MA in Writing Degree Details and Courses

This foundation course surveys issues and trends in recent fiction and nonfiction, with emphasis on the diverse work and methods of American writers publishing today. Students read and discuss contemporary writing and hear from accomplished writers. This core course focuses on developing skills to read as a writer, and it explores the similarities and differences between factual and nonfactual writing, including the roles of truth, accuracy, and reader expectation. This core course is required for all incoming fiction and nonfiction students and usually must be completed before students in those concentrations enroll in a writing workshop.

This final course is required for all degree candidates in fiction or nonfiction and is offered only in the fall and spring terms. The two course goals are the completion of a successful thesis and an enriching, challenging capstone experience for the entire program. The creative writing thesis will contain portions of a novel or a nonfiction book, and/or a collection of short stories, essays, or articles. We recommend that students select their best work and the work they most want to work on revising during the thesis semester; not all program writing will become part of a thesis. Students taking this course are required to submit a full thesis draft early in the course; the author spends the term working one-on-one with a thesis advisor to revise this draft. In addition, thesis students meet as a class. During classes, students engage in forward-looking discussions on the writing life, participate in a program-capping roundtable discussion, and rehearse and conduct a public reading. Prerequisite: All other required and elective courses. Students may take a second course during their thesis term with the program director’s permission; such a course must be in addition to program requirements.

In this foundation course, students explore the elements of fiction, including point of view, plot, character, setting and the forms of short stories and the novel. The course also introduces students to the writing process, the techniques of reading as a writer, and the workshop process. Readings usually include short stories, one or more novels, and books or articles on craft. Writing assignments involve exercises, response writings, and one complete piece, either an original short story or novel chapter. Revisions also may be required. This core course is required for all incoming fiction students as a prerequisite to any workshop. Nonfiction students may take it as an elective, although the program may limit the number of registrants from outside the fiction concentration.

The intensive reading and writing exercises of this foundation course help students gather information and transform it into clear, creative prose – whether in literary essay and memoir or journalistic forms such as profiles, reviews or opinion. Reporting techniques include interviewing, personal observation, and examining documents. Writing techniques include structure, quotation, detail, word choice, transition and revision. This core course is required for all incoming nonfiction students prior to enrolling in a workshop. Fiction students may consider this course as an elective.

The term Speculative Fiction encompasses a broad array of subgenres: science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, supernatural, alternate history, horror, etc. This Zoom-based workshop is designed for students who want to bring speculative elements into their fiction, even if they may not yet have deep knowledge of the genre. In addition to workshopping each other’s stories, students will read and discuss published fiction that demonstrates how contemporary authors are examining human lives and relationships through alternate realities. Prior knowledge of science fiction and fantasy is not required, but a willingness to step outside the bounds of our current reality is essential. This class counts toward Workshop credits. Prerequisites: Fiction Techniques

Fiction Workshops concentrate on intensive writing and revision, with some required reading. As members of a general workshop, students submit short stories or novel chapters to their instructor and peers for critiques. Typically, two or three stories or chapters are submitted during a semester; revisions are usually required. Workshop participants also submit detailed critiques of their fellow students’ writing. We recommend, but do not require, that students take at least one general workshop before progressing to more specialized workshops, and we urge students to take workshops from different instructors, if possible. Students may take Fiction Workshop up to three times, although specialized workshops also can count toward the requirement of three workshops for a master’s degree. The 660-1-2 sequential numbering of workshops relates only to the three annual academic terms and does not indicate cumulative coursework.

Fiction Workshops concentrate on intensive writing and revision, with some required reading. As members of a general workshop, students submit short stories or novel chapters to their instructor and peers for critiques. Typically, two or three stories or chapters are submitted during a semester; revisions are usually required. Workshop participants also submit detailed critiques of their fellow students’ writing. We recommend, but do not require, that students take at least one general workshop before progressing to more specialized workshops, and we urge students to take workshops from different instructors, if possible. Students may take Fiction Workshop up to three times, although specialized workshops also can count toward the requirement of three workshops for a master’s degree. The 660-1-2 sequential numbering of workshops relates only to the three annual academic terms and does not indicate cumulative coursework.

