Liz Ahl, Poetry Instructor
Hail, hail from the great plains of Nebraska where ther's not only hail--there are also thunder-snowstorms (with lightning!), dust storms (with dust from as far away as Oklahoma!), inhumane wild chills, and the occasional twister. Aside from admiring the variety and sudden changes of the weather, I'm working on my PhD in English at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where I teach writing. I got my MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh, my BFA from Emerson College, and my haircut from that cheap red place. I'm currently shopping around my manuscript, called "Hesitation", and a chapbook of poems called "Beginning Ballroom Dance"; individual poems have recently found homes in "The Southern Poetry Review," "Hawaii Pacific Review," "Slipstream," and "Pudding Magazine." Stuff I'd like to talk to you about: guns, guitars, photography, ballroom dance, tarot cards, music in genersl, performing poetry, and sonnets. No matter how far away I move, I keep circling back to the Workshop, where I was first a student in 1983. Being a military brat, I've had to invent places to call home--this is one of them. I found poetry here (or it found me) that first summer, and somehow I keep finding it again each time I come back.
Melissa Barry, Counselor
Though my first love is bread, (I do believe I'm the only staff member who arrived with a bread maker) my second is Charlottesville. After five years of attending UVA, thanks to the Curry School of Education's masters in teaching program, I've decided not to leave my beloved C-ville and have taken a job in nearby Louisa Co. teaching eighth grade English. My only other claim to fame is that I'm O-Hill's biggest fan--don't believe all the rumors that the food is bad--experience its beauty with me.
Casey Boland, Assistant Counselor
I get wet when I'm in the rain, but I hate that uncertainty before I jump into the running water of the shower. I feel naked without earrings, and I hate to say the wrong thing. When I grow up, I want to own a cross country ski lodge with my dad's amazing homemade pizza, but I'm not sure that it snows in Ireland. In kindergarten, I made my teachers call me "Faulls"; I liked perfect crayon rainbows, three-sided forts, and a boy named Neil. If I had a nickname I would want it to be "Sister Golden Hair Surprise."
Devon Brown, Counselor
I loved the workshop so much that I decided to come back and stay for good. A former alum, I now attend Northwestern University in Chicago with the hopes of turning my Nobel Prize for Modern Dance into a senior thesis or at least an elective for the Workshop. Ask me about Diane Ackerman or Joy Harjo. I do their laundry for free and can attest to their impact on the contemporary writing scene.
Jennifer Buxton, Alumna Writer-in-Residence
This summer, I've been teaching people how to write biographical statements, so you'd think I'd know what to do here. I tell all my students to write about something they love. Write about science, I say, since they all claim to love science. Write about atoms. "I really love science," they write back. "I really love atoms." I come from Gaithersburg, Maryland. The Young Writers Workshop changed my life. I literally would not be here if it weren't for Young Writers. I went to UVA, both for college and my MFA, because of Young Writers, and I met one of my lifelong friends here, Liegh Palmer. I hope to meet all of you -- I am completely psyched about being part of the Workshop!
Susan Chamandy, Fiction Instructor
I was born in Montreal and lived there until I was nine years old. Someday I want to write what it was like to be a child there in the early seventies when the French Separatists where taking a more violent approach. the F.L.Q. was committing acts of terrorism, and I remember government soldiers with rifles slung across their chests standing on street corners in downtown Montreal. I remember tanks rumbling down the quiet streets of Town of Mount Royal. Oh, I'm getting carried away. I'll have to do the writing another time. I moved to Connecticut with family and lived there until I moved to Boston to attend college. I came to Charlottesville to attend the graduate program at UVA and received my MFA in 1994. I taught in the Young Writers Workshop last summer and feel lucky to be able to do it again this year. Again and again last summer I was bowled over by the quality of writing the workshops here. I look forward to meeting you all.
