MFA Writers

On this episode, Nikki Lyssy tells Jared about how, as a blind writer, she uses research to access the sighted world and fill her fiction with vivid imagery, while in her nonfiction, she explores her own experience with blindness and plays with ideas about which forms translate between braille and the page. Plus, Nikki talks about diversity and disability representation in young adult fiction, formal training in creative writing pedagogy, and support from faculty, friends, and family when she decided to change her thesis at the last minute. Nikki Lyssy is a third-year MFA candidate at the University of South Florida, where she writes fiction and nonfiction. She is blind, and her thesis is a young adult novel that follows the life of 17-year-old Emma Reynolds as she adjusts to her blindness and sets out on a path of self-discovery and acceptance of her disability. Find her on Twitter @Blindnikkii. 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 — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

On this episode, Sam Herschel Wein tells Jared about their path to finding poetry outside of academia, co-founding and editing Underblong, and their approach to collaboration and humor in their writing. Plus, they discuss the nuances of MFA program decisions (Two or three years? English or Art departments?) and whether creative writing should live within institutions of higher education at all. Sam Herschel Wein (he/they) is a lollygagging plum of a poet who specializes in perpetual frolicking. They have an MFA from the University of Tennessee (2021-2023) and were the recipient of a 2022 Pushcart Prize. They have published 3 chapbooks, most recently Butt Stuff Flower Bush from Porkbelly Press, and are the co-founder and editor of Underblong Journal. They have recent work in American Poetry Review, The Cincinnati Review, and Gulf Coast, among others. Find them on social media @samforbreakfast and at their website, samherschelwein.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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

The podcast team is on spring break, giving us (and you) the perfect opportunity to revisit an episode we love. In celebration of her new short story collection, GREEN FROG, we invite you into this conversation with Gina Chung who spoke to Jared last season about her debut novel, SEA CHANGE. Gina Chung, debut author of the speculative novel SEA CHANGE, tells Jared how the book began with a writing prompt in her MFA program and how her fellow students encouraged her to turn it into a novel. She and Jared discuss how her experience in publishing shaped her understanding of the business of writing and the importance of a trusted writing community. Plus, Gina offers advice for making the most of your MFA experience. Gina is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in New York City. Her debut novel SEA CHANGE was a 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and a New York Times Most Anticipated Book. Gina has also written a forthcoming short story collection titled GREEN FROG. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from the New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Literary Hub, Catapult, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, and Idaho Review, among others. Find her at gina-chung.com and on Twitter @ginathechung. 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Memoirist and director of the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA program Deborah Jackson Taffa talks to Jared about her new book, Whiskey Tender. Deborah shares how memoir writing is a form of familial and historical preservation, and offers advice on having difficult conversations with the real people who appear in our creative nonfiction. Plus, she discusses the value of the low-res IAIA program for both indigenous and non-indigenous writers, offers strategies for sustaining creative energy, and describes methods to avoid falling into a common misstep for MFA students: social comparison. A citizen of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo, Deborah Jackson Taffa is the director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is the author of the memoir WHISKEY TENDER and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. Her writing can be found at PBS, Salon, LARB, Brevity, A Public Space, The Boston Review, The Rumpus, and the Best American Nonrequired Reading. In late 2021, she was named a MacDowell Fellow, Kranzberg Arts Fellow, and Tin House Scholar. In 2022, she won a PEN American Grant for Oral History and was named a Hedgebrook Fellow. Find her at deborahtaffa.com and on social media @deborahtaffa. 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Drawing from her decade-long career in Silicon Valley, Jamie Li tells Jared about writing tech satire that struck her MFA colleagues as far-fetched and her tech friends as totally realistic. Plus, Jamie talks about how her background as a Chinese immigrant and the model minority myth shape her interest in writing about in-group/out-group behaviors, and her attraction to VCFA’s emphasis on experimental and cross-genre writing. Jamie Li is a Southern California-based fiction writer and product marketer. She holds a BA from Dartmouth College and is pursuing her MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing has been recognized in the New York Times and published in Slant’d Magazine, Mangoprism, and elsewhere. She writes the Creative Juice newsletter and exists online on jamieli.co or IG @j.a.m.i.e.l.i. 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

