This Strange, Quiet, Major Accomplishment: MFA in Creative Writing

Zoe Grisez, Jeff Curry, Mindy Elizabeth, Ryan Charaba, Ben Colwell, Meg Vlaun, Eric Baus, Andrea Rexilius

29 July 2025

Three days ago, on Saturday, 26 July 2025, I graduated from Regis University’s Mile-High MFA program. It was a beautiful day spent with some of my favorite people on this spinning sphere, and it is such a strange, quiet accomplishment to celebrate.

Over the past two years in this program, I’ve spent innumerable hours in a contented sort of solitary confinement. I calculate that I spent hundreds of those hours reading and thousands of hours writing. I’ve attended over 100 hours of workshops. I’ve written annotations for dozens of works, including craft books, novels, novellas, essays, and even graphic novels. I’ve written a 97k-word novel, a 22-page Critical Preface, and a six-page Writing in the World Action Plan.

And yet, oddly, nobody really sees any of this work as it evolves. They see only the product, if that product makes it into the world (thankfully, a few of mine have already, and hopefully, more will too).

Before I began this MFA journey, a mentor told me that you do not pursue an MFA for the sake of employment opportunities; those three letters themselves will not land you a new job. Instead, this mentor likened the MFA experience to an apprenticeship, saying that you must do it “because you love it and want to improve your craft.” I can tell you today, that is precisely correct. Unlike a PhD, where the study is academic and analytical in nature, and MFA weaves academic/analytical study with exercise, practice, and execution. But what it did most for me was provide an opportunity for play. In academia at the master’s level, my writing was often rigid, structured, and followed the expectations of the industry. Within the flexible, sometimes porous boundaries of this MFA program, I learned when, how, and why to break such rules, which led me back to a childlike love of writing-as-creation, to unbound exploration and play.

As such, this mostly invisible accomplishment has, over the past two years, felt less like work and more like coming back home to the person I was always meant to be. Quietly but steadily.

To those who participated in this process with me—those who funded, guided, supported—thank you. Brian, Keira, Grant, and Lexi you are my home, and I love you; thank you for your patience and flexibility during this process. To the Regis University Mile-High MFA cohort, Andrea Rexilius, Eric Baus, J’Lyn Chapman, Rachel Weaver, and Jenny Shank, thank you all for your guidance and undivided attention as you read my work over these years as semester mentors and workshop guides. To my graduating class, Ryan, Ben, Jeff, Mindy, and Zoe, thank you for your friendship and feedback over the years. I hope to spend many more hours reading your work in the future. To Roger Martin and the Lois B. Hayna Scholarship Award program, thank you for your support and funding. Thank you to my close friends, Marvella, Bobby, and Cole, who attended my Thesis Defense virtually and to Melody, who came out to campus to attend the graduation. It was so great to see you all there. Finally, to all my friends and family who have supported me and my writing over the years and told me to keep going, thank you so much!

This is just the beginning. I can’t wait to discover what’s yet to come.

~Meg