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University of North Carolina, Wilmington

North carolina, united states.

The UNCW Department of Creative Writing is a community of passionate, dedicated writers who believe that the creation of art is valuable to self and culture. Our faculty encourages a rigorous yet supportive environment in which writers can grow as artists and as individuals. We believe excellence starts with an informed application of craft and we encourage writers to explore aesthetics and methods across genre lines.

The Department of Creative Writing is an independent department housed in its own building, keeping its undergraduate and graduate communities all in one place. It offers BFA and MFA degrees in Fine Arts (Creative Writing), both programs also having the potential of an extensive publishing and editing component.

UNCW’s MFA Program is celebrating its 20th anniversary and there is no better way to do that than by looking back on the successes of our students. That is where we pride ourselves. Our students and alumni have published more than 90 books and chapbooks. Jason Mott’s first novel became last season’s ABC TV series The Returned; Brad Land’s debut memoir Goat is being filmed as I write this; Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams received a $25,000 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and a $50,000 Whiting Writers Award; Arianna Nash won the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry; Rochelle Hurt won the Barrow Street Book Prize; Leah Osowski won the Wick Poetry Prize at Kent State; Emily Carr won the New Measures Poetry Prize; Xhenet Aliu won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize; the list of books goes on and on-- publishers such as St. Martins; Algonquin; Viking; Ballantine; Morrow; Random House; Simon and Schuster. Alumni have published some hundreds of poems, stories, essays, reviews in prominent and vital venues. Indeed, here are a few of the magazines with which recent students published while still in the program: The Georgia Review, Black Warrior Review, The Journal, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, Agni, North American Review, Green Mountains Review, Third Coast, Puerto del Sol, Passages North, Oxford American, River Teeth, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre; The Paris Review Daily, Poetry International, Granta Online, and The Nation.

We are a faculty of 15 seasoned, well published, working writers, all teaching graduate coursework in writing, literature, translation, or publishing, editing and book design. We offer the traditional tracks of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, with a graduate course available in screenwriting.

We enjoy a community of 63 students undertaking a three-year program of study in an independent department of creative writing housed in its own building. The community is all in one place. Cross-genre study is not only encouraged—it is required. Our workshops are capped at 14 and often run much smaller. No one phones it in here. We take pride in mentoring our students. And we take pride in engendering a rigorous, but very supportive atmosphere amongst the students.

We offer 9-10 GTAships each year, each paying a stipend of $15,500 and involving the teaching of creative writing or publishing and editing, or, in two cases, film studies, at the undergraduate level.

One opportunity that sets us apart is our Publishing Laboratory and its imprint Lookout Books. Students have now edited, designed and published five national titles, one of which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Pub Lab also houses two national literary magazines, Ecotone and Chautauqua.

Please visit our website (below) and view a short video about us. We are proud of our MFA and BFA programs in Creative Writing, and of that unique, state-of-the-art Publishing Laboratory, where both graduate and undergraduate students learn all aspects of publishing in a hands-on environment that is unique in higher education. You can also read about our award-winning semiannual journal, Ecotone, and its sister book imprint, Lookout Books, at ecotonelookout.org.

Get to know us. Check out the faculty.

Then, we hope you’ll consider joining us.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Contact Information

601 S. College Road Creative Writing Department Wilmington North Carolina, United States 28403 Phone: (910) 962-3331 Email: [email protected] Fax: 910-962-7461 http://http://uncw.edu/writers/

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Undergraduate program director.

Students may declare a major in Creative Writing and enter the BFA degree program only after submitting a successful portfolio for review by the faculty. Students must also have demonstrated their talent and dedication in one of the basic prerequisite courses in creative writing by receiving a grade of B or better.

The BFA program provides an intensive apprenticeship in writing, informed by the close study of literature, to serious, aspiring writers, among a community of accomplished professional writers. Training is provided in the art of writing within the context of studies in aesthetics, the literary tradition, the craft and profession of publishing, and broad liberal arts subject matter relevant to the student's need and goals. Our primary educational goals include: 1) providing dedicated and talented students with a rigorous apprenticeship in the art and craft of creating literature; 2) developing students' critical faculties, their understanding of literary forms, and their aesthetic judgment; 3) providing students with a strong intellectual foundation in the historical literary tradition, grounding their practice of the art of writing in an understanding of how that art has been practiced by the greatest classic and contemporary authors; and 4) providing a thoughtful interdisciplinary foundation for understanding creative writing's relationship to other arts and scholarly areas.

