Graduate Program
Program Overview
The Graduate MFA is an eight-course, thirty-two credit program. At least four of the courses taken must be workshops in either fiction, poetry, or drama; or (when permitted) a combination thereof. Generally these workshops are part of a fixed program, taken in sequence, which all of the students admitted in a given year will complete as a cohort. The four remaining courses are normally graduate-level literature courses, and must constitute a coherent program of study, to be approved by the director. These courses may be fulfilled in the summer session; the workshops may not. It is possible to take a course (or courses) in another department, provided that these are demonstrably essential to the student’s creative work, and show a strong emphasis in reading literary, as opposed to purely scholarly or academic, texts.
As most of our students teach in either the fall or spring semester, most follow this schedule: four courses in the semester in which they do not teach, two in the semester in which they do, and then two summer courses.
Graduate Courses, Fall 2012
Fiction Workshop I: Revision |
CAS EN 503, A1 Tuesdays, 3:00-5:00pm Sigrid Nunez |
Poetry Workshop I |
CAS EN 505, A1 Mondays, 10:00-12:00am Robert Pinsky |
Creative Writing: Fiction |
CAS EN 507 , A1 Thursdays, 5:00-7:00pm Leslie Epstein |
Creative Writing: Poetry |
CAS EN 508 , A1 Tuesdays, 6:00pm-8:00pm Dan Chiasson |
All fiction and poetry workshops, both graduate and undergraduate, meet at 236 Bay State Road, Room 222.
Thesis
The Master’s thesis consists of a minimum of ninety pages in fiction, thirty-five pages of poetry, or roughly eighty pages in playwriting.
Foreign Language Requirement
Each student who has not previously completed at least eight credits of intermediate study in one foreign language may satisfy the requirement in a number of ways:
- Satisfactory completion of XL 540: Literary Translation: Practice and Theory (students who choose this option may first wish to consult the course instructor; they must also choose a mentor from the appropriate language department).
- By completing any course in a foreign language (for example, LF 350: Introduction to French Texts), or a 500-level reading course in a foreign language, subject to approval by the Program Director
- By scoring 520 or above on any SAT II language test
- By passing a translation examination (usually one hour, with a dictionary), or by completing an independent translation project approved by the Program Director
- By passing LF 621, LG 621, or LS 621 (these courses are offered pass/fail, and enrollment is limited)
Transfer of Credit
Students may transfer in a maximum of two semester-length courses from another institution toward their degree. These courses must be graduate-level and must not have been required to complete another degree.