Goddard in the World

Minna Dubin

Minna Dubin (she/her) is a writer, mother, and educator. She graduated from the Transformative Language Arts program at Goddard where she tackled hard subjects that people aren’t supposed to talk about, from sex, race, identity to interracial relationships. Now, as a leading feminist voice on mother rage, Minna writes about mothers and what society expects of them, from career shifts to emotional calm and reserve, and how these expectations can breed a crisis of loneliness and yes, rage, in mothers. 

 

Her forthcoming book, MOM RAGE: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood will be published in September by Seal Press and is available for preorder now anywhere books are sold. 

 

• Pre-order from the publisher: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/minna-dubin/mom-rage/9781541601307/?lens=seal-press
• Pre-order from Amazon: https://a.co/d/26F8Tzr

 

Read more of Minna’s work:

• “The Rage Mothers Don’t Talk About”: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/parenting/mother-rage.html
• “I Am Going to Physically Explode: Mom Rage in a Pandemic”: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/parenting/mom-rage-pandemic.html
• MomLists: https://momlists.tumblr.com/

 

Take a workshop with Minna:

• Writing the Home Workshop: https://www.amandamontei.com/store/p/writinghome

 

Keep up with Minna:

• Instagram: @minnadubin
• Website: minnadubin.com

 

Other Recommendations:

• Angela Garbes, Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change: https://bookshop.org/p/books/essential-labor-mothering-as-social-change-angela-garbes/17364605?ean=9780062937360
• Raised Pinay, the 5th Generation - Raising up the Mother: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/raised-pinay-2023-a-benefit-production-for-roots-of-health-tickets-608992943287

 

Get involved with Season 4! 

• Be our guest: https://forms.gle/A9XRF4ynvKK3uCqV9
• Join the team: https://forms.gle/LXfxKC28cMDBeoUj6

Chris Younce

Chris Younce received a Bachelor’s Degree from Goddard College for his thesis work on Evolutionary Theory. Chris’s experience was indeed very Goddardian as he changed his focus six times from film to the psychology of sport to art to Buddhism and then looked at autism spectrum disorder before he began exploring the origins of consciousness. He dedicated the book which was spawned by this process, Cognitive Liberty, to the school. Its focus pays homage to the multi-disciplinary approach as it links the fields of psychology, biology and ecology. 

Currently, Chris works as a case manager for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He advocates for a person-centered approach which allows individuals to claim as much agency as they care to. He is also an active and proud member of the Vermont Beekeepers Association where his work in mycology has led him to champion a mushrooms for bees campaign as certain species of mushroom seem to mitigate colony collapse disorder.

Recommendations:

• Accepted (film): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384793/
• Wherever You Go, There You Are, Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Terence McKenna: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna
• Paul Stamets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Stamets
• Hudson Valley Wine and Food Festival: https://www.hudsonvalleywinefest.com/

Keep up with Chris:

Buy Cognitive Liberty at bookshop.org or anywhere you get books. Support Chris’s favorite independent bookstores:

• Bear Pond Books, Montpelier: https://www.bearpondbooks.com/
• Bridgeside Books, Waterbury: https://www.bridgesidebooks.com/
• Phoenix Books, multiple VT locations: https://www.phoenixbooks.biz/

Follow Chris on Instagram: @harmonic_homesteading

Sam & Amanda’s Projects:

Pre-order Sam’s novel Edenville on Amazon, bookshop.org or anywhere you buy books. Support Sam’s favorite independent bookstores:

 

• Oblong Books, Millerton & Rhinebeck: https://www.oblongbooks.com/
• Inquiring Minds, Saugerties & New Paltz: https://www.inquiringbooks.com/

 

Mark your calendars for the inaugural TLAN Virtual Salon on April 22, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. (ET)/2:00 p.m. (PT)! The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salon will feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by an artist talkback. 

• Join or renew your TLAN membership: https://www.tlanetwork.org/Membership
• If you are a TLAN member and would like to present, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/MiP1ZKM3eMLEmUyc7.

