The Workshop

28/06/2021

16/03/2021

Episode 20! A joint MA+MFA program allows students to deepen their understanding of literary criticism and theory while crafting creative works. Jeremiah Barker of Northwestern University tells Jared how they balance the workload, how they find self-compassion in the face of pandemic-induced writer’s block, and how writing about trauma is and is not like therapy.

Jeremiah Barker is an essayist currently based in Chicago. They are a third-year student in the MA and MFA Litowitz Graduate Program at Northwestern University. Their work has appeared in Ploughshares and StoryQuarterly.

Listen to this conversation anywhere you get podcasts.

https://www.jaredmccormack.com/mfawritersjeremiahbarker

14/03/2021

Today's the day! It's not too late to register for The Workshop's *free* I Applied to MFAs: What's Next? webinar, happening at 4PM Eastern. Head to readtheworkshop.com/events to sign up, and we'll see you soon!

[Image description: Snoopy, a cartoon dog, does a happy dance beneath the words "See you soon!"]

12/03/2021

In the words of Swedish rock band Europe, "It's the final countdown." Our free I Applied To MFAs: What's Next? webinar is just TWO (2) days away! For the low, low price of $0.00, you can sign up over at readtheworkshop.com/events to take in the wisdom of creative writing MFA graduates in poetry, fiction, CNF, and hybrid-genre writing from the The University of Alabama Program in Creative Writing, Brown University, Cornell Department of Literatures in English, IUB English, Northern Michigan University, UNCW Department of Creative Writing, and Warren Wilson College. Make sure to register ASAP, and we'll see you on Sunday, March 14th at 4PM EDT!

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09/03/2021

Re-introducing our most excellent moderator! Eshani Surya is a fiction writer based in Greenville, South Carolina. Her writing has appeared in or is forthcoming in PANK Magazine, Catapult, Paper Darts Magazine, Joyland, and Literary Hub, among others. Eshani is also Assistant Flash Editor at Split Lip Magazine. She holds an MFA from the University of Arizona Creative Writing MFA Program in Tucson. Learn from Eshani soon at our free I Applied to MFAs: What’s Next? webinar on Sunday, March 14th at 4PM EDT. Nab your seat ASAP by registering at readtheworkshop.com/events. And if you’d like to learn even further from them, you’re in luck! Visit www.eshani-surya.com to find out more about Eshani’s creative coaching offerings.

[Image description: Eshani looks at the camera and smiles.]

07/03/2021

Last but not least, meet I Applied To MFAs: What’s Next? webinar (free registration at readtheworkshop.com/events) panelist Krys! Krys Malcolm Belc (NMU English Department) is the author of the memoir The Natural Mother of the Child (Counterpoint Press), forthcoming in June. He has also written a chapbook of flash nonfiction, In Transit (The Cupboard Pamphlet) and his essays have appeared in Granta, The Rumpus, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. Krys lives in Philadelphia with his partner and their three children and works as an Education Coordinator in the Cancer Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We can’t wait to learn from him on Sunday, March 14th at 4PM Eastern!

06/03/2021

Up next in our I Applied To MFAs: What’s Next? webinar (free registration at readtheworkshop.com/events) panelist lineup, it’s Shelley! Shelley Senai is a recent graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and currently serves as the assistant fiction editor at Raleigh Review. Her work can be found in The Citron Review and Reservoir Journal. In 2018, she received an emerging artist award from the St. Botolph Club Foundation in Boston. She resides outside of Boston with her husband and two young children, and is currently finishing her first novel. Find Shelley at her website, shelleysenai.com. And at our panel for creative writing MFA applicants on Sunday, March 14th at 4PM Eastern!

[Image description: Shelley holds a Warren Wilson diploma and looks into the camera with a smile, a yellow flower on her left.]

05/03/2021

Introducing our next panelist! Cat Ingrid Leeches (The University of Alabama Program in Creative Writing) is a writer, editor, and adjunct. They currently live in East Dallas. Their work has appeared in Passages North, Mid-American Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, and other journals. They have a chapbook, THE CONNOISSEUR (Garden-Door Press), and a cat named Dirtbike. Find them on Twitter . And come learn from them at our I Applied to MFAs: What’s Next? webinar on Sunday, March 14th at 4PM Eastern. Free registration available at readtheworkshop.com/events.

[Image description: Cat wears sunglasses while looking at a phone they are holding. A feline cat has their head and a paw sticking out of a sling worn by human Cat.]

04/03/2021

Meet our next panelist! Soleil Davíd moved from the Philippines to the United States at age 17. Her work has appeared in The Arkansas International, MARY: A Journal of New Writing, cream city review, and Asian American Writers' Workshop's The Margins, among others. She received a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from IUB English, where she served as Poetry Editor of Indiana Review. Davíd has received support from PEN America, VONA /Voices and Bread Loaf Translators' Conference. She lives in Washington, DC. Learn from Soleil soon at our free I Applied To MFAs: What’s Next? webinar on Sunday, March 14th at 4PM Eastern. Sign up ASAP at readtheworkshop.com/events.

