Graduate

Western Michigan University’s small, selective, and unusually collegial graduate programs in creative writing offer a three-year (48-hour) Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing, as well as the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English with Creative Dissertation, in four genres: fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and poetry. Many of our M.F.A. graduates go on to teach creative writing at the college and university level; the Ph.D. with Creative Dissertation specifically readies its graduates to teach both as creative writers and as academic generalists in university-level English departments.

Doctoral candidates at Western Michigan teach beginning and intermediate undergraduate creative writing courses and, often, self-designed undergraduate literature courses in their areas of specialization. M.F.A. candidates study and teach college-level composition, which becomes for many a secondary academic specialty; some M.F.A. candidates have the opportunity to teach beginning undergraduate creative writing as well. Ph.D. candidates often have the opportunity to co-teach courses in their areas of interest with members of the permanent faculty.

Our graduate students have the opportunity to work as editors on our nationally distributed literary magazine Third Coast, as well as to intern at our literary press, New Issues Poetry and Prose. Almost all creative writing graduate students study abroad at the Prague Summer Program for Writers, usually as teaching assistants or with other financial assistance from the program. Many of our students work as officers or committee members of the Association of Graduate English Students.

Degree Requirements

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (M.F.A)
48 Credit Hours

I. Required Writing Courses

     · Twelve hours of 5660 or 6660 workshops in genre of specialization
     · Three to six hours in a genre or genres outside of specialization

II. Required Literature Courses

A. One section of English 6110, Literary Forms, in the student’s area of specialization.
B. One section of English 6110, Literary Forms in another genre or English 6400, 6420, or 6440.
C. Six to eight hours from 5000 and 6000-level literature courses
D. Two courses in Modern Literature. In order to determine if a course will qualify for this designation, the student should consult the Graduate Director

.III. Thesis Hours

      · Three to six hours of ENGL 699 MFA Thesis Project Hours

In their final spring semester all Master's students give a public performance of material selected from their MFA Project at the MFA Festival. In this semester students must also submit their committee-approved MFA project (a collection of poems, one full length play, either a collection of short fiction or a novel, and either a collection of essays or a memoir) to the graduate college. A blank cover sheet can be found at:

Blank Cover Sheet

For more information about organizing a committee and submitting a thesis, please refer to

The Graduate Handbook

Ph.D in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing
90 Credit Hours

I. Ph.D Transfer Credits

Upon entering the PhD program with a Master's Degree, students are automatically credited with thirty (30) hours towards the ninety (90) hour credit total they must achieve in order to graduate. If a student has earned more than one Master's degree, or if he or she presents a particularly compelling professional record of service within academia or the professions, the Graduate Director may grant up to 45 hours towards the 90-hour total. However, this is the exception, not the rule.

Once the Graduate Director has determined the number of transfer hours to be credited, he/she will meet with the student to see how his/her previous coursework can be used to fulfill PhD requirements. Courses that are used in such a manner are marked CR (Credit) and are not counted towards the student's overall GPA.

II. Core Requirements

In order to receive the PhD in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis degree, the student must fulfill through transferred or WMU earned credits the following requirements:

Core prerequisite courses:

A. Literary Criticism (3 hours)
B. Forms course (3 hours)
C. Genre specific course (3 hours)
D. English language or linguistics course (3 hours)

Literature Requirements

Six (6) graduate level courses from the following list of required areas. Students with a Creative Writing Emphasis must take a Contemporary Literature Course. Selection must also include at least one course in American Literature and must not skip over two contiguous periods. Areas from which the six courses must be chosen:

· American Literature before 1865
· American Literature 1865 to 1945
· British Literature to 1500
· Renaissance British Literature (through Milton)
· Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature
· Nineteenth-Century British Literature
· Modern British Literature
· Contemporary Literature

Non-traditional requirement: Students must take one (1) course that focuses on literature in English by an ethnic minority group, by women writers, by post-colonial cultures, or by other groups not traditionally emphasized in the canon.

Adding an Additional Area of Specialization (Cognate Area)

Students are invited to develop (with the approval of the Graduate Director) a Cognate or Support Area of 6-9 hours that complements their Area of Specialization. This may be selected from departmental courses or from courses taken in another department.

Teaching component

Students must take two (2) courses in teaching and pedagogy. This component can be fulfilled in one of two ways:

· taking ENGL 669 Methods of Teaching College Writing, the 3-credit practical course in the teaching of freshman composition required of all graduate assistants, and either another three credits as a practicum in teaching in the discipline 3-credit theoretical course in the teaching of literature, composition, or English language

· taking six hours elected from courses or practica in the teaching of composition, literature, English language, or creative writing.

Workshops in Area of Specialization

Beyond their required courses, students will elect twelve (12) workshop hours in preparation for their dissertation. Some credits from Master's level work and distribution requirements may be included in the Area of Specialization.

