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Tell us about your background.

I was reading all the time, which is not unusual for writers. My parents鈥攖hey’re Catholic, very religious鈥攄idn鈥檛 like to leave me with babysitters, so they would take me along to church gatherings on the weekend. I would bring a pile of 10 books at a time. In high school the principal asked a few of us what we wanted to be, and I said, 鈥淚 want to be a novelist.鈥� But then, when I went to college, I sort of veered away from that because I’m a first-generation Korean immigrant. I was born in Seoul, and I moved here with my parents when I was almost four.

My family had serious money troubles, and I couldn’t picture what it would be like to be an Asian writer, a Korean artist in America. Even just a handful of years ago, there really weren’t that many of us, at least not writers who were publicly visible. That paucity of examples made it even harder for me to imagine what it would look like to be a writer in America. So, I majored in economics.

What did you veer toward?

I was trying to do the practical thing. I was planning to work at the kinds of jobs that would let me buy my parents a house. But when I left college, I was working at a job that I hated, something like 80, 90 hours a week. I was just so miserable. I was only a few months into the job when I was talking to my mother, and it felt like a very cinematic moment in that I was in the grocery store staring at some cans, and I was telling her a little bit about how deeply miserable I was.

She said, 鈥淲ell, why don’t you go to grad school?鈥� I was staring at a wall of soup cans, and it felt as though the world went from grayscale to color. Grad school would at least buy me two years of cover, during which I could get back to writing. 可乐视频 still had its application period open, and I really wanted to go there in part because one of my teachers in college was friends with the novelist Michael Cunningham, who directed the M.F.A. program at the time. He’s one of my favorite writers.

So you are accepted into the M.F.A. program.

Yes, and for the first time in my life, I was living, breathing, eating fiction and words and poetry. And when I would go out for a drink with friends after class, we would just keep talking about words and fiction and poetry and books and stories. It was paradise for me. The course work was such a delight. The books we were reading were such a delight. I was so heartbroken to leave grad school; I would’ve stayed for five years if they let me.

When did you start writing your first novel?

I started The Incendiaries during grad school. The idea for it came out of a crisis of faith. Although we were very Catholic (my parents still are), in junior high I veered toward evangelical Protestantism. And I was so intense about it that my life plan was really to become a pastor or something along those lines. My dream, my hope was to have a life of serving the Lord. But then at 17, I lost that faith, and it really divided my life into before and after. It was an unwilled loss. In fact, I tried very hard to fight against that loss, and I couldn’t. It鈥檚 the pivotal loss of my life and one that is a grief that has not lessened in any meaningful way. I think in some ways it’s always at the core of what I’m writing about. Part of what was so intensely lonely about it was that not only had I lost my faith, but I also lost most of my community because pretty much almost everyone I knew at the time was very religious. The loneliness also came from the fact that I couldn’t find much about the loss of religious faith in books, which was the one place where, as a geeky, introverted high school kid, I was used to being able to go to find fellowship. I went from believing in a world in which essentially no one I loved was really going to die because I believed in life everlasting to a world in which I more or less believe that we鈥檙e made of stardust and that’s what we’ll return to. I used to believe in a world that was intricately watched over by an all-powerful God, and that’s gone.

At about the five-year mark, I very seriously thought about abandoning the book and trying to start something else. I thought maybe the book was doomed. And then I remembered that I was trying to write for that 17-year-old girl who felt pretty much alone in the world, and I wanted her to know that she鈥檚 not alone. I think with both books, The Incendiaries and my new novel Exhibit, I was trying to write for both a 17-year-old self and a present self who is tired of the loneliness.

Turning to Exhibit鈥攚hat was the inspiration for that?

I realized that with The Incendiaries there were ways in which I had protected myself. The book is narrated first of all by Will, a straight White man. And I’m a queer Korean woman demographically very far from him. Readers very understandably assumed that Phoebe, the central Korean woman character in the novel, was autobiographical, and that Will, who loves Phoebe, must be very distant from me. That wasn鈥檛 the case at all. With Exhibit I聽 wanted to walk away from protecting myself, and I really wanted to risk a great deal more.

