Jim Sullivan
The manuscript that I started working on for application to the Iowa Writers' Workshop was unrecognizable from the one that I submitted after working with Don Snyder for one month. He ushered me through draft after draft, identifying weaknesses I was loathe to admit, suggesting alternatives, saving me months of work, until I came up with something he called "bullet-proof." And that proved to be. Years later, as I bore down on my first book, I called on Snyder again at the Retreat in St. Andrews. Same thing: time saved, compelling manuscript, contract won. They say writing can't be taught, and that may be true, but the right person can save you a ton of time.
James Sullivan is the author of Over The Moat, a memoir of courtship in Vietnam that
the Boston Globe celebrated as perfect and the Washington Post hailed as an essential
entry in the canon of expatriate literature. James is also author of National Geographic Traveler: Vietnam.
Melissa Falcon
For me the whole idea of applying to an MFA program was very overwhelming. I had written several stories in my undergraduate workshops, but many of them were not ready for submission to MFA programs where the competition is steep, and even more intense if you are hoping to seat one of the few teaching assistantships available at these programs. These assistantships are essential if you would like to have teaching and academic positions remain open to you. Don Snyder knew this and it was he who sat with me for hours, one on one, as we prepared my manuscript to ready it for my applications. Don had been through the rigor himself and knew many of the program directors, what they were looking for, and the standards of the programs I was applying to. That summer I spent with Don in Canada readying my manuscript and writing at the Retreat in St. Andrews under his remarkable guidance, there with the sea pressing in, surrounded by a natural beauty that nourished my spirit and my writing life, I was set on course for a life I could have only dreamed and access to my writing life dream. Forever, I will be returning there in my imagination, back to those days in the house on Frederick Street where little children passed in the early morning, speaking French on their way to school. There is no place like it, and after all of my travels it is the place and time I long for most. Please contact me if you have any questions about what to expect when you go. The experience and the magic of that special little town will be the start of your own literary journey.
Melissa Falcon, currently a professor of Creative Writing at the College of the Holy Cross, graduated as the Outstanding Graduate of Texas State's MFA Program in fiction, through which she was mentored by the writers Tim O'Brien, Dagoberto Gilb, Tom Grimes, Debra Monroe and Antonya Nelson. She was the recipient of the Katherine Anne Porter Fellowship for Fiction two consecutive years (2001, 2002) and recently completed her first, forthcoming novel, Ink Poison. Her short stories and essays have appeared in various literary magazines and journals including Kaliope, Fiddlehead, The Sandy River Review, Salt magazine, The Maine Scholar and various others. mfalcon@holycross.edu
Al Bohl, author of the novel, Back Porch Swing.
It was a pleasure attending Don’s Snyder’s writer’s retreat. Set in beautiful St. Andrews
By-the-Sea, the retreat provided me the opportunity to become more exposed to the
precious skills needed by every author. Don’s relevant and outstanding instruction equipped
me to leave knowing I was prepared to truly begin a writing career. As a direct result of
his guidance, I have published my first novel and two more are now in the works. Seeking
out the assistance of an experienced author and teacher, like Don, was one of the best
investments I have ever made.
Jesse Workman
When I was finishing my undergraduate degree at the university of Maine in Farmington, Don Snyder trusted the way I see the world, and encouraged me to attend Boston University's Graduate Screen Writing program, even though I am completely blind. He wrote, as I remember it, that: Jesse may not see an empty train station the way you or I do, but he sees what it really is, it's loneliness that is our own in this life...When he started the Writer's Retreat in Saint Andrews I went immediately. The town is very beautiful. The people there actually mean it when they ask you: "How are you'". During my time there, the writers I met inspired me, and what I learned from Don, and the other writers I met there can not be measured. I repeat: the value of what Don Snyder is providing young writers is beyond my words to describe.
Jesse Workman earned an MFA in screenwriting from Boston University. He is currently working on his Phd in Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Denver.
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