Charles River Review

Contributors

Marion Aymie wrote “Role Play” in Robin Lippincott’s Introduction to Fiction. This first attempt at fiction writing is based on her observation of the way roles change in people’s lives, especially those of parents and children as the aging process takes hold. “Role Play” also proposes that who we are, and what we want, does not fundamentally change as we get older.

Elke Blackstone wrote “Disintegration in Five Scenes” in Emily Miller’s Essay (taken as a self-soothing measure after getting her butt kicked by a physics course). She is currently a degree candidate at Extension and works full time for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Although busy, she still sets aside a few hours each week to meander around the city taking pictures of things. This is the first time Ms. Blackstone will see her name in print, and she hates okra. (It ruins gumbo.)

Jessica Bozek wrote “Ideas of Landscape” in Janet Sylvester’s Advanced Poetry. Ms. Bozek received her BA in comparative literature from Boston University and her MA in Eastern European literature from the University of London. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in creative writing and English at the University of Georgia. She is the associate editor of Perihelion.

Jim Brennan has been fascinated by the relationship between the French and Americans since his own expatriate assignment in France several years ago. This fascination inspired “My Favorite French Philosopher,” which he completed in Paul Harding’s Advanced Fiction. There are things about this relationship that remain a mystery to Mr. Brennan, but he knows a good cup of coffee when he has one.

Jean Chandler wrote “The Blue Dungeon” in Robin Lippincott’s Introduction to Fiction to honor the remarkable grieving children and teenagers with whom she worked for ten years as a psychotherapist, specializing in bereavement. She holds an MA in counseling psychology and an MEd and has enjoyed classes in fiction, memoir, essay, and psychology at the Extension School.

Michelle Coleman is a Boston-based Brooklynite whose roots inform her writing, her sensibilities, and her accent. Carmen, her mother, inspired the story “We Wear the Mask” which was written in Julie Anne McNary’s Introduction to Fiction. By day Ms. Coleman is a grown-up who works at the Harvard School of Public Health. By night her possibilities are endless. She dedicates this piece to her partner, Pamela Denise.

Jessica Collins wrote “This Is How It Is” in Erika Dreifus’s Intermediate Fiction. She has a BA in sociology, a depressing retail job, and two lovely cats. Ms. Collins entered the MFA program in creative writing at New School University in New York City this past fall.

Jennifer DeBell is studying English and American literature at Extension. Since leaving Virginia, she has become more interested in the tradition of southern literature and wrote “Surrender” in Erika Dreifus’s Intermediate Fiction, drawing on the landscape of her childhood. In July, 2004, Ms. DeBell attended a workshop on narrative structure at the University of Iowa, intent on expanding this story into a novel.

Rich Foster wrote “Route 72, Sunrise” in Susan Carlisle’s Intermediate Poetry. His adolescent years in (and subsequent return to) Southern New Jersey inspired this piece. Mr. Foster holds a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design; this is his second semester at the Extension School.

Christine Frost is an ALM candidate in literature and creative writing. This chapter is an excerpt from her third novel, Lucretia’s Reflection, workshopped in William Holinger’s Writing the Novel; it’s a modern Gothic retelling of The Thousand and One Nights. Like all Goth enthusiasts, Ms. Frost works best long after the sun sets, preferably by the ruby glow of a glass of sangria.

After her son had a serious head injury at camp last summer, Cathy Gibson found herself dealing with increased anxiety: anxiety about what happened to her son and anxiety about what could have happened. She even considered taking a semester off from pursuing her ALB. Luckily, she didn’t. Luckily, she took Dr. Heather Bryant Jordan’s Essay where she wrote “String of Pearls.” When students were assigned to write about a topic that had personal meaning, Ms. Gibson knew about what she had to write. With each iteration of the story, her anxiety lessened. She won’t say she was worry-free by the end of writing this essay, but she was calmer than she had been in a very long time.

Lee Hunnewell has been thinking about her parents’ relationship for many years, thinking about (as she mentions in the piece) how theirs was the most seamless relationship she’d ever known. “Telephone Talk,” written in Heather Bryant Jordan’s Essay, is a tribute to togetherness and independence or, more accurately, the balance of both in the lives of two people. Like her father and mother, Ms. Hunnewell loves to travel, and when she’s not teaching during the year, she finds a way to work overseas. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1994 and from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2000. The fall 2003 semester was her first at the Extension School.

