This information is presented for informational purposes. In the event of a discrepancy between this page and the Graduate Bulletin, the Bulletin should always be used.

EN 501 – Short Residency in Writing

Credits: 1
An intensive hands-on master class in a subject such as visual arts, ceramics, music, literature, environmental writing, food writing, cinema, history, etc. The subject may vary each time the course is taught. Students will complete preliminary readings about the subject prior to the residency portion of the course, which will last approximately one week. During the residency, students will meet for discussions and hands-on experiential learning. After the residency, students will turn in their written responses. These may be essays or creative writing in any genre, as determined by the professor. May be repeated for credit.

EN 502 – Full Residency in Writing

Credits: 2
The Full Residency consists of intensive face-to-face experiences on selected topics, which may change each year. Students will meet on campus for approximately 2 weeks, during which time they will meet in writing workshop groups, attend craft and professional development sessions, and attend readings and other cultural events. There will also be time to meet with advisors and other faculty. May be repeated for credit.

EN 503 – Creative Writing Pedagogy

Credits: 3
The purpose of Creative Writing Pedagogy is to prepare students to design, teach, and manage a creative writing workshop course. We aim to empower you to find an approach that works for you, enabling you to teach to your strengths and supply you with skills that will make you more confident and successful teachers and more marketable as you apply for teaching jobs. We will read pertinent literature on teaching creative writing, delving into various approaches to craft, managing the workshop environment both in the classroom and online, and methods for grading and evaluating creative work. We will explore and complete exercises, simulate workshops, create and exchange exercises for poetry and fiction, review creative writing textbooks, write and revise teaching philosophy statements, and write and revise a syllabus for a creative writing course. Each element created by students will be shared with the class in order to explore alternative approaches and to better develop your own approach.

EN 504 – Graduate Internship in Writing

Credits: 1-6
An internship in any writing related field, such as editing, publishing, publicity, literacy, or working with a nonprofit or arts organization. May be repeated for credit, up to 6 hours.

EN 505 – Literary Magazine Production

Credits: 1-3
This course offers practical hands-on instruction in publishing a literary magazine. Students will be in charge of all aspects of running one or more of the literary magazines produced by the graduate program, which will include organizing the staff, managing submissions, selecting work for an issue, corresponding with writers, designing and entering the text and images, proofreading, and distribution. No prior experience necessary, though it is appreciated. This course may be repeated for credit.

EN 506 – Graduate Poetry Workshop

Credits: 3
A graduate-level study of poetry writing, the course will focus on the development of a portfolio of poems and involve workshop discussion of student works, along with collateral reading of poetics and recent poetry. May be repeated for credit.

EN 510 – Graduate Fiction Workshop

Credits: 3
A graduate-level study of fiction writing, the course will focus on the development of a portfolio of fiction and involve workshop discussion of student works, along with recent fiction and collateral reading on the craft of fiction. May be repeated for credit.

EN 514 – Graduate Nonfiction Workshop

Credits: 3
A graduate-level study of creative nonfiction writing, the course will focus on the development of a portfolio of creative nonfiction and involve workshop discussion of student writing, along with collateral readings on the craft of creative nonfiction and recently published creative nonfiction. May be repeated for credit.

EN 518 – Graduate Playwriting Workshop

Credits: 3
A graduate-level study of playwriting, the course will focus on the development of a portfolio of short play scripts and/or a full-length play and involve workshop discussion of student writing, along with collateral reading on the craft of playwriting and recently published plays. May be repeated for credit.

EN 524 – Graduate Translation Workshop

Credits: 3
A graduate-level study focusing on literary translation, the course will focus on the development of a portfolio of translated works and involve workshop discussion of student translations, along with collateral readings on translation theory and recently published literary translations. Students may translate from any language and any genre, though they may need to provide alternate or literal translations by a third party from some languages. May be repeated for credit.

