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Sunday, July 4, 2010

More on the MFA Program

The photo above is of Phil Brady, author and poet. http://www.philipbrady.com/. One only has to hear Phil recite one of his works like ,To Prove My Blood: A Tale of Emigrations & The Afterlife (Ashland Poetry Press 2003) and By Heart: Reflections of a Rust-Belt Bard (University of Tennessee Press 2008). Also he co-authored an edition Critical Essays on James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with James F. Carens (Twayne, 1998), to know you are in the prescence of a genius.

On Monday and Tuesday of the residency, we spent out days in craft classes working on the business side of the writing world. We learned to craft good pitch letters (known as query letters), author bio's, and synopses (short descriptions of out work.) Learning this part of the process gets a writer thinking about what to do with the work once it is ready to be published.

We worked on punctuation and had the MFA program explained in detail for us. We also had the pleasure of listening to Phil Brady, a poet and orator, one of the few brilliant people who recites every work he has from memory. Everyone loves this class.

Monday night we watched screenplay writer and producer, Michael Mailer's (Norman Mailer's son) film, The Golden Boys, which starred Rip Torm, Bruce Dern, Mariel Hemingway and David Carradine (his last film). It was an honor to have him share the film with us. http://www.michaelmailerfilms.com/past.html

On Tuesday night we listened to readings from poet Tony Morris, authors David Poyer,  John Bowers, poet, Christine Gelineau, YA author, Cecelia Galante, authors, Lenore Hart, Robert Mooney, Nancy McKinley and poet, Phil Brady. What talent!

More on the rest of the full week coming later.

For work, check out the website  for The Santa Fe Writing Project. http://www.sfwp.com/ This site is for the craft of writing and hosts a contest you are sure to like. Get to it!

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