Justin Cabrillos
[audio:https://images.fnewsmagazine.com/2009/06/cabrillos_justin.mp3]Rachel Sima Harris
What are you reading? Excerpts from a short story titled: How to Eat to Live.
What inspired your piece? A million drafts ago it was sort of written thinking about the book by Elijah Muhammad with the same name but I’ve changed it so much since then they don’t have any real relationship to each other now.
What’s next? After graduation I’m continuing to work for F Newmagazine for a couple months and then moving to Boston. I’ll probably get a job teaching, or in text book publishing, or, you know, bartending, paper delivery, become a hand model or my dog’s talent manager-I don’t know-a recession is no time to be picky.
Departing words of wisdom for current MFAW students? Don’t go for all that jazz about needing to work with a million different faculty members. If you find someone you work well with just take all their classes and advise with them as many times as you can. I highly recommend any class taught by Sara Levine, Jesse Ball or Janet Desaulnier in the writing program as well as Shawn Smith in VCS.
[audio:https://images.fnewsmagazine.com/2009/06/harris_rachelsima.mp3]Mary Kiolbasa
What are you reading? Right now I’m reading Lorrie Moore’s Birds of America, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccostomed Earth, and Charles Olson’s Maximus Poems.
What inspired your piece? I’m reading two poems from a series I’ve been working on about ice. It is a project that functions as a strange series of elegies for my father, who died in a blizzard. I’m really inspired by modernist poets and the New Sincerity movement (if you could actually call it a movement), and lately I’ve been doing a lot of constraint based work that manipulates science writing.
What’s next? I hope to pursue a career in small press publishing.
[audio:https://images.fnewsmagazine.com/2009/06/kiolbasa_mary.mp3]Maribel Mares
What are you reading? ”Little Temper” a short prose landscape of the West Elsdon Section of the Southwest side of Chicago and, in a way, a portrait of myself, at a certain time in my life.
What inspired your piece? My mother’s boutique was closing around the time I wrote the piece. I was also thinking of Vitner’s Potato Chips. If you ever have the chance to read this story in print, I hope you eat Vitner’s potato chips and drink an RC Cola while you read it.
What’s next? I have several projects in mind. I plan to continue sculpting a play space for children. My sister and I created Kid City Play Space and Parties during the summer of 2008 (www.kidcitychicago.com). And, I plan to continue writing from my office in my home on the southwest side of Chicago.
Departing words of wisdom for current MFAW students: Work hard. Pay attention. You are paying for their attention. Use the resources available to you kindly. Listen to them. Don’t listen to them. Don’t forget why you came here. Yes, go ahead and forget why you came here. Experiment. Be involved.
[audio:https://images.fnewsmagazine.com/2009/06/mares_maribel.mp3]Heidi McKye
[audio:https://images.fnewsmagazine.com/2009/06/mckye_heidi.mp3]Erin Cathleen Messer
What are you reading?
Selections from HUMM & FIDGET: Haberdashers.
What inspired your piece?
HUMM & FIDGET contains stories about magical hats. I’ve always loved and worn a wide variety of hats, so it’s quite natural for me to write about them. The regular wearing of hats already constitutes an imagined world, as the social and fashion mores of our society no longer require them.
What’s next?
My career plans, such as they are, consist mainly of moving to San
Francisco and running around. I also hope to convince someone to publish my hats, my imaginary authors, and my more lyrical creatures. We shall see.
Departing words of advice for current MFAW students?
I’m in no position to distribute wisdom, but I can say that a maker should make that which delights him or her. There can be work and ouch and frown involved…but ultimately one should be able to revel in one’s own artistic paths and find joy in one’s work. If we’ve learned anything so far this millennium it’s that torture is overrated. Be a happy genius.
Nicholl Montgomery
What are you reading?
History Lessons
What inspired your piece?
My grandmother inspired the speech. Rosellen Brown asked us to write about being taught something and I thought of all the stories my grandmother has told me over the years. These stories are my history lessons.
What’s next?
I plan on going back to teaching English either at a middle or high school while I continue to write.
Departing words of wisdom for current MFAW students?
Do what you love. If it isn’t fun don’t do it. Janet Desaulnier told us that and I’ve found it to be helpful while I write.
