THURSDAY, JANUARY 3

2:00 – 2:30 pm

Dessert and Coffee
Time to meet and mingle

Patricia Dobler Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

2:30 – 3:00 pm

Welcome MFA Orientation

Aquinas  Hall, Room 106

2:45  - 3:15 pm

Mentors Meeting

Hazo Graduate Seminar Room, Aquinas Hall, Room 108

3:15 – 3:30 pm

Meet the Mentors
Students and mentors meet

Aquinas Hall, Room 106

3:45 – 4:45 pm

Genre Workshops

• Bathanti (nonfiction), Admissions conference  room, Antonian Hall, 3rd floor
• Beatty (poetry), Aquinas, Room 206
• Coleman (fiction), Aquinas, Room 205
• Nordan (fiction), Hazo Graduate Seminar Room, Aquinas, Room 108
• Townsend (poetry), Aquinas, Room 306

5:00 pm

Coach to Pittsburgh Athletic Association

5:30 - 8:00 pm

Welcome Dinner

Pittsburgh Athletic Association

5:30 pm

hors d’oeuvres

6:00 pm

Dinner
Speaker: Jewell Parker Rhodes
Underwritten by the Marilyn P. Donnelly Writer-in-Residence Fund

FRIDAY, JANUARY 4

9:00 - 10:00 am

Continental breakfast and computer time
Ellie Wymard will discuss the integrative essay with students

Aquinas, Room 108

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

Jewell Parker Rhodes
ROUND TWO: SPEECH, SUBTEXT, AND CONFLICT
Using film clips, play scenes, and story excerpts, we’ll examine and discuss how to create effective two person dialogues using a variety of techniques, including, subtext, silence, absence, actions and reactions. We’ll review explosive, firecracker scenes as well as more nuanced, unsettling scenes.

Grace Library, Room 421

12:30 – 1:30 pm

Lunch

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

1:30 - 3:30 pm

Genre Workshops

• Bathanti (nonfiction), Admissions conference room, Antonian Hall, 3rd floor
• Beatty (poetry) Aquinas, Room 206
• Coleman (fiction) Aquinas, Room 205
• Nordan (fiction), Hazo Graduate Seminar Room, Aquinas, Room 108
• Townsend (poetry), Aquinas, Room 306

3:45 – 4:45 pm

A reading by poet Lynn Emmanuel

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

6:30 pm

Dinner at the Walnut Grill

Walnut Street, Shadyside

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5

9:00 - 10:00 am

Breakfast and computer time

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

10:00 am - 12:00 noon

Genre Workshops

• Bathanti (nonfiction), Admissions conference room, Antonian Hall, 3rd floor
• Beatty (poetry), Aquinas Hall, Room 206
• Coleman (fiction), Aquinas Hall, Room 205
• Nordan (fiction), Hazo Graduate Seminar Room, Aquinas Room 108
• Townsend  (poetry), Aquinas Hall, Room 306

12:00 noon - 1:00 pm

Lunch

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

1:00 – 3:00 pm

Lee Gutkind
KEEP IT REAL: RESEARCHING, WRITING, AND LIVING THE CREATIVE NONFICTION LIFE
In preparation, students are encouraged to read essays by Wideman, Slater, Simpson, Richman and Har-Even in the anthology, IN FACT: THE BEST OF CREATIVE NONFICTION (Norton)

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6

Free time for writing and conferences

MONDAY, JANUARY  7

9:00 - 10:00 am

Breakfast and computer time

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

10:00 am - 12:00 noon

Genre Workshops

• Bathanti (nonfiction), Admissions conference room, Antonian Hall, 3rd floor
• Beatty (poetry), Aquinas Hall, Room 206
• Coleman (fiction), Aquinas Hall, Room 205
• Nordan (fiction), Hazo Graduate Seminar Room, Aquinas Room 108
• Townsend (poetry), Aquinas Hall, Room 306

12:00 noon - 1:00 pm

Lunch

Carlow Cafeteria or snack bar

1:00 - 3:30 pm
 

Terrance Hayes
THE IDEA OF ANCESTRY
This talk will use Etheridge Knight’s poem “The Idea of Ancestry” to frame a discussion of the narrative and/or lyrical construction of an experience. We will look at Knight’s poem and a few other poems to explore how writers negotiate imagination and memory; history and the idea of history.

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

6:00 – 8:00 pm

Dinner

Pittsburgh Athletic Association - Patrician Room

6:00 pm

hors d’oeuvres

6:30 pm

Dinner
Speaker: Alexandra Fuller, author of  DON’T LET’S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT

TUESDAY, JANUARY  8

9:00 - 10:00 am

Breakfast and computer time

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

10:00 am - 12 noon

Alexandra Fuller
NO WHISPERING ALLOWED: THE ONLY TABOO IS SILENCE
The importance of an irreverent, brave voice in the creation of relevant art. I will discuss the ways in which my upbringing as a white girl in a southern African apartheid environment has opened my eyes to the other kinds of apartheids that we are blind to as a western society. I will discuss the importance of speaking out as women, as minorities, as peace activists, and as consumers for an imaginative, creative way forward. I will show how such an undertaking requires voice and discuss how we each need to find, and redefine what voice is to us.

