Graceful Entropy Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) What's up w/ the possible Egan (or her fandom?) hating going on? I'm not hep to the bubblings of fancy lit people. Is it cuz people feel like Goon Squad was too much like stunting ? Too overtly MFA-y, like Orange's There There? Intrigued Personally, I think the main gripe/quality about MFA Guy types is that they're dismissive of other genres and works, so I think we all would take care not to fall into that trap while calling them out for it. Edited February 15, 2021 by Graceful Entropy I'm a writer; I immediately regret everything after I hit send; revise, twist, revise. Starbuck420 1
Jjayy Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 Hello, all. I've been lurking for about a week since discovering this site and I finally created an account so I could drop in and say thank you for all the insights and great conversations I've seen here. I don't feel so alone anymore on my MFA journey and I feel less stressed just knowing that there are other people in the world with interests and aspirations that are so similar to mine. So, yeah, thank you very much - for the words. largeheartedboy, jp212, anna23 and 6 others 9
cosmictones Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 6 hours ago, chrisclements said: I did mention influential authors in my SOP, and now I'm kind of starting to regret it: DFW, Jennifer Egan, Zadie Smith, Pynchon and Denis Johnson. With DFW especially, (seeing as he is quite understandably going out of vogue atm) I think it becomes easier to dismiss someone's writing if their influences smell of lit crit guy (and for the record, I'm doing my best to expand my reading). Then again, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to just lie to the adcom folks. I was in a bit of a bind, to be honest. Hopefully it works out for me I talked about Rae Armantrout, Charles Simic, James Merrill, and Elaine Equi. All my mentors said to keep the influence stuff (although one said not to mention Armantrout lol). Thought about adding Terrance Hayes because I was worried about not having a BIPOC on the list, but felt like I could talk more about those four. Still kind of kicking myself over it, so many app regrets. chrisclements 1
Starbuck420 Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 22 minutes ago, Graceful Entropy said: What's up w/ the possible Egan (or her fandom?) hating going on? I'm not hep to the bubblings of fancy lit people. Is it cuz people feel like Goon Squad was too much like stunting ? Too overtly MFA-y, like Orange's There There? Intrigued Personally I just hate all books Graceful Entropy, Botanica, mrvisser and 1 other 4
M-Lin Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 53 minutes ago, anna23 said: hi! just wondering if anyone can provide more info on the stereotypical "Bukowski mfa bro"? Bukowski is one of my favorite authors and it's interesting to see people mention those who read him as pretentious? just wanted to see more about that and why he falls into the stereotype? I guess I just honestly I haven't really heard that from anyone. I mostly hear about 'infinite jest' and others shitting on people who love it. I guess it's all really dumb in a way, but, now I'm wondering if people view me negatively when I mention my love for Bukowski. also I love Nikolai Gogol! I'm a Russian speaker myself so I find Russian authors to be extraordinary and pretty dark to be honest (which I like). Reading Gogol's and Tolstoy and Dostovesky's works in Russian is particularly meaningful and the English translation doesn't really hold up as much but those works are remarkable for sure in any language. anyways! just my two cents! hope everyone is hanging in there. Never read Gogol, but have you read Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake? The main character is named after Gogol ? anna23 1
Starbuck420 Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 ya'll see that this thread is officially marked "HOT?" we made it! mess_mess, CayceCamus, cecsav and 4 others 7
anna23 Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 14 minutes ago, M-Lin said: Never read Gogol, but have you read Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake? The main character is named after Gogol ? I have not! Adding it to my list
poefire Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 4 hours ago, pattycat said: Just popping in to say I hope everyone’s hanging in there. I’ve been a little too paralyzed with anxiety to participate. I’m guessing Iowa will notify tomorrow or at least sometime this week (Michener as well), so good luck to all who applied there! Obviously not definitive, but it's worth noting that the Iowa website currently says that "Decisions will be made in March or early April." Just for whatever its worth.
Boomer not Ok Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 Yes, I put down some dead white dudes (and dudettes) in my SOP. So, that's probably toasted me. But if Eliot, Melville, Woolf and Borges influenced me, I guess I thought it worth saying. Now, when I look at my SOP, I see the mention of my influences is so "TMI, extra-ish," and pretentious, so I wish I hadn't. Also, put down some philosophers who influenced me, because I think there's plenty of cross-over between fiction and philosophy. But that may have screwed me too, who knows? But, whatever, I don't try to emulate or write like Borges or Melville, I just mentioned them in the context of what themes I explore in my work (madness, conundrum of personal identity, blindness etc.). But to answer the question, I definitely listed a bunch of influences but only for the SOPs that asked for more than 500 words.
JPReinhold Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, anna23 said: hi! just wondering if anyone can provide more info on the stereotypical "Bukowski mfa bro"? Bukowski is one of my favorite authors and it's interesting to see people mention those who read him as pretentious? just wanted to see more about that and why he falls into the stereotype? I guess I just honestly I haven't really heard that from anyone. I mostly hear about 'infinite jest' and others shitting on people who love it. I guess it's all really dumb in a way, but, now I'm wondering if people view me negatively when I mention my love for Bukowski. also I love Nikolai Gogol! I'm a Russian speaker myself so I find Russian authors to be extraordinary and pretty dark to be honest (which I like). Reading Gogol's and Tolstoy and Dostovesky's works in Russian is particularly meaningful and the English translation doesn't really hold up as much but those works are remarkable for sure in any language. anyways! just my two cents! hope everyone is hanging in there. I have a really beautiful, yellowed, paperback translation of TALES OF GOOD AND EVIL that is absolute poetry in places. Edited February 15, 2021 by JPReinhold
JPReinhold Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 50 minutes ago, M-Lin said: Never read Gogol, but have you read Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake? The main character is named after Gogol ? Our anxiety is FIRE.
