Curriculum Overview

A THREE YEAR PROGRAM

The School of Letters MFA is a 36-hour degree program typically completed in six semesters. There are three residential summers at Sewanee and three Guided Studies led by a faculty member. During residential summers, students take forms and workshop courses. Guided Studies are one-on-one mentorships focused on the literary interests and creative goals of the individual student. Most students complete the program in three years, though there are options for condensing or extending this timeline. When students have completed 30 hours of coursework they become eligible to register for the capstone thesis project as their final Guided Study. The MFA is awarded upon completion of 36 credit hours and successful submission of a creative thesis. 

 

WRITING WORKSHOPS AND FORMS COURSES

Each summer, students enroll in a workshop and a forms course, for a total of 6 credit hours per summer. While most students take classes in the track they chose when applying to Sewanee (fiction, poetry, or nonfiction) they are allowed to take classes in any genre they like. It is common for students to have more than one genre interest. Forms courses are essentially literature seminars, though their focus is on developing creative practice and critical reading skills rather than on scholarly writing or theory-driven analysis. Reading and class discussion are the heart of the forms course. Written assignments in forms often include short-form craft responses, generative writing exercises, and a final creative project. Forms courses change topic and instructor from summer to summer, and may be repeated for credit. 

Workshops are genre-specific. They focus on the generation, submission, and critique of students’ original fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Students have multiple opportunities to submit manuscripts in their chosen genre. They receive feedback from workshop participants and the professor. The purpose of the workshop is not only to give clear, actionable feedback on student manuscripts, but also to develop each student’s analytical and editorial skills. Workshop courses change instructors from summer to summer and may be repeated for credit.

 

GUIDED STUDY

(6 credits, repeatable)

Guided Studies are one-on-one mentorship programs undertaken outside of the summer session. Most students will take two of them, between summers two and three. Goals for the Guided Study are developed by the student and the faculty mentor. They may be driven by a specific question or aesthetic concern, or by a desire to generate creative work in a genre such as poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. They may be focused on a specific project such as a novel draft or poetry collection but do not need to be. The mentor will give the student a personally curated syllabus consisting of 10-12 major texts, of which 8 must be whole books. (The remainder may be excerpts, short stories, essays, etc.) Students produce short craft responses (2-3 double-spaced pages) to all assigned texts. For the craft response, the student chooses a significant craft element from the assigned text (voice, point of view, dialogue, etc.) and discusses how the writer makes use of it, and how they will apply what they've learned in their own work.

Guided Studies typically consist of four major due dates, set at regular intervals throughout the semester. The student and the faculty mentor should confer before the start of term and set a mutually agreeable work schedule, such as having a packet due on the 1st, or the 15th, of each month. Each packet consists of approximately 20-25 double-spaced pages of creative prose, or 10-12 pages of poetry, and three craft responses to assigned texts. The faculty mentor provides line-edits on the manuscripts and a substantive editorial letter. The letter contextualizes and elaborates on the line-edits, offers actionable suggestions for revision, and responds to the craft essays. Faculty mentors will return packets within 7-14 days of receipt and make themselves available for an optional follow-up phone call or zoom meeting. 

Students and mentors have leeway to adjust due dates and assignment details if necessary: three packets instead of four, for example, or fewer craft responses in one packet made up for by more craft responses in another packet. Likewise, the faculty mentor may adjust the parameters of the craft response assignment to better suit the learning needs of a given student, but the total volume of work produced during the semester does not change: 80-100 pages of original prose, or 30-40 pages of original poetry, plus reading and response to the 10-12 assigned texts.

 

THESIS PROJECT

When the student has thirty (30) credit hours, they are eligible to register for their thesis. Most students hit this benchmark at the end of their third summer of study. The thesis is a mandatory, one-semester project worth six (6) credits. The thesis advisor will provide detailed editorial feedback as well as general guidance, but thesis work is primarily self-directed. It is expected that the student will enter the thesis process with a substantial body of writing already drafted, so that the thesis semester can be focused on revision and, ideally, completion of a full-length creative manuscript such as a novel, a memoir, or a collection of poems, essays, or short stories. Students may choose to embark upon their thesis semester immediately after finishing their third summer, or wait until the following spring. 

 

YOUR DEGREE PATH

The program is designed to be completed in three years, with three residential summer sessions supplemented with two Guided Studies and the thesis project. 

Because of the intensity and length of the summer session, many Sewanee students choose to write independently during the fall semester and register for Guided Study in the spring. While this is common, it is not required, and we regularly have students taking Guided Study in the fall. Whichever semester you choose, if you follow this path you will complete your coursework and become thesis-eligible at the end of your third residential summer. 

 

OTHER DEGREE PATHS

Students who wish to accelerate their degree progress may request additional Guided Studies. Such requests are granted at the Director’s discretion and may be limited based on faculty availability. Students who wish to slow their degree progress–either to extend their time at Sewanee or to accommodate changes in their personal lives–have the option of registering as half-time students during the residential summer session (i.e. only taking one class) or declining to take any Guided Studies because they want to do all their learning in person during the summers. The self-directed thesis semester is required to graduate.