February 1985 Cover Image

The MFA and the PhD: Where Do We Go From Here?

Francois Camoin
On the one hand there are animals which differ from each other (in that they belong to distinct species, each of which has its own physical appearance and mode of life), and on the other hand, there are men...who also differ from each other (in that they are distributed among different segments of society, each occupying a particular position in the social structure.)
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The MFA and the Job Market

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Gale Arnoux
I'm happy to be at Wichita State University on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the University's Master of Fine Arts Degree Program in Creative Writing. In January, 1973, the Board of Regents of the State of Kansas authorized Wichita to begin conferring the MFA degree, and Program Director Bruce Cutler was able to say in a letter to Robert Day of Washington College, "ours is the only MFA degree program in creative writing west of Iowa and Arkansas through the Rockies, so we feel we have a distinctive role to play."
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Whole Sight: Notes on New Black Fiction

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Charles Johnson
During the last decade, black writing has moved forward on two clear fronts, the commercial, and in respect to content, by which I mean this: a wider audience has opened for a few black writers, and the seldom-discussed ' experience of black women has, like the experience of women in general, been thematized in literature, thereby bringing to light a level of social discrimination the nation needs to deal with.

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Looking for Work

Mari Lonano
When I was in graduate school, I automatically assumed that once I finished my Masters in English I would get a teaching job in a college or university. That was all I thought about that. Not once did it occur to me or my fellow classmates, that this dream might not be realized. I thought I would start out teaching composition, work my way up the academic ladder, and finally teach creative writing and literature and still have time for my own writing.
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