 

Support the Goddard Staff Union in their current strike: 

• Read the press release on the strike: Goddard Staff Union votes no confidence in Dan Hocoy : to strike.pdf
• Sign the petition in solidarity: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/for-a-just-democratic-goddard-college
• If you’re local to Vermont, join the picket in the upper lot. 
• Email the board and Dan Hocoy to tell them you support the staff in utilizing their rights to bargain for fair wages and dignity. 
• Follow @goddardalumni on Facebook and Instagram for continuing updates. 
• Sign up for the Goddard Alumni website and newsletter: https://goddardalumni.com/signup/

Dennis R. Rush

Poet and artist Dennis Rush grew up on a remote 100-acre tobacco farm in Kentucky. It was at the end of a gravel road, a mile from the nearest house, which was often unoccupied. He spent much of his time walking through the woods, fishing and just being in nature.

 

His most recent book, Mayfield is an account of his volunteer experience in Mayfield, KY helping a community which had been devastated by tornadoes. He took his two youngest kids with him to work  at a food distribution center, which was a giant grocery store made of donations.

 

Keep up with Dennis on Instagram: @dennisrrush

Buy a signed copy of Dennis’s books: www.dennis-rush.com

Kali Meister

Kali Meister is an established writer, public speaker, college educator, academic and actress. She is also a sensitive empath and tarot reader. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Tennessee and an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. She found her way to Goddard from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville based on the advice of the program chair Marilyn Kallet who saw Goddard as a place where she’d fit in. In Vermont, Kali found the cold but also like minded spirits such as then program director at the time Paul Selig who is himself a channel. She focused on playwriting which she sees as a kind of poetry. Her thesis play was based on her family.

A true polymath, Kali has also been a laughter yoga guide, taught reiki and done tarot reading workshops. She’s always open to new tarot reading clients from whom she learns so much about the world.

 

Keep up with Kali:

• Website: https://www.kalimeister.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kali.meister.5/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kalimeister

Stephen S. Mills

Stephen S. Mills, award-winning author, poet and playwright had, as many of us did, a rather circuitous route to becoming a member of the Goddard community. He grew up in Indiana reading and writing. His first inspiration was the work of Gary Paulsen, writer of Hatchet and other books for young adults. He went to a small liberal arts school in the southeast corner of the state, Hanover College. After graduation, he moved to Tallahassee after being accepted by Florida State’s MFA program. As one of a very few queer people in the program, Stephen was often subjected to more personal examinations of his work. Upon earning his masters, he moved to Orlando where he taught at a for profit school. He taught mostly on-line courses for four and half years. Later, he wrote an essay which was  published on The Rumpus about his experience. It was also during this time he wrote his first book, He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices, which came out six months before leaving the sunshine state for New York.

While working at an HIV outreach program, he was approached about interviewing to become part of the Goddard Faculty. He has now taught at the low-residency MFA program for three semesters and has been wowed by the supportive community of students. Stephen loves being able to mentor so many queer writers.

Stephen’s writing draws from history and pulp culture. His most recent book, Not Everything Thrown Starts a Revolution, found its inspiration in a “This American Life” episode, which looked at suicide by proxy, a phenomenon in which people would kill a child and confess in order to be executed. The first part of the book is a fictionalized version of a perpetrator/victim. The second half is set in the modern day with more personal poems that look at the criminal justice system.

In his current creative work, he’s looking at slasher films of the 70’s and 80’s for queer themes. He explores the connection the queer community has to these movies, especially in the way it allows members of the community to identify with the villains in the way in which they are othered. 