Patrick Cribben, Playwriting Instructor
I started writing in Math class. Instead of listening to Miss Fariah explain integers in the sixth grade, I wrote long, satirical poems about Watergate. I think one was called "Twisting, Twirling Rosemary Woods." It wasn't until college that I got broadsided by theatre--Samuel Beckett's Endgame. Wow. Now that was poetry and satire to a higher power. Some people think of writers as people who require loneliness and isolation. My experience suggests the opposite-- that writers need abundant friendship especially friends who know what it means to face a blank page and find a way to say something beautiful, or funny, or important, or indispensable, or even all of these. That may be the greatest gift of this whole enterprise for all of us--students, counselors, and teachers. Be that as it may, I suppose I should have given Miss Fariah my undivided attention.
Bryan Doerries, Assistant Counselor
Besides working in a beer warehouse and reading Homeric epics, I spent the past few weeks playing with my old manual-typewriter banging out a few poems. I consider myself a restauranteur of sorts. "I've wined, dined, sipped, and sucked," bacon, eggs, coffee, and donuts in almost every hole in the wall diner throughout the region. Kenyon College, a small literary hill at the geographical center of Ohio, is where I reside most of the year to study classical languages. My home town, Newport News, VA, is best known for being the original home of William Styron, Ella Fitzgerald, and the largest private shipyard in the world.
Cassi Feldman, Counselor
Born in New York City, I started writing stories at age 7 and it quickly became a habit. Other addictions include sushi, teen movies and excessive day dreaming. I just graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in Psychology and Sociology so I'm really well-prepared for... unemployment. Career suggestions are welcome.
Margo Andrea Figgins, Director
My parents picked my name from the local newspaper, the Des Moines Register. (Yes, me roots are in the soil where Jane Smiley sets her best-selling novels). Maybe it's because my roots are in America's farmland that I want everyone to eat vegetables and leave the animals to die on their own terms--the same terms I want for myself. I want everyone to read the last page of Tom Robbin's Jitterbug Perfume and understand why it's important to emulate the beet. I want everyone to live for a year in another country-- preferably a third world county--before they make all of their decisions about what they're going to do with their lives. If you can't do that, the next best thing would be to read Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place, Sandra Cisnero's A House on Mango Street, Paul Marshall's A Timeless Place, A Chosen People, and Ana Castillo's So Far from God. . . for starters. Run from the American Dream and look at it from another set of eyes. Learn from the heart, and don't mistake romance for love. On the other hand, life does equal a picnic. . . on a precipice (W. H. Auden), so keep you balance. And write it all down. . . all of it. Even if you never make sense of it, someone else will. I'm putting my pieces together under the title Meditations on a Matchbook Cover; my story doesn't need a thousand acres, at least not yet. Probably a good thing. I've got all I can handle now, and not enough time to farm.
Mary O. Harrison, Counselor
Who am I, really? Summative answer: Person, poet, teacher, traveller, and fan of Ben Folds Five. Existential answer: Sometimes I am not myself. What is the self but an illusion, after all? Only through "the other" within us may we enter the Experience of Others. Obtuse anser: Tupperware bonanza. Argumentive answer: Shouldn't you be asking who YOU are instead of asking who I am? Poetic answer: My mother's eyes, my father's hands, bones pressed into a music box key, songs falling into my ears again.
Greg Howard, Songwriting Instructor
If I could only just play music all day. . . or frisbee. . . or hang out in a coffee house. I couldn't stand it. There's something about the search for balance, the closer you get the more conscious you become of distance. I can spend days totally unaware of the time squandered on the wrong puzzles, but as soon as I start on the right ones I'm feeling the pull. If I could only listen to John Coltrane or Arvo Part or the Beatles all day. I am aware of nothing more "I" than the need to practice. As a procrastinator, this can lead to great anxiety. Sometimes I drive all day. Once I drove from Mobile, Alabama to Charlottesville in one day, and the closer I got to home the more I felt the pull. The first real mountain is the best.
