Earning My MFA
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007I’m in my third and final year, writing my thesis. The thesis is meant to be a creative manuscript of my poems. The guidelines set it at 50 pages.
I gave about 25 poems to my adviser yesterday. He should be reading them and giving me feedback in a couple of weeks. These 25 are ones that either feel done to me or are giving me particular trouble. I actually have more like 60 to work with from my 2 1/2 years in the MFA program. I saved the rest to continue to work on because they’re bad, I know they’re bad, and I’m going to make them as interesting as I can before I start showing them to my adviser.
I’m also working on a narrative poem project for my Narrative Poetry class. It is a great challenge for me. I have two narrative poems in a draft stage. I think I’ll work on them today.
I’m reading Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca at the moment as part of my thesis work.
As part of my assistantship, I teach Freshman English Composition. So far I’m having lots of fun with it. It has taken me a while to find my current successful teaching style. I just keep trying to find ways to improve upon it. Sometimes, I take a step back and think, am I really the teacher? I’ve been a student so long!
It’s been a lot of work. Right now, I’m teaching two classes, which is just formidable when it comes to grading essays, but working with the students is rewarding.
