Mark Twain
Call me Ishmael.
Around December of last year I began applying to Master of Fine Arts programs in Creative Writing with an emphasis on fiction. All the programs I applied to are highly competitive and each program received around 1000 applications for 15-25 positions that they have open for the Fall semester. Of those 15-25 people who get accepted, 5 or 6 of them might get some kind of funding. Considering this, I did not think the odds were very good that I would get into any program, but I had a few sly professors who thought my writing was good enough to get into one of the top programs and get some kind of funding. I have two short stories that were accepted for publication (which helped the application) by two national literary journals. The Arkansas Review published my first short story, “Mule,” in April 2007. The Texas Review accepted another short story, “The Well,” for publication either late this year or early next year. After consulting with my professors, I applied to what I considered to be the top ten programs in the country with the hope that I might get accepted to one and receive some kind of financial assistance.
Months passed and I did not hear anything from any of the programs that I applied to and I began to get nervous. Then the rejection letters started coming in, (which I expected) but it still made me depressed. I finally got a glimpse of hope when I was accepted into the University of Maryland’s MFA program in late March. I was extremely happy, but then I was crushed when they told me that they couldn’t offer me any financial assistance. I felt really low. I started looking at bills and considering different options for a future career. ???
Then I got a phone call.
Tom Grimes, the head of the MFA program at Texas State University in San Marcos, offered me a position in their program. He told me that I had been awarded the W. Morgan and Lou Claire Rose Fellowship for Fiction. To my knowledge, this is the largest fiction fellowship in the country that is offered to entering MFA fiction candidates. I was stunned and didn’t know what to say. I never expected to receive such a substantial fellowship.
I now have the opportunity to study writing with some of the top authors in the nation. They have a program at San Marcos called the Mitte Chair, which allows well-known authors to come to the University and teach for a year. Former Mitte chairs include Pulitzer Prize nominee Barry Hannah and National book award winner Tim O’Brien!
I’ll be moving to the San-Marcos area sometime around August. It’s supposed to be beautiful. I believe it’s half an hour south of Austin and 45 minutes north of San Antonio. If anybody knows a good cigar shop or wants to get together, just let me know.
Now to choose my celebration smoke. . . :whistling:
Months passed and I did not hear anything from any of the programs that I applied to and I began to get nervous. Then the rejection letters started coming in, (which I expected) but it still made me depressed. I finally got a glimpse of hope when I was accepted into the University of Maryland’s MFA program in late March. I was extremely happy, but then I was crushed when they told me that they couldn’t offer me any financial assistance. I felt really low. I started looking at bills and considering different options for a future career. ???
Then I got a phone call.
Tom Grimes, the head of the MFA program at Texas State University in San Marcos, offered me a position in their program. He told me that I had been awarded the W. Morgan and Lou Claire Rose Fellowship for Fiction. To my knowledge, this is the largest fiction fellowship in the country that is offered to entering MFA fiction candidates. I was stunned and didn’t know what to say. I never expected to receive such a substantial fellowship.
I now have the opportunity to study writing with some of the top authors in the nation. They have a program at San Marcos called the Mitte Chair, which allows well-known authors to come to the University and teach for a year. Former Mitte chairs include Pulitzer Prize nominee Barry Hannah and National book award winner Tim O’Brien!
I’ll be moving to the San-Marcos area sometime around August. It’s supposed to be beautiful. I believe it’s half an hour south of Austin and 45 minutes north of San Antonio. If anybody knows a good cigar shop or wants to get together, just let me know.
Now to choose my celebration smoke. . . :whistling:
