Creative Writing MFA Student Guide
MFA Requirements
Complete 54 credit hours (See advising sheet for additional details)
- 12-18 hours graduate (650) writing workshops, at least 9 hrs. in a single genre
- 12 hours literature (British, American, or World)
- 3 hour craft course (either narrative or poetry depending upon the student's genre)
- 18 hours of electives (determined by student in consultation with adviser)
- Up to 15 hours creative thesis
Maintain 3.0 GPA
Produce a professional-quality manuscript in a single genre
Pass an oral defense exam based upon the thesis and the essay produced in the thesis colloquium course
Complete all requirements within 6 years
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Assistantships
A limited number of research and teaching assistantships are available to M.F.A. students. Teaching assistants generally teach freshman composition. Research assistants work for the program director, other M.F.A. or English faculty members, or the Literary Festival coordinator. Assistantships are competitive and pay $10K per year. Out-of-state students with assistantships are eligible for tuition unfunded scholarships, and all graduate assistants may be eligible for tuition grants. Graduate research and teaching assistants must be enrolled for a minimum of 9 hours per semester. Those receiving tuition grants must be enrolled for 9 hours per semester.
Those students interested in applying for an assistantship must complete an Application for Institutional Graduate Financial Assistance form, which may be found in the graduate application package or obtained from the Office of Registration. Students should submit this form to the M.F.A. program director by February 15.
**All graduate assistants who wish to teach composition at some time during their study at ODU MUST take ENGL 664 (Teaching College Composition) in the semester before or during the student's teaching.
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Opportunities
Students are encouraged to participate in various extra-curricular activities directly related to their studies in the M.F.A. program. These include:
- M.F.A. student readings at Prince Bookstore in downtown Norfolk
- scholarly or creative presentations at the English Graduate Student Organization's annual conference
- volunteer positions assisting with the annual Literary Festival
- Writers-in-Community internships running workshops in area hospitals, schools, homeless shelters, detention facilities, nursing homes.
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Course Work
Students may find it helpful to review the time lines (for full-time and part-time students) and advising sheets appended below when planning for registration. It is a good idea to meet briefly with the program director or your M.F.A. adviser if you have questions before registration. Sometimes, students may wish to pursue a specialized area of study not currently being offered. In this case, he or she may wish to consider an independent reading. Students interested in an independent reading must identify a faculty member who will agree to supervise the reading. The student must then submit a written proposal outlining the scope and purpose of the reading for approval by the supervising faculty member and the M.F.A. program director.
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The Thesis Year
We have shaped our program so that the last year can be devoted exclusively to work on the thesis. Students must take the thesis colloquium course (in which they will write a 10-page essay that speaks about their own creative work in the context of a 25-book reading list, created with the adviser's approval - 20 books of contemporary and historical work and 5 of theory in their chosen genre). The essay produced in the thesis colloquium course may be used as a preface to the thesis. The thesis colloquium course will bring together students from different genres, allowing a collective and collaborative focus. The course will discuss specific thesis projects, format requirements, reading lists, and contextual issues for the defense. It will also be a forum for guest speakers - editors, agents, artistic directors of theaters, and others - addressing issues of importance within and across genres.
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Creative Thesis
A student may take thesis hours beginning in the fourth semester (with approval of thesis director). Students are responsible for identifying a thesis director and a committee of two other readers, all of whom have agreed to serve. Additionally, students must complete and submit a Thesis Advisory Committee form. Students working on their theses MUST BE AWARE of formatting requirements outlined in Guidelines for the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations. Much of what is in this thesis guide will pertain only to writers of scholarly work, but it is extremely important to conform with matters such as margins, spacing, and pagination, among others. The Guide can be downloaded from the Web at http://web.odu.edu/ao/research/0.htm.
Typical ranges for various types of theses:
- Poetry: 35-50 pages
- Nonfiction and Fiction: 100-120 pages
Once the thesis is complete, the student will present his or her work to faculty and other students. This presentation will consist of a reading and a discussion of the work.
The thesis defense should take place at least 4 weeks before the deadline for completed theses to be in the Dean's Office. The students and the thesis chair are responsible for scheduling a 90-minute long meeting with their committee. Confirm deadline dates with the Dean's office.
Typically, for the fall, the first complete draft should be to the thesis chair and secondary readers by mid-September. Thesis defense should be scheduled no later than mid-October. Within two weeks after that, the revised thesis should go to the committee chair. By the first week in November, the revised thesis should be submitted to the Graduate Program Director who will then submit it to the Dean's office by mid-November (unless there is a problem). Five copies of the perfect thesis are due in the Registrar's Office by the last day of classes.
Typically, the spring schedule demands that the first complete draft go to the thesis chair and secondary readers by the last week in January. Thesis defense should be scheduled for the last week of February. Revised thesis should go to the committee chair by the second week of March. By the third week in March, the revised thesis should be go from the committee chair to the Graduate Program Director. By the end of March, the Graduate Program Director should submit it to the Dean's office (unless there is a problem). Five copies of the perfect thesis are due in the Registrar's Office by the last day of classes.
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Other Issues
- Mailboxes: All M.F.A. students have mailboxes in the English department work room (BAL 207).
- Transfer credits: up to 12 graduate hours may be accepted (see GPD).
- Registration: M.F.A. students are automatically allowed to register for any 650 workshop in their genre. A student with questions about any given course should talk with his or her adviser.
