New MFA Writing Director Rita Banerjee
Ada Lambert | February 23, 2023
On Feb. 3, Warren Wilson College (WWC) announced that Rita Banerjee will be joining the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Program for Writers as the new director. She will be succeeding Debra Allbery, who previously announced her retirement. Banerjee is set to assume her new role this summer.
The MFA Program for Writers at WWC is a highly-regarded program that offers students the opportunity to study and practice various forms of creative writing.
With an MFA from the University of Washington and a doctorate from Harvard University, Banerjee has dedicated her education to cultivating a deep understanding of literature and writing. Before WWC, she was the director of two MFA programs at Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) and Long Island University (LIU).
When Banerjee was still the director at LIU, she met multiple faculty members who had received their MFA from WWC.
“They would really speak not only highly about the program,” Banerjee said. “They would often talk about wanting to go back and teach be part of a residency even after they had received their MFA. It seemed like a place where a writer could truly be an artist and that seems really rare [in] such a capitalist and kind of fiscally informed society that we live in.”
Banerjee was invited to join in the winter residency during the application process, which gave her an inside look at what her role would be as a director. Winter residency meets for 10 days and is designed to provide writers with an opportunity to focus on their work and connect with other writers in a supportive environment. Through workshops, readings and discussions, participants can gain inspiration, feedback and new perspectives on their writing.
“When I came to residency, I just found it to be so magical and such a nurturing community space,” Banerjee said. “I felt like truly bohemian people were thinking about writing and craft issues in this organic and thorough way with so much rigor. All the faculty were going to all of the lectures, the students were meeting many faculty through the different workshops, there were some undergraduate creative writing students there as well.”
Banerjee’s positive experience with WWC faculty and students was a large influence in her decision-making process.
“It seemed like such a cool community,” Banerjee said. “I think there were around 150 people at that residency or so. I was so thoroughly impressed. I spoke with the students, I spoke with the faculty, and I was thinking, ‘Oh, this would be an amazing position if I were to get it.’ A week later, I got the offer, so it was really exciting.”
In her position, Banerjee will be responsible for organizing and scheduling workshops, readings and craft talks that align with the program's goals. She is also looking forward to working closely with the students and providing them with the resources and support they need.
“The students themselves already have such high profiles,” Banerjee said. “I was reviewing some of the profiles of the students in the winter residency and some of them have already been published in journals, some as big as the New Yorker. A couple of them have poetry books, or chapbooks out, many of them are working on short story collections or novels. So many of the graduates of the MFA program have had such tremendous success as creative writers; they're very important in the field of poetry and fiction.”
Banerjee herself is an accomplished writer and editor, with a focus on poetry, creative writing and manifestos. Her poetry collections “Echo in Four Beats” and “Cracklers at Night” have been well-received by critics and readers, and she has been recognized for her writing by organizations such as Book Riot and the Vermont Arts Council.
“‘Echo in Four Beats’ is kind of a retelling of the story of Echo and Narcissus but imagining Echo as women in society today and Narcissus as being a political figure like Donald Trump was in 2018,” Banerjee said. “So it's like, how are women speaking and not being heard, but still expressing themselves and dealing with that Echo archetype? That poetry collection is really informed by jazz, Greek and Indian philosophy and mythology.”
In addition to her poetry, Banerjee is also the editor of “CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos and Sourcebook for Creative Writing,” which features a collection of manifestos and essays on the craft of writing. She is also the author of the novella “A Night with Kali,” which explores themes of identity and cultural folklore.
“It's a coming-of-age ghost story, and it's this collection called Approaching Footsteps,” Banerjee said. “It's about a taxi driver who may or may not have had a supernatural encounter.”
Banerjee has an upcoming memoir in the works called “Merchants of Cool: How Female Cool Could Not Be Sold.” It has already received recognition, with one of its opening chapters, “Birth of Cool,” being named a Notable Essay in the 2020 “Best American Essays." The memoir explores the intersection of gender, race and popular culture.
“In my memoir, I’m talking about this post Roe vs. Wade moment and how women are grappling with that,” Banerjee said. “So a lot of the stories are based on women that I know and are women that I find to be particularly cool, everyone from icons such as Alice Coltrane, Nina Simone and AOC to then looking at people in my family who decided to be artists, despite all the economic pressure that they faced. So I am focusing on how women who — they have such a powerful role in the public sphere or in the media, maintain a sense of calm and composure.”
Banerjee’s achievements are indicative of her commitment to the craft. As the new director, she hopes to utilize her experience in creative writing to help attract talented writers and educators from around the world to the MFA program.