MFA Writers

The podcast team is on spring break, so we're rereleasing one of our favorite episodes to celebrate Dr. Taylor Byas's successful defense of her dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Byas! On the season 2 finale, Taylor Byas talks to Jared about how her fiction background helps her develop sharp images and accessible lines in her poetry while her poetic knowledge taught her to take more risks in her fiction. She also describes the value of a social media writing community (and how to build one), whether publishing success eliminates imposter syndrome (spoiler: it does not), and how her scholarly studies in her PhD program inform and enrich her creative work (and how to survive the comprehensive exam). MFA Writers will be back in your airwaves in August. Wishing you all a great summer, dear friends, and thank you for listening. Taylor Byas is a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she is now a PhD candidate and Yates scholar at the University of Cincinnati, and an Assistant Features Editor for The Rumpus. She is the 1st place winner of the 2020 Poetry Super Highway, the 2020 Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets Contests, the 2021 Adrienne Rich Poetry Prize, and a finalist for the 2020 Frontier OPEN Prize. She is the author of the chapbook Bloodwarm from Variant Lit, a second chapbook, Shutter, from Madhouse Press, and her debut full-length, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, forthcoming from Soft Skull Press in Spring of 2023. She is represented by Rena Rossner of the Deborah Harris Agency. Find her at her website www.taylorbyas.com and on Twitter @TaylorByas3. 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 — Support the show. — Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or Podcast Addict. — 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 constraints may feel limiting to some, but for others, they spark creativity. In this episode, Erica Reid discusses the freedom and discovery of poetic forms. Plus, she talks with Jared about returning to school 15 years after her undergraduate degree, attending a low-res program with a strong sense of community and a dedication to centering the writer in workshop, and how her experience working at a literary magazine shaped her understanding of rejection. Erica Reid lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. She earned her MFA at Western Colorado University (‘22) and serves as assistant editor at THINK Journal. In 2022 she was nominated for Best New Poets; in 2021 her poetry won the Yellowwood Poetry Prize and the Helen Schaible Sonnet Contest (Modern Sonnets category), was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and was commissioned by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Find her at ericareidpoet.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, Caroline Catlin talks about how her cancer diagnosis motivated a career change from social worker to nonfiction writer. She also describes how she pairs photography with writing, and how she found herself photographing death, grief, and loss. Plus, after transferring from one MFA program to another during the first year, she tells Jared about advice she has for other writers considering this option. Caroline Catlin is a writer, photographer, and care worker who believes in the power and impact of shared truths. Her work has previously been published in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Glamour, Longreads, and elsewhere. Caroline is currently entering her final semester of Pacific University's MFA in Writing program. Her focus has been on nonfiction related work, however she's a big fan of learning from the poets and fiction writers as well. Caroline's 2020 TED talk, "Why I Photograph the Quiet Moments of Grief and Loss" has been viewed over 1 million times. Find her at her website, www.carolinecatlin.com, or on Instagram @mybodyofwater. 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

In a small program with a cohort of just three students, who you’re around makes a world of difference. On this episode, Edwards Daschle talks about finding a writing community, a welcoming environment to write both realism and fantasy, and inclusive workshops. Plus, he and Jared talk about mining our lives for stories, drumming up motivation to write, and what it’s like to get into an MFA on your fifth try. Edward Daschle (he/him/his) is a second year creative writing MFA candidate studying fiction at the University of Maryland. He grew up in the Pacific Northwest, land of serial killers and Sasquatch, deadly mountains and overcast skies. His fiction appears in Grim & Gilded, Stoneboat Literary Journal, Defunct, and OFIC Magazine. 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 Cynthia. Thank you for listening, Cynthia! 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

Most MFA programs last 2-3 years, so what’s it like to earn this degree in just 1-1.5 years? Mary Kate McGrath describes the pros and cons of Boston University’s accelerated program. Plus, she and Jared discuss voice-driven fiction, coping with workshop anxiety, and wheelchair accessibility in literary spaces. Mary Kate McGrath is a writer, journalist, and disability advocate from Massachusetts. She recently earned an MFA in fiction from Boston University. Her short fiction has appeared in The Florida Review, Booth, Phoebe Journal, and Tin House. Her short story "Gorgeous Vibrations" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Find her at her website, marykatemcgrath.com, and on Instagram @marykatemcg. 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

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt writing imposter syndrome! We all have our hands up. On this episode, De’Andre S. Holmes of Columbia College Chicago shares his experience with self-doubt, exacerbated by pursuing an undergrad degree in business administration, not English. Plus, he talks about taking a fully-funded semester in Paris through his MFA program, provides advice for students coping with grad school burnout, and describes why racial and ethnic diversity is so critical in the MFA. A native of Philadelphia, De’Andre S. Holmes received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University and is a second-year MFA candidate at Columbia College in his current home of Chicago. He is an aspiring author, penning his first book of short stories titled "Daddy, do you love me?" and a novelette titled "Obscurity." De’Andre’s work can be found in Contextos Chicago, Short Story Break, SONKU magazine, and Allium Literary Journal. In his free time, he enjoys reading, traveling, exploring different cultures, and binge-watching animal documentaries. Find him at his website dsholmeswrites.wordpress.com and on Instagram @d.s.holmeswrites. MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and p BE PART OF THE SHOWroduced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com. — 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 winter break. Thanks for listening, friends. We wish you all a great end of the year. We'll be back with a new episode in two weeks.  Chibuihe Obi Achimba sits down with Jared to talk about the anguish and extreme joy of transferring a poem from imagination to language, using writing to explore the impacts and losses of modernization and civil war in his home country of Nigeria, and the necessary balance between encouraging independence and fostering community in an MFA program. Chibuihe Obi Achimba grew up in southeastern Nigeria. He's a poet and essayist completing his MFA in Poetry at Brown University. Chibuihe's writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, The Paris Review, Harvard Review, Poet Lore, and elsewhere. He is the Founding-Editor of Dgëku Magazine. He was awarded the 2021 St. Botolph Foundation grant and the 2021 Frontier Poetry Prize for New Poets. Find him at his website www.chibuihe.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. This episode was requested by Shlagha Borah, Erika Walsh, Amy Peltz, James Jackson, and Sebastian. Thank you all for listening! BE PART OF THE SHOW — Support the show. —Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, or Podcast Addict. — 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, Kaitlyn Airy talks about how her experience as an adoptee shapes the themes of her work on abandonment, identity, and history. Plus, she and Jared discuss the benefits they have both reaped after taking breaks from their rigorous writing habits, and Kaitlyn describes how UVA students get to design and teach their own undergraduate creative writing class. Kaitlyn Airy is a Korean American poet. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she was raised in the San Juan Archipelago off the coast of Washington State. In Spring 2020, her poem “Demilitarized Zone” was selected by Elizabeth Austen as the winner of the Phyllis L Ennes Contest, sponsored by the Skagit River Poetry Foundation. In 2022, Narrative Magazine named her one of their 30 Below 30. Her recent work has been featured or is forthcoming in EcoTheo, Crab Creek Review, Cream City Review, Moss, Post Road, Poetry Northwest, Palette Poetry, and Narrative Magazine. She is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Virginia, where she serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Meridian and as an Editorial Assistant for Poetry Northwest. Find her on Twitter @kaitlynairy and at her website kaitlynairy.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

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 — 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, 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