Stony Brook Southampton MFA in Writing and Literature

"Matrimony" author Joshua Henkin up next in Writers Speak April 18

Novelist Joshua Henkin, the author of, most recently, “Matrimony,” will read from and answer questions about his work on Wednesday, April 18, at 7 p.m. in the next installment of the Writers Speak Wednesdays series of popular free readings and author talks open to the public and sponsored by the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature at Stony Brook Southampton.

"Matrimony" (Pantheon, 2007; Vintage, 2008) was named a New York Times Notable Book, a Book Sense Highlight Pick of the Year, and a Borders Original Voices Selection. Henkin directs the MFA program in fiction at Brooklyn College.

All readings are free and open to the public. Writers Speak Wednesdays readings are presented in the Radio Lounge on the second floor of Chancellors Hall at Stony Brook Southampton, 239 Montauk Highway, Southampton. On April 25, the featured writer will be Ann Packer, author of the best-selling novels “The Dive from Clausen’s Pier” and “Songs Without Words.”
For information, call 631-632-5030, or visit stonybrook.edu/mfa; on Facebook @ Writers Speak Wednesdays, on Twitter @WritersSpeakWed.

Applications are now being accepted for Southampton Arts Summer, the new name for the two sessions of the annual Southampton Writers Conference, reflecting expanded offerings in theatre and filmmaking and in visual arts that have been added to the existing writing workshops in fiction, poetry, personal essay, memoir, non-fiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and children’s literature. Southampton Arts Summer workshops will be offered this year from July 11 to 15 and July 18 to 29.

Poets Launch Interactive Audio Tour of Museum Exhibition

Five poets from the MFA in Creative Writing program at Stony Brook Southampton will introduce an interactive approach to visiting the “EST-3” exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum on Jobs Lane in Southampton from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 1, the first day of National Poetry Month.

According to Whiting Award-winning poet Julie Sheehan, the director of the Creative Writing and Literature program at the campus in Shinnecock Hills, the five writers—Phebe Szatmari, Holly Weinberg, Sarah Azzara, Matthew Miranda and Ashleigh Smith, collectively known as the Parrish Poets—will present “suggestivities, synesthetic happenings, dystopic zomba, and think pieces thought out loud” at the museum.

Among other topics, the poets will address photo shoots, demagogues, the Poem-a-Tron®, song, video loops, conversation, mathematics, and a secret piano.

The Parrish Poets presentation is free with museum admission. For those who can’t attend the April 1 presentation, a Poetry Audio Tour prepared by the Parrish Poets will be available throughout National Poetry Month for visitors. For more information, visit www.parrishart.org or call 283-2118.

Reunion in NYC for Kenya Poets

The writers who traveled with Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA in Creative Writing Director Julie Sheehan and Bowery Poetry Club proprietor Bob Holman to the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya in January for a nine-day poetry workshop will reunite on Saturday, April 14, in New York City for “The Kenya Conference Poets, Live in Sensurround.”

The reunion and performance of some of the “sound poetry” that came out of the writers’ Kenya experience will run from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery (between Houston and Bleecker).

Workshop participants were Sheila and Michael Bilak, Ruth Bonapace, Betsy Bonner, Bill Burford, Judith Caporale, Claire Di Meola, Jackie Henry, Valerie Scopaz, Adrienne Unger and Anjelica Whitehorne.

For more information, call 212-614-0505.

Young American Writers Project (YAWP) to present short plays March 24

Six short plays written and performed by middle school students from area schools will be presented at Stony Brook Southampton's Avram Theater, as the culminating event of the Young American Writers Project (YAWP) Middle School Playwriting program. Participating middle schools include Bridgehampton, Eastport South Manor, the Shelter Island School and the Ross School.

The Young American Writers Project, created and sponsored by Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing and Literature, is dedicated to mentoring middle and high school students in the development of creative expression and critical thinking through writing. YAWP is an integral part of Stony Brook Southampton’s commitment to its community and to the next generation of readers and writers, sending professional writers and teaching artists into classrooms to lead workshops in a wide array of writing disciplines, including Playwriting, Screenwriting, Poetry, Personal Essay and Fiction. YAWP Programs in Fiction and Poetry will premiere this spring at Southampton Intermediate School.

Close to 200 students participated in the YAWP Middle School Playwriting residency this winter. Over the course of two months, students explored the basic elements of dramatic writing: how to develop ideas, characters, themes, dialogue and scenes, culminating with each student writing a 10-minute, one-act play. One play from each participating class was selected for production. Professional directors stage the plays, which encompass a wide array of genres—from comedies to dramas— with subject matter drawn from the students' own lives.