The podcast team has been busy at the annual AWP conference, so we’re bringing you a rerelease of a great conversation from Season 2. A new episode will be in your feed in two weeks. Luna Adler talks to Jared about moving between fiction and non-fiction, Brooklyn College’s unique novel-writing workshop aimed at accommodating the long form, the tension between a slow revision process and rapid MFA deadlines, and the benefit in recording one’s writing time while allowing grace for a broad definition of writing time that may or may not include thinking time. Luna Adler is a Brooklyn-based writer and illustrator. She’s currently an MFA candidate in fiction at Brooklyn College, where she was a recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship. She is a fiction editor for The Brooklyn Review and a reader for Pigeon Pages. Her words, art, and comics have appeared or are forthcoming in Bon Appétit, Bust Magazine, Interview Magazine, Literary Hub, Gossamer, Autostraddle, Electric Literature, Backpacker Magazine, The Rumpus, The Belladonna Comedy, Hobart Pulp, and Lux Magazine, among others. Find her on Instagram @lunaadler or at lunaadler.com, where you can subscribe to her illustrated newsletter. 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Kate Brody, debut author of the literary thriller RABBIT HOLE, sits down with Jared to talk about crafting a true crime novel that focuses on the victim’s family. Drawing from her own experiences with publishing, she also offers advice for choosing an agent, pivoting if your book doesn’t sell, and marketing your work. Finally, she shares the most memorable pieces of advice from her own MFA teachers, including Mary Gaitskill, E.L. Doctorow, and Amy Hempel. Kate Brody holds an MFA from NYU and her work has been published or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Parents, Crime Reads, Lit Hub, Electric Lit, Noema, The Literary Review, Write or Die, and other magazines. RABBIT HOLE is her debut. Find her on Instagram and Twitter @katebrodyauthor and at her website: katebrodyauthor.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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Noah Evan Wilson spent ten years finishing his undergraduate degree while developing as a musician and a photographer. On this episode, he talks with Jared about how that decade of experiences animates his current writing, how the craft of music and photography overlaps with and informs his fiction, and how the MFA has provided him the opportunity to experience college in a way he wasn’t able to before. Noah Evan Wilson is a writer and musician based in New York City, and a second-year MFA candidate at Rutgers University-Newark, in the fiction track. His short stories have been published in Beyond Words, Third Street Review, and the anthology, Ten Ways the Animals Will Save Us, from Retreat West Books. He received third place in the 2022 Dreamers Creative Writing Flash Fiction Contest, and second place in the 2021 Prime Number Magazine Flash Fiction Prize, and has stories forthcoming in both Chautauqua and Orca. Noah is currently working on his first novel, exploring the lasting power of a brief and intimate friendship between two young men who become entangled with a high-control religious cult. His solo records, Desert Cities, and The View from the Ground, are available on all major music streaming platforms. Find him at noahevanwilson.com or on Instagram @NoahEvanWilson. This episode was requested by Marisha Hicks and Dawn Angelica. Thank you for listening, Marisha and Dawn! 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Happy New Year from the pod team! We’re ringing in 2024 with a vacation, so enjoy this episode from our last season. Regular programming will resume in two weeks. What’s it like writing historical fiction in an MFA program? On this episode, Kayla Cayasso tells Jared about the family histories and archival research that informed her collection portraying families affected by generational trauma. She also talks about the unique role of Florida in Southern literature, the advantages of multi-genre workshops, and the importance of Black and Brown representation in literature. Kayla Cayasso is an Afro-Latina writer and poet from North Florida. She is a recipient of the 2012 Hollins Creative Writing Book Award, the Florida A&M University Graduate Feeder Fellowship, and placed first in Fiction in the 2021 FAMU Annual Writing Contest. She has stories, poetry, and essays published in CaKe Literary Journal, Olit Magazine, Hyacinth Review, Jabberwock Review, The Amistad, River & South Review, Saw Palm, and elsewhere. Kayla graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2023, where she received a Creative Writing MFA in fiction. Her thesis, a historical fiction collection titled Save the Drowning Child, draws on traditional elements of Southern Gothic, horror, and magical realism to explore the impacts of colonialism and the Maafa on the North Florida region and its Black and Brown peoples. Find her at her website, cayassokg.wixsite.com/writes, and on Instagram @while.smoke.rises. 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

When she became a mother, Sarah Ann Noel turned to autofiction as a way to process her own childhood. In this episode, she sits down with Jared to share how those reflections became a novel about teenagers growing up in a high-control Evangelical environment. Plus, she talks about shifting from magazine editing to creative writing, attending jet-lagged residencies in Paris, and getting feedback on her work from her literary heroes. Sarah Ann Noel is a writer and editor of fiction and non-fiction. She holds an MFA from NYU’s Writers Workshop in Paris. Her first short story will appear in After Dinner Conversations in April 2024. She is the Co-Founder of the Read Write Brew reading series in Denver. Find her at sarahannnoel.com or on Instagram @sarahannnoel. This episode was requested by Ryan Babcock. Thank you for listening, Ryan! 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Finance proofreader turned full-time poet Matt Farley joins Jared to share how his transition out of the corporate world affects his perspective on his MFA program and future career. Plus, Matt talks about his manuscript on mycology and post-traumatic growth, becoming a parent during the MFA, setting up a thesis committee, and Miami University’s emphasis on play, practice, and experimental learning. Matt Farley is a queer poet, activist, and multimedia artist from Ohio. He is currently studying to earn his MFA from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His work explores liminality, queer identity, family, and shame. He has work published in the anthology SOS Art Cincinnati presents Poems and Drawings Inspired by Social Justice. Find him on Instagram @mattfarleywrites. This episode was requested by Rajiv Thind. Thank you for listening, Rajiv! 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

