MFA STUDENT GUIDEBOOK

MFA Program in Creative Writing

Saint Mary’s College of California

Classes of 2013 & 2014

This guide has been prepared for the students, faculty, and staff of Saint Mary’s College of California, and others wishing to know more about College policies, procedures, programs, and activities. Every effort has been made to make certain that the information contained herein is accurate as of the date of publication (August 2012). With regard to this guide, the MFA Program reserves the right to correct errors and to make changes in policies, procedures, programs, and/or activities (without prior notice) as it deems appropriate and in the best interest of the Program. This guide is to be used in conjunction with the Graduate and Professional Student Handbook, which contains a more complete overview of policies and procedures. All graduate students at Saint Mary’s College are expected to adhere to the policies and practices outlined in the Graduate and Professional Student Handbook, which can be found online at

Table of Contents

MFA Student Guide

Classes of 2013 & 2014

Campus Map2

Overview and History of College and MFA Program 3

Faculty and Staff of MFA Program4

Program Curriculum6

Course Descriptions8

Opportunities for Student Employment17

College & MFA Program Administrative Policies19

Sample Petition for Exceptional Action25

Sample Petition for Literature Internship26

Sample Recommendation for Teaching27

OVERVIEW

Profile of Saint Mary’s College

Saint Mary’s College of California was originally founded in 1863 in San Francisco. The College moved to 30th and Broadway in Oakland in 1889 and the “Brickpile” was dedicated on August 15. In 1928, SMC moved to its present 420-acre site in Moraga. From 1942-1946, the U.S. Navy pre-flight school was at Saint Mary’s College. The then-future President of the United States, Gerald Ford, was among the Navy students at the College during this time. In 1970, the College began admitting women students.

Today, Saint Mary’s is one of the most distinguished colleges in the West. The College’s reputation for excellence, innovation, and responsiveness in education comes from its rich heritage as a Liberal Arts, Catholic, and Lasallian institution. This heritage creates a unique, personalized, student-centered learning environment. Small classes, lively dialogue, and deep relationships are part of the everyday scene at Saint Mary’s, making it, above all, a community of learners.

Mission of Saint Mary’s College

  • to probe deeply the mystery of existence by cultivating the ways of knowing and the arts of thinking.
  • to affirm and foster the Christian understanding of the human person which animates the educational mission of the College.
  • to create a student-centered educational community whose members support one another with mutual understanding and respect.

Profile of the MFA Program in Creative Writing

Since its founding in 1863, Saint Mary’s College has been the home of great achievements in the arts and humanities. Building on its rich traditions, the College established the Creative Writing Reading Series in the early 1980s with the help of professors Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, and Phyllis Stowell. The series has granted Saint Mary’s students access to the nation’s most prominent and exciting literary artists, featuring writers such as Michael Cunningham, Jorie Graham, Maxine Hong Kingston, Michael Ondaatje, and Robert Pinsky.

The MFA Program was founded in 1995 on the strength of the College’s literary traditions and its strong faculty in creative writing. To date, the Program has graduated over one hundred students, many of whom have gone on to literary and professional success, publishing creative work and working in the fields of education, publishing, and professional writing. In its 15+ years of existence, the Program has welcomed a long line of Distinguished Writers and Poets in Residence, such as Michael Chabon, Andrew Sean Greer, Lyn Hejinian, Sue Miller, Cristina Garcia, and Michael Palmer. The Program also serves as the College’s literary center, providing the campus and local community with unique access to readings, publications, and the world of contemporary literature.

MFA ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNANCE

Governance and administration of the MFA Program are carried out by the MFA Steering Committee, Faculty Director, Program Manager, and Coordinator of Admissions and Student Services. The Steering Committee consists of the Faculty Director and seven members of the permanent Saint Mary’s College faculty, including the chair of the English Department. The Steering Committee (led by the Faculty Director) oversees all academic and curricular elements of the Program. The Faculty Director supervises the Steering Committee, Advisory Board, fundraising, and the MFA staff. The Program Manager supervises all administrative aspects of the Program and is responsible for outreach, marketing, publicity, scheduling and events, development, and fundraising. The Coordinator of Admissions and Student Services is the chief liaison to the students and is responsible for recruitment, coordinating admissions, use of enrollment management software, scheduling and student enrollment, registration, financial aid, internships, support for students (other than faculty advising functions), alumni relations, support for marketing and advertising, website, and outreach through social media.

The permanent faculty of the MFA Program is comprised of full-time professors from the College’s Department of English. These faculty members share the various teaching assignments of the Program, including the writing workshops and the craft courses. In addition to the permanent faculty, the Program hires a semester-long Distinguished Writer-in-Residence in each genre. These writers teach one semester of the writing workshops each year. The Program also makes use of the excellent undergraduate faculty at Saint Mary’s College, who often teach graduate-level courses, such as the Foundations of Contemporary Literature seminar and classes in contemporary literature.

