Spring 2013
Issue 4
UMF BFA Creative Writing Newsletter
“She is a halftime professor
but she does
full-time work.”
–Eric Brown
Ready for Retirement!
After 21 years of teaching writing courses at
UMF, published author Elizabeth Cooke is
finishing up the Spring 2013 semester and
heading into retirement.
Recent UMF alumni Kate Johnson took her
first writing class ever with Cooke in the
Spring of 2009. It was there that Johnson
began a novel that she would continue to work
on with Cooke’s help through directed study.
Individual Highlights:
(2) Feature: Marcelle
Hutchins
(3) Longfellow 2013
(4) AWP 2013
(5) Visiting Writers
Series 2012-2013
(6) Senior Readers and
CW Prize Recipients
(7) Faculty News
(8-10) Alumni News
(11-12) Current
Student News
“Elizabeth is the professor you can call in the middle of the night if your dog
died, if you had a bad day or are in a crisis. But, she’s also the professor that will
challenge you. You wouldn’t think that coming from how sweet she is, but she’ll
keep you moving,” said Johnson. “She’s been a professor, a second-mother, and
a best friend to me.”
Fellow UMF English professor, Luann Yetter, who’s known Cooke for 20 years,
noted Cooke’s tendency to get personal with students in a positive way, and
added, “It’s one of the things that keeps her motivated. I definitely think it can
enhance the learning process when it comes naturally, like it does with
Elizabeth.”
“She’s the most compassionate colleague I’ve ever had,” said Eric Brown, an
English professor at UMF. “And I know it shows in her classroom— the product
of that kind of compassion.”
Charles Young, a freshman at UMF and a student from the Fall 2012 semester of
Cooke’s first-year writing seminar, said, “The thing that makes Elizabeth a
strong first-year professor is her warm, inviting personality combined with her
high expectations of her students.”
Cooke herself has a more modest view of the impact she’s made at UMF: “I am
only a half-time person and feel I am pretty unimportant in the large picture,” she
said humbly.
Cooke has two writing projects she plans to develop as she goes into retirement:
“One is a memoir that deals with my 36 years of teaching, woven into different
life events.” She also looks forward to more time spent with her children and
grandchildren, as well as moving to her camp in Rangely, surrounded by the
woods that she loves.
-Shannah Cotton, The Farmington Flyer
(12) Program News
and Newsletter Credits
Spring 2013
Issue 4
Recent Grad Launches Broadcast Career
Marcelle Hutchins, who
graduated from UMF in
Spring 2012, is now an intern
at
the
Maine
Public
Broadcasting
Network
(MPBN) radio station and
will be starting graduate
school at Emerson College in
Fall 2013.
At UMF, she concentrated
mostly in Journalism and
Broadcasting. “I chose to
move away from Fiction
writing because Journalism
appealed to me,” she said. “I
enjoyed going to the streets
and finding stories to report
back to a large audience.”
At the moment, she works in
the broadcasting “Maine
Calling.” “It is a live call-in
radio show that airs on
MPBN radio,” she said.
“Besides finding interviewers
for the show, I help develop
ideas for future shows. As of
now I’m working on two
shows: Organic vs. NonOrganic, and A Day with a
Resident.”
As a student at UMF, she was
actively involved in the
Farmington Flyer. “When
Marcelle was editor in chief
she was always ahead of the
game. She knew what was
what and always had a good
head on her shoulders,” said
Kerri-lyn Hernandez, the
current editor-in-chief, in a
recent
email
interview.
“She’s a smart and very
talented woman.”
As
an
undergraduate,
Hutchins was also involved
in a TV project on Mount
Blue TV where she was in
charge of the direction and
production of three themedbased talk shows. “I served as
a mediator, interviewer, and
educator. It enabled me to
bring students and faculty
members to the show because
it was encompassed around
the
small
town
of
Farmington.”
in many ways, every day. But
throughout my career there
are a few who really shine,
even long after they leave
UMF, and Marcelle is one of
them,” said Marisela Funes,
the assistant professor of
Spanish. “I’ve gotten to know
her
as
an
ambitious
professional, with a voracious
appetite for information,
knowing new people and new
ways of looking at the
world.”
O’Donnell also enjoyed
being Hutchins’ advisor.
