MFA Program - Room and Board

Valerie Due, MFA student, has had her essay "The Skinning Board" selected as the winner of the Writers at Work nonfiction fellowship competition, which includes prize money, publication in Quarterly West, a featured reading at the Writers at Work Conference, full tuition for the conference, free housing, and a manuscript consultation with a visiting writer or agent while at the conference. Abigail Thomas, the judge of the contest, had this to say about Due's piece: "I love the emotional restraint coupled with the ravishing prose of the piece. It serves so perfectly the young narrator whose initiation into the harsh realities of life--and death--on a farm is being presented here."

Peter Campion's essay on poetry and politics is now featured on Poetry Daily. He won a Pushcart Prize for his poem, "Just Now."

Robert Root's The Nonfictionist's Guide: On Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction will be published in paperback edition in August 2008 by Rowman and Littlefield.

Stephen Haven's new book The River Lock: One Boy's Life Along the Mohawk has been published by The University of Syracuse Press.

Angie Estes has had three of her poems translated and published in the recent Russian anthology Contemporary Poetry in the United States: A Bilingual English-Cyrillic Edition. New poems also appear in the Spring 2008 issue of FIELD. Her lyric essay, "Want," was just published in the anthology Every Passing Breath: Contemporary Poets Respond to the Psalms.

Amy Campbell, Incoming MFA student, was a finalist for the Hunger Mountain Creative Nonfiction Prize for her piece, "A World Away."

Timothy West, Incoming MFA student, has had his poem "To My Daughter on a Workday" selected to be featured on an RTA bus card in Cleveland, Ohio for the annual Moving Minds: The Verse and Vision Project.

2008 Summer Residency Room and Board

Meals:

Ashland University features award-winning dining services. A continental breakfast will be served each morning for students staying on-campus. An all-you-can-eat lunch is provided in the University Dining Room, lower convocation center each day. Dinner is catered each evening and served on the 9th floor of Amstutz Hall the first week and in the Ridenour Room in the Dauch College of Business Building the second week. A vegetarian option will be provided at each meal.

Communal meals during the summer residency are an important step toward community-building. All faculty and visiting writers take part in both lunch and dinner throughout the two weeks. Students are highly encouraged, but not required, to dine with the program. Students who opt-out of meals have the option of eating lunch with the program on a pay-as-you-go basis. Restaurants, grocery stores, and coffee shops are within walking distance of the University, and the Eagle's Nest, a snack bar with dining and coffee selections in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center, is open all day.

Lunch Only: $10.30 a meal (pay at the register upon entering)

Total Board Cost for the 14-Day Residency: $360

Housing:

Students in the MFA Program will be housed in Andrews Hall, a recently renovated and air-conditioned dorm, for the 2008 residency. Andrews Hall features a full kitchen, a large lounge area with two flat-screen TVs and leather sofas, coin-operated laundry facilities, and vending machines. Each student will receive two sheets, two towels, and two washcloths with a linen exchange mid-residency for fresh linens.

Items Not Provided:

Pillow
Blanket
Bath Products

Room Rates:

$29/night for double occupancy rooms

$58/night for single

*A limited number of singles are available.

Additional Linen Fee for week: $10

Total Room Cost for 14-Day Rresidency:

Double occupancy: $387

Single occupancy: $764

Total Room and Board Cost, 2008:

Double Room: $747

Single Room: $1,124

Residency Checklist

Here are a few general items you may want to pack for the summer residency.

Alarm clock
Pillow
Pillowcase
Personal Toiletries & Shower Items (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush)
Bathrobe
Slippers or sandals for shower
Blanket
Umbrella
Backpack
Paper & Pens
Flash drive or other portable storage device
Laptop
Printer (printers are available in labs as well)
Hangers
Cups/mugs and/or plates for kitchen if desired
Medicines
Water bottle
Quarters for laundry
Laundry detergent
Cell phone charger (I have forgotten this more times than I can count)
Walking shoes