The Young American Writers Project is helmed by Executive Director Emma Walton Hamilton and Program Director Will Chandler. Ms. Hamilton is a bestselling children’s book author, editor and arts educator, and also serves as the co-director of the Southampton Playwriting and Children’s Literature Conferences. Mr. Chandler is an American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Nicholl Fellowship screenwriter.

"Dramatic writing and production skills give young people unparalleled lessons in communication and collaboration," Ms. Hamilton says. "They build confidence, and have a direct impact on young people's ability to become engaged and compassionate citizens in later life."

"When we go into schools, we work closely with classroom teachers as we convey the basic elements of dramatic writing," Mr. Chandler adds. "Learning dramatic writing is a great way to improve overall writing skills, but what we’re really teaching them is that each student has a 'voice,' and we want to hear it."

For curriculum development and program design, the YAWP programs draw on the substantial strengths of the Stony Brook Southampton MFA faculty, including novelist and MFA Director Robert Reeves; recent Whiting Award-winning poet Julie Sheehan; best-selling memoirist and editor-in-chief of The Southampton Review, Lou Ann Walker; and screenwriter and Emmy award-winning producer Annette Handley Chandler.

"The YAWP programs are a wonderful way for us to reach—and to help shape— the next generation of American writers," says Reeves, "as well as an ideal way to offer training and teaching experience to our very talented graduates and graduate students."

The YAWP Playwriting Festival will be presented on March 24 at 7 p.m. at the Avram Theater, located in the Fine Arts Building on the campus of Stony Brook Southampton, 239 Old Montauk Highway, Southampton. Tickets for the performance are free. For reservations and more information, email william.chandler@stonybrook.edu.

Safina to Headline Writers Speak on March 14; Southampton Arts Summer to debut

Renowned conservationist Carl Safina, winner of a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship in 2000, will be the next guest in the Writers Speak Wednesdays series of popular free readings and author talks open to the public and sponsored by the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature program at Stony Brook Southampton. Safina will read from and talk about his work on Wednesday, March 14, at 7 p.m.

Prior to Safina's reading, there will be a brief information session starting at 6:30 p.m. on the 2012 Southampton Arts Summer, the new name for the Southampton Writers Conference, reflecting the expanded offerings in theatre and filmmaking and in visual arts that have been added to the existing writing workshops in fiction, poetry, personal essay, memoir, non-fiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and children’s literature. Southampton Arts Summer workshops will be offered this year in two sessions, from July 11 to 15 and July 18 to 29.

Safina is the author of The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World, as well as: Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas, Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival, Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth’s Last Dinosaur, Nina Delmar: The Great Whale Rescue and A Sea in Flames: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout. Safina's new TV series, Saving the Ocean, premiered on PBS in April 2011.

On March 21, the guest will be Rachel Pastan, author of two novels, Lady of the Snakes and This Side of Married. All readings are free and open to the public.

Writers Speak Wednesdays readings are presented in the Radio Lounge on the second floor of Chancellors Hall at Stony Brook Southampton, 239 Montauk Highway, Southampton.

Roger Rosenblatt Discusses Kayak Morning on PBS Newshour

Roger Rosenblatt, Distinguished Professor of English and Writing at Stony Brook University’s Southampton Arts campus, was interviewed by Jeffrey Brown on PBS Newshour on February 21. The topic of the interview was Rosenblatt’s latest book, Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief and Small Boats, published in January as a follow-up to his earlier book, Making Toast.

Read the compete story and view the video on HAPPENINGS

Turkana Basin Institute: Not Just for Scientists Anymore

On January 5 — the day that Provost Dennis Assanis announced that Lawrence Martin would step aside as Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost in order to take on a full-time commitment as Director of the Turkana Basin Institute (TBI) in Kenya — 10 poetry students and four staff members from Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing and Literature were already two days into the first-ever 10-day Turkana Basin Writers Conference.

The conference was developed from an idea that Martin passed on to Associate Provost Robert Reeves almost two years ago, when Reeves was still the Director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the Southampton Campus. Whiting Award winning poet Julie Sheehan, named the new Director of the Southampton MFA program in 2011, was the leader of this year's conference in Turkana.

Read the complete story by Andrew Botsford in Happenings, the online newsletter for Stony Brook University.