We value and promote cross-genre versatility. The major and minor require a beginning creative writing course in the chosen genre, then specialization in one or more genres, culminating in a senior seminar, a senior thesis, and a reading. Courses are also offered in screenwriting and playwriting. Atlantis is the undergraduate literary magazine, fully staffed by student editors. Each year, based on a judging of undergraduate manuscripts, the program awards the Sam Ragan Prizes in Poetry and the Jessie Rehder Short Story Awards. Students benefit from contact with numerous nationally-known visiting Writers-in-Residence and speakers, including guests during the department's annual week-long Writers' Symposium.

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Graduate program director.

We enjoy a community of approximately 66 students undertaking a three-year program of study in an independent department of creative writing housed in its own building. The community is all in one place. Cross-genre study is not only encouraged—it is required. Our workshops are capped at 14 and often run much smaller. No one phones it in here. We take pride in mentoring our students. And we take pride in engendering a rigorous, but very supportive atmosphere amongst the students.

We offer differing numbers of GTAships each year, but each pays a stipend of $15,000 and involves the teaching of creative writing or publishing and editing, or, in one case, film studies, at the undergraduate level.

Natural Causes, Thirty-Seven Years from the Stone, Smoulder: Poems

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/cox.html

Nina de Gramont

The Last September; The Boy I Love; Meet Me at the River; Of Cats and Men; Gossip Of The Starlings

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/degramont.html

Clyde Edgerton

Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers,The Night Train, The Bible Salesman, Solo: My Adventures in the Air,

Lunch at the Piccadilly: A Novel (2003)

Where Trouble Sleeps ,Redeye: A Western ,In Memory of Junior, Killer Diller , The Floatplane Notebooks (1988)

Walking Across Egypt ,Raney

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/edgerton.html

David Gessner

All the Wild That Remains; The Tarball Chronicles;)

My Green Manifesto; Soaring with Fidel; The Prophet of Dry Hill; Sick of Nature; Return of the Osprey; Under the Devil's Thumb; A Wild, Rank Place

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/gessner.html

Rebecca Lee

Bobcat and Other Stories, The City Is a Rising Tide

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/lee.html

Robert Anthony Siegel

All Will Be Revealed, All the Money in the World

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/siegel.html

BFA Coordinator, work in Haunted Voices, Haunting Places: An Anthology of Writers of the Old and New South, Big Muddy, 55 Words, Prick of the Spindle, Aries, Calliope, winner, Authors in the Park Short Story Prize

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/bass.html

Malena Morling

Ocean Avenue; Astoria; The Star By My Head: Poets from Sweden; On Foot I Wandered Through The Solar Systems

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/morling.html

Anna Lena Phillips Bell

A Pocket Book of Forms; 32 Poems, Colorado Review, the Southern Review, the Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. VII: North Carolina, the Raintown Review, Southern Poetry Review, the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Really System, Canary, and 111O.

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/phillips.html

author of two poetry collections: We Call This Thing Between Us Love and … Hide Behind Me… His debut novel, The Returned, was optioned

-pre-release!- by actor Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, as a television series and premiered on the ABC network in 2014 under the title Resurrection (2 seasons). His second novel, The Wonder of All Things has been optioned -also pre-release!- by Lionsgate Films for the big screen.

https://jasonmottauthor.com/

Sayantani Dasgupta

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/dasgupta.html

Michelle Donahue

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/donahue.html

KaToya Ellis Fleming

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/fleming.html

Jill Gerard

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/gerardj.html

Melody Moezzi

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/moezzi.html

Michael Ramos

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/ramos.html

Sarah Domet

https://sarahdomet.com/the-guineveres/

Emily Louise Smith

https://www.emilylouisesmith.org/

Publications & Presses +

Lookout Books

Publishing Laboratory

Visiting Writers Program +

Mei Fong, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Ilya Kaminsky, Steve Almond, Scott Cairns, Cristina Garcia, Patricia Hampl, Cynthia Huntington, Van Jordan, Jason Mott, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Bob Reiss, Mary Ruefle, Natasha Trethewey; Nikki Finney; Roxane Gay; Michael Taeckens; Bill Roorbach; Jill McCorkle;

Reading Series +

Writers Week ( http://uncw.edu/writersweek/ )

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University of North Carolina Wilmington

Wilmington , NC

http://uncw.edu/writers/mfa/index.html

Degrees Offered

Fiction, Poetry, CNF

Residency type

Program length, financial aid.

