Narrative Nonfiction

Residency Guide
July 29-Aug. 5, 2018
 DAILY SCHEDULE FOR UGA MFA RESIDENCY
NARRATIVE NONFICTION
AUGUST 2018

SUNDAY, JULY 29
• 6PM: Opening Dinner
º South Kitchen + Bar
247 E. Washington Street in Downtown Athens

(Note: All events are in the Journalism Building, 4th Floor, unless otherwise noted)

MONDAY, JULY 30
• 9-10:30: Coffee with the Mentors: Introductions & Intentions
• 10:45-12:45: Think Like a Storyteller: 10 Questions That Spark Narrative Approaches with
Moni Basu and Jan Winburn (For First- and Second-Year Students)
• 10:45-12:45: Technology and Presentation Practice Sessions (For Graduating Students)
• Lunch break (on your own)
• 2:30-4:30: Write Like a Storyteller: The Mechanics of Narrative with Moni Basu and Jan
Winburn (For First and Second Years)
• 2:30-4:30: Technology and Presentation Practice Sessions (For Graduating Students)
• 5-6:30: Individual Meetings with Last Semester’s Mentors (As Needed)

TUESDAY, JULY 31
• 9-10:30: Craft Seminars Led by Graduating Students (Kristin Lowe and Mark Shavin)
• 10:45-12:15: Craft Seminars Led by Graduating Students (Tina Brown and Emanuella
Grinberg)
• Lunch break
• 2:30-4:30: The Novelist’s Toolbox: How to Use Fictional Devices to Craft Page-Turning True
Stories with Pearl Cleage
• 5-6:30: Graduating Students’ Reading (4 students read)

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 1
• 9-10:30: Craft Seminars Led by Graduating Students (Max Blau and KaToya Fleming)
• 10:45-12:15: Graduating Students’ Panel: How to Make the Most of the Program
• 12:30-1:15: Meeting with the Mentors: Ask Us Anything & Letters to Self
• Lunch break
• 2-5: Optional: Writer/actor Roger Guenveur Smith Craft Talk with Screenwriting Students
º Location & Details TBA
• 5PM: Happy Hour Reception
º Journalism Building, 2 nd Floor PAF

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THURSDAY, AUG. 2
• 9-10:30: Craft Seminars Led by Graduating Students (Jeffery Johnson and Mary Ann Scott)
• 10:45-12:15: Writing/Righting Historical Injustices: Panel with Valerie Boyd, John T. Edge
and Hank Klibanoff, moderated by Pat Thomas
• Lunch break

First-Year Students
• 1:30-3:15: Historical Research: What’s Past Is Prologue with Janice Hume
• 3:30-5: A tour of the galleries, research area and vault at the UGA Special Collections Library.

Second-Year and Graduating Students

• 2:30-4:30: Mentors’ Office Hours (Time for Individual Meetings)
• 5-6:30: Graduating Students’ Reading (4 students read)

FRIDAY, AUG. 3
• 9-10:30: Craft Seminars Led by Graduating Students (Sam Bresnahan and Shelly Romine)
• 10:45-12:45: External and Internal Landscapes in Narrative Journalism with Michelle Garcia
• Lunch break
• 2:30-4:30: Using Conflict in Your Writing with Lolis Elie
• 5-6:30: Graduating Students’ Reading (4 students read)

SATURDAY, AUG. 4
• 9-10:30: Craft Seminars Led by Graduating Students (Marty Padgett and Mary C. White)
• 10:45-12:15: Meeting with the Mentors: Planning for the Semester/Ask Us Anything
• Lunch with New Cohorts & Mentors
• 2-4:30: Individual Meetings with Mentors

• 5:30: Graduation Ceremony (with Melissa Fay Greene) & Closing Reception
º Special Collections Library (All students should plan to attend)

SUNDAY, AUG. 5
• 11AM: Closing Circle
º Journalism Building, PAF

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 NARRATIVE NONFICTION SEMINAR DESCRIPTIONS

MONDAY, JULY 30

Coffee with the Mentors: Introductions & Intentions (All Students)

9-10:30AM

Graduating Students
Technology and Presentation Practice Sessions
10:45AM-12:45PM • Lunch • 2:30-4:30PM

First- and Second-Year Students

Think Like a Storyteller, Write Like a Storyteller
Moni Basu and Jan Winburn

Think Like a Storyteller: 10 Questions That Spark Narrative Approaches

Where do good ideas come from? Is there a systematic way to arrive at novel ideas and
approaches? This interactive seminar will teach you to zig when others are zagging.

