Poet Eireann Lorsung shares her experience of poetry and MFA programmes in her native United States.

When I was asked to write a short article introducing some aspects of the American (US) poetry scene as it exists today, it seemed like an easy task—I spent seven years in higher education for poetry and writing, taught university students for three of those, and have been through the journal submissions wringer; my first book was published in 2007, so I have some sense, too, about small publishing houses. But the more I thought about what I know about poetry today in the United States, the more I realised that in fact what I know is a very small sliver of a huge, multifaceted, multivalent, and extremely lively scene of people who are making, reading, and promoting poetry of all kinds. So I thought I would write about my experience, which is typical of a certain kind of experience but is not necessarily generalisable.

I spent the four years of my undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota studying English literature, with a focus in creative writing; there was no specialised undergraduate degree in creative writing at my university, but advanced undergraduates had the chance to take classes with the MFA (Masters of Fine Arts—the terminal degree in creative writing offered in the US and recognised by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs [AWP]) students. I was very lucky—I ended up taking those MFA classes for two years, which meant I was able to work closely not only with enthusiastic professors, but with very bright and dedicated writers. When I finished my BA, I was accepted to study for an MFA at the same university.

Most MFA programs provide two or three years for the completion of work, and all of them include some kind of coursework. I took workshops and seminars in poetry and fiction as well as taking mixed-genre courses, something I find especially valuable in hindsight. Workshops tended to place emphasis on our readings of peers’ work (and on intensive critique sessions); seminars usually meant we would be reading other work and responding to it both creatively (by writing poems) and critically (by writing papers). Although the program structure has changed, when I was there we had one semester of ‘Maunscript Preparation’, or MSPrep as we called it. This class out of every one I took changed my writing. Over the course of a 15-week semester, eight or nine of us took turns reading each other’s manuscripts, for a total of two or three revisions each. The amount of attention the other poets paid to my work—not only to individual poems, but to the book as a whole—and the diligence and care with which they read and critiqued taught me about being a better reader and writer.

In addition to courses, the benefit of the MFA program was the access it provided to visiting writers. I was fortunate, but not unusually so, to have had conferences with two visiting poets; both of these meetings changed my writing in substantial ways. The presence of an external reader for my work meant judgment that had absolutely nothing to do with my relationship to that person, and criticism that had nothing to lose by being straightforward. I found these meetings draining immediately, but in the long run rewarding—and they often clarified problems in my work which my peers had also pointed out but in a gentler way.

The very best thing about writing programs in general—and I will dare to say this is a ‘general’ throughout the US writing program system—is that you are given, given, two or three years to write in the company of some of the most thoughtful, and inspiring people you are likely to come across. Although some writing programs do not, most programs, like the one at Minnesota, offer their MFA students teaching, scholarships, or other financial assistance to make those three years of writing possible. Those three years were absolutely a gift—one I squandred at times, but one which has continued to teach me the value of being surrounded by thorough readers who are dedicated both to their own craft and to the betterment of one another’s. I learned not only how to write and how to read, but how to appreciate the diversity of writing that was happening and how to value my own.

If you are interested in finding out more about writing programs or poetry in the US, you might be interested in the following:

− http://www.poetrysociety.org/
− http://poets.org/
− http://www.versedaily.org/
− http://poetry365.com/
− http://www.awpwriter.org/
− http://creativewriting.umn.edu/program/

Eireann Lorsung was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she also did her undergraduate and Master’s degrees. She now lives in the Midlands of England, where she is studying for a Ph.D. her first book, Music for Landing Planes By, was released by Milkweed Editions in spring 2007.