MFA in Creative Writing

The graduate program in creative writing is a two-year program leading to the Master of Fine Arts degree. Students concentrate in either fiction or poetry. Applicants must submit portfolios of their writing in one of these genres, and should have sufficient training in literature to succeed in courses at the graduate level. We select students with demonstrated talent and expose them to a variety of approaches to the craft of writing.

Purposes:

Students choose this program because they intend to prepare for a lifetime of writing and professional publication. At the heart of the program are the writing workshops, where students assemble as a community of writers to read and comment on one another's work in progress. In addition to their instructional role in the workshops, faculty are available for individual conferences throughout the two-year program, and for thesis instruction and consultation during the second year.

Requirements:

Completion of 36 hours of coursework, including three semesters of writing workshops (18 hours), one semester of a writing workshop dedicated to completion of the thesis (6 hours). MFA students typically take one 3 -hour course in a cognate field outside the Department of English and three 3 -hour courses in English literature, level 500 and above (12 hours). Students who wish to take a second cognate in lieu of the third graduate literature course may petition the director of creative writing for permission to do so. Once accepted, students will be provided with a reading list appropriate to their genre and required to read the books on that list, with the expectation that each student pass an open-book, take-home essay exam in their Second term (of their first year).

Special Features:

At the beginning of the third semester, MFA students meet with their thesis advisors to discuss mutual expectations and scheduling preferences for thesis consultation. The thesis committee consists of two faculty advisors who share directorial responsibilities. One of these advisors is the teacher of the final semester's thesis workshop class. Theses consist of a substantial body of poems, short stories, or portions of a novel.

Teaching opportunities for all MFA students constitute an integral part of the program. Most first-year MFA students are assigned graderships as part of their financial aid packages. All second year students are given the opportunity to design and teach their own courses in undergraduate creative writing and introductory composition.

The MFA Program sponsors two full programs of literary readings each year. The Visiting Writers Series features writers from all over North America and from abroad as well as from our own university and regional community. As often as possible, visitors teach guest workshops or conduct colloquia in addition to giving public readings. Recent visitors to the program include Nicholson Baker, Russell Banks, Andrea Barrett, Richard Bausch, Frank Bidart, Frederick Busch, J.M. Coetzee, Junot Diaz, Mark Doty, Stephen Dunn, Stuart Dybeck, Richard Ford, Paula Fox, Athol Fugard, Robert Hass, Lyn Hejinian, Bob Hicok, Brenda Hillman, Edward Hirsch, Tony Hoagland, Christine Hume, Edward P. Jones, Matthew Klam, Chang-rae Lee, Philip Levine, Timothy Liu, Thomas Lynch, Elizabeth McCracken, Reginald McKnight, Susan Mitchell, Lorrie Moore, Lisel Mueller, Paul Muldoon, Les Murray, Grace Paley, Ann Patchett, Carl Phillips, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Susan Straight, Chase Twichell, Anne Waldman, John Edgar Wideman, Jay Wright, and Adam Zagajewski. Our second annual series, the Mark Webster Series, features poetry and fiction readings by second-year students in the program.

Finally, the MFA program sponsors a number of colloquia each year on such topics as commercial publishing, freelance book reviewing, government grants for writers in the schools, volunteer work in the arts, and community outreach.