Creative Writing In Practice
An Overview
Many current students and alumni of the PAA Summer Writing Workshop have gone on to publish their work in prestigious journals and literary magazines. Below are some examples of alumni news and publications.
Publications
Rea Frey (PAA ’07) has signed a two-book deal with St. Martin’s Press for her novel The Lonely Girls, which tells the story of a woman who kidnaps a young child from her mother in order to save her. The book is slated for a 2018 release.
“Campoamor,” a short story by Patricia Engel (PAA ’03), which originally appeared in the Chicago Quarterly Review, has been chosen for The Best American Short Stories 2017.
“A Country Tradition,” which Julie Callahan (PAA ’15, ’17) first drafted in the Paris workshop, appeared in the 2017 edition of The Best Women’s Travel Writing. Another story, “My Father’s Gift,” appeared in Tales to Go, Issue 18.
“Don’t Wait,” an essay by Amanda Bestor-Siegal (PAA ’13, ’15-’17) appears in the spring 2017 of River Teeth Journal. Another of her essays, “Remains,” appears in the fall 2017 issue of The Threepenny Review.
“Pints of Beer,” an essay by Kaori Fujimoto (PAA ’11,’12) appeared in the March 2017 issue of Peacock Journal. Another of his essays, “The Landscape Portal,” appeared in Talking Writing.
Edward Derby (PAA ’13,’15) has poems appearing in American Chordata and Rattle; his poetry reviews have appeared in The Rumpus, and he attended the 2017 Sewanee Writers Conference as a contributor in poetry.
The Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts selected “Chirp,” a short film first developed in Paris by Trey Stohlman (PAA ’16), as Best of Competition.
The 2017 Seattle International Film Festival featured a short film, “Sweet, Sour, Dill, and Everything in Between,” directed by Justine Miller (PAA ’14).
Tommy Pico (PAA ’11) was profiled in The New Yorker‘s “Page Turner” section in tandem with the debut his poetry collection IRL, which Publisher’s Weekly called “brilliant, funny, and musical.” IRL is described as “a sweaty, summertime poem composed like a long text message, rooted in the epic tradition of A.R. Ammons, ancient Kumeyaay Bird Songs, and Beyoncé’s visual albums. It follows Teebs, a reservation-born, queer NDN weirdo, trying to figure out his impulses/desires/history in the midst of Brooklyn rooftops, privacy in the age of the Internet, street harassment, suicide, boys boys boys, literature, colonialism, religion, leaving one’s 20s, and a love/hate relationship with English.”
Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel (PAA ’03) was published by Grove Press in May 2016. Of the novel, the New York Times Book Reviewwrote: “Engel writes with a raw realism that elevates her characters’ mundane existence — their failures and failings, hopes and dreams, pleasures and pains — to something majestic. At the heart of her storytelling is a deep sense of compassion. This is a writer who understands that exile can be as much an emotional state as a geographical one, that the agony of leaving tugs against the agony of being left behind. …To immerse oneself in Engel’s prose is to surrender to a seductive embrace, a hypnotic beauty that mingles submersion with submission.”
“Guided By Moonlight,” a poem originally drafted at the Paris Writing Workshop by Cronan Scanlon (PAA ’16), won second prize in Ireland’s 2016 Frances Browne Bicentennial Poetry/Writing Competition.
“Things in Boxes,” a flash story by Stacey Resnikoff (PAA ’12-16), was published by The Drum Literary Magazine.
Powell Berger (PAA ’11-15) was published in The Atlantic Magazine‘s City Lab with her Honolulu article, “On the Job With A Lei-Maker.”
“Keeping Time,” an essay by Angelique Stevens (PAA ’13) appeared in Cleaver Magazine.
“How I Lost My Faith at a Boot Camp for Christian Kids,” by Leanna Moxley (PAA ’09) appeared in Narratively.
MFA News
Two recent PAA students have gained admittance into creative-writing graduate schools on the strength of their Paris Writing Workshop portfolios: Linda Kauffman (PAA ’16) who was accepted by Lesley University in nonfiction and Bennington College in poetry; and Mohammed Issa (PAA ’16) who was accepted as a nonfiction student at Goddard College. Lillian Klein (PAA ‘ 11-13) recently completed her MFA in fiction at Columbia University, and Angelique Stevens (PAA ’13) completed her MFA in nonfiction at Bennington College.