MFA – Kendall Dunkelberg

Advice for MFA Applicants

My response to Poets & Writers recent advice essays for MFA Applicants

Now that it’s January, we’ve started to see some applications again for our low-residency MFA program for another year. This has me thinking about all the advice I’ve given to applicants over the years. If I could give one piece of advice on how to apply, I think it would be to just be you.Continue reading “MFA Application Advice 2024”

Do You Need an MFA to Be a Writer?

This morning WordPress showed me a link to this post: You Don’t Need an MFA to Be a Writer by Roxanna Coldiron. Though I direct a low-residency MFA program, I couldn’t agree more. I liked the post, but there was no way to comment, so I decided to write my response here. In her post,Continue reading “Do You Need an MFA to Be a Writer?”

MFA Applications Advice 2020

Over the past five years, I’ve been writing advice for MFA applicants. Here’s my latest post and links to more.

The MFA Writing Sample: How long?

Sometimes the best advice is the most practical advice, so with that in mind, I want to revisit the MFA Writing Sample to ask a question about optimal length. Those of us who teach undergraduate writers often make paper assignments that are 5-7 or 8-10 pages. In those cases, hitting the minimum is required, but toContinue reading “The MFA Writing Sample: How long?”

It’s nice when you’re #1

As I’ve written before, I’m not the biggest fan of ranking MFA programs, though I do think those rankings have some value. For one, they tell you what programs other applicants are likely to apply to. When they’re descriptive, they can give you some valuable information as well. Though I don’t take a lot ofContinue reading “It’s nice when you’re #1”

Keeping the Res in Low-Residency MFA

As our low-residency MFA program enters its fifth year, it seems like a good time to reflect on where we’ve come and how we’ve evolved, and that includes why we’re committed to the low-res format for the degree. Our program is different from many low-res MFAs out there because we follow an online class model.Continue reading “Keeping the Res in Low-Residency MFA”

The Best Little MFA

t’s been four years since we started the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at Mississippi University for Women, and in that time, I think we’ve created the best MFA of it’s size around

Transcripts for the MFA Application

I’ve reached Day 8 in Kenzie Allen’s 10-day course on applying for the MFA in creative writing, and she’s talking about the CV, transcripts, and the GRE. She has a lot of good advice, so if you haven’t taken her free course, you should. She even links to my blog a few times, so sheContinue reading “Transcripts for the MFA Application”

Revisiting the Statement of Purpose for the MFA

This week, I’ve been learning how to apply to MFA programs in creative writing: I decided to take a free course, even though I direct an MFA program. I’m taking the course to see what Kenzie Allen has to say about the process and to review what I think about it, since I’ve written aContinue reading “Revisiting the Statement of Purpose for the MFA”