Currently, we support approximately 40 percent of our MFA students with teaching assistantships and other types of awards; we continue to work energetically toward our goal of providing support for all MFA students. All applicants to our MFA program are automatically considered for available teaching assistantships and scholarships, which are awarded on a competitive basis (via confidential application ranking scores). Teaching experience is not necessary.

Teaching opportunities

TAships are available

Editorial opportunities

While most graduate students in UNCW’s program are writing with the aim of commercial publication, and the knowledge they gain in the Pub Lab will no doubt help them in that regard, we hope that participation in publishing arts courses and internships will broaden and inform their understanding of books and communication in general.

For graduate students hoping to pursue careers in publishing, including management of literary publications and promotion of writers’ events, the Pub Lab provides an excellent training ground. Students completing any of the following publishing courses are eligible for assistantship opportunities in the Department of Creative Writing and elsewhere; Lookout Books interns (chosen each semester by application) gain valuable editorial, design, marketing, and business management skills as well.

Cross-genre study

While students apply in and focus primarily on one genre, cross-genre study is encouraged.

Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams MFA 2007
Xhenet Aliu MFA 2007
Stephanie Andersen MFA (CNF) 2006
Peter C. Baker MFA (Fiction) 2014
Michelle Bliss MFA
Emma Bolden MFA (Poetry) 2005
Nina De Gramont MFA 2006
David Harris-Gershon MFA
Ben Hoffman MFA (Fiction) 2013
Rochelle Hurt MFA (Poetry) 2011
Gwendolyn Knapp MFA (Fiction) 2006
Michael Ramos MFA 2016
Whitney Ray MFA 2013
Aurora Shimshak MFA (CNF) 2018
Laura Price Steele MFA 2016
Matt Tullis MFA (CNF) 2005
The Cyborg Jillian Weiss MFA (CNF) 2016

Send questions, comments and corrections to [email protected] .

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , Best American Poetry , The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology .

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The Master of Fine Arts in creative writing is a two-year full residency program with an emphasis on providing studio time for the writing of poetry or fiction. Our students develop their particular talents through small classes in writing, literature, and publishing. As part of a community of writers, students read and comment on each other’s work under the guidance of distinguished faculty, who also meet with students in one-on-one tutorials.

Join Our Community of Writers

Full funding
2-year residency program
Cohorts of 10-12 writers
Assistantships & internships in teaching and editing
One-on-one faculty tutorials
Workshops & seminars in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, literary editing, and publishing

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Jennine capó crucet fiction reading, michael parker: the last lecture, the history the uncg mfa program.

The MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is one of the oldest such programs in the country. During the early years, the University had among its faculty noted writers such as Allen Tate, Caroline Gordon, John Crowe Ransom, Hiram Haydn, Peter Taylor, and Randall Jarrell. They invited other distinguished authors to campus to meet with students and read from their work; these writers included Saul Bellow, Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, Flannery O’Connor, Robert Penn Warren, and Eudora Welty.

In 1965, under the leadership of Robert Watson, creative writing offerings were formalized. Since that time, the faculty has intentionally kept the program small, enabling students to work one-on-one with faculty in a community of writers.

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Physical Address: 3143 Moore Humanities and Research Administration Building Greensboro, NC 27412

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 26170 Greensboro, NC 27402

Phone: 336-334-5311 Fax: 336-334-3281 Email: [email protected]

Copyright © 2024. UNC Greensboro. All rights reserved. | If you have a disability and are having trouble accessing information on this website or need materials in an alternate format contact [email protected] for assistance.

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Nicole Yatsonsky

MFA, Creative Writing, University of North Carolina Wilmington, expected 2025

MSLS, Library Science, University of North Texas, 2018

BFA, Creative Writing, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009

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2022 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

creative writing

By CanadianKate March 22, 2021 in Literary

CanadianKate

For those of us who plan to apply for a Creative Writing MFA in 2021 (start date 2022)

Brother Panda and CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI

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Brother Panda

On 3/22/2021 at 3:26 PM, CanadianKate said: For those of us who plan to apply for a Creative Writing MFA in 2021 (start date 2022)

Thanks for starting this! Didn’t apply for the season getting results right now but did do some major lurking.

3 weeks later...

On 3/22/2021 at 12:26 PM, CanadianKate said: For those of us who plan to apply for a Creative Writing MFA in 2021 (start date 2022)

Hey, thanks for starting a new thread, Kate!

