REACHING OUT - FALL 2012
Each semester the Writers Institute sponsors
residencies of varying lengths by authors who have distinguished themselves
both for their writing and their teaching. In tandem with these residencies
free writing workshops are offered on a competitive basis to members of
the community.
New Poems Workshop
Offered by Writers Institute Fellow Rebecca Wolff
New York State Writers Institute Writing Fellow Rebecca Wolff will hold an eight-week workshop in new poetry during the Fall 2012 semester. In addition to joining in lively discussions of the work of fellow students, participants will respond in writing and conversation to a book of poems—or an anthology, or literary journal issue—published in the past three years.
The workshop is scheduled for eight Monday and Tuesday nights (October 2, 8, 16, 30; November 5, 19, 27; December 3) from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The class will meet in Hudson, New York [exact location TBA]. The workshop is limited to ten writers and is open to UAlbany English graduate students (for course credit) as well as members of the general community. Admission is based on the submission of writing samples. To be considered, submit manuscripts to the Writers Institute according to the guidelines listed below.Guidelines for Poetry Workshop
- All manuscripts must be typed.
- Writers who participated in Ms. Wolff’s Fall 2011 poetry workshop are not eligible to apply.
- Submit up to ten pages of new poetry (composed in the past three years)—one poem per page or individual poems up to ten pages in length. To ensure a blind selection process, do not put your name on any of these pages.
- Be sure to keep a copy of your work as your manuscript will not be returned to you.
- Manuscripts emailed or hand-delivered will be accepted until 1:00 p.m. on September 14, 2012. Mailed manuscripts must be postmarked no later than September 10, 2012. All submissions must include a separate cover sheet with name, mailing address, email address, and work and home telephone numbers. Emailed submissions must include two separate attachments: 1) the cover sheet and 2) the anonymous manuscript.
- Notification of acceptance will be by September 25, 2012. Please do not call regarding the status of your manuscript. We regret that neither Ms. Wolff nor the Institute can comment on manuscripts by writers not selected.
- Email submissions to: writers@albany.edu or
- Mail manuscripts to: Wolff Poetry Workshop
New York State Writers Institute, University at Albany, SL 320
1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222
Short Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop
Offered by Writer-in-Residence Jo Page
New York State Writers Institute Writer-in-Residence Jo Pagewill conduct a workshop for writers interested in crafting short works of fiction or creative nonfiction. Using selected readings, writing exercises, and participants’ individual works, we will observe and develop the techniques that make a story believable, whether it took place in real life or was generated in the author’s imagination.
The workshop is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. on sevenTuesday nights (October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, November 13, 20) and will be held on the University at Albany uptown campus.
Guidelines for Workshop
- All manuscripts must be typed and double spaced.
- Writers who participated in Ms. Page’s Fall 2011 workshop are not eligible to apply.
- Submit 5 - 7 pages of fiction or nonfiction (genre prose is acceptable) that has been written recently. It can be an excerpt from a longer work, but it should stand alone. Include a brief statement (no more than 250 words) of intent—why you are interested in participating in this workshop.
- Be sure to keep a copy of your work as your manuscript will not be returned to you.
- Manuscripts emailed or hand-delivered will be accepted until 1:00 p.m. on September 14, 2012. Mailed manuscripts must be postmarked no later than September 10, 2012. All submissions must include a separate cover sheet with name, mailing address, email address, and work and home telephone numbers. Emailed submissions must include two separate attachments: 1) the cover sheet and 2) the anonymous manuscript.
- Notification of acceptance will be by September 25, 2012. Please do not call regarding the status of your manuscript. We regret that neither Ms. Page nor the Institute can comment on manuscripts by writers not selected.
- Email submissions to: writers@albany.edu or
- Mail manuscripts to: Page Fiction/ Nonfiction Workshop
New York State Writers Institute, University at Albany, SL 320
1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222
CONTACT INFORMATION
Science Library, SL 320 | University at
Albany, NY 12222 | Phone 518-442-5620 | Fax 518-442-5621 | email writers@albany.edu
PREVIOUS WRITERS-IN-RESIDENCE
- Douglas Bauer
- Elizabeth Benedict
- Cara Benson
- Langdon Brown
- Lydia Davis
- Carolyn Forché
- Douglas Glover
- Eamon Grennan
- James Lasdun
- John Montague
- Joan Murray
- William Patrick
- Jerome Rothenberg
- Edward Sanders
- Le Anne Schreiber
- Richard Selzer
- Rebecca Wolff
Rebecca Wolff
Rebecca Wolff is the author of three books of poems: Manderley (U. of Illinois Press, 2001), which was selected by Robert Pinsky for the National Poetry Series; Figment (W. W. Norton, 2004), which received the 2003 Barnard Women Poets Prize; and The King (Norton, 2009). Eavan Boland described Wolff’s poetry as having “a vivacity and edge that give it immediate presence.” Publishers Weekly praised Figment for work that “projects a vivid wit,” and “scenes and fragments [that] are urbane, knowing, always alert to irony . . .”
Wolff is the founding editor of Fence, a biannual journal of poetry, fiction, and “other,” which is published in partnership with the Writers Institute and the University at Albany. She also founded Fence Books, which publishes poetry, fiction, and critical texts and anthologies. Wolff received her MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop.
She is the author as well of a novel, The Beginners (Riverhead Books, June 2011), a girl’s coming-of-age story set within the secret history of her small New England town. Novelist Jonathan Lethem described it as “A meticulous and pitch-perfect fever dream of adolescence...” and Marie Claire called the book a “…chilling, exquisitely wrought debut….”Jo Page
Jo Page’s fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Quarterly West, Drunken Boat, Our Stories, The South Carolina Review, Stone Canoe and The MacGuffin. She was a finalist for the 2009 Hunger Mountain Creative Nonfiction Prize.
She has taught at the University of Virginia, Hudson Valley Community College and The Albany Academy and has led seminars on the spirituality of writing/reading poetry. She has been a speaker on subjects as diverse as gay rights, the growth of the conservative Christian media empire, and balancing motherhood and career.
Page received her MFA from the University of Virginia where she studied with John Casey. During graduate school, she was a finalist in the Mademoiselle Magazine Short Story Contest. She was a Hoh Fellow at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia from which she received her MDiv. After fifteen years of service as an ordained minister, Page began a hiatus from parish ministry in 2008.
For the past twenty years she has written a column, “Reckonings,” for Albany, New York’s alternative newsweekly Metroland Magazine, as well as hundreds of personal essay-styled sermons.An excerpt from her memoir, Going Out, has appeared in New Millennium Writings. Her novel, Weddings at Lakeview, is under agent review. Her blog, “Jo Page: Reckonings on Reading, Writing, Listening, Breathing,” can be found at: www.jo-page.com.
“What I liked about the class was the range of insights each member brought to the stories we read, insights that allowed me to see things in new ways and to confirm long-held beliefs about what makes a story work. What a gift it was to share time, tales and experiences in that room with fellow storytellers.” — Michael Janairo, a participant in Jo Page’s Fall 2011 workshop, (quoted from his blog at http://blog.timesunion.com/localarts, Friday, December 20, 2011)
