The MFA candidates

It's amazing just how much flavor and personality of an educational setting can be derived from a folder of Admission papers.

I've finally had time to read thru the packets of info from Goddard and Warren Wilson, which I requested a few weeks ago. I really like the tone of Goddard. The package has warmth to it, as if one individual sat at her writing desk or at a table in the sun and composed the various letters all the while with an image of the recipient held forward. Warren Wilson on the other hand is terse, informal and cold. I can see it popping out of a laser printer. The irony is that Goddard's degree will get me a job in education while the MFA from WW is meant to "assist students with their writing." The faculty at WW includes a number of Goddard grads, including Ellen Bryant Voigt. Her credits include developing and directing "the country's first low-residency writing program in the mid-seventies, at Goodard College." Voigt moved the program to WW in 1981. Not sure how she accomplished that what portion of Goddard's program is encompassed in the relocation.

Goddard emphasizes diversity, naming more than the standard slate of federally defined minorities. It allows for study in dual genres, something that appeals to me. The program is student-directed.

I'm not sure which direction I'll go. There's so much to considerand seems like so little time to do it. I've missed deadlines for applying for the summer residencies so now need to make a September deadline.

One interesting incidental: The course descriptions from Warren Wilson include this one from Meghan O'Rourke: "Dispassionate Passion - The Paradoxes or Poetic Restraint, Bad Manners, and Admirable Confusion."

I'll have to return on that... in a few more minutes I'm heading across the river to have lunch and discuss chapbook publishing with Lucille McAulty. I don't want to be late.