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.

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.

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.

This specialized workshop is designed for students who are writing a novel. Students must submit a total of 40-75 pages of a novel in progress, plus a synopsis. Revisions also may be required. Included are readings and discussions on the particular demands of longer fiction. Prerequisite: Fiction Workshop, or permission of the program fiction advisor. Enrollees also must have completed or waived the fiction core courses. This course counts as one of the required three workshops in fiction.

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.

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.

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. This is a dual-campus, videoconference course. Baltimore students meeting in a classroom in Baltimore will be connected by video with students in a D.C. classroom. The instructor will alternate campuses each week.

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.

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.

Articles or books about people are a central component of contemporary nonfiction. In this specialized workshop, students examine methods used in profile articles, biographies and, to a lesser extent, fictionalized biographical accounts. Students usually write two or three profiles or biography chapters in this course, plus revisions. 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 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 this intensive writing course, students are introduced to the basics of film studies and screenwriting by reading scripts, examining films from a writer’s perspective and writing one or more short screenplays. Topics include dialogue, characterization, plot, subtext and visual storytelling. This craft elective is designed primarily for fiction students who have completed Fiction Techniques; others should obtain program permission before enrolling. Registrants should recognize the extensive writing requirements of this course if they decide to pair it with a workshop.

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

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

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

Writers have long enjoyed a major impact on contemporary thought by producing compelling essays about personal experiences, feelings, or ideas. This innovative experience allows students to earn either Nonfiction Workshop credit or a Nonfiction reading elective credit in a single, combined course. The workshop component allows students to experiment with memoir and the personal essay as distinct forms and as explorations of the self, while the reading component focuses on essay and memoir both short and long, with the goal of deeper understanding of these popular writing forms. Students may count this course as either a workshop or an elective, depending on their needs. There is no prerequisite for students in the Nonfiction concentration; students in other concentrations or programs must seek permission from their advisor and the Writing Program director.

This course introduces students to innovative readings in both fiction and nonfiction. It is designed for students who wish to stretch the boundaries of their own writing in fiction and nonfiction. In exploring craft in blurred-genre readings, students are encouraged to find ways to introduce new techniques into their own work. Readings may include such writers as Paula Vogel, Susan Griffin, James McBride, Alexandra Marzeno-Lesnevich, Rick Moody, Margaret Atwood, bell hooks, Te-Nehisi Coates, Sam Shepard, Moshin Hamid, Han Kang, Daniyal Mueenduddin, John Tateishi, Yiyun Li, Kathy Acker, and others. This course will follow traditional-workshop format during the last weeks of the class, and readings and exercises will take precedence during the first weeks. This course counts as an elective for either fiction or nonfiction students or it may count as a workshop for either genre.

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 popular elective course helps fiction and factual writers apply the techniques, vision and benefits of poetry to their writing. Through reading, discussion and writing, students explore the lessons of free verse and formal poems, especially their careful attention to language, rhythm, theme, and other tenets of poetic craft. This course engages those with experience in poetry, as well as those new to the field. As part of this course, students will write and workshop poems with their classmates. This onsite course also may involve some online interactivity.

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 fiction reading elective begins with a brief review of the history and development of short fiction, moving to analysis of contemporary forms, trends and practitioners. Featured authors may include Chekhov, Carver, Paley, Barthelme, Munro and Dixon. The course focuses on intense reading, analysis and discussion more than writing assignments. Students also may be asked to make class presentations and to review a range of literary journals.

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 cross-concentration elective course presents intensive readings in fictional, factual, and poetic narrative. The course covers elements of narrative, including plot, character, setting, tone, pacing, dialogue, and theme, plus the terms writers use to discuss and analyze narrative. Readings in both traditional and contemporary narratives will include novels, short stories, essays, articles and nonfiction narrative books, and may include some poetry and articles on craft. Class assignments may include response writings and original narratives from prompts. This course counts as an elective in nonfiction or fiction.

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.

This course is for students who have made significant progress on a novel and are looking for help in bringing the book closer to completion. “Significant progress” here might mean you’ve written a hundred pages, or it could mean you’ve finished a complete draft. This hybrid course will meet 3-5 times onsite; during the rest of the course, students will work one-on-one with the instructor on issues particularly relevant to the novels they are writing. Class discussions may focus on general concepts of novel structure, plot points and character arcs, along with advice on publishing. There may be some workshop aspects, but the bulk of the course will focus on one-on-one interaction with the instructor giving singular attention to each individual student’s novel. While students who have completed Fiction Techniques and one previous Fiction Workshop will be on firmer ground in this course, there are no prerequisites; any student who has made “significant progress” on a novel may enroll.

