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MDP

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Everything posted by MDP

  1. MDP
    Same, same, and same. Sooo freaked. I keep looking back at my sample even though I know I shouldn't and wondering if they even got past the first couple paras.
  2. MDP
    Ditto I almost prefer the not knowing for now...Schrodinger's App...I am both admitted and rejected until observed, lol
  3. MDP
    Is it just me or is this a little early for schools notifying? Feels like the floodgates have opened! So exciting and scary!!
  4. MDP
    CONGRATULATIONS!!! What a huge win!!! ❤️
  5. MDP
    I meant that these writers would be the exceptions in today's literary climate. But as the rest of my post says, an MFA by no means guarantees good writing or professional success. The MFA and the publishing industry have changed tremendously since Baldwin, Pynchon, Roth, etc. were writing, so it's apples and oranges regardless. Toni Morrison wrote the Bluest Eye while working at Random House, something you almost never see today. The roles of author/publisher look much different today than they did in the 70's.
  6. MDP
    Since some of us are needing a morale boost, I thought I would compile a post. Some Successful Writers Without MFAs: Patrick Modiano Alice Munro E.E. Cummings (college dropout) Kurt Vonnegut (“You can’t teach people to write well. Writing well is something God lets you do or declines to let you do. Most bright people know that, but writers’ conferences continue to multiply in the good old American summertime.”) Jonathan Franzen Helen Oyeyemi (dropout! "To those in MFA programs I’d say stick with it if you can but don’t feel bad if your mind is crooked like mine is and you find you’ve got to leave.") Lemony Snicket (who remembers these? My childhood, lol) Robert Frost (college dropout) Granted, I did have to hunt for these names, and they do seem to be the exception rather than the rule. It's the sad fact of the publishing world. I interned briefly at a top publisher in NYC, and it was a pretty harsh reality check re: the state of publishing (at least in the US): not much has changed in the past 50 or so years. The institutions of the MFA and American publishing have remained affluent, white, cishet-dominated environments (with of course the occasional and refreshing examples.) For those interested in a successful press that uplifts marginalized voices, check out One World, a subsidiary of Penguin. Here are some of my favorite articles about the Creative Writing MFA: MFA vs. NYC, an essay many of you have likely read already, but check it out if not. It was also expanded into a great book if you really want to soothe your mind re: the possibility of not getting an MFA. (Bookshop.org is a great site btw, every purchase funds brick and mortar small bookstores! Much better than Amazon!) Some cool stats/analysis of the MFA and the language used in it. (Spoiler: homogeneity!) Lastly, a great interview by Kurt Vonnegut. So many excellent writing tips about writing fiction and existing outside the bounds of the publishing machine. On breaking into the field without the usual stuffy trajectory: VONNEGUT All of a sudden, critics wanted me squashed like a bug. And it wasn’t just that I had money all of a sudden, either. The hidden complaint was that I was barbarous, that I wrote without having made a systematic study of great literature, that I was no gentleman, since I had done hack writing so cheerfully for vulgar magazines—that I had not paid my academic dues. INTERVIEWER You had not suffered? VONNEGUT I had suffered, all right—but as a badly educated person in vulgar company and in a vulgar trade. It was dishonorable enough that I perverted art for money. I then topped that felony by becoming, as I say, fabulously well-to-do. Well, that’s just too damn bad for me and for everybody. I’m completely in print, so we’re all stuck with me and stuck with my books. And on "teaching" writing: INTERVIEWER Do you really think creative writing can be taught? VONNEGUT About the same way golf can be taught. A pro can point out obvious flaws in your swing. [...] I don’t have the will to teach anymore. I only know the theory. INTERVIEWER Could you put the theory into a few words? VONNEGUT It was stated by Paul Engle—the founder of the Writers Workshop at Iowa. He told me that, if the workshop ever got a building of its own, these words should be inscribed over the entrance: “Don’t take it all so seriously.” --------------- Sending love to everybody. Try to do something nice for yourself and for another person today, that's what always makes me feel less shit. Writing and reading silly stuff has also helped. But in general, this process just sucks. Higher academia is designed to make us all feel like crap. But our community will always persevere
  7. MDP
    So true! Thank you for this haha
  8. MDP
    Rejection from results page: "Short and sweet via email. Did mention they had more applicants than in years past, perhaps that is setting the tone for this year's admissions." Hoping there wasn't a massive influx of applicants like last year, but realistically I'm sure there was! Gahhh
  9. MDP
    Almost in February...how's everyone feeling?