Fiction Workshops concentrate on intensive writing and revision, with some required reading. As members of a general workshop, students submit short stories or novel chapters to their instructor and peers for critiques. Typically, two or three stories or chapters are submitted during a semester; revisions are usually required. Workshop participants also submit detailed critiques of their fellow students’ writing. We recommend, but do not require, that students take at least one general workshop before progressing to more specialized workshops, and we urge students to take workshops from different instructors, if possible. Students may take Fiction Workshop up to three times, although specialized workshops also can count toward the requirement of three workshops for a master’s degree. The 660-1-2 sequential numbering of workshops relates only to the three annual academic terms and does not indicate cumulative coursework.

An advanced workshop is offered occasionally to select students, depending on enrollment and available faculty. The course may focus on a special form or topic, or it may be led by a visiting writer, special instructor or other experienced faculty member. The concentration in which this course is offered varies. In most cases, enrollment will be competitive, and new writing samples may be required. This workshop counts as one of the three required for the degree. Interested students should discuss this course with their advisor. Application information and other details for each Advanced Workshop will be presented in the appropriate term’s Course Schedule. Prerequisite: At least one workshop in the student’s concentration or permission of the program director or assistant director, plus approval through any special application process.

This intensive writing course is designed to provide students with a broad foundation in the fundamentals of screenwriting and visual storytelling, from idea to story to structure, character, dialogue, and beyond. Readings, screenings, and weekly writing assignments will provide students with the basic theory and practice of screenwriting as an art and a craft, contextualize the form within the history of storytelling, and enable students to put that knowledge to practical use in the development of their own feature-length screenplay. This craft elective is open to fiction and nonfiction students, but nonfiction students should be prepared to develop a fictional feature rather than any documentary work.

This elective course focuses on writing fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults. Students will study the markets, trends, genres, and publishing opportunities for this age group and read several novels, memoirs, and other current works. The majority of class time will be spent reviewing craft elements and workshopping original material. The course is designed as an elective for fiction and nonfiction students, who are urged to complete Fiction Techniques and Nonfiction Techniques before enrolling.

This writing workshop examines the art of humor writing from a craft perspective, emphasizing the genre’s fundamental elements including premise, voice, and point of view. Students learn to appreciate how published humor writers employ cultural, historical, and social contexts, as well as precise syntax and diction. The course will also explore the “X Factor” in humor and the element of surprise. As members of a general workshop, students submit humor writing pieces to their instructor and peers for critiques. Typically, two or three pieces are submitted during a semester; revisions are usually required. Workshop participants also submit detailed critiques of their fellow students’ writing. The course requires extensive reading and writing, and it will culminate in a portfolio of written work. Both nonfiction and fiction students are invited to enroll.

This course allows students in nonfiction and fiction to earn a workshop credit in the same class. Students in both concentrations and from either are urged to enroll. Students from both concentrations will be expected to critique work across genres and learn the intricacies of craft in both fiction and nonfiction.

These general workshops give students extensive experience in writing and revising their factual work, regardless of topic or form. Submissions are critiqued by peers as well as by the instructor. Students typically submit two to four essays, articles or book chapters. Revisions, exercises and readings also are required. Students may take this general workshop or any specialized workshop to meet the requirement of three workshops for the MA in Writing. The 670-1-2 sequential numbering of workshops relates only to the three annual academic terms and does not indicate cumulative coursework.

These general workshops give students extensive experience in writing and revising their factual work, regardless of topic or form. Submissions are critiqued by peers as well as by the instructor. Students typically submit two to four essays, articles or book chapters. Revisions, exercises and readings also are required. Students may take this general workshop or any specialized workshop to meet the requirement of three workshops for the MA in Writing. The 670-1-2 sequential numbering of workshops relates only to the three annual academic terms and does not indicate cumulative coursework.

The best travel writers weave a rich “sense of place”— a trait also crucial to literary fiction, memoir, and creative nonfiction. The telling detail, apt metaphor, historical reference, cultural connection, and vivid character sketch, coupled with reflections that link these observations to broader themes, can elevate travel writing beyond the guidebook. In this specialized nonfiction workshop, students complete exercises, hear guest speakers, and analyze the works of acclaimed writers such as Jan Morris, Barry Lopez, Ian Frazier, and Jonathan Raban. Students may be asked to visit an assigned nearby location to prepare writing. This workshop counts as one of the three required for a nonfiction degree. Enrollees must have completed or waived the nonfiction core courses. Fiction students may enroll only with program permission.

Writers have long enjoyed a major impact on contemporary thought by producing compelling essays about personal experiences, feelings, or ideas. In this specialized nonfiction workshop, students experiment with memoir and the personal essay as distinct forms and as explorations of the self. Seminal essays are read to clarify students’ thoughts and to help them develop their own voice and style in personal nonfiction. This workshop counts as one of the three required for a nonfiction degree. Enrollees must have completed or waived the nonfiction core courses. Fiction students may enroll only with program permission.

