Looking for an internship? Try Fastmatch

Hey everyone. If you're like I was last semester and are having trouble finding an internship you should read this.

I have had a great internship this semester. I am a Writing Intern for Super Interns (www.SuperInterns.com). I am helping to conceptualize and write a variety of articles for their blog.

Super Interns is based in New Haven and has worked with many students from all over Connecticut. They are growing and building their own intern team, and need all kinds of interns, whether they be writing, business, communications, or marketing interns.

In addition, Super Interns helps connect interns with other businesses and organizations. On April 11, they are doing an internship matching event in New Haven. For more details: www.SuperInterns.com/fastmatch. There are still some spaces open for interns.

If you want more information feel free to email my advisor at Super Interns, Michelle Demers, at: Michelle@superinterns.com

Mark Sundeen's Guatemala Story in NYT Travel 3/25/11

Check out Writer-in-Residence Mark Sundeen's story about walking through the highlands of Guatemala -- a country where a man in a cowboy hat will board the public bus and sell you a pink ice cream cone for 25 cents.


Click on the title of this post to read Guatemala, Trekking in the Highlands, published in The New York Times Travel section on March 25th.

Fall 2011 Registration Plans

WCSU announced today that graduate fall registration will now begin on April 13th, 2011 (one week later than originally planned).

Registration will be conducted online for current students.  New students will get separate instructions from me.
 
Open/Close will be online as of April 4th, for your convenience.

NOTE:

-- If you have not sent me a mentor request form, I will assign your mentors.

-- If you have an outstanding balance and have not arranged for a payment plan with the Cashier's office, the Registrar will not allow you to register online during the registration period.

I will provide you with specific, individualized instructions for registration and about your assigned mentors as we get closer to April 13th.

If you have questions about next semester or registration, please contact me.

Holly

Any Midwestern Plans???

If anyone finds him or herself in Oklahoma later this week, stop by the Scissortail Poetry Festival at East Central University in Ada, OK. I'll be reading Friday afternoon. There's a lot of great midwestern talent reading (of which I am obviously not one...which I think was my appeal), and should be a great event.

You know...if you wake up and find yourself out that way...

Photo-essay in Terrain.org

I'm very excited to have a photo-essay in the new issue of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built and Natural Environments, which explores in this issue the theme of "Entropy." Some of you will remember my attempts to write about Dorchester County in Maryland...it made up one essay in my thesis collection, and I also did a photo-essay on it for my enrichment project. Since then I've gathered more material for the project and kept working on it, and I think this version and the medium of the photo-essay finally suit the subject matter much better than anything I tried to write before. Though this version is quite different, it also goes to show that enrichment projects do pay off!

You can click above to follow the link. The journal is entirely online. Mine is "Makeshift World..." in the Essay section.

Some other good news--I recently got a poem accepted by Orion, the literary-quality magazine of "nature/culture/place."

-Kateri

For your Perusal

Some of you might recall that my poem, "Finding Janus. . .," was accepted for publication in the Sigma Tau Delta Rectangle last summer.  Well, the issue has finally come out!  Follow the link if you'd like to read it (click the title of this post).  Questions and comments are always welcome.  It has certain parts in Japanese that I can translate for you if they aren't clear by the context :]  Footnotes were a part of the original submission; I figure the editing staff probably decided to not include it (poem's quite long on its own).

Cheers,
Marj

2nd Annual Spring Writing & Creative Process Festival - April 11-17, 2011

During the week of April 11th through 17th, 2011, the Writing Department will host our Second Annual Spring Writing & Creative Process Festival. Festival events are free and open to the public, with the exception of the Creative Process Seminar on the 17th that is co-sponsored by the Writing and Music Departments. Several of our mentors and students are on the schedule, so come to campus and join the celebration! Those of you who need to make up residency time can use these events for that purpose.

On Monday evening, Paola Corso will hold a flash fiction writing workshop, which is open to MFA students, grads, mentors and WCSU undergrads. Send me a note to register for the workshop.

Holly

SECOND ANNUAL SPRING WRITING & CREATIVE PROCESS FESTIVAL

 

Monday, April 11th: Fiction

 

6:00 p.m., Reading by Paola Corso, Warner 103

 

7:00 – 9:30 p.m., Flash Fiction Workshop by Paola Corso, Higgins 206  

• Open to MFA students, grads, mentors and WCSU undergrads.
• Description: Sudden Stories: In this workshop, we'll critique participant writing in terms of the elements of flash fiction—character, plot, mood, voice/style, intensity, brevity, and surprise and what distinguishes it from longer stories. Participants will be asked to read assigned short shorts and handouts, then email a 1-page sudden story or self-contained climactic moment from a longer work of prose to participants in advance, and come prepared to discuss at the workshop. 

