A while ago I wrote up this list of what I consider to be good reasons to get an MFA in creative writing. But I wanted to spend a blog post talking about the community aspect, which I think is one of the most important reasons.
I want to start by specifically addressing NYU’s community, since so many people are dismissive of MFA programs located in big cities that already have great (non-MFA) writing communities. When I was first considering an MFA and I was spending a lot of time hanging out on the MFA Blog, I listened to a lot of people talking and arguing about this idea. Some people said places like New York and San Francisco and Los Angeles already have huge writing communities — you just have to reach out and find them. They said there’s no point in doing an MFA if you’re already located in one of those cities, and there’s no point in moving to one of those cities just for an MFA, especially given the high cost of living. But I’m going to have to disagree.
Those arguments assume:
1) The non-MFA writing community provides the same volume of inspiration and support as as an MFA community.
2) There are no advantages to combining the MFA community with the non-MFA community.
The community at NYU definitely provides way more support than the non-MFA literary scene could on its own. But also the two communities work together to provide an invaluable, one-of-a-kind resource for NYU’s writers. For example, there’s the Emerging Writers Reading Series at the KGB Bar, a series of events for which each reading features two poets and two fiction writers from NYU’s MFA program alongside a well-established writer. I’ll get to do a reading in April with Anne Enright. A couple friends of mine are reading with Chad Harbach. There’s always a great community of literary folks there just for the readings; it’s a really awesome opportunity for NYU writers to showcase their work in front of an enthusiastic audience.
Additionally, NYU curates its own reading series every week. Since we’re located in such a major city our program is able to bring in tons of incredible writers. People who have read in the past include: Junot Diaz, Jennifer Egan, Aleksandar Hemon, Karen Russell, Hannah Tinti, Gary Shteyngart, Lydia Davis, Colson Whitehead, Nicole Krauss, Jonathan Safran Foer, Joshua Ferris, Zadie Smith, Sam Lipsyte, Julie Orringer, E.L. Doctorow, Rick Moody, Tea Obreht, Darin Strauss, and so many more… (Of course a few of those are/were also NYU faculty members.)
This semester I’m particularly excited that George Saunders is coming to give a reading. He’s also doing a master class with NYU students, which I signed up for immediately. I just can’t imagine MFA programs out in rural areas attracting the same volume of incredible writers. It seems like everyone is in New York at some point or another — how often do people travel pass through Iowa, for example?
The community I found at NYU was definitely one of the best things about my MFA experience. NYU’s MFA program happens entirely within the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House — a beautiful townhouse built in 1836 that Lillian Vernon generously gave to us. The greatest thing about the Writers House is that it’s completely separate from the rest of the NYU campus, so it really is our own little bubble. Our own literary paradise. All our classes take place there. Almost all the NYU readings take place there. All the teachers in the program have their offices right upstairs. Whenever you walk into the House you know you’ll find a bunch of friends sitting around chatting on the couches just inside the front door. I say “friends,” but honestly it feels more like we’re a big family.
The MFA community provides something that you just can’t get anywhere else. Before the program I was aware of the literary opportunities in New York. I also already had a bunch of writer friends from high school and undergrad. Based on the arguments of the people I addressed at the beginning of this post, I guess I never really needed an MFA to find a writing community — I already had one. But I’m realizing more and more that my MFA friends are incredibly important to me because they have helped so much to shape who I am as a writer.
When NYU MFAers get together and discuss writing, we inspire each other all over again. We drive each other to work harder than we normally would. We trade tips and ideas. We read each other’s writing and give feedback even outside of workshops. We help each other siphon off stress and anxiety. And when we’re having these discussions there is so much more context to work with because of the workshops and craft classes that we’ve taken together or at least heard about. We think about our writing in a very specific way that’s based off of the things our teachers have taught us. We even use a specific type of jargon to talk about our ideas and our work.
I never have conversations like these with non-MFA writer friends. I honestly can’t even really imagine it (at least not in the present stage of my life). There are two reasons for this: a) those friends and I don’t have the shared experience of workshops and craft classes and events to gel our writing lives together, and b) it’s really difficult to transfer all that context onto people outside the community.
Another thing I noticed is that my writer friends who are not in the MFA community think about writing differently — it’s a different kind of priority for them. I guess the MFA experience spoils us a little. Every teacher / mentor / role model is so focused on what we’re writing that our creative work becomes the number one most important thing to us. There’s nothing like that in the non-MFA world of aspiring writers.
And perhaps even more important than all that, I’ve developed amazing relationships with my teachers. Two in particular have become my close friends and mentors…in fact when I think of my MFA, it feels like they are the entire experience. Sure, there’s a whole literary side of New York City that could have been community enough without me getting an MFA. But in this era, when anyone with a computer and a Twitter account can call him/herself a writer, how difficult is it to find someone who is willing to be a mentor to you?
An MFA gives you a good chunk of time and a great excuse to do nothing but write — but there are other ways of getting those. The MFA community, however, is a very unique thing. I don’t think you’ll find it anywhere else.
