe I Love You and So Much Pretty:

Reading, Book signing and Reception with Visiting Writer Cara Hoffman on Monday, February 16, from 7-8:30 pm. Reading Room, Commons Building, Fort Worden, Port Townsend, WA.
WORKSHOP: On Violence. Tuesday, February 17, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm. Reading Room.
Conflict is central to narrative and to entertainment. How do we write ethically about violence? How do we describe brutal acts without aestheticising them? These are important questions for writers of fiction and non-fiction alike. This workshop looks at the moral issues of violence in writing from Homer to Virginie Despentes, and focuses on how to describe violence clearly and effectively without engaging in exploitation

Cara Hoffman is the recipient of a number of awards, including a Folio Prize nomination and a New York State Foundation for the Arts fellowship for her work on the aesthetics of violence. She has been a visiting writer at St. John’s, Columbia and Oxford Universities. Her essays have appeared on NPR and in Salon, Marie Claire, The New York Times and The New York Times Book Review. Hoffman’s second novel, Be Safe I Love You, was awarded a Sundance Global Filmmakers Award. Listen to her read at Goddard for her first novel on the Goddard ALOUD page.
 

Mary Johnson, author of An Unquenchable Thirst, named one of the best nonfiction books of 2011 by Kirkus Review and Founder and Creative Director of Retreats for A Room of Her Own Foundation.

Reading, Book signing and Reception with Visiting Writer Mary Johnson on Monday, February 18, from 7-8:30 pm. Reading Room, Commons Building, Fort Worden, Port Townsend, WA.
WORKSHOP: Me, Myself, and I. Thursday, February 19, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm. Reading Room.
Is writing ever too personal? What allows personal writing to transcend the individual and speak not only to universal human themes but also to larger issues in the world? This workshop is suitable for writers in any genre and will involve the study of various texts and some in-class writing. (1.5 hours)

At age nineteen, Mary Johnson joined the Missionaries of Charity, also known as the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. During her twenty years as a sister, she spent fifteen of those stationed in Rome, where she lived and worked with Mother Teresa. Now a writer and a secular Humanist armed with an MFA from Goddard College, Mary has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, O the Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post, Bloomberg View, Religion News Services, The Humanist Magazine, Soujourners, and National Public Radio. Mary and her work have been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Salon.com, Poets & Writers, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, National Public Radio, and The Rosie Show, among others. To watch Mary in conversation with faculty members Kenny Fries and Rahna Reiko Rizzuto in Vermont, go to the Goddard ALOUD page.