Since graduating from聽绿茶直播鈥檚 Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing听辫谤辞驳谤补尘, a few alumni have gathered monthly for a writing group. They affectionately call themselves the Dead Birds Writing Group, a name derived from the master鈥檚 program publishing house,聽Howling Bird Press. The group shares stories, studies writing techniques, and offers constructive criticism, all with an end goal of helping each other publish their writing.
“One of the best take-aways from the MFA program was that we were able to build a community of writers, with a variety of different talents in fiction, poetry, screenwriting, memoir, and publishing.聽The fact that we’re still meeting in person, over online chats, and emailing each other to workshop, is a testament to the teamwork habits we formed during our residencies and classes.聽It feels wonderful to still be collaborating on team projects together after nearly ten years,鈥� says Jen Shutt 鈥�13, MFA 鈥�15
Last summer, the group worked on a unique writing prompt to write a flash fiction piece that contained the statement, 鈥淚t could be anyone鈥檚 leg.鈥�
鈥淲e ended up with a great collection of stories 鈥� ranging from humor to horror 鈥� and we decided to put them together in a book. We acted as editors for the stories, getting together to read through and discuss the collection. We were able to use many of the techniques our professors taught us in the MFA program,鈥� says Amanda Symes 鈥�09, MFA 鈥�15.
The group queried a few publishers and quickly received interest from聽Crystal Lake Publishing.
鈥淭his has really been a fun romp through the writing, editing, and publishing process. It was sort of magical to see the writing prompt come to life in so many different stories. Going deeper into each one through editing them with Amanda and Jen [Shutt] drew on the workshopping skills we learned in the MFA program, and鈥攃onfession鈥攊t may have been my favorite part. The group enjoyed the writing and publishing process so much that we are already discussing plans for our next writing prompt and publishing options,鈥� says Jayne Carlson MFA 鈥�16.
Knowing their professors would be excited to hear about the upcoming publication, the group also reached out to Professor Emerita聽Cass Dalglish 鈥� the MFA program鈥檚 founder 鈥� and asked her to review the collection. Professor Dalglish has this to say about their book:
“It Could Be Anyone’s Leg”聽is an anthology of eerie tales 鈥� flash reactions by a flight of writers after each has discovered bones聽lying so very near their writing desks. Did the bones belong to a human?聽A neighbor? A friend? A beastie of the insect species?聽Or some other creature who has become only a fraction of itself? These authors call themselves the Dead Birds Writing Group.聽Is it any wonder that we call a pack of crows a聽murder?”
The eBook is available for聽!
Alumni included in the collection are:
Amanda Symes 鈥�09, MFA 鈥�15
Jayne Carlson MFA 鈥�16
Jen Shutt 鈥�13, MFA 鈥�15
Judy Niemi Johnson MFA 鈥�16
Jesse Lawrence MFA 鈥�16
Kate Tremaine MFA 鈥�16
Patricia Fox MFA 鈥�17
Jen Kaine MFA 鈥�17
Andrew Marks 鈥�21