#bennington mfa

[benningtonwritingseminars]

[librarianreadseverything]

You had me at the dedication, Rick Moody

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Bennington Writing Seminars is now accepting applications for our low-residency MFA in writing. In our program, you work one-on-one with a member of our revered faculty in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry or dual genre. Apply by September 1st.

Pictured, clockwise from top: Justin Torres, Melissa Febos, Stuart Nadler, Manuel Gonzales. Center: Amy Hempel

Read. Write. Be read. Learn more about our program here.

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Kathy Stevenson published in Clapboard House Journal

Read “The Widow’s Wall” here!

[benningtonwritingseminars]

We don’t want to write what’s already been written. I stand here thinking about “I Stand Here Ironing” and I don’t want to write a story about a woman ironing. I don’t want to steal it or imitate it. But I am excited to see what the story is doing, and to recognize the legitimacy of its — and my, and any — territory. I read to think, to feel, to absorb, and to see what is possible — to be reminded that anything is possible. I look for permission, but really what I want, and need, and get, is the permission to forego permission. Who could have given Tillie Olsen permission to write a twelve-page ironing monologue? Again and again, I am reading to be reminded that what each story needs to be is itself.

I Stand Here Ironing, Too

by Joan Wickersham

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Jamie Quatro, Bennington MFA alum, reads from her acclaimed collection, I Want to Show You More, at the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, NM.

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Yes, I remember her. I always lie when I always say I didn’t know the gun was loaded.

Anger, April Bernard

Listen to the rest of the poem here.