U-M’s MFA hits topnotch status

Michigan’s Masters in Fine Arts program has produced luminaries like Patrick O’Keefe and Uwem Akpan, and has the distinction of being considered second only to Iowa.Excerpt:In the basement of the newly remodeled University of Michigan Museum of Art, a sizable crowd has gathered in a sleek, sterile-looking auditorium. It’s a Friday night in Ann Arbor, and you can almost hear the sound of cheap beers cracking open throughout the city. But for those sitting in UMMA’s Helmut Stern Auditorium, the only sound that echoes is the voice of Kyle Booten, who is center-stage, reciting his ambitious, abstract brand of poetry.Booten — along with a large percentage of his audience — is a student in the University’s MFA program. The atmosphere is warm and congenial, and the sense of community among those assembled is akin to that of a congenial family reunion. As the night wears on, it becomes clear that the University’s MFA students are unlike most other graduate students.Short for Master of Fine Arts, an MFA program is an often overlooked and misunderstood two-year graduate program in which students prepare for careers writing poetry, fiction or both. The MFA program was first introduced at the University of Iowa 70 years ago. Now MFA degrees are offered at more than 150 universities across the nation. Despite the success of the MFA movement, it’s been surrounded by a fair degree of controversy.Most of the flak arises from the very nature of an MFA program. In essence, it attempts to teach something historically considered unteachable: creative writing.Read the rest of the story here.