2020 Applicants Forum

[litty]

Parasite did the damn thang. 

[aloosamosa]

hi guys, longtime lurker, just joined because... existential anxiety, i suppose. also want to let you guys know this thread has been a great source of solace. im a nonfiction applicant, applied to pittsburgh, UCSD, idaho (moscow), and rutgers-camden. have heard nothing from anybody, and have a stinky feeling these next couple of weeks are going to change my life. dunno what kind of change, tho. either way, trying to visualize rejection as redirection. good luck, everyone!! 

[anarchisttiger]

2 hours ago, aloosamosa said:

hi guys, longtime lurker, just joined because... existential anxiety, i suppose. also want to let you guys know this thread has been a great source of solace. im a nonfiction applicant, applied to pittsburgh, UCSD, idaho (moscow), and rutgers-camden. have heard nothing from anybody, and have a stinky feeling these next couple of weeks are going to change my life. dunno what kind of change, tho. either way, trying to visualize rejection as redirection. good luck, everyone!! 

Welcome! Maybe just redirection to keep working on it!

Perhaps you can do me a favor...what exactly is creative nonfiction? I see posts about it a lot but I'm fairly ignorant on the subject. I struggle with the distinction between CNF and journalism.

[feralgrad]

@anarchisttiger From what I understand nonficiton =/= creative nonfiction. CNF is a subgenre of nonfiction, and it tends to deal with the author's personal experiences and opinions. This can range from the classic "essay about my divorce" to stuff like Wallace's "Consider the Lobster" (which was originally a magazine article on the Maine Lobster Festival that went off the rails). The definition is, admittedly, murky and contentious. There's certainly some overlap with journalism, although unlike the latter CNF accepts and encourages personal bias.

Edited February 10, 2020 by feralgrad

[SarahBuya]

3 hours ago, aloosamosa said:

hi guys, longtime lurker, just joined because... existential anxiety, i suppose. also want to let you guys know this thread has been a great source of solace. im a nonfiction applicant, applied to pittsburgh, UCSD, idaho (moscow), and rutgers-camden. have heard nothing from anybody, and have a stinky feeling these next couple of weeks are going to change my life. dunno what kind of change, tho. either way, trying to visualize rejection as redirection. good luck, everyone!! 

Welcome. I went to PIttsburgh for undergrad. Loved the school and the city. Good luck!

[casskress]

1 hour ago, anarchisttiger said:

Welcome! Maybe just redirection to keep working on it!

Perhaps you can do me a favor...what exactly is creative nonfiction? I see posts about it a lot but I'm fairly ignorant on the subject. I struggle with the distinction between CNF and journalism.

I would add that CNF is often a form of storytelling. The author can sometimes be a 'character' in the traditional fiction-y sense of the word. Many of the principles that make for good fiction are also needed to make good CNF. In my experience, CNF places a premium on language (choosing words for their beauty/their effect on the reader/their aesthetic quality) that goes above and beyond pure journalism (not that word choice isn't also important in journalism. CNF is just more concerned with the artistic value of language and less worried about the need to be concise 100% of the time). 

All of this is super subjective. This is just my take on it (I'm a CNF applicant btw).

Read some Leslie Jamison or Annie Dillard!

[aloosamosa]

1 hour ago, anarchisttiger said:

Welcome! Maybe just redirection to keep working on it!

Perhaps you can do me a favor...what exactly is creative nonfiction? I see posts about it a lot but I'm fairly ignorant on the subject. I struggle with the distinction between CNF and journalism.

thanks! and honestly, I don't make much of a distinction between narrative journalism and nonfiction. the lines are definitely blurred. i was actually originally planning on going to j-school, and even got into some great ones last year, but everything got derailed last minute. oh well! a lot has happened since then, super happy to be applying to MFA programs now!! 

6 minutes ago, SarahBuya said:

Welcome. I went to PIttsburgh for undergrad. Loved the school and the city. Good luck!

tysm, you too! can't wait to hear back! 

[anarchisttiger]

Thank you everyone for the responses!

Another question for the group...what do you do when you have writer's block? I am so! ready! and pumped!! to start writing again after a little break but nothing comes to me. I've been journaling in hopes that will spark something but no dice.

[LazarusRises]

9 minutes ago, anarchisttiger said:

Thank you everyone for the responses!

Another question for the group...what do you do when you have writer's block? I am so! ready! and pumped!! to start writing again after a little break but nothing comes to me. I've been journaling in hopes that will spark something but no dice.

I'm no writer, but check out reddit.com/r/writingprompts! Fun little exercises to get the creative juices flowing. 

[feralgrad]

12 minutes ago, anarchisttiger said:

Thank you everyone for the responses!

Another question for the group...what do you do when you have writer's block? I am so! ready! and pumped!! to start writing again after a little break but nothing comes to me. I've been journaling in hopes that will spark something but no dice.

Honestly, I've had almost no inspiration to write since I submitted my apps. I'm generally in the "just write anyway" camp when I have writer's block, but currently I'm trying to take it easy. I've been drawing a lot instead, so I still have a creative/emotional outlet. If you have other creative hobbies, maybe you can lean on those.

[Yesgirlstoo]

I see journalism as reporting and creative nonfiction as storytelling. I think narrative is the word I would associate most with creative nonfiction but the genre is varied. Personal narrative and memoir as well as cultural, critical essays. Instead of describing and telling about an event, person, place like journalism, CNF would be an interpretation filtered through experience, injecting yourself as a character, and/or using fiction, poetry, and other literary elements to examine “real” life.
examples: David Sedaris, hunter s Thompson, chuck klosterman, roxane gay, jo Ann beard, on writing, Stephen King.

