“1. I'd like to have known the TA selection process before having enrolled (hell, even now it would be nice to know)
2. I think it would have been extremely valuable to have been offered e-mail contacts for current students upon acceptance, so that I could ask about various faculty's teaching processes/styles, how the reading/workshop workloads are balanced, etc. But this new mentorship should take care of that.
3. Re: the program, I would like to see *some* sort of writing/publishing business-oriented course or seminar offered so that students are not 100% on their own to find this information when faculty is obviously already well-acquainted with the publishing industry. This could be as simple as bringing in an agent/editor or two for a Q&A at Fall for the Book, or maybe including an optional "Visiting Editor" day in the Visiting Writers series.
3.5. Maybe along with acceptance materials, a list of D.C.-area literary resources, from the Folger/Pen Faulkner (with info on faculty Board seats) to Politics & Prose, Poets & Busboys, Olsson's & other venues where readings regularly take place.”
I also wonder where the how to get published information is at Mason. I've done a lot of searching, researching, and soul searching on my own. But what would be really nice is if many of the courses had this information baked in.
ReplyDeleteFor example, if you take the online course offered by MIT OpenCourseWare, Writing and Reading Short Stories, there is extensive information there in this vein. Topics include, "The Way a Professional Writer Works in the World", and "Discussion of Getting Published in the Real World".
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Writing-and-Humanistic-Studies/21W-755Fall-2006/LectureNotes/index.htm