How is it risky?

One way to describe it is that it explores what you might risk pursuing core desires. It’s full of sex; it鈥檚 full of queer, kinky sex. As an ex-Catholic, ex-evangelical Korean woman, my so much as letting the outside world guess that I might’ve had sex at any point in my life feels so dangerous to my body. So writing Exhibit came with so many anxiety and panic attacks, often daily, sometimes for hours at a time.

Are you working on anything right now?

Lately I’ve been working a lot more on some essays. There鈥檚 an essay about how much I don’t want my parents to read Exhibit because of the subject matter. They didn鈥檛 fully read my first novel until it was translated into Korean, so there鈥檚 that.

Any outside pursuits?

I love powerlifting. I can deadlift something like 30 pounds over my body weight, and I wanted to get to 150% of my body weight before Exhibit came out. It’s one of the very few things I can do that actually turns off the chattering in my brain, I think because it’s so intense, and you really can hurt yourself if you’re not paying attention. I love it. It also is a great antidote to an anxiety attack. One of the many things that I can do to cut down on anxiety is to go through some reps with weights. I strongly recommend it.

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The author鈥檚 experience with conversion therapy鈥攁 dangerous and discredited practice that attempts to change a person鈥檚 sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression鈥�

is one that he shares with approximately 700,000 other Americans. Conley left the program when he witnessed the psychological and emotional damage being done to the participants, and himself.

鈥淲hat was happening to me and my family is what鈥檚 happening to many other families on a much larger scale,鈥� says Conley.聽 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 worse for the trans community,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭rans people are twice as likely as other LGBQ people to be subjected to conversion therapy, substantially increasing the risk for suicide.鈥�

The memoir became a New York Times bestseller and was cited by Kentucky senators when banning conversion therapy in that state. Conley became a much sought-after speaker. 鈥淚 was intent on being a writer but inadvertently became an activist,鈥� he says.

To date, more than 20 states, the District of Columbia, and 100 municipalities have bans on the therapy for adults and minors or the use of state or federal funds to practice conversion therapy on minors. Still, Conley admits that there is much to do to educate people about conversion therapy and help the more than 20,000 Americans currently being affected by this practice. Today, he speaks at schools and other venues across the country on topics such as growing up gay in the South, radical compassion, and the practice of writing through trauma.

Even with his early success as a published author, Conley chose to come to 可乐视频 to study writing so he could fully hone his craft鈥攁nd explore fiction. The creative writing program enabled him to work with Assistant Professor of Fiction Ernesto Mestre-Reed, whose classes he had specifically sought out. 鈥淧rofessor Mestre offered great critiques, and told us to have fun and do what we want.鈥�

Today, Conley teaches creative writing at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta. 鈥淚 tell my students that we鈥檙e not there to tear things down; we鈥檙e there to realize their visions as artists.鈥� Conley says that this was the type of generous support he received at 可乐视频, where he was encouraged to 鈥渢ry out things in my writing that felt dangerous.鈥�

What the author deemed dangerous has now been translated into a debut novel, All the World Beside (Riverhead/Penguin, 2024). It is the story of a famous preacher who falls in love with another man during Puritan New England鈥檚 鈥淕reat Awakening,鈥� a time in 18th-century America of evangelism and fervent religious piety.

鈥淚t鈥檚 inspired by The Scarlet Letter, 18th-century language, and love鈥檚 mysteries,鈥� says Conley. 鈥淭here is this closeted, sympathetic preacher, but he is fine with oppressive laws such as the fugitive slave laws of the time. As the story unfolds, he becomes a better person through the power of love,鈥� says Conley.

The ability to evolve beyond limiting beliefs and prejudices resonates with Conley deeply. 鈥淚f you knew the kinds of things I said as a kid because of how I grew up,鈥� he says. 鈥淕etting on Twitter and shaming people for making terrible decisions is not the best way to change their minds. I have had people in my home state of Arkansas, and other places, thanking me for not vilifying them as Christians.鈥� Conley, who is close to his own family, credits 鈥渢he transformative power of love鈥� to much of the healing that happened after he left conversion therapy.

