As The University of Baltimore celebrates its Centennial year this year, it gets to share its big birthday with its creative community. The MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program turns 20 this year and Welter, a student-run literary journal, celebrates 60 this year. To celebrate, let's build your summer reading list with UBalt's student authors and editors.
If you like books that touch on mystery and drama, Kayla Tellington’s Cold Girls Stay Quiet is a book you might want to check out this summer.
If you like poetry with an improvisational, hip-hop soul, then Yes I’m Changing by Brianna Coleman could be for you.
If you want to slip back in time for a firsthand tour of the 1960s, bookmark Jack Livingston’s memoir Trouble for your summer reading list.
Whatever you like, your next favorite book is probably a title written by University of Baltimore student and waiting for you at Robert L. Bogomolny Library.
Each year, MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts students culminate their program by publishing their own book and copies of each are sent to the library. With the program celebrating its 20th year at UBalt, the library shelves are home to more than 160 books. The program's earlier books are also available to review through University archives.
Betsy Boyd, MFA program director and professor, said she’s always inspired by the students’ work.
“It's so gratifying to me as a professor and as an artist myself,” she said. … “They're doing the work, but they're also embracing what we're offering them, and so it’s collaborative—generative—hard-won and real.”
The program students start building the foundation for their book as early as their first semester through journaling activities in a creativity class Boyd teaches. The goal of the class, she said, is to spark creativity in a judgment-free zone.
“We use meditation and light neuroscience to help one another find that safe space in the classroom and within ourselves,” she said. “Some of the work that I see them do in this journal, as the semester goes on, often connects to the thesis books, whether it's that they made a painting and that the painting inspired the cover, or they started to journal deeply about their relationship to their sibling and the difficult aspects of that.”
WATCH: Betsy Boyd gives quick reviews of each new MFA title
This year’s graduates collectively penned five published books of poetry, four wrote fictional works, and four published memoirs. One memoir author, Kristy Towson, served as graduating class speaker and discussed her book, After the Fire, and mental release that writing it gave her and that she hopes to pass on to others.
“I stand here to let you know that not only have I published one book, I have published three Amazon best-selling books with the knowledge and support I’ve received in this program,” she said during her commencement speech on May 21. “I even started my own publishing company, committed to amplifying the voices of those with lived mental health experiences.”
This year’s graduating class and their books, now available at the library, also include:
The MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts program turns 20 in a historic year for the University and its community. The University itself is celebrating its Centennial this year, having started in 1925.
While the master’s program is much newer than its University, creative writing was part of UBalt’s roots. The course catalog for UBalt’s inaugural year showed electives for students in the School of Business and Government included American literature, English literature, modern literature and short story writing, alongside more traditional business-focused courses such as advertising and real estate principles.
Boyd imagines the MFA program has a “very old soul” despite only hitting its second decade.
“It's amazing that it's 20, but at the same time it feels like a thing that's been in the world for a while,” she said. “It feels like a significant thing that knows what it is. So, on one hand, I'm like, wow, we're 20, but, on the other hand, I’ve learned so much from this program, and it feels like it should be older than me.”
READ: One student’s take on Welter at 60
Also hitting a milestone year is Welter, a student-led literary journal that just recognized its 60th anniversary with its newest edition.
Released in May, the journal features new works of short fiction, poetry, memoir and visual art—submitted by writers and artists from around the world.
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WATCH: Student editors discuss the lasting power of a 60-year-old literary journal