Friday Find: AWP's Hallmarks of an Effective Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing

I receive LOTS of requests for advice on low-res programs. Sometimes, people ask me to tell them whether program A or B is "better." Which I absolutely, positively, cannot do. A big part of this inability, of course, comes from the truth that what might be "better" to one person would be "worse" to another. (This is why I'm not such a fan of rankings.)

What can be helpful, however, is the capacity to assess what a program offers and try to determine how it matches up not only with your own needs as a writer, but also with this new set of "Hallmarks of an Effective Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing," which has been developed by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).

AWP does a pretty good job describing key elements of "Low-Residency Programs Based on Mentoring" and "Low-Residency Programs with Electronic Classrooms." My only real disappointment with this document is that AWP has given relatively short shrift to what it calls "Hybrid Low-Residency MFA Programs." This is the material on such programs, in its entirety:

Hybrid low-residency programs include features from both mentor-based and electronic classroom-based programs, and add variations and innovations of their own. Strong hybrid low-residency programs are rigorous and demand extensive reading assignments, practice in critical analysis, productivity in frequent writing and revision, and a residency component. Their particulars vary in ways too numerous to list here.

Perhaps too numerous to list in their entirety, but wouldn't it have been helpful to provide at least a few specifics to sharpen that very general three-sentence statement?

In any case, AWP has certainly done a service for everyone with an investment in understanding, attending, administering, and/or teaching in a low-residency program, and for that, I'm grateful!

Now, have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here on Monday.

Conference Scholarship for Ontario Writers (Deadline Approaching Fast!)

There's no time to save this announcement for the Monday morning round-up, so I'm posting it today. The Ontario Writers' Conference offers a "Kick-Start Writing Prize" for entrants (ages 18-26) who attend a postsecondary institution in the province of Ontario. "We believe in the importance of encouraging young writers to explore their creativity, strengthen their craft and immerse themselves in the writing community. To this end, we are offering one full scholarship and one partial fellowship to attend our 2010 writers’ conference, plus an opportunity for our winners to read at evening’s Festival of Authors." You'll need to submit a short personal essay with your application. There's no entry fee. Deadline: November 1, 2009. (via placesforwriters.com)

The Wednesday Web Browser

Here are the latest notes from the NYT newsroom "on grammar, usage and style."
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InsideHigherEd.com reports on U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan's new initiative, Poetry for the Mind's Joy, "through which she hopes to draw national attention to community colleges, as well as drawing the colleges' attention to poetry. She plans to do so in a variety of ways: for starters, by reading her poetry at community colleges across the country -- and this she has already begun, with a reading at the College of San Mateo, in California, last month. She'll also have her own Web page on the Library of Congress's poetry pages; Ryan's page will have a community college focus, and should launch in early 2010. Further, she'll collaborate with the Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) on a poetry competition for community college students. Finally, the project calls for the establishment of April 1 as National Poetry Day on Community College Campuses."
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Grounding her comments in some new writing by Kenyon Review editor David H. Lynn, Denise Hill of NewPages.com takes on the subject of "Online vs Print: Professional Considerations."
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Irina Reyn has won the 2009 Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers for her 2008 novel, What Happened to Anna K. You may recall that I read this book about a year ago and thought it was terrific, so while I am not entirely surprised, I am very happy to see it (and Reyn) honored this way. (To find out more about Reyn and the prize, click here.)

Department of Congratulations

Congratulations to practicing writer Suchi Rudra Vasquez, whose new fiction collection, Kitaab, has been published by Six Gallery Press. Suchi writes that the book "was inspired by a year i spent living and volunteering in Bombay" and adds, given our recent blog discussion on prose poetry, that "people have called it poetic prose AND prose poetry, and I am also confused about genre, but very highly recommend Pessoa as well."
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Congratulations to Jeffrey Vanke, with whom I embarked on the journey toward a Ph.D. in history. Jeff was a wonderful comrade along that road and his new book, Europeanism and European Union: Interests, Emotions, and Systemic Integration in the Early Economic Community, is now available.
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And congratulations as well to Lisa Romeo, whose simply beautiful and poignant essay, "43 Lies About My Child," has been named a winner of Masha Hamilton's 31 Hours Parents' Intuition Contest. Check back soon for some commentary from Lisa on the craft decisions that went into her winning piece.

