MFA/MFYou

Issue One, January 2009

Letter from the Editor:

Greetings and welcome to the inaugural issue of MFA/MFYou. We received some really phenomenal submissions and we are absolutely delighted to be able to display, in our very first issue, some truly exceptional examples of writing coming from both MFA and non-MFA writers.

With the economy the way it is, the question of whether or not an MFA degree is really worth much is more relevant than ever. On the one hand, most MFA programs offer teaching assistantships that give you a guaranteed (albeit low) income and free tuition. Perhaps this can be a refuge for writers who would prefer to wait out the economy and, in the meantime, devote their time to their craft. But if you do have to pay your tuition, or if a low income isn’t enough during these difficult times, an MFA degree may not be a feasible option.

At MFA/MFYou, we believe you can gain a lot from an MFA program, but you have to put the effort in and really try to gain it. Is this really any different, then, than just studying writing and honing your skill on your own? They’re two very different routes but we believe, ultimately, that you can end up in the same place as a writer.

In this, our first issue, we bring you the work of four very talented writers, each one at a different stage in his or her writing career.

In this issue, we’re representing both ends of the MFA spectrum. Saeed Jones is a newcomer to his MFA program. All three of Jones’s poems approach their subjects from a completely new perspective and Jones’s poem, “Praise Chorus,” burns an image into the mind of his readers that they will never be able to forget.  Yu-Han (Eugenia) Chao is an MFA graduate putting into practice in the real world the things she learned from her MFA program. Chao’s short story, “Other Side of the Nightmarket,” provides an at once comical and distressingly resonant sketch of a poverty stricken family as seen through the eyes of an outsider.

Donald Illich and J.A. Tyler have both taken the non-MFA route, and both seem to be getting along just fine on their own. Illich’s poems present quite a range of skill; “When I Was Nine” tells a complete and concrete story, while “At the Office of Marvelous Creatures” takes a playful look at that “real world” MFA students are so keen to avoid. Not quite prose poetry, yet something more than just poetic prose, Tyler’s story, “He Did and He Didn’t,” is so beautifully written it leaves its reader wrestling with what they like most about it: it’s poetic use of language or the story, itself.

We hope you enjoy these stories and poems as much as we do.

Ashley Cowger,

Editor