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was just rewriting an earlier poem, theyd
tell me. If a poem felt like it could be in
that collection, theyd tell me that, too.
Cavallaros first full-length poetry col-
lection, Girl-King, will be released by
University of Akron press in February
2015. When she began the program, she
was coming off a nine-month writing dry
spell. Her first workshop kickstarted her
writing, and she produced nearly 40
poems that initial semester. Not all of
those poems made their way into the
manuscript, but they formed its spine,
she recalls. Nearly every poem in the
manuscript was workshopped, and the
ones that werent were looked at by my
friend Jacques J. Rancourt, who had been
in all my workshops and who is my first
and best reader.
The opportunity to find a best reader
in a grad-level writing workshop is one
of the great benefits of M.F.A. pro-
gramswriters often talk about rela-
tionships made in workshop that have
transcended the classroom and become
part of their processes. The best thing I
took from workshop was getting to know
other writers whose minds worked
entirely differently from mine and whose
minds I coveted, says Alexandra Klee-
man, who attended Columbias M.F.A.
program from 2010 to 2012.
Kleeman started an extracurricular
writing group with people she met in
workshop, including Sara Novic, whose
debut novel is forthcoming from Ran-
dom House. I wrote the first half of my
book in workshop, almost like a serial-
ized novelmy classmates would often
be reading new chapters as fast as I could
write them. I didnt revise substantially
during my time at Columbia because I
was still moving forward with the plot
instead, I treated the workshop as a place
to get feedback on what was working and
not working, says Kleeman. The manu-
script eventually became the draft of her
first novel, You Too Can Have a Body Like
Mine, which will be published by Harper
in Summer 2015 and was sold as part of
a two-book deal that includes a collec-
tion of short stories.
Louise Krugs memoir Louise: Amended
M. F. A. U P DAT E
Award-Winning
Faculty
Distinguished
Writers-in-Residence
Teaching
Instructorships
Editorial
Opportunities
Diverse Reading
Series
Renowned Annual
Literary Festivals
Vibrant Urban
Campus
Triving Literary
Community
FICTION
Garnett Kilberg Cohen
Don De Grazia
Patricia Ann McNair
Joe Meno
Nami Mun
Audrey Nifenegger
Samuel Park
Alexis Pride
Shawn Shiett
NONFICTION
Jenny Boully
Aviya Kushner
David Lazar
Jill Talbot
Sam Weller
POETRY
CM Burroughs
Lisa Fishman
Matthew Shenoda
Tony Trigilio
David Trinidad
RECENT VISITING
WRITERS
Chris Abani
Dorothy Allison
Bonnie Jo Campbell
Julie Carr
John DAgata
Junot Diaz
Emma Donoghue
Jennifer Egan
Dave Eggers
Peter Gizzi
Jane Hamilton
Aleksandar Hemon
Jonathan Lethem
Bernadette Mayer
Rusty Morrison
Maggie Nelson
Joyce Carol Oates
D.A. Powell
Lia Purpura
Claudia Rankine
Salman Rushdie
Sapphire
John Sayles
Brenda Shaughnessy
David Shields
Christine Sneed
Irvine Welsh
Fiction / Nonction / Poetry
Creative Writing
colum.edu/CreativeWriting
P U B L I S H E R S WE E K LY A U G U S T 2 5 , 2 0 1 4 30
M. F. A. U P DAT E
The teaching market is becoming increasingly competitive, and many
M.F.A. graduates are still stuck in the kinds of jobs theyd gone to grad
school to escape.
creative dissertation with an academic component. You also
have to take four semesters of coursework.
The University of Kansas awarded Krug a teaching assistance-
ship while she worked on her Ph.D., which required her to teach
two classes in exchange for free tuition and a small stipend. Most
creative writing Ph.D. programs offer funding packages that
include teaching fellowships that help students bankroll their
years of study. Krug hopes that her Ph.D. will help her land a
university-level teaching job; shes been on the job market since
last spring, working as an adjunct at Kansas in the meantime.
