MFA Writers

During this season of gratitude, we are grateful for all of you, dear listeners, writers, and friends. We’re also grateful for a university-sponsored break from our laptops. So, as we take a pause from the screens, we hope you enjoy one of our favorites from Season 3. We’ll be back to our regular programming in two weeks. Jonathan Escoffery, author of the highly acclaimed debut collection If I Sur...

This week, an MFA with an international focus! Krista Diamond sits down with Jared to talk about UNLV’s required (and funded) study abroad component and its emphasis on translation. Plus, Krista shares lessons learned as a freelance writer, info on the Vegas literary community, and how her experience working and living in national parks informs her fiction and nonfiction alike. Krista Diamond is a...

Happy MFA Application Season to all who celebrate! Jess Silfa returns to the show bringing seven years of experience with the MFA Draft Facebook Group. On this episode, Jess and Jared offer advice for applicants across a wide range of topics: teaching, funding, health insurance, fees, faculty, letters of recommendation, writing samples, statements of purpose, negotiations, timelines, and more. Goo...

Spooky season? More like application season! To help ease your fright, we've got our annual MFA application episode in preparation. Before then, we invite you to check in with last year's episode featuring MFA Admissions Coordinator Lindsay Bernal. Our new episode will be in your feed in two weeks. It’s the third annual MFA application episode! This time, Jared is joined by Lindsay Bernal,...

Poetic forms are sometimes considered limiting, but can we find freedom within the constraints? On this episode, Brandon Blue tells Jared about how recontextualizing traditional forms through the lens of identity creates an additional, sometimes subversive, layer of meaning. Plus, he discusses writing about intimacy and eroticism within and outside of sexual relationships; how he decided to pursue...

What can you learn from a veteran of two MFA programs and an admin of the MFA Draft Facebook page? A lot! Jess Silfa joins Jared to talk about how living in New York, growing up in a Caribbean oral storytelling tradition, and being disabled has influenced their writing. They also discuss their decision to leave one MFA program for another, explain what makes Nashville a surprisingly supportive com...

Poet, essayist, and Professor Ross Gay talks to Jared about his new book, The Book of (More) Delights. Together, they discuss how social connection evokes joy, grief, humility, and heartbreak, and the value of practicing radical empathy in our writing and our daily lives. Plus, they talk about Ross’s approach to the creative writing classroom, a space he conceives of as generative, experimental, a...

The pod team is wrapping up our summer vacation. In the meantime, we’re rereleasing one of our favorite episodes from our first season. We’ll be back with new and exciting episodes in two weeks.  How is the zombie of Haitian folklore a poetic metaphor for how society treats Blackness? Bryan Byrdlong of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan tells Jared about his project on t...

The pod team is on summer vacation! While we rest, recharge, and record some fabulous Season 4 episodes, we hope you enjoy this rerelease from our first season.  With political and social unrest rocking his home country of Venezuela, Alejandro Puyana turned to writing as a way to process. He applied to MFA programs four times before landing an acceptance at the Michener Center for Writers. Now, yo...

Prose encompasses fiction and nonfiction, but how does the genre affect our process? On this episode, Amanda Scott discusses her “fragmented” approach to the page both across genres and with hybrid techniques. Plus, she discusses how diverse family backgrounds have shaped her identity and writing, as well as how her background in technical communication and her editorial experience informs her cur...

How do you write about the climate crisis without becoming didactic? On this episode, Simon Graham describes their approach to activist writing, guided by their experiences growing up on the beaches of Australia and working in environmental policy. Plus, they talk about queering the crime fiction genre, the financial realities for international students living in Seattle, and remembering who you’r...

What’s it like writing historical fiction in an MFA program? On this episode, Kayla Cayasso tells Jared about the family histories and archival research that informed her collection portraying families affected by generational trauma. She also talks about the unique role of Florida in Southern literature, the advantages of multi-genre workshops, and the importance of Black and Brown representation...

