Taken in four separate semesters. Students are required to take workshops in the genre in which they were admitted to the program.
Craft courses may be repeated provided they are taught by different instructors.
With the permission of that department and of the director of the CWP.
A creative special project in poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction consisting of a substantial piece of writing—a novel, a collection of short stories or essays, a memoir, a work of literary nonfiction, or a group of poems—to be submitted in the student’s final semester. The project requires the approval of the student’s faculty adviser and of the director of the CWP.
The MFA degree may also be earned through the Low Residency MFA Writers Workshop in Paris. Under this model, degree requirements remain the same, although Craft courses and Workshops take the form of intensive individualized courses of study with the faculty, including three substantial packet exchanges of student work per semester. All students earning the MFA degree through the low-residency program must also participate in five ten-day residencies in Paris, which involve a diverse series of series of craft talks, lectures, readings, special events, faculty mentorship meetings, and professional development panels.
Please note : The following is a sample plan of study for a student enrolled in the poetry track. Fiction and creative nonfiction plans of study would parallel the below, substituting the Workshop requirements accordingly (i.e., Workshop in Fiction or Workshop in Creative Nonfiction, respectively).
1st Semester/Term | Credits | |
---|---|---|
Workshop in Poetry I | 4 | |
The Craft of Poetry | 4 | |
Credits | 8 | |
2nd Semester/Term | ||
Workshop in Poetry I | 4 | |
General Elective or CWP Craft Course | 4 | |
Credits | 8 | |
3rd Semester/Term | ||
Workshop in Poetry I | 4 | |
General Elective or CWP Craft Course | 4 | |
Credits | 8 | |
4th Semester/Term | ||
Workshop in Poetry I | 4 | |
General Elective or CWP Craft Course | 4 | |
Credits | 8 | |
Total Credits | 32 |
Upon successful completion of the program, graduates will have achieved the following learning outcomes:
Nyu policies, graduate school of arts and science policies, program policies.
To qualify for the degree, a student must have a GPA of at least 3.0, must complete a minimum of 24 points with a grade of B or better, and may offer no more than 8 points with a grade of C (no more than 4 points with a grade of C in creative writing workshops). A student may take no more than 36 points toward the degree.
University-wide policies can be found on the New York University Policy pages .
Academic Policies for the Graduate School of Arts and Science can be found on the Academic Policies page .
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Stanford’s Creative Writing Program--one of the best-known in the country--cultivates the power of individual expression within a vibrant community of writers. Many of our English majors pursue a concentration in creative writing, and the minor in Creative Writing is among the most popular minors on campus. These majors and minors participate in workshop-based courses or independent tutorials with Stegner Fellows, Stanford’s distinguished writers-in-residence.
The English major with a Creative Writing emphasis is a fourteen-course major. These fourteen courses comprise eight English courses and six Creative Writing courses.
English majors with a Creative Writing emphasis should note the following:
All courses must be taken for a letter grade.
Courses taken abroad or at other institutions may not be counted towards the workshop requirements.
Any 190 series course (190F, 190G, etc.), 191 series course (191T, etc.), or 192 series course (192V, etc.) counts toward the 190, 191, or 192 requirement.
PWR 1 is a prerequisite for all creative writing courses.
The Minor in Creative Writing offers a structured environment in which students interested in writing fiction or poetry develop their skills while receiving an introduction to literary forms. Students may choose a concentration in fiction, poetry.
In order to graduate with a minor in Creative Writing, students must complete the following three courses plus three courses in either the prose or poetry tracks. Courses counted towards the requirements for the minor may not be applied to student's major requirements. 30 units are required. All courses must be taken for a letter grade.
Suggested order of requirements:
English 90. Fiction Writing or English 91. Creative Nonfiction
English 146S Secret Lives of the Short Story
One 5-unit English literature elective course
English 190. Intermediate Fiction Writing or English 191. Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Writing
English 92. Reading and Writing Poetry
Another English 190, 191, 290. Advanced Fiction, 291. Advanced Nonfiction, or 198L. Levinthal Tutorial
English 92.Reading and Writing Poetry
English 160. Poetry and Poetics
English 192. Intermediate Poetry Writing
Another English 192, or 292.Advanced Poetry or 198L.Levinthal Tutorial
To declare a Creative Writing minor, visit the Student page in Axess. To expedite your declaration, make sure to list all 6 courses you have taken or plan to take for your minor.
Any 190 series course (190F, 190G, etc.), 191series course (191T, etc.), or 192 series course (192V, etc.) counts toward the 190, 191, or 192 requirement.
For more information, visit the Stanford Creative Writing Program.
Ph.d. in creative writing.
A rigorous program that combines creative writing and literary studies, the Ph.D. in Creative Writing prepares graduates for both scholarly and creative publication and teaching. With faculty guidance, students admitted to the Ph.D. program may tailor their programs to their goals and interests.
