Schedule

Orientation: June 10-15, 2008
Newly admitted MFA students in Writing and Poetics are required to attend. Newly admitted low-residency MFA students in Creative Writing are welcome to attend, but will be provided with an online orientation module if they cannot attend the on-campus orientation.

Noncredit, non-degree-seeking credit students and undergraduate students should not to attend orientation; the first event for those students is Convocation on Sunday, June 15.

All faculty liaisons are required to attend a mandatory training session, exact date TBA.

SWP Weekly Events
The following events are detailed on the Master Schedule, which becomes available during the first week of the SWP.

Convocation: Sunday, June 15, 2008 5 p.m.
A formal welcome for all 2008 Summer Writing Program students. Meet faculty and your fellow writers and learn important information on your responsibilities as a SWP student.

Workshops and Print Shop Classes
Workshops and print shop classes run on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (9 a.m.–12:30 p.m. for print shop classes). Most workshops have ten to fifteen students. We always suggest that you read the creative and critical work of the faculty members with whom you are most interested in studying, in order to make informed decisions about which workshop would suit you best. While you take one workshop per week, the workshop is only a small part of that week’s activities.

SWP Community Events: Lectures, Panels, Meditation and More
In addition to workshops, the entire SWP community meets for the following highlighted classes and events, all of which will be further detailed on the SWP master schedule, available once the program begins. SWP community events are not open to the public. There is no need for registered students to register for these events individually. BA and MFA credit students must sign an attendance sheet at many of these events. For more information, please contact the SWP office at 303-245-4600.

Meditation Instruction at Naropa University
Since its inception in 1974, Naropa University has offered instruction in basic sitting meditation to any student, staff or faculty member who requests it. Persons who come for all or part of the SWP may want to begin meditating or rejuvenate their practice.

Morning Meditation

Phil Karl
Phil Karl is a Lama in the Karma Kagyu tradition, having completed the traditional Tibetan Buddhist three-year meditation retreat at Sopa Choling Retreat Center, Gampo Abbey, in Nova Scotia in 2003. He has been a student of Chogyam Trungpa since 1977. Phil has taught many university and public courses in Buddhism, guided meditation intensives for twenty-five years, and is an ordained Buddhist Minister. He has instructed at the Shambhala International Seminary, and is Core Faculty Member and Education Director of the Ngedon School’s online dharma study program. Phil’s graduate study was completed at the Naropa University in Buddhist and Western Psychology in 1979, and he is presently an Adjunct Faculty member at the University. He has worked for many years as a consulting corporate trainer and coach.

Afternoon Program
The following classes and events are open to all SWP students registered for the week. Most of these events are part of the Afternoon Program. There is no need to register for them individually, and attendance will be taken for undergraduate and graduate credit students. For more information, please contact the SWP office at 303-245-4600. Afternoon Program events are not open to the public, and access requires a student passcard.

Monday through Friday Afternoons
Lectures, Talks, and Presentations with Core and Guest Faculty
At least four lectures, talks, or presentations are held each week as part of the Afternoon Program. All titles of lectures are listed in the Master Schedule. Faculty members reserve the last 15 minutes of their allotted time to take questions from the audience.

Monday Afternoon
Opening Panel with Core and Guest Faculty
An opening panel is held on Monday afternoon of each week. Four to six faculty members are asked to participate and to generate discussion on the weekly theme. The last part of each panel is reserved for student questions and dialogue. Each panel is moderated by a core or visiting faculty member.

Monday Noncredit Orientation Meeting
This meeting is for noncredit students who are here for the week. SWP staff will review the schedule and answer questions.

Monday MFA Class
A graduate-credit class for poetry, prose, creative writing, and translation concentration students is held in four sections, each led by SWP faculty members—Akilah Oliver, Elizabeth Robinson, Laird Hunt and Selah Saterstrom. The class meets each week on Monday, 3:30 to 6 p.m., and is required for all master’s level students. This is a writing and discussion workshop centered on the concepts of prose, poetry and cross-genre writing. There will be weekly reading and writing assignments (a sourcebook of these assignments will be available in the SWP office by May 1). Students are required to attend the same section throughout the duration of the SWP. All students are welcome to attend the opening lecture from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., but the discussion groups that follow (4:30 to 6 p.m.) are open only to graduate students.

