The publications keep on rolling in here at WVU. Jessi Lewis has received her second acceptance in less than one month. Her short story, “Walnuts,” has been accepted in Ghost Town, a literary magazine out of Cal State San Bernardino. Congratulations, Jessi! Keep those acceptances coming, Mountaineers!

With the ever-echoing cry of “publish or perish” it’s easy to forget that there are other ways besides literary magazines to have our work reach an audience. Christina Seymour, MFA candidate in poetry, has reminded us all that the other ways can be extremely powerful. One of Christina’s poems, “Home is Dead When He Fights,” is on display in Speak Peace, a travelling exhibit that pairs poetry with art from Vietnamese children. In pairing the paintings with the poems, the exhibit’s website says that its goal is to “to promote healing and reconciliation.” Furthermore, the website says, “Speak Peace offers a timely testament to the emotional truth of war and peace.” This exhibit and Christina’s work reminds us as writers that writing can illuminate more than just space on a page, it can speak to larger issues of war and peace and the necessary healing that follows. Read Christina’s poem and see the accompanying painting here.

To listen to NPR’s segment about the exhibit, follow the link.

On this final day in March, we’re ending with a final piece of fantastic news. Our very own poetess, Lisa Beans, just found out that she will be awarded a Fulbright Fellowship. This fall Lisa will be moving to Poland to teach, study, and write. Read all about Lisa in our most recent student spotlight.

Not to brag or anything, but our MFA students are having a pretty good month. A plethora of acceptances have poured in, and now, right when thesis defense season is starting, we got word that our very own (and newly defended) Matt London won the AWP Intro Journals Prize. Matt’s poem, “National Acoustic Symphonic Academy,” will appear in Hayden’s Ferry Review. Congratulations, Matt!

by Rebecca Thomas

The 2011-2012 academic year has been kind to WVU’s MFA students and alumni. We’ve been able to celebrate book releases, awards, grants, a start up literary magazine, and publications. Here are a few of the highlights from this year:

Alumni

Sarah Harris’s short story, “The Kitchen,” won first place in Nano Fiction’s Third Annual Nano Prize. Sarah won $500, and her story will appear in the fall issue. Read more about the results on Nano’s website.

Ida Stewart’s first collection of poems, Gloss, won the 2011 Perugia Press Award (a national poetry award for a first or second book by a woman). She is currently a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at University of Georgia. Read more about Ida Stewart here.

Ruka Press published Katie Fallon’s nonfiction book, Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird. Read more about Katie and cerulean warblers here.

Two MFA alumni, Kristin Abraham and Matt Vandermuelen, are the editors of the online magazine Spitoon. Spitoon describes itself as “a quarterly, independent literary zine dedicated to the publication of quality contemporary and experimental poetry, creative nonfiction and fiction. This online journal will feature work by poets and writers, both well known and up-and-coming.” MFA alumna, Lori D’Angelo, has her short story, “Provisions,” in the second issue of the magazine. Read Lori’s story and the entire second issue here.

Lori D’Angelo recently won the prestigious Elizabeth George Foundation grant. The generous grant is awarded to unpublished and emerging writers. Read more about Lori, her novel, and the grant.

Sarah Einstein’s essay, “Self-Portrait-in-Apologies,” originally published in Fringe Magazine was awarded “The Best of the Net.” Follow the links to read Self-Portrait-in-Apologies and to read more about The Best of the Net.

Current Students

Justin Anderson, MFA candidate in Fiction, wins the prize for publishing beast. Justin had a whopping eight stories accepted for publication since the fall: “Consultant,” Chocorua Review; “Plans for an Orchard,” matchbook; “So, They Are Not Wholly Defenseless,” Pank Magazine; “Bathtub” and “Appropriators,” BLIP Magazine; “Automatic Pilot,” The Fiction Desk; “Alone, in this House,” Grey Sparrow Journal; and “Gardeners,” Controlled Burn.

