2008 is a particularly bad year to go looking for jobs after a creative writing MFA program. As the recession pounds everybody from newspapers to publishers, three struggling MFA graduates are chronicling this dark year in group blog.
At the Three P’s of Post-MFA, Kelly Ferguson, Trina Burke, and Laurie White visit job fairs, wait for applications, and try to get back into academia–capturing the economic headaches (“Ph.D’s, publications, and panhandling”) facing young writers.
Most recently, Burke, a 33-year-old MFA graduate and former editor, wrote this bleak line:
“Now if they can only tell me what defect in my brain chemistry led to the decision to pursue poetry rather than, say, astrophysics or nursing or some other, more-conducive-to-cash-flow vocation, we’ll be all set. If they can come up with a drug to combat the aforementioned defect, that’s even better.”
(Via MFA Blog)