103 episodes
MFA Writers Jared McCormack
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- Arts
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4.9 • 57 Ratings
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MFA Writers is the podcast where host Jared McCormack interviews creative writing MFA students about their program, their process, and a piece they’re working on.
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Max Delsohn — Syracuse University
Former stand-up comedian Max Delsohn sits down with Jared to talk about how humor and detailed line-level revision show up in his work for the stage and the page. Plus, he discusses a pleasure-forward writing process, switching MFA programs after the first year, and his experiences with big-name faculty like George Saunders and Mary Karr.
Max Delsohn is a third-year MFA candidate in fiction at Syracuse University. His writing appears in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, VICE, Joyland, The Rumpus, Passages North, Nat. Brut, and the essay anthology Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games, edited by J. Robert Lennon and Carmen Maria Machado, among other places. He has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Saltonstall Foundation for The Arts, Mineral School, and Hugo House, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times. His debut short story collection, CRAWL, is forthcoming in fall 2025 from Graywolf Press. Find Max on social media @maxdelsohn, and sign up for alerts to pre-order his collection via his website, www.maxdelsohn.com.
This episode was requested by Amy Peltz, Sarah Blood, and Frank Turner. Thank you all for listening!
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
— Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com -
Abhijit Sarmah — University of Georgia
What’s involved in an English PhD with a creative dissertation? Abhijit Sarmah tells Jared about how this path allows him to pursue his research on global indigenous literatures while continuing to craft poetry on identity and insurgency in Assam, India. Abhijit also discusses postmemory, or the memories we inherit from earlier generations, writing about your homeland when you live far from it, and the strong literary scene in Athens, Georgia.
Abhijit Sarmah is a poet and a researcher of Indigenous literatures with particular focus on Native American women writers and writings from the Northeast of India. Currently, he is a second-year PhD student in the creative writing program at the University of Georgia where he is also an Arts Lab Graduate Fellow. He was a finalist for the 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship and his work has appeared in magazines like Poetry, The Margins, The Lincoln Review, and elsewhere. Find him on Instagram @abhijitsarmahwritespoetry and on Twitter @abhijitsarmah_.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
— Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com -
Sam Herschel Wein — University of Tennessee, Knoxville
On this episode, Sam Herschel Wein tells Jared about their path to finding poetry outside of academia, co-founding and editing Underblong, and their approach to collaboration and humor in their writing. Plus, they discuss the nuances of MFA program decisions (Two or three years? English or Art departments?) and whether creative writing should live within institutions of higher education at all.
Sam Herschel Wein (he/they) is a lollygagging plum of a poet who specializes in perpetual frolicking. They have an MFA from the University of Tennessee (2021-2023) and were the recipient of a 2022 Pushcart Prize. They have published 3 chapbooks, most recently Butt Stuff Flower Bush from Porkbelly Press, and are the co-founder and editor of Underblong Journal. They have recent work in American Poetry Review, The Cincinnati Review, and Gulf Coast, among others. Find them on social media @samforbreakfast and at their website, samherschelwein.com.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
— Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com -
Rerelease: Gina Chung — Debut Author Series — Sea Change
The podcast team is on spring break, giving us (and you) the perfect opportunity to revisit an episode we love. In celebration of her new short story collection, GREEN FROG, we invite you into this conversation with Gina Chung who spoke to Jared last season about her debut novel, SEA CHANGE.
Gina Chung, debut author of the speculative novel SEA CHANGE, tells Jared how the book began with a writing prompt in her MFA program and how her fellow students encouraged her to turn it into a novel. She and Jared discuss how her experience in publishing shaped her understanding of the business of writing and the importance of a trusted writing community. Plus, Gina offers advice for making the most of your MFA experience.
Gina is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in New York City. Her debut novel SEA CHANGE was a 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and a New York Times Most Anticipated Book. Gina has also written a forthcoming short story collection titled GREEN FROG. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from the New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Literary Hub, Catapult, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, and Idaho Review, among others. Find her at gina-chung.com and on Twitter @ginathechung.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
— Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com -
Deborah Jackson Taffa — Faculty Series — Institute of American Indian Arts
Memoirist and director of the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA program Deborah Jackson Taffa talks to Jared about her new book, Whiskey Tender. Deborah shares how memoir writing is a form of familial and historical preservation, and offers advice on having difficult conversations with the real people who appear in our creative nonfiction. Plus, she discusses the value of the low-res IAIA program for both indigenous and non-indigenous writers, offers strategies for sustaining creative energy, and describes methods to avoid falling into a common misstep for MFA students: social comparison.
A citizen of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo, Deborah Jackson Taffa is the director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is the author of the memoir WHISKEY TENDER and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. Her writing can be found at PBS, Salon, LARB, Brevity, A Public Space, The Boston Review, The Rumpus, and the Best American Nonrequired Reading. In late 2021, she was named a MacDowell Fellow, Kranzberg Arts Fellow, and Tin House Scholar. In 2022, she won a PEN American Grant for Oral History and was named a Hedgebrook Fellow. Find her at deborahtaffa.com and on social media @deborahtaffa.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
— Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com -
Jamie Li — Vermont College of Fine Arts
Drawing from her decade-long career in Silicon Valley, Jamie Li tells Jared about writing tech satire that struck her MFA colleagues as far-fetched and her tech friends as totally realistic. Plus, Jamie talks about how her background as a Chinese immigrant and the model minority myth shape her interest in writing about in-group/out-group behaviors, and her attraction to VCFA’s emphasis on experimental and cross-genre writing.
Jamie Li is a Southern California-based fiction writer and product marketer. She holds a BA from Dartmouth College and is pursuing her MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing has been recognized in the New York Times and published in Slant’d Magazine, Mangoprism, and elsewhere. She writes the Creative Juice newsletter and exists online on jamieli.co or IG @j.a.m.i.e.l.i.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
— Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com
Customer Reviews
Intelligent and well-produced
First and foremost, this podcast is extremely well-produced. The sound quality is amazing and steady, the introduction is perfectly balanced with the rest of the podcast, and Jared talks with a steady pace and the most calming voice. Second, it’s extremely insightful and informative. Even if you’re already in a MFA program or just write casually and aren’t intending to start a program, it’s still worth a listen to get to know how other writers write and what makes them stand out. (Plus, sometimes it’s kinda funny!) This podcast is a true gem in the world of media that I absolutely cannot wait for every two weeks.
Fantastic resource
I just discovered this podcast last week and I have already learned so much about MFA programs and the writers’ experiences navigating the process. This is such a helpful resource for writers out there who want to learn about what it’s like to apply to programs, and what it’s like to be an MFA student in general. Thanks Jared!!!
SUPER HELPFUL
Jared is the man. This podcast was a game changer for me during the research process for MFA programs. Thank you to J and to the team as well, keep up the incredible work!