The creative writing faculty at KU has been widely published and anthologized, winning both critical and popular acclaim. Faculty awards include such distinctions as the Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Osborn Award, Shelley Memorial Award, Gertrude Stein Award, the Kenyon Review Prize, the Kentucky Center Gold Medallion, and the Pushcart Prize.
Regarding admission to both our doctoral and MFA creative writing programs, we will prioritize applicants who are interested in engaging with multiple faculty members to practice writing across genres and forms, from speculative fiction and realism to poetry and playwriting/screenwriting, etc.
The University of Kansas' Graduate Program in Creative Writing also offers an M.F.A degree .
A GTA appointment includes a tuition waiver for ten semesters plus a competitive stipend. In the first year, GTA appointees teach English 101 (first year composition) and English 102 (a required reading and writing course). Creative Writing Ph.D. students may have the opportunity to teach an introductory course in creative writing after passing the doctoral examination, and opportunities are available for a limited number of advanced GTAs to teach in the summer.
If the M.A. or M.F.A. was completed in KU’s Department of English, a doctoral student may petition the DGS to have up to 12 hours of the coursework taken in the English Department reduced toward the Ph.D.
For Doctoral students, the university requires completion of a course in responsible scholarship . For the English department, this would be ENGL 800, 780, or the equivalent). In addition, the Department requires reading knowledge of one approved foreign language: Old English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. Upon successful petition, a candidate may substitute reading knowledge of another language or research skill that is studied at the University or is demonstrably appropriate to the candidate’s program of study.
Doctoral students must fulfill the requirement before they take their doctoral examination, or be enrolled in a reading course the same semester as the exam. Students are permitted three attempts at passing each foreign language or research skill. Three methods of demonstrating reading knowledge for all approved languages except Old English are acceptable:
To fulfill the language requirement using Old English, students must successfully complete ENGL 710 (Introduction to Old English) and ENGL 712 (Beowulf).
Post-Coursework Ph.D. students must submit, with their committee chair(s), an annual review form to the DGS and Graduate Committee.
Doctoral students must take their doctoral examination within three semesters (excluding summers) of the end of the semester in which they took their final required course. If a student has an Incomplete, the timeline is not postponed until the Incomplete is resolved. For example, a student completing doctoral course work in Spring 2018 will need to schedule their doctoral exam no later than the end of Fall semester 2019. Delays may be granted by petition to the Graduate Director in highly unusual circumstances. Failure to take the exam within this time limit without an approved delay will result in the student’s falling out of good standing. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices.
A student may not take their doctoral exam until the university’s Research Skills and Responsible Scholarship requirement is fulfilled (ENGL 800 or equivalent and reading knowledge of one foreign language or equivalent).
Reading Lists:
All students are required to submit three reading lists, based on the requirements below, to their committee for approval. The doctoral exam will be held on a date at least twelve weeks after the approval from the whole committee is received. To facilitate quick committee approval, students may copy the graduate program coordinator on the email to the committee that contains the final version of the lists. Committee members may then respond to the email in lieu of signing a printed copy. Students should work with their committee chair and graduate program coordinator to schedule the exam at the same time as they finalize the lists.
During the two-hour oral examination (plus an additional 15-30 minutes for a break and committee deliberation), a student will be tested on their comprehension of a literary period or movement, including multiple genres and groups of authors within that period or movement. In addition, the student will be tested on two of the following six areas of study:
No title from any field list may appear on either of the other two lists. See Best Practices section for more details on these six areas. See below for a description of the Review of the Dissertation Proposal (RDP), which the candidate takes the semester after passing the doctoral exam.
While many students confer with the DGS as they begin the process of developing their lists, they are also required to submit a copy of their final exam list to the DGS. Most lists will be left intact, but the DGS might request that overly long lists be condensed, or extremely short lists be expanded.
Review of Literature
The purpose of the Review of Literature is to develop and demonstrate an advanced awareness of the critical landscape for each list. The student will write an overview of the defining attributes of the field, identifying two or three broad questions that animate scholarly discussion, while using specific noteworthy texts from their list ( but not all texts on the list ) as examples.
The review also must accomplish the following:
For example, for a literary period, the student might include an overview of primary formal and thematic elements, of the relationship between literary and social/historical developments, of prominent movements, (etc.), as well as of recent critical debates and topics.
For a genre list, the Review of Literature might include major theories of its constitution and significance, while outlining the evolution of these theories over time.
For a Rhetoric and Composition list, the review would give an overview of major historical developments, research, theories, methods, debates, and trends of scholarship in the field.
