Saturday, July 07, 2007

Free Resources on Low-Residency MFA Programs

I've been waiting to see what the changes at Tom Kealey's MFA Weblog would bring, and boy, are they bringing a lot.

Tom will be incorporating other bloggers' contributions to the MFA Weblog in the near future. That includes posts from Anna Mendoza, whose introduction mentions a recent project of hers: an online compilation of low-residency MFA programs. Available free of charge.

I've taken a quick look at that collection, and it's pretty good. Currently, it's missing several programs (I'm going to let Anna know about that via Tom very shortly). But it has already convinced me that I do not need to continue to update our own primer on low-residency MFA programs. Which, I have to confess (after 10 editions in less than three years), is a little bit of a relief.

So here's the news: I am making the primer available for free downloading until the end of August. (You can find it here.)

After that, I'll retire it from circulation altogether. If I see a need to round out Anna's list, I'll do so online. And I may well republish some of the advice offered in the primer, too--that's something for me to think about.

But for now, if you're looking for low-res creative writing programs to explore, you can do so for free with two helpful resources. Please spread the word!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello, Erika

I have been looking at MFA programs in creative writing and have come across a problem. First, I live in Ohio where OSU is the only viable option for me to drive every day (and even that is 45 minutes one way). So I've been looking at some other options, mainly low residency programs. I've looked online and there seems to be a prejudice about which programs are best/worst.

How would I go about finding out if the programs I'm applying to will be a determent or a help in applying for work or getting published? My current choices (after OSU) are Eastern Kentucky University and Spalding University. They are not too far for me to drive once a semester or so to complete the low residency requirements.

Help!

Laura Edwards (email: motherofboys247@gmail.com)