Mississippi University for Women
MFA Program
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Translation, Cross-Genre
Columbus, MS
Application Deadline:
Sat, 03/01/2025
Application Fee:
$25
Affiliated Publications/Publishers:
Genre: Creative Nonfiction
Schoolteacher
This week, think back to your childhood, and the teachers who taught you through elementary and middle school. Choose one of your former teachers and write a list of his most distinctive characteristics—maybe a bizarre hairstyle, his old blue car, or a rumor you remember about him. Write an essay reflecting on what makes this teacher memorable and significant in your life, what you might say if you bumped into him today. Would either of you have any regrets to discuss?
Toni Morrison on Primo Levi’s Work, Writing as Omission, and More
Novels about the immigrant experience; Erica Jong and Roxane Gay’s feminism dispute; the best books about work; and other news.
The Art of Memoir
Caption:
"What I love about memoir is that solitary voice trying to learn how to be a human being." Mary Karr, whose forthcoming book, The Art of Memoir (Harper, 2015), is featured in The Time Is Now in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, comments on the power of the memoir form with the help of some well-known writers.
Genre:
Reshaping the Past
In Mary Karr's new book, The Art of Memoir (Harper, 2015), she writes that "from the second you choose one event over another, you're shaping the past's meaning." Think of a significant event from your past that you've written about before. Make a list of three other events or changes that were occurring in your life around that same time. Write an essay about one of these "secondary" events, focusing on deriving personal or emotional meaning out of this seemingly less impactful event.
Red Hen Press Controversy, Thriving Indie Bookstores, and More
Jonathan Franzen’s divided reputation; Patrick Modiano’s search for “pre-history”; the qualifications of a critic; and other news.
Dagoberto Gilb
Caption:
The founding editor of the literary magazine Huizache, which is featured in Literary MagNet in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, reads an essay about identity at a TEDx Talk in El Paso, Texas.
Genre:
Rona Jaffe Award Winners Announced
The Rona Jaffe Foundation has announced the six recipients of the 2015 Rona Jaffe Writers’ Awards, which are given annually to emerging women poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers. The awards “identify and support women writers of exceptional talent in the early stages of their careers.” Each winner receives $30,000.
The 2015 recipients are poets Ashley M. Jones of Birmingham, Alabama, and Britteney Black Rose Kapri of Chicago; fiction writers Vanessa Hua of Orinda, California, Amanda Rea of Denver, and Natalie Haney Tilghman of Glenville, Illinois; and nonfiction writer Meehan Crist of New York City. Visit the website for the winners’ complete bios.
The six recipients will be honored at a private reception in New York City on September 17. The Rona Jaffe Foundation solicits nominations for the awards each year from writers, editors, publishers, academics, and other literary professionals; a committee of judges selected by the foundation chooses the recipients.
Since writer Rona Jaffe established the awards program in 1995, the foundation has awarded more than $2 million to over one hundred twenty women writers. Past recipients include poets Erin Belieu, Tracy K. Smith, and Mary Szybist; fiction writers Rebecca Lee, ZZ Packer, and Tiphanie Yanique; and nonfiction writers Rachel Aviv, Eula Biss, and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts.
Clockwise from top left: Ashley M. Jones, Britteny Black Rose Kapri, Vanessa Hua, Amanda Rea, Natalie Haney Tilghman, Meehan Crist
Oliver Sacks on Writing
Caption:
"The act of writing, when it goes well, gives me a pleasure, a joy, unlike any other." Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, whose latest book, On the Move: A Life, was published by Knopf in April, speaks about being a storyteller and what writing has meant to his life. Sacks passed away on August 30 at the age of eighty-two.
Genre:
Shoes
This week, choose a pair of shoes that you own or have owned that has significance to you. Perhaps it’s the first pair of dress shoes that you purchased, the well-worn sneakers that you wear over and over again, or a pair of shoes that you’ve never worn but can’t bear to toss out. Write an essay about your connection to these shoes, describing them in detail and thinking about the specific qualities that drew you to them in the first place. What do they say about your personality? Where have they accompanied you already, and where might they take you in the future?
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