Alumni Testimonial by Steve Dragswolf, Creative Writing, MALS 2017

What were you doing before MALS?

"Before MALS, I was working with my wife in a children's village, which was a children's home that took care of abused and neglected children. I wanted to focus on creative writing and, more specifically, fictional writing. I was looking at a lot of different programs around the country, and I wanted a school where I could study other subjects/other topics outside of creative writing, and outside of fiction. I wanted somewhere where I could focus on fiction, but at the same time, have the interdisciplinary possibilities.

Research opportunities in MALS?

Even though I was focused on fiction writing and creative writing, I was also focused on researching historical trauma and suicide among American Indian youth. I wanted to combine the two together, and so my writing courses helped me, of course, with the technical aspects of writing, the feedback I needed to to clearly convey my ideas, to write clearly, and to be compelling in my writing. At the same time, the Cultural Studies classes I took helped me to better analyze and investigate these hidden symbols within the culture.

Student Life?

Student life for me was probably different from a lot of others: I moved here with my wife and my two young kids. I have a five year old daughter, and a three year old son, and so we lived in Sachem Village—which is a nice place for the family.  It has several playgrounds for the kids, so that was helpful. I also worked typically around 40 hours a week between a couple different jobs, so I was really busy.

What are you doing after MALS?

For my thesis, I wrote a novel—a work of fiction—so my plan is to seek out a literary agent and see if I can sell the book and get it published. I want to keep writing after this, and that's the goal: to write, and to be able to support myself in writing. I feel as though I am a writer now, whereas I didn't feel like that two years ago when I started the program—even though I had the passion and the goal—right now I have the confidence that I am a writer, that I can write fiction, and that I can write fiction well.

Any advice for prospective MALS Students?

It just seems the possibilities are endless with this program, because anyone from anywhere can come into MALS and succeed. You don't need specific focus on anything—it's whatever your passions are. I feel like the MALS program does a good job in in identifying those passions, and building those passions, growing those passions in each student, to then create something new, something bold, and exciting that they can go on afterwards and continue to advance."