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Writers from the staff of The Blue Pencil Online presented a workshop on “homophonic composition” at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2009, in Lowell, Massachusetts, on October 16. (See Applause for Kim MacCormack, W & P ‘10.)
W & P welcomed Poetry Editor of the Paris Review and renowned poet-critic Dan Chiasson. Chiasson has a Ph.D. in Modern Poetry from Harvard University, where he studied under Helen Vendler. A staff writer for The New Yorker who often reviews poetry for The New York Times and Poetry magazine, he has written two books poetry, The Afterlife of Objects and Natural History. His newest work, Where’s the Moon? There’s the Moon, is due out in the Fall of 2009. Chiasson is also a Professor of English at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
In a ninety-minute discussion, W & P asked Chiasson about his work both as poetry editor and as poet and critic. He explained the system by which submissions to the Paris Review are accept and rejected, offering W & P editors the chance to compare that journal’s practices with those at The Blue Pencil Online. Chiasson also talked about balancing the work of reading submissions, writing reviews, and crafting his own poems. The discussion concluded with Chiasson’s reading of the title poem from Where’s the Moon? There’s the Moon.
Winners of the 2010 Bishop Prizes in the news: “FM Student has the Write Stuff“ [Southern Denton County, Texas]; “Milton Academy Student Recognized for Poem“ [Quincy, Massachusetts]
Kevin Hong, W & P ‘11, received special merit in the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize run by the editors of The Kenyon Review. Read more here.
Mary Carter, W & P ‘10, Gabriella Fee, ‘10, Kevin Hong, ‘11, Laura Wanamaker, ‘12, and Elana Yoffie, ‘12, received regional recognition in the 2010 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, run by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers to honor “exceptional artistic and literary talent.” Submissions by Fee (poetry and writing portfolio) and by Yoffie (dramatic script), which received Gold Key honors, will enter the national competition. Read more here.
Kim MacCormack, W & P ‘10, was named one of two winners of the High School Poetry Competition at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, where she read with Pulitzer Prize–Winner Louise Gluck and Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky.
[Spring 09]
Fabrizio Ciccone, W & P ‘09, submitted three plays to the 2009 National Young Playwrights Competition, sponsored by Young Playwrights Incorporated of New York City. The annual contest is open to all playwrights 18 or younger. Out of 1,600 submissions, Fabrizio’s play Restrictions was selected as one of ten first-place winners. A staged reading of Restrictions will take place in New York in 2010, after which the play will be considered for Off-Broadway performance.
Evangeline Delgado, W & P ‘11, was selected to attend the New England Young Writers’ Conference at the Bread Loaf Campus of Middlebury College, in Ripton, Vermont. The four-day event in mid-May offers students the opportunity to take workshops with published authors and to work alongside other young writers from all over New England.
Gabriella Fee, W & P ‘10, was named a Finalist in the Smith College Poetry Prize for her poem “Nobska,” which appears in The Blue Pencil 2009. As a Finalist, Gabriella spent an April afternoon in conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Paul Muldoon, who judged the competition. That evening, she and the other honored poets opened for Mr. Muldoon’s performance with readings of their own poems.
Subsequently, in May, Gabriella’s poem “Child,” also published in The Blue Pencil 2009, received an Honorable Mention in the Leonard Milberg Secondary School Poetry Prize, which is awarded by the writing faculty at Princeton University and is widely considered the most prestigious high school poetry prize awarded in the United States.
Former Walnut Hill writer Sadie McCarney, who won the 2006 Elizabeth Bishop Prize in Fiction and earned Departmental Honors last year, was awarded the Leonard Milberg Secondary School Poetry Prize. Poet C.K. Williams, in contacting Sadie about the Prize, singled out her poem “Scorpions” for special attention. Sadie wrote “Scorpions” for Evan McWilliams, W & P ‘09, who was, along with Sadie, a 2008 Finalist for the Foyle Prize in Poetry, the most important secondary school prize awarded in the United Kingdom.
Days later, Sadie was named one of three winners of The Norman Hidden Prize for youth members of the Poetry Society of the United Kingdom. As part of the award, Sadie was short-listed for consideration for a commission to write a new poem for publication in Tate, Etc., a magazine published by the Tate Galleries in London.