We need to keep asking ourselves what we want to be when we grow up. I don’t think the options are necessarily limited to one choice, or that a choice is anchored like a corner post of a long fence.
I recently learned that Iowa State has started an MFA program in Creative Writing and the Environment. Here’s how the program designers envision the students:
Students in this MFA program will:
write with skill and knowledge about place as a personal, political, and natural manifestation; gain a cultural-historical understanding of environmental complexity; become familiar with literary works that expand environmental and place-based consciousness; produce publishable creative works in the area of the environment; utilize critical insight to evaluate their own writing and the writing of others.
I think it would be a rewarding curriculum. So now that I’ve envisioned it, I need to start thiinking about finding out more about the program and trying to decide if I should apply. I’ve spoken briefly with one of the leaders, Mary Swander, but she is out temporarily, so when she returns we’ll get together and talk about the program some more and if I’d fit.