Writers decide for themselves how important community will be for them. If you look in the back of nearly any book, though, you find a cohort. Sometimes more than one. Your cohort is the author’s tribe, your allies, the fellow travelers on the road to becoming a writer with a completed book. These people populate a book’s acknowlegements. I had a nice time turning the people of my cohort into a story, different players helping in varied roles.
The word describes one of the biggest benefits of borrowing for and studying through an MFA program. You meet people who become your supporters and quality checkers. Authors swear by their cohorts. There’s nothing like being together in a small college town, climbing the hill of a graduate arts program, to fashion fast friends.
On the other hand, a cohort can start anywhere people trust one another. You find you have something in common. One author I interviewed this week talked about how books are different for writers than for readers. “When you’re the author, your book hates you,” goes the saying. (Nod along if you’re ever felt that way amid book revisions. The love comes later when the struggle is over.)
A great book shows us what an MFA amounts to. Gabriella Pereira has a DIY MFA book that’s very hands-on and prescriptive. She calls the cohort a community. You do three things to MFA-up your passions
Write with Focus
Read with Purpose
Build your community
“Whether you hope to publish your novel, or you want to see your story grace the pages of a literary magazine, or you plan to self-publish your work — whatever your goal, you need to build a community. This means assembling a network of writing colleagues, finding those ideal readers for your work, and learning how to navigate the business side of writing.
CB Bernard, the author I interviewed on the Austin Liti Limits show, said his MFA journey was deferred, and by him. He got a postcard from John Cheever, novelist giant of the last century, advising Bernard to skip the MFA. Just live life, and write, said Cheever.
Of course, Cheever came out of an Ivy League school and then went to work at the New Yorker, so there’s that. Most important to any writing program, schooled or otherwise, is granting permission and making time to write. The MFA schooling should do that. A Pulitzer winner like Michael Chabon says you’ll do better to be in an MFA program that is known for giving students the time to write.
How do you get a cohort without moving to a college town for your MFA? Pereira says that friendships with people who know books and love writing them is the best way, whether they’re on a college campus or not.
On Monday and Tuesdays we have cohorts on Zoom. Send me an email and I’ll pass along the Zoom room address. We meet at 12:30 Central for an hour, or a little more if we get nice and chatty. Mondays it’s a way to get advice or try out some new writing. On Tuesdays we create the writing, live and working together, in 15-minute bursts. Please join us to meet someone who could take a role in your acknowlegments. Your only investment is your time.
