S115. Tearing Down Walls: The International Experience in Low-Residency MFA Programs

Florida Salon 6, Marriott Waterside, Second Floor
Saturday, March 10, 2018
9:00 am to 10:15 am

 

This panel will explore the variety of international programming offered by low-residency MFAs and seek to understand how such programs work and to what end. We will ask: what role does literary citizenship play in the education of a writer? How can international experiences enrich our students’ writing, especially in light of recent talk of travel bans and building walls? How might the low-res MFA program be uniquely positioned to espouse such a mission?


Participants

Moderator:

Janet Pocorobba is associate professor and associate director of the Lesley low-residency MFA in creative writing program. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Harvard Review, The Writer, Kyoto Journal, Indiana Review, and elsewhere.

Kathleen Driskell has published four collections of poetry, most recently Blue Etiquette. Her collection Seed Across Snow was listed as a national bestseller by the Poetry Foundation. Kathleen is a director of the Spalding low-residency MFA program and vice-chair of the Mid-Atlantic region.

Robin Talbot is the associate director of Stonecoast MFA, University of Southern Maine. She has written two documentary scripts: A Call to Action: A Community's Dream and Starting Over; and Understanding and Supporting Refugee and Immigrant Experiences. Robin holds an MA in arts administration.

M.O. Walsh is the author of the story collection The Prospect of Magic and the novel My Sunshine Away, which was a New York Times bestseller, an Indie Next Pick and winner of the Pat Conroy Book Award for Fiction. He currently directs the creative writing workshop at the University of New Orleans.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center