“When it was time to
consider her plans after
graduation,
she
started
thinking very early about
what her options were. She
went out of the way to keep
in contact with faculty so that
writing the recommendations
would be easy for us. She
was super, super organized.”
English professor Patricia
O’Donnell was not only her
fiction professor but also one
of her three advisors. “Some
of her early drafts were rough
but she would come to see
me and revise them and
revise them until they were
beautiful,” said O’Donnell.
“What struck me about
Marcelle was how very hard
she would work.”
Hutchins also excelled in
classes that weren’t related to
the Creative Writing major.
“I am impressed by students
“On my free time, which is
rare,” said Hutchins, “I’m at
the gym, at a yoga studio,
reading, or catching up with
the news through CNN,
MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, The
Wall Street Journal, and
Huffington
Post.
With
journalism comes curiosity; I
have always been fascinated
by the lives of those around
me, and that in turn has
pushed me to write about
people with phenomenal
backgrounds.”
-Natalia Asis, The
Farmington Flyer
Contact Marcelle at: Marcelle_Hutchins@Emerson.edu
Spring 2013
Issue 4
Fourth Time’s A Charm: A Look At Longfellow
Ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? - Rilke
The Longfellow Mountains Young Writer’s Workshop returned for its fourth year at
UMF, Sunday, July 14th through Saturday, July 20th, 2013. The only week-long young
writers summer workshop in New England, Longfellow Mountains provides talented
high school writers with the opportunity to work with expert UMF faculty and recent
BFA grads, as well as published. The conference holds small supportive workshops in
poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting and fiction taught by our distinguished BFA faculty.
Joining faculty will be guest readers and lecturers from the dynamic local writing
community, including Wesley McNair (Maine State Poet Laureate and UMF Writer in
Residence); William Giraldi (Novelist and senior fiction editor for AGNI); and Sarah
Braunstein (Novelist and author of The Sweet Relief of Missing Children).
2013 BFA Grads and Faculty
Back (L-R): Connor Lofink, Shannon Butler, Tyler Noyes, Erin Banks, Noelle Dubay, Martin Wigall, Teal Minton, Chelsea BrowningBohannah, Kevin Soini, Breanna DeLuca, Kelsey Moore. Front (L-R): Shana Youngdahl, Shawn Callahan, Matt Banning, Gretchen Legler,
Alison Osborne, Zoe Estirn-Grele, Katie Marshall, Max Eyes. Members of 2013 class not shown: Michaela Blow, Joanna Hill, Reynald
Lefebvre, Laura Cowie, Thom West, Kat Nichols. Faculty not shown: Jeff Thomson, Pat O’Donnell, Michael Burke, Elizabeth Cooke, Luann
Yetter.
Spring 2013
Issue 4
Students and Alums Attend AWP Boston
Alyssa Mahoney, a junior Creative Writing
major at UMF, offered a few words
pertaining to this year’s AWP Conference,
in terms of what it entailed, and also what
she gained from the experience:
“AWP may be an alien acronym to some: it
stands for the Association of Writers and
Writing Programs. It is, essentially, the
Comic Con of the writing world. It is a
collection of over 10,000 writers, publishers,
agents and more in one area to discuss one
thing: the writing world. There are dozens of
panels daily that discuss just about every
aspect of writing one could think of as well
as a giant book fair.
“When I found out that this year’s
conference would be taking place in Boston,
I resolved to take as many members of
Writer’s Guild as we could. Perhaps, if I
hadn’t gone to the previous one in Chicago,
I wouldn’t have been so adamant to bring
what can only be called a small, writerly
militia. But I had gone. . . So, with my new
position as President and with the smart and
highly-capable Nate Fritts, Jordan McNair,
Nicole Byrne and Marianne O’Loughlin as
the various Writer’s Guild staff, we were
able to budget for a whopping twelve people
to go.
“For burgeoning writers or people who have
never attended AWP, I felt it was the most
important for them to go. I know with my
time spent in Chicago, I attended several
panels that caused me to look hard at my
writing and drastically improved because of
it. I know this happened again in Boston’s
AWP for myself and for all of the other
members of Guild that were able to attend.”
