Creative Writing Requirements & Courses
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Requirements & Courses
In addition to the general requirements in literature, as creative writers you take a minimum of 9 credit hours in 400- and 500-level creative writing workshops in at least two genres:
- Fiction
- Poetry
- Drama
- Creative Non-Fiction
It is recommended that both M.A. and Ph.D. students have a formal reading of their creative work before the academic community prior to graduation and make substantial attempts to publish their original work.
Exams
You may take your comprehensive exams beginning in the semester after you complete your coursework and foreign language requirements. Following exam specifications required of your concentration, students select four areas for examination, one primary area and three secondary areas. You may opt to take two additional courses to replace one minor exam. Talk to your advisor for more information.
Dissertation
You will complete a creative dissertation which consists of a book-length creative work and a theoretical introduction to that work. The introduction is a scholarly work which engages issues, ideas, and/or craft elements found within the rest of the dissertation. While you are welcome to stick to a single genre for the creative part of the dissertation, multi-genre work is welcome.