John D’agata explored the “truth” in creative nonfiction in Lifespan of a Fact, which is conversation between D’Agata, his piece What Happened There and the fact checker at the Believer. really interesting breakdown of that line between fiction/nonfiction and journalism/CNF

[Yesgirlstoo]

58 minutes ago, anarchisttiger said:

Thank you everyone for the responses!

Another question for the group...what do you do when you have writer's block? I am so! ready! and pumped!! to start writing again after a little break but nothing comes to me. I've been journaling in hopes that will spark something but no dice.

Reading and to a lesser extent films/“good” TV lol. Reading always gets me writing in my head or at least thinking about how I’d write it or similar events I could write about. 

[MFALongshot]

2 hours ago, feralgrad said:

Honestly, I've had almost no inspiration to write since I submitted my apps. I'm generally in the "just write anyway" camp when I have writer's block, but currently I'm trying to take it easy. I've been drawing a lot instead, so I still have a creative/emotional outlet. If you have other creative hobbies, maybe you can lean on those.

I'd like to see your work if possible. I draw as well. Also trying to learn music production.

[MFALongshot]

7 hours ago, aloosamosa said:

hi guys, longtime lurker, just joined

Welcome

[rbr542]

Looks like WUSTL waitlists are going out.

[Dochinka96]

Hey folx, I just saw a Boise State Poetry Waitlist get posted. 

I applied for fiction...getting nervous. 

Seems early, and isn’t it a bit odd to send waitlists before acceptances? I was certain we would see acceptances/interviews first. 

[Seraphina16]

Hey, y'all. Fiction applicant and lurker-turned-commenter here. Just wanted to say that this forum has provided some much-needed camaraderie during this intense waiting period. I've decided to take a break from Draft for the time being, since I like the atmosphere a lot more over here! So, hi. :)

Also, don't know if any of you have heard Phase II notifications have gone out for Ole Miss. The ones I've seen have just been poetry, though. Think they're waiting to release fiction? And omg that random Boise State waitlist has me nervous too.

[MFALongshot]

2 hours ago, Seraphina16 said:

Hey, y'all. Fiction applicant and lurker-turned-commenter here. Just wanted to say that this forum has provided some much-needed camaraderie during this intense waiting period. I've decided to take a break from Draft for the time being, since I like the atmosphere a lot more over here! So, hi.

Also, don't know if any of you have heard Phase II notifications have gone out for Ole Miss. The ones I've seen have just been poetry, though. Think they're waiting to release fiction? And omg that random Boise State waitlist has me nervous too.

Welcome. Let's hope they're waiting to send out fiction. If not, I didn't make it lol

[MFALongshot]

3 hours ago, Dochinka96 said:

Hey folx, I just saw a Boise State Poetry Waitlist get posted. 

I applied for fiction...getting nervous. 

Seems early, and isn’t it a bit odd to send waitlists before acceptances? I was certain we would see acceptances/interviews first. 

I saw that as well. Seemed weird to me too

[cdreibelbis]

6 hours ago, Dochinka96 said:

Hey folx, I just saw a Boise State Poetry Waitlist get posted. 

I applied for fiction...getting nervous. 

Seems early, and isn’t it a bit odd to send waitlists before acceptances? I was certain we would see acceptances/interviews first. 

 

4 hours ago, Seraphina16 said:

Hey, y'all. Fiction applicant and lurker-turned-commenter here. Just wanted to say that this forum has provided some much-needed camaraderie during this intense waiting period. I've decided to take a break from Draft for the time being, since I like the atmosphere a lot more over here! So, hi.

Also, don't know if any of you have heard Phase II notifications have gone out for Ole Miss. The ones I've seen have just been poetry, though. Think they're waiting to release fiction? And omg that random Boise State waitlist has me nervous too.

Jumping in on Boise State fear seemed to be  good time to introduce myself. I haven't seen any notifications for Fiction Phase 2 for Ole Miss. I applied for nothing within reach (poetry applicant) at Mississippi, Iowa, Michigan, Northern Michigan, Brown, Boise State, Arizona, Oregon, and Maryland. Thank you for all the entertainment and camraderie while we wait. I have no idea what this process would be like with nothing to look at. Best of luck to everyone! 

[aloosamosa]

Pittsburgh is sending out fiction interview calls! haven't seen any CNF interviewees post anywhere yet, holding out hope that they're organized by genre 

[rbr542]

Who else is feverishly re-reading their samples, statements and trying to divine possible adcom reactions. 

[Seraphina16]

43 minutes ago, rbr542 said:

Who else is feverishly re-reading their samples, statements and trying to divine possible adcom reactions. 

I've been avoiding my app materials like the plague ever since I hit submit. UF asked me to re-send my sample a week or so ago, and I was so tempted to peek at it... but I know it'll only make my nerves worse! 

14 hours ago, MFALongshot said:

Welcome. Let's hope they're waiting to send out fiction. If not, I didn't make it lol

Haha, same here. There are typically more fiction apps than poetry, so it makes sense. 

[newapplicant]

So if I didn't get notified for Ole Miss poetry Phase II yet is there no hope at this point?

[Ydrl]

Rejected from Syracuse