MFA Students Speak: Is an MFA Worth It?
D., Novelist with no MFA (D. chose to remain anonymous)
Why didn’t you pursue an MFA?
Had no interest. I didn’t study creative writing in college, and mostly didn’t like the kids studying it (or the teachers teaching it, for that matter). Broadly speaking, I absolutely never wanted to go back in a classroom after finishing undergrad. As I started writing professionally, I began to feel that one only really improves one’s skills by writing, and that discussing writing abstractly was of minimal use. Personal prejudice, but then, you did ask my opinion.
Do you think MFA programs risk institutionalizing a realm of fine arts? What about visual arts MFAs? Is this bad?
Certainly the fact that so many of our current generation of writers have gone through basically the same process of development limits the diversity of viewpoints and styles. That seems hard to dispute. Don’t really have an opinion about visual arts MFAs, frankly.
What about this scenario: some MFA candidates believe that creative writing can’t be taught, but go for the money and life’s license to write. How would you respond? Or, some candidates attend expressly for the potential relationship with faculty, and could care less about workshopping with cohorts.
I guess if you aren’t paying anything there are worse ways you can spend two years, but I think there are better ways as well. Again, this gets to strong personal preference, but I never liked workshopping things, having my stuff looked only in excerpt. Everyone needs someone to take a look at their stuff, and if you can’t take criticism then you shouldn’t be in this business, but having to critique other people’s stuff honestly was something that never interested me at all. What can I say? I never wanted to be an editor.
Many of the responses I’ve received all touch on the community that was established in the MFA, which has also carried over into professional careers. Do you have a community of writers? How important is community to you?
This is one point where I can see that getting an MFA would be helpful: building connections and whatnot. Personally speaking, though, I hate networking, so that aspect doesn’t appeal to me. As far as communities of people go, of course it’s nice to communicate with talented people who are serious about writing, but these aren’t so easy to find. Mostly the writers I meet are pretentious, and can’t shut up about themselves to save their life. At the end of the day, I just feel like if you’re not writing you’re not improving, and talking about writing, while fun, is not the same thing as sitting down at a keyboard. Writing is not a collaborative creative exercise. If you want to work in a group, join a band.