VIII. Graduate Programs
Creative Writing
Courses
For courses without a semester designation the student should consult the graduate co-ordinator.
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CRWR*6000 Plenary Course: Writers on Writing F [0.50]
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| All students in the program are required to take the plenary course. Students will engage with theories of creative writing proposed by such writers as Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Anton Chekhov, Milan Kunder, Octavio Paz, John Gardner, Nicole Brossard, and a great many others, including contemporary writers from Canada and abroad who will partiicate in the course as visitors. This course will examine how writers understand and describe their own creative processes and aims and how they create or respond to the theories of their time. |
| Prerequisite(s): |
Restricted to MFA.CW Students |
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CRWR*6100 Poetry Workshop F-W [0.50]
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| The Poetry Workshop engages students in a reading and writing intensive program of work. The workshops will be strongly focused on writing and on responding to the work of students in the course with productive, constructive criticism. Students will have the opporutnity to work closely with a nationally recognized poet to develop their own skills as poets and editors. Students are expected to read widely and to develop their understanding of the technical aspects of their craft. |
| Prerequisite(s): |
Restricted to MFA.CW Students |
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CRWR*6200 Fiction Workshop F-W [0.50]
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| The Fiction Workshop engages students in a reading and writing intensive program of work. The workshops will be strongly focused on writing and on responding to the work of students in the course with productive, constructive criticism. Students will have the opporutnity to work closely with a nationally recognized author to develop their skills as writers and editors. Students are expected to read widely and to develop their understanding of the technical aspects of their craft. |
| Prerequisite(s): |
Restricted to MFA.CW Students |
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CRWR*6300 Drama Workshop U [0.50]
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| The Drama workshop is writing- and reading-intensive. Students will produce a substantial amount of dramatic writing and will also provide constructive criticism of the work of other workshop participants. Required reading will cover a wide range of dramatic literature and the study of dramatic forms and techniques. |
| Prerequisite(s): |
Restricted to MFA.CW Students |
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CRWR*6500 Non-Fiction Workshop U [0.50]
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| The Non-Fiction Workshop engages students in a reading- and writing-intensive program of creative non-fiction. The workshops will be strongly focused on writing and will involve the creation and revision of a substantial body of new work in the genre, as well as critiquing the work of other students in the course. The reading component will focus on texts from a varied social and cultural range (e.g. family memoir, travel narrative, cultural memoir, themed mediation). |
Workshops
Students are required to take three workshops over the course of the program; the genres in which workshops will be offered are fiction, poetry, drama, screenwriting, and creative non-fiction. Students are also required to ensure through their selection of workshops that they work in a minimum of two separate genres and are strongly encouraged to take workshops that include work in at least three genres. The workshops will be strongly focused on writing, but each will also incorporate a substantial reading component.
Plenary Courses
Plenary courses will be offered each year in the fall semester, and students are required to take two. These courses are intended in part to provide a forum for visiting writers and other literary professionals. Each course will also have a substantial component addressing practical matters associated with the progress of a writer’s career.
The individual study course, required in the third (summer) semester of the program, pairs each student with a mentor. It is intended to install within the curriculum a critical opportunity to address the variable learning needs of individual students. For some students, it will be primarily a reading course, with practice in writing in relation to particular models. For the majority of students, however, it is likely to be an intensive writing course that will allow for additional work in the genre that interests them most, or to explore the possibilities of another genre.
Thesis
The thesis is the single most important component of the MFA Program. The thesis may be a novel, a book-length manuscript of poems, a collection of short stories, a full-length play or screenplay, or a memoir. The standard to be applied is that the thesis should be of publishable quality in the estimation of the examiners.
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