A recent search of the Association of Writers & Writing Pro-
gramss online database of creative writing programs yielded
only 28 Ph.D. programs in creative writing across the U.S.; if
the lens is widened to include programs in the U.K. and Canada,
another seven more can be tacked on. While that may seem like
small potatoes next to the 100+ low-residency M.F.A. programs
currently attracting students, and even smaller potatoes next to
the hundreds (literally, hundreds) of full-time programs churn-
ing out writers at a university near you, theres no denying that
the Ph.D. program is slowly and steadily insinuating itself into
the academic creative writing marketplace. As recently as 20
years ago, creative writing Ph.D. programs were rare, only
offered at a handful of forward-thinking schools like the univer-
sities of Houston and Ohio. Now there are enough to warrant
their own Poets & Writers rankingamong the top 15 are the
Ph.D. programs at Utah, USC, and Florida State.
Williams sees the creative writing Ph.D. as here to stay.
Probably, in about 15 or 20 years, all of these M.F.A. programs
will be Ph.D. programs. Its degree inflation, maybe, but its not
going anywhere.
Doctor of Creativity
BY JULIE BUNTIN
The M.F.A. in creative writing is considered a terminal degree, and therefore qualifies gradu-
ates to teach at the college level. But Ph.D. programs in creative writing have become an
increasingly attractive follow-up to the M.F.A. for writers looking to improve their chances of
landing competitive tenure-track teaching positionsor for those who want to buy more time
to work on their projects without the pressures of a day job.
A
s his M.F.A. at University of Ari-
zona came to a close, poet Jerry
Williams was looking for more
time. I wanted a couple more
years to focus on my writing and
not have to go back into the reg-
ular work force. Like the major-
ity of students who go through an
M.F.A. program, Williams wasnt
graduating with a published manuscript. He knew that the
teaching market was becoming increasingly competitive and
many M.F.A. graduates were still stuck in the kinds of jobs hed
gone to grad school to escape. I didnt want to tend bar, he
says. Or worse. He was awarded a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State
in 2006.
While Williams was enrolled in Oklahoma States program,
he published his first book, Casino in the Sun (Carnegie Mellon
Univ.), which, along with the Ph.D., helped him land a visiting
professorship at Roger Williams University. Now Williams is
a tenured professor at Marymount Manhattan College. He says
that when he makes hiring decisions, he tries not to weigh a
Ph.D. over other kinds of experience, but does admit that the
lit-heavy course load is good preparation for teaching. Its more
academic, says Williams. The Ph.D. program is more like a
lit degree with a creative dissertation. Youre reading 4,000
pages a week.
Louise Krug just finished her Ph.D. in creative writing at the
University of Kansas, a process she found more academically
rigorous than her M.F.A. To get my Ph.D. I had to takeand
passcomprehensive exams in three literary fields and write a
M. F. A. U P DAT E
Award-Winning Core Faculty
Suzanne Cleary
Denise Duhamel
Albert Goldbarth
Rick Mulkey (Director of the MFA Program)
Marlin Barton
Cary Holladay
AppliCAtion DeADlineS:
February 15 & october 1
the place
for Your
next Book
is Here
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
converse.edu/mfa
Robert olmstead
leslie pietrzyk
Jim Minick
Susan tekulve
Richard tillinghast
Dan Wakefeld
Recent Visiting Writers, editors and Agents: C. Michael Curtis of The
Atlantic, Jenny Bent of the Bent Agency, Jillian Weise, Melissa Sarver of
Folio Literary Management, Dorianne Laux, Ed Falco, Chuck Adams of
Algonquin Books, Keith Morris, and Jeff Shotts of Graywolf Press.
P U B L I S H E R S WE E K LY A U G U S T 2 5 , 2 0 1 4 32
Have you seen any changes in the kinds of
students applying and enrolling over the
last few years?
In the past few years we have seen a marked uptick in
the number of very talented and promising students of
color, and students from diverse backgrounds, applying
and matriculating. We look forward to building on that.
What do you tell your students about embarking
upon a careeras artists or as anything else
after receiving their degrees?
The biggest single thing I tell all my students is, try to separate
out what youve been told you should care about, as opposed to what
you actually need in order to live a satisfying, fulfilling life as a
writer. For instance, there are some writers who are very ambitious,
and who want to publish a lot and be known and read all over the
country. Those writers wont be happy unless they try to have that.