This intensive writing course is designed to provide students with a broad foundation in the fundamentals of screenwriting and visual storytelling, from idea to story to structure, character, dialogue, and beyond. Readings, screenings, and weekly writing assignments will provide students with the basic theory and practice of screenwriting as an art and a craft, contextualize the form within the history of storytelling, and enable students to put that knowledge to practical use in the development of their own feature-length screenplay. This craft elective is open to fiction and nonfiction students, but nonfiction students should be prepared to develop a fictional feature rather than any documentary work.

This elective course focuses on writing fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults. Students will study the markets, trends, genres, and publishing opportunities for this age group and read several novels, memoirs, and other current works. The majority of class time will be spent reviewing craft elements and workshopping original material. The course is designed as an elective for fiction and nonfiction students, who are urged to complete Fiction Techniques and Nonfiction Techniques before enrolling.

In a writing workshop, students receive professional guidance in translating complex scientific, medical, or technological knowledge and research into graceful, lucid prose. Students submit individual essays or articles, or parts of a larger work in progress. Writing submissions are critiqued by peers as well as by the instructor, then revised. Students are encouraged but not required to take this course from different instructors. (The three section numbers designate the academic term in which the workshop is offered. Students earn workshop credit by taking any section number multiple times, or by combining any sections.) Prerequisite: 491.658 or 491.750

In a writing workshop, students receive professional guidance in translating complex scientific, medical, or technological knowledge and research into graceful, lucid prose. Students submit individual essays or articles, or parts of a larger work in progress. Writing submissions are critiqued by peers as well as by the instructor, then revised. Students are encouraged but not required to take this course from different instructors. (The three section numbers designate the academic term in which the workshop is offered. Students earn workshop credit by taking any section number multiple times, or by combining any sections.) Prerequisite: 491.658 or 491.750

In a writing workshop, students receive professional guidance in translating complex scientific, medical, or technological knowledge and research into graceful, lucid prose. Students submit individual essays or articles, or parts of a larger work in progress. Writing submissions are critiqued by peers as well as by the instructor, then revised. Students are encouraged but not required to take this course from different instructors. (The three section numbers designate the academic term in which the workshop is offered. Students earn workshop credit by taking any section number multiple times or by combining any sections.) Prerequisite: 491.658 or 491.750

This writing workshop examines the art of humor writing from a craft perspective, emphasizing the genre’s fundamental elements including premise, voice, and point of view. Students learn to appreciate how published humor writers employ cultural, historical, and social contexts, as well as precise syntax and diction. The course will also explore the “X Factor” in humor and the element of surprise. As members of a general workshop, students submit humor writing pieces to their instructor and peers for critiques. Typically, two or three pieces are submitted during a semester; revisions are usually required. Workshop participants also submit detailed critiques of their fellow students’ writing. The course requires extensive reading and writing, and it will culminate in a portfolio of written work. Both nonfiction and fiction students are invited to enroll.

This craft elective is meant primarily for fiction writers, especially those writing or wishing to write historical fiction. The course offers an intensive focus on a writer’s analysis of historical fiction – short stories, novellas, and novels – and includes a close examination of historical fiction writing techniques, as well as methodologies for conducting background research using primary and secondary sources. Topics include definitions of historical fiction; research methodologies; and the uses, in the crafting of historical fiction, of point of view, voice and style, characterization, dialogue, setting, form, and structure (including the Aristotelian Arc, Freytag’s Pyramid, and experimental models, as well as the uses of scene vs summary, present action and backstory, and their effects on pacing). Class assignments include response writings to assigned readings by contemporary, diverse practitioners of historical fiction; original fiction written by students; and oral presentations. Readings include works of historical fiction, representing a range of forms from short stories to novellas to novels and a variety of aesthetic approaches. Readings might also include books or essays on the craft of fiction writing.

This craft elective focuses on revision at the sentence and paragraph level and is open to fiction or nonfiction students. Through close reading and brief exercises, students learn various techniques to assemble sentences and establish syntactic relationships within paragraphs. Students imitate other writers, as well as revise, exchange and discuss revisions of their own work. Authors to be studied may include Updike, Munro, and Welty in fiction, and Dillard, McPhee, or Didion in nonfiction.

