Yesterday I was graced in the mail with a copy of my MFA thesis. Two years of my life went into this collection. It was bound and printed, forever to be in the library of my Alma Mater and online for free access via Proquest. Link here for those who want to read! Please DO!
An MFA thesis is a lot different compared to your regular MA thesis and dissertations. There is a lot less research (thank god) and technical writing, and a lot more of your own creative writing (no duh, Daniel!). It’s basically a collection of the short stories (or some may chose to do a novella or chapters of a novel) that must have been written during your tenure in the grad program. It must be all new writing, put through rigorous workshops with distinguished professors and peers, with a methodology in the front of it all to describe your writing process as best you can.
For those who don’t know, I earned my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Fiction, from California State University of Long Beach (GO BEACH!). CSULB is known for its creative writing programs, and their MFA program is one of the best in the nation, with an amazingly supportive faculty and staff, and a talented and flourishing community of writers. I’m proud to call the writers I met during my time there, my friends and well-respected contemporaries.
This sucker is comprised of 100 pages of short stories, and 30 or so more pages of me babbling on about my process of creating fiction, my inspirations, and my goals for my writing. I put a lot of blood (not really), sweat (typing is a workout), and tears (grad school will do that to you) into these stories. A lot of them resonate with me because they are reflections of some of the experiences I or others I know of have encountered, have gone through. As a writer, we observe the world around us, and try to make sense of it. And when it does’t make sense, we still try to write a narrative to better understand that which we can’t. It’s almost like a cycle, as best as I can describe it. One of observing, discovering, coming into terms with whatever we encounter as best we can, then self-reflection. Sometimes we learn something new, sometimes we’re just as puzzled. And those often make the best stories.
The collection is titled Canelita & Other Flavors. The abstract is as follows:
When I started my thesis, I knew I wanted it to be a reflection of not just me, but of my community. Specifically the Latino community of North Orange County. Where I was born and raised in. (Big ups to the hoods like Anaheim, Fullerton, and Buena Park.) Although hardly talked about due to media representation in shows like The OC or Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County (sike!) there is a large Latino population here that goes often overlooked. It was the Latinos that created Orange County, the very ones who harvested the groves throughout the county and cultivated the land and culture I am proud to be a part of. (Here is a great dissertations with a lot of research of the marginalized Latinos in OC throughout its history here.)
Writing is not about knowing everything about your characters or how they will is act. It is reactive. When a character that has been “living” in your head for some time, the words you push down on your word processor feels as if it’s always been there. This made up person is steering you into creating their characterization, you’re just in between it all. For example, you write the dialogue between two characters and it’s like a tennis match, back-and-forth, but you already know where its going before you type it. You already know them. You know who they are. They’re a part of you. But not really you. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
A lot of this collection was me exercising that. Finding these characters, and creating narratives with them. Exploring their world, one that is similar to mine. You get a vague sense of a character that interests you and they start to grow and develop into so much more as they explore within the world you created for them. You put them through the wringer, give them high hopes, heartbreaks, laughs, and a satisfying ending (hopefully its a happy one, but most of the time they aren’t). And the true fun comes when you figure out and witness how they navigate and grow in the fictional universe you created inside your head.
The Introduction of Canelita & Other Flavors goes more into depth behind the “why” and “how” of each and every one of my short stories within the collection. If you want to know more, please read it! And if you want to read some of my prose, PLEASE READ! It’s online for free! Yes, FREE!
So please click on this link, and please subscribe to my Substack for more posts about updates on my writing & publishing, my thoughts on writing, and whatever my current muse is. Hope y’all have a good one and thanks for the support!
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
For those looking to be a part of a community that welcomes all writers, from the most seasoned vets to those reluctant to dip a toe in, Long Beach has an awesome lit/poetry scene that is more than welcoming of all people. Some awesome writers to look out for are a few friends I’ll happily plug in here:
My good friend Max Lemuz who was in the program with me, and I feel helped me become a stronger writer, has some good stuff published, which you can click on via his website. Max is a professor at CSULB, a darn good writer, and a better friend. I know I said he made my writing better, but i like to also think I made his writing better, too. Just messing Max, if you’re reading this. But if not, then it’s totally true.
Another good friend is Lina Abscal, who was also in the program with me, and has got work in journalism, ads, and zines. Each unique but still her complete original voice. Her energy made every workshop fun and constructive, so it only makes sense that she is the founder and curator of the Los Angeles based Junior High Book Club, where book selections are written by women, people of color, queer writers, and other marginalized voices in the literary community. If you need to up your reading game and in need of a community of people who look like you and can relate to, this is your book club. Lina is also a professor at CSULB. GO BEACH!
Jessi Jarrin is a CSULB alumna with poetry appearing in the Santa Clara Review, ¡Pa'lante!, PSPoets, MadWomxn Magazine, Rice and Spice, and Prometheus Dreaming. She’s the founder of Grieving is Good for You, a virtual poetry workshop centered on the importance of expressing one’s joy and grief. I took one of her horror poetry workshops earlier this year and had a blast stepping out of my comfort zone and experimenting with a group of fine writers and her as the instructor. She’s also the Co-founder of Art of Nothing Press.
The other Co-founder is another fellow friend and writer, Victoria Hurtado-Angulo. She puts up live poetry readings on her instagram that are a true inspiration. The poetry on her instagram page is marvelous and fun to read, and she is always coordinating an Open-Mic night somewhere, So be on the lookout of her posts for when and where those will be! Nothing brings writers together like a live reading. I’ll tell you what.