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The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA) at UM-St. Louis provides opportunities for growth in the writing of fiction and poetry (with some work in nonfiction) as well as practical training in literary editing. While normally a studio/academic program mixing the study of literature and criticism with workshops and independent study and editing, the plan of study is flexible and individual. The smallness of the program fosters a strong sense of each writer’s identity and ensures close contact between students and faculty. The program is selective, and only those with some demonstrated talent in their genre are admitted.

The Degree Program

Students ordinarily specialize in one genre, either fiction or poetry, and regular workshops in these forms are at the heart of the degree program. Workshops are also offered occasionally in creative nonfiction. Five workshops, at least four in the student’s chosen genre, are required for the degree, though more may be taken as electives. Students also take from five to nine courses from a rich array of other offerings in the English Department, choosing from graduate courses in literary journal editing; in poetry and fiction form, theory, and technique; in literature and literary criticism; in composition theory; and in linguistics. A creative thesis of three to six hours completes the 39-hour program. This thesis is an independent writing project under the guidance of an MFA faculty member. The completed thesis must be approved of by a committee of the student’s choice before graduation. All MFA classes are offered in the evenings after four o’clock during fall and spring semesters, and occasionally in the summer sessions as well. Students normally take six hours a semester, though some take as many as nine and as few as three in certain semesters, completing the degree in from three to six years.

Early each fall semester, there is a one-day session of talks and panels and readings that all MFA students are required to attend.

Although the program is fairly young, its graduates have published well, with fiction and poetry appearing in the New Republic, Alaska Quarterly Review, Greensboro Review, Nimrod, New Letters, Sonora Review, Zyzzyva, Bamboo Ridge, Honolulu, The Missouri Arts Council Writers’ Biennial, River Styx, The Christian Century, Sou’wester, Passionfruit, The Crab Creek Review, Crab Orchard Review. Delmar, Aura, The Distillery, Under The Arch, The Best of Writers at Work, St. Louis, Micro Fiction (Norton), and New Stories From the South 2001 (Algonquin). One of our fiction students has published a novel, three of our poets have published books and chapbooks, and one was a winner in the AWP Intro Journals Project in 2003. One fiction writer won the Lorian Hemingway short story contest in 2003, and two essayists and poets in the program recently received honorable mentions in the AWP project. Two of our fiction writers won Margery McKinney awards for 2005.
 

The Writing Faculty (go to faculty page)

The full-time writing faculty is a diverse group, widely published in several literary forms:

Mary Troy, Director, (MFA University of Arkansas) is the author of three short story collections: Cookie Lily, 2004, The Alibi Cafe and other stories, 2003, and Joe Baker Is Dead, 1998. Cookie Lily won the Devil’s Kitchen Award for the best book of prose in 2004. She has published stories widely in literary journals and has won a Nelson Algren award. Her stories are anthologized in American Fiction and Under The Arch. Her essays have peared in newspapers and journals, and in the anthology In The Middle of The Middle West.

John Dalton (MFA University of Iowa) is the author of Heaven Lake, published
by Scribner, and the winner of the Barnes and Noble 2004 Discover Award.
Heaven Lake was also awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John’s short fiction has appeared in Western Humanities Review, Story, and Alaska Quarterly Review. He has received a James Michener / Paul Engle fellowship, and fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Steven Schreiner (MFA University of Iowa, Ph.D. Wayne State University) is the author of Too Soon To Leave, a book of poetry (Ridgeway, 1997). His poems have appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Missouri Review, Malahat Review, Indiana Review, Cincinnati Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Poet and Critic, River Styx, and other journals. Several ave been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. He is the current and founding editor of Natural Bridge

Howard Schwartz (MA Washington University) has published three books of poems: Vessels, Gathering the Sparks, and Sleepwalking Beneath the Stars, as well as several books of fiction, including The Captive Soul of the Messiah, Adam’s Soul, and The Four Who Entered Paradise. He has edited a four-volume set of Jewish folktales for Oxford University Press and has been awarded a D.H.L. from the Spertus Institute of Judaic. His book, Tree of Souls, the Mythology of Judaica, was published in 2004 by Oxford University Press.

Nanora Sweet (PhD University of Michigan) has published a chapbook of poems, Mix of Securities, (2005) and has co-edited and published work in Breathing Out, (2004) a collection of poems by a St. Louis women’s group, Loosely Identified. Her poems have appeared in Quartet, Concerning Poetry, Confrontation, Ascent, River Styx, Delmar, etc. She co-edited Felicia Hermans: Reimagining Poetry in the Nineteenth Century (2001), and she was a literary consultant for PBS’s Wishbone.

Eamonn Wall (PhD City University of New York) is a native of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. He is a holder of the Smurfit-Stone Chair at UM-St. Louis. He has published four collections of poetry: Refuge at De Soto Bend (2004), The Crosses (2000), Iron Mountain Road (1997), and Dyckman-200th Street (1994). From the Sin-e Cafe to the Black Hills, a book of literary and personal essays about the Irish Diaspora, received the Michael J.Durkan prize from the American Conference for Irish Studies as the best book published internationally in the field of Language & Literature in 2000.

Questions? E-mail Susan Grant or phone 314/516-5590. Or write:

Susan Grant, Assistant Director, MFA Program
Department of English
University of Missouri-St. Louis
One University Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63121

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Revised Feb. 2007