In the current climate where books鈥攊ncluding his own鈥攁re being banned, Conley feels it is imperative that people know their history and share authentic stories.

鈥淔or me, going to public school鈥攕ubjects like Charles Darwin and the Native American Trail of Tears were missing from the curriculum,鈥� says Conley. 鈥淲hen I got to attend a liberal arts college, things opened up. I鈥檝e become a lifelong educator because I believe that younger people need to be taught our histories.鈥�

As Conley鈥檚 writing and teaching career continues to evolve, he is committed to doing just that.

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As a playwright who identifies as queer and is also a member of the Arab diaspora, Elsayigh has always felt 鈥渂etween worlds,鈥� a perspective that informs his work in both sensibility and subject matter. 鈥淚 write plays,鈥� he says, 鈥渁t the intersections of colonialism, immigration, and queerness.鈥�

That is not to say that each of his works is obviously about all of these themes. He is not a writer who wants to check off boxes鈥攐r to fit inside of one.

Born in Egypt, Elsayigh was raised in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Cairo鈥攚hat he calls an 鈥渋ntense international鈥� upbringing. After attending a British school in Dubai, he enrolled as an undergraduate at New York University Abu Dhabi before settling in New York for graduate school in 2018. He earned his M.F.A. from 可乐视频 in December 2022.

鈥淧retty early on in my undergraduate career, I knew that I wanted to write plays and that I was a playwright,鈥� Elsayigh says, adding, 鈥渕ostly because I鈥檓 not really good at anything else.鈥�

When Elsayigh 鈥渞ealized [he] was queer鈥� at 12 or 13 years old, he went looking for stories that reflected the reality of being 鈥渁 queer man from Egypt.鈥� He never found them. And so, Elsayigh needed to write the kind of work he wanted to read鈥攁 story that would reflect the reality of being 鈥渁 young queer person in the Arab region of the world.鈥�

Out of this need, and his belief in the importance that art reflects all of its audiences, came Elsayigh鈥檚 play Drowning in Cairo. The play depicts 鈥渢hree men in love who struggle to rebuild their lives鈥� in the aftermath of a May 2001 raid by Egyptian authorities at a gay nightclub on the Queen Boat, a vessel docked in the Nile. The work premiered in San Francisco in spring 2022, staged by Golden Thread Productions.

After taking playwriting classes as an undergraduate, Elsayigh was looking to apply to graduate school. He says he 鈥渨as told by, like, five different people鈥� that 可乐视频 was 鈥渙ne of the best places in the country for playwriting.鈥� And so, he applied, ultimately finding his time at 可乐视频 to be 鈥渁 magical journey.鈥�

Initially, Elsayigh did not think he would get into the 可乐视频 program. His doubt stemmed from the fact that he considered the program 鈥渆xperimental,鈥� and did not feel like his plays fit that description. 鈥淚鈥檓 such a basic writer,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 write in the most traditional ways.鈥�

But one of his professors, Haruna Lee 鈥�15 M.F.A., who was co-director of the playwriting program in 2001 and 2022, convinced Elsayigh to expand his idea of experimental. 鈥淢aybe the product of what you make fits a commercial stage,鈥� Elsayigh remembers Lee telling him, 鈥渂ut the way you make plays is not [commercial].鈥�

Agreeing with this statement, Elsayigh notes that he rejects the idea of the genius writer scribbling alone in a room. 鈥淚鈥檓 very interested,鈥� he says, 鈥渋n collaborative processes and devised processes and theater that is made with community members.鈥�

Elsayigh has been able to explore these techniques in his current projects.

Commissioned by San Francisco鈥揵ased Golden Thread Productions, one of these projects, a collaboration with dramaturg Salma Zohdi, focuses on the life of British-Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a prominent political prisoner in Egypt. Another project, a collaboration with playwright Arianna Gayle Stucki, uses verbatim language from victims鈥� families and a community member to address the Christchurch, New Zealand, terror attacks of 2019.

