Remove dust jackets from hardcover books before use; Drafts should be completed and started over from the remembered remnants; “Real writing” takes place over winter break; Anxiety is normal and should be encouraged (i.e. the productive kind); Workshop leaders will continue to confuse first-person narrators with their progenitors — even in graduate school; Writing about [...]

I’m including this because during the application process I couldn’t find a single example of a successful MFA statement, so here’s mine: PERSONAL STATEMENT My literary practice began as a reaction to an alien environment, and at its best retains the defiant posture of exile. I was born in London but dragged through a progression [...]