tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post8414590418306040772..comments2024-03-28T02:14:08.783-07:00Comments on THE MFA BLOG: An Open Letter to Anis ShivaniTom Kealeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11913868167191023096noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-76379767413821521942016-08-21T01:55:28.782-07:002016-08-21T01:55:28.782-07:00Thanks for sharing this best stuff with us! Keep s...Thanks for sharing this best stuff with us! Keep sharing! I am new in the blog writing.All types blogs and posts are not helpful for the readers.Here the author is giving good thoughts and suggestions to each and every readers through this article. I've a blog <a href="http://www.pharmacypersonalstatement.net/pharmacy-residency-letter-of-intent-sample/" rel="nofollow">residency letter of intent</a> for all students.aliyaahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06184256288293330921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-57313097983561930052011-12-14T02:22:21.024-08:002011-12-14T02:22:21.024-08:00I have you added to look at out new products you a...I have you added to look at out new products you article.<br />Nice Post. Please visit our website for <a href="http://www.myessaypro.com/" rel="nofollow"> essay editing </a>myessaypro1https://www.blogger.com/profile/03346236507463735543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-12031470414840688602010-10-27T02:07:54.287-07:002010-10-27T02:07:54.287-07:00My colleague and I actually had a discussion on MF...My colleague and I actually had a discussion on MFAs as a result of this. <br /><br />He, and I think a lot of the public, have MFAs pegged for what they're not. They are not a guaranteed opportunity to sell a book. And most of what you will learn, you could probably learn on your own, with decades of research. <br /><br />What an MFA is, really is an internship. The opportunity to practice under the watchful eye of a "master" and earn a qualification.Claire Dawnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14354840714847021685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-69838214280451959372010-10-26T09:38:43.967-07:002010-10-26T09:38:43.967-07:00Faculty didn't factor much in my choices. The...Faculty didn't factor much in my choices. The ability of a program to have a high level faculty, perhaps, but the faculty itself is something I didn't think was worth banking on. By the time one starts a program a year later, the faculty can change. High profile writers can be on the faculty and paraded out for the website and brochures, but then have not actually taught a class in ages.<br /><br />Programs aren't going to have drastic changes to funding or reputation over night, though (right? OMG worried now!). You aren't going to apply to a program in one state, only to find they decide to move out of state by the time you're starting the program.<br /><br />It's convenient to discount the articles 'guild' analogy by pointing out the faculty (the 'masters') aren't ranked high in prospective applicants. But I don't think it's because faculty isn't important, just that it's not something that can very easily be accounted for, so people rank other more fixed things as more important, because they can be better accounted for.<br /><br />It's not like some research grad school where the 'masters' are basically selecting research assistants, and if the masters leave a program, often the assistants can leave with, or there are verbal contracts made based on how long a master/apprentice will be working together.<br /><br />Maybe it's a good angle, though. Emailing some high-profile name at a program asking them to give you a verbal commitment they'll be there until the completion of your studies and ready to not only endorse you, but prepare for working together and teaching the classes you're in! If that was the nature of MFA programs, as with some types of programs, then I think faculty would be the top of the list. It's just not feasible as is, though, imo.<br /><br />That said, who one ends up working with can matter greatly in networking. In fact, that's one of the biggest reasons I've been told I should definitely do an MFA (by people with MFAs and books). The networking is everything, and an MFA can lead to great networking opportunities and a foot in the door, or more. It's the reality of networking: common interests lead to common ties, common ties lead to a commonality and inclusion in common activities. Doesn't mean this is a good ol' boy system or conspiracy to exclude the outsiders, but it DOES happen (in all industries and in a natural if not unfair way) and it's a bit short sighted to see comments made around the net that the author of the article in question was just making things up that didn't even begin to exist. No, it begins to exist, and it's not surprising people are taking a fact, and trending it out into an extreme. Doesn't make it true, but doesn't make it shockingly illogical either.<br /><br />And many of the defenses of the article are starting to seem a bit defensive to the point it just supports the points the article makes (however clumsy). Many of the 'I agree' comments floating around the net are supporting the points raised in the article, and have nothing to do with the author. Yet so many of the 'I don't agree' just bash the author... <br /><br />That dude set a trap, and [imo hilariously] so many people are falling right into it by bashing him personally and shouting him down as an ignorant outsider, which was precisely one of the points I felt he was [clumsily] trying to make: how quickly the so-called MFA insiders are willing to defensively do exactly that.popsicledeathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05006894817995038236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-86972585847142042982010-10-26T07:16:52.106-07:002010-10-26T07:16:52.106-07:00Hi Jennifer,
