Life After My MFA

UNC Chapel Hill Visiting Writer Position

2007-08-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Creative Writing Program seek to bring an emerging talent to campus for a one-year teaching appointment as the Kenan Visiting Writer, a position that alternates between poetry and prose. For the 2008-09 academic year, beginning August 2008, the Program requests applicants in Poetry.

Requirements: Significant publication in major literary magazines; applicants must have NO MORE than one recently published book or one book under contract, previous college teaching experience, and a willingness to relocate to Chapel Hill for one year. MFA degree preferred but not required. Conditions of appointment include a one-year non-renewable appointment, a salary of $28,000, the ability to teach one undergraduate creative writing course per semester, and full participation in the life of the Creative Writing Program.

Mail c.v.; three letters of reference, two of which should be written by people familiar with the applicant's teaching abilities and who can evaluate applicant's suitability; up to 10 pp. of published work; and a 1-page personal statement indicating how an appointment of this sort would serve the applicant's needs & endeavors by February 1 to:
Bland Simpson, Director
Creative Writing Program/Visiting Writer Search Committee
Greenlaw Hall, CB#3520
UNC Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3520.

chapbooks

2007-07-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

While many may disdain chapbooks for not being "real" books, and therefore not enough to get you a job, the Llama quite likes them. No, she doesn't run out and purchase them in great numbers, but she thinks some of them are quite pretty, especially those put out by The Center for Book Arts (truly, they make the Llama salivate) and the Poetry Society of America (lovely, if a bit on the New York-centric side).

She'd like to publish one, not to receive world-wide acclaim, but so that she can have something nicer to give her grandmother than a big stack of paper when her grandmother asks her to send more poems.

When the Llama finally gets her chapbook manuscript together, she will probably send it to some of the presses listed here on this useful site.

book trailers

2007-06-29T10:26:00.001-07:00

why is everybody so crazy about them all of a sudden? where did they come from? do they work?

but however you try to get published...

2007-06-29T10:15:00.001-07:00

don't become a bad author.

art made out of books!

2007-06-29T10:11:00.003-07:00

check this out!

oh, and while we're on the publishing thing...

2007-06-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

Duotrope's Digest. Useful up-to-date info on most every literary magazine out there. They're collecting some interesting user-submitted data on response times, as well.

the CRWROPPS list

2007-06-27T06:30:00.001-07:00

If you're having trouble keeping up with all the magazine, chapbook, and book contests, and the calls for submissions for various anthologies, and other publishing types of opportunities, and you're just too dang poor to subscribe to Poets and Writers (plus you find yourself crippled by envy when you look at the people featured inside), I highly recommend joining CRWROPPS, the Creative Writers Opportunities listserv. You can get a daily digest email (or no e-mail at all) with the most recent updates and calls for submissions, and it's set up as a Yahoo group, and quite easy to use. You can also view the archives online for free, anytime.

If you have a call for submissions you'd like posted on CRWROPPS, you can email it to Allison Joseph, the group moderator. But please do not bother her with silly questions about the contests. She does not run them. She just sets up the list out of the goodness of her heart, for the benefit of other writers. Truly wonderful!

poet-in-residence position

2007-06-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

Short, and you can only apply if you've got one book already. But still in the "sweet deals" category.

2008 Sandburg-Auden-Stein Residency
http://www.olivetcollege.edu/academics/humanities.php

Intensive Learning Term poet-in-residence program, April 29-May 16, 2008

From the early 1930s to the mid 1940s, Olivet College hosted some of the best-known writers of the time: Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, Katherine Ann Porter, Carl Sandburg, Ford Madox Ford, W.H. Auden, and Gertrude Stein. In that tradition, Olivet has established an annual residency program for poets who are establishing a name for themselves in this new millennium.

During the 2008 Intensive Learning Term, the Olivet College Humanities Department will offer its second poet-in-residence position. The Sandburg-Auden-Stein poet will live on campus from April 29 – May 16, 2008, and teach ENG 247: Poetry Writing. The Sandburg-Auden-Stein poet will also host two public events: a public reading of his or her work and a stand-alone talk/discussion on a subject of his or her choice (publishing poetry, beat poets, def poetry, etc.).

An award of $3,100 (plus room and board) will be given to the 2008 resident poet. The Humanities Department faculty will evaluate the submissions and choose the winner. Poets who have published at least one book of poetry are eligible. Submit four copies of the following postmarked by Sept. 10, 2007: five poems from your most recent book, a single page personal statement regarding your poetics and teaching, a current resume and two references. There is no entry fee. Please contact Kirk Hendershott-Kraetzer, Ph.D., Humanities Department chair, with your questions at (269) 749-7621 or khendershott-kraetzer(at)olivetcollege.edu (replace (at) with @).

Application materials should be sent by regular mail to:

Sandburg-Auden-Stein Residency
Humanities Department
Olivet College
320 S. Main St.
Olivet, MI 49076

poetry star trash

2007-06-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

Recently on Harriet, the Poetry Foundation's blog...
Emily Warn notes that Jim Behrle's cartoons are like Gawker for poets. But as I don't live in New York, am never moving to New York, and generally don't care about New York, I prefer Go Fug Yourself, which is funnier than both Gawker and Jim Behrle. Although I do think the leprechaun body suits Louise Glück particularly nicely.

in case you were wondering...

2007-06-13T11:49:00.001-07:00

MFA programs that offer you money are better. A commonsensical opinion here.

residencies and fellowships and other sweet deals

2007-06-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown
The deadline is December 1, 2007.

Milton Center Fellowship
The deadline is March 15, 2008.

Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship
The deadline is October 15, 2007.

Stegner Fellowship
The deadline is November 30, 2007.

Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing
The deadline is sometime in February, 2008

Colgate University Fellowship in Creative Writing
deadline ambiguous

New York Public Library
The deadline is September 28, 2007.

Hodder Fellowship at Princeton
The deadline is November 1, 2007.

Richard Hugo House
ambiguous

Yaddo
January 1 or August 1

Axton Postdoctoral Fellowship
not currently accepting applications?

Also a useful list here...

or maybe I just need a third office?

2007-06-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/06/2007060401c/careers.html

The Chronicle on "The Dream"

2007-06-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

The Chronicle of Higher Education tells us what most of us already know: writing is hard. And the odds of a cushy academic job are bad.

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i20/20b00501.htm

And someone responds to say...MFAs are useless. Hurrah!

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i25/25b01801.htm

And speaking of The Chronicle, Ms. Mentor, the Llama's favorite academic advice columnist, finally takes on the difficult and painful subject of adjunctdom. http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/06/2007060501c/careers.html
Reading the archives of her column is highly recommended.

distracted from distraction by distraction? no more!

2007-06-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

The Llama has one year to write her MFA thesis and figure out what she's going to do with her life after her MFA. So, instead of spending hours agonizing about this uncertainty, she's created this blog, Life After My MFA (L.A.M.M.F.A).

If you're an MFA graduate who's doing something interesting, the Llama would love to hear from you. She hopes to post interviews with these types of people on L.A.M.M.F.A.

Or, if you're in the same position as the Llama, wondering what to do next after your creative writing MFA, and you've got questions, email the Llama. She will direct all her researching energies toward your question.

She hopes that channeling her distracted net-surfing into a blog will allow her more time to, you know, actually write.