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Director’s Message:
Shelter in Place – that’s what we are doing in this anxious time. I’m starting to feel like I live on a remote island. Yet I have gotten much more comfortable doing everything online, which is appropriate since our Low Res MFA is in fact a distance learning program. We are planning a vibrant and inspiring online residency in June. We’ll have a keynote lecture from Alicia Ostriker, craft talks, and readings. There will be sessions on working with an editor, narrative medicine, and more. Our graduating students will give lectures and readings.
A number of us traveled to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Texas at the beginning of March. The conference anticipated 12,000 attendees; however, far fewer made it to San Antonio. Even though this year’s AWP turned out to be smaller, there was still plenty to do. We hosted a reception that gave us a chance to connect with the extended Dominican MFA community. My co-translator Ayako Takahashi made it to the conference, traveling from Niigata, Japan. I presented on a Narrative Medicine panel. Two panelists weren’t able to attend but our MFA colleague Marianne Rogoff generously stepped in and gave a lovely presentation on writing and grief. Marin County writer and physician David Watts joined us and spoke eloquently on illness and writing. My book A Thousand Years of Spring (Unabridged) had come out and I had a book signing in the slightly beleaguered bookfair. No one fully realized that it would be one of our last times this spring of being out in the world and meeting new people.
On the bright side, April is national poetry month and many of us are writing a poem a day, which is both harrowing and thrilling. What I like about writing every day is that it dusts me off and shakes lose the hesitation that can come with trying to write. For those of you needing a creative push, the Poetry Foundation has a section on Poetry & Practice that has prompts for the month of April.
I know that the current situation with COVID-19 is causing all kinds of hardship. I’m cheered by the hope that we can pull together and protect both friends and strangers alike. Wishing you and yours good health, good company and good reading this spring.
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With gratitude,
Judy Halebsky
MFA Director
judy.halebsky@dominican.edu
415-482-1846
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Prospective MFA Student Info Sessions
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Join the MFA in June 2020!
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We are currently accepting applications to the MFA program to start in the June 2020 online residency.
Prospective MFA Student Online Information Session
Wednesday, April 29, 2020 at 6:00 PM until 7:00 PM
RSVP here
Can't make the info session or have more questions? Email Director Judy Halebsky to schedule a video or phone appointment.
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Health and Wellness at AWP 2020
San Antonio welcomed our MFA crew with color and grace. Faculty and students cherished their time together celebrating the literary arts amidst the backdrop of the vibrant San Antonio city life.
The unofficial, and necessary, theme of the conference was health and wellness, one that our program was ready to embrace. With our optional track in Narrative/Poetic Medicine, our bookfair table was well stocked with "Poetry Prescriptions." This year, Joan Baranow added a new and welcome touch with a stash of Vitamin C. Be well, stay well, and if you need a poetry prescription, let us know.
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Sandy White
Soft Pastel "Boulder, Blueberry Hill, Woodacre"
Accepted to the 2020 West Marin Review
Sandy White (MFA '21) is both a poet and a visual artist. The 2020 West Marin Review will feature her soft pastel “Boulder, Blueberry Hill, Woodacre." While focusing on poetry intensely, Sandy created this piece, and writes "Another muse must be at work." A beautiful muse indeed, congrats Sandy!
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Capella Parrish
Clocks the Fastest Submission Approval in the West - 24 Hours!
Capella Parrish (MFA '21) has earned the (new as of yesterday) Dominican MFA award for Fastest Submission Approval in the West. Her poem "Four Twenty Twenty" was written on Friday, April 10, workshopped on Saturday morning April 11 with MFA Faculty Mentor Marianne Rogoff, then submitted, accepted, and published by online literary journal Pendemic on Saturday evening. That's a 24 hour turnaround time! Her poem speaks to all of us as we cope with shelter in place orders. Have a read, and be inspired. You never know, your work could be published in 24 hours!
Capella works for the County of Marin, Health and Human Services Department as a Latinx Health Program Development Intern for the Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Division. She recently received an assignment as a Disaster Service Worker performing medical screenings for COVID-19 at the Ritter Center in San Rafael, which provides services for low income and unhoused residents. Capella has her CHW Community Health Worker Certification and is an EMT. |
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Capella Parrish
"Sorry Not Sorry"
Accepted for Publication
Capella Parrish had her poem "Sorry Not Sorry" selected for publication at Rejection Letters. The prompt: "Pick something, anything. Write a rejection letter to it." The publisher described Capella's piece as "beautiful and painful."
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Catharine Clark-Sayles
Poetry of Modern Conflict Award
MFA Alumna Catharine Clark-Sayles (MFA '19) had her chapbook Brats selected for the Poetry of Modern Conflict award by the Sangria Summit, a group promoting writing by military authors. Brats was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019.
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Marianne Rogoff Edits
Two Books for a Sustainable Future
Two books edited by Marianne Rogoff this year were just published: The Style of Substance: Architecture for a Post-Material Culture by Ned Forrest and The Half-Acre Homestead: 46 Years of Building & Gardening by Lesley Creed and Lloyd Kahn (featured on 3/11/20 in this New York Times article) - both timely perspectives on sustainable living.
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Judy Halebsky
Spring and Ten Thousand Years
Finalist for the 2020 Miller Williams Poetry Prize
Congrats to Judy Halebsky, Director of the MFA program, for having her manuscript selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins as finalist for the 2020 Miller Williams Poetry Prize! Read about Spring and Ten Thousand Years here. |
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Thomas Burke
Biographical Fiction Research
MFA faculty member Thomas Burke is researching for a work of biographical fiction. The form uses history to create a narrative that, though fictional, is based in reality.
The subjects of the novel are James Duval Phelan (1861-1930) and Roger Casement (1864-1916). Phelan served as mayor of San Francisco and a U.S. Senator. He was an early advocate for urban Public Health. His home, Villa Montalvo in Santa Clara County, now hosts artists’ residencies. An Anglo-Irishman and British diplomat, Casement became a traitor to his class, holding anti-Imperialist views and working for Ireland’s independence from Britain. He was hanged by the British for treason.
History records both men as "confirmed bachelors." Burke’s work reads them as gay men. His research supports this view and brings a new, compelling dimension to their stories.
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Terry Lucas
Marin County Poet Laureate
and MFA Guest Speaker
Terry Lucas, Marin Poet Laureate and frequent MFA guest speaker, has been busy writing and publishing in multiple genres. An excerpt of his memoir, Flight, published in Great River Review, Issue 66, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and chosen for the journal’s preview. In addition, Voetica has recorded some of his new and selected poems.
Terry has work forthcoming in Crosswinds Poetry Journal, and a collection of poems in collaboration with local photographer Gary Topper is forthcoming this fall from Longship Press. He has been keeping busy while sheltered in place, reading and writing reviews of poetry collections by Marin County poets, including Judy Halebsky’s Spring and Ten Thousand Years, posting them on his blog, The Widening Spell.
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Self-Portrait. Write a piece that includes a description of yourself in another form. It could be a food, a car, an animal, a boardgame, a disco song, a tree, anything.
Send us your prompt response using the submission link below and we will publish it in one of our upcoming newsletters!
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