The Master of Fine Arts Degree at Vanderbilt

The M.F.A. at Vanderbilt is a two-year program involving four semesters of graduate work in writing workshops and seminars. Students enrolled will take a workshop and two seminars each semester, until their final semester, when work on the thesis will take the place of the seminars. The thesis will be a substantial piece of creative writing: a novel, a collection of short stories, or a collection of poems.

Spring 2009 Courses

English 303 Graduate Fiction Workshop

Lorraine Lopez

(Monday 3:30 - 6:00 p.m.)

This workshop/studio course focuses on the development of fictive works-in-progress in connection to investigation and discussion of elements of craft. Graduate writers will be required to present a minimum of three pieces of new and original fiction composed during the semester, to provide substantive reviews of work by peers on a regular basis, to compose a publishable book review, and to lead a workshop discussion on craft in conjunction with a selected short story that will be appropriate for presenting in an undergraduate workshop. Finally, this workshop will investigate the novella form and how it works in relationship to the short story and the novel. Toward this end, workshop participants will read and discuss Burning Down the House by Charles Baxter, Guided Tours of Hell by Francine Prose, Sabbath Creek by Judson Mitcham, and Here to Get My Baby out of Jail by Louise Shivers.

English 304. Graduate Poetry Workshop
Rick Hilles
(Tuesday 3:30-6:00 p.m.)

The primary focus of this graduate poetry workshop will be a discussion of your work-in-progress. Since all of you are in the process of compiling your own collections, we will supplement our reading with a selection of notable contemporary poetry books--some first and second books, others by poets well into careers--including:

Larry Levis, Elegy
Brian Turner, Here, Bullet
Tracy K. Smith, Duende
Andrew Feld, Citizen
Srikanth Reddy, Facts for Visitors
Afaa Michael Weaver, The Plum Flower Dance
A Van Jordan, Macnolia
Mary Karr, Sinners Welcome

In addition to writing your own work and providing commentary on the work of your peers, you will also be asked to give one presentation (on one additional poetry collection, of our choosing).

English 305 - 01 Graduate Nonfiction Workshop
Peter Guralnick
(Tuesday 3:3 - 6:00 p.m.)

This is a graduate workshop in Creative Nonfiction with a particular emphasis on the profile and long-form narrative piece. Three major pieces will be required, along with some brief additional exercises. Every student in the course will critique each of the papers in writing, and the class will consist primarily of constructive discussion of the work. In addition there will be readings of work by such writers as Gay Talese, Gary Smith, Janet Malcolm, Jonathan Lethem, Joseph Mitchell, Jack Kerouac, and Louis Menand. Much of the focus of discussion will be on issues of characterization, narrative technique, selectivity of detail, and angle of perception--in other words, how to make a real-life story or profile come alive in much the same way that fictional narrative can. The implicit bond between reader, writer, and subject will also provide a jumping-off point, along with the proverbial Rashomon-like nature of truth. Most of all, the workshop should be seen as a kind of shared enterprise in which a mutual enthusiasm for writing should lead to discussion that is as wide-ranging as it is lively and engaging.

Fall 2008 Courses

English 304-01 Graduate Poetry Workshop
Kate Daniels
(Thursday 12:30 - 3:00 p.m.)

This is an intensive graduate workshop in writing poetry. We will read various volumes of contemporary poetry in conjunction with the Visiting Writers series. Students will be expected to produce a significant portfolio of poems by semester's end; attend regular conferences with the instructor; and participate intensely in class by preparing advance written responses to the week's offerings.

English 307-01 Literature and Craft of Writing
Topic: Reading Emily Dickinson
Kate Daniels
(Tuesday 12:30 - 3:00 p.m.)

This is a graduate seminar designed for MFA students. Our focus will be on the syntax, grammar, parts of speech, diction, and punctuation preferred by Dickinson in both her poems and her prose. Our goal will be to develop some ideas about how those choices accounted for her startlingly unconventional, pre-Modern, pre-psychoanalytic literary voice. We will examine Dickinson’s language through close readings of many poems and letters. There will be some comparison of her unique utterances with more conventional examples from the period (Longfellow, for example), but for the most part, we will spend our time getting our hands dirty in the guts of the poems to discover how they work. Over the summer, please read The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (Thomas Johnson, ed.) and one of the biographies. You will also need to familiarize yourself with Dickinson’s preferred metrical form, common (or hymn) meter. Additional readings during the semester will include letters and manuscript versions of many poems. In a final writing project, students will address aspects of Dickinson’s praxis within the context of the aesthetics and formal practices of their own creative work. Grading: 1/3 each for class participation; seminar presentation; writing project.

English 303. Graduate Fiction Workshop
Nancy Reisman
(Tuesday 3:30-6:00 p.m.)