Write Like a Storyteller: The Mechanics of Narrative

In this seminar, we will build on the questions discussed in the morning session. We’ll talk about
what it means to report and write like a storyteller, exploring such topics as: finding the right
people to tell your story through; winning the trust of the people you’re writing about;
identifying your story arc; narrowing the narrative lens; and focusing on the sometimes-small
story unfolding in front of you, even as you grapple with the Big Ideas.

For these interlinked sessions, please bring a piece (a news story, an essay or another piece of
nonfiction) that you’ve written recently and be prepared to talk, at the end of our day, about how
you would apply one of the 10 questions to shape your idea into a narrative, or how you might
think differently about the story mechanics.
Reading:
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/11/world/india-rape/

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-11-05/features/1997309019_1_oreo-nyasha-stacking

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/08/world/dangerous-migrant-crossings-mediterranean/

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TUESDAY, JULY 31

The Shape of Your Story (Student-Led Seminar)

Kristin Lowe
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re never going to get there. The narrative arc shows
us how to get there. This is the general structure that shapes our stories, and characters are the
driving force within our stories. Yet characters, and their often-vast backstories, can bog down
structure and overwhelm you as you write. We will discuss specific examples of how different
writers think about structure—there is no “right way,” but there are ways of ensuring you are
headed in the right direction. With John McPhee as our guide, we will look at how we can tuck
in bits of backstory within a story’s structure. I will share some of my failures and small
successes throughout the writing process as I learned how to best utilize story structure while
tucking in dynamic details.
Reading: “Travels in Georgia” by John McPhee. (We will discuss the first 16 pages, but the
whole 36-page read is worth your time.)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hhkwo880beba63h/mcphee-Travels-in-Georgia.pdf?dl=0

The Secret Architecture of Great Narrative (Student-Led Seminar)

Mark Shavin
Did you ever suspect there was a secret architecture underpinning your favorite story? Did you
ever wonder how the author managed to juggle multiple layers of complexity and keep them all
straight? Compelling narratives capture and sustain our interest, introduce us to unfamiliar
worlds and deliver surprises along the way. Often, when we set out to investigate our story, we
don’t have a firm grasp of where we’re headed, but once we’re ready to write how do we
minimize false starts, create pacing and avoid heading down blind alleys? Creating a narrative
arc will help you organize your story. I will talk about how I used the narrative arc, as outlined in
Jack Hart’s “Story Craft,” to frame my story and address three of my major concerns: making an
old story feel new again; incorporating interviews conducted decades apart; and simplifying a
very complicated medical history.

Reporting a Memoir When You Can’t Rely Upon Memory (Student-Led Seminar)
Tina A. Brown
I am a longtime journalist who’s been reading and writing all my life. I had a stroke during the
second semester of my MFA studies, and during the duration of the program, I’ve had to
rediscover my speech, reading and writing skills. Over the last couple of semesters, I have been
writing toward a memoir about my love of language and my journey to reclaim it. But how could
I write a memoir with limited access to my memories? During this craft talk, I will
share photographs, newspaper clips, recordings, medical documents and family interviews that I
am using to report my memoir—and I will offer five tips that you can use to explore your
own story.

How to Get Over Your Fear of Writing About Yourself (Student-Led Seminar)
Emanuella Grinberg
Writing about topics close to you can be terrifying, especially if you’re a journalist who’s been
trained to keep yourself out of the story. In this session, I will share my journey toward the
pronoun “I” and offer tips on how to harness a reporter’s mindset to tell your story.