We try to help them get there. Other writers are quieter, both in
their work and in their personalities. So maybe they want a differ-
ent kind of publishing life, a life where their work is read, but its
more private, or more focused. Thats a fine way to live, too. Some
people want to teach; others have other interests or careers already.
I think its my job as a professor in our M.F.A. program to help
students sort all this out.
When people ask you, Why should I get an
M.F.A.? what do you say?
If you are at the right time in your writing lifetruly ready to
listen and grow and changeand if you pick the right program, it
can be intensely accelerating. As my colleague, the poet Brenda
Hillman, says, an M.F.A. is incredibly efficient: you should be able
to get all the main tools you need as a writer in a two-year period,
at least if we are doing our jobs!
A longer version of this interview appears at
publishersweekly.com/mfa-zapruder.
M.F.A. Spotlight: St Marys
BY CRAIG MORGAN TEICHER
Poet Matthew Zapruderauthor, most recently, of Sun Bear (Copper Canyon,
2014)is on the core faculty of St. Marys creative writing program, based in Mor-
aga, Calif. He talked with PW about what makes the program stand out.
What makes St. Marys different from
other programs?
St. Marys is small, with deliberate aesthetic diver-
sity: we look for as wide a variety as possible in the
backgrounds of our students, as well as in their writ-
ing. Our cohorts in each of the three genres (poetry,
fiction, nonfiction) number just eight students in every class. But
the program also has some of the desirable qualities of a larger
program. Each year, in each genre, a visiting writer teaches work-
shop. Also each year, in each genre, we have well-known, published
writers who are also experienced teachers as visiting craft instruc-
tors, as well as editors who come in for a few days and meet with
the students.
Does St. Marys have any kind of aesthetic focus
or area of specialty?
The faculty, and our visitors, and of course our students, reflect our
aspiration to aesthetic diversity. We have people with lots of vary-
ing interests studying here: both self-defined experimental writ-
ers and more traditional writers. In fiction we have people writing
so-called literary stories and novels, as well as YA and fantasy,
though in my opinion those things are just as literary too!
Also, St. Marys as an institution, and our M.F.A. faculty, have
made a serious commitment to social justice, diversity, political
change, and particularly ecological consciousness in writing, or
ecopoetics. It matters that we are out here in the Bay Area, on the
West Coast. It feels different to be a writer out here, so far from the
traditional East Coast cultural centers, and so close to the Pacific
Ocean, with its history of liberation from traditional values and
roles and innovation and experiment of all kinds.
More recently, the political and cultural activities in Oakland,
which is where so many young artists and writers and musicians are
going, as well as the presence of McSweeneys and Narrative and
Zyzzyva and The Rumpus, and so many other exciting new publish-
ing ventures, continue to make the Bay Area a center for literary
activity.
M. F. A. U P DAT E
P U B L I S H E R S WE E K LY A U G U S T 2 5 , 2 0 1 4 34
M.F.A. Spotlight:
University of
Colorado Boulder
BY CRAIG MORGAN TEICHER
Noah Eli Gordon, a poet and author, most recently of The
Year of the Rooster (Ahsata, 2013), is on the faculty of the
University of Colorado Boulder creative writing program.
He talks with PW about what makes his program special.
What makes the M.F.A. at University of Colorado Boulders different
from other programs?
As a three-year program, one where students have the opportunity to teach creative writing
courses without the burden of first having to slog through time-consuming rhet./comp.
classes, were something of an anomaly: folks here diveor are lovingly pushedright in,
yet theyre also supported with enough time to learn to stay afloat. Our program is small
and focused, driven by the energy of our active and accomplished faculty and the camara-
derie among our students and the burgeoning local literary scene, a loose conglomeration
of innovatively bent writers working across genres and in different communities here in
Colorado.
There is just so much abuzz at CU-Boulder, especially in the field of small press
publishing. I teach an annual publishing workshop course in which our M.F.A. students
run Subito Press, learning the ins and outs of how a press works. At the same time, as
a kind of career seminar, we meet with various folks whove landed jobs in the literary
arts just outside of academia: a letter-press printer, an agent, a book designer, a publicist.
