Julian Randall
2019 MFA in Poetry
University of Mississippi in Oxford
To how many programs did you apply? Five: Michigan, Rutgers-Newark, Brown,
Minnesota, and Ole Miss. What criteria were most important to you during the ap-
plication process? I had no intention of going into debt, so I looked at only places
that offered full funding to all students. I had a vague idea of what kind of faculty I
wanted to work with, but if I were to do it again, I would spend way more energy on
explicitly understanding what I want to learn from each faculty member. Did you
receive funding? Full funding and also a diversity fellowship. Made all the differ-
ence in the world. Did your experience of the program exceed, match, or fall short
of your expectations? Exceeded in nearly all aspects. Every teacher there, whether
we vibed or not, was adamant about teaching. Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Derrick
Harriell both met with me on a schedule we collaborated on so I could sharpen
and pursue the poems that became my first book. There’s no book without them,
period. And fam, what does one say about Kiese Laymon? I came into the program
vehemently saying that I didn’t have the skill set or attention span for fiction. The
conversations I had with Kiese about writing and ideas I felt lived in a genre entirely
foreign to me? The ardent support and advocacy? Kiese made me an essayist, a
writer working on multiple novels, because of craft, because of encouragement,
because it is central to who he is. Nothing could have prepared me to be loved
like this. What was the most unexpected aspect of your time in an MFA program?
Honestly, it was time. The idea that you go to an MFA program for “time to write”
is a bit of a mistranslation of the experience. End of day I was still an employee of
the university; I had classes to attend and classes to teach, so it wasn’t like I was
imagining at first, which was really me thinking that it was finna be a residency;
which, nah, that’s not the way things were rocking. What was the greatest benefit
of attending your MFA program? I gained three mentors who showed me that the
writer I wanted to be was not only feasible, but sustainable and needed. What was
the most significant shortcoming of your MFA program? The same as seemingly
every MFA in the world, honestly: not enough Black students. MFA programs re-
main places that Black students aren’t taught to see themselves or build toward,
and when we apply, too often the door is closed. Much as I cared for who was in
the room, I tried not to be shy about the fact that it would have been great to have
more people to whom I was writing in the room alongside us. Did you learn more
from your professors, your peers, or others? Professors, though I learned plenty
from all. Like I said, I entered the program at 22 years old certain that I had one
skill in one genre, poetry, and no plans whatsoever to do books in anything else.
Now I’m midway through two novels and an essay collection. That’s because I was
in a program where Aimee, Derrick, and Kiese encouraged me to get after every
loose ball. If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything differently? I
would have done more stringent research on where I was applying. Not a day goes
by that I don’t miss some of those application fees I sent to places I wouldn’t have
been an even remotely solid fit. I skipped meals to pay those fees, and sometimes
I was hungry for no dang reason. Any advice for writers who are applying to MFA
programs? Exhaustively research not only faculty and students, but also campus
resources for your work. Apply not just with a vision of attending a program; apply
with an eye toward a whole life you will inhabit.
special section MFA PROGRAMSSEPT OCT 2019 100Established in 2000, the three-year
MFA program at Ole Miss offers
degrees in poetry and fiction. It
provides full funding through Grisham
Fellowships, teaching assistantships,
or fellowships. Incoming class size:- Application deadline: December
15, 2019. Application fee: none. Core
faculty includes poets Beth Ann
Fennelly, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Melissa
Ginsburg, Derrick Harriell, and Aimee
Nezhukumatathil and fiction writers
Matt Bondurant, Tom Franklin, Kiese
Laymon, and Chris Offutt.
mfaenglish.olemiss.edu
The author of three books, including
Heavy: An American Memoir, Kiese
Laymon was an associate professor of
English and Africana Studies at Vassar
College in Poughkeepsie, New York,
before he was hired to teach in the
MFA program at the University of
Mississippi.Underrepresented Minority Fellow-
ships of $7,000 each are awarded to
qualified incoming students.The other program in Mississippi
Mississippi University for Women in Columbus
(low-residency). afaq