Welcome to Fall 2019!

Welcome to the Fall 2019 semester! I hope you had a wonderful, productive summer. Finding time to write is one of the most important jobs for a writer. Professor Bucak has something to say about that here.

And speaking of Papatya (and her new book!), please come to her reading Thursday, September 12th, at 7:00pm in the Student Union.

And speaking of readings, please also come to the reading of our wonderful visiting fiction professor, Dantiel W. Moniz, Wednesday, October 16h, at 7:00pm in the Student Union. You can read one of her stories here.

And speaking of and, come out to the Swamp Ape Review's open mic nights the first Sunday of each month! It's at Mad Robot Brewing (2621 N Federal Hwy, Boca Raton, FL 33431) from 5 - 7pm.

What else? Hm. I want you to come meet with me so that we can revise or create your Plan of Study as needed. If you're graduating, let's go over deadlines and concerns. New folx, returning folx, come see me with your questions, your queries, your quests...

Okay, maybe not quests, though who even knows at this point. I could probably help you figure it out. My number one job skill is knowing who to call with questions. I am only sort of kidding about this.

My advice (other than to meet with me)? Attend readings, make friends, create a writers group, get involved with Swamp Ape Review, take your vitamins, get that rash checked out, I think I'm getting off track.

Listen - I'm also looking for blog posts about writing: the craft of your genre, choices you've made in revising, how you know a piece is finished, etc etc etc. Please let me know if you'd like to contribute. Thanks!



MR Sheffield is really Mary Sheffield-Gentry, a person who sometimes goes by MR, but not that often, and who is your creative writing advisor, which is why she's writing this in the first place. Her first book was published with Sundress Publications this past winter. She's got a stack in her office if you want to see.

Let's Do This

Hello, and welcome to the Spring 2019 semester! So, yeah, my picture is from October, but come on. Who can resist that little Pikachu and his big brother? Anyway.

I'm including the picture so you can see why I've been absent from this blog. Those two kept me busy for a full semester of parental leave (I'd thought to get a draft of my novel done - it turns out they had other plans). And as much as I miss their little cherubic faces every day, it really is nice to have the full use of both of my hands.

But enough about me.

There is a lot going on this semester, some of which has already transpired. We had the Alumnae reading with the lovely Brittany Ackerman, Stephanie Anderson, and, you know, me. Not sure lovely applies there. Maybe the adjective needs rethinking. We could go with indomitable. Indefatigable? Hm. Probably we are all three some of these things to some degree. But! Our reading was so fun, and we thank all in attendance. You can find Brittany's book here, Stephanie's book here, and my book is here, or I have a box of books in my office (CU 306F) if you're so inclined.

Last week literary agent  Renée Zuckerbrot spoke, and this week Danez Smith will be giving a reading (2/14 at 7pm in the Majestic Palm Room of the Student Union - do not miss it! Maybe this link to the FB event will work).

There are additional exciting events to look forward to as well. On 2/28 Mary Blossom Lee Poet, Sy Hoahwah, will be giving a reading at 7pm in the Majestic Palm Room of the Student Union, and on 3/21 the next Off the Page reading will be given by John Keene (7pm, Majestic Palm Room of the Student Union).

Remember to meet with me to discuss your program of study. Probably we should update your Plan of Study. Maybe you have questions on thesis guidelines or deadlines. Maybe you've just, you know, missed my office. I know I have... Come on in! I take appointments MW 10:30 - 1:30 and TR 11:00 - 12:30. I'm also happy to speak with you over the phone if those hours don't work.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester. We are going to have some great blog posts in the near future. I, for one, cannot wait to read about the Lawrence Sanders Writer-in-Residence Workshop. And listen. I'll probably be bugging some of you for a blog post. Please add your voice to this! YOU are what make this blog interesting. I'm just here, you know, curating.




MR Sheffield is the Creative Writing Advisor for the MFA program at FAU. You can reach her at mfa@fau.edu to set up an appointment. Her debut book of poetry, Marvels, was released by Sundress Publications this winter.

Welcome back!

Hello, all, and welcome to the Fall 2017 semester!

To those of you currently in the MFA program, I hope you will attend the Swamp Ape Review meeting today (8/23, Wednesday) at 6pm in the Amp Lab. Check your email for more information.

Our Off the Page Series is off to a fantastic start this fall with a reading by Carole Maso on Thursday, 10/12, at 7pm in the Majestic Palm room. Ira Sukrungruang is up next with a reading on Thursday, 10/19 at 7pm in the Palmetto Palm room.

Our Lawrence A. Sanders Writer-in-Residence for this year is the talented Paul Lisicky. His workshop for MFA students will run in March of 2018, so be on the lookout for an email on how to apply to attend.

