bibsy

uc davis is my top choice for fiction! also same re: job apps. i'm applying for work simultaneously. not sure what i'll do if i both land a job offer and get into school, but i don't want to prematurely limit myself. i don't think you should either! if you have to leave a position for grad school, so be it. after being impacted by two layoffs in two years, my attitude is that you should always put yourself first rather than worry about inconveniencing a company.

i will admit unflinchingly that i opted for creative writing over playwriting at UCR because i could NOT bring myself to write another short essay, l o l. thank you so much!! this is my first grad school rodeo, but i've been in the trenches of ut austin research these past few days. from everything i've read on the forums, it does look like uta has a baddd habit of not explicitly notifying folks of rejections until very late in the process. don't count yourself out until you're out, but from my email, the suggestion seemed to be that they'd be holding all (semifinalist?) interviews on february 5th. further disclaimers: no insight into whether this is inclusive of michener applicants! i missed the michener deadline, and i'm kinda bummed about that! would have loved to study fiction as a secondary genre, in the dreamy fantasy world where ut austin's on the table for me. wishing you luck with your process! where else did you apply, if you're comfortable sharing?

an interview request is always a good thing!! they don't interview candidates they are not interested in. if they're speaking with you, they're already interested in your work. now, they want to assemble a compatible cohort, make sure your goals are aligned with the resources the program offers, etc. congrats on advancing in the process!!

probably just playwriting. interviews are much more standard within theatre programs. i think all three playwriting programs to which i've applied have an interview component. also, i didn't apply to michener so idk about their process (someone on draft asked). but from the spreadsheet ut austin sent me, it looks like they're only speaking with 9 candidates, which feels promising! keeping my fingers crossed!

can't remember if we had any other playwrights in this crew (i know they have a thread of their own, and i've posted there as well) - but just received an interview request for ut austin's playwriting program!

i applied to uc riverside as well! that's one where i applied for fiction but am also drawn to the cross-population of genres and the presence of a playwriting program on-campus. in the very little time i had to research, i was asking myself, "how do i worm my way into writing the most stuff i like, regardless of what they title the program?"

tooootally depends. this was a seat of my pants decision. for a little context, i graduated with my BFA in directing from carnegie mellon in the class of 2020, but i fell far more in love with playwriting than directing during my time there. entered the workforce right at the start of covid and had to get strategic, so i expanded into writing for video games and the immersive industry. welp, i have experienced two layoffs since then, as those worlds are incredibly volatile, too. most recently, my position as the narrative director at area15 was eliminated at the end of november. last time around, it took me 10 months to find full-time work, and i just did not have it in me to put all my energy there again. so. i decided to gun for grad school simultaneously. i was laid off 3 days before the yale deadline and miraculously managed to get an app submitted, lol. i already have a professional identity as a playwright, so i would be much more selective about where i go to study playwriting. on the flipside, my entire creative life has blossomed out from the origin point of theatre. i consider myself a playwright before i consider myself anything else. it's sacred to me. as for creative writing, i'm a less competitive applicant, but i'm inspired by how much i could grow in a cw program. and with the state of the entertainment industry (not to mention the state of the nation), there's something compelling about building out a solitary writing practice. something i can pursue independent from my employers or access to collaborators. in either case, i'm interested in programs with flexible boundaries around genre so that i can explore both. my top choice for creative writing is probably uc davis, and my top choice for playwriting is probably yale. but this whole process has been such an unexpected whirlwind that even those leanings are a vibe check. i could totally be swayed in a wildly different direction. SORRY THAT WAS SO LONG FJNJEDNFJKN i'm expelling anxious energy

hi, playwrights! introducing myself late, but i've applied to a mix of programs: some in creative writing, some in playwriting (yale, ut austin, and iowa, for the latter category). wanted to pop in and say that i just received an interview request for ut austin! keep an eye on your email, if that one's on your list!