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

By week's end the November issue of "The Practicing Writer" will go out to subscribers. (The October issue is currently available on freelancewriting.com.) Not yet a subscriber? Click here.
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Just a reminder that you have only a few more days if you want to submit work this season to Ellipsis, a journal based at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. The deadline is November 1. Pays: $10/poem and $50/prose piece, plus two copies.
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The Graybeal-Gowan Prize for Virginia Writers is an annual award of $500 offered "by SHENANDOAH and the Virginia Poetry Center for a single poem by a writer born in or with current established residence in Virginia. The winning poem will be published in SHENANDOAH, and the author will receive broadside copies of the poem to be published by the Virginia Poetry Center." Deadline: November 29, 2009. NB: "No entry fee is required, but writers who are friends, students or colleagues of 2009 judge Brendan Galvin are not eligible this year."
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"The Department of Writing in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College [N.Y.] invites applications for a tenure-eligible position in creative writing (fiction), beginning August 16, 2010. In addition to teaching, the successful candidate will be expected to advise students, publish, and participate in departmental governance."
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Western Illinois University seeks an Assistant Professor of English-Creative Writing with a creative nonfiction focus.
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The University of Arizona is looking for a Science Writer.

Friday Find: Smartish Pace's Poets Q&A

One of the best aspects of my still-nascent poetry practice is my rediscovery and new enjoyment of poetry-only journals. One of these publications, Smartish Pace, runs a wonderful online feature, "Poets Q&A," in which readers can submit questions to prominent practitioners of the craft; the poets respond, and a full set of questions and answers appears online.

Until November 6, you can submit a question for Carol Muske-Dukes. In the meantime you can enjoy the archive of questions and answers. I haven't made it through the entire list quite yet, but the respondents include Eavan Boland, Bob Hicok, and Robert Pinsky, among others.

Have a great weekend, and see you back here on Monday.

TBR: Five Titles On My Nightstand

Literally, these five books are stacked on my nightstand. I'd love to say that sometime in the near future I'll have read them all, and will be able to blog about each one, but let's face it: I have no clue when I'll have read them, let alone reflected sufficiently to write about them.

So, as dubious a substitute as it may be, here's a photo of the fab five. I don't know what to think of the fact that this group represents an all-fiction feast. On the other hand, let's celebrate the presence of independent/small press titles, as well as fiction in translation (you can't see the translators' names, but the de Winter book was translated by Jeanette K. Ringold, and Rasskazy [the title means "stories" in Russian] features the work of many translators, including Keith Gessen, Ellen Litman, and Douglas Robinson).

Care to share your own current tbr list?

The Wednesday Web Browser

Starting soon: Low-Residency MFA for Asian Writing in English. Location: City University of Hong Kong. Details here.
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Meant to bring this one to you last week, but, as they say, better late than never: Ellis Weiner's "Shouts and Murmurs" piece takes wickedly funny aim at modern book publicity/marketing.
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Back to serious stuff: Liesl Schillinger offers an energetic and thoughtful discussion of "American" fiction.
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If you're currently teaching as an adjunct instructor--or contemplating such work--you should take some time to read some of the current offerings on the subject featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education: here, here, here, and here. There's more, and you'll find it via the above, but this should be enough to get you situated.
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Yesterday's poetic offering on The Writer's Almanac was "The First Artichoke," by Diane Lockward. Diane formerly taught English at my high school (in fact, she was once my sister's teacher), so it's always pretty exciting when I see her work featured in such a prominent venue. I found this a particularly lovely and poignant piece. (By the way, Diane maintains an excellent poetry blog, too.)
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And last, but definitely not least: Practicing writer (and professor) Stephanie Vanderslice is conducting research on the expectations MFA students have when they choose an MFA program. If you are interested in providing your input, please complete this brief survey. Surveys completed by Tuesday, October 27, will be entered into a drawing for one of two $25 Barnes and Noble giftcards. Stephanie welcomes questions.

