This is a page in which I hope we'll get people to post sections about the programs they're in--what attracted them, what they were looking for in a school, how their experience has been, and hopefully a link to the website's mainpage.

 

For instance, Katie and Breanne might post under the section for Alabama. And anyone else could add theirs.

 

The University of Alabama

(edited by Breanne LeJeune and Katie Shinkle)

 

Degrees offered

Length of program

Options for support (fellowships, TAships, etc.)

Faculty and what you need to know about them

Student life

Other opportunities (magazines, presses, and so on)

and whatever else

 

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Boise State University (If you wear anything besides BroncoGear, you will be shot)

(edited by Jacob Powers)

 

Degrees Offered: M.F.A. in Poetry and Fiction, M.A. in Literature, Education, and Rhetoric and Composition, M.A. in Technical Communication

 

Length of Program: 3 years for M.F.A. (48 credit hours, usually 9 credits per semester). 2 years for M.A. (33 credit hours)

 

Options for support:

 

 

• 2-6 new assistanships every Fall for MFA. Around 10 teaching assistantships for the M.A. program.

• Assistantships are renewable for the 3 years.
• With Assistantship, all out-of-state and in-state tuition fees are waived (about $24,000). In addition, health care and "new student" fees are waived.
• In addition to waiver of fees:
  • Teacher's Assistantship (M.F.A. and M.A.) -- teach one class first semester, two second, then four total for the second year. Stipend varies, but this year is $9,700 for 2007-8 year. For M.F.A., you are eligible to teach a Creative Writing class your second year.
  • Graduate Assistant (M.F.A.) -- Assist the director of the MFA program. Work with MFA Reading Series (reserving rooms, writing up press releases, buying books), work with incoming applications, answer all questions about the program. Stipend varies, but is $8,500 for 2007-8 year.
  • Graduate Assistant for The Idaho Review and cold-drill (M.F.A.) -- assist the editor-in-chief in production of both literary magazines. Stipend varies. This year it's $8,500.
  • Graduate Assistant for the BSU Writing Center (M.A.) -- Help run the writing center (of course). $9,660 for the 2008-9 year.

 

 

Faculty and what you need to know about them:

 

Fiction

• Mitch Wieland
  • Graduated University of Alabama with an MFA in Fiction. While there, worked on Black Warrior Review
  • With his knowledge of publishing, he founded and runs The Idaho Review
  • Novel: Willy Slater's Lane, which you can buy cheap on Amazon used. I recommend picking it up to get a feel of his writing style (which is more Southernly)
  • Has been published in The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, TriQuarterly, Shenandoah, The Sewanee Review, StoryQuarterly, and so forth.
  • Overall nice guy. Knows his stuff when it comes to literary magazines. Has some great stories about working on lit. mags.

 

• Brady Udall
  • Graduated Iowa Writer's Workshop with an MFA in Fiction.
  • Novel: The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, which again you can buy cheap on Amazon. Again, I recommend picking it up to get a feel of his writing style (use of longer, comma-driven sentences, dark humor, light shock value).
  • Short Story Collection: Letting Loose the Hounds.
  • Has been published in Story, GQ, Esquire, and The Paris Review.
  • Again, a nice guy. Has a strong opinion of things, which is a positive characteristic. Supposedly he won't beat around the bush when it comes to critiquing your work. Has some good stories too. Will give you the low-down on what it means to have an MFA without publication.

 

Poetry

• Janet Holmes
  • MFA  in poetry from Warren Wilson College.
  • Collections: F2F (2006), Humanophone (2001), and The Green Tuxedo (1998), all from Notre Dame Press. All can be found on Amazon. It is recommended that you pick them up to get a feel for her writing style.
  • Has been in The Best American Poetry twice.
  • Is the editor of Ahsahta Press, which focuses on poetry publication (http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu/).
  • Sweet woman who, like all writers, has stories to tell. Another interesting bit--her husband was a mentor to Charles Baxter.

