Biloxi by Mary Miller My rating: 5 of 5 stars Disclaimer: Mary Miller is my colleague in The W’s MFA program in Creative Writing. I’m a big fan of her work. Biloxi is a hilarious read, though it’s not laugh-out-lout funny, outlandish, or bawdy. Mary Miller’s humor, to my mind, consists more of taking wry,Continue reading “Book Review: Biloxi by Mary Miller”
Author Archives: Kendall Dunkelberg
Word Processors for Poets
Today’s my birthday, so my gift to you is a recommendation of free software. Poets get a bum rap for never having money (it’s true!), but that’s not why I’m recommending two free word processors today. And it’s not because poets are so anti-establishment we have to fight against Microsoft’s domination with alternatives to MSContinue reading “Word Processors for Poets”
Book Review: Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon My rating: 5 of 5 stars Kiese Laymon’s memoir is an important book for our time and a great read! It is immediately more personal than many since he addresses each chapter to his mother. Understanding that relationship is the lens through which Laymon examines race, gender, sexuality,Continue reading “Book Review: Heavy by Kiese Laymon”
How to Prepare to Apply for an MFA Program, Part 2
So you’ve been writing, revising, reading magazines and books (as I suggested in Part 1 of this series), and you feel like you’re ready to start the application process. How can you navigate the difficult journey to an MFA? Fortunately, there are a lot of resources that can help you choose a program and figure outContinue reading “How to Prepare to Apply for an MFA Program, Part 2”
How to Prepare to Apply to an MFA Program, Part 1
Okay, so you want to apply for an MFA in Creative Writing, but you don’t know whether you’re good enough or where to start. You want to brush up on your writing and you want to put together the best application you possibly can. But how? In this post, I’ll try to give you someContinue reading “How to Prepare to Apply to an MFA Program, Part 1”
Meet Me at the Book Festival
One of the great developments for writers in recent years has been the inception of state-wide or regional book festivals across the country. Mississippi holds its @MSBookFest in August on the Capitol lawn, and I’ll be there next weekend, August 17, for the fifth year. My first time, I went as a volunteer. My second year,Continue reading “Meet Me at the Book Festival”
Learning from My Students
When I first started The W’s MFA in Creative Writing, I wrote in our Student Handbook (which I’ve been editing this summer) that the students are our colleagues, perhaps the teachers are a little further along in their writing careers (though not always older), but the students shouldn’t feel like they are any less becauseContinue reading “Learning from My Students”
Fig Pesto Pizza
We have another bumper crop of figs this year, and since we don’t make fig jam or fig preserves, we are always on the lookout for good ways to use them. Sure we freeze quite a few to enjoy later in the year (just wash, let dry, and freeze whole), but we love eating themContinue reading “Fig Pesto Pizza”
My First Decade as Occasional Blogger
Recently, WordPress was kind enough to inform me that this month is my 10th aniversary of writing this blog. As I looked back, I noticed the very first first post was July 24, 2009. What a long, fun, and a little crazy trip it’s been. I started blogging mostly as a dare to myself. I’mContinue reading “My First Decade as Occasional Blogger”
Keeping the Res in Low-Residency MFA
As our low-residency MFA program enters its fifth year, it seems like a good time to reflect on where we’ve come and how we’ve evolved, and that includes why we’re committed to the low-res format for the degree. Our program is different from many low-res MFAs out there because we follow an online class model.Continue reading “Keeping the Res in Low-Residency MFA”
Kendall Dunkelberg 