How Old is Too Old for a Traditional MFA Program?

As a group, you have proven to be such a wonderful source of knowledge (see, for instance, the recents posts on prose poetry and reading Dickens) that I am going to turn to you once again for your wisdom and advice.

An anonymous reader recently left this comment:

I have a question. What age is too old for a traditional MFA program? Everybody seems to be in their 20s. I'm currently in an excellent low-res program for what is but I crave a more full-time program that more mimics the life of a student, and I'm 46, only now discovering creative writing after a lifetime in journalism.

Back when I was applying to (low-res) programs, low-res definitely had the reputation for appealing more to the older set, those more likely to have careers and family commitments that made it seem very difficult, if not impossible, to consider the range of possible programs across the country that the recently-out-of-college set favored. But just as it's true that the more recent grads are also turning to low-res programs (there were many in my program as the semesters went on), I know of older students who have decided to go the traditional, "full-res" route. What about the rest of you? Any comments to offer our anonymous colleague?

By the way, since we're speaking of MFA programs, I should probably point out that Poets & Writers has just added a searchable MA/MFA/PhD program database to its site as well as a feature listing literary journals associated with MFA programs. I don't really want to get into the new set of rankings the magazine has also published, but I will say that based on what I've read so far about the methodology behind it, I'm really not sure how useful these rankings are.

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

Fugue, a literary journal based at the University of Idaho, is assembling a 20th anniversary issue "in the form of a regionally based issue. Bruce Barcott said, 'We created the northwest with words,' but we are adding that it is this region which causes writers to write. This latter thought is what we are developing our anniversary issue around - the writers of the west, but more specifically the insiders, the born, the original settlers versus the outsiders, the migrators, the transplants, the carpetbaggers. What causes the insiders to stay here and write about this place, and what causes the outsiders to come to this place to write?" Submissions due January 1, 2010. Pays: "All contributors receive payment and two complimentary copies of the journal."
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Australia-based Etchings has extended the submission deadline for Issue 9, "Love and Something." New deadline is November 15, 2009. Pays: "Contributors are paid AU$75 and receive one copy of the issue they appear in. (For poetry, this fee covers three to five pages of poems; a fee of AU$35 is paid for poems up to two pages.)"
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Arizona State University-Tempe is looking for an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing (emphasis in fiction).
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"The English Department of Eastern Michigan University invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Creative Writing. The Creative Writing Program includes undergraduate and MA studies emphasizing interdisciplinarity. We are seeking literary writers who work in more than one medium and/or take new approaches to genre: documentary poetics, text and image, performance, collaborative and community arts projects, digital arts and electronic media."
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Saginaw Valley State University (Mich.) seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor of English-Creative Writing (poetry).
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Franklin and Marshall College (Penn.) is looking for a Program Coordinator for the Poetry Paths Program/Philadelphia Alumni Writers House.
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The Stanford University Alumni Association (Cal.) seeks a Senior Manager, Communications; the Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is looking for an Editor; and Brooklyn College of The City University of New York invites applications for a Writer-Editor.

Friday Find: The Secrets to Publishing Success

That post title sure grabbed your attention, didn't it?

Well, Jane Friedman, publisher and editorial director of the Writer's Digest brand at F+W Media, has compiled a set of extremely helpful posts from her There Are No Rules blog (which itself has appeared on our list of frequently checked blogs and links for quite some time). Subtitled "Jane's 2009 Tough Love Guide," "The Secrets to Publishing Success" covers a lot: editing and revising, querying/submitting, audience development/platform building, online audience building, indie (self) publishing, and "big picture" ideas. You're bound to find some information that you can use in your writing practice.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Genre Confusion: Help Wanted!

