round three
Ok, here is a completely new version of my SOP. Again, for those of you not yet bothered by my near-constant deluge of posts, I'm applying to MFA CW programs.
I've finally included some specifics, so I hope they help. I think this is a bit more on track for what it should be. And of course I will tailor the third graph to each school individually...
When I stood on the side of the “Going-to-the-Sun” Road in Glacier National Park, my squinted eyes searching for the last glimpses of a massive glacier that has all but melted, the wonder and confusion began. In the last few years, during my undergraduate education and since then, I have been exploring these confusions, born of the connections between people and their natural environments. From summers in Yellowstone country, watching mighty, rambling buffalo take single bullets to the chest, to the Southern California coast, where constant pesticide runoff poisons seabirds, I’ve seen a struggle between the two worlds that seems contrary to the interwoven identities that are so familiar and important. My writing over the last five years has been dominated by a desire to discover the shared personalities between a people and their land, and to tease out solutions to the seemingly inevitable conflicts that arise there.
My exploration has spanned this country from coast to coast, and I feel I am now ready to construct a complete manuscript of essays that address these issues of geographical and personal identity. Having begun my writing education in journalism, I am constantly working to become more creative and expressive, and as a result, I have experimented with both long essays and short form creative nonfiction, which allows me to fully tackle the compelling and stirring issues of the real world while simultaneously perfecting my prose with the care and tenderness of a poet, choosing and crafting each word as an individual. Also a voracious reader, I’ve connected immensely with the work of Terry Tempest Williams and Scott Carrier, particularly admiring their talents for subtlety and delicacy alongside such blunt and coarse issues as breast cancer and landmines.
The University of Minnesota’s community of writers would be a provoking and powerful place to further my education. I admire the work of Patricia Hampl, and value the program’s focus on creative nonfiction, particularly from professors who have poetry and not journalism backgrounds. In addition, my eventual goal is to become a writing professor, and Minnesota has a clear dedication to providing all its students with an opportunity to teach at the college level.
Writing is, for me, the lifelong pursuit of change. I want to expand my writing abilities and style to accommodate all the serious social issues that plague my world-war, domestic violence, global warming-and create wonder and confusion within the hearts of my readers and students.
I've finally included some specifics, so I hope they help. I think this is a bit more on track for what it should be. And of course I will tailor the third graph to each school individually...
When I stood on the side of the “Going-to-the-Sun” Road in Glacier National Park, my squinted eyes searching for the last glimpses of a massive glacier that has all but melted, the wonder and confusion began. In the last few years, during my undergraduate education and since then, I have been exploring these confusions, born of the connections between people and their natural environments. From summers in Yellowstone country, watching mighty, rambling buffalo take single bullets to the chest, to the Southern California coast, where constant pesticide runoff poisons seabirds, I’ve seen a struggle between the two worlds that seems contrary to the interwoven identities that are so familiar and important. My writing over the last five years has been dominated by a desire to discover the shared personalities between a people and their land, and to tease out solutions to the seemingly inevitable conflicts that arise there.
My exploration has spanned this country from coast to coast, and I feel I am now ready to construct a complete manuscript of essays that address these issues of geographical and personal identity. Having begun my writing education in journalism, I am constantly working to become more creative and expressive, and as a result, I have experimented with both long essays and short form creative nonfiction, which allows me to fully tackle the compelling and stirring issues of the real world while simultaneously perfecting my prose with the care and tenderness of a poet, choosing and crafting each word as an individual. Also a voracious reader, I’ve connected immensely with the work of Terry Tempest Williams and Scott Carrier, particularly admiring their talents for subtlety and delicacy alongside such blunt and coarse issues as breast cancer and landmines.
The University of Minnesota’s community of writers would be a provoking and powerful place to further my education. I admire the work of Patricia Hampl, and value the program’s focus on creative nonfiction, particularly from professors who have poetry and not journalism backgrounds. In addition, my eventual goal is to become a writing professor, and Minnesota has a clear dedication to providing all its students with an opportunity to teach at the college level.
Writing is, for me, the lifelong pursuit of change. I want to expand my writing abilities and style to accommodate all the serious social issues that plague my world-war, domestic violence, global warming-and create wonder and confusion within the hearts of my readers and students.