Ann Hudson, Head Counselor
"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes" (H.D. Thoreau). Perhaps that's the one of the best things about the Workshop--it requires no new clothes. i've come this summer with a car full of old t-shirts and hand-me-downs, books, candles, tapes that have half-melted on the long drives from Atlanta, where I teach middle school, to Charlottesville, my home town. I miss the mountains here more than I've ever imagined, the blue drift in the distance I watch for the crest of a hill. Let's talk about the places you've lived, nightmares, birdsongs I can never remember, Shakespeare's humor, fifteen things you can make with dryer lint and broken dishes, and favorite words. Knock on my door. Wear what's comfortable.
Dan Jewusiak, Counselor
When I was first brought home as a baby, my mother and father faced two mischievious and energetic children, my older brother and sister. They likened bringing me home to sending Daniel into the Lions Den, and thats the name that stuck. Needless to say, I survived the experience, laughed often, banged my head a few times (both intentionally and by accident), and ultimately grew to embrace the adventure. I value straighforwardness, frequent trips to the edge, and finding the simplicity in everything. Now, I am 22 years old and make it a point to revisit the Lion's Den as much as possible, in spite of the fact that the animals are not yet tamed (in spite of my efforts). To each and every one here, both new and old, willing to learn and unlearn, welcome to the den.
Mark Lancaster, Assistant Head Counselor
I was born at an early age, somewhat rebellious I suppose, because my mother kicked me out of my first home. But soon forgiven, she and my father accepted me as their third son in Tucson under one August sun. Growing up (...and up and up and up...) in the dry desert climate gave me quite a thirst for adventure but adolescence merely wet my appetite, so I soon decided to test the waters of adulthood. The current carried me to Charlottesville and the inspirational spring of the YWW, and its purity has been quenching my palate ever since. I hope to share in that drink with all of you.
Amy Lemley, Magazine Journalism Instructor
Amy is a writer and editor who has worked in every facet of publishing. Co-author of several books, Amy is also a columnist for the Charlottesville Observer newspaper, where she writes profiles of "people who don't mind being interviewed on short notice." She collects art and antiques, enjoys Italian cars, and really likes to goof off when she isn't on deadline -- and even when she is. An animal psychic told her that her dog's job in life is to get her to lighten up, so she's trying.
Michelle Mandolia, Counselor
"Non-human animals have life cycles. Humans have biographies" (Graham Richards). I was born in Long Beach, California but have spent all but those first three months in Reston, Virginia. I'm going into my 3rd year here at UVA, studying Economics and Archaeology (You win prizes if you don't call me an architect). I applaud - zydeco music, Paul Simon, Charles Simic, the Neandertal Enigma, and my little sister M.C. Ask me about planned communities.
Kenny Marotta, Fiction Instructor
I'm old enough toimpress people with the news that my first mechanical reproduction ofmy literary works was on a manual typewriter -- one of those tall black ones you see in newspaper rooms in 30's movies. This work was a very short novel about a cowardly soldier who, fleeing the trenches of WWI, somehow ended up in Africa (the Africans all wore grass skirts). I think I was eleven. When I was ten, on a thick cream-colored 4"x 6" pad, I had handwrite another tragic novel about the fates of several vegetables (perhaps influenced by Mr. Potato Head). I never quite explained how they got around, but these carrots, turnips, etc. were always slipping out of the garden for adventures or escaping the cook's knife. I now have a computer, and I'm currently working on a novel about a cowardly butternut squash who served, or was served, in the Napoleonic Wars.
Brendan Menuey, Counselor
Meet Brendan Menuey! I'm in my 2nd year here at the Workshop, and my 4th year here at UVA, where I study Education. My hobbies include drinking birch beer, reading anything written by Pat Conroy, watching rainstorms, listening to Barry Manilow, and waiting for Mrs. Roper to once again make it big. You'll know me by my spastic diaphragm and my need for a caffeine fix. As I always say, "Throw pillows are better than no pillows."