Back row, left to right: Devin McGuire, Mark Rize,
Jacques Rancourt, Chris Clark, Martin Wigall, David
Bersell, and Peter Biello. Middle row: Cynthis
Bracket-Vincent and Alyssa Mahoney. Front row:
Marianne O’Loughlin, Patricia O’Donnell, and
Gretchen Legler.
Taylor McCafferty, a sophomore, attended
AWP because of the Cecilia Gilbert
Fellowship. She worked as a Press
Assistant for Alice James Books. The
fellowship covers all travel expenses,
room and board, and provides a stipend to
the Fellow. “As the Press Assistant, I
mainly helped set up and man the booth
sold books, answered questions about the
press, and assisted with book signings,”
said McCafferty. “It’s AJB’s 40th
anniversary this year, so people would
come and talk to me and tell me they were
authors in the press 40 years ago. . . we
did one book signing for the poet Jean
Valentine. It was very popular so there
were so many people coming up to us and
trying to buy books. We actually sold out
of books. It was very exciting.”
Spring 2013
Issue 4
Visiting Writers’ Series 2012-2013
In the Fall of 2012, we
were honored to hear from
renowned poet Richard
Blanco; our very own poet
Shana Youngdahl and
fiction writer Patricia
O’Donnell; and nonfiction
writer
Susan
Conley.
Youngdahl and O’Donnell
both read from their
newest published works,
History, Advice, and Other
Half-Truths and Necessary
Places respectively. As for
Conley,
who
usually
specializes in fiction, she
took the time to read from
her debut memoir, The
Foremost Good Fortune, which has earned raving reviews
from the writing realm. Blanco, soon after his time at the
Visiting Writers’ podium, went on to read the Inaugural Poem
at the 2012 Presidential Inauguration Ceremony; the poem,
“One Today”, was written shortly after the tragic shooting in
Newtown, Connecticut.
An excerpt of Richard Blanco’s Inaugural Poem can be found
in the scroll at the bottom of this page.
As for the Spring of 2013, we welcomed fiction writer Sarah
Braunstein (The Sweet Relief of Missing Childen); two of the
world’s leading poets, Ciaran Carson and Sinead Morrissey;
Maine author Monica Wood (We Were the Kennedy’s); and
for the first time the VWS included a screen-writer—the
much-talked-about screenwriter, Danny Strong (“The Hunger
Games,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Game Change,” and
more).
“One Today”
My face, your face, millions of faces in morning's mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.
Spring 2013
The Senior Readers /2012-2013
Breanna Deluca, Chelsea
Browning-Bohannah, Joanna
Hill, Kelsey Moore, Tyler
Noyes, Connor Lofink,
Reynald Lefebvre, Katie
Marshall, Alison Osborne, and
Zoe Estrin-Grele.
Erin Banks, Matthew
Banning, Shannon Butler,
Shawn Callahan, Laura
Cowie, Noelle Dubay, Max
Eyes, Kevin Soini, and
Thomas West.
Creative Writing Program Prize:
Fall 2012- Kelsey Moore
Spring 2013- Laura Cowie and Noelle Dubay
2013 Eisen Scholarship:
Devany Chaise-Greenwood
Sandy River Review Editor’s Choice Award:
*Fall 2012- “Constructive Criticism”
Nonfiction by Laura Cowie
*Spring 2013- “Rusting Parts”
Nonfiction by Noelle Dubay
*Fall 2013- “Hymn”
Flash Fiction by Cadyn Wilson
Issue 4
BFA Graduate School
Roundup
Faculty News
Spring 2013
Issue 4
In response to a recent request
from the UMF administration
about where our BFA majors go
for graduate and post-graduate
work, Pat O’Donnell came up
with this impressive list:
Pat O’Donnell will be on sabbatical leave in Fall 2013. She plans to begin a new
novel, this one set in Maine and including the figure of Wilhelm Reich, the
Austrian psychoanalyst who established a laboratory near Rangeley to study his
theory of Orgone Energy.
