Friday, April 27, 2012

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.

Monday, April 23, 2012

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!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

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:

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

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
Macomb Community College
South Campus
Warren MI
Saturday, April 14
10am-1pm
$39

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