First year reflections.

I thought about this after the first month, the first semester, over winter break, and several other times...but now that the school year is over it feels right. And I have time, which is kind of what this is about. I just finished up my first year in an MFA program and I'm wondering how the other first-years out there are thinking about their experiences.

A couple thoughts to get us started:

1) Where did the time go? I feel like I was just looking for an apartment and registering for fall courses. Now I'm halfway done (I'm in a two-year program). I tried to remember along the way that this was going to feel quick, to take it all in, to take advantage of every opportunity...but did I? The first 4-6 weeks was a blur. Between moving, orientation, workshops, classes, writing center duties, reading series events, events outside the program, home life drama, and whatever else I'm forgetting, well, it's going to take some time to sort it all out. I'm happy with my productivity but my main resolution at the end of the year was to spend the summer building a time machine. Or a time-slowing machine.

2) What am I doing? I'm interested in what your course loads (or maybe it's a matter of "course balance"?) looked like. I spent a lot of time on graduate seminar work -- theory, term papers, presentations, etc. -- and every minute spent away from my stories felt wrong. I understand the value of taking such classes, and I benefited from my time in the seminars (a great Southern Lit. class, in particular), but am I using this time to write stories or to write term papers? The second semester was easier than the first because I made sure to put my stories at the top of the list. It was way too easy in the fall to feel like I needed to be everything for everyone -- the best writing center tutor, the best pseudo-PhD candidate, whatever... Sure, my seminar work probably suffered in the spring, but I saw a much better progression in my stories, and that feels like where I need to be. I'm sure that would change a bit if I was interested in the post-MFA PhD route, but I don't think that's in the cards.

So it's all about time, time, time. Where did it go, and how did I spend it? I'd sure like to hear how other writers feel about their first years, and I bet the conversation would be helpful for those starting this fall, too.

MFA Prep Class and Consults

Though it's early in the new application season, New York-based writers can get a jump on the process by signing up for an MFA Prep class through Sackett Street Writers' Workshop. There's a new class starting in June, with just a couple of spots still open. The class is open to fiction and nonfiction writers, and the primary focus is on making sure that your writing sample is as strong as it can possibly be. We also spend time workshopping personal statements, and talking about other elements of the application process: funding issues, how to build the best list of schools, where to find information, the pros and cons of being a TA, the importance (or not) of working with teachers whose writing you love, and so on. Graduates of last year's classes have been accepted at some amazing programs: Alabama (full funding), Brooklyn, Columbia, New School, Oregon, SIU in Carbondale (full funding), Indiana, and on and on...

For writers outside of New York, or for those who can't take a workshop for some reason, I offer individual MFA portfolio review services too - see my website, www.nancyrawlinson.com, for more info and shoot me an email if you have any questions.

MFA Lit Mags on the Chopping Block

Anyone about thinking about applying for an MFA in the next season (or, for that matter, those about to start a program) would do well to check out a couple of posts over at the Virginia Quarterly Blog about how the current publishing and financial shake-up is affecting university presses and university sponsored literary magazines. VQR editor-in-chief Ted Genoways reports that times are hard. LSU's Southern Review is under threat of closure, as is Middlebury College's New England Review, and other venerable titles — The Kenyon Review, Shenandoah, Oxford American — might have folded if not for emergency fundraising.

Genoways argues that these literary outlets are essential for academic depth and breadth, as training grounds for future writers and editors, as homes for innovative writing, and, not least, as valuable PR for the institutions that create them. "If not for Kenyon Review, Shenandoah, and The Oxford American," he writes, "I would never think of Kenyon College or Washington & Lee University or the University of Central Arkansas. The excellence of these publications gives their universities a national profile."

University sponsored lit mags are also MFA recruitment tools. LSU's MFA website states: "LSU has an extraordinary English Department, and LSU Press has made important contributions to American poetry and fiction. The MFA program offers opportunities to gain editorial experience by working for our many magazines and publications. The New Delta Review, The Southern Review, and The Corpse . (If you are interested in editorial experience and would like to be considered for an assistantship at a particular review you are advised to make your interest clear in your application letter.)"

And if The Southern Review folds, LSU? Then what?

You can read the original VQR blog posts here and here. This MFA blog entry is cross-posted from Boolah.

The Ones Without a Clue

Love them or leave them. These schools are handing their undergraduate alumni over to CW MFA programs. Perhaps it's a wish list of sorts. What if they had a CW MFA program? Northwestern's new program should give us hope. These are just off the top of my head.

1) Harvard U, Princeton U, Yale U

2) UPenn, Georgetown U, Howard U

3) Auburn U, Clemson U, Tulane U

4) Temple U, Pepperdine U, and University of Hawaii

Do you miss anyone? Let us know.