Staff Profiles – Mid-American Review Blog

Winter Wheat 2016: Poetry Panel Features Part II

Our poetry panel features continues with these 5 great workshops that you can attend at Winter Wheat!

“From Lyric to Lebowski: Writing the Pop Culture Poem,” with Donora Hillard

What does it mean to write a “good” pop culture poem? How can poets use pop culture to access elements of love, anxiety, misery, hope? Led by Donora Hillard, whose most recent full-length poetry collection, Jeff Bridges, was released by Cobalt Press in 2016, this workshop will work through those questions and more. Participants will each leave with a poem draft that gets to the root of what we love—and why we love—in the public consciousness.

Donora Hillard is the author of Jeff Bridges (Cobalt Press, 2016), The Aphasia Poems (S▲L, 2014), and other books of poetry. Her work appears in Hobart, Women in Clothes (Penguin), and elsewhere. She teaches at The University of Akron and lives in a tiny house with the writer Andrew Rihn.

(this workshop will be held on Friday, November 4^th from 3:00-4:15pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select A3 when you register!)

“First, Put Pen to Paper: Instructions as Poetry,” with Daniel Gualtieri

Modern and contemporary poetry contains a great tradition of poems written as sets of instructions, advice, or even recipes. This poetic form can provide interesting structural advantages, a confident and assertive voice, and fresh content for the poet of today. In this workshop, we will delve into the nature, use, and assembly of these instructional poems, take a look at some examples from great poets of the past and present, and spend time writing our own instructional poems and discussing them in a small-group setting.

Dan Gualtieri is an MFA poetry student at BGSU, and a native of Columbus, OH. He writes fiction and creative nonfiction in addition to poetry, and thrives on continental philosophy, theology, caffeine, and sushi.

(this workshop will be held on Friday, November 4^th from 4:30-5:45pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select B3 when you register!)

“Poetry as Meditation,” with Karen Craigo

For the presenter, each day begins with a poem—one that aims to change her own mindset and to encourage peaceful contemplation in others. Join this workshop to consider the idea of poem as meditation—a tool for connecting with a universal mind. Most poetic education is based on the very useful idea of a piece of writing as a flawed product that requires tinkering. This session explores the notion that a piece of writing might just be an artifact of the spirit, rather than a workshop fix-it project—while understanding that neither mindset suffices on its own.

Karen Craigo is the author of the poetry collection No More Milk (Sundress, 2016) and the forthcoming collection Passing Through Humansville (ELJ, 2017). She maintains Better View of the Moon, a daily blog on writing, editing, and creativity, and she teaches writing in Springfield, Missouri. She is the nonfiction editor and former editor-in-chief of Mid-American Review, the reviews editor of SmokeLong Quarterly, an editor of Gingko Tree Review, and the managing editor of ELJ Publications.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5^th from 9:30-10:45am. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select C3 when you register!)

“Existence as Conditional on Others’ Perceptions and the Deconstruction of the Self,” with Remi Recchia

The goal of this workshop is to produce new poems centered on the idea of the existence or nonexistence of the self. The focus of this workshop will be to deconstruct your own ideas of who you are and see if there is a core “you” and how it affects your creative work. After a brief presentation, we will examine who we think we are as writers and, more importantly, humans, and challenge these perceptions during a discussion/workshop and in-session writing time. This session is appropriate for all levels of writers or anyone who is interested in existence.

Remi Recchia is an MFA candidate in poetry at BGSU. He has been published in Glass: A Journal of Poetry,Cutbank Literary Journal’s online “All Accounts & Mixture” series, and The Birds We Piled Loosely, among others, and has a piece forthcoming in Ground Fresh Thursday Press.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5^th from 1:30-2:45pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select E8 when you register!)

“Writing a Love Poem that Doesn’t Suck,” with Luke Marinac and Lyric Dunagan

How can an emotion as powerful as love so often give rise to overly sentimental, cliché-riddled poetry? Is it impossible to wrangle this emotion in writing without feeling as though we’ve forgotten our pantaloons and lyre?

Although the love poem is well-trodden territory, it’s constantly presenting us with new and strange paths to assuage our confessional impulses. From ancient Mesopotamia to Kobe Bryant, we’ll examine how the love poem has evolved throughout the years and its function in contemporary society, then experiment with approaches to crafting a love poem that doesn’t suck.

Luke Marinac, a transplant from Appalachian Tennessee, is in the MFA Program at BGSU. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in the North American Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Anamesa, and Stirring, among others.

Lyric Dunagan graduated with her MFA in poetry from the University of Tennessee in 2016. Her poetry has previously appeared in Cactus Heart, New Madrid and The Volta among others.

(this workshop will be held on Saturday, November 5^th from 3:00-4:15pm. If you’re interested in attending this workshop, select F7 when you register!)

Pets with MAR: Ori

You’ve seen some cats, a bearded dragon, and now, let’s bring a dog into the picture. Get ready to meet Ori, owned by Teri Dederer. Teri is Ori’s faithful and devoted human slave, dedicated to carrying out his extensive feeding and exercise regime. She and Ori have been together for seven wonderful years, beginning in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and ending up here in Bowling Green, Ohio where Teri is a second-year graduate student pursuing her M.F.A. in fiction. She is the Fiction Editor at the Mid-American Review.

Now, let’s meet Ori!

Job: MAR reader/contributor

Title: Head of the Committee for the Veracity of Animal Characterization (CVAC)

Meet the amazing, the wonderful, the one and only, Ori! Entering into his middle-age, Ori would ideally like to eat and nap his way through each day. His laid-back personality stems from his island roots, given that he was rescued from St. Maarten. In dog terms, Ori is a Coconut Retriever, which is simply an island mutt of unknown origin. Rescued when he was still fairly young, Ori had had his fair share of health concerns, having to undergo treatment for Lyme disease, heartworms, canine ehrlichiosis, worms (eww!)…but now he faces the threat of the developed world—obesity. Ori is happy to report that having undertaken a rigorous running program, his figure is now trim and slim once again.