*University of Indiana at
Bloomington
*University of Kansas at
Lawrence
*Emerson College
*University of Idaho
*Columbia University
*Stanford University (Stegner
Fellowship)
*University of Wisconsin
Madison
*Syracuse University
*Johns Hopkins
*California School of the Arts
*University of New Mexico
*Goddard College
*Warren Wilson
*University of Wisconsin
Madison
*Northeastern University
*St. Mary's College of
California
*Texas State University
*University of Hawaii
*University of Southern Maine
*University of Maine
*Southern Illinois University
*Louisiana State
*State University of Iowa
*University of Montana at
Missoula
*University of North Carolina at
Wilmington
*University of New Hampshire
*Louisville Seminary
*Colorado State University
*New York University
Jeff Thompson’s book Birdwatching in Wartime is being translated into Spanish
and will be out from Vaso Roto Ediciones in Madrid in early 2014. A new work
of co-translations of Catullus is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
Nathaniel Minton had a story published recently in the magazine Hawk &
Handsaw. http://www.hawkandhandsaw.org/
Gretchen Legler was awarded the
2012-2013
UMF
Trustee
Professorship, which allowed her to
teach half time while she worked on
essays related to her recent Fulbright
Fellowship in the Kingdom of Bhutan.
Her essay “Minding the Fence” was
published in autumn 2012 issue of
ISLE (Interdisciplinary Studies in
Literature and Environment). You can
read about her adventure in Bhutan on
her
Bhutan
blog:
http://www.bhutandays.com.
Shana Youngdahl has been hired as a
permanent half-time professor at
UMF. She’ll continue to teach
Creative Writing courses, while taking
on new duties with courses in FirstYear Writing. Shana’s first full-length
collection of poems History, Advice
and Other Half-Truths was launched
with a UMF Visiting Writers Series
reading in Fall 2012, and she has been
kept busy giving readings and talks in
California, Minnesota and Maine this
spring.
2013 Grads Kat Nichols and Max Eyes
Spring 2013
Issue 4
Alumni News
Elizabeth Sheckler, formerly
Elizabeth Montville (2007)
(ersheckler@gmail.com), has
been accepted into the PhD
Program at the University of
New Hampshire.
David Bersell (2010)
(david.bersell@gmail.com) is
due to graduate with an MFA
from the University of New
Hampshire in May 2013. His
essays have appeared or are
forthcoming in Volume 1
Brooklyn, Soundings Review,
The Good Men Project, and
Carry On. He was chosen to
read at the Writing By
Degrees conference and the
Sport Literature Association
Conference in June
(http://www.uta.edu/english/s
la/). Meanwhile, he’s writing
a column for Barnstorm
Journal:
http://barnstormjournal.org/c
ategory/blog/nonfictionpizzaparty/
Peter Biello pbiello@vpr.net
works full time at Vermont
Public Radio. Peter began his
public radio career in 2007 at
WHQR-FM in Wilmington,
North Carolina. He served as
Morning Edition host and
reporter, covering county
government and Camp
Lejeune Marine Corps Base.
His work has won several
Associated Press awards and
has appeared on NPR's All
Things Considered, Weekend
Edition, and PRI's This
American Life. He recently
sent us this link to the
Burlington Writers Workshop
(http://www.burlingtonwriter
sworkshop.com), something
he does in his spare time!
Susan Gagnon
(sgg@gwi.net), who took
several Creative Writing
classes at UMF, has produced
a documentary film titled
“Down by the River’s Edge,”
which tells the story of the
paper-making community of
Chisholm, ME, a village of
French-Canadian, Italian and
Slovak immigrants who
worked at the now-defunct
Otis paper mill on the
Androscoggin River between
Jay and Livermore Falls.
Susan wrote the screenplay,
filmed the documentary, and
narrates it with JP Fortier, of
Mt. Blue TV, who also
assisted in editing. The film
debuted at Jay Middle School
on Friday, April 26.
Minnesota U, Oklahoma
State, McNeese State, and
University of Idaho; wait
listed at St. Mary's College
and Purdue. Have committed
to Idaho for the Fall of 2013.
Hello Moscow. Congrats to
Nat.
Meg Reid (2008) is starting a
job as the assistant director of
Hub City Writer's project
http://hubcity.org/writersproj
ect/about/. She also just
published an essay in Matter
Journal #15 titled “The
Meaning Beneath Our
Shoes.” Check out Matter at
http://www.wolverinefarm.or
g/publishing/matter-journal.