Justin Crawford, MFA candidate in Fiction, had two short stories accepted this year. His story, “Converge,” will appear in an upcoming issue of Inwood Indiana. His short story, “Death and Progeny” will appear in an upcoming issue of The Meadow.

Rachel King, MFA candidate in Fiction, had her short story “Elevator Girl” published in The Farallon Review’s Spring 2012 issue. Three of her poems were published in nibble, November 2011.

Jessi Lewis, MFA candidate in Fiction, will have her short story, “Lesions,” published in an upcoming issue of Flyway.

Matt London, MFA candidate in Poetry, won the 2012 AWP Intro Award with his poem, “National Acoustic Symphonic Academy His poem.” His poem will appear in an upcoming issue of Hayden’s Ferry Review. “Talkies,” is published in Issue #10 of Past Simple.

Connie Pan, MFA candidate in Fiction, will have two poems, “Black Sleep” and “Almost,” appear in a forthcoming issue of Hawaii Review.

Christina Seymour, MFA candidate in Poetry, had her poetry exhibited at the Bellefonte Art Museum’s Speak Peace exhibit in February of 2012.

Kelly Sundberg won first prize in Slice Magazine’s “Bridging the Gap Contest.” Her winning essay, “Like Mourners’ Bread,” will appear in the 2012 issue of the magazine. Her essay, “Demolition” is in the Spring 2011 issue of Flyway, and her essay, “Runaway,” will appear in a forthcoming issue of Reed Magazine. Her poem, “Approaching Monday,” is featured in the upcoming July 2012 issue of Literary Mama.

This certainly is not the only alumni and current student news out there. If you have any news, please send it to Rebecca Thomas.

by Jessi Kalvitis, Matt London, and Rebecca Thomas

WVU seems to be quite the literary hub this year. Authors have flooded Colson 130, the Mountainlair, the Robinson Reading Room, and even 123 Pleasant Street.

Katie Fallon and Ida Stewart
by Jessi Kalvitis
Back in the naïve, youthful days of the early semester, before we all reached the post-midterm tearing-out-our-hair stage, an overflowing crowd gathered in 130 Colson Hall to enjoy readings from poet Ida Stewart and creative nonfiction powerhouse Katie Fallon, both alumnae of WVU English programs and both with two new books out (Gloss and Cerulean Blues respectively). Both writers’ work evoked elements of nature that wouldn’t emerge from dormancy for months to come. Stewart spoke of “cohoshes black and blue,” of brambles, of fiddleheads and ginseng, asking us to “feel it pull you underground, elide you.” Fallon treated us to a bird-watching jaunt from the pages of her book Cerulean Blues, transporting us from the dim cold evening to a spring afternoon at Cooper’s Rock, including some delightfully straightfaced bird-call mimicry. Fallon also gave students a brief description of “Writing Appalachian Ecology,” the course she will be teaching during the second summer session. The readings were intertwined with introductions from Mark Brazaitis, who informed us that “when you’re as talented as Ida is, when you write a poem as clean and playful and inventive as Ida does, when you invoke the world as vividly as Ida does, your writing career goes from A to book publication a little faster than usual.” Regarding Katie Fallon’s presence in his fiction workshop some time ago, he remarked that he “let everyone into that class—my mailman, the dude over at Jay’s Daily Grind, my two year old daughter—but Katie belonged there.” The phrase seemed especially appropriate when applied to Katie Fallon, as she still very much belongs as a part of the writing community at WVU today.

To read more about Ida Stewart, Gloss, her work, read the recent alumni spotlight from our Fall 2011 newsletter.

To read more about Katie Fallon, read her alumni spotlight from our Spring 2011 newsletter and read Elissa Hoffman’s coverage about Katie’s book, Cereulean Blues.

