Visit to Indiana University- Bloomington

So I'm sitting in the Indianapolis airport, waiting to catch a flight home after my trip to visit IU and Bloomington. I LOVED IT THERE!

The people: In previous workshops, I usually tended to vibe with a few people who seemed to be as passionate about their writing as I was. I would end up really vibing with 2, maybe 3 people each time and I was satisfied with that. Sitting in on the IU poetry workshop was like being in a room filled with only those kinds of people I would vibe with. So that's like 11 other people that are on the same page as me and share a similar passion. Maybe every MFA program is like that...maybe not...but I felt like I was in my element at Indiana. And it felt good.

The faculty: First, they rotate directors every three years, switching between a poet and a fiction writer. I definitely didn't get the sense that this school favors one genre over the other, which was nice. They do the same with the editor of the Indiana Review. This program really cares to be diverse in every way. The current director, Samrat, is really easy to talk to and he has a welcoming personality. I loved the feedback that Catherine Bowman was giving in workshop. She had wonderful suggestions and she also paid attention to how students were critiquing one another and seemed to make a point to make encouraging comments about particulary good criticisms. I was really impressed with that and I'm excited to have her take a look at some of my work! I actually can't wait to see what the students will say either. Their responses had depth and passion behind them. I could see myself really caring to know what they thought and believing that what they have to say matters. I sat in on a lit class taught by Ross Gay and I was a little awe struck (can you be just a little awe struck?) by his insights and the way he engaged the class in discussion in a relaxed but impassioned way. So that was exciting.

The city: I love downtown Bloomington! I ate Tibetan food (there's a lot of Tibetan things..who knew?) and pancakes with strawberries baked into them. I want to live within walking distance of downtown which pretty much means being within walking distance of IU too. There are coffee shops, book stores, bars, yoga spots, and tons of ethnic food places. It's just right as far as size. I mean, it's not Miami, but it definitely isn't Idaho either (I'm an authority on both lol).

So, I definitely made the right choice. I can't wait to get started in the Fall!

Ka-Ching!

MY (and I mean to capitalize "my" in that ultra-possessive, I'm so glad to have encountered this person's light in my life sort of way)...MY poetry professor's new book is out and I just posted a review of it on Amazon.com because I loved the book. It made me laugh, freakin' cry on an airplane, and it kinda became one of my newest and closest friends. I don't know about anyone else, but tears are my criteria for a Pulitzer Prize. Besides that, I genuinely love Denise Duhamel and I love Ka-Ching!. Buy it!!

I wish I could do so much more after all that she's done to help move me forward (16 letters of recommendation being only one of those things). She's everywhere...no, seriously...everywhere. I often browse blogs and I happen to run across someone interviewing her or just generally spewing Duhamel love (as I often do in real life lol). I've even been blog browsing and someone posts up interviews with her from years ago. That's because that light of hers I mentioned is real. That's the best way to describe her and I've heard others describe her the same way. All of that light is present in her newest collection, Ka-Ching! by the way.

In fact, I bought this other book Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns, and I was reading it, enjoying it and of course, she's got a poem and an essay in there too! She's everywhere lol.

People ask, "Can poetry matter?" Psssssshhhhhhh..obviously, it does matter to MY professor lol.

Alright enough. I do sincerely love her and I am actually in her Facebook fan club but even if I wasn't I'd still recommend this collection. She opened my eyes to the possibilities of what poems can do; I'd hate for anyone to miss out.

Indiana bound

So I've accepted at Indiana, that's where I'm headed. I'm so through with the notification process, it's not even funny lol.

So I applied to 16 schools which means I got rejected by A LOT of schools and rejections suck lol.

With only 3 schools left to hear from (NYU, UVA, Arizona State) I have been rejected by 7 schools. I have been accepted to 5 schools and waitlisted at 1. I was accepted to only 1 of the schools in my top 5 and that is the one I am going to. It was my #2 and I am happy.

I can't wait to write more so I can submit more and keep things going from here.

Yes, I feel as flat as this post. I'm ready to move forward.

The Strangest Sadness

So here's where I stand:

Accepted

Alabama
Indiana
Southern Illinois

Interviewed

Virginia Tech

Waitlisted

Boise State

Rejected

Michener
Michigan
Iowa
(the big boys have no love for me lol)

I was denied a grad scholars fellowship at Indiana by the grad school (and I'm really, surprisingly down about it) so I'll get the regular tuition remission plus stipend if I go. Their stipend is equal to that of Virginia Tech whose poetry faculty seem warm and welcoming. Actually, Virginia Tech caught me totally off guard with how great they seem. There's less teaching responsibility at VT and you still get to teach creative writing...so I don't know. I say all this when I haven't been offered a spot at VT. I'm just hopeful after the interview. I ordered a copy of the new MFA handbook so maybe it will provide some insights on the programs should the choice have to be made.

I'm expecting rejections soon from: Cornell, Vanderbilt

I've still got hope for: NYU, UVA, FSU, University of Florida, Georgia State, Arizona State (though only NYU and UVA acceptances would make me think twice about Indiana)

Blah...I'm tired of talking about myself and this stuff lol.

Half of a Rejection: Michigan

So I got my first rejection by snail mail today...from Michigan...severely damaged in one of those "we're sorry" packages from the post office. So I didn't get the pleasure of the full page rejection. lol

Carrying on...

Interview Scheduled: Virginia Tech

So I got a call on Friday morning to set up an interview for Virginia Tech's MFA program for poetry. I have no idea what to expect. Of course I'm googling to find out how these types of interviews might go. I like their program, love their faculty, think the location is pretty cool too. Who knows how this will go...I'm ready to find out!

So I've been reading like crazy. Last week I read Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and I just finished A Mercy. This woman can write! Oh my goodness...I literally end up breathless on the last page. I read the last page of A Mercy over and over just letting it all sink in. I don't know how she does it. I think I can appreciate her work even more since taking a 19th Century African American Lit class last semester, specifically about slave narratives. A Mercy read just like a slave narrative. Reading Morrison, even though I'm a poet, inspires me and makes Indiana's offer so appealing since I'll get to do the MA in African American Studies (focused on black lit, it seems) along with the MFA. I think if I get the Grad. Scholars fellowship at Indiana, I'm going. That's one year without teaching and up to $25,000 funding for that year. I should find out if that worked out very soon. I think that will clinch it for me. The only school offering that much funding would have been Michener and I didn't get in there. Without the fellowship...I don't know and I'll be doing a lot of traveling trying to figure it out, I think.

UGH...Toni Morrison writes so smart. I want to write smart too. I'm going to start reading Sula as soon as I come down off of the high of her last book. I was totally not expecting to have such a reaction to her. I would love to take a class that was only about her and her works. She's got enough stuff written and enough complexity to warrant an entire course on her. She is hands down my favorite fiction writer right now.

On the poetry front...my poetry professor/mentor's new book is out and it is on the way in the mail to me right now!!!!!!!! SO excited. I love her, I love her, I love her! I'm thinking of flying back to where I did school to catch one of her readings.