See below for all you'll need to know to get started in our MFA program.
If you moved here from out of state specifically to go to school, you are likely to be considered an out-of-state student during your MFA career. If, however, you moved here primarily for another reason (for instance, due to the relocation of your spouse or for a job), you need to begin establishing your residency immediately by:
These steps will increase your chances of becoming a North Carolina resident after your first year. The Registrar's Residency Information webpage offers in-depth information on the residency process.
The MFA coordinator will e-mail a reminder in spring semester when it is time for first-year MFA students to apply for in-state residency. If you have questions about the process or your eligibility, please feel free to contact the MFA coordinator or the Graduate School at any time.
All important MFA program announcements —regarding deadlines, course information, job, award and publishing opportunities, invitations to readings and events, and much more— are sent via campus e-mail, to your UNCW e-mail account.
If you do not check e-mail, you will find it difficult to meet your academic obligations, and you will miss out on activities that inspire a sense of fellowship within the department. It is the student's responsibility to regularly check UNCW e-mail.
The departmental listservs are a university-sponsored means of communication primarily related to our common educational community and goals. The university's guidelines regarding e-mail say, in part:
Users may not use electronic communication to harass, stalk, or threaten others, or in similar ways create an atmosphere which unreasonably interferes with the education or employment experience. Generally, communication that is repeated, unsolicited, unwanted or unwelcome may constitute harassment.
Neither UNCW nor the MFA program has any policy regarding student weblogs at this time. As writers, we all support free expression, not to mention the sense of community the blogging world can provide.
However, anyone who maintains, posts comments on, or reads blogs should be aware of potential risks to their safety, privacy, and professional standing. If you tweet, blog, or regularly read and comment on others' blogs, please remember the following:
The above reminders may sound dire or extreme, but these issues affect our community in both immediate and indirect ways. Our concern is for the personal and professional security of every member of our creative community.
Each graduate student has a mailbox located in the corridor in the back of Kenan Hall. Check your mailbox frequently. Any MFA information that does not go out over e-mail will be placed in your mailbox.
In addition, the mailbox area is a site for the posting of calls for papers, information on new course offerings, etc. Graduate students are not assigned a mailbox at UNCW Postal Services in the Warwick Center.
The Creative Writing Graduate Student Association (CRWGSA) is open to all UNCW MFA students, and exists to support and represent your concerns and activities while you are enrolled in our program. CRWGSA sponsors MFA student readings as well as readings by visiting authors, organizes social events, and helps support MFA student travel. The CRWGSA is a great way to get involved within the department and community of writers. It's also a great way to get to know your peers. All MFA students are automatically considered members of CRWGSA (you don't need to do anything special to join). Watch your e-mail for announcement of meetings.
The Graduate Student Association (GSA) is dedicated to improving the lives of all students seeking a graduate degree at UNCW. The membership comes from all graduate degree-granting departments. The GSA works to make the concerns and interests of the graduate student body a driving force in the university. The GSA represents the general interests of graduate students, not individual departments. Previously, the GSA has been responsible for the creation of the Graduate Computer Lab on Randall Library's 2nd floor and has a program to bring speakers to campus to discuss graduate concerns. The GSA has also spear-headed the initiative for better graduate student health insurance. We urge you to become involved.
As a member of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), the largest national nonprofit organization for writers, UNCW's MFA program receives the AWP Chronicle, a monthly newspaper with a wealth of information of interest to writers and teachers of writing.
Copies will be available near your department mailbox each month. AWP also publishes a monthly Job List, which is invaluable to MFA students nearing graduation. This electronic list of creative writing positions in universities and writing-related employment in the private and non-profit sectors can be accessed each month online at awpwriter.org, in the members-only eLink area of the site. While you are a student in our MFA program, we sponsor your membership in AWP, so watch your UNCW e-mail account for notification of your membership ID and password, which you need to access the Job List and other members-only areas of the AWP website.
An MFA program is measured by the success of its students and graduates, and your publications are always reason for celebration. On our website, we maintain a bibliography of work published by our students and graduates.
In addition, we send out a quarterly announcement that focuses on these successes. If you place a story, poem, essay, or book, please be sure to email Lisa Bertini with complete publication information.
If you are presenting a paper, participating *on a panel* at a conference, or giving an "invited reading" of your work at a conference or festival, you are eligible for up to $400 in Graduate School travel funding. The eligibility details and application form for these grants are on the Graduate School website.
You must be presenting at an event, not simply attending, to be eligible for these grants. Students normally will be awarded no more than one such grant per academic year.
If you are planning thesis-related research travel, you are eligible for a Graduate Student Association (GSA) grant of up to $400. The application form and instructions are on GSA's website. If you are a first- or second-year student and don't yet have a thesis director, the MFA coordinator, department chair, or another faculty member who is familiar with your work can write the required letter attesting to the necessity of the travel for your project.
If you plan simply to attend a conference, such as AWP's Annual Conference, but are not presenting or reading at that conference, you are also eligible for a Graduate Student Association (GSA) grant; follow application procedures mentioned above. In addition, the Creative Writing Graduate Student Association (CRWGSA) also sometimes helps support travel for attendance at the annual AWP conference.
To be eligible for CRWGSA travel funding, you must attend CRWGSA meetings, which are announced via e-mail to the crwmfa listserv.
Occasionally our department can offer limited travel funding to help first- through third-year MFA students whose travel is not covered by other types of grants, above, or to augment a Graduate School or GSA travel grant a student has already received.
For each source of funding described above, you must apply for the grant and get approved well in advance of your travel. Once your travel funding is approved, you must notify Lisa Bertini in the CRW office.