Five Things That Make Me A Happy Practicing Writer

I’m trying to be positive here. Rather than rant away about certain aspects of our writing culture that tick me off all too often (and, ahem, all too recently), I’m going to praise a few aspects of the 21st-century writing life that invariably make me grateful, happy, and otherwise at peace:

1) Writing-focused Listservs and writing organization blogs that stay on-topic.

2) Writing-focused Listservs and writing organization blogs that remain free of ad hominem attacks (see above).

3) Seeing translators credited for the invaluable work that they do bringing us writing we’d otherwise be unable to read.

4) Seeing writer-researchers credited for bringing quotations, resources, and opportunities to their communities when others pass the information along.

5) Auto-responders that confirm receipt of a manuscript, explain that the correspondent is away until such-and-such time and isn’t likely to respond until after that date, or otherwise reduce one’s anxiety level.

That’s not my complete list, but it’s a start. What would you add? What elements of contemporary writing life and culture do you most appreciate?

Friday Find: ASJA’s Contracts Watch

This week, I received an e-mail from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) which read, in part:

If you’ve missed Contracts Watch during its hiatus, good news: it’s back!

If you’re not familiar with Contracts Watch, take a look. The American Society of Journalists and Authors’ Contracts Committee reviews writing contracts and answers questions for both ASJA members and non-members, and the most interesting contract issues and trends are posted in a blog format on ASJA’s Contracts Watch.

Find the blog and RSS feed here:
http://www.ContractsWatch.org

You will find instructions for submitting your own thorny contract issues there as well.

I’m sorry to say that I hadn’t quite noticed the hiatus–but I am glad that the feature is back.

Hope you all have a nice weekend. See you back here on Monday!

Friday Find: AWP’s Hallmarks of an Effective Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing

I receive LOTS of requests for advice on low-res programs. Sometimes, people ask me to tell them whether program A or B is “better.” Which I absolutely, positively, cannot do. A big part of this inability, of course, comes from the truth that what might be “better” to one person would be “worse” to another. (This is why I’m not such a fan of rankings.)

What can be helpful, however, is the capacity to assess what a program offers and try to determine how it matches up not only with your own needs as a writer, but also with this new set of “Hallmarks of an Effective Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing,” which has been developed by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).

AWP does a pretty good job describing key elements of “Low-Residency Programs Based on Mentoring” and “Low-Residency Programs with Electronic Classrooms.” My only real disappointment with this document is that AWP has given relatively short shrift to what it calls “Hybrid Low-Residency MFA Programs.” This is the material on such programs, in its entirety:

Hybrid low-residency programs include features from both mentor-based and electronic classroom-based programs, and add variations and innovations of their own. Strong hybrid low-residency programs are rigorous and demand extensive reading assignments, practice in critical analysis, productivity in frequent writing and revision, and a residency component. Their particulars vary in ways too numerous to list here.

Perhaps too numerous to list in their entirety, but wouldn’t it have been helpful to provide at least a few specifics to sharpen that very general three-sentence statement?

In any case, AWP has certainly done a service for everyone with an investment in understanding, attending, administering, and/or teaching in a low-residency program, and for that, I’m grateful!

Now, have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here on Monday.

How Old is Too Old for a Traditional MFA Program?

As a group, you have proven to be such a wonderful source of knowledge (see, for instance, the recents posts on prose poetry and reading Dickens) that I am going to turn to you once again for your wisdom and advice.

An anonymous reader recently left this comment:

I have a question. What age is too old for a traditional MFA program? Everybody seems to be in their 20s. I’m currently in an excellent low-res program for what is but I crave a more full-time program that more mimics the life of a student, and I’m 46, only now discovering creative writing after a lifetime in journalism.

Back when I was applying to (low-res) programs, low-res definitely had the reputation for appealing more to the older set, those more likely to have careers and family commitments that made it seem very difficult, if not impossible, to consider the range of possible programs across the country that the recently-out-of-college set favored. But just as it’s true that the more recent grads are also turning to low-res programs (there were many in my program as the semesters went on), I know of older students who have decided to go the traditional, “full-res” route. What about the rest of you? Any comments to offer our anonymous colleague?

By the way, since we’re speaking of MFA programs, I should probably point out that Poets & Writers has just added a searchable MA/MFA/PhD program database to its site as well as a feature listing literary journals associated with MFA programs. I don’t really want to get into the new set of rankings the magazine has also published, but I will say that based on what I’ve read so far about the methodology behind it, I’m really not sure how useful these rankings are.

Friday Find: The Secrets to Publishing Success

That post title sure grabbed your attention, didn’t it?

Well, Jane Friedman, publisher and editorial director of the Writer’s Digest brand at F+W Media, has compiled a set of extremely helpful posts from her There Are No Rules blog (which itself has appeared on our list of frequently checked blogs and links for quite some time). Subtitled “Jane’s 2009 Tough Love Guide,” “The Secrets to Publishing Success” covers a lot: editing and revising, querying/submitting, audience development/platform building, online audience building, indie (self) publishing, and “big picture” ideas. You’re bound to find some information that you can use in your writing practice.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!