Re: [*FSFFU*] Mythology book query -Reply

From: Vonda N. McIntyre (vonda@oz.net)
Date: Fri Nov 21 1997 - 11:51:04 PST


Hi Sean,

I'm not an academic -- I don't even have a degree
in English or anything close. Don't teach except
on the rare occasion when I'm bullied into doing a
workshop. I don't know the answer to your
question. But I'm sure tons of folks on this list
would be able to help clue the both of us in.

Is your prospective MFA for writing credentials or
teaching credentials? (I have been told by a
friend who's made her living writing for 20 years
that she wasn't even considered for a teaching
position she applied for, because she didn't have
an MFA. This makes me wonder what the people doing
the hiring are using for brains, but it does
explain to me why people who want to teach want an
MFA in creative writing.)

The people I know who have gotten into MFA
programs with non-sf in order to write sf have
spent the next several years generally being shat
upon and insulted, so I think your impression that
this is a bad strategy is an accurate one.

Best,

Vonda

On Thu, 20 Nov 1997 18:29:27 -0600, Sean Johnston
<sean-johnston@uiowa.edu> wrote:

>Vonda,
> Any idea why academic insts. like UW-Seattle are so reluctant to
>deal with writing SF? I'm trying to get into an MFA program, but I'd like
>to not get there under false pretenses, which is what I might feel like I'm
>doing if I submit something that's not really what I write just to get my
>foot in the door.
>

http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda
The Moon and the Sun -- One of Publishers Weekly's
"Best Books of 1997"
http://www.bookwire.com/pw/bestbooks97.article$3946



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