 

• Martin Corless-Smith
  • MFA from the Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa.
  • MFA in Fine Arts and Printmaking from SMU.
  • Ph.D in Creative Writing from the University of Utah
  • Collections: Swallows (2006), Nota (2003), Complete Travels (2000), and Of Piscator (1997). Check them out to get a feel for his style.
  • Is the current director of the program.
  • A pleasant, funny man who is easy to talk to and has some great stories to tell. He is very approachable, as is all of the faculty.

 

As for M.A. professors, I'd just keep in mind that each one has their own teaching style and their own specialty, like GVSU. And like GVSU, the program seems to lean on a more liberal mindset (not politically, just in ways of teaching and paper assignments). In general, I haven't heard complaints about any of them and have found that they--like MFA profs--are very approachable.

 

 

Student life in the program

 

 

First and foremost, I must warn you that most everyone in the program is either married or in a long term relationship. I am not kidding. I'd say 85% are married (mostly M.A.'s) while 13% are in relationships, leaving 2% single. And there's probably a 1% margin of error. What this means is that the program is not incredibly close-knit. This doesn't mean that we do not hang out with one another. It simply means that everyone is off doing their own thing a lot of the time. There are opportunities to hang out with peers (bar, UFC fights, etc.) but it is not as close-knit as my GVSU days. Again, it is not a cut throat program. People aren't trying to one-up you in your face. It's just that creating a close bond with someone may take some work. I would tell you to get married before coming to the program, but that might be trying too hard. With that said...

 

 

Student life at Boise State University in general

 

• Huge on football. Division I. Every game sells out the 30,000 seat stadium. The entire parking lot is a tailgate party. If you love football culture, you'll love it here. I was completely thrown off on gameday, as everyone was wearing orange and blue and showing school spirit.
• Very large Student Union Building with all sorts of things to do.
• Morrison Center for the Performing Arts has some pretty impressive productions throughout the year (Spamalot is the big one this year).
• Taco Bell Arena is like The Palace, except half its size and half the amount of big performers. Still, this is where they would play if they came to Boise. Past performances include Elton John, Red Hot Chili Peppers, George Strait, etc.

 

Other opportunities (magazines, presses, and so on)

 

• The Idaho Review -- (http://english.boisestate.edu/idahoreview/) This is a great opportunity to work on a national literary magazine. The Review is young, being only seven years old (with seven issues). However, in those seven years it has established itself to be a pretty competitive journal. Several of its stories have been recognized in The O. Henry Awards, the Pushcart Prize, and The Best American Short Stories, both as "best story/poetry" and as "mentionable reads." Authors that have appeared in The Idaho Review include Richard Bausch, Rick Bass, Ann Beattie, Robert Olmstead, Joy Williams, Ron Carlson, and Stuart Dybek. There is a class completely dedicated to working on literary magazines, most of the focus being The Idaho Review, where you get to read from the submissions pile, proof works that are to be published, and help with the overall layout of the magazine. I strongly recommend having some experience with fishladder before coming into the program, though, just so you get a general feel of how the literary magazine world works.

 

• cold-drill -- (http://www.cold-drill.com/) Another lit mag opportunity, this one run completely by MFA students (reading, layout, publication, etc.). I would recommend submitting to this one now so you can get a general feel of how to submit to literary magazines. It's a great opportunity to get your first publication out there.

 

• Ahsahta Press -- (http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu/) -- Graduate Students who are taking publishing courses are able to work on Ahsahta, giving a close-up, hands-on experience on working a small press. This would include reading manuscripts, working on everything up to production, and finally involvement in marketing tasks.

 

• There are also many opportunities to work with writing outside the program too. For example, there is The Cabin (http://www.thecabinidaho.org/), which has several opportunities to teach writing and workshops in the community and schools.

 

Whatever Else

 

Listen, there's probably something I didn't mention but you have a question about. So email me at jacobpowers@boisestate.edu. No question is too big or too small, so ask away.

