
About the Field Studies in Writing Program
FIELD STUDIES SOUTHWEST Summer 2020 welcomes Katrina Ivanov, Logan Phillips, Hannah Rego, and Jaclyn Sipovic to our COVID-19 adapted program in which we will explore how field research in the Southwest borderlands looks during a global pandemic. We are grateful for support from the UA College of Social and Behavioral Science’s Community Engagement funding and for Regents Professor research support that make this work possible. Participant blog posts will arrive soon. Francisco Cantú launches this summers reflections. A new post from Logan Phillips along with video is now posted on our blog.
History
GRAND MANAN FIELD STUDIES The Field Studies in Writing Program on Grand Manan brought students from the University of Arizona Creative Writing Program to Grand Manan Island in the Canadian Maritimes over the course of five summers (2015-2019).The pilot program was made possible by the appointment of Professor Alison Hawthorne Deming as Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in Environment and Social Justice. On the island students worked on research and writing to create place-based literature exploring how the arts and literature contribute to our understanding of environment and climate change. With a population of 2500 year-round residents, Grand Manan has a 200-year history of traditional fisheries, now undergoing profound changes due to decline of fish–and recently a dramatic increase in lobsters—in the North Atlantic. The project engaged with island youth to mentor them in telling their stories of coming of age in this place where sustainability of the local culture is deeply tied to the sustainability of marine life.
FIELD STUDIES SOUTHWEST In 2017 the University of Arizona Creative Writing Program launched a companion program, Field Studies Southwest, supported by the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice. MFA students spend two weeks in southern Arizona exploring how literary and documentary arts can create humane responses to environmental, social justice and border issues in the region. The new southwest project is coordinated by recent MFA alumnus (and Grand Manan Field Studies alum) Francisco Cantú. Associate Professor Susan Briante serves as faculty facilitator. Ethnobotanist and Patagonia resident Gary Paul Nabhan also serves as consultant. Participants work in collaboration with the Borderlands Earth Care Youth Institute, a program sponsored by the Borderlands Habitat Institute, engaging culturally diverse youth in hands-on restoration work of the local ecosystem while providing leadership and educational opportunities. Students also visit migrant shelters, the Border Community Alliance, and other organizations working for social justice on the border.
BLOG POSTS FOR 2020 BEGIN WITH FRANCISCO CANTÚ & LOGAN PHILLIPS
2019 Grand Manan: EMILIO CARRERO, KIM BUSSING, & KEVIN MOSBY
2019 Southwest: KAT IVANOV, LOGAN PHILLIPS, & MIRANDA TRIMMIER
ENJOY!
Blog
Creative Works
The Team 2020 FIELD STUDIES SOUTHWEST
Katerina Ivanov is a Mexican-Russian writer raised in the swamps of Northern Florida. Her work in multiple genres has been published in Bird’s Thumb,The Florida Review, and The Nashville Review. Most recently, she won the John Weston Award for Fiction. She is currently an MFA student at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Logan Phillips is a bilingual poet, performer, educator and DJ based in Tucson, Arizona. Born in Cochise County, Arizona to a family of Irish-Slavic ancestry, Phillips lived in and around Mexico City 2006-2011, where he contributed to organizing and hosting the country’s first regular poetry slam series. He has regularly performed in venues across the U.S., Latin America and beyond since 2007, and is author of the full-length book of poems Sonoran Strange (West End Press, 2015). Phillips is currently a MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Arizona.
Hannah Rego is a writer from Louisville, Kentucky. They are an MFA candidate at the University of Arizona and a founding editor of ctrl+v, a journal of collage. Their work appears or is forthcoming in Bettering American Poetry Vol. 3, Best Small Fictions 2020, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. (Author photo: Don Calva)
Jaclyn Sipovic is an MFA candidate in nonfiction at the University of Arizona. Originally from Michigan, she writes about landscape, boundaries, water, sound.
The Team 2019 Grand Manan Field Studies
Kim Bussing is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Arizona. Originally from Seattle, she has worked as a journalist and editor in Los Angeles and Australia, and at a farm in the Pacific Northwest. Her writing explores the intersections between mental health, the female body, and the environment, using mythology and folklore to interrogate these themes and the social-cultural circumstances from which they emerged. She also enjoys traveling, rain, and coffee.
Emilio Carrero is a writer from Orlando, Florida. He recently completed an MFA in creative nonfiction at the University of Arizona and is editor-in-chief for Sonora Review. His writing explores issues of poverty, sexual violence, and suicide. He is currently working on a book that investigates the nature of creaturely life and serves as a foreground for the exploration of memories (both repressed and remembered) and the socio-political realities of American life.
Kevin Mosby is an MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at the University of Arizona. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Kevin regularly writes about kitsch, crime, gender, and family. He is currently working on a book about the cultural fascination with the true crime genre.
The Team 2019 Field Studies Southwest
Katerina Ivanov is a Mexican-Russian writer raised in the swamps of Northern Florida. Her work in multiple genres has been published in Bird’s Thumb, The Florida Review, and The Nashville Review. Most recently, she won the John Weston Award for Fiction. She is currently an MFA student at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Logan Phillips is a bilingual poet, performer, educator and DJ based in Tucson, Arizona. Born in Cochise County, Arizona to a family of Irish-Slavic ancestry, Phillips lived in and around Mexico City 2006-2011, where he contributed to organizing and hosting the country’s first regular poetry slam series. He has regularly performed in venues across the U.S., Latin America and beyond since 2007, and is author of the full-length book of poems Sonoran Strange (West End Press, 2015). Phillips is currently a MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Arizona.
Miranda Trimmier grew up in Milwaukee, lives in Tucson, and is writing a book about how concepts of land shape place. She recently completed her MFA in creative nonfiction at the University of Arizona. Her work has been published in Places Journal, The New Inquiry, Terrain, and other outlets.
The Team 2018
Field Studies Grand Manan



The Team 2018
Field Studies Southwest



The Team 2017
Field Studies Grand Manan



The Team 2017
Field Studies Southwest



The Team 2016



Contact Us
Thank you for your interest in the Field Studies Writing program! Contact us at info@fieldstudieswriting.com.