UMass Amherst MFA for Poets and Writers

04/29/2021

#umassmfa poet Sarah Ghazal Ali (MFA ‘21) featured over at @seventhwavemag ! Link in bio to read her incredible poem “Matrilineage [Recovered]”

Posted @withregram • @seventhwavemag Meet Sarah Ghazal Ali (@caesarah), Issue 13 Contributor and 2021 Editorial Resident. 🎙🎙🎙.
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Sarah Ghazal Ali is a Pakistani writer born and raised in the Northeast. An MFA Fellow, Juniper Fellow, and Best of the Net nominee, she is a third-year MFA candidate in Poetry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (@umassmfa). She teaches both introductory composition and creative writing. Her poems have appeared or will soon appear in Palette Poetry, Memorious, Narrative, Tinderbox, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Waxwing, and Wildness, among others. She currently lives in California and is drawn like a moth to all things green and growing. Much of this past year was spent misting her houseplants, learning to identify local trees, and playing inordinate amounts of Animal Crossing. 🥰🥰🥰.
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What does it mean to have agency in the formation of our family trees? And is it possible to claim our space in a lineage that has tried to erase us time and time again? Sarah Ghazal Ali’s poem, “Matrilineage [Recovered],” asks these questions in a unique contrapuntal-esque form that unfurls in new ways with each reading. 📝📝📝.
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Tap the link in bio to explore her poem! 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊.

#umassmfa poet Sarah Ghazal Ali (MFA ‘21) featured over at @seventhwavemag ! Link in bio to read her incredible poem “Matrilineage [Recovered]”

Posted @withregram • @seventhwavemag Meet Sarah Ghazal Ali (@caesarah), Issue 13 Contributor and 2021 Editorial Resident. 🎙🎙🎙.
.
Sarah Ghazal Ali is a Pakistani writer born and raised in the Northeast. An MFA Fellow, Juniper Fellow, and Best of the Net nominee, she is a third-year MFA candidate in Poetry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (@umassmfa). She teaches both introductory composition and creative writing. Her poems have appeared or will soon appear in Palette Poetry, Memorious, Narrative, Tinderbox, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Waxwing, and Wildness, among others. She currently lives in California and is drawn like a moth to all things green and growing. Much of this past year was spent misting her houseplants, learning to identify local trees, and playing inordinate amounts of Animal Crossing. 🥰🥰🥰.
.
What does it mean to have agency in the formation of our family trees? And is it possible to claim our space in a lineage that has tried to erase us time and time again? Sarah Ghazal Ali’s poem, “Matrilineage [Recovered],” asks these questions in a unique contrapuntal-esque form that unfurls in new ways with each reading. 📝📝📝.
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Tap the link in bio to explore her poem! 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊.

04/02/2021

We hope you can join us this Monday, April 5 at 7pm EDT for a reading and conversation with Amitav Ghosh!⁠
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Amitav Ghosh, author of The Great Derangement, will read and discuss the imaginative possibilities of climate awareness and action. Moderated by writer and activist Emily Raboteau, co-sponsored by the MFA for Poets and Writers, Orion, the Department of Comparative Literature, and the Environmental Humanities Program.⁠
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Link to get tickets in our bio⁠
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@umassfac @umasshfa @orion_magazine

We hope you can join us this Monday, April 5 at 7pm EDT for a reading and conversation with Amitav Ghosh!⁠
⁠
Amitav Ghosh, author of The Great Derangement, will read and discuss the imaginative possibilities of climate awareness and action. Moderated by writer and activist Emily Raboteau, co-sponsored by the MFA for Poets and Writers, Orion, the Department of Comparative Literature, and the Environmental Humanities Program.⁠
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Link to get tickets in our bio⁠
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@umassfac @umasshfa @orion_magazine

03/24/2021

#umassmfa alumni out in the world! Zach Savich (MFA ‘11) interviewed Nick Maione (MFA ‘17) for @tupelo_quarterly

Link in bio to read

03/22/2021

Sign the Petition

Thank you to all who attended the 2021 Juniper Literary Festival! In the spirit of the festival and the larger Transforming Crisis series, #umassmfa professor Noy Holland has started a petition urging UMass Amherst to commit to renewable energy by 2025. https://www.change.org/p/university-of-massachusetts-commit-to-net-zero-at-umass-amherst?redirect=false

Commit to Net Zero at UMass Amherst

03/11/2021

Tomorrow! Link to register in comments.

