Personal reflections on the Winter 2025 Residency of the University of King's College Master's of Fine Arts Creative Non Fiction program.
Personal reflections on the Autumn 2024 Semester of the University of King's College Master's of Fine Arts Creative Non Fiction program.
It’s time you knew…
I am not just sitting through classes about writing… I am also writing a book of essays.
I can’t tell you the working title of this book (although if you pay attention, you may pick up on some of it).
I can’t tell you everything that will be included, but rest assured, if it made a mark on my life, odds are higher it will find its way in.
I can’t promise I won’t discuss the irony, the political, the upside-down religiosity of evangelicals, and the consistently overbearing patriarchy that has laced itself around me and so many of us like a corset.
Forcing our breath to become shallow,
our voices weak…and oh-
That’s how they keep us swooning like Victorian damsels ?!?!?!!!
I can’t promise a lot of things, but I can promise you that it will be a deeply provocative, if not also witty, read on the death-by-a-thousand-cuts moments women and other like-minded persons face in the world and the cultures that raise them.
I can promise that it will be a personal deep dive that sheds light on the importance and awareness of individuality, mental health and the quiet damage of an evangelical upbringing.
Onwards,
Amy Grace
An Accidental Feminist
Personal reflections on the Summer 2024 Residency of the University of King's College Master's of Fine Arts Creative Non Fiction program.
I spent the better of two decades telling myself University was not for someone like me.
I thought finances, intellect, individuality, and worthiness were beyond my means.
Was this because of my conservative upbringing, where women were often pigeonholed as the caregivers of their families while the men worked? Was this because of the teachers who saw my marks and considered me a lost cause? Or was this a lie of my own making?
The unwinding of these self-restrictive thoughts continues, but their hold on me does not.
Sitting in the lecture hall of the Unversity of Kings College on the first day of my master’s education earlier this year, I was struck by how, rather than standing out as an odd duck, I was simply normal.
A storyteller and producer who knew and had honed her craft and was ready to refine it to it’s next level.
“Storytelling is your power and home here.” Gillian Turnbull - Director of Writing and Publishing, University of Kings College
Back to school is not just an ‘era’; it is coming home to the side of myself that I had believed I needed to hide. The side that intuitively knows the heartbeat and cadence of the scene, can break down story and character development without blinking and is more knowledgeable about the craft of the story than she lets on. The side that spins words to find healing and wholeness, the side that digs deeper into the personal to dig deeper in the relational. The side that knows that the craft of writing is a craft that can build bridges as quickly as it can burn them.
To the side of myself I had let collect dust and believed was put to bed for good, I say welcome home.
You belong here.
Sitting in Alumni Hall, taking notes from brilliant local and national minds, swapping thoughts and texts with fellow writers and students, clicking laptop keys and hastily scratching pens…Residency was everything I could have wanted and then some.
We don’t often consider the true value of an academic journey when we are inside it as a young person. We are too busy striving to succeed and get to whatever we believe that-next-something needs to be.
I am reminding myself to stay in the moment I am in.
Soaking it all in.
One word and one sentence at a time.
Highlights / Notations to remember
The chocolate tin was a great idea. (stay stocked up for motivation through the late afternoon lectures.)
Keep documenting the little funny things in your path. (The poetic epitaphs carved into desks, the random condom in the back of a lecture hall, and the way your fitness watch alerted you to breathe deeply when you got nervous before pitching to a director)
On the ‘day off,’ block off a full morning, afternoon, or evening to rest. (a two-hour nap is not enough recharge time.)
Plan to skip something small on day seven. Don’t feel guilty; your nervous system needs a reset by this time.
Pre-schedule / book a hot yoga session for your first day back to normal living. (You’ll feel good just knowing it’s coming)
Keep up those morning walks, no matter how early you have to wake up for them. (Truly, they kept you sane!)
Stay aware and open to the students around you. (reach out to the person overwhelmed in the corner, listen to the project concept of the other writers, ask how others are doing, share insight and ideas where helpful and stay open to what you may not understand.)
And document the normal things. (Capture that rainbow on the first evening, the way the rain splattered at your feet, the debrief voice memos with your friends, the lectures, the way your desk looked, and the way the sun lit up the campus.)
Do as much as you can. Enjoy the whole process. You’ll only be doing this MFA once.
Enjoy every single damn second.
Although I knew the summer semester began at the top of May with incoming assignments, essays, lectures, readings, responses, etc. I wasn’t sure how soon they would kick in before the June residency. Turns out, it started right away.
As I have adjusted to tackling deadlines, readings, lectures, etc., I have identified some things I plan to take with me on my MFA journey.
Changes I am making:
Time Blocking
Rather than freaking out about the reading list, assignments, word count goals and meetings coming in fast, I am taking a day or two to process new information and then carefully break it down into reasonable chunks to tackle each week.
This doesn’t mean I am not already neck-deep in work, but it does mean I can tread water and still see the horizon ahead.
Within blocking out the time to tackle each new chunk, I am also prioritizing my mind, body and soul.
Prioritizing Mind, Body & Soul
Meals, exercise, alcohol-free weekdays, sleep, quality time with my daughter and partner, meditation, therapy, unplugged moments to exhale, etc., are all being prioritized in advance to protect not only my ability to output work and study but also to honour the open journey I need to protect and maintain.
End Each Semester with an Exhale moment.
Spending a few sessions at a Nordic-inspired spa recently was intensely rejuvenating. From that experience, I identified that I would like to build into each semester's end a session at a hydrothermal spa to celebrate the work done and to empty the mind, body, and soul to prepare myself for another new semester ahead.
* These next twenty-four months have much in store for me, and I cannot imagine how life will have shifted, changed, and evolved by May 2026, when I approach graduation day.
What I do know for sure is that I want to have said that I sunk into every aspect of this journey and left nothing on the table.
****This is my dedication to my practice, my craft and the beloved act of braving the wilderness of one word at a time.
They arrived!
Not all, but many books from the required and suggested reading lists for my master's program have arrived.
It’s time to get down to business!
My Goal:
To read every book suggested, mentioned or referred to in passing within my master’s journey.
Why?
When else will I have this excuse to trip over myself reading book after book?
How?
I will prioritize the required reading books and follow them with whatever seems more pressing. I aim to highlight and take notes as I go (which I am apt to do with books I own / study) and input those highlighted quotes/sections into a chart for reference.
When a quote or passage deems itself a lifeline, I will write it down to keep it in a visible space in my office to be reminded of.
If you need me, I’ll be reading.
In the late spring of 2023,
I began to stumble upon the growing desire to dig deeper into my craft of documenting and writing. As with anything, there is a point where you realize you can continue as you have been or dig in deeper and search for a type of growth that will genuinely grow and challenge you.
With the encouragement of a handful of close and trusted colleagues, friends and family, I began asking what it might take for someone like me to seek a place in a master's program. I expected the doors to be firmly closed and locked in place. Yet, it was in this process that I discovered something else.
I discovered that the more I asked questions, the more doors opened. The more I tip-toed near the edge of possibility, the more the call from the unknown beckoned me to jump.
So jump I did. I spent the summer and early autumn preparing and finishing my application for this master's program. It was a labour of love over the project I am going forward with and, most importantly, a labour of love for myself.
I am worthy of a higher education, worthy of taking myself seriously, and most certainly deserving within my craft.