Category Archives: MFA programs
Ask Koreanish: On the Idea of a “MFA Safety School”
Periodically, I get readers writing in for advice. This is a semi-regular series. Q: Is there any such thing as a safety school when it comes to MFAs? A: I don’t know that safety school thinking applies. In a general way, … Continue reading
Filed under ask koreanish, MFA programs
“Professors of Fiction”
1. I have a conversation with my partner Dustin’s Uncle Jack about how he fell on his good hip and, while painful, it reset his hips. The pain he’s been suffering from the former bad hip is gone. I wish … Continue reading
Filed under fiction, MFA programs, novels, politics, what is right with us, what is wrong with us, writers, writing
The Mis-Education (Perhaps) of Louis Menand – When to Get Your MFA or Not, part 3
[This is the conclusion, part 3 of a series, When to Get Your MFA. Or Not] There are skeptics as to the value of a MFA in writing, much less the teaching of writing, and some are not where you … Continue reading
Filed under MFA programs, writers, writing
When to Get Your MFA. Or Not. [Part 2]
[In last week's installment, I detailed my undoubtedly flawed if also successful plan to apply to MFA programs. This week, how I made my decision to go, and some advice.] Connie’s point, that I would just have to get a … Continue reading
Filed under MFA programs, writers, writing
When to Get Your MFA. Or Not.
This came in via email last night from a reader, and I was actually writing a post to address this. Q: I am debating applying to MFA programs but am not sure how worthwhile they are. What made you decide … Continue reading
Filed under ask koreanish, fiction, MFA programs, writers, writing
AWP 2009
1. In the aftermath of this AWP conference, I hear about people who saw me from afar or through a window or, like I saw Nina McConigley, through a taxi window, as she stood on the corner of Wabash and … Continue reading
Filed under books, comics, MFA programs, writers, writing
Yes, Like That
I wake up in Jayne Anne Phillips’ house in Glen Ridge after the longest night of sleep I’ve had in a while—10 hours. Waking up here for me is a little like I imagine it might be for someone else … Continue reading
Filed under fiction, letters from away, MFA programs, what I am working on, writers, writing
Happy 88th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage: The Do-Over
Last night I took down a number of what I think of as “internet angry guy” posts that I’d put up over a few weeks, posts that are the equivalent of me being like my mom and shouting at the … Continue reading
Filed under current events, letters to you, media, MFA programs, politics, writers, writing
A Million Writers
Put yourself in the way of your fate, I tell my students, on the last day of the Wesleyan conference. It’s advice I got from a horoscope back when I was either getting into or out of graduate school. I … Continue reading
Filed under author's own, blogs, books, fiction, Korea, Korean America, Korean American, MFA programs, novels, writers, writing
Alexander Chee at the USF Emerging Writers’ Festival
This Wednesday, I travel to San Francisco for the University of San Francisco’s Emerging Writers Festival. I’ll be reading from what will be my third novel, Saint Spencer of the Lost. The information is below. If you live in the … Continue reading
Filed under author's own, MFA programs, writers, writing