Dagoberto Gilb
by Rebecca Thomas
Dagoberto Gilb brought some Southwestern heat to a chilly winter night with his reading. He filled the Moutainlair with a tale of a little boy who never speaks, his very hot mom, a boyfriend, and Pedro Guerrero (“Uncle Rock” from his short story collection Before the End, After the Beginning). For a brief while in February, the Mountainlair was transported to Chavez Ravine. We then journeyed to Iowa as Dagoberto read an essay about migrant workers and corn that both had us wishing for the summer’s crop and rethinking how we get corn in America (“Iowa” from State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America). Read more about Dagoberto’s work

Zachary Schomburg
by Matt London
Darkness. Beer. And a microphone. Zachary Schomburg’s reading at 123 Pleasant Street, sponsored by The Council of Writers, brought in a big crowd of students and poetry thrill seekers. Zach’s read from his new book Fjords Vol. 1 (Black Ocean 2012)—a book of prose poems. Ultimately, through crowd interaction and a remarkably comfortable stage presence, Zach’s poetry at once forced people to laugh to keep from crying. Or maybe they just laughed. And maybe when they though about what Zach just finished reading they thought No, wait. That wasn’t funny at all. That was sad. So sad. We were lucky to have Zachary Schomburg bring his comedy/tragedy masks to Morgantown and WVU. Read more about Zachary Schomburg.

James Harms
by Matt London
It was a family affair. James Harms read to a packed house in the Gold Ballroom, giving listeners many gracious moments of poetry read by one of the most enjoyable voices. His style was laid back and welcoming, like Jim and you were the only two people in the room, and it was natural to read poems to each other (as it should be). Jim read from his new book Comet Scar (Carnegie Mellon 2012) and his new collection of uncollected poems What to Borrow, What to Steal (Marick Press 2012). His ease at handing us his poems and the anecdotes that traced the poem’s beginning made the evening a type of panacea: the deep breath of fresh air that reminds us how the sap of life really flows.

And the readings aren’t done, yet. The Council of Writers was able to bring in two readers this year. Matthew Zapruder is coming to Morgantown. If you click on the podcasts below, his reading might even be posted by the time this is published.
Follow the link to hear podcasts of this year’s readings (with the exception of Zachary Schomburg’s). While you’re there, check out podcasts for past readers that we’ve had. You won’t be disappointed!

by RebCon (otherwise known as, Rebecca Thomas and Connie Pan)

Pictured above: WVU’s very first table at AWP with two of our lovely faculty, Mary Ann Samyn and Glenn Taylor, and the fabulous Connie Pan, an MFA candidate in fiction. Next year, Boston!

This year AWP (The Association of Writers and Writing Programs) was held in Chicago. The windy city hosted over eight thousand writers as they saw sights, saw panels, saw books, and saw lots of red canvas bags. This year, AWP sold out well before the conference, putting this year’s conference on record for the most well-attended conference ever.

How to Survive AWP in 5 Easy Steps.

1. Bring cash, lots of cash. There will never be a greater opportunity to be around this many independent lit mags, university presses, indie presses, and student run mags in your life. The average Barnes and Noble has what? Like six lit mags on hand at any given time? And your local Barnes shelves are definitely barren of these rare books. AWP has four banquet rooms full of this stuff, so bring your monies, kiddos.

2. Don’t do the courtesy grab. In the Book Fair, people are handing out sangria, whiskey, wine, key chains, stickers, journals, candy, pens, notebooks, bookmarks, and, while all this free stuff is bewitching and exciting, before you know it you will end up with a bagful of AWP paraphernalia that you have no idea what to do with and a broken back. Grab only what you like (always grab the alcohol or coffee).

3. Liquids. First, coffee. The Book Fair and the panels start at 8:30AM and even after the keynote address, there are still rad off-site readings and events to see. So have some java and reboot with some more java. Stay hydrated. In every corner in every room, AWP has water jugs ready for you; make sure to fill and refill because at around three o’clock they stop replenishing them. Maybe we’re writers because we don’t like talking. I think at least 80% of us would agree to that, and AWP is all networking. So a flask of wine or a six-pack at the hotel is a must to heal your wounds and forget the day.