I know AWP works hard to provide its...Hi Jennifer,<br /><br />I know AWP works hard to provide its content. I used the AWP guide extensively in researching MFA programs across the country for an upcoming book. But the information was relatively incomplete and sometimes inaccurate. I don't want to wade in so much on rankings; that's a hornet's nest. But I do think the Poets and Writers guide (as well as some other websites out there) provides more information, information students need, on the programs that AWP could be taking the lead in providing.StephanieVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09011072754752990711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-37160421882226816732010-10-26T06:59:28.429-07:002010-10-26T06:59:28.429-07:00Editing my first comment...Read through the first ...Editing my first comment...Read through the first half, skimmed the second of Shivani's rant. To sum up HuffPo comments: Get to the point.<br /><br />Faculty was one of my top reasons for applying to the programs I did. I'm excited to be studying with (studying under? sitting at the feet of?) authors (Masters?) whose work I have read and admire.Sheila Lambhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086803824797966290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-42277898860382855562010-10-26T06:52:31.382-07:002010-10-26T06:52:31.382-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Sheila Lambhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086803824797966290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-39917022732106023082010-10-26T04:40:40.645-07:002010-10-26T04:40:40.645-07:00You find the AWP article “deeply troubling”? Real...You find the AWP article “deeply troubling”? Really? “It signals a real reluctance on the part of our field’s signature organization to recognize the urgent need for more information and transparency about these programs”, huh? <br /><br />I just don’t see that. I see AWP director David Fenza providing prospective students with some perspective regarding these rankings—and that is pretty much it. Are you aware of how hard AWP works to provide students with information in their guide to writing programs? I think it is evident that AWP does recognize the need for information and transparency.Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08887749173643713230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-54931419714392169542010-10-25T16:25:36.376-07:002010-10-25T16:25:36.376-07:00This is the point nobody speaks up with any level ...This is the point nobody speaks up with any level of support for the article or its ideas, for fear of no longer being included in the MFA guild! :P<br /><br />I'll at least admit I'm a coward and going to swallow a few of my own perceptions, here, because I want to be loved and accepted by a Master some day!popsicledeathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05006894817995038236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-40497488230991649102010-10-25T14:50:03.515-07:002010-10-25T14:50:03.515-07:00Well said, S! I take encouragment from your persp...Well said, S! I take encouragment from your perspective.StephanieVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09011072754752990711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15642985.post-65262907959858308512010-10-25T12:57:48.279-07:002010-10-25T12:57:48.279-07:00Hi Stephanie,
I wouldn't give too much though...Hi Stephanie,<br /><br />I wouldn't give too much thought to Anis or to his articles -- he is someone who has no knowledge of MFA programs beyond his own highly-circumscribed experiences who writes articles that are entirely (and intentionally) fact-free and polemical. There's just no "there" there. Sure, people may read his ridiculous assertions -- like his submission that it's almost impossible to find a poet or writer in America not working in the Academy -- and believe them in the short-term, but in the middle- and long-term the truth will out for all those but the most biased and blinkered. Case-in-point: Anis's cartoonishly ham-handed "guild" analogy (laughably wrong in every single particular for anyone who has researched the history and conception of the MFA) depends upon apprentices desiring to work with masters -- yet polling shows that 64% of MFA applicants <i>don't even consider "faculty" a top five reason to attend an MFA program</i>. That's right -- nearly two-thirds of applicants appear not to rank "faculty" in any position of privilege in choosing an MFA, yet Anis (based on nothing) asserts the opposite.<br /><br />The upshot: As you know as well as anyone, researching MFA programs is hard work, and it's clearly work Anis has no interest whatsoever in doing. Perhaps because appealing to the ignorant (cf. Palin, Beck, &c) is always more profitable in terms of audience share than anything else. The work of people like McGurl and Kealey will last -- the rankings, based as they are on research and attention to what kind of phenomenon the MFA really is, will last -- while all these effort-free screeds will dissipate like fog.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />S.Seth Abramsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08059849202129580100noreply@blogger.com