Oof, here we go again...

CanadianKate and Brother Panda
2 yr dr. t pinned this topic

Hey all! I'm an MFA student who haunts these forums because I remember what it was like to be waiting to hear back from programs. I have a few things to say to applicants if you're willing to listen.

1) Only apply to funded programs. I know it's old advice, but it's still good advice. Even funded programs that are "lower" tier are still better than the best unfunded program. Consider that Columbia costs around 150k, comparable to medical school, and that even doctors have a hard time paying off their loans. So please don't think you'll be paying it off with writing. Only go to a non-funded school if you have 150k to spend, in which case, do it if you really want to. It will still be the same thing--some workshops, some other classes, some award-winning writers. Every MFA has that stuff.

2) Actually do your homework. Read some work by the authors at these programs. If you like the work, mention that author by name in your statement of purpose. Everyone loves to be complimented, and they will feel good knowing that you have actually done the work of seriously looking into the school. And speaking of SoPs, actually take the time to truly tailor each one to the school.

3) Submit your best (and favorite) work. Take your best and favorite story or two (or poem or essay) and revise and revise and revise until every single word can stand trial and still remain in the story. As Raymond Carver said (quoting another author), you are finished revising when, on one pass, you take a single comma out of the story, and on the next pass, you put it back in.

4) Submit and forget. Once you've submitted, go back to doing things you love. Go to the gym. Hang out with friends. Anything that will be good for your soul and push the dreaded decision letter out of your mind.

Good luck everyone! It took me a couple application rounds to get into a program. If you don't get in, just keep living and writing and try again next time.

feralgrad , maybesamiah , evergreen13 and 3 others

Hey, y'all! Glad to see some familiar faces around here. For those of you who don't know me, I've been on GradCafe for a couple years. I did two rounds of applications before I got into the right program, and this board was so helpful! I'll be popping in occasionally to offer my opinions/bother y'all.

It's still way early in the cycle, but I will say: don't underestimate the importance of the research phase! I rushed through it my first round, and it bit me in the butt. If funding is a major concern (and it should be for most applicants), I recommend digging deep for less famous programs. UMass, Michener, Iowa, etc. are great, but applying to 5 programs that accept >1% of applicants gives you much lower chances than applying to one program that accepts 10% (e.g. Hollins -- which is still fully-funded and well-respected). And trust me, each program you add to your list piles on more work than you think.

Aaaanyway, good luck, everyone! I'll see you around :)

CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI and Brother Panda

I was a bit of lurker last year. I can't even remember what my username was. But I am taking the 2022 application round much more seriously. I've already started on my writing sample. I know someone else started a thread for 2022. The problem is she called it 2021, which is the same thing the thread was called last year. People are going to end posting on both threads called 2021, and we'll have to check two threads. It is better to have a thread called 2022. So what are people doing: are they editing their writings sample from last year, or are they starting from scratch?

After getting rejected this year I was finally able to put MFAs out of my mind. I didn't feel at all motivated for this next application cycle, even though I explicitly had the intentions of applying again. Well, now I'm finally sucked back into thinking about it every day.

Janice Salley

Considering applying to (in alphabetical order):

Alabama Alaska Denver Houston Iowa Johns Hopkins Kansas Mississippi Missouri Nebraska Syracuse Tennessee Vanderbilt WashU (in St. Louis)

lenagator1997

I'm an incoming MFA CW Nonfiction student going to The University of New Hampshire who applied in Fall 2020. If anyone wants any advice on the application process as a whole, or about any of the programs I applied to below let me know! My biggest pieces of advice are:

1. Have your portfolio reflect your best work, as well as the widest range of your abilities as a writer possible. Admission committees like to see your depth.

2. Ask for your letters of recommendation as early as possible to have a stress-free life for you and your professor.

3. Cast a wide net when applying for schools. I know they say rankings and selectivity don't matter but they do. (see book below for some statistics)

4. Figure out what type of program works best for you. Consider if you want high or low res, cross genre or a more focused program, size, faculty, ect.

Also here is a link to the book: The Insiders Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing, which I wish I would have found sooner in the process: https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Graduate-Degrees-Creative-Writing/dp/1350000418

University of Wyoming

University of Minnesota

Columbia College Chicago

Rosemont College

University of New Hampshire

Hollins College

Sarah Lawrence

UNC Wilmington

Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) University of Washington (Seattle)

Colorado State

Hofstra University

Hey Guys, ( I think I posted on the wrong forum but if not, apologies for the double post!)