Ashley Crosby (2009) was
accepted to the Master's
Program in Exercise Science
at Bridgewater State
University.
Jan Watson's (1995) second
novel will be published
worldwide through Dutton,
an imprint of Penguin.
Heather Campbell (2006) is
graduating with an MFA in
Fiction from the University
of New Mexico.
BFA graduate Jesse Miller
(2000), who got his MFA
from Goddard and has a
novel coming out, will be
teaching a fiction class at
UMF in Fall 2013.
Nat Fisher (2009) writes: All
of the results are in: Accepted
to MFAs at George Mason,
Liam Bechen (2008) will be
attending the Louisville
Seminary in Fall 2013.
Spring 2013
Adam Chabot (2011) writes:
Got a job for next year!
Starting in July I'm going to
be the Advancement
Department Relations and
Media Coordinator for Kents
Hill School! (Kents Hill,
Maine).
Gordon Wilson (2010) has
been busy with, among other
things, winning essay
contests. Check this out:
http://www.profsurv.com/ma
gazine/article.aspx?i=71259
Kristin Lewis (2011)
(kristinblewis@gmail.com)
writes: “I've just been
cranking out new pieces and
sending them everywhere
that will have them. I've also
been working as a shift leader
at a grocery store to save up
enough money to get back to
school. Kinda took one out of
Jeff's playbook there. One of
my nonfiction pieces did get
chosen to be in the Sandy this
semester, so that's exciting. I
sent out pieces to the Down
East and to Yankee Magazine
and I do hope that they will
give them some
consideration. I feel like
having my name out there
will help with getting chosen
for an MFA program. I'm
going to register to take my
GREs and start revising my
pieces a bit more. I've been
having a lot more luck with
my nonfiction than I am with
my poetry so I will more than
likely go for nonfiction. I still
have some time to decide, but
I'm about 60% sure at this
point. I definitely know that I
am cut out for this and I am
just dying to go back, I miss
school terribly. Everything is
going well for the most part.”
Emily Cramer (2008)
cramer.emily@gmail.com:
Has a new job in
development for a state-wide
women's health non-profit
based out of Augusta, ME.
She writes: “It surprises me
every day how I use my
degree from UMF and my
internship from Alice James
Books in my job. I use
persuasive writing, design,
layout, and web-based media
on a consistent basis. Not that
I would have guessed that I
would be in development
when I got my degree, I am
really excited about my job
and how it uses the tools that
I tuned at UMF.”
Sarah Seveney (2006)
(sasafras70@hotmail.com):
Writes, “I've just finished the
fall semester at SIT (School
for International Training)
Graduate Institute, and I'm
leaving for my teaching
internship in Poland on
January 1st. I'll be teaching
ESL at the University of
Technology in Gliwice for
two months. After that, I
have the spring semester, and
then a huge portfolio
assignment (in place of a
Issue 4
thesis). I should have my
Master's in TESOL by
December 2013! I'm
thinking about going back to
South Korea to teach, or
maybe Saudi Arabia,
once my coursework at SIT is
finished this spring. So, that's
all that's going on with me
these days. It's been great
being back in school, and it
makes me miss the good ol'
UMF days.” P.S. Among
Sarah’s other adventures was
a stint teaching in Nepal.
Those of you who have not
seen her blog, might want to
check this out-http://sarahforvcapnepal.wor
dpress.com/
Tryfon Tolides (2001) has
new work in the Missouri
Review.
http://www.missourireview.c
om/archives/tryfon-tolidesfrom-standards-in-norway/.
Tryfon won the Yale
Younger Poets Prize for his
poetry collection, An Almost
Pure Empty Walking (2006).
Ben Gadberry (2012)
(ben.gadberry@outlook.com)
has been accepted to
Northeastern College of
Professional Studies, to
pursue a Masters of
Professional Studies in
Digital Media, with a
Specialization in Digital
Video.
Spring 2013
Samantha Ellis has this new
email:samanthalynnellis@gm
ail.com.
Devin McGuire (2007) and
Cynthia Brackett-Vincent
(2005) serve as editors of an
independent poetry
publishing house based in
Farmington known as
Encircle Publications, LLC.
Encircle Publications has
published the New England
poetry journal, the Aurorean,
continuously for the past
seventeen years.
