In getting a tenure track poetry job this spring and spending the summer preparing for it to start, I looked online for advice and checklists geared towards new creative writing professors. There is not a lot out there (probably because there are not, like, hundreds or thousands of us each year). So, I want to create the kind of post that I wish I had in the months leading up to the start of this job.

This list is for people who have accepted a job offer and are preparing for the fall semester to start. It’s basically a checklist of things to think about as the start-date approaches:

• Lots of people will offer you advice. A lot of it will be useful, but some of it will be silly. Discard what isn’t useful, including the items I present in this post!
• Perhaps this is obvious, but try to completely prep your classes as early as possible. I accepted the job offer in the spring. By August, most of my course prep was complete, but some of it remained. If I could go back, I would try to complete everything by July 15th or so just to take the pressure off a little more.
• I moved to my new town on August 1st, and I think it’s safe to say that from the day you move until school starts (and afterwards), your life will be pretty full of moving-related tasks. When possible, I tried to get the time-consuming errands out of the way before the semester started: getting the oil changed on my car, going to the DMV to get a new ID, setting up autopay on the bills at my new place, etc. If there is anything that you can possibly get done before the semester starts, do it.
• A lot of schools won’t give you your first paycheck (including moving allowance reimbursement, if applicable) until almost the end of September. This is something to keep in mind, especially as you are timing when to let go of the freelance and side jobs we creative writers have in grad school and afterwards.
• Culture shock is real and common. I was hired at a school about two hours away from where I grew up, but I still feel culture shock, and it’s been helpful to name this. The way in which people greet each other, the hunting and fishing culture, the foods people are familiar with, the way people talk about neighborhoods and where they live, the fact that a bunch of places aren’t open on Monday and only accept cash and checks (yes, checks!), and just the way people move through spaces are different in this north woods college town than they were in the city of half a million people where I was raised two hours south of here. So, if you are moving to a place where you’ve never lived before, I think it’s important to acknowledge that it will take time to get adjusted.
• There were a bunch of issues getting WiFi to my place, so I ended up going to the office every day for weeks before the semester began. This ended up having lots of benefits: I was able to introduce myself to colleagues who were also there working early, and I was able to work closely with the administrative professionals in my department to sort out a bunch of logistics and details. I benefitted from being at work before my contract began in order to learn how to use the printers, get connected to WiFi, learn how reimbursements work, etc.
• I also set up my office in early August, put up my decorations, and made things comfortable for myself, which really helped me start to feel at home!

After you move, there may be a period of time before new faculty orientation and classes start. This is an important period of time with plenty of considerations:

• It was important to me to identify someone who could cut my hair a few weeks before the semester started so that, worst case scenario, I could find someone else to fix it before the semester began. (Though the first stylist I picked ended up being wonderful!)
• I tried to start implementing daily healthy habits before the semester started: waking up early, getting organized, finding running routes outside that I liked, etc. I figured this would only benefit me once the semester started. Most importantly of all, I carved out daily writing time, a practice which I will attempt to continue once teaching starts.
• Something I’ve been thinking a lot about is finding communities outside of work. For me, this may look like joining a spiritual community, even though I am not particularly religious. I’ve also spent a lot of time the first weeks I was here looking at online event calendars and going to community events, live outdoor music, etc.
• As poetry professors specifically, a part of our literary citizenship involves being in community with other poets. Before the semester started, I made a point to introduce myself to bookstore owners, executive directors, fellow poets in the area, etc. We haven’t put plans in place yet on how we might collaborate, but I gave them my card, which I designed and printed on Vistaprint for about twenty bucks a few years ago. Once I get business cards from my school, I will start handing out those.
• I’m in a town of about 25,000 people. Adjusting to your new environment will look different depending on where you are. I knew from living in other small cities that it would be important for me to quickly identify things that I found fun. So, I made a list with categories for each day of the week: five-dollar movies on Tuesdays, free music in the park on Thursdays, walking around the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings, etc. It’s a visual reminder that there are plenty of things here I love to do!

I hope this list is helpful! Want to weigh in? Let me know what could be added to this list.