From the Sumerian and Homeric hymns to the Theogony and the Odyssey, from Noah to Moby Dick, from Black Elk to Black Boy, from Virginia Woolf to Tobias Wolff, the literary arts acknowledge an inherent connection between the human predicament and place. With more people sharing our planet’s finite space, and with our planet and its systems imperiled, an educated attention to place in the broadest sense of the term is vital. The human story finds its structure in geography, both natural and constructed, and in the complex landscape of cultural constructs.

Students in this MFA program will:

• write with skill and knowledge about place as a personal, political, and natural manifestation;
• gain a cultural-historical understanding of environmental complexity;
• become familiar with literary works that expand environmental and place-based consciousness;
• produce publishable creative works in the area of the environment;
• utilize critical insight to evaluate their own writing and the writing of others.

  

MFA Creative Writing Faculty

The graduate faculty in Creative Writing includes:

• Ven Begamudré
• Debra Marquart
• Stephen Pett
• Mary Swander
• David Zimmerman
• See Call for Applications, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing (Beginning August 2008)

Recent Visiting Writers

• Linda Hogan
• Ted Kooser
• Barry Lopez
• Richard Manning
• Michael Martone
• Bernard Maclaverty
• Dan O'Brien
• Annie Proulx
• Gary Snyder
• Scott Russell Sanders
• Osha Gray Davidson
• Michael Pollan
• Gary Soto
• Li-Young Lee

Publications and Conferences

Iowa State University is also home to the literary journal Flyway. MFA students will staff Flyways editorial positions.

Each spring Iowa State’s Creative Writing Faculty hosts a three-day Symposium on Wildness.

Program Requirements

TWELVE CREDITS IN CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS: Students may choose from the following, and may repeat any up to a maximum of 12 credits for each course. Every genre workshop offers a component on environmental or place-based creative writing.

• English 550: The Study of Craft: Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction--must be taken first term
• English 553: Advanced Imaginative Writing: The Long Project
• English 554: Advanced Imaginative Writing: Fiction
• English 555: Advanced Imaginative Writing: Nonfiction
• English 556: Advanced Imaginative Writing: Poetry
• Students may choose to substitute one of our study–abroad creative writing courses (currently we offer Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago) for one of the genre workshops.

SIX CREDITS OF ELECTIVES IN CREATIVE WRITING: Students may choose from the following:

• English 552: Literary Editing and Publishing
• English 557: Studies in Creative Writing. This course will be taught once a year on topics related to place and environment. “Travel Writing,” “Imagining the Natural World,” “Infected by Place,” and “Writing and a Sense of Place,” are topics taught recently.
• English 558: Teaching Creative Writing
• English 559: Creative Writing Teaching Internship

THREE ENGLISH CREDITS WITH AN EXCLUSIVELY ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS:

• English 543: Environmental Literature, must be taken the first year

FIFTEEN CREDITS IN ENVIRONMENTAL COURSES OUTSIDE OF ENGLISH: Students may choose, in consultation with their advisor, from any Iowa State courses available for non-major graduate credit with an environmental focus. (Click here to Download Petition form.)  BELOW ARE A FEW EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE COURSES:

• Anthro 516: Environmental Archaeology
• Anthro 518: Global Culture, Consumption and Modernity
• Anthro 520: Cultural Continuity and Change in the Prairie-Plains
• Art H 580: North American Indian Art
• Art H 582: Art and Architecture of Asia
• Arch 528: Reading-Writing Places
• Env S 334, same as PHIL 334: Environmental Ethics
• Env S 472, same as HIST 472: American Environmental History
• Env S 384,same as Relig 384: Religion and Ecology
• Env S 404, same as AGRON 404: Global Change
• Env S 407, same as NREM 407: Watershed Management
• Env S 460, same as NREM 460: Controversies in Renewable Resource Management
• Env S 482, same as POL S 482: Environmental Politics and Policies
• JI MC 547: Science Communication
• Ling 500: same as Anthro 500) Language and Culture
• Psych 488: Cultural Psychology
• Relig 372/AST 372: World Religions and Sustainable Ag.

THREE CREDITS IN FIELD WORK: Students may repeat up to a maximum of 6 credits.

• English 560: Environmental Field Experience

SIX CREDITS: Electives in Literature

THREE CREDITS: Electives in Rhetoric

SIX CREDITS: Thesis/Research

TOTAL: 54 credits minimum

Program Application

Applicants need to apply online or complete an ISU Graduate College application form and supply the following materials to complete an application. Please review the English Department graduate program application information and mailing instructions for details regarding the following requirements:

• Application form and fee
• Official transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate work
• GRE scores (general test official score report of test taken within five years of application date)
• TOEFL or IELTS scores (required of nonnative speakers of English only). Minimum of 100 IBT/250 CBT/600 PBT or IELTS min of 7.0 required for admission.
• An application Cover Letter stating reasons for desiring the MFA in Creative Writing and Environment.  Be sure to include information about the creative writing projects you have completed or are currently working on, as well as any publications or prizes for creative work.  It's useful to articulate how the MFA in Creative Writing and Environment suits your interests, experience, and creative projects.  Also, if you wish to be considered for a teaching assistantship, please include any teacher-training you've had, as well as any previous teaching, tutoring, and/or mentoring experience.
• Vita/resume
• Three letters of recommendation
• A prose sample displaying a command of accepted grammatical rules for written English (this may be anything from a paper for a literature class, to an article published in the Amicus Journal, to a letter to the editor)
• A sample of no more than 25 pages of creative writing demonstrating exemplary ability in one genre, although once admitted students will not be restricted to working in that genre
• Audio, video, or CD demonstrating competence in spoken English (required of nonnative speakers of English only)

The deadline for application is January 15, 2008

• Download a Short Description of Proposal for Iowa State University's MFA in Creative Writing and Environment.
• For questions, please contact us at englgrad@iastate.edu or phone (515) 294-2477.