Encircle also publishes a
poetry broadsheet, the
Unrorean, and has several
recent poetry books and
chapbooks under its belt with
many more to come. Devin
writes: “We are pleased to
announce the publication of a
Creative Writing Grad Turns to
Community Farming
Edie Davis (2008) has launched Early
Bird Farm, a small scale family farm
owned and operated by Edie and Joe
Hodgkins in West Farmington, Maine.
Edie writes: “Our intent is to provide
our community with high quality food
while focusing on sustainability, crop
diversity, and organic growing
practices. In future years we look
forward to offering berries, eggs, and
bread, as well as an expanding variety
of vegetables. If you want to join
Edie’s CSA, shares you can start
picking up shares on a weekly basis at
the farm throughout the season, staring
in mid-June and lasting through
October— approximately 18 weeks.
new anthology--Favorites.
You can read a review of and
order a copy of Favorites by
following this link:
http://www.encirclepub.com/
store/product/favorites and,
beginning in September of
2012 we began offering a
discount of 15% on Encircle
Publications journals, books
and chapbooks to any
member of UMF¹s
Humanities department and
any current BFA Creative
Writing student. You can
visit our website by following
this link:
www.encirclepub.com,
http://www.encirclepub.com
Melonie Coutts (2004)
(meloniecoutts@yahoo.com)
is keeping a blog. Check it
out at
Issue 4
http://riffingwithmell.blogspo
t.com/. She’s also active on
what she calls “another
slightly low-brow blog”:
craftbrewenthusiast.wordpres
s.com.
Lee Cart (2010)
(lee.e.cart@gmail.com) has
been making a living as a
freelance writer and book
reviewer. Check out one of
her latest stories at:
http://www.aboutfreelancewr
iting.com/2013/04/why-ididnt-fall-for-the-makehundreds-of-dollars-on-yournext-blog-post-salespitch/?utm_source=getrespon
se&utm_medium=email&ut
m_campaign=abwn&utm_co
ntent=A+failed+sales+pitch
%2C+Questions+I+won%27t
+answer+re+ghostwriting
BFA Grads Start Whiz-Bang
Portland, Maine Reading Series
Once upon a time, two friends went to writing school together.
They loved reading and writing and words and books, and they
also loved drinking good drinks and eating good food, and
celebrating the camaraderie of fellow writers and other artists.
Some of the other students at their school (UMF) started a
reading at the local bar (The Granary) every so often, and when
they did, they called it “Word.”
But this was all long ago and it didn’t happen in Portland,
Maine. After some time spent on different parts of the globe,
those two friends (let’s call them Miss Danielle Leblanc (2008)
and Miss Emily Jane Young (2007)) are reunited in Portland,
and they want all those words and drinks and friendships again.
And it’s all happening now. And they’re calling it Word
Portland, with much love to the original Bushmills Writing
Group.
Come to Word Portland – first Monday of the month, every
month, at 9:00 PM. Check the events page for details!
http://wordportland.wordpress.com/
Spring 2013
Issue 4
Current Student News
Sean Igoe (2014) will spend part of his summer as a fellow at the Yale Creative Writing Workshop,
studying with poet Richard Jackson. The Yale Writers Conference is in its second year running. It is
divided into two sections. The first is devoted to fiction and nonfiction, and the second is devoted to a
myriad of genres including Playwriting, Screenwriting, Poetry, Noir and Crime Fiction, Science Fiction
and Fantasy, Young Adult and Children's Literature, Writing about writing, Biography, Science Writing,
and Expatriate Fiction. Faculty includes ZZ Packer, Tom Perrotta, Susan Orlean, Trey Ellis, Stephanie
Hart, Richard Jackson, MG Lord, and Je Banach, amongst others. Here is the website:
http://summer.yale.edu/ywc
Michaela Blow (2013) writes that her after-graduation plans include “continuing to work on my
apprenticeship with Shared Hope International, and then designing and implementing a transitional
program for inmates who have been released from Somerset County Jail--to help them transition back to
the "outside" while offering a safe and supportive environment for them to keep working on their writing
and artwork.” She also hopes to set up an apprenticeship program with Adult Education so UMF Creative
Writing majors can help teach writing to adult education learners.
