Converse College :: Creative Writing Programs :: NewPages Guide

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Converse College

MFA in Creative Writing

580 E. Main Street

Spartanburg, South Carolina 29302

Website: www.converse.edu/mfa

Program director: Rick Mulkey

Program contact: Melody Boland

Phone: 864-596-9678

Email: melody.boland@converse.edu or rick.mulkey@converse.edu

Degrees offered: MFA in Creative Writing

Genres: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry

Type of program: Low Residency

Length of program: 2 years

Enrollment: 36

Total credits required: 48

Application deadlines: February 15 and October 1

Scholarships available: No

Core faculty: Nick Carbó (Poetry), Denise Duhamel (Poetry), Albert Goldbarth (Poetry), Sarah Kennedy (Poetry), Rick Mulkey (Poetry, Director of the MFA Program), Robert Olmstead (Fiction), Leslie Pietrzyk (Fiction), R.T. Smith (Fiction and Poetry), Susan Tekulve (Fiction and Nonfiction), Dan Wakefield (Nonfiction), Marlin Barton (Fiction), Richard Tillinghast (Poetry and Nonfiction)

Visiting faculty: Claudia Emerson, Suzanne Cleary, Chuck Adams, Brock Clarke, C. Michael Curtis, Elizabeth Cox, Scott Ely, Susan Ludvigson, Cary Holladay, Marshall John Fisher

Assistantships: Yes, second year students may apply.

Publishing/editing courses: No

Literary magazine: Yes , South 85 Journal

Reading series: Yes

Recent visiting writers: Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Selgin, Peter Meinke, Erin McGraw, Allison Jospeph

Program description: The MFA in Creative Writing is a two-year co-educational low residency program designed for independent writers seeking advanced instruction in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. The program’s emphasis on the mastery and understanding of writing skills and contemporary literature and craft through the writer and apprentice mentoring relationship, offers students a stimulating, flexible and individually tailored curriculum.

The degree requires 48 hours completed during four 9-day residencies offered twice annually (summer and January), four mentoring semesters, a fifth graduating residency, completion of a substantive analytical project on literature or craft, and a book-length creative thesis.

Award- Winning Tradition

Converse draws energy for its MFA program from the College’s long history of inspiring and developing award-winning undergraduate and graduate writers, such as Julia Peterkin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Recent student and alumni distinctions:

  • The South Carolina Poetry Initiative Book Prize in 2010 and 2007
  • “Best Drama” 2010 Melbourne Independent Film Festival
  • The Association of Writers & Writing Program’s 2008 Intro Award
  • X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize
  • Hub City Writing Awards (poetry and fiction)
  • Novels with Simon & Schuster and Random House
Faculty
  • Nick Carbó (Poetry)
  • Denise Duhamel (Poetry)
  • Albert Goldbarth (Poetry)
  • Sarah Kennedy (Poetry)
  • Rick Mulkey (Poetry, Director of the MFA Program)
  • Robert Olmstead (Fiction)
  • Leslie Pietrzyk (Fiction)
  • R.T. Smith (Fiction and Poetry)
  • Susan Tekulve (Fiction and Nonfiction)
  • Dan Wakefield (Nonfiction )
  • Marlin Barton (Fiction)
  • Richard Tillinghast (Poetry and Nonfiction)