University of Idaho M.F.A. Program Director Doug Heckman said M.F.A. creative writing candidates can look forward to a “more rustic and more wild experience” this year.
The first competitive year of the Writing in the Wild fellowship ends its application process Sept. 30. Two M.F.A. students will be selected for the fellowship this year, Heckman said, and will be able to choose between two UI facilities for a week away from the bustle of the Moscow.
McCall Outdoor Science School, near Payette Lake and Ponderosa State Park, and the Taylor Wilderness Research Station in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness will offer fellowship lodgings.
Heckman said the facilities will offer Idaho’s landscapes to students.
“They’re so unique at a national level,” he said. “People want to come to Idaho … because we have all these amazing environments. So with these programs we can take advantage of that.”
Heckman said funding allows for two fellowship students per year and logistics are being kept simple for now. Graduate students can choose any time of year to go as long as the facilities have availability.
M.F.A. non-fiction candidate Cara Stoddard attended the fellowship pilot program at the Taylor location during Labor Day weekend, Heckman said.
Stoddard said the area is steeped in history that comes more from an oral tradition than anything she could have researched on the Internet.
She was able to speak with an Idaho Fish and Game officer about the eight dams between the nearby Big Creek and the Pacific Ocean, which prevent nearly 95 percent of the salmon population that migrates through them from reaching the ocean.
Stoddard said the surrounding wilderness and hiking opportunities helped her connect with her family roots and the natural-world themes she explores in her work.
“Being in the backcountry or any sort of wilderness setting sort of puts things in perspective,” she said. “I think any kind of creation of art requires seeing yourself as … one component of a larger context. The natural world does that really plainly.”
Stoddard said the experience and landscapes energized her creativity and metaphorical insight, and provided something different from her stifling office.
“To go out into a space like that and hear crickets and grasshoppers making a sound that sounds so much like my own breathing is a really cool thing,” she said.
Heckman said the intention of the fellowship is to get M.F.A. candidates away from their normal responsibilities for a time to allow them creative freedom. The program also involves plans to take the lessons learned in the wilderness to K-12 students.
He said children who grow up in Idaho sometimes take the wilderness and natural resources for granted. This program is one way to challenge and encourage youth to perceive these landscapes differently and provide graduate students with teaching experience, he said.
“I think that M.F.A. programs can get very isolated,” Heckman said. “That whole thing about being the ‘school on the hill’ or the ‘ivory tower’ — I want to blow that up … It’s good for writing, it’s good for our writers and it’s good for the community.”
Matt Maw can be reached at [email protected]