Ryan Pendell
[audio:https://images.fnewsmagazine.com/2009/06/pendel_ryan.mp3]Andell Quintero
What are you reading?
Two fragments from a semi-autobiographical book length project, titled: Noriega’s Daughter. The pieces were titled “Rubber Bands” and “Limeade.”
What inspired your piece?
The piece is the story of a young Panamanian-American woman and her descent into mania. Her breakdown is the product of delusional ideations that have their root in a truth that is altogether too real. The scenes read depict Luz once hospitalized. The scenes are fragmentary, written to resemble memories, both as they occur and in retrospect.
What’s next?
I’d like to remain in the Chicago area to teach either within the public school system or at local community colleges/universities.
Departing words of wisdom for current MFAW students?
The faculty I’ve had the opportunity to work with are the MFAW program’s strongest asset. Do your research. Take the time to find out who they are, read their work, look at their biographical info on the school website, set up a meeting to talk with them.!
Rowland Saifi
What are you reading?
I tend to read a number of books at the same time. Currently I am reading: Hiding Man: a biography of Donald Barthelme by Tracy Daugerty, Moby Dick by Melville, Memory Room by Mary Rakow, Ada by Nabokov, On Longing by Susan Stuart, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders by Lawrence Weschler…
What inspired your piece?
Wittgenstein’s Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief, and the many pigeons of Chicago.
What’s next?
Writing, reading, etc basically seeing how long I can sustain doing what I enjoy.
Departing words of wisdom for current MFAW students?
Take everything.
Shannon Schmidt
What are you reading?
I am reading a selection of poems from “Water is Another Way to Sabotage the Throat” by Beth Sampson and a response piece to that titled: You Melville and Me
What inspired your piece?
I was inspired by Beth Sampson (a fellow colleague and friend), her poetry, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and Vanessa Place. I was at a conference in Arizona that Vanessa Place attended and it really made me think about the similarities between art, writing and performance.
What’s next?
I have a residency this June in Toulouse, France and after that I will be looking for teaching opportunities here (in Chicago) and elsewhere.
Elizabeth Anne Smith
What are you reading?
A short essay titled, “A Stein that is a drinking glass.”
What inspired your piece?
This essay grew out of a creative response to “Tender Buttons” that I wrote this semester in Matthew Goulish’s Systems of Writing. I was sitting in my living room on a nice spring day, reading “Tender Buttons” for the third time, and what came out of it was an essay about reading avant-garde literature.
What’s next?
Right now I’m working on a novel, the first draft of which is my thesis. I’ll get some kind of job to pay the bills, and we’ll just have to see what happens from there.
Departing words of wisdom for current MFAW students?
Try as many new things as possible while you’re at SAIC, and don’t let things like student loans distract you.
Amy Stern
[audio:https://images.fnewsmagazine.com/2009/06/stern_amy.mp3]Ted Tremper
What are you reading?
“The Way Ms. Boyd Would Have Described Love” — an essay from The
Philosophy of Loving Hannah: Imagination. Faith. Love. Lobster.
What inspired your piece?
My piece was inspired by a 50 hour trip to visit a person in my life I have always referred to as my “pretend-fiancé.”
What’s next?
I am the Associate Director of Development for 20 West Productions. I plan to stay here for as long as they’ll have me coming up with ideas for non-fiction television programs.
Departing words of wisdom for current MFA’s?
For writing: You’re good enough — don’t try to be anything you’re not. We live in a world that’s hellbent on trying to make every living being feel worthless, and it’s horse-shit. The only way I’ve found to get around this in writing is to choose a subject you love unequivocally.
For life:
If you don’t enjoy dancing or karaoke, it’s your fault. Get over yourself.
Tara Walker
[audio:https://images.fnewsmagazine.com/2009/06/walker_tara.mp3]Carolina Wheat
What are you reading?
“Chicago’s Memory” A sound infused walking tour of unnatural disasters that have occurred in the Second City.
What inspired your piece?
Firstly, ghost hunting inspired my piece. Secondly, wanting to learn more about Chicago’s tragic history. Thirdly, a cello piece someone played at another close friend’s funeral after an untimely death.
What’s next?
Future Voice-Over Diva.
Departing words of wisdom for current MFAW students?
Please take advantage of the studio departments at this kick-ass interdisciplinary school.