Tomorrow! Link to register in comments.

03/08/2021

We are so excited to welcome back five of our renowned alumni this Saturday, March 13, as part of the Juniper Literary Festival!

Please join us at 8pm EST for a reading with Sueyeun Juliette Lee (MFA '06), Travis Nichols (MFA '04), Jason Schwartz (MFA '06), and Leni Zumas (MFA '04). Molly Dorozenski (MFA '04) will moderate a conversation following the reading.

Link to register in our bio.

03/01/2021

Please join us on March 12 and 13, for the #umassmfa 2021 Juniper Festival. This year's program, The World and The Word: Literature of the Ecological Crisis, is part of TRANSFORMING CRISIS, an interdisciplinary, semester-long series devoted to illuminating ecological crises and addressing climate injustice. ⁠
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🗓️Schedule of Events⁠
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Friday, March 12, 8pm EST: Toni Jensen and Juliana Spahr reading. A conversation moderated by @umassenglishdept professor Malcolm Sen will follow.⁠
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Saturday, March 13, 8pm EST: Alumni reading and conversation, featuring Sueyeun Juliette Lee (MFA '06), Travis Nichols (MFA '04), Jason Schwartz (MFA '06), and Leni Zumas (MFA '04). Molly Dorozenski (MFA '04) will moderate a conversation following the reading.⁠
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Events are free and open to the public. Link in comments for FB event page and registration links.
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Transforming Crisis is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the MFA, the Fine Arts Center, the School of Earth & Sustainability, with support from the Chancellor's Sustainability Advisory Committee. Transforming Crisis seeks to precipitate action, transformation, collaboration, even joy. What can we learn from the tumult of the moment? What is the solace of beauty? What are the possibilities of action? These events articulate a desire to trace the connections between science, culture, activism, and the arts. @umassfac @sesumass

Please join us on March 12 and 13, for the #umassmfa 2021 Juniper Festival. This year's program, The World and The Word: Literature of the Ecological Crisis, is part of TRANSFORMING CRISIS, an interdisciplinary, semester-long series devoted to illuminating ecological crises and addressing climate injustice. ⁠
⁠
🗓️Schedule of Events⁠
⁠
Friday, March 12, 8pm EST: Toni Jensen and Juliana Spahr reading. A conversation moderated by @umassenglishdept professor Malcolm Sen will follow.⁠
⁠
Saturday, March 13, 8pm EST: Alumni reading and conversation, featuring Sueyeun Juliette Lee (MFA '06), Travis Nichols (MFA '04), Jason Schwartz (MFA '06), and Leni Zumas (MFA '04). Molly Dorozenski (MFA '04) will moderate a conversation following the reading.⁠
⁠
Events are free and open to the public. Link in comments for FB event page and registration links.
⁠
Transforming Crisis is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the MFA, the Fine Arts Center, the School of Earth & Sustainability, with support from the Chancellor's Sustainability Advisory Committee. Transforming Crisis seeks to precipitate action, transformation, collaboration, even joy. What can we learn from the tumult of the moment? What is the solace of beauty? What are the possibilities of action? These events articulate a desire to trace the connections between science, culture, activism, and the arts. @umassfac @sesumass

