Back to our regular programming 🎙
How does the workshop build writing skills? In our special episode, Professor Gregory Spatz explains that it doesn't always work the way students expect.
You can find the full episode using the link in our bio.
——
#writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #writingcommunity #writersofig #writerslife #authorsofinstagram #authorscommunity #mfacreativewriting #amwriting #write #writer #mfalife #mfa #gradschool #mfaapplication #applyingtogradschool #gradapps
Writers of trauma narratives often work to control the narrative distance between the narrator and the traumatic event to manage the story’s emotional content and is impact on the reader. We asked Aggie Stewart of The Newport MFA how emotional and narrative pacing come together in her memoir.
Listen to the full conversation on the latest episode of MFA Writers, available wherever you get podcasts.
https://jaredmccormack.com/mfawritersaggiestewart
We’ve been so busy booking new guests and prepping episodes that we forgot to celebrate our first birthday! We launched MFA Writers on June 26, 2020. We didn’t know if anyone would listen or whether guests would be interested in sharing their stories. The response has been beautiful and life-affirming.
It has been a sincere joy to connect with so many talented and inspiring writers and readers over the past year. Particularly when we were isolated from so many loved ones, it has been remarkable to form new relationships through this community.
Here’s to many more years. May each one be brighter than the last.
With love and gratitude,
The MFA Writers podcast team
(est. 2020)
An MFA program cannot, in and of itself, land you a tenure-track job. What it can do, when executed well, is provide the space, time, and inspiration for uninterrupted writing. It can allow you to move writing from the periphery of your life to the center. It can give you an audience and a community.
Listen to the full conversation on the rewards and limits of the MFA, as well as genre-friendly programs and finding solace in writing during life’s most difficult moments, on the latest episode of MFA Writers.
https://www.jaredmccormack.com/mfawriterskeithenterante
What’s the benefit in editing for a literary magazine? On our latest episode, Evan Fleischer of Emerson College explains how his experience as the fiction editor of Hobart influences his own writing.
Applicants: If editing or reading for a lit mag interests you, check out the options at your prospective programs. Do they have an affiliated lit mag? Are students allowed to edit, read, or both? Is this experience considered a class or practicum that counts toward graduation or is it a volunteer opportunity? If there is no affiliated lit mag, can you read for another journal? Some will allow remote work—you never know until you ask!
Listen to the whole conversation: https://jaredmccormack.com/mfawritersevanfleischer
When writing something new, sometimes we need to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. For Ellie Black of The University of Mississippi, there is freedom in giving yourself permission to write whatever you want, without concern for what you “should” write, or whether it’s even publishable. Some of those wild exercises might turn into interesting pieces with revision.
Hear more on the latest episode of MFA Writers. https://jaredmccormack.com/mfawritersellieblack
Benefits of the Anti-Racist Writing Workshop
The anti-racist workshop is a model to teach and learn creative writing, but it's not *just* about the classroom. It also promotes, in general, the importance and power of exercising one's voice, especially for people of color. Felicia Rose Chavez explains:
“I hope that in allowing our young people en masse to honor themselves, to know that they have value as is, they don’t need a white professor, a white curriculum, a white mentor to give them value. The trust in their own power can be revolutionary. So, if we build that up over time, we’ve got a generation of young people of color who might very well start making some more demands outside of those official channels. They might very well make some progress in terms of their own representation in publishing, in books, in plays, in our collective culture as well as our political realm.”
Catch the whole conversation on the latest episode of MFA Writers.
https://jaredmccormack.com/mfawritersfeliciarosechavez
When crafting a first draft, what propels you? A voice? A place? For Alejandro Puyana of Michener Center for Writers, it’s an objective. Hear how he injects action and movement into his work on the latest episode of MFA Writers.
Why is it important to be open and honest about funding in MFA programs? Because these conversations make MFAs more accessible. Period.
On our latest episode, Jemimah Wei discusses financing her education at Columbia University in the City of New York.
Hear more: https://www.jaredmccormack.com/mfawritersjemimahwei
Throughout his low-residency MFA program, Koyé Oyedeji of Warren Wilson College has been working on a composite novel, a series of standalone stories that become greater than the sum of their parts when read together.
Hear him read an excerpt on our latest episode. https://www.jaredmccormack.com/mfawriterskoyeoyedeji
75% of MFA students are white. How does a Black Indigenous woman prepare to walk into such a white space? Danielle P. Williams (@daniellepwilliams) of George Mason University (@mason__cw) describes her experience on the most recent episode of MFA Writers.
What can be gleaned by balancing full-time employment and writing before pursuing an MFA? Sarah Ruth Bates of The University of Arizona explains how this time made her feel certain in her decision.
Listen to the full conversation wherever you get podcasts. 🎙
https://jaredmccormack.com/mfawriterssarahruthbates
If you’re already working in the literary world, why bother with the MFA? Emily Holland had already landed a position with Poet Lore. She explains her decision to pursue an advanced degree in poetry from American University.
Catch more of this conversation on MFA Writers. MFAWriters.com
What makes a *good* story? On our most recent episode, Kaj Tanaka of @uhcwp takes us behind-the-scenes of Gulf Coast and talks us through how stories get published. What he learned is that it’s futile to ask what makes a story good or bad. “There’s no such thing as a bad story,” he says. “There are only stories that haven’t found their readership.”
Hear more about the subjectivity of publishing on MFA Writers.
It’s a familiar refrain. “Is it too late to get my MFA?” “What if I haven’t been in school in years?”
Everyone’s path is different and there’s no singular right way to pursue writing, but many find their time between degrees to be an asset. For Vanessa Chan of The New School, that time was critical to knowing herself and her writing.
Hear what she did with that time and how she wound up at The New School on the latest episode of MFA Writers.
