Goddard College: Talking with Writers about Teaching (Part 1)

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Post by guest-blogger Michael Klein.

My friends and colleagues Darcey Steinke and Douglas A. Martin and I all got together one afternoon during a break from the Goddard College MFA low-residency program where we all teach to talk about the MFA degree in general, what we feel is different about Goddard and  how teaching one-on-one informs us as writers and teachers. Our first and longer video deals with letter writing, writing as community, classroom vs. the worldroom and doing what you’re good at as a writer. The second video, to be posted next week, delves into working with students, hybrid texts, and our mutual love for Denis Johnson.

The video was made in the cottage at Goddard, which used to be the President’s quarters and now serves as housing for the faculty and guests during residency sessions. It was, of course, very hot that day and we put seltzer and figs and cheese and crackers on the table which none of us, I don’t think, ever took.

Bios:

Darcey Steinke is the author of the memoir Easter Everywhere (Bloomsbury 2007, New York Times Notable) and the novels, Milk (Bloomsbury 2005), Jesus Saves (Grove/Atlantic, 1997), Suicide Blonde (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992), and Up Through the Water (Doubleday, 1989, New York Times Notable). With Rick Moody, she edited Joyful Noise: The New Testament Revisited (Little, Brown 1997). Her books have been translated into ten languages. Her novel Milk was translated into French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Nonfiction has appeared, among other places, in The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Review, Vogue, Spin Magazine, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and the Guardian (London). Her web-story “Blindspot” was a part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial. She has been both a Henry Hoyns and a Stegner Fellow and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, and has taught most recently at Columbia School of the Arts and Barnard College.

Douglas A. Martin is the author of three novels, most recently Once You Back (Seven Stories Press). Other books include: They Change the Subject, stories;Your Body Figured, a lyric narrative, and In the Time of Assignments, poems.