10 Days and a Pair of Gold Pants
An under caffeinated, highly boozy account of a my 10-day MFA residency at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. PLUS: online event tomorrow 6/25/2025!
Friends, I have a whirlwind, photo-heavy post for you. I got into Logan Airport last Thursday at 11pm and since then it’s been utter chaos trying to get the household in order after being away for well over a week in Houston for my MFA summer residency. It was an incredible experience, but first, I must make an apology to my friend and fellow MFA candidate, Kiernan O’Connor. We saw each other at UST, and he asked if I could get the word out about this Catholic Literary Arts panel he’s on.
It’s called "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗗𝗼 𝗪𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝘁? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗗𝗼 𝗪𝗲 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗜𝘁?" and it is taking place over Zoom on the evening of Wednesday, June 25th at 7pm CST/8pm EST.
If you are reading this on the day I am publishing this post that would be tomorrow night! Doh! I know some of my readers would be interested in this event, and I am hoping enough of you see it in time. Mea culpa, mea culpa, Kiernan!
Here is photographic evidence that we really did see each other at Link Lee Mansion, which is where many of our residency dinners were held.
The virtual panel he’s on will bring together writers, poets, theologians, and visual artists to explore how Catholic imagination intersects with the creative arts. For more information please check out this link. The panel will be moderated by Sarah Cortez, Executive Director of CLA, Fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, and accomplished poet and author. Sarah is also my fellow classmate at UST and close friend from before I joined the MFA.
Residency Notes
Our intrepid leader,
, co-founder of the MFA program at the University of St. Thomas, was extremely busy, running around with cell phone in hand organizing both the residency and the 3-day Summer Writers Institute. Our workshops were led by the generous and erudite poet/translator/editor Ryan Wilson. In all we had about fifteen poets running around from lecture hall to workshop and back again.
I had big fun despite the fact that coffee was only served during a narrow 30 minute window in the morning. Our days often stretched well into the evening with cocktail hours often lasting until 11pm. Let’s make it this more explicit.
Caffeine availability — 9-9:30am (30 minutes)
Alcohol availability — 5:30-11pm (5 hours 30 minutes)
Welcome to summer residency! Not that I am complaining about the booze. All I’m saying is that I think we can at least make some more coffee or sodas available at 2pm before we head into our workshops to keep us alert.
Gold Jeans and Graduate Readings
Prior to the start of residency, the graduate candidates were given the opportunity to sign up to read their work during dinner. James Matthew Wilson had me down as the first poet reader for residency, which allowed me to serve as the warm up act for Jada Zenella.
Jada is a poet from Louisiana, former stand up comic, and lovely human being. Despite her sweet and gentle nature, she has written an alarming number of serial killer poems! I am glad I didn’t follow such a tough act.
I had five poems which I had recited from memory, one of which was a concrete poem called “Airplane” which I realized I could fold into an actual airplane and fly into the audience. The plane flight was didn’t go as planned as you will see in this video kindly taken by
.1 However, it fell to the feet of the lovely who seems happy to have received it.And here’s a picture of me and Karen Summers-Murray. We were the two inaugural graduate student readers for our respective genres: poetry and fiction. Karen is fabulous. When she has a novel out, you must read it.
Speaking of fiction…
Pinoy Pride on the Fiction Side
One of the great joys was finding out that there seems to be a high concentration of Filipinos in the UST MFA program. They just happen to be writing fiction and not poetry! And yes, I have threatened to defect.
New Verse and Versecraft
There is so much I could highlight about my time at residency.
kicked off the evening lecture series, and he was followed on other evenings by journalist Ken Woodward, philosopher David O’Connor, and novelists , , and . However, my favorite nights were when the speakers were my close friends: and . And it was an extra treat to have Steve for a few more days since he was attending the Summer Writers Institute as well.
On Saturday night of the residency,
introduced and who had put together the University of St. Thomas mini-edition of .
You may notice that Steve and I are bookending the crew with our exclusive, hot-off-the-presses New Verse Review t-shirts. They pair nicely with gold pants!2
On Monday Elijah came to speak to my program in the morning for our graduate seminar. In the evening he returned for a live recording of his Versecraft podcast. His lovely fiancée and parents also came to support him in the crowd, and it was an unexpected joy to meet them.
I also had the opportunity to watch Elijah interview Ryan for another special episode of Versecraft.
, with whom I was staying, opened her home to provide a quiet venue for this conversation to take place.
A Last Night of Conviviality
This was my first residency, and I heard that the last day can be emotional. Tamara graciously let the poets convene at her place for a final evening together.
I think this picture of Ryan Wilson captures how I feel about my time in Houston.
Forgive the outrageous number of photos, but I am big on documenting everything. It’s a bit of psychological knot I still have yet to untangle.
If you are interested in learning more about this low-residency3 MFA program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have. It’s been a great, soul-flourishing experience. I’ve learned so much, and I know others could benefits from this style of education that concentrates in strict metrical versification and a cosmic worldview.
I would love to hear from you!
Have you attended an MFA program? What was it like? Was it high residency or low residency?
If you have gone to a literary residency, how would you characterize your experience? What did you enjoy about it? What did you find challenging? Most important: Did they serve you enough coffee?
ALSO: What did you think of the Moana dress and the gold pants?
😂
What a blessing to get to know
whom I had never met prior to residency. We had not yet had classes with each other, and our only interaction seems to have been on Substack. But here we are!There is also an option for no residency for those whom travel would be extremely difficult. Instead of doing two 10-day residencies the candidate would take two electives instead. There is also the option to do one residency and one elective for credit.
What a lovely diary!! As one of the happy few, the band of poets, it was a joy to be there. Thanks for sharing the word about the St. Thomas Houston MFA — the program continues to be a remarkable font of blessings in my life. Oh, yeah, and my poetry has gotten so much better too!
I'm crying at all I missed!!!!