02/16/2021

Tomorrow! Immuto Film Screening and Conversation, February 17, 6pm EST⁠
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with #umassmfa @umassenglishdept @umasshfa Professor Noy Holland and Island Reach activists & filmmakers Janis Steele & Brooks McCutchen. Link to register below.⁠
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Immuto (Change) helps stimulate the processes of intellectual, emotional, and ethical decolonization needed to change the course of the climate emergency and biocultural collapse. Shot in 2019 in Vanuatu, Viet Nam, Morocco, the EU, UK, and US (including on the UMASS campus), Immuto features stories of crisis and action told by compelling changemakers living and working on the frontlines. More than just compelling stories, however, these agents of change address viewers directly, calling for the mutual recognition and solidarity required for our varied yet interrelated struggles to safeguard our planet’s biodiversity, adapt to the rapid changes, demand climate justice, and draw down carbon. As one Ni-Vanuatu asserts, looking the viewer in the eye and prevailing on our minds and hearts, "how might we find a way to walk side by side so that together we can benefit the whole world." The screening is 44 minutes.⁠
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This public screening is part of MFA Professor Noy Holland's graduate seminar, Art in the Anthropocene in which students traverse the territory between art and citizenship. How do we shape and sustain ourselves in a damaged and crumbling era, in the midst of the sixth extinction, in the face of the news of the lethal experiment we have been for decades conducting on the planet? What are the limits of compassion? What is the solace of beauty? What are the possibilities of action? Can art help us see beyond, and help others see beyond, the grief and loss that we inherit? ⁠
⁠
The screening is also part of an interdisciplinary semester-long series, Transforming Crisis, illuminating ecological crises and addressing climate injustice in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center, the MFA, and the School of Earth and Sustainability.

Tomorrow! Immuto Film Screening and Conversation, February 17, 6pm EST⁠
⁠
with #umassmfa @umassenglishdept @umasshfa Professor Noy Holland and Island Reach activists & filmmakers Janis Steele & Brooks McCutchen. Link to register below.⁠
⁠
Immuto (Change) helps stimulate the processes of intellectual, emotional, and ethical decolonization needed to change the course of the climate emergency and biocultural collapse. Shot in 2019 in Vanuatu, Viet Nam, Morocco, the EU, UK, and US (including on the UMASS campus), Immuto features stories of crisis and action told by compelling changemakers living and working on the frontlines. More than just compelling stories, however, these agents of change address viewers directly, calling for the mutual recognition and solidarity required for our varied yet interrelated struggles to safeguard our planet’s biodiversity, adapt to the rapid changes, demand climate justice, and draw down carbon. As one Ni-Vanuatu asserts, looking the viewer in the eye and prevailing on our minds and hearts, "how might we find a way to walk side by side so that together we can benefit the whole world." The screening is 44 minutes.⁠
⁠
This public screening is part of MFA Professor Noy Holland's graduate seminar, Art in the Anthropocene in which students traverse the territory between art and citizenship. How do we shape and sustain ourselves in a damaged and crumbling era, in the midst of the sixth extinction, in the face of the news of the lethal experiment we have been for decades conducting on the planet? What are the limits of compassion? What is the solace of beauty? What are the possibilities of action? Can art help us see beyond, and help others see beyond, the grief and loss that we inherit? ⁠
⁠
The screening is also part of an interdisciplinary semester-long series, Transforming Crisis, illuminating ecological crises and addressing climate injustice in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Fine Arts Center, the MFA, and the School of Earth and Sustainability.

01/25/2021

Mark your calendars for this Thursday, January 28, 6pm EST / 9pm EST: #umassmfa @umassenglishdept @umasshfa poetry professor Peter Gizzi will read from his new book of poetry, NOW IT'S DARK. He will be joined in conversation by CAConrad. ⁠
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Link to register in our bio.

Mark your calendars for this Thursday, January 28, 6pm EST / 9pm EST: #umassmfa @umassenglishdept @umasshfa poetry professor Peter Gizzi will read from his new book of poetry, NOW IT'S DARK. He will be joined in conversation by CAConrad. ⁠
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Link to register in our bio.

01/19/2021

Juniper Initiative for Arts and Action Receives $8,300 Grant from the Mass Cultural Council | MFA for Poets & Writers | UMass Amherst

The Juniper Initiative for Arts and Action is pleased to announce receipt of an $8,300 grant from the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through its Cultural Investment Portfolio Program. The Juniper Initiative for Arts and Action is part of the English Department and housed at the MFA for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This grant supports literary arts programming and helps attract private dollars for scholarships.

https://www.umass.edu/englishmfa/news/juniper-initiative-arts-and-action-receives-8300-grant-mass-cultural-council-0

The Juniper Initiative for Arts and Action is pleased to announce receipt of an $8,300 grant from the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through its Cultural Investment Portfolio Program. The Juniper Initiative for Arts and Action is part of the English Department and housed at the MFA for Poets...