Tuesday Afternoon
Panel with Core and Guest Faculty
A panel is held on Tuesday afternoon each week. Four to six faculty members are asked to participate and to generate discussion on topics related to prose fiction, narrative text, and other writing-related topics. The exact topics are listed in the Master Schedule. The last part of each panel is reserved for student questions and dialogue. Each panel is moderated by a core or visiting faculty member.

Tuesday Low-Residency MFA Student Meeting
This weekly meeting is required for all MFA low-residency students. Faculty and SWP administrators will check in with low-residency MFA folks, answer questions, give event and schedule updates, and engage in conversation about the content and structure of the SWP.

Tuesday and Thursday Afternoon
Prose and Poetry Chats
These are casual events that serve as opportunities for our students to chat with one of our faculty members, usually about writing techniques and practices, in an informal group atmosphere.

Wednesday Morning
BA Discussion Class with Lisa Birman and MFA Student Instructors
In addition to their weekly workshops, undergraduate credit students also meet once per week on Wednesday mornings in small reading/writing/discussion groups. This is required for all undergraduate students taking the program for credit. Students hand in weekly writing assignments and a final manuscript. These discussion groups are open only to undergraduate credit students.

Wednesday Afternoon
Weekly Meditation and Contemplation

Reed Bye Meditation and InterActivism

Borrowing from Joanna Macy’s vision of spiritual work and social activism, Reed Bye will lead a weekly meditation and contemplation session. In her essay, “Taking Heart: Spiritual Exercises for Social Activism,” Macy writes, “To heal our society, our psyches must heal as well. The military, social, and environmental dangers that threaten us do not come from sources outside the human heart; they are reflections of it, mirroring the fears, greeds, and hostilities that separate us from ourselves and each other. For our sanity and our survival, therefore, it appears necessary to engage in spiritual as well as social change, to merge the inner with the outer paths.” Each Wednesday afternoon, we will practice meditation, contemplation, and spontaneous composition in order to feel moments of our basic human experience and interdependence first-hand.

Reed Bye’s most recent book is Join the Planets: New and Selected Poems (United Artists Books). Other published works include Passing Freaks and Graces, Gaspar Still in His Cage, and Some Magic at the Dump. A CD of original songs, Long Way Around, was released in 2005 by Farfalla/McMillan and Parrish. His work has appeared in anthologies including Nice to See You: Homage to Ted Berrigan, The Angel Hair Anthology, Sleeping on the Wing, and Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action. He teaches poetry writing workshops, courses in classic and contemporary literary studies, and contemplative poetics at Naropa University.

Check the following links for more information: 1 2 3 4

Wednesday Student/Faculty Conferences
Student/Faculty Conferences are held from 4 to 6 p.m. each Wednesday. This is an opportunity for students to meet with faculty one-on-one to discuss the student’s own work. Each Conference is about 25 minutes long. Students who sign up for Conferences will be asked to submit a few pages of their work to the faculty member’s mailbox in the SWP office on the Monday before the Conference, so that the faculty member has a chance to review it. Locations for Conferences are posted outside the SWP office each week on Wednesday morning. Conferences are required for all graduate credit students and are open to other students on a space-available basis. Undergraduate and non-credit students should see the SWP Finance and Registration Manager when they arrive on campus to sign up for any available Conferences.

Thursday Afternoon
Anne Waldman Socratic Rap
“Rogue State”—open format presentation and discussion with nuggets from the Naropa Audio Archive, special guests, feminism and planet news.

Friday Afternoon
Closing Colloquium with All Weekly Core and Visiting Faculty
A wrap-up Colloquium is held each Friday afternoon. All faculty members who taught classes during the week comment on some relevant aspect of their workshop. After the initial statements, questions and comments from the audience are addressed.

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