Connect with Stephen

Stephen's Work:

• "Surviving a For-Profit School": https://therumpus.net/2013/07/17/surviving-a-for-profit-school/
• He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices: https://siblingrivalrypress.bigcartel.com/product/he-do-the-gay-man-in-different-voices-by-stephen-s-mills
• A History of the Unmarried: https://siblingrivalrypress.bigcartel.com/product/a-history-of-the-unmarried
• Not Everything Thrown Starts a Revolution: https://siblingrivalrypress.bigcartel.com/product/not-everything-thrown-starts-a-revolution-by-stephen-s-mills

Follow Stephen:

• Website: https://www.stephensmills.com
• Instagram: @stephenscott22

Amy S. Cutler

BUY Amy Cutler’s debut novel Shadow of Love out now: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-shadow-of-love-amy-s-cutler/17846952?ean=9781684339402

 

Amy S. Cutler is a writer who earned her master’s degree in Creative Writing from Goddard College. Her work can be found in Tales to Terrify, wow-women on writing, the Pitkin Review, Wellness Universe, Elephant Journal. She was recently published in Slut Vomit: An Anthology of Sex Work, by Outcast Press (available on Amazon), a collection of stories that explore the adult entertainment industry. Her second novel, To Have and to Hold, to Love and to Kill: An Agreement of Souls" will be published by Black Rose Publishing in August 2023.

Amy is steeped in spooky stories, not just reading about them but living them. She once had a dog which, in a dream, foretold its own death. She also spent her summers in a haunted house in the scariest place one can imagine: Upstate New York. As a little girl, she loved scary stories and would read them sitting with her back to the attic door to keep the spirits from coming down. She scares easily, relishing the rush of adrenaline she feels. She also loves scaring people even in the simplest ways like hiding and jumping out at them.

Shadow of Love began simply as a scary story about a woman fleeing an abusive marriage and taking refuge in a haunted house. The feedback at Goddard helped her see where the book could go and allowed her to take it to a place it might not have gone. Just being at Goddard, a place widely thought to be haunted, helped her stay in touch with the ghost realm.

She currently resides on Mt. Peter in New York, where she runs a ski area. She’s lived there her whole life and found her earliest inspiration from her summertime strolls through the woods. It was a lonely childhood that she filled by making up stories. An early short story of hers centered on a convict escaping from the nearby jail and coming to terrorize the folks living around Mount Peter.

Her husband, who’s worked on the mountain for 17 years, is her partner in her writing as well. A keen editor, he’s also proven a great ear to bounce story ideas off. Currently, Amy is working on a story about reincarnation.

Keep up with Amy on Instagram: @AmysHippieHut

Amy’s Website: AmysHippieHut.com

Visit Amy’s ski lodge: https://www.mtpeter.com/

Meghan Guidry

For latest updates about Meghan's work, please visit her website and sign up for her newsletter: https://www.meghansguidry.com/

For more information on Kinesiophobia: https://thetherabooks.com/pages/kinesiophobia-1

To preorder Kinesiophobia: https://thetherabooks.com/products/kinesiophobia

Meghan Guidry explores grief through writing that not only cuts across genres but combines them in unexpected ways. With her latest book, Kinesiophobia (forthcoming this fall from Thera Books), she set out to write about her father’s death in a way that transcends memoir and captures the emotional core of how it felt. The title refers to a rare psychiatric condition in which an injury lingers after healing in the form of fear of reinjury so great it is felt as actual physical paralysis. This sort of paralysis might be thought of as one of grief’s most lasting and definitive legacies since, as Meghan points out, we as a society don’t make the room or time to deal with it properly.   

Grief haunted her childhood. At seven, her mother began showing signs of mental illness, drifting away from reality. She’d read tarot cards for hours and hours, thinking she was communication with the spirit realm. Meghan dealt with it empathetically, trying to understand her mother’s world view, which she now understands as a kind of grief.  She found a kind of comfort in Egyptian mythology and specially in the story of Sekhmet goddess of destruction and healing in the 3rd grade, which helped her understand the duality which ruled her mother.

Meghan began writing poetry and then short stories for school. She earned an English degree with the intent of becoming a lawyer but realized she wanted to be a writer. Her mother told her about Goddard whose one-on-one approach appealed to Meghan. Before she got accepted, her mother passed away suddenly of a hemorrhage which then led to irreparable brain damage and forced Meghan to make the choice of taking her off life support. With this weight upon her she began her time at Goddard under the tutelage of Rachel Pollock.

