Katie Hughes-Pucci ’20 pursued creative nonfiction in Salve Regina’s MFA program

A few years after Katie Hughes-Pucci ’20 (MFA) finished her undergraduate degree at Providence College, her mother passed away. About four years later, her grandmother also passed away, and about three years after that, her father.

“In the span of about seven years, I lost my three people,” she said. “And throughout that seven years, I had to shift in my life to be a caretaker for my grandmother and my father, who were both ill and in need. And so I put my creative self away, and I didn’t really think about it.”

But it wasn’t all bad news. During that same seven years, Hughes-Pucci also met a wonderful man, fell in love and got married. They bought a house together and acquired some pets. “Through all this struggle and grief, I was still finding a wonderful life,” she said. “But there was something missing. And it was a friend who said, ‘You used to write all the time. Have you looked at that?'”

This friendly prompt pushed her into thinking about an MFA program. Hughes-Pucci, who is from Rhode Island, said that doing the low-residency Newport MFA in creative writing at Salve Regina felt right to her, as Newport has always been in her backyard and she was working full time and needed the flexibility.

“I think that’s the beauty of a low-residency program in general,” Hughes-Pucci said. “And it’s where Salve just shines through.”

To graduate from the MFA program, students complete five residencies on campus alongside coursework done from their homes. Hughes-Pucci said the residencies and faculty mentorship were a highlight of the program. Mentors change each semester, which sets Salve Regina apart from many other MFA programs.

Hughes-Pucci pursued the creative nonfiction track and has amassed a collection of essays that she hopes one day will become a memoir. Much of her writing centers around the grief of losing her mother, father and grandmother. She has found that writing around these difficult topics has been rewarding and therapeutic, and the ways she’s grown as a writer of authentic human emotions – such as grief or love – is important to her.

“I was 24 when my mom died, and that’s right at the cusp when you start to connect with a parent on a different level – as an adult instead of as a mom,” Hughes-Pucci said. “I really missed out on some of that. But now, in going back in my writing, I’m able to make those connections. I’m able to really meet her and spend time with her in a way that I never got to when she was here. So that’s beautiful for me.”

While Hughes-Pucci has worked in higher education throughout her career, she hopes to become an adjunct professor as well as continue to write essays. She’s already been published on McSweeney’s, a daily humor website. “It’s been such a joyful and rewarding experience for me,” she said.