4. Talk. Despite our unified fear of talking and all the times our moms said not to talk to strangers, you have to and you should. Ask mags about their aesthetic; see if your work would fit there. Make new friends, be memorable, so when you slyly mention in your cover letter that you were the one who had a glass of Franzia and talked about the Karen Russell interview, they will remember you, and they will remember that even though it might have been the wine, they liked you. Just don’t talk to the guy dressed up as Gumby in a banana suit (yes, that did happen).

5. Stop by the WVU table. RebCon is proud to say that we have spearheaded the first ever table for WVU, and we pimped everything West Virginia has to offer: the MFA Program, English PhDs and MAs, the PWE Program, WVU Press, Calliope, Mountaineer Pride, our Orange Bowl victory, pepperoni rolls, and the fact that we are literate and thriving. Our wonderful faculty and alumni held book signings throughout the weekend. MFA alumna, Kelly Moffett, kicked off the signing spree on Friday, followed by faculty members Jim Harms, Katie Fallon, Mary Ann Samyn, and Glenn Taylor. The entire time we sat at the table we kept being reminded of how proud we are to be a part of this program. West Virginia natives and alumni continuously stopped by the booth to say how happy they were to see WVU represented at AWP. It was fun shocking prospective students with how great our program is (we’ve got some pretty sweet funding). Plus, we had suckers and Twix.

But the real joy of our table was having it become a home away from home at the conference, a haven for when the Book Fair got a little too hectic. For Jim Harms “having a real presence at AWP” was great. For him, our table became “a little home to return to now and then, and [it was comforting] knowing that friendly faces were advocating for all we do here at WVU.” Mary Ann loved how RebCon quickly “snag[ged] passers-by to sing our praises. Having ‘our’ table’ as a refuge made a big difference.” But Glenn Taylor might say it best about the bonding experience of AWP: “After surviving AWP, we’ve become great friends.” It’s true. Come be our friend at the next AWP. Boston or bust!

Recommended by Rebecca Doverspike

After reading Jessie Van Eerden’s essay “Soul Catchers,” my first and deepest impulse was to share it with everyone. Though we say this often, once we actually think about those we know—specific friends, families, colleagues—we realize most pieces will only resonate with a few of those people. This essay casts wider, and I really think almost everyone I know would love it and learn something indispensible from it. Her essay is a kind of letter as well as a narrative, lovingly addressing a woman named Eliza, from the Whetsell Settlement near Beatty Church in West Virginia. She speaks about photographers coming into Eliza’s home to capture images for the “War on Poverty,” their desire to capture and claim something “distant” from themselves, to hold in their hands at a remove. Her voice throughout the piece works through both fury and love, speaking of what’s that’s left out of those photographs, and what’s left out anytime we “other” or refuse to see another with the layers and complexity we afford ourselves. Her language is quick, gorgeous, moving, and clear; through it, she shows a complexity of issues that I find myself still working through. I could not recommend this essay more highly—it will stay with me for the rest of my life. I think you will find yourself learning something through each sentence. You can find it in The Oxford American, Best of the South III from 2008 (well worth the seeking; I promise). To read more of Jessie’s writing, visit her website.

Reasons Why Not All MFA Horror Stories are True: WVU’s MFA Class of 2012
by Rebecca Thomas

When I started the MFA program almost two years ago, I was scared. I had heard horror stories about MFA programs: the people were mean, snooty, back-stabbers. I was told that everyone thought very highly of themselves. Then, I went to the Meet-and-Greet at Kelly Sundberg’s house and realized that my fears were for nothing. These people were lovely. I went to workshop and marveled not only at how wonderful their writing was, but also how generous everyone was with their feedback. I have had the pleasure of workshopping with each of the Third Years, and I loved reading their work, getting to know their voices, and valued their feedback on my own work. Now, as the semester is coming to an end, I’m starting to have to come to terms with a life sans these fine Third Years in workshop. It seems unimaginable, and it’s enough to send me spiraling into gym shorts and bags of Chex Mix, but then I remember their writing, I remember their theses, and I remember that I’ll still get to keep on reading their work when it inevitably gets published. Thank you marvelous Third Years for your warmth, generosity, and everything that you have brought (and still bring) to WVU’s MFA program.

