How to Write a Statement of Purpose for M.F.A in Creative Writing Programs

Among the most daunting -- and critical -- tasks involved in applying for graduate creative writing programs is writing the dreaded Statement of Purpose, which serves as a cover letter and therefore your first impression to the strangers reviewing your (and often hundreds of others') application.  Along with your writing sample, the Statement of Purpose is arguably the most important document.

Because the Statement of Purpose is often required to be one page or less, most applicants spend several weeks or even months crafting an effective SOP.  The problem, however, is that hardly anyone can say what, exactly, makes an SOP effective.  What should you include?  What should you not include?  How much personality ("flair") should there be, and what writerly ambitions or childhood trauma's are best left unmentioned?

Luckily, author and writing professor Cathy Day lays down some essential Do's and Don't's about writing the SOP.  Any writer serious about applying to graduate creative writing programs will benefit from these tips -- provided, after all, by someone who reviews M.F.A. applications regularly.

So take note!

Come Celebrate Graduating B.F.A. Students Stephanie Girard and Dayton Shafer!

Fall Authors Series Concludes with Two of JSC'S Own . . .

This Thursday, November 10th, JSC proudly welcomes a visit by two of its own, authors Neil Shepard and Tony Whedon.  

Even though both Shepard and Whedon recently retired from JSC's Department of Writing and Literature, both have been very busy.  During their visit, they will be celebrating the release of two new books:  Things to Pray for in Vermont by Tony Whedon and (T)ravel/Un(T)ravel by Neil Shepard (both released by Mid-List Press).  Please come celebrate with them!

WHEN:  Thursday, December 10 / 4:00 pm
WHERE:  Stearns Performance Space

Tony Whedon is also the author of the excellent book of essays A Language Dark Enough (Mid-List, 2004), which, according to the publisher, "travels on four continents in search of a language that describes 'home.' From Port-au-Prince to Shanghai, from Ecuador's Andes to the Green Mountains of Vermont, many of those he meets—his students, colleagues, and fellow travelers—are displaced people, exiles in a global community."  Whedon is also a pioneer of PoJazz, a lively performance-based fusion of poetry and jazz that has gained an enthusiastic following among his former students at JSC.

Read here Whedon's lovely essay "Kindred Spirits," featured in Hunger Mountain.

And here is Whedon's poem "Impermanence," published in Blackbird.

Neil Shepard is the author of three previous poetry collections with Mid-List, Scavenging the Country for a Heartbeat, I'm Here Because I Lost My Way, This Far from the Source--all of which, according to the publisher, "take readers on a journey across emotional as well as physical distances."


Shepard is the Founding Editor of JSC's acclaimed literary journal Green Mountains Review, which this spring will celebrate its first 25 years with an all-poetry anniversary issue.  

Read here an interview with Neil Shepard featured in Hunger Mountain.  

Here, courtesy of Mid-List Press, is an excerpt from Shepard's (T)ravel/Un(T)ravel:


AUBADE, WEST OF PARIS

(T)ravel/Un(T)ravel by Neil Shepard
(Mid-List Press, 2011)

(early spring)

throw open the doors --

almonds flowering
snow on trees, plums purpling
the black limbs of winter

flowering -- the ing is the thing
zing! -- dang if I ain't plain tame
this morning. I been dead
all winter, so tame is wild!
where I come from.

daffodils are yellow, not yellowed --
kids disappear in forsythia --
guardians on high alert, floating
over trees disguised as pink clouds --

throw open the doors! --

burble like a fool -- you've bungled enough
years -- burble, bungle, to hell
with the middle way, temper-
ance is our condition,
more than we admit -- not enough
heart epaulets -- not after thirty, no --

hereby decree all public men and women
shall sew hearts on sleeves or else --
shipped off to flower factories --

rough winds do shake
the darling buds -- how long
can these little courage-makers hang on?