Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
LISTENING FOR THE VOICE THAT’S NOT BEING HEARD
Session Abstract or Summary
These four writers from the WV Wesleyan low-residency MFA community are drawn to forms that invite a diversity of voices to the page, forms such as the portrait essay, the persona poem, and fiction involving characters with backgrounds that are distinctly different from the author’s. In her poems, Patricia Smith—a recent guest at Wesleyan’s MFA residency—frequently invites both writer and reader to listen to the voice that's not being heard, that’s not in the room, that’s drowned out by louder and more dominant voices. Inspired by Smith’s approach, these WVWC alumni and faculty will each read a short selection from their original poetry or prose and discuss the ways their formal choices welcome unexpected voices into the text and layer the rendering of the Appalachian experience. During the final fifteen minutes of the session, the writers will engage one another and the audience in a conversation about writing as a way of listening.
Presentation #1 Title
Original Prose Reading
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Original Prose Reading
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Jessie van Eerden is author of two novels, Glorybound, winner of the 2012 ForeWord Reviews Editor’s Choice Fiction Prize, and My Radio Radio. Her work has appeared in The Oxford American, River Teeth, and other magazines, and has been included in Best American Spiritual Writing and Red Holler: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Literature. Jessie received her MFA in nonfiction at the University of Iowa. She directs the low-residency MFA program at WV Wesleyan.
Presentation #2 Title
Original Poetry Reading
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
Original Poetry Reading
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Doug Van Gundy teaches in both the BA and MFA writing programs at West Virginia Wesleyan College. His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in The Oxford American, Poems & Plays, Ecotone, Appalachian Heritage, and Poetry Salzburg Review. He is currently co-editing an anthology of contemporary writing from West Virginia with WVU Press. Doug plays fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and harmonica in the old-time string band, Born Old.
Presentation #3 Title
Original Prose Reading
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
Original Prose Reading
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Danielle Kelly is Managing Editor and Fiction Editor for HeartWood, an online literary journal in association with the Low-Residency MFA program at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where she earned her MFA. Currently, she teaches at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. Her work has appeared in Deep Water Literary Journal.
Presentation #4 Title
Original Poetry Reading
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
Original Poetry Reading
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Jessica Spruill is an Assistant Professor of English at Alderson Broaddus University in her hometown of Philippi, West Virginia. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from West Virginia Wesleyan College’s low-residency program. Jessica is Co-Poetry Editor for HeartWood Literary Magazine.
Original Prose Reading
Original Prose Reading
