Writers who are currently trying to decide whether an MFA is right for them will find that the questions being raised today are not unlike those addressed by Flannery O’Connor:
...moreWhat first stuns the young writer emerging from college is that there is no clear-cut road for him to travel on.
Does everything happen for a reason? That’s the question writer Laura Leigh Abby had to ask herself after a car accident allowed her to graduate with an MFA degree loan-free:
...moreFor most of my life I’ve been doing things without worrying too much about the consequences.
Take a break from wracking your brain about whether or not to get an MFA and go read Rumpus Pal Alexander Chee’s essay “What Getting an MFA In Fiction Meant To Me” at BuzzFeed. Chee beautifully narrates the inner debate he had with himself for many years over the decision to pursue an MFA.
...moreThere are a lot of people who have very strong feelings about MFA programs, but Blake Butler’s Vice piece ”What I Remember from Getting an MFA in Creative Writing,” just sort of lays out the details and holds back on the judgment (not unlike good fiction, really).
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Ali Shapiro doles out some exceedingly practical advice for job-hunting with the qualifications of a creative writer.
...moreJim Behrle has a satirical and biting take on the practicality of creative writing programs at The Awl this week.
Not only does he urge students to refrain from digging themselves into a hole of student loan debt, but he also recommends that there be fewer workshops and more classes on sharpening charisma, grant writing and accounting.
...moreI had intended this week to write about gratitude. To express my thanks to all the new readers of Poetry Wire and The Rumpus and to wish you all a pleasant Thanksgiving. I wanted to say something about the necessity of thankfulness in art and poetry, to say that this week I rededicate myself to having kind thoughts, to not get angry or think badly about others, to work to the benefit of others as much as I can.
...moreEach fall, in graduate assistant offices across the country, minor bets are cast the week the first batch of undergraduate stories come in, and they go something like this: Who will get the most zombie stories? Which student will hand in the first Twilight send-up? Will we get more vampires or pirates this semester?
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The next time you get into a debate over the value of a creative writing MFA, try this handy visualization exercise: imagine that everyone involved is wearing a monocle.
The Rumpus Book Club talks with Lan Samantha Chang about All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost , MFA programs, writers experiencing non-writing periods, and biker bars.
Notes I took on what Lorrie Moore said while in conversation with Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker‘s fiction editor, that I felt selfish keeping to myself:
How to become a writer:
-You can’t carve solitude out of loneliness–you need people to get away from them.
“Everywhere I go, I’m asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”
