After the MFA: A Reading and Panel Discussion by SLC Alums in NYC
Monday, November 19th, 7 p.m.
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street (between Stanton and Rivington)
Sarah Lawrence College’s MFA program sponsors a reading by some of its recent
star alums--all publishing writers immersed in New York’s creative culture as
teachers, writers, visual artists, editors, and curators. The reading will be followed by
a panel discussion about post-MFA life, and making it as a writer in the city. With:
Melissa Febos, Cynthia Cruz, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Alex Dimitrov, Patricia Dunn, &
Kamilah Aisha Moon.
Cynthia Cruz (‘99 alum) earned an MFA from Sarah Lawrence and has since had
poems published in the New Yorker, Paris Review, Boston Review, American Poetry
Review, and others. Her first book, Ruin, was published by Alice James in 2006, and
her second collection just came out on October 9 from Four Way Books. Cruz has
received fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony and was a Hodder
fellow at Princeton from 2010-2011. She has taught at many NYC colleges including
the Julliard School, Eugene Lang, Queens College, and Fordham. She currently
teaches at Sarah Lawrence and Hunter College.
Melissa Febos (‘08 alum) is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip
Smart (St. Martin’s Press, 2010). Her writing has been widely anthologized and
appeared in publications such as Glamour, Salon, Dissent, The Southeast Review,
New York Times, Bitch Magazine, BOMB, The Rumpus, Drunken Boat, Hunger
Mountain, The Beauty Anthology, The Moment,The Chronicle of Higher Education
Review, and The Nervous Breakdown. She has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air,
CNN’s Dr. Drew, Anderson Cooper’s daytime show, the cover of the New York Post,
and elsewhere. A 2010 & 2011 MacDowell Colony fellow, and 2012 Bread Loaf
fellow, she has co-curated the Mixer Reading and Music Series in Manhattan since
2007. Melissa teaches at Sarah Lawrence and Purchase College, and is currently at
work on a novel.
Rachel Eliza Griffiths (‘06 alum) is a poet and visual artist. She is the author of
three collections of poetry, Miracle Arrhythmia (Willow Books), The Requited
Distance (Sheep Meadow Press), and Mule & Pear (New Issues Poetry & Prose). A
Cave Canem alum and recipient of numerous fellowships, Griffiths teaches creative
writing at Sarah Lawrence College.
Alex Dimitrov’s (‘09 alum) first book of poems, Begging for It, will be published by
Four Way Books in March 2013. He is the founder of Wilde Boys, a queer poetry
salon in New York City. Dimitrov’s poems have been published in The Yale Review,
The Kenyon Review, Slate, Poetry Daily, Tin House, Boston Review, and the
American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize in 2011. He is
also the author of American Boys, an e-chapbook published by Floating Wolf
Quarterly in 2012. Dimitrov works at the Academy of American Poets, teaches
creative writing at Rutgers University, and frequently writes for Poets & Writers.
Patricia Dunn (‘98 alum) has an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence
College where she also teaches and is the Director of Graduate Support Services.
The Huffington Post called a her debut novel, Rebels by Accident, “The Next Best
Young Adult Novel.” Her writing has appeared in Global City Review, Salon,
Women’s eNews, The Christian Science Monitor, The Village Voice, The Nation, and
L.A. Weekly, among other publications. Her work is anthologized in Stories of Illness
and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies, Progressive Muslim Identities: Personal
Stories From the U.S. and Canada, Muslim Progressive Values; and most recently in
the bestselling anthology, Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American
Muslim Women, from Soft Skull Press.
Kamilah Aisha Moon (‘06 alum) is the author of She Has A Name (Four Way
Books, 2013). A recipient of fellowships to the Prague Summer Writing Institute, the
Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, the Vermont Studio Center and Cave
Canem, her work has been featured in several journals and anthologies, including
Harvard Review, jubilat, Sou’wester, Oxford American, Lumina and Villanelles. She
has taught English and Creative Writing at Medgar Evers College, Drew University
and Adelphi University. She has also led workshops for various arts-in-education
organizations in diverse settings from schools to prisons. Moon received her MFA in
Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. http://www.kamilahaishamoon.org