Summary

In “My Parade," Chee recounted his time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he received his MFA in creative writing. He offered a narrative journey from being a skeptic of MFA programs to being a convert, or at least appreciative of the guidance of the instructors at Iowa and the time his MFA program gave him to write. Chee began by retreading familiar territory, recalling his time at A Different Light, the gay bookstore in San Francisco where he worked after college. He remembered working in the store’s warehouse, combing over titles for inventory purposes, and learning “what kind of gay writing had succeeded and failed—what the culture allowed and what it did not,” and felt this experience was a meaningful education for a young writer (100). He became more interested in MFA programs after having lunch with a recent Iowa graduate...