Autumn MFA schedule announced

MFA residency serves up literary smorgasbord with readings, lectures, panels

Contact: Jodi Varon | MFA Program Director
jvaron@eou.edu or 541-962-3525

September 25, 2015

LA GRANDE, Ore. — Eastern Oregon University’s master of fine arts in creative writing program autumn residency kicks off with two weeks of workshops, readings, lectures and panels featuring writers and scholars from around the region.

All readings, lectures and panels are free and open to the public.

The residency begins Tuesday, Oct. 6 with a lecture at 2 p.m. in Ackerman Hall, Room 208, by well-known local writer, recent MFA graduate and EOU faculty member James Stolen talking about life as a writer after the completion of his MFA degree.

The annual Oregon East Gala follows that evening at 7, also in Ackerman 208, with readings by EOU students featured in the new issue of the award-winning student magazine.

MFA faculty Megan Kruse and Justin Hocking will share selections from their recent work at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7 in Pierce Library’s Reading Room.

Kruse is the author of the novel “Call Me Home” featuring an introduction by Elizabeth Gilbert, who praises her as a “writer of raw and fearless talent and ‘Call Me Home’ showcases all she can do. She writes here of harrowing lives — of a family bent and broken by violence, where each person is desperately trying to somehow grow toward light and liberation.”

Hocking’s “The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld” was widely praised in the New Yorker, New York Times and elsewhere, and was the winner of the 2015 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.

Thursday, Oct. 8 from 2-3 p.m. in Ackerman Hall, Room 208, offers a unique insight into publishing with an elite panel of publishers and editors including Tony Perez (Tin House Books), Carl Adamshick (Tavern Books), Christine Holbert (Lost Horse Press) and moderator Christopher Howell (Lynx House Press).

Following the panel in the evening at 7:30 in Pierce Library’s Reading Room, Carl Adamshick will share selections from his new collection “Saint Friend,” which has received many accolades. Katie Ford praised the collection, stating “‘Saint Friend’ is a book of a rare order. At once astonished and pained, this collection gathers power because of its philosophical quietude.”

Week two begins Tuesday, Oct. 13 with a lecture at 11 a.m. in Ackerman Hall, Room 208, with Kruse discussing “crafting emotions” in fiction.

Tuesday afternoon at 1, Nicole Howard, EOU associate professor of history, will discuss a subject many MFA students have investigated in a contemporary context under the tutelage of Lidia Yuknavitch, “Representing the Body in Renaissance Art & Literature.” The panel is also in Ackerman 208.

Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Pierce Library Reading Room, MFA faculty members Jennifer Boyden and James Crews will read from their recent bodies of work.

Boyden is the author of two award-winning collections of poetry, most recently “The Declarable Future,” as well as three artist books.

Crews is the author of the award-winning collection, “The Book of What Stays,” is widely published in journals and is the editor of “Singing Bowl Poems.”

Thursday, Oct. 15 features two lectures and a student reading in the evening. Activities begin at 11 a.m. in Ackerman 208 with MFA Co-founder and EOU faculty member David Axelrod giving a lecture on “Literary Authenticity and Its Discontents.”

Following at 1 p.m., Ryan Dearinger, EOU associate professor of history, will discuss “Writing as a Historian” in Ackerman Hall, Room 210.

Thursday and Friday, Oct. 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m., EOU graduate students will gather in Ackerman 208 to read from their recent fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Any individuals interested in participating in workshops as non-enrolled students should contact Varon at jvaron@eou.edu or 541-962-3525.

For the complete autumn residency schedule and more information on the master of fine arts in creative writing program, visit www.eou.edu/mfa.