Which brings me to my strongest advice to you this Fall 2017 semester. Whether you are a new student (you might check out this blog) or getting ready to graduate (this one is for you) or somewhere in between (yeah, haha, there's a blog for you too), be sure to show up. That is, attend as many events as you can this year. Commit to participating in events inside and outside of the program. Form a writing group with friends. Come meet with me and discuss your progress in the program. Apply for grants, scholarships, and travel money. Go to AWP (it's in Tampa!). Check out this blog on how to log onto the AWP website (and email, visit, or call me if you have trouble). Apply for travel money here. The sooner you apply, the more likely you'll be able to receive funding (they give funding to students participating in conferences and to students who are simply attending).

I love meeting with you one on one, so please set up a meeting if you haven't yet. Good luck!




MR Sheffield's work has been published in The Florida Review, Black Warrior Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, and other publications. Probably her poetry manuscript is forthcoming from Flaming Giblet Press, but who really knows how these things shake out, amite? Contact her at mfa@fau.edu and/or 561-297-2974.

Welcome to Fall 2015!

Welcome, everyone, to the Fall 2015 semester here at the MFA program at FAU. I'm your friendly English Graduate Advisor, and I want to give you some information before we get into the more interesting blogs this semester.

Speaking of more interesting blogs, if you have something interesting to say, I beseech you to get in touch with me. We're especially interested in blogs on the craft of writing, the publishing class, your writing process, and reviews of reading events.

And what great reading events we have this year! We will have readings from Chantel Acevedo, Russell Banks, Tom Sleigh, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jay Critchley, David Keplinger, and our very own Susan Mitchell.

But as you know, an MFA program isn't all readings and philosophical discussions. You also need to take classes and, you know, make progress toward your degree. Let me get some of that out of the way. The program is 48 credit hours: 21 credit hours of workshop classes (seven classes), 18 credit hours of literature/theory classes (six classes), ENG 6009: "Principles and Problems of Literary Study" (this is your only specifically required course), and six thesis hours. Take a look at the advising checklist if you're more of a visual sort of person. Heck, while you're clicking around, why not check out our Web site wherein I go into all this advising stuff in more detail? It'll be great fun.

If you're graduating this semester (or next, because, hey, it's good to be prepared), take a look at the thesis guidelines. Remember! After 18 credit hours you must have a Plan of Study on file. See me for help with this - it's what I'm here for.

Well, okay. And speaking of me being here, I won't actually be here the whole semester. As you may or may not know, I'm expecting a kid (a human one!) this Halloween. Don't believe me? Here's a picture.

He's just the cutest, right? What kind of unborn baby is this cute already? Gah.

But, okay, so I'm going to be here until mid-October and then I'm leaving you in the very capable hands of Kelly De Stefano. She'll introduce herself on the blog soon. I will be back to advising next Summer 2016.

So! Welcome or welcome back, as the case may be. I encourage you to attend everything! To host readings (and invite me)! To write and write and then write some more! I hope this is a wonderful semester for all of you.



MR Sheffield, aka Mary Sheffield, aka Mary Ruth Sheffield-Gentry, aka Mars (that's an authentic nickname, guys) is your English Graduate Advisor. She can be reached at Mfa@fau.edu. Email her and make an appointment - you will make her day, I swear. I mean, I know for sure. Well, because I'm she.

Rejected!

For me, the most striking moment during the "Writing and Publishing Your First Book" panel was when Julie Marie Wade talked about her Tupperware boxes of rejections. She said the acceptance letters filled a modest box she could keep on her desk, while the rejections were stacked from floor to ceiling in one of her closets.

I love that image.

Not because I love to think of Julie Marie Wade being rejected (I'm sure I don't have to tell you what a phenomenal writer she is), but because it makes real for me one of the most worrisome/mundane aspects of being a writer. Funny, isn't it? How much terror and despair are both intense and boring, a sharp sting and an unfocused, dazed stare. Rejections. Yes, I have a lot of them. Many, many more than acceptances.

Jaswinder Bolina said something that also stuck with me. He said you have to figure out what success means for you. That when you write to someone else's ideas of success, you betray yourself. And that can never actually be success.

And Jamie Poissant's comments about his manuscript and the rounds it had to make before finally being accepted encouraged me.

Basically, it was a wonderful evening and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. It left me thinking about my own work. My own feelings about this stuff.

