Welcome back! Highlights of the Fall 2025 Residency at Spalding

October 2, 2022 

by Kathleen Driskell, Chair

On behalf of the faculty and staff of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing, I’m delighted to share a preview of the many excellent sessions we have scheduled for our students and alumni during the Fall 2025 residency, November 8-15, on Spalding’s campus in Louisville.

Virtual Faculty Reading: Kick-off to Residency

As our regular kick-off to residency, I hope students, alumni, and faculty will join us for our virtual faculty reading, Wednesday, November 5, 7-8 p.m. Eastern and featuring readings by Angela Jackson-Brown (Fiction), Jeremy Paden (Poetry, Translation), Nancy McCabe (Creative Nonfiction), Ellen Hagan (Writing for Children and Young Adults), Kira Obolensky (Playwriting), and Sam Zalutsky (Screenwriting). The link for this faculty reading will be posted in the Thursday Memo before the event.

On Campus, Just Before Residency Officially Begins

The story of the labyrinth is ancient—and a good metaphor for the writing life. Our journey in begins with release from the ordinary world into a world of contemplation and clarity of thought and imagination that deepens as we walk to the center and which we hope will sustain us through our residency work as we leave the labyrinth’s circuits. For all who would like to join us for the labyrinth walk, weather permitting, as an initiation to the Fall 2025 residency, meet at 3:45 pm on Saturday, November 8, at Spalding’s Contemplative Gardens (across Fourth Street from our Naslund-Mann offices in the Mansion). After completing the approximate 20-minute labyrinth walk, we’ll directly convene at the Brown Hotel for our first curriculum session of residency, the community discussion of Come From Away.

At Fall’s Residency

I love that each residency has its own flavor and one of the exceptional regular events of the fall residency is our awarding of the Spalding Prize for the Promotion of Peace and Justice in Literature. We look forward to welcoming writing team Irene Sankoff and David Hein, who will receive the Spalding Prize for their hit musical Come From Away.

Students, faculty, and alumni can read more about Come From Away and the Spalding Prize recipients in my earlier blog post announcing the 2025 awardees.

(Please note: further details on the below-mentioned sessions can be found in the Residency Lecture and Session Descriptions document now posted in the Residency Card of Canvas.)

Our Cross-Genre Exploration

In addition to sessions focused on Come From Away, our cross-genre emphasis in Writing for TV, Screen, and Stage provides the Naslund-Mann community with a good opportunity to explore varieties of tension regularly deployed by dramatic writers. Learning more about dramatic tension not only benefits writers working in scripts but, of course, also helps those working in poetry and prose. 

Students are required to carefully view the classic and singular film The Night of the Hunter before coming to residency to prepare for attending my cross-genre plenary lecture “Varieties of Dramatic Tension.” Details on that assignment can be found in the Residency Lecture and Session Descriptions document in Canvas.

To further explore our featured cross-genre area in W4TVSS, during residency we will gather for a plenary screening of Rashomon, often called one of the best films in history, and directed and released by Akira Kurasawa seventy-five years ago. The screenplay Rashomon, co-written by Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto, is noted for breaking new ground in screenwriting with its slippery perspectives from multiple characters who presumably have witnessed the death of a samurai and an ending which provides instruction in hopes of helping humanity survive the evils of World War II.

At the conclusion of the movie faculty members Bruce Marshall Romans and Charlie Schulman will lead a talkback of the film.

Before coming to residency, students should read the short story “In the Grove,” by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, upon which Rashomon is based. A link to that reading can be found in Canvas.

Lynnell Edwards, Associate Programs Director, presents Waiting for Godot: A Literary Exploration, which considers the cultural and historical context out of which Samuel Beckett’s play emerged, its critical legacy, and features a few brief clips from recent stage productions. To prepare for Lynnell’s plenary, students should read The Waiting for Godot script, available in Canvas, but any trustworthy print edition is also fine.

