City College of New York MFA in Creative Writing

Reviewer's Name:

G.D. Peters

Review Date

June 23, 2009

Year of Graduation:

2009

Review Title:

A Supportive Environment

Full Review of the Program:

I came to City College as the result of a phone call. I had closed a business to pursue my writing full-time, and was calling to ask how open the program might be to someone who had been some years removed from the academic environment. To be honest, I wondered whether I might be out of place in a college classroom. I will never forget the response that I received, a sincere voice expressing whole-hearted encouragement. I was told that the program was tailored to working people, with late afternoon and early evening classes, and that part-time enrollment was encouraged. My spirits uplifted, I quickly completed and submitted my application. The woman I had spoken to was Prof. Linsey Abrams, the director of the program, and I had no way of knowing that she was to become, along with several other of the City College faculty, a great influence on me, both as a reader and a writer. At the time, that wasn’t the point. The point was the feeling of welcome I had received from the other end of a telephone. A supportive and encouraging atmosphere, vital to any learning environment but critical in the fragile arena of the writing workshop, is perhaps the signature characteristic of the MFA Program at City College. There is a level of respect and consideration that saturates the program, and when you are a writer wrestling, sometimes uncertainly, with the rigors of your craft, the benefit of this kind of environment cannot be overstated.