This is me!

MFA stands for Masters of Fine Arts… and, as I’m told by some of my friends, Mother-F****n’ Artist. A little crass, yes, but I like that saying because it’s about ownership.

“I’m an artist.”

“Not only am I an artist, I’m a badass artist! That’s what I am, and you will recognize it!”

I’m about to start my second year as an MFA candidate in Creative Writing – Fiction MFA. I come from a family of educators. My mom, aunt, and sister all teach, and they’ve instilled in me the desire to spread my knowledge to others, to help them understand style and grammar and essay construction. I taught Composition and different writing courses on the college level, but this wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to “create…”, which is one of the Columbia mottos and the one that makes me think, “Yeah, that’s exactly why I’m here—to create.”

So, I moved away from the beaches and swamps and hurricanes that I was getting used to during my tenure in Florida and finally did something I always wanted to do—move to a big city and write. I didn’t want to get away from my job teaching, but my passion to write drove me to pursue it.

People have always told me, “Those who can’t, teach.” I hate that saying. It doesn’t even make sense grammatically, really. Those who can’t what? You haven’t clearly defined what I can’t do. RUDE. If you’re saying I can’t do anything with writing, which is what I teach, I’m going to do something with it, and I’m going to prove you wrong.

I’ve taken that as a challenge. And, now I write all the time.

That’s right. I’m an MFA student, and I’m an artist. A Mother-F****n’ Aritst. So take that.

That being said, what am I doing here? This year, I’ll be providing weekly blog posts for Marginalia about my experiences in grad school, in Chicago, at Columbia, and maybe even some random posts about whatever I feel people out there on the interwebs should know. You know, like maybe my love of superhero comic books, playing rugby, cultivating my taste in bad cinema, searching out random dives in Chicago, and traveling to bizarre and strange places.

I’ll be here, adventuring in the main text of my blog. Feel free to add to the margins. In fact, I’d love it if you would.