For whatever it's worth, I was recently hired by the University of Nevada,
Reno, as their first tenure-track creative writing person . . . and I made
no bones about the fact that I write primarily fantasy and science
fiction. I've found the department here extraordinarily welcoming and
supportive of my work. We don't have an MFA program, but we do offer an
MA in English with an emphasis in writing, and it would be possible to
design a creative writing concentration within that program.
I've heard horror stories about other schools too, and as an alum of
Princeton and Yale, I have plenty of horror stories of my own. I think
the snobbery level is changing, but only slowly, and IMHO this isn't
likely to happen anytime soon at places that pride themselves on their
exclusivity (Iowa or Columbia, for instance). You want to find a school
that emphasizes the nurturing of students and their own interests, rather
than defining itself by who (and what) it leaves out. State schools are a
better bet than private ones, I suspect -- and certainly a better bet than
Ivies or Ivy-wannabes -- because state universities, by definition, exist
to serve the wider community. That's all too unusual an approach
elsewhere.
Good luck!
Susan Palwick
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