Tag: Bay Path University MFA creative nonfiction

scenes from the natick barnes & noble

In early May, I thoroughly enjoyed a lively discussion about Louie on the Rocks at the Natick Barnes & Noble.

My UMass-Amherst roomie and bestie, Gayle Long Carvalho, showed us her English teacher side by asking insightful and probing questions about Louie’s many themes ranging from generational divisions and understanding the mindset of the lead character as a proxy for MAGA voters, to being the adult child of a parent who isn’t acting in his own best interest and what happens when one spouse in a long marriage dies and leaves behind someone who doesn’t know how to pay the bills.

Gayle was, in two words: rock star.

The lovely crowd boasted friends from Southborough, UMass, and even an MFA student of mine from the Bay Path University MFA creative nonfiction program who I met in the flesh for the very first time. Thanks to all who took the time out of your day to chat with us.

an odyssey through politically-fraught family moments: book event in western massachusetts

Reuniting with deeply-admired colleagues is always a joy. Reuniting with colleagues who leave you feeling like a rock star is utterly fabulous.

Such was my feeling after Suzanne Strempek Shea — my former newspaper colleague, writing mentor and fellow MFA creative nonfiction writing instructor — interviewed me for a book talk about my novel, Louie on the Rocks, at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley. Suzanne has an uncanny ability of asking incisive questions that frequently give me pause and make me wonder why I’ve never thought of that particular angle before.

Our back-and-forth, as well as the questions from attendees, focused a great deal on the subjects of my vacillating between different writing genres, and how I rendered on the page an authentic depiction of people who hold different political beliefs than I hold. That’s a question I’m getting a lot. It’s no secret that I’m adamantly opposed to all things MAGA and what’s happening under the Trump administration, but when I was developing the character of Louie Francis, I placed my personal politics inside a box and shoved aside. My charge was to create a fully-developed character and figure out how he thought. Additionally, I wanted to illustrate that, in spite of our currently polarized climate, Louie wasn’t and shouldn’t be perceived as just one thing, as just a MAGA dude. He was a good and supportive husband, a loving son-in-law, a reliable employee, and a respected volunteer in his community. Writing Louie required me to think more fulsomely about the layers and texture of his life, not simply through the lens of his politics.

Afterward during the book signing portion, I had the chance to chat with folks and was thrilled to see my very first friend in my hometown of West Springfield there in attendance — Gina! — as well as two pals from my UMass-Amherst days. And the support from the Bay Path University MFA in Creative Nonfiction community, wow, it made me feel blessed. In addition to Suzanne, there was her husband Tommy Shea (who mentored me when I was a young newspaper reporter), former MFA director Leanna James Blackwell, and Anne Pinkerton, with whom I had classes when I earned my own MFA from Bay Path.

bay path university ‘louie’ book talk

I had a wonderful time speaking via Zoom with Bay Path University’s Kate Whouley and fellow writer/faculty member Anna Mantzaris about recent novels and about writing in general for a Friends of the Hatch Library event.

Included among the attendees were MFA in creative nonfiction students of mine from Bay Path, as well as a dear friend from my Massachusetts hometown, and even a relative from the Philly area.

It was a meaty conversation and no, I didn’t spend most of the time looking like I was casting a Harry Potteresque spell that the still image above might suggest. A review of the video, however, shows me how much I use my hands when I talk.

Here’s the link to the chat.

author suzanne strempek shea lauds ‘louie’

When I sat down to my newly-assigned desk in the middle of the bustling and messy Springfield, Mass. offices of what was then called The Union-News, I was unaware that, diagonally across from me was a fellow reporter with whom I would go on to develop a long-term professional relationship.

Suzanne Strempek Shea, who became an award-winning author and writing instructor, would be the reason why I enrolled in the Bay Path University creative nonfiction MFA program she helped create. She’d also be the reason why I later became an instructor for that same program. She’d eventually blurb nearly every book of mine as I followed in her footsteps of leaving daily reporting and plunging into the worlds of writing and teaching.

I remain grateful for her willingness to carefully read and blurb my work, including this one she wrote for Louie on the Rocks:

A truly cautionary tale for anyone who worries for the welfare of a vulnerable elder, Louie on the Rocks reads like the real life that Meredith O’Brien chronicled so skillfully in her newspaper days. Here she presents both sides of the case for and against alcoholic, widowed retiree Louie Francis’ ability to run his own life, an existence also pocked by a drug-addicted girlfriend half his age who fills his need for companionship and MAGA-wear while emptying his bank account. Narrator Louie’s chapters are interwoven with those bearing the distinct voices and points of view of his gay daughter grieving her mother and trying to do the best for a surviving parent who returns only hatred, and his late wife, who watches from beyond while recounting her life and the parts she played in making both father are daughter who they’ve become, and might yet be. The story is further enriched by the character and characters of the author’s Central Massachusetts, and by her first-hand knowledge of small-town life and all its complexities.

