MONTPELIER, VERMONT -- This post is an attempt to find some positives in an otherwise not-so-pleasant workshop experience here at my MFA in Writing residency with the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Here is a list of things I promise not to do next summer, at my final residency: I will remember to say something …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: Lessons From My Failed Residency Workshop
MONTPELIER, VERMONT -- To what extent is the "I" a writer puts down the page truly that writer? It's a question that has long vexed personal essayists, in particular since Michel de Montaigne went about as far as any writer could in examining every aspect of himself in his prose. Vermont College of Fine Arts …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: The Writer’s Persona in Essays and Blog Posts
MONTPELIER, VERMONT -- One thing I've learned in writing nonfiction is that when you write about others, there is no way of knowing what might cause offense. So if this post describing different types of workshop participants pisses off my current workshop mates, I will live with the result. I should note I am not …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: The Dynamics of a Writing Workshop
MONTPELIER, VERMONT -- It can be a bit trite when we hear instructors say they love to teach because they learn so much from their students. If you're learning from us, we students can say, why are we paying you? But as someone who has also been an instructor, I know this can be true …
MONTPELIER, VERMONT -- Do you write with your eyes or with your ears? I write with my fingers--it's a lot easier to type or grip a pen--but sarcasm aside, I learned a good insight on creative writing in my workshop here at my MFA in Writing residency at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. It …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: Are You an ‘Ear’ or an ‘Eye’ Writer?
MONTPELIER, VERMONT -- As a creative writer, you know the importance of routine. Writing at a certain time of day, with a particular pen or inspiring sweater, anything that helps you find that quiet place where it's just you and the words. But how often does life really let you find that place? That's the …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: Inspiring Your Writing with Contemplative Practice
Who's up for a little creative insight from Emily Dickinson? Tell all the Truth but tell it slantSuccess in Circuit liestoo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth's superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind When I started my MFA in Writing program nearly two years …
Continue reading 3 Steps For Creative Writers to Tell it Slant
So the countdown begins. Having been admitted to her art college of choice, in a few months my daughter will be a 10-hour drive away, living artistic instruction day and night. It's a dream for her, and I'm thrilled (my pocketbook is perhaps less so). I'm also a bit envious--at how clear her creative path …
Continue reading Are We Living a Golden Age of Creative Instruction?
"You should write about what the social life is like here. That was the thing I was most afraid of before coming." One of my fellow students at my Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA residency made that suggestion last night, and so I'm going to take that on here. Now the first question is, …
Oh metaphor, how you elude me. I hear you mentioned in the same breath as praise for the great essayists, storytellers, and poets here at my MFA residency with the Vermont College of Fine Arts, but you are shifting smoke to me, impossible to grasp wisps rising out of the creative sparks of others' literary …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: Extending Metaphor in Your Creative Writing
The Artist's Road 