Tira Khan’s “Safari” was inspired by a trip she took to Africa over a decade ago. With the trip to Africa and other exotic journeys far behind her, she currently finds time to write between filling sippy cups and attempting to avert six-, four-, and one-year-old meltdowns. This spring she graduated from the Extension School with her ALM in literature and creative writing.

Ann Lees is a life-long walker on beaches, ranging from British Columbia and Cape Breton in Canada, to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Siesta Key, Florida in the United States. She was inspired by all these adventures to write “Sea Songs” in Susan Carlisle’s Introduction to Poetry. She holds an MD degree from Harvard Medical School and has taken several Extension School creative writing and literature courses.

Clark Magnan wrote “Calloused” as his final assignment in Philip Gambone’s Introduction to Creative Writing. The setting comes straight from his childhood spent on a small dairy farm in Vermont. Years in the city have done away with most of the calluses formed during endless hours of barn chores, a fact of which his father and brothers like to jokingly remind him. Mr. Magnan left the family homestead, obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology and now takes creative writing classes for a change of pace.

Tim McIntire is a touring standup comic who calls Boston his home. Although he has written and sold television scripts, he took Phil Gambone’s Introduction to Fiction as a way to try something new, both in terms of format and tone. His one goal was to write something that wasn’t funny, and by that standard, he considers “Coyotes” a success.

Diane McSweeney wrote “Little Dancers” in Janet Sylvester’s Introduction to Creative Writing. Diane has been in the printing and publishing business for over 30 years; this is her first foray into the writing end of the business. “Writing ‘Little Dancers’ proved to be very cathartic in dealing with my sister’s newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis and illustrated just how strong the bond of love is between us.” Ms. McSweeney holds a BS from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from Northeastern University. She plans to pursue her newly discovered interest in poetry at the Extension School’s Writing Program.

In July 2003 Pier Myburgh moved to Cambridge from South Africa to look after her two small children while her husband studied at Harvard. She wrote “Flowers for Her” and “African Rain” in Christopher Gleason’s Introduction to Fiction and Intermediate Fiction. The short, cold days of her first Cambridge winter account, in part, for the dark nature of her stories. Friends have urged Ms. Myburgh to lighten up, and she hopes to do so now that she has returned to sunnier South Africa, where she plans to continue writing many more (some hilarious) stories.

Christine Perkins wrote “Contributions May Be Made in Memory” for Heather Bryant Jordan’s Essay, her first class at Extension. Ms. Perkins has accumulated pages of story ideas from reading obituaries and plans to continue to take classes with the hope of putting those ideas into writing.

Between diaper changes, cooking chicken nuggets, and reading bedtime stories, Ruth Rohde writes, runs, and kayaks. She wrote “Reflections on a Life Lived on the Run” in Jane Brox’s Introduction to Memoir. She holds a BA in creative writing and women’s studies from Hampshire College; an MST in environmental studies from Antioch/New England; and an MSW from Simmons School of Social Work. Ms. Rohde’s favorite career was as an outdoor leader, and she looks forward to the day her children are old enough to go on extended trips with her into the wild.

Jerome Rosen retired in 1999 after 40 years (he started young) as a symphonic violinist and keyboard player, 27 of them in Boston. Between courses at the Extension School, he performs as a chamber music and solo pianist, and writes poetry both serious and satirical (the latter under the pen-name Heironymus Frosch). Mr. Rosen wrote “The Church of Saint Éinne, Inishmore, Aran Islands” and “Verdun, June 2003” in Susan Carlisle’s Introduction to Poetry and is very appreciative of her help in writing these poems.

Laurie Rosenblatt, MD wrote this series of poems in Susan Carlisle’s Intermediate Poetry. Dr. Rosenblatt teaches at Harvard Medical School and practices medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. In addition to professional publications, her poems have appeared in Coelacanth, Borderlands: Texas Review of Poetry, Florida English, Poesy, Academic Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Ashley Smith wrote “The North and the South: Woodville Revisited” for Sanford Kaye’s Introduction to Memoir. She recently graduated from Suffolk University with degrees in film studies and theatre arts. Given the severity of these long, cold New England winters, Ms. Smith hopes to one day relocate to her native Mississippi to pursue a career in brewing beer.

Sean Sullivan is a native of Framingham, Massachusetts and holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University. He is currently employed as a marketing copywriter at The Boston Globe. Mr. Sullivan wrote “Kennedyesque” in Robin Lippincott’s Introduction to Fiction. Writing about his adolescence was difficult yet necessary, as he could not come up with any other ideas for a story.

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