For an English Language Studies (ELS) list, the review would give an overview of the subfields that make up ELS, the various methodological approaches to language study, the type of sources used, and major aims and goals of ELS. The review also usually involves a focus on one subfield of particular interest to the student (such as stylistics, sociolinguistics, or World/Postcolonial Englishes).
Students are encouraged to divide reviews into smaller sections that enhance clarity and organization. Students are not expected to interact with every text on their lists.
The review of literature might be used to prepare students for identifying the most important texts in the field, along with why those texts are important to the field, for the oral exam. It is recommended for students to have completed reading the bulk of (if not all) texts on their lists before writing the ROL.
The Reviews of Literature will not be produced in an exam context, but in the manner of papers that are researched and developed in consultation with all advisors/committee members, with final drafts being distributed within a reasonable time for all members to review and approve in advance of the 3-week deadline . While the Review of Literature generally is not the focus of the oral examination, it is frequently used as a point of departure for questions and discussion during the oral examination.
Exam committees typically consist of 3 faculty members from the department—one of whom serves as the Committee Chair—plus a Graduate Studies Representative. University policy dictates the composition of exam committees . Students may petition for an exception for several committee member situations, with the exception of the Graduate Studies Representative .
If a student wants to have as a committee member a person outside the university, or a person who is not in a full-time tenure-track professorship at KU, the student must contact the Graduate Secretary as early as possible. Applications for special graduate faculty status must be reviewed by the College and Graduate Studies. Requests for exam/defense approval will not be approved unless all committee members currently hold either regular or special graduate faculty status
Remote participation of committee members via technology
Students with committee members who plan to attend the defense via remote technology must be aware of college policy on teleconferencing/remote participation of committee members .
A majority of committee members must be physically present for an examination to commence; for doctoral oral examinations this requirement is 2 of the 4 members, for master’s oral examinations the requirement is 2 of the 3 members. In addition, it is required that the student being examined, the chair of the committee, and the Graduate Studies Representative all be physically present at the examination or defense. Mediated attendance by the student, chair and Grad Studies Rep is prohibited.
The recommended time between completion of coursework and the doctoral examination is two semesters.
Final exam lists need to be approved and signed by the committee at least 12 weeks prior to the prospective exam date. This includes summers/summer semesters. The lists should then be submitted to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Reviews of Literature need to be approved and signed by the committee at least 3 weeks prior to the exam date. Failure to meet this deadline will result in rescheduling the exam. No further changes to lists or Reviews of Literature will be allowed after official approval. The three-week deadline is the faculty deadline--the last date for them to confirm receipt of the ROLs and confer approval--not necessarily the student deadline for submitting the documents to the faculty. Please keep that timing in mind and allow your committee adequate time to review the materials and provide feedback.
Students taking the Doctoral Exam are allowed to bring their text lists, the approved Reviews of Literature, scratch paper, a writing utensil, and notes/writing for an approximately 5-minute introductory statement to the exam. (This statement does not need to lay out ideas or any aspect of the dissertation project.)
Each portion of the oral examination must be deemed passing before the student can proceed to the Review of the Dissertation Proposal. If a majority of the committee judges that the student has not answered adequately on one of the three areas of the exam, the student must repeat that portion in a separate oral exam of one hour, to be taken as expeditiously as possible. Failure in two areas constitutes failure of the exam and requires a retake of the whole. The doctoral examining committee will render a judgment of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory on the entire examination. A student who fails the exam twice may, upon successful petition to the Graduate Committee, take it a third and final time.
Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the exam. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student exams but not others.
The doctoral oral examination has the following purposes:
In consultation with the Graduate Director, a student will ask a member of the Department’s graduate faculty (preferably their advisor) to be the chairperson of the examining committee. The choice of examination committee chair is very important, for that person’s role is to assist the candidate in designing the examination structure, preparing the Review of Literature (see below), negotiating reading lists and clarifying their purposes, and generally following procedures here outlined. The other three English Department members of the committee will be chosen in consultation with the committee chair. (At some point an additional examiner from outside the Department, who serves as the Graduate School representative, will be invited to join the committee). Any unresolved problems in negotiation between a candidate and their committee should be brought to the attention of the Graduate Director, who may choose to involve the Graduate Committee. A student may request a substitution in, or a faculty member may ask to be dismissed from, the membership of the examining committee. Such requests must be approved, in writing, by the faculty member leaving the committee and by the Graduate Director.
Reading Lists
Copies of some approved reading lists and Reviews of Literature are available from the Graduate Secretary and can be found on the U: drive if you are using a computer on campus. Despite the goal of fairness and equity, some unavoidable unevenness and disparity will appear in the length of these lists. It remains, however, the responsibility of the examining committee, and especially the student’s chair, to aim toward consonance with the most rigorous standards and expectations and to insure that areas of study are not unduly narrow.
