AULA acceptance

I was rushing thru the house one morning last week. There was the phone in its cradle with the red light flashing. What the hell. I stop and pick up my messages. I'm already running late for work, what can another minute or two matter (this is Ann's logic of determination)? There's a voice I've not heard before. It's Eloise Klein Healy who left me a message that put a big dopey smile on my face. She told me of my acceptance into Antioch Unversity's MFA in Creative Writing program. Healy founded the program. How do I talk about her without sounding obsequious? Here's her official AULA bio. We spoke on the phone that evening and again, I'm sure I lapsed into dopiness. There were a few things I recall though. Her tags for a poet's success (we didn't even use that word): perserverance, public readings and rewrites.

... that kind of pure glee is hard to sustain over the course of a week. Hey - it was slipping by noon that day.

But I am most excited. At the same time, there's a wall to scale. The program begins in June, and I've got a million arrangements to make, logistics to organize and funds to discover. I need a laptop and a cellphone and a plane ticket. But I am so very happy. I'd put this off for years, literally years. Then when it began to color itself as reality, there were choices. My picks came down to Goddard, Warren Wilson & StoneCoast - in addition to Antioch - as each excelled in reputation for the Low Res MFA.

Antioch, of course, is on the other side of the country, and of course, I have no family or friends in LA. good going Ann... well.

Spring Break is here & I'm beginning Stage II: finding money. Ideas anyone?