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A KITE IN THE WIND: AVAILABLE NOW


This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, the nation's first low-residency MFA program, as well as the publication of the fifth anthology of essays by members of its faculty, A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on their Craft. Edited by Andrea Barrett and former MFA director Peter Turchi, the anthology gathers essays by Maud Casey, Stacey D'Erasmo, Anthony Doerr, Kevin McIlvoy, and fifteen others. Each of the essays were presented as lectures during recent Warren Wilson MFA residencies.

"Get it, read it, shelve it--along with its companion volumes--next to Nabokov's Lectures on Literature and O'Connor's Mystery and Manners."

--David Wroblewski
Warren Wilson MFA, Class of 1998

All editors and contributors donate 100% of  anthology royalties to the Friends of Writers scholarship funds.  Read more about A Kite In the Wind and other FOW anthologies here.
Friends of Writers
The Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers Turns 35

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On June 29, nearly 200 alumni, currently-enrolled students, and past and present faculty of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College gathered on the campus to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the nation's first low-residency MFA program. This summer also marked our Program's 30th anniversary at Warren Wilson, having relocated there from Goddard College in 1981. The Gala provided the culmination of the annual Alumni Conference and a chance to include others in the lively conversations, the deep sense of community, and the renewal of commitment to our art. The slogan on T-shirts, tote bags, and coffee mugs was an appropriate one: Write Revise Dance Repeat.

Read more...
 
FOW Alumni Reading Series Update
When we launched the FOW Alumni Reading Series, we were excited to find a new way to support alumni by giving grants to help fund their readings. We didn't anticipate that it would spur alums to find new ways to support each other. But it has and we're excited to share the news that a fiction alum has made an anonymous donation of $500 to this project in order to support and celebrate the work of other alums. In the donor's words:

I've always believed that when one Warren Wilson student or alum succeeds--i.e. gets published--we all succeed. Literary writers are up against huge odds in getting their work out there, so when it happens, especially to one of our own, I want to stand up and cheer. When purchasing friends' books or reading their poems and stories online, I've often said that, given the current mean, cruel marketplace, if we don't support each other, we're done for. This is why I was thrilled to read about FOW's Reading Series grants. Writing is hard work; marketing one's work is, to my mind, even harder--and potentially expensive. I'm really grateful to be in a position to make a modest donation to help cover some of these expenses, allowing me to cheer and applaud in absentia.

It's incredibly simple and easy to apply for a grant.
Read more...
 


 

Newest Beebe Fellow

rachel-howard We're pleased to announce that the Joan Beebe Fellow for 2011-2012 is Rachel Howard. Rachel graduated from the Program in fiction in July 2009 and is the author of a memoir, The Lost Night: A Daughter's Search for the Truth of her Father's Murder (Dutton, 2005). She has been a dance critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and has taught writing classes for many years through the San Francisco Writers Grotto. She'll be teaching composition and creative writing courses to Warren Wilson undergraduates, and will lead the residency class in January.

Catherine Reid, director of Warren Wilson's undergraduate writing program, expressed the College's delight at Rachel's range and preparation for this role. "We're delighted to have the multi-talented Rachel Howard as this year's Beebe Fellow. In addition to her strengths in fiction and nonfiction, she's also a dance critic and book reviewer, all evidence of the kind of writer's life that so fascinates our undergraduates."

Offered annually, the Beebe Graduate Teaching Fellowship is a one-year non-renewable teaching position at Warren Wilson, available to all alumni of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, including those who received the degree during the years the program was at Goddard College. Some teaching experience is required. Guidelines for the 2012-13 Beebe Fellow applications have been posted.

 

 

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Supporting the Warren Wilson College MFA Community
Friends of Writers, Inc. - P.O. Box 128 - Marshfield, VT 05658 - info@friendsofwriters.org
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