In many ways, I am not at all suited to be a fiction writer. I am not one of those lucky souls who is "taken over" by a character who demands to have a story written. I am not someone to whom plot comes naturally. My work is often idea- or circumstance-driven, which, I've (finally?) begun to realize, often makes it more suited to essays or poems. Or prose poems. Maybe.

Without getting far more bogged down in details about two new pieces I've been struggling with, I think that each one may ultimately find its true destiny as a prose poem. But I'm not sure. Yet.

Here's where you come in. I'd be very grateful for comments and advice from my fellow practicing writers on these questions:

1) How do you "know" the form a given work of yours should take?

2) Please recommend some online (or offline) guides to prose poetry that you've found useful in mastering the form. What I'm really seeking with this question are thoughtful craft lessons and background materials.

3) Can you recommend (again, online or offline) favorite prose poems, for inspiration and/or education? Do feel free to "self-nominate"!

Thank you in advance!

The Wednesday Web Browser

Deonne Kahler reports on the results of her personal write-a-thon.
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Hannah Tinti interviews Jennifer Haigh regarding Haigh's recent One Story story, "Desiderata." It's an excellent story, and fans of Haigh's Baker Towers will be interested to learn which characters from the novel reappear within it.
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Via Tayari Jones: The fabulous Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has started a blog, Phillis Remastered, which promises to cover "gender, politics, writing, race."
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Gina Barreca discusses "Literary Italian-America," complete with a recommended author list.
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Midge Raymond shares the sad news that Eastern Washington University Press will close next June and takes the opportunity to plead the case of small presses.
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And for those who love water--and New York City--there's a new site to explore: Underwater New York, "an online anthology of stories, art and music inspired by the underwater objects and phenomena in the waters that surround New York City."

"For Services Rendered": A Story and Its History

If you've visited my other blog lately (it's called My Machberet, and it focuses on matters of more specifically Jewish cultural and literary interest), you've likely noticed my multi-part interview with Kelly Hartog, the founding editor of Scribblers on the Roof, an exciting new online forum for Jewish fiction and poetry.

Scribblers on the Roof does not currently pay its contributors, but it does accept reprints, and it's there that you can now read my short story, "For Services Rendered," which, in various incarnations, has also appeared in Solander: The Magazine of the Historical Novel Society and J Journal: New Writing on Justice. It's a story that means a lot to me, and I am grateful to Kelly for publishing as well my guest post explaining why.

