THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE TRAVEL AWARDS IN FICTION, POETRY & PLAYWRITING: THE ROBERT PINSKY GLOBAL FELLOWSHIPS.
A generous donor has made it possible for a good number of our students to travel abroad after they complete the two semesters of our workshops. Those chosen may go to any country and do there what they wish, for a typical stay of three months. We sent one-fifth of our students off in the summer of 2009 to three different continents; in the summer of 2010 we hope to support similarly up to one-half of our graduating class.
Our creative writing program is challenging and intensive. After a year of study with our faculty–in poetry, with Robert Pinsky, Louise Glück, and Rosanna Warren; in fiction, with Leslie Epstein, Ha Jin, and Allegra Goodman; and in playwriting, with Kate Snodgrass, Melinda Lopez, and Ronan Noone–we are pleased to offer these students an experience that can be no less challenging but we hope full of pleasure as well.
Please click here for information on our department and how to apply (1 March 2010 is the deadline), or call us at 617 353 2510, or email.
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Stay tuned here to see 2009 Global Fellows dogsled Greenland, tour Gaudi buildings in Spain, trace Cocteau’s footsteps in France, explore Rome, and yacht around Cape Horn.
Global Fellows 2009
France
Playwright in France says:
Masha Obolensky
I will be spending six weeks in France retracing the steps of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (please see her photos below) and her long time friend, Jean Cocteau (please see his art below). Starting in Paris and heading South to her hometown in the Puisaye region (the setting of her “Claudine books” and her novel “My Mother’s House” and also the home of the Colette Museum) and then further south to the Cocteau Museum in Menton. I can’t wait to begin this journey!
Kate Snodgrass, Head of my BU MFA in Playwriting
Greenland
Novelist in Greenland says:
Nathan Hogan
I’m greatly looking forward to exploring the western coast of Greenland for seven weeks this summer. Since January, I’ve been at work on a historical novel about 19th century British Royal Navy Captain John Ross, and I’m hoping to get a fuller sense of what he experienced on his 1818 voyage in search of the Northwest Passage. I’m particularly excited to visit the National Museum in Nuuk, see the Kangerlua glacier at Ilulissat, go summer dogsledding on Disko Island, and complete the 112-mile backpacking route that connects Sisimiut and Kangerlussuaq.
Italy
Novelist in Italy says:
Dan Stone
I will be living in Rome from July until October 2009 — working on a novel, sampling the local wines, learning Italian, and exploring the Eternal City. I’ve made arrangements to live in an apartment in the historic district of Trastevere. The flat is owned by a young couple, both artists — she writes detective stories; he’s a sculptor. While there, I’ll also engage in a scholarly study directed by BU’s Rosanna Warren. The course will focus on American and British writers from the past few centuries for whom Rome has been an important literary capital. Not only will I read their works that were written in and about Rome, but I’ll also visit the cafes, bars, piazzas, churches, ruins, residences, and cemeteries that those writers still haunt.
“Go thou to Rome, at once the Paradise, / The grave, the city and the wilderness…” (Percy Bysshe Shelley, from Adonais.)
Please click the ‘Italy’ header at the top of this site for my translations of Italian poetry and more photos taken during my stay in Rome.
Patagonia
Poet in Patagonia says:
Maia Rauschenberg
Next fall I’ll be flying south to experience the mythic wilderness of Patagonia by land and sea. I want to experience the landscape bodily, for three months, by hiking the backcountry of Los Glaciares and Torres del Paine National Parks, rounding Cape Horn clinging to a 40-foot yacht, and exploring dynamic, austere Tierra del Fugeo.
Spain
Poet in Spain says:
Adam Eaglin
For nine weeks this summer, I will travel to Spain in order to write, translate poetry, and immerse myself in the country’s vibrant arts scene and culture. In January, I began to translate into English the work of the late Spanish poet and essayist, José Ángel Valente. I was first drawn to Valente’s poetry because of his unique, and very moving, control of language—but I soon became particularly interested in the way Valente was inspired by the artists and painters of his native country. (Hear Valente read ‘El Temblor.)
Based in Barcelona—a city that lives and breathes modern art, from its iconic Gaudí buildings to world-class Picasso and Miró museums—I will travel around Spain to study the visual art that inspired Valente and other poets of his generation. While exploring the Gothic streets of Barcelona’s old town, or studying the paintings of Picasso and Luis Fernández, I also hope to find inspiration for my own poetry.
ITHAKA by Constatine Cavafy (1863 – 1933)
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
(Translated by E. Keeley. Thanks to BU Professor Ha Jin for teaching this poem.)
2009 Travelers
Comments
From Gregory:
2009/05/22
Sounds like fun.
From World:
world@bu.edu
2009/05/23
Bon Voyage!
Robert Pinsky Video: Essential Pleasures
Don’t miss these!
Mona Lisa Photo by Masha Obolensky – Click on ‘View Feature’ in the Louvre Link
Photo by Adam Eaglin
Click!
world