28 OregonStater.org C u Lt uR E JOEL FILIPE / UNSPLASH BIG BLUE FILM FESTIVAL Jan. 24 –25, 2025 Take part in two days of oceanthemed films at the confluence of marine sciences, humanities and the arts. Films air at both the Hatfield Marine Science Center and the Newport Performing Arts Center in Newport over two days. Learn more and see the lineup at beav.es/big-blue. Chantil Dukart Dec. 31 at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Ray Theater, PRAx, 470 SW 15th Street, Corvallis Ring in the new year with Chantil Dukart of the Eagle clan, a jazz pianist and singer. The Indigenous Jazz Club presents an intimate experience in a classic jazz club setting. For tickets, see beav.es/ jazz-club. The Immigrant Story Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. Detrick Hall, PRAx, 470 SW 15th Street, Corvallis First-person stories of survival and memorable music mark this celebration of hope. See details at beav.es/ immigrant-story. Provost’s Lecture Series: Céline Cousteau Mar. 10 at 7 p.m. Detrick Hall, PRAx, 470 SW 15th Street, Corvallis A conversation with environmental activist, filmmaker and author Céline Cousteau. For tickets and live- streaming, see beav. es/provost-lecture. Find more events at ForOregonState.org/events and prax.oregonstate.edu. SAVE THE DATE E V E N T S LITERATURE writer and an endowed faculty position.) Malamud also tried to establish a creative community among the faculty at Oregon State, organizing foreign film screen- ings and a reader’s theater. There are material consequences to creating an academic environment rooted in as intangible a quality as community.“The best things that came out of grad school for me were the people I met,” says Associate Professor Elena Passarello, the current program director (and my former thesis advisor). Each faculty thesis advisor normally works with only one or two students per year; the two-year program has 24 students total. These close relationships help steer students’ thesis projects and model “editorial attention,” Passarello says, with the goal of preparing them for future conversations with agents and publishers. The core of the MFA is the workshop, a genre-specific class in which students submit their worksin-progress for feedback. Strong cohort bonds make for more constructive workshop conversations. But don’t think that this means everyone is simply nice; the sense of community creates a level of trust that allows students to provide meaningful feedback. Some students continue exchanging work even after completing their degrees; I’m part of a workshop group that includes graduates from five different classes. “The writing life is really hard to keep up without a community,” Zoë Bossiere, MFA ’17, recalls undergraduate professors warning them before they began applying to grad school. Bossiere still remembers receiving the call that they had been admitted to OSU. They were standing in their family’s Airstream trailer, where they’d grown up. A photo of that trailer now illustrates the cover of their memoir, Cactus Country, which came out this year. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MOLLY ROSBACH. continued
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