MFA Writers is going to Canada! Neil Griffin, wildlife biologist turned poet and essayist, tells Jared about how both ecology and writing require patience, openness, and vision. Plus, Neil talks about whether “creative nonfiction" is a useful label, the pros and cons of a small program, and UVic’s emphasis on training students in creative writing pedagogy. Neil Griffin is a poet, essayist, an...

Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author and faculty member at two MFA programs, joins Jared for this special episode about Maurice’s multi-year journey from corporate lawyer to professional writer (with plenty of rejection in between), the role of a creative writing professor in guiding students’ work, and the criticality of retaining joy in our writing, despite the challenges of publication, deadlines, and...

What’s it like to pursue a low-residency MFA when you’re a collaborative playwright and performer? On this episode, Suli Holum describes devised work, partnerships between writers and actors, and how she created a piece based on her research in the oil fields of North Dakota. She and Jared also talk about the details of Goddard’s creative and craft assignments, and how students in this low-res pro...

Gina Chung, debut author of the speculative novel SEA CHANGE, tells Jared how the book began with a writing prompt in her MFA program and how her fellow students encouraged her to turn it into a novel. She and Jared discuss how her experience in publishing shaped her understanding of the business of writing and the importance of a trusted writing community. Plus, Gina offers advice for making the...

How does our excavation of ancestral history shape our understanding of ourselves and how can writing guide us through this process? On this episode, Derek Chan discusses the role of family stories in his poetry and life, the magic of bewilderment in art, and the dissonance between our external language and our internal being. Plus, as a first-generation and international student, he offers advice...

School's out for spring break! The pod team is resting and recharging this month, so we're bringing you one of our favorites from earlier this season. We'll be back with new episodes in two weeks. Welcome to Season 3! It’s finally time to tackle the oldest and most famous MFA of them all: the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. On this episode, Steven Duong and Jared discuss whether Iowa lives up...

The podcast team is on spring break, so we're rereleasing one of our favorite episodes to celebrate Dr. Taylor Byas's successful defense of her dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Byas! On the season 2 finale, Taylor Byas talks to Jared about how her fiction background helps her develop sharp images and accessible lines in her poetry while her poetic knowledge taught her to take more risks in her f...

Poetic constraints may feel limiting to some, but for others, they spark creativity. In this episode, Erica Reid discusses the freedom and discovery of poetic forms. Plus, she talks with Jared about returning to school 15 years after her undergraduate degree, attending a low-res program with a strong sense of community and a dedication to centering the writer in workshop, and how her experience wo...

On this episode, Caroline Catlin talks about how her cancer diagnosis motivated a career change from social worker to nonfiction writer. She also describes how she pairs photography with writing, and how she found herself photographing death, grief, and loss. Plus, after transferring from one MFA program to another during the first year, she tells Jared about advice she has for other writers consi...

In a small program with a cohort of just three students, who you’re around makes a world of difference. On this episode, Edwards Daschle talks about finding a writing community, a welcoming environment to write both realism and fantasy, and inclusive workshops. Plus, he and Jared talk about mining our lives for stories, drumming up motivation to write, and what it’s like to get into an MFA on your...

Most MFA programs last 2-3 years, so what’s it like to earn this degree in just 1-1.5 years? Mary Kate McGrath describes the pros and cons of Boston University’s accelerated program. Plus, she and Jared discuss voice-driven fiction, coping with workshop anxiety, and wheelchair accessibility in literary spaces. Mary Kate McGrath is a writer, journalist, and disability advocate from Massachusetts. S...

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt writing imposter syndrome! We all have our hands up. On this episode, De’Andre S. Holmes of Columbia College Chicago shares his experience with self-doubt, exacerbated by pursuing an undergrad degree in business administration, not English. Plus, he talks about taking a fully-funded semester in Paris through his MFA program, provides advice for students coping w...

The podcast team is on winter break. Thanks for listening, friends. We wish you all a great end of the year. We'll be back with a new episode in two weeks.  Chibuihe Obi Achimba sits down with Jared to talk about the anguish and extreme joy of transferring a poem from imagination to language, using writing to explore the impacts and losses of modernization and civil war in his home country of...