109 POETS & WRITERS^Raquel Gutiérrez
2019 MFA in Poetry and Fiction
University of Arizona in TucsonEstablished in 1972, the three-
year MFA program at University of
Arizona offers degrees in poetry,
fiction, and creative nonfiction. It
provides full funding, typically in the
form of assistantships teaching first-
year writing and creative writing.
Incoming class size: 12. Application
deadline: December 15, 2019.
Application fee: $85. Core faculty
includes Kate Bernheimer, Susan
Briante, Christopher Cokinos, Alison
Hawthorne Deming, Fenton Johnson,
Bojan Louis, Farid Matuk, Ander
Monson, Manuel Muñoz, Aurelie
Sheehan, and Johanna Skibsrud.
english.arizona.edu/creative-writingOther full-residency programs in Arizona
Arizona State University in Tempe
and Northern Arizona University
in Flagstaff.PW.ORG/MFA
Visit the MFA Programs database to
find information about more than 270
graduate programs in creative writing,
including MA and PhD programs.special section MFA PROGRAMSTo how many programs did you apply? Tw o. W ha t cr i ter ia were mos t imp or t ant t o
you during the application process? Geography. And, of course, funding. Why did
you choose the program you attended? I wanted to be close to the U.S.-Mexico
border. Did you receive funding? Yes, my program was fully funded. Did your
experience of the program exceed, match, or fall short of your expectations? It
exceeded my expectations. The faculty was incredibly generous with their time
and feedback. I was introduced to new ways to approach my writing and to re-
ally stretch my thinking. I was given a plethora of opportunities that blew my
mind—access to press editors I wanted to work with, fellowships, meetings with
favorite writers—in addition to institutional support. How would you describe the
community of the program? It’s good, creatively healthy. You have to have some
confidence in yourself, in your work, in your ability to show up and be an active
member of a reading and writing community. You get what you give. What was
the most unexpected aspect of your time in an MFA program? Falling in love with
creative nonfiction and having the best faculty to facilitate that world for me. What
was the greatest benefit of attending your MFA program? The greatest benefit
was to have faculty and peers who encouraged me to mine my life’s experiences
to share with a reading public—more specifically, being encouraged to center my
queerness, brownness, child of immigrantness, my experiences navigating the art
wor l d, e t c. I didn’ t have t o c omp ar t ment al ize my ident i t ie s here t o fe el l ike a w r i t er
to be t aken seriously. M y dif ferenc es — or rather the fac t that I wasn’t straight and
white and male—were treated as my strengths. Did you learn more from your
professors, your peers, or others? I learned a lot from my professors; they were
brilliant. My peers were wonderful too, as generous readers and initial editors of
what my work could do. Peers helped me see the blind spots in my work, of course,
because they are the ones who read everything that’s come out in the last year.
How did the program change how you read or write? I’m paying close attention to
the line, language, and diction, of course, in new ways. I’m reading more slowly, re-
reading more often, and annotating things that are simpatico or that I can imagine
being in literary conversation. How did your MFA program prepare you for post-
MFA life? I wrote two MFA theses, so maybe I wasn’t fully present to anticipate
what life after the MFA would be like, but I anticipated some precariousness that
goes hand in hand with being an artist. Being a creative writer—a poet, an essay-
ist, a short story writer, a novelist—is a gamble. You really have to believe you’re
good enough to be great. If you don’t have that, then life after an MFA is going to
feel scary in terms of seeking stability and a steady paycheck. But throughout
the MFA program, I said yes to many things, met many people, encountered new
voices and styles, ventured out on my own, listened to my instincts regarding
voice and content, and went for it. I organized my life to be just me—no partner,
no family of my own, cheap rent, etc. I did my MFA at age 40, when I felt like I had
enough of a life under my belt to mine from and give this creative life a fair shake.
It’s not for everyone, but an office job wasn’t necessarily feeding my soul either.
Any advice for writers who are applying to MFA programs? It’s going to shake your
faith. Cultivate an unshakable sense of self before saying yes to upending your
th life and taking on an MFA experience.
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The thesis requirement at the
University of Arizona in Tucson is
the completion of a book-length
manuscript under the supervision of a
faculty member.