writeordie

Story time! In 2014, coming off my first nonfiction book, which was a labor of necessity (a topic I felt needed to be discussed, though I took limited joy in it), and feeling the urgent need to pursue fiction (My True Love^TM), I applied to 9 programs and a fellowship. 0a. For ten years thereafter, I studied craft on my own time, wrote stories, then a novella, then a novel, and then sections of two more--none of which I attempted to publish. I was learning and honing my practice. I knew I wasn't ready. I took workshops, and joined a writers group, and then a second; meanwhile, I worked in publishing to support my writing habit (lol), and of course, I continued to learn a great deal from editing and from reading voraciously. I did hella community work related to the stories I want to tell and the folks whose voices I want to champion, and I put out another nonfiction project. The whole time, I knew I wanted to try again, but it was never the RIGHT time. Plus, my work is genre fiction, and niche, and tricky to pitch to literary fiction programs, so I knew the material had to be EPIC to land me a spot. This season, I applied to 9 schools, and got One. Beautiful. Shining. Fully-funded. Offer. It wasn't the school I had initially expected to wind up at. But a funny thing happened that changed my feeling on that, and I am so INCREDIBLY grateful it did. One night, I was sweating the rejections and whether this school was right for me, and totally having an conniption over it, let's be real, and then I went to sleep and had a dream about [author who is head of a major department]. In it, we had lunch, and he extended his considerable wisdom and advice, and when I woke up, I felt weirdly peaceful. I remembered that this was about MENTORSHIP for me, and time to write, and I decided that if this school extended those things, then I was going to accept. LO AND BEHOLD: That morning, I shit you not, the director of the program began to text me. They invited me to lunch. They, in fact, offered me a place to live near their own home, and the possibility of carpooling and gardening together. We talked about common interests and politics--of which we shared many--and in the end, I felt a sense of built-in community. I visited the school shortly thereafter, and let me tell you, that vibe was EVERYWHERE. The faculty spoke of my protagonist by name. They were excited to show me around, to work with me, to answer any question I had, to handle any administrative hurdle that might come my way. The first-years took me to lunch, told me where to hang out, texted me literary jokes, shared my aesthetic. Today, I was waiting to hear from Brown, like fucking everyone here (hug), and I decided I no longer needed to know. Though it's a dream school to basically everyone, there was no way they could offer me what the other school had: A feeling that I was going home to write. May everyone here hold out for that. I really hope you get to go home. ❤️

It's true: Very few full-res/fully-funded programs are welcoming to kid lit. That said, I have a friend who went to New School, and she has said it was a good experience for YA/children's fic, but also that the cost was kind of egregious. (She had a quite successful debut a couple years ago, so that's a cool endorsement, if a smidge complicated by the cost factor!)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I saw a post today that someone on draft got an email to schedule a call for poetry yesterday (you, maybe!), and foolishly got my hopes up for fiction calls somehow still being a thing, lol. <cringe at my hopeful doe eyes> THEN I saw via my USPS informed delivery emails that there's a letter coming today from Iowa...aaaaaand that's more or less game over, folks. Unless Brown decides to rain kittens this afternoon. But I have ZERO right to complain. I'm in at NC State with full funding. Absolutely amazing. Just had that dream of Iowa, like so many others, for, um...the last 14 years? Yeahhhhhh. Anyway. Happy Friday everyone! May your faculty mentors be wise and warm, and may the unknowns become knowns soon, before we all perish in this insane limbo.

I am also on this journey. Not the "last year" part, but the "If I still haven't heard from Iowa, maybe hope isn't lost" mentality. Fully aware this is likely denial, but I don't care, because crazier things have happened. Like the current administration. Or the stories people tell of their acceptance emails going to spam and finally realizing it in early April when their #1 choice calls them to find out why they haven't gotten a response to their offer of a teaching load of 0:0, generous stipend, and a new beach condo that comes with a labradoodle.

Ohhhh, snap. Yours had that same phrasing? (And sorry for your news, and for @gordonandwafflesandmrblik as well. Mine is almost certainly fast on your heels.)

Would be super curious to know by what method this was received. Email/snail mail? Still waiting on my Doom Letter^TM, lol.

There were three fiction "interviews" for Rutgers Newark reported on the 22nd. Doesn't look like anyone gets just straight-up "accepted"? Dunno cuz I didn't apply there, but that's what I saw. Good luck!

Not yet, just fiction. Good luck!!

Oh MY GOD, SECONDING THIS, @gordonandwafflesandmrblik thank you SO MUCH for telling us. I have been looking at Draft every five seconds waiting to see how many Iowa calls have been registered and trying to guess, based on the ratio of "reported" acceptances vs. total whether there would be more. THANK YOU. AND CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! The literal dream. Way to GO.

Oh yeah, I didn't mean that I intended to only work on full novel manuscripts in the program--just that excerpts are my strongest sample material for apps (assuming the mere fact that they're not stories doesn't doom my apps from the jump). Thanks so much for your thoughts and warm wishes! 😅 Will keep plugging away on revising those excerpts.

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm a book editor and writer. I applied for fully-funded MFAs a decade ago to no avail. Published an anthology and an academic primer. Wrote a lot of stories, then a few partials and a novel (workshopped at Tin House and going out on sub soon, fingers crossed!). I still desperately want to spend a couple years getting mentored by the best and workshopping with my peers, and especially producing as much material as possible. Shooting my shot for Iowa, Michener, NWP, UMich, Syracuse, NC State, UVA, Vanderbilt, and Brown. I am one of those people for whom IWW is on an altar where I mentally leave flowers and blood vials, lol, though Michener/NWP's faculty is also off the proverbial hook. Question to the group: I know novel excerpts have a bad rap vs. short stories when it comes to MFA apps, but is that old advice? (e.g., genre fiction used to be frowned on in lit fic programs, but is now welcomed most places) Or am I doomed, given that I haven't written a short story in several years and have only novels/partial manuscripts that I'm happy with to draw from?