by Rachael Hanel '97, MA '04
If Diana Joseph is having a party at her house, you need to be there.
On a chilly November night, faculty and students of Minnesota State University, Mankato's master of fine arts program mingled in Joseph's home along with nationally known writer Melanie Rae Thon, who was in town that night as a Good Thunder Reading On a chilly November night, faculty and students of Minnesota State University, Mankato's master of fine arts program mingled in Joseph's home along with nationally known writer Melanie Rae Thon, who was in town that night as a Good Thunder Reading
Refreshments were served; someone started plucking guitar strings. At one point, the stereo came to life and dancing commenced. A few days later, faculty members were still talking about the evening's vibrancy. They expected more of the same after the next Good Thunder event.
This type of outside-the-classroom interaction among faculty and students in the Master of Fine Arts in creative writing program is a hallmark. Professors frequently meet with students, sometimes at local coffee shops, huddled over hot mugs and manuscripts. At open mic readings off campus, faculty watch their students get on stage, and usually take their turns behind the mic themselves.
Since the beginning of the MFA program more than ten years ago—it was the first terminal creative writing degree in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System—its renown has spread throughout the country. Minnesota State Mankato regularly attracts students from thousands of miles away.
The intimate writing community, like the one evident at Joseph's house, is just one of the program's strengths. Large MFA programs at flagship universities may be more well-known, but Mankato's position as a small town in a rural area helps develop a close–knit atmosphere. "Programs in big cities find it hard to help nurture and create a community within the larger metropolitan community," says Rick Robbins, program director.
As the program matures, it continues to produce students and alumni who find success not only on a regional level, but also nationally, winning high–profile contests, securing national awards and publishing books. But perhaps more important, the faculty are also accomplished and wellknown nationally—and committed to their students.
David Clisbee, a first–year MFA student from Kansas City, says faculty were helpful right away when he started researching graduate schools. Now that's he's completed his first semester, his professors continue to impress him. "They don't try to put boundaries on what you do," he says. "They also don't hold your hand. They let you make mistakes and help you learn from them."
Clisbee started working on a number of new poems, using a style he never thought he'd embrace, thanks to encouragement he received from Robbins and Candace Black. "It's like nudging a fledgling bird out of the nest," he says.
Robbins says faculty are constantly working on their own writing as well as teaching. The University doesn't build research and writing time into the job description, so it's up to the professor to write whenever he or she can. "We write anyway and we publish anyway and maybe that tells our students that whatever circumstances they find themselves in, you have to make a place for writing," Robbins says.
Faculty also try to stretch themselves and work across genres. Black has published a book of poems but now writes nonfiction. Joseph, who published a collection of short stories in 2003, has just submitted a manuscript for a nonfiction essay collection, which will be published in January 2009. "Even the established faculty are trying new things and stretching themselves and I think that sets a good example for students, too," Robbins says.
MFA faculty member Diana Joseph in the classroom.
The faculty take a decidedly handson approach when instructing students.
"Some people prefer our program over others because they know there's going to be that faculty-student contact. Our faculty aren't going to be hiding in some office someplace," Robbins says. "When we've had people come who've started at another program, it's often been the case that they…never had much faculty contact or they didn't feel there was a writing community there."
In addition to writing workshops, students can choose to learn practical applications, such as teaching, technical writing and pedagogy. But the core mission of the program is to take a student's writing to another level.
Joseph says she's training students to be their own readers and editors when they leave the program. She's not there, she says, to be the teacher who knows it all and says, "This is wrong and this is how you fix it."
"I can't fix their writing," she says. "I have enough trouble trying to fix my own writing."
Instead, she considers herself a passionate reader who pays close attention to how a student writes and treats the work like a piece of literature.
It's that attention to detail that drew Catherine Hooper to the program. Hooper attended Mesa State College in Colorado, where Joseph taught previously, as an undergraduate. When Joseph accepted a position in Mankato, she was so impressed with the town and the program that she encouraged Hooper to apply for the program here.
"Our instructors pore over our work, helping us improve," Hooper says. "Our faculty members give a remarkable amount of time and energy toward student successes, as writers, as teachers, as people."
The programs strength filters into the community as well. For example, the Good Thunder Reading Series, which started in 1981, brings nationally known authors into Mankato for writing workshops, craft talks and readings that draw non–students as well as students. The series functions apart from the MFA program and exposes the entire campus community and the larger region to well–known writers.
The program also benefits undergraduate creative writing students, as MFA students also teach undergraduates. Minnesota State Mankato recently incorporated a bachelor of fine arts program to meet the needs of creative writing undergraduates. Joseph says the enthusiasm she's found in Mankato cannot help but to spill over to the undergraduate level.
Joseph, in her second year here and the newest faculty member, says she could see right away that the MFA program in Mankato was special. In her previous job, she and her husband, also a writer, felt isolated and lacked a network. "Then we came here and we've been sort of amazed and nourished and gratified by the kind of community that's here."
