From dealing with homesickness, to learning how to manage workshops, to building community in strange places, Charlie Muhumuza and Chido Muchemwa, PhD, share their experiences in MFA programs. In this honest conversation, they answer the ultimate question: Is getting an MFA necessary for writers?
highlights
- The motive for getting an MFA
- Managing workshops and the MFA’s impact on the writing voice
- Juggling the workload and managing time
- Alleviating homesickness
- Finding research opportunities that can sponsor trips home
- Making ends meet
- Chido’s new book and Charlie’s future plans
- Charlie’s advice on bringing work to the MFA
- The ultimate question: Is getting an MFA necessary?
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About Chido Muchemwa
Chido Muchemwa is a Zimbabwean writer currently living in Canada. She was a 2022 recipient of the Morland African Writing Scholarship. Her work has previously appeared in The Baltimore Review, Bacopa Literary Review, Canthius, Humber Literary Review, Tincture Journal, and Apogee. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Wyoming. Her debut short story collection, “Who Will Bury You and Other Stories,” is out now in the US and Canada.
About Who will BURY YOU?
Set in Toronto and Zimbabwe, the twelve elegant stories in Who Will Bury You? touch on themes of loss, identity, and inequality as they follow the lives of Zimbabweans who often feel like they are on the outside looking in.
Ephemeral yet beautifully satisfying, the stories in Chido Muchemwa’s debut collection ask what makes people leave home, what makes them come back, and what keeps them there.
About Charlie Muhumuza
Charlie Muhumuza is from Kampala, Uganda. He is currently an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a 2024 Oxbelly fellow and was a finalist for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His published works appear in Lolwe, adda, and in various anthologies.
Guests’ links
Follow Chido on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chidomuchemwa?igsh=d3h3cjNkcnBvZDAz
Connect with Charlie on X: https://x.com/cdmuhumuza?s=21&t=GLRRSdbhoZNPfjfGWHvv4g
Host’s links
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Book a one-on-one with Lola: https://wordcaps.com/coaching/