The Newport MFA presents readings, craft talks with best-selling authors

The Newport MFA presents readings, craft talks with best-selling authors

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Salve Regina's low-residency Newport MFA program immerses students in the creative life through residencies, mentorships, publishing and editing panels, and craft talks. The two-year program guides aspiring writers to the terminal degree in their field through eight-day residencies held in Newport twice a year, where they focus on their preferred genre of fiction, poetry, nonfiction or historical fiction. Students, who also gain insights into the business of publishing and editing, spend the months between residencies writing and reflecting in an individualized mentorship with eminent writers. The program culminates with each student completing a polished manuscript.

As part of the winter residency, best-selling authors and award-winning writers will present guest readings and craft talks during a week-long workshop from Saturday, Jan. 4, through Sunday, Jan. 11.

All events are free and open to the Salve Regina community as well as the general public, and anyone interested is encouraged to attend. For more information or to register, visit The Newport MFA.

Saturday, Jan. 4

Newport MFA Reading with Bill Roorbach
7 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Roorbach has been an NEA fellow, MacDowell fellow, Kaplan Foundation fellow and most recently, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation fellow and resident at their castello in Umbria, Italy. He was a recipient of Ohio Arts Council grants in both nonfiction and literary criticism. His craft book, "Writing Life Stories," has been in print for 25 years. Roorbach was a tenured associate professor at Ohio State University and later held the William H.P. Jenks chair and was professor at the College of the Holy Cross. Short work, both fiction and nonfiction, has appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Granta, Ecotone, New York Magazine, Playboy and dozens more.

Sunday, Jan. 5

Newport MFA Magazine Panel with Tracey Minkin and Mel Allen
4 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Minkin is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared in national and regional magazines as well as digital platforms including Southern Living, Coastal Living, Travel + Leisure, Outside, Food & Wine, Men's Journal, VERANDA and many more. She moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in 2014, where she spent many hours exploring and writing about southern travel and culture. Minkin holds a bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Allen is the editor of Yankee Magazine, only the fifth editor in the publication's nearly 90-year history. In 2018, Allen was inducted into the Folio Hall of Fame for editorial excellence, an honor that speaks to the respect he commands within the magazine industry. Allen's career at Yankee spans more than four decades, and he has written for every department in the magazine. In his pursuit of stories, he has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams and embedded with the Bath Iron Works ship-launching crew in the days before they sent a battleship down the ways. He is particularly drawn to profiles, especially of those who have overcome extraordinary challenges.

Monday, Jan. 6

Newport MFA How to Make an Anthology Panel Discussion
4 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Tracey Minkin, Francesco Sedita, Katie Moulton and Ann Hood will discuss the making of an anthology.

Tuesday, Jan. 7

Newport MFA Reading with Nick Flynn
7 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Flynn, writer, playwright and poet, is the author of 13 books, including "Low" and "Some Ether," winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil award. His bestselling memoir, "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City," was made into a film starring Robert DeNiro and has been translated into 15 languages.

Flynn's poems, essays and nonfiction have appeared in the New Yorker, FENCE and the Paris Review, and on NPR's "This American Life." His film credits include field poet and artistic collaborator for the film "Darwin's Nightmare," which was nominated for an Academy Award for "best feature documentary" in 2006. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress. He is based in Brooklyn, New York, and spends each spring in residence at the University of Houston, where he is a professor in the creative writing program.

Wednesday, Jan. 8

Newport MFA Craft Talk with Nick Flynn
11 a.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Newport MFA Reading with Francesco Sedita
3 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Sedita is the president and publisher of Penguin Workshop.

Newport MFA Publishing Talk with Leslie Sainz
4 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Sainz is the author of "Have You Been Long Enough at Table," winner of the 2024 Audre Lorde Award and a finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award, the New England Book Award and the Vermont Book Award. The daughter of Cuban exiles, her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets' "Poem-a-Day," the Yale Review, Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review and elsewhere. She's received fellowships, scholarships and honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, CantoMundo, the Miami Writers Institute, the Adroit Journal and the Stadler Center for Poetry & Literary Arts at Bucknell University. A former guest host of the award-winning podcast "The Slowdown," she currently works as the managing editor of New England Review.

Newport MFA Reading with Leslie Sainz
7 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Thursday, Jan. 9

Newport MFA Craft Talk with Joanna Rakoff
4 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Rakoff is the author of the international bestselling memoir "My Salinger Year," and the bestselling novel "A Fortunate Age," winner of the Goldberg Prize for Fiction and the Elle Readers' Prize. Rakoff's books have been translated into twenty languages, and the film adaptation of "My Salinger Year" opened in theaters worldwide in 2021 and is now streaming. She has been the recipient of fellowships and residencies from MacDowell, Yaddo, Millay Arts, Sewanee, Bread Loaf, Jerome Foundation, Authors' Guild, PEN, Ragdale Foundation, Art OMI/Ledig House and Saltonstall; and has taught at Columbia University, Brooklyn College and Aspen Words.

Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Oprah Daily, Vogue, Elle, Porter and elsewhere. Her new memoir, "The Fifth Passenger," is forthcoming from Little, Brown and Company in 2025.

Newport MFA Reading with Joanna Rakoff
7 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Friday, Jan. 10

Newport MFA Craft Talk with Tim Weed
4 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Weed is the author of a short fiction collection, "A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing," and a novel, "Will Poole's Island." He is the winner of a Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Award and a Solas Best Travel Writing Award, and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Literary Hub, The Millions, Writer's Chronicle, The Daily News, Talking Points Memo, Backcountry and many others.

A member of the Vermont Humanities Council Speakers' Bureau and a co-founder of the Cuba Writers Program, Weed has had a parallel career as an international guide and featured lecturer in locations around the globe for National Geographic, the School for International Training, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center and many other organizations.

Newport MFA Reading with Charles Coe
7 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

Coe is the author of three books of poetry: "All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents," "Picnic on the Moon" and "Memento Mori," all published by Leapfrog Press. He is also author of "Spin Cycles," a novella published by Gemma Media. Selected as a Boston Literary Light by the Associates of the Boston Public Library, Coe is a former artist fellow at the St. Botolph Club in Boston and a current artist in residence at the Manship Artists Residency in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He is an adjunct professor at Salve Regina and Bay Path University, teaching in both MFA writing programs.

Coe was a 2017 artist in residence for the city of Boston, where he created an oral history project focused on residents of Mission Hill. He is poetry editor of "Multiplicity," an online literary journal published by Bay Path University, and associate editor of "About Place," an online literary journal published by Black Earth Institute. He serves on the steering committee of the Boston chapter of the National Writers Union, a labor union for freelance writers and editors.

Saturday, Jan. 11

Newport MFA Craft Talk with Charles Coe
4 p.m., Ochre Court Ballroom

For more information on the events and the Newport MFA, please go here.