Announcing the Fall 2025 Distinguished MFA Alumni Lecture

in Writing for TV, Screen, and Stage

I’m also delighted to share that we’ll welcome back Julie Nichols, our MFA screenwriting graduate (2015) to present the Distinguished MFA Alumni Lecture, “Mastering Storytelling with the Three-Act Structure: How Writers in Every Genre Can Increase Emotional Engagement and Defeat Audience Boredom with Screenwriting’s Secret Sauce.” Julie’s talk features examples of works demonstrating the power of three-act structure and will include produced, published and in-adevelopment works by Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing alumni, as well as popular works from film and television.

Residency attendees can find a complete lecture description of Julie’s talk in the Residency Lecture and Sessions Descriptions document now posted in Canvas.

In addition to these cross-genre plenary sessions, we are pleased to present lectures by the following special guests of Naslund-Mann.

David Arnold: “The Character of Voice” (W4CYA)

Emily Bingham: “A Bug for Research” (Creative Nonfiction)

LaShondra Hood: “What an Actor (and Director) Loves to Find in a Script” (Playwriting)

Graham Shelby: “Writing Without Words: Lessons of an Accidental Documentary Filmmaker” (Screenwriting)

Naslund-Mann faculty members Angela Jackson Brown (Fiction), Jeremy Paden (Poetry, Translation); Lee Martin (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction) and Larry Brenner (Writing for TV, Screen and Stage) visit to present faculty lectures throughout residency. (Again, students can find further details on guest lectures in the Residency Lecture and Sessions Descriptions document posted in Canvas.)

Workshops Scheduled for Fall 2025 Residency

Workshops are always the backbone of residency and this fall 2025 we are pleased to announce our faculty workshop leaders: Whitney Collins (Fiction), K. L. Cook (Fiction), Keith S. Wilson (Poetry), Erin Keane (Creative Nonfiction), Lesléa Newman (Writing for Children and Young Adults), Charlie Schulman (Playwriting), and Bruce Marshall Romans (Screenwriting). 

Writing at the Brown

Throughout residency, we welcome Naslund-Mann alumni who are returning for a week-long writing retreat at the Brown Hotel, joining us at various sessions for further professional development.

Faculty & Guest Books or Scripts in Common for Fall 2025: 

Sunday, October 19, 3-4 p.m. Eastern

I’m sure you already have this virtual session marked on your calendar but let me remind you once again that students are assigned to read the faculty book/script in common in the workshop area they are attending for fall residency to prepare for virtual discussions led by the title’s author. The FBIC discussion are required and scheduled for Sunday, October 19, 3-4 p.m. Eastern and take place directly after the virtual introductory workshop sessions for Fall 2025. Links to be provided by the School of Writing office before the virtual meetings.

Creative nonfiction. Erin Keane, Runaway: Notes on the Myths that Made Me (Belt Publishing, 2024)

Fiction. Whitney Collins, Big Bad: Stories (Sarabande Books, 2021)

Poetry. Keith S. Wilson, Games for Children (Milkweed Editions, 2025)

Writing for Children and Young Adults. Lesléa Newman, Joyful Song: A Naming Story (Levine Querido, 2024) and Alicia and the Hurricane: A Story of Puerto Rico (Lee & Low Books, 2022)

Screenwriting: Sam Zalutsky, Colonial Dreams (Available for download on Residency Canvas card.)

Playwriting: Michelle Tyrene Johnson, Chasing Breadcrumbs (Available for purchase and download on Residency Canvas card.)

Do keep checking the Preparing for the Fall Residency page in the Residency Card in Canvas for added information about lectures and events we’ll feature this November, as well as lecture descriptions, pre-reading required or suggested, and other announcements. Your Residency Curriculum and Events Schedule will be released on Monday, November 3.

Happy preparation for Fall residency at Spalding! Our Naslund-Mann faculty and staff look forward to welcoming you back to campus soon.

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Kathleen Driskell, Chair of Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing and Professor of Creative Writing, is an award-winning poet and essayist. In April 2025, she was named the Kentucky State Poet Laureate 2025-26 by Governor Andy Beshear. 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 (Carnegie Mellon University Press), as well as The Vine Temple (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. She served as Chair of the Board of Directors of AWP, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs from 2019 to 2022.