Ashland Universitys Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Summer Residency Program will be held July 16-29 and will feature afternoon craft talks and evening readings on the AU campus. These sessions will be free and open to the public, thanks to support from the Ohio Arts Council. All events will be held in Room 138 of the Schar College of Education building near the corner of College Boulevard and Samaritan Avenue.
This years featured visiting writers include J. Allyn Rosser in poetry, Steve Almond in fiction and Gretel Ehrlich in creative nonfiction.
Rosser teaches at Ohio University, where she edits New Ohio Review. She is the author of four poetry collections, and her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The Smithsonian Magazine, Slate and four editions of Best American Poetry. Rosser reads on Wednesday, July 21 at 7 p.m. and presents her craft talk on Thursday, July 21 at 1 p.m.
Almond is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction. His short stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories and Best American Mystery Stories. Almonds reading is Monday, July 25 at 7 p.m. and his craft seminar is Tuesday, July 26 at 1 p.m.
Ehrlich, a celebrated naturalist and writer, will read on Tuesday, July 26 at 7 p.m. and present a craft talk on Wednesday, July 27 at 1 p.m. Ehrlich is the author of numerous books including The Solace of Open Spaces and most recently Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami, which won the Kirkus Best Book of the Year Award for 2013. She has traveled extensively in the Arctic areas of the world and elsewhere and has had her work published in Harpers, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Life, National Geographic and several anthologies.
Other highlights of the sessions include visiting writers to present a panel titled Work and the Life of Literature, which is about balancing writing with career, family and other responsibilities. This will be on Saturday, July 23 from 10 a.m. to noon. Cleveland area storyteller Dana Norris and Detroit poet M.L. Liebler will discuss Stage Presence: The Art of a Good Reading at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 24. Later that day at 1 p.m. Ashland MFA alumni Jan Shoemaker (2014) and Grace Curtis (2010) will discuss The Emerging Writer: Paths to Your First Publications.
This years summer residency also will be an opportunity to say goodbye to Dr. Stephen Haven, who has served as MFA director since the programs first residency in 2007. Haven, who has accepted a position as director of Lesley University MFA Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will give his final reading at AU on Wednesday evening, July 27 at 7 p.m.
On Friday, July 22 MFA faculty members Alex Lemon and Tom Larson will present a craft seminar in Havens honor, titled The Poetry of Stephen Haven: A Retrospective.
Ashlands MFA program added fiction as a third genre in 2015, and this years graduating class will include its first fiction student. The other 17 students graduating this summer studied creative nonfiction or poetry. One student also studied the art of translating literature. Students in the MFA Program work toward the completion of a manuscript in their chosen genre, which serves as their thesis project. Graduating students will read from their work on Thursday, July 28 and Friday, July 29 from 1-2:30 p.m.
Additional readings and presentations by MFA faculty and visiting writers are scheduled throughout the two-week event. For more information visit www.ashland.edu/summerreadingseries.