[Image description: Soleil stands in front of trees, gazing into the distance and smiling.]

03/03/2021

Introducing our next panelist! A. J. Gnuse (UNCW Department of Creative Writing) is the author of GIRL IN THE WALLS, forthcoming May 2021 with Ecco Books. A native of New Orleans, he lives in Texas. We’re excited to hear what A.J. has to say at our free I Applied To MFAs: What Next? webinar on Sunday, March 14th at 4PM EDT. Register ASAP at readtheworkshop.com/events.

[Image description: A black and white photograph of A.J. standing in front of a wall, looking into the camera with a smile.]

02/03/2021

Ep. 19! A low-residency MFA program helped Koyé Oyedeji of Warren Wilson College develop the discipline to work full-time while writing his composite novel. He and Jared discuss the ins and outs of the low-res experience, as well as how being a British person of Nigerian descent living in the US inspires Koyé to write about Black relationships through the lens of identity and class.

Koyé Oyedeji’s writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, Wasafiri Magazine (UK), The Good Journal (UK) and elsewhere. He has contributed to a number of anthologies, received scholarships to attend the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and has also previously attended the VONA /Voices and Callaloo writing workshops. He is currently a Holden Scholar in the Warren Wilson MFA program, where he just entered his final semester. He lives in Washington, DC and is currently at work on a composite novel.

Listen to this full conversation on intersectionality, Yoruba beliefs and history, and the low-res experience on the latest episode of MFA Writers, available wherever you get podcasts.

https://www.jaredmccormack.com/mfawriterskoyeoyedeji

02/03/2021

Meet our next I Applied To MFAs: What’s Next? panelist! Shakarean (Cornell Department of Literatures in English) is a writer from the Lowcountry of SC. Her work has been published in Joyland and The Missouri Review. Sign up ASAP at readtheworkshop.com/events to catch Shakarean's insights on Sunday, March 14th at 4PM Eastern.

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01/03/2021

Meet our first panelist! Julia Madsen is a first-gen writer, scholar, and educator. She earned an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University and a PhD in English/Creative Writing from the University of Denver. Her first book, The Boneyard, The Birth Manual, A Burial: Investigations into the Heartland (Trembling Pillow Press), was listed on Entropy ’s Best Poetry Books of 2018. Her hybrid chapbook, “Home Movie, Nowhere,” was published with Diagram New Michigan Press this year.

Come learn from Julia at our I'm Applying To MFAs: What's Next? panel event on Sunday 3/14 at 4PM Eastern. www.facebook.com/events/429170851719238

25/02/2021

Greetings! The Workshop has some very exciting news! The Workshop will be hosting a *free* I Applied To MFAs: What's Next? panel for MFA applicants (as well as any of you out there who sat out this cycle, but are thinking of applying down the line) on Sunday, March 14th from 4-5:30PM Eastern.

Our panelists are graduates in poetry, fiction, CNF, and hybrid-genre writing from the University of Alabama, Brown, Cornell, Indiana University, Northern Michigan University, UNC-Wilmington, and Warren Wilson. Cady (OSU) and Elana Lev (CU Boulder) will also be in the chat helping answer questions, and the event will be spearheaded by our kick-butt moderator, Eshani Surya (U of Arizona). We'll be answering questions on how to proceed once you've heard back from your programs, no matter your results.

Click on the registration link below to get signed up ASAP for this free (yes, free! $0.00!) event happening on Sunday, March 14th from 4-5:30 PM. Full details will be up on The Workshop's site shortly at readtheworkshop.com/events. We’ll follow up here when they are, but the best way to both stay up to date and learn all about our amazing panelists is going to be to follow The Workshop on here (FB), Twitter, and Instagram.

We can't wait to have you at our I Applied To MFAs: What's Next? panel!

A panel for anybody who applied (or is considering applying) to creative writing MFA programs, featuring graduates in poetry, fiction, CNF, and hybrid-genre writing

09/02/2021

SAVE THE DATE! The Workshop has something pretty cool and highly informative coming your way in just over a month. More details coming soon! In the meantime, make sure to mark your calendars for Sunday, March 14th at 4PM Eastern.

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03/02/2021

Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine have used their prison writing issue not to uplift the voices of marginalized incarcerated writers, but instead to promote the work of Kirk Nesset, a white male professor who has spent five years in prison for collecting and distributing a vast library of child po*******hy.

Early career poets, you should sign this petition, but more importantly, you should absolutely never submit any work to these people.

We can do better.

Support the removal of convicted pe*****le Kirk Nesset's work from Poetry Magazine

02/02/2021

Wishing the happiest of pub days to The MFA Years guest blogger Dantiel W. Moniz! Folks, if you haven't already gotten ahold of MILK BLOOD HEAT, get this gorgeous book ASAP 🎉

02/02/2021

Emerging CNF writers! Don't miss the latest episode of the MFA Writers Podcast, featuring Sarah Ruth Bates, a second-year nonfiction MFA candidate at The University of Arizona. Find Sarah's work at http://sarahruthbates.com and find out more about this episode at jaredmccormack.com/mfawriterssarahruthbates.

