{"id":230,"date":"2022-09-09T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/?p=230"},"modified":"2022-12-05T12:31:47","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T18:31:47","slug":"fentress-work-evolves-into-the-admissions-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/news\/fentress-work-evolves-into-the-admissions-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Fentress\u2019 work evolves into \u2018The Admissions Project\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Fentress-with-Marshand-Boone-Linda-Jone\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The evolution of Ellen Ann Fentress\u2019 work continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A project that originally started as essays about segregation academies in the state of Mississippi has changed names to include stories from public schools. The revamped website, which is called \u201cThe Admissions Project: Race and the Possible for Southern Schools,\u201d has been featured recently on The Community Foundation for Mississippi. The foundation is the fiscal agent for the project, a 501c3 nonprofit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fentress, a visiting professor in the Mississippi University for Women\u2019s low-residency MFA in Creative Writing, also has started work on a three-episode podcast of polished audio documentaries in the style of \u201cThis American Life,\u201d an American weekly hour-long public radio program. Fentress has taken three reporting trips this summer to the Heidelberg, Mississippi, area to begin work on the podcasts with the support of Robert Anderson and Marshand Boone, project contributors who are lending crucial time and skill to the nonprofit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith so much culture wars conversation about writing on race, the project is a vote for the power of hard truth telling,\u201d said Fentress, who is seeking grass-roots support to keep the project operating. A $7,500 grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council that allowed Fentress to launch the project under its original title, \u201cThe Academy Stories,\u201d in October 2019 recently expired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is special for Fentress, whose mother graduated from The W and whose grandmother and great grandmother also attended the school, in part because she graduated from Pillow Academy in Greenwood in 1974. She went on to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree in Modern Languages from Mississippi College in 1978 and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one really wants to tell the stories because it is not a proud story, but they need to be recorded for history,\u201d said Fentress, who first wrote about her experiences at Pillow Academy in an essay in the online publication \u201cThe Bitter Southerner.\u201d She said she recently noticed at least one college syllabus (from Trinity College in Connecticut) assigning reading from \u201cThe Admissions Project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fentress isn\u2019t The W\u2019s only tie to \u201cThe Admissions Project.\u201d Faculty members Paulette Boudreaux and Bridget Smith Pieschel have shared their stories on the website as have MFA students and alumni like Teresa Nicholas (current student) and MFA alums Jackie Clowney and Courtney Clark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fentress said Clowney only realized her alma mater had been founded as a way to flee Memphis school integration after she heard her presentation on the history project during our 2020 MFA residency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clark\u2019s story was cited in \u201cSouthern Beauty,\u201d a southern history study released by University of Georgia Press on Aug. 15. After her site essay appeared, she talked about the experience and about taking part in \u201cThe Admissions Project\u201d on Delta Talk by David Dallas, a radio and online interview program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, MFA alum Kyla Hanington organized and appeared in webcasts about \u201cThe Admissions Project\u201d co-sponsored by the Prince George\u2019s County (Maryland) Memorial Library and the county\u2019s Human Relations Commission. Boudreaux talked about her essay as a guest on the April 2021 webcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mississippi Free Press has partnered with \u201cThe Admissions Project\u201d by presenting a portal to the project on its home page. There have also been programs at Delta State University, at the 2022 Southern Literary Festival at The W in April and at the past two years\u2019 McMullan Young Writers Workshop, which brings high school writers together for a week-long residency every July at Millsaps College. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fentress said a date hasn\u2019t been set for the release of the podcast. She welcomes financial support to help defray travel and technical expenses and encourages grant makers or grass-roots supporters who find resonance with the project to aid in her efforts to capture pieces of avoided history she feels will enable everyone to take important steps toward a healthier future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe story keeps evolving,\u201d Fentress said. \u201cI can\u2019t help but think bringing this conversation into the light instead of continuing to suppress it \u2014 because it hasn\u2019t been talked about for 50 years \u2014 is going to help. I hope the website is not just a confessional. It is designed to have a constructive conversation and to see where it goes. The first step is to tell these stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fentress encourages anyone who wants to tell their academy or public-school story to go to: https:\/\/admissionsprojects.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like to donate to the project, go to: https:\/\/formississippi.networkforgood.com\/projects\/106312-eyes-on-mississippi?fbclid=IwAR0zw1bG2s9bRT07jqXe3Hy9RC90hXp5d8HDmhKYNY1JdJN3z2tE8SEh7VI<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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