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Programs, mentor-based, full residency

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MattElz
Matt Elzweig

Aug 10, 2005, 9:55 PM

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Programs, mentor-based, full residency	Can't Post

Does anyone know of MFA programs with generous aid packages that -don't- emphasize the workshop, but focus on mentorships instead (not low-residency programs)? Thanks.

wiswriter
Bob S.

Aug 11, 2005, 10:11 AM

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Re: [MattElz] Programs, mentor-based, full residency [In reply to]	Can't Post

It would be difficult to do a mentor-type structure in a full-residency program because it would require too many professors. We have nine faculty members in fiction alone at Bennington. You might start by looking at programs that have large faculties or admit few students, then check with the current students to see how much workshops are emphasized.

MattElz
Matt Elzweig

Aug 11, 2005, 10:27 AM

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Re: [wiswriter] Programs, mentor-based, full residency [In reply to]	Can't Post

Know of any offhand that fit your description?

wiswriter
Bob S.

Aug 12, 2005, 10:17 PM

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Re: [MattElz] Programs, mentor-based, full residency [In reply to]	Can't Post

Cornell and Brown would be two that pop to mind. Cornell takes something like four writers per genre per year. Florida is a program in which people here have said a fair amount of mentoring goes on. Wisconsin takes relatively few students and gives good aid - that sounds kind of dirty, doesn't it - but the program is only a couple of years old. On the opposite end of the spectrum there are the sink-or-swim programs that are notorious for not mentoring - Iowa, Columbia.

The new Atlantic fiction issue has an essay by Rick Moody on writers and mentors you might be interested in if you haven't seen it. It's more or less a transcript of a lecture he gave during last winter's residency at Bennington. It's a real rip job on Columbia. Unfortunately he left out all the nice stuff about Bennington. No one wants to read nice stuff, I guess.

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