Piper Center goes global with creative writing adventures

Nearly five years ago the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing was established with a mission to elevate the creative writing program at Arizona State University to national and international prominence, and to enhance the region’s cultural environment.

The center has wasted no time in making a name for itself domestically, while at the same time attracting and developing talented students.

Its annual “Desert Nights, Rising Stars” writers conference has quickly emerged into one of the premier creative writing conferences in the West. The center consistently attracts high-profile authors, poets and playwrights to its successful “Distinguished Visiting Writers Series” each year. The “Piper Writer’s Studio” workshops, which are led by experienced writers from the local community, are popular and attract aspiring writers from throughout the Valley. The “Piper Online Book Club” continues to see its membership grow, both regionally and nationally.

While the local community benefits from these offerings, so do ASU students, especially those enrolled in the master of fine arts (MFA) in creative writing program – one of the youngest in the country, starting in 1985 – and now ranked in the top 20.

Students regularly get to pick the brains of the prominent writers the center brings to the area during intimate workshops at the Piper Writers House.

This past year, the center expanded its global focus, providing more than half of the MFA creative writing students with fully funded international opportunities, something no other university in the country is offering at this time.

Jewell Parker Rhodes, who was the center’s founding artistic director, assumed new responsibilities this past fall and was named the center’s director of global engagement.

“My new role is to promote our students as global citizens and artists,” says Rhodes, who teaches a “Global Gateway” course that combines readings, language and cultural explorations, and training.

This summer a group of MFA students will travel to China, touring the country in addition to teaching a creative writing course to faculty and students in Sichuan. Last summer a similar delegation of creative writing faculty and MFA students took part in an exchange program with Sichuan University, and two MFA students were granted international teaching fellowships with the National University of Singapore. Last January four MFA students spent 10 days at an international writers retreat in India.

In all, 49 or the 55 MFA students have had global and international opportunities with support from the Piper Center for Creative Writing. The center sponsored nine trips to seven countries, including Mexico, Singapore, Canada and China.

Since 2005, ASU MFA students have planned self-directed trips to 13 countries on five continents, visiting and studying in the Czech Republic, Japan, South Africa, Italy, Ecuador and Russia.

“The level of engagement by the students was outstanding,” says Meghan Brinson, an MFA student who took part in the teaching fellowship in Singapore. “You really feel like you are helping people tap into a genre that they may not be as familiar with in Singapore.”

It is also a learning experience for the MFA students.

“Not only was it a great travel opportunity, but you also gain a different perspective on our society, which is beneficial as a person, a teacher and as a writer,” says Brinson.

Six students were in Calgary this fall for Wordfest, an international writers festival, and this past winter students participated in a writer’s retreat in Oaxaca, Mexico.

“Our global programs will deepen students appreciation and ability to use art to foster cross-cultural understanding and communication,” says Rhodes. “The goal is for every MFA student to have experienced several global adventures prior to graduating.”

Tom McDermott, tom.mcdermott@asu.edu
480-727-0818
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing