Lesley University: MFA Residency (January 4-12, 2013)

Ah, residency. That blissful nine-day span where nothing matters but literature and writing. I love it and am freshly home from my second residency in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Lesley University. While this residency had its obvious differences from the first one back in June, it was still exactly what I needed–a huge push to get back into a writing routine.

Here’s a quick look at the seminars I went to:

• The Past Coming to You Live (A seminar on historical fiction in young adult literature.)
• In Cold Print: The Cross Pollination of Fiction, Nonfiction, Drama, and Poetry
• Indoor/Outdoor Writing: The Inspiration and Imperative of Place
• An Afternoon With Mark Siegel, Author/Illustrator, Director of First Second Books
• Chiarscuro: Darkness and Light in Children’s Literature
• The Art of Juxtaposition
• What’s So Funny? Exploring Appropriate Humor for Children for and Young Adults
• In the Smithy of My Soul: When Writing Takes on the World
• A Place Like No Other: Crafting a Compelling Setting That Readers Will Remember

In addition to these, I also had nine hours of workshops to attend.

Overall, this residency was another great learning experience. I made some great new friends and learned so much more than I thought I would. I will admit that the seminars weren’t as exciting as the first time around, but I still wouldn’t trade them for anything else. The faculty at Lesley is amazing and my work is better because of all of them. My new mentor, David Elliott, is a great guy. I have a great feeling about this semester with him.

And so it begins.

Happy Writing,