To facilitate quick committee approval, students may copy the graduate secretary on the email to the committee that contains the final version of the lists and reviews of literature. Committee members may then respond to the email in lieu of signing a printed copy.
Comprehension of a literary period (e.g., British literature of the 18th century; Romanticism; US literature of the 19th century; Modernism) entails sufficient intellectual grasp of both the important primary works of and secondary works on the period or movement to indicate a student’s ability to teach the period or movement and undertake respectable scholarship on it.
Comprehension of an author or group of related authors (e.g., Donne, the Brontës, the Bloomsbury Group, the Black Mountain Poets) entails knowledge, both primary and secondary, of a figure or figures whose writing has generated a significant body of interrelated biographical, historical, and critical scholarship.
Comprehension of one of several genres (the short story, the lyric poem, the epistolary novel). To demonstrate comprehension of a genre, a student should possess sufficient depth and breadth of knowledge, both primary and secondary, of the genre to explain its formal characteristics and account for its historical development.
Comprehension of criticism and literary theory entails a grasp of fundamental conceptual problems inherent in a major school of literary study (e.g., historicist, psychoanalytic, feminist, poststructuralist, etc.). To demonstrate comprehension of that school of criticism and literary theory, a student should be able to discuss changes in its conventions and standards of interpretation and evaluation of literature from its beginning to the present. Students will be expected to possess sufficient depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge to bring appropriate texts and issues to bear on questions of literary study.
Comprehension of composition theory entails an intellectual grasp of fundamental concepts, issues, and theories pertaining to the study of writing. To demonstrate comprehension of composition theory, students should be able to discuss traditional and current issues from a variety of perspectives, as well as the field’s historical development from classical rhetoric to the present.
Comprehension of the broad field of English language studies entails a grasp of the field’s theoretical concepts and current issues, as well as a familiarity with significant works within given subareas. Such subareas will normally involve formal structures (syntax, etc.) and history of the English language, along with other subareas such as social linguistics, discourse analysis, lexicography, etc. Areas of emphasis and specific sets of topics will be arranged through consultation with relevant faculty.
Ph.D. candidates must be continuously enrolled in Dissertation hours each Fall and Spring semester from the time they pass the doctoral examination until successful completion of the final oral examination (defense of dissertation).
Please also refer to the COGA policy on post-exam enrollment or the Graduate School’s policy .
As soon as possible following successful completion of the doctoral exam, the candidate should establish their three-person core dissertation committee, and then expeditiously proceed to the preparation of a dissertation proposal. Within the semester following completion of the doctoral exam , the student will present to their core dissertation committee a written narrative of approximately 10-15 pages , not including bibliography, of the dissertation proposal. While the exam schedule is always contingent on student progress, in the first two weeks of the semester in which they intend to take the review , students will work with their committee chair and the graduate program coordinator to schedule the 90-minute RDP. Copies of this proposal must be submitted to the members of the dissertation committee and Graduate Program Coordinator no later than three weeks prior to the scheduled examination date.
In the proposal, students will be expected to define: the guiding question or set of questions; a basic thesis (or hypothesis); how the works to be studied or the creative writing produced relate to that (hypo)thesis; the theoretical/methodological model to be followed; the overall formal divisions of the dissertation; and how the study will be situated in the context of prior scholarship (i.e., its importance to the field). The narrative section should be followed by a bibliography demonstrating that the candidate is conversant with the basic theoretical and critical works pertinent to the study. For creative writing students, the proposal may serve as a draft of the critical introduction to the creative dissertation. Students are expected to consult with their projected dissertation committee concerning the preparation of the proposal.
The review will focus on the proposal, although it could also entail determining whether or not the candidate’s knowledge of the field is adequate to begin the composition process. The examination will be graded pass/fail. If it is failed, the committee will suggest areas of weakness to be addressed by the candidate, who will rewrite the proposal and retake the review by the end of the following semester . If the candidate abandons the entire dissertation project for another, a new RDP will be taken. (For such a step to be taken, the change would need to be drastic, such as a move to a new field or topic. A change in thesis or the addition or subtraction of one or even several works to be examined would not necessitate a new proposal and defense.) If the student fails to complete the Review of the Dissertation Proposal within a year of the completion of the doctoral exams, they will have fallen out of departmental good standing. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices.
After passing the Review of the Dissertation Proposal, the student should forward one signed copy of the proposal to the Graduate Program Coordinator. The RDP may last no longer than 90 minutes.
Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the review. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student exams but not others.