Please join us on Thursday, April 26, at 7:30 in the Rhododendron Room in the Mountainlair. Our wonderful Third Years will read from their thesis and get hooded. There will even be refreshments, too.

Poetry

Lisa Beans
Lisa Beans knows that whatever her future holds (possibly teaching, possibly living in Poland—she’s a Fulbright finalist!), she will write poems. (Update: Lisa wont he Fulbright. She will be traveling to Poland this fall to read, write, and teach for a year!) Wherever she ends up, she will miss all of her peers, past and present, at WVU who have become her best friends. She counts “getting a cat and caring for its life [and] learning how to write poems” as two of her biggest accomplishments here. One of her favorite memories was at the beginning of this year. She said, “we had a reading on the rooftop deck of Hotel Morgan. It was warm, but not hot. The sun set as we read. We could see all of Morgantown. Beautiful.” It’s that beauty of Morgantown that she advises future MFA students to be aware of among other things. She tells them to “Pursue friendships. Cherish writing. Look outside a lot.”
Read about Lisa more in depth in her student spotlight.

Micah Holmes
Micah’s future involves accents and probably a lot of tea. He says that he has “accepted an offer?to study Medieval Lit at King’s College London, so as long as everything goes according to plan, [he’ll] be taking a second master’s from an awesome English college.” As awesome as a future at King’s College is, it’ll be hard to top the wonderment of workshop. One of Micah’s favorite memories is in his “first workshop when Mary Ann asked [everyone] to bring in some other type of media that [they] wanted to write ‘like.’ Aaron Rote brought in this little recording device that he used to record the things [they] said during workshop. Then he did some crazy loop thing with the audio and mixed it all together. The machine (whatever it was, it all sounds more mystical now) had lights on it, so [they] turned off the lights and let it light up the room with color. How many classes do something like that?” he asked. He admits that he will miss his “extended MFA family. Everyone here has been amazing,” he said. He counts his biggest accomplishment as being “a poet, like for real, not just a cat that writes every once in a while. [He] feels really connected to [his] work, and that wouldn’t have happened if [he] didn’t spend the time here.” His advice for future MFAs: “try to get to know everyone in the department and to stick close to your classmates. We have a tight knit program here and its one of our biggest strengths. Most importantly though, enjoy it!”

Matt London
Matt London’s future plans are more of school and also the pretty big step of marriage. One of Matt’s favorite memories is “seeing one of [his] favorite books on his office mate’s desk the first day [he] arrived. It was a good omen.” Reading is definitely one of the things that Matt holds most important. When he leaves here, Matt admits that he will probably “troll the WVU Bookstore for the reading lists the professors assign.” Matt says that his biggest accomplishment is “getting out of [his] own way” in writing. One of his favorite pieces that he workshopped was ” ‘All they left was a phone book’—it was the time [he] wanted to achieve a certain experience in a poem and the class had just that. It was that moment where all this (writing, reading, endeavoring) clicked and something said ‘Hey, you might be doing the right thing here.’”

His advice for future MFAs: “Find who reads your work the best and pay extra special attention to that person’s critiques of your writing. And, likewise, in workshop, it’s tough to be an expert on every person’s work. So be a leader in the field of one piece: find one piece that in that week’s reading for which you can really give sound critiques. Lastly, find out what everyone is reading, write down those books and authors, and go check them out. My library has expanded at an exponential rate over the 3 years I’ve been here.”

Fiction

Justin Anderson
While Justin Anderson might not be entirely certain about what his future holds (“university teaching jobs aren’t exactly falling into [his] lap right now”), he does know that he’ll “be trying like crazy to get [his] collection ( Gardeners ) published and writing new stories.” He would like to “try to buy a house with some land and maybe get a second car. Sort of get situated somewhere. Take a stand.”