Look, the thing is, I have these two manuscripts, right? One is a collection of mostly experimental short stories, and one is a hybrid text of poetry and art, and I've been working on them for five and two years respectively. In the meantime, I've also managed to rack up over six pages of Submittable rejections (each page has like 40 submissions). Okay, so eleven of those are acceptances, and something like 10 are listed as "in progress," but still. The vast majority (as vast as is the night sky) are denials.

Rejections.

And! Julie Marie Wade said she gets something like 200 rejections a year. Which, okay, so I'm only talking Submittable, which means I have other rejections/acceptances, but not that many. I need to up my game. Anyway.

These rejections are my virtual closet full of boxes containing the evidence that my work wasn't right for whichever publication I sent it to; that they, in fact, did not want it, and I will tell you this - it's hard not to make the jump to they, in fact, did not want me.

The thing is though - that voice that whispers to you that you're not good enough? That says each rejection is just more proof that you will never be a "real" (whatever that is) writer? That voice is bullshit. It is! It takes years to hone your craft. Our crafts. And we'll see each other struggle, succeed, and fail and fail and fail. It's our job as writers (and especially as a part of a writing community) to find joy for other's successes and sorrow for their failures. This will help us deal with our own rejections and successes. Because success is sweet, but it is a short-lived sweetness, lemme tell you. It's like Juicy Fruit Gum™.

So, listen. Your peers - their success and failures - they cannot diminish you. Or me. Or us. They can only make us better. Each piece, like each writer, its own interconnected ecosystem. I mean, and this is totally Donne, but. Well. Wait. It's worth a reminder. Here is John Donne:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 

own were; any man's death diminishes me, 

because I am involved in mankind. 

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Your friends' successes are your own. As are their failures. And that can make a closet full of rejection letters feel more like a wardrobe into a whole other world.

MR Sheffield is an alumna of FAU's Creative Writing MFA program as well as the graduate advisor for English. Her work has been published or is forthcoming from Pank, The Florida Review, Fiction Southeast, and other publications. Email her (msheffi3@fau.edu) with all your advising questions.

The AWP Web site

          Have you logged into and checked out the AWP Web site recently? Yeah – as a member of FAU’s Creative Writing MFA program, you have access to their membership-only content. You didn’t know that? Well, read on, friend, and discover the resources glinting in your future – that magnificence of online ephemera. Ahem. I mean, um, log on to the AWP Web site and take a look around.

                A good place to start your journey is the About section. Here the AWP goes into whey they exist and why you should care that they do. And you should care that they exist – they are a real voice of advocacy for Creative Writing programs and the importance of the Humanities in a world that seems to care less and less about any subject that isn’t a subset of math or science. AWP discusses why you should be a member and why you might want to attend their annual conference.

                Speaking of AWP’s annual conference, click on the link to find out details about their next conference (it will be in Washington. You should go! Read about Negean’s, Gloria’s, and Courtney’s experiences at AWP conferences). This link also gives information about other conferences and residences you might want to attend (read: should deeply consider applying to). They have a directory of conferences and centers – browse it! For example, I did a search for conferences, residencies, centers, festivals, and retreats in Florida that offer scholarships and got three results (Atlantic Center for the Arts, Eckerd College Writers' Conference:Writers in Paradise, and Palm Beach Poetry Festival). If you find an opportunity you’re interested in that would require travel, put in those travel requests now! I’m telling you – the sooner you do this, the more likely it is that you’ll receive funding (even if you are not presenting).

                Another section that might interest you is the Careers tab. The AWP has a wonderful jobs list – check it out! If you’re looking for a job, you might also be interesting in Erika Dreifus’ blog that tracks Creative Writing jobs.

                The AWP Web site also has a link to contests. For the love of everything that is warm and sweet in this world, check these out. Here they list opportunities for grants,awards, publications, and go into detail on their own contests and well as scholarship contest information (for attending a writers’ conference, center, retreat, festival, or residency).

                You also have access the Writer’s Chronicle (their magazine) as well as relevant blog posts (about teaching, literature, writing – all the fun stuff). There is a section on Writer’s News which will keep you up to date with the literary and academic world(s), the Writer’s Notebook which allows you to search articles on such compelling topics as craft, job searching, the submission process, and myriad topics. And a Podcast series. Seriously. Who loves not the podcast?

                I tell you all of this to say this: check it out! I’ll be sending you an email with your log on information. Log in, look around, and feel free to make an appointment with me or with Becka to discuss any questions you have about publishing or finding a job.

                Oh yeah, one more thing. Go to the AWP Conference while you still get the student rate. I’m just saying.

M.R. Sheffield is the English Graduate Advisor at Florida Atlantic University. Her work has been published in The Florida Review, Pank, Fiction Southeast, and other publications. Email her to set up an advising appointment: msheffi3@fau.edu.