We did it, gang: year one of my MFA program at Manhattanville is officially complete! Let’s get into thoughts, feelings, and what’s coming next:

The picture above is Barat House on campus, where we spend the majority of our time as MFA students. I’ve got a bit more of campus I call home thanks to being a part of the Teaching Fellowship, but more on that below. If you want to know the vibe of Barat House, this picture of the founder and her dog should help:

Under their twin gaze, I started my MFA program and the Teaching Fellowship last August.

To be clear, I started this program at the same time that I left my old job at Erewhon, started a new job at Climbing Wolf, AND had my debut book coming out. And here, I thought, the Fall Semester was going to be the tough one.

But it was nothing compared to this Spring Semester.

Poetry workshop was a stellar weekly insight into the brilliance of my fellow students, and a continued education in a form I love but have never felt confident in writing. Screenwriting class was a rigorous, thoughtful look at a mode I enjoy but had almost no muscle memory to rely on, and so had to pump mental iron week by week. Coupled with a class I was embedded in to observe teaching, hours in the Writing Center to tutor, and having reading/assignments and more FOR my Teaching Practicum, on top of 3 days at the coffee shop and several freelance gigs, all due around the same time?

Yeah, I’m pooped.

I can feel myself becoming un-pooped, if that makes sense. Today for example is just a chill and rest day, head to a book event tonight. But I’m hoping before the end of the week to dive back into the next book and just . . . do it. My wife and I are headed to Japan in a few months and I’d love to have something to send my agent before then.

Other than The Hotel Centuria, I’m looking forward to taking the summer to:

*Work on the rest of my Freshman Year Comp class that I’m teaching, 101 and 102 next year.

*Work on a handful of short stories that have been desperate for attention

*Keep working on a new game which is like Ocean’s 11 by way of A Starstruck Odyssey where you break into a multidimensional casino to steal/destroy a god-machine.

*Read some good books.

More soon, friends, and I’m sending you all a lot of love, wherever you are in space/time <3

Reading: Seek the Traitor’s Son by Veronica Roth

Listening to: Neon Odyssey by The Midnight

Playing: Hades 2