95 POETS & WRITERS^All Indiana University graduate
students have the opportunity to
work with the student-edited Indiana
Review—available positions include
roles as editor, associate editor, and
genre editors; all students are eligible
to compete for these positions,
and everyone is encouraged to join
the fiction or poetry staff, read and
evaluate submissions, and assist the
editors in planning future issues of
the magazine—as well as the summer
Indiana University Writers’ Conference.
Ross Gay, the author of three books
of poetry, Against Which, Bringing the
Shovel Down, and Catalog of
Unabashed Gratitude, as well as a
collection of essays, The Book of
Delights, served as the program
director from 2016 to 2019.
Adrian Matejka, author of four
poetry collections, most recently
Map to the Stars, will be
the director starting in 2020.special section MFA PROGRAMSopportunities. How would you describe the community of the program? Our com-
munity was based on profound respect and mutual interests. Our MFA program
hosted potlucks and brunches, maintained a community garden plot where we
harvested our own food, scheduled exercise sessions together, and held study
dates at coffee shops. The faculty, particularly Ross Gay, who was the program
director during my time at IU, was our biggest cheerleader in creating a loving
environment for one another. That said, people’s experiences vary from year to
year. It’s worth investing time in your cohort and getting to know them as people,
perhaps, before you get to know them as writers. What was the most significant
shortcoming of your MFA program? When I applied there was a larger fiction fac-
ulty, and the program had two women of color teaching in the department. By the
time I arrived there was only one fiction faculty member and no women of color.
That was a huge disappointment to me, given the goals I had set. The IU faculty
is actively working on this concern, though. They recently hired another male
POC fiction writer, and they are bringing on an international woman writer as a
visiting faculty member for the next year. How did your MFA program prepare you
for post-MFA life? Before my MFA, everything about books seemed mysterious
and almost magical. Now I know what goes into the writing of a book, different
ways books are sold, and some of the more traditional paths to a professional
writing life like academia, as well as lesser-known options like residencies and
book prizes. IU doesn’t have a professional development branch of the program
meant to explicitly prepare you for post-MFA life, but the program does offer
job opportunities that will help with professionalization—working as teaching
coaches, editors of the Indiana Review, and the associate director of the Indiana
University Writers’ Conference. Much of my preparation for post-MFA life came
from on-the-job training, which is a real benefit now that I’m applying for jobs. I
have three years of work experience beyond just creatively writing. It seems like
most programs expect students to take a proactive approach to prepping for
post-MFA life. One way to do that is to ask your professors and recent alum of
your program what they did after they graduated. Tracing their post-MFA steps
can give you viable options for what to do next. If you had to do it all over again,
would you do anything differently? It’s more about what I wish I had known.
MFA programs are generally split into two categories: academic and studio
programs. Studio programs often have less strict requirements for the classes
you take and may not require you to sign up for literature courses. Academic
programs will often require you to take graduate-level PhD courses in litera-
ture, which often require fifteen- to twenty-page academic essays. There were
some people in my MFA program who were really irritated by this, because they
didn’t have any interest in reading or writing academic work. If you know that’s
not what you want, be sure to apply to the right kind of program. Any advice for
writers who are applying to MFA programs? Give yourself time to find the right
opportunity; it may take a few years. Cast a wide net when applying; it may take
extra money. It may feel like others are getting the best options on their first try,
but the reality is that getting a great offer requires first investing in yourself. It
cost me roughly $650 to sign up for a workshop to get a better portfolio, about
$300 for my first round of applications, and about $1,300 for my second round
of applications, including the GRE, which racks up to about $2,250. That’s no
small sum of money, but investing in myself over the course of two or three
years allowed me to study reading and writing and teaching for three years for
free. If you’re able to spare the extra money, smartly invest in your own work.
If you don’t have that money now, give yourself time to get there—both in your
finances and your writing.Other programs in Indiana
Butler University in Indianapolis,
Purdue University in West Lafayette,
and University of Notre Dame.The GRE, or Graduate Record
Examination, required for many
graduate school applications, includes
a registration fee of $205.