EN 527 – Writing for New Media

Credits: 3
A graduate-level study of writing as practiced in new media, such as blogging, micro-blogging, social networks, MOOCs, etc, the course will focus on the development of a portfolio of work in any genre that may be suited to these new forms of publication. Students will be encouraged to adapt writing in their genre of choice to the new media, as well as to explore new genres or forms that meet its demands or explore its possibilities. The class will include discussion of student writing, along with collateral readings on the state of new media and recently published creative writing in these media. The role these new media forms might play in any author’s life in terms of self-promotion and creating a brand will also be discussed. May be repeated for credit.

EN 528 – The Professional Writer

Credits: 3
Prerequisite: EN 506 or EN 510 or EN 514 or EN 518 
An advanced course in the writing as a profession with an emphasis on critical reading, revision, and submitting work for publication. Topics include self-editing, literary magazine submission, cover letters, and queries. Assignments will include research and creative writing projects with a focus on revision. The course may be offered with a focus on prose (fiction or nonfiction), poetry, or drama. Students should have taken at least one workshop in that genre prior to taking the course. May be repeated for credit.

EN 529 – Special Topics in Writing

Credits: 1-3
A graduate-level study of writing as practiced in a genre not already taught or a specific sub-genre. Students will read in the specified genre and write a portfolio of work in it. This course may also be used for specific topics in creative writing as a profession. May be repeated for credit.

EN 530 – Forms in Poetry I

Credits: 3
A study of poetic forms, focusing on traditional verse forms, this course will examine the development of lyric and narrative verse from antiquity to the present. The main emphasis will be on traditional prosody and verse forms that are available to the contemporary poet. Students will study these forms with an eye toward craft. Collateral readings about poetic form by poets and scholars will also be included.

EN 531 – Forms in Poetry II

Credits: 3
A study of poetic forms, focusing on free verse and recently imported verse forms such as haiku, pantoum, and ghazal, this course will examine the development of the lyric from the 19th Century to the present. The main emphasis will be on the formal aspects of free verse and imported forms. Students will study these forms with an eye toward craft. Collateral readings about poetic form by poets and scholars will also be included.

EN 533 – Forms in Fiction I

Credits: 3
A study of the short story form, focusing on issues such as narrative point of view, characterization, and voice. The main emphasis will be on the development of the short story form with an eye toward the craft of fiction. Collateral readings about the short story by published writers and scholars or literary theorists will also be included.

EN 534 – Forms in Fiction II

Credits: 3
A study of the novel form, focusing on issues such as narrative point of view, characterization, and voice. The main emphasis will be on the development of the novel form with an eye toward the craft of fiction. Collateral readings about the novel by published writers and scholars or literary theorists will also be included.

EN 536 – Forms in Nonfiction

Credits: 3
A study of creative nonfiction, focusing on the development of the form, sub-genres of nonfiction, and craft issues. Collateral readings about creative nonfiction by published writers and scholars or literary theorists will also be included.

EN 538 – Forms in Drama

Credits: 3
A study of drama, focusing on the development of the form from classical antiquity to the present. Collateral readings about theater by practicing playwrights and scholars or literary theorists will also be included.

EN 540 – Medieval and Renaissance Narratives

Credits: 3
An examination of narrative forms in the medieval and renaissance world. Readings may include narrative epic poems such as Beowulf and The Song of Roland, religious texts such as the Divine Comedy or the mystical writing of Teresa of Avila or Hildegard von Bingen, and secular humanists such as Chaucer, Boccaccio, or Marguerite de Navarre. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 544 – Early Lyric Poetry

Credits: 3
An examination of lyric forms from Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern period. Readings may include classical writers such as Sappho, Alceus, Catullus, and Horace, Medieval troubadours and minnesingers as well as the early anonymous English poets and renaissance poets such as Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Wyatt. The emphasis will be on scholarship and interpretation.

