I'm Kind of Anti-MFA, Buuuuut . . .

~ not for the reasons you might think

Academia has had a profound role in the capitalization of the written word. The MFA route used to be a place of refuge, specialty, growth, and debate/introspection/more debate. Now everyone is getting MFAs, and PhDs in Fiction or Poetry, etc. Some of the course loads (in such programs) are so cookie-cutter. And now the writing world is glutted with writing students, and a lot of programs are cranking out McD’s of a new, commercialized canon. Much of the best writing, meanwhile, comes from the indie writers, the independently unknown. Those journals and tiny publishers you find on New Pages. Yes, the small presses, (husband/wife teams, editors, all doing the publishing work the bigger firms don’t want or even pay attention to, no one getting paid, everyone involved for the love of “words”). Of course, there’s the rub: no one is getting paid, or not much, in this “indie” world of writing. 

But, I do have hope. Because I am finding new journals all the time, showcasing some of the most extraordinary writing I’ve read in a long time. Such journals include: Wigleaf, Whiskey Paper, PANK, Jellyfish Review, Juked, Spartan, SmokeLong Quarterly, Joyland, Tin House, et al. At these journals editors actually eschew MFAers -- tells them, don’t even bother submitting) and so many others I can’t even think of right now. These journals are my refuge, my growth, and my introspection. 

Remember, I’m saying this as a professional writer. But these journals, some of the small presses that no one knows about, except for those “indie” writers paying attention, are where I have found poetic guitarists who could duel with the commercialized Jimi Hendrixes of the verbal world. That is the hope and the joy: that some of these unknown voices would be completely unheard of in the Big House publishing world, but not so in the online world of literary fiction, poetry, hypertext, and art. Voices lost in the wind have found warm, appreciative homes. 

This is what gives me hope. And don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-MFA. It’s a place for many talented writers to explore (in some programs). But it is also setting up a lot of writers to come out the other end of those “cruise ships” of higher ed, expecting to get a teaching gig (two workshops a year, benefits, sabbaticals), and it’s not happening: remember glut. Too many fishes in this particular sea. So writers are finding new places to teach (in journals and community organizations outside of academia). And the volume of new journals appearing even if some don’t last is still a place to find (at the very least) “temporary refuge”.