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Inland Northwest Center for Writers Creative writing MFA program at Eastern Washington University newsletter - NOVEMber 2015 What’s Inside : ALUMNA Q&A • November Event Bulletin: what’s A CONVERSATION WIth BETHANY SCHULTZ HURST going on with our friends at nland Northwest Center Aunties and with for Creative Writing alumni the Spokane Bethany Schultz Hurst Slam I graduated in 2003. Since then, (page 3) she has been making a name for herself with her poetry. • Miss VoiceOver this month? Bethany Schultz Hurst is the Check out some author of Miss Lost Nation, photos from the which won the 2013 Robert event. Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry. (page 4) Her work has been selected for Best American Poetry 2015 • Program cheers and appears in journals such and congrats as American Literary Review, (pages 5 & 6) Crab Orchard Review, Drunken Boat, , • Dear Second and New Ohio Review. She lives Year: An advice in Pocatello, Idaho, where she column teaches at Idaho State University. (page 7) We asked her a few questions • Notes from an about her life after grad school

internship photo by Tagen Towsley Baker and beyond. (page 7) What years were you in the MFA program and what were you involved in? How did • Opportunities: those experiences help ready you for what you're currently doing? Submission calls, contests, grants I was in the MFA program 2001-2003. I was a T.A. and taught composition courses as well and fellowships as one creative writing course; the pedagogy training and practical experience I received (pages 7, 8 & 9) was super valuable to my teaching now. I also worked on Willow Springs; in my second year, I was the poetry editor. Working on a helped inform my view of the publication process. I saw first-hand the incredible volume of submissions and the daunting process of reading through them all. It helped me understand as a writer that rejection is inevitable, not necessarily a commentary on a writer's worth. And of course my classroom MFA and thesis work most directly prepared me to pursue my writing. In workshop, I learned at more about the necessity of revision and about how different writers and readers approach a piece of writing. EWU MORE ON PAGE 2 Q&A (CONTINUED

be patient with themselves as they Q&A (CONTINUED) establish their new routines. I think we should accept that some periods of I'm particularly thankful for the transition may be less productive for guidance of Johnathan Johnson our writing and not spend too much and Chris Howell; two teachers very energy freaking out about it. But maybe different from each other who both we can minimize those less productive taught me tremendous amount not only periods by nurturing supportive writing about writing, but about being generous relationships and setting clear goals and rigorous teachers of writing. for ourselves. My less-than-productive period stretched on maybe a little What do you do now? longer than it needed to. I'm an Assistant Professor of Creative What's the most memorable Writing at Idaho State University (ISU) experience of your time at Eastern? in Pocatello, Idaho. The time I spent in the area --going What were the years following to the Yaak Valley, for instance, your MFA like? Did you get a job after reading Rick Bass-- the stands immediately? Do you have any out as the most memorable. I was advice about what to do with this getting to know a new landscape and period of time? cultural perspective and was doing so surrounded by peers and faculty who Schultz Hurst’s of poetry I did get a job right after my MFA; I encouraged meaningful observation started teaching full-time as a non- and interactions. I think that's why more quickly, whereas female writers tenure track lecturer here at ISU. It was place continues to be important to me tend to wait several months before several years before I was ready to apply in my writing. resubmitting, if they do at all. Ever for tenure-track jobs. The first few years since, I've been trying to be more out of the program were challenging. What are your publication tricks - if diligent about re-submissions. Several I had to figure out first how to teach you have any? Do you submit often? of my publications -- like Drunken Boat, four classes at once, and then how to Would you care to share some of New Ohio Review, American Literary incorporate writing into that schedule. your publication credentials? What Review-- have come after the journal I missed my writing community has that been like for you? has previously rejected my work. from the MFA program. I felt a little directionless. I did keep writing, but I don't think I have any real tricks. I do What was the experience of being kept it mostly to myself. Luckily, I try to keep submissions out at about selected for Best American like? eventually met a couple of other poets ten journals at any particular time; How did it happen? What was your in Pocatello that I was compatible with, that way, I don't get fixated on any one reaction? and we began workshopping. When publication possibility. It's less crushing I began paying more consistent and that way when/if the rejection comes. I'm a huge fan of Sherman Alexie, professional attention to my writing, Just business as usual. And recently, who is the guest editor for 2015, so that's when things started to shape up I read a post by former Crab Creek the selection is doubly exciting for a bit more. I got more serious about Review Co-Editor Kelli Russell Agodon me. One of the ways I first fell in love pursuing publication and revising my called "Submit Like a Man," where with contemporary poetry was looking MFA thesis into a book Agodon points out that male writers through manuscript. tend to follow up on encouraging anthologies when I was in high school, rejections (the ones that say, "please thinking, oh, I didn't know poetry could I'd advise newly- do send again") more frequently and do that! It's a thrill to be MFA minted MFAs to included. at EWU 2 november events calendar

