Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose
September 5, 2014
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September 5, 2014
Proposal from the Department of English and the Program of
Creative Writing for an Area Program in Literary Prose
1. Introduction.
The English Department’s Area Program in Poetry Writing (APPW), inaugurated in 2001,
has been a spectacular success, offering students who would presumably be taking four or
five ENWR poetry workshops on their own the opportunity to focus on poetry writing in a
more rigorous and coherent manner. Like the poets, a dozen or so determined young prose
writers each year continue to take fiction workshops to the 5000-level and swiftly fill our
once-yearly nonfiction workshop, and for many years they have pleaded for a similar
opportunity in prose. In the English Department’s External Review of 2012, our visiting
committee cited the English department’s “prominence in creative writing” as a major
strength and urged us in strong terms to leverage this strength further with an undergraduate
concentration in prose. A groundswell of demand for more courses and workshops in
creative nonfiction has further demonstrated student interest, and recent new searches in
fiction/nonfiction (completed or now underway) have at last given us the breadth and
faculty resources to proceed. Creating such a program would allow us to develop a cohort
of students committed to the serious study of the craft of literature and the literary process,
and would foster in these students a sense of joining a community of literary writers. More
broadly, we see literary prose as a program with interdisciplinary appeal, and we can imagine
that this selective program could function as a nucleus that might encourage more students
across Grounds to explore through artful writing their own lives and the world around them.
2. Program Mission.
The objective of this program is to offer a unique approach to studying literary prose and to
nurture broadly educated and intellectually astute students who use writing as a tool of
observation, thought, and imagination. Within the English major we see the Area Program
as part of a reciprocal dynamic: reading and studying literature leads to better work from
young creative writers; attempting to write artful fiction or nonfiction inevitably leads to a
greater understanding of literature. We anticipate admitting 10 students a year based upon
recommendations of previous instructors and submission of a writing sample. While we
would continue to offer a full suite of Creative Writing workshops to regular English majors
and to any other interested students across Grounds, the program will provide an even more
intensive experience to the handful of students a year who are ready to take on the challenge.
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The proposed Area Program in Literary Prose (APLP) will demand more rigor and breadth
than the conventional creative-writing major as offered in many other peer universities. The
requirements of the program emphasize three areas built upon the broad literary/historical
foundation of the English major: substantial creative writing experience in workshops;
seminars in the poetics and theory of prose and narrative; and a one-semester senior
capstone course oriented around student theses. The requirements also encourage
exploration in corollary disciplines engaging strategies of narrative, according to each
student’s individual focus. For example, these might be courses such as “News and the
Construction of Reality” (MDST 3104), “Language and Thought” (ANTH 3490), offered by
Media Studies and Anthropology, or “Writing Digital Stories” (ENWR 2520).
The writing component would include four workshops, at least one of them in literary
nonfiction—e.g. lyric essay, historical narrative, memoir, biography; writing about nature,
travel, or science. Most of these workshops currently exist, but we would anticipate
increasing our creative nonfiction opportunities. Examples of poetics and readings
seminars taught by creative writing faculty, some of which are underway and some of which
are contemplated, appear below in section 3. As in the Area Program in Poetry Writing, we
anticipate recruiting English department colleagues to offer additional seminars covering the
widest possible range of genres, literary cultures and concerns. The capstone/thesis course
would require a substantial body of