2019 Applicants

[mandelbulb]

ah, i wasn't even checking after the uiuc acceptance. i wasn't expecting notre dame so soon? so i'm with you, @WildeThing

[dreid]

Is nobody gonna shout out Adore Delano? By far my fave ever queen! ? 

(Hi everyone, btw - I’m rejoining the gradcafe conversation after a self-imposed break, as my incessant results page stalking was sending me loopy! Good luck to all you nervous wrecks like myself!)

[The Wordsworthian]

8 hours ago, flungoutofspace said:

Does anyone else have Illinois at hand, in preparation for the day that they’re rejected by Chicago? (I’m not optimistic about my chances, so my vinyl’s already at the ready for when I need to mourn the lost hours I’ve spent working on my Chicago application...) 

On a side note, since you’re both fans of Sharon Van Etten, do you listen to Anna Calvi or St Vincent too? Their music’s in a somewhat similar vein to Van Etten’s, I think. 

I love Illinois, but I do have to say my favorite Stevens album is Carrie & Lowell.  (Especially given my research interest in the elegy... coincidence? I think not!)

Also a fan of St. Vincent but I’m going to check out Anna Calvi now that you’ve mentioned them.  Always love discovering new music. 

[mwils15]

Is there an exhaustive list somewhere of places that interview literature PhD applicants somewhere on Grad Cafe? I’ve been looking and can’t seem to find one. If a school does interview is it usually listed on its website somewhere?

[placeinspace]

12 minutes ago, mwils15 said:

Is there an exhaustive list somewhere of places that interview literature PhD applicants somewhere on Grad Cafe? I’ve been looking and can’t seem to find one. If a school does interview is it usually listed on its website somewhere?

I don't know of a list but I know a few pages back people were posting schools they know interview.

It's not normally on the website - I had no idea some of my programs interviewed until people started mentioning it on here. I wish I'd known so I could've planned better about saving some vacation days just in case I have to interview!

[sad_diamond]

52 minutes ago, mwils15 said:

Is there an exhaustive list somewhere of places that interview literature PhD applicants somewhere on Grad Cafe? I’ve been looking and can’t seem to find one. If a school does interview is it usually listed on its website somewhere?

I think your best bet is to look up each school you're applying to on the Results page and see if people posted getting interviews for those schools in previous years. 

[pdh12]

Congrats to the ND + Emory peeps!! Where ya at?

[disidentifications]

8 hours ago, dangermouse said:

@flungoutofspace i LOVE st vincent! i've had the piano versions of MassEducation on repeat for the last few weeks.

ohhh do you have a favourite track off that album? and the original version of masseduction? (happy birthday, johnny always makes me tear up, but pills really grew on me, and that last part? so. good.) 

3 hours ago, The Wordsworthian said:

I love Illinois, but I do have to say my favorite Stevens album is Carrie & Lowell.  (Especially given my research interest in the elegy... coincidence? I think not!)

mine too!! except i can't listen to it too much because it's so melancholic and has, over the years, become the music i cry to. (same with the national, to be honest.) 

10 hours ago, northwestnative said:

Totally jumping into this conversation late, but I'm really digging everyone's tastes in music. @flungoutofspace, I just started listening to St. Vincent, and I'm into it. I only know Anna Calvi through her bit on a Noah and the Whale track, but I should go check out her solo stuff.

3 hours ago, The Wordsworthian said:

 Also a fan of St. Vincent but I’m going to check out Anna Calvi now that you’ve mentioned them.  Always love discovering new music. 

she has such a haunting voice, and like st vincent, is basically a genius on the guitar. i can't recommend her enough... 

[lyonel_]

3 hours ago, The Wordsworthian said:

my favorite Stevens album is Carrie & Lowell.  (Especially given my research interest in the elegy... coincidence? I think not!)

You should watch the performance of C&L Live, if you haven't already. The whole Live record puts a lot of beautiful interpretations on the album's songs.

[Bopie5]

50 minutes ago, flungoutofspace said:

mine too!! except i can't listen to it too much because it's so melancholic and has, over the years, become the music i cry to. (same with the national, to be honest.) 

Totally agree here—The National and Sufjan are my go-to music for crying. And @The Wordsworthian I have this pipe dream of someday teaching a “Lyric as Poetry” course analyzing lyrics like poetry, focusing on significant albums of the 2010 decade. Carrie & Lowell would definitely be a week of the syllabus. Idk how Sufjan will ever top it!

And @lyonel_ I second this! The live performance wrecked me on another level.

[The Wordsworthian]

54 minutes ago, lyonel_ said:

You should watch the performance of C&L Live, if you haven't already. The whole Live record puts a lot of beautiful interpretations on the album's songs.

Oh my goodness the live performance is absolutely harrowing.  And I love that Sufjan is low-key super awkward and sways his hips all weird when he tries to dance but is totally making it work.

