MFA Writers

In this episode, PhD Candidate Mackenzie McGee talks about her process when writing speculative fiction, including how she decides on topics and themes, how her process changes when writing flash versus her novel, and how writers are able to explore politically dangerous topics by leaning into speculative elements. She then tells Jared about her decision to pursue the PhD after finishing her four-year MFA program and how KU is particularly supportive of speculative writers. Mackenzie McGee is a speculative fiction writer from the Midwest. A winner of the 2021 PEN/Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, her work can be read in Porter House Review, Nat. Brut, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Cease, Cows. Mackenzie earned her MFA from the University of Arkansas and is currently a second-year PhD student in English-Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. You can find her at mackenziemcgee.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

Rone Shavers joins Jared for our annual application episode to discuss the differences between MFA and PhD applications and programs. Rone and Jared talk about how to choose the right program, put together the best application, and get the most out of your time in a program. Before that, they discuss Rone’s “funky” novel Silverfish and how getting over the pressure of making a commercially viable book allowed him to write the book he wanted to write. Rone Shavers is the director of the creative writing program at The University of Utah, which offers both an MFA and a PhD in creative writing. Rone is the author of the experimental Afrofuturist novel Silverfish from Clash Books, a finalist for the 2021 Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Firecracker Award in Fiction and one of The Brooklyn Rail’s “Best Books of 2020.” He is also fiction and hybrid genre editor at the award-winning journal, Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora. Find him at roneshavers.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

Jess Silfa, a talented writer and poet from the South Bronx, shares invaluable insights born from seven years with the MFA Draft Facebook group. They tackle the intricacies of the MFA application process, from crafting personal statements to navigating recommendation letters. Discussion includes the transition from MFA to PhD, exploring community engagement, and addressing the emotional challenges of applying. Jess emphasizes preparation, transparency, and the importance of a supportive community for aspiring writers on their academic journeys.

Carlee Jensen reflects on how the American West and constructions of personal mythology shaped her writing, and how coming out “late” taught her that life has no single narrative. She also tells Jared why she avoided MFA application resources before submitting her materials, how the MFA helped her refocus on writing as an art, not just a profession, and she discusses her experience taking advantage of Hopkins’s optional third year. Carlee Jensen is a fiction writer and educator, raised in Utah and California, and currently living in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned a BA from Yale University and an MS from Bank Street College of Education, and spent seven years as a classroom teacher before pursuing an MFA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. During her time at Johns Hopkins, she received the 2024 Benjamin J. Sankey Fellowship in Fiction. Her work has appeared in New Ohio Review and The Master’s Review, where it was selected by Kristen Arnett for a 2022 Short Story Award for New Writers, and was a finalist for American Short Fiction’s Short(er) Fiction Prize in 2023. Find her at carleejensen.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

On this episode, Jonny Teklit sits down with Jared to talk about crafting odes to small, granular subjects, sharing his personal productivity tips and the common writing advice that doesn’t work for him. Plus, Jonny discusses the pros and cons of UW-Madison’s rotating genre admissions policy and reflects on how Lynda Barry’s comics class changed his perspective on creative talent, revision, and experimentation. Jonny Teklit is an award-winning poet whose work has appeared in The Academy of American Poets, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. He is currently a second-year MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is working on his debut collection. He has an animal fact for any occasion. Find him at his website jonnyteklit.com, on IG @jonnyteklit, and on Twitter @jonnysaysOMG. 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

It’s not quite Halloween, but on this episode, Emma Allman talks to Jared about the utility of defamiliarization, surrealism, uncanniness, and body horror in ecofiction (spooky!). Plus, she discusses how working in marketing pre-MFA helped her understand professionalism and realism in academia, life in Tuscaloosa as it aligns with and diverges from outsiders’ expectations, and unique opportunities of the University of Alabama’s MFA program, including teaching in youth writing camps or within the state’s prison system. Emma Allmann studied creative writing at UW-Madison and is entering her third year in the MFA program at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa. Prior to returning to grad school she worked in market research for several years in Chicago. She has had pieces published with Ellipsis and Ink In Thirds, shortlisted with Smokelong and has had a play produced for the Marcia Légère Student Play Festival at UW-Madison. She has pieces forthcoming with LandLocked and Ink In Thirds. Find her at www.emmaallmann.com and on Instagram @emryal91. 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

As the pod team settles into the fall semester, we’re excited to celebrate the recent accomplishment of one of our past guests. Simon Graham was awarded an AWP Intro Journals Prize for their story “Blair,” forthcoming in Puerto del Sol. Enjoy our conversation with Simon from Season 3. How do you write about the climate crisis without becoming didactic? On this episode, Simon Graham describes their approach to activist writing, guided by their experience growing up on the beaches of Australia and working in environmental policy. Plus, they talk about queering the crime fiction genre, the financial realities for international students living in Seattle, and remembering who you’re writing to, for, and with. Simon Graham is an Australian writer, educator, and climate change worker living in Seattle. They are an MFA Candidate in Prose Writing at the University of Washington, where they won the Eugene Van Buren Prize in Fiction and teach a class on activist writing. Simon is also a 2023 Climate Corps Fellow with the Environmental Defense Fund, and prior to moving to the US they worked on climate policy in Australia and lectured on climate change at Monash University. They are currently working on a queer crime novel set in the shadowy world of Australian climate politics. This episode was requested by Sarah Blood and Rorie Newman. Thank you both for listening! 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

Following Venezuela’s disputed presidential election, debut author Alejandro Puyana returns to the show to discuss his novel, which explores the revolutionary lives of both ordinary and extraordinary Venezuelans over the span of fifty years. He also shares insights with Jared about the rewrites he made to his MFA thesis before publication, the experience of collaborating with an editor, and the journey of securing book blurbs. Alejandro Puyana is the author of the upcoming novel Freedom Is a Feast, available from Little, Brown on August 20th. Alejandro moved to the United States from Venezuela at the age of twenty-six. In 2022, he completed his MFA at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. His work has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, The American Scholar, New England Review, and Idaho Review, among others, and his story “The Hands of Dirty Children” was selected by Curtis Sittenfeld for Best American Short Stories 2020. He lives with his wife and daughter in Austin, Texas. Learn more at alejandropuyana.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

Ever heard of an MFA program with 12 different genre concentrations? On this episode, Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li tells Jared about how UBC’s multi-genre emphasis allowed her to work across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, filmmaking, comics, and more. Plus, she discusses self-funding her degree, receiving a grant to do research in China for her novel, and UBC’s online option for distance learning. Vivian is a queer and neurodivergent Chinese-Canadian writer, director, musician, and interdisciplinary artist who recently graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of British Columbia. She is the winner in the short story category of the Creative Writing Collective Sustaining Shared Futures Writing Award, and her fiction and poetry have been published in The Massachusetts Review, The New Quarterly, QWERTY, and elsewhere. Her chapbook Someday I Promise, I'll Love You from 845 Press was nominated for The bpNichol Chapbook Award. Her debut experimental novel titled To You, in the Waves of the Future will be going on submission soon.  She can be reached @vivianlicreates on X/Instagram or vivianlicreates.com. This episode was requested by Michelle D’costa. Thank you for listening, Michelle! 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

As the pod team wraps up our summer vacation, we’re highlighting one of the gems from a previous season. Watch out for the Season 5 premiere in two weeks. 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 — 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