analog_e

Not sure on the others, but Brown generally sends acceptance letters in the first half of March. Seems most programs have given their responses by then, with some making calls in February.

From what I have read elsewhere (past MFA threads, potentially his one), look for the language-if it is a suggested page count or a hard range. I know at least for Brown, which is 30-40, people have gotten in submitting fewer. Prevailing advice seems to be submit your best work and do not compromise with anything that might weaken your portfolio.

Sorry, finals and I still have two essays to go... Yoko Tawada: aware of her as someone who works with interest in meaning between languages but have not read her work-my Japanese is nowhere near up to par and I don't know any German and it seems pretty vital to read her in one of the two; Hélène Cixous: I read one of her essays for a class, something Medusa, proposing a new form of women's writing but beyond that am unfamiliar; Kobo Abe I have seen the film adaptation of Woman in the Dunes because I'm a real Japanese New Wave nerd; Jan Zwicky I am unfamiliar with. Looks like I have some names to add to my ever mounting to read list. I am taking a women in Japanese literature course next semester for which I am excited, as the only Japanese authors I have really read are Mishima (and how I love Mishima) and Sayaka Murata (who is probably the only artist whose representation of autistic perspective has been resonant to me-Earthlings is really precious to me) I am not familiar with that case, but am familiar with Toni Morrison and nominatively familiar with James Baldwin. Glad to see I am not the only one here trying to push against bounds. This sounds like fascinating work and I can't imagine a serious program not being interested, though I am sure some are more conservative than others, and those are programs you wouldn't want to attend anyhow. My exploration of languages beyond English ends at French, and I am not exploring it from nearly as personal a perspective as you-I just throw a lot of French into my writing because I enjoy writing in French, and it allows me to say things in new and interesting ways and facilitates a defamiliarization, which is not nearly as interesting as operating within post-colonial multilingualism. I would love to read your work sometime, though I do not speak Spanish and the only bilingual English-Spanish work I have read, Canicula, required a non-trivial amount of work to make sense of at points (it was worth it, though, as the novel would not have been as poignant without the Spanish).

Sorry if this is unwelcome or inappropriate for this space, which seems mostly oriented around the actual process of applying, but I am curious what other folks aspiring to these programs are writing-genres (if any), what you're doing stylistically, what you're exploring, who are your influences. I'm not really sure what folks who apply to MFA programs actually write, aside from Moshfegh-it just seems like the thing to do post-graduation as someone who really only cares about writing and playing fiddle. It's difficult to pin down what I am doing, but usually my work is obsessed with language-the way the subject is bound up in and inextricable from definition, how we speak ourselves out of agency, trying to achieve forms of ostranenie-consciousness, trauma, outsider experience, and confinement. It tends to be queer and to some extent informed by theory-queer theory, photography/film theory, critical theory, etc-and fairly hallucinogenic, dense, and indifferent to formal constraints. I usually do weird things with dialogue, either embedding it in the language without differentiation or constructing large unlineated paragraphs of conversation. Obscenely long sentences strung together by elaborate sequences of dashes and commas and parentheticals and ellipses are very precious to me. Sometimes things get meta. I usually incorporate my weird hyperfixations into whatever I am writing, so like one saxophonist's name might appear repeatedly, sometimes diving into analysis of his technique or which albums best capture his sound. I wrote a scene the other day where a feverdream memory of a jello commercial I saw when I was 11 plays out as an execution sequence in medieval Paris. That sort of thing. It's all pretty weird, likely has no market value, and may not be at all what esteemed literary programs like Brown are looking for, but who knows, maybe they'll take a chance on my messy little oddities. Oh, as far as influences: Bataille, Pynchon, Michael Cisco, Djuna Barnes, Jean Toomer, Deleuze, Virginia Woolf, and I am sure others all to varying degrees have made their mark on how I write.

That reputation is what so draws me to the program. I cannot imagine anywhere else as a better fit. My writing has been described as kaleidoscopic, experimental, and hallucinogenic, and I think those are all apt. I think my aim is to integrate the abstract, theory driven experimentation with grounded characterization, dialogue, and emotion, and Brown just seems like the ideal place to pursue that. Thank you so much for the encouragement!

I wrote in my application about my interest in integrating photography into literature-I find projects like Dictee, Canicula, Rankine's Citizen and such fascinating; have read a fair amount of photography theory; and am an amateur analog photographer, but I am not sure that would justify applying to the cross disciplinary tract. Apparently people in the past have been everything from sculpteurs to violinists to web designers. I've got a fair amount of experience with synthesizers and can play a few instruments, know how to build a basic HTML website, but I think it would be ambitious to assemble anything professional enough out of my hodge podge of artistic pursuits to merit applying. Maybe another year, assuming I do not get into the fiction track this time around.

I talked to my fiction professor today and she said UVA doesn't accept their own undergrads. Not once in the history of the program has it happened and it is ostensibly an unspoken rule, so I will save my $85 and see what comes of sending a single application. Brown or bust baybeeeeeee!

After some snooping, it looks like some implicitly want it, and others want the margins blank, so who knows-there's conflicting advice here. I am less concerned now than I was half an hour ago, at least, because I am confident I'll not be the only one lacking them.

You ever wake up in a cold sweat realizing you should have put page numbers on your writing sample? Fun feeling. Oh well, hopefully Brown doesn't mind too much. 😩

for anyone this might help in the future, I just attended the opening of the new Data Science facility at UVA last Spring-it is tremendously nice, if a little ugly, and they are clearly investing heavily in the program-a tremendous amount of hype surrounding the program (tho I do not have specifics, I am in the English department and was invited as a plus one with my ex girlfriend who graduated as a software engineer)

I'm going to have a tough time deciding should I be admitted to both. Brown is my dream school, but I've lived in Charlottesville since 2018 and built a life here. UVA has been exceptional to me in every possible fashion and I really love the professors I've worked with. It's a really exceptional university in a really exceptional little city.

Hey all, first time applying. Finally, in my twilight years (32), about to finish a degree in English at UVA. I figured I would aim for two longshots this year-staying at UVA or moving to Providence for Brown. I clicked submit on Brown today and am planning to submit for UVA a bit closer to the deadline so I can tighten up one of the excerpts (could not use the same piece for both applications due to page number requirements being different). Just finished my only two exams and am about to have my final class, then it's three ten page essays between me and break. My thinking is that if I do not get in this year, I will just devote the year to honing my fiddle playing and try again next fall. Either way I am content. It'll be a nice surprise or an oh well rather than crushing disappointment.