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

Writers who have received their terminal degree in creative writing within the last five years have until November 1 to apply for an Axton Fellowship at the University of Louisville (Ky.). "The purpose of these fellowships is to provide recent graduates with time to further their own work, to associate them with a distinguished faculty, and to allow them to contribute to a vibrant creative writing community. This year one fellow in fiction will be appointed for the academic years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, and will be awarded a stipend and benefits."
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Another opportunity for fiction writers, also with a November 1 deadline, and also without an application fee: the Dzanc Prize. This award "provides monetary aid in the sum of $5,000, to a writer of literary fiction. All writers applying for the Dzanc Prize must have a work-in-progress they can submit for review, and present the judges with a Community Service Program they can facilitate somewhere in the United States. Such programs may include anything deemed "educational" in relation to writing. Examples would include: working with HIV patients to help them write their stories; doing a series of workshops at a drop-in youth homeless center; running writing programs in inner-city schools; or working with older citizens looking to write their memoirs. All community programs under the Dzanc Prize must run for a full year."
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And still more from the fiction world: The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award is a new prize administered by Booktrust (U.K.) Open to authors published in the U.K. or Ireland, it seeks an unpublished (or published after January 1, 2009) story and confers a first prize of £25,000 (£500 for each of the five runners-up). Deadline: November 30, 2009.
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Check this post from the Hayden's Ferry Review blog for details on an upcoming free poetry workshop at the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Museum of Contemporary Art.
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Assistant Professor position open: "The English Department at Hollins University [Va.] seeks to fill a tenure-track position in creative writing at the undergraduate and M.F.A. levels. The six-course load includes teaching responsibilities in multi-genre creative writing courses, graduate tutorials in fiction, appropriate courses in literature, as well as thesis advising. Hollins University expects its faculty to participate actively in program and departmental administration, university-level governance, and co-curricular programming."
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"Nebraska Wesleyan University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Creative Writing: Poetry. This faculty member will teach other writing courses (e.g., fiction, non-fiction, scriptwriting, publishing, journalism, or grantwriting), and may also teach in other departmental areas. All English Department faculty teach General Education classes in composition, literature, or interdisciplinary studies. This faculty member will share responsibility for a visiting writers series and for the campus creative writing magazine.
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"The Department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas" is searching for a Fiction Writer, RANK OPEN. This is a full-time, 9-month, tenure-track position available fall 2010. Duties include teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and participating in screening applications for distinguished MFA program. Significant publication is expected.
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"The English Department at St. Lawrence University [N.Y.] invites applications for a one-year, visiting position in poetry. The successful candidate will teach both levels of our coursework in introductory and advanced poetry writing. Ability to offer coursework in early British literature is also desirable."
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East Carolina University (N.C.) seeks a Writer/Editor, Temple University (Penn.) is looking for a Law School Publications Editor, and Harvard University (Mass.) seeks a Stewardship Writer for a time-limited position.

Friday Find: Creating Van Gogh

Creating Van Gogh is a new blog from John Vanderslice, chronicling Vanderslice's progress as he writes an historical novel featuring Vincent Van Gogh. I think it will particularly interest those of us who give a lot of thought to the use of "real" people in historical fiction. (Side note: The addition of Creating Van Gogh to the links at left signals the first [to my knowledge] set of husband-and-wife featured links here at Practicing Writing: Creating Van Gogh is married to Wordamour!)

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

The Thursday Web Browser

I know--Wednesday is the day for the Web Browser--but there is so much to share that I'm taking the liberty of making the regular "column" a two-day event this week:

While nixing cookie service at faculty meetings (or perhaps because of this cost-cutting measure), Harvard manages to purchase the archive of John Updike.
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Intriguing article about the day job/writing dilemma(s). (via Galleycat)
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The first-ever Compleat Biographer conference has been scheduled for May 2010 in Boston, and "biographers who are willing to put on a workshop, chair a panel discussion, or make a presentation" are in demand. (NB: According to The Biographer's Craft, the conference date will be May 15, rather than the May 23 I just saw on the conference Web site.)
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And in case you've been offline for the last day and a half: this year's Man Booker award has gone to Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall.

The Wednesday Web Browser

Our friend "Oronte Churm" interviews Philip Graham, who teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The main topic of discussion: Graham's soon-to-be-released nonfiction book, The Moon, Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon, which is inspired by a recent sabbatical year. Lots of interesting material here, about Portugal, writing about cultures not one's own, "'academia's great fantasy' of living abroad with children," and more.
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Check out my co-worker Joshua Martino's excellent profile of Elizabeth Nunez and her new novel, Anna In-Between (Akashic).
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Poet and veteran Brian Turner anticipates his upcoming travels as the 2010 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholar.
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Sue Fagalde Lick wonders "how much is enough," when it comes to payment for freelance articles.
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Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission has come up with some new guidelines that may affect those of us who blog about and/or review books. Ron Hogan is following this pretty closely over on Galleycat, where he poses the following open questions.

Craft Tips Culled from Contest-Judging

If you're a Practicing Writer newsletter subscriber, you've already seen this piece, which was featured in the issue that went out last week. But I thought I'd reprint it here. Enjoy!