Matthew Banning (2013) has been accepted to a Masters Program in Library Science at the University of
Rhode Island, where he plans on starting Fall 2013.
Noelle Dubay (2013) has been accepted to pursue graduate work in English at John’s Hopkins University
(Baltimore, MD). Her focus will be 19th and 20th Century American Literature .and Philosophy. The
program is a five-year program, and Noelle is attending with full support and a stipend.
Chelsea Browning-Bohannah (2013) has been accepted for AmeriCorps. She’s been placed in
Sacramento, California, and she’ll be working in the program for ten months. She’ll be
completing around 4-6 projects that include: urban and rural development, nature conservation,
and preventing/aiding a natural disaster. For the urban/rural development, she may get to choose
her own project— if so, she’d really like to work with kids and creative writing. “I had so much
fun teaching kids when I was a TA for Longfellow, and I worked with middle school kids for my
community outreach in my senior seminar class.”
Chelsea Bartlett – South Portland (Fall 2012)
A junior majoring in creative writing, Bartlett is creating a novel about
the life of Hephaestion, confidant to Alexander the Great. Her faculty
sponsor is Patricia O’Donnell, professor of English.
Kelsey Moore – Avon, Connecticut (Fall 2012)
A senior majoring in creative writing, Moore is creating an art book memoir based
on her personal journals. Her faculty sponsor is Gretchen Legler, professor of
creative writing.
2012-2013
Wilson
Scholars
Spring 2013
Issue 4
Noelle Dubay – Fort Kent (Fall 2012)
A senior majoring in creative writing and English, Dubay is examining the philosophy of
American pragmatism and the prose of Henry James. Her faculty sponsor is Kristen Case,
assistant professor of English.
Jamie Phillips – Willington, Connecticut (Fall 2012)
A junior majoring in creative writing, Phillips is currently studying at the National University of
Cordoba in Argentina and creating a chapbook of writings from her travels. Her faculty sponsor
is Linda Britt, professor of Spanish.
Laura Cowie — Farmington (Spring 2013)
A senior majoring in creative writing and English, Cowie is working on a dual project with
fellow student Max Eyes creating a mixed-media journal on their international experience in
Cordoba, Argentina. Her faculty sponsors are Marisela Funes, assistant professor of Spanish, and
Jeffrey Thompson, associate professor of creative writing.
Max Eyes — Norwalk, Connecticut (Spring 2013)
A senior majoring in creative writing and Spanish, Eyes is working on a dual project with fellow
student Laura Cowie creating a mixed-media journal on their international experience in
Cordoba, Argentina. His faculty sponsors are Marisela Funes, assistant professor of Spanish, and
Jeffrey Thompson, associate professor of creative writing.
Writer’s Guild NEWS: Book Fair $$$
Sandy River Review News
Two weeks before its first biannual book sale, the Writer’s
Guild sent an email to faculty members of UMF; the email
called for small book donations to be left in a box in the
Creative Writing House. It wasn’t expected to go very well—
maybe one or two cheap books would be tossed in there by
the end of the day.
Fall 2012 Issue: Devany ChaiseGreenwood, Editor; Chelsea
Browning-Bohanna, Assistant
Editor
However, by noon of that same day, the Writer’s Guild
president, Alyssa Mahoney, was informed that the box was
overflowing. But the shock didn’t stop there: box after box
was delivered to the House, all of which were filled with
various, well-kept books.
When the time came to actually sort the books, Mahoney
wasn’t sure if the Guild would even sell any. Thankfully, she
was wrong. The book sale was a success— the Guild raised
over two-hundred dollars for their expenses and sold most of
the books. The rest are safely tucked away for the Fall.
Spring 2013 Issue: Chelsea
Browning-Bohanna, Editor;
Connor Lofink, Assistant Editor
Fall 2013 Issue: Connor Lofink,
Editor; Taylor McCafferty,
Assistant Editor.
Spring 2014 Issue: Taylor
McCafferty, Editor; Nicole
Byrne, Assistant Editor.
Newsletter created by Cadyn Wilson (Class of 2014) and Professor Gretchen Legler. Keep us posted! Send
your BFA alum news to gretchen.legler@maine.edu.