12/15/2020

#umassmfa alum Arisa White (MFA '06) reads with Meredith Clark this Thursday, December 17, 7pm EST -- this will be her first event reading from and discussing her new book, Who's Your Daddy. ⁠
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Link to register below.

“What if poetry is how I practice my relationship with my whole body—bodies unknown and not yet born, bodies past, future bodies, bodies present. The father and mother of my poems are two pearls I nacre at any point in time.” — Arisa White

Join Antidote at 7 p.m. this Thursday 12/17 for a virtual reading and conversation with poet-memoirists Arisa White and Meredith Clark.

Register to attend at antidotebooks.com

09/10/2020

Congratulations to #umassmfa professor Ocean Vuong and alum Karen Skolfield (‘98) for winning the 2020 Massachusetts Book Awards in Fiction and Poetry, respectively 🎉

Link in bio for the full list of award winners and runners up!

08/03/2020

One week from today! A benefit reading for @majesticnoho featuring Alexander Chee, Ocean Vuong, Andrea Lawlor (‘12), CAConrad, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Franny Choi, and Shira Erlichman. Link in bio for tickets #umassmfa #q***rfutures

06/29/2020

#umassmfa alum Gabriel Bump (‘17) is featured on the @penamerica PEN Pod - link to listen in bio.

Posted @withregram • @penamerica Today on #thePENpod, we talked to novelist @bumperg about his debut EVERYWHERE YOU DON'T BELONG, how its themes of Black identity and survival are relevant in our current moment, and the role of writers in battling social ills. Listen to this episode via the link in our bio or head to pen.org/thepenpod.

06/03/2020

Reposted from @umass: "Today, I write to you with a range of emotions. Fear for protesters, some of whom encounter fierce violence. Disappointment in our country for not reckoning with our intimate relationship with anti-Black racism. Frustrated at our institutions for failing to undo the institutionalized racism that we know to be true. ⁣
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We have been repeatedly challenged by this violence and by other disturbing acts – increased anti-Asian racism, growing xenophobia and escalating anti-Semitic attacks. This cannot, and will not, be our normal at UMass. We are hopeful and encouraged by the work we have been doing to combat racism and will continue to work tirelessly to undo it in our community. ⁣
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To that point, we are immediately getting to work." — A message from Nefertiti Walker, interim vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer on taking action at UMass Amherst to combat racism. Full statement can be found in our bio.

05/29/2020

Prose writer and #umassmfa alum Sara Jaffe ('09) is teaching an online prose workshop this summer geared towards students transitioning from writing within institutional settings to becoming writers in the world. Link in bio for more info and registration.⁠
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Sara Jaffe is a writer living in Portland, OR. She has taught creative writing at numerous colleges and universities, including Reed College, Rutgers-New Brunswick, and University of Oregon’s MFA program. Her first novel, Dryland, was published by Tin House Books in September 2015. Learn more at sarajaffewriter.com. ⁠
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05/20/2020

The Juniper Institute for Young Writers is going online this year! Juniper's Creative Writing Instructors (all are UMass MFA candidates!) are offering eight exciting Writing Labs for teens this summer. Deadline to apply is June 1.

https://www.umass.edu/juniperyoungwriters/writing-labs

This summer, Juniper’s online Writing Labs are workshop-style classes where you can share your writing with your classmates, receive feedback, and work from prompts and lessons provided by our Creative Writing Instructors. We are offering eight online Writing Labs this summer:

🖊Reclaiming the Self with Mark Bias
🖊Swarm with Sarah Coates
🖊Houston, we have a problem; it is the trips we take with Julio Cesar Diaz
🖊Writing for Justice: Social and Emotional Change with Vida James
🖊Collection, Collaboration, Collage with Laura S. Marshall
🖊Myth, Fantasy & Afrofuturism with Yvette Ndlovu
🖊Spectral Spaces with Alex Terrell
🖊Exploring the Body as a Vessel for the Voice with Dāshaun Washington

Remember to apply before the June 1 deadline!

https://www.umass.edu/juniperyoungwriters/writing-labs