Tuesday, April 12th: Nonfiction

1:30 – 3:30 p.m., Everything You Learned on Facebook is a Lie, Warner 103

• Lecture: Sara Lewis
• Panel Discussion: Sara Lewis, Vincent Kmetz, Kristin Santa Maria, Kristina Zupnyk (all MFA in Creative & Professional Writing students)
• Description: That’s not true. But, how do we know what is true? This lecture will explore the relationship between social media and public opinion, with a focus on where the burden of proof lies. Through blogs, status updates, web articles, and embedded videos, social media users are saturated with news and opinions. We will examine topics in politics and pop culture to discuss how websites like Facebook and Twitter affect the dissemination of information.

4:00 p.m., The Making of an Anthology, Warner 103

• Speaker: Anne Witkavitch, editor, Press Pause Moments: Essays about Life Transitions by Women Writers
• Description: Anne will speak about why anthologies are good opportunities for writers to get their work published as well as tips to help improve a writer’s chances for acceptance. She’ll also give a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Press Pause Moments and talk about what’s involved with creating a collection of nonfiction essays. Among the topics discussed will be: developing a theme; creating submission guidelines; reviewing, selecting and sequencing stories; and the challenge of editing a book-length manuscript with diverse voices.

Wednesday, April 13th: Journalism

2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Online Journalism Panel, organized by Valerie Roth and Echo, Student Center 201 

• Moderator: John Briggs

         Panelists:

• Elizabeth Bacelar-Nunes (Communications Director at LivePerson Community, graduate of WestConn and the Columbia School of Journalism and former WCSU adjunct),
• Mark Langlois (editor of Danbury Patch, former print journalist for The News-Times of Danbury and WestConn graduate and present WCSU adjunct), and
• Eugene Driscoll (editor of the exclusively online news site The Valley Independent Sentinel based in Ansonia and former online editor at The News-Times and the Hartford Courant)
• Karen Ali (Regional Director for Patch.com, in charge of 12 Danbury towns' websites, and former Sunday editor at The News-Times)
• James A. Cutie (chief executive officer and publisher of The CT Mirror http://www.ctmirror.org and former president of New York Times Co's information services group)

Thursday, April 14th:  No Writing Festival events planned; event on campus: 7:00 p.m., Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking author, on death penalty abolishment, Ives Concert Hall

Friday, April 15th: Poetry

2:00 – 4:00 p.m., Poetry Readings by Black & White, location TBD

6:00 p.m., Poetry Performance, “Ogunquit” by Confluence, made up of J.D. Scrimgeour & Philip Swanson, Alumni Hall

• In 2007, composer Philip Swanson and poet J.D. Scrimgeour, both on the faculty of Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts, created Confluence. In Confluence, Scrimgeour and Swanson merge their two art forms to produce work that is immediate and accessible, yet also resonant and profound. Confluence has performed at such venues as the Robert Frost Place, the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s (AWP) Annual Conference. The group’s first CD, Ogunquit, was produced by Grammy-award winner Richard Price and released by MSR Classics in Feburary 2010.  

Sunday, April 17th: Music & the Creative Process

(The first event is sponsored by the Music Department; the seminar is held in collaboration with the Writing Department.)

3:00 p.m.: The PROMETHEUS quintet performs a formal concert in Ives Hall. Chamber music of Beethoven, Schostakovich and Brahms, Ives Hall, Admission: general admission $20, Seniors $15, free for students w/ valid ID.

5:00 p.m.: SEMINAR ON THE CREATIVE/RE-CREATIVE PROCESS FOR NEW SOLUTIONS (in collaboration with the WCSU Writing Dept.), White Hall, Rm. 127

Discussions and interview conducted by Dr. John Briggs with PROMETHEUS

• Topics under discussion will include: Chaos Theory in Artistic Process; Interpersonal Relations for Innovation; Rehearsing for Inspiration Primitive Telepathy: and The Chamber Music Principle with Empathy and Compassion.
• Admission: general admission $20, Seniors $15, free for students w/ valid ID.

Links to information on some of our participants.
- Paola Corso: paolacorso.com/
- Anne Witkavitch: http://www.c-suitecommunications.com/
- Echo: wcsuecho.com/news/
- Journalists on panel:

• Mark Langlois: danbury.patch.com/users/mark-langlois-2
• Eugene Driscoll:  valley.newhavenindependent.org/
• James A. Cutie: http://www.ctmirror.org/

-Confluence: confluence-poetryandmusic.com/

Reminder: Brian Clements' Poetry Workshop on March 30th

There is still space in Brian Clements' poetry workshop, scheduled right after his reading on Wednesday evening, March 30th.  It is open to current MFA students, graduates, mentors, and WCSU undergraduates.

Click on the title of this post for more information.

