On Saturday January 12, 2013, I was awarded an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. (Pictured above, L-to-R: Allister Timms, Derek Hoffman, Jim Kelly, Amy Tibbetts, Kendall Giles)

There was much rejoicing.

Note: as backgrounders on writing and …

The bus picked everyone up at 7:45AM and took us to the Stonehouse. The road to Stonehouse weaves through Wolfe’s Neck State Park under arches of trees. It truly feels, when we emerge on the other side, like we are in a different, magical, writerly world.

For the graduate student presentations I …