tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post5059669287837536560..comments2024-03-29T04:20:01.068-06:00Comments on The Quivering Pen: On MFA Programs and States of BeingDavid Abramshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06013514596973186440noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8407679229975998493.post-71193583515490397892015-06-26T18:49:04.997-06:002015-06-26T18:49:04.997-06:00Well said, Marian.
My experience at the Universi...Well said, Marian. <br /><br />My experience at the University of Washington's MFA program was a boon. A boon laced with student loan debt, but a boon all the same. I stretched a two-year program to three because I wanted my advisers to see the second completed draft of my novel. I never felt like anyone was imposing anything on me as far as subject matter or style was concerned, and I graduated having written well and read well. I got some time in on academic panels. I published some work, found a mentor, read in public, won some prize money, and developed material that would become my first book. I think I ate everything good on the menu.<br /><br />Could I have written my first book without the program? Actually, probably not. I developed it while doing a Gardner exercise on Aristotelian reversal that probably wouldn't have occurred to me to do if my eventual mentor hadn't assigned it.<br /><br />I'd like to think the two instructors you wrote about were just blowing off steam. I've done enough teaching to know that dealing with students who aren't as dedicated as I'd like wears on my nerves. I get that. But the programs aren't really for them. They're for the people who are driven enough to take advantage of what the university offers to see their work through.<br />Jim Snowdenhttp://www.jimsnowden.comnoreply@blogger.com