MFA in Creative Writing

Fiction
Poetry
Nonfiction
Writing for Children
Literature Seminar
Writer's Life

Writing Workshops

The New School Writing Program follows the workshop method of teaching: An experienced writer-teacher gives guidance to students by focusing on their manuscripts and on the creative acts of revision and self-editing, both in the workshop and during individual conferences. The program provides students with a framework and sustained blocks of time to focus extensively on their own writing. Graduate writing workshops meet once a week in a two-hour session. Workshops are all conveniently scheduled in the early evenings, Monday through Thursday. Graduate writing workshops may include a short assigned reading list and occasional visits by guest writers who read and discuss their work. Structure and content of writing workshops are adapted to the individual area of concentration:

Fiction

Class sessions are principally devoted to reading and discussing students' fiction, usually short stories or excerpts from novels-in-progress. Students learn how to balance inspiration with revision; learn methods for strengthening characterization, storytelling, and style while developing their voices to the utmost; and explore those narrative forms and techniques best suited to their individual styles.

Poetry

Class sessions are principally devoted to reading and discussing students' poems. There is constant attention to the craft of poetry, the skills and strategies involved in making the modern poem, aspects of prosody and new directions in writing, and, particularly, the discovery (and invention) of techniques most appropriate for the poet's subjects, issues, and materials. There is special emphasis on possibilities for revision.

Nonfiction

Class sessions are principally devoted to reading and discussing students' nonfiction, usually in the form of personal reminiscence, reflective essay, reportage, and biography. Students learn how to choose a subject, develop a sense of structure, tone, style, and personal voice, and attend to such techniques as characterization, dialogue, imagery, metaphor, and dramatic development, as well as to the skills of interviewing and documentary research.

Writing for Children

Class sessions are principally devoted to reading and discussing students' writings for children in the form of stories, picturebook texts, 8-12 fiction or nonfiction, and teenage fiction or nonfiction. Students explore the techniques and strategies of writing and producing books for children and learn to find voices and forms for their writing and to express their ideas in styles appropriate for children's interests at different ages. Students initiate and develop projects of their own choosing.

Literature Seminars

The graduate Writing Program includes intensive seminars on traditional and contemporary literary topics, which are investigated from the specialized perspective of the active writer. Topics and readings vary each semester, but all literature seminars are conducted by writers and concentrate on crucial aspects of craft and technique as well as on issues of literary history and literary theory. Literature seminars meet once a week in a two-hour session. Like the writing workshops, seminars are conveniently scheduled during the early evenings, Monday through Thursday.

The Writer's Life Colloquium

Graduate writing students at The New School participate in an ongoing colloquium of visiting writers, editors, writing teachers, publishers, and literary agents. This Writer's Life Colloquium reflects the wide range of cultural activity at The New School and the belief that students benefit from exposure to many voices and genres. The Writer's Life Colloquium carries 1 point of credit each term. Examples of events embraced by the Writer's Life Colloquium are the public readings co-sponsored with PEN, the Academy of American Poets, and the Poetry Society of America, and the public craft seminars like Fiction Forum, Writing Lives, The Poetry of Fact, and Murder Ink. The Writer's Life Colloquium also involves special readings, craft seminars, teaching lectures, publication discussions, and visiting writer residencies arranged exclusively for the MFA candidates. Active participation in the Colloquium consists of attendance at a minimum of seven events.