How did you fill your time when you weren’t working on packets?

I really didn’t stray too far from the work at hand. The times I wasn’t writing I spent getting lost in my head. Whatever I was working on bled into my everyday life. I would grocery shop in character, take a hike to work out where to go in my next chapter, be in a conversation with someone and suddenly have a great idea for an essay. I really miss the enveloping quality of the packets. In retrospect, even the word packet has such positive connotations for me! Each one was a tidy time capsule of all the opinions and creative thoughts I was having that month.

 

 

How did you hear about the Hamline MFAC program?

From Kelly Barnhill’s bio after reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon. I read that book aloud with my daughter and was so taken with it. Not just the story, but the craft of how it was put together. When I read that she taught at Hamline, I knew I had to find out more about it.

What was your writing experience prior to entering the program?

I had written a bit for stage and film. And before the program started, I had been working on a collection of short stories and a collection of poetry.

 

 

Tell us a favorite residency memory.

Spotting a white squirrel during summer residency. Walking across a magical snow-covered campus in winter. Being so proud of my cohort as each of us presented our critical thesis.

Can you share a little about your creative thesis?

A period fiction that takes place in the late 1930s about a little girl in a small town. I wanted to write a novel with very young protagonist (my main character is six when the book starts) about the time before one goes to school where there is magic in the everyday. I wanted readers to experience a time of freedom when very young children roamed their neighborhoods and explored the woods on their own, when play involved interacting with the natural world and their own imaginations. There is an overarching emotional arc to the book (which my advisors help me craft) but it is mostly told in episodic format, which is a form I always liked in older books.

 

 

What did you write your extended critical essay about?

My essay examined novels where the family emerged as a character of its own and broke down different techniques a writer can use to make their family feel real and three-dimensional. I’ve always loved family novels where the reader yearns to be welcomed into the fold. I wanted to put on plays with the March family and spend the summer with the Penderwicks at Arundel!

What changes have you noticed in your writing since MFAC?

The value of letting go in the first draft and importance of revision. I’ve learned to trust my own voice more, to just go with what might seem like a crazy idea and see where it goes. I can look back at the writing I brought into the program and see where I was explaining too much for the reader.

Any thoughts for those considering the program?

I think more than anything you have to be mentally prepared to be immersed for two years. If that is your wish, you will somehow find the time to do the work required. And it’s great work! You’re reading wonderful books. You’re engaging one on one with an advisor who will take a deep dive into your project with you. You’re building craft and opening your world.

This week in MFAC news:

  • We have two new books out by faculty members! Elana K. Arnold’s fourth book in the Bat series is out: Bat and the Business of Ferrets. And the fourth book in Tae Keller’s Mihi Ever After series, Home Sweet Home, is out, too!
  • SCBWI announced their finalists this week, and three members of our community are nominated! Harriet Tells the Truth by faculty member Elana K. Arnold and The Truth About 6th Grade by Kim Tomsic (’22) are up for the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor! And Girls Like Her by Melanie Sumrow (’23) is nominated for the Golden Kite Award for Young Adult Fiction!
  • Angie Gentile-Jordan won an honorable mention for The Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Fellowship!
  • Faculty member Eliot Schrefer was a guest on Listen! Real Talk with Roops answering the question, How Can Books Help Us Understand Ourselves Better?