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Unique M.F.A. Programs Builds a Community of Writers
by Morgan Shepard '04
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Kim Kupperman |
USM alumna Kim Kupperman's day begins 780 miles away from Lubec, Maine, where she once worked as a health planner. She now works in Gettysburg, Penn., as the managing editor of The Gettysburg Review, one of the country's top literary journals. Gettysburg College is home to the journal, which has published authors such as Joyce Carol Oates and E.L. Doctorow. Kupperman wears many hats at The Review and enjoys the final reading of accepted work. “There's something fulfilling about becoming intimate with an author's poetry or prose,” she says. “It makes for enriched communication with those writers.”
An enriched communication, like that which she had with a special group of USM graduate students and faculty as part of USM's Stonecoast M.F.A. program, gave Kupperman a springboard to landing the Gettysburg job. During the summer of 2004, she and 30 others were among the first graduating class of the new M.F.A. program in creative writing. Now in its third year, the program is fostering a strong sense of community between current students and alumni of the program.
Mary Sloan, USM's director of Graduate Admissions, says that applicant interest in the M.F.A.–the only low-residency graduate program at USM–is doing well. The low-residency aspect of the program is a real draw, says Sloan. “It allows students to attend without uprooting their families, and it draws a broad group of interested applicants. Students come together in a very intense setting, living and working together for 10 days. To get lost in something you care about is a luxury few graduate students have.”
The program requires students to attend two, 10-day residencies per year for two years, held at USM's Stone House in Freeport. In addition, students must complete four semesters of intensive, long-distance work with a faculty mentor/writer.
Kupperman, who focused on the creative nonfiction genre, says, “The immersion aspect of the program, in terms of reading, writing, and meeting monthly deadlines established a pattern for me that was easy to transfer to a day job.” She also took advantage of networking possibilities, forming a reading group she called Three Genres in the Rain, with three other M.F.A. writers–poet Marcia Brown '04, fiction writer Jim Sprouse '04, and another creative nonfiction student, Penelope Schwartz Robinson '04. The group now reads their work at libraries throughout Maine.
Schwartz Robinson was nominated by the Stonecoast M.F.A. faculty and won the Associated Writers and Publishers 2004 Award in Nonfiction for her work. She feels that being a part of the first class was a unique experience. “We were a small group, and we had a commitment and a vision,” she says. “That initial trust and hope, that ability to take a first step, will always characterize the inaugural class.” Now, she sees evidence that the graduates are following their own paths. “People are busy. They're writing. For most, that means having another life that supports the work.”
For the inaugural class, having another life includes jobs such as alumna Rachel Raffel '04's as the editor of Maine in Print, the trade publication of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, or teaching on the high school and college levels in Maine and in places like Connecticut, Maryland, and West Virginia. Fiction graduate Henry Garfield '04 travels from Belfast, Maine, five days a week to write for the Ellsworth Weekly newspaper. He also teaches writing classes in the Bangor/Belfast area. Garfield published three novels prior to his M.F.A. experience: Moondog, Room 13, and Tartabull's Throw. His current book, The Lost Voyage of John Cabot, is an historical fiction book geared toward young adults. Garfield understands the difficulty of making a living as a writer. “I supported myself as a novelist with periods of poverty,” he says. “The M.F.A. gives me a leg up on the competition for academic jobs.”
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Members of Three Genres in the Rain include,
with Kim Kupperman, these three other M.F.A.
writers—poet Marcia Brown '04, fiction writer
Jim Sprouse '04, and another creative nonfiction
student, Penelope Schwartz Robinson '04.
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Despite life's economic realities, most of the graduates continue to send out stories, essays, or poetry. Their work has been published in literary magazines and periodicals, including USM's Words and Images, Portland Magazine, Newport Review, Brooklyn Stories, Dogwood Journal, New Delta Review, RN, and Willow Springs.
Stonecoast faculty member Brad Barkley is impressed with the quality of the inaugural class. Barkley, whose latest book is called Another Perfect Catastrophe: and Other Stories, says, “They set the tone. They, and a dedicated faculty, created the program out of whole cloth, and it's one of the best I've seen in terms of community, support, and love for the work.” But Barkley also warns that a high percentage of M.F.A. graduates choose a path away from writing. “The degree is not the door; your commitment and willingness to work your butt off, that's the door,” he says. “The work gets done when you are alone in your room while the world is outside playing tag or football. You have to want it, and that want has to be cultivated in yourself at the same time you are cultivating your skills.”
Barkley believes that the best way to stay connected with other writers is to become part of a writing group. “It's the closest you can come to simulating the environment of the residencies,” he says.
Peggy Moss '04, a fiction graduate and author of a children's book, Say Something, published by Tilbury House in May 2004, agrees with Barkley on the subject of writing groups. She formed her group with other M.F.A. students and writers. When asked about the essentials for a successful writing group, she says, “Respect, commitment, and a willingness to be honest. And humor. I couldn't live without the humor in this group.”
Other efforts to build community have been focused on alumni of the new degree program. Penelope Schwartz Robinson, for example, has been working with the USM Alumni Relations Office to form a Stonecoast M.F.A. chapter. “It's important,” she says, “because in a low-residency program, students see each other only twice a year.”
Poet Annie Finch, the new director of the Stonecoast M.F.A. program, and Robin Talbot, the interim associate director, also are working on ways to help keep alumni connected.
“We've been working to establish a reading series at USM, with regular readings by the M.F.A. alumni,” says Finch. “I'm also enthusiastic about starting an alumni listserv. Through a listserv, alumni could network, not only for moral support and information sharing, but to organize literary events.” According to Robin Talbot, the program has discussed holding alumni reunions during each residency.
Annie Finch sees the inaugural Stonecoast alumni as a “valuable matrix in the web of Stonecoast activity.” She says, “They're out there doing things in the literary world. Each one is an ambassador for recruitment to the program and for the recognition of all other alumni and students, for Stonecoast, and for USM. They are the Stonecoast connection with the future of literature in this country.”
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