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The Novelist’s Toolbox: How to Use Fictional Devices to Craft Page-Turning True Stories
Pearl Cleage
This session will explore the use of journals as a way of sharpening the writer's sense of
observation, starting with observing and recording the self. Acclaimed essayist, novelist, poet
and playwright Pearl Cleage will discuss how journals can be useful in crafting point of view,
dialogue, characterizations, time, place and setting. Several exercises will take real events and
excavate remembered details to inform the narrative being crafted. As a playwright and novelist,
Cleage also will share some of her techniques for developing fictional characters—techniques
that we as nonfiction writers might borrow to craft more fully developed real-life characters.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 1

Writing About—And Writing Through—Trauma (Student-Led Seminar)

Max Blau and KaToya Fleming
Whether witnessing the atrocities of war, or asking someone to relive a dark chapter of a
family’s past, journalists constantly wrestle with how to cover trauma ethically and responsibly.
Which details do you include about the scene of an overdose? How do you interview a victim of
police brutality without triggering distress caused by the memory? We’ll talk about best practices
for reporting on people and places that have experienced traumatic incidents. And we’ll study
how journalists have taken extra steps to protect their subjects, plus look at examples of how
reporters can cause harm without considering these techniques.

In the second part of this seminar, we'll look at what to do when you're the person who has
experienced the trauma. We often find ourselves having to confront our own trauma during the
writing process, through stories that unearth painful memories or life events that threaten to stifle
our ability to write in the first place. In this section, we'll draw from our personal experiences to
explore how trauma can impact the creative process and we'll share practical methods for
confronting difficult narratives, overcoming emotional roadblocks, and developing strategies for
taking control of the story and finding light in the darkness.
Reading: The Redemptive Love of Chiliquila Ogletree

THURSDAY, AUG. 2

Building a World from the Fragments (Student-Led Seminar)

Jeffery Johnson and Mary Ann Scott
Narrative nonfiction that tells the stories of people long dead and places long changed poses a
special set of challenges for the writer because even the most complete archive is built from
fragments. Sometimes, the archive is maddeningly incomplete. Since you can’t make anything
up, how do you craft a dimensional, detail-rich narrative from fragmented, sometimes missing,
often contradictory sources?

This pair of seminars will focus on two strategies for answering that question:

• Every story, fiction or nonfiction, needs an arc. In historical nonfiction, building a compelling
character arc while staying true to the facts can be difficult. How far can research permit you to
make reasonable assumptions for the sake of fleshing out the narrative without crossing the line

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to poetic license? This first strategy arises from one writer’s deep journey into the archives in
search of the building blocks of character development, including issues of motivation,
emotional trigger points, and quirks that make characters both compelling and human to the
modern reader.

• The essayist and short story writer Anne Panning talks about the idea of “thingyness” in
nonfiction, the specificity of material detail, as a way that nonfiction writers build their worlds
on the page. This second strategy lets you reach into archives as varied as temperature records
and city directories to gather material detail, which you then have to collate, tag, and store in a
logical (for you) way, ready to draw from as you write.

For First-Year Students

Historical Research: What’s Past Is Prologue

Janice Hume
Historical research is crucial for narrative writing. It helps us understand not only the “who?”
and “what?” but also the “why?” so important for in-depth storytelling. It provides primary
evidence and essential context. And it can be overwhelming. During this seminar we will
consider the work of historians. What is the nature of history? Of memory? How do archives
work? What sources can be trusted? How should they be interpreted? How much is enough? Is
“revisionist” a bad word? We will explore primary and secondary resources available here at
UGA, and we will end the day deep underground with a tour of the University’s Special
Collections vault.

Reading, available at the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6godm2lxm4bfedz/AAAdThZ_ob0nQ_F4UdnJ-Nlwa?dl=0
• Carl Becker’s 1931 address to the AHA: “Everyman His Own Historian”
• David Paul Nord: “The Nature of Historical Research”
• James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle: “The Visible and Invisible Worlds of
Salem”

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FRIDAY, AUG. 3

True Crime & Investigative Research (Student-Led Seminar)

Shelly Romine
Research for investigative stories—specifically those that are crime related—is conducted
somewhat differently than the common research project. In this presentation, I will share what I
have learned about navigating the basic elements of investigative reporting, including
background material, evidence, interviews, and how to utilize both primary and secondary
sources. I will share some of the tools I use for crime scene investigations, as well as the
importance of validating facts with the use of more than one source.

