Hello and welcome to Life After the MFA!

This is the first installment in a ten-part series devoted to newly minted MFA graduates and writers looking for guidance. This series is dedicated to addressing the variety of concerns you might have about leaving your program and entering the “real world.” Each section is dedicated to delivering advice from accomplished writers who have been where you are now, as well as useful resources that will help you gain the knowledge to:

• pursue an academic career path
• secure an agent
• publish your writing
• market and promote your work
• cultivate a writing life

Let’s begin with Roxane Gay’s list of "The Eight Questions Writers Should Ask Themselves.” Here, Gay asks the big questions: “Are you more invested in the business of publishing than the practice of writing?” and “How will you deal with failure?” Think of her list as a launchpad for developing your own writing/living philosophy.

In a similar vein, Andrew Solomon’s “The Middle of Things: Advice for Young Writers” examines Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet as a guide to cultivating joy when lingering in the unknown and living without experience. Solomon advocates for learning to be content in the middle of things. When Solomon says “young,” think “early career.”

You’ve likely heard that the expectations and reality of post-MFA life do not always jibe. Here are some takes from MFA grads on feeling unmoored and finding your place in the world with an MFA in your back pocket:

• "After the MFA: Fantasy, Reality, and Lessons Learned" by Erika Dreifus in Poets & Writers
• "What's the Point? Five Writers Offer Lifelines for Post-MFA Despair" by Bryan Furuness in Brevity’s online feature Craft Essays
• "Seeking the Work-Life-Writing Balance Post-MFA" by Kirsten Clodfelter from the Career Advice section of AWP’s Writer’s Notebook

If you’re having trouble finding your footing as you navigate life without the structure of the MFA program, setting some goals can help. Here are some suggestions for goals that will encourage you to improve and push yourself further as a writer:

1. Try a new genre: Take some time to be adventurous with your writing. Experiment with writing in different genres and dare to push your boundaries. Get creative!
2. Get connected: Join an online writing group or consider attending a workshop or conference, like the annual AWP Conference & Bookfair. Writing groups, workshops, and conferences can be a great opportunity to not only learn new skills to improve your writing but also to network and connect with other writers, whether they are experts or fellow post-MFA grads. Check out some of our networking resources:
   
   
   • Explore AWP’s Community Writing Groups Directory to find a writing group that fits your interests.
   • AWP’s Directory of Conferences & Centers can help you find writers’ conferences, residencies, centers, retreats, and festivals.
   • Find upcoming events and opportunities in our Writer’s Calendar.
   • Consider joining our Facebook groups: AWP Community of Writers, AWP Novel Writing Group, and Friends of AWP will get you started.
3. Read more books: Find time to read more books, which may inspire you with new writing ideas and techniques you can apply to your own writing projects. Don’t be afraid to explore new genres here, too!
4. Establish a routine: Create a routine with benchmarks to keep your writing on track. Make progress on your goals by hitting a daily word count or writing for a certain number of hours each week.
5. Start publishing: Why not? Maybe you don’t feel ready but submit, submit, submit. Don’t be afraid to share your work.
   
   
   • Submit your work to The Writer’s Chronicle.
   • Enter the AWP Award Series and other contest opportunities.
   • Check out the “Discover” feature on Submittable.
   • Follow your favorite lit journals on Twitter and watch for submission calls.
6. Promote your work for free on our member Bookshelf: Once you’ve published a full-length novel, submit your info and we’ll feature it online, in The Writer’s Chronicle, and on our Bookshop.org affiliate page. You can also explore titles on Bookshop from pedagogy selections to cultural heritage month titles, AWP staff picks, and more!

In this series, we hope to lead you to valuable resources to guide you in your writing journey. If you have any resources or advice that have been shared with you along your journey so far that you would like to see featured in the series, please submit them to awp@awpwriter.org so we can share them with this community.

Warmly,

Your AWP Membership Team