From our friends at: Saturday, November 8 signings LINDA BIERDS signing, reading, Q&A Saturday, Nov. 7 - 1 p.m. Round Table Discussion with Auntie’s Bookstore, 7:30 p.m. Krista Gilbert: Reclaiming *Workshop at Riverpoint at 3 p.m. Home EWU’s Visiting Writers series brings Linda Bierds to Auntie’s Tuesday, Nov. 10 - 7 p.m. ! Bierds will offer a reading, Book Launch of Shann Ray’s answer questions, and sign books. “American Copper” with Sherman Alexie Bierds is the author of nine books of poetry, and her work has Saturday, Nov. 14 - 7 p.m. appeared in the New Yorker since Reading/Q&A/Signing with 1984. She has received several Leonard Pitts Jr. Pushcart Prizes, as well as grants and awards from the Seattle Thursday, Nov. 19 - 7 p.m. Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Reading and Presentation Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Poetry Society of America, and with Joanie Eppinga, Chuck the MacArthur Foundation, who praised her in 1998 as “a poet whose attention Salina, and Susan Girtz to historical detail and to narratives of lyric description sets her apart from the prevailing contemporary styles.” Saturday, Nov. 21 - 1 p.m. Saturday Signing with Sue Co-presented by the Inland Northwest Center for Writers and Get Lit! Programs. Eller

Saturday, Nov. 21 - 7 p.m. Reading/Q&A/Signing with Fridays, November 20 Chris Kelly, author of Italy Invades! S.M. Hulse, reading, Q&A Auntie’s Bookstore, 7:30 p.m. From our friends at: *Workshop at Riverpoint at 3 p.m. EWU’s Visiting Writers series brings author S.M. Hulse to Auntie’s Books, where she will read, answer questions, and sign books!

Spokane S.M. Hulse is the author of the Black River, which was long-listed for the 2015 Monday, November 16, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was Bartlett (228 W. Sprague an American Booksellers Association Indies Ave), 8 p.m. $5 cover charge. Sign-ups Introduce title, an Indie Next title, and an start at 7 p.m., doors close at Amazon Best Book of the Month. Hulse 7:45. $50 prize for winner. received her M.F.A. from the University of Oregon and was a fiction fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her stories have appeared in Salamander, Willow Springs, MFA and Witness. A horsewoman and fiddler, Hulse has lived throughout the West. at EWU 3 VOICEOVER RECAP - 10/30

Program director greg spatz

2nd year fiction student & Voiceover host jeff horner

Poetry Alumna Meg Charles 2nd Year student erin leigh

1st year poetry student julia rox 2nd year fiction student MFA & Voiceover host ELIN HAWKINSON 2nd Year fiction student dave storment at EWU 4 Program cheers and celebrations Rachel Toor Jonathan Selected as notable in best American JoHnson professor Rachel Toor world poetry domination had her , “Learning to Pitch” selected as Notable for Best American Sports Writing 2015. Bob Welch was an Oakland A when he won the Cy Young Award.

