PNCA Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing brings acclaimed writers for free public events
June 11, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2019
Contact: Lisa Radon, lradon@pnca.edu
Portland, OR—June 10, 2019— The Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is pleased to announce the launch of the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing with its first residential intensive. In the low-residency model, students to attend two 14-day campus residencies then, beyond residencies, work one-on-one with mentors. Most of the programming during this residency is free and open to the public. From July 28 through August 3, PNCA offers talks, discussions, and readings by acclaimed writers as part of the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program. Every event is free and open to the public.
This innovative creative writing program is distinguished by its being situated within a school of art and design as well as its focus on experimentation and a focus on voices typically excluded from more traditional programs.
2019 Summer Residency Visiting Faculty include Vi Khi Nao, Brandon Shimoda, and Rachel Jamison Webster. da Carter and Reema Zaman are this summer’s visiting guest artists.
FREE PUBLIC PROGRAMS
TALKS
All talks are held at PNCA, 511 NW Broadway.
Sunday, July 28
Rachel Jamison Webster
Polyphonic Texts: Hybridity as Conversation, 1:15pm
Monday, July 29
Brandon Shimoda
PROPOSITIONS FOR A POETICS OF POSTMEMORY, USING THE EXAMPLE OF POETRY BY THE DESCENDANTS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION, 9am
Jay Ponteri
Words that Listen, 10:30am
Emily Kendal Frey
Poem postcards, 3:30pm
Tuesday, July 30
Vi Khi Nao
The Art of Discipline, 9am
Daniela Naomi Molnar
Balm : Bomb : Bond : Writing in the Ecotone of Now, 1pm
Wednesday, July 3
Sara Jaffe All Hooks, No Chorus: Pop music and plot, 4:30pm
Friday, August 2
Reema Zaman More than a Memoir; a Movement, 4:30pm
Saturday, August 3
da Carter
Aesthetic Refusals, Writing with and against loss, 3:30pm
READINGS
Some readings are at PNCA, 511 NW Broadway. Others are held at partner locations including Powell’s Books, Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, and Literary Arts. See below.
Sunday, July 28
Vi Khi Nao, 7pm at PNCA
This is also the MFA in Creative Writing Launch Party
Monday, July 29
Emily Kendal Frey and Rachel Jamison Webster, 5pm at PNCA
Brandon Shimoda in conversation with Janice Lee, 7:30pm at Powell's Books
Tuesday, July 30
Daniela Naomi Molnar, Brandon Shimoda, Taylor Eggån, 7pm at PNCA
Wednesday, July 31
da Carter, Sara Jaffe, Jay Ponteri, 6pm at PNCA
Thursday, August 1
Monica Drake and Alejandro de Acosta, 7pm at Mother Foucault’s Bookshop
Friday, August 2
Reema Zaman, 8pm at Literary Arts
“Our MFA program centers voices that traditional programs and writers’ conferences marginalize—writers of color, LGBTQ+ writers, women writers,” says Jay Ponteri, program head. “This contributes to the formation a more equitable community of writers and builds on some of the inspiring work of so many other small presses and literary arts organizations, like Cave Canem, Kundiman, Whitenoise Project, and Write Around Portland (WRAP), are already doing. Earlier this year we received a generous grant from The Collins Foundation that goes towards this core envisioning principle around equity.”
The program offers tracks in prose, poetry, cross-genre, and literary translation. Students attend Portland-based residencies in winter and summer and pursue mentor-supported independent work throughout the rest of the year. The program considers language as one among many available materials. Situated in a school of art and design known for its strong support of conceptual inquiry and interdisciplinary practices, the program encourages experimentation within and across writing forms, genres, and mediums along with a variety of publishing formats—including print, digital, sound, performance, and text-image works. This is writing as studio art.
The program is chaired by Jay Ponteri who directed the Creative Writing program at Marylhurst University for a decade. Ponteri is a recipient of the 2013 Oregon Book Award and author of Darkmouth Inside Me and Wedlocked.
“We could not be more excited to launch this program with its distinctive take on the possibilities for an expanded writing practice to include various media in addition to the printed word,” says MK Guth, Director of the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies. “There’s no better program for explorations of this kind. Students will be surrounded by peer artists and thinkers who are also imagining innovative ways of incorporating language into an art practice.”
"Our program's mission creates space for the larger community of Portland to hear under-represented voices telling stories and thinking about those stories in this time of cultural of reflection on exclusion and racism, violence, and desensitized (and damaging) response,” says Ponteri. “This is art making as remediation and reclamation.”
This program is supported by a grant from The Collins Foundation.
About Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing
The Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program is unique in that it considers language as one among many available materials. Situated in a school of art and design known for its strong support of interdisciplinary practices, our program encourages experimentation within and across writing forms, genres, and mediums along with a variety of publishing formats to include print, digital, sound, performance, and text-image works. This is writing as studio art. The program offers tracks in prose, poetry, cross-genre, and literary translation. Portland-based residencies in winter and summer are supplemented with mentor-based independent work throughout the rest of the year. This balance between independent work and community immersion during the residencies helps graduate students develop the skills for sustaining reading and writing practices throughout their lives. It teaches graduate students to develop a rigorous, self-motivated discipline while periodically inviting them into supportive, non-competitive, generative spaces of community. This is a program deeply embedded in one of the country's most literary cities.
About the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at PNCA
The MA and MFA programs of the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at PNCA support the development of experimental, interdisciplinary, and collaborative creative practices through experiential learning, student-centered seminars, and one-on-one mentorship. Graduate study is individualized and self-directed, yet highly collaborative, and supported by a broad network of peers, faculty, visiting artists, writers, and scholars, as well as community partners.
About Pacific Northwest College of Art
Pacific Northwest College of Art challenges students to reimagine what art and design can do in the world. Founded in 1909 as the Museum Art School in Portland, Oregon, PNCA offers eleven art and design Bachelor of Fine Art programs, seven graduate programs including Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts programs within the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies, a Post-Baccalaureate program, and Community Education courses for artists and designers of all ages. pnca.edu