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Application deadline: January 1, 2010
Note: January 1 is our absolute deadline for receiving ALL admission materials. It is the applicant's responsibility to see to it that all materials, including transcripts, letters of recommendation, and G.R.E. scores, are in by that date. Applicants should be sensitive to the possibilities for delay with regard to G.R.E. scores and letters of recommendation, and they are strongly advised to take the G.R.E. at the earliest possible date and to contact their recommenders at least a month before application deadlines.
Application Materials Checklist
ALL MATERIALS ARE TO BE SENT DIRECTLY TO HEATHER STEELE AT THE ADDRESS NOTED!
Students applying to the M.F.A in Creative Writing are required to submit the following:
- a personal statement (1 page single spaced)
- a statement about the teaching of creative writing (if you submit the personal statement or the teaching statement online, there is no need to send hard copies)
- three letters of recommendation
- one set of official transcripts (sent directly from the attended institutions)
- one set of official GRE scores (sent directly from ETS)
- a portfolio of creative work (at least thirty pages of fiction, or twenty pages poetry)
SCHOOL CODE: 1324 DEPT. CODE: 2503 (for GRE scores and Transcripts)
Apply online here:
For Recommendation forms please click here and they are found on pages 9-14.
All materials sent by mail should be sent to this address (and not to Graduate School):
Heather Steele
1020 E. Kirkwood Ave.,
Ballantine Hall Rm. 442,
Bloomington, IN 47405.
Application Fee: Submit your non-refundable application fee to the Graduate School online
International Application Deadline: December 1, 2009
Joint Degree Applicants: The application process and requirements are the same for those who wish to be considered for the joint degree in Creative Writing and African and African American Diaspora Studies (AAADS). Please indicate on the application and in your personal statement that you’re interested in the joint degree. You must also submit an application to the AAADS Department.
Once you’ve turned in your application to Creative Writing, please also email Heather Steele (hemsteel@indiana.edu) to notify her that you’re a joint-degree applicant for Creative Writing and AAADS.
Recommendations for ensuring quick processing of applications:
- If you’re submitting by mail, submit most of your materials (application, personal statement, teaching statement, writing sample) in one packet. Obviously, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and GRE scores arrive separately.
- For your writing sample, include a list of the titles of the work submitted. For fiction, staple each story or novel excerpt separately. For poetry, put each poem on a separate page.
- Create a header with your name and genre on the personal statement, the teaching statement, and the writing sample.
- Arrange the materials in the following order in the packet you submit: personal statement, teaching statement, list of writing sample submitted, and writing sample.
Please also see the Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom of the page.
Our admissions committees in fiction and poetry usually are made up three writers in the genre. Each committee member reads every application sent to us carefully, with a decided emphasis on the manuscript portion. We look for talent that genuinely excites us and that we feel we can work with and develop. The manuscript portion of the application is, by far, the most important part of the application and the main criterion on which decisions of acceptance are based. We strongly encourage applicants to read the published work of the Faculty since it is their specific discussions of individual manuscripts that ultimately determine acceptance into the program. Please familiarize yourself with the work of the faculty in the genre to which you're applying.
We do not require the GRE subject test in English; however, we encourage applicants who have taken the subject exam to have the results sent to us. Our Admissions Committees look for evidence that prospective students can successfully take graduate-level courses in literature, language, or culture since four graduate-level courses in these areas are required for our M.F.A. degree.
All applicants should submit a statement of about 500 words describing their ideas about the teaching of creative writing and suggesting a rationale for such teaching. This is a SEPARATE statement from the personal statement listed above. Our admissions committees are especially interested in hearing how applicants might teach a beginning-level creative writing course in poetry and fiction. Applicants should feel free to include a brief description that details their thoughts on how they would teach such a course and why. Actual teaching experience is certainly of interest but not at all a requirement.
Degree Requirements
For the M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing, students must complete 60 credit hours, at least 48 of them in residence. Course requirements include 16 hours of creative writing workshops from W611-W612 (Writing Fiction I-II) or W613-W614 (Writing Poetry I-II), and one course from W664 (Topics in Current Literature) or W680 (Theory and Craft of Writing). In addition, four courses in literature, culture or language (12-16 hours), at least two of which are on the 600 level or above, are required. These are to be from offerings from English and other departments and programs including African American and African Diaspora Studies, Latino Studies, Comparative Literature and its associated fields of study, and Communication and Culture. Other courses to be approved on an individual case basis by the Director of Creative Writing in consultation with the Director of the Doctoral Program. One section of W664 (Topics in Current Literature) may count toward this requirement.
Those teaching in W103 (Introductory Creative Writing) are required to take W554 (Teaching Creative Writing) during their first semester of teaching. Students are expected to concentrate in a single genre, but they are encouraged to take courses in other genres as well: e.g. W511 (Writing Fiction), W513 (Writing Poetry), W615 (Writing Creative Nonfiction). Up to 12 hours in W699 (M.F.A. Thesis) may count toward the total 60 hours. The student is required to submit a book-length manuscript (a minimum of 48 pages in poetry, 150 pages in fiction), ideally suitable for publication on its own, that has been approved by a thesis director and two readers.
Graduate Creative Writing Courses
W511: Writing Fiction (4 cr.)
- Either W511 or W513 may count once for the M.F.A.
W513: Writing Poetry (4 cr.)
- Either W511 or W513 may count once for the M.F.A.
W554: Teaching Creative Writing (2 cr.)
