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MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment
An innovative MFA program at Iowa State University that fuses creative writing workshops, interdisciplinary coursework, and intensive field experience to help writers cultivate an understanding of the imprint of place, the natural world, and the environmental imagination on the poems, stories, and essays we create.
D E G R E E R E Q U I R E M E N T S
MFA CORE REQUIREMENTS (NINE CREDITS):
- English 550: Craft and Professional Practice -- Taken in First Semester of Program
- English 551: Master Workshop -- Advanced Workshop on Thesis, Taken in Fourth Semester of Program
- English 543: Environmental Literature -- Taken in Second Semester of Program
MFA CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS (SIX CREDITS):
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 553: Advanced Imaginative Writing: The Long Project
- English 554: Graduate Fiction Workshop
- English 555: Graduate Nonfiction Workshop
- English 556: Graduate Poetry Workshop
- English 557: Studies in Creative Writing -- Special Topics Course
- English 595b: Graduate Study and Travel, Creative Writing
MFA ELECTIVES IN CREATIVE WRITING (SIX CREDITS):
Students may choose from the following:
- English 553: Advanced Imaginative Writing: The Long Project
- English 557: Studies in Creative Writing -- Special Topics Course
- English 558: Teaching Creative Writing
- English 559: Creative Writing Teaching Internship
- English 589: Supervised Practicum in Literary Editing
ENVIRONMENTAL COURSES IN DISCIPLINES OUTSIDE OF ENGLISH (FIFTEEN CREDITS):
Students design, in consultation with their advisors, a self-tailored core of interdisciplinary courses that allow them to pursue fields of knowledge relevant to their writing projects. Selections can be made from any Iowa State University courses with an environmental focus that are available for non-major graduate credit.
(Click here to Download Outside Coures Petition form.)
EXAMPLES OF COURSES THAT HAVE BEEN USED TO FULFILL THIS REQUIREMENT:
- 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.
MFA ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD WORK (THREE CREDITS): Students may repeat up to a maximum of 6 credits.
Students design and complete a field experience relevant to their writing interests.
- English 560: Environmental Field Experience
LITERATURE COURSES (SIX CREDITS):
Students may choose from any graduate elective in literature, except for English 543: Environmental Literature (taken above).
- Electives in Literature
OPEN ELECTIVE IN ENGLISH (THREE CREDITS):
Students may choose from any graduate course offering in the department of English. English 500 and Sp Comm 513 may be used to fulfill this requirement.
- Open Elective in English Department course other than Creative Writing
MFA THESIS WORK (SIX CREDITS):
Students work intensively with a major professor to complete MFA thesis.
- English 699: Thesis/Research--intensive one-on-one thesis work with major professor.
TOTAL PROGRAM OF STUDY : 54 credits minimum
