MFA Writers

Over the last ten years, Katie M. Zeigler filled out an MFA application six times and never submitted. Now in her second year at St. Mary’s College of California, she talks to Jared about pursuing her MFA 25 years after finishing her Masters, her program’s emphasis on the business of writing, and crafting a novel about caregiving, dementia, and the sandwich generation.

Katie M. Zeigler is a second-year Fiction student in the MFA program at St. Mary's College of California. Before the MFA, she got a BA and an MA in English Literature from Stanford University. Her short fiction and nonfiction have been published in Stonecoast Review, Fish Anthology, The Centifictionist, Griffel, Digging, and Stanford Magazine, and she was recently featured on the podcast, In Short. Visit her at katiemzeigler.com and on Twitter @katiemzeigler.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

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Poet Gabrielle Grace Hogan of the New Writers Project at the University of Texas at Austin talks with Jared about using images to find theme in poetry, giving ourselves permission to write about happiness, and improving lesbian representation in the literary world. Along the way, they break down the similarities and differences between the New Writers Project and its sister program, the Michener Center for Writers.

Gabrielle is a poet in her third and final year of the New Writers Project MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She’s been published in the Academy of American Poets, Nashville Review, Salt Hill, CutBank, Foglifter, Peach Mag, and many other places. She has served as the Poetry Editor of Bat City Review, and Co-Editor of the online anthology You Flower / You Feast. Her debut chapbook Soft Obliteration is available from Ghost City Press.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

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Twitter: @MFAwriterspod

Jared sits down with author and Syracuse Professor George Saunders to discuss his advice for new and prospective MFA students, the value of trusting your writing intuition, the best (and worst) kind of workshop feedback, and how Saunders is creating community through discussions of craft, life, and process in his new project, Story Club.

George Saunders is the author of eleven books including Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize,  and most recently, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. He studied in the creative writing program at Syracuse and later joined the faculty there where he currently teaches as part of their MFA program. His newest project is Story Club, a twice-weekly newsletter hosted on Substack.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

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— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or Podcast Addict.

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Twitter: @MFAwriterspod

With a background in cinema, Jason Rodriguez of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago sits down with Jared to talk about how film influences his poetry. They unpack how Jason captures movement in visual poems, how the bombardment of media and pandemic isolation influence his work, and how he found an MFA program that allows him to investigate all areas of writing without confinement to a single track.

Jason Rodriguez is a second-year MFA in Writing student focusing on design, interactivity, and poetry at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He’s been a producer on the school’s podcast, SAIC Beat, for the last three seasons. He was an Assistant Poetry Editor for the journal ANMLY and recently worked on a queer/sci-fi stop-motion short film titled Mother Bunker, which played at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Outfest, and Melbourne International Film Festival. His writing has been published or is forthcoming in BathHouse Journal, GlitterMOB, Mannequin Haus, Word For/Word, and Gasher, and was included as the introduction to Michael Aurelio’s poetry collection, The Smokers (2019). Find him on Instagram @freefloppydisk.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

This episode was requested by De’Andre Holmes. Thank you for listening, De’Andre!

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The podcast team is on vacation (re: staycation)! Enjoy one of our favorite episodes from the earliest days of the show. Regular programming will resume in two weeks.

Can writing be a form of protest? And if so, is there room for hope? Jared sits down with Marcus Jamison of the University of South Carolina to talk about Confederate monuments and economic justice, as well as finding solace in writing and crafting poetry after our literary heroes.

Marcus Jamison is a poet and scholar from Hamlet, North Carolina. He is in his final year as an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of South Carolina, where he served as a senior editor for Yemassee Journal. His poems have appeared in Barely South Review and Quarterly West, as the 2017 winner of an AWP Intro Journals Award. He has also been a finalist for the Scotti Merrill Award and for 92Y's Discovery Poetry Contest. A fellow of The Watering Hole, he is also an avid fiction and nonfiction writer. He can be found on Twitter @theRarePoet.

