SU MFA creative writing graduates co-edit new book: ‘A Manner of Being’

Syracuse University’s MFA creative writing program, established nearly 50 years ago, only admits a group of six fiction writers and six poets a year.

One graduate from the program, Jeff Parker, wrote the introduction for “A Manner of Being,” a collection of essays from modern contemporary writers.

Parker, who graduated in 1999, along with 2013 graduate Annie Liontas, worked as co-editors on the book. Together they worked with the contributors to craft the collection of essays about writers and their mentors. The contributing authors include past SU professor Tobias Wolff, and current SU faculty Arthur Flowers and George Saunders. The New Yorker released Saunders’ section of the novel Oct. 22.

The book, set to release in December, contains anecdotes and experiences. Parker’s introduction provides a glimpse into not just the book, but the rippled effects of a writing education.

The D.O.: How did you come about the opportunity to write the introduction for “A Manner of Being?”
Jeff Parker: A couple years ago, Arthur Flowers brought a bunch of MFA alums back to Syracuse. He spent all his research money on us when he could have used it to go to Acapulco and write his next book. While there, I met then-current student Annie Liontas and we became fast friends. I had been collecting the essays since 2011 but I told her about the project and it spoke to her as it spoke to me and she came aboard bringing in some excellent pieces and taking the book to a whole new level. In a lot of ways, it’s a love letter to the profession of teaching creative writing but particularly the profession of teaching creative writing at Syracuse. There are quite a few past and present Syracuse folk in the book besides Annie and I, among them Arthur Flowers, Mary Gaitskill, George Saunders, Deb Olin Unferth, Tobias Wolff and Douglas Unger who wrote the essay from which we took the anthology’s title.

The D.O.: Do you have a favorite piece from the book?
J.P.: I can’t pick a favorite. I like them all — they all riff on different aspects of the relationship that to varying degrees speak to me. Part of the idea behind the book was to have a lot of raw, short pieces that addressed some essential something that writers got from working with their mentors.

The D.O.: What authors in the book have had the biggest influence on you or your writing?
J.P.: For me, it was the writers who I knew personally at some point: Mary Caponegro and Arthur Flowers and George Saunders and Padgett Powell, who often said that one of the most instructive ways to learn about writing was slightly subversive: By listening to what your writing teachers say about writing, Powell said, and comparing that to what they do about it.

The D.O.: How was the process of writing the introduction of “A Manner of Being?” How long did you work on it?
J.P.: It took me forever, and I’m still unhappy with it. So thank you for the opportunity to say here what I wished I’d said there: I learned a ton about writing at Syracuse, more than I could ever process or make good on in a lifetime, but more importantly even than that, I learned there what it meant to be an artist in the world.

The D.O.: What works do you hope to be involved in the near future?
J.P.: I like books, and I plan to continue making them as long as I have something to say.