Norwood

Someone put a NWP acceptance on the results page on the 18th, but I haven't seen them (or anyone else) posting about it here or on Draft. Also, it doesn't say if it's for Fiction or Poetry.

@montan I totally agree! I've long made my peace with the fact that I'll always have to have a day job to support the things I want to do—that and I'm lucky that I have a partner who is equally fine with prioritizing the things we both care about more than status and material wealth. At the risk of fetishizing struggle, I am also of the opinion that art made by people who don't have to trudge through at least some version of "the real world" anymore is boring as sin. @DayOld711Pizza I appreciate you trying to spin these things into a positive—and I agree that failure and rejection are an important part of life, especially for writers. But I think what I'm really getting at is that these setbacks just feel especially lonely and therefore especially meaningless right now. Thus the (what I'm now realizing is a) very cringey midnight forum post moaning to—let's be honest here—strangers. A lot of my writing is concerned with failure and, to psychoanalyze myself a bit, I think a large part of the reason I write (and read, for that matter) is to commiserate and to share a version of my shortcomings with others, thereby lightening both our loads. I don't think you can do that, however, without recognizing them as shortcomings in the first place. @jjooeeyy I'm really sorry to hear that : ( I've been through some health scares in the past and it's always really terrifying, no matter how serious it ends up being. Might be a stupid question, but how are you feeling day-to-day? Are you able to do anything to distract yourself while you wait for your surgery date? @Blaze A kindred spirit! I think you speak some real truth. Somewhat in line with Beckett's whole deal, I do find that one of the best way to deal with these feelings is to find a way now and again to make a straight-faced joke out of the endless stream of shit that life is constantly blasting onto all of us—and ideally to do so with friends. I think a lot about how one of my literary heroes, Lucia Berlin, put it in one of her stories: "I don't mind telling people awful things if I can make them funny." (PS Sorry everyone for this big long post/the original one y'all are replying to—sometimes a body just feels like being a maudlin little twit) (PPS Really? No one here is trying to get revenge on anyone in their lives? Where is your writerly sense of outsized indignation?! Where is your petty rage???!)

Sorry to add even more neurotic kvetching to the thread, but man, am I having a tough time with all this shit right now. It's starting to feel like I have—quite stupidly!—backed myself into a corner where if I don't get in somewhere this year I have truly no clue what I'm going to do. For some context, my girlfriend started an MFA program in studio art this fall and, since the school she got into was far away from where we lived, I decided to move with her so we could stay together. I then spent six months grinding it out at a shitty restaurant job while using every minute of my free time getting my apps together/working on my writing, only to get fired basically as soon as my last app was done (very frustratingly because I asked one time if I could switch my schedule and stop working weekends so I could spend more time with my girlfriend, the only reason I moved to this dogshit city/now the only person I see on a daily basis [only I didn't say that last part]. I was told that they, "only needed people who really wanted to work"). I now find myself in a position where I have no job, no career path, meager savings, no friends, a girlfriend who is, understandably, busy with grad school, and am staring down turning 30 with next to nothing to show for it and little hope of getting my life in order any time soon. It's been the longest month and a half (Jesus, only that long?), waiting for decisions, cold applying to jobs, and feeling too stressed out and beaten down to get any new writing done. I know things could easily be worse and that I still have plenty to be grateful for, but nothing has been breaking my way since I moved here and it's getting really tough to step up to the plate. Plus, in the back of my head, I can't help but assume that this trend is going to continue until well past the end of app season. I don't really know why I'm posting this here—other than to vent, I guess—but if anyone else has had any personal Ls they'd like to share, I'd love to commiserate. And if anyone was looking to get even, say, with a former boss or whatnot, I would love to get involved in a Strangers-on-a-Train-type situation.

I've gotten two decisions so far (one rejection and one waitlist) and weirdly the portal for the school I got waitlisted for still just says "Completed" under my "check status" tab. So I think, unfortunately, each school does it differently—some of them I know from last time don't even have your application status listed, you just have to wait to get your letter and that's the only way you learn your status. That being said, I think you should hear back from everywhere eventually, so I wouldn't worry about being ghosted lol. I mean, I'm sure some people fall through the cracks each year, but it doesn't seem very common—plus, if it's been a few weeks and the decisions all seem to have gone out, you can always call/email their admin person and check.

