A Matter of Geography

So how exactly do I feel about the Deep South? Especially a place a syllabically challenged as Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I’ve never been there but I’m told that if I strain my eyes, I can see the giant insects from here, the buzzing and hot sticky humid stinging variety of bugs. Even with as brilliant a writer as Michael Martone on the faculty, whose humor and imagination inspire me, I don’t know if Alabama is a place I am dying to go, let alone live in for two years while earning my grad degree. However, there are two high points of this Deep South alternative, both, I’m afraid, relating to the school’s slightly off-putting location. One, tuition does not make my cholesterol spike up. Two, I think I could get in. Hmmmm.

Then again, there’s always the Yukon—Anchorage, Alaska to be specific. Good program with lots of assistantship opportunities but no real names I know among the faculty. Has the same two high points as ‘Bama. But in this case, the geography is strangely alluring to me. The surrealism of extended daytime hours—and the sunlight that would give to allow explorations on the motorcycle of the untamed state—and the depth of the winter blackness. It seems an ideal place to write, what with the snow swirling outside a window of a snuggly log cabin with a (faux of course) polar bear rug. I know I’m being fanciful but there is something there for me, a kernel of curiosity.

I’m weighing my alternatives now as my first two deadlines for applications are approaching—both of them stellar, high class, prime grade programs with astronomical chances for admission. Brown accepts, and I’m not joking, 5 fiction candidates a year. And NYU, man, New York City. Imagine. Yes, I can imagine my rent and grocery bills for sure. Hoo-wee.

But Brown had always been my number one choice and so I hold out hope. Prof. Evenson, if you are out there, if you are just in telepathic reception mode, please, have pity on a little girl who wants to go to Providence. You will love her writing sample. You will put it at the top of the list. You will stomp a red stamp across all that hard work that reads: ACCEPTED. Maybe I should brush up on my ESP.