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Faculty MentorsWe’re all working writers who do other things when we’re not at the residency or waiting eagerly for writing packets to arrive. Here are links to personal sites, interviews, or books.
A Conversation with Valerie Miner
Imagining Ourselves:
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Students Past and Present
Twenty-five Things I Know For Sure--Maybe
by Rich Chiappone
Rich Chiappone is an associate fiction faculty member for the University of Alaska Anchorage’s low-residency MFA program and the author of two short story collections, Water of Undetermined Depth and Opening Days. His stories and essays have appeared in Alaska Magazine, Playboy, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Crescent Review, Missouri Review and ZYZZYVA. Rich earned his MFA from UAA in 1994 when the program was still a traditional “studio” program and has since been teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Since Rich has experience both as a student and a faculty member in the UAA MFA program, he offered some insight into the changes he’s seen in the program:
“The Anchorage campus was at that time very much a commuter school. MFA students tended to be local people working days and studying writing nights. Some really terrific writers came through that program, including our own newest poetry professor, Liz Bradfield. But the new low residency program casts a much wider net, and so I’m seeing more advanced and accomplished students now.
“One of the things that has changed is the increase in the number of students wanting to write novels and genre fiction. In the late 80s and early 90s, it seems that everyone in fiction was a short story writer. And since there were very few markets for short genre fiction, most of us were trying to write more literary, or character-driven stories.
“The biggest difference however, is the way that the low-residency program requires students to be more self-propelled. I was in a writing workshop every Monday night for about eight years (it seems). That means I was always either turning in a story or writing critiques on other students’ stories. That constant week after week, day after day involvement with stories kept me immersed in writing … My production fell right off the minute I was done with those weekly classes. So, the low-residency model would not have been a good one for me at that time in my life. I needed the weekly deadlines. I still do.”
Chiappone worked as a carpenter and wall-covering contractor before he became a writer and teacher, and his approach to both stays true to his blue-collar roots. When asked why he writes, Chiappone said, “Building stories is much the same as building a house. And I like to build things.” He also likens taking a piece of fiction to workshop with taking a car to a mechanic. “I’m not much on ‘process’ so I focus on making the finished product as good as it can be. I consider myself a mechanic of sorts; you drive your story into the workshop (or the mentor exchange) and I look under the hood to see how it’s running.”
When Sherry Simpson, core nonfiction faculty member, was asked what unique attributes Rich Chiappone brings to the MFA program, she said that Rich has “an unruly sense of humor and a fierce commitment to good literature… These two qualities mean he is not afraid to say what he thinks, but it is always in the service of helping a writer improve, not because he is being mean.” This sentiment is echoed by one of Rich’s former mentees, Hunter Whitworth who said, “He doesn’t sugar-coat anything, but he’s always thinking about moving your writing forward toward where you want to be.”
After working with Rich for his first year in the program, student Nick Dighiera said of Chiappone, “At the end of the year, you will feel a greater sense of connection with him than just what the program requires.”
When it was mentioned to Chiappone that his students often feel as though he goes beyond the expected mentor responsibilities, he said, “I’m pleased that my students feel they get their money’s worth, but I tend to hurl myself into everything I do. So, I won’t pretend to be a particularly dedicated teacher. I’m just as excessive when tying trout flies, fishing, cooking--really anything I like doing. It just happens that I really like reading new writers and students of writing.”
Since Rich has experience both as a student and a faculty member in the UAA MFA program, he offered some insight into the changes he’s seen in the program:
“The Anchorage campus was at that time very much a commuter school. MFA students tended to be local people working days and studying writing nights. Some really terrific writers came through that program, including our own newest poetry professor, Liz Bradfield. But the new low residency program casts a much wider net, and so I’m seeing more advanced and accomplished students now.
“One of the things that has changed is the increase in the number of students wanting to write novels and genre fiction. In the late 80s and early 90s, it seems that everyone in fiction was a short story writer. And since there were very few markets for short genre fiction, most of us were trying to write more literary, or character-driven stories.
“The biggest difference however, is the way that the low-residency program requires students to be more self-propelled. I was in a writing workshop every Monday night for about eight years (it seems). That means I was always either turning in a story or writing critiques on other students’ stories. That constant week after week, day after day involvement with stories kept me immersed in writing … My production fell right off the minute I was done with those weekly classes. So, the low-residency model would not have been a good one for me at that time in my life. I needed the weekly deadlines. I still do.”
Chiappone worked as a carpenter and wall-covering contractor before he became a writer and teacher, and his approach to both stays true to his blue-collar roots. When asked why he writes, Chiappone said, “Building stories is much the same as building a house. And I like to build things.” He also likens taking a piece of fiction to workshop with taking a car to a mechanic. “I’m not much on ‘process’ so I focus on making the finished product as good as it can be. I consider myself a mechanic of sorts; you drive your story into the workshop (or the mentor exchange) and I look under the hood to see how it’s running.”
When Sherry Simpson, core nonfiction faculty member, was asked what unique attributes Rich Chiappone brings to the MFA program, she said that Rich has “an unruly sense of humor and a fierce commitment to good literature… These two qualities mean he is not afraid to say what he thinks, but it is always in the service of helping a writer improve, not because he is being mean.” This sentiment is echoed by one of Rich’s former mentees, Hunter Whitworth who said, “He doesn’t sugar-coat anything, but he’s always thinking about moving your writing forward toward where you want to be.”
After working with Rich for his first year in the program, student Nick Dighiera said of Chiappone, “At the end of the year, you will feel a greater sense of connection with him than just what the program requires.”
When it was mentioned to Chiappone that his students often feel as though he goes beyond the expected mentor responsibilities, he said, “I’m pleased that my students feel they get their money’s worth, but I tend to hurl myself into everything I do. So, I won’t pretend to be a particularly dedicated teacher. I’m just as excessive when tying trout flies, fishing, cooking--really anything I like doing. It just happens that I really like reading new writers and students of writing.”
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