I finished my MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers-Newark. I was exhausted and sad and grateful when it ended. I studied with so many impressive faculty, John Keene, Alice Elliot Dark, Tayari Jones, Akhil Sharma, Jayne Anne Phillips, Brenda Shaughnessy. And of course, classmates from all walks of life. During the MFA, I had two student readings, including one at the KGB Bar which held the student reading series. I revised many short stories, some poems, worked on a hybrid memoir, and even learned how to make a visual book, interlaying poems with images.

It’s an unusual gift to be in such an environment, immersed in reading and creative writing. The mind and heart just unfurls. It would be difficult to describe to anyone who has not underwent this experience the kind of connections that form from sharing creative work, so unlike any kind of classroom experience I’ve had.