Dream

I’m happy for Claire and John, my colleagues at UP Mindanao, who will soon be leaving for The New School in New York City. Claire will be in the MA in Media Studies program, while John will be doing his MFA in Creative Writing. Both got Ford Fellowships to pursue their dreams. Good luck, guys!

My portable MFA

Along with de Botton’s book, I’m reading The Portable MFA in Creative Writing (Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 2006). I bought the book while on a layover in Cebu City (on my way home) last Christmas. I’m using it to check if an MFA in Creative Writing is what I really want to take for a planned study leave next school year.The question has been on my mind for sometime. I had blogged about it several times before — the first entry (dated June 30, 2007) of which I’ll post separately after this one.

To MFA or to PhD, part 3

I found it! While searching for specific MFA programs, I came across another page of Delaney’s article. This one featuring the top ten universities offering MFA in Creative Writing programs. Plus info on schools with “Notable Alumni,” etc.
From the Atlantic Online, Delaney lists down:

Part 2 of “To Ph.D. or to M.F.A. . . .”

Here’s an interesting interview with Edward J. Delaney who did a survey of the top ten writing programs in the US for Atlantic Online. It’s a five-part piece but worth the clicking away.

Unfortunately, the main article where he lists down the top ten writing programs is for subscribers only, though the opening page features the Iowa program. I gather that that’s still the number one program to go to — that is, to compete for. But from the interview, I got a few insights about the low-residency programs as well as the creative writing Ph.D.