Make It Count: Getting the Most Out of a Reporting Trip (Student-Led Seminar)
Sam Bresnahan
While the Internet, email, and phones are excellent resources for interviews and research,
nothing can replace physically being there: retracing the same path as your main character when
he walked home from school every day; sharing a meal in his favorite restaurant; sitting at the
same typewriter in the office where he wrote those letters you have in your research pile. But
getting there often requires intense preparation and logistical planning. Whether you have two
hours or two weeks, this interactive seminar will help you make the most of a reporting trip: how
to prepare, how to set it up, and what happens if it is out of your own town, or even outside your
own country and in a different language. Using real-life examples from my international research
project, including a reporting trip to Japan, I’ll share some tips and tricks for what to do (and
what not to do) ahead of your next reporting trip.

External and Internal Landscapes in Narrative Journalism

Michelle Garcia
In this seminar, we will explore how our inner landscape can shape our perceptions, its influence
on sources and others around us as we gather stories, and the stories we choose to tell. In other
words: How who we are influences what we see and how we write about it. At a time when the
publishing/media industry is intensely focused on writing the personal, we will drill into the
meaning of ‘I’ and its power to distort and illuminate a story. Students should ponder the
following questions in advance of the seminar: Do you feel that your
journalistic/writerly development has in any way tracked with your personal growth? What is
the connection between who you are and what you see in the world?
Reading:
https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/739-my-name-is-alex

http://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/how-michelle-garcia-told-the-story-of-juarez-a-city-lost-to-
violence-through-its-dogs/

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Using Conflict in Your Writing
Lolis Eric Elie
When you are writing about a literal war, or the cops versus the robbers, or even about a
neighborhood zoning controversy, the role of conflict is a central, definitive and obvious part of
the story. But even essays, and sections of essays, that do not have conflict at their hearts can still
use conflict as a device to raise narrative tension and reader interest. We will discuss the ways in
which three very different essays utilize conflict in the telling of their stories.
Reading:
https://www.guernicamag.com/rebecca-solnit-men-explain-things-to-me/

https://thepointmag.com/2015/examined-life/against-honeymoons

http://www5.csudh.edu/ccauthen/570f15/baldwin.pdf

SATURDAY, AUG. 4

Voice and Style (Student-Led Seminar)

Mary C. White
In his chapter on Voice and Style in Story Craft, Jack Hart advises that “the ultimate secret to
letting your voice sound on the page is simply relax and be yourself.” Seriously? That’s like
Lebron James offering advice on how to shoot hoops. What comes naturally for some takes a lot
of effort for the rest of us. In this interactive seminar, a recovering institutional writer takes a
fractured scientific approach to investigate the truth about the writer’s voice. Various craft books
present several hypotheses about voice and style. To test these hypotheses, we’ll play with
participatory research in class, asking students to respond to a series of questions using their
smart phones. Survey results will be presented, followed by a discussion of expert opinion on the
question. We’ll explore such issues as what voice is, if it differs from style, whether voice is
innate or deliberate, and the relationship between the writer and the reader.

Discovering Purpose (Student-Led Seminar)

Marty Padgett
As an MFA student, I developed a book idea that explicitly explores identity. Along the way, as I
stumbled through all the challenges a book presents, I had to ask myself the same questions I
asked of my characters. As a writer, as a person, who am I? Some of us have read the Seven
Basic Plots, which explains story as basic kinds: journeys, tragedies, rebirths. In writing my
book, I went through seven phases on the way to discovering my purpose, realizing who I am as
a writer: curiosity, immersion, empathy, patience, inspiration, revelation, and activism. I’d like
for you all to watch this YouTube clip and write down your favorite narrative element:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpV4dDBkSDQ

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 RESIDENCY GUESTS

Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta-based writer, currently Mellon Playwright in Residence at the Tony
Award-winning Alliance Theatre. Her new play, “Pointing at the
Moon,” premiered there in April. Her play, “What I Learned in
Paris,” opened the 2012-2013 season. Her new play for young
audiences, “Tell Me My Dream,” premiered at the Alliance
Theatre in the 2015-2016 season. The 20th anniversary
production of her play “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” closed the
2014-2015 Alliance season, earning critical praise and
enthusiastic audiences. She has been commissioned to write a
new work for the inaugural season of their new theatre space in
2019. Pearl works in a variety of genres and her works include
award-winning plays, bestselling novels and numerous columns, articles and essays for a wide
variety of publications. Her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, was an
Oprah Book Club pick and spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. She is the
author of fifteen plays, including “Flyin’ West,” the most produced new American play in the
country in 1994. “Blues for an Alabama Sky” was included in the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival
and has been produced in multiple American theatres every year since it premiered at the
Alliance in 1995. She is the author of eight novels, including Baby Brother’s Blues, which
received an NAACP Image Award for Literature, I Wish I Had a Red Dress, Babylon Sisters,
and Things I Never Thought I’d Do. Her memoir, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies,
Lessons and Love Affairs, was published by Simon and Schuster/ATRIA Books in April 2014.

