- Year One
- Year Two
Summer
| Course |
|---|
| Residency 1 |
| Creative Writing Studio 1 |
Spring
| Course |
|---|
| Residency 2 |
| Creative Writing Studio 2 |
Summer
| Course |
|---|
| Residency 3 |
| Creative Writing Studio 3 |
| Forms & Methods 1 |
Spring
| Course |
|---|
| Residency 4 |
| Forms & Methods 2 |
| Creative Writing Thesis |
Summer
| Course |
|---|
| Residency 5, Thesis Presentation / Graduation |
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Curriculum Description
Creative Writing Studios
Students write original fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and/or literary translations. Students generate rough drafts and develop reading skills in individually tailored instruction focused on craft, literature, aesthetics, and criticism.
Each semester, students are required to submit five "packets" containing original creative work, critical responses to reading assignments, a bibliography in MLA format of literary works and texts, and letters discussing their own work and their responses to the mentor’s critiques of and advice about that work. In addition, students complete two narrative self-evaluations, one midway through the semester and one at the semester’s end.
Forms and Methods
Students draft, revise, polish a long essay on methods, materials, forms, and process and prepare a generative making session or a talk to be given at their final residency. The goal is broadening and deepening knowledge of diverse artistic sensibilities and articulating aesthetic inclinations as well as the literary models and cultural sources of those aesthetic inclinations. In addition, students draft and revise a teaching philosophy, cover letter, and teaching CV. This is done in packet exchanges with letters between graduate students and faculty mentors.
Creative Writing Thesis and Thesis Presentation
Each student revises and polishes a creative writing thesis with the goal of creating a polished, publishable, book-length manuscript of creative writing work. The creative writing thesis should exhibit deep engagement with substantive and sentence-level revision along with an exploration of aesthetic possibilities.
A thesis committee comprised of three MFA faculty members evaluates the student’s creative writing thesis. At the student’s final residency, the student attends a thesis conference during which the committee discusses the student’s work, its guiding aesthetics, processes around making, and influences, literary and otherwise. This culminates with the student giving a public reading of their creative work.
Learning Outcomes
Develop and hone skills in generating, revising, and editing creative works, which include synthesizing challenges, advice, and critiques from faculty mentors and fellow graduate students, culminating in a major project (creative writing thesis) suitable for publication, exhibition, and/or performance.
Articulate students’ aesthetic inclinations as well as the literary models and cultural sources of those aesthetic inclinations. Students articulate these connections in brief critical papers or analyses for their faculty mentor’s commentary, in a polished longer critical essay on methods / materials / forms / process suitable for publication, and the oral defense of their creative writing thesis.
Integrate and apply the use of revelatory language with other artistic materials and art mediums that advocate for social change. This application can be exhibited in the longer critical essay on methods / materials / forms / process, the creative writing thesis, the creative writing thesis presentation, and/or a social practice project suitable for public engagement.
Demonstrate an active engagement in a community of writers and readers with the intentions of cultivating generosity and respect for a variety of making processes through readings, performance, written feedback to others, projects, internships, and self-evaluation.