NYU Poetry MFA Fundraiser!

Hi y'all

My name is Gray Davidson Carroll, I am a white, transfemme writer, dancer, athlete, organizer, mixed-methods research and (self-proclaimed) hot chocolate connoisseur hailing from Philadelphia by way of western Massachusetts and other strange and forgotten places. I write to elevate and celebrate queer experience, to honor the revelrous, the too often unspoken, and towards the joy of the mundane and everyday. This past February, I was accepted into NYU's Poetry MFA program, beginning in the fall of 2024. I have received a 50% scholarship for the program. This GoFundMe is for the remaining balance on my first year of tuition, student health insurance and a rent deposit.

This moment is a beginning, but simultaneously a culmination. Featuring faculty who have shaped my life, and kept me here in more ways than I can count, this program is somewhere I've dreamed of coming since I was fifteen. I currently work on the research team for a non-profit organization, studying the impact of arts engagement on health and wellbeing. I will need to leave or significantly reduce my hourly commitment to this organization once the fall term begins, and will lose access to my employer-provided health insurance as a result.

Factoring in registration fees, the total remaining tuition cost for year one of the program is $19,398.

The cost for one year of basic student health insurance is $4,346

$1,674 for the Fall term and $2,672 for the combined Spring-Summer terms.

TOTAL = $23,744.

The additional $1,256 is to cover the first month of rent and moving costs.

This is a huge ask, so I've added some additional conditions to this fundraiser.

If you donate $250 or more, you can send me a prompt and received a personalized poem and recording of me reading it.

Any money that we raise past the goal will be split evenly in a donation to Drs. Without Borders and World Central Kitchen.

In the event that I find a job that can provide me with health insurance, the additional $4,346 will be donated to the Trans Asylum Seeker Support Network.

Whether it's $5, $50, or $500, anything you have to give truly means the world.

With love,

Gray

Links to some of my recent work for proof that I have at least some idea (as much as a poet can have) of what I am doing:

Brooklyn Poets - Poet of the Week

The Common - November 19th 2022

new words {press} Issue #3 - Aubade with Scribbled Love-Notes

Bottlecap Press - Waterfall of Thanks (chapbook) - On sale now