Monday, April 09, 2012

We Have Moved!

The WestConn MFA Blog has moved to http://westconnmfa.wordpress.com/

Blog members: Please post here no more... see instructions for the new blog below.

Other guests: Please join us at the new blog, visit the program web page at http://www.wcsu.edu/writing/mfa, and look out for the upcoming profile of the program in Writer magazine.

Moving to a New Blog Site

Hello All,

We are moving the Blog from the current Blogger site to a Wordpress site. The new site allows more flexibility with users posting, but keeps the same general features as the Blogger site. All of the content from the Blogger site will be available on the new site. The new MFA blog will be located here: http://westconnmfa.wordpress.com/

I will send you each an email inviting you to become a user on the new blog. Please respond to the email and create an account. Post to the new blog site only. The current Blogger site will be shut down shortly and you will no longer be able to post to it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Kristin

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Uconn looking for a Communications Writer

The University of Connecticut is seeking an experienced Marketing Writer Specialist to provide advanced level writing and editing for a wide range of publications, websites and social media platforms.  The successful candidate will be expected to exercise originality, creativity and to regularly develop his/her own ideas within broad guidelines established by the supervisor.  Work is varied and requires a sound understanding of subject and target audience.  Work will include writing for social media platforms, websites, printed material, radio and video scripts.   

For full position details please go to:  http://communications.uconn.edu/jobs/.

A Note to New Students

Incoming (Fall) Students,

If you are planning to enroll part time for the fall, I need to know which courses you want to register. Please let me know no later than April 16.

Fall Internships/Practica

Folks, if you are scheduled for the Internship/Practicum course in the fall you should have a pretty clear idea soon of what your internship is going to be. If you don't yet know and are having trouble deciding/identifying an internship, I can help. I do not know yet whether the Internship course is going to be a group course or mentorships; I will know when more folks have submitted their course selections for the fall.

Enrichment Presentations

Folks, at this point, I have only heard from Perotta and Lynne regarding enrichment presentations. If anyone else needs to present in August, please let me know immediately.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Hello! I'd like to announce another acceptance! My short story "Rabbit Girl" will be published in FOLIO magazine!

Walking for Grad Commencement?

A little birdy tells me that regalia orders are due tomorrow, April 5...

Mentor Requests for Fall

Hello All,

Please copy and paste the lines below into an email message to me with your mentor requests. Do not submit requests for OMG instructors.

First semester students need not submit requests--I assign mentor for all first semester students.

Please be sure to indicate more than one choice for each course. If you only list one choice and you don't get the first choice, then I will assign a mentor to you.

If you are a thesis student for the fall (I believe there are only two of you), please talk to your thesis advisors of choice BEFORE submitting a request to them to make sure they are available and willing to advise your thesis.

DEADLINE: Beginning of day, April 16. If I don't have your requests by the time I come to the office on the 16th, I will assign your mentors.


Student Name: ________________________ 
Primary/Secondary Genres: _______________________

Course Title:__________________________
1st choice mentor:
2nd choice mentor:
3rd choice mentor:

Course Title:__________________________
1st choice mentor:
2nd choice mentor:
3rd choice mentor:

Course Title:__________________________
1st choice mentor:
2nd choice mentor:
3rd choice mentor:

Monday, April 02, 2012

AWP 2013 in Boston

Folks, I strongly encourage you to attend next year's AWP conference, which will be in nearby (for those of you in CT) Boston.

They are currently accepting proposals for panels. Jane's panel was accepted in 2012, and I understand it went swimmingly. If you'd like to propose a panel (at the 2012 conference there were 1600 presententers), I strongly encourage you to review the proposal handbook at the link below, review the catalogue of events at a past conference or two, and run your proposal by someone who has had proposals accepted before (Jane or me, for example).

An AWP panel is a great item to have on your c.v. for teaching jobs. Deadline is May 1.

http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2013proposal.php

Meet Authors and Agents Easily

Last Thursday, Brian Thiem and I attended Jane K. Cleland's book launch "Dolled Up for Murder" at LIM College in Manhattan. Jane was surrounded by her loyal fans while authors and agents worked the room. Brian and I got to meet author Annamaria Alfieri ("City of Silver") who told us about her career; publishing her debut novel at 68 and just recently signing a two book deal at 71. We'll never forget Annamaria's openness, energy, and love of our craft. Want to meet agents and authors? Go to a book launch--it's great fun.