On an MFA
I was very afraid, when I decided to get an MFA in creative writing, of what the internet would think. Or of what the internet thought, because what the internet thought, my reading had shown, was that MFAs are bullshit. That MFAs are a waste of money, that they are elitist, that they churn out generations of over-workshopped automota who expect success to arrive on a silver platter the day after graduation.
I never really sat down and made the decision to go. I thought, “I might want to do that,” and then went to an info session and fell in love. I went to grad school because I wanted to become a better writer. I went to grad school because I was terrified of my thesis advisor in college, and wanted to recreate that sense of pressure. I went because a theatre friend of mine was getting his MFA, and I thought, “I’m a good writer, too. Maybe I should do that.” And then I did.