The Graduate Catalog states that the doctoral candidate “must present a dissertation showing the planning, conduct and results of original research, and scholarly creativity.” While most Ph.D. candidates in the Department of English write dissertations of a traditional, research-oriented nature, a creative writing candidate may elect to do a creative-writing dissertation involving fiction, poetry, drama or nonfiction prose. Such a dissertation must also contain a substantial section of scholarly research related to the creative writing. The precise nature of the scholarly research component should be determined by the candidate in consultation with the dissertation committee and the Graduate Director. Candidates wishing to undertake such a dissertation must complete all Departmental requirements demanded for the research-oriented Ph.D. degree.
Scholarly Research Component (SRC)
The Scholarly Research Component (SRC) of the creative-writing dissertation is a separate section of the dissertation than the creative work. It involves substantial research and is written in the style of academic prose. It should be 15-20 pages and should cite at least 20 sources, some of which should be primary texts, and many of which should be from the peer-reviewed secondary literature. The topic must relate, in some way, to the topic, themes, ideas, or style of the creative portion of the dissertation; this relation should be stated in the Dissertation Proposal, which should include a section describing the student’s plans for the SRC. The SRC may be based on a seminar paper or other work the student has completed prior to the dissertation; but the research should be augmented, and the writing revised, per these guidelines. The SRC is a part of the dissertation, and as such will be included in the dissertation defense.
The SRC may take two general forms:
1.) An article, publishable in a peer-reviewed journal or collection, on a specific topic related to an author, movement, theoretical issue, taxonomic issue, etc. that has bearing on the creative portion. The quality of this article should be high enough that the manuscript could be submitted to a peer-reviewed publication, with a plausible chance of acceptance.
2.) A survey . This survey may take several different forms:
The dissertation committee will consist of at least four members—two “core” English faculty members, a third faculty member (usually from English), and one faculty member from a different department who serves as the Graduate Studies representative. The committee may include (with the Graduate Director’s approval) members from other departments and, with the approval of the University’s Graduate Council, members from outside the University. If a student wants to have a committee member from outside the university, or a person who is not in a full-time tenure-track professorship at KU, the student must contact the Graduate Secretary as early as possible. Applications for special graduate faculty status must be reviewed by the College and the Office of Graduate Studies. Requests for defense approval will not be approved unless all committee members currently hold either regular or special graduate faculty status.
The candidate’s preferences as to the membership of the dissertation committee will be carefully considered; the final decision, however, rests with the Department and with the Office of Graduate Studies. All dissertation committees must get approval from the Director of Graduate Studies before scheduling the final oral exam (defense). Furthermore, any changes in the make-up of the dissertation committee from the Review of the Dissertation Proposal committee must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.
Once the dissertation proposal has passed and the writing of the dissertation begins, membership of the dissertation committee should remain constant. However, under extraordinary circumstances, a student may request a substitution in, or a faculty member may ask to be dismissed from, the membership of the dissertation committee. Such requests must be approved, in writing, by the faculty member leaving the committee and by the Graduate Director.
If a student does not make progress during the dissertation-writing stage, and accumulates more than one “Limited Progress” and/or “No Progress” grade on their transcript, they will fall out of good standing in the department. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices
Final Oral Exam (Dissertation Defense)
When the dissertation has been tentatively accepted by the dissertation committee (not including the Graduate Studies Representative), the final oral examination will be held, on the recommendation of the Department. While the exam schedule is always contingent on student progress, in the first two weeks of the semester in which they intend to defend the dissertation, students should work with their committee chair and graduate program coordinator to schedule it.
Although the dissertation committee is responsible for certification of the candidate, any member of the graduate faculty may be present at the examination and participate in the questioning, and one examiner—the Graduate Studies Representative—must be from outside the Department. The Graduate Secretary can help students locate an appropriate Grad Studies Rep. The examination normally lasts no more than two hours. It is the obligation of the candidate to advise the Graduate Director that they plan to take the oral examination; this must be done at least one month before the date proposed for the examination.
At least three calendar weeks prior to the defense date, the student will submit the final draft of the dissertation to all the committee members (including the GSR) and inform the Graduate Program Coordinator. Failure to meet this deadline will necessitate rescheduling the defense. The final oral examination for the Ph.D. in English is, essentially, a defense of the dissertation. When it is passed, the dissertation itself is graded by the dissertation director, in consultation with the student’s committee; the student’s performance in the final examination (defense) is graded by the entire five-person committee
Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the defense. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student defenses but not others
These sets of attributes are adapted from the Graduate Learner Outcomes that are a part of our Assessment portfolio. “Honors” should only be given to dissertations that are rated “Outstanding” in all or most of the following categories:
After much discussion about whether the “honors” designation assigned after the dissertation defense should be for the written product only, for the defense/discussion only, for both together, weighted equally, or eradicated altogether, the department voted to accept the Graduate Committee recommendation that “honors” only apply to the written dissertation. "Honors" will be given to dissertations that are rated "Outstanding" in all or most of the categories on the dissertation rubric.
