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JOIN a band of ink-stained writer-adventurers for a month of concentrated exercise and conversation in and about the Eternal City. This is Rome from a generalists's perspective: history and geography, art and architecture, language and literature, the color and vagary and flavor of daily life all constellate in the writer's notebook. Following in the footsteps of those poets, painters, saints and soldiers who for some two and a half millenia have traveled where all roads lead, we'll sack the city word by cobble, in conversation, practice, and stride.
THE PROGRAM is open to anyone (undergraduates, graduates, alumni, citizens-at-large) seeking to join an intensive program in the written arts.
CLASSES are held at the University of Washington's Rome Center at the 17th-century Palazzo Pio, situated in the vibrant center of the city’s historical district.
The Seminar will be taught by Richard Kenney, of the University of Washington's Creative Writing Program, and Kevin Craft, of Everett Community College's English/Creative Writing Department.
How to apply: Please submit a Letter of Interest, along with names and contact information for two academic references, to both instructors. This may be done by email [rk@u.washington.edu and kcraft@everettcc.edu], or by regular mail, care of the respective English departments. Your letter should outline your academic background and writerly interests and experience, remark on your reasons for wanting to go to Rome, and highlight what positive and special contributions you might make to a group constituted for maximum imaginative adventure in one of the world’s most remarkable settings. Formal training in creative writing is less important to us than pluck, serious enthusiasm, and reliably good humor. We will spend an intensive month in close quarters, at elevated temperatures and unfamiliar cultural pressures: you must be good company. With that caveat in mind, the program is wide open. Writers at all levels of experience are encouraged to apply.
INITIAL APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 10; thereafter we will consider applications on a space-available basis. Apply early: we have a rolling admissions policy, and the program tends to fill quickly. We may conduct interviews to make final selections.
COSTS: The program fee is $2,800. In addition to the program fee, all program participants pay an IPE fee of $200. Non-UW students pay an additional non-matriculated student fee of $200. Upon acceptance to the program, students are required to sign a payment contract by which they commit to participation in the program and agree to pay all program and administrative fees. Payment amounts are charged to each participant’s UW student account and are payable through UW Student Fiscal Services in 129 Schmitz Hall or MyUW, according to the following payment schedule:
UW STUDENTS: $350 non-refundable program deposit, due upon acceptance to the program.
Total fees (including IPE fee) for UW students: $3000. NON-UW STUDENTS: $350 non-refundable program deposit, due upon acceptance to the program. Total fees for non-UW students: $3200. |
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WITHDRAWAL POLICY: A student withdrawing from the program by April 25, 2008 will be refunded all but the $350 program deposit. Any student withdrawing from the program after this deadline will be liable for any non-recoverable payments already made or committed on behalf of the participant, up to and including the entire program fee. No refunds will be given once the program begins. Notice of withdrawal from the program must be made in writing to both the International Programs and Exchanges Office and the Creative Writing Office.
The program fee includes accommodation, tuition, facilities at the Palazzo Pio, field trips, excursions, and most program-related admission fees. It does NOT include airfare, board, personal expenses or the additional fees assessed by IPE. Note: program fees are paid in dollars; most program expenses are paid in euros. Unavoidably, we must reserve the right to modify charges in case of unfavorable currency fluctuation. In this unlikely event, students would be notified, and an adjustment made to the final payment.
FINANCIAL AID: UW students may use most forms of financial aid to cover the costs of this program. UW participants who are on financial aid should contact the UW Financial Aid Office to verify that their awards will apply. UW students interested in applying for increased financial aid during their quarter of study abroad should obtain a revision request from the Financial Aid office, and a budget of student expenses from the IPE office, and submit both to the Financial Aid office in Schmitz Hall. Non-UW students should check with the Financial Aid Office at their home institutions for more information regarding financial aid.