This craft elective is meant primarily for fiction writers, especially those writing or wishing to write a novel. The course focuses on a writer’s analysis of novels, expanding the study of fiction into techniques and issues relating to the longer form. Topics include structure, character arcs, style, consistency of voice, techniques of backstory and plot management. Class assignments may include response writings and original fiction as well as oral presentations. Readings usually include a number of novels, plus books or essays on novel craft.

This reading elective examines the historical development of fiction and nonfiction from a craft perspective, emphasizing the interrelationship of social and cultural development with the maturation of writing. Students learn to appreciate how contemporary authors have roots in the past, and how they themselves might be inspired by those who came before them. Readings and discussions will revolve around William Carlos Williams and T.S. Eliot, two giants who locked horns for forty years and whose disagreements have gone a very long way toward shaping literature in their own era and ever since. All of the authors students study in the class purposely challenged narrative art in the name of forging new and more relevant literary models. Reading list may include James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison. The course requires extensive reading as well as creative and critical writing. Both nonfiction and fiction students are invited to enroll.

This course will look at how writing about the body documents and manifests the relationship between experience and consciousness. It will examine questions of self, politics, and genre as questions of craft: How can we shape the physical worlds of our writing? How is the self – and the way we write about the self – shaped by its physical vessel? How can paying attention to the body affect the way we write, and what we write about? Using major bodily experiences like eating, movement, illness, intimacy, and ecstasy as a frame, students will read and analyse work by writers such as Eula Biss, Garth Greenwell, Sinead Gleeson, and James Baldwin, as well as complete creative writing exercises. This elective is open to both fiction and nonfiction students.

This cross-concentration elective presents intensive readings in fiction and nonfiction from various racial and ethnic communities in the United States. By studying marginalized and diverse voices, students learn how different cultures, experiences, and histories create a rich and vibrant American literary tapestry. Students also learn methods and techniques for expressing their own cultural perspectives in their creative work. Fiction and nonfiction students earn elective credit in this course, which focuses on craft analysis and discussion. Students will choose whether their final project will consist of creative or analytical writing.

First we read, and then we write,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, advocating that a deep and proactive immersion in the written page was an essential prerequisite of the creative life. The writing we do today is in conversation with all those other books and essays written in the past, and to contribute to this rich, ongoing literary dialogue, we must not only know and understand what came before us, but how and why it was formed. A grasp of literary history provides the contemporary writer with a wellspring of allusions and invaluable craft techniques. Through lectures, discussions, and close readings, this course offers an overview of the main literary developments during the19th century. We will consider realism, naturalism, and the birth of modernism, charting the popularization of the novel, the birth of ‘genres,’ and gain an understanding of the techniques and objectives of serialization, the omniscient point of view, free indirect style, and the management of time. We will also examine the shift from biography to autobiography, from the external to the personal, the cornerstones of the contemporary techniques of essay and memoir. Our objective is not to reassess or decolonize the literary canon, but to study and articulate its form and intentions in order to challenge and invigorate our contemporary work. This course requires rigorous and extensive reading and considerable online participation. Students will be required to read one major 19th century novel, either War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy or The Portrait of a Lady, as well as essays, short stories, and fiction and nonfiction extracts by a broad selection of 19th century writers. Although there will be a greater emphasis (due to time constraints) on fiction rather than nonfiction texts, the production and assessment techniques under discussion are critical for all literary forms, therefore both fiction and nonfiction students are invited to enroll.

This cross-concentration reading course, designed for fiction or nonfiction students, focuses on a writer’s analysis of masterworks in fiction, nonfiction, nature, travel or poetry – and how those forms may be combined in various hybrids. The course involves extensive reading and discussion of technique and the changing boundaries among the genres. The format includes craft reports, response writing and individual or team presentations, plus a final creative or critical work.

This craft elective, designed for students from any program concentration, focuses on how detail and setting combine with other techniques to create a sense of place in fiction, nonfiction or other forms. Readings come from travel, short fiction, memoir, science, novels, nature, poetry and creative nonfiction. Through reading, discussion and writing exercises, students learn how to enhance the sense of place in their own writing. This course counts as an elective in nonfiction or fiction.

In this craft elective, fiction and nonfiction students will take as a premise the words of novelist Alice LaPlante: “[O]ur first job as writers” is “to notice.” We all notice things as we make our way through each day, but “noticing” as a writer is different. Whether working on fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or any other genre, the writer needs to pay attention to the very small, to zoom in on the specific detail or insight that can make even the most mundane moment feel entirely new and surprising. Noticing in this way is a skill that, like most skills, is developed with practice. In this class, students will practice with weekly writing prompts designed to help them describe their physical and emotional worlds in concrete language. Along the way, students will review each their writing as a group and read works by great contemporary noticers, including Karl Ove Knausgaard, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ben Lerner, and Weike Wang.