[Image description: Four quadrants. Top left reads "SARAH RUTH BATES" in dark blue on a light blue background; top right shows Sarah Ruth Bates smiling while looking at the camera; bottom left is the letter A in red, surrounded by white, on a dark blue background. Bottom right reads "UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA" in dark blue on a light blue background.]

What’s it like to work on a research-driven nonfiction book in an MFA while freelancing on the side? Sarah Ruth Bates of the The University of Arizona joins Jared to talk about how the nonfiction genre is more than memoir, how science and philosophy inform her work, and how pandemic writing can help us center our shared humanity.

Sarah Ruth Bates is a second-year nonfiction MFA candidate at the The University of Arizona, where she edits the program's student-run literary magazine, the Sonora Review, and teaches composition. She's also a writing instructor at GrubStreet. Her work is published or forthcoming in the The New York Times, Guernica, the Boston Globe Magazine, Aeon, Hobart, Essay Daily, Off Assignment, and elsewhere. Find her at sarahruthbates.com and on Twitter .

Listen to MFA Writers on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. Find links to our show, Sarah’s published work, and resources mentioned in the show at our website.

https://www.jaredmccormack.com/mfawriterssarahruthbates

29/01/2021

Wishing a huge CONGRATULATIONS!!! to fall MFA application panelist Desiree Evans on receiving a 2020 Walter Grant from We Need Diverse Books.

The Walter Grant program provides financial support to promising writers and illustrators from diverse communities, and We Need Diverse Books is a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers advocating for changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.

It was an honor to learn from Desiree this past autumn, and we can't wait to see more of her work! Congrats again!

Congratulations to the 2020 Walter Grants recipients! Since the program’s launch in 2015, WNDB has awarded 26 Walter Grants of $2000 each. http://ow.ly/RjCH50DlNGs

25/01/2021

Get your week off to a weird and wonderful start with this speculative work from Managing Editor Elana Lev Friedland, out in the newest issue of Permafrost Magazine! If you're looking for hybrid-genre pieces in the form of a call-and-response prayer followed by a sermon in the Church of Kesha that is also full of hyperlinks, look no further than "KIDS WITH NO RELIGION."

https://permafrostmag.uaf.edu/.../kids-with-no-religion/

18/01/2021

Happy MLK Day, writer comrades!

In case any of you were wondering, Dr. King would absolutely want you to unionize your workplace and/or graduate program, form a mutual aid association, and take collective direct action against abusive instructors and bosses.

18/01/2021

The internship, which offers a stipend of $200 per week, requires a commitment of sixteen hours a week over the course of three months.

16/01/2021

Our EiC Cady Vishniac is a secret occasional poet. Shhh, don’t tell!

You can read her recent interview with Tinderbox Poetry Journal here:

I’m reading All Things, All At Once by Lee Abbot, which he very kindly autographed for me at Kenyon. It’s not remotely new, but it is meaningful to me. I’m a person who was really adept at pumping out what are known as “MFA stories,” plopping readers in the action from the first paragraph ...

12/01/2021

Tenured English professor Douglas Trevor, former director of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program and the Hopwood Awards Program, is not allowed to conduct office hours with his door closed or meet with students in off-campus spaces for the next two years.

Tenured English professor Douglas Trevor, former director of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program and the Hopwood Awards Program, is not allowed to conduct office hours with his door closed or meet with students in off-campus spaces for the next two years. These sanctions were instituted in an April 30...

11/01/2021

09/01/2021

If you are affiliated with a higher ed institution that has not spoken out against the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, Eshani, our MFA panel moderator, has developed a template for messaging university administrators. Feel free to use with any alterations as needed:

Potential Subject: Make a Statement about the Capitol Insurrection Now —- Hello [President XX, Dean XX, etc], I am alarmed and disappointed that you have not yet made a statement denouncing the insurrection at the Capitol as so many university leaders have. As a [student, instructor, alum, ...

05/01/2021

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02/01/2021

Oh look, our old friend Greensboro Review is ready for your submissions!

Our EiC Cady Vishniac won the Robert Watson Prize at this magazine for a meet-cute story about a nice Jewish girl and her white supremacist dybbuk/boyfriend.

Do you have something a little gorgeous/weird/terrifying to send in? We can attest that the Greensboro Review editors are a pleasure to work with. 👍👍👍👍👍

Manuscripts must be received between November 15 and February 15

01/01/2021

To help get you into the literary swing of 2021, check out this phenomenal list of upcoming deadlines and resources from
Erika Dreifus! And to get this intel right in your inbox each month, be sure to subscribe to The Practicing Writer 2.0 ASAP.

Here's to a new year filled with promise and potential. , practicing writers!

https://erikadreifus.substack.com/p/the-practicing-writer-20-january-051

[Image description: screenshot of the January 2021 issue of THE PRACTICING WRITER 2.0 newsletter.]