Job Opp: Wilkes low-res Associate Director

Wilkes University. Wilkes University invites applicants for an Associate Director in the Graduate Writing Program beginning July 2012.

Wilkes University is an independent institution of higher education with approximately 2,400 undergraduate students & over 3,000 graduate students FTEs. The University is located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a mid-sized city within two & one-half hours driving distance of New York City & Philadelphia. For more information about Wilkes University, please visit www.Wilkes.edu.

The Wilkes Graduate Creative Writing offers a Master of Arts & Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in the following areas: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, & playwriting. This low residency program is one of the largest in the country with students & faculty from 34 states. The office also hosts & supports Etruscan Press & SenArt Films projects.

The successful candidate is responsible for marketing, advising, fund-raising, program & curriculum development, recruiting, & program administration. A Master of Fine Arts or PhD with a creative dissertation is required. The ideal candidate will have prior experience in recruiting, program marketing, IT social media, online teaching, & course development experience. Salary is commensurate with qualifications & experience.

To apply send curriculum Vitae, letter of interest, education philosophy statement, & references by May 20, 2012 to: Wilkes University, Associate Director Search, Reference # S00601, P.O. Box 3924, Scranton, PA 18505-0924. To apply by email, send application materials as listed above to: eapply@wilkes.edu. Include the reference # on the mailing envelope, or in the email subject line.

Indicate in your letter where you found out about the position vacancy. Please make sure to include the reference # or the application will not be processed. Wilkes University is constantly seeking to become a more diverse community & to enhance its capacity to value & capitalize on the cultural richness that diversity brings. The University strongly encourages applications from persons with diverse backgrounds.

low-res panel at Toronto’s CCWWP

CCWWP Conference May 10-13, 2012

Creative Writing in the 21st C: Research and Practice

Toronto ON

I am pleased to be part of a panel discussion on Friday, May 11, with low-residency MFA directors Stephen Kimber (U King’s College, Halifax) and Andrew Gray (UBC). Our panel is “The Low-Residency MFA: Coast to Coast and Across the Border.” We’ll be discussing the presence and growth of low-residency MFA programs in Canada and the US.

Monday April 23 is the last day to register for the Canadian Creative Writers and Writing Programs (CCWWP) inaugural conference.

The CCWWP conference is dedicated to the study of creative writing pedagogy and the promotion of creative writing standards and practices, including academic papers and keynote talks by national and international writers and creative writing teachers, researchers, and students.

Here’s what this year’s program has to offer: http://ccwwp.ca/conference/program-2-2/

See you there!

Yes, I have a cat poem and it's at LON

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Lansing Online News is sharing a poem a day from a Michigan poet. I have that honor today with my poem “Through the looking glass.”

Through the looking glass

Here the birds line up along fences to wave their heads

in anxious staccato beats. The cat, the brown cat, paces

in step alongside the window; she walks the high wire

sofa back, forward and back. Brown cat lets them twitch,

tease, and raise their beaks in temporary superiority as

she devises a plan for escape, conquer, defeat. Brown cat eyes

the winter wren, sizing up the beefy beige belly, exhales

a brief breath of anticipation. When white cat comes along,

brown keeps her guard and defends her fishbowl prey. Clear

skies illuminate beige against a powder fresh lawn, a blanket

for the buffet picnic she craves. White cat is sluggish, plump,

easily underestimated. Brown tunnels her vision through

sheer reflections, past the looking glass and out to frost

covered limbs, the wren a cherry atop her branch of cake.

White settles in at the edge of the leather, nestles into cushions

brown has left defenseless. The weight of winter snaps a crisp

crack of bark, startles the resting wren and sets off a flurry

of wings and waves against a still sky. Beige fades, brown

recedes, the empty glass abandoned; her cushioned fort

surrendered to an underestimated plump white predator,

brown traces the high wire, forward and back, with hunger.

***

Read this and other Michigan poems at LON here:

http://lansingonlinenews.com/news/birds-and-cats-play-a-game-through-a-looking-glass/

Macomb Workshop: Nonfiction Book Proposal

Join me this Saturday, April 14 at Macomb College for a three-hour workshop on Writing the Nonfiction Book Proposal.

Whether you’ve finished a draft outline, are in the planning stages, or are simply entertaining ideas and possibilities, this session will help you develop effective strategies for writing and submitting your nonfiction book proposal.

Here are the details:

Writing the Nonfiction Book Proposal

with Lori A. May

Macomb Community College

South Campus

Warren MI

Saturday, April 14

10am-1pm

$39

Register by phone, online, or in person with MCC.