Beginning writers have often asked me if they should do an MFA, a degree that has been getting lots of negative criticism in recent years. Programs have gone viral round the country and critics complain that they produce boring cookie-cutter writers.
I tell the writers that my own MFA experience was a great start to a long career, and I share the main things I got out of the two-and-a-half years at what was then the #3 program in the country:
1) I learned to write under deadline. I took lots of creative writing classes in college, but I never had to produce so much writing per semester with a jury of my peers waiting to pass sentence. It wasn't always easy, but it helped me later on when editors at newspapers demanded revisions, and sometimes quickly. Ditto with book and anthology editors.
2) I found a community of writers. No, I didn't like everyone in my program. Some people were arrogant, some people were lazy, some people had never read anybody before Kerouac and didn't intend to. But there were students who were passionate about their craft, excited about the process, and thrilled to be there. The hothouse environment was inspiring.
3) Those same writers came from widely different backgrounds and had different reading interests. They introduced me to writers I never would have read on my own--and with a sense of urgency. I still remember sitting at lunch in the dining commons when a friend rushed in with a book just published by Richard Wilbur and shoved it at me: "You have to read this poem." I did, and I fell in love.
4) If there's a literature component, and mine was almost 50% lit, you might be exposed to older and foreign authors who can stimulate your writing. Without my program, I probably would never have encountered Joseph Conrad, Hart Crane, Baudelaire, Iris Murdoch, Susan Hill and many more. As Cynthia Ozick has advised: "Read, read, read... Every writer is first a wide reader."
5) Writing programs are magnets for readings. They invite celebrated as well as up-and-coming poets, fiction writers, and memoirists to read to their students on a regular basis. That means you get to listen to and meet a range of contemporary writers you can't easily match elsewhere. You not only get to hear their work, you also get to study how they perform it, which is invaluable practice for when you launch your own career. And there can be more chance of interacting with those writers.
6) An MFA program can be a terrific place to hone your craft and find your voice if the atmosphere is conducive to your development. Over the course of two and a half years at UMass/Amherst, I saw my prose become richer, my character building deepen, and my subject matter expand. It was there that I became an American pioneer in writing about children of Holocaust survivors. I also won the programs writing prize, judged by a major New York editor and that helped launch my publishing career.
If you decide on investing your time and money, do the research. You can find rankings and reviews on line, blogs by people who attended the programs you're interested in, ratings of the faculty, financial aid info -- everything you need to make your decision. And make sure to read the work of the professors you'd be studying with -- if you don't feel simpatico, you might want to pick another program. Likewise, check any source you can about the atmosphere in that program. If it’s toxic, be warned. I remember mentioning a graduate school to a professor who wouldn’t give me details, but warned me to stay away. It was good advice.
But let me be clear: MFA’s aren’t necessarily the best path for a writers. It depends on who you are, how much time and money you have, how well you work in a structured environment—and what your interests are. You might feel totally done with school and not want to enter a degree program of any kind. Reading on your own; finding a writer’s group; attending writers’ conferences; taking workshops online or in person; going on writers’ retreats; finding an editor who inspires and helps move you forward might fit you much better. Every writer is different, has different interests and needs, and a unique journey. Trust your intuition and your experience to find what works for you.
Lev Raphael is the author of Writer's Block is Bunk (Advice for Writers) and 26 other books in genres from memoir to mystery. He has taught creative writing at Michigan State University and Regents College in London and been invited to teach it at Leipzig University in Germany. He currently edits, coaches, and mentors writers at https://writewithoutborders.com.
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I had an excellent MFA in Creative Writing through Western Colorado University. I completed the Genre Fiction track which featured stellar writers and publishers from across the community. In addition to the excellent benefits you mentioned, it also featured a strong emphasis on the business side of writing. The thesis novel I wrote eight years ago has been picked up by Cannon Publishing and will be released in November.
Most of the writers whose work I've read and loved were not products of MFA programs. Most writers, whom I know personally in my age group both here and abroad, became published authors after first working as reporters and editors. Others were scholars who wrote about their research, which was then published in peer-reviewed academic journals and books. Still others, just wrote and submitted their work and eventually got lucky. I can think of only one, a poet, who completed his MFA in 1970-71, and retired as an MFA prof. During his career, has been published in just about every literary journal, as well as a few well-known magazines. In his case, the MFA route certainly helped.