womaninthevoid

Hi! First off—congratulations on your acceptances! I’m very sorry to hear about your lack of funding, I completely get the struggle, as my top choice also did not provide funding for me and I had to turn it down for that reason. I just wanted to note here, not specifically just to you, but for any future applicants or lurkers who may see your message: please don’t feel discouraged to submit a novel excerpt if you truly feel like it is your strongest work. While it is absolutely true that programs like to see narrative momentum/arc, I disagree that your writing sample should or needs to have a beginning middle and end or resolution. Of course I am not suggesting submitting an incomplete novel chapter or excerpt, and your excerpts should still be somewhat self-contained (as most novel chapters are). I submitted a prologue + chapter one, as I am largely a novel writer and do not have any short stories that can speak to my skills, and got into several programs. While my prologue and chapter one were certainly “complete”, they were largely unresolved. What I focused on was showcasing the voice/tone/writing style that I was striving for, as well as my line-by-line prose. I hope this maybe helps somebody! And good luck to you, I hope funding comes through for you!

did they even do waitlists yet? seems so backwards from previous years lol

are they doing iowa (fiction) rejections in bulk or by last name or something? i haven’t received one yet. i’d just like to be put out of my misery lmfao

thanks for the clarification! sorry i did not mean to call you out by name, i just thought it was super cool that they were transparent like that and great info for future applicants. congrats by the way!!

right!! that dedication. yes i assume waitlists will be coming out early this week then 😮

for those of you wondering about iowa fiction, orangemittens on drafts gave juicy info: he/she/they were the last person sam reached out to for the “original pool of successful applicants”. for admissions this year, sam narrowed the manuscripts down to 50-60, then four visiting faculty (that will eventually be teachers) voted on them. successful applicants required a minimum of 2 of 4 votes. i thought this was super useful information into the decision making process of iowa for future applicants or future waitlisters. anyway good luck to everybody!!

syracuse oh syracuse WHERE ARE YOU

that’s great to hear!! i’m glad i could’ve helped. now i’m wondering if we interviewed at the same place haha… what genre are you?

i had an interview today. it was very informal—the director asked me a few questions specifically about my writing sample, asked about my journey as a writer etc (not traditional, i’ve never had any experience in literature or english), and then talked about the program itself. i think its pretty consistent from what i’ve heard from other programs—its less of an interview (they already know they like you as a writer), and more of a “make sure they’d want to spend 2+ years with you” lol. i was pretty nervous before it because i didn’t know what to expect, but afterwards i felt dumb for being so nervous haha. good luck!!

anybody know if they typically call all in one day? sincerely, womanfreakingout

omg yay! can we somehow contact each other without doxxing ourselves lol

hii!! sorry i have no info on either really but just wanted to let you know i got into FSU fiction too. maybe we will be classmates next year

hi everybody! does anybody have any idea when we can expect to hear from nyc schools? (fiction)

a stranger on the internet is very very proud of you!!!! ❤️

sameee:( i only saw one person add acceptance in drafts so im hoping they’re not done with offers