As editors and publishers, our faculty is closely tied to numerous important interna-
tional presses, including FC2, Counterpath Press, Subtio Press, Letter Machine Editions,
and more.
M. F. A. U P DAT E
Western offers a 25-month low-
residency MFA and 13-month low-
residency MA with July intensives
in the heart of the Rocky Mountains,
including annual attendance at our
conference, Writing the Rockies.
Concentrations include Genre
Fiction, Screenwriting, and Poetry
with an Emphasis on Versecraft. We
also offer a Certifcate in Publishing.
We are the new home of THINK,
a national journal of poetry and
criticism. All programs focus on
craft and include both manuscript
review and rigorous study of genre.
Fiction Faculty: Russell Davis,
Michaela Roessner, Diana Pharaoh
Francis, Candace Nadon, Stacia
Deutsch.
Recent Visitors: John Helfers,
Robert McBrearty, Diana Tixier
Herald.
Screenwriting Faculty: JS
Mayank, Bob Shayne.
Recent Visitors: Sam Robards,
Joel Thompson.
Poetry Faculty: David J. Roth-
man, David Yezzi, Ernest Hilbert.
Recent Visitors: Kim Bridgford,
Dana Gioia, Simon Jarvis, Dave
Mason, Marilyn Taylor, Fred
Turner.
western.edu/mfa
800-876-5309, Ext. 7
David J. Rothman, Director
drothman@western.edu
WWW. P U B L I S H E R S WE E K LY. C O M 35
Does CU-Boulders program have any kind of aes-
thetic focus or area of specialty?
Our program does pride itself on a tradition of innovation and
experimentation; however, for us, those terms include a historic
underpinning: we recognize that much of what we now consider
canonical became so precisely because of its [authors] willingness
to explore and explode the boundaries of what one might do with
writing. Along with workshops, our faculty members teach seminar
courses on an ever-changing and wide range of literary topics. I
recently taught a course on the art of the poetry book review, while
my colleague Marcia Douglas taught one that examined the politics
of language and the ways in which voice and linguistic concerns
inform narrative and community across the black vernacular tradi-
tion in the U.S., as well as local dialects in the Caribbean, Africa,
Asia, and Ireland.
What do you tell your students about embarking
upon a careereither as an artist or anything
elsefollowing their degree?
Im a little more interested in helping to cultivate, facilitate, assist,
and otherwise germinate the desire of those folks who have a calling
to become artists, rather than anyone setting out on a career path.
Is there a difference? Yes, the calling is about sustaining a life in
artongoing, endless, deeply fulfilling. But we do all need to sup-
port ourselves, right? The guest speakers I bring into my publish-
ing workshop course offer a few examples of various occupations
and career paths for those wanting to keep a foot in the literary field.
Sure, I wish I could help land our graduates wonderful jobs teach-
ing in M.F.A. programs themselves, but the reality of the market
makes that an uphill trek; however, as long as I can make folks
aware of that fact, Im happy to offer guidance.
When people ask you, Why should I get an
M.F.A.? what do you say?
I tell them that it could be a rare convergence of sympathetic
energies, of developing camaraderie and friendships, a chance to
test the waters so to speak for one version of the kind of life they
might really want. Theres been a trend as of late for professors in
various writing programs to disavow their academic affiliations,
as though theyre somehow pure artists, free from the confines of
capital. If its cool to pretend you dont get paid to talk about your
art, then Im happy to be totally unhip, because I love my job at
CU-Boulder!
M. F. A. U P DAT E
Bring Your Writing
to the World
MFA in Creative Writing at Lesley University
Fiction Nonfiction Poetry
Writing for Stage and Screen
Writing for Young People
Ranked #4 in the Top 10 low-residency
MFA programs by Poets & Writers
lesley.edu/writer
Sara Farizans journey as a published author began with the
MFA in Creative Writing, which she credits for helping bring
her young adult novel to life.
Sara Farizan 10
Author of If You Could Be Mine, winner of two Publishing Triangle
awards and the young adult Lambda Literary Award.
The New York Times Book Review
Farizans prose is frank, funny and bittersweet.