curfew

LET'S GOOOO!!! CONGRATS @pananoprodigy!! a win is a win!!

Welcome, @AyvaM!! Happy to have you here:) I feel this a little too much 😭The waiting game is so vacuous that you kinda can’t help but just envision all the outcomes in the mean time, and the worst case / best case scenarios are way juicier to think about than, like, going 3/9 [which, goes w/out saying, is a stellar season]. At least we can all vacillate in the same boat together; good luck this year! @Chex as usual saying it best—

just began Sea of Fertility -- wonderful stuff

I think this is just the coolest stuff! I would love to read your work or excerpts of it -- especially the jello-guillotine sequence:D. Strangeness is a quotient coherent to all the great lyric works, and to much of the radical works that variegate the condition of the genre further [thinking, loosely, of Melville's spermaceti and Stubb monologues, or of Kafka and Gogol prose pieces]. But I'm sounding wispy. All of these writers are fantastic lodestars; do you like the writings of Yoko Tawada, Hélène Cixous, Kobo Abe or Jan Zwicky?

NP! I went for: Brown, Cornell, Iowa, Johns Hopkins, Michener, Michigan, Rutgers-Camden, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and Virginia. A few of those may have had their deadlines passed by now, I think.

A couple of my fiction professors recommended applying to 7-10 programs. My friend, who attends a fully-funded program, applied to 13. I went in the middle of their advice and applied to 10. The net [at least to me] feels wide enough to where you don’t feel like the percentages are entirely against you, and small enough to not feel overwhelmed by the process. It sometimes feels like a crapshoot. Historically applicants have gotten rejected by all of their ‘safeties’ and accepted by nearly all of their ‘reaches.’ Because of that, I just mentally appreciated the long-ish list of 10 [there’s also a pseudo-satisfaction found from having a round-number]. As well, I would only apply to programs that have fully-funded packages and are schools/places you can 100% see yourself studying at. If that 100% feeling designates 7 programs only, or 4, or 17, then go for it:•)

Apps are done:D! Ten schools and a few nervous months in the interim before decisions come. Cheers to everyone who has submitted and to everyone who is about to!!! I'm also curious what others have been reading during app season? I've recently finished Warda by Sonallah Ibrahim, DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi, and The Abyss by Marguerite Yourcenar. All fantastic. Yourcenar is a personal lodestar. What about others??

@Chex cheers!! I love the list, and sincerely hope that the next few months treat you better than the last ones have. Pulling for you this season:+)

Henlo @Tazz, I think they just have yet to update their information on their main web (though they really should have gotten to that by now). Rutgers' GradAdmissions page lists this year's deadline as December 15, whilst typically it would be in early January. The program is also able to be selected when filling out R-N's graduate application, so I believe they're still operating. Rutgers-Camden's funding is still mind-boggling to me, and the program house looks so pretty. What has you interested about their programs, and what others are you applying to, if I can ask?:)

@Leeannitha Yes! The way the book tabularizes its history is amazing. And I was referring to the University of Oregon--Eugene! Longtime professors Garrett Hongo and Geri Doran are honestly top notch. Hongo's stuff is very deciduous, image-intense, with a narrative bedrock. Doran is a sick formalist. Apparently Oregon is really rigorous and reading-intense, like Arkansas. Rooting for you this season!! Fighting:D

Howdy @shadygrove!! Welcome to the nerve party-- As someone who's spent half their life in the northeast and the other half in southeast Texas, I'll just say that the hesitancy to apply to a TX program is 100% understandable (I had some reserve on putting MCW on my list too). The dominant politika is gross and is felt in the cities, though less so in Austin; the roads don't make sense, and there are several other reasons for agita. But there are definite real havens, both literary and not, that are always eager to accept another person. Houston has an incredible nonprofit literary org (Inprint) that has hosted everyone, from Tokarczuk to Cartarescu to Erdrich to Ishiguro. I know Austin always has local readings/open mics dottling the calendar. If you want to, I'd be happy to go in further on MCW and Texas in general:^} There's a really neat book by an Iowa prof which talks about the conception of the IWW and its history of stars, titled A Delicate Aggression, which I recommend. It goes over that bad blood atmosphere that has trailed the program, and how past and present directors have taken it down different paths. According to the book and most other accounts, Iowa seems like a much warmer and less toxic environment than what it was in the past, and its class size has lent itself towards students finding their people. The writers I've talked to who are recent Iowa alums have said the same thing, and that the professors really go out of their way to maintain a supportive atmosphere (what with the softball game and the potluck, but more importantly the workshops). I also think any poetry program with Kaveh Akbar in it will just naturally possess a more compassionate spirit. Brown and UMich are amazing choices! I would also look at Notre Dame, less so for the school/location, and mostly for Joyelle McSweeney and her outrageously Swedish husband. Oregon's program has a powerful poetry lineup that's based in an affordable town catering towards grad students. UMass-Amherst's faculty is strong. I'd also give Denver's PhD a look: Jennifer Soong brings a really dynamic poetry which feels both forward and rooted.

Really happy to see everyone excited for app season:D Personally, my dream schools are, like Zaira!, Iowa, as well as Virginia. Since I was 13 and found out Flannery and Denis Johnson went to the IWW (my two favorite writers when I was that age), I've wanted to follow them there. The interest for the program's history and previous students is too strong. And Virginia because my twin goes to law school in the state and it would be nice to be near them-- What program is it for others?

Hello @samlyn! The northeast is probably where I'm trying to be, too, if I'm being honest. Have you thought about upstate NY programs, like Stony Brook (which also has a Manhattan extension) or Syracuse? Columbia's faculty is godtier and its acceptance rate is higher than any other elite programs, which I feel like has something to do with its huge class size and lack of funding. Also, their ambiguity on funding really bothers me; I ultimately put it off my list in favor of places that are (or have a clear chance to be, at least) fully funded w/ stipend.

Loving the lists from everyone so far!:D And I also feel that 10 is like a Goldilocks number--enough seats and variety without bloating the application process-

May never come back to this again, but let's get this started early-- A thread for everyone + anyone to discuss application processes, schools, books, general grievances related to MFA writing season! I'm in my last year of undergrad, applying to Brown, Cornell, Iowa, Michigan, Michener, NYU, Rutgers-C, Syracuse, Vanderbilt + Virginia, for fiction. Eager to hear where others are applying to, and how applications are coming along:D