To register, just send me a note at azevedoh@wcsu.edu

Fall 2011 Mentor Request Forms Due

I need to receive your Mentor Request form for Fall 2011 as soon as possible -- they were due March 8th.

Please click on the title of this post to see the blog entry from March 1st for instructions. 

Student Editorial Opportunity at WSCU

Professor Oumlil of the WestConn Marketing Department in the Ancell School of Business is looking for an upper level or graduate student with good editorial skills / experience.  A student with with a major or minor in English or Professional Writing is preferred.

Interested student(s) need to contact Dr. Oumlil ASAP.

E-mail: oumlila@wcsu.edu
Campus Phone:  (203) 837-8777

Check Out Our New Facebook Page

For all of our Facebook users, please take a look at our new MFA Facebook page: WCSU MFA in Creative & Professional Writing.

We've created it to help promote the MFA program, and to make it easier to share program news and events. The page does not replace this WestConn MFA Blog, which will still be used for the official communications of the MFA program.

We will share important items from this blog to the Facebook page, and we'll create Events on Facebook for readings, workshops, and other activities of interest to our MFA community. Watch for information on the Second Annual Writing & Creative Process Festival to be posted soon; it is scheduled for April 11th through April 17th here on the Midtown Campus.

How can you help?  "Like" our new page, and please share it with students, grads, and other writing friends. Thanks!

A New Look

Yes, you've located the WestConn MFA blog!  We decided to update the look (it's more aligned with our website) and rearrange some elements. Let us know what you think in a comment to this post.

You'll see that links are now at the top right.  If you would like your blog and/or website added to the list, please send me an email at azevedoh@wcsu.edu.

Hayden Essay on CT REVIEW website

Follow this link to:"Nesting" an essay from my thesis collection. "Nesting" was awarded an honorable mention in a CT REVIEW writing contest in December, 2010 and just published on the Connecticut State University  System's website. http://www.ct.edu/ctreview/connections/contest.html

"North Shore Friday" in ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION

My latest story, "North Shore Friday", appears in the latest (April/May 2011) issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. It's my debut in this magazine, which is the leader in the field, and it's especially nice since "North Shore Friday" is a little avant.

Indeed, the typographical trickery I use was so difficult to replicate for the magazine's popular Kindle edition that the magazine is offering the story free to all as a PDF file. (You don't need a Kindle or to be a subscriber to read it, though you do need a PDF file reader, which comes standard on most computers these days.)

Anyway, so check out North Shore Friday (note: opens PDF), and thanks for reading.

Brian Clements Reading & Workshop

On Wednesday, March 30th, Brian Clements will do a poetry reading and conduct a workshop.

Reading:  6:00 p.m., Warner Hall Atrium, WCSU Midtown Campus. Free and open to the public.

Workshop:  7:00 - 9:30 p.m., Higgins Hall 206, WCSU Midtown Campus

What’s My Line?

In his essay “The Hydrosyllabic Foot,” Charles Wright argues that most contemporary free verse poetry makes “prose… the unit of measure…, becoming a slide rule without numbers, a compass without a stationary peg, a protractor without angles. It [suffers from], in the long run and the short, a crisis of faith.” We will take a quick look at Wright’s very short essay and use it as the basis for discussion of your approach to the poetic line in your own poems. Please bring with you one poem (written by anyone) that you believe constructs the line effectively and one poem of your own (no longer than 30 lines, please) for open discussion (bring 15 copies of each poem).

This workshop is open to current MFA students, graduates, mentors, and WCSU undergraduates.  If you want to attend, please let me know by email to azevedoh@wcsu.edu.

Faculty Requests for Fall '11

It’s time to think about next Fall!

Unless you will be a first-semester student in Fall '11 (in which case your mentors are assigned) please complete the Mentor Request Form and email it to me at azevedoh@wcsu.edu. The form is on the Student Forms page of the MFA website, linked here: Student Forms.

I need to know exactly which courses you are going to take in which term (Summer or Fall). This applies only to students who are taking part-time loads (4-8 hours) and students who are registering for a combination of Summer and Fall hours. If you plan to register as a full-time student in the spring, there is no need to indicate that. If you do not specify the number of hours in Summer / Fall, I will assume that you are going full time in the Fall. All sections of the Online Multigenre Workshop are scheduled in the Fall.

Please email your request form to me no later than Tuesday, March 8th. If I do not receive your requests by then, your mentors will be assigned.

If you are going to be a 3rd-semester student in the fall, you should begin planning your internship now.

All students beyond their 1st semester should have an enrichment project proposal approved, and have a target date to complete their presentation or documentation.

First semester students: you will need computer account information mailed to you by Graduate Studies in order to complete your online registration.

Online registration for the Fall will take place in early April 2011 -- more details to follow.

Let me know if you have any questions about registration.

Holly