During this season of gratitude, we are grateful for all of you, dear listeners, writers, and friends. We’re also grateful for a university-sponsored break from our laptops. So, as we take a pause from the screens, we hope you enjoy one of our favorites from Season 3. We’ll be back to our regular programming in two weeks. Jonathan Escoffery, author of the highly acclaimed debut collection If I Survive You, sits down with Jared to discuss how this book grew out of his MFA writing sample and how he plays with form while exploring “the unsolvable problem of family.” A recent MFA graduate and current PhD student, Jonathan also offers advice for emerging writers and shares what it’s like to go on your first book tour. Jonathan Escoffery is the author of the linked story collection, If I Survive You, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and an Indie National Bestseller. If I Survive You (MCDxFSG) was long-listed for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, and was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize and a Golden Poppy Award. Jonathan is a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Creative Writing MFA Program and currently attends the University of Southern California’s Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature Program as a Provost Fellow. He is a 2021-2023 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Learn more at his website, www.jonathanescoffery.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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

This week, an MFA with an international focus! Krista Diamond sits down with Jared to talk about UNLV’s required (and funded) study abroad component and its emphasis on translation. Plus, Krista shares lessons learned as a freelance writer, info on the Vegas literary community, and how her experience working and living in national parks informs her fiction and nonfiction alike. Krista Diamond is a Las Vegas based writer whose work has appeared in or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Longreads, Hazlitt, Catapult, Electric Literature, Joyland, and elsewhere. Her writing has been supported by Tin House and Bread Loaf. Her essay “That Girl is Going to Get Herself Killed,” which first appeared in Longreads, was adapted for audio by Oscar-nominated actress Naomie Harris. She is currently a third year in the fiction MFA program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she is working on a novel about paparazzi. Learn more at www.kristamariediamond.com and on Twitter at @kristadiamond. This episode was requested by CC Molaison. Thank you for listening, CC! 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Happy MFA Application Season to all who celebrate! Jess Silfa returns to the show bringing seven years of experience with the MFA Draft Facebook Group. On this episode, Jess and Jared offer advice for applicants across a wide range of topics: teaching, funding, health insurance, fees, faculty, letters of recommendation, writing samples, statements of purpose, negotiations, timelines, and more. Good luck, friends. Jess Silfa is a writer and poet from the South Bronx. They hold an MFA from Vanderbilt University in Creative Writing (Fiction) and are currently pursuing their Ph.D. in Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati. They have received a Displaced Artist Fellowship from Vermont Studio Center, a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Mae Fellowship, and a Ricardo Salinas Scholarship for Aspen Summer Words. Jess serves as President for the Disabled and D/deaf Writers Caucus and helps run the MFA Draft Facebook group. Jess’s first novel, the story of a tight-knit immigrant community rattled by the war on drugs, goes on submission this fall. Learn more at www.jesilfa.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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Spooky season? More like application season! To help ease your fright, we've got our annual MFA application episode in preparation. Before then, we invite you to check in with last year's episode featuring MFA Admissions Coordinator Lindsay Bernal. Our new episode will be in your feed in two weeks. It’s the third annual MFA application episode! This time, Jared is joined by Lindsay Bernal, poet and Academic Coordinator for the MFA program at the University of Maryland. She answers listener questions (starting at 27:15), including: What makes a personal statement good? Should I submit similar or varied poems? How do I know whether a program is truly invested in anti-racist work? Plus, Lindsay describes her path to an MFA, taking time between degrees, and the pros and cons of academic jobs, including positions beyond the tenure track. Lindsay Bernal was born and raised in Rochester, NY, and holds a B.A. in English and Spanish from the University of Virginia and an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Maryland, where she coordinates and teaches in the Creative Writing Program and co-directs the Writers Here & Now reading series. Her first collection of poems, ⁠What It Doesn't Have to Do With⁠, selected by Paul Guest as a winner of the National Poetry Series competition, was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2018. Find her at her website: ⁠www.lindsaybernal.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 — Leave a rating and review on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out ⁠our application⁠. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: ⁠@MFAwriterspod⁠ Instagram: ⁠@MFAwriterspodcast ⁠Facebook: ⁠MFA Writers⁠ Email: ⁠mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Poetic forms are sometimes considered limiting, but can we find freedom within the constraints? On this episode, Brandon Blue tells Jared about how recontextualizing traditional forms through the lens of identity creates an additional, sometimes subversive, layer of meaning. Plus, he discusses writing about intimacy and eroticism within and outside of sexual relationships; how he decided to pursue an MFA after teaching middle and high school for seven years; and the importance of advocating for your needs and goals in an MFA program, writing community, and career. Brandon Blue is a black, queer poet, educator and MFA candidate at Arizona State University from the D(M)V. He is an assistant editor for Storm Cellar Magazine and his work has or will appear in Barzakh, the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Poetry Anthology, [PANK], and more. His work is also featured in the Capital Pride Poem-a-Day event. His work has received the support of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. His chapbook, Snap.Shot, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Keep up with his work at brandonbluepoet.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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

