MFA program attends Wordstock

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The Masters of Fine Arts program along with Pacific’s literary publication, the Silk Road Review had the chance to participate in Wordstock Saturday Oct. 8 and Sunday Oct. 9.

Wordstock is a multi-day, multi-event festival that is the largest book and literary celebration in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the biggest in the United States. This year it took place at the Oregon Convention Center.

Representatives of Pacific’s MFA program and Pacific undergraduate creative writing students came to help promote both the MFA program and distribute copies of the Silk Road Review.The MFA program had a booth at the event that the Silk Road Review shared. Undergraduate student volunteers handed out free copies of Silk Road to generate interest in the publication and also to distribute it to a wider audience.

The booths provided a place for interested people to come by and get information.

Editor in Chief of Silk Road and English Professor Kathleen Postma said there was a lot of interest in the Pacific Masters of Fine Arts and Writing booth. “The program has a great reputation and people had a lot of questions,” said Postma.

According to Postma, Wordstock is, “an amazing annual event hosted in Portland. Writers, booksellers, and magazine editors from all over the world fly in. There are also great talks on craft and practical tips for writers.”

Postma said this was the first year that Silk Road has been involved with Wordstock.

And according to her, the event was beneficial to those that participated in it.

“It was very exciting to network and connect with so many interesting writers and editors,” she said.

Well known published writers like Michael Ondaajte, Jennifer Eagen and Bharati Mukerjee, all did readings and participated in craft talks, where writers discuss and share ideas. There were three stages going on simultaneously in the convention center for the readings and Postma said there were other rooms as well that held different events and promotions.

MFA student Deborah Reed was also featured at Wordstock. She read excerpts from her new book, Carry Yourself Back to Me. Her newest book was listed as the Number one Kindle book purchase on the United Kingdom’s Amazon.com site for literary fiction.

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