  10. MDP
    I compiled one a couple pages back, not sure if this was the one you were thinking of Made a list of all of last year's earliest reported acceptances that went out between Jan. - Feb. 2021 (according to GradCafe -- I don't do Draft): 1/15 U. of Illinois 1/20 Ohio State University 1/28 Miami University (Ohio) 1/30 Vermont College of Fine Arts 1/31 University of Oregon 2/1 Western Michigan University 2/2 George Mason University, Boise State University 2/3 Indiana University Bloomington, Florida State University, UC Davis 2/4 George Mason University, Bowling Green State University 2/5 Chatham University 2/6 University of Nevada Reno, University of Idaho, University of Minnesota 2/7 U Mass Amherst 2/8 SUNY Stony Brook, Rutgers University 2/9 NC State 2/10 WashU in St. Louis 2/12 Oklahoma State University, Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University, UMass Boston, UC San Diego 2/13 Northern Arizona University 2/15 University of Tennessee, Southern Illinois University 2/16 University of British Columbia, University of Alabama, University of South Florida 2/18 Writer's Foundry at St. Joseph's 2/19 NYU, University of Missouri - Kansas City, University of Central Florida 2/21 University of Wisconsin - Madison, University of Montana, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota 2/22 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Temple University, University of New Mexico 2/23 Cornell, Cal Arts, VA Tech 2/24 University of New Hampshire, Lindenwood University, Chatham University, Minnesota State University, UWashington - Seattle 2/25 VA Tech, Hollins, George Mason, Syracuse, Northern Michigan University - Marquette, University of Houston, Northern Arizona University 2/26 Notre Dame, U Mass Boston, Iowa State University, UNC Greensboro, West VA University, Oregon State, Iowa Writer's Workshop, Cornell, 2/27 University of Mississippi, Michener 2/28 SAIC, UT Austin, UNLV Thank you for this, actually helps to know other people are in the same boat. Gahhh
  11. MDP
    Guys I'm seriously driving myself CRAZY. I feel like I'm hoping way too hard for something that in all honesty has very little chance of panning out well. I wish I could just fast-forward past results season a la Click and be done. I want my letdown to be as swift as it is devastating, ha.
  12. MDP
    Right there with y'all. It's all I can think about, ugh.
  13. MDP
    Also...is anyone else now starting to panic about not having applied to enough schools/not having applied to a wide enough range...nothing to do now. My only solace is that I know I did better this round than last.
  14. MDP
    To anyone else applying to Hollins: I sent an email making sure they had received my final rec, and they told me that their admissions process is projected to wrap up late Feb./early March. I didn't actually ask them about this, but good info nonetheless! The woman who emailed me called it "quite a lengthy process."
  15. MDP
    Congrats on wrapping up your apps! Looks like a good list are you a first time applicant or is this your second/third round? Definitely relate to this For me, I gotta have a big enough ego to think "This is the best shit ever!" while writing, and enough inner critic to circle back and think "Wow, this seriously needs work." The eternal dance, ha. Question: do you all find it easy or difficult to keep working on writing during the waiting period? Friends and family keep telling me to write, but I feel so paralyzed.
  16. MDP
    Also, CONGRATS!!!
