I’ve written before about how to choose an MFA writing program, as well as how to get the most out of a writing workshop. I’ve even written about how to just get started writing.
What I want to do here is sketch what it is like to attend a Stonecoast residency, which happens for 10 days at the start of each semester of the Stonecoast MFA program in Creative Writing, one of the 10 best creative writing programs.
Today is Day 1, a day where students and faculty from across the world converge to Maine, that state that seems to be a haven for writers and dreamers.
As I’m writing this, this is the summer residency, so most students are living on the campus of Bowdoin College.
First year students got a tour of the fabled Stonehouse, while other students clustered together in groups of old friends.
In the evening we met at The Inn at Brunswick Station.
The residencies go by quickly, but the bonds made between students and faculty are strong and everlasting.
Director Annie Finch welcomed all faculty, all new students, visiting alumni, and everyone to an awesome residency to come.
Then, the flash faculty readings commenced. These are meant to motivate, stimulate, and, frankly, hyperventilate all students to reach for that brass ring and strive for creative excellence.
Tonight we had 14 faculty flash readings. I only was able to photograph a sub-sub-sample:
Jim Kelly:
Elizabeth Searle:
David Anthony Durham:
Other faculty readers included Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Sarah Braunstein, Jaed Coffin, Ted Deppe, Annie Finch, Aaron Hamburger, Nancy Holder, Michael Kimball, Debra Marquart, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, and Suzanne Strempek Shea.
Afterwards, students and faculty mingled, chatted, dreamed, and plotted long into the night.