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MFA or Not?
Short Answer: NOT!
From Frederick Smith's Blog:
Saturday, October 01, 2005 M.F.A. or Not? Everyday I get one or two brochures or packages in the mail, encouraging me to think about considering applying to Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A) programs in Creative Writing or English. There are all sorts of programs. Full time. Part time. Low residency. Oh my.Having interacted with authors and writers of all levels of education and experience, I have heard about the benefits and challenges that are associated with pursuing a higher degree and level of study in writing. What I hear is compelling. Very briefly (there's more):
Benefits -- craft develops more than you ever imagined; professional/personal connections; leaving with a completed piece that is considered high quality
Challenges -- uniformity (style and people); cliques; can something creative be taught?Back when I thought I wanted to pursue education (after the journalism thing), I went to graduate school for it and finished. Now that writing is what I see on the horizon as a long-term career, I'm wondering.
What are your thoughts on M.F.A. or not?
I have seen both sides of the fence, I'd like to think, having been enrolled in an MFA program myself.
As most of you know, I am proud to call myself a grad school dropout, along the same lines as Kanye West is a "College Dropout."
I enrolled in the graduate program in Creative Writing at [Like y'all don't really know where] University at the right time and the right place. It was just the wroooooongest school I could have ever chosen. The creative writing faculty was lily-white, as was the Literature faculty on the whole, except for one guy who was actually a great teacher, but as all young PhDs seem to be, he taught like he had something to prove. Hey, love the guy, but I just thought he was unnecessarily...ah, what's the word? The opposite of plainspoken.
So reason #1 (in no order) for dropping out: I couldn't see myself taking literature courses from this man (the only one teaching black literature) the WHOLE time I would be enrolled there.
Reason #2: Because of a relatively low undergrad GPA and a lack of funds at the school (probably because the president was spending it all) there was absolutely NO scholarship money available to me. That, alone, was not the biggest problem...but...
Reason #3: I believe that the program was dishonest about my ability to "earn" merit-based aid after a year there. I was under the impression that if I could earn a certain GPA and maintain it, then I could reapply for aid. NO SUCH LUCK.
Reason #4: Administrative incompetence.... from the Dean's Office to the Creative Writing Program itself....nobody knew what the FUCK was going on!
Reason #5: My Advisor retired. :-( He was cool as hell! Had a Pulitzer and everything. My interim advisor was wiggedy wack. My "new" advisor's mom died in the first month of school of my second year, and I refused to burden him with my problems. So basically I had no one REALLY advocating for me.
Reason #6: Maya died the summer after my first year -- that REALLY put everything in perspective. I was depressed and literally fearful of leaving the house sometimes. Damn anxiety.
Reason #7: The school was SERIOUSLY interfering with my ability to query agents.
Reason #8: I never trusted the faculty and my peers enough with my fiction, instead focusing on poetry -- even further taking me away from LAZARUS.
Reason #9: Okay, this is not actually a reason why I left, but I just wanted to put it out there....there was a REALLY meddlesome black lesbian in the program who was FOREVER in my business and ALWAYS trying to "hook me up" with people, including an obviously straight classmate of mine. Ugh.
Reason #10: I felt that the requirements were STUPID and weren't really helpful to my craft.
Reason #11: This particular program took longer than two years to complete, which I felt was ridiculous.
So, you might ask why I chose this program in the first place.
1. Not extraordinarily competitive.
2. Not difficult to commute to.
3. Small campus -- didn't want to go to a huge state school.
4. Wasn't ready to move to a new city and strike out on my own and be DIRT POOR.
5. It felt right.
But clearly, after a year and a summer, it not only stopped feeling right, it was actually taking away from my writing and me doing what i needed to do when it came to LAZARUS. And DAMN this was back in 02-03. Sometimes I feel like LAZARUS could have come out in 04 and we'd be on COVENANT by now, if not for that school.
But you know what? If not for that school, I wouldn't have had contacts with some really great people, who, were all undergrads when I met them, LOL. Don't get me wrong, my classmates were okay people, but I sorta knew where their heads were at when I "disappeared" and NOT A ONE of them tried to contact me to see if I was dead or alive.
LOL...fuckers.
So anyway....my actual advice, and I do have some.
Realize that many, if not most people in MFA programs already have some sort of career. Seeking an MFA is what they are doing to force themselves to have time to write. YOU CAN DO THIS ON YOUR OWN. Don't pay a school MONEY to do this.
Now, if you get a scholarship, GO! But if you already have written a book, DON'T GO! The bamas in these programs want to be where YOU are! That's like going back to high school to take electives -- read a book instead.
I think I was too young for an MFA program. I liked the undergrads a lot better than my grad classmates. I liked the work, even though it was hard, but my mind was often focused on other things, whether it was my own writing, pursuing Alpha, BEING an Alpha, or Maya's death and planning her Homecoming memorial.
I thought about what Maya would have done...or what she might have said about what I was doing. And while Maya doesn't strike me as a quitter, I knew she'd not want me to be miserable. And miserable the hell I was.
MFA's are cool degrees. You will basically graduate with a book length manuscript that has been workshopped a lot. That's what many folks out here NEED. But there are ways to do that without the degree.
Oh yeah...one last thing...the MFA in 2005 (in my opinion) doesn't adequately or competitively credential you to do anything professionally. It is a terminal degree that you can't generally use as a prerequisite to a PhD program, unless that program has an extensive writing component (and some do).
None of this is meant to shit on MFA recipients (hi Karamale!) because they chose their way and I chose mine after having tasted their way. It wasn't for me...and hey, I have a book. *shrug*
So, whatever.....a little education isn't a bad thing, but do it for the right reasons and do it on THEIR dime, not yours.
Posted by Rashid on October 1, 2005 8:03 PM