Cara Ellen Modisett, Assistant Head Counselor
I just finished my B.A. in English education at JMU and plan to return for yet another relaxing year to finish up a music degree. Despite size limitations (I'm 4'11 and three-fourths" and have a younger sister who likes to pick me up and carry me around), I can play Tchaikovsky really loudly on the piano. I also write poetry, edit Fugue, an art journal I started at JMU, haunt bookstores, and inhale Dr. Pepper. You can read my works of literary brilliance in Alastor and Virginia Writing. This is my first year at YWW.
Mona Moulton, Counselor
The Workshop draws me in with the prospect of re-charging my writer's batteries and further exploring what it means to teach. This fall I will begin student teaching as I enter the final stretch of UVA's 5 year BA/ MT program in English Education. Thus, I will be seizing upon as many Workshop ideas and experiences as possible. So...if you see me madly scribbling in my notebook, you'll know I am trying to capture the insight and creativity that abounds in such a group of happy, sweaty staff and students! Oh...you can also catch me twirling about my room from time to time. The rather ample space in the dorm rooms allows me to indulge in my love for dancing.
Janet Mylott, Counselor
I live by the philosophy "no pain, no pain." Therefore, I live low impact style. You'll rarely ever see me at a full scale horror movie, and the combination of the words "strenuous," and "exercise," terrifies me. Things going by at a slow pace are just as interesting as things zooming by. Other than that I'm wild. I'm crazy. I was a Theatre/English major at William and Mary. I love brief encounters with unseen lands, and I am on a constant quest for great characters. Right now, Mary Queen of Scots reigns supreme.
Doug Nordfors, Poetry Instructor
I was born and raised in Seattle, long (but not too long) before Grunge and whatever other cool things are going on there. My mom is an excellent poet. Her readings were a regular favorite feature of my childhood. When she read poems about us, my brother and I were embarrassed but, in the end, flattered. I moved to New York City when I was 17 to go to Columbia. I began writing seriously when I was a sophomore and haven't stopped. I've taught on and off for 13 years. I don't even want to think about all the other jobs I've had. I've lived in Portland, Oregon, and Massachusetts, among other places. My humble advice to all of you is love reading, and everything else will follow.
(Elizabeth) Leigh Palmer, Alumna Writer-in-Residence
In the mountains of southwestern Virginia (between Robert's cove and the Devil's Island) I lived entirely on what leaves of Marlowe and Keats I could scavenge. Then I came to YWW, roomed with Poppy Z. Brite, and I haven't left Charlottesville for very long since. Oh, maybe a couple years in Carolina studying poetic meter or northern Virginia teaching the school of night. And I spend a part of every day in 17th century England. But I'm relishing C'ville, except when people tell me how hard it is to find housing in Palo Alto, next stop on the mystery train route.
Kathleen Phalen, Magazine Journalism Instructor
For me, life has been a strange journey of loss and joy and riches beyond my wildest dreams. When I was five and 15 and 25 and 35, I sat in cool, lush grasses and breathed in the sun and stars and the heady scent of earth still damp from morning's mist. I worried that someday I would stop. But I haven't. My garden continues to grow and wildflowers blossom with unbridled abandon. As a journalist and author, I discovered that there is a story in every person if you just take the time to listen and ask and listen again. It's quite a responsiblity, being a journalist. I believe that following the pack is dangerous. With a single story you can change a life, alters a decision and make a difference. Set your own road. Ask your own questions. Determine your own ethics and challenge the status quo. Dare to go beyond where you have gone before, and in the words of Carlos Castenada, follow the path with heart.
Jamaica Pleasant, Administrative Assistant
I've just finished my first year at PVCC, and I'm back at the Workshop for my third summer. My first was as a student, my second and third as an administrative assistant. With a love for words and ideas, I find the Workshop to be a very nurturing environment in which creativity and individuality are encouraged and appreciated.
