On Saturday, January 17, 2015, I graduated with my Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. That was three days ago, and it's still bittersweet. I wanted to reminisce, to reflect on my time at Stonecoast. To do that, I needed to go back to the beginning, to a time when I wasn't the confident writer...
I started writing my novel in
2009. While each new year brought the same resolution—finish your novel!—I still
felt as though something was missing.
I found that something at
Stonecoast.
In December 2012, I graduated
from the University of Wisconsin—Parkside with a Bachelor of Arts in English,
and in January 2013, I began my journey at the University of Southern Maine’sStonecoast program. Before I graduated from UW-Parkside and before I applied at
Stonecoast, I searched high and low for the perfect graduate school. I knew it
existed somewhere. I just had to find it. And I refused to settle.
I was looking for a school that
would let me work one on one with my professors, a school that would let me
focus on my writing rather than taking more courses that taught me how to
write. After four years of undergraduate English courses, I was ready to step
out of the classroom and into the writing world. I had also always wanted to
study abroad, something that so few schools offered. But most importantly, I
wanted to work with professors who were writers I grew up reading (or, at the
very least, had heard of). I wanted to work with writers who were currently in
the industry, who were prolific in their own way. I wanted to work with writers
who truly knew the young adult market and who also wrote their fair share of
vampire novels.
It’s fair to say my
Buffy-obsessed self wanted to work with Joss Whedon.
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