Many writers begin novels, but far fewer finish them, let alone have the manuscripts fully ready for a publisher’s consideration. In this new fully online class, JHU writer-in-residence Tim Wendel helps students move forward with their works. The class will focus on writing, revising, selling novels in general, as well as some workshop components. The “point of no return,” effective set pieces, quality dialogue and utilizing lessons from film and other art forms are a few of the class topics. Wendel is the author of 13 published books, including a pair of full-length novels, two children’s books and a novella.

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.

The course focuses on practical approaches to writing "the other." We examine dominant paradigms of otherness, drawing from a worldview that is shaped by our own biographies. We explore varied methods, including defamiliarization and empathization exercises, of bridging cultural and other socially constructed differences, for the writing of successful fiction. Though our emphasis is on writing our own stories that are then reviewed and critiqued by our peers in an online "author-centered" workshop, we shall also discuss some texts which will include: Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl & Cynthia Ward, The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story by Christopher Castellani, The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot by Charles Baxter (also Baxter's chapter on "Defamiliarization" from his book, Burning Down the House), "Write What You Don't Know: An Outsider's Reflection on Place, Memory and the Creative Process" by Zakes Mda (a chapter from Mda's book, Justify the Enemy: Becoming Human in South Africa), and "The Uses and Misuses of Other people's Myths" by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty.

Books and the City: Literary Dublin explores some of this UNESCO City of Literature’s deep literary roots— it counts W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Samuel Becket, and Seamus Heaney, to name but a few, among its own. In examining the interplay between city and writer, the course also considers how Dublin has shaped the works of some of Ireland’s most vivid and celebrated contemporary writers, possibly including Anne Enright, Colm Toibin, and Roddy Doyle. This residency course is based at the eminent and historic Trinity College, home to the Book of Kells. The college lies in the heart of the historic capital, with its walkable Georgian squares and Royal Canal, in this city that continues to flourish as a creative center. The course week includes craft discussions and work shopping at Trinity, readings and talks with local Irish writers, and field trips. Possible trips include ones to the Dublin Writers Museum and the James Joyce Centre, the National Print Museum, and some of the city’s exquisite libraries to tour their special collections, including Trinity’s Long Room.

This cross-concentration reading and craft course focuses on the flaneur tradition and the curious link between the mind and feet. From Charles Baudelaire to Virginia Woolf, from Max Beerbohm to E.B. White, writers who walk –and write about their walks or their characters’ walks—have proliferated in the last two centuries. We will analyze this literature and make forays of our respective neighborhoods to experiment with the form. Drawing on the outward facing gaze of walkers, we’ll pay particular attention to creating a strong sense of place and braiding the exterior world with internal rumination. We will also be workshopping writing that is submitted in advance and hearing from an invited author each evening. This condensed course counts as an elective for students in either the fiction or nonfiction concentration.

Using classic western films as a springboard for discussion, this class will explore the evolution of a counter-narrative from writers of both fiction and nonfiction. Readings will include novels, histories and literary nonfiction, all with an eye toward understanding our complicated western expansion, and how our shifting literary legacy corrects, amends, or counters prevailing narratives of the American West. This condensed, one-week course will take place at the University of Montana in Missoula, where Writing students will join with students in the Science Writing and Teaching Writing residencies. The course counts as an elective for students in any concentration.

Because the stories we tell ourselves about place shape our identity and sense of self, students will study the craft of scenes and settings in these works with an eye toward deepening our own observations and skills through writing exercises in the landscape of Montana.

Advanced students in the MA in Writing program may propose an internship to receive on-the-job experience in writing or a writing-related profession. An approved internship receives one full course credit toward the MA in Writing degree—usually an elective. Students may propose to participate in existing internship programs or they may arrange a unique experience. In most cases, students should have completed four or more courses toward their degree before seeking an internship, and proposals must be submitted in writing to program leadership at least 60 days before the start of the target term. Proposals are evaluated on a competitive basis. Only a limited number will be approved, and priority will be given to students who have completed the most degree-level courses and who submit proposals that demonstrate the best internship experience. Internships may be paid or unpaid. Because students receive academic course credit for internships, they pay tuition levels equal to one graduate course.