Michelle García is a journalist and essayist reporting from New

York City, Texas and Mexico, where she have covered stories
related to violence, trauma, and organized crime. She is the
former Texas correspondent for the Columbia Journalism
Review and a former columnist for the Texas Observer. In 2016
she was ranked 4th on Buzzfeed’s list of Women Writers Gay
Talese Should Read. She is currently working on a narrative
non-fiction book about the West, Texas, masculinity and myth.
Her work has appeared in the Oxford American, Guernica, The
New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, The Atlantic’s Quartz, Insight Crime, NACLA,
Christian Science Monitor, Salon, The Nation, AlJazeera America, among others. In 2014, she
was awarded a grant from the Nation Investigative Fund to report on the dangers faced by
journalists in Mexico.

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 Melissa Fay Greene is the author of six books of nonfiction: Praying for
Sheetrock (1991), The Temple Bombing (1996), Last Man Out (2003),
There Is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey to Rescue Her
Country’s Children (2006), No Biking in the House Without a Helmet
(2011) and her latest, The Underdogs: Children, Dogs, and the Power of
Unconditional Love (2016). Her critically acclaimed books have been
translated into 15 languages. A two-time National Book Award finalist,
Melissa is a recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the
Southern Book Critics Circle Award, the ACLU Civil Liberties Award
and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She was also short-listed for a
National Book Critics Circle Award. She holds an honorary doctorate
from Emory University and was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall
of Fame in 2011. In 1999, Praying For Sheetrock was named one of the 100 best works of
English-language journalism of the 20th century by a panel convened by NYU. “Entertainment
Tonight” named it one of the New Classics: The Best 100 Books of the Last 25 Years. Greene
has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Newsweek, The
Washington Post, LIFE, Elle and other periodicals.

Janice Hume is the Carter Chair in Journalism Excellence and head of the Department of
Journalism in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of
Georgia. Her 2013 book, Popular Media and the American
Revolution: Shaping Collective Memory, explores the central role of
journalism in the construction of national mythology. The book
demonstrates how the story and characters of the Revolution have
been adjusted, adapted and co-opted by popular media over the
years, and provides insights into the way that journalism can and has
shaped a culture’s evolving, collective memory of its past. She is
also the author of Obituaries in American Culture and co-author
of Journalism in a Culture of Grief.

Hank Klibanoff, a veteran journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning

author, is a Professor of Practice in Emory's Creative Writing
Program. He co-authored The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights
Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation that won the 2007 Pulitzer
Prize for history. Prior to joining Emory, he was a reporter and editor
for more than 35 years, held various reporting and editing positions
at The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and served as a
managing editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He holds an
undergraduate degree in English from Washington University in St.
Louis and a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at
Northwestern University. He directs the Georgia Civil Rights Cold
Cases Project at Emory University (coldcases.emory.edu), for which
students examine Georgia's modern civil rights history through the investigation of unsolved and
unpunished racially motivated murders.

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 NARRATIVE NONFICTION MENTORS

Moni Basu is a senior enterprise reporter for CNN Digital, where

she is part of a team that’s bringing narrative journalism to a brand
best known for breaking news. Before becoming an online journalist,
she was a reporter and editor at newspapers for more than two
decades. Originally from India, Moni has straddled two cultures all
her life, and her stories often reflect the complexities of race,
ethnicity and identity. Her work also investigates human resiliency
after trauma, an interest that developed from her coverage of conflict
zones and natural disasters. She covered the Iraq War and the 2010
earthquake in Haiti, for which she won several national awards. She
is author of the e-book Chaplain Turner’s War, which grew from her
series of stories on an Army chaplain serving in Iraq. When she’s not
committing journalism, Moni loves to get on an airplane to see more
of the world. She enjoys lazy Sunday mornings, eating biryani and spending time in her native
Kolkata. In just a couple of weeks, Moni will join the University of Florida College of
Journalism and Communications as the Michael and Linda Connelly Lecturer for Narrative
Nonfiction.