What can you learn from a veteran of two MFA programs and an admin of the MFA Draft Facebook page? A lot! Jess Silfa joins Jared to talk about how living in New York, growing up in a Caribbean oral storytelling tradition, and being disabled has influenced their writing. They also discuss their decision to leave one MFA program for another, explain what makes Nashville a surprisingly supportive community, and offer advice for disabled applicants.  Jess Silfa is a writer and poet from the South Bronx. They hold an MFA from Vanderbilt University in Creative Writing (Fiction) and are currently pursuing their Ph.D. in Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati. They have received a Displaced Artist Fellowship from Vermont Studio Center, a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Mae Fellowship, and a Ricardo Salinas Scholarship for Aspen Summer Words. Jess serves as President for the Disabled and D/deaf Writers Caucus and helps run the MFA Draft Facebook group. Jess’s first novel, the story of a tight-knit immigrant community rattled by the war on drugs, goes on submission this fall. Learn more at www.jesilfa.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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Poet, essayist, and Professor Ross Gay talks to Jared about his new book, The Book of (More) Delights. Together, they discuss how social connection evokes joy, grief, humility, and heartbreak, and the value of practicing radical empathy in our writing and our daily lives. Plus, they talk about Ross’s approach to the creative writing classroom, a space he conceives of as generative, experimental, and cooperative. Finally, he offers advice for students and emerging writers. Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy was released in 2022, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights was released in September of 2023. Find him at his website: rossgay.net. 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

The pod team is wrapping up our summer vacation. In the meantime, we’re rereleasing one of our favorite episodes from our first season. We’ll be back with new and exciting episodes in two weeks.  How is the zombie of Haitian folklore a poetic metaphor for how society treats Blackness? Bryan Byrdlong of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan tells Jared about his project on the traditional and modern conceptualization of zombies, whether poetry can transcend fake news, and how his MFA program gave him an inner editorial voice. Bryan Byrdlong is a Black poet from Chicago, Illinois. In high school, he was part of Chicago’s Louder than a Bomb poetry slam competition. He graduated from Vanderbilt University where he received an undergraduate English/Creative Writing degree and was the co-recipient of the Merrill Moore Award for Poetry upon graduation. He has been published in the Nashville Review, Heavy Feather Review, and Pleiades Magazine. Most recently, he received the Gregory Djanaikian Scholarship from The Adroit Journal. He is a graduate of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan and a current Zell Fellow. You can find him on Twitter @BByrdlong. 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

The pod team is on summer vacation! While we rest, recharge, and record some fabulous Season 4 episodes, we hope you enjoy this rerelease from our first season.  With political and social unrest rocking his home country of Venezuela, Alejandro Puyana turned to writing as a way to process. He applied to MFA programs four times before landing an acceptance at the Michener Center for Writers. Now, you can read his work in The Best American Short Stories anthology for 2020. Alejandro and Jared talk rejection, revision, and reimagining the world through fiction. Alejandro Puyana is a second-year fellow at the Michener Center for Writers whose primary focus is fiction and secondary genre is screenwriting. His non-fiction pieces have been published in The Toast, Tin House Online, NPR, The Huffington Post; his fiction in Huizache, The Examined Life, and Idaho Review. His short story, "Hands of Dirty Children" was awarded the Halifax Ranch Prize by American Short Fiction, chosen as the winning story by ZZ Packer. That same story was then chosen by Curtis Sittenfeld to be included in the 2020 Best American Short Stories. Find him on Twitter @Puyana. 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 — Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. — 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. — Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application. STAY CONNECTED Twitter: @MFAwriterspod Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast Facebook: MFA Writers Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com