Faculty
Deborah Brevoort has been invited to serve as a mentor to the Rainmaker musical theatre initiative in Kenya, a new program that is being led by Kenyan pop composer Eric Wainaina. The first workshop will be held in June in Naro Moru, Kenya. She will be joined by American composer Fred Carl and Roberta Levitow of the Sundance Institute to work with 10 composers and 10 authors/librettists from Kenya to create the first-ever batch of new Kenyan musicals
Rebecca Brown, Elena Georgiou, and Micheline Marcom all participated in a reading at Elliot Bay Bookstore in Seattle, WA. MFA Alumna Ilsa McKetta moderated. Rebecca also read in March in Seattle at The Factory.
Jan Clausen announced that her essay “By the Light of Distant Fires,” derived from her keynote on the theme “origins” from last January’s residency, will be published in the summer issue of Camas: The Nature of the West, a literary journal run by graduate students in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Montana.
Kenny Fries received a Lambda Literary Award nomination for his book about Japan, In the Province of the Gods. Kenny also was also a Visting Writer at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA. During his time at King’s, Kenny met with faculty and students, visited two writing classes, and gave a public reading. And finally, in April, Kenny gave a talk, “Disability and Branding,” for graduate students at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City.
Bea Gates announced that she will be the guest poet at Opera House Arts Voice2Voice Poetry Declamation Contest which is partnering with schools in Blue Hill, Sedgwick, Brooklin and Deer Isle/ Stonington on April 12th for the purpose of exposing middle school students to the spoken word of poetry as a means of developing their voices and expressing them.
Elena Georgiou announced the release of a new edition of ALCHEMY OF THE WORD: Writers Talk About Writing, published by GenPop Books. The thirty essays in the anthology were delivered by faculty members between 2000 and 2018 and focus on some aspect of writing or the writing life. Topics range from craft concerns, such as form and perspective, to issues of artistic ambition and the role of the writer as social activist. National Book Award finalist Kim Addonizio calls Alchemy, “a smart, exhilarating collection—a true literary conversation, filled with wit, heart, and insight.”
As Elena Georgiou, our MFA in Creative Writing Program Director, explains, “I can tell you without qualification that these essays contain a tremendous amount of insight, wisdom, and inspiration for any writer who is serious about mastering the transformative power of the written word. So, it only seemed natural to collect these essays for others, both in and beyond the Goddard community, to share.”
The first edition of this anthology was published in 2011. Re-released by popular demand, this new edition includes recent addresses by novelists Keenan Norris, Aimee Liu, and Micheline Aharonian Marcom; poets Bhanu Kapil and Kenny Fries; and playwrights Darrah Cloud and Deborah Brevoort; as well as original essays by Kyle Bass, Rebecca Brown, Jan Clausen, Beatrix Gates, Elena Georgiou, Susan Kim, Michael Klein, Douglas A. Martin, Rogelio Martinez, John McManus, Victoria Nelson, Richard Panek, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, and Paul Selig.
Douglas A. Martin did a reading and discussion with Andrew Durbin on “Queer Narratives & Methods” for CLAGS: Center for LGBTQ Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, in New York City. In addition, Douglas’s new book Acker, along with Kenny Fries’ new book, In the Province of the Gods, has been nominated for a Firecracker Award, which is given each year to celebrate the best of independent and self-published literature.
Students & Alumni
Charles Fairchild (MFAW ’18) had his short story, “Bedeviled” published in The Santa Clara Review.
Sassafras Lowrey published “Queering the MFA” for Lambda Literary Review. “Are you thinking about applying to an MFA program? Concerned about queer writing being taken seriously? My biggest advice is to figure out what is most important to you in your graduate studies.”
Kristen Ringman (MFAW ’08) received a Lambda Literary Award nomination for her book, I Stole You: Stories from the Fae, (LGBTQ/SF/F/Horror category). Her Goddard thesis Makara was also a Lambda Finalist in Debut Fiction back in 2013. And if that isn’t enough, Kristen also just signed with literary agent, Jen Azantian, who is sending out her latest adult literary fiction/SF crossover novel Twenty-Seven Nadines.
Lydia Valentine announced becoming Assistant Director for a production of Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris. She was also the dramaturg for a staged reading that paired The Art of Remembering by Adina L. Ruskin with Mountain Language by Harold Pinter.