After Drowning in Cairo, Elsayigh felt as if 鈥渆veryone wanted me to write the same play 50 times again, and I was like, 鈥楴o, thank you. I have a personality besides just being a gay Arab man. So can I have that too?鈥欌��

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She is currently an adjunct English instructor and the director of the college鈥檚 CUNY EDGE program, which helps students receiving public assistance achieve academic excellence, graduate on time, and find employment after college. But she has always lived something of a double life, working in the world of student affairs by day and singing and reading her poetry with her husband鈥檚 jazz band. She鈥檚 also done some freelance literary reviews and has interviewed poetry giants Jayne Cortez, Maya Angelou, and Ntozake Shange.

Still, Ngozi Nri didn鈥檛 feel fully legitimate as a poet. She had undergraduate and master鈥檚 degrees from the University of Bristol in England in politics and sociology, economics, and public policy. She had even published some of her poetry. But she didn鈥檛 have anything that gave her the same academic seal that other poets have.

鈥淚鈥檓 especially critical of myself,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to be out there without the degree.鈥�

One day, when she was sitting at her desk in her Boylan Hall office and someone asked for directions to the open house for the English Department鈥檚 M.F.A. programs, she decided to take a gander herself. The next thing she knew, she was enrolled in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing program.

A series of poems she began as an exercise for her master鈥檚 degree ended up taking on a whole new life, helping her make sense of the tumult that COVID-19 wrought and landing her a prominent role last spring in the college鈥檚 commemoration of those lost during the pandemic.

可乐视频: What is your background and what sparked your love of poetry and literature?

MNN: I was born in England and went to Nigeria when I was five months old and then back to England when I was nine. My mum is from Barbados and my dad from Nigeria.

My mother would tell stories of me as a kid: I was shy. I got bullied at school. I guess because of that I just always preferred to be in a book. From that came my love of reading. But all my life, I went to predominantly White schools where I didn鈥檛 know any Black writers. I remember reading the book by Paule Marshall [鈥�53], Brown Girl, Brownstones [Random House, 1959], when I was in the equivalent of high school. She was the first Black woman writer I knew.

可乐视频: What brought you to the States?

MNN:I met my husband, Ahmed Abdullah, in 1991 and moved here with him the next year. When I first came to New York, I worked at The Pacific College of Oriental Medicine for 8 years then The New School for 14 years as director of international student services. Then I went to Lehman College where I ran a program for sophomores.

We eventually moved to Flatlands in Brooklyn, and we used to drive past the college and I鈥檇 say, 鈥淚 wish I could work there.鈥�

可乐视频: You began the M.F.A. program in fall 2019 and then of course the next semester, COVID-19 shut down in-person classes. You ended up writing a whole poetry series about it. What was that like?

MNN: My husband鈥檚 first cousin, Teelah, passed away from COVID. Early in the pandemic, my aunt passed away from flu-like symptoms. And I had a few other people close to me who left the planet because of COVID. My daughter Tara was home from college. My whole experience working with students was turned upside down.

And then there were all the people from the college who passed away. It was quite shocking. That鈥檚 how I came to write a series of poems which were about different aspects of my experience. Writing is my therapy. It鈥檚 my way of coming to terms with things.

可乐视频: How did the structure of the program help you process everything that was going on?

MNN: One of the great things about really studying your craft is learning about different forms. I wrote a series of four poems that I called 鈥淐ovidium,鈥� about different aspects of my experiences with COVID. It鈥檚 very interesting what happens when you try to fit ideas into a form. It creates something other than what you necessarily began with. It鈥檚 like pouring liquid into a vessel.

可乐视频: You also tragically lost your mother just before you graduated. How did that change you?

