whitneyyyy

Because of what the Chinese government has done, I feel a deep hatred toward it. This is also one of the main reasons why I want to remain in the US. I genuinely believe that freedom of speech in the US is much stronger than in China. In China, when you publish literary works, you inevitably have to avoid discussing politics. Nothing negative is allowed at all. Even topics such as sexual orientation must be handled with caution. In 2018, the BL author Tianyi was sentenced to ten years in prison. She is about to be released, but more than fifty other authors have recently been arrested. This is the current state of Chinese literature. And given the level of corruption in the Chinese government, I believe that there are not a small number of people who get published through nepotism and connections. Returning to the discussion about the MFA, I still believe that in countries with relatively free speech, whether one succeeds in publishing depends on whether the story is genuinely good and whether people are willing to buy it. I am a genre fiction writer, so applying for an MFA is becoming less and less necessary for me.

I am from China. In my country, we don’t have many Creative Writing programs compared to US. We do have programs in Chinese literature, but they focus more on reading and literary studies rather than creative writing. But still, many Chinese authors have produced extraordinary works, like Yu Hua and Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, my two favorite authors. They didn’t even finish middle school. While I personally know two Chinese authors who graduated from Chinese literature programs, their books are not well known or widely read. I am not sure about situation in US, but for books I read, most authors didn’t come from MFA programs. I also have a friend who self published her science fiction who majored in Art. So that is another path to publication. Based only on my personal experience, I do think MFA programs can be very helpful, but are not necessary. The focused writing time, the literary environment, and the opportunity to receive funding are nice, but many of these can also be developed through reading craft books and having a consistent writing habit

Congratulations!!! Yeah, I am just gonna wait for it:) Nothing else I can do

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This is my third year applying. I’ve just kept writing, and every year I can see my writing improving. The first year I applied to 23 schools, the second year to 2, and this year just 1. I realized that no matter what the results are, I am just gonna keep writing. Yesterday while working on my current fiction project, I noticed that my writing is already better than the portfolio I submitted this year. Programs are just tools to help you, they’re not the writing itself. Enjoy the journey and good luck!

Im an international student, and my NC State portal still says “awaiting materials” for English proficiency. Since I graduated in US that requirement should be waived. I emailed them and they replied yesterday saying my application is under review. But ive seen some posts saying acceptances already sent out. Does this mean my application hasn’t been reviewed yet?