Applying to (and Choosing) MFA Programs

by Erika Dreifus on
1

I see a lot of posts on various sites/blogs about MFA programs. Frequently, people want to know how to evaluate programs, how to select programs to apply to and, ultimately, how to choose a program to attend.

As anyone who has read my Primer on Low-Residency MFA Programs already knows, I’m a big fan of figuring out one’s own goals, strengths, weaknesses, etc. and matching one’s individual experience and ambitions with a given program and its offerings. That’s a first step, anyway. And I’m also in favor of really getting to know the nuts-and-bolts of how a program is organized and run and matching that up with your own aforementioned goals, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Only you can really figure out what’s a “good match” for you.

So maybe it’s not such a big surprise that unlike some others, I’m far less enthusiastic about relying on what current/past students have to say about a program. First, what seems wonderful (or terrible) to one person is likely to look very different to someone else (again) depending on the past academic, professional, and personal experiences each person brings to the table and what his or her goals or expectations may be.

And again, particularly in larger programs with lots of faculty and students, each person’s experience is going to be quite different. Among past/current students you may very well find those who entered the program at the same time who never encountered each other in workshop, never worked with the same set of faculty, never worked with faculty outside their own genre (which may not be yours), and so forth. So depending on whom you happen to talk to (and you can pretty much count on any program administrator referring you to only the most satisfied students if you ask for references), you are going to get highly, highly tailored comments.

So how can you go about evaluating how a program is organized and run? How can you figure out if it’s a good match for you? Again, readers of the primer know that I recommend a range of things to think about. But there are other helpful guides, too.

One is the set of Hallmarks of a Successful Graduate Program in Creative Writing compiled by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). After you’ve read and digested this guide you can approach the information, advertising, and references offered by individual programs with a sense of some things to look for and analyze on your own. Or you can use the guide to develop questions more specific to your own situation/concerns when you communicate with any of the program’s representatives.

And another, which I’ve only discovered this week, may be particularly helpful to those considering the low-residency option. The Spalding University MFA program now offers a set of Questions to Ask When Seeking an MFA Program that I’m frankly happy to see in many respects complements my own advice in the primer. (You can click on each of the questions to read answers relating to the Spalding program’s own policies.)

So don’t just depend on what others have to say–especially people you’ve never met and may simply talk to on the phone or via e-mail because a program sent you to them. Take the time to do more (guided) reflection and research on your own.

Attention, Philadelphia Poets!

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Guidelines and applications for the 2006 Pew Fellowships in the Arts are now available. This year fellowship applications are welcome in the fields of poetry, performance art, and sculpture and installation. Grants of $50,000 are awarded to selected applicants, who must be “verifiable Pennsylvania residents of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia County for two years or longer immediately prior to the application deadline.” There is NO APPLICATION FEE INDICATED. Click here for more information and application forms.

Scott McLemee’s "Quarterly Report"

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

You may not yet know about Scott McLemee’s “Intellectual Affairs” column, which runs twice each week over at the Inside Higher Ed site. On Thursdays McLemee covers new books; on Tuesdays he offers, as he recently phrased it: “the usual smorgasbord: thumbnail accounts of scholarship, glosses on current events, interviews with academics and writers, personal essays, reading notes, and the occasional targeted spitball.”

Last week the column addressed “general-interest cultural quarterlies.” Practicing writers who target these journals will be especially interested in what McLemee has to say about The Virginia Quarterly Review, Sewanee Review, The Minnesota Review, Boston Review, and others.

Writing Houses

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

NewPages.com has posted an interesting feature by Jessica Powers, on the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. Sounds like a great place!

In other “house” news, the Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College (Maryland) is accepting applications for a Director. For more information, click here. Review of applications will begin October 24, 2005.

Needles in a Haystack? Paying Markets for Long Poems

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Here’s how this article came to be: on a discussion board a poet mentioned encountering some difficulty trying to locate paying market possibilities for a longer poem. She was finding that most guidelines specified line limits that didn’t accommodate her work, or they didn’t address the question at all.

So the next time I checked all the guidelines for our e-book directory of paying poetry markets (I do recheck each and every source when I revise the e-books; I’ve once again updated and expanded the poetry market directory just this past month), I made a note of publications that seemed particularly welcoming to longer poems, saying as much on their websites.

I posted a couple of times back on the thread to let that poet know about what I was finding. Now all of our own practicing poets can benefit, too.

Artful Dodge
Department of English
College of Wooster
Wooster, OH 44691

Literary journal. Send six poems, maximum. Note that “long poems are encouraged.” Pays $5/page, plus copies.

=====

Gettysburg Review
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1491

Literary journal where “both short and long poems are of interest, including longer narrative poems.” Pays $2.50/line for poetry. Contributors also receive two copies of the issue containing their work and a one-year subscription.

=====

Massachusetts Review
South College
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003

Literary journal. Submit up to six poems. “There are no restrictions in terms of length, but generally our poems are less than 100 lines.” Pays $.35/line for poetry ($10 minimum) on publication, plus 2 copies.

=====

Meridian
University of Virginia
PO Box 400145
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4145

Semiannual, student-edited literary journal. Submit no more than five poems. Doesn’t mind long poems “but we aren’t likely to publish any ‘epics.'” Pays $15/page, $25 minimum and $250 maximum. “These amounts are subject to change without notice.” Download a complete printer-friendly version of the guidelines at the site.

=====

New England Review
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT 05753

Literary journal considers “long and short poems.” Submit no more than six poems at a time. Pays $10/page, $20 minimum, plus two copies of the issue in which your work appears.

=====

The Pedestal Magazine

Online literary journal is “open to a wide variety of poetry, from the highly experimental to the traditional formal.” No length restrictions. Pays $30/poem.

And don’t forget the Malahat Review’s biannual Long Poem Contest (it does charge a fee). For details on this competition, open to both Canadian and foreign entrants (and to be held again in 2007), check with the journal.

(This article was originally published in The Practicing Writer Newsletter, October 2005.)