Veronica Suchodolski goes in-depth about the rewarding program and her first novel

Veronica Suchodolski
By Ellie Webb-Bowen, CLA Student Writer - January 30, 2025
Veronica Suchodolski, now in her second year of the School of Writing, Literature, and Film’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, was writing short fictional stories from an early age.
“I was just kind of one of those kids that always wanted to be a writer,” Suchodolski said.
Although, as many young adults face, Suchodolski went through periods where she felt as though she should be doing something more ‘practical.’ • “My parents were like, ‘well, what are you going to do with an English degree?’ And I was like, I don't know. It just is the thing that I wanted to do, and I was lucky enough to have several teachers who encouraged me growing up.”
After attending high school in rural Western Massachusetts, Suchodolski went on to become an English major at Barnard College, in New York City, with a concentration in creative writing and minor in French and philosophy. After cherishing her time at a historically women’s college in N.Y.C., Suchodolski worked as a Digital Content Creator for Barnard, writing feature and news articles for their website, then moving to Seattle and working in communications at Seattle University.
Behind the scenes, Suchodolski continued to write for herself and attended a conference focused on fiction in 2022. Suchodolski was paired with author Hannah Tinti. After a week working with Tinti, Suchodolski realized she had so much more to learn about being a writer. “That was when I first started to seriously consider pursuing an M.F.A program,” Suchodolski explained.
What attracted Suchodolski to the M.F.A. program at the College of Liberal Arts was the weekly mentorship students received from SWLF’s distinguished faculty, as well as a small cohort class accepted each year. “I have already learned so much in one year, which is really amazing, to have grown as a writer so significantly in nine months,” Suchodolski conveyed. “The classes are really amazing. Particularly in the fiction track, we have three full-time professors for eight students at a time, so you really know the people who are teaching you and they're available to talk outside of class.”
Focusing primarily on writing this past year has been special for Suchodolski, who’s currently working on her first novel. “I don't necessarily have more time to write, but I feel like I have to anyway, which is a big difference from before when I was working nine to five. When I didn't feel like writing that day, I just didn't. It's been nice to remove myself from the idea that there has to be like a perfect set of circumstances where I get my writing done,” Suchodolski stated.
With her busy schedule, Suchodolski is working on her novel in phases, writing all of her first drafts by hand, “because it feels like there's less pressure.”
The novel, title to come, focuses on a family of Polish immigrants who have been residing in the U.S. and are debating whether to move back to Poland to care for a grandparent. The intergenerational novel is told from multiple perspectives and explores the idea of the 21st-Century American dream. “I'm particularly interested in the way that a lot of immigrant families moved to the US for the dreams or the goals of one family member, and then how that radiates out amongst the other family members down the line.”
Both of Suchodolski's parents are from Gdansk, Poland, located on the Baltic Sea. Suchodolski used to travel to Gdansk as a child to visit her grandparents. “I've been interested specifically in that aspect of my family history,” she stated. “No one here really writes that much about Poland.”
In addition to being an M.F.A. student, Suchodolski taught a section of English Composition (WR 121), which was a rewarding experience from a personal growth perspective, and will teach Intro to Fiction Writing (WR 224) for the 2024 - 2025 academic year. After completing the MFA program, Suchodolski’s goal is to publish her novel and find her way as a writer in the world.