While much of the learning in the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing program takes place during individualized project periods, students are required to attend at least seven seminars and the genre writing workshops during each residency. Some of these learning activities are described briefly below.
The Genre Writing Workshop is an intensive four-day, ten-total-hours workshop in the genre (fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction) the student concentrated on in the Project Period that preceded the Residency. (Note: Mixed Genre students and incoming students participate in a workshop in the genre they were mentored --or accepted -- in that precedes the Residency.)
These courses investigate the relation between cultural production, politics and social change. With a lecture/discussion format, students focus attention on the principal aspects of cultural theory in an effort to come to a fuller understanding of the place of writing and the arts within our social system. Students gain a better understanding of themselves as cultural workers situated within particular matrices of political and social power, as well as gain a basic knowledge of cultural theory.
Students are required to complete one Field Study project, pre-approved by Core Faculty. In some instances, pre-designed Field Studies are available but in most instances, students develop opportunities for these learning experiences under the guidance of their Core Faculty Field Study mentor and On-Site Field Study Supervisor. Field Studies can consist of varied types of learning such as developing a multimedia presentation, interning in professional settings or cultural organizations, creating a web page, editing a magazine, and other activities or projects approved by the Core Faculty and On-Site Field Study Supervisor. Each student’s Field Study is expected to address at least two of the three aspects of the M.F.A. Program’s special focus: the education of literary artists, community engagement or service, and the pursuit of social justice.
Faculty and guest artists present historical, critical, and process seminars on writing and the work of writers. Graduating students present 50 minute lectures on literary topics.
This course introduces students to graduate-level library research. Students learn to research topics in literary studies, access on-line libraries, provide proper documentation for the critical paper, and prepare the Critical Paper manuscript according to Modern Language Association guidelines.
This seminar familiarizes students with the art of translation and adaptation of literary texts. One of the primary goals of this conference is cultural mediation. Collaborative translation and adaptation create bridges to other cultures while honing English language skills by creating "equivalent" patternings of sound and sense that also serve the originality of poems in another tongue. Spinoffs and rewritings of such poems can also help students discover how their own cultures modulate universal themes. It is not necessary to know a foreign language to participate in this seminar.
Lectures, field trips, meetings with editors and publishers, and other resources show students ways in which creative writers earn a living in today's culture.
This workshop is an intensive, four-day, ten-total-hours workshop in innovative creative writing pedagogies. Required for Post M.F.A. Certificate students.
Various Faculty Seminars are offered which examine both the theory and the practice of teaching creative writing. Of particular interest is an ongoing critique of the workshop model, offering multiple alternative paradigms for the production and critical assessment of creative work that may better suit the needs of emerging creative writers. Required for Post M.F.A. Certificate students.
