Creative WritingMaster of Fine Arts

Year 2

Year 3

CRWR 60200 – Graduate Writer’s Workshop – Literary Nonfiction

As a hybrid course for MFA students with a focus on Nonfiction, the Graduate Writer’s Workshop will begin with weekly online meetings at the start of the summer session and culminate in a 12-day Summer Residency on campus. Online, students will gather with their Nonfiction peers and submit short creative works in response to writing prompts, and analyze the assigned readings in group discussions. At the residency, students will attend daily workshops in their genre, as well as lectures, seminars, and panels given by faculty mentors across genres. A typical day of instruction ends with a reading given by the faculty, open to the community. Over the course of this residency period, students are required to attend all sessions. In-person participation at the residency is mandatory; students cannot complete this requirement online or by independent study.

Prerequisite: Admission into the MFA Program
Offered: Annually

CRWR 60300 – Graduate Writer’s Workshop – Poetry

As a hybrid course for MFA students with a focus on Poetry, the Graduate Writer’s Workshop will begin with weekly online meetings at the start of the summer session and culminate in a 12-day Summer Residency on campus. Online, students will gather with their Poetry peers and submit short creative works in response to writing prompts, and analyze the assigned readings in group discussions. At the residency, students will attend daily workshops in their genre, as well as lectures, seminars, and panels given by faculty mentors across genres. A typical day of instruction ends with a reading given by the faculty, open to the community. Over the course of this residency period, students are required to attend all sessions. In-person participation at the residency is mandatory; students cannot complete this requirement online or by independent study.

Prerequisite: Admission into the MFA Program
Offered: Annually

CRWR 69900 – Thesis

Students will work one-on-one with their mentors near the end of their studies in the program for the express purpose of completing their thesis. A completed thesis is composed of three parts: creative work (100 to 200 pages for fiction or literary nonfiction, and 48 to 64 pages of poetry); a research-focused craft essay (20-40 pages); annotated bibliography (between 40 and 70 books). Students will enroll in thesis credits for the spring semester prior to their third and final summer residency. In the summer session of this final residency, students will not join their peers for the online instruction period beforehand; instead, they will enroll in 3 more thesis credits and remain focused on completing their thesis under the guidance of their mentors. During this final residency, students will not participate in the daily morning workshop sessions and may use this time to prepare an overview of their work and research in completing the thesis, culminating in a colloquium presentation at the end of the residency, which will take the place of a thesis defense.

Prerequisite: CRWR 60500 – Form and Theory
Offered: Spring, Annually

CRWR 60400 – Thesis Writer’s Workshop

During the final summer term, thesis students are required to take Thesis Writer’s Workshop inclusive of the residency requirement. In this course, thesis students participate only in the residency (not the online sessions included for other Writer’s Workshops). At the residency, thesis students do not participate in the daily morning workshop sessions, but do participate in other residency activities. A requirement of the thesis residency is a culminating colloquium presentation scheduled during the residency. In the colloquium, which takes the place of a thesis defense, thesis students are required to present the main attributes of their creative work as well as the research that comprises the craft essay. Prerequisite: 10 credits of Writer’s Workshop in the student’s chosen genre (2 summer residencies).

Offered: Annually