View a photo gallery from the 2012 conference

School Break Workshops for Gifted Young Writers

The Young American Writers Project (YAWP), created and sponsored by Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing and Literature, has announced that it will offer week-long School Break Writing Workshops for teens during the winter and spring school breaks. The workshops will pair professional writers with middle and high school students for 5-day retreats in poetry, essay, fiction, creative writing and script writing.

The Winter Break Writing Workshop will be in Creative Writing, and will run February 20-24, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Student writers will develop and hone their fiction, poetry and personal essay skills in order to discover the most powerful ways to express their ideas and to have them heard. By week’s end, each student will have several pieces of completed work to submit or publish.

The Spring Break Writing Workshop will be in Script Writing, and will run from April 9-13, also from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Beginning and advanced student writers will develop and hone their script writing skills , and by week’s end each student will have completed a short script for stage or screen.

Both workshops will be at Chancellors Hall on the Stony Brook Southampton campus. Student work from both workshops will be eligible for publication in the YAWP Ezine (www.yawpezine.com) and for presentation in the “Sounding Our YAWP” event at Stony Brook Southampton in late April.

The course fee for each workshop is $525. Partial scholarships are available.
The Young American Writers Project (YAWP) is dedicated to mentoring young people in the development of creative expression and critical thinking through writing. YAWP Programs are offered throughout the year in area schools as well as during the summer at Stony Brook Southampton.

For further information, visit http://www.youngamericanwritersproject.com or email william.chandler@stonybrook.edu.

Windmill Winter Wonderland on Friday, December 9

Come one, come all to enjoy holiday cheer and colorful history at Stony Brook Southampton.
On Friday, December 9, 2011 from 5 to 7 p.m. Stony Brook Southampton's Graduate Arts Campus and School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences will host the traditional holiday lighting of the windmill. The windmill lighting and reception that follows in Chancellors Hall will precede a talk on Long Island’s whaling heritage by Tara Rider Zeiss at 7:30 p.m.

The reception will feature hot cocoa, holiday treats, a caricaturist, balloon magic, crafts for the children, and the Voices of Southampton High School (VOSH) choral group singing holiday classics.

At 7:30 p.m. in Duke Lecture Hall, the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences will offer a talk by Tara Rider Zeiss, "There She Blows: A Look at Long Island's Whaling Heritage" as part of the SOMAS Fall 2011 Public Lecture Series. Ms. Zeiss, who graduated from Southampton College and earned her master's degree at Stony Brook University, will explore how whaling has shaped Long Island's communities and culture. For more information, call 631-632-5030, or visit stonybrook.edu/mfa.

Native Americans were the first people to whale on Long Island, long before settlers in Southampton and East Hampton started to form local shore whaling companies in the 1640s, which in turn led to the whale becoming Long Island's first "cash crop." The whaling industry evolved into a driving force in Long Island's economy in the 19th century. Today, opportunities for whale watching continue to attract Long Islanders.

Friday, December 9, 5 to 7 p.m.
Holiday Lighting of the Windmill & Reception in Chancellors Hall
7:30 p.m. in Duke Lecture Hall: Talk on L.I.’s Whaling Heritage, to be followed by a reception.
239 Montauk Highway, Southampton

Poet Phebe Szatmari To Give Reading at Wang Chapel on Main Campus

Phebe Szatmari, an MFA candidate in the Creative Writing and Literature program based at Stony Brook Southampton, will give a reading in the Wang Chapel on Main Campus at 1 p.m. on Friday, October 21, 2011 as part of the Provost's Graduate Student Lecture Series.

This series allows graduate students to present their own research to a general audience and is designed to foster communication across the disciplines. To that end, all graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, and administrators are invited. Snacks will be served.
Szatmari’s lecture, "Reading from Vernacular Tattoos: Poems," will present excerpts from a work in progress tentatively titled Vernacular Tattoos. The manuscript is a collection of poems that question sociocultural constructs, play with language and form, and share the philosophy of "everythingness in nothingness." The work strives to capture narrative moments and lyric ideas in both identifiable and new guises, so that the reader might connect with the familiar in a raw, immediate way.

Szatmari won the 2010 Jody Donohue Poetry Prize, given annually to an outstanding poet in the creative writing program, and was a finalist for the 2011 Rachel Wetzsteon Memorial Prize, given by the Unterberg Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y.

McMullan Hosts 'Drawing Reunion' at Writers Conference

On Saturday, July 16, 2011 as one of the programs of the 36th annual Southampton Writers Conference, renowned artist James McMullan of Sag Harbor hosted a live drawing reunion at the Stony Brook Southampton campus with four of his former students who have gone on to achieve great success in drawing and other realms.