 

 

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University of Wyoming

(edited by Bison Messink)

 

Degrees offered: MFAs in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Also MAs in various English related fields, but don't bother, unless Laramie Wyoming has some special appeal to you.

 

Length of program: 2 years

 

Options for support: This year five students were admitted in each genre (which I believe will stay constant) and two from each genre were funded. The stipend this year is just under $11,000, and you teach one section each semester of freshman composition. The Comp class here is very similar to GV's WRT 150, and is actually structured off of the Grand Valley 150 class. People sometimes throw Dan Royer's name around here.

 

Quite a few people who didn't get funding through the English department have found assistantships in other areas of the University. You'll probably need to be a bit industrious, but from what I can tell the staff in the department do all they can to help out with that.

 

Faculty and what you need to know about them: I'll only write about the fiction faculty here, but I do know enough about other faculty that if you wish to know more, we can talk via email, or otherwise.

 

Brad Watson and Alyson Hagy are the two fiction faculty members, although we will have a visiting fiction writer here next year for a semester (or maybe the whole year, I'm not sure). More on that later.

 

Brad is a fantastic writer. He's from the South and has a great laid back Southern air about him. His novel The Heaven of Mercury was a National Book Award finalist. He also has a book of short stories, The Last of the Dog Men, which is also really great. But what is better about Brad is that he is a great reader. Better than anyone I've ever met he can read stories and identify exactly what you are doing and not doing, which sounds simple but is not. This makes him less prescriptive and more informative, which is great. And since he is not overly prescriptive, it also allows each writer to be themselves, rather than having whole workshops of people who feel they need to write like the workshop leader, or anyone else for that matter.

 

Alyson I don't know as well yet. She is on sabatical this semester, but still around quite a bit. She has a slew of books. Snow, Ashes is her latest novel, which people seem to really be liking. I haven't read it yet. She considers herself a much better short story writer, and really loves the art of the short story. Her collection Graveyard of the Atlantic is really great--strong characters, hard descriptions, fishing. I haven't had workshop with her yet, but other fiction students have raved to me about what a great teacher she is. She has a tennis coaching background, and she has a similar approach to teaching. She coaches. She's a good coach.

 

Fall semester we had a few visits from fiction writers, all of them candidates to spend the year here next year as our Visiting Emminent Writer. Sigrid Nunez, Richard Bausch and Dorothy Allison all visited, but Joy Williams is the one who will be here next year. She was a lot of fun and her fiction is great. She's kind of strange a quirky. I think she'll be good here.

 

Poetry faculty is Harvey (H.L.) Hix, Craig Arnold, and David Romvedt. Non-fiction is Jeff Lockwood, and Beth Loffreda. We are hiring a full-time non-fiction faculty for next year--the three candidates are Eula Biss, David Gessner, and Joni Tevis.

 

Location: Laramie isn't as bad as I figured it'd be. It's small (30,000) and there isn't much to do in town that doesn't involve alcohol, which isn't all bad, but isn't all good either. There are some good bars with good beers. There are two bars called The Cowboy. There's a good vegetarian cafe. There's a nice downtown. There's a beautiful campus. There's a WalMart. It's two hours from Denver, if you like big cities, and less than an hour from Fort Collins, if you like hip ones. It's 45 minutes from Cheyenne, which has the worst restaurant I've ever been to.

 

I feel Wyoming is a comparable place to the UP--sort of like the Upper Peninsula of Colorado--wild, weather whipped, remote; there are some great townies here. Laramie is somewhat Marquetteish I think, to continue with the comparison. The mountains are everywhere and it's  beautiful. If you are in to outdoors stuff there's not many better places.

 

Football games are fun, and an interesting anthropological event as well.

 

Student life: The program is small, which is nice, and the MFAers are from all over the country, which is fun. I was surprised at how welcoming it is here, within the department.

 

Other opportunities: This began last year and looks like it will happen every year now: one program graduate is awarded a month-long residency at Ucross, an artist's colony/ranch in Wyoming, which is awfully exciting.

