Lots of Good Things to Come: Highlights of Spring 2026 Naslund-Mann Residency on Campus
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by Kathleen Driskell, Chair
Louisville is finally thawing after a rough winter, by our Kentucky standards anyway, and we’re beginning to see dogwood trees and azaleas budding around campus. We’ve long been planning a wonderfully enriching residency for spring students who will be participating on Spalding’s campus, but the warm weather always has a way of kicking us into high gear. From May 23-30, we look forward to having students, faculty, and alumni back on campus for seven days of workshops, lectures, readings, panels, homecoming celebrations, and more.
Our Pre-Residency Virtual Reading, May 20, 6:30 – 7:30 pm Eastern
As is our tradition, before residency even begins, we’ll feature a virtual residency reading on Wednesday, May 20, before you arrive in Louisville. The link will be made available to our entire community prior to the event, so hop on to hear your returning and new faculty members read from their own work. Watch the Thursday Memo for more details.
Come Walk the Labyrinth
Join us, if you’d like, to kick off your spring residency by participating in one of our traditions, walking the labyrinth with other members of our writing community in the Contemplative Peace Garden on Spalding’s campus, established to commemorate the friendship of Thomas Merton and the Dalai Llama.
Weather permitting, we’ll gather on the first Saturday, May 23 at 3:45 pm, before our book in common discussion to experience this “metaphor,” this ancient symbol of story, a kind of leaving of the old world we know well and the entering of a new unfamiliar world (if only for our residency week). We know from the ancients (and more recent science) that walking releases our imaginations and amplifies creativity and during the 20 minutes it takes to walk the labyrinth new and returning students can goal-set for the residency, perhaps focusing on supporting each other while also promising themselves to take risks that help gain new insights about our own writing and literature.
Fiction is Our Cross-Genre Area
As you already know, we’re delighted that our cross-genre area is Fiction and our distinguished visiting writer is Kaveh Akbar, author of our residency book in common, Martyr!. I very much look forward to discussing this novel at our first gathering of the spring 2026 residency. (See my earlier post announcing the Spring 2026 books/scripts in common here.)
Soon after all arrive on Saturday May, 23, we’ll dive right into our studies with the residency book-in-common discussion. All students should carefully read Martyr! and place it on your CV bibliographies. Come to the discussion at the Brown Hotel prepared to add your comments about this book. After that opening session, we’ll have dinner as a community at the Brown.
Kaveh Akbar will be here Monday, May 25, to give a community presentation on his fiction that evening. The next morning, Tuesday, May 26, he joins us for a Q & A open only to the Naslund-Mann community.
REQUIRED Residency Pre-Lecture:
“The Factual World of Fiction," Sunday, April 12, 2-3 pm Eastern
As I always say, the residency course isn’t just the residency—a number of required assignments must be completed before arriving on campus, including reading the books in common, for each student to be well prepared. One such assignment is to attend (or view later) the “pre-lecture” for the residency cross-genre area.
On Sunday, April 12, 2-3 pm Eastern, spring and summer virtual residency students all come together to hear fiction faculty member Whitney Collins present “The Factual World of Fiction." Whitney describes her lecture:
"Let’s dive into all the facts about fiction, so that we can become better readers, writers, and decoders of this provocative genre. In this lecture, we will start by looking at fiction’s early beginnings, from its first storytellers, myth makers, and novelists, before diving into the many genres and mediums of contemporary fiction. We will also discuss how fiction has a history of being politically provoking and, because of its imaginary nature, has long prompted interpretation and criticism. In addition, we will learn about fiction’s various components, the word counts of different forms, notable publications and prizes, as well as some of its more popular and controversial examples throughout time."
The link to the Zoom session will be provided to all shortly before the lecture, and any student unable to attend this lecture in real time can view the recording to be posted after its presentation.
All students are required to submit a short lecture report after the pre-lecture, much like the lecture reports you complete for residency. The deadline for Spring residency students to submit the lecture report is May 12. The deadline for Summer Virtual residency students to submit the lecture report is June 12.
Congratulations, Katrina Kittle, selected to present Spring 2026 Distinguished MFA Alumni Lecture
We’re delighted to welcome back novelist and fiction alumnus Katrina Kittle (F ’08) whose lecture “Let’s Talk about Sex Baby,” has been selected for presentation during the Spring 2026 residency. Congrats, again, to Katrina. Here’s how she describes her talk:
"Is it hot in here, or is it just your writing? Birds do it, bees do it…so why is it so hard for writers to do it—or rather, to do it well? Writing about sex, like the very act itself, can be difficult, funny, embarrassing, intense, evocative, compelling, sad, political, boring, mind-blowing, exciting, and exhausting. How much is too much? When is it not enough? What will others think of us? And what about our own self-censors? We will consider these and other perils and joys of getting believable, effective, sometimes beautiful and literary sex scenes on the page. We’ll look at diverse models from published works, and cover tips and traps to avoid—starting with the fact that sex in literature is rarely just about the sex at all. And note—this class is about writing sex scenes in works of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and film, NOT about writing erotica or porn. Rated R for Real."
