Info Session to be Held Jan. 29 for Converse College MFA in Creative Writing Writers Invited to Learn about S.C.’s Only Low Residency Program
January 20, 2015
Spartanburg, SC – South Carolina’s only low residency MFA program in creative writing invites interested writers to an information session on Thursday, Jan. 29 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Ezell Conference Room at Converse College. The session will provide information on the application process, the recent publishing successes of our graduates, and an opportunity to speak with the MFA program director, Rick Mulkey, and several current MFA students. For more information, contact Mulkey at [email protected] or visit www.converse.edu/mfa.
The Converse College Low Residency MFA offers students opportunities to focus in fiction, poetry and nonfiction, plus opportunities to pursue internships in publishing and editing through our C. Michael Curtis Publishing Fellowship at Hub City Press. MFA students may also participate in editing opportunities with the program’s national online literary magazine, South 85 Journal, and pursue teaching opportunities with our Teaching Assistant program, a unique opportunity for low residency students.
“One of the strengths of a low-residency format is how it introduces students to the real writing life,” Mulkey said. “Most writers have family and career obligations in addition to their writing. While students spend part of each academic year on the Converse campus during the residencies, they continue work on their writing and academic projects during the rest of the year without disruption from their family and career. Plus they study in a true mentor/apprentice relationship with a gifted writer. It provides both an intensive learning environment and the flexibility that most of us need.”
Converse MFA faculty members include National Book Critic Circle Award winners, best-selling novelists, award winning short fiction and essayists, plus some of the top editors in the country. “In addition to being outstanding writers, our faculty are energetic and dedicated teachers who have been honored for their classroom instruction,” said Mulkey. “In some graduate programs, a student enrolls to discover that the writer she planned to work with only teaches one course a year, or is on leave while the student is in the program. Here you have the opportunity to work with a large number of writers, editors and agents in a very personal mentoring relationship.”
In the last few years, Converse MFA graduates and current students have distinguished themselves with honors and awards including the AWP Intro Award, a Melbourne Independent Film Festival Award, and the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize, among many others. In addition, they have published work in a range of literary venues from Colorado Review, Shenandoah,Ploughshares, and Southern Review to such noted publishers as William Morrow/Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Negative Capability Press, Finishing Line Press, and others.
