The Stonecoast Masters in Fine Arts Creative Writing Program is getting a permanent full-time director. Since its conception, interim directors have cared for the program. Annie Finch, a celebrated poet, stepped in as the permanent director September 1. The program’s Portland office has also moved from 19 Chamberlain St. to 120 Bedford St., to share a building with the Sociology Department.
The Interim Associate Direcector of the program Robin Talbot, said, “Between the move and the start of the semester, things have been pretty crazy around here. We haven’t been able to update our website. But we aren’t trying to keep anything secret: we are very excited about [Finch’s] involvement in the program.”
The Stonecoast MFA Program was created two years ago by Barbara Lee Hope, former assistant professor of media studies; Ken Rosen, former professor of English; and Dianne Benedict, associate professor of English. The program evolved out of the success of the Stonecoast Summer Writers’ Conference into a low-residency graduate degree program in creative writing.
The beginning of each semester of Stonecoast MFA is spent at the program’s Stone House on Casco Bay in Freeport. For ten days, speakers prepare participants for the remainder of the semester with workshops at the house. The faculty and speakers are published writers, often of particular literary distinction within their genres. During this short time, a sense of community is emphasized among the participants. Once the seminar is over, the students do not travel to a classroom; they work from home. Still, the sense of community formed at the beginning of the semester is encouraged. The students communicate via the Internet, interacting with mentors and learn to develop their writing through intensive study.
When the program first began, Hope took the position of interim director, and the search began for a qualified candidate to take the position full time. Now, after two years and its first graduating class, the Stonecoast MFA will have its first full time, permanent director.
Finch was most recently an associate professor at Miami University for their graduate level creative writing program. Before that, she was the director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Northern Iowa. She received a B.A. from Yale University in 1979, a M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Houston in 1986 and a Ph.D. in English from Stanford University in 1991. In 1997, Finch started WOM-PO, an online forum for the discussion of women’s poetry. She has published three books of poetry, “The Encyclopedia of Scotland,” “Calendars” and “Eve” as well as several books on writing poetry. She has been featured in numerous anthologies and journals and received an assortment of honors and awards, from such organizations as the National Poetry Series, the Faulkner Society and Forward Magazine.
Talbot said she thinks Finch should be an excellent fit as director.
“We are astounded and proud that [Finch] decided to take this position.” Talbot noted that in the early stages of many new programs, positions get filled only temporarily. The program will benefit greatly from permanent leadership, she said.
Finch said, “I would like to make the program more predictable and steady-to have the schedule more in line with the rest of USM.” She said the program only needed minor adjustments, because Hope had done so well as interim director. High on her priority list was raising the profile of the program and adjusting the application deadlines and budgeting schedule to mirror the rest of the university.
Finch said she is looking forward to the switch from associate professor to program director. “I found that I was thinking about student writing more than my own,” she said. This position will free her of those pressures, allowing for more personal creativity. “I find Maine really inspiring.” She said that “[this job] is a good fit with my creative self. It is important to me that my job nourishes my writing.”
In an online post on the WOM-PO Listserv, Finch wrote: “It’s a wonderful community of writers and I am excited to be joining it.” In reference to her permanent move to Maine, she commented, “my book jackets have said ‘she lives in Cincinnati and in Maine’ for years now-and I’m very much looking forward to simplifying that statement. Especially as my family has deep Maine roots.”