CRAFT TIPS CULLED FROM CONTEST-JUDGING

by Erika Dreifus

As some of you may remember, my writing practice recently expanded when I was invited to judge a short fiction competition. I am very grateful to have been asked to take on this role, and I am eager to see the winning stories announced (which should happen at the beginning of October).

One of the most interesting aspects of reading the nearly two dozen finalist pieces that were forwarded to me was the opportunity to reflect, once again, on what makes a story "succeed." Since I was required to comment on each winning story - touching on why I'd selected it as well as offering some ideas on what might further improve it – I had ample reason to revisit some of the lessons I have absorbed over the years about the craft of fiction. And so, this month, I thought I'd share five tips on how to strengthen a story based on my recent immersion in an array of short fiction contest entries.

1. Give your story a title. A title can help pique a reader's attention and ease her transition into the story. (And from this judge's admittedly idiosyncratic viewpoint, it simply seems more appropriate to award a prize to a specific story rather than to "Untitled.")

2. Unless you have a specific purpose - such as writing a story *entirely* in direct dialogue - it's a good idea to vary the direct and indirect approaches. Incorporating direct dialogue provides an opportunity to render characters more distinct through their individual word choice, dialect, and cadence. Indirect dialogue can be especially useful for summarizing information that need not be presented word for word.

3. Again, unless you're seeking to attain a specific effect, vary sentence structure and sentence length. Same goes for paragraphs. Shake things up! Everything – words, sentences, paragraphs – is a tool in your writerly toolbox. Use it all to maximum effect!

4. In the case of the competition I judged, writers had the option to begin the story with a prompt that presented a first-person narrator-character looking into a mirror. Ordinarily, however, having a character look into a mirror and describe his or her eyes, hair, teeth, etc., is not a very useful technique. Unless, perhaps, you wish to heighten the sense of your character's narcissism (or self-criticism).

5. It's a rare successful story that is composed of a character's unsituated memories/ruminations.

And one last tip, although I know we all hear it all the time: proofread, proofread, and proofread again. You do not want a judge stopped mid-read by misplaced apostrophe marks.

Now, go forth, write, and submit!

