I’ve been up here on this mountain for four weeks now, weekends excepted, with only two weeks to go in the Sewanee MFA summer term. I would like to slow time for these next few weeks, to have more weeks in this 13,000 acres they call The Domain, more days living on this storybook campus. I feel an urgency to get more writing done — and more feedback on my writing — before I pack up my dorm room and head back to real life.
Being here feels a little like summer camp, a bit like a monastery. It’s sacred time, for sure, with lots of time spent alone, writing, reading, thinking. It’s also a transformational time, in some deep and quiet way. Learning to be part of a community of writers is something new for me.
The writing community
Our little community of writers here is an oddball mix of introverts who might not have much in common otherwise. We are lawyers and ecologists, librarians and teachers, baristas and bookstore employees. Some of us are in our 60s, or even 70s. Others just finished their undergrad degrees in May.
When you read each other’s writing, share thoughts on what’s working and what’s not, offer praise and criticism, you become invested in each other. We’re all baring our souls when it’s our turn to submit a story for workshop. We’re all making ourselves vulnerable to the group. That binds you to each other, makes you responsible for each other in a way.
Surrounded by talent
There is some impressive talent here. Sometimes I look around the classroom and wonder who’s going to be the famous writer among us. There are several in my workshop group I can easily see popping up in the New York Times Book Review for their debut novel.
There’s also a sense of becoming part of the larger community of writers. The faculty here have published multiple books, won many awards, been shortlisted for various prizes. The authors the Sewanee MFA program hosts for readings each week offer additional perspective on the working life of writers.
It’s new to me to be around so many people who are making writing their life work. Some of them do it for a living, and others have found ways to make writing their focus even though they work at something else to make a living.
Writing's not easy for them either
It’s gratifying to hear successful writers say that writing is difficult, that they don’t wake up each morning and start merrily typing away. They don’t end every day knowing that what they’ve written is the best thing ever.
They talk about revising, about procrastinating, about working for a long time on something that doesn’t seem to be working. The great Jill McCorkle was here for a reading and book signing a few weeks ago. She was introduced by Jamie Quatro, one of the faculty here who studied with Jill at Bennington. Jamie remembered that Jill told her students there will be days when you feel like you are in the flow and the words pour out of you and you know the writing is good. And there are other days when you feel like an untalented hack. That’s good, she said, because it means you’re out on a limb, working outside your comfort zone.
That’s one of the things I signed up for when I applied to the Sewanee MFA program. I wanted to be pushed outside of my comfort zone. I have been, but I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed the experience. And I’m glad I have two more summers to come.