Valerie Boyd, director of Narrative Nonfiction, is author of the

critically acclaimed biography Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of
Zora Neale Hurston, winner of the Southern Book Award and
the American Library Association’s Notable Book Award. She is
currently curating and editing the journals of Pulitzer Prize-
winning novelist Alice Walker. Simon & Schuster/37 Ink will
publish Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice
Walker in 2019. Valerie is also beginning research for her next
book (also under contract with Simon & Schuster), called Until
Victory: The Trial of Angela Davis and the Making of a Public
Revolutionary. A former arts editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Valerie has written
articles, essays and reviews for such publications as The Washington Post, The Los Angeles
Times, Creative Nonfiction, the Oxford American, Paste, Ms., Essence and Atlanta
Magazine. She is an associate professor of journalism and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Distinguished Writer in Residence at UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass
Communication, where she teaches courses in arts reviewing, long-form feature writing, and the
intersection of journalism and literature.

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 John T. Edge is director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an
institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the
University of Mississippi. He is a contributing editor at Garden &
Gun, and for nearly two decades, he has served as a columnist for the
Oxford American. From 2009 to 2012, John T wrote a monthly
column, “United Tastes,” for The New York Times. Through the years
he has written for The New York Times Magazine, Lucky Peach, GQ,
Creative Nonfiction, and every glossy food magazine in America. His
work has been featured in 12 editions of the annual Best Food Writing
compilation. John T has won three James Beard Foundation awards, including the MFK Fisher
Distinguished Writing Award. His most recent book, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of
the Modern South, was published in 2017 to wide acclaim. It is a history of the modern South
told through food, from the lunch counter sit-ins of 1960 forward. Novelist Jack Pendarvis has
said: “To call John T. Edge a food writer is like saying Herman Melville wrote booklets on
fishing.”

Lolis Eric Elie is a New Orleans-born, Los Angeles-based writer

and filmmaker who has published work in several genres. A former
staff writer for the AMC show “Hell on Wheels,” he also worked as
a story editor for the HBO series “Treme.” Working with the
award-winning director Dawn Logsdon, he co-produced and wrote
the PBS documentary Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black
New Orleans. His essay “America’s Greatest Hits” is included in
Best African American Essays: 2009. A former columnist for The
Times-Picayune, Lolis is the author of Treme: Stories and Recipes
From the Heart of New Orleans, and Smokestack Lightning:
Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country; he is also co-
producer and writer of Smokestack Lightning: A Day in the Life of Barbecue, the documentary
based on that book. Lolis is editor of Cornbread Nation 2: The Best of Southern Food Writing. A
contributing writer to the Oxford American, he has published work in Gourmet, The Washington
Post, Time, The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Downbeat and The San Francisco Chronicle.

Patricia Thomas was, until July 2017, a professor at UGA’s

Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication,
where she held the Knight Chair in Health and Medical
Journalism. She launched the professional MA program in
health and medical journalism in 2005, and led her graduate
students on reporting expeditions to post-Katrina New
Orleans, the far southwest corner of Georgia, and the North
Georgia Mountains. They participated in national journalism
conferences and were published by online and print news
organizations with state and national reach. Thomas earned
degrees from UC Berkeley and Stanford, then worked as a reporter, editor and author for more
than three decades before joining the UGA faculty. She wrote Big Shot: Passion, Politics, and
the Struggle for an AIDS Vaccine, a Washington Post notable book for 2001.

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 Jan Winburn is senior editor for enterprise reporting at CNN
Digital, where she edits in-depth, cross-platform work. She leads her
team in positioning CNN as an online destination for long- form
storytelling as well as breaking news. Since joining CNN in 2009,
Jan has worked with reporters to capture numerous awards, including
a Peabody Award, a Batten Medal, the National Headliner Award for
Online Writing and the prestigious Livingston Award for Young
Journalists. Before coming to CNN, Jan worked as enterprise editor
at The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Baltimore Sun and The
Philadelphia Inquirer, where her writers’ work captured national
awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. The Dart
Society recognized her career work with its 2009 Mimi Award given
to editors “who encourage journalistic excellence.” She is an Editing
Fellow at the Poynter Institute and has taught narrative journalism at conferences and in
newsrooms around the world. Jan is the author of Shop Talk and War Stories: Journalists
Examine Their Profession and co-author of two e-books, Secrets of Prize-Winning Journalism,
2013 and 2014.