Normally, the dissertation will present the results of the writer’s own research, carried on under the direction of the dissertation committee. This means that the candidate should be in regular contact with all members of the committee during the dissertation research and writing process, providing multiple drafts of chapters, or sections of chapters, according to the arrangements made between the student and each faculty member. Though accepted primarily for its scholarly merit rather than for its rhetorical qualities, the dissertation must be stylistically competent. The Department has accepted the MLA Handbook as the authority in matters of style. The writer may wish to consult also the Chicago Manual of Style and Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Dissertations, Theses, and Term Papers .
Naturally, both the student and the dissertation committee have responsibilities and obligations to each other concerning the submitting and returning of materials. The student should plan on working steadily on the dissertation; if they do so, they should expect from the dissertation committee a reasonably quick reading and assessment of material submitted.
Students preparing their dissertation should be showing chapters to their committee members as they go along, for feedback and revision suggestions. They should also meet periodically with committee members to assess their progress. Prior to scheduling a defense, the student is encouraged to ask committee members whether they feel that the student is ready to defend the dissertation. Ideally, the student should hold the defense only when they have consulted with committee members sufficiently to feel confident that they have revised the dissertation successfully to meet the expectations of all committee members.
Students should expect that they will need to revise each chapter at least once. This means that all chapters (including introduction and conclusion) are shown to committee members once, revised, then shown to committee members again in revised form to assess whether further revisions are needed, prior to the submitting of the final dissertation as a whole. It is not unusual for further revisions to be required and necessary after the second draft of a chapter; students should not therefore simply assume that a second draft is necessarily “final” and passing work.
If a substantial amount of work still needs to be completed or revised at the point that the dissertation defense is scheduled, such a defense date should be regarded as tentative, pending the successful completion, revision, and receipt of feedback on all work. Several weeks prior to the defense, students should consult closely with their dissertation director and committee members about whether the dissertation as a whole is in a final and defensible stage. A project is ready for defense when it is coherent, cohesive, well researched, engages in sophisticated analysis (in its entirety or in the critical introduction of creative dissertations), and makes a significant contribution to the field. In other words, it passes each of the categories laid out in the Dissertation Rubric.
If the dissertation has not clearly reached a final stage, the student and dissertation director are advised to reschedule the defense.
Prior Publication of the Doctoral Dissertation
Portions of the material written by the doctoral candidate may appear in article form before completion of the dissertation. Prior publication does not ensure the acceptance of the dissertation by the dissertation committee. Final acceptance of the dissertation is subject to the approval of the dissertation committee. Previously published material by other authors included in the dissertation must be properly documented.
Each student beyond the master’s degree should confer regularly with the Graduate Director regarding their progress toward the doctoral examination and the doctorate.
Doctoral students may take graduate courses outside the English Department if, in their opinion and that of the Graduate Director, acting on behalf of the Graduate Committee, those courses will be of value to them. Their taking such courses will not, of course, absolve them of the responsibility for meeting all the normal departmental and Graduate School requirements.
Doctoral students in creative writing are strongly encouraged to take formal literature classes in addition to forms classes. Formal literature classes, by providing training in literary analysis, theory, and/or literary history, will help to prepare students for doctoral exams (and future teaching at the college level).
FALL SEMESTER
SPRING SEMESTER
SUMMER SEMESTER
FALL SEMESTER
WINTER BREAK
Upcoming zalaznick readings, reading by elisa gabbert, freund prize for creative writing alumni reading, reading by rowan ricardo phillips, mfa in creative writing first-year reading series, reading by sigrid nunez.
Barbara and David Zalaznick’s generous endowment makes it possible for the Creative Writing Program to invite several writers, who range from debut poets and novelists to nationally and internationally renowned writers, to campus each semester. In the selection, we consider how writers would impact our curriculum, faculty, and our graduate and undergraduate literature and writing students. Consequently, the reading series has become an integrated and valuable part of our students' education. It is also beneficial to the artistic community at large, since the readings are free and open to the public. A book signing and reception follow each reading, at which the audience has the opportunity to meet the visiting writer. MFA and PhD students are invited to a separate informal gathering with the visiting writer. Writers may also be asked to visit classes or participate in events involving various student groups.
Past writers have included late Cornell alumna and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison (MA ’55); MacArthur Fellow, poet, and playwright Claudia Rankine; Pulitzer Prize winner and cultural critic Viet Thanh Nguyen; Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James; former U.S. poets laureate Billy Collins and Charles Simic; Irish poets Eavan Boland and Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney; and novelists Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood. The program has also included former Cornell MFA graduates: Julie Schumacher (MFA ’86), the first woman to have won the Thurber Prize for American Humor; National Book Award winner Susan Choi (MFA ’95); National Book Award finalist and Orange Prize winner Téa Obreht (MFA ’09); and Man Booker Prize finalist NoViolet Bulawayo (MFA ’10).
