28 Comments

Congratulations Yasmin- that's a huge piece of writing! I'm slowly thinking my way through an idea for a creative writing PhD but it;s simmering on the back burner while I'm looking after my dad. I did an MFA about 10 years ago at Kingston Uni. It's an American style degree, more than an MA and less than a PhD. I wrote a portfolio of poetry - the equivalent of 40,000 words and a long dissertation - can't remember the word count. I loved every minute of it and the collection of poetry was published a couple of years later, so well worth approaching publishers with your manuscript. Good luck with the final edits and formatting!

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Recommend reading John Graves’ “Goodbye to a River”, an easy read and a fine example of what you refer to as place writing. Graves paddled down stretches of the Brazos, intermingling history (Indians and settlers) with his sense of the river. He did it thinking the wildness of the river was about to be forever taken by a number of dams for water storage. Fortunately for those who love waterways, very few of those dams were built.

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Nov 21, 2023Liked by Yasmin Chopin

Oh my, plenty of people do doctorates later in life! I’ve supervised people in their late 60s. I was turned 50 when I got mine.

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Nov 20, 2023Liked by Yasmin Chopin

Good luck with submitting and the viva! I did my PhD own Creative Writing part-time over 6 years at St Andrews. Blasting through it in 3 years in an impressive feat! I really enjoyed mine, and I still get a kick out of putting Dr when I'm filling in forms :-)

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Congratulations on completing your doctoral thesis! A major feat.

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A truly fascinating piece! I enjoyed every word.

Congratulations on choosing to make this journey. Despite the time and hard work, it’s like a gift to yourself.

Best wishes in your submission and its success!

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I'm impressed...very impressed, in fact. The amount of work that went into this project is mind-boggling to me...which is another way of saying this kind of program would be good for me in developing discipline in my writing.

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Nov 2, 2023Liked by Yasmin Chopin

All the best for the home straight Yasmin!

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This was fascinating. Thank you. I'd love to do a creative writing PhD. However, there's no mention of funding, and how to see yourself through three years. Can you expand at all on that element? Thank you and good luck!

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Thank you for this suggestion, Geoff, and thank you for commenting. I look forward to reading this account by John Graves.

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Thanks for re-stacking my post Summer!

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