As news organizations increasingly require journalists to work on multiple platforms, this digital storytelling class will help you move your narrative journalism off the page and onto the screen or into the earbud. In this hands-on, experiential course students will learn the basics of audio recording and editing as well as video recording and editing. Students will do multiple projects including developing a short podcast series and several short videos. They may wish to invest in some audio-video recording equipment or rent some for the course but can also use cell phones for these basic exercises.

In this cross-concentration craft elective, students examine aspects of voice in fiction and factual writing, considering how style, point of view, tone, structure and culture all contribute to an author's or narrator's individual writing personality. Students use exercises to strengthen their individual styles or the voices of the characters they portray. Readings include novels, short stories, essays, articles and nonfiction books, as well as articles on craft. Class assignments may include response writings and original fiction or nonfiction as well as oral presentations. This course is the dual-concentration version of 490.683 Voice in Modern Fiction, which covers only fictional works, and 490.705 Crafting a Nonfiction Voice, for factual writers.

This elective course is designed to hone skills in the elements of fiction through an intensive revision process. The course explores in depth exercises and techniques such as expanding/slowing down, mapping structure, defining and refining character and characterization, and using syntax and word choice to strengthen sentences. Students improve the use of these and other techniques by reviewing and revising their own writing and the writing of their classmates. While some workshop methods will be employed, this course focuses more on specific revision techniques and exercises than a workshop-style evaluation of student writing. Pre-requisite: Fiction Techniques.

Many writers begin novels, but far fewer finish them. This course will focus on fiction elements that are specific to book-length works--novel structures, chapter structures, and craft elements such as deepening character development and B plots—and then will move to the process of selling novels in general, creating an author brand, and developing a sustainable writing practice. The goal is that writers will feel more confident constructing not just this novel, but many novels to come. The class will also include some workshop components for chapters from the novels in progress. Students should have completed Contemporary American Writers and Fiction Techniques before enrolling.

This fully online course is designed for writers who have a specific nonfiction book project in mind and are looking to secure an agent or publisher based on the well-drafted proposal. Students can be working on a book based on reporting, a memoir, or a collection of essays but they should register for the class only if they already have an idea for a book and have two or three chapters completed. (Ideally those chapters have been workshopped and refined in other classes before enrolling in this course.). Over the course of the semester, students will draft, revise, and refine a 15-page proposal, will develop a chapter outline, and will refine a sample chapter or two. Based on feedback from the instructor and fellow students, each writer will complete the course with a polished proposal based on publishing industry standards.

Writing the Other focuses on practical approaches to writing characters who you identify as different from yourself. As such, we examine dominant paradigms of otherness, drawing from a worldview that is shaped by our own biographies. We explore fiction/non-fiction in which writers have successfully and unsuccessfully bridged cultural and other socially constructed differences, with the goal of bridging these differences successfully in our own fiction/non-fiction writing. To that end, we will conclude the course with a fiction/non-fiction workshop, sharing our own attempts to write the other and critiquing the attempts of our peers.

Powerful nonfiction and fiction requires not only a good story, but impeccable storytelling. In this seven-day, online residency, students will hone their ability to deliver powerful prose through a focus on sentence structure, voice, and style. Students will be required to do some advance reading in preparation for the residency. The residency will take place via Zoom from June 4-10 It will include analyses of published works in the mornings, generative exercises in the afternoons (and some workshopping), as well as guest lectures in the evening. This course fills an elective requirement.

This class will be conducted as a generative writing seminar and will run as a seven-day online residency taking place via Zoom. Every day, the instructor will offer guided prompts, discuss craft techniques, and invite students to talk about writing challenges they’re facing. The class will cover concepts such as: the self on the page, narrative and reflective arcs, characters other than ourselves, scene-building, artful telling, research tactics, and backstory and front story. Together, students will explore the possibilities of dramatic presentation—how to take a seemingly small-stakes memory, and very little action, and methodically create the conditions for conflict. To accomplish this, students will study excerpts from contemporary memoirs and follow writing prompts inspired by each. The course will run from July 24-July 31 and Zoom-based attendance is required each day, with time set aside for generating work. This course fills an elective requirement.