McMullan also invited several artists from the East End to sketch with him and the four former students, who all talked their way through drawings of live models at the Southampton campus. Writers and others attending the conference were invited to observe the process in this reunion/master class.

The life drawing workshop was offered during the annual summer Writers Conference in the context of the recent approval for Associate Provost Robert Reeves and the MFA in Creative Writing and Literature team at Stony Brook Southampton to plan and develop a graduate arts campus that will also offer MFA degrees in Theatre and Film and in Visual Arts.

In 1975, McMullan, dissatisfied with the way drawing was being taught at that time, developed a new form of instruction, which he called High Focus Drawing, and went on to teach this approach for 26 years at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Based on a kind of visual and mental calculus, High Focus Drawing eschewed simply “looking at” the figure and rendering a representation, relying instead on organizing visual and emotional information and prioritizing as the artist built the drawing line by line.

He also understood that the most effective way for him to teach would be to talk his way through a drawing as he was doing it, letting students know what was going through his mind and how he was making decisions on what to do next.

“People think life drawing is all about proportion,” he said in an interview before the workshop at the Stony Brook Southampton campus. “Proportion is important, but there’s a whole way of looking at the figure as a cooperative entity: How one part cooperates with another to make a movement.”

In the mid-1990s he brought out a book named after the technique, “High Focus Drawing,” and in August 2010 he started a 12-week series of columns for The New York Times about drawing titled “Line by Line,” and the Times also posted videotapes online of him talking his way through drawing live models under the same title.

The four former students who attended the reunion/workshop are all enjoying successful careers. Jeffrey Smith, a former assistant of McMullan’s who took his class and studied with McMullan in a master’s program as well, is now a successful illustrator and teaches at the Art Center of Design in Pasadena, CA. Eddie Guy, a student of Mr. McMullan’s who went on to work as his assistant, lives in New Jersey.

John Quinn was a student and went on to work as an assistant teacher in McMullan’s class. He is now an executive with the Disney Corporation in California, and teaches some drawing at Disney. Robert Babboni was a student who went on to work as an assistant to Mr. McMullan for six years.
When Mr. McMullan’s columns started appearing in the Times, the former students, all of whom felt they had been part of their teacher’s discovery process, started emailing each other about the columns. Then Smith came to New York and met with Babboni and the two of them decided there should be a reunion, and all four of them should descend on McMullan in Sag Harbor.
For McMullan, their longtime friend and former teacher, the reunion proved to be a stimulating exercise.

“The event went well and all five of us had a great time,” he said afterwards, “very intense, but very enjoyable. The four models were very different and it challenged us to quickly assess those different bodies and how to proceed in drawing them. One of the models, a theater major and an aspiring writer of musicals, presented us with the most dramatic and intriguing poses, changing himself from his usual cheery, gregarious self into a brooding, angular Hamlet.

“I spoke a little as we drew, explaining my overall impression of a particular pose or why I chose to start my drawing in a certain part of the model’s body. I think that one of the things that became obvious to the audience is that we were all very susceptible to the mood and personality of the models. John Quinn, for example, complained that he had a hard time drawing one pose because the model closed her eyes, essentially moving out of her body psychologically.
“It was amazing to me that my four ex assistants, having moved on to radically different professional illustration styles, were able to return immediately to the fluid , confident life drawings that they had learned to do in my classes many years ago. They always claim that it is part of how they think, no matter what style they are using, but it was still dramatic, and heartwarming, to see it in practice.”

When he realized he would be hosting four other “high level drawers” who all wanted to do some drawing with him as part of their reunion, McMullan began to consider how he could translate the session into an opportunity to share the high focus drawing approach with other artists. That’s how he came up with the idea for the July 16 studio arts workshop.

“I realized a long time ago that people are fascinated watching me draw live,” he said. “And the most comments I ever got on my blog,” which included the Times videos, “were about how interested people were in the talking and drawing process.” So, he thought, why not share the reunion with other people—artists and curious onlookers—to show them how the process works.”

Southampton Review: Art's the Thing
The Southampton Press — Sept. 8, 2011

Don’t dare to say that the world of publishing and writing is on the decline around members of the editorial board of The Southampton Review.

This literary magazine, published by StonyBrook Southampton’s Master of Fine Arts program in literature and creative writing, has five years—and 10 issues—of history which beg to differ, according to publisher and graduate writing program director, Robert Reeves.

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