In a series of four sessions, prospective students will be mentored and workshopped towards an excellent packet of poems and a personal statement to apply successfully for the upcoming MFA cycle.
 
Students will be mentored individually to empower their strengths and improve on their weaknesses. I will be assessing your poems not just individually but also as a whole packet to see if it effectively caters to your thematical, personal, and political identity.  Your personal statement will be instructed with the same intent with an aim to make coherent with your poetic work. 
 
The instructor also guarantees recommendation letters if needed.
 
Registration deadline: On-going
4 class sessions scheduled flexibly from 1st November
Cost: $400
(Financial Help Available for International Students and BIPOC)
For candidates, including Pakistani students, outside of more 'powered' currencies, please email ayeraees@gmail.com for sign up. 
 
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Ayesha Raees عائشہ رئیس
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is a poet and artist identifying as a hybrid creating hybrid poetry through hybrid forms.
 
Her interdisciplinary work places poetry at its center and delves into paint, film, sound,  theater, performance, and collaboration with the intention of breaking conventional ideas of linear language, form, and genre to materialize a space of belonging for marginalia and their narratives.
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Her work strongly revolves around issues of belonging and dislocation, G/god and spirituality, and beauty::cruelty while possessing a strong agency for decolonial, anti-violence, and anti-erasure practices.
 
She edits poetry at the Whiting Award Winning Magazine The Margins and has received endorsements from Asian American Writers Workshop, Kundiman, Brooklyn Poets, UNESCO, Millay Colony For The Arts and elsewhere.
 
Her work has been published extensively, including Poetry Northwest, Pleiades, The Nation, Poets.org and others.
 
Her first book of poems Coining A Wishing Tower won the Broken River Prize and was published by Radix in 2024. She is based in New York City and Lahore, Pakistan (and many other unsettled spaces).
 
Raees previous students have been admitted to: Northwestern, NYU, Colombia, University of Colorado Boulder, and Sarah Lawrence. 
She has served as a university professor, admissions counsellor at a private highschool, as well as a mentor to a diverse group of students. 
www.ayesharaees.com
ayeraees@gmail.com
 
HIGHLIGHTS
 
Prepare a strong packet of poems (new ,old, revised) to submit to MFA programs through four sessions (each being 2.5 hours) scheduled weekly with ample flexibility.
 
Draft your personal statement and get workshopped by the instructor.
 
Receive 1-1 mentorship, resources, and intel regarding different MFA programs.
 
The instructor will focus on individual areas you can grow on. From needing help generating strong new work to workshopping towards a strong packet of poems to finding the right programs for you-- the instructor will cater to your needs accordingly.
 
You will have access to ample material (such as personal statements etc.) from previously successful candidates to aid you in your own success.
 
If you need a recommendation letter, you will be guaranteed one from the instructor.
 
Registration: www.ayesharaees,com/shop
 
Registration:
https://www.ayesharaees.com/shop