Excellent! Vermont College of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA. Can't wait!

Come Celebrate Our Wondrous Writing in the City by the Bay
Vermont College of Fine Arts Alumni Retreat in San Francisco, CA

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!

Saturday, April 24, 2010
Fort Mason Center
Building C, 3rd Floor, Room 370
9am – 5pm

Led by VCFA Faculty:
Julie Larios
David Gifaldi

Guest appearance by:
VCFA Chair Margaret Bechard

Join us as we reunite with fellow VCFA alumni and faculty members to discuss, explore, and re-ignite our passion for writing. With a tight and unpredictable children’s book marketplace, we alums must keep focused, keep our skills in shape, and most of all, keep writing. Let’s celebrate our sales and plow through our rejections. Unlike Montpelier, no snow boots needed… just a sweater or two in case the fog rolls in! Here’s what we’ll cover:

Julie Larios:
MAPS AND MEANDERING: ON THE USEFULNESS OF EACH

Lately, my fascination with maps has bumped up against my desire to lollygag and wander aimlessly. For a writer, are the two pleasures contradictory or complementary, and can they be applied in a practical way to that phenomena known dreamily as The Writer's Life? Let's have a conversation about two things: first, how the mindset of a flaneur helps us store up a treasure trove of converging images; second, how the practicality of mapmaking brings us back down to earth and insists we think about the true north, south, east and west of our stories.

David Gilfadi:
REJECTION IS SUBJECTIVE! PRIME THE PUMP AND MOVE ON

Your "baby" has been born. You did everything you could to make it a healthy delivery. You send it out. It comes back. And you're thrown into the writer's postpartum blues. It hurts…and it can keep you from doing what needs to be done. Let's talk about how to move on, how to rekindle passion for that next project. We'll do some "stop the bleeding" exercises and rediscover why we write in the first place.


Panel & Group Discussion with Julie, David and Margaret
Topic: TBA


Cost: $150
9am – 5pm Includes box lunch
Limited to 35 participants.

Fort Mason Center is located along the northern waterfront between Aquatic Park and the Golden Gate Bridge in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Parking $10; also accessible by public transportation

Optional Get-together:
Friday evening, April 23
No host cocktail social
Details & costs to be announced soon.

David Gifaldi is a Portland author and teacher. His books have been honored by American Booksellers' Pick of the Lists, ALA Books Recommended for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, the Mark Twain Award Master List, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Master List, and the Junior Library Guild. His latest middle grade novel, Listening for Crickets (2008), has been named a 2009 Notable Book for a Global Society and is on the Kansas State children's reading list for 2009.

Julie Larios is the author of four books for children: On the Stairs (1995), Have You Ever Done That? (named one of Smithsonian Magazine’s Outstanding Children’s Books 2001), Yellow Elephant (a Book Sense Pick and Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book, 2006) and Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures (shortlisted for the Cybil Award in Poetry, 2008). Recently, she was granted a fellowship by the Washington State Arts Commission/Artist Trust and had a poem sequence put to music and performed by the Five Words in a Line group in New York City.

MY RECENT TRIP BACK TO
THE ANGEL ISLAND IMMIGRATION STATION
Part 2 of 2


Yesterday, I wrote about the surrounding areas outside the main barracks at the Angel Island Immigration Station. Today, we go inside the barracks, to the 1st floor.

The 1st floor is the main dormitory where the men and boys stayed. Most of the women and small children stayed on the 2nd floor. With the renovations, the 1st floor room is clean and clear, with many signs and photos re-telling the history. There are comfortable benches to sit on, so I planted myself down, and took in the room’s energy. I thought about all those men and boys who slept here, played cards, read newspapers, and worried about their fates. Between these metal poles, imagine triple bunk beds crowding the space:







There is a saying, “if walls could talk…” Well, these walls do talk. With much improved lighting, the main attraction here is the poetry on the wall. Detainees had carved poems into the walls which reflected their anger, homesickness, and disappointment in coming to America and being held captive here.






I have a scene in PAPER SON where Moon finds his friend, Old Man Fong carving poetry into the wall. When he realizes what Old Man Fong is doing and why, Moon then decides to carve something into the wall, something extremely dear to him. Something he misses. But I won’t spoil it; you'll have to read my book to find out what!

I learned that some detainees carved pictures, such as horses and trees. You may not be able to see it clearly in this video clip, but this is a horse!



I was disappointed that I couldn’t get into a tour which would take me upstairs to the women's and non-Chinese men's quarters, complete with new historical displays. The school groups had filled up the slots for the day. (Not a bad thing at all!) Oh, well... I'll have to return!

But this visit proved to be very enlightening. There was a self guided tour of the poems on the 1st floor. So, I walked around the room with the little laminated guide in hand, and read about one poem carved on the south wall. It was not an original poem by a detainee, but one written by Li Bo (701-762) from the Tang Dynasty called “Quiet Night Thoughts.”


Before my bed, the bright moonlight
I mistake it for frost on the ground
Raising my head, I stare at the bright moon
Lowering my head, I think of home


Instantly, I knew this poem could make it into my novel in a very significant way. There's a song which Moon’s mother sings to him, a song that I created. And that song takes on different roles during the course of the novel. What if she sang this poem to him? I had thought of looking for a Chinese poem or song to replace the song I currently have in the novel. And this poem may be the one.

I'm liking it the more I think about it.

It’s something I’ll discuss with an editor, when I connect with and find an editor for my novel!

Stay tuned.

The Residency

The Vermont College of Fine Arts residency has been on my mind in the last few days. The new residency just started, and it’s the one year anniversary of my graduating residency. I'm amazed that one year ago, I was caught up in the energetic activities of my last residency… packing for snow, preparing gifts for the faculty, and double checking things for my lecture, reading and graduation ceremonies. Plus, my husband and daughter would make the trip across country, during winter no less, to see me graduate.

At first, I wasn’t going to bother my family with attending my graduation, simply because of the travel. It’s not easy to get to Montpelier. No direct flights. Uncertain weather and delays with a six year old… probably not on the favorite list of things to do, especially for my husband.

That feeling changed.

I knew and decided that I wanted my family to see and meet all the people and places of Vermont College and Montpelier. The community had become an important part of my life. I wanted them to see it all, and experience why I traveled so far every six months. I knew I wanted my daughter to see me graduate and to see that I was doing something that I loved. Time will tell how it all affected and continues to affect her.

My short term memory is terrible, but I remember that residency and the busyness leading up to it with fondness and clarity.

That’s what VCFA does to you. It changes you in countless, unexpected, and glorious ways.

I am putting the finishing touches on my manuscript, PAPER SON. It’s very exciting. When I started Vermont College in January 2006, I thought I was a picture book writer. I may still be, and hope to be, but writing middle grade novels is a newfound passion and joy. Joy, of course, when the writing is going well. A big pain and lots of squawking, when the writing is not going well. Sounds about right. Luckily, I have a wonderful, engaging, and brilliant community of writers to help me through it all.

I am graduating from Vermont College of Fine Arts in January 2008. My class name is called The Dedications. We Deds are extremely dedicated, in case you couldn't tell. Dedicated to VCFA, to our friendships that we've made, and especially, to our craft. I will miss my time with the MFA in Creative Writing for Children & Young Adults program. Will miss the trips to Vermont. Won’t miss the dorms or packet deadlines. Will miss the people, always the people. But with the Internet, I will not be far from contact. Let's see where my writing takes me.

Let the journey begin!