An online home for the American University Creative Writing MFA community
By: Ellis Carrington For the most part, undergraduates and graduates will generally follow this traditional style of college course learning: attend classroom lecture, take time to read and reread material outside of class, and prep for mid-term and final exams. While reading and researching provide …
By: Will Schick We all ordered the cabbage and beef short rib stew. Six bowls. But, as these things happen, the restaurant ran out. That’s when a fight erupted. “Sorry, we’re all out,” the server said as he set five bowls down on our table. …
By: Jessica Sullivan There are times when a book reminds you of another book. Maybe it’s the plot, or the characters, or some déjà vu moment that leaves you questioning if you’ve already read it. Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir, In the Dreamhouse, is not one …
By: Zoe Aslop As a graduate student in New York, Rachel Coonce was reading from her memoir in front of a crowd for the first time when she heard a sound coming from the audience that surprised her. “I was speaking from my heart and …
By: Emily Smith Emily Smith: Hi Will, thanks for doing this! Let’s start off with an easy one. You entered the MFA with a fiction concentration. Is that still the genre you find yourself most drawn to? Will Schick: The short answer is no. I’m …
By Brahidaliz Martinez As the semester rolls over to the halfway mark, it’s a good time to make sure that you’re on top of your assignments and workshops. Besides attending office hours, critiquing your peers’ work, and revising your stories, it might be helpful to …
By Tara Campbell I had a specific goal when entering the MFA program at American University—to get help on my historical fiction novel-in-progress. Coming in as a writer of speculative fiction, I needed additional support tackling this new genre, as well as its sensitive subject …
By Nick Chhoeun The annual Art of Losing event took place on April 24, 2019. For those unfamiliar with this event, its mission was celebration. Every year, we lose writers and artists that impacted in our lives for the better. This event gave people the …
By Emily M. Smith “I celebrate myself and sing myself.” In honor of the bicentennial of Whitman’s birth, American’s Lit Department took these words to heart and held a group reading of “Song of Myself” on Friday, March 29th. Literature and creative writing professors, graduate …
Here are a few recent student, faculty, and alumni wins that are making us happy this month: MFA alumna Claire Handscombe‘s debut novel, Unscripted, is available for purchase. The novel was released on April 4th by Unbound publishing. Current student (and Cafe MFA editor!) Tara …