The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College recently celebrated its annual winter residency in Black Mountain, NC this July. The residency featured inspiring lectures and classes from both faculty and graduating students. And writers and readers can access the wonderful craft discussions and lectures from the MFA Program for Writers faculty online here. All MFA Store proceeds directly support graduate student scholarships in the MFA Program for Writers.
Rita Banerjee’s Opening Lecture “Weaving, Braiding, Spinning: Art of the Lyrical, Nonlinear Narrative” challenges the dominance of the plot triangle, hero’s journey, and Aristotelian ideal of “plot as action” by exploring three approaches to narrative design that are derived from what was historically considered women’s work: weaving, braiding, and spinning. These structural forms, which help acknowledge the context of a text and make room for nonlinear, polyvocal narratives, move storytelling away from an egocentric, “masculo-sexual” plot triangle, to what Jane Alison calls a more communal, “allocentric” narrative design. Authors studied in this talk include Jane Alison, Elissa Washuta, Theresa Warburton, Ovid, Goethe, M. NourbeSe Philip, Lidia Yuknavitch, and Kate Morton.
The Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers store features a rich archive of faculty lectures and craft discussions from January 1992 – January 2026, and can be accessed here: warrenwilsonmfa.org/store/
Rita Banerjee 