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MFA Program Profile: Columbia College – Chicago

Columbia College – Chicago
Fiction Writing Department
600 South Michigan Avenue
Room 1200
Chicago, IL 60605-1996

Phone: 312-344-7093
Email: jseay@colum.edu
Web Site: http://fiction.colum.edu/
Program Length: 2 and 3 Years
Residency: Traditional
School Funding: Private
Admissions Basis: Application, transcripts, manuscript, two letters of recommendation
Programs: Fiction, Poetry

Costs:
$525.00 per credit hour

Key Faculty:
Department Chair: Randall Albers, Ph.D. (on sabbatical 04-05), Gary Johnson, Acting Chair (04-05)
Randall Albers, Chair, Fiction Writing, Ph.D., English Language and Literature, University of Chicago, IL
Andrew Allegretti, MA, Northern Illinois University, IL
Ann Hemenway, MFA Fiction, University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, IA
Gary Johnson, MA Creative Writing, Columbia College Chicago, IL
Eric May, BA Fiction Writing, Columbia College Chicago, IL
Patricia Ann McNair, MFA Creative Writing, Columbia College Chicago, IL
John Schultz, Originated and developed the Story Workshop method of teaching writing. Professor Emeritus
Betty Shiflett, BS, BA, Texas Women’s University, TX, Professor Emeritus
Shawn Shiflett, MA, Creative Writing, Central State University, OK
Arielle Greenberg, MFA, Syracuse University, NY
Tony Trigilio, Ph.D., English, Northeastern University, MA
David Trinidad, MFA, Brooklyn College, NY

Their Program Description:

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program is designed to help you develop your fiction writing ability. You are expected to produce quality work throughout your course of study and to have completed a publishable book-length manuscript upon graduation. In addition to Story Workshop® fiction and prose forms classes, the program offers a wide range of elective writing courses, including courses in Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Freelance Applications of Fiction Writing Training, Story and Script, Playwriting, and Critical Reading and Writing classes that offer unique approaches to the study of the reading and writing processes of famous writers. Candidates for the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing must complete 45 units of study, including 21-24 semester hours of writing courses (a six-hour emphasis may be elected in screenwriting, playwriting, or practice teaching), 9-12 semester hours of electives in Critical Reading and Writing courses, 3 semester hours of a graduate thesis development course, or equivalent, and 6 semester hours of graduate thesis (200 + pages).
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Master of Arts in The Teaching of Writing
Frequently Master of Arts candidates in The Teaching of Writing program are employed teachers who want to develop their writing and teaching ability; others are newcomers to the field of teaching. The teaching of writing is of growing importance. The program prepares you to teach both expository and fiction writing at the college and secondary levels. You explore the close relationship between your teaching ability and the development of your writing. The Story Workshop® method is a uniquely successful approach to the teaching of writing, preparing you with specific and flexible techniques in composition, creative writing, remediation, and tutorial and writing laboratories. Degree candidates develop a two-part thesis, one in fiction and one in pedagogy. Many of our faculty have published articles concerned with various aspects of the teaching of writing in such publications as College English and Research on Composing, and have given presentations at numerous professional organizations’ annual meetings, including Conference on College Composition and Communication and the Modern Language Association. Candidates for the Master of Arts degree in The Teaching of Writing must complete 39 units of study, including 18 semester hours of writing courses, 9 semester hours of practice teaching and tutoring, 3 semester hours of Survey of Methods and Research in the Teaching of writing, or equivalent, 3 semester hours of electives in Language Issues in the Classroom, Sociolinguistics, or a similar course, and 3 semester hours of a two-part graduate thesis (one part fiction, one part pedagogical research).

MFA Poetry Workshop
The aim of poetry workshops is to develop the poetry writing skills of students and to help them possess a greater creative, critical, and aesthetic understanding of their discipline. Students are encouraged to write poetry of the very highest quality. Workshop format makes use of reading assignments, writing exercises, and critique of student work. Students are expected to become familiar with a wide range of models and formal strategies.