Imagine yourself completely immersed in a world of creativity and trust. For ten days and nights you participate in a creative workshop, attend lectures and readings, and engage in conversation that has nothing to do with the latest machinations of your boss or the latest disasters feeding the news cycle. You are one with your muse, but together in a united creative community.
That is what an MFA residency is when everything is right. I have enjoyed four residencies while a student in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing program, and I am about to leave for my final one. I will give a lecture on writing scenes you’ve never seen, and I’ll read from my memoir-in-progress on my cross-country U.S. road trip. And I’ll do all of those other residence-related activities summarized above. And then I will receive my diploma and enter the next chapter of my life.
But I will not neglect the readers of The Artist’s Road. For the last three residencies I have posted daily from VCFA in a series I call “MFA Nuggets.” Some of the posts relate pedagogical wisdom I pick up in a lecture or workshop. Others are a personal reflection of a residency moment, something I simply don’t experience in the “real world.” The first will appear in a few days, and they’ll run the length of the ten-day residency.
If you can’t wait that long, here are links to past MFA Nugget posts. I’ll connect with you shortly from Montpelier!
- A link to all of my fourth-semester MFA nuggets.
- A link to all of my third-semester MFA nuggets.
- A link to all of my second-semester MFA nuggets.
- I didn’t blog from my first semester, but this post sums up the experience after the fact.
The Artist's Road 
I”m looking forward to your comments from Vermont, Patrick. There’s always some nugget I can use.
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Can’t wait! I’m having serious VCFA withdrawal.
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CAN. NOT. WAIT. This sounds like what heaven would be like. Thanks for the sneak peek!
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I just discovered your blog and love, love, love it! Here are my thoughts on writing:
http://lasagnolove.blogspot.de/2013/06/you-get-to-decide-what-to-worship-ii.html
I’d love to know what you think!
Have a great weekend,
Bambi
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Thanks, everyone! I just posted the first nugget. Glad to know of your enthusiasm! Bambi, I’ll be sure to check out your link.
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It’s gonna be fun to read these things while I’m actually within a few yards of where they were written (although I haven’t had a chance to say hi to you yet here, even on this tiny campus). I’m really glad that I read your blog before I came to VCFA, and not just because it’s entertaining.
Pam (who has actually managed to watch four or five episodes of “Arrested Development” during the residency but only by sacrificing sleep and maintaining a near-monastic level of socializing)
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