Faculty and Staff:

Staff

  • Brenda Hillman, M.F.A., Faculty Director, x4457
  • Sara Mumolo, M.F.A., Program Manager, x8856
  • Candace Eros Diaz, M.F.A., Coordinator of Admissions & Student Services, x4762
  • Gail Drexler, English Department Administrative Assistant, x4414
Faculty
  • Marilyn Abildskov, M.F.A., Professor, x4360
  • Carol Beran, Ph.D., Professor, Chair of English Department, x4160
  • Wesley Gibson, M.F.A., Associate Professor, x4761
  • Rosemary Graham, Ph.D., Professor, x8016
  • Brenda Hillman, M.F.A., Professor, x4457
  • Christopher Sindt, Ph.D., Vice Provost for Graduate Studies, x4088
  • Lysley Tenorio, M.F.A., Associate Professor, x4764

Marilyn Abildskov (Creative Nonfiction) received her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared recently in such magazines as SouthernReview, AGNI, and Hotel Amerika. The recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award and Yaddo residencies, she is the author of The Men in My Country.

Candace Eros Diaz (Coordinator of Admissions and Student Services)received her MFA in creative nonfiction and fiction from Saint Mary’s College of California. She was awarded a Voices Of Our Nation (VONA) Summer Writing Workshop fellowship, a weeklong workshop dedicated to writers of color. Her essay Breaking Wide Open was selected as a finalist in The Iowa Review’s annual contest in creative nonfiction.

Wesley Gibson (Creative Nonfiction and Fiction) has a B.G.S. in creative writing and filmmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Brown University. He is the author of the memoir You Are Here and the novels Shelter and Personal Saviors. His stories have appeared in The Village Voice and the Mississippi Review among other places, and his art criticism has appeared in The New Art Examiner. He edits the literary journal Bloom.

Rosemary Graham (Creative Nonfiction and Fiction) holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Virginia. She is the author of Stalker Girl,Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude, and My Not-So-Terrible Time at the Hippie Hotel. Her third novel, Stalker Girl, was published in August of 2010. Her essays and commentaries have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Santa Monica Review, and on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

Brenda Hillman (Poetry) received her M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Iowa, and she holds the Olivia Filippi Chair in Poetry at Saint Mary’s. Her books include Fortress, Death Tractates, Bright Existence, Loose Sugar, Cascadia, Pieces of Air in the Epic (which was awarded the William Carlos Williams Prize for poetry for 2005), and Practical Water for which she won the Los Angeles Times Book Award in poetry. She is also the co-editor of The Grand Permission: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and she serves on the permanent faculty of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and the Napa Valley Writer’s Conference.

Sara Mumolo (Program Manager) received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Saint Mary’s College of California. Her first collection of poems, Mortar,is forthcoming from Omnidawn and her chapbook March was published by Cannibal Books in 2011. She curated the Studio One Reading Series from 2008-2012. Some poems appear in Lana Turner, Action Yes, 1913: a journal of forms, Volta, and The Offending Adam, among others.

Christopher Sindt (Poetry) holds a Ph.D. in English and a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis. He has received the James D. Phelan Award and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Mesa Refuge, and the Blue Mountain Center. He is the author of the poetry collection The Bodies (forthcoming, ParlorPress). Formerly the Program Director of the Art of the Wild Writing Conference, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. He is currently serving as Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Studies.

Lysley Tenorio (Fiction) earned his M.F.A. from the University of Oregon, and is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a former Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University. He is the author of the short story collection, Monstress, and his stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, Zoetrope: All-Story, Ploughshares, The Chicago Tribune, Manoa, and The Best New American Voices. He has also held residencies at Yaddo and The MacDowell Colony, and he recently received a Whiting Writers’ Award.

MFA Advisory Board

Marilyn Abildskov, Ed Biglin, Josh Braff, John Briscoe, Michele Brusseau, Alev Croutier, John Gourhan, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Mary Mackey, Susan McCombs, Robin Mullery, Tina Parsons, Peter Quartaroli, Bob Reidelberger, Maria Roden, Carol Sayers, Christopher Sindt, Judith Taylor, Nancy Tengler, Jane Vandenburgh, and Katayoon Zandvakili

THE CURRICULUM

Program

The MFA Program offers a two-year course of study leading to the M.F.A. degree in the genres of creative nonfiction, fiction, or poetry. Students in the MFA Program typically take five courses per year, spread out over the fall and spring semesters, with the option of one course during January Term. The core of the program is the writing workshop, which provides an opportunity for writers to work and learn with established writers on developing their own voice, material, and style. Four Writing Workshops (which include, each semester, a tutorial focus in the genre) are required for graduation. The Writing Workshop is composed of first- and second-year students in the genre and is the focus of their writing work. MFA students also take Foundations of Contemporary Literature, one contemporary literature course in their genre, at least two craft seminars, and at least two electives. During the spring of the second year, MFA students finish a book-length thesis under the guidance of their thesis director and a second faculty reader.

