SEPT OCT 2019 102Cameron Finch
2019 MFA in Writing & Publishing
Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier
Established in 2014, the two-year MFA
in Writing and Publishing program at
VCFA offers degrees in poetry, fiction,
creative nonfiction, and cross-genre
writing. It offers partial funding in the
form of merit, need-based, and diversity
scholarships, as well as first-come-
first-served housing awards to all of its
incoming students. Incoming class size:
10 to 20. Application deadline: Rolling
admissions. Application fee: $75. Core
faculty includes poets Rita Banerjee
and Justin Bigos; fiction writers Trinie
Dalton, Miciah Bay Gault, and Erin
Stalcup; and creative nonfiction writers
Trinie Dalton, Jericho Parms, and Sean
Prentiss.
vcfa.edu/programs/mfa-in-writing
-publishingIn addition to visiting writers, the MFA
in Writing and Publishing program
invites visiting agents and editors
such as Jenni Ferrari-Adler of Union
Literary, Erin Harris of Folio Literary
Management, Kate Gale of Red Hen
Press, and Margaux Weisman of
Vintage Anchor/Knopf Doubleday.Founded in 2002 by Caroline Mercurio,
the annual Hunger Mountain is edited
by fiction writer Erin Stalcup and run
by students in the MFA in Writing and
Publishing program.special section MFA PROGRAMSTo how many programs did you apply? I applied to a round of programs two
years in a row, first in 2016 and then in 2017. For the first round, I applied to six
schools and was accepted by one. Due to curriculum restructuring, the program
I was accepted to canceled the entire program and deferred my entrance until
the next year. I ended up juggling a number of part-time jobs that year instead of
going back to school, but I knew that I still wanted to pursue an MFA in writing.
I ended up applying to only one school the following year, in 2017, and I’d say
it worked out quite well. What criteria were most important to you during the
application process? “Big name” faculty was definitely a consideration but was
not the highest on my list of criteria. I was particularly interested in programs
that highlighted cross-genre writing opportunities. Also, all of the programs I
applied to were residential, not low-residency. While teaching experience would
have been a perk, I wasn’t necessarily seeking out programs with a teaching
component. But I was attracted to programs that showed a placement/intern-
ship requirement, whether that was working at a literary-based organization, on
staff at a literary journal, or in the classroom. I think it was Ann Patchett who
said that no one should go broke in order to attend grad school, so I was on the
lookout for schools with full funding or that offered significant scholarships and
fellowships. During my application process, I talked to alumni from several of
the schools I was applying to, which gave me a much clearer idea of what being a
student there felt like. Why did you choose the program you attended? Vermont
College of Fine Arts has a program called the MFA in Writing and Publishing.
Publishing here both means “working in the publishing field” and also “demys-
tifying the book and journal publication process.” I was especially interested
that the program celebrated cross-genre writing and learning. This program
allowed me the flexibility to experiment with all genres, including screenwriting
and translations. The program works on an unconventional modular scheduling,
meaning that every three weeks, a new professor or visiting writer rotates in
and teaches a specialized craft-based course. Every three weeks, you focus on
a new genre and engage with a different renowned writer. There were people in
my program who thought that three weeks was not enough time for a course,
and if you love the instructor and the genre, that’s definitely true. But I found that
three weeks was a perfect amount of time for me to get well acquainted with
each professor, and if I wanted to continue correspondence with them beyond
the class, I could do that on my own. Lastly, I chose the Writing and Publishing
program because of the hands-on opportunity to work on the affiliated literary
journal, Hunger Mountain. All first-year students take a course called “Publish-
ing and Fieldwork,” which gives them a chance to work behind-the-scenes on
the journal, from submission readings to design and layout, and meet high-level
editors, agents, freelance writers, and others in the publishing industry. Did you
receive funding? Yes. Vermont College of Fine Arts awarded me with a merit
scholarship that was credited against my tuition for all four semesters. I was
also the recipient of the Hunger Mountain Editorial Fellowship for two years
in a row. For this fellowship I worked fourteen to twenty hours per week as
managing editor for the literary journal and was paid in monthly installments. jes
s^ dewes