Dan's Papers - October 12, 2007 - Authors Charm Audiences At SUNY Southampton

Overlooking the Shinnecock Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, Stony Brook Southampton's 81-acre campus is red hot with events this fall semester. Every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Duke Lecture Hall, the M.F.A. program in Writing and Literature at Stony Brook Southampton hosts the Writers Speak series featuring some of the most interesting and emerging memoirists, novelists and poets to date. Not only are these events free and open to the public, but after you relax and listen, you also have the chance to meet and greet the author and, if you want, purchase their work and have them sign it. If you're hungry, snacks and drinks are also provided after the reading.

The M.F.A program in Writing and Literature is committed to offering students the best advanced training in writing, reading and editing. The program welcomes talented writers whose writing is expressed in any form, from novels, poetry, and scripts to scientific, technological and cultural analysis. Yet what is most unique about this program is that many leading American authors and artists have homes on the East End and have helped contribute to the talented pool of artistry that supports the M.F.A. program by committing their time as faculty, lecturers and visiting authors. The list includes essayist, novelist and television commentator Roger Rosenblatt, novelist and Program Director Robert Reeves, memoirist Lou Ann Walker, novelist Kaylie Jones, poet Billy Collins, novelist Frank McCourt, cartoonist and screenwriter Jules Feiffer, poet Julie Sheehan, novelist Ursula Hegi, and speechwriter Alan Weinblatt, among others. In fact, the Stony Brook Southampton M.F.A. Program in Writing and Literature has just put out their own high-end literary journal, The Southampton Review, Volumes 1 & 2 Summer/Autumn 2007. The issue features important work from prominent writers including a new excerpt from Frank McCourt's forthcoming novel, and with so much good writing and artwork to be seen, the journal was split into two volumes. Copies will be sold at each Writers Speak series and can be ordered online at www.stonybrook.edu/mfa.

But the Writers Speak series, which continues through December 5, has a "twofold purpose - to augment the already excellent education our M.F.A. students are receiving, and to serve and involve the greater community on the East End," said Julie Sheehan, professor and distinguished poet in the M.F.A. program. She adds that the basic aim of the series is to "bring in a cross-section of writers by featuring poets, memoirists, novelists, short story writers, creative nonfiction and even playwrights to provide a kind of snapshot of the national literary scene." As a student in the program, I was eager to attend the first reading with Josh Gidding, who read from his new book, Failure: An Autobiography. A professor of English at Dowling College, Gidding's wry and clever humor set the bar high for the rest of the series, which includes a satisfying array of authors. Robert Reeves, Director of the M.F.A. Program at Stony Brook Southampton and critically-acclaimed author, states that the Writers Speak series "shows the level of commitment and dedication it takes to be a writer," adding that it also is an "opportunity to open the program to the East End, building on an already thriving writing community to come see who we are, and what we do."

On October 10, Jill Bialosky, poet, novelist and editor at W.W. Norton, reads from her new novel, The Life Room. She has edited poets such as Adrienne Rich, Eavan Boland, Bill Fairchild and Li-Young Lee. The following week, on October 17, Robin Magowan takes us inside the Hamptons scene with his poems from Memoirs of a Minotaur: From Merrill Lynch to Patty Hearst to Poetry.

As ever, the aim of the M.F.A. program is to deliver a range of authors so there remains a colorful mix of writers at all stages of their literary careers including emerging poets Joy Katz and Jean Gallagher, both with two books published. Sheehan mentions that "the idea here is to capture the gestalt of a moment not exclusive to the Hamptons, but indicative of the wider literary world, to which we have terrific access, by dint of our proximity to New York and terrific faculty." This goes without mentioning that Clark Blaise, visiting faculty and former head of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, will keep the talent flowing by reading from his Collected Essays on November 7. But why stop there? On November 14, Simon Van Booy, H. R. Poetry Award-winner and Lucas Hunt, a John Steinbeck award-winner for poetry, will read. November 28 brings novelist Julie Raynor, a Jacob K. Javits fellow who will read from Goodbye Sister, an unpublished manuscript. And finally, on December 5, the tradition continues with students and recent alumni taking to the microphone and reading their own work - Reeves mentioned that this is usually a "very memorable night."

The Writers Speak series is a gift for everyone involved - as a first-year M.F.A. student, I am able to learn about the level of heartache and determination it takes to become a writer in the professional realm and for the authors involved it is a time to read, reflect and share their work. Sheehan noted, "That's something we view as a unique positive here, rather than studying with the same core faculty year after year, M.F.A. students at Stony Brook Southampton get a rich, deep menu of options." Cheers to keeping the written word alive. See you there.