It’s official. I have finished my MFA in creative writing. I even got an email from the university the other day assuring me that, yes, my diploma is on its way. In four or five weeks.
Part of finishing one’s MFA at the University of Central Florida is a public reading showcasing one’s written work. I, and four of my MFA compatriots who will no doubt all be famous authors someday, held our reading about a month ago at the Peacock Room in the Mills 50 district near downtown Orlando. I read a scene from the novel I wrote for my thesis. That novel is still in progress, so you may be wondering why I called this post “The Finished Product.” The product is the thesis, which led to the degree, both of which are now finished. So this feels like a good time to share this snippet of my work. It’s my celebration of being done with school, even if I am far from being done with the novel.
It’s also a good way to introduce what I want to do with this blog over the next several weeks. The video below shows the end of my MFA journey and will be the launching point for a look back at the MFA process—choosing and applying to programs, what one can logically expect an MFA program to accomplish, what one can accomplish in an MFA program, etc.
You’re probably thinking that the interwebs are already full of MFA discussions. The debate over their usefulness persists ad nauseum. I know. I’ve read a lot of that stuff. Some of it is patently false. Some is conditionally true. Some of it is spot on. But I’ve been there, and I’m now in the process of carving out a career for myself artistically and professionally. I think I’m in a good position to add my voice to that conversation.
But first, a video related to the whole reason we get MFAs: to write. (Introduction by my thesis director David James Poissant, whose collection The Heaven of Animals came out in March and you should go buy it because it’s amazing. And yes, that’s a Better Than Ezra t-shirt he’s wearing.)