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Both stage acting and fiction writing are practices in understanding and embodying characters. Cordis Paldano of Minnesota State University, Mankato joins Jared to discuss the ways his acting career informs his writing, the pros and cons of starting the MFA at an older age, and the experience of publishing a children’s novel he wrote in under two months.

Cordis Paldano is a third-year MFA student in Fiction at Minnesota State University. Previously, he was a theatre artist studying acting at the French National Academy of Drama in Paris. He has performed in over 25 plays in India and France, and co-founded a theatre company in Pondicherry. He is also the author of a 2018 children's novel (Hachette India).

This episode was requested by Ailee Slater. Thank you for listening, Ailee!

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Literary fiction on Monday, pulp on Tuesday, YA on Wednesday, poetry on Thursday. Luke Larkin of the University of Montana tells Jared about crossing and mixing genres in a program with a literary pedigree, how queerness and Catholicism influence his writing, and surviving (and thriving!) in the natural beauty and long winters of Missoula.

Luke Larkin earned his BA in creative writing at the University of Montana before entering UM's MFA program, where he is a second-year fiction student and editor-in-chief of CutBank Magazine, the program's long-running literary magazine. While he studies fiction primarily, he also writes creative nonfiction and poetry. His work has appeared in Popshot, HAD, Barren Magazine, and elsewhere. Find him on Twitter @lukeglarkin, his website, lukelarkin.info, and the micro magazine Unstamatic.

This episode was requested by Diana Heald. Thank you for listening, Diana!

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

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Skiing to campus and living without running water may not be typical aspects of the MFA experience, but they are common at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. On this episode, Keely O’Connell tells Jared about her yurt-to-campus commute, writing nonfiction about wilderness experiences, and surviving comprehensive exams.

Keely O'Connell is a third-year MFA student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her focus is nonfiction. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Northwest Review, Hippocampus, and CRAFT.

This episode was requested by Shalini Singh. Thank you for listening, Shalini!

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

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As we approach the first application deadlines of this MFA cycle, enjoy this rerelease to help you tackle questions such as: Should I get an MFA? What should I consider when applying? How can I strengthen my application? In this special episode, Jared is joined by Cady Vishniac, Editor-in-Chief of The Workshop and MFA graduate from The Ohio State University. Together, they address MFA applicants’ most common questions and concerns, like crafting a solid statement of purpose and finding a program that accommodates student parents.

Cady Vishniac attended The Ohio State University as the first MFA student to be awarded a Distinguished University Fellowship. Her stories have been published in Joyland, Glimmer Train, and New England Review, winning the contests at Ninth Letter, Greensboro Review, Mid-American Review, New Millennium Writings, Lascaux Review, American Literary Review, New Letters, and Salamander, as well as the anthology prize in New Stories from the Midwest. Her most recent publications are two stories in Tikkun and a Yiddish translation in Los Angeles Review. She has been writing for The Workshop since 2015 and became its Editor-in-Chief in 2020.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

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— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.

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The annual MFA application episode is back! This year, Jared is joined by Gregory Spatz, Professor and Program Director of the MFA program at Eastern Washington University, who explains what the application process looks like from a faculty member’s point of view. Answering listener questions, they discuss what to include (and avoid) in your personal statement, what makes a writing sample stand out, why to bother with an MFA at all, and more.

Gregory Spatz is the author of the collection of linked stories and novellas, What Could Be Saved, and of the novels Inukshuk, Fiddler’s Dream and No One But Us, and the short story collections Half As Happy and Wonderful Tricks. His stories have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, Glimmer Train Stories, Shenandoah, Epoch, Kenyon Review and New England Review. The recipient of a Michener Fellowship, an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a Washington State Book Award, and an NEA Fellowship in literature, he teaches at Eastern Washington University in Spokane. Spatz plays the fiddle in the twice Juno-nominated bluegrass band John Reischman and the Jaybirds. Find him at his website gregoryspatz.com.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.

BE PART OF THE SHOW

STAY CONNECTED