Maine Humanities Council

In the “flash reading” by Stonecoast MFA program faculty members, each writer gets three minutes in which to share his or her work before introducing the next writer in the queue. The flash reading from Stonecoast’s summer residency in July 2009 began with an introduction by director Annie Finch. Joan Connor started the reading with her “Three-Minute Love Story.” Aaron Hamburger read an excerpt from his story “Ludmilla in the New World,” published in the anthology Between Men 2. The next reader was Richard Hoffman, who read from his collection, Interference and Other Stories. Barbara Hurd shared the opening of a novel, Slow Dance on a Slanted Floor, then Michael Kimball read from his novel Mouth to Mouth. Debra Marquart read the essay “Whisker Meditations,” and finally, Suzanne Strempek Shea closed the reading with an excerpt from a story published in “Golf World” magazine.

This reading took place in Brunswick, Maine, on July 10, 2009. Stonecoast is the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine. For more readings from faculty members, including other flash readings, click on the “Stonecoast” tag, below.

 

 Flash Reading [37:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (521)

Patricia Smith is a 2008 National Book Award Finalist for Blood Dazzler, also the basis of a forthcoming dance/theater performance with Urban Bush Women. Her other books of poetry are Teahouse of the Almighty, winner of the National Poetry Series, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize; Close to Death; Big Towns, Big Talk; and Life According to Motown. She has read her work at venues around the U.S. and around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and tours of Germany and Austria. Smith is a four-time national individual Poetry Slam winner, the most successful competitor in slam history. Her first children’s book, Janna and the Kings, was a Lee & Low Books New Voices Award winner.

A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program, Smith joined the Stonecoast faculty in January 2009. Annie Finch, Director of the Stonecoast program, introduced her for this, her first reading as a faculty member.

 

 Patricia Smith [46:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (406)

Poet Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. She has won numerous awards, including two Boston Globe—Horn Book Awards, and is a three-time National Book Award Finalist. From the American Library Association, her books have received Newbery, Coretta Scott King, and Michael L. Printz Honors. Other honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, two Pushcart Prizes, three honorary doctorates, and a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Nelson is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers’ colony; and the former (2001-2006) Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut.

Nelson was a visiting writer at the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program when she gave this reading in January 2009.

 

 Marilyn Nelson [41:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (392)

Suzanne Strempek Shea is the author of five novels: Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, Lily of the Valley, Around Again, and Becoming Finola. She has also written three memoirs, Songs From a Lead-lined Room, Shelf Life, and Sundays in America. Winner of the 2000 New England Book Award, which recognizes a literary body of works’ contribution to the region, Strempek Shea began writing fiction in her spare time while working as reporter. Her freelance work has appeared in Yankee magazine, The Bark, Organic Style, and ESPN the Magazine. She lives in Bondsville, Massachusetts.

At the winter residency of the Stonecoast MFA program in January 2009, Strempek Shea read from a work-in-progress, Make a Wish, but Not for Money.

 

 Suzanne Strempek Shea [37:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (413)

This episode is the continuation of the Stonecoast MFA Faculty “flash reading” from the winter residency in January 2009, in which each writer gets three minutes in which to share his or her work before introducing the next writer in the queue.

The first reader is Richard Hoffman, who writes in multiple genres and here shares both a short short, “Phototaxis,” and two poems, “A Good While” and “Watching.” Fantasy fiction writer Nancy Holder reads a short story about the character Zorro, and Charles Martin reads his poem “Poison.” April Ossman closed the reading with two poems, “Whose Fragile Lips” and “The Name of the Mold,” from her collection Anxious Music.

 

 Richard Hoffman [4:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (260)

 

 Nancy Holder [7:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (134)

 

 Charles Martin [7:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (132)

 

 April Ossman [3:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (143)

One of the highlights of each 10-day residency in the Stonecoast MFA program is the “flash reading” by faculty members. Each writer gets three minutes in which to share his or her work before introducing the next writer in the queue.

The flash reading from the winter residency in January 2009 began with Jaed Coffin reading an excerpt from his memoir, A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants. The next reader was David Durham, who read from his forthcoming novel The Other Land. Annie Finch shared one poem from her collection Calendars, and another from her new manuscript, American Witch. Poet Jeffrey Harrison read “Ivan Ilyich at the Lake” and “Shaking Off the Snow.” This reading continues in the next episode of the podcast.

 

 Jaed Coffin [4:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (260)

 

 David Durham [4:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (133)

 

 Annie Finch [5:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (136)

 

 Jeffrey Harrison [4:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (132)