the practical writer HOW TO GET PAID117 POETS & WRITERSPresumably, Nesbit, who holds
a PhD in English with a focus on
creative writing from the Univer-
sity of Denver, will be able to make
a convincing case for tenure, but for
many inside and outside academia, the
criteria for winning and keeping ten-
ured teaching jobs can be somewhat
mysterious.
Writers seeking to go “on the
market” for creative writing jobs can
check online listings hosted by the
MLA (mla.org) or AWP (aw pw riter
.org) as well as online sources like
Higher Ed Jobs (higheredjobs.com)
and Academic Wiki (academicjobs.
wikia.org). Every job posting is dif-
ferent, but nearly all require a MFA or
doctorate in the genre the professor
is being hired to teach. Some listings
flatly require candidates have a book
published or under contract, and oth-
ers refer more vaguely to “a signifi-
cant record of original publication,”
but it is generally understood that
most jobs are out of reach for writers
who haven’t published a book or at
least have one due out from a repu-
table publisher.
Beyond that, teaching experience is
important, says Chang, as is any spe-
cialized skill or knowledge that might
fill a need at a particular program.
“Some departments are interested in
people who can run literary magazines,
so if t hat wa s you r job i n you r MFA pro-
gram, you’re in good shape,” she says.
“Some departments want someone
with a sub-interest in areas ranging
from film to African American stud-
ies to playwriting. The thing that re-
a l ly st r i ke s me is t hat m a ny schools a re
looking for a person with more than
one interest.”
Chang also strongly advises stu-
dent writers to take advantage of
teaching assistantships offered by
MFA programs. These assistantships
often come with a small stipend and
a break on tuition and provide hands-
on training in running a classroom. “I
am a big believer in using the MFA asa way of getting professional experi-
ence,” Chang says. “I don’t think it
really helps if somebody just puts you
in a chair and says, ‘Okay now, you’re
being given a living wage to write and
do nothing but writing for two or three
years.’”
But it ’s r a rely enough to ju st have t he
right skills. Hiring committees typi-
cally interview a long list of candidates
by phone and then invite a smaller
number of writers for an on-campus
visit, during which personal chemis-
try and an ability to market oneself can
make all the difference. Nesbit, who
went on the job market twice, once
when her first book, The Wives of Los
Alamos (Bloomsbury, 2014), was still
under contract, and again the follow-
ing year after it had been published,
said she learned a great deal from her
trial run.
“It was good practice, and it taught
me just how bad I was at interviewing,”
she says. “It’s like learning another
kind of genre: How do you talk about