Washington University in St. Louis (WashU)

University of Washington (Seattle)

On 5/31/2021 at 12:52 AM, mrvisser said: After getting rejected this year I was finally able to put MFAs out of my mind. I didn't feel at all motivated for this next application cycle, even though I explicitly had the intentions of applying again. Well, now I'm finally sucked back into thinking about it every day.

After being rejected on the first round, I didn't think about my next round of MFA applications until mid July. The urge to apply came, went, then came back again. It's one of the things that stuck in my mind, much like writing, and there wasn't a way to get rid of it completely.

Hi, lenagator1997 . Where did you hear that you should show "depth"? It just sounds impossible to do with the word caps.

2 hours ago, molly s said: Hi, lenagator1997 . Where did you hear that you should show "depth"? It just sounds impossible to do with the word caps.

This might not be for all MFA programs, but I've observed if the page limits for the portfolios are 30+ or 20+ pages on certain applications, they like to see the different types of skills you have as a writer. (Unless you want to submit 20+ pages of a fiction novel. I'm nonfiction so I am less well versed in what you would do for that.) I made a very diverse portfolio which showed my range of style and thus depth. Even if the page limit was 10 pages, I would submit two very different essays in the two contrasting forms I was strongest in. (I think I had at least four different essays in my portfolio if the page limit was 30+ pages).

" different types of skills." - lenagator1997

Can you list these skills? All them, if possible because I don't really understand.

11 hours ago, zacv said: " different types of skills." - lenagator1997 Can you list these skills? All them, if possible because I don't really understand.

By skills I mean anything in your writing that would make you stand out as an applicant. Pick stories, poems, essays ect that best represents your strengths/uniqueness and thus skills as a writer. For example, my strongest skills (and uniqueness) as a nonfiction writer include weaving external research or information into longer personal narratives and playing with form. In contrast my weakest skills are writing shorter essays that require a lot of poetic imagery. So in my portfolio I didn't include any essays that didn't represent the best of what I can do. There isn't any list I can give because the skills you have as a writer are so individual and different for everyone. I think it's important to understand your own work inside and out, especially in what you are submitting in the portfolio know what your writing shows about you as the applicant.

4 weeks later...

Just wanted to wish all who are applying or re-applying for Fall 2022 admission this round luck! For those just coming into this world, do your research while making your school spreadsheet! I have seen many a post from people who didn't get in anywhere because they only applied to the top 3 in the whole country. Cast a wide net everyone. Getting into full residency MFA programs are competitive. I personally had no idea. Selectivity percentage should not deter anyone from applying, but to be aware of it is helpful, and these numbers usually fluctuates from year to year. At the end of the day, apply to the places that are the best fit for you and I would hate to see anyone become devastated. Below is information paraphrased (not directly quoted) from "The Insiders Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing" by Seth Abramson. I believe he is a sound source on this topic.

The heavy hitting schools we have all heard about like; Vanderbilt, University of Iowa, NYU, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Texas Austin, Boston University, University of Wyoming, UMass Amherst, Brown, Cornell, Johns Hopkins ect. all have an acceptance rate less than 5%. These also happen to be in the "very selective" category and tend to have a smaller group of students. The schools in the "selective" category like; University of Maryland, University of North Carolina Wilmington, New Mexico State, and University of New Hampshire (UNH) fall around (8-15%). If you want to find out more, check out the book: https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Graduate-Degrees-Creative-Writing/dp/135000040X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=guide+to+graduate+degrees+in+creative+writing&qid=1609448517&sr=8-2#reader_135000040X

mr. specific

Hey so I applied last year to 5 places (in poetry) and wound up being waitlisted at Michener and Wisconsin. Not a total loss, but I'm finding it hard not to be discouraged and go through the whole thing again, even though I do think my writing is better than this time last year. So who knows. I'm wondering if I should cast a wider net, or if there is some way to improve my application.

On 7/6/2021 at 8:40 AM, mr. specific said: Hey so I applied last year to 5 places (in poetry) and wound up being waitlisted at Michener and Wisconsin. Not a total loss, but I'm finding it hard not to be discouraged and go through the whole thing again, even though I do think my writing is better than this time last year. So who knows. I'm wondering if I should cast a wider net, or if there is some way to improve my application.

