An online home for the American University Creative Writing MFA community
By A.R. Castellano This year’s issue of FOLIO sought work responding to themes of universal connections across the natural world—branches and roots, ancestry and rebirth, fate and knowledge. Art about finding oneself either completely of the world or hopelessly pitted against it. In keeping with…
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 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…
By Nick Chhoeun Although my posts about music on Café MFA have focused on rap, my favorite genre has always been pop punk. Bands like Blink-182, Paramore, and Green Day stick out as some of the most well known of the genre. The songs are…
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…
By Yohanca Delgado Elena Passarello is an actor, writer, and recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award. Her first collection Let Me Clear My Throat (Sarabande, 2012), won the gold medal for nonfiction at the 2013 Independent Publisher Awards and was a finalist for the 2014 Oregon Book Award.…
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 Will Schick I’ll never forget the way certain things could make me feel on deployment. The way a rocket blast could jolt me awake, and rattle its way through my bones. The way a helicopter could make me feel utterly helpless as it would…
By Austine Chilton Model Today American University’s MFA program welcomes Allison Wright for the Spring Bootcamp. This session will focus on state of the literary journal, as well as strategies for submissions and pitfalls to avoid during the submission process. Allison Wright is the executive…
By Nick Chhoeun Dungeons and Dragons was created in the 1970s and I’ve always been familiar with the name but I have never given much thought to playing it. It sounded tedious and boring. I thought it was an outdated dice rolling game. However, in…