One-Day Writers Studio Workshop at Converse
The Converse Low-Residency MFA program will host a one-day Writers Studio Workshop on June 5 on the Converse campus. The event, which is open to the public, will feature intermediate to advanced level workshops, seminars, panels and readings led by Converse College’s award-winning master of fine arts writing faculty in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. The program combines morning workshops in prose and poetry with an afternoon craft seminar. Participants will also be able to join MFA students for a late afternoon panel discussion and an evening reading featuring MFA faculty in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction.
Enrollment for the workshop is limited. The tuition fee for applications received by May 21 is $50. Individuals desiring room and board for the night of June 5 must register by May 21 and pay an additional $55. Tuition includes day and evening programs. Room and board costs include lunch and dinner on June 5 and breakfast on June 6. Rooms are in Belk Residence Hall on the Converse campus and meals will be provided in Gee Dining Hall. Individuals will be able to register on-site the day of the workshop for $75, but only on a space-available basis. Visit www.converse.edu/mfa for more information.
The one-day workshop will offer the following events:
• Poetry Workshop by Sarah Kennedy, the author of six books of poetry, including Home Remedies (LSU Press), A Witch’s Dictionary and Consider the Lilies.
• Prose Workshop by Susan Tekulve, the author of Savage Pilgrims, My Mother’s War Stories, and Wash Day.
• Craft Lecture by Rick Mulkey, director of the MFA program at Converse College, the author of Toward Any Darkness, Bluefield Breakdown and Before the Age of Reason.
• Panel Discussion: Favorite Poems and Paragraphs, featuring Robert Olmstead, Denise Duhamel, Dan Wakefield and Leslie Pietryzk.
• Readings by R.T. Smith and Marlin Barton.
For additional information about the MFA Faculty, visit www.converse.edu/mfa.
The schedule for the workshop is as follows:
Saturday, June 5
• 9:00-9:45 am—On-site registration for those who have not pre-registered. Check-in for those students residing on campus the evening of June 5.
• 10:00 am-12:00 pm—Workshops in Poetry (Kennedy) and Prose (Tekulve)
• 12:00-1:30 pm—Lunch break
• 2:00-3:30 pm—Craft Seminar (Mulkey)
• 4:30-5:30 pm—Panel Discussion: Favorite Poems & Paragraphs: Members of the MFA Faculty discuss their favorite poems, stories and essays and what makes them great pieces of writing.
• 5:30-6:30 pm—Dinner
• 7:30-8:30 pm—Faculty Author Readings: R.T. Smith, Marlin Barton
Sunday, June 6
• 8:00-9:00 am—Breakfast in Gee Dining Hall for those with Room & Board. Check out for those students who resided on campus the evening of June 5.
The Converse College MFA Low-Residency Program
Home to South Carolina’s only low-residency MFA program in creative writing, the Converse program brings together serious, independent writers for advanced instruction in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. The program emphasizes master-writer and apprentice mentoring relationships, drawing students and an award-winning faculty of writers from across the country for bi-annual residencies on the Converse campus.
The MFA faculty includes recipients of the National Book Critics Circle award, PEN West Nonfiction Award, the Goodheart Prize, Vogelstein Award, Milt Kessler Book Award, Winnow Press Prize, the Maurice English Prize, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and Guggenheim Fellowships. In addition, the MFA faculty have appeared in The Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, New Stories from the South, and a wide variety of anthologies and textbooks. For more information on the MFA program and additional public events, contact Melody Boland at 864-596-9678 or via email at melody.boland@converse.edu, or visit www.converse.edu/mfa.