The master of fine arts creative writing program at UNC Greensboro has been a springboard for generations of poets and novelists. Many great authors laid their foundation for success in the publishing field at UNCG.
The two-year residency program is one of the oldest of its kind in the country. Students benefit from one-on-one mentoring with faculty and peer-reviewing one another’s work. Workshops and seminars help them tailor their specific interests in novels, poems, essays, and non-fiction.
The program’s journal “The Greensboro Review” helps them introduce their work to others. Through its Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, students hear from writers and editors – including alumni – who come to Greensboro for readings and master classes.
Even with star faculty, supportive peers, and engaging workshops, it will take time for writers to figure out their best practices, to learn how to talk to an editor, create a distraction-free writing space, and figure out the “right amount” of research.
April 10 is “Encourage a Young Writer Day.” UNCG caught up with some of its Creative Writing alumni who were eager to share their experiences with current MFA students.
Build community early, before you’re even breaking into publishing yourself. Find your people, whether that’s in workshops or in writing or book groups you maintain after your MFA is over. I think UNCG’s MFA Program has done a great job of maintaining and promoting community.
– Heidi Czerwiec ’95, ’97 MFA
When you publish your first book, you feel flush, like you finally have a hand of aces and you’re just going to keep playing them for the rest of your life. Inhabit that glow fully, because it’s short-lived. As soon as you start on your second book, you realize the first book was just one round in a lifelong game, and the real writer has to learn to keep growing.
– Maria Hummel ’98 MFA
To take some words I wrote and see them made into something as beautiful as a book still surprises me. It shouldn’t, but it does.
– Paul Crenshaw ’03 MFA
I usually find myself writing at the kitchen table. I’ve also discovered that I’m never going to be that cool, coffee shop writer. I might be able to leisurely revise or read at a coffee shop, but when I’m “on deadline,” I have to have solitude.
– Leslie C. Youngblood ’05 MFA
Turning off the Wi-Fi can be helpful, mostly as a symbolic gesture to myself that this is writing time. I recently ordered an old word processor from the 1990s; they’ve been making a comeback among writers who want distraction-free tools!
– Sarah Rose Nordgren ’07 MFA
I tend to write better while moving. For years now, I’ve written the bulk of my books on my phone while on an elliptical machine. Something about the mix of exercise and movement helps.
– Kirsten Oliphant ’07 MFA
Get ready to read more books and articles than you think you’ll need. Good research is like an iceberg. When 10% of it is showing above the waves, you’ve done just about the right amount.
– Cathy Carr ’88 MFA
If I’m writing about a particular area of the country, I need to go there. I walk around. Drink coffee while watching people and just observing. I’m currently writing hockey books and have been to a number of games.
– Kirsten Oliphant ’07 MFA
Writers should do enough research to make their worlds plausible – have clear rules, borders, and a consistent internal logic. That stuff shouldn’t be vague. But I’ve often buried myself in research to hide from the writing. Ultimately, you want the reader connecting with and thinking about your characters, not how much research you did.
– Steve Almond ’97 MFA
While writing my first book, “Best Bones,” I went through a period of being obsessed with prion diseases and house servant handbooks written by servants in the 1800s. While writing “Darwin’s Mother,” I was obsessed with evolutionary theory. And my new book, “Feathers,” arose from an obsession with feather hats.
– Sarah Rose Nordgren ’07 MFA
My newest collection of essays is about the 80s. I was inspired by a decade. The culture, the Cold War, the music, the way many of us felt the world was going to end, and how often that was reflected in the media of the time.
– Paul Crenshaw ’03 MFA
I’m an amateur mushroom forager. I wrote a piece, “Consider the Lobster Mushroom,” about a mushroom – usually milk-caps – infested with another fungus that turns it bright orangy-red and makes it taste like seafood. The piece became a craft essay on writing hybrid nonfiction.
– Heidi Czerwiec ’95, ’97 MFA
When both my sons were four years old, they came up with the best poem titles. “Throne for the Death Blob” was a favorite. Who doesn’t want to imagine that?
– Maria Hummel ’98 MFA
If you say “yes,” to everything because you think that’s what editors want, you’re heading in the wrong direction. Editors want to work with you. They value your input. You make the novel stronger as a team.
– Leslie C. Youngblood ’05 MFA
Realize that your editor has a bit more distance from your work than you do and can probably see what you need to do in the next draft more clearly than you can.
– Steve Almond ’97 MFA
My editor wrote an email that I’ve always remembered: “Everyone on the team wants to work with Cathy again.” This is the attitude you want in the book business. Publishing is a small world. If you are a touchy prima donna, that word will get around.
– Cathy Carr ’88 MFA
There are some great social media groups that encourage writers to “Brag Your Rejections.” Others have the goal of accumulating 100 rejections per year, with ongoing tallies. It’s a fun way of reframing rejection as communally shared.
– Heidi Czerwiec ’95, ’97 MFA
If one person complains about a plot point or characterization, that’s just one opinion. If everyone is mentioning it, then almost certainly you do have a problem that you need to consider fixing. If I hadn’t noticed a pattern with the rejections for my first novel, “365 Days to Alaska,” and addressed that underlying problem, I think I’d probably still be submitting that book today.
– Cathy Carr ’88 MFA
I’ve suggested “writing sprints”: you write for a set amount of time without editing. I also like the idea of “freewriting” or “brain dumping.” I’m amazed that I get to create worlds and people. I try not to think about the goal of someone reading my work initially. There will be time for that later.
– Leslie C. Youngblood ’05 MFA
If a reader sees the meaning that I intended, that is confirming. If the reader sees a different meaning, that is illuminating and often tells me where I need to develop.
– Maria Hummel ’98 MFA
I have a couple of friends from my MFA days at UNCG that I share poem drafts with. They are smart, generous readers, and are great at pointing out when something can be cut from a poem, and when an image or idea isn’t as clear as it could be. Trust is crucial when you’re getting feedback.
– Sarah Rose Nordgren ’07 MFA
In one week, I had two emails from readers a little outside the norm of my readership. The first was a high school girl, who said she loved reading my books and they encouraged her to be a writer. The other was from a man in his 70s who said his wife had died, and my books were a way for him to remember what it felt like to have her and to be in love.
– Kirsten Oliphant ’07 MFA
About the Authors
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography by Jiyoung Park, University Communications
Additional images courtesy of Adobe Stock