 

Annie Proulx is leading a reading group at her house with five fiction writers from the program, which I'm lucky enough to be part of. It is...interesting.

 

and whatever else: It's a new program (now in its third year), which has some nice pluses. Doesn't carry with it a lot of the engrained traditions many other places have, which maybe you think is a plus or maybe you think is a minus.

 

There is not the slightest bit of pretension here, which is rare, and incredibly refreshing.

 

The program here is a lot like Grand Valley's, in a good way. Both were developed at about the same time, with about the same attitudes.

 

Email me if you's got questions: mbcmessink@gmail.com

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The University of Iowa: Nonfiction Writing Program

(edited by Tom Fleischmann)

 

Degrees Offered: MFA in Nonfiction (also offered at the university: MFA in Poetry, MFA in Fiction, MFA in Translation, MFA in Playwriting, MA in Literary Studies). I'll only talk about the Nonfiction Writing Program, as the other programs are run differently.

 

Length of Program: Three years.

 

Options for Support: Changes a bit year-to-year. The NWP tries to fund all incoming students, and is sometimes succesful. Generally speaking, four students receive full tuition fellowships with a living stipend for their first two years with the expectation of teaching undergraduate nonfiction workshops during their third year. Other students typically teach Rhetoric or Interpretation of Lit for two years with the possibility of moving into nonfiction workshops for their final year, an appointment that also comes with a tuition waiver and living stipend. Students not teaching usually find funding through research assistantships on campus.

 

Faculty: The faculty is very supportive and generally available to students. Currently, they are John D'Agata (lyric essays), Robin Hemley (memoir, fiction, anthropology), Susan Lohafer (narrative and short story theory), Patricia Foster (autobiography and the body), David Hamilton (poetry, editor of the Iowa Review), Steve Kuusisto (poetry, diversity and disability), Jeff Porter (video essays), and Bonnie Sunstein (ethnographic writing). Those descriptions are mine and maybe could be more accurate. There is also a visiting writer-- this year Mary Ruefle, and last year Lia Purpura-- who teaches a workshop and a readings course. Three or so other writers usually come each semester to do a reading and a guest workshop.

 

It's been my experience that the faculty is very open to a variety of styles, and that they encourage different takes on what an essay is and can be. Also, there will be a new hire for next year.

 

Course Work: Students must take a workshop each semester for their first two years, and aren't allowed to repeat a workshop with the same professor twice. During the fall semester, all incoming students take History of the Essay together, which is taught on a rotating basis by the faculty. We also are required to take three Readings courses, either in Nonfiction or in Poetry or Fiction. These courses have different subjects every semester and are also taught on a rotating basis-- I've been in one on the innovative essay, one on photography in nonfiction, and one on lying in nonfiction. Additionally, students pick an outside concentration in which they must take three graduate level courses. This can be something as connected as Literature or Poetry, or something as seemingly disconnected as Geology or Mathematics. Like all courses, the outside work is done on a pass/fail basis, the idea being that you explore an interest that would further your writing. The third year is usually devoted to thesis writing.

 

Student Life: Most everyone is social and friendly. There's a nonfiction bowling team and a nonfiction cover band. Most weekends someone in the program or in the Writer's Workshop is throwing a party, so it's easy to meet people if you want to. People drink a lot of beer.

 

Other Opportunities: You can take a class on editing a literary magazine, which involves working on the Iowa Review. There's also the Nonfiction Now conference held in Iowa City every other year, which gives you a chance to meet some big names and all that jazz. Every semester or so someone from a press or journal comes in to give a talk with students (last year was Heidi Julavits of The Believer, this year it's the editor of Sarabande Press). Iowa City has a lot of readings outside of our program, and the Writer's Workshop tends to bring in hip names, so you get to meet quite a few people just by benefit of living in the city.

There are also a few other awards given. Four students are named Museum Fellows every year-- they give a reading with faculty at the University Art Museum, are given a large stipend, and get an office at the museum. Also, there's a fellowship available for a graduating student to stay on an additional year and write.