During her last semester with Rachel, Meghan learned that her father had esophageal cancer. Before her final assignment packet was due, he went into septic shock. Though the surgery to correct this was a success, he never woke up again. Meghan mentions this in her last letter to Rachel, who becomes a lifeline for her in the difficult months that follow.

She plans to launch No New Mythology, a monthly literary series that braids an aspect of a myth and what it teaches about grief. She’ll use her own experiences as a jumping off point. It will be a newsletter that you can sign up for at her website. Her latest WIP extends her exploration of grief by asking if the pain of loss for a person hurts less does it mean you love them less. Kinesiophobia will be available on the Thera Books website this fall.

 

Recommendations

Books

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales  by Bruno Bettelheim

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Positions with White Roses by Ursule Molinaro

Incubation A Space for Monsters by Bhanu Kapil

Games

Lunar The Silver Star

Bloodstained Ritual of the Night

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Okami

Chocolates:

• White
• Pistachio Mousse in a Dark Chocolate Shell
• Earth Truffles

Kristi Petersen Schoonover

Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s stories have appeared in many publications, including Generation X-ed, Horror Library Volume 7, Lovecraftian Microfiction Volumes 6 & 7, Wicked Creatures, Crow & Cross Keys, Dancing in the Shadows: An Anne Rice Tribute Anthology, Dead Stars & Stone Arches, and others; work is forthcoming in Out of Time: True Paranormal Encounters. Her novel, Bad Apple, will get a 10th anniversary release this year, and her short story collection, The Shadows Behind, will be followed by a second collection in 2024. She is also currently curating the anthology Wicked Sick for Wicked Creative. She holds an MFA from Goddard College, has held three Norman Mailer Writers Colony residencies, is founding editor of the journal 34 Orchard, is a board member of the New England Horror Writers and is co-chair of the Horror Writers Association’s Connecticut Chapter. She lives in the Connecticut woods, where she enjoys watching birds with her husband, Nathan. 

 

From the time that Kristi was a child, she had full access to the library in her dad’s den which contained  1970s thrillers like Jaws, Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby. We talk about Kristi’s childhood, as she weathered her mother’s illness and death and had to grow up quickly to take care of her siblings. Only later did she come to realize that her childhood “wasn’t normal” - but growing up this way strengthened her multitasking abilities to resiliency in weathering destabilization (which came in handy during the pandemic).  

 

Kristi is an experienced writer and literary magazine editor and this conversation is incredibly valuable for any writer who wants insight from both sides of the submission process. Keep up with her writing, literary journal and news at the links below:

 

Keep up with Kristi

• Website: https://kristipetersenschoonover.com/
• Facebook & Instagram: @kpschoonover

 

Recent:

• “Floor Song Tango” in Out of Time: True Paranormal Encounters by Timber Press
• “Beware Burning Snow” in Siren’s Call

 

Published: 

• The Shadows Behind
• This Poisoned Ground
• “A Bone to Pick” in Toasted Cheese Literary Journal 
• Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole: Tales from Haunted Disney World

 

34 Orchard: https://34orchard.com/

 

Read Kristi’s archive of work online: https://kristipetersenschoonover.com/where-to-read-me/

 

Recommendations: 

Books:

• Jaws, Peter Benchley
• Stepford Wives, Ira Levin
• Rosemary’s Baby, Ira Levin
• The Sweet By and By, Jeanne Mackin

Movies:

• Nope, Jordan Peele
• Get Out, Jordan Peele
• Midsommar, Ari Aster
• Hereditary, Ari Aster
• The Witch, Robert Eggers
• Fire of Love, Sara Dosa

Vince DiPersio

Vince DiPersio is an award-winning documentary film writer, director, and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards, for his films Blues Highway, Death on the Job, and Crack USA: County Under Siege and was nominated for an Emmy award for 5 American Kids – 5 American Handguns. His film, The Kennedy Detail, about the Secret Service Agents who were with JFK the day he was assassinated is streaming now on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Discovery Plus.

