2022 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

[oatcrust]

9 minutes ago, koechophe said:

If you'd like, I can tell you some of the magazines I found success with, or other ones I've seen recommended, but it'd be helpful to know what you're going for. If you just want to get your feet wet, then I can list off some tier 4 ones, but if you're looking for something more serious, tier 2-3 ones are also an option. 

 

 

Oh wow, thank you for the very comprehensive reply. This breaks it down very clearly and I am grateful thank you took the time to do so! And yes, I'm interested in what magazines you found success with! I think I'd like to get my feet wet with tier 4, but I also want to aim high (tier2-3) if you have any suggestions ? 

[koechophe]

Definitely! Here's some you might consider:

Tier 4--start by looking for stuff locally here. Does your town have anything? Do your local colleges host contests?

If that doesn't work or you'd like to try a more national approach, here's a few good ones:

https://glassmountain.submittable.com/submit (University of Houston's, they accept work from emerging artists, so anyone not attending an MFA or PHD. Also try their print magazine, Shards. When I published with them, I was lucky enough to get into both (the Shards folks liked my story and asked if they could publish it too. I obviously said yes))

https://mosaiczine.com/submission-guidelines/ (University of California, Riverside, they accept work from anyone)

Tier 3: 

https://theadroitjournal.org/about/submissions/ (This one is harder to break into, but a bit more known, and they pride themselves on publishing emerging authors.)

https://halfwaydownthestairs.net/ (Good middling one to publish in, they seem to like more experimental pieces)

https://www.whlreview.com/ (Another good middling one to break into)

Tier 2: 

https://granta.com/ (Bigger name, hard to get into but good)

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/ (Also hard)

That should be enough to get started on if you want some variety, but here's a pretty good post listing off a bunch of magazines too (without tiering them like I do, but most of these are middling.) 

http://www.ardorlitmag.com/literary-magazines-for-new-writers.html

[MDP]

1 hour ago, oatcrust said:

I know I should try and do my own research on where to publish, but so far it feels pretty intimidating. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start looking for literary sites to publish?

I ended up submitting to a contest in Vocal+ but got rejected and it made me second guess everything even when I told myself rejection will be big deal. Plus I'm not even sure if Vocal+ is a reputable publishing platform anyway...

When I was submitting and publishing, I would pick between 10 and 20 journals to submit a piece to on Submittable. You can filter submission calls by genre, price to submit, and submission deadline. Main thing for me was casting a wide net. Usually I would get all rejections, so I would edit the story and send out another batch after that, then rinse and repeat until a journal wanted to print it. More often than not, the pieces that got published were ones that I sent out to at least 15 different places. Almost every piece will get rejected before being accepted somewhere, so keep editing and don't give up  

Re: submission fees, my rule is to never pay more than $5, MAYBE $10 to submit somewhere. I don't have the coin to send out a high volume of submissions to journals that charge their artists a $25 reading fee. And high volume is key! If you don't mind paying for a yearly subscription, duotrope.com is a great database of places to submit to. It also includes acceptance rates for each publication and a way to track all of the places you've submitted work to, whether it was rejected, accepted, etc. I think a year of Duotrope was about $60 when I used it years ago.

Edited February 10, 2022 by MDP
wording

[koechophe]

1 minute ago, MDP said:

When I was submitting and publishing, I would pick between 10 and 20 journals to submit a piece to on Submittable

So true. Volume is legit everything. I also SUPER recommend keeping just a basic spreadsheet of all the places you submit to. It really helps make sure you don't accidentally, I don't know, submit the same piece to the same place twice. 

[MDP]

Another note for @oatcrust: beware of contests when you're still building up a thick skin for rejection! Contests are usually a great way for a publication to make some money off of a huge submissions pool and a famous judge, and your chances of being published are substantially smaller than when you submit to lesser known journals. I found it useful to send my writing to smaller journals at first, then try to work my way up. I still have never sent work to any of the literary titans, haha. I've been on a submission hiatus for the past several years.

[MDP]

Does anyone have a rough list of which programs interview and which accept without interviewing?

[Rm714]

Looks like Vanderbilt poetry acceptances went out today! Good luck to everyone who applied there!

[mrvisser]

11 minutes ago, Rm714 said:

Looks like Vanderbilt poetry acceptances went out today! Good luck to everyone who applied there!

And now I await the fiction results.

[Rm714]

1 hour ago, mrvisser said:

And now I await the fiction results.

