MFA Writers

katie wills evans is a second-year MFA candidate in fiction at the University of New Orleans who considers herself a poet and teacher above all else, having spent the last fourteen years working with teenagers in New Orleans public schools. Their short story "Something for the Children" was a finalist in Writer's Digest's 2024 Short Short Story contest, their poem "meth addicted fish" was a finalist in the Connecticut Poetry Society's Experimental Poetry Contest, and they have essays and interviews published in The Progressive, EdSurge, and Variable West Magazine. 

In this episode, Jared and katie talk about choosing an MFA program not only for the writing, but for the place where you’ll be living and creating. They discuss what makes New Orleans such a remarkable home for writers and artists, and how the city’s distinct history, culture, music, and traditions find their way into the creative life. 

They also talk about balancing teaching and writing, the intensity of working as a TA in graduate school, and why writing across genres can make us stronger writers. They get into how workshop can make us better teachers and citizens, what writing pedagogy looks like in the age of AI, and how the LSU New Orleans Writers’ at Work program gives students a look at the professional side of the writing industry.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack, Hanamori Skoblow and Brié Goumaz. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at ⁠MFAwriters.com⁠.

BE PART OF THE SHOW
— Donate to the show at ⁠Buy Me a Coffee⁠.
— Leave a rating and review on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠.
— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out ⁠our application⁠.

STAY CONNECTED
Instagram: ⁠@MFAwriterspodcast⁠
Facebook: ⁠MFA Writers⁠
Email: ⁠mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

In our Season 7 premiere, Jemimah Wei talks about her debut novel, The Original Daughter, and how growing up in Singapore shaped the way she thinks about storytelling, identity, and our relationship with technology. She and Jared also explore what Singapore can teach us about the rapidly changing world of AI, the ways technology is training us to move faster than we were meant to, and how reading and writing can alter our experience of time. Their conversation asks what it means to resist the pressure to rush, why speed should never be the goal for its own sake, and how stories can help us hold onto what makes us human.
Jemimah was born and raised in Singapore and splits her time between Singapore and the United States. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, winner of the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize, and formerly held the Wallace Stegner Fellowship and Felipe P. De Alba Fellowship at Stanford University and Columbia University respectively. Her highly anticipated debut novel, The Original Daughter, debuted at #1 on The Straits Times bestseller list, is a Good Morning America Book Club pick, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. The Original Daughter won the Country Award for the Chōmmanard International Women’s Literary Award, was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, and was named a Best Book of Spring by TIME, Foreign Policy, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Vogue, and more.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack, Hanamori Skoblow and Brié Goumaz. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
— Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
— Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
— Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
— Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

On this episode, Jonny Teklit sits down with Jared to talk about crafting odes to small, granular subjects, sharing his personal productivity tips and the common writing advice that doesn’t work for him. Plus, Jonny discusses the pros and cons of UW-Madison’s rotating genre admissions policy and reflects on how Lynda Barry’s comics class changed his perspective on creative talent, revision, and experimentation.
Jonny Teklit is an award-winning poet whose work has appeared in The Academy of American Poets, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. He is currently a second-year MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is working on his debut collection. He has an animal fact for any occasion. Find him at his website jonnyteklit.com, on IG @jonnyteklit, and on Twitter @jonnysaysOMG.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack, Hanamori Skoblow, and Brié Goumaz. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

15 years after her MFA, and 4 years after scrapping a book that just wasn’t working, Meghan Perry’s debut novel WATER FINDS A WAY is receiving strong positive reviews, including a coveted Kirkus star. She joins Jared to talk about the realities of post-grad writing, going “scorched earth” on revision, and the process of turning short stories into a full-length novel. Plus, she talks about grounding her work in a remote Maine fishing village, overlooked American cultures, and the hardships—and community—her characters face.
Meghan Perry graduated with an MFA from Emerson College in 2009 and currently directs the Writing Center at St. John's Preparatory School in the Boston area. She has published stories in Cold Mountain Review, Sycamore Review, The Fourth River, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, WATER FINDS A WAY, was published in November 2024 by Delphinium Books with an audiobook by Penguin Random House. The novel has received a Kirkus star and been featured in Newsday and Condé Nast as one of the top books of this fall. Find her at meghanperry.com.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack, Hanamori Skoblow, and Brié Goumaz. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com

Poets are known for considering form in their writing, but form is also critical in fiction. In fact, for Tyler R. Moore, form tells us the most about the story. “It’s the structure, scaffolding, bones, and architecture.” In this episode, Tyler tells Jared about approaching each story with a different structure, including his recent piece told exclusively through voicemails. Plus, Tyler discusses how being a queer writer from a pseudo-rural Midwestern town shapes his work, finding community across genres and faculty in his MFA program, and what he has learned from his editorial experience at Ninth Letter, like the do’s and don’ts (mostly don’ts) of a cover letter.
Tyler R. Moore is a fiction writer from Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin and is currently in his second year in the MFA program at the University of Illinois. He is the winner of the Hobart L. and Mary K. Peer Fiction Prize. He also holds the titles of current Associate Managing Editor and Associate Creative Non-fiction Editor for Ninth Letter. His work is published or forthcoming in Michigan Quarterly Review and elsewhere. Find him on Instagram @tyler_rmoore and at his website, tylerrmoore.com.
MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack, Hanamori Skoblow, and Brié Goumaz. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.
BE PART OF THE SHOW
Donate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.
Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
Submit an episode request. If there’s a program you’d like to learn more about, contact us and we’ll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.
Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.
STAY CONNECTED
Twitter: @MFAwriterspod
Instagram: @MFAwriterspodcast
Facebook: MFA Writers
Email: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com