Creative Writing Mfa Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students
- ISBN13: 9780826428868
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Product Description
The Creative Writing MFA Handbook guides prospective graduate students through the difficult process of researching, applying to, and choosing graduate schools in creative writing. The handbook includes profiles of fifty creative writing programs, guidance through the application process, advice from current professors and students including George Saunders, Aimee Bender, Tracy K. Smith, and Geoffrey Wolff, and the most comprehensive listings of graduate writing programs in and outside the United States. The handbook also includes special sections about Low-Residency writing programs, Ph.D. programs, publishing in literary journals, and workshop and teaching advice. In a remarkably concise, user-friendly fashion, The Creative Writing MFA Handbook answers as many questions as possible, and is packed with information, advice, and experience. This second edition updates and builds upon the first edition, which was published in 2005 to great acclaim and contains a vastly expanded ranking of current creative writing programs.
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Tags: Creative, Graduate, Guide, Handbook, Prospective, Students, writing
March 21st, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Obviously, Kealey has some type of bone to pick with Iowa, and my guess is that he was probably rejected at some point. It’s kind of like someone who got rejected from Harvard writing a book about the top universities in the country and deciding to leave Harvard out of the top ten. Is anyone really going to take him seriously?
In any event, as someone who went to Iowa, I can tell you the program is not for everyone. Everything that Kealey says is true. It’s competitive, the financial aid works on a tier system, a lot of the students leave with a chip on their shoulders, etc. But the bottom line is that no other program in the country even comes close to Iowa in terms of the number of successful writers it produces. Out of the twenty-five students in my class, at least fifteen have already published books (in some cases multiple books) with major publishing houses. And though there are many other factors to take into account when choosing an M.F.A. Program, that seems like a pretty important one. All you have to do is open any contemporary fiction anthology and look at the bios, and you’ll see that about half went to Iowa. Not to mention the countless Pulizter Prize Winners, National Book Award Winners, and Noble Laureates.
I don’t know about Kealey, but when I was choosing an M.F.A. Program, I was thinking about it as a career decision. I wanted to go to the place that was going to give me the best chance of publishing a book.
Rating: 1 / 5
March 21st, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Are all the other reviewers friends with the author?
The author seems to have done no more than go onto the websites of several colleges to get basic information and tuition rates. At one point he even brags about his expertise as someone who’se been on more than 200 colege websites. As far as I can tell he did not call admissions directors or anyone affiliated with the school. Occasionally he will state that grads say.. about a school – but it is again not clear if these are buddys of his, or what. When he says something seems like a good program – it is never clear what he means, does it seem good because he likes the distribution requirements on the website, because people get published in the New Yorker, or because it costs a dollar a day.
The author also has a weird fixation on finances, often writing several sentances on how expensive a school is in a paragraph long review. In more than one case half of the lines will be comments on how the school seems expensive, how he thinks they might offer some assistance but it still seems too expensive. This is for almost every school.
We all know grad school is expensive. A simple dollar sign or star system would have done better, especiall since he gives NO specifics about what expensive means – if you look at the prices of the schools sourced, their tuition and sholarship rates vary quite a bit. We all know grad school is expensive.
Also he punctuates all of his sentances like this—- Don’t know why—- But it takes up more paper in a very thin book—-So the book is longer—-hope they didn’t teach him this in grad school.
The web resources section at the back, which you would think would be great since so much research was done online, is actually pretty poor in some regards and outdated. One glaring example is the link to a 1987 article rating MFA programs.
Rating: 1 / 5
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:24 am
This book really irritated me because of the way it is organized. At first, I couldn’t even find LISTINGS for schools I KNEW had creative writing M.F.A.s. That is because the author creates a seperate section for “low-residency” programs. I don’t understand why these schools are listed seperately. It was terribly confusing to not be able to find these schools listed under their region. To make matters worse, the author does not even list these schools under the “state” section. For instance, the state of Vermont is listed as having NO MFA programs. Goddard is in in Vermont. The plus side of this book is the “interview” section with M.F.A. graduates and professors, and the sprinkling of quotes from others he has throughout the book. There are also neat web referrals at the back. I recommend Amy Holman’s “An Insider’s Guide to Creative Writing Programs”. At least she provides an up-to-date listing of the schools. Her book is also much more professionally written and organized, and there are sections for grants and residencies, as well. And it comes with a CD!
Rating: 1 / 5
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:05 am
Just as easy as being in a store. You get what you want, it comes straight to you.
Rating: 5 / 5
March 22nd, 2010 at 5:38 am
I feel lucky yo have come across this book (and its accompanying blog) as I slogged through the MFA application process over the past eighteen months. The book doesn’t have all the answers, but it provides great insight and advice. Before this book came along, I was at the mercy of MFA programs’ websites, and they vary widely in quality and usefulness.
The tone of this book is conversational and informal. I liked that. As Kealey states in the introduction, he sees himself as a bus driver, not the be-all-end-all expert. He also makes it clear that the decision on which propgrams you apply to apply to is personal. He offers his opinions on how to narrow the field, that’s all. Take it or leave it.
This book is best read from beginning to end. In addition to Kealey’s insights and advice, there are also numerous comments from MFA graduates and faculty members that shed light on the application process and what to expect from an MFA program. Applying to programs is a royal pain. Kealey doesn’t guarantee a method for getting into the program of your dreams, but he does demystify the process and offer some tried-and-true advice. In my opinion, this little book is a bargain that’s worth reading, even if you don’t follow all of his advice.
Finally, as far as the cost-centric approach of Kealey’s book is concerned. I disagree w/ the previous reviewer who states “grad school is expensive. We all know that.” Au contraire. The cost of programs vary widely, and we can’t all drop $30K/ year at Columbia. Many programs offer tuition waivers, guaranteed in-state tuition, and/ or teaching assistantships and fellowships.
Rating: 5 / 5