To read, click HERE. Polly Buckingham Published in fiction and poetry INCW alumna and Eastern Creative Writing faculty Polly Buckingham is making a splash all over the place in both poetry and fiction this month. INCW poetry professor Jonathan Johnson has She has forthcoming publications poems in current issues of Poetry Northwest, in The Gettysburg Review, Hanging Witness (online), Passages North and Prairie Loose, Witness, The Pembroke Schooner and in the forthcoming issue of Review, and Mudfish! Gettysburg Review. Asa Maria Bradley CODY SMITH book published november 3 poem in Belle Rêve Literary Journal 2010 INCW graduate of the Current poetry first year program Asa Maria Bradley Cody Smith had his poem, celebrated the publication of her “Grandfather and Grandson book, Viking Warrior Rising on Bank Fish at Archie” published in November 3. November 4, she did this month’s Belle Reve Literary a reading at Auntie’s in Spokane Journal. to celebrate. We’re very proud The mag and poem go live November 17! MFA of Asa! at EWU 5 Program cheers and celebrations Kate peterson SETH MARLIN poem nominated for a pushcart Poems in Riverlit

Poetry alumna Kate Peterson and all around wonderful person had a poem published in Hawaii Pacific Review.

She also has two forthcoming in Toad Suck Review and two forthcoming in Aethlon.

Kate also had a poem nominated for 2013 alumnus Seth Marlin has his poems a Pushcart. She was nominated by “snow” and “the astronaut’s lullaby” in print in Glassworks for her poem "Trapped Issue 18 of RiverLit. bird in hospital corridor.” Also, his “Walled City” has just Kate Peterson continues to prove been accepted for publication in the January that one person can really do it all. 2016 issue of Betwixt magazine! Casey Patrick Laura citino alumna has poems published Fiction grad publishes nonfiction Alumna Casey Patrick had poems 2013 fiction graduate published in the summer issues Laura Citino had of Pleiades, Midwestern Gothic, nonfiction published and burntdistrict. She also has in Gigantic Sequins poems coming out way down in 6.2 this summer, and Spring and Summer 2016 in The will have nonfiction Adroit Journal, Grist Journal, coming out in Cream and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, all City Review later this of which involve Amelia Earhart year. or other famous female figures. Brett ortler published in fatherly, pop sugar, scary mommy Alumnus Brett Ortler had a few pieces picked up in Fatherly, Pop MFA Sugar, and on Scary Mommy recently. at EWU 6 A Note from a NON-Internship Dear SecondA monthly year advice column the writer’s center Dear Second Year, I’m struggling with Impostor Syndrome. I am plagued Greetings from the EWU by nagging thoughts like, “These people all know so much more Spokane Writers’ Center! As than I do,” “Why can’t I say something that intelligent?” and “I some of you may know, Lydia, somehow managed to trick people into thinking I could do Elin, and Dave are available this.” Monday-Friday, 1-5pm to meet How do I get my brain to shut up? How do I regain the with students, faculty, and confidence I had as an undergrad? staff of the EWU community and talk about writing! Dear Second year - Will the Real Grad Student Please Stand Up We work with any project that involves the written (or spoken) word. Stop on by to discuss your resumes, memoirs, short stories, Dear Real Grad Student, sandboxes, craft essays, We’re all impostors here. You’ve tricked people into thinking Facebook memes, roadside you’re a writer? Great! That’s more than I’ve done. Now trick signs, letters to congress, journals into publishing you. Trick an employer into hiring you. grocery lists, or ransom notes. The MFA program may be a small pond with a lot of big fish, And if you have students, but you’re a bigger fish than you think. You belong here, with all the send them our way as well! other impostors. The thing that makes us writers is the fact that we We can help them brainstorm, write. There will always be better writers than you, and there will outline, revise, and proofread always be worse writers than you. Be glad there are people here who their literacy narratives, might know something you don’t. Learn from them. But realize, argument essays, rhetorical almost everything they say in workshop is something they’ve heard analyses, reviews, before, from another writer. And now they’re eager to share what and works cited. Save yourself they’ve learned. a headache—let us break it to So when someone makes a smart comment, focus on what them that they don’t have a was said rather than who said it. And remember that feeling like an thesis! It’s our job. impostor shows humility and an eagerness to learn. Oh, and we have candy. And We never think our writing is good enough, which is why we a couch. And a coffee maker. work to make it better. One of these days we’ll actually get some coffee. See you there! Every month, a first year student will submit an anonymous question to - Elin Hawkinson be answered by our equally anonymous second year columnist. To submit questions, email [email protected] before the 20th of each month. MFA at EWU 7 Opportunities: a list compiled by natalie kusz

