Plork is what happens when writers feel free to experiment
and to play.
Possibilities open up.
That's when you get someplace new.
Everyone asks: Will we get published?
Yes, but only if you send out your work!
MFA students are encouraged to send out their work (we show them how), and to develop a tough skin, because sending out work means setting yourself up for REJECTION.
Here are some journals that have most recently accepted—and rejected—MFA students:
I hate revision! say some students at the beginning of the program.
But that's before their breakthrough . . .
"I find revision an immense task. There is freedom and creativity in it, and those things are wonderful, but at its heart revision is the destruction of one idea with the hopes that a better idea is built on its foundation. That's a lot pressure, but I took that outlook and ran with it."
–Lindsey Wittstruck
"I've begun to see that anyone can write an interesting poem, but what makes a poet (just like what makes an artist) is the commitment to constant improvement and change. In the past I had a hard time with revision because I never felt like I could be in the same place twice. I couldn't go back to where I was (maybe only a few days ago) and get back into the poem to revise it. But now I know that that is not revision. (It's something else completely—I don't know what, time travel, maybe.) No matter where a poem was written, wherever I am now I can edit it and bring something new and better to the poem—creating a certain layering to give the poem more depth." –Tania Libdan
"When I begin to write, I first put together the sound. Connections begin as obscure, or deeply personal and function as a secondary thread. I have come to realize, however, the audience for this type of work is limited-limited to maybe myself. As the semester progressed I worked towards keeping 'things pressing against' the poems, but also making them more narrative so they can include more readers. I am learning to balance the experimental with the functional. The re-vision process has been key in this development. The ideas were there in many of the poems, they just needed some time on the page 'with the canvas turned to the wall,' as Miro says." –Kate Wyer
"I think the biggest thing I need to remember is that I have to be risky. I mean that I have written poems for years, but I guess I didn't really know where great poems came from in a person. It was more like a poem would just happen to a person. You know, like Wallace Stevens just got lucky with Blackbird, right? But that is so wrong. A great poem occurs when you work for it and when you are risking everything for it. [.] I am so glad that I came to school here. How boring was I before this semester? I remember in Creativity class the moment it all clicked. We were holding our stones, and all of a sudden my stone became a toad in my hand." –Amy K. Rowland
Do you like to use glue?
You'll make your own books, and you will be amazed at how beautiful they are. Here are some examples from the Fall '07 class. The project: create a book about a color, using words and images.
Turquoise Pantea Amin Tofangchi
White Lindsey Culli
Turquoise Tania Libdan
Yellow Abby Haroun
Blue Jonathan Braucher
Check out current and past readings on campus.
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