Spalding's MFA in Writing Program

Spalding University

Semester Mentors

While at Spalding University, I had the pleasure and honor of working each semester one-on-one with published authors. I learned about the craft of writing while studying with Julie Brickman (What Birds Can Only Whisper), Roy Hoffman (Almost Family, Back Home: Journeys Through Mobile, and Chicken Dreaming Corn), Luke Wallin (Ceremony of the Panther, In the Shadow of the Wind, The Redneck Poacher's Son, The Slavery Ghosts, and Blue Wings), and Brad Watson (Last Days of the Dog-Men and The Heaven of Mercury, which was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award.)

Workshop Leaders

One of the excellent aspects of Spalding's MFA in Writing program is the workshops conducted at each of the 10-day residencies. Before the residency, students submit up to 25 pages of writing, and that material is compiled into a workbook, which the students and workshop leaders go through each morning of the residency. I've been lucky enough to have some wonderful writers read and respond to my prose. These authors include Mary Clyde (Survival Rates), Connie May Fowler (Before Women Had Wings), Kirby Gann, Robin Lippincott (Our Arcadia), and Brad Watson.

The Novel Workshop

Another feature of the MFA program is the special novel workshop. Instead of participating in the traditional workshop experience during the on-campus residency, students with completed novel manuscripts are allowed to participate in the Novel Workshop. Here, we read each other's novels during the semester, and we spend two hours on each novel during the residency.