between September and submissions of poetry, short Calls for submission December, we will read fiction, and short creative submissions through June nonfiction. Looking for • 1. Contributors receive a originality, risk-taking, and Deadline: Not specified. complimentary copy and 2 consummate craftsmanship NOW IN ITS 38th year of gift subscriptions. Complete in all . Simultaneous publication, Indiana Review guidelines at bhreview.org. submissions welcome. No is a biannual and nonprofit fee. Guidelines at http:// literary magazine dedicated • PINYON crabcreekreview.org/ to showcasing the talents of Deadline: December 1. submissions.html. emerging and established PINYON invites high-quality writers. Our mission is to offer submissions of poetry and the highest quality writing short fiction from emerging within a wide aesthetic. For and established writers. Competitions full submission guidelines, Send short bio, including please visit our website at e-mail address, and SASE • Formalist, Howard www.indianareview.org. to Pinyon, Department Nemerov Award of Languages, Literature Deadline: November 15 • SOUNDLINGS REVIEW and Mass Communication, Entry Fee: $3 Deadline: December 1. Colorado Mesa University, Website: http://theformalist. SOUNDLINGS REVIEW now 1100 North Ave., Grand evansville.edu/contest.html pays contributors. We offer Junction, CO 81501-3122 or, A prize of $1,000 and $25 for each piece of to submit electronically, check publication in Measure: A and $10 for each . poem our website at thepinyon. Review of Formal Poetry is Current reading period: wordpress.com. given annually for a sonnet. September 1–December 1. Gail White will judge. Submit Submit online via Submittable • BRYANT LITERARY a sonnet with a $3 entry fee for a $3 fee. Soundings is a REVIEW by November 15. Send an publication of the Northwest Deadline: December 1. SASE or visit the website for Institute of Literary Arts. For BRYANT LITERARY REVIEW, complete guidelines. writer’s guidelines visit www. a journal of poetry and Formalist, Howard Nemerov nila.edu/soundings. fiction, seeks quality Sonnet Award, 21 Osborne submissions for its May Terrace, Wayne, NJ 07470. • BELLINGHAM Review 2016 issue. Work may be of Deadline: December 1. any style or subject matter. • Narrative 30 Below Contest BELLINGHAM Review See poetry samples at www. Deadline: November 15, 2015 welcomes its new editor in bryantliteraryreview.org. Send Entry Fee: $23 chief, S. Paola Antonetta, submission with cover letter, Website: http://www. and announces a call for brief bio, and SASE to: Bryant narrativemagazine.com general submissions in Literary Review, Faculty A prize of $1,500 and poetry, fiction, and Suite F, Bryant University, publication in Narrative is creative nonfiction. Smithfield, RI 02917. given annually for a poem, Online submissions only a short story, an essay, or via Submittable; $3 reading • CRAB CREEK REVIEW an excerpt from a work of fee. For those readers who Deadline: December 15. fiction or creative nonfiction subscribe to the journal CRAB CREEK REVIEW seeks by a writer under the age MFA at EWU 8 Opportunities: a list compiled by natalie kusz

