October 8th, at four in the afternoon, in the College of Arts & Sciences’ Humanities Lab, Rhonda Zimlich, director of the MFA Creative Writing program, held her second fireside chat. With her glasses characteristically atop of her head, she sat at the head of the dimly lit room with a fire animation crackling on the TV behind her. The artificial warmth emitted from the fire on the TV was nothing compared to the warmth brought by the numerous attendees, a mixture of faculty and students, including alumnus and editor-in-chief emeritus of FOLIO, Walker Peters. At the opening of the chat, Angela Alvarez, café MFA’s editor-in-chief, sprinkled café MFA stickers along the length of the table.
Rhonda opened by having everyone introduce themselves one by one. Apparently, other than café MFA’s associate editor and FOLIO’s poetry co-editor, Pierre Ramon Thomas, several other people were also named Pierre too, a running joke that elicited giggles and chuckles from the room and that lasted for the duration of the meeting.
Rhonda opened the floor, first, to FOLIO’s editor-in-chief, Krista Veneziano. She shared FOLIO’s 42nd issue’s theme will be whimsy. “We don’t want toxic positivity,” Krista declared. “We want whimsy as resistance, as sensitivity, as grounding and human.” For FOLIO’s first staff meeting, every member showed up, she celebrated. Laura Dame, managing editor for FOLIO, put out the call: “We could always use more readers.” And Krista ended her spiel discussing some of the things she’d like to do when FOLIO is published in the spring. Things currently in the works.
Angela volunteered to speak next. She hooked her laptop to the TV—essentially taking away our only source of fire and warmth—to share with the room the features of the café MFA website and to shout out Halley Fullerton, PR Chair for café MFA, for café MFA’s amazing new logo. Angela and I informed the group that café MFA, American University’s MFA Literary Blog, publishes poems/stories that got us in, event wrap-ups, craft articles, book reviews, author interviews, second-year spotlights, literary submissions, and more. We also discussed that we’d like to interview the MFA program’s faculty so that future students, especially those who are considering applying for the MFA program, can get to know them, their teaching philosophies, and more.
David Keplinger, professor and one of the program’s poetry workshop facilitators, recommended that café MFA reach out to AU MFA alumni who’ve recently had books published. Among them, he mentioned Sylvia Jones, Emily Holland, and Cristi Donoso.
When Rhonda passed the floor to the Visiting Writers Series (VWS) coordinator, Elizabeth Peller (or E.P. as she offers people to call her) said, “It’s just me. And it’s really awesome.” She shared that the AU Literature Department makes arrangements as to which writers are invited to campus to speak. “My job,” E.P. put out, “involves day-of, hands-on logistics.” VWS assists with seating, running the microphone, guiding the authors, and more. The next writer who’ll be visiting campus, she announced, is Jung Yun who’ll be in conversation with our very own Rhonda on November 4th at 7:30pm in the SIS Founder’s Room.
David also added that he’ll be hosting an event at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda on Sunday, December 13 from 4:30 to 6:30pm, based on the course he’s currently teaching, titled “Exile and Return: A Reading and Discussion”.
Rhonda closed out the meeting giving us a little taste of what she’ll talk about during her final fireside chat, Thursday, November 12 at 4pm: literary journal submissions and how to deal with rejection.
Two first-year students who were present for the meeting were tapped to offer their reactions to the fireside chat.
Grace Steele said she liked learning about the different opportunities that came with the stipend because she didn’t know the details. She also added, “Coming to these chats makes me feel more comfortable because it makes me feel like we’re all on the same team. We’re all on the same page. It can be nerve-racking coming into this [program] at first. I don’t know anybody. Half of y’all already know each other—coming to these fireside chats helps me to relax, and I get to see some new faces.”
Comedian Anthony Oakes said of the chat, “It was quite informative. I love the proximity to the professors. To be in a comfortable setting, discussing topics we need to discuss—it’s one of the primary reasons I just love coming to the fireside chats. Very beneficial.”
Anthony will be serving as one of FOLIO’s fiction co-editors. In response to the journal’s theme, Anthony exclaimed, “First of all, the theme is ten out of ten. A couple of years ago, I was featured in the Washington Blade for things I do in the community. [In a photoshoot], I was in a traditional African dress. It was whimsical and fun. Although I caught a lot of flak from a certain community, my community totally uplifted me. I’m looking forward to reigniting that feeling in the readings. I’m looking forward to reading the whimsy.”
Overall, this event was a fantastic way to bring the MFA community together, hear from the heads of on-campus programs, and converse with professors in a relaxed environment.
