Mi-Kyung "Mika" Shin – Seoul, Korea

"I have been drawn to writing for a long time and I wanted to formally study the craft beyond my undergraduate degree in English literature and creative writing. I had been working as a translator/editor at a cultural agency in Seoul for a couple of years and then I came across the MALS program at Dartmouth.



I chose this program because it was both interdisciplinary and had a creative writing concentration. Within this unique structure, I have been able to explore my interests while focusing on learning the craft of writing. I have been very fortunate to have the professors that I have had here. They have a great appreciation for literature and the creative writing process, and have given me free reign to write what I felt compelled to write – not all professors at other programs are like that. Working with my advisors, I have been able to better understand my personal affinities and learn to transmute them skillfully into the form of literary art. 



If you have the drive to discover, MALS provides a remarkably fertile ground. And, for me, being in this program helped clarify to myself that writing is what I possess the greatest passion and capacity for. In the fall I'm starting the MFA program in fiction writing at Columbia where I hope to further discipline myself as a writer."