Advice for My Students
I began this page because many of my current and former undergraduate students approach me for advice about how, where, and when to apply to graduate programs in creative writing; they, along with the grad students I teach, also sometimes ask for advice about how to begin getting their work published. Although all of these students are unique individuals with specific predilections, talents, and needs, my initial advice to them tends to be the same. So I decided to post a few short responses here on my website, in the hopes of helping both my own students and anyone else who’s considering applying to graduate school or who wishes to begin making forays into the world of publication. My experience thus far has been that the advice on this page has sparked more lively conversations: that if students still have questions, after having read it, those questions tend to be more specific than they might have been before. Reading the relevant posts on this page before you come in for a conference on one of these questions can help make that conference more productive.
Since starting the page, I’ve fielded a number of questions from students about how a young writer might support herself; so now there’s a whole section on jobs. In the “Publishing Advice” section, I’ve included notes on how to find an agent. There is also a section containing some general wisdom on how best to request a letter of reference and on how to submit a strong application to an undergraduate workshop.
If you’re thinking about applying to grad school, I recommend reading the posts about this topic on Koreanish, the blog of my writer friend Alexander Chee, who discusses the topic at greater length. Alex also recently posted some thoughts on the idea of including safely schools when applying to MFA programs. His thinking on the subject is spot-on; the essay is well worth a read.
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