#benningtonmfa

[thisliterarylife]

“Those first days before classes started I spent alone in my whitewashed room, in the bright meadows of Hampden. And I was happy in those first days as really I’d never been before, roaming like a sleepwalker, stunned and drunk with beauty.” — donna tartt, the secret history #explorevermont #vermonting #vermontshots #vermontfall #september #septembervibes #benningtonmfa #benningtonwritingseminars #bennington #donnatartt #tsh #thesecrethistory #darkacademia #darkacademiaaesthetic #fallvibes #autumn #autumnaesthetic #newenglandliving #newenglandfall #cottagecore #cottagecoreaesthetic #writerslife #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity (at Bennington College) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cic6n3Ory-o/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[msarvas]

Between the woodpiles. #BenningtonMFA (at Bennington College)

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Sunday reminder of what really matters, and a writing prompt: Describe who drives this car? #loveyourself #amwriting #mfa #benningtonmfa (at Park Slope Historic District)

[onewildlife]

One Down, Three To Go

Last night I handed in my last packet for my first term of graduate school. In the past five months, I have read 24 books - most of them monster classics. Some I loved, some I…did not love. I have also written eight annotations, five creative nonfiction essays about whatever I felt like (roughly 115 pages of prose in total), and one ten-page term paper.

I played around with scheduling. Tried to crash and burn through weekends. Tried to write at night (fail). Learned the only way to do this thing is to get up at 5 am or so and write before work. I have received mountains of criticism, the kind that makes you want to shrivel up and die inside. But, towards the end there was some encouragement. It felt like oxygen.

There is the sensation that this entire first term was a huge dress rehearsal, a ramping up. It was filled with the sense of just figuring this thing out. And now that it's over, I feel ready to actually begin.

In ten days, I go back up to Bennington to residency number two. I imagine my class will look and feel the same as me - a little less bright, less shiny, more war-torn and haggard. But perhaps still in love with it. And maybe that means, ready to get down to the fucking work. 

Not until you've tried to do something is it possible to really respect how hard it is, I am finding. Writing well is hard. I want to be better at it. That's it; I have no ambitions other than that. I just want to be better, to be maybe someday "good" at this thing that I love.

The love, so far, is enough to pull me through. Even though I have hit moments of exhaustion so deep I could weep about it.

But as hard as this is, I'm choosing it. And it was harder to live a life without it, somehow. So no complaining. Just get to fucking work.  

[thisliterarylife]

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.” — shirley jackson, the haunting of hill house #thehauntingofhillhouse #bennington #benningtonwritingseminars #benningtonmfa #benningtoncollege #shirleyjackson #bookquotes #darkacademia #darkacademiaaesthetic #darkacademiavibes #explorevt #explorevermont #newenglandliving #yankeemagazine #bookworm #haunted #hauntedhouse #spookyseason (at Bennington College) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cifr5eHAmwc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[msarvas]

Doghouse nights at #BenningtonMFA (at Bennington College)

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Snapshot Recap, Day Nine. . . . #bennington #benningtoncollege #benningtonwritingseminars #benningtonmfa #juneresidency #brendashaughnessy #doghouseband #jameswood #davidgates #jillmccorkle #aprilbernard (at Bennington College)

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Snapshot Recap, Day Six. . . . #benningtoncollege #benningtonwritingseminars #benningtonmfa #juneresidency #darknight #robertfroststonehousemuseum #robertfrosttrail #exploringbennington #aprilbernard (at Bennington College)

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Snapshot Recap, Day Five (continued)... . . . #studentreadings #afterparty #benningtoncollege #benningtonwritingseminars #benningtonmfa #juneresidency (at Bennington College)

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Snapshot Recap, Day Three. ... #benningtoncollege #benningtonwritingseminars #benningtonmfa #lowresidencymfa #juneresidency #jenniferchang #brianblanchfield #jillmccorkle #susancheever (at Bennington College)

[benningtonwritingseminars]

#Repost @clairefmcmillan (@get_repost) ・・・ After spending a summer launching The Necklace (and still going- West Coast I'm coming for you in Nov)- I needed a way to get back into work, the rhythm, the pacing, the thought. My former and revered prof from @benningtonwritingseminars Alice Mattison has a new book on writing out - The Kite and the String. She's said her intended audience is mid-career writers but anyone who writes (or reads) will find it worthy. Every page is underlined, marked, scored and dog-eared. #amwriting #amreading #writersofinstagram #bookstagram #beginnings #benningtonmfa #benningtoncollege

[benningtonwritingseminars]

Get a sense of what @benningtonwritingseminars is about with this D-brief from our June residency, and then apply by Sept. 1 (link in bio) #benningtonmfa @the_grand_ether @sanarei @_morganjerkins @safiyasinclair (at Bennington College)

[msarvas]

Last day campus constitutional, post-rain. #BenningtonMFA (at Bennington College)

[msarvas]

My last coffee at the end of the world. This handheld espresso maker is probably the single best purchase of my adult life. #BenningtonMFA (at Bennington College)

[msarvas]

Halfway through the #BenningtonMFA residency, a much needed grown up night away from the dorms. #darkknight (at Four Chimneys Inn)

[msarvas]

The only word for Amy Gerstler is "spectacular." Her talk on the elegy is a residency highlight. #BenningtonMFA (at Bennington College)