 

&c: Overall, I'm very happy that I came here. I'm glad to answer any questions anyone has. Maris Venia is also a GVSU alumn in the program, so you can get two points of view if you'd like. 

 

 

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and so on.

 

 

 

Maris' &c: I second everything Tom said.  This is my first semester in the nonfiction program at Iowa so I'm still getting a feel for things, both academic and social, but so far I'm happy that I came here.  What I've been most impressed with is the welcoming nature of Iowa City as a place (it's young and mobile, somewhat like Ann Arbor), the people here, and the program.  I went to Nonfiction Now in 2005 and I'm looking forward to going again this year (free admission with two hours of service during the weekend of the conference (monitoring things, picking writers up from the airport, etc)).  I feel that Grand Valley's writing program really helped to prepare me for what I'm doing and what I will be doing over the next three years.  

 

Tom answered a lot of my questions while I was applying (and later while I was registering for classes, picking an apartment, choosing my first bar to go to here), so I'm happy to follow his lead.  Feel free to e-mail me: maris.venia@gmail.com  I'm also a TA for Interpretations of Lit if you have questions about that whole gig.  Which is a good gig, by the way.  

 

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Miami University of Ohio: M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition

(edited by Megan Ward)

 

Degrees offered: MA in Rhetoric and Composition, PhD in Rhetoric and Composition; MA in Literature, PhD in Literature; MA in Technical and Scientific Communication; MA in Creative Writing (Fiction and Poetry).  I'll just speak to the MA in Rhetoric and Composition, as that was my program.

 

Length of program: 2 years.  36 credit hours with exam option, 30 credit hours plus 6 thesis hours with thesis option.

 

Options for support (fellowships, TAships, etc.): The program at MU won't accept anyone without funding, so everyone there has some sort of assistantship.  Most people teach.  The TAship is 2 classes your first year, 1 each semester, and 3 classes your second year, 2 in the fall and 1 in the spring.  The classes are introductory composition and composition and literature.  Some creative writing students are able to teach a writing workshop.  The package is about $12,000 for an MA, $15,000 for a PhD.  However, you have to carry health insurance as a student, which could be $800 per year if through the school, and there are fees, that come to about $600 per semester.  Also books and such.

 

Other support includes working for the MU Press or working for the Center for Writing Excellence.  The Center for Writing Excellence is an assistant director position that works either in the WAC program or the writing center.  That would be 20 hours per week with no teaching.

 

Faculty and what you need to know about them:  The faculty at MU are heavily research oriented.  Most teach a 2/2 load, usually one of those classes being a grad class, the other being undergrad.  You can look at the faculty online but some of them are: Katherine Ronald, women's rhetorics and director of the Howe writing center; Heide McPhee, technological rhetorics and director of the Digital Writing Collaborative; Cynthia Leweicki-Wilson, disability studies and composition studies; Jon Tassoni, basic writing and director of college composition; LuMing Mao, linguistics and director of the grad program; and Jason Palmeri, digital rhetorics.

 

Student life: The student life for grad students is rather restricted, as the town itself is heavily undergrad oriented, as is the school.  The town is mainly just a few blocks with a lot of bars and no bookstores (aside from textbooks).  There is a Kroger and a WalMart.  But there are a lot of good activities happening, between grad parties, get-togethers, and readings.  Cincinnati is a bit of a drive, 45 minutes, but doable, especially for some good Indian food.  Most of the student life will consist of getting together at people's houses for some drinks and movies.

 

Other opportunities (magazines, presses, and so on): There is OxMag, which can be found here, which is an online publication through the grad department.  It isn't somewhere that you can publish yourself, but it is an opportunity to be a reader or editor.  There are a lot of chances for everyone, both creative writing and not, to share their work, whether creative or professional.

 

If you have any detailed questions, you can alwys email me at mwardm@gmail.com .  I'd be happy to talk with you more indepth about my experience or about the little bits I know of other programs.  The website for the programs can be found online and even contains the grad handbook.  Good luck!