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):
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My focus was Prose/Fiction
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To complete the master's I had to turn in a novel as my thesis.
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I volunteered in the anti-racist program in my Creative Writing Department and handled some cases of in-class discrimination issues.
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Some of my peers are boomers and/or libs and I workshopped with them.
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I took courses on teaching Creative Writing, if you want some general advice.
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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.
What was your novel about?
It's about a guy who goes looking for his friend in a world that developed parallel to earth, but with magic.
The main character is gay and black, and a lot of the world is seen through that lens. The other world knows about earth, but not vice versa, so there are bits of exploitation the main character picks up on.
The world's setting has several things not commonly seen or mentioned in other fantasy-esque settings. City planning and public transit show up in the plot (magic trains).
The plot kind of deconstructs sacrifice, selflessness, and agency.
Are you black? If not, what if anything did you do to help do justice to a perspective that you personally don't and can't experience? I've always wondered about that, though I'm not much of a writer myself
I am black, though I have talked with people when including other groups in my writing. I first did reading on my own, so I don't fall into obvious pitfalls. Even then, it's a lot of work to do justice to another's perspective.
There are people who can act as sensitivity readers. They can be friends or writing peers who are willing to help in exchange for helping them or paid professionals. They can take a look at what you're writing or going for and give you feedback. That's one of the cool things about the grad school experience - you get to have people act as sensitivity readers for your work and possibly make lasting friends who can help you. A common courtesy is if you're unsure, to note somewhere that the topic you're writing about is unfamiliar to you and/or that you want help doing justice to the experience. Maybe even put a content warning if you're doing something risky.
Though advice I've given, and still stand by, is that there are just certain stories that should be told by the people who've lived them. I don't necessarily want to read a white person's interpretation of a black person experiencing racism, but if I do, it had better be done flawlessly. In those instances, I ask the author why they want to tell that story. It can't be because it's a fun thing for them to explore.
Did you have trouble getting that book to land with your supervisors?
There's this impression that academic writing is still very much anti-genre (unless written in very specific ways like Margret Atwood's work) and mostly focused on LitFic (which as far as I can tell is two genres, slice of life fiction and pure stunt-writing)
I lucked out in that my advisor is an angel as I've heard horror stories from other schools/faculty, but there was less pressure from advisors to stick to Literary fiction. I will say that I had a lot of pushback from literary writers who couldn't make the effort to read what was written. I got unhelpful advice from them, and some of the professors couldn't give me workable answers. But with luck, I found peers who were into my genre.
If you're interested in pursuing a master's in creative writing, I would suggest researching the faculty on the campus and the classes offered. If they have professors who've written genre stuff or offer classes like speculative fiction, give it a shot. You can also speak to or change an advisor if there are issues like that with your thesis.