Thank you Suzanne!

talking memoir writing at bay path university

I recently had the pleasure of participating in the Friends of the Hatch Library author series at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Mass. — where I teach in the MFA in creative nonfiction program, a program from which I graduated in 2017.

I discussed my medical memoir, Uncomfortably Numb, read an excerpt that took place in Martha’s Vineyard aloud, as well as fielded myriad questions about writing, research, and inspiration.

Thank you Bay Path for inviting me.

teaching narrative nonfiction with bay path university’s mfa program

A beloved colleague of mine from my western Massachusetts newspaper reporting days — Suzanne Strempek Shea, with whom I used to work at the Springfield, Mass. newspaper — designed a wonderful Narrative Medicine area of study for Bay Path University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program.

It’s a new track in the MFA program (I earned my MFA in creative nonfiction there in 2017) and is also offered as a stand-alone certificate program. Last June, I participated in a Bay Path MFA webinar to discuss my 2020 medical memoir, Uncomfortably Numb, where Suzanne and I talked virtually about the book as well as narrative medicine.

Fast-forward to early February 2021: I was contacted by MFA Program Director Leanna James Blackwell and asked if I could take over the already-in-progress Intro to Narrative Medicine class because Suzanne had to take a temporary leave due to an injury. (This is such a weird confluence of events, an injury preventing her from teaching narrative medicine.) Luckily, I was already familiar with the Canvas learning management system which they utilize — also used by Northeastern University where I teach journalism classes — and had already read one of the main texts.

Now as I plan to have my second evening Zoom class with a group of seven writers, I finally feel as though I’ve got a handle on the class and its rhythm, and cannot wait for the rest of the semester to unfold as we devour Writing Hard Stories by Melanie Brooks, Bodies of Truth edited by Dinty W. Moore, Erin Murphy, et al., and engage with the students’ creative nonfiction work about issues of illness and trauma.

Meanwhile, we’re sending healing vibes to Suzanne!

join me at bay path university’s writers’ day, oct. 15

writers day bpuCome join authors Patricia Reis, Charles Coe, Ellen Meeropol and me for lively conversations about writing about one’s personal life, reading one’s work aloud, and folding current events into your work at Bay Path University’s Writers’ Day on Sunday, Oct. 15 starting at 1 p.m. at the  D’Amour Hall for Business, Communications and Technology.

The first panel is slated to be led by author, visual artist, filmmaker, and therapist Patricia Reis: “Mining the Personal for your Nonfiction.” According to the itinerary: “Topics will include using personal elements and materials in nonfiction rather than fiction, how resources can be gathered, what it’s like to present a relative’s story–and your own–so candidly, and dealing with family reactions while a project is in progress and after it’s published.”

The second panel is scheduled to be anchored by award-winning poet and singer Charles Coe: “Standing Your Ground: Thoughts on Reading in Public.” Coe plans to “describe tools and techniques that can help in preparing and delivering a reading. He’ll also work with a few volunteers willing to read before the group and be coached on their presentations.”

The third and final panel–from 4:10 – 5:25 p.m.– will feature Ellen Meeropol, Joan Dempsey and me for, “Swimming with the Current.” Panelists will “discuss how current events in their hometowns and in the larger world have inspired their engrossing fiction and nonfiction. Incorporating topics including cults, racial diversity, the Boston marathon bombings, human trafficking, and a community in grief, the trio’s work will get you thinking about how to use current events as your own springboard.”

Sign up for the day’s events here.

Image credit: Bay Path University.

 

 

celebrating bay path university’s mfa program, graduation

bpu_mfa_readings_067I was honored to join fellow 2017 graduates of Bay Path University’s creative nonfiction MFA program this spring in the Hatch Library and to read aloud from my thesis, Uncomfortably Numb.

The rapidly growing MFA program, in which I enrolled in the fall of 2014, is staffed by a number of writers and editors with real-world experience who provided support and encouragement to the graduate students, something for which I remain grateful.

Among the faculty members whose guidance had a powerful, personal impact on me and my writing: Anthony D’Aries, Yankee Magazine’s Mel Allen, Susan Ito, and Adam Braver.

bpu_mfa_readings_063.jpgD’Aries, who will become the coordinator of Western Connecticut State University MFA program this fall, introduced me at the MFA event with generous and gracious remarks. (Photo right.) D’Aries offered valuable feedback as I worked on Mr. Clark’s Big Band — published in May 2017 — and workshopped large swaths of the narrative nonfiction work in his classes.

Meanwhile, Braver, my thesis adviser, was instrumental in helping me sculpt and develop my medical memoir into a richer and more reflective work. I am currently developing the memoir.

bpu_mfa_readings_210

After completing the creative nonfiction program, I was more than happy to share my thoughts about it for the Bay Path MFA program’s website, where a number of my classmates also weighed in on their experiences.

Screenshot 2017-07-25 11.44.59 (2)

Image credits: Bay Path University’s MFA in creative nonfiction program.