F229.
Controlled Chaos & June Swoons: Life as a Low-Residency MFA Director
Friday, March 25, 2022
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
Four directors, from rookie to veteran, provide a sneak peek behind the scenes of their low-residency MFA programs, from start (proposing the program to a dozen confused committees) to finish (running a fake graduation ceremony). Topics include to MFA or not to MFA; why there are so many low-res programs now; building a program that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive; the difference between traditional and low-res; the "affordability factor"; and the "wow factor."
Participants
Sophfronia Scott is founding director of Alma College's MFA in Creative Writing for the 21st Century, a low-residency program based in Michigan. She is the author of novels and nonfiction works including The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton.
Meg Kearney is author of All Morning the Crows, winner of the Washington Prize; An Unkindness of Ravens; Home By Now, winner of the PEN New England Award for Poetry; three verse novels for teens; and an award-winning picture book. She is founding director of the Solstice MFA Program in Massachusetts.
Donald Quist is the author of books of nonfiction and fiction. He has served as a Gus T. Ridgel fellow for the English PhD program at University of Missouri. He is director of the MFA in writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Find him online at donaldquist.com.
David Hicks is a novelist and short-story writer whose debut novel, White Plains, was published In May 2017 by Conundrum Press. He directs the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
