YAS!! All I have to share I can in small figures: - I had an excellent mid-year review today. - They have drastically slashed the workload of my worst project - They are giving me more of the project I am really good at - I have 6 days of vacation beginning today - RIGHT NOW - me'n'm'fam we gonna get unlimited crabs FUCK YEAH - I got a PROSE piece accepted for publication, bitches, woah
FUQ YA EVRY1 2DAI IZ FRAIDAZE Everything is coming up refugees and roses. kleinbl00 all my thinking last night actually ended up a help. I know I overthink things sometimes esp those things, but no. I realized my decision was even more justified than I was giving it credit for. No one likes to hurt anyone but this was a good move. it's a hubskier's birthday today (not mine) y'all go off and sparkle now, it's gonna be a great day
- I'm going to the mother fucking beach in the next six days hellz yeahs. (ok this one feels like gloating sorry)
For a super great update, I took the fucking GREs today and got back my math and verbal scores immediately. For verbal I got a pretty fucking totally AWSOME 165/170 (95th percentile). Did not do quite so hot with the math coming in at 151/170 (which is like an upper 40th percentile) but frankly could not in general be arsed to care very much at the math. The writing portion will be graded by real people and so we'll have to see. However, I finished all sections with time remaining, and made sure to structure my writing portions with 5 paragraphs, thesis statement, topic sentences heading each paragraph, and conclusions. It wasn't exactly inspired writing but it was complete. Hope I didn't completely bork it, at least. The crazy thing is that I didn't actually remember what the score frames were (like, mix, max, what is good) so when I got my scores back I had no idea if they were decent and was afraid to send them to any universities. So I'll be doing that from my GRE account later today. Watch out world cuz here undeniably brilliant comes.
That's awesome ref, I am glad you are pleased with the results. I know you've been heading down this path for a while, or at least contemplating it for a while. What's the program you want to get in to? Is it an MFA program? Last time i was in Michigan I had dinner with mk and gq and we discussed what we would do/say to our daughters if they said they wanted to go to school for poetry. We sort of agreed on what our response would be, I'll echo it here: "What's your goal? What do you want to achieve by doing this?" This isn't asked to be contrary, I'm genuinely curious. Is it to teach somewhere? Is it to up your writing abilities? Will it help get you in journals that otherwise are difficult to get in to? Is it an accomplishment thing? you know... a goal you've had for along time, an itch you have to scratch? Will your emphasis be poetry or something else? Lot's of questions. But yeah, if my daughter wanted to go to college to major in poetry, it would warrant a discussion. Is that odd? If she wanted to study economics it likely wouldn't. Strange. Maybe I need to think on this more.... Either way, you are a badass and it's now been quantifiably established via your GRE. Nice work! Whatever your motivations, I wish you nothing but the best, which is what I fully expect you'll receive. -I'll raise a glass in your honor this evening!
Yes, I will be applying to MFA (Poetry concentration) programs. It's a long path, let's say that :) Assuming I get into a program under the conditions I want, (which is looking more and more like a good chance) it will still be another year and a bit before I am enrolled and taking classes anywhere. Well, you know, I'd like to first say that I think while I understand all your feelings in that regard, the conditions under which any of your children might choose to go to school for poetry probably would matter more than maybe you guys discussed at the time. For instance, are they going for a BA or MFA? In my opinion what you get for your BA doesn't really matter as to what your future career may be. A person who was going for their MFA straight out of school, now that I definitely could see feeling like you'd want to have a conversation. People who stay in academia without a break between the BA and more advanced degrees tend to have a different experience of life in general. I wouldn't say it would count against you, but for an MFA candidate, it's not a mark in your favor. It's quite common for students to take time in between the two. It may be different for an MD or eventual Dr in Engineering or the hard sciences, though, I'm sure. As for why I want to go to grad school, I want to be the very best I can be at poetry. That's the simplest way I can put it. My dream job would be to teach English and related topics at the collegiate level. However, I know that's a shit shoot. I know that you can't possibly hope to get a job at a university and make above the poverty line - that is, unless you are undeniably good. That is, that you are so good at writing that universities want you because it will add prestige to their insititions - that you are so good that they are courting you. Otherwise, from what I can tell, you're going to be an adjunct forever making less than 10k a year teaching at 3 universities. But if they want you, if they are jockeying for you, then - well, then, tenure, you know. I think it's ridiculous to hope or plan for that happening for me. It's just such a low chance, for anybody. I know the young poet enrolled in an MFA program right now that I think is amazing and mind-blowing - his name is Danez Smith, and he's already been published in some of the most prestigious magazines out there. He's a Cave Canem fellow, which means that for a while a bunch of people gave him money just so he could write poetry and live. (That's, btw, another post-grad-school option, if you are undeniably good.) I like, fuckin, basically worship Danez Smith in a lot of ways. I just think he's brilliant. I'm no Danez Smith. An MFA could help me teach at the high school level if I wanted, but I'm not sure I'm interested in that. It could help me lead classes at artist communities in my part time, however, if I wanted to, which I haven't really thought about but is a possibility. I want to be the best I can be, and I believe that being in the immersive environment of an MFA degree, with teachers who know way more than I do, I'll be able to get better way faster and broadly than I will on my own. I believe I don't know what I don't know, but hopefully my teachers will. That's the gist of it. I don't think it will necessarily help me get published speaking in terms of having those letters after my name, but I think it would help me get published in that it would help me become a better writer. But publishing is painful, an up and down rollercoaster. Sometimes it's really rewarding, like my prose piece I actually worshopped for a bit with the editor who took it, and that was really cool. But mostly it's agony, waiting, and then nothing, or a slight rush when the poem goes out. I don't know how many people read any magazine I've ever been published in - I don't know what my traffic stats are, so there's no real way to get a reward there besides just seeing it for myself. Thank you. I am celebrating in the ways I can as well. :)
I will let you know when it is out - I expect around December. It is a print-only magazine called PRIMITIVE done by a press called Anklebiters which is closely associated somehow with Whatever, Mom. What is really cool is that both my brother and I will have work published in the issue. It's a Science Fiction Double Feature! In fact, to shamelessly plug something I think is really cool, Anklebiters and Whatever, Mom worked together to create and publish a book-ish that my brother created. It's up at their store, called New Sky. In my totally unbiased opinion, my brother has been doing some really cool things with media/mixed forms in his creative writing work. Skymall, or "New Sky" as they've called it, is one example of that - he took Skymalls, cut them apart, and created collages from various images. Interspersed between the collages are some of his poems (which are not very much like mine in style). My brother has always tended towards political and/or social commentary in his writing whereas that type of writing has always proved difficult for me. The best thing about "New Sky," though, is it's in color. His first Sky Mall he entirely produced himself on copier machines and such and it was all black and white. The color makes a huge difference and is just really cool for someone used to seeing his magazine without any. I kinda have been wanting to plug "New Sky" on Hubski but wasn't sure how. In fact, here's a sneak preview. Just look at it. Think about it. Check it out. (But seriously tng I'll let you know when Primitive 2 comes out and such.)