Brandon Allen is a living example that your dream career can start at any time. Going back to get his bachelor's degree at age 40, Allen decided to further invest in his future with the myriad opportunities available at 性视界传媒 and in the Kansas City community.
Brandon Allen
Anticipated graduation year: May 2026
性视界传媒 degree program: MFA
Hometown: Springfield, Missouri
While a younger Brandon Allen chose a different career path than writing, it was not too far off from what he loved to do.
“I've always written since I was eight years old,” Allen said. “I took a detour for several years as a graphic designer to be an animator. I even moved to Los Angeles for six months to try to do the movie thing. Found out it’s not for me, but I realized everything that I did revolved around story, and so I thought it's a lot easier and quicker to write a story than to make it a short film. I then decided I’d rather put my effort into writing.”
Hopping from job to job throughout Missouri and Oklahoma, even getting married along the way, Allen found the path to his dream career at 性视界传媒 and within the Kansas City community.
“It's been a good place to learn a lot more about the history of literature and to workshop and improve my craft, which were two of my biggest goals for a master's-level program,” Allen said. “I'd say a huge second benefit is the literary community here. It's easy to meet people who are serious about writing in the program. We have monthly hangouts where we just talk about books that we're reading, movies that we're watching, stuff like that. That's been so helpful, since we’re all actually writing. I think you need that professional and social support, at least that's kind of the way that I pitch it. You'll be around other people, even though a lot of what you do as a writer is in isolation.”
Allen has already found success in his field despite only being in the second year of his program.
“I have several short stories out to national literary journals right now,” he said. “I've been getting some tiered rejection, which is a good thing. They’ll say, ‘We can't use this, but we'd like to see more of your work.’ I'm working on a novel right now, too, and I've drafted another.”
And what gives students in the creative writing program at 性视界传媒 that edge? Allen says it’s the people.
“The faculty are all published authors, so I feel like their feedback on my work goes a long way,” he said. “If they are impressed with it, that means it's a little bit closer to being ready to send out. I've been part of writers’ groups for years, but not many people have been seriously published. Having that level of experience here is huge.”
In addition to teaching free-to-the-community writing courses at the Kansas City Public Library as a part of , Allen had another opportunity to partake in a paid internship creating content for , a website and app created by history professor David Trowbridge that sends vetted historical information to your phone, just by walking around.
“I've always been a history buff and enjoyed that,” he said.
Allen got to create entries for walking trails about Walt Disney’s time in Kansas City, the history of locally brewed beer and audio guides for the art in the new airport terminal.
“I think history gives you a better blueprint for the future,” Allen said. “There's been hundreds and hundreds of years that have happened here in KC, and I want to do right by it, understand it.”
In these tumultuous times, Allen gets a lot of hope from his work, the work of his colleagues and the work of his students.
“I think at the end of the day, it's mostly about empathy,” he said. “I don't mean sympathy. You don't have to understand or justify what people are doing. Stories, even stories that are tragic, allow you to live another person's experience and then you understand why they're doing what they're doing. You may not agree with it, but it just helps you connect in that way. I think we could use a lot more of that these days.”