update: submitted my uc riverside app last night! (does anyone know if there's any benefit to submitting the optional statement of pedagogy? i did not because it was causing me unnecessary dread and i just wanted to get the materials locked in before i travel tomorrow - but curious if it's even worthwhile.) now just university of houston to go. home stretch!

oh, so cool to see someone else here with a background in games and comics! i also applied totally last minute this cycle and am letting the chips fall where they may. i have the samples i have, and if they're too genre-influenced for a program, welp, so be it. best of luck with the apps! it's 3 am and i'm actively procrastinating on my final two (houston and UC riverside)

ahhh, i have a big question! i'm splitting my apps between creative writing: fiction programs and playwriting programs. my top choice for fiction is uc davis. they have several tracks, including a multi-genre/hybrid track, and several of their faculty members specialize in mixed form/experimental writing. i think it would be a GREAT fit for me, as i'd ideally like to straddle the line between creative writing and playwriting and explore the folk traditions of oral storytelling in my graduate studies. SO, BIG QUESTION: do you think that, if i outline this intention in my SoP, i could submit both a short story and an excerpt from a play of mine? here are their guidelines online: Either ten to twelve poems or up to thirty pages (double-spaced) of prose. Hybrid-form work must not exceed thirty pages. To apply for admission to our Creative Writing MFA program, you are encouraged to include, as a writing sample, your very best creative writing. Typically, two—or at the most three—genres exist in a graduate Creative Writing program: Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction. At UCD, we think of genre as a useful thing to consider… but we do not think of the various genres—however many you would like to list—as necessarily unmixable modes. For us, the value of a piece of writing is better gauged directly—by what it says to its readers, and by what that saying does to those readers—rather than by its successful or unsuccessful identification with one or another of the historically certified genres. This is not to say that we don't believe in genre, or in the usefulness of plumbing each purported genre's history; it is to say, rather, or to notice… that the border between one genre and another is not so much a Great Wall as a small fence. playwriting falls further outside the bounds of "multi-genre" than i think most programs expect, but it's my strongest writing and a theatrical writing background is intrinsic to my goals as a writer. i don't know, folks, what do ya think? i'm leaning toward just going for it, but if i receive a resounding "NO" from you folks, i'll reconsider.

hey, folks! question: how are you advising your recommenders to address their recommendation letters? i had one professor ask specifically to whom they should be addressing each letter, but everyone else has kept it broad. would you recommend i hunt down specific names for her, or should i ask her to make the address more general?

hey, everyone! i was thrust into this process totally last minute. i'm a narrative director, and i was laid off two weeks ago without warning. this was my second layoff in two years, and the state of the industries i work in (theatre, gaming, and immersive experiences) is, to say the least, dire. to broaden my field of potential options, i decided to take the plunge and send out grad school applications. i'm a professional writer, but my foundational training is as a playwright. i graduated from carnegie mellon in december of 2019, prepared for a life as a theatre artist... annnnd then the pandemic decimated those prospects. i pivoted into video games... annnnd now we've seen 30,000+ gaming layoffs in the past 18 months. pivoted again into immersive experiences... annnnd the industry is so young that most ventures are startups, layoffs are rampant, and narrative professionals are the first to go. it's a lot! i just turned 28, and i've experienced a lot of early career success; however, that's all been packaged in severe job insecurity. with the growing threat of AI to my field, i'm strategizing again. storytelling is a sacred practice to me, and i'm fairly agnostic when it comes to my preferred vessel. that said: the bulk of my experience is in inherently collaborative ventures. to continue centralizing writing in my life, i think the greatest gift i can offer myself is a more refined solitary practice that's focused on my prose so that i'm less dependent on an employer facilitating my ability to make my work. so. here we are!! i applied to yale for playwriting, but the other five schools on my list are all creative writing: iowa, university of houston, UCSD, UC riverside, and UC irvine. i am truly flying by the seat of my pants here and am realistic about my odds - but just working on applications is soo much better for my mental health than agonizing over empty job boards before the holidays.