Program Goals

Students in the MFA Program will graduate with improved competency in their writing, particularly in their chosen genre (creative nonfiction, fiction, or poetry). They will master advanced techniques in their craft, and they will exhibit an increased knowledge of the body of literature that primarily informs their own aesthetics. In addition, they will receive a sophisticated introduction to information technology as well as the professional aspects of the writing life.

If there is available space in a genre, completing a third year in an alternative genre is sometimes possible at the recommendation and permission of the genre faculty.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

  • engage at a professional level in the writing of their chosen genre (creative nonfiction, fiction, or poetry).
  • articulate the correspondences between their own writing and the corpus of literature and thought which primarily informs their aesthetics.
  • use information technology with a high level of sophistication, either for the purpose of academic research or for the purpose of primary research that may inform a given piece of writing.
  • work effectively as professional writers: publish work in literary journals and magazines; solicit and procure literary agents; solicit and procure publishers for manuscripts or book projects; give public readings; apply for and receive funding for literary projects; exhibit a preparedness for finding employment in various professional fields, such as education, journalism, public relations, publishing, and technical writing.

Graduation Requirements

  • 4 Writing Workshops (including tutorial focus in the genre)
  • Foundations of Contemporary Literature
  • Contemporary Creative Nonfiction/or Fiction/or Poetry
  • 2 Craft Seminars in Creative Nonfiction/or Fiction/or Poetry
  • 2 Electives
  • Thesis

Typical Student Schedule

Fall – Year One / January Term / Spring – Year One
  • Writing Workshop
  • Foundations of Contemporary Literature
  • Craft Seminar OR
  • Contemporary Creative Nonfiction/Fiction/Poetry
/ Elective (optional) /
  • Writing Workshop
  • Craft Seminar (optional)
  • Elective (optional)

Fall – Year Two / January Term / Spring – Year Two
  • Writing Workshop
  • Contemporary Creative Nonfiction/ Fiction/Poetry
OR
  • Craft Seminar
  • Elective (optional)
/ Elective (optional) /
  • Writing Workshop
  • Craft Seminar (optional)
  • Elective (optional)
  • Thesis

The formation of a community of writers is essential to an effective MFA Program. It is important that students be enrolled full-time. If, however, after enrolling, a student finds that he or she cannot attend full-time, every effort will be made to accommodate the individual without detriment to the Program.

Course Descriptions

Foundations of Contemporary Literature (English 200)

This introductory course will allow all first-year MFA students to become familiar with selected core texts in all three of the Program’s genres. By way of lecture and discussion, the course will cover several literary movements and periods and will offer approaches to numerous foundational texts, including novels, stories, poems, and essays by Jane Austen, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Isak Dinesen, James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, and Raymond Carver.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • chart the various histories and aesthetics of the Program’s three genres by reading and discussing core texts chosen by faculty in each genre.
  • refresh and expand upon their knowledge of and ability to use information technology.
  • become immersed in the community of the MFA Program.

WRITING WORKSHOPS and TUTORIALS

The core of the Program is the writing workshop, which provides an opportunity for student writers to work and learn with established writers on developing their own voice, material, and style. Workshop leaders—permanent faculty or writers-in-residence—are dedicated to fostering an atmosphere of mutual respect and professionalism. First- and second-year students work together in the workshop so that over two years students develop a close community and also encounter a variety of perspectives. Each workshop is paired with a writing tutorial, during which the students meet one-on-one with faculty to discuss work in progress.

Fiction Workshop (English 211)

This course is an intensive exploration of the ideas, techniques and forms of fiction with a primary emphasis on the careful analysis and discussion of student works-in-progress. Students will grapple with the questions of voice, point of view, dramatic movement, structure, rhythm, and imagery, as well as with any and all issues of art and craft that arise from the individual manuscripts. By the end of the course, the students should develop the terminology and the critical skills for revising fiction, and they should develop a good understanding about issues and trends inthe genre.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • produce a significant amount of original work;
  • learn through the practice of reading, annotating, and discussing the work of their peers;
  • develop the vocabulary and critical skills necessary for revising fiction.

Tutorial in Fiction (English 221)

Students will meet over the course of the semester with the instructor of the workshop for individual sessions to review strengths and areas for revision of manuscripts. The instructor will suggest additional reading, ideas for revision, writing exercises, and specific areaswhere a student might improve his or her craft.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • move toward a sophisticated knowledge of revision and the craft of fiction applicable to the participation in workshop;
  • gain a greater understanding of their own strengths and areas for improvement;
  • receive advice and instruction on the professional aspects of publishing.

Poetry Workshop (English 212)

The primary aim of this course is to allow the students as much freedom as possible intheir writing while teaching them the skills to identify their strengths and weaknesses. The most important work for the student will be to explore language and poetic style, with encouragement to produce at least one new poem per week. By the end of the course, the students should develop the terminology and the critical skills for revising poetry, and they should develop a good understanding about issues and trends inthe genre. Students may also be encouraged to write a poetic statement in which they will analyze their own poems—with particular attention to their development over the semester.