Justin will miss the workshops here at WVU. He said, “the dynamics of these things are absolutely remarkable. Little microcosms of society.” In fact, his favorite memory is “probably the first time [he] got graduate-level feedback on work. That was really something. Extremely humbling and encouraging all at the same time. It’s always been a good experience since, but that first time [he’ll] not forget. [He] came home and read the comments over and over with delight.” His biggest accomplishment also ties into workshop. He said that “after three years, he finally wrote a story [“The Cosmological Constant”] that Mark didn’t think needed [to be] changed. That was a big one. Mark’s a sharp, honest critic.” That story ended up being his favorite piece that he workshopped. He says that the “story came together in an almost divine way. It grew out of this note jotted down in [his] journal: ‘Possible title? ‘Cosmological Constant.’’ And though the writing came fast, it’s one of the longest, most nuanced stories [he has] written. For [him], it sort of stands as the watermark of where [he] made it to as a writer during [his] time here. Nobody seems to want to publish it, though. But that’s nothing extraordinary.” I have a feeling it will only be a matter of time before we see the story in print. I was in that workshop; it’s good.

His advice for future MFAs: “Be humble. Be open. Listen to what people say about your work and listen to what they say about how and why they write. Listen and think about it, even if you don’t agree with it. You don’t have to agree with everything. Read widely. Don’t fall into research rut. Don’t come in to the program with a chip on your shoulder. There’s the danger that it’s glued on there too tight and won’t get knocked off somewhere along the line, no matter how badly it needs [to be] knocked off. And that is not good for a writer; retaining the chip.
“If you’re not already sure your work is problematic (it’s called “the artist’s reward”), then why join an MFA program? I mean, you already know it all, right? Great. Go forth and spin gold.”

Read more about Justin Anderson in his student spotlight.

Justin Crawford
Justin Crawford knows that in the immediate future he’s going to enjoy and “relish” the accomplishment of being an MFA. He also knows that he will be sending out his work as much as possible. He says that one of his favorite memories here is his first meet and greet: “It was at Elissa Hoffman’s old place out [in] Woodburn, and though I’d already lived in Morgantown for four years by then, it felt like a whole new town[.] It was a warm summer day, and people gathered in the house, on the porch, and in chairs in the lawn, most people drank the heat away. Children played. Bees got into everything. I was there with my wife, Jessica, and some familiar faces, but I didn’t know most of the people. But it didn’t matter. Everyone talked to one another, everyone was very welcoming. It was discovery. It was like I found some secret world that had always been there, but I had just recently got my invitation and I belonged.” He says that he will miss the people the most when he leaves WVU. “I’ve met so many extraordinary people during my stay: faculty, guest speakers, employees of WVU, colleagues, friends and family of colleagues, and just total strangers,” he said. He says that he enjoys the process of submitting work, and that he’s been riding high on his two publications, “Converge” in Inwood Indiana and “Death and Progeny” in The Meadow.

His advice for future MFAs is to “get out of Morgantown as much as possible. Take drives out Preston County. Go hiking at Coopers Rock or Dolly Sods. Go swimming at Tygart Lake in Grafton. Go eat pulled pork sandwiches at Big Mike’s in Smithfield, PA, or go eat pie and ice cream at Apple Annie’s in Point Marion, PA. Make yourself some Appalachian friends and travel far and wide, rural and populated. Get away from the routine that you’ll cling to as a first year because the stories, essays, and poems you’re trying to cultivate will not happen in your apartment or office. They sure won’t come from your students, and your colleagues and faculty are keeping their stories for themselves. Plus, Morgantown is a much better place when you leave it for a while.”

Rachel King
In the future, Rachel King will either be an editor or a bartender, and she will definitely write. Rachel had a hard time narrowing down a favorite memory here at WVU, but she said that a few of her favorites are: “stumbling upon The Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics while shelving books in the Wise library at 1 am, being trapped at a truck stop in Hancock on New Year’s Day, giving Kevin [Oderman] advice on the best places to retire in Oregon.” Like many people that have lived in Morgantown, Rachel will most miss the “pepperoni rolls, eggs from the co-op, distinctive light tones that occur when sunlight encounters West Virginia’s hills.” While here, Rachel was able to successfully rewrite a short novel for her thesis. She counts this as her biggest accomplishment. Her advice for future MFAs is to “write stories you want to read. Listen to readers who get what you’re trying to do. Utilize your professors’ knowledge. Find a lifetime friend or two among other MFAers.”