EN 546 – Early European Drama

Credits: 3
An examination of drama from the Medieval to the Early Modern period. Readings may include medieval Mystery and Morality plays and plays by William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow, Ben Johnson, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Moliere, Congreve, Behn, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 548 – Early Women Writers

Credits: 3
An examination of women writers from Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern period. Readings may include classical writers such as Sappho and Hypatia, medieval writers such as Marie de France and Margery Kemp, and Renaissance writers such as Gaspara Stampa and Christine de Pizan. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 550 – Queer Literature

Credits: 3
Queer Literature offers an exploration and examination of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer+ Literature. We will move chronologically through the texts, reading from a variety of time periods and cultures, representing the literary modes of poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction with a focus on Queer Literature. We will read and discuss both canonical and non-canonical Queer texts. The course will explore topics such as defining Queer literature, the conversation between the literary canon and Queer literature, the differences between and among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and Queer+literature, and the changes in Queer writing over time. We will also read various supplementary critical, contextual, and theoretical texts provided in Canvas to give us context and further tools for analysis of the texts.

EN 560 – Feminist Poetry

Credits: 3
An examination of women poets of the 19th and 20th Century, focusing on their role as women and the politics of their poetry. Poets covered may include Emily Dickinson, H.D., Amy Lowell, Mina Loy, Muriel Rukeyser, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Audre Lorde, Joy Harjo, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 565 – Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde Poetry

Credits: 3
An examination of European and American poetry focusing on early Twentieth-Century avant-garde movements such as Symbolism, Expressionism, Cubism, Italian and Russian Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, Vorticism and Objectivism. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 568 – Black Arts Movement and Beyond

Credits: 3
An examination of African American poetry and drama through the lens of the Black Arts Movement, its predecessors and successors. Particular attention will be paid to the cross-section of political poetry and drama in the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and related literary magazines and venues. Poets and playwrights covered may include Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Eldridge Cleaver, Nikki Giovanni, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 570 – Modernist Fiction

Credits: 3
An examination of Modernist movements fiction in Europe and America. Writers covered may include Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 575 – Southern Fiction

Credits: 3
An examination of Southern fiction focusing on the 20th Century. Writers covered may include William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, Robert Penn Warren, Katherine Anne Porter, Robert Morgan, Barry Hannah, Willie Morris, William Gay, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 576 – African American Fiction

Credits: 3
An examination of African American fiction focusing on the 20th Century. Writers covered may include Charles Chestnut, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Earnest Gaines, Sterling Brown, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Edward P. Jones, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 580 – Modern European Drama

Credits: 3
An examination of European drama, focusing on the early 20th Century from Naturalism and Symbolism to experiments with abstract theater. Playwrights and directors covered may include Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, Constantin Stanislavski, Maurice Maeterlinck, August Strindberg, Berthold Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Luigi Pirandello, Jerzy Grotowski, Samuel Becket, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 581 – Twentieth-Century American Drama

Credits: 3
An examination of American drama in the 20th Century. Playwrights covered may include Susan Glaspell, Alice Gerstenberg, Eugene O’Neill, Lillian Hellman, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Neil Simon, David Mamet, Sam Shepherd, Beth Henley, Terrence McNally, Tina Howe, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation.

EN 582 – Southern Drama

Credits: 3
A study of Southern drama, focusing on the themes, tropes, and trends that define “southern drama” and encompass a southern experience. Playwrights covered may include Lilian Hellman, Tennessee William, Horton Foote, Beth Henley, and others. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship, research, and interpretation.

EN 598 – Special Topics in Literature

Credits: 1-3
This course will be used to offer literary topics that aren’t currently taught in a regularly offered course. It may be taken as an independent study or as a seminar. The emphasis will be on literary scholarship and interpretation. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics.

EN 599 – Thesis

Credits: 1-6
The thesis is designed as the terminal creative project for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. Students will produce a publishable book-length manuscript in their primary genre or a combination of genres, as agreed upon with the thesis director and committee. The collection may include 50-80 pages of poetry, 150-200 pages of short fiction or nonfiction, 200-350 pages of a novel of full-length book of creative nonfiction, or a collection of one-act plays, or one or more full-length plays in three to five acts. If a student chooses a combination of genres, this may be presented as one book-length collection of related works in multiple genres or as individual chapbooks. The page ranges listed are meant as a guide. Actual thesis lengths will be determined by the thesis committee. Besides the final written manuscript, each thesis project will include a public performance and a thesis defense. The thesis is repeatable for up to 6 hours of credit toward the degree.