A Peek Into My Writing Background

In graduate school, I wrote erotic fiction on the side, drawing on my gay club experiences. This project distracted me from my dissertation, which examined journalistic, scientific, and legal texts about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Even though I was writing erotic fiction, I was still writing, I reasoned. Words are words, after all, right?

By the time I finished my dissertation, I had accumulated over 500 pages of erotica. They amounted to more of a shitty first draft, but I shared about 20 pages with a writing mentor. During our conversation, I asked whether I should apply to creative writing MFA programs. My mentor simply responded, “You don’t need that. You’re already writing. Just continue doing what you’re doing.” 

I took my mentor’s advice. For the next 20 years, I worked at a New Jersey state university as a full-time faculty member, producing academic articles and specializing in professional writing. Still, I longed to return to my true passion–fiction, poetry, and memoir. 

In December of 2019, my mother passed away. A few months later, the governor locked down New Jersey. I decided to take paid leave from work for a year and a half and spend that time reflecting on what I wanted. As you might have guessed, I never returned to my day job.

Instead, I wrote feverishly, from morning to night. Journaling. Personal essays capturing slices of memory. Poetry. Short stories. I took online writing classes, pursued a genealogy certificate from BU, and published a number of creative pieces.

After taking at least 15 writing courses, I honed in on genres: not erotica, but memoir, ranging from creative nonfiction, flash, and poetry. I started a novel-length memoir on food, drawing on my experiences with 30-minute meal preps using my pot after 10-hour workdays. Eating and writing about tomatoes, rice, and vegetables with grated parmesan on top–right from the pot–was just as intoxicating as my grad school erotica about the club.

Pursuing a Master of Fine Arts?

At least one person in each of the writing courses I took had been an MFA student or was planning to enroll in a MFA program in creative writing. While my writing mentor dismissed MFAs in creative writing all those years ago, I decided to look into them again.

Here is what I learned:

• All writers can benefit from graduate degrees, but this looks different for each writer.
• Most MFA graduate programs last 2 full years; some offer a part-time option.
• Many are expensive and offer limited financial aid. 
• Most require students to submit writing samples with their application materials.
• They can offer community, but some writers can find the environment too competitive as opposed to encouraging.
• They can offer opportunities to participate in writing workshops, literature classes, genre-specific classes, and classes on various writing craft strategies.
• They can grant you access to publishers and agents and/or professional readings and conference presentations.
• They can prepare you to teach writing to students. 
• Some suit the needs of recent college graduates, while a growing number of MFA programs target an older writing population: second career writers or writers like me who are looking to pivot.
• Many take place online or in person, but low-residency MFAs adopting a hybrid model have become more common.
• Accelerated MFA programs are an option where students can receive their degrees in a few months or semesters.
• Newer programs can offer experimental curricula: exposure to digital, journalistic, and new media genres and capstone experiences. 

Every writer needs to figure out what they’re hoping to get out of a creative writing MFA to ensure the program matches their needs, lifestyle, budget, and writing goals.

What’s the Best Writing MFA for Me?

There is no one-size-fits-all MFA program. But to start, I took a look at GradCafe’s top 10 creative writing MFA programs list.

Bay Path (#5) is fully online, and Cornell (#8) awards all students a fellowship covering full tuition.

Or you might prefer to attend a local state university for the lower tuition costs. In Connecticut, where I live, the local university allows MFA students to teach the undergrads, comparable to NYU’s MFA program, which also provides teaching fellowships.

The Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin gives students full funding for 3 years and only accepts 12 students each year. If you’re looking for a program that will provide editing experience for a renowned literary journal, look to Emerson College, where students can work at Ploughshares and Redivider. 

After all this research, I opted for another type of writing program altogether: PocketMFA. While this program does not offer a graduate degree, it still provides an intensive writing experience with assigned genre-specific mentors. It builds a community of writers and mentors beyond the online workshops. Those who graduate from PocketMFA go on to publish the works they focused on during their time with their mentor. I, for example, was able to complete the first draft of my food memoir as a PocketMFA student. 

My Writing Journey Now With PocketMFA

Before finding PocketMFA, I was close to choosing a different MFA program that required writers to live and work together over the summer. When I found PocketMFA, I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to move.

PocketMFA offers fully online courses and additional community building opportunities the other program did not.

• A unique Learning Contract so I could outline my own writing journey
• Graduate level instruction during Direct Instruction seminars led by published authors
• One-on-one mentorship and Peer Workshop sessions
• A Writing Life Residency to get closer to publishing
• A Digital Community you can access for life
• Post-cohort opportunities via Working Writer Services

These features of the PocketMFA program were what convinced me to finally enroll.

If you’re considering an MFA in creative writing, spend time researching different programs and reflecting on who you are as a writer. This will help you determine what you need from the coursework and what you can reasonably afford and take on.

Talk to working writers and ask them to review your writing and their perspectives on MFA programs.

Take a few online writing courses as a trial period and see if learning remotely is right for you.

Write and write a lot. Write to publish your writing. Attend readings and open mics at local bookstores to share your writing with others and hear what people have to say.

Writing is a profession and craft, but also a lifestyle. Writers write through their entire lives, aging with every piece they complete. Keep that longevity in mind as you work to improve your skill and explore different forms and genres. Completing an MFA is only one possible way that can help you navigate this journey.