I flipped open my copy of Poets & Writers this month to discover that Pacific University’s MFA in Writing Program has ranked fourth among the top low-residency MFA programs in the U.S., edging up one place from last year. Congratulations to the faculty, students, and staff who made this possible. What is remarkable is that… Read more »
Posts Categorized: MFA
Reading at the Ruskin Art Club
I spent a rich and meaningful afternoon reading poems with fellow Pacific University Alumni: Kathryn Belsey, Michelle Bitting, Jonathan Harris, and George Wallace–as well as eminent faculty member David St. John. The Ruskin Art Club played host, thanks to the ever-gracious Elena Karina Byrne, to this reunion of sorts. Afterward I heard audience members remark… Read more »
More on Choosing to Do an MFA
A website modestly entitled “The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog…Period” recently collected questions from readers about doing an MFA. They sent me the questions, and I responded to each one. Then, much like the trick where one whisks away a table cloth, leaving the items on the table in tact–I swiped the questions and stitched… Read more »
“Should I Do An MFA?” (and Farewell, Read Write Poem)
It saddens me to report that, with the departure of the founder, and with the site’s editorial, maintenance, and technical needs having grown beyond the capabilities for a new all-volunteer team to take it on, the excellent poetry social networking website Read Write Poem will close its doors May 1st. It has been a pleasure… Read more »
Cloudbank Precipitates Great Poetry
“How open to suggestion / they have always been, carrying nothing // with them of the past, content to leave almost / everything behind…” -Christopher Buckley, “New Clouds” I received a complimentary copy of the premiere issue of Cloudbank today. The journal is co-edited by Peter Sears, core faculty in the Pacific Unviersity MFA program,… Read more »
Pacific University MFA Commencement Student Speech
Today I had the honor of giving the student speech at the 2009 Pacific University commencement ceremony. Here is the text of that speech. ยง Associate Provost Wilkes, Dean Hayes, Vice President Akers, Ms. Washburn, faculty, staff, graduates, alumni, family, and friends–good afternoon. Today we celebrate our completion of the requirements for Pacific University’s Master… Read more »
Poetry and Productivity
I would not have been able to complete an MFA in writing poetry while holding down a job as a technology executive had I not been a longtime practitioner of the GTD® methodology. In a recently released podcast, David Allen, my boss and the inventor of GTD, asked me about how the GTD concept of… Read more »
What I Learned in the Pacific University MFA in Writing Program
I have been asked to give the student speech in the upcoming MFA commencement ceremony. Needless to say, I am honored. I have been meditating on the experience of having completed this remarkable experience, now from a distance of about five months, and looking back over material from my time in the program. One piece… Read more »
“What Are You Going to Do Now?”
Photo by Valerie Peake As of Saturday, I am a graduate of the Pacific University MFA in Writing Program. Throughout that final residency, and especially at the banquet on Saturday, I lost count of how many times I was asked, “What are you going to do now?” Some asked with such expectancy, I almost wondered… Read more »
Open Thanks to the Pacific University MFA Program and All Who Sail in Her
In the movie, “The Savages,” Laura Linney’s character finds herself in a cheap motel outside of Niagara, having an affair with a married man she doesn’t really like. She sits bolt upright in bed, surveys the tacky decor and annoying middle-aged man beside her, and exclaims in pure bewilderment, “I have an MFA!” It is… Read more »
Stephen Kuusisto on Listening
I had the privilege of hearing Stephen Kuusisto, the remarkable writer, blind since birth, indict us writers for not listening well enough. He rightly pointed out that images have dominated contemporary writing, at the expense of other senses, since Hemingway’s time. He has generously posted the text of this insightful and moving talk, which he… Read more »
Literary Coincidence & Greg Rappleye’s Figured Dark
Because this is my final residency, I have a bit more discretionary time between lectures. So, Val and I took books and journals down to The Tenth Muse, a local bookshop that serves espresso drinks. Nearing the end of Figured Dark, I was surprised to discover the epigraph to “The Salt Cairn”: “Seaside, Oregon.” We… Read more »
