In today’s Craft Book Spotlight, The Writer magazine gave our very own all-faculty compilation, Alchemy of the Word, a nice shout-out: “When National Book Award winner and acclaimed memoirist Maxine Hong Kingston praises a book, you sit up and pay attention. “Whether you’re a young beginner or a veteran writer like me, you’ll get support […]
As one of the three finalists for the New American Voices Award, given by the Institute for Immigration Research, Elena was interviewed for the following article in Bustle Magazine. From the website, here’s a little bit about the award: “The idea for the award, which is sponsored by the Institute for Immigration Research, arose over a year […]

Disable the Stairs. Disable the Stares. Disable the Barriers. This summer MFAW-VT faculty member Kenny Fries advised a great team of Master’s Branding students at SVA. Their thesis project, Disable the Barriers, is now up and running. Disable the Barriers is an unaffiliated global collective that aims to provide tools in support of people […]

MFAW-VT faculty member Kyle Bass’s play, Possessing Harriet, (commissioned by the Onondaga Historical Society and directed by Thazewell Thompson) will be be performed at Syracuse Stage (at Syracuse University) from Oct 19 to Nov 4. One hundred seventy five years ago, in October of 1839, a beautiful 23-year-old African American woman named Harriet Powell came to Syracuse […]

MFAW-VT faculty member Deborah Brevoort has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, On-Site Opera and American Lyric Theater to write the libretto for an opera about Lady Murasaki, who wrote THE TALE OF GENJI, the world’s first published novel. The opera will be performed in the Astor Pavilion at the Met […]

MFAW-VT faculty member Kenny Fries has received a grant from the Canada Council of the Arts to work on a book of essays on legacy. The working title of the book is Frida Kahlo’s Leg: Personal Essays on Disability, Role Models, and Representation.

MFAW-WA faculty member Keenan Norris has interviewed another MFAW-WA faculty member Micheline Aharonian Marcom about her work as Creative Director of the New American Story Project (NASP). The NASP is a collaboration of artists presenting oral histories and stories of immigrants and refugees in order to bear witness, raise awareness, and provoke transformative conversation. Here’s the […]

MFAW-VT faculty member Kenny Fries has published a response to Lionel Shriver’s recent attack on Penguin/Random House UK’s push for diversity online at Medium. The piece is called “The Exclusivity of Inclusion: On Disability and Diversity” In the article he quotes fellow faculty member Reiko Rizzuto. Fries’ article is a response to Lionel Shriver’s screed […]
MFAW-VT faculty member Rahna Reiko Rizzuto’s article on the Supreme Court decision travel ban, which is expected this month, and Hawaii’s history in resisting the US government’s racist exclusionary policies during World War II has been published on Salon. Here’s a sneak peek including headline: Hawaii’s fight against Trump’s Muslim travel ban has long roots […]

MFAW-VT faculty member Rahna Reiko Rizzuto’s essay on the shape of trauma in our writing is featured on Electric Literature from the essay: “I started writing my second novel in the aftermath of violence. In a more-common-than-you-think incident — one that is often used for titillation or as the opening scene of some revenge movie involving […]