ON CHANGING GENRES

When I first matriculated at Ohio State as an MFA candidate in creative nonfiction, I was confident that I wanted to work on a memoir about my father as my thesis project. I’d spent the final year of my undergrad prepping, and all of my MFA application materials were directed toward that goal.

A lot happened over the first semester: I made friends, learned how to scrape ice off of my car windshield, and realized I no longer had any interest in writing a memoir. But what was I to do? I had the privilege of full funding, the brilliant editorial eyes of my peers and professors, and finally, precious time to write. Overloading myself with classes in anticipation of a long winter, I signed up for fiction and screenwriting in addition to a nonfiction workshop, hoping for a new direction or divine intervention in my writing life.

Now, in the third year of my program and more than halfway through a