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

New residency program: "El Gouna (Egypt) Writers’ Residency will be launched in 2010 and will host three sessions a year during the months of February, May and June. The length of each session is one month. During each session, four to six writers are invited to enjoy a full month’s complimentary stay at a beautiful villa in El Gouna, where they will enjoy an intellectual haven providing them with opportunities to interact and exchange thoughts with writers from different walks of life." Application deadline: November 30, 2009. No application fee indicated.
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Workers Write!, the series from Blue Cubicle Press, is looking for submissions for a volume to be titled Tales from the Courtroom, which "will contain stories and poems from the legal worker's point of view (lawyers, judges, court reporters, bailiffs, and so on). Your story should be set anywhere legal work is performed, but we are not looking for stories about court cases or whodunits." Deadline: September 1, 2010 ("or until the issue is full"). Pays: $5-$50. Will consider previously published material. Details here.
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From an ad in latest issue of AWP's The Writer's Chronicle: "PEN/Faulkner Foundation Award for Fiction. A prize of $15,000 is given annually to a U.S. writer to honor a work of fiction published in the previous year. Additional prizes of $5,000 each are awarded to four finalists. Rilla Askew, Kyoko Mori, & Al Young will judge. Publishers, agents, or authors may nominate novels or short story collections published in 2009 by submitting four copies of each book (or bound galleys) by Oct. 31. There is no entry fee. Visit the Web site for complete guidelines."
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"TWO LINES World Writing in Translation is currently accepting translations for its seventeenth volume, to be edited by award-winning translators Natasha Wimmer and Jeffrey Yang." Check the detailed guidelines at the Web site. Deadline is November 25, and "a nominal honorarium" will be offered.
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The University of Dayton (Ohio) offers a one-year post-graduate fellowship, with possibility of renewal for a second year. "Established in honor of the University of Dayton English Department's longest serving poet and first African-American faculty member, the Herbert W. Martin Fellowship is designed to advance inclusive excellence and creative writing in the University and community. We invite applications from creative writers who demonstrate sustained personal engagement with communities that are underrepresented in the academy and who bring this asset to their teaching and scholarship. Responsibilities include teaching 2 courses per semester, including creative writing courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, one course in a non-dominant or non-Western literature, and possibly one course in first-year composition; giving readings on campus and in the community; contributing to the Department's biennial LitFest celebration; and serving on MA creative thesis committees." Check the faculty job listings at the university's Web site for the full announcement.
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Murray State University (Ky.) has advertised the "Nancy and Rayburn Watkins Endowed Professorship in Creative Writing. Department of English and Philosophy. Full-time, nine month, non-tenure track position to begin August 2010. Qualifications: M. F. A. in Creative Writing or equivalent required. Must have distinguished record of publication in creative nonfiction and fiction. Evidence of excellence in teaching required. Responsibilities: Teach two courses per semester, participate in the Reading Series and the low-residency M. F. A. in Creative Writing Program, and engage in appropriate service."
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Fontbonne University (Mo.) "seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor of English to develop a program in professional writing that builds on our curricular strengths in non-fiction writing and journalism. Candidates should be grounded in the liberal arts, and possess the ability to teach courses in two or more of the following areas:professional writing, journalism, and composition."
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The English Department at Rhodes College "seeks a Fiction Writer to join the Department at the level of Assistant Professor (Tenure Track). We seek a published fiction writer, with specialties in American or other literatures, to teach a 2/3 load in our Creative Writing and Literature track within the English Department."
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Denison University "seeks a tenure-track assistant professor in fiction writing; possible secondary interests may include playwriting, screenwriting, hypertext, graphic novels, or new media. Ability to engage issues of race and ethnicity in the classroom is desired." Check the faculty job listings at the Web site for the full announcement.
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Princeton University (N.J.) is looking for a staff writer, Montgomery County (Penn.) Community College seeks a part-time copy writer, and the Writers Guild of America, West, (Calif.) is looking for a New Media Program Manager.

Friday Find: The New Yorker's Remnick at the CUNY J-School

Listen to this conversation with David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker. Remnick's host is Steve Shepard, dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. (I'm especially fond of the comments Remnick makes early in the discussion about learning about writing and literature from practicing writers!) Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker from CUNY Grad School of Journalism on Vimeo.

Informal Poll: Reading Dickens

This piece, titled "Why Are We Still Reading Dickens?", unleashed a flood of associations for me. I remembered my childhood hours in front of the television, glued to Once Upon A Classic. I remembered lugging my copy of David Copperfield to my second-grade classroom (yes, I was a nerd - early!). I remembered college readings of Dombey & Son (very well) and Our Mutual Friend (sadly, less well). I remembered A Christmas Carol in multiple formats: book, play, movie. I remembered reading a Dickens biography-for-children when I was still in elementary school, and I remembered visiting the Charles Dickens Museum in London during my first trip to that city.

And I remembered the disillusionment that filled me several years ago when I read a Listserv post from one of my Harvard colleagues to the effect that he needed help overcoming this challenge: he was designing an independent study with a student majoring in British history and literature, and he needed to cover Dickens without reading anything "inordinately long." And I remembered how much worse I felt when I read our department chairman's accommodating reply.

But this is not a rant about how English majors can get away these days without reading Dickens. Here's what I want to know: Have you read anything by Charles Dickens? If so, which book(s)? And did you read his work "voluntarily," or was your reading a result of an assignment (and if it was a result of an assignment, was it at the pre-college, college, or post-college/MFA level)? Please share, in comments.

Thanks for playing!