draff

Same thing here: I won't know where I'm going until I've made visits; but, as I know that there are folks around here who are waitlisted at each of the places that I was lucky enough to be admitted to, I can see how much a timely decision might matter. For what it's worth, visits for most places will have happened by the end of March. So April 1st might be the soonest movement anyone might see.

You might think about using a different (or writing a new) writing sample, also -- the suggestion that you don't want to pour too much energy into test scores has this on the other side of it. If you can, you should definitely be getting in touch with any DGS whose program you applied to, and who will talk to you about your application -- about your writing sample and statement in particular. I've heard of great things coming out of those conversations.

I don't mean for this to be a downer at all, but I really don't think they're looking that closely.

What would be some poets you've been interested in? That would help narrow things down. Without that to go on, I'd just say that Temple has Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Emory (I think still) has Walter Kalaidjian, UCSC has Nathaniel Mackey, U Wisconsin-Madison has Lynn Keller, UC Berkeley has a number of people (but Charles Altieri might be a place to start), WUSTL has Mary Jo Bang (formerly Columbia, Iowa's Writer Workshop, and Yale), Guinn Batten (formerly taught at Duke), and Vivian Pollak , Simon Fraser (in Vancouver, BC) has Stephen Collis, University of Virginia has Jerome McGann, etc. etc. etc. ...I've gotten quite a lot from each of those folks' critical writings. That's also just the top of my head right now. If I had a sense of what poetries you had a critical investment in, it would be easier to recommend reading.

I'm of two minds about this, but what about this as a thought: the kind of focus that you want to be able to demonstrate in your application comes through in some combination of Statement of Purpose/etc. (this is not really a binding legal document--you can say that you want to focus exclusively on texts that were peripheral to the Eikon Basilike, but that doesn't obligate you to any such thing once you're actually admitted) and your Writing Sample. And while it's much easier to point to your statement or research plans as having equal weight to your writing sample, it's honestly far less significant to Who You Are As A Scholar than your writing sample. So the only focus you really need to be accountable to happens there; and frankly, if you're an incredibly serious student as an undergraduate, I think that you can demonstrate every bit as much focus in that document as a graduate student. The question, though, is what that focus looks like, and how to show it. And I think that, for most people who are committed to doing scholarship in the humanities, you probably need a year or two of graduate school (or at least exposure to what graduate level work looks and feels like) before you can really be embedded enough in a conversation about literature or/as culture to figure that part--that is, what a focused piece of scholarship does--out. I mean, while it's great to have one's mentors suggest that something is terrific, is a perfect writing sample, etc., but that's basically like having your father tell you that there's no way you won't make the team: the decision isn't up to them. So unless you're participating in symposia, conferences, etc., or actively seeking publication from journals that are known to give useful feedback, it will be hard to know whether your scholarly performance has a 'focus' that is acute enough to be doing PhD-level study. To put it another way, I'm not sure that it's fair, really, that competitive programs ask that you already have a pretty specific focus when you enter, but when you consider the number of people going into this field, the dwindling number of exits available to humanities PhDs across all fields, and the fact that there are quite a few Master's programs that fund (and appropriately), I don't know how else a school would be able to predict that their applicants would thrive, other than by their demonstration of a tremendous amount of focus. I know that some programs, in fact, ask that their applicants propose a reading list for their studies with their application. Tangentially:::::It's a tough time to be trying to do humanities scholarship...we're lucky, as English Lit. students--difficult as this process is--that universities have been so amenable to the integration of composition courses into their general education curricula. Otherwise, there would be fewer spots for graduate students, far less funding, and even fewer paths to follow after earning the PhD.

Are you interested in poetry? fiction? I don't have much to offer on fiction, frankly. And the poetries that I know well are largely the sort that it's difficult to talk about without trading in theory to some extent... But, if you look at poetries at all, you might get something out of working with Keith Tuma, at Miami University of Ohio. He's actively publishing, and quite engaged with contemporary poetries in Great Britain. The only other Americans I can think of whose writing I've found useful re: post-WW2 Irish or British or Scottish poets are...well, other poets. Or they aren't accessible, really (I'm thinking of people like Marjorie Perloff, here, but also scholars who are overseas/itinerant). However--and this is something I'm sure you understand--there are an awful lot more people with an interest in those national literatures in Great Britain than there are here, per capita. And your research, in particular, would be hindered by having to fly overseas to gain access to any special collections that might reside in a library off that way. On that front, if you have any interest in contemporary poetries of the Commonwealth, as it were, then I notice an awful lot of smart people at the University of Sussex. I know nothing of the school's reputation, however.

I think that it might help to know what the original comment meant by "close-reading." Close-reading is a way of engaging with a text--that text can just as easily be a writing in gender theory or a Japanese film as it can a line in a novel. Much theory--at least when it's actually addressing some specific cultural artifact--comes about through close-reading. But, often enough, when someone says, "well, that's a nice close-reading, but...," the problem is that the essay hasn't really moved through an inquiry that this someone sees as significant. The issue isn't close-reading, but the kinds of questions that have motivated the writing in the essay. Perhaps knowing that would help the members on the board point in more useful directions?

Results in my signature; applying after BA, MA, and MFA. I read poetry with a historically materialist & formalist lens (formalism isn't a bad word). Period-wise, let's say Late Modernism, and we'll figure out what that means some other time. If I could have written any two books in the last fifteen or twenty years, one would have been Cinematic Modernism, by Susan McCabe, and the other would have been Walter Kalaidjian's American Culture Between the Wars. Probably. Probably stuff by Cary Nelson and Jerome McGann would be up there, too; or Nathaniel Mackey or Maria Damon or Lynn Keller. Or Marjorie Perloff. Going into the process with a bit of symposia presentation, a bit of publication (nothing especially notable, though), and lacking an awful lot in prose style / essay-writing deftness.

It's somewhere between the two of those options. I am by no means an insider myself (like I said--still waiting, myself), but I'm not speculating.

So, I'm not that comfortable getting into specifics, as I have found nothing out through official channels... ...but, for those of us still hanging on for hope, I hear that the dept. is still setting financial packages, and that they are waiting for that (and had been waiting for university decisions to be made before this) to be figured out before notifying people officially... If your status hasn't changed, I'd say you should keep your fingers crossed, but your jaw clenched. It may mean absolutely nothing, and you may yet be rejected. But you may yet be accepted. And we'll probably know by the end of the weekend. ps. The whole wishing-retribution-on-admissions-committees-for-one's-own-anxiety thing that's cropped up in this thread (and far more...expressively...in others) seems a bit out of place? Like getting all pissed off at the bus driver for getting you where you're going too slowly, when she's been battling traffic the whole way?

The letter said: Also, they offered 200 dollars of travel expenses and a couch to sleep on (or equivalent: maybe sleeping bag?) for their campus visit at the end of the month. So, basically, I read that as saying 10-15k depending on experience and how much work you can get, and they'll try to sort out Project Assistantships to cover the first year for people...but no guarantees. Hope that helps you make your decision.

Wanting to bring the back to the top -- it seems like it's getting late in the game for Minnesota. Anybody heard anything new?