The Zalaznick Reading Series endowment is also able to supplement our other endowed series, including the Robert Chasen Memorial Poetry Reading , the Richard Cleaveland Memorial Reading , and the Eamon McEneaney Memorial Reading .
To be added to the email list for announcements of upcoming readings, please email [email protected] .
To view past Zalaznick Reading Series recordings, visit our YouTube page .
Experimental Writing: Anne Boyer in Conversation with Hari Kunzru
Thursday, September 26, 7pm
A reading by Anne Boyer followed by a conversation/Q&A with Hari Kunzru and a reception/signing. Co-sponsored with NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement.
Open to the public. All attendees are required to RSVP in advance; please click here
The Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House is not currently wheelchair accessible.
NYU has ended COVID-19 related restrictions and policies, but we continue to remind and recommend to members of the NYU community that they stay up-to-date on their boosters, they stay home if they feel sick, and masks are always welcome.
Poet and essayist Anne Boyer was born and raised in Kansas. She earned a BA from Kansas State University and an MFA from Wichita State University. Her works include The Romance of Happy Workers ( 2006) , My Common Heart (2011) , Garments Against Women ( 2015, 2016), which Maureen McLane described as “a sad, beautiful, passionate book that registers the political economy of literature and of life itself,” and Handbook of Disappointed Fate (2018). According to critic Chris Strofollino, Boyer’s work “widens the boundaries of poetry and memoir as we know them.” She was the inaugural winner of the 2018 Cy Twombly Award for Poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and winner of the 2018 Whiting Award in nonfiction/poetry. She was also awarded the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in early 2020 and the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for her book The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care . Boyer lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where since 2011 she has been a professor at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Photo by Silvina Frydlewsky/Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación
Hari Kunzru is the author of seven novels, Blue Ruin , Red Pill, White Tears, Gods Without Men, My Revolutions, Transmission, and The Impressionist . He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and writes the “Easy Chair” column for Harper’s Magazine . He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has been a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at New York University and is the host of the podcast Into the Zone , from Pushkin Industries. He lives in Brooklyn.
Photo by Maria Spann/The Observer
This is not, by any means, a comprehensive list, but one that covers a wide range of genres, styles, and approaches to writing craft. Some of these books will be familiar to you, others will be wholly new; all have something to offer serious young writers eager to place themselves within a long and glorious literary tradition.
The craft of poetry.
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One of the first universities in the country to offer a Ph.D. in Creative Writing, Ohio University continues as home to a thriving, widely respected graduate program with concentrations in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Small by design, our graduate program offers a comprehensive curriculum, an award-winning faculty and the intimacy of small classes.
Over the past three years, seven of our nine graduating creative writing Ph.D. students have landed tenure-track jobs, post-doctorates, or prestigious visiting writer posts. Our MA graduates go on to study in the top MFA and Ph.D. programs.
Students in the Creative Writing M.A. and Ph.D. programs enjoy:
M.A. candidates complete two years of study and write a thesis of creative work in their genre. Doctoral candidates complete five years of study, comprehensive exams, a major critical essay, and a creative dissertation.
The department and its students publish three literary journals:
The department hosts several annual events including an ambitious Spring Literary Festival that brings five nationally distinguished writers to campus for three-days of readings, craft talks, and student discussion. Recent visitors have included Tony Hoagland, Kathryn Harrison, Barry Lopez, Francine Prose, Peter Ho Davies, Kim Addonizio, David Shields, Robert Hass, Charles Simic, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Marilynne Robinson.
Visiting writers engage with our program year-round as well, appearing in both undergraduate and graduate classes, meeting one-on-one with select students, and offering evening readings in the intimate Galbreath Chapel.
In addition to a regular Dogwood Bloom reading series for our graduate students, the creative writing program hosts an annual Writers' Harvest benefit reading for the Southeastern Ohio Food Bank?s Second Harvest, a food distribution program serving Athens, Hocking, Perry, Vinton, Jackson, Gallia, Meigs, Morgan and Washington counties.
Academic writing shares some commonality with professional writing, they both:
It can be helpful to think of academic writing as a different genre with different conventions, style and expectations. Being aware of these differences can help you adapt your writing for an academic audience:
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Develop your flair for writing, with expert guidance and support from published authors, with our MA Creative Writing programme, starting in 2024.
Creative writing can take many forms. Whether you write poetry, short stories, drama, or even creative non-fiction, it is a skill which underpins many creative and commercial roles. By undertaking postgraduate studies at the University of Reading, you will learn from award-winning authors and poets who will support, mentor, and challenge you to ...