MFA CW programs are selective at the best of times so casting a wider net may be beneficial! I applied to 13 places in 2020. It was difficult to discern which ones were more selective than others, but I focused more on if I liked their curriculum, faculty, and if I thought my writing style meshed with their programs.

On 7/6/2021 at 11:40 AM, mr. specific said: Hey so I applied last year to 5 places (in poetry) and wound up being waitlisted at Michener and Wisconsin. Not a total loss, but I'm finding it hard not to be discouraged and go through the whole thing again, even though I do think my writing is better than this time last year. So who knows. I'm wondering if I should cast a wider net, or if there is some way to improve my application.

I tend to be suspicious of casting a wide net for grad apps. That strategy can make it harder to research each program thoroughly, which can lead you to attend one that's a poor fit. For example, there have been a few people in my program that ended up disappointed because they actually wanted cohort with a more conservative, literary aesthetic (in other words, they probably didn't do any research aside from reading the website...).

I know the feeling: you're itching to get in and want to ensure success. But I think you can save yourself a lot of trouble by looking for a handful of programs that are truly what you want -- because those are also the programs most likely to accept you. They're the programs that will get your most inspired personal statements, and they're more likely to have adcoms with similar aesthetics to yours.

If you don't have many specific ideas about what you want, I'd really recommend starting there (e.g. Do you want teaching experience? Do you want to take classes outside your genre? Will it piss you off if you're required to take a lot of literature courses?). I highly, highly advise talking to current students/alums before you even start on your application to a program. Last year, I talked to a student who helped me decide that her program was a bad fit for me. This saved me hours of work and 75 dollars.

Also, keep in mind that 10+ applications is a LOT of work. As you probably know, many programs have different requirements. Moreover, tailoring your personal statement to each school will take twice as long as you expect (at least, this was my experience in my 2 rounds of apps).

The wide net approach can certainly work, as it did for lenagator. But personally, I believe in quality over quantity. And anyway, if you got waitlisted at Michener, you certainly don't need to worry about being "good enough" ;-)

Thanks feralgrad. That makes a lot of sense.

I guess the first time around I used one metric only—how much was the fellowship, and didn't do any more research. This still seems like the critical question, like can i afford to live on this without debt or taking on another fulltime job outside the program. And I only came up with five that seemed like they promised that—Brown, Cornell, Michener, Wisconsin, Umass, (and Michigan and Florida, but I didn't remember to do these apps). So I'd be interested in other schools people know of that 1) promise funding upwards of ~25,000 a year and 2) guarantee funding (more or less equally) to all their students.

Not to single any one school out, but I just looked at Hollins' page, which up front claims that they are "extremely well-funded," but after clicking through a few more pages saw that the first year stipend was $7000!

12 hours ago, mr. specific said: Not to single any one school out, but I just looked at Hollins' page, which up front claims that they are "extremely well-funded," but after clicking through a few more pages saw that the first year stipend was $7000!

I also had been considering Hollins, but laughed out loud at the stipend. It's nice to offer some funding, but for that you'll have to take out loans, which I am totally unwilling to do for an MFA.

Has everyone decided where they're applying to? So far, I've decided on Alabama, Brown, Chatham, Cornell, Emerson, Hollins, UMich, Vanderbilt, and WashU.

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Creative Writing

Chapel Hill has always been a magnet for writers. Some students come with the goal of becoming novelists or short story writers or poets or dramatists; others discover their vocations while undergraduates.

The University has long had a vigorous writing tradition, beginning when “Proff” Koch, Paul Green, and Samuel Selden were working with Thomas Wolfe, Kay Kyser, Betty Smith, Frances Gray Patton, and Howard Richardson in the early twentieth century. Beginning in 1947 and continuing for almost two decades, Jessie Rehder served as a one-woman program and published several books of her students’ work; upon her death in 1966, Max Steele became director of Creative Writing the program expanded to include such legendary writers as Doris Betts and Daphne Athas. In the years since, Carolina’s Creative Writing program has been home to luminaries like Randall Kenan, Lee Smith, Sarah Dessen, Carolyn Kizer, Algonquin Books founder Louis D. Rubin, Alan Shapiro, Pam Durban, Michael Chitwood, and Marianne Gingher. Hundreds of alumni have gone on to write books, films, albums, plays, and television shows, pursue graduate study in creative writing, and publish stories, poems, and essays in the world’s best journals, magazines, and newspapers.

Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow. Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?