Craziest Thing That's Happened in Workshop???

by Emily May Anderson

Hello, everyone! I apologize for my lack of posts this semester. I am meeting with the MFA director tomorrow to chat about next year and what on earth I should be doing afterward, and I promise to come back with a report. But in the meantime, I'd like to pose a question to you all...

What is the craziest thing that has ever happened in a workshop you've been in? Undergrad or graduate. Either one is fine. You don't have to name the professor, but have you ever had an instructor do or say anything completely off the wall, or inappropriate, or demeaning, or etc? I just re-read Louis Menand's New Yorker article on the history of creative writing programs, and he tells some pretty wild stories of goings-on in workshop. I don't think I've ever had a creative writing professor do anything all that crazy, but I'm curious if other people have.

Soooo, any good stories???

Being an Engaged MFA student

I know most of you don't care about my love life, but I felt obligated to tell you--my MFA family--- that I am now engaged. (Well, officially since Feb. 5th). The past week has been a celebration all over--even Martin Lammon was nice enough to announce congratulations in front of our poetry workshop. My students have been excited too, noticing my ring without me even announcing anything, sending me emails and wanting to hear how it all happened. It just felt really great.

If you want the juicy engagement details, you can see them at rachelmarsom.com

It seems really strange, but so much of the way I'm viewing my engagement does deal with my role as a graduate student. We've decided to set up the wedding during spring break of 2011...If we'd planned for after graduation in 2011, wedding stress would conflict with our move to wherever I'm going for PhD or job stuff. And now that we are engaged, I feel even more motivated to think about PhDs. I want to be as prepared as possible for any job opportunity that comes my way, and I want to be able to contribute to our family.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Valentines weekend. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing--know that you are loved!

Decision Time: Discussion Question No. 1

Good morning all. Welcome to the realm of the hypothetical. This is the first of what will most likely be a series of discussion questions concerning the decision-making process.

This first question is an old one, and I know it has been covered ad nauseam in various media by Tom Kealey, Seth Abramson, and others, but I would very much like to get all of your opinions on it:

Let's say that one is accepted to multiple programs, each of which offers a funding package that is roughly comparable to the others and, therefore, the funding question becomes moot. That being so, what factor or factors would you then prioritize in making the decision? Faculty, location, reputation (or "prestige"), success of alumni, teaching load, editorial opportunities, etc.? Something else entirely?

I look forward to getting your perspectives on this. What better group could I possibly ask?

Greetings from Nick McRae (as yet uncommitted to a program)

Dear MFA Chronicles friends. You may be surprised to see me posting here and, honestly, I'm not unsurprised myself, but here we go nonetheless. I've been an avid reader of this blog since the beginning (though I only recently started commenting) and I've often wished I could join in on the conversation, so when Josh(ua Gottlieb-Miller) mentioned to me the other day that I might be able to join up as a contributor, I jumped at the idea. And, so, here I am. I look forward to interacting with you all!

As you can see from the title, I haven't decided on a program yet (and it is still early in the notification season), but I do have a few offers already, so I know I'll be going somewhere this Fall. I was originally worried about joining this blog without yet knowing where I'll end up, but I consulted Josh and Jaytee about it, and they thought it might interesting to have a contributor who's still in the decision-making process. I hope it will be. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Now, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Nick McRae (as you know), I'm 24 years old, and I'm from the tiny Northwest Georgia town of LaFayette. That's Luh-FAY-et, not La-fay-ET (there's a town legend behind this that I won't go into here!). I did my undergrad in English at the University of West Georgia, a truly great school for creative writing that no one really knows about. Being an ambitious student of poetry in a relatively unknown program, I got a lot of great opportunities, such as editing the undergrad literary journal, going to AWP on the university's dime, acting as a research assistant for my poetry professors' collaborative poetry writing text, and copyediting for the scholarly journals a/b: Auto/Biography Studies and Lifewriting Annual, among other things. A couple of summers ago I got a chance to attend the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets and spent three weeks in pastoral Central Pennsylvania writing poems with the good Mr. Gottlieb-Miller and others. I've had some poems published here and there, my most recent and favorite being this one at Linebreak.