Always a bit shy and timid, Ori would prefer that all people let him do the “covert sniff” upon first meeting, whereupon you ignore him, and he MIGHT decide to give you a sniff when your back is turned. Despite his social anxiety, his affection can be bought with high-quality dog-bones.One place that Ori always feels secure is at the MAR classroom! Ori is a frequent contributor toward discussions, and as Head of the Committee for the Veracity of Animal Characterization (CVAC), he is a valuable consultant for our team.

*Please note: no animals were harmed in the making of this ridiculously cute blog post.

Pets with MAR: Smaug

Last week you met some adorable cats, and this week MAR brings you a new pet–a bearded dragon, owned by the great Lisa Favicchia.

Lisa Favicchia is the Managing Editor of Mid-American Review and a second-year MFA candidate in poetry at Bowling Green State University. When she is not reading or writing, she is busy pampering the dragon whom she affectionately calls Smauggles (much to his chagrin).

And now, meet Smaug!

Smaug is a bearded dragon and Mid-American Review’s honorary Office Lizard. While his ancestors came from the harsh deserts of Australia, Smaug prefers spending his days in air conditioning with the Mid-American Review staff, preferably sitting on somebody’s shoulder or keeping a close eye on office proceedings from his perch on the back of his owner’s chair. He enjoys digging around in office mail, licking things, and running circles around laptops. He has been very graciously received not only by the staff members ofMid-American Review, but by the BGSU community as a whole, much to the joy of his owner who loves to bring him everywhere she goes.

Smaug has come a long way since his days as a starved, abused, and abandoned baby dragon to the illustrious Office Lizard you see before you today. His memoirs relating the tales of his difficult childhood and his struggle up the corporate ladder are forthcoming.

Interview with Fiction Editor Teresa Dederer, No. 4

Mid-American Review welcomes our new Fiction Editor, Teri Dederer, to the staff! Teri grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently a second-year graduate student pursuing an M.F.A. in fiction from Bowling Green State University, where she takes long walks alongside corn fields with her beloved dog, Ori.

Q: What drew you to the writing world?

T: A love of reading! My parents are big readers, so our house had hundreds of books, and when you live in the middle of the woods (literally), summer breaks were usually spent reading on a couch. I started writing after a sixth grade teacher gave my class a creative writing exercise. I wrote a story about how Edgar Allen Poe might have died from rabies after an unfortunate encounter with a black cat.

Q: How has your time in the MFA been?

T: Being around my cohort and the graduate faculty here at Bowling Green has been expansive. I’ve encountered new authors, new styles of writing, and I think it has pushed my own writing to be more daring. I’ve also made some lifelong writing buddies who have introduced me to the pleasures of wine tastings. Still debating which was the more important discovery.

Q: What makes you want to accept a submission?

T: Tough question—I tend to like a variety of things and styles. But if I’m going to take something, it needs to be great on every single page. I like pieces that pack an emotional punch, and quirky and unusual stories tend to draw me in. It needs to feel fresh and new and shiny!

Q: What’s your favorite story/poem MAR has accepted?

T: Maybe it’s my favorite story because it’s the first one I accepted since taking over as Fiction Editor, but “Goon” by Micah Cratty, which will be featured in the next issue. The voice is comically tragic, and so well-crafted that I wanted it immediately, and I still can’t stop thinking about the image of a ditch with cows looking on.

Q: What’s the best advice a writer has given you?

T: Probably just to keep writing—something that several writers/mentors have told me. It’s easy to say, ‘I’ll write tomorrow’ when you’re feeling stuck or blocked, but sometimes the reason you don’t want to write a scene is because you’re scared to write it. And those are usually the most important ones. I’d rather write it and revise it than sit there feeling guilty about not writing.

Q: Best experience in Bowling Green so far?

T: Seeing my dog try to hide in the neighbor’s cornfields. He thinks he’s so clever.

Meet the MAR Staff!

Hello, let’s take some time today to meet Mid-American Review’s fiction editor, Lydia Munnell!

Lydia is a native of rural western Pennsylvania who has spent the last several years on the east side of Cleveland coordinating the after school program at Lake Erie Ink, a non-profit writing space for youth. While in Cleveland, she was DJ of a folk radio program, Revival and previously did freelance writing for Cleveland Scene Magazine.

A submission is giving you major thrills: Why? What qualities does it have?

The submissions that really command my attention right away and the ones that I enthusiastically support have a strong sense of voice right off the bat. I’m not one to demand a necessarily thrilling first sentence or to be thrown into the middle of teeth-gnashing action, but there’s got to be something about the voice that feels like it needs to be read. Maybe it’s some kind of desperation, regardless of circumstance. The speaker should need to tell this story for me to need to read it. I’m also partial to stories that try things, that do something unique with form, that confidently take risks.

What is the best piece of advice another writer has ever given you?

To take my time, to take time off between undergrad and the MFA, to remember that writers are writers because they are actually writing.

Tell us one strange thing about yourself that involves writing and/or editing.

I’m always trying to set up a workspace, a desk, an organized surface. But in the end, I end up opening up my laptop in my bed and doing all of my writing there.

What is your favorite piece that MAR has published recently (in your genre or otherwise)?

This is difficult, but I’m going with “Inaccurate (self)Portraits of Water by the Artist Victor Vaughn” by Travis Vick. When I came on staff last year, it was one of the first pieces I got to really support, and I love what Travis does with fragments and form.