of 30. The editors will judge. taken by magazines. Open guidelines. Using the online submission to any style of fiction. Send Andrews Forest Writers’ system, submit up to five collection to Livingston Press, Residency, Oregon State poems or 15,000 words of Station 22, The University of University, Spring Creek prose with a $23 entry fee West Alabama, Livingston, AL Project, School of History, between September 15 and 35470. Twenty-dollar entry Religion, and Philosophy, 322 November 15. All entries are fee. We typically announce Milam Hall, Corvallis, OR considered for publication. winner in June. Keep a copy, as 97331. Carly Lettero, Program Visit the website for complete we cannot return any entries. Director. guidelines. www.livingstonpress.uwa.edu Narrative, 30 Below Contest, • Collaborative Retreat at the 2443 Fillmore Street #214, Cabin at Shotpouch Creek San Francisco, CA 94115. Tom MISCELLANEOUS Deadline: December 1 Jenks, Editor. The Cabin at Shotpouch Creek offers two-week residencies • BRIAR CLIFF REVIEW • Andrews Forest Writers’ to pairs of poets, fiction Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Residency writers, or creative Nonfiction Contest Deadline: December 1 nonfiction writers from Deadline: November 30. Website: springcreek. March 5 to March 18, 2016, $1,000 and publication for best oregonstate.edu and March 26 to April 8, unpublished poem, story, E-mail address: spring.creek@ 2016, in the Oregon Coast and creative nonfiction oregonstate.edu Range. The residency is open essay. Submit 1 story, 1 essay, The H. J. Andrews to writers who wish to pursue or 3 poems with $20. All Experimental Forest offers a collaborative project, and entrants receive magazine. No one- to two-week residencies to whose work takes inspiration manuscripts returned. Name/ poets, fiction writers, and from the natural world. address on cover sheet only. creative nonfiction writers Residents are provided with Open to all writers. Submit in March, April, and May in lodging in a two-bedroom online or via snail mail. SASE the Oregon Cascades, 40 miles cabin and a $250 stipend each. required. Briar Cliff Review east of Eugene. The residency Submit three copies of 8 to Contest, 3303 Rebecca St., is open to writers whose work 10 pages of poetry or 10 to Sioux City, IA 51104. Website: “reflects a keen awareness of 20 pages of prose, a one-page www.bcreview.org. the natural world.” Residents project description, and a are provided with a private curriculum vitae by December • Tartt First Fiction Award, apartment, which includes 1. There is no application Livingston Press kitchen facilities, access to the fee. Visit the website for an DEADLINE: December 31, forest research site, and a $250 application and complete 2015 stipend. Submit three copies guidelines. Authors who have not of up to 10 pages of poetry or Collaborative Retreat at the published a story collection are 15 pages of prose, a one-page Cabin at Shotpouch Creek, eligible. One thousand dollars project description, and a Oregon State University, award, plus publication for curriculum vitae by December Spring Creek Project, School winner. Competitive, so we 1. There is no application of History, Religion, and recommend that most of your fee. Visit the website for an Philosophy, 322 Milam Hall, collection has been previously application and complete Corvallis, OR 97331. MFA at EWU 9 Opportunities: a list compiled by natalie kusz

are available. Submit five pages purpose. There is no entry fee; MISCELLANEOUS of poetry, a résumé, a personal applications are accepted on a (CONTINUED) statement, a statement of need, rolling basis. Visit the website and contact information for for more information. • Emerging Poets Fellowship two references by December Program at Poets House 1. There is no application fee. • Baltic Writing Residency in Type: Residency Visit the website for complete Latvia Location: New York, New York guidelines. Deadline: December 15 Application Deadline: Location: Riga, Latvia December 1, 2015 • Dickinson House Residency, Website: www.balticresidency. Website: www.poetshouse. Belgium com org/programs-and-events/ Financial aid deadline: The Baltic Writing Residency workshops-classes-residencies/ December 15. in Latvia offers a monthlong emerging-poets-residency Website: dickinsonhouse.be/ summer residency to a poet, Poets House offers 10 possibility fiction writer, or creative fellowships from March to Dickinson House offers nonfiction writer at the June 2016, to poets living in residencies from one to six Hotel Bergs in Riga, Latvia. New York City. The twelve- weeks to poets, fiction The resident is provided with week fellowship program writers, and nonfiction private lodging and a $1,000 includes weekly workshops, writers at the Dickinson stipend. Travel expenses are mentoring sessions, and House in East Flanders, not included. Using the online free access to guest speaker Belgium, about 50 miles west submission system, submit appearances and other events of Brussels. Residencies of up to 10 pages of poetry or 20 at Poets House, located in up to the three months are pages of prose, a curriculum lower Manhattan’s Battery Park occasionally available. The vitae including a list of City neighborhood. Fellows cost of the residency is €560 published work, and contact must participate in one public (approximately $700 USD) each information for two references reading. Poets enrolled in week, which includes full room with a $25 application fee a degree-granting program and board. To apply, submit via by December 15. E-mail or are not eligible. Stipends for email a writing sample of 5 to visit the website for complete childcare and transportation 10 pages and a statement of guidelines.

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