 

9 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:

Totally agree here—The National and Sufjan are my go-to music for crying. And @The Wordsworthian I have this pipe dream of someday teaching a “Lyric as Poetry” course analyzing lyrics like poetry, focusing on significant albums of the 2010 decade. Carrie & Lowell would definitely be a week of the syllabus. Idk how Sufjan will ever top it!

Wow, I totally share that dream.  I've taken a few classes where we dabbled briefly with particularly poignant song lyrics but we never went as in depth as I'd have liked to.  Also a huuuuge National fan here, and Matt Berninger has been doing a lot of solo work and has been so successful--I absolutely love his music outside the band as well!

[bernardthepug]

This is probably a somewhat idiosyncratic question (and sorry if it's been discussed elsewhere), but how much does an endorsement from your PoI bolster your application? Does your PoIs interest in your work carry significant weight with the adcom? Or is it really just situational--varying from program to program?

[Bopie5]

3 minutes ago, The Wordsworthian said:

Wow, I totally share that dream.  I've taken a few classes where we dabbled briefly with particularly poignant song lyrics but we never went as in depth as I'd have liked to.  Also a huuuuge National fan here, and Matt Berninger has been doing a lot of solo work and has been so successful--I absolutely love his music outside the band as well!

!!!! Ooo tell me what albums you’d put on your syllabus? 

The National are e v e r y t h i n g. I truly think of Matt as a poet. I’ve seen them live twice. And agree—his solo stuff is also lovely! Also the Dessner brothers have been doing some fun collaborations with other artists which is cool too.

[havemybloodchild]

8 hours ago, dreid said:

Is nobody gonna shout out Adore Delano? By far my fave ever queen! ? 

I LOVE Adore. That snatch game? I died. I’m still dying thinking about it.

[dangermouse]

1 hour ago, flungoutofspace said:

ohhh do you have a favourite track off that album? and the original version of masseduction? (happy birthday, johnny always makes me tear up, but pills really grew on me, and that last part? so. good.) 

i LOVE happy birthday johnny! i'm a big fan of all the variants of slow disco; i also really love the piano version of saviour. i remember not being convinced by pills as much as the other tracks on my first few listens but naybe i should give it another go!

[disidentifications]

@lyonel_ @The Wordsworthian @Bopie5 I just set my youtube on autoplay earlier, and it led me back to this (the side D of all delighted people), so I thought i'd just share it here, just in case anyone, like myself, was ignorant about its existence until recently. 

[The Wordsworthian]

@Bopie5 Wow great question.  I suppose I'd put Arcade Fire's The Suburbs and/or Reflektor, Stevens's Carrie & Lowell, Beach House's Teen Dream, Pink Floyd's The Wall and probably Animals, Hospice by the Antlers, In The Airplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, Joni Mitchell's Blue, Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie, and Trouble Will Find Me by The National.  But I feel like I'm only scratching the surface there... I think I'd have to dedicate an entire year to a class like this, ha ha.

What about you!?

[placeinspace]

17 minutes ago, bernardthepug said:

This is probably a somewhat idiosyncratic question (and sorry if it's been discussed elsewhere), but how much does an endorsement from your PoI bolster your application? Does your PoIs interest in your work carry significant weight with the adcom? Or is it really just situational--varying from program to program?

I don't know for sure, but my understanding is that it varies. Sometimes your POI will be on the adcomm, sometimes they won't be, sometimes they'll have pull, sometimes they won't. I think it's different from program to program and year to year.

[disidentifications]

3 minutes ago, dangermouse said:

i LOVE happy birthday johnny! i'm a big fan of all the variants of slow disco; i also really love the piano version of saviour. i remember not being convinced by pills as much as the other tracks on my first few listens but naybe i should give it another go!

slow disco's such a gem of a song -- it really is like st vincent says, if it's a good song, it should work however you play it. and it does!! 
i think pills is more of a grower. i really didn't like it initially, but the more you listen to it, the more it makes sense? and that saxophone part by kamasi washington at the end, alongside those terribly heartbreaking lyrics and annie's howl-like voice just make such a perfect combination. 

[Bopie5]

@The Wordsworthian Hospice! Transatlanticism! In The Aeroplane Over the Sea! We have very very similar taste. Hospice especially is so much poetry.

Hmmm hard to choose. I think if I were to do it as a real course, I'd focus on the 2010-2020 decade and organize the course historically, and the syllabus would probably be more varied and feature albums that I don't necessarily like, but think are important (like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). 

