High Excitement for Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing
Notes From an MFA Candidate
By Noel T . Jones ’ 12 , MFA ’ 19
From Walt Whitman to Betty Smith , Arthur Miller to Marianne Moore , Truman Capote to Thomas Wolfe , The Brooklyn Eagle to … well , you get the picture ; the roots of Brooklyn ’ s literary spirit are deepest in Brooklyn Heights , and the new Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at St . Francis College continues the tradition .
The MFA is one of the newest in the city , and is also unique . It ’ s the only low-residency in the area , meaning that students come to campus twice a year for 10 intense days , then do the rest of the work online . As someone who worked their way through undergrad , and continues to need the support of a full-time job , this structure allows me to focus on making a living while also developing the skills necessary to hone my craft .
When I returned to St . Francis College this summer Noel T . Jones ’ 12 , MFA ’ 19 . to attend the inaugural MFA residency , I was reminded of Homer ’ s classic poem “ The Odyssey .” After years of being lost “ at sea ” in the workforce , weathering storms of self-doubt , hindrances in the form of rejected stories from journals , and disruptions in my commitment to writing , I discovered that Remsen Street is my Ithaca , and this residency was a homecoming .
However , it is my impression that SFC has that welcoming effect on any student , not just the ones who return . In a mere ten days , I bonded with two poets , three dramatic writers , and three other fiction writers — my fellow MFA candidates — which is to say nothing of the incredible faculty under the guidance of Dr . Wendy Galgan , chair of the English Department , and Professor Theo Gangi , Program Director and Lecturer .
Our jam-packed days began with in-depth workshops overseen by award winning professors including playwright and actress Kathryn Grant , poet and writer Annie Finch , and Man MFA students Evelyn Dumonte ’ 21 and Adela Pacurar ’ 19 .
Booker Prize winning novelist and writer Marlon James . Taking a break from focusing on our own work , we attended lectures and workshops where we met myriad members of the literary world . The focus of each visiting writer , agent , and editor meeting with us varied from advice on how to map plot in prose , to how to measure meter in poetry , or how to create realistic dialogue on the page and on the stage . Despite the differences in gender , race , age , genre , and the role the speaker played in the publishing process , a single thread of advice connected all of these talks : publications and awards don ’ t make you a writer ; writing makes you a writer .
This may seem to be stating the obvious , but in an age when amateur writers are told only to expect rejection — a red-ink badge of courage — it is easy to get discouraged . Still more like Odysseus , we MFA candidates are not alone on our quest . It may be overwhelming to be in the same room as these successful figures , especially when some of them are tasked with the job of tearing your writing apart . Nevertheless , we learn from our mistakes and can only benefit from such insightful criticism . Under the unwavering tutelage of our accomplished faculty and with the sense of community we have built amongst each other , something brilliant this way comes , and St . Francis is at the core of it . ●
Lincoln Michel ( online editor of Electric Literature , coeditor of Gigantic ) leads a workshop with Steven Moller ’ 19 .
Learn more about the MFA at sfc . edu / MFA
Watch the MFA Mentors in an Author ’ s Showcase : https :// youtu . be / onHO9UgwMOs
MFA Faculty Spotlights
Marlon James is the 2015 Man Booker Prize winner for his novel , A Brief History of Seven Killings . He is
Marlon James . also the author of The Book of Night
Women , which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and an NAACP Image Award . His first novel , John Crow ’ s Devil , was a New York Times Editors ’ Choice . ●
Annie Finch is an award winning poet with six books of poetry including , Eve , Calendars , and most recently
Annie Finch .
Spells : New and
Selected Poems . She has also written popular nonfiction , plays , opera libretti , memoir , and numerous books and anthologies on poetry and poetics . She was Director of the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing for ten years . ●
Kathryn Grant is an adjunct professor at St . Francis College . Her plays have been produced in New York and around the
Kathryn Grant . country . She has received the Berilla
Kerr Award in Playwriting , the Jerry Kaufman Award , two Premiere Stages Festival Awards and a citation from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg / ATCA New Play Award . ●
10 ST . FRANCIS COLLEGE TERRIER | FALL 2017 | VOLUME 81 , NUMBER 1