- Theory and practice of teaching the writing of poetry and fiction at the college level, with attention to matters of curricular design and classroom technique. Required of those teaching W103 for the first time.
W610: Indiana Writing Workshop (2 cr.)
- Prerequisite: acceptance to the Indiana Writers' Conference, held in June of each year. Intensive training in various forms of writing at the conference; submission of significant body of writing before the end of the last summer session.
W611-W612: Writing Fiction I and II (4-4 cr.)
- May be repeated once for credit.
W613-W614: Writing Poetry I and II (4-4 cr.)
- May be repeated once for credit.
W615: Writing Creative Nonfiction (4 cr.)
- Writing workshop in such modes as personal essay, autobiography, and documentary.
W664: Topics in Current Literature (4 cr.)
- The study of recent poetry and prose, emphasizing special formal, technical, and intellectual concerns of author and work. (May be repeated for credit.)
W680: Theory and Craft of Writing (4 cr.)
- Elements of poetic prosody or the major fictive techniques or both: nature of stress, concepts of meter, nature of rhythm, prosodic use of syntax, theories of fictive realism, nature of fictive romance, point of view, etc. (May be repeated for credit.)
W697: Independent Study in Writing (1-4 cr.)
- Prerequisite: two semesters of W611, W612, W613, or W614.
W699: M.F.A. Thesis (4-12 hrs., cr. arr.)
Sample Three-Year M.F.A. Student Schedule
Semester I: 10 hours
- W611: Writing Fiction I or W613: Writing Poetry I
- W554: Teaching Creative Writing
- W664, W680, or graduate course in literature, culture or language
Semester II: 12 hours
- W612: Writing Fiction II or W614: Writing Poetry II
- W511 or W513, W664, or W680
- A graduate course in literature, culture or language
Semester III: 10 hours
- W501: Teaching of Composition in College
- W511 or W513, W615, W664, W680, or graduate course in literature, culture or language
Semester IV: 12 hours
- W511 or W513, W615, W664, W680, or graduate course in literature, culture or language
Semester V: 8 hours
- W511 or W513, W615, W664, W680 or graduate course in literature, culture or language
Semester VI: 8 hours
Online Application and Requests for Materials
To apply online: Indiana University's Graduate and Professional School Online Application for the Bloomington Campus
To print out a hard copy of the application: Paper Application in PDF format
If you would like more information about Indiana University's M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program, please send your name and address to Heather Steele, Graduate Program Administrative Secretary.
All application materials are due to our offices annually by January 1.
Please note that we read applications to our program only once a year, for admission beginning in the fall semester only.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the study of creative writing at Indiana University, please contact Heather Steele or Samrat Upadhyay, Director of the Creative Writing Program.
Frequently Asked Questions in Admissions:
--Do I need to have all of my materials by January 1 deadline, or just the application?
Both the application and the supplementary materials must reach us by January 1.
--Can I apply for the Spring semester?
No. We admit students only during the Fall semester.
--Can I apply to both poetry and fiction?
You may, but you must submit separate applications, with writing sample specific to each genre. Please don’t send both poetry and fiction with a single application.
--Can I apply to nonfiction?
No. We offer tracks only in poetry and fiction. We do, however, offer courses in nonfiction, and our students in both poetry and fiction have benefitted greatly from these courses.
--What should I write in my personal statement?
There is no single formula for personal statements. Your personal statement is how you introduce yourself to us—not only as a writer but also as a human being. We want to hear an honest voice, and one that shares our commitment to writing and learning about writing. We want to discern whether the applicant will be a productive and valuable member of our MFA program.
--What should I write in my teaching statement?
As with the personal statement, there is no single formula for teaching statements. You are asked to describe your ideas about the teaching of creative writing and suggest a rationale for such teaching. We want to hear a voice that resonates with our own unequivocal emphasis on teaching as a part of a well-rounded MFA education.
--If my writing sample is a couple of pages short of the stipulated 30 pages for fiction and 20 pages of poetry, will my application be disqualified?
We will most likely ignore it if your sample is only a page or two short, but in general we like our applicants to stick to the page length we require.
--I applied last year and wasn’t admitted. I want to apply again this year. What do I need to do?
You need to submit a new application form. You are also advised to submit new statements and writing sample that demonstrate developments in your thinking and writing from the previous year.
--How do you run your workshop?
Our workshop is a place for total immersion in the art and craft of writing. It is a lively arena where the actual written material of the student-writers takes center stage, where that writing is explored and discussed in a productive and encouraging atmosphere, where students also examine work by published authors to gain insights into their own craft.
We’ve designed our teaching schedule to ensure that students, regardless of when they enter the program, will have an opportunity to take workshops with different faculty members in the program. We are proud of the diversity our faculty bring in their approaches to the workshop. What this also means is there is no one way in which the workshop is “run.” In fact, we discourage prospective students from “workshop shopping,” i.e., determining beforehand whether a workshop will be to their liking. An MFA in Creative Writing, in our view, is an opportunity not only to consolidate your strengths but also to stretch yourself into new areas of exploration. Some of our best writing happens in moments of discovery. A pre-determined approach to the workshop shuts out new avenues and new directions that could lead to truly exciting art.
--Do I need to have majored in either English or Creative Writing in order to gain admission to your program?
No. In fact, many of our students come from areas other than English or Creative Writing. Our program, however, has a strong literature component and our students teach creative writing and composition (which invariably involves exploration and discussion of literary texts). So, we want to see evidence that prospective students can be successful in talking and writing about literature, both in the classes they take and the classes they teach.
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