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

12 noon – 1:00 pm

Lunch

Carlow cafeteria or snack bar

1:00 - 2:30 pm

Anahita Firouz
WHAT IS & WHAT COULD BE: FICTION, EXILE, The Walled Garden
We carry a double history in our heads: “what is and what could be.” How do we balance the two in a novel? Is it all about Desire & Reality? How does a novelist try to see how the world works? But then why is the novelist in exile? To write we must enter and exit the walled garden!

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

3:00 - 4:30 pm

Lee Peterson
THE BRIDGE: POETRY OF DEEP SELF IS POETRY OF THE WORD
One of poetry’s great gifts is its power to wake us up to ourselves and the world around us at once. To write well, we must pay attention. We must not turn away. We must listen. Poetry demands that we come to life through strict awareness – of image, language and meaning. In an age when lies and half truths are routinely offered as gospel, the writing and reading of poetry becomes not only a creative and imaginative act but a social one as well. (Whatever your primary genre, poetry has these things to offer and teach.) What could be more transformative than the cultivation of a deep connection to self and world at once, a true connection based on what the flesh knows and feels, one based on humanness as well as fact, not rhetoric. We will discuss the ways we as writers can bridge the gaps we perceive – between self and other, between past and present, victim and aggressor, between nations, between the disparate parts of ourselves (whatever distances hold our identities in place and separate) – and touch the common ground from which peace is built. Many poets have done this with remarkable skill. We will look at their work, the conditions under which it was produced, and the tools and methods they employed. And we will practice some of these ourselves.

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9

9:00 - 10:00 am

Breakfast and computer time

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

10:00 am - 12 noon

Guest Workshops

• Creative Nonfiction and Fiction
  Lee Gutkind
  Aquinas Hall, Room 408
• Poetry 
  Jean Valentine
  Aquinas Hall, Room 406

12 noon – 1:00 pm

Lunch

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

1:00 - 2:30 pm

A reading with guest writers:
Lee Gutkind, Jean Valentine, and Buddy Nordan - followed by questions and answers

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

THURSDAY, JANUARY 10

9:00 - 10:00 am

Breakfast and computer time

10:00 am - 12 noon

Genre Workshops

• Bathanti (nonfiction), Admissions conference room, Antonian Hall, 3rd floor
• Beatty (poetry), Aquinas, Room 206
• Coleman (fiction), Aquinas, Room 205
• Nordan (fiction), Hazo Graduate Seminar Room, Aquinas, Room 108
• Townsend (poetry), Aquinas, Room 306

12 noon - 1:00 pm

Lunch

Carlow cafeteria or snack bar

1:00 - 2:30 pm

Janice Eidus will read from  THE WAR OF THE ROSENS, followed by discussion, questions and answers.

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

3:00 - 4:30 pm

Marion Winik
PUBLIC PERFORMANCE: A SURVIVAL GUIDE AND PRACTICE SESSION

At its best, reading your work aloud can be the high point of the creative process – a rare moment when writer and audience share the nuances, energy, and excitement of the words on the page. Public reading can make you a better writer, can renew your confidence, and can reveal things you didn’t know about your own work. Unfortunately, the anxiety many writers feel about reading gets in the way of these benefits.

Marion Winik, a veteran of dozens of book tours, theatrical performances and literary readings with audiences ranging from 1 to 1,000, will provide practical advice, moral support and customized suggestions to help you do a better job and get the most out of your readings. Among the topics covered will be

• how to prepare for a reading
• how to use your voice, face and body to give your work its best expression
• how to handle pacing, humor, tears, and various difficult moments on stage
• how to engage and interact with the audience
• how to have a good time.

Please bring a 1 – 2 minute excerpt (350 words max) of your work for the practice session.

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11

9:00 - 10:00 am

June Residency – Carlow, Ireland
Susan Shutter, Director of Graduate Admissions, will discuss travel details concerning the June residency in Carlow, Ireland.

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

10:00 - 11:00 am

Rose Kennevan-Ashbaugh defends her creative manuscript with committee.

Hazo Graduate Seminar Room, Aquinas Hall

11:00 am – 12 noon

MFA Defense
Rose Kennevan-Ashbaugh reads from THE LAST BOTTLE OF ELDERBERRY BLOSSOM WINE: THE HISTORY, LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF A FAMILY followed by questions and answers.

Open to the Carlow campus and friends.

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

12 noon

Lunch

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

1:30 – 3:00 pm

Juilene Osborne-McKnight
IRELAND FROM THE AIR: A BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF IRISH HISTORY
This talk is intended as a foretaste of the June residency in Carlow, Ireland. It will provide a timeline of the major historical periods in Irish history and salt in a few of the writers or books which arose from those periods. Illustrated with  Power Point.

Writing Center, Aquinas Hall

The rest of the day is free for conferences and contracts.

6:00 pm

Farewell Dinner
Readings by students finishing their fourth residency.

Harvard-Yale-Princeton Club
619 William Penn Place
Downtown Pittsburgh