The central goal of this graduate fiction workshop is to help graduate writers further develop their art and refine their aesthetics. This is primarily a studio course; participants will also consider published works of fiction and discussions of craft. As workshop writers present fiction-in-progress, we’ll discuss artistic vision in relation to questions of form and structure, and the possibilities for invention and for reinvigorating tradition. We’ll consider the questions of perception, narrative stance, varieties of tension, dramatic and non-dramatic progression, voice, language, and other aspects of craft. What role does lyricism play? How do we represent various experiences of time? Conceptualize character? To what extent is secular epiphany central, marginal, false? How might we consider conflicting and/or echoing movements within a given piece? Which ‘rules’ might be most interesting to explore the limits of, and which to break? Finally, how might we think about the relationships between fiction writing and other arts? Between and among our experiences of culture/cultural moments, the ways in which we tell stories, and the stories we tell? Throughout the semester, graduate writers will be required to produce and present new original fiction, to read and respond to published writing in class discussion and written discussions.

Application

The application deadline for Fall 2008 admission is January 22, 2008. In order to encourage candidates to use the online application system, Vanderbilt’s Graduate School will waive the application fee for electronic applications this year.

Online Application

The electronic application form makes it possible to provide the following required materials:

Writing sample.
College transcript
Statement of purpose.
Three letters of recommendation.
GRE scores.

The writing sample for M.F.A. candidates should be creative work. Fiction manuscripts may be made up of stories or a section of a novel, between 20 and 25 pages. Poetry manuscripts should be 10 to 15 pages.

The statement of purpose should be concise and no more than two pages.

Schedule of Courses

The two year schedule of courses will look as follows. Some upper division undergraduate seminars may be taken for graduate credit, for 3 rather than 4 hours. All graduate seminars, including the graduate workshops, are worth 4 hours. Ultimately a student will graduate with between 42 and 48 hours. A graduate workshop in the student’s genre is required each semester.

First Year

Fall semester:

Graduate workshop (4 hours)

Graduate seminar (3 or 4 hours)

Spring semester:

Graduate workshop (4 hours)

Graduate seminar (3 or 4 hours)

Second Year

Fall semester:

Graduate workshop (4 hours)

Graduate seminar (3 or 4 hours)

Spring semester:

Graduate workshop (4 hours)

Thesis (1-8 hours)

Funding

Full funding is offered to all students admitted.

For first year students, the University Fellowship includes:

A full tuition benefit (valued at $34,400)
A $6,000 stipend
A $3,250 salary for assisting in the Writing Studio
And health insurance ($1,938)

First year University Fellowships may be enhanced by University Graduate Fellowships, topping up awards, which may be retained for the second year.

For second year students, the University Fellowship includes:

A full tuition benefit (valued at $34,400)
A $6,000 stipend
A $3,250 salary for teaching a beginning creative writing workshop for one semester
Health insurance ($1,938)
And retention of University Graduate Fellowship, if earned in the first year.

All students are admitted with University Fellowships. Those who make good progress toward their degree will retain their fellowships in the second year.

Literary Life

Venues for creative writers to share their work at Vanderbilt include an annual, The Vanderbilt Review. Another yearly event is the competition for the Academy of American Poets Prize, given for the best poem submitted by a student enrolled at Vanderbilt. Each semester the Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S.Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series brings writers to campus to read from their work and visit classes. In the spring, the literary symposium gathers writers around a theme for two days of readings and panel discussions. Every other year a distinguished writer in residence visits for a semester and teaches a workshop in his or her genre. Vanderbilt’s literary life is an ongoing resource for creative writers.

The Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series

Robert Penn Warren * Eudora Welty * Kingsley Amis * V.S. Pritchett * Elizabeth Spencer * Yusef Komunyakaa * Ruth Fainlight * Rose Tremain * Allan Sillitoe * Rita Dove * Agha Shahid Ali * Ellen Gilchrist * Marilyn Nelson * Garrett Hongo * Judith Ortiz Cofer * William Matthews * Diane Ackerman * Ellen Douglas * Margot Livesey * Jessica Hagedorn * Alan Shapiro * Julia Alvarez * Seamus Heaney * Charles Wright * Chase Twichell * J.M.Coetzee * Richard Ford * Maxine Kumin * Carol Frost * Ellen Bryant Voigt * Robert Lowell * Pauline Kael * David Lehman * Linda Gregerson * James Wood * Stanley Elkin * Lee Smith * Chang-rae Lee * Al Young * Wally Lamb * Donald Justice * Philip Levine * Peter Matthiessen * Andrew Hudgins * Medbh McGuckian * Erin McGraw * Jill McCorkle * Madison Smartt Bell * Sydney Lea * Marita Golden * Antonya Nelson * Gerald Stern * Eileen Simpson * Karen Yamashita * Richard Bausch * Elizabeth Spires * Richard Tillinghast * Anne Patchett * Martín Espada * Tony Hoagland * R. S. Gwynn * Mary Gordon * T. R. Hummer * Alison Lurie * Fred Chappell * Pam Durban * Edward Hirsch * and more have read in The Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series.

Distinguished Writers in Residence

Philip Levine, Spring 1995
James McConkey, Spring 1997
Marilyn Nelson, Spring 1999
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Spring 2001
Garrett Hongo, Fall 2002
Peter Guralnick, Spring 2005, Spring 2007

For More Information

Director, M.F.A. Program
Department of English
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235
(615) 322-2276
(615) 343-8028 Fax