CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY MFA FACULTY MARK AXELROD ANNA LEAHY Director of the John Fowles Director, MFA in Creative Center for Creative Writing & Writing; Director, Tabula Two-Time Fulbright Winner Poetica; Winner of Wick Fiction, Screenwriting Poetry Prize & Ninth Letter Nonfiction Prize MFA CREATIVE WRITING Dante’s Foil and Other Poetry, Nonfiction Sporting Tales; Constructing Dialogue Tumor; Aperture; The MFA in Creative Writing at Generation Space WHY THIS MFA? Chapman University encourages • Aspects of a Writer, an innovative students to write boldly, read course that introduces students to a life thoughtfully, and live vibrantly. RICHARD BAUSCH MILDRED LEWIS of writing and publishing opportunities. Winner of the Rea Award Selected for 2017–18 Our students and our faculty—Mark Axelrod, • The most aesthetically wide-ranging for the Short Story & Dayton PlayGround-LA Writers Pool Richard Bausch, James P. Blaylock, Alicia Literary Peace Prize Playwriting, faculty of any MFA in the country. Fiction Screenwriting, Kozameh, Anna Leahy, Mildred Lewis, Graphic Novels Martin Nakell, and Tom Zoellner—are here • More genre options for students, Before, During, After; to bring ideas to life in words and share Peace; The Norton including Fiction, Poetry, Creative Transforming Silence(s); those words with the world. Anthology of Short Fiction Visitation; Bleed Black Nonfiction, Screenwriting, and Bleed Blue Bleed Whether you’re interested in fiction, poetry, Experimental Writing. creative nonfiction, screenwriting, or a combination of genres, the MFA at Chapman • Well-published, award-winning authors JAMES BLAYLOCK MARTIN NAKELL University invites you to write better than you who continue to write and publish Associate Director, MFA Winner of the Gertrude ever thought you could. The MFA is designed alongside the MFA students they teach. Winner of two World Stein Award so that you can create a portfolio of Fantasy Awards Experimental Fiction • Graduate Teaching Assistantships Fiction and Poetry possibilities for your life and for your career. and other jobs-oriented Graduate The Aylesford Skull; The The Desert Poems of Assistantships for select students in the Southern California; The Adventures of Langdon second year of study. St. Ives; Homunculus Assignment: Why Am I Writing This Essay? • Annual Literary Events such as WordTheatre® and the Tabula Poetica Reading Series every fall, the John ALICIA KOZAMEH TOM ZOELLNER Winner of the Crisis Award Winner of the American Fowles Center Reading Series every for Short Story Institute of Physics Science spring, and Pub(lishing) Crawl in April. Fiction (English and Writing Award “It’s a natural, positive, encouraging Spanish) Nonfiction community.” • Digital Humanities, as a way to re- Steps Under Water; 259 Train: Riding the Rails envision English studies. Leaps, The Last Immortal; That Created the Modern - Erica Hoffmeister, MFA Alum Ofrenda de propia piel World; A Safeway in • Our MFA alums find employment in Arizona; Uranium related fields of writing, marketing, and teaching and are publishing books and work in journals and magazines. VISITING WRITERS: Isabel Allende, Victoria Chang, Karen Joy Fowler, Maxine Hong Kingston, Kim Stanley Robinson, and more CHAPMAN.EDU/MFA-CREATIVE-WRITING PRESIDENTIAL FELLOWS: Carolyn Forché and Rebecca Skloot For more information contact Graduate Programs Coordinator David Krausman [email protected] (714) 516-7116 ONE UNIVERSITY DRIVE • ORANGE, CALIFORNIA 92866 ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS: FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES MFA ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS All applicants must provide the following Fellowships Workshops Each MFA student takes four materials: Each fall, three fellowships with annual creative writing workshops in fiction, poetry, and/or creative nonfiction. Some • Official transcripts from ALL degree- fellowship payment of $18,000 plus full students focus on one genre, while many granting (bachelor’s and higher) tuition are awarded to select incoming work across genres in their coursework. colleges and universities attended. An MFA students. Additional full-tuition This option to work in multiple genres, official transcript in a sealed envelope fellowships are available on a limited to take risks, and to build a portfolio of that you have received from your basis. All applicants are considered for MFA In Creative Writing writing skills for a lifetime distinguishes college or university is acceptable. these prestigious, merit-based awards. Hours in thought, in books, on the our students. Assistantships keyboard. Hours talking with each other • An essay expressing your reasons for Thesis The program culminates in a thesis MFA and MA students who take the and visiting writers about how to create wanting to join the MFA program. in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. composition pedagogy course in their first something extraordinary in the world. What are your writing and career Some students write a collection of literary year of study can apply to the Graduate goals, and how will this particular The MFA program requires 36 credits of short stories, while others write genre Teaching Associate program. GTAs degree from Chapman University coursework, 21 of which are in creative novels. Poetry students run the gamut from develop their own composition courses help you reach those goals? Your writing. The remaining 15 credits can fixed form to lyric to experimental, and and are the instructors of record. essay should be double spaced, size be chosen from a variety of literature, nonfiction students write everything from 12 font, and 1–2 pages in length. Because Chapman University recognizes rhetoric, and digital humanities courses. reportage to memoir. With approval, • Two letters of recommendation that the competitive academic job market and Among these electives are courses students can do a thesis in playwriting, connected with the Fowles Reading Series screenwriting, or graphic modes. speak to your academic preparation, the increase in adjunct positions without and Tabula Poetica, and independent Chapman University’s MFA program intellectual ability, creative potential, benefits, the Department of English has study is also possible. holds students to the highest standards and aptitude for graduate study. expanded its Graduate Assistantship program to prepare MFA students for work Aspects of a Writer The incoming cohort while encouraging anything imaginable. • A portfolio of creative work. in arts organizations, in publishing and creates a network that can sustain each Dual Degree MA/MFA We’re here to You should submit work that editing, and in the nonprofit sector. These MFA student through the thesis process read widely and write boldly. The Dual best represents your style and Graduate Assistantships earn an hourly and a lifetime of writing. This first course Degree combines the MFA and the MA demonstrates your potential. The wage for internship work. GAs within introduces MFA students to the creative in a 54-credit program that is usually portfolio should include 20-–30 pages the department work with Tabula Poetica writing faculty, to literary citizenship and completed in three years of full-time of fiction or nonfiction, 10–15 pages or the John Fowles Center for Creative creative industries, and to writers, editors, study. Students can apply to the Dual- of poetry, or the first 15 pages of a Writing or are assigned to a particular and other professionals. Degree program directly or can apply to screenplay or stage play. The purpose faculty member for teaching and research. Techniques of Creative Writing Each combine programs during the first year of of the portfolio is to demonstrate your In addition, the department partners with MFA student takes one techniques course enrollment in either individual program. creative capacity as an as an MFA the Dean of Students Office, Chapman in fiction, poetry, or nonfiction to focus The innovative Dual Degree appeals student. Literature courses will also Magazine, the Writing Center, and other on literary conventions, techniques, and especially to those students interested be part of the degree program, and offices to offer Graduate Assistantships devices that apply in and across genres. in teaching at the university, community you should be adept at writing critical with hands-on experiences. These college, or secondary-school level. essays but should not include critical opportunities help our students consider a writing in the MFA application unless variety of career options and explore the APPLICATION DEADLINES you are applying for the Dual MA/ creative industries. MFA program. Submit your application and all supporting • For Fall Semester, including documents online by the deadlines listed fellowship and scholarship below. Applications received after these consideration: February 1 deadlines will be considered on a rolling • For Spring Semester: basis as space is available. November 1.