Sun. Sand. Less clothes, more parties. A tall frosty beer at the end of a long hot day. Ah, summer. But while much of USM was taking a well-deserved break from the rigors of academia, the Stonecoast Writing Masters of Fine Arts Program was making the most of the dog days by graduating its inaugural class and launching its third year in style. The Stonecoast MFA is a low-residency, two-year graduate program in Creative Writing through USM. What exactly does that mean? It means that students and faculty come together for 10 days each semester to collaborate on study plans, take seminars on specific writing topics and draw energy from one another before venturing out on their own for what promises to be a long semester of solitary writing.
During the summer residency, students may choose to stay on campus at Bowdoin College in Brunswick or commute; housing for the winter residencies thus far has been provided by the Freeport Hampton Inn. Workshops, seminars and faculty and student readings are all held at the Stone House in Freeport. While the residencies are ostensibly about getting work done, they are also about coming together as a community of writers and letting loose. Fiction writing faculty member, Elizabeth Searle, an award-winning novelist and short story writer, says, “I credit Lee Hope for infusing us all with a unique communal spirit, a mix that is at once intense, respectful and fun-loving. Many writing communities are more stressed-out and overtly competitive. Maybe it is the nearness of the beach, but I find Stonecoast to be an ideal place for serious play.”
The Stonecoast MFA was founded two years ago by former USM Professor B. Lee Hope as a more intensive version of the Stonecoast Summer Writing Conference. As of this summer, the program has now graduated it’s first class. Comprised of thirty students of all ages, from all walks of life, this inaugural class is united by two things: A passion for the written word and the dedication necessary to make their writing the best it can be. So how does the low-residency format help to achieve that goal? Several students interviewed cited the singular devotion and practical knowledge of the professors. With faculty comprised solely of published writers, many of whom have been nationally recognized for their skill at the writing craft, students are given individual attention and the benefit of close readings over an extended period of time. Marcia Brown, a Stonecoast-graduated poet said, “The Stonecoast faculty is extraordinarily generous. The attention and thought my mentors invested in my work, made me want the work to be better-to warrant that kind of caring attention.”
The admiration is mutual. New England Book Award-winning fiction faculty Suzanne Strempek-Shea says, of the MFA students, “Stonecoast is high-quality knock-your-socks-off talent. I’m constantly wowed. Certainly there are varying levels of accomplishment, but across the board the work is astounding.”
Of the thirty graduating students from the class of summer 2004, upon graduation nearly 50 percent were published writers. Some, like Henry Garfield-whose latest novel, “The Lost Voyage of John Cabot,” was published by Atheneum Books this past summer-were already published when they began the MFA. Others, like fiction graduate Peggy Moss, are seeing their work in print for the first time; Moss has written a children’s book entitled “Say Something,” which recently won a Teacher’s Choice Award from Learning Magazine.
Many of the graduates maintain contact with one another through internet and on-site writing groups; Moss says of her circle of Stonecoast writers: “They will be the reason why and how I am able to continue writing. We all became better editors there and being there together we have a common understanding of our shared passion for writing.” One thing is certain: Whether writing, editing, or teaching their chosen craft, the Stonecoast inaugural class will be a hard act to follow.