My DIY MFA Reading List
After recently dropping out of an MFA Program for personal and financial reasons, I realized that if anyone else was going to take my writing seriously, I had to first take my writing seriously. That means that I have to discipline myself to read, write, and network regularly.
Most, if not all, MFA Programs have a required reading list for the students to read over the course of the program. My program list was made up of 30 books, 20 of which were determined by the fiction faculty, and 10 of which I chose myself. The 20 required books on the reading list neither interested me nor suited my writing tastes. I’m all for branching out in craft and subject matter, but I struggled to find any personal value in the few books on the list that I did read.
Which got me thinking: If all MFA reading lists are fairly generalized (except of course for the books the student chooses), how is that really helping the student and his or her specific writing style? You can learn just as much from things you don’t enjoy as you can from things you do enjoy, but if the required books are selected based on the faculty’s personal taste, what is that doing for the student?
I recently read DIY MFA by Gabriela Pereira. A wielder of an MFA and a teacher herself, Gabriela offers the reader the three key components to every MFA Program: write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. That’s it! You do those three things and you have an MFA all your own—minus the credentials, of course. Assuming that’s important to you.
I won’t get too much into the book because I think anyone wanting to DIY their own MFA should buy it and read all its strategies themselves. However, the “reading with purpose” section of the book breaks down the reading list into four crucial sections: competitive books, contextual books, contemporary books, and classics (you can read more about what each of these sections entails here).
So after reading this part of the book, and after researching a few other MFA Programs and their reading lists, I decided to build my own list.
The first step to building my own reading list was figuring out what kind of a writer I am and what subject matter interests me the most. I used to think I didn’t have a “thing” as a writer because I like to write in so many different genres and on different subjects, but then I started thinking about the books and movies that I love most. Here are a few:
Movies:
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Big Fish (2003)
La La Land (2016)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Life of Pi (2012)
Books:
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
(Is it weird that I have more movies than books listed? I'm just a very visual person!)
So what do all these books and movies have in common? The same things that I love to inject into my own writing: fantasy, magic, and whimsy. Whether in subject matter, characters, plot, or the way the story is told, they all share these three traits. Knowing this, I set out to find books similar in nature, theme, and subject matter.
This is all just a long-winded preface to the personalized reading list I recently built for myself. I may change this up later, or I may start reading some of these books and realize I absolutely hate them. I may discover something similar and new after finishing one of these books and add to the list. Who knows? This is just a rough draft, a place to start.
So, without further ado, I present to you my reading list.
1. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
2. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
3. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enriquez
4. The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges
5. The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Aymé
6. Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
7. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
8. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
9. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
10. Night at the Circus by Angela Carter
11. Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician by Daniel Wallace
12. The Watermelon King by Daniel Wallace
13. The Kings and Queens of Roam by Daniel Wallace
14. Extraordinary Adventures by Daniel Wallace
15. Magic for Beginners: Stories by Kelly Link
16. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
17. Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
18. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
19. The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
20. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
There ya have it! A good, long list of books. I plan to report my findings and thoughts as I read through these.
Anything crucial I'm missing?
Most, if not all, MFA Programs have a required reading list for the students to read over the course of the program. My program list was made up of 30 books, 20 of which were determined by the fiction faculty, and 10 of which I chose myself. The 20 required books on the reading list neither interested me nor suited my writing tastes. I’m all for branching out in craft and subject matter, but I struggled to find any personal value in the few books on the list that I did read.
Which got me thinking: If all MFA reading lists are fairly generalized (except of course for the books the student chooses), how is that really helping the student and his or her specific writing style? You can learn just as much from things you don’t enjoy as you can from things you do enjoy, but if the required books are selected based on the faculty’s personal taste, what is that doing for the student?
I recently read DIY MFA by Gabriela Pereira. A wielder of an MFA and a teacher herself, Gabriela offers the reader the three key components to every MFA Program: write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. That’s it! You do those three things and you have an MFA all your own—minus the credentials, of course. Assuming that’s important to you.
I won’t get too much into the book because I think anyone wanting to DIY their own MFA should buy it and read all its strategies themselves. However, the “reading with purpose” section of the book breaks down the reading list into four crucial sections: competitive books, contextual books, contemporary books, and classics (you can read more about what each of these sections entails here).
So after reading this part of the book, and after researching a few other MFA Programs and their reading lists, I decided to build my own list.
The first step to building my own reading list was figuring out what kind of a writer I am and what subject matter interests me the most. I used to think I didn’t have a “thing” as a writer because I like to write in so many different genres and on different subjects, but then I started thinking about the books and movies that I love most. Here are a few:
Movies:
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Big Fish (2003)
La La Land (2016)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Life of Pi (2012)
Books:
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
(Is it weird that I have more movies than books listed? I'm just a very visual person!)
So what do all these books and movies have in common? The same things that I love to inject into my own writing: fantasy, magic, and whimsy. Whether in subject matter, characters, plot, or the way the story is told, they all share these three traits. Knowing this, I set out to find books similar in nature, theme, and subject matter.
This is all just a long-winded preface to the personalized reading list I recently built for myself. I may change this up later, or I may start reading some of these books and realize I absolutely hate them. I may discover something similar and new after finishing one of these books and add to the list. Who knows? This is just a rough draft, a place to start.
So, without further ado, I present to you my reading list.
1. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
2. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
3. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enriquez
4. The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges
5. The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Aymé
6. Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
7. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
8. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
9. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
10. Night at the Circus by Angela Carter
11. Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician by Daniel Wallace
12. The Watermelon King by Daniel Wallace
13. The Kings and Queens of Roam by Daniel Wallace
14. Extraordinary Adventures by Daniel Wallace
15. Magic for Beginners: Stories by Kelly Link
16. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
17. Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
18. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
19. The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
20. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
There ya have it! A good, long list of books. I plan to report my findings and thoughts as I read through these.
Anything crucial I'm missing?
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