Pacific Lutheran University - Writing Workshop MFA Posted on April 29th
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is an innovative process-oriented program in the fields of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction intended for independent adults who wish to develop and pursue careers as writers.
The program offers a substantial range of on- and off-campus experiences, including the mentorship of nationally known writers and editors. The three-year course of study is collaboratively structured and tailored to the participant’s own needs and experience; the one-residency per year format is designed to be well suited to a lifestyle of professional and/or family responsibility. The program is intended to enhance already-established work habits. The emphasis will be on the creative process in all its phases, as well as on critical understanding.
Participants will attend an intensive 10-day Summer Residency and then work one-on-one with a faculty mentor throughout the year. Residencies consist of a combination of workshops, readings, classes, talks, and discussions. During the residency, workshops conducted by a combination of core and guest faculty will be held each morning. Workshops are small–never more than 8-12 people. In addition, faculty members may give readings of their work, offer a short class or a one-hour formal lecture on a literary topic or on some aspect of craft. Workshops are required; participants are further required take 20 hours of a combination of mini-courses and lectures, attend additional activities, and meet with their mentor to design a personal course of study for the following academic year.
In consultation with the mentor, each participant will devise a reading program and submit critical responses (short response papers or more discursive essays) to these books along with original work in fiction, poetry, or nonfiction. The program may require some further study of literature for those whose backgrounds are primarily in other fields. By the time of graduation, participants will be expected to have read a substantial number of books concerning such topics as aesthetics, craft, genre, and the works of individual writers of achievement in the participant’s chosen genre.
Participants are expected to devote approximately 15 hours each week to their writing and reading. Over each period, the participant will continue to work on original writing, will read and analyze at least 3 books, and will compile a “mailing” of these activities. The faculty mentor will respond within two weeks, making comments and suggestions for the work and monitoring the participant’s scholarly improvement. Participants and faculty will both provide mid-year evaluations to the MFA director. These become part of the participant’s narrative transcript.
Our program also features a distinguishing “outside experience” intended to foster an independent writing career and to introduce participants to broader aspects of the writing life: national and international opportunities for writers, voices and approaches other than those of our faculty. The program will help arrange for an independent residency at writers’ centers and retreats in all regions of the country and/or study abroad in a variety of programs in literature, writing, or language. We also encourage innovative internships, community service, teaching, or other projects that might serve this aspect of the program.
In addition, the program will feature a number of guest faculty. They will serve as lecturers during the residencies, teaching literature and craft classes and presenting readings from their own work.
Linda DuBay
Grad. Admissions
Admin. 109-PLU
Tacoma WA 98447-0003
or phone: 253-535-7174
