On this 17th Day of January, in the Year of Our Lord 2007, it seemed good to me to begin a blog in this perhaps somewhat pompous and self-important manner. Actually, the decision to start a blog was made at the persistent prompting of a good friend, Rudy Carrasco, who thinks of me as being much more tech-savvy than I am. Thank goodness for GeoCities.
I am at a mile marker in life, having recently turned 40 -- and having also recently been accepted into a Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at a fine Christian institution -- Seattle Pacific University -- the faculty of which promise to do their best to pull my fiction out of me along with some poetry, perhaps. Many friends consider my contribution to the literary landscape long overdue, and it is the hope of several of them that I parlay this degree program into some long-deferred attempts at publishing something "artistic." I will try, though I am far from certain that there is anything in me of such worth that I should pester posterity with it. We shall see, perhaps.
Anyway, I hope to use this blog to share with those that care those things that I will be studying, those projects on which I will be working, and those events and reflections that I think are worth sharing over the next several months, not only as an MFA candidate and writer, but also as an aspiring teacher working on added endorsements to her licensure and on honing her abilities as a patient and effective instructor, and also as a Christian member of and servant to the church, to my community, and to my various spheres of influence.
My goodness, that was a long sentence! I hope the folks at the SPU MFA program can help me curb such bad habits. - Jenni
PS: ABOUT MY STUDIES, FYI and so you can know some of the reasons why I'm so particularly " standin' in the need of prayer" this semester, this is what I'm studying starting in the Spring of 2007.
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI, aka "Ole Miss" ...
1. EDCI (Curriculum & Instruction) 631: "Testing & Assessment in Second Language Acquisition"
2. EDCI 647: "Cultural Dimensions of Second Language Acquisition"
AND AT SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY, aka SPU ...
3. MFA 6210: Workshop I
for which I am assigned these common reading texts: Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" and "The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins" (Oxford edition), with annotations due on each.
4. MFA 6100 ( during the March 15-25 residency): "Art & Faith"
PLEASE NOTE for prayer purposes that I will be traveling to Seattle, Washington, in March for my first residency and to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in July/August for my second at the Glen Workshop. Also, please note that I will be working on a number of grant and fellowship applications and writing awards submissions in efforts to fund my graduate studies. And I may also be putting together a poetry submission in order to apply formally for permission to pursue a double emphasis in fiction and poetry in the SPU/MFA program. Any prayers, advice, or words of encouragement are at all times welcome ... as are any other forms of support.
Speaking of which, I think now would be a good time to say a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to my friend of many years and sometime "patroness" through the generous gift of frequent flyer miles, the very wonderful Ms. Tracey Ellen Owens (Harvard '91), of Arkansas. I have not deserved such friendship. -- Jp
