New Mexico State University, Department of English

Reviewer's Name:

T. Brown

Review Date

April 26, 2009

Year of Graduation:

2006

Review Title:

Still Using It!

Full Review of the Program:

Connie Voisine called me on the phone to acknowledge my acceptance to the program. It was during the the televised portion of "Shock and Awe" in March 2003 and she spoke to me both as a professional and like someone I had already known for some time. The conversation compelled me to drive down to Las Cruces from Kansas City to visit. There I found a tight- knit group of writers, the enchanted west, and an affordable graduate degree program.

During my three years, I leaned on and careened off of many people, friends and faculty both, and more often than not they were there to push back.

Sometimes I think that I was not ready to study poetry, to write it, or to respond to it in any substantial way. Maybe my thesis was a piece of crap. But now, three years after graduating, I am a practicing poet and those things about which I had doubts have fallen to the wayside. I am a better writer, self-critic, and a diligent student of revision. I am writing the best poems I have ever written. Some of the lessons I learned at NMSU came slow to me, but they were many and lasting.

I also picked up my first nickname in Cruces: Boots. It came of cumbersomely explained origins, and it spread like hot queso atop a carne adovado burrito.

Advice to Prospective Students:

Visit. Meet the faculty and the students. See who is there and who is going to be there?

When you get to the El Paso International Airport, just knock, they're open for business.

Take advantage of all the faculty members, both poets and fiction writers. I learned a lot from all of them.

Keep in mind that it is a small program and though this is one of its great strengths, it is also quite likely that if you so much as fart sideways someone will know about it.

You must also be keen on sandals and (ack!) shorts.