Writers tackle all styles this month

Two writers who were awarded fellowships by the Master of Fine Arts program at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., will be among residents during June at the Anderson Center at Tower View.

Carrie Mosrobian, a poet, will be on campus from June 1-15, and Kate Wallop, a nonfiction writer, will be in residence June 16-30. The Deborah Tall Fellowship recipients will do community service at the Goodhue County Jail.

A Minnesotan, Mosrobian attended St. Olaf College and Augsburg College. She is a free-lance writer, an instructor at Loft Literary Center and a middle school creative writing instructor at Planet Home School in Minneapolis. While here she will be making revisions to a young adult novel.

Wallop grew up on a sheep and cattle ranch in Wyoming, attended college on the East Coast and worked in New York City before returning to the West and completing her education. She is currently a high school theater director and English teacher in Denver, Colo., pursuing a master’s degree in writing. While at Tower View she will work on an autobiography.

Shannon Ward

Poet

Poems that incorporate images from her childhood will occupy Shannon Ward during her month at the Anderson Center. She grew up in Ohio, a member of a troubled family living in a renovated slaughterhouse. Her current work blends experience with legend in story lines that incorporate oral and written history, memory and imagination.

Ward studied at Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C., where she is now an English instructor, and earned her master’s in creative writing from North Carolina State University. Her work has appeared in magazines and poetry reviews/volumes.

Community service: Minnesota Correctional Facility-Red Wing

Carla Stetson

Mixed media artist

Duluth native Carla Stetson, who is an assistant professor in the art department at Ithaca College, N.Y., will work on an exhibit scheduled to open in January at the Duluth Art Institute. These creations, based on map and satellite imagery, refer to areas on the planet that are environmentally threatened — including Lake Superior and the Mississippi River.

Stetson was educated in Kansas City, Mo., and Montpelier, Vt. She has received numerous grants and awards, and has been commissioned to create works including the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial in Duluth, a memorial to victims of a lynching. Her work is widely exhibited in several states, and can be found in collections including the Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Community service: Tower View Alternative High School

Stephan Clark

Fiction writer

Educated in California, Stephan Clark was a research fellow in the Ukraine and a visiting scholar in Russia before teaching creative writing at Reed College in Oregon. He came to Minnesota in 2011 to be an English professor at Augsburg College.

With his frequent travels and major moves, Clark sought the month at Tower View so he can focus on a novel in progress, “The Flavorist.” His work has received international recognition, and he has had books published as well as short stories in a variety of publications.

Community service: Sheldon Theatre camp

Sheila O’Connor

Young adult novelist

Minnesota Book Award winner Sheila O’Connor (see related story) of Minneapolis returns for her third residency at Tower View. She was educated at the University of Minnesota and the University of Iowa, and currently is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at Hamline University, St. Paul.

O’Connor has written novels, short stories, essays and poems, plus she is prose editor for the Water-Stone Review, appears widely as a reader and lecturer, and has taught thousands of young people through the Writer-in-the-Schools program. Her work has been recognized by Bush Foundation, Loft McKnight and Minnesota State Arts Board fellowships.

Community service: Sheldon Theatre camp

Tags: arts and entertainment, red wing, arts, books