Posts Tagged‘MFA’

Home » MFA » Page 12

Friday Finds for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Treasure ChestWriting-related resources, news, and reflections to enjoy over the weekend.

  • Over on The Missouri Review’s blog, Michael Nye has posted some thoughts on MFA degrees that I find resonant–others, Facebook has indicated to me, are finding them provocative.
  • Following the death of Gabriel García Márquez, The New Yorker has unlocked García Márquez materials from its archive.
  • Francine Prose and Leslie Jamison take on the question, “Is It O.K. to Mine Real Relationships for Literary Material?”.
  • On advocating “but”; I share the author’s enthusiasm for the word, but have found it edited out all too often.
  • And for your weekend listening: a podcast of Richard Ford’s recent conversation with Ron Charles, courtesy of The Pen/Faulkner Foundation.

    • Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

    Wednesday’s WIP: Nonteaching Jobs for MFA Grads

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    I can’t speak for Cathy, but I suspect that her interest in my post from last November (on which she commented at the time) may have been revived by some recent posts and discussions within a Facebook group on Creative Writing Pedagogy. These have included comments on Elizabeth Segran’s articles “What Can You Do with a Humanities PhD, Anyway?” and “The Dangers of Victimizing PhDs” (both of which, I argue, apply to some extent to the terminal MFA degree as well). Also noteworthy within the group lately: Stephanie Vanderslice’s link to a review that praises a book I’m reading right now: Now What: The Creative Writer’s Guide to Life After the MFA and Cathy’s own sharing of a survey on “Creative Writing Programs and the Business of Writing,” which includes questions about job preparation.

    In any case, as I’ve told Cathy on Twitter, I’m eager to hear how this week’s class goes. In part, that’s because the weeks are ticking down to the session I’ll be moderating at The Muse & The Marketplace on “After the MFA: Constructing and Leading a Writing Life,” and I know that employment options will be part of that discussion. And in part, it’s because every single day I wake up to a reality in which I have both a PhD and an MFA and am NOT leading the faculty life that I anticipated.

    Meantime, I’ve dug up this article on nonteaching jobs on college and university campuses to share with Cathy’s students, with my session’s participants, and with anyone else who may be interested. (more…)

    Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Aciman & McCann on Teaching Writing

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Last week I finished the day at my office job and headed south several blocks to the CUNY Graduate Center to sit in on a lively conversation on “Art & Craft: Teaching Writing.”

    The event was billed as follows: “Next in the series of Chancellor’s Conversations, highlighting the work of CUNY faculty, Interim Chancellor Bill Kelly speaks with two of contemporary literature’s most distinctive stylists. André Aciman of the Graduate Center is the author of seven books, including the novels Harvard Square and Eight White Nights and the acclaimed memoir Out of Egypt. Colum McCann of Hunter College is the author of eight books, including Transatlantic and Zoli; his novel Let the Great World Spin was awarded the 2009 National Book Award for Fiction.”

    It was a vibrant discussion, likely to interest anyone who thinks about creative-writing pedagogy (student, teacher, alum) as well as fans of the speakers. And I’m happy to say that video from the event is already available to share. (Now I just need to add it to the Creative Writing at CUNY website that I help manage at the day job!)

    )

    Friday Finds for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    Treasure ChestWriting-related resources, news, and reflections to enjoy over the weekend.

  • Statistically speaking, it’s easier for poets and nonfiction writers to have their work accepted by Colorado Review than it is for fiction writers. But it isn’t exactly easy for anyone.
  • Some of the young ‘uns may not quite appreciate Nick Ripatrazone’s “Miss You, SASE: On Postal Submissions” as much as some of the elders among us are likely to.
  • From Publishers Lunch: “The latest VIDA statistics assessing gender representation in book reviews continue to draw comment and response. But VIDA’s lens, expanded this year to include more publications, still primarily examines periodicals and journals and overlooks the substantial body of daily and weekly book reviews in large-circulation newspapers. That’s exactly the world we have tracked for years in our Publishers Marketplace Book Reviews database (also shown via our cool Top Reviewers tool), which offers a rich data set for analysis. In examining that data over the past 5 years, there are some interesting findings that may expand on the view that VIDA has depicted.” Indeed.
  • Speaking of book reviews: I’ve always heard nice things about Laurie Hertzel, books editor for Minneapolis’s Star Tribune, so I was intrigued to discover this interview with her. (Fun fact: Hertzel is also an MFA student!)
  • And last, but absolutely not least, I recommend that you spend some time this weekend with David Gessner’s smart and thoughtful take on “The Essay’s Place.”

    • Have a great weekend, everyone. (Practicing Writer subscribers, look for your March issue to arrive shortly!)