I don't have an MFA and your reply cris makes me think: hey *I'd* do
an MFA if I could. It's not unlike an extended residency with courses
and some exploitation possibly!
Mairead
On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 15:30:14 +0000, cris cheek <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> couple of tiny snips into the sketch on MFAs here. Broadly I agree with
> Mairead and James in their less pessimistic depictions. My experience,
> of on e sprint workshop co-taught with Tom Raworth (a week) and one
> semester in south-west Ohio (belly of the beast . . . ?) is of very
> energetic students, hungry to be pushed and teased and encouraged. They
> are a mixed bunch and out of that 25 total people perhaps only 3 will
> go on and perhaps only one will really fly. Many however are lifers and
> will carry an interest in poetry as both readers and practitioners
> (hard to fillet those out at times) into whatever they do and wherever
> they go. That's not so bad, surely? How is this really any different
> from saying people ought not read poetry at school or consider that
> language through writing can be used as at least an interface with
> their growing experience? My reading at school led me voraciously into
> all the things i hadn't been taught.
>
> I utterly concur with the efficacy of mixed (in every sense) peer
> groups. If i was dictator for the day i'd say that nobody could go on
> to University until they were in their early twenties and had done at
> least something else for a few years. My own best educational
> experience ever was as a student on an access course at Lowestoft
> College in a large group of mature students of all ages from all walks
> of life - brilliant and feisty conversations.
>
> Whilst i also use pencils and paper they are not the only tools for
> writing in todays worlds. Universities are places where one can often
> have access to resources and technologies for exploring writing in many
> media. Also I quite agree that emphases upon interdisciplinary
> collaboration and yes writer--writer collaboration have always been a
> part of poetic practice and are being actively encouraged in such
> academic enquiries as the MFA will increasingly offer. The days of the
> dull MFA creative Writing program are dumbered and numbered even.
> Mairead speaks well to how it can be and become.
>
> love and love
> cris
>
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