STONECOAST ALUMNI REUNION 2012
July 12-15 | Brunswick, ME

The Stonecoast Alumni Association presents the 2012 Alumni Reunion held at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The reunion includes panel discussions, workshops, readings, and an opportunity to network with the talented writers of the Stonecoast MFA program. Written below is the schedule for the alumni reunion. You can also SCAA Reunion Brochure.

THURSDAY

2-3:30 pm | Workshops* | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 127

3:30-5 pm | Reunion Registration, Welcome & Introduction | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

5-6 pm | How to Self-Promote and Still Have Time to Write | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

7-7:30 pm | Stonecoast Alumni Flash Reading with Erin Underwood, Lexa Hillyer, Morgan Callan Rogers, Christin Geall | The Inn at Brunswick Station, 4 Noble St, Brunswick, ME

7:30-8 pm | Stonecoast Guest Faculty Reading: Jeff VanderMeer | The Inn at Brunswick Station

8-10 pm | Stonecoast Alumni Mixer | The Inn at Brunswick Station

FRIDAY

9:00-10:45 am | Workshops* | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 127

11 am-12 pm | Broaden Your Horizons: Panel Proposals, Community Readings and Collaborative Projects | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

1-2 pm | To Self-Publish, or Not to Self-Publish: That is the Question | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

2:15-3:15 pm | The Writer Beyond the Writing | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

3:30-4:30 pm | Now and Then and Then, Again: Time in Creative Nonfiction | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

4:30-5:30 pm | Alumni Discussion Open Forum | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

7-8:30 pm | Featured Stonecoast MFA Reader: Nahid Rachlin | The Inn at Brunswick Station

SATURDAY

9-11 am | Workshops* | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 127

11 am-12 pm | Testing the Character of our Characters | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

1-2 pm | Life After and Life with an MFA: Careers and Jobs | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

2:15-3:15 | First Book Stories: From the Muse to the Marketplace | Bowdoin Searles Bldg, Rm 126

4:45-6:15 pm | Stonecoast Reception for Alumni & 2012 Graduates | Stone House

7-8 pm | Stonecoast MFA Graduation Ceremony | Freeport High School Performing Arts Center, 30 Holbrook St, Freeport, ME

8:00-11:00 | Graduation Reception & Dance | The Inn at Brunswick Station

SUNDAY

10:30 am-12 pm | Alumni and Graduating Student Meeting | Stone House, Casco Room Porch

7-9 pm | Community Dinner** | Estes Lobster House, 1906 Harpswell Neck Road, South Harpswell, ME 04079.

*Workshops require pre-registration and additional payment to the SCAA.
**The Community Dinner requires onsite registration and additional payment to Stonecoast.

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PANEL DESCRIPTIONS

How to Self-Promote and Still Have Time to Write
Publishers and agents expect you to promote yourself. Being your own marketing director is a full-time job itself, but you can efficiently pare down the duties so you still have time to write. This panel will discuss options for self promotion, how to prioritize which options are best for you, and how create a ten-minute daily promotion plan.
Amy Martin CNF W’12 (m), Erin Underwood PF S’09

To Self-Publish, or Not to Self-Publish: That is the Question
In this digital age of publishing what route is the right one to take? What opportunities might we gain by skipping the traditional publishing track by going direct to self-publishing? What benefits might we lose? This panel will discuss self-publishing from a pragmatic standpoint and will invite the audience to share their own experiences.
Erin Underwood PF S’09 (m), Amy Martin CNF W’12, Kevin St. Jarre

Broaden Your Horizons: Panel Proposals, Community Readings and Collaborative Projects
Attending conventions and conferences for writers is a terrific way to network and connect with people in every layer of the publishing industry. However, there is a point when it’s time for you to participate on one of the featured panels. How do you turn a good discussion topic into a great panel submission? This presentation will discuss the ins and outs of preparing panel submissions and give you tips on volunteering to participate on conference panels where full panel proposals aren’t needed.
Mihku Paul-Anderson F S’10

Now and Then and Then, Again: Time in Creative Nonfiction
A craft-oriented session that looks at approaches to time in the memoir and creative nonfiction. Retrospection, chronology, personae, tense, flashbacks, and narrative distance will be explored using specific examples and exercises.
Christin Geall CNF S’07

First Book Stories: From the Muse to the Marketplace
We’ve all heard the horror stories about getting a first book published. Yes, it can be discouraging and daunting, but it’s not impossible. Four Stonecoast alums (a poet, an essayist, a crime fiction writer, and a literary novelist) share the realities and the surprises – good and bad – in their post-MFA experiences working with agents and finding a publisher for their work.
Ellen Meeropol F W’06 (m), Marcia Brown, Tom MacDonald F W’09, Penelope Schwartz Robinson

Testing the Character of our Characters
As students of writing, we often hear the admonition that our characters should surprise us, that if they don’t surprise us, they won’t surprise our readers either. But how do we create the conditions that allow our characters to surprise us? This seminar will postulate that one effective way to develop characters that surprise the writer is to insert them into morally ambiguous situations without the writer knowing what the outcome will be when the characters face them. We’ll examine poems and prose excerpts and participate in a writing exercise where we’ll encourage our characters to test themselves in order to illuminate who they really are and who they have the potential of becoming.
Jeff Kass F S’09

The Writer Beyond the Writing: What to do and How to be When You Aren’t at the Keyboard
You’ve spent untold months working on your manuscript, and years polishing your prose style. You’ve been mentored by the best. You’ve got a shelf full of books on craft, and a nicely framed MFA. The writing is where it needs to be…but what about you? Is there something holding your career back, something that goes beyond what’s on the page? Join our panel as we share tips to keep your MS out of the slush pile and strategies that will take you to the top of your game.
Libby Cudmore PF S’10 (m), Matthew Quinn Martin PF S’10, Lexa Hillyer P S’10

Life After and Life with an MFA: Careers and Jobs
The Stonecoast MFA has long advised students to regard the MFA as an opportunity to develop one’s talents and not as a vocational degree–like the PhD or MBA. Yet many students still expect to gain access to careers and positions not open to them prior to completing their degree. Are these expectations realistic? How can you make the best use of your new degree? What are SC graduates doing to support themselves?
Bruce Pratt F S’04 (m), Hank Garfield, Bunny Goodjohn, P W’07