Allen Rein, Counselor
After a wild ten months of working at Actors Theatre of Louisville in the capacity of actor and general slave laborer, I return to my glorious, though humid, hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. I recently graduated from the College of William and Mary, where I studied theatre, psychology, and paper mache. When not acting, I enjoy singing, swing dancing, listening to the Indigo Girls, falling accidentally through trap doors, and snacking on Ben and Jerry's White Russian ice cream. Wheee.
Chris Sprouse, Assistant Director
It has been brought to my attention that while there's always great interest in the mini-biographies of the counselors here at Young Writers, no one in fact ever reads the bio of the assistant director. Please disprove the conventional wisdom by walking up to me sometime and asking me about what I remember about being a Young Writer here ten years ago, talk to me about where you're from and what kinds of animals and plants live there, tell me what you're doing in school and ask me what I'm doing. Thanks in advance.
Eric P. Strzepek, Assistant
I am a former five-time participant in the UVa Writer's Workshop. This will be my fifth summer as a teacher/counselor. I have a bachelor degree in Political Science from UC-Santa Barbara. While most of what I have done the past two years is classified, I can tell you the following: I was a research assistant at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where I wrote an editorial that was published in the Columbus Dispatch; I was a candidate for a seat in the Virginia State Senate: I was the campaign manager of the most recent and only Republican candidate for Charlottesville city council. To feed my self, I have delivered pizza of every size, shape and description to people of every size, shape and description. My favorite cheese is razor sharp white cheddar.
Michael Strzepek, Counselor
I am a Theatre /English major at William and Mary, and (yikes!) hope to be an actor someday. I am very excited to be spending my third summer at the Workshop as a member of the staff, and my fifth summer overall (I was a student here in '90 and '91). I just returned from at trip to England, Ireland and Scotland, so ask me about kilts, haggis, and the Mars Bar supper.
Ben Worth, Head Counselor
I left my darling bride in the foothills of Kentucky and travelled 500 miles through the wild and woolly mountains of West Virginia to greet you with warm salutations. When not teaching in Kentucky's Community Colleges, I collect sundries; please let me show you my collection. And for the record, I was graduated from Washington and Lee U. (Classics) and James Madison U. (English with concentration in Creative Writing).
Valley Jane Cecelia Yane Smith, Counselor
No, my parents weren't hippies. Ha Ha, yes they were. Last summer on the way to Graceland I passed through a place called Bucksnort. Graceland was closed so instead I looked at a goat banging his head into a wall under an Irish flag. Also, last summer I spent 74 hours on Greyhound and rode a horse for the first time at a ranch with men named Grizz and Elmer. Three days later I left for Florence, Italy and spent 9 months there studying, eating gelato and taking trains around Europe. I still know not how to read a map. Please help me. I have to get back to Sarah Lawrence College in New York in the fall so that eventually I can graduate and become notorious.
BAKER'S TREASURY OF AMERICAN HUMOR READING CIRCLE with Dan
Things you might not know about this reading circle: it's free, we can laugh at each other and pretend we were reading a passage in the book, laughing burns calories, laughing does not require skill or experience, and laughter has been linked to wealth and success. Come. Laugh often. Create. Sit back. Enjoy.
EMPEROR OF THE AIR- READING CIRCLE with Mark
Be a Nighttime Traveler, share some Star Food with the Emperor of the Air, Lie about American Beauty to the Carnival Dog and the Buyer of Diamonds, or just get to know Where We Are Now in an unforgettable collection of stories by Ethan Canin. You'll be happy you did.
GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN- READING CIRCLE with Valley
If the words ghost, bladder, love, Frank, The Newlywed Game, buckshot, toad, Love Boat war and wizard sound as interesting to you as they do to me we've got a real treat in store with this scintillating book of short stories by Robert Olen Butler. Join this reading circle and we'll have fun, fun, fun.
