Let's Get Critical

I’ve been home for a few days now, recovering from the summer residency. One of the highlights of residency is attending student lectures. These lectures are based on a long paper each student wrote during his/her third semester in the program. While all of us come to the program to focus on creative writing, the critical work has proven to be equally important and interesting. I’ve loved and benefited from these student investigations into some aspect of writing craft or children’s literature. As an advisor I’ve worked with students on a variety of topics for these papers and presentations: creating a setting that is as vibrant as a character; the use of fear in YA fiction; what all YA writers can learn from YA chick lit; visual literacy for writers; elements of the middle grade and YA ghost story; survival fiction and the modern wilderness-starved child; the use of dialect. (And many more)

I know my writing and teaching has grown because of these papers and presentations. Thank you, MFAC students.

And a shout-out to our new grads: Mandy Bachta, Jen Huffman, Rebecca Grabill, Polly McCann, Alice Ross, Ann Schoenbohm, Elizabeth Schoenfeld. Congratulations. We'll miss you.