III. Foreign Language Requirement

All doctoral candidates are expected to be able to demonstrate competency in a foreign language. For further information about this requirement:

Foreign Language Requirement

IV. Qualifying Examinations

All doctoral candidates are required to take qualifying examinations prior to beginning their Doctoral Readings. Candidates with a creative writing specialization are required to do their take-home portion of the exam in contemporary literature and are required to do the exam in their genre of specialization. For more information about the exam and the reading lists:

Qualifying Examinations

Q. E. Reading Lists

V. Doctoral Readings and Readings Examination

After taking their Qualifying Examination, PhD in Creative Writing students must take 3-6 hours of ENGL 711 Doctoral Readings in preparation for their Doctoral Readings Examination.

Once a student has passed his/her Qualifying Examinations, the student should file a Notification of Appointment of a Dissertation Committee form that can be downloaded at http://www.wmich.edu/grad/forms/committee.html . This form requires the initials of the student's Advisor, 3 other committee members (one of whom must be affiliated outside the department), and the signatures of the Chairperson, the Graduate Director, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Dean of the Graduate College. The student should also enroll for 3-6 hours of ENGL 711 Doctoral Readings, and begin preparing for his/her Oral Examination.

The Doctoral Readings Examination for Creative Writing Emphasis students is the defense of a 20-25 page paper that helps the student contextualize his/her creative dissertation within a larger literary, generic, or stylistic tradition. While enrolled in ENGL 711, the student reads a list of 20+ titles that will help him/her write a critical essay; many students choose to use this experience as an opportunity to write an Introduction to their creative work or to write a piece that they might use on the academic job market. Advisors are encouraged to set up regular appointments with their mentees and to monitor their progress.

Once the student is ready to schedule the Doctoral Readings Examination or the Dissertation Prospectus Defense Examination, he/she should contact his/her dissertation committee to find a date and a two-hour block of time in which the committee can meet. The exam should be then scheduled by the Graduate Director at least TWO WEEKS in advance of the agreed upon date, so that the Graduate Director can announce the exam to the department. When the student passes his/her Examination, the Advisor should write a letter to the Graduate Director, confirming the completion of this requirement, so that it can be noted on the student's Permanent Program.

When the student has completed his/her Examination, the student is classified as ABD (All But Dissertation).

VI. Dissertation

After passing the Doctoral Readings Examination, the student should begin working on the dissertation in earnest by enrolling in at least 15 hours, and up to 24 hours, of ENGL 730 Doctoral Dissertation.

To enroll, a student must fill out the Permission to Elect a Doctoral Dissertation Form, which can be downloaded at www.wmich.edu/grad/forms/permission.to.elect.pdf . This form requires the signatures of the Advisor, the Chairperson, and a representative of the Graduate College. Once a student has enrolled in ENGL 730 for the first time, he/she must continue to take at least one hour of ENGL 730 for each Fall and Spring semester/session continuously until graduation.

If students wish, they may audit workshops in their genre while doing their dissertation hours.

Once the dissertation is complete, the student needs to work with his/her committee to set up a dissertation defense date and to fill out the Dissertation Defense Scheduling Form, which can be downloaded at http://www.wmich.edu/grad/forms/defense.scheduling.pdf .

This form must be given to the GD for submission to the Graduate College at least THREE WEEKS prior to the dissertation defense date – this is a very strict deadline – there are no exceptions. The student should also find out the deadline for scheduling a defense – these dates change each semester and can be obtained by consulting the Graduate College website at www.mich.edu/grad . Finally, the student should consult with the Administrative Assistant to reserve 3011 Brown Hall and should be sure that all four committee members have the final draft of the dissertation at least THREE WEEKS prior to the defense date.

At the dissertation defense, the student should bring with him/her THREE COPIES of the Dissertation Submission Form to be signed by all the committee members; copies can be downloaded at http://www.wmich.edu/grad/forms/approval_forms.htm . The forms should be typed up in advance by the student. Once the forms are signed, they should be handed back to the student for inclusion in the submitted dissertation.

Graduate students should go to http://www.wmich.edu/grad/forms/ to download the Dissertation Checklist, which includes up-to-date information on the fees that must be paid and forms that must be obtained from the Graduate College in order submit the dissertation. Each semester, there is a deadline for submission of dissertations – graduate students who are planning to defend should obtain the Dissertation Checklist and the deadline information in order to plan out the defense within the time limits set by the Graduate College.

VII. PhD Residency Requirements

As stated in the Graduate Catalog, “the general residency requirement for doctoral students is one academic year (two consecutive semesters) of full-time study on campus.

From the beginning of his/her program, a student has seven (7) years to complete his/her degree. If a student needs to request to extend time of program:

Request to Extend Time of Program

.