Other cross-genre sessions
Other cross-genre sessions include my plenary lecture “The Power of the Short Story Form,” a talk that provides takeaways to enhance style for all writers. At the end of that lecture, I’ll give our cross-genre exercise assignment, which asks each student to write a piece of flash fiction to be submitted and shared with each other at our cross-genre follow-up at the end of residency. Soon, I’ll post some required pre-reading that includes several short stories on the portal. Be sure to find that assignment so you’ll be ready to get the most out of my lecture.
I read the other day that a student of Molly Peacock, poet and former faculty member at Naslund-Mann, encouraged writers to use “the full palette of punctuation.” I’m in total agreement with Molly and am looking forward to presenting my second plenary, my craft lecture, “Bang!—Dash—Monkeytail: Punctuation Strategies for Creative Writers.”
Our interrelatedness of the arts event: We’re attending the 66th Season of Kentucky Shakespeare’s As You Like It
Our interrelatedness-of-the-arts event has us strolling (or grabbing an Uber or Lyft) down Fourth Street a few blocks to attend Kentucky Shakespeare’s performance of As You Like It in Central Park. Entering its 66th season, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in Central Park is the longest-running free, non-ticketed Shakespeare festival in the United States.
Producing Artistic Director of Kentucky Shakespeare Visits Residency
Before we attend As You Like It in Louisville’s nearby Central Park, Producing Artistic Director Matt Wallace visits residency to talk about the play and its upcoming production including decisions about scenery, direction and casting.
Spring Homecoming!
Homecoming events begin on Wednesday, May 27, of spring residency and include receptions, readings, a welcoming of new graduates to the MFA Alumni Association at Noble Funk, and as always, the Alumni Celebration of New Works. Last year, nearly 50 alumni attended Homecoming in person, and we hope to see as many if not more in spring 2026.
Our partner Carmichael’s Bookstore pops in for residency
Carmichael’s Bookstore, Louisville’s beloved premier independent bookseller and our official residency bookstore, will be at the Brown Hotel to sell books for the Monday, May 25 Kaveh Akbar event.
Also, on Thursday, May 28, Carmichael’s creates a pop-up Naslund-Mann Book Fair during our long lunch hour. If you plan to buy faculty and alumni books, we hope you’ll support Carmichael’s by purchasing them while you’re on campus.
Seven Workshops Scheduled for Spring 2026 Residency
Our faculty workshop leaders for this residency are Angela Jackson Brown (F), Nathan Gower (F), Lynnell Edwards (P), Karen Salyer McElmurray (CNF), Leah Henderson (W4CYA), and Bruce Marshall Romans (W4TVSS).
We also are delighted to welcome back former poetry faculty member Kiki Petrosino, who will lead a poetry workshop during spring residency. Kiki Petrosino is the author of White Blood: a Lyric of Virginia (2020), the memoir Bright (2022), and three other poetry books, all from Sarabande Books. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. She is a Professor of Poetry at the University of Virginia where she teaches in the MFA and undergraduate Creative Writing programs. Her newest book of poetry, Perfect Italian, will be released from Sarabande in 2026. Petrosino is the recipient of a DeWitt Wallace/Readers Digest fellowship from MacDowell artist residency, a Pushcart Prize, a Fellowship in Creative Writing from the National Endowment for the Arts, the UNT Rilke Prize, & the Spalding Prize, among other honors.
In addition, faculty members Erin Keane (CNF) and Whitney Collins (F) fiction will drop into residency to present craft lectures for our community.
And we’ll also welcome writers and friends of the program who will visit to give guest craft lectures: David Harrity (P ‘07), Olivia Cole (W4CYA), Danica Novgorodof (W4CYA and Graphic Writing), Isabel Galupo (W4TVSS), and Tara Guptil (W4TVSS).
Do keep checking the Preparing for the Spring Residency page on Canvas for added information about lectures and events we’ll feature this May. And be sure to check Canvas and the Thursday Memo for lecture descriptions, pre-reading required or suggested, and other announcements. Your Residency Curriculum and Events Schedule will be released on Monday, May 20.
Happy preparation for Spring residency at Spalding! Our Naslund-Mann faculty and staff look forward to welcoming you back to campus soon.
Kathleen Driskell, current Kentucky Poet Laureate, is the Chair of Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing and Professor of Creative Writing. She is an award-winning poet and essayist. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, River Teeth, Appalachian Review, Rattle, Southern Review, Shenandoah, and other magazines. She is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Goat-Footed Gods and The Vine Temple (both from Carnegie Mellon University Press) and Next Door to the Dead, (University Press of Kentucky), winner of the Judy Gaines Young Book Award. Her collection Seed Across Snow (Red Hen Press) was named a Poetry Foundation Bestseller. Her essay “Church of the Goat Man” was included in the anthology 2025 Pushcart Prize XLIX: Best of the Small Presses. She served as Chair of the Board of Directors of AWP, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs from 2019 to 2022.