Mailbag (Jul. 26)

Throw out your new questions and comments, in the heat of this brutal summer...

Barthelme ‘not retained’ at U of Southern Mississippi MFA Program

This is some news I picked up from Brevity's nonfiction blog.

Ordinarily it should be a time to pop the cork on the champagne. After 33 years of building up a creative writing program from relative obscurity to one ranked in the top 10 percent in the country, award-winning novelist Frederick Barthelme is leaving the University of Southern Mississippi. But for Barthelme, who has been published in magazines ranging from the New Yorker to Esquire and has authored 16 books, the situation has an ashes-in-the-mouth taste.

He says he’s not leaving voluntarily his position as director for the Center for Writers, a five-faculty member program within the College of Arts and Letters’ English Department.

Instead, Barthelme who says his intention was to stay at Southern Miss at least another three years, feels that that his hand was forced by a College of Arts and Letters administration that is not acting in the best interest of the Center for Writers.

Link to the Brevity post here.

Budget cuts, huh? Anyone know of faculty being axed elsewhere for the same reason?

Trinity College Professor talks about Creative Writing program in Dublin, Ireland

This little article (an interview) has been making the rounds. Gerald Dawe speaks about the creative writing masters program at Trinity College. He also discusses Dublin, Ireland's creative scene and the city's literary significance.