It's both my second time applying and I'm a few years out of undergrad (2016) so I can tell you for sure that you have nothing to worry about. Most professors view writing letters of recommendation, correctly, as a part of their job/part of belonging to academia—plus, once they've already written one for you, they can just keep using the same one. Both times I applied, I got letters from a professor who was my undergrad thesis advisor (not creative writing or english, by the way—plus she retired between my first and second apps and was still willing to submit my letters), a writing teacher I took a class with after college (two different ones each time), and, the one that probably won't apply to you, a former co-worker of mine who I did creative work with (what's up, fellow film and TV workers) who also taught me in a sketch writing class and now is a successful TV writer. People usually want to help, especially if you're not a jerk, so don't be afraid to ask!

I haven't heard from Mississippi either—and I haven't seen anyone on Draft or here posting about. I also believe that they update their website when they notify people for round 2 (I saw someone on Draft posting that the year they applied they didn't notify people who didn't make it to round 2, they just updated the site). So I would keep checking their site for info. I can't remember where, but I did see somewhere that they weren't going to be notifying until the end of the month, so they may have just given themselves more time this year.

Anyone else just spend the last hour nervously refreshing their stupid little pages and trying to will their cell into receiving a phone call?

I'm a fiction writer, yeah! And I know this sounds kinda dumb, but I haven't read any of Mona Awad's work because when I first applied a couple years ago I read all the writers who were teaching there at the time and got obsessed with Dana Spiotta's books, which then really got my hopes up for admission lol. So since I already knew I was going to apply again (and talk about wanting to learn from Spiotta in my statement) I decided to avoid giving myself more reasons to get my hopes up. BUT when I get rejected this year, I do have plans to rub salt in the wound by checking out Awad and Chanelle Benz haha Also, I'm decidedly not a poet, but I would LOVE to take a class with Mary Karr.

Nice! I also applied to UVA (if I'm being honest, though, 80% of my interest is because you could live like a king on their stipend in Charlottesville) and I'm waiting on Ole Miss, Minnesota, Syracuse, Iowa, UNC, UT Austin (both Michener and NWP), Texas State, and LSU. Hoping at least a couple of these notify in the next week because at 4:30 on a Friday I know we're probably not hearing anything else until Monday and, man, is the wait killing me.

There's nothing on Draft about Virginia Tech and I haven't seen anyone post about fiction here! Where else are you waiting to hear back from?

Just got waitlisted at Indiana! I'm honestly super surprised (I happened to meet a PhD student in IU's English department at a wedding and, after talking to her about the school, I literally said, "Well, it sounds like I'm not the kind of writer they'd be looking for, but I think I'll still apply because why not?") Feels great just to get ANY good news after getting straight rejections my first time around, so I'm pumped—10 more to go!

To my knowledge, the vast majority of programs call accepted students or send an email (I've seen people posting that they've gotten emails informing them they're in and to expect an official call later). And I don't think any school is going to put an acceptance or waitlist up on their app portal before notifying the student more directly. Rejections, on the other hand, will definitely show up there before the student is notified via email. So unless you see a lot of notices going out on here/draft for that specific program, your chances of finding good news on any program's app portal first is pretty slim—might be best to avoid checking it, if only for sanity's sake.

I bought myself a bass guitar as a present for finishing my apps and now I'm teaching myself to play! I've played drums since I was a teenager and used to tour and record pretty seriously, but since bass isn't "my instrument" and I don't plan on playing out or anything I'm totally free to just mess around with it. I can't recommend enough a hobby you have no complicated feelings about being absolute shit at.

At the risk of invoking everyone's favorite poster, does anyone have any insight into the order in which decisions are sent out? I just noticed that someone put up a rejection from Indiana that they received on Friday (for fiction, which I also applied for), but my application portal still just says in progress. Does anyone know if rejections typically are sent out before acceptances/waitlists? I assumed it would be the opposite, but if that's the case then I'm not sure why I wouldn't have gotten my rejection yet. Also, if the person who got accepted to Minnesota is on this forum, I would love to know if it was for poetry or fiction! (Also, congrats!)

I had to wait like a week and a half to get approved after I requested. The admins are (I think) all either current MFA students or people who graduated recently, so I think it's just a matter of them not checking on it every day. For what it's worth, people on this forum have already mentioned all the acceptances that have been posted on there this year so far, so you haven't missed anything really.