Aside from poetry, I have a deep love for Central Europe that has determined a lot of my life over the past few years. When I was an undergrad, I spent a year as an exchange student at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, and I currently live and work in Slovakia as part of a Fulbright grant. Here, I teach anglophone literature and advanced English language at a gymnasium, or selective (in this case public) secondary school. This is a great gig, I love Slovakia and my school, but every day I feel more and more ready to get back stateside and start my grad program, wherever that might ultimately be!

So, friends, country(wo)men, I need guidance. I've been trying to decide how to approach blogging about the grad school waiting/decision-making process, and I'm honestly a little flummoxed. On the one hand, I would be very interested to have all of your input on the upcoming decision, the details of my offers, etc., and it might possibly be interesting to the MFA Chronicles' outside readership as well. But on the other hand, I know from spending a few years now hanging around the MFA Blog and the P&W Speakeasy that some people do not take kindly to folks making too big a deal about getting multiple acceptances and having a hard time making a choice, and that sort of thing can often lead to a lot of harsh words and hard feelings. And so I ask: what do you all suggest? Do you think it would be a bad idea to discuss these things publicly on the blog here, or should I not be so worried? What would you all be interested in reading? What guidance would you offer?

I'm so proud to be a part of this unique online collective. I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you. You're all rock stars.

Celebrating Literature, Writing and Friends

By Casey Tolfree

I was waiting until I had all my classes to post about them. So, Friday I officially had my last first class. It's a practicum class at Adelphi's NYC campus. It's actually pretty cool. We have to host closed blogs on our online portal where we review other blogs and cultural events. It's with all the first year students so I meant the remaining few I hadn't already met last semester. We all go out afterwards too so it's a lot of fun.

I'm reposting the blogs for class on my personal blog if you want to check it out.

My biggest problem in college I feel was that after I lost my housing I had to commute from Westchester to Queens. (There's a big bridge with a big toll in the middle) and it was just a lot of driving to go out and party then have to drive home. So I missed a lot of things senior year. I'm trying not to do that now. So I'm going out even if it's a bit of a hassle to get to the city.

My workshop with Victor LaValle is so great. He's a really great professor. It's very structured and we are working a lot on writing and not so much on reading. I was the first story workshopped and I got so much out of it. I learned what my classmates loved about my piece and what they thought needed work. I felt that I really understand the concerns of the audience.

It was my first attempt at a short story so I'm glad it went over well. I think that Victor is going to be a really productive teaching experience. He's so different from our other fiction professors in the program.

My last class (which was consequently my first class of the semester) is African American Women Playwrights. I was really concerned about this class. I wound up taking it because it paired on days with my workshop. I was worried that it wouldn't be interesting for me, but my professor, Kermit Frazier, is teaching it as a sort of history through plays type of class. I love learning about civil rights and integration and all the class/race warfare that went on in the early years of the country, so this class is really helping me to feed into that interest.

Anyways, I just wanted to post about the beginning of the semester and let you all know how it's going. Last semester was definitely a learning curve and I think this semester I'm ready to take it all head on. I'm more comfortable with my classmates and myself as well as with my professors. I think some of my best writing might come out of this semester. I'm inspired and I can't stop writing. Last semester I barely had time to write, now I'm finishing my work on the weekends so I can have Monday and Tuesday before class to write.

I hope everyone is having a great spring semester!

Writing in weird places?

I'd been having trouble writing anything worth keeping these last few weeks when a good idea started trying to get my attention. I was walking to the gym, and in the past I would have stopped and written my idea down, but this time I started running, trying to keep track/develop the lines as I went around the track.

I've been "writing" at the gym for a month or two, now, and something I've noticed is that the words take on a different character (more sound-based, a little more patient) when I'm thinking them up (and having to half-memorize them) while running and hitting the weights, than when I'm not involved in some repetitive physical activity.

(Sadly, this is not my invention: one of the reasons I started composing while running was because I read that Sharon Olds used to compose while hitting the weights.)

But what I'm wondering is: Do you have any weird places/activities that both motivate and alter your writing habits in cool, unexpected ways?

State of the Union & Colleges

I know that this isn't really the right forum to discuss politics, but I was happy to hear Obama spend some time discussing colleges during his address last night. I copied that selection over at my webpage if you missed it: click here!

Would love to see your thoughts!