Hey, all. As stated in the title, I got my master's. I owe a lot to this site's community to keep me going and safe from being gaslit.
If it would help people, I would love to share my knowledge and experience about graduate school, writing spaces, or anything that might interest you. Here are some details that might invite questions (that won't doxx me):
-
My focus was Prose/Fiction
-
To complete the master's I had to turn in a novel as my thesis.
-
I volunteered in the anti-racist program in my Creative Writing Department and handled some cases of in-class discrimination issues.
-
Some of my peers are boomers and/or libs and I workshopped with them.
-
I took courses on teaching Creative Writing, if you want some general advice.
-
I was only made aware of the CIA's history of influencing writing programs during my final semester.
If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them or go into more detail.
Honestly, I didn't know until a few years before applying to the program. Authors/professional writers can have degrees, but it's not a prerequisite to get published by any means. I don't have the exact numbers on hand, but there are plenty of published authors who didn't specialize in creative writing. I will say that the degree helps if you're looking for careers in fields adjacent to creative writing, such as editing or publishing. I applied to my program because I enjoy teaching writing and felt I needed a certain structure to finish the book I'd been working on.
I'll edit in the more specific numbers when I get a chance.