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 FUN STUFF TO DO IN ATHENS
Compiled by Rebekah Ryan

Restaurants
Big City Bread Café
http://www.bigcitybreadcafe.com
Check out Big City Bread for a tasty breakfast, lunch, or dinner. BCB is just a 12-
minute walk from Hotel Indigo through scenic downtown Athens.

Last Resort Grill

http://www.lastresortgrill.com
One of Athens’ most popular restaurants, the Last Resort offers a fancy atmosphere
with a bit of Southern comfort. Be sure to save room for dessert.

Mama’s Boy
https://mamasboyathens.com
Only open for breakfast and brunch, Mama’s Boy serves awesome biscuits and many
other delicious options. Be sure to try out their tasty jams. Expect a short wait at peak
times, as Mama’s Boy is one of Athens’ most popular breakfast joints. But it’s worth
the wait!

Taqueria Del Sol

http://www.taqueriadelsol.com
Taqueria is known for their delicious tacos and margaritas. It’s located just down the
road from Hendershots. Best fish tacos ever!

Coffee Shops
Hendershots
http://hendershotscoffee.com
The atmosphere at Hendershots is perfect for getting some work done while sipping
delicious coffee or beer. Mondays are open-mic nights at Hendershots, so go to listen
or sign up to participate by visiting their Facebook page by 12pm Sundays. A roster
of live bands plays throughout the week.

Jittery Joe’s
http://www.jitteryjoes.com
Jittery Joe’s is another popular coffee shop in Athens, with a downtown location as
well as one at the Miller Learning Center across the street from the Journalism
Building. If you go there enough during your stay in Athens, you might be able to
earn yourself a free drink with 10 stamps on your Jittery Joe’s card!

Walkers Coffee and Pub

http://www.walkerscoffee.com
If you’re looking for a great place to sit and sip some coffee while you work, check
out Walkers. Coffee shop/restaurant by day and bar by night, the atmosphere here is
just right, and it’s walking distance from Hotel Indigo.

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Dessert
Gigi’s Cupcakes
http://www.gigiscupcakesusa.com/athensgeorgia
If you have a hankering for something sweet, Gigi’s cupcakes serves the best
cupcakes around! Gigi’s is located just on the outskirts of downtown Athens, walking
distance from Hotel Indigo.

Insomnia Cookies
https://insomniacookies.com
If you need a midnight snack, Insomnia Cookies is your place. Cookies are served
warm with optional ice cream or milk. If you’re feeling particularly lazy, Insomnia
also delivers and is open until 3am!

Bars
Blue Sky
http://blueskyathens.com
This is the perfect bar for grabbing a drink or two with your new friends. Sit inside in
one of the booths or outside on the porch to enjoy the warm summer night. Blue Sky
is located above Walkers Coffee and Pub, walking distance from Hotel Indigo.

Creature Comforts
http://www.creaturecomfortsbeer.com
Creature Comforts is within walking distance from Hotel Indigo, conveniently
located in downtown Athens. This place has a great atmosphere and is perfect for
getting to know your new MFA friends while enjoying a few glasses of refreshing
craft beer unique to Athens. The brewery is open Tuesday-Friday 5-8pm and
Saturdays 1-4pm.

Little Kings Shuffle Club

https://www.facebook.com/lkshuffleclub
Little Kings is popular with Athens “townies,” UGA students as well as older
couples. On Wednesday nights, Little Kings offers salsa dance lessons for a small
entrance fee (which includes one drink at the bar!). Lots of indoor and outdoor fun
and live music!

Terrapin Beer Company

http://terrapinbeer.com
Jam out to live music and take a tour of the brewery. Or just go and taste as much
craft beer as you’d like with the purchase of a Terrapin glass. Terrapin is one of
Athens’ most popular hangouts, so arrive early to avoid long lines.

Trappeze Pub
http://trappezepub.com
Recently remodeled, Trappeze has a new menu and a huge selection of craft beers.
Food, drinks, fun!