  17. MDP
    Gahhh the waiting period is TORTURE for sure. I've been keeping very busy which helps but it is ALWAYS on my mind. I'm telling myself I'll be okay if I don't get in, and I know I'll be fine, but I honestly am starting to think I'd be pretty crushed. It's so easy to idealize what the MFA life would look like. Moving to a new city, etc. I actually didn't think about it like this re: two weeks -- that's pretty helpful! 2 weeks feels manageable at least. But every day that goes by with no news is so nerve wracking. I'm actually kind of dreading the day that acceptances start going out for the big programs? And yet I just want to get it over with, lol. TLDR; right there with you. Depends on the program. I think Cornell, NYU, Iowa, and some other big-name programs usually notify full fellowship students via phone call (and notify them first). Then other acceptances (and then rejects) come via portal/email.
  18. MDP
    Totally understand, it is gorgeous out there! Probably why it activates my inferiority complex so much, lol.
  19. MDP
    Oh for sure. I kind of like drab/spartan settings, though. I live in a more rural area of SC (getting more and more developed, somewhat unfortunately), and I find the giant stretches of nothing comforting somehow. Strip malls and concrete drags and hills. They're the same everywhere. One of my sisters used to live in California and I loved visiting, but could never live there...too idyllic...too many beautiful people. Need that east coast melancholy and grit, ha
  20. MDP
    Nice! I worked in my university's writing center as well. Always loved helping students there and watching them improve. So satisfying to see someone become more confident. Good advice. I ended up submitting an old world politics paper...edited it pretty substantially. Mainly picked it since it had so many sources.
  21. MDP
    I've seen Breaking Bad so I've basically lived there (/s). But yeah I've been when I was little, haha. My sister was born there. My dad used to do astronomy research out there.
  22. MDP
    Submitted my UNM app! ? tryna live that desert life
  23. MDP
    For schools that require an academic/expository writing sample (for TA stuff or otherwise): how important do you all think that is to the overall application? One of my profs told me that they just want to make sure you're not an idiot, ha. Obviously submitting one to UNM that I think is decent, but my academic writing isn't as good as my creative stuff.
  24. MDP
    I think codes of conduct (especially in grad school, and especially re: use) are generally a formality. Most Deans/profs/etc. wouldn't bat an eye even if it were reported. Adults do what they do, and if it doesn't endanger minors or contribute to academic dishonesty, most schools don't take it very seriously. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on individual opinion. But more adults do coke than you might think, lol.
  25. MDP
    Made a list of all of last year's earliest reported acceptances that went out between Jan. - Feb. 2021 (according to GradCafe -- I don't do Draft): 1/15 U. of Illinois 1/20 Ohio State University 1/28 Miami University (Ohio) 1/30 Vermont College of Fine Arts 1/31 University of Oregon 2/1 Western Michigan University 2/2 George Mason University, Boise State University 2/3 Indiana University Bloomington, Florida State University, UC Davis 2/4 George Mason University, Bowling Green State University 2/5 Chatham University 2/6 University of Nevada Reno, University of Idaho, University of Minnesota 2/7 U Mass Amherst 2/8 SUNY Stony Brook, Rutgers University 2/9 NC State 2/10 WashU St. Louis 2/12 Oklahoma State University, Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University, UMass Boston, UC San Diego 2/13 Northern Arizona University 2/15 University of Tennessee, Southern Illinois University 2/16 University of British Columbia, University of Alabama, University of South Florida 2/18 Writer's Foundry at St. Joseph's 2/19 NYU, University of Missouri - Kansas City, University of Central Florida 2/21 University of Wisconsin - Madison, University of Montana, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota 2/22 University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Temple University, University of New Mexico 2/23 Cornell, Cal Arts, VA Tech 2/24 University of New Hampshire, Lindenwood University, Chatham University, Minnesota State University, UWashington - Seattle 2/25 VA Tech, Hollins, George Mason, Syracuse, Northern Michigan University - Marquette, University of Houston, Northern Arizona University 2/26 Notre Dame, U Mass Boston, Iowa State University, UNC Greensboro, West VA University, Oregon State, Iowa Writer's Workshop, Cornell, 2/27 University of Mississippi, Michener 2/28 SAIC, UT Austin, UNLV
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