English Literature and Creative Writing are a perfect combination at degree level. English Literature introduces you to important, exciting, diverse writers from across the centuries and the globe, and Creative Writing allows you to explore literary creativity from the inside: creating characters ...
Creative Writing. Take an active role in literature with a creative writing degree from the University of Reading. We offer a number of joint courses that pair creative writing with complementary subjects, including. film, theatre and television. No matter which course you choose, you will learn from prize-winning authors and visiting writers ...
About Develop your flair for writing, with expert guidance and support from published authors, with the MA Creative Writing programme at the University of Reading.
SUBJECT LEAGUE TABLE 2025 A Creative Writing degree will let you flex your storytelling abilities and study the work of literary legends.Our university rankings for Creative Writing include Scriptwriting and Poetry Writing.
This free course, Creative writing and critical reading, explores the importance of reading as part of a creative writer's development at the postgraduate (MA) level. You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers' methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills. A diverse range of examples will cover the genres ...
This free course, Creative writing and critical reading, explores the importance of reading as part of a creative writer's development at the postgraduate level. You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers' methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills. Examples will cover the genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and scriptwriting.
The program allows undergraduates to work with practicing writers to develop their writing skills, learn the possibilities of modern poetry, fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting and translation, and gain a special access to the critical understanding of literature through their involvement in the creative process.
Notre Dame's English Department offers graduate and undergraduate degrees with a focus on literature's cultural and interpretive contexts, creative writing, creative reading, film study, and literary history.
The vital presence of creative writing in the English Department is reflected by our many distinguished authors who teach our workshops. We offer courses each term in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and television writing. Our workshops are small, usually no more than twelve students, and offer writers an opportunity to focus intensively on one genre.
Creative Writing. Take an active role in literature with a creative writing degree from the University of Reading. We offer a number of joint courses that pair creative writing with complementary subjects, including. film, theatre and television. No matter which course you choose, you will learn from prize-winning authors and visiting writers ...
The Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing program at the University of Idaho is an intense, three-year course of study that focuses on the craft of writing.
Through innovative literary outreach programs, a distinguished public reading series, an exciting public student reading series, special literary seminars with visiting writers, and the production of a high-quality literary journal, students participate in a dynamic literary community actively engaged in all aspects of the literary arts—writing, reading, teaching, publishing and community ...
The Minor in Creative Writing offers a structured environment in which students interested in writing fiction or poetry develop their skills while receiving an introduction to literary forms. Students may choose a concentration in fiction, poetry. In order to graduate with a minor in Creative Writing, students must complete the following three ...
Ph.D. in Creative Writing. A rigorous program that combines creative writing and literary studies, the Ph.D. in Creative Writing prepares graduates for both scholarly and creative publication and teaching. With faculty guidance, students admitted to the Ph.D. program may tailor their programs to their goals and interests.
MFA in Creative Writing First-Year Reading Series. Barbara and David Zalaznick's generous endowment makes it possible for the Creative Writing Program to invite several writers, who range from debut poets and novelists to nationally and internationally renowned writers, to campus each semester. In the selection, we consider how writers would ...
English literature and creative writing are a perfect combination at degree level: In your literature modules, you will be introduced to important, exciting, diverse writers from across the centuries and the globe. In creative writing, you will explore literary creativity from the inside: creating characters, shaping poems, and drawing on your imagination.
A reading by Anne Boyer followed by a conversation/Q&A with Hari Kunzru and a reception/signing. Co-sponsored with NYU's XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement. Open to the public. All attendees are required to RSVP in advance; please click here *** The Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House is not currently wheelchair accessible.
Recommended Reading This is not, by any means, a comprehensive list, but one that covers a wide range of genres, styles, and approaches to writing craft. Some of these books will be familiar to you, others will be wholly new; all have something to offer serious young writers eager to place themselves within a long and glorious literary tradition.
About the Program and Placement Record One of the first universities in the country to offer a Ph.D. in Creative Writing, Ohio University continues as home to a thriving, widely respected graduate program with concentrations in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Small by design, our graduate program offers a comprehensive curriculum, an award-winning faculty and the intimacy of small ...
Develop as an artist, curator and writer with the University's BA Art and Creative Writing programme, starting in September 2025.
IELTS Reading: gap-fill. Read the following passage about creative writing. New research, prompted by the relatively high number of literary families, shows that there may be an inherited element to writing good fiction. Researchers from Yale in the US and Moscow State University in Russia launched the study to see whether there was a ...
The Critical analysis guide produced by the University's Study Advice Team gives tips on critical thinking, reading and writing: Critical Analysis: Thinking, Reading, and Writing. See the others tabs in this box for more guidance on generating ideas, writing strategies and redrafting.
Develop and hone your creative writing while building a breadth of film knowledge and analytical skills with our BA Creative Writing and Film course, starting in September 2025.