- Choosing an advisor: the director of creative writing is always available to answer questions and advise graduate students. The process of choosing an adviser, thesis director, or exam readers is done informally and is very much a personal matter. Presumably, each student will gravitate to M.F.A. faculty members with compatible interests.
- Graduation Deadlines: Students planning to graduate must visit the Registrar's Office and submit an Application for Graduation form the semester before they plan to graduate. Specific deadlines are found in registration booklets.
- Changing Emphasis: Although we expect that new M.F.A. students will wish to challenge themselves as writers in a variety of ways, that they will try their hand at different genres, each student is accepted into the program in a specific emphasis, and there is a procedure that must be followed for anyone who wishes to change emphases. Any student wishing to change emphasis must get the approval of the instructors in that genre and the program director.
- Mid-Program Review: The creative-writing faculty will evaluate a student's progress in the program during the first semester of the student's second year. If there is a problem, the student will be required to meet with the Graduate Program director to discuss a performance plan or other options.
- 500-level Courses: Students should not take more than 12 hours of 500-level courses without a written exemption from the Graduate Program Director.
- Assistantships: All graduate assistants who wish to teach composition at some time during their study at ODU MUST take ENGL 664 (Teaching College Composition) in the semester before or during the student's teaching.
- Thesis Hours: Students may take thesis hours after they have completed 30 credits.
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Workshop Philosophies
Creative Nonfiction
Perhaps creativity cannot be taught. George Orwells and E. B. Whites rise up fully formed, it seems, without the assistance of workshops. But most writers emerge from a community of writers and work within the context of stories that they appreciate. That is, there is a body of influence that we all experience. A workshop is about the influences that can be brought to bear on our works-in-progress.
In an important sense, of course, we are all works-in-progress as writers, and a workshop is an opportunity for all of us to look scrupulously at each other's stories and our own and, at the same time, to see those stories amidst the wide sea of words surrounding them, those other pieces of literature that give life to ours. Flannery O'Connor once said that more writers are started from literature than from life. Many start writing because they wish to imitate what has given them pleasure. As we begin our conversation in this class, let's continue to remember what has given us pleasure and why.
A workshop is a place where we should be reading as writers. Even though genius cannot be taught or learned in the classroom, writing is a process that can be closely examined. In addition, writing is a collection of skills, and they can be refined. Therefore, in a workshop, talent can be sharpened or (and this is no small matter) nurtured.
A workshop in creative nonfiction is distinct from those in fiction or poetry, I believe, because in order to work meaningfully in this form we must concentrate on one story. In the course of the semester we will immerse ourselves in our subject, our one story, so that we will be able to attempt a piece of nonfiction that ethically employs creative techniques. We are seeking to shape a story that adheres to the verifiable or observable facts but, like any piece of literature, goes beyond the facts to far more secret places.
Our goal in the workshop should be to write, report, revise, and finally (in some tentative way) complete a story that we are proud of, that we feel is good enough to send out into the world. In the workshop we are audience, editors, comrades--never competitors. We should be encouraging, but always honest. We should be critical, but constructive in our criticisms. We will all learn something valuable about our own work by carefully examining someone else's.
Each of us may have his/her own specific goals for a particular nonfiction story, a special reason for wishing to tell the given tale, but finally we may all be reaching for the same thing--a publishable piece of nonfiction. With that in mind, listen to this wisdom from Wallace Stegner: "In the game of literary futures, luck, economic and social pressures, social preferences, and character--a word that few use any more--matter quite as much as talent." The thought is Stegner's, the italics are mine, the challenge is yours.
Fiction
Designed as a forum of response to accommodate MFA fiction writers as they prepare work for their theses and MFA poets and creative nonfiction writers with a deeper understanding of the art of fiction, the fiction workshop will provide directed peer critique of student stories, novels, and novellas.
In the workshop, we will practice the art of fiction, critically as well as creatively. The primary focus of the class will be on student work. We will not hold our work against each others'--there is no corner on "good" and there is enough excellence to go around--but against the light of the finest that has been--is being--written, and will encourage one another to reach beyond our current grasps, remembering that we are here not in the service of ego, but of art.
Poetry
Ideally, the workshop affords each student the opportunity to develop as both a poet and as a teacher/editor/reader of poetry. Equal emphasis is placed upon personal development as a maker and upon the concurrent development of one's peers in the immediate workshop. This is best occasioned by attempting to create something of an actual community out of the accidental collection of personalities each class roster establishes--which necessitates a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect. Just as a spirit of defensiveness is both out of place and inexpedient for the development of a poem and a poet, so is the spirit of (or even the appearance of the spirit of) attack. The bottom line: each student is responsible for making each submitted text--at whatever stage of development it is first encountered--a richer text.
That said, my suspicion is that while the poem in workshop ought to be treated as an artifact, the poem in production is best considered as agency, a vehicle by which such deliberate elements as formal consideration, linguistic engagement, imaginative license, etc. all avail the opportunity for discovery. There is nothing more stunting to a poet's development than producing poems which actually do what he or she set out to do; there is nothing more tedious than reading such documents. Our approach, then, presumes that we write not so much to communicate what we think we know, but to find out.
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Program Timelines
To see sample programs of study, select either a full-time, three-year schedule, or a part-time, five-year schedule:
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Advising Checklist
Select the advising checklist (.pdf) for a printable guide to MFA requirements.
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Thesis Deadlines
View a table of the MFA thesis process and deadlines (.pdf)
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Graduate Forms
Download the following forms (Acrobat pdf) pertaining to the comprehensive exam and the thesis:
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Reading Lists
MFA reading lists divided by genre:
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