Seattle Pacific University MFA | Creative Writing

Welcome to the SPU MFA Blog!

This site grows out of the dynamic low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program based at Seattle Pacific University. At the heart of this blog will be creative writing by the talented authors emerging from our program. Continue Reading …

Blessing and Responsibility

By Allison Backous

I’m not exactly sure what made me think that, this time, the pain wasn’t normal. Maybe it was the fact that the pain reminded me of the appendicitis I had five years ago. Continue Reading …

To Remember What I Forgot

By Kelly Foster

When I moved to Boston, I moved into a house with six musicians and two visual artists. My friend Chad had a lathe in the basement and a small sculptor’s studio. My friend Kate kept the top floor filled with sketches. Continue Reading …

Impacting the World for the Better: Danielle Jones

One of the things I enjoyed most about the SPU program was studying with and under like-minded people. The students and faculty at SPU care about struggling with and answering–however provisionally–the big questions. Continue Reading …

Photos from Whidbey Island!

The MFA students and faculty recently met together for their annual winter residency on Whidbey Island in Washington. Here are a few of our favorite moments! Continue Reading …

Telling Secrets

By Vic Sizemore

In the February issue of The Writer’s Chronicle, Alice Mattison states flatly: “Telling the truth is wrong, if somebody wants to keep it secret.” Angering family and friends, or hurting someone’s feelings, is a perennial fear of most of the writers I know. Continue Reading …

Clean House, Hold Steady

By Allison Backous

“This is a sport, and you’ve got to practice it to get good at it,” she said, tightening the lock on a clamp. “Now Allison, I’m going to show you how to belay. You’ll be responsible for helping Jeremy if he falls.” Continue Reading …

Reckoning the Marvelous

By Kelly Foster

I wouldn’t call myself a pessimist, but I often focus on and assume the worst possible outcomes in life, because I think that keeps me aware and safe. Of course, it doesn’t keep me either safe or particularly aware… Continue Reading …

Tree of Life, Tree of Light

By Vic Sizemore

Swirling eruptions on earth eventually lead to the formation of life. Organisms spring up, develop, evolve. Eventually creatures appear. Dinosaurs. They struggle. They kill. They eat. Continue Reading …

“Coming Home to a Place He’d Never Been”: Daniel Bowman Jr.

In “Rocky Mountain High,” John Denver describes first seeing the mountains of Colorado as “coming home to a place he’d never been before.” My experience in the SPU MFA program was like that. Continue Reading …

Snow on Snow

By MFA Faculty Mentor Robert Clark

There is a great clock-work above you in heaven, geared and laboring, and it will spin all night until there is nothing but snow. It will do the work. You may rest. Continue Reading …