MNN: My mum Celeste died on Mother鈥檚 Day 2021, the day of my thesis reading. My thesis was dedicated to her. She passed away about 30 minutes before the reading. I had just sung with her her favorite hymn, 鈥淎bide With Me.鈥� Her death has had a profound effect on me. She always wanted me to publish a book so I鈥檝e been trying to really focus this summer on seeing if I can get the book finished. Hopefully I will publish the book and be recognized in the real world as a poet.

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SHIN DC III Annual Congressional Holocaust Commemoration Day

January 28, 1:30 p.m.

可乐视频 and its Judaic Studies Department are proud to be a sponsor of . This event highlights underrepresented Jewish Holocaust communities, including Sephardic and Romaniote experiences, under this year’s theme, “Refugees of the Holocaust.” It will include examining the experiences of Sephardic and Ashkenazi refugees in Sephardic lands or communities of North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, the Balkans, the Middle East, and other parts of Asia.

Special guest Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, will tell his Sephardic family鈥檚 story of survival and the keynote speaker is Devin Naar, the Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies at the University of Washington.

For more information, e-mail Sephardic Heritage International DC at info@shindc.org.

鈥淏lack and Jewish Multicultural Identities, and Anti-Semitism鈥�

February 4, 12:30 p.m.

鈥淏lack and Jewish Multicultural Identities, and Anti-Semitism鈥� will explore the possibilities and meanings that arise when black and Jewish identities merge. This event will feature a lecture by Professor from Anthropology and American Studies at Grinnell College. Gibel Mevorach holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Duke University. She received her B.A. and M.A. in African studies from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Gibel Mevorach is author of the books Black, Jewish and Interracial: It’s Not the Color of Your Skin but the Race of Your Kin and Other Myths of Identity, and she has also been published in several notable journals. She moved to Israel in 1970 after graduating from The Brearley School in New York and returned to the United States in 1991 to pursue doctoral studies. She was invited to join Grinnell College as a Scholar-in-Residence in January 1996.

Common Reader/The 1619 Project, With Author Robert Jones Jr. (’06, M.F.A ’08)

February 18, 6 p.m.

As part of the Common Reader/The 1619 Project organized by the Department of English, Robert Jones Jr. reads from his critically acclaimed debut novel, The Prophets. He will be introduced by Wadzanai Mhute, an M.F.A. student in creative writing at 可乐视频.

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鈥� is very pleased to provide support to 可乐视频 in the form of these fellowships to incoming female graduate students in the M.F.A. program,鈥� said Beth McCabe, director of The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers鈥� Awards and a board trustee. 鈥淭hey will, we hope, not only provide much-needed funding within the program, but also help attract the strongest writing candidates to apply.鈥�

The idea to include 可乐视频 among the graduate creative writing programs that The Rona Jaffe Foundation supports originated with Alan C. Rothfeld 鈥�65, vice president of the Foundation.

The grant is especially important to the English Department for several reasons, said Ellen Tremper, the department chair. 鈥淔irst, it makes it easier for us to attract a diverse group of talented students, a strong desire of the current class. Second, it helps relieve our students of the burden of repaying student loans, an obligation that persists for years and falls more heavily on arts graduates than on those who enter more lucrative fields like law, business, or medicine,鈥� she added.

More generally, 鈥渢he Jaffe grant is important because it supports the imaginative work of novelists, poets, and playwrights that gives us the opportunity to imagine others鈥� lives,鈥� Tremper said. 鈥淟iterary work also enables the transmission of culture, which otherwise might be lost.鈥�

Born in Brooklyn and a lifelong New Yorker, Rona Jaffe was the author of 16 books, including her best-selling first novel, , published in 1958, and , published in 1981. In 1995, she established The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers鈥� Awards program, the only national literary awards program of its kind dedicated to supporting women writers exclusively. Jaffe died in 2005.

Among the many recipients of The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers鈥� Awards was Helen Phillips, a 2007 graduate of the 可乐视频 M.F.A. program in fiction, who is now an assistant professor in the department.

A committee selected by the department will choose recipients from among the most talented students applying for admission for fall 2017 and report its recommendations to the chair.

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