Press Release - 5/13/2015 - Fiction readings at the Wynne Home 5/13/2015 City of Huntsville,Texas Mail-Wynne Home Public Reading-flyer attached
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Wynne Home Public Reading - flyer attached
Lee Woodward <Iwoodward@huntsvilletx.gov> Wed, May 13, 2015 at 8:01 AM
To: Lee Woodward <Iwoodward@huntsvilletx.gov>
On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 8:01 AM, Lee Woodward <Iwoodward@huntsvilletx.gov> wrote:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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SHSU FICTION STUDENTS TO GIVE SPRING READING
For the past four months, graduate students in the Sam Houston State University MFA Program in Creative
Writing, Editing, and Publishing have been gathering on Monday evenings at the Wynne Home to participate in
Dr. Scott Kaukonen's fiction writing workshop. On Monday, May 18, those writers will share with the public the
fruit of their labors at the annual Wynne Home Readings. The event will begin at 6 p.m. and is free and open
to the public.
"The writer works in solitude, behind closed doors, sequestered away in corners, and every once in a while, we
coax the writer out into the open to share the work," said Kaukonen, director of the MFA program. "This is one
of those opportunities. The City and Linda Pease have been very generous in allowing us to use that space
over the years, and this is one way we can give back."
Kaukonen first held his graduate fiction workshop at the Wynne Home in the spring of 2008, and this semester
was the sixth time and fourth consecutive spring. "It's just a terrific atmosphere in which to conduct this type
of class," Kaukonen said. "We sit around the old table in the formal dining room, and it feels less like a
classroom and more like a salon, just a bunch of writers talking about their work and trying to figure out how to
do it better."
This year's readers will include Cody Harrison, Mike Hilbig, Chenelle John, Julian Kindred, Kim Rayl, and
Bridget Schabron.
"There's a range of style and mood and genre in this particular group," Kaukonen said. "The settings of the
stories range geographically, from Houston to Wyoming to the Virgin Islands, and they range formally, from
minimalist to maximalist and realist to fabulist.
"We spend the semester in critique mode," Kaukonen added, "closely reading the stories and offering up
criticisms, both positive and, well, maybe not always so positive. It's a necessary part of the process, coming
to understand how fiction works and how it might work. But this shifts the mode, and we're able here to sit
back as readers (or listeners) and enjoy the work and what has been accomplished."
It's been a significant semester for the MFA program, which graduated its first student, Kim Davis of
Madisonville, last weekend.
"Kim took part in this workshop and these readings in previous years, and we're delighted to send her now into
the world to publish and do good things," Kaukonen said.
For more information, contact Kaukonen (936-294-1407 or kaukonen@shsu.edu) or Linda Pease, Wynne
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5/13/2015 City of Huntsville,Texas Mail-Wynne Home Public Reading-flyer attached
Home Coordinator(+936-291-5422 or 1pease huntsvilletx.gov).
Contact:
Dr. Scott Kaukonen
Director, MFA Program in Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing
SHSU Department of English
kaukonen@shsu.edu
936-294-1407
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