Master of Fine Arts in Writing Course Descriptions

MFA - 600. The First Person: Autobiographical Writing (3)

A six-week intensive in reading and writing autobiography. How to transform personal experience into a meaningful work of art, using elements of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Required first course for all students. Offered in the summer preceding the first school year.

MFA - 612. Writing Workshop I (3)

The first of four workshops in long fiction, short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students share their writing and critique the writing of other students working in their genre. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 622. Writing Workshop II (3)

The second of four workshops in long fiction, short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students share their writing and critique the writing of other students working in their genre. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 632. Writing Workshop III (3)

The third of four workshops in long fiction, short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students share their writing and critique the writing of other students working in their genre. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 642. Writing Workshop IV (3)

The fourth of four workshops in long fiction, short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students share their writing and critique the writing of other students working in their genre. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 650. Word for Word (3)

Examines the inventive use of diction, syntax, punctuation, and cadence by writers in all genres. Students study the impact of language use on literary meaning and apply new linguistic strategies to their own writing. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 651. Developments in the Novel (3)

Emphasizes a variety of traditions in long fiction. Historical developments may include the picaresque, social or psychological realism, stream of consciousness, the nouveau roman, and postmodernism. By studying the works of long fiction, students discover the forms and craft elements best suited to what they want to express. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 654. American Poetry and Poetics (3)

The American tradition in poetry is explored, from Whitman to the present, with a focus on the historical development of poetic thought. The course follows shifting ideologies and social contexts, and examines the way literary schools and counter-influences charge each other, helping to create a new American poetry for the modern era. Students read both the poetry and poetics of selected authors, and work toward a final paper exploring their own poetics. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 655. The Architecture of Prose (3)

A study of narrative structure, examining authors' strategies for building arcs of conflict, sustaining tension, pacing sequences of action, and achieving a sense of closure. By examining a range of literary models, students learn to plot the architecture of their own full-length manuscripts. Readings include works that adhere to a traditional narrative arc as well as those that use the arc as a point of departure. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 661. Evolution of the Short Story (3)

Concentrates on varieties of the short story as exemplified by masters of the form. Readings are drawn from a wide range of short fiction in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature. Students read these literary models to gain an understanding of the form, and to apply what they learn to their own craft. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 662. Contemporary Experiments in Fiction (3)

A study of experimental and radical approaches to fictional prose, encouraging students to take risks in their own writing. The emphasis is on writers who work against rather than within convention, and how they make meaning out of their departures from convention. Assigned readings make use of multiple perspectives, discontinuous narratives, and disrupted chronologies. Readings are drawn from writers around the world. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 663. Ethical Issues in Writing (3)

Is it possible to be a good writer and a good person, too? What kinds of moral responsibilities - and consequences - attend the act of authorship? Through a variety of readings, this course examines ethical dilemmas that writers come up against in pursuit of their art, and asks students to examine their own aesthetic and moral issues. Offered intermittently.

MFA - 664. Poetry International (3)

This course examines major developments in modern world poetry by looking at a range of literary traditions and historical contexts of non-English-speaking poets. Though most work is read in translation, reference to original languages is encouraged. Students work on translating from chosen languages, and the class examines both the problems and the excitement of reading beyond one's borders. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 670. Composing and Revising (3)

This course delves into the question of intention, examining how a writer's conscious plans for prose narratives are transformed in the final product. Through close examination of literary works and a writer's own words about them, students investigate the processes through which these works were created, and learn how to apply their own intentions in composing and revising. Readings include narrative fiction or nonfiction, supplemented by essays, interviews, journals, letters, poetry, and biography.