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CREDITS: Undergrads will receive 13 credits [ENGL 363, Literature and the Arts; ENGL 490, Study Abroad Program; and ENGL 493, Advanced Creative Writing Conference —with some flexibility, depending on individual student degree requirements]. Graduate students should consult with Professor Kenney. |
CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT & PRE-DEPARTURE ORIENTATION: Students participating in the program must submit UW Concurrent Enrollment forms for summer quarter, 2008. In addition, students will be required to take the FIUTS/IPE Mandatory Pre-Departure Orientation, which can be completed online. For more information, please refer to this page on the IPE Website.
NON-UW STUDENTS: Non-UW students should submit the Non-Matriculated Application for Non-UW Students to IPE upon acceptance to the program. They will then be assigned a UW Student Number, a UW Net ID and access to the MyUW personal page, UW email, etc. The fee for this (as noted above) is $200 and will be assessed to the student’s new UW account upon receipt of the form. This fee is non-refundable.
INSURANCE: The University of Washington strongly recommends that students participating in this program carry major medical insurance coverage (check your policy for international coverage rules). More information about insurance can be found at http://ipe.washington.edu.
FACULTY:
Richard
Kenney's books of poetry include The Evolution of the Flightless
Bird (Yale UP, 1984), Orrery (Atheneum, 1985) and The Invention
of the Zero (Knopf, 1993). In 1987 he received a John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Fellowship. He is currently Professor of English at the
University of Washington, where he has been on the faculty since 1987. His
work is informed by science, and he is interested in Celtic and classical
literatures. He thinks about human evolution and language origins, the cognitive
basis of poetic forms, magical reasoning, and the Darwinian lives of subliterary
species such as jokes, riddles, proverbs, charms, spells, nursery rhymes and
weather-saws. Among his favorite poets are Shakespeare, Keats, Hopkins, Yeats,
Auden, Frost, Larkin, Merrill. Absent the Mediterranean, he lives with his
family in Port Townsend, WA.
Kevin Craft received a Bachelor of Arts in both English and French from the University of Maryland, and a Master of Fine Arts in English from the University of Washington. He also studied drama at the University of Sheffield, in Great Britain, and romance languages at the Université de Perpignan, in France. His first book, Solar Prominence (2005), was selected by Vern Rutsala for the Gorsline Prize from Cloudbank Books. His poems, reviews, and essays have appeared widely in such places as Poetry, AGNI, Verse, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Stranger, and Poetry Northwest. Craft has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), the Carmargo Foundation (France), and the Washington State Arts Commission/Artist Trust. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Everett Community College, where he is also Director of Possession Sound Writers. He believes that poems, like good travelers, live in the go-between.
FOR MORE INFO: Contact Richard Kenney (206-543-7899) rk@u.washington.edu, or Kevin Craft (425-388-9395) kcraft@everettcc.edu
PASSPORTS AND VISAS:
You will need a passport to travel to Italy, as well as a student visa for Italy. You must have your passport in hand before you can apply for a visa. It can take time for your passport application to be processed and your passport issued, so it's a good idea to get the wheels turning as early as possible. The cost is $97 for a 10-year passport, and the University Neighborhood Service Center, 4534 University Way NE, is the passport acceptance facility closest to campus. The most extensive passport information, including application procedures, fees, office locations, and even printable application forms you can download, is available from the State Department's passport services website. Some general information on applying for passports is also available by calling the National Passport Information Center toll-free number: 1-877-487-2778, while an automated appointment line and some general information is available at the Seattle Passport Agency: (206) 808-5700.
You will also need a student visa to enter Italy for the Rome Program. The International Programs and Exchanges Office will assist students with this process.
MORE WEB SITES 
There are innumerable Rome sites on the web -- let your favorite search engine loose and explore. Here are a very few to get you started. (Remember, some sites will be in Italian; these often have English translations, which you can access by clicking on a little English flag or graphic -- but this is usually the Union Jack, not the Stars and Stripes. In Europe "English" usually means "England.")
Photos courtesy Kevin Craft.
