An online home for the American University Creative Writing MFA community
By: Zoe Aslop One afternoon this fall, Café MFA caught up with Christa Parravani to talk about moving on from photography and poetry, writing her first memoir in fiction workshops, and the challenges of an ambitious second memoir on abortion in West Virginia, to be…
Cafe MFA Alumni Mixer: Thursday, May 2, from 5-8 PM On Thursday, May, 2, join us at Guapo’s (across the street from Tenleytown Metro) for a casual happy hour to celebrate the end of the semester (and spend a little time with other members of the AU…
By Nick Chhoeun Earlier this month, Allison Wright of VQR hosted the spring boot camp. She had much to say about the literary journal including useful tips for submissions. Here’s a brief recap of the event. About VQR: VQR receives 11,000-12,000 submissions a year, the…
By Nick Chhoeun This past summer I had the opportunity to teach Creative Writing for two months to students from fifth grade to freshmen in high school. As a whole, the experience was a mixture of “why am I doing this” and “I’m doing this…
By Vince Granata Sometimes, I think of reflective thought like a muscle, like an easy to neglect part of my brain. Without exercise, without training, this thought muscle will atrophy, wither away. I worry—too often, almost constantly—that if I don’t pause to reflect, don’t work…
By Nick Chhoeun I recently came across a segment on BBC News titled “Why Some Male Authors Are Hiding Their Gender.” In the segment, author Allison Pearson talks about male authors going by gender-neutral names. We are familiar with writers like Mary Ann Evans going…
By Yohanca Delgado I first met Angela Maria Spring just over a year ago, when I was hosting the Artomatic literary open mic and wandered into her very first pop-up. We became fast friends and watching Duende District explode from a Kickstarter campaign to a DC-brand…
Café MFA is thrilled to welcome first-year MFA candidate Nick Chhoeun to our editorial staff. Nick is a first-year MFA candidate. His focus is fiction but he is also fascinated by poetry. He primarily writes short stories and wants to begin working on a novel. His other…
Part of my journey is a writer is a constant striving to find a cadence that rings true — meaning that it rings me— across genres. Every form of communication has its own conventions, but good writing is good writing, right? Good writing is two…
Everyone has a writing tick, a repetitious practice that can become like a written accent. At best, these idiosyncrasies establish distinct voice and compelling narrative style. At worst, a writing tick catches in the reader’s ear like the incessant “like” of an 80’s Valley…