M-Lin Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 3 hours ago, Starbuck420 said: ya'll see that this thread is officially marked "HOT?" we made it! 2 hours ago, JPReinhold said: Our anxiety is FIRE. @JPReinhold Your anxiety might be too FIRE? to realize that you meant to quote Starbuck420's quote above? HAHAHA Starbuck420 1
JPReinhold Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 3 minutes ago, M-Lin said: @JPReinhold Your anxiety might be too FIRE? to realize that you meant to quote Starbuck420's quote above? HAHAHA I’d like to say that it’s anxiety that’s fueling this mess, but I think I might just be like this ?♂️ Starbuck420 and orangeslice 2
TshirtDome Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 4 hours ago, Jjayy said: Hello, all. I've been lurking for about a week since discovering this site and I finally created an account so I could drop in and say thank you for all the insights and great conversations I've seen here. I don't feel so alone anymore on my MFA journey and I feel less stressed just knowing that there are other people in the world with interests and aspirations that are so similar to mine. So, yeah, thank you very much - for the words. I get that this takes a particular kind of enterprising spirit (which is hard for many of us to find rn), but I decided to create my own dorky sort of self-driven syllabus with texts and a poetry project that I hope will be enough for a book eventually. It's been good to return my attention to the craft and remember that the professional ambitions that accompany writing are only mechanisms for supporting the work itself, namely to feel this whimsy world and translate those messages into sexy poems lol. mess_mess 1
Pinskadan Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 6 hours ago, sylviaplate said: I did - a lot of the articles/tips I read about SOPs suggested it, as it gives the adcoms a good sense of who you are as a reader, which of course influences you as a writer. I mentioned Kim Addonizio, Sharon Olds, Hanif Abdurraqib, and I think Rita Dove. Looking back, I wish I'd just included one or two so it didn't seem like I was just giving a laundry list to seem widely read, but no going back! I only name-checked a prof. at one school (Khadijah Queen at CU Boulder) - I figure they can spot a suck-up pretty easily, so if I couldn't honestly say that a professor had a big impact on me or sparked my curiosity, I left it out. (Not a dig on any professors at the programs to which I applied, but rather I've only read their writing that's available for free online and can't speak to their wider body of work). Oh, and I used a Mary Karr quote about memory/reality relating back to my writing interests. Felt a little schmooze-y to use in my Syracuse app, but at that point in the app process I was too exhausted to change it. I super hate to be a bummer, but one of my best friends is doing his MFA at CU Boulder and he mentioned to me the other night that Khadijah Queen is leaving because she got a better position elsewhere ? He was really hoping to work with her, too. This could turn out to not be the case, just what I heard!
sylviaplate Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 11 minutes ago, Pinskadan said: I super hate to be a bummer, but one of my best friends is doing his MFA at CU Boulder and he mentioned to me the other night that Khadijah Queen is leaving because she got a better position elsewhere ? He was really hoping to work with her, too. This could turn out to not be the case, just what I heard! Good to know! A bummer, sure, but better to be well-informed. Would *love* if she got a position at a program with guaranteed full funding, because even if I did get into Boulder, the money will unfortunately be the deciding factor.
Ydrl Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 Thank goodness that Virginia Tech took pity on me. I accidentally uploaded my writing sample twice instead of once with a personal statement as well. I hope they like me enough to disregard that. Blackhole and cosmictones 2
Blackhole Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 4 minutes ago, Ydrl said: Thank goodness that Virginia Tech took pity on me. I accidentally uploaded my writing sample twice instead of once with a personal statement as well. I hope they like me enough to disregard that. I uploaded mine twice. every document twice. just feels terrible. Ydrl 1
Ydrl Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 Just now, Blackhole said: I uploaded mine twice. every document twice. just feels terrible. It’s good to know it’s not just me. Blackhole 1
shanbanan Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 9 minutes ago, Ydrl said: Thank goodness that Virginia Tech took pity on me. I accidentally uploaded my writing sample twice instead of once with a personal statement as well. I hope they like me enough to disregard that. Hello! Another VA Tech hopeful here Have you heard anything? I remember reading that they might be reaching out in mid-February for interviews and just curious. Thanks! Ydrl 1
mrhamlet Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 anyone apply to USFT or have an idea of when they inform?
Ydrl Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 4 minutes ago, shanbanan said: Hello! Another VA Tech hopeful here Have you heard anything? I remember reading that they might be reaching out in mid-February for interviews and just curious. Thanks! I reached out a day ago and the same contact said they should be reaching out by the end of the month.
shanbanan Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 1 minute ago, Ydrl said: I reached out a day ago and the same contact said they should be reaching out by the end of the month. Thank you!
fishfish24 Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 Did anyone else who applied to Syracuse get a "Happening@Syracuse" email this morning? I get it that's a generic graduate school email, but I'm confused why they sent it to me since it's geared toward current students returning for the spring semester and students joining in the fall... cosmictones 1
Blackhole Posted February 15, 2021 Posted February 15, 2021 10 minutes ago, fishfish24 said: Did anyone else who applied to Syracuse get a "Happening@Syracuse" email this morning? I get it that's a generic graduate school email, but I'm confused why they sent it to me since it's geared toward current students returning for the spring semester and students joining in the fall... I didn't perhaps it means you are in
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