ALMA — Four faculty members in the Alma College Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing program are publishing books this spring across a variety of genres and settings. From creative nonfiction, to fiction, to poetry, the fresh work which is already garnering attention and accolades, showcases the ingenuity—and one might say time management skills—of the talented writers. Program director Sophfronia Scott hopes MFA students will be inspired by the books and the diligence of their instructors.
“One of the many benefits of attending a low-residency MFA program is that it perfectly mimics the writing life: You need to find ways to be a good friend/family member/employee while making time to write,” she says. “In the Alma MFA, not only do you get to practice this important skill, but you also get to work with talented faculty advisors who model it. The fact that our teachers continue to produce and publish helps our students.”
The Past Ten: An Anthology, edited by Kali White VanBaale, Bailey Gaylin Moore and MFA faculty member Donald Quist, came out on March 10. The Words of Dr. L and Other Stories, by Karen E. Bender, will be published May 6, followed by The Lost Songs of Nina Simone by Shonda Buchanan on May 26, and Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines by Matthew Gavin Frank on June 3.
The Past Ten is based on the Past-Ten.com website created and launched by Dr. Quist in 2017. It features a wide range of essays on topics such as parenthood, professional development, gender and sexual identity, addiction, recovery, illness, natural disasters, war and more. Bestselling writers like Brandon Taylor and Heather Gudenkauf, along with up-and-coming writers, performers, critics, teachers, and everyday people, all answer the same question: “Where were you on this day ten years ago?”
Dr. Quist is author of two essay collections, Harbors, a Foreword INDIES Bronze Winner and International Book Awards Finalist, and To Those Bounded. He also has a linked story collection, For Other Ghosts. His writing has appeared in AGNI, North American Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, and was Notable in Best American Essays 2018.
Recently chosen by Kirkus Reviews as an Editor’s Pick, The Words of Dr. L examines the evolving dynamics of the nuclear family during adolescence, motherhood, the empty nest, and caring for an aging parent. Each story honors the emotional force of its situation by grappling with themes of freedom, self-definition, youth, aging, control, and power. Using settings both familiar and fantastic, Bender’s work explores the ordinary in the extraordinary to discover secret, hidden truths in the lifelong connection between parents and their children.
Bender’s story collection, Refund, was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award, shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Story Prize and longlisted for the Story prize. Her story collection The New Order was also longlisted for the Story prize. She has authored two novels, A Town of Empty Rooms and Like Normal People.
In The Lost Songs of Nina Simone, Buchanan’s poetry weaves a prism of language, sound and light around and through the life of concert pianist, singer and Civil Rights activist, the incomparable Nina Simone. Buchanan hopes the book provides a realistic glimpse into not only Simone’s life, but the lives of Black women in America, past and present, and their choices in a myopic, unforgiving country.
Buchanan is the author of five books, including a memoir, Black Indian, which won the 2020 Indie New Generation Book Award and was chosen by PBS NewsHour as a “top 20 books to read” to learn about institutional racism. Buchanan’s first collection of poetry, Who’s Afraid of Black Indians?, was nominated for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the Library of Virginia Book Awards.
Frank explores in Submersed the origins of the human compulsion to sink to depth, from the diving bells of Aristotle and Alexander the Great to the Confederate H. L. Hunley, which became the first submersible to sink an enemy warship before itself being sunk during the Civil War. The deeper he plunges, however, the more the obsession seems to dovetail with more threatening traits.
Frank’s Flight of the Diamond Smugglers was published in 2021 by W.W. Norton: Liveright. It was selected as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2021 and as a finalist for the 2021 Heartland Booksellers Award in Nonfiction. He is also the author of the nonfiction books The Mad Feast: An Ecstatic Tour Through America’s Food and Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer.
The Alma College MFA program is hosting virtual open houses featuring MFA faculty on April 24 (poets Benjamin Garcia and Leslie Contreras Schwartz) and May 8 (Matthew Gavin Frank). Prospective students can learn more about working with a faculty mentor and get their questions about the program answered by director and author Sophfronia Scott. To register and for more information, visit alma.edu/mfa.