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Live Entertainment
The Foundry
http://thefoundryathens.com/foundry-calendar/calendar-view/
The Foundry is one of Athens’ many unique music venues and also serves delicious
food and drinks. Take a look at The Foundry’s calendar to see if there’s a local band
you’d like to check out.
The Georgia Theatre
http://www.georgiatheatre.com
You can’t come to Athens without visiting the famous Georgia Theatre! Go to hear
awesome live music or make your way up to the rooftop bar to enjoy the ambiance of
downtown Athens at night while sipping a delicious cocktail or craft beer.
Taking Care of Business
Banks
Need some extra cash? There are several banks located in downtown Athens. Check
this link to find a bank that works for you.
http://www.downtownathensga.com/businesses.php?category=9

Daily Groceries Co-Op

http://www.dailygroceries.org
Need a few snacks for your hotel room? There are several grocery store options
around Athens, but Daily Groceries Co-Op is located within walking distance of
Hotel Indigo. They offer a wide variety of organic groceries, produce, and vegan and
vegetarian options.
Dry Cleaners
If you need something dry-cleaned, check out Bulldog Laundry located at 798 Baxter
Street. 706-548-9950.
UGA Bookstore & Tate Center
Visit the UGA Bookstore across from the Journalism Building to pick up books from
our writing faculty. You also can purchase some UGA memorabilia for friends and
family to share your UGA pride. The adjacent Tate Center—also walking distance
from the Journalism Building—offers a food court, The Bulldog Café, with a variety
of options for snacks or a quick lunch: http://foodservice.uga.edu/locations/bulldog-
cafe
Across the street from the Tate Center is Sanford Stadium, home of the famous
Georgia Bulldogs football team. Take a selfie in front of the sign to document your
time here in Athens!
Village Drug Shop
http://www.villagedrugshop.com
If you need to pick up a few things, there are several CVS stores around town. But the
Village Drug Shop, an Athens staple, is probably the closest drug store to downtown
Athens, 740 Prince Ave. 706-548-4444.

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 NONFICTION RESIDENCY & PROGRAM OVERVIEW

THE BASICS
UGA’s innovative low-residency MFA program allows students to complete most of their degree
requirements off campus while developing their skills and talents under the guidance of
experienced faculty writing mentors. Students begin each semester by visiting campus for an
intensive 8-day residency, followed by a four-month online writing period. During this period,
each student works on an individualized learning plan, under the mentorship of a faculty
writer. Students will work with a variety of faculty mentors over the course of the two-year
program. At the fifth and final residency, each student will present a 20-minute craft seminar and
deliver a reading of her/his creative work.

WRITING PERIOD CONTRACT

Near the end of each residency, students will be assigned the faculty mentor with whom they will
work closely for the upcoming Writing Period. In consultation with that faculty mentor, each
student will develop his/her unique, individualized Writing Period Contract, outlining the writing
and reading s/he plans to explore over the semester. Both the student and the mentor will sign off
on the Writing Period Contract, and the student will send a copy to the MFA program director.
This Writing Period Contract will guide the student and the faculty mentor in their work together
throughout the semester.

MONTHLY PACKETS
Students are required to submit packets of their writing to their faculty mentors on a monthly
basis. Students and mentors together will determine which writing projects and goals the student
will undertake in a given semester. Additionally, students and mentors will negotiate due dates
and format of delivery (DropBox, email, etc.), and this information will be included in the
Writing Period Contract, which student and mentor will agree upon before the end of each
residency. A typical monthly packet will include about 20 pages of creative writing, or up to 30
pages of revised writing that the faculty mentor has previously seen. Each packet also should
include at least two Reading Responses—thoughtful short pieces (500 words or less) tracking
and engaging with the books and other narratives the student is studying. Each student, with
input from her/his faculty mentor, will have developed a reading list for the semester of 10 or so
books (or other narratives), which will be listed in the Writing Period Contract, along with the
student’s individual writing goals for the semester.

THESIS PORTFOLIO
In the final semester of the program, each student will focus primarily on the preparation of
his/her thesis portfolio, an original, polished manuscript of narrative nonfiction. In preparing the
thesis portfolio, students will revise and reflect on work written during all of their semesters in
the program. This process will provide students with the opportunity to shape a volume of their
own work, which may take the form of a sustained narrative (chapters for a book), or a collection
of disparate or connected pieces. The minimum length for the final manuscript is 75 polished,
publishable pages, or about 35,000 words.

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