MFA - 671. The Techniques of Long Fiction (3)

What do we mean when we speak of the modern novel? This course engages students in close readings of several twentieth-century novels, examining how the shape of each novel works in conjunction with its meaning. Topics for discussion include the reliability of narrators, the ambiguity of endings, and the dominance or dissolution of plot. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 672. The Craft of Short Fiction (3)

Focus is on the structures of short stories and novellas, looking closely at certain writers' approaches to narrative conflict, point of view, imagery, voice, and story length. The course helps students to appreciate the restraints imposed and the liberties conferred by forms of short fiction. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 673. The Prose of Fact (3)

What are the elements that make nonfiction writing creative? This course rehearses a variety of modes that contribute to making fact-based writing dynamic. Examples of memoir, travel writing, nature writing, history, criticism, and letters are used, augmented by creative techniques associated with fiction and poetry. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 674. Prosody: The Meaning of Poetic Form (3)

An in-depth study of poetic elements, with an eye to the history and evolution of poetic forms. The class will look at the organizing principles of syllable, stanza, and line; of stress, meter, rhyme, and a variety of countings, as well as contemporary explorations of fragmentation, interruption, chance, and silence. Readings will be drawn from the ancients as well as from postmodern contemporaries, and will demonstrate a range of structural elements, both classical and radical. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 675. Teaching Writing (3)

A study of the methods, theory, and practice of teaching creative writing. Topics for discussion range from the philosophy of teaching to more specific issues such as designing a course, choosing class materials, responding to student writing, and meeting course objectives. The basic elements of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry writing are studied for the purpose of teaching across genres.

MFA - 679. Major Project (3)

Students work with an individual Major Project Instructor to formulate, plan, and execute the Major Project. Consultation with a Program Adviser is required. Offered in the Summer.

MFA - 680. Style in Fiction (3)

This course explores the unique qualities that comprise an original style, and the relationship between form and content. Students conduct in-depth readings of novels and short stories in order to identify and employ the tactics used by prose stylists in fiction. Attention is also paid to the multicultural influences which affect a writer's stylistic choices. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 681. Blurred Boundaries: Writing Beyond Genre (3)

This course examines modern literary works that cross or combine genres and therefore stand outside the conventions of any given genre. By studying such works, students learn about developing forms of writing and explore new ways to approach their own works in progress. Readings are drawn from genre theory and from diverse works sometimes defined as the "short short," the "lyric essay," the "illustrated novel," the "prose poem," and the "novel in verse." Offered intermittently.

MFA - 682. Classics of Literary Nonfiction (3)

This course traverses three centuries of literary nonfiction, affording students an opportunity to learn about the rich heritage of the genre. A wide range of reading demonstrates the suppleness of the form and helps students to discover possibilities of subject and approach available to them as writers of nonfiction prose. Readings may extend from Daniel Defoe to Jamaica Kincaid, including diaries, speeches, meditations, journals, and monologues. Offered in the Fall.

MFA - 683. The Art of the Essay (3)

Offers breadth and depth in the study of the essay. Students read extensively from the works of traditional and modern essayists, discovering the range of forms, techniques, and subjects available to them as writers of the essay. Course readings include personal essays, portrait essays, and essays about place and profession. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 684. Narrating Nonfiction (3)

Through the close reading of full-length books and nonfiction "stories," this course examines how writers of nonfiction bring their writing to life through fictional structures and techniques. Particular attention is paid to the work of exemplary authors whose nonfiction relies upon scene crafting, characterization, dialogue, and chronological frames. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 686. Visionary Poetics (3)

The study of Visionary Poetries, focusing on Romantic, Mystical, and Ecstatic traditions from the Biblical era to the contemporary period. Students will examine texts and literary philosophy that encourage transcendental loss-of-self as a foundation of poetic practice, and adapt strategies for their own writing. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 687. Deepening Prose (3)

An investigation of how literary fiction attains depth, and how complex layers of meaning converge in a single novel or novella. This course encompasses works noted for their psychological, social, intellectual, and spiritual import. Students undertake the study of this fiction to help them develop and advance thematic strains in their own writing. Readings include works in translation as well as those written in English. Offered in the Spring.

MFA - 689. Major Project I (3)

Students work with individual Major Project Advisors to formulate, plan, and begin to execute the Major Project. Consultation with the director of the program is required. Offered in the Summer.

MFA - 690. Special Topics (3)

These courses emphasize particular aspects of literary craft. Topics vary from year to year.

MFA - 699. Major Project II (3)

Students work with individual Major Project Advisors to complete the Major Project. Consultation with the director of the program is required. Offered in the Summer.