Fiction applicants watching poetry applicants get admissions decisions: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/squidward-looking-out-the-window

Edited February 11, 2022 by Rm714

[mrvisser]

7 minutes ago, Rm714 said:

Fiction applicants watching poetry applicants get admissions decisions: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/squidward-looking-out-the-window

This is what I used for that idea last year:

[Rm714]

1 minute ago, mrvisser said:

This is what I used for that idea last year:

Great minds think alike! Though I did not realize you could input images/GIFs in these text boxes, so ?

[xenawins]

44 minutes ago, mrvisser said:

This is what I used for that idea last year:

Sometimes a gif just says it all

[MDP]

Another day of waiting...? Googling "how to not go insane"

[panglosian]

UMass rejections are out for fiction and poetry. Looks like they denied ahead of acceptances this year which is super fun and fresh. (not, lmao) I might be 3r rn but I actually haven't gotten to any of the schools I think I have the best chance at so I'm still not worried!

[koechophe]

Saw notification for Arizona State in Fiction, so guessing those ones went out.

[CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI]

14 minutes ago, koechophe said:

Saw notification for Arizona State in Fiction, so guessing those ones went out.

It hurts to see acceptances go out to schools one has applied to. 

I applied to the University of South Carolina and just this week somone posted an acceptance. 

I suppose that means that I didnt get in nor did I get waitlisted. 

Best of luck to all of you with your remaining programs. I still have five left; I only applied to six. I still have hope and hope you all do as well!

[CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI]

53 minutes ago, panglosian said:

UMass rejections are out for fiction and poetry. Looks like they denied ahead of acceptances this year which is super fun and fresh. (not, lmao) I might be 3r rn but I actually haven't gotten to any of the schools I think I have the best chance at so I'm still not worried!

Good luck to you and your remaining applications still out there! 

[MDP]

2 minutes ago, CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI said:

It hurts to see acceptances go out to schools one has applied to. 

I applied to the University of South Carolina and just this week somone posted an acceptance. 

I suppose that means that I didnt get in nor did I get waitlisted. 

Best of luck to all of you with your remaining programs. I still have five left; I only applied to six. I still have hope and hope you all do as well!

I'm sure I'll be in this boat soon enough...none of my schools have notified yet, so I'm just sitting in the waiting period purgatory. Not sure if I'll feel better or worse once my rejections come in. At least then I'll know!

[koechophe]

4 minutes ago, CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI said:

I suppose that means that I didnt get in nor did I get waitlisted. 

 

Likely, but not necessarily. Waitlists often go out later than acceptances, but "usually" not a lot later. 

[koechophe]

1 minute ago, MDP said:

I'm sure I'll be in this boat soon enough...none of my schools have notified yet, so I'm just sitting in the waiting period purgatory. Not sure if I'll feel better or worse once my rejections come in. At least then I'll know!

At least I'm in the happy boat of having researched all my programs, and knowing that I will take an offer from ANY of them if it comes in. 

I didn't have that last year, and there was one program in particular that, even if I got in, I wasn't sure I'd say yes to.

 

[CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI]

1 minute ago, koechophe said:

Likely, but not necessarily. Waitlists often go out later than acceptances, but "usually" not a lot later. 

All right. That means there’s hope yet for that particular program. Here’s to hoping! 

[CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI]

1 minute ago, koechophe said:

At least I'm in the happy boat of having researched all my programs, and knowing that I will take an offer from ANY of them if it comes in. 

I didn't have that last year, and there was one program in particular that, even if I got in, I wasn't sure I'd say yes to.

 

I feel that for sure. 

For the programs I applied to, I’d be more than happy to accept any one of them so long as they’re adequately funded of course.

[MDP]

1 minute ago, koechophe said:

At least I'm in the happy boat of having researched all my programs, and knowing that I will take an offer from ANY of them if it comes in. 

Ditto. The first time I applied I just picked the most competitive programs possible and did zero research on location, price, whether I would even like living in a given region, etc. Lol. My follies...

[questioningquestions]

Hi! Can anyone weigh in on the likelihood of being accepted to the same MFA program after turning it down? I was accepted two years/seasons ago and turned down the offer to do a grant abroad (the university the MFA program is at doesn't allow for deferrals). The director who was communicating with me during my decision process was so sweet and accommodating about it, ultimately encouraging me to apply again and heavily implying (but not outright saying) my odds of being accepted again are high. Since that was about two years ago, I'm wondering if I should temper my hopes haha I definitely don't want to assume I'm a shoo-in, especially with so many amazing applicants. Has anyone been in a similar situation?

[panglosian]

Cross posted to Draft but I JUST GOT INTO GEORGE MASON???? FOR POETRY???? WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL???

I'M SO HAPPY I just checked the portal and the decision was there I haven't heard about notifs or anything!!!