- Info
M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Environment
The M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Environment requires a total of 54 credits of course work.
Core Requirement = 9 credits
- English 550: The Study of Craft: Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction (must be taken first semester in the program)
Co-requisite for 553, 554, 555, 556, 557
- English 543: Environmental Literature (must be taken first year in the program
- English 551: Advanced Multi-Genre Creative Writing Workshop (must be taken in spring semester prior to final year in program)
Creative writing workshop requirement = 9 credits
Students may choose workshops from the following:
- 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
- English 557: Studies in Creative Writing
Each of these courses may be repeated up to a maximum of 9 credits per course, 6 of which are used in the POS. Every genre workshop offers a component on environmental or place-based creative writing.
- English 595 B: Graduate Study and Travel: Creative Writing. Students may choose to substitute one of the study-abroad creative writing courses for one of the genre workshops
Electives in creative writing = 6 credits
Students may choose from the following:
- English 553: Advanced Imaginative Writing: The Long Project
- English 557: Studies in Creative Writing
- English 558: Teaching Creative Writing
- English 559: Creative Writing Teaching Internship
- English 589: Supervised Practicum in Literary Editing
Electives in literature = 6 credits
- Electives may be chosen from any of the graduate literature courses in the English Department.
Open elective in English = 3 credits
- Electives may be chosen from any of the graduate offerings in the English Department other than those in Creative Writing.
| Teaching assistants may count English 500 or 3 cr. of Speech Communication 513 as an elective. |
Field work requirement = 3 credits
- English 560: Environmental Field Experience
May be repeated up to a maximum of 6 credits, 3 of which can be used in the POS.
Environmental courses outside the English Department = 12 credits
Students may choose, in consultation with their adviser, from any Iowa State University courses with an environmental focus outside the English Department, including those undergradaute courses which are available for non-major graduate credit.
| Undergraduate courses cross-listed with English (e.g., Ling 422, Af Am 347, Env S 355, etc.) that are available for non-major graduate credit are considered to be English Department courses and may not be used to satisfy this requirement. |
Examples of environmental courses outside the English Department include, but are not restricted to, the following:
- Anthr 516: Environmental Archaeology
- Anthr 518: Global Culture, Consumption and Modernity
- Anthr 520: Cultural Continuity and Change in the Prairie-Plains
- Art H 582: Art and Architecture of Asia
- Arch 528: Topical Studies in Architecture and Cultures (e.g. Reading-Writing Places,Craft and Crafty Action, and Urbanism
- C R P 584: Community and Regional Planning: Sustainable Communities
- C R P 591: Community and Regional Planning: Environmental Law and Planning
- 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
- JL MC 547: Science Communication
- L A 501: Landscape Architecture Theory
- L A 578: Topical Studies in Landscape Architecture
- Ling 500 (same as Anthr 500): Language and Culture
- Psych 488: Cultural Psychology
Independent research = 6 credits (only 6 credits count towards the degree)
- English 699: Thesis (English 599: Creative Component is not an option)