Read more about Rachel King in her student spotlight.

Nonfiction

Elissa Hoffman
Elissa Hoffman says that her future is “To keep writing!” She says that she will “Write and write and write. And read and travel a bit and live life—so [she] can write some more.” She says that she will miss “the rapt look on Kevin Oderman’s face when he likes an essay written by one of us.” Besides Kevin’s facial features, Elissa will also miss “the camaraderie of being in class with the writers and professors in the program, and the great feedback [she] always got from them.” She is proud that she has been able “to write from the inside, not the outside, to write from within a thinking trance, where all levels of consciousness are operating, and [she] really [has] no idea beforehand what’s going to fly out of [her] mind and into words.”

Her advice for future MFAs: “Take as many classes as you can, an interesting variety. Make lots of friends in the program. Don’t be afraid to write the hard things—those are what readers are most interested in, most touched by. Value your experiences, mine them for what they really say about you, and use it all in your writing.”

Kelly Sundberg
Kelly Sundberg’s future is writing. She said, “after finishing my MFA, I plan on revising my thesis further if needed, then submitting it to agents and book contests. I’d also like to push myself to write in different forms than I already have. I’m interested in writing more lyrical essays and incorporating more research. Finally, I’d like to try and attend conferences and writer’s workshops as a way of continuing the work I’ve done here.” One of the things that she will miss about WVU is actually her office, Colson 309. She admits that it “sounds cheesy,” but she’s had fabulous office mates that have shared conversation, coffee, food, plants, and writing. Of course, she’ll miss the community besides just Colson 309. She said, “WVU has a very warmhearted program—both the faculty and students—and we support each other a lot. It’s going to be hard to leave that.”

Her biggest accomplishment here was when she collected her collection of linked essays into one big document and realized that “someone might actually want to read this.” She says that “the amount of growth in my writing from when I started the program to now is immeasurable.” She counts her favorite piece that she’s workshopped as part of that growth. Her essay, “Demolition” was “a breakthrough essay, because that’s when [she] began understanding how to conceive of structure. Kevin [Oderman], [her] thesis director, often compliments [her] on [her] ability to conceptualize an essay, and [she] think that’s something he has taught [her] here. With nonfiction, once you conceptualize the piece, it feels like the rest comes organically.”

Her advice for future MFAs: “Start trying to publish your first year in the program. Don’t go crazy, and don’t submit before you think a story is ready, but we’re in this program to become publishable writers, and you’ll never know if you’re publishable if you’re too scared to send your work out. Rejection hurts, but it can also show you where you need to improve and put in that extra work. Getting a rejection is great motivation to revise, and getting an acceptance is an affirmation of the work you’ve been doing.”

Read more about Kelly Sundberg in her student spotlight.

Recommended by Jessi Kalvitis

Over the course of the last few months, in fragments between readings for class and catching up on decades of bad television, I read Skin: Talking About Sex, Class and Literature, a collection of essays, columns, and other nonfiction tidbits by Dorothy Allison. The book was published in 1994, but the pieces collected therein were mostly written in the mid- to late-1980s. Upon finishing the book, I noted in my reading journal (yes, I keep a reading journal) that many of the pieces were “about sex, but plenty of ones about home, about friendship, about growing up, about identity. This is more the Dorothy Allison I want to emulate—brash and bad-ass, but multifacted and intriguing.” Some aspects of the book are, thank goodness, severely dated but still interesting to read from a historical perspective, especially for anyone who may be curious about what it was like to be part of the feminist and/or LGBT community a generation ago. Other elements—such as when Allison speaks of her mother and many other relatives dying of cancer before age sixty, how none of them had ever had access to health care, how she had always assumed the same would happen to her—are, sadly, still extremely relevant today. It’s an alternately difficult and beautiful reading experience, and for both of those reasons I strongly recommend it.