THIS WAY FOR THE GAS, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN- READING CIRCLE with Janet
In his collection of stories dealing with the Holocaust, Borowski writes, "as I write about the sky, and the me and the women I have seen, I am troubled by one persistent thought- That I have never been able to look also at myself." We will discuss how Borowski attempts to deal with personal guilt and cruelty of surviving, as well as what happens to sense of self in a constantly threatening environment.
THE VOICE OF WOMEN--READING CIRCLE with Casey
We will be reading from Women's Lives with excerpts from the writings of twentieth century female authors. I want to focus on the female voice, what illuminates it, and why does it scream and swirl and laugh. These women speak for themselves in their autobiographies, diaries, and stories, but inevitably they tell the stories of generations of women, both the bold and the silent.
GREEN STAFF with Chris
We'll be hitting the local trails during our staff meetings (weather permitting!) for a series of dusk nature hikes linking natural history and environmental awareness. We're also responsible for organizing the Young Writers recycling program.
LIT MAG STAFF with Mary O
To paraphrase that great artist Barry Manilow, "We are the song in which the Workshop sings." Yes, the Lit Mag staff pulls together the creations of all the students to produce one, whopping, spectacular book for reading, signing, reminiscing, and cherishing in the years to come. Staff members should be responsible, organized, and enthusiastic. We'll produce a stellar lit mag and have fun doing it.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY ART STAFF with Cara
Shock and amaze your friends! There are no laws saying a poem has to be on paper or a performance has to be on a stage. We will be creating experimental art pieces and finding unique and unexpected ways to perform and exhibit them during the weeks you are at YWW. Bring your imagination and an open mind.
NEWSPAPER STAFF with Melissa
A flair for features? A scent for scandal? Be one of the chosen few who cover the gripping issues which arise hear at YWW. You'll talk to all the stars and be on the sweaty pulse of the workshop. As always, the nickname "scoop" is an option (in fact it's encouraged) for all staff members.
PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF with Bryan and Michelle
We are looking for a few good men and women. Friends, we photographers will be the eyes of this institution. Don't think for a moment that you are safe from the wrath of our lenses. We will spend long hours in the dark, eat pizza, and make lots of money. If you have experience and a good eye, or just a savage desire to learn, WE WANT YOU.
STAGE CREW with Michael and Cassi
The Writer's Cafe is a long- standing and well-loved tradition here at the workshop. Come be a part of all the behind-the-scenes (and onstage) action as we plan and execute three exciting evenings. You'll set the tone and atmosphere of these events and get a chance to add some personality and performance. All you need is an open mind and a lot of imagination.
SURPRISE STAFF with Mona and Eric
Look to this clever staff to be the Workshop's soon-to-be-infamous positive conspiracy. You never know when a surprise staff plot will rise up and, well...take you by surprise. Whether it be a retro dance or strange hijinks with various water-filled devices...we are a spontaneous and fun-loving bunch.
VIDEO MAG with Allen
What do Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Penny Marshall, and Ron Howard have in common? You guessed it, they are all former members of the Video Mag team! In this staff we will utilize the beautiful instrument known as the camcorder to cook up some incredible programs for the Workshop viewing audience. Ingredients: creative minds, brilliant senses of aesthetic, and a few VHS tapes. Mix until somewhat lumpy.
WORLD WIDE WEB STAFF with Brendan
Top 10 reasons why to join the WWW staff:
10. THE REAL WWW: the WEB Writer's Wrokshop!
9. The computer lounge has a/c, baby!!
8. Your work seen by millions on the net (maybe even someone important)!
7. How else are we going to display that spiffy banner of ours?
6. There are young writers in Qatar, Moldova, and Lichtenstien, and, by golly, they need to hear about us!
5. Help create the new, improved YWW Web page!
4. 2 words: Margo's Picture.
3. Why not?
2. Chance of electrocution--could be fun.
1. You know you want to!
AUDIO MAG with Ben and Devon
You will hear it. More so, you will make it happen. Audio mag is responsible for putting together at thirty minute radio program that is played over the air on UVA's WTJU. Wow.