JESS ROW is the author of two collections of short stories, The Train to Lo Wu and Nobody Ever Gets Lost, as well as a chapbook, The True Catastrophe. His fiction has appeared in...
MFA Writing
Poetry
At VCFA, we honor the long tradition and the global nature of poetry while also encouraging each writer to experiment and thereby discover, incrementally, a personal style and process of working. We understand that we are catalysts to a process that will continue well beyond a writer’s time in our program; we seek to help foster a productive and enduring life of writing and reading poetry.
While we encourage exploration and innovation, we also facilitate, via individualized reading lists and the expectation of thoughtful critical responses, exposure to elements of craft, to literary history, and to contemporary poetry. In addition, we encourage our poets to familiarize themselves with work that helps them pursue the kinds of poems they want to write in a given semester: narrative poems, lyric or meditative poems, poems written in traditional forms as well as in experimental modes, longer works such as suites and sequential poems, and hybrid forms such as “off the page” poetry which combine writing with art and photography.
We also encourage poets to familiarize themselves with translation whether or not they choose to avail themselves of our more structured translation option. Many have found this endeavor to be a helpful supplement to their understanding of their own language, as well as absorbing and liberating in its own right. Our residencies in Slovenia and Puerto Rico often present, among many other benefits, opportunities to collaborate directly with poets writing in another language.
We invite you to learn more about our Poetry Faculty.
You may want to see VCFA’s reading list in poetry.
Faculty Profiles
Points of View
"As a recent graduate of VCFA's MFA program and the post-graduate Picture Book Certificate Program, I can say that I have never looked back. In addition to the knowledge and life-long friendships I've gained as a result of my Vermont College experience, I've seen remarkable growth in my ability to teach the craft of writing to students. Without a doubt, Vermont College of Fine Arts' MFA program has made me a better writer and a better teacher."
Points of Interest
The Katherine Paterson Prize
Hunger Mountain announces a new writing contest for writers of young adult (YA) and children’s literature: the Katherine Paterson Prize. The contest, which is open to all writers, awards $1,000 and publication in Hunger Mountain’s new online arts journal, due to launch this summer.
“We created the Katherine Paterson Prize because we wanted to support the work of young adult and children’s writers,” says Hunger Mountain managing editor Miciah Bay Gault. “We wanted a new way to honor the writers in this exciting field.” The Katherine Paterson Prize is open to writers of young adult fiction, middle grade fiction, and picture books. Entries must be unpublished, and no more than 5,000 words. There is a $20.00 entry fee. Deadline for entries is June 30, ‘09 (postmark date). The prize will be judged by Vermont native Katherine Paterson, critically acclaimed author of numerous children’s books, including Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, Jacob Have I Loved, and, most recently, Bread and Roses, Too. Katherine Paterson has won the Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and scores of other awards and honors.
Visual Art Alumna Christine Reynolds' Exhibition
© Vermont College of Fine Arts :: 2012