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On the first day of my MFA program in writing for children, which alternates between concentrated residency experiences and distance education, I was told that a residency is the best, albeit most exhausting, experience a writer can have—and that after ten intense days of seminars, workshops, critiques, and activities, I'd leave tired and exhilarated, impatient to write. But observing the other students in the program—mostly middle-aged, white, married-with-kids soccer moms with whom I thought I had nothing in common—I was not quite ready to drink the Kool-Aid. In fact, on that first day of my first residency, I was pretty sure I'd made a big mistake.
My attitude—at best, snotty; at worst, bigoted—didn't originate in a vacuum. I had been an acquiring editor for young adult books for about five years. In fact, I'd started a line of books, and the hard work it took to market and brand my line included many a foray into writer's conferences, seminars, workshops, and critique sessions for hungry authors hoping for a piece of the publishing pie. Walking into that first residency, I felt I was revisiting old territory. And I didn't like it.
Megan Atwood recently received her MFA in writing for children and young adults through Hamline University. She has been an editor and writer for over ten years, founding the young adult imprint Flux and creating the Young Adult Literature Journal. She can be reached at yaljeditor@gmail.com.
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