Vince tells the stories behind some of his documentaries including Memphis PD: War on the Streets where he rode with a police officer for months; and recently Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project about the inequities of the prison system. Vince sees himself as a funnel or channel for the subjects of his documentaries. He tries to tell stories that are more complicated than what the news would allow and not preach to the converted. We talk about how empathy can get lost when people are siloed and go to their separate corners.

Vince is excited for the future of documentary, from the voices that we’ve been kept from hearing who are finally getting access to make their films post #oscarssowhite.

 

Select Filmography:

The Kennedy Detail, available on Discovery+: https://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Detail-Season-1/dp/B092DP67FF

Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project: https://www.oxygen.com/kim-kardashian-west-the-justice-project

 

Recommendations

Georgetown University Prison Scholars Program: https://prisonsandjustice.georgetown.edu/programs/scholarsprogram/

Harlan County USA: https://www.criterion.com/films/777-harlan-county-usa

George Sapio

George Sapio is a playwright/director/producer/dramaturg. His play “Ghosts” won the 2001 Mildred and Albert Panowski Award. He produces and hosts the podcast “Onstage/Offstage,” now in its tenth year, featuring interviews with theatre professionals from around the world and live readings of new short plays. His book “Workshopping the New Play: A Guide for Playwrights, Directors, and Dramaturgs” is published by Hal Leonard/Applause Books. He was the founder and artistic director of the Ithaca Fringe Festival (2013-2017) and founder of Wolf’s Mouth Theatre Company and Bad Dog! Productions. He is also a photojournalist whose book “Collateral Damage” features his pictures from two trips to Iraq in 2003. He earned his MFA in playwriting at Goddard College.

We talk about George’s childhood in the Bronx and how he got the theater bug in high school, when he would go down to the city and get half-price tickets to shows like Grease and Equus (the latter of which he took his 10^th grade English class to – from his Catholic school. One of George’s early writing teachers gave him advice that he continues to abide by in his playwriting and teaching, “Write the story, don’t write the nonsense that goes with it.” George’s book “Workshopping the New Play: A Guide for Playwrights, Directors, and Dramaturgs,” details the workshop process and how to flesh out the play and “bring it to its best possible fruition.”

George’s dad set an example for what it was like to be a news photographer (as well as introduced George to photojournalism and darkroom techniques), which served George well when he worked at Newsweek. George and his wife Maura (also a Goddard graduate) went to Iraq twice in 2003 and put out a photojournalism book called Collateral Damage, about the people (especially children) who didn’t want to go to war but were the ones who suffered from it.

George’s 10-year-old podcast (and Ithaca radio show) Onstage/Offstage, covers theater people around the world including actors, directors, dramaturgs, set designers, lighting designers, and artistic directors. The podcast addresses current issues in the theater like why women over 40 aren’t getting paid attention to, and “how persons of color are finally getting a very tiny leg up into the opportunities that have always been predominantly for old white guys like myself.” We talk at length about the role of the dramaturg, which George discusses in his book “Workshopping the New Play: A Guide for Playwrights, Directors and Dramaturgs.” He also directs short play readings for the podcast that he puts out open calls for.

FINALLY, George talks about his home and B&B, La Casa de la Luna Feliz (“House of the Smiling Moon”) in Costa Rica, designed for people who are in recovery of any sort, “We cater especially to people recovering from illness, injury, trauma, heartbreak, and activism burnout (and theater recovery).”

 

Keep up with George and his projects:

www.gsapio.com

https://www.facebook.com/george.sapio

https://newplayexchange.org/users/785/george-sapio

 

Onstage/Offstage Podcast: www.onstageoffstage.org

Buy the book: www.workshoppingthenewplay.com

Book a stay: www.casalunafeliz.com

 

Recommendations:

Equus, Peter Shaffer

Drama Bookshop: https://www.dramabookshop.com/

NYC Playwrights: https://www.nycplaywrights.org/

Playwrights Center: https://pwcenter.org/

Honor Roll!: https://www.honorrollplaywrights.org/