Greetings, fellow writers! I have news to share as we wrap up this year.
If you are in the area, I hope you can join us for the end-of-year celebration that is the MFA Poetry Reading on Tuesday, December 14, at 7pm in the beautiful, spacious Wallace All Faiths Chapel. You can also watch virtually.
In addition, all MFA students and alums are welcome to apply for an individual conference with Presidential Fellow Carolyn Forché when she returns to campus in January. Current students have received an email with guidelines, and alums can contact David Krausman for more information. The deadline is December 15 at 5pm.
Let’s celebrate the students whose work we nominated for the AWP Intro Journals Award this year: Ximena Delgado, Lydia Pejovic, Isabelle Stillman, Janalee Tabayoyong, and Paige Welsh. The Intro Journals Project is a literary competition for the discovery and publication of the best new works by students currently enrolled in AWP member programs. Program directors are invited to nominate works, which are selected through a competitive process for publication in participating literary journals. More information is in the Student Achievements section below. These were tough decisions. Good luck to each of our nominees!
We have also nominated Ximena Delgado, Isabelle Stillman, and Janalee Tabayoyong for the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Recent MFA alum Manuel de la Garza participated in this intensive workshop experience twice.
For current students attending writing conferences and other external scholarly and creative activity opportunities that support your thesis work, Chapman can sometimes offer partial funding through the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education. The online application form requires a short grant proposal that needs to be taken seriously and must include a rationale, an itemized budget, and documentation. Contact David Krausman or me if you have questions.
In more good news, Chapman University has invested in an institutional membership with the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), a nationally recognized, independent organization that provides online career development and mentoring resources for faculty, post-docs, and graduate students. To claim your free membership, go http://www.facultydiversity.org/join and use your Chapman email address.
I wish each of you good things for year’s end, and I look forward to hearing what you’re up to in 2022.
—Dr. Anna Leahy, Director of MFA in Creative Writing
Alumni Achievements
Student Achievements
Ximena Delgado (MFA)
Ximena Delgado's creative nonfiction piece "Abuela" has been nominated to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Intro Journals Project.
Lydia Pejovic
(Dual MA/MFA)
Lydia Pejovic's poem "naïve art" has been nominated to the AWP Intro Journals Project.
Isabelle Stillman (MFA)
Isabelle Stillman's short story "Moon County" has been nominated to the AWP Intro Journals Project.
Janalee Tabayoyong
(MFA)
Janalee Tabayoyong's poem "hope" has been nominated to the AWP Intro Journals Project.
Paige Welsh
(Dual MA/MFA)
Paige Welsh's poem "Humility" was published in The Shore. Additionally, Welsh's poem "I watch birds cross the ocean." was published in Funicular. Two poems, "Our records show you are due for your annual pap smear." and Pinocchio becomes a real boy.," were published in Foothill Poetry Journal. You can also watch the video on Vimeo. Her interview "Fire Season: An Interview with Lyd Havens appeared in The Curator. Welsh's poem "Night horses" has been nominated to the AWP Intro Journals Project.
Events
The celebratory MFA Poetry Reading is scheduled for Tuesday, December 14, at 7pm in the Wallace All Faiths Chapel. The MFA students in Genevieve Kaplan's poetry workshop will be reading poems, and students, faculty, and alums are welcome to attend—virtually or in-person.
Opportunities
Glassworks Magazine is looking for submissions for their 2022 print issue. Submissions are open until December 15.
Quarter After Eight, a graduate-student produced literary journal, seeks submissions to their annual Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest. The winner will receive $1008.15 in additional to publication. Submissions will be accepted through December 15.
Nonprofit science fiction literary program the Omega Sci-Fi Awards are collecting short sci-fi story submissions from emerging writers. To enter, writers must submit a 500- to 1,500-word story as a Word document or PDF through the official submission form before December 21 at 11:59 pm PST. It is free to submit.
Hayden’s Ferry Review, the international literary journal out of Arizona State University, has extended the submission deadline for nonfiction work to December 31.
BOA Editions is now accepting manuscripts for Blessing the Boats Selections. Editor-at-Large Aracelis Girmay will select one manuscript to receive book publication by BOA Editions in Fall 2022 and a $5,000 honorarium. There is no fee to submit. All entries must be postmarked by January 5, 2022.
Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts is taking applications for the Stadler Fellowship and the Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing. Deadline to apply is January 2022.
Poets & Writers has an extensive list of literary journals with website links and reading periods included, and you can filter by genre. There is also a good list of contests that rolls according to impending deadlines and a list of book review outlets.
Sweet publishes emerging and established writers for poetry and creative nonfiction. Rolling submissions.
The Sancho Panza Literary Society is back with their summer residency at Trinity College Dublin. The program is open to published and unpublished writers who write fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. For more information about fees and accommodations, email Director Professor Joseph Reynolds (ajoreynolds@fordham.edu).
