To Every New Writer: There will probably be a voice in your head that tells you that you do not belong here. Do not listen to it. You belong here just as much as everyone else who’s here. Being in an MFA program sometimes seems like an impossible task to me, and being in an
When someone tells me that they are a writer, I am never sure what that means without more context. Is it storytelling? Journalism? Blogging? Food and travel reviews? Screenwriting? Stage plays? Ghost writing? Poetry? Experimental? Literary criticism? The style, the voice, the expectations, and the ways one can achieve “success” are different across these professional
As a new MFA in Creative Writing student and longtime podcaster, I was excited to attend the recent GUS workshop titled “The Theory of Podcasting: A Conversational Art.” The class was taught by Mike Gravagno, who is a recent graduate of the MFA, and his cohost of the PopFilter.com podcast, Ryan Haley. I started my
By Matthew Goldman Graduate Research Assistant Now that the semester is in full swing, you are probably looking for a place where you can finish your 200-page reading assignment for the lit class you’re enrolled in. Or maybe you need to escape the distractions at your house to write that creative piece that’s due for
By Mariam Said MFA Program Assistant When I first started applying to MFA programs a little more than a year and a half ago, it was for the purpose of finding a writing community. I was in the middle of my second year of teaching, and I was miserable, I wasn’t writing, and I wanted
By Meg Boyles MFA Program Assistant A year ago, I started the MFA in Creative Writing program at Chapman University. I thought an MFA program would be like one really long, fantastic workshop. Summer workshops I had taken before showed me that the creative community, the diverse classes, and the serious assignments shaped me into
By Matthew Goldman Graduate Research Assistant Before I began the time-consuming process of applying for MFA programs, I spent hours researching the value of an MFA in Creative Writing. While there were plenty of results that described the MFA as an essential part of an aspiring writer’s career, there were an equal number of dissenting
In September 2016, Chapman University, Wilkinson College alumna, Danielle M. Walters (’10, MFA Creative Writing and MA English) had her first book published, Cut The Thread. About the book: When a man falls from a balcony during a concert of Stravinsky’s Petrushka, a mystery begins to unfold in the local newspaper. In a dreamlike, whimsical vision
Next week, graduate students and faculty from the English Department of Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences will descend upon Washington D.C. along with 12,000 other authors, poets, students, teachers, editors, and publishers for the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference. From February 8-11, 14 current MFA Creative Writing students