But, if it were just albums I love, just to talk about lyrics as a medium of poetry, I'd probably say we'd share Hospice, Carrie & Lowell, Transatlanticism, and In the Aeroplane..., and I'd then add The Idler Wheel... by Fiona Apple, A Brief Inquiry... by The 1975, 22, A Million by Bon Iver, High As Hope by Florence + The Machine, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning by Bright Eyes, Melodrama by Lorde, and Kindly Now by Keaton Henson. And then it's a toss up for me if I would represent The National with Trouble Will Find Me or Sleep Well Beast, but I think I lean toward the latter! And I feel like I should have something by The Mountain Goats in there, but I can't decide which album. 

[illcounsel]

1 minute ago, Bopie5 said:

And I feel like I should have something by The Mountain Goats in there, but I can't decide which album.

EVERY ALBUM. It is too hard to pick a favorite!

[disidentifications]

6 minutes ago, Bopie5 said:

But, if it were just albums I love, just to talk about lyrics as a medium of poetry, I'd probably say we'd share Hospice, Carrie & Lowell, Transatlanticism, and In the Aeroplane..., and I'd then add The Idler Wheel... by Fiona Apple, A Brief Inquiry... by The 1975, 22, A Million by Bon Iver, High As Hope by Florence + The Machine, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning by Bright Eyes, Melodrama by Lorde, and Kindly Now by Keaton Henson. And then it's a toss up for me if I would represent The National with Trouble Will Find Me or Sleep Well Beast, but I think I lean toward the latter! And I feel like I should have something by The Mountain Goats in there, but I can't decide which album. 

19 minutes ago, The Wordsworthian said:

@Bopie5 Wow great question.  I suppose I'd put Arcade Fire's The Suburbs and/or Reflektor, Stevens's Carrie & Lowell, Beach House's Teen Dream, Pink Floyd's The Wall and probably Animals, Hospice by the Antlers, In The Airplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, Joni Mitchell's Blue, Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie, and Trouble Will Find Me by The National.  But I feel like I'm only scratching the surface there... I think I'd have to dedicate an entire year to a class like this, ha ha.

 

upvoting for the Joni Mitchell and Pink Floyd and Arcade Fire and Fiona Apple and Lorde and FATM and The National. 
it's 1.30am here and my brain isn't quite so lucid, so all i can say is, i love all your music tastes omg. 

[mustmatatus]

Hi guys, I'm one of the Emory interviewees. Have been lurking here for a while and y'all seem like really nice people. Does anyone have any idea what the interview is supposed to consist of? The DGS emailed me and said there'd be dinners, social events, a city tour (??), and interviews with faculty. It's a four-day thing and that feels like a super long time. Let me know if anyone knows anything about the interview process. I'm super anxious about it.

[placeinspace]

3 minutes ago, manymusings14 said:

Hi guys, I'm one of the Emory interviewees. Have been lurking here for a while and y'all seem like really nice people. Does anyone have any idea what the interview is supposed to consist of? The DGS emailed me and said there'd be dinners, social events, a city tour (??), and interviews with faculty. It's a four-day thing and that feels like a super long time. Let me know if anyone knows anything about the interview process. I'm super anxious about it.

I can't offer any advice, but congrats!!! I do agree that 4 days seems like a long time so I'm curious to hear any input others have if this is common or not.

[The Wordsworthian]

1 hour ago, Bopie5 said:

 Hospice! Transatlanticism! In The Aeroplane Over the Sea! We have very very similar taste. Hospice especially is so much poetry.

Hmmm hard to choose. I think if I were to do it as a real course, I'd focus on the 2010-2020 decade and organize the course historically, and the syllabus would probably be more varied and feature albums that I don't necessarily like, but think are important (like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). 

But, if it were just albums I love, just to talk about lyrics as a medium of poetry, I'd probably say we'd share Hospice, Carrie & Lowell, Transatlanticism, and In the Aeroplane..., and I'd then add The Idler Wheel... by Fiona Apple, A Brief Inquiry... by The 1975, 22, A Million by Bon Iver, High As Hope by Florence + The Machine, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning by Bright Eyes, Melodrama by Lorde, and Kindly Now by Keaton Henson. And then it's a toss up for me if I would represent The National with Trouble Will Find Me or Sleep Well Beast, but I think I lean toward the latter! And I feel like I should have something by The Mountain Goats in there, but I can't decide which album. 

Wow I love that you love Hospice too.  It is an unbelievable album (and the Antlers are incredible as well).  The alternate song titles are so harrowing.

I am a huge fan of Bright Eyes ("No One Would Riot For Less" is one of my all-time favorite songs off their album Cassadaga), Bon Iver, Keaton Henson (have you ever listened to Soko? She's sort of similar and they used to date), and Florence + The Machine as well.  Wow, we are kindred music spirits!

2 hours ago, flungoutofspace said:

 I just set my youtube on autoplay earlier, and it led me back to this (the side D of all delighted people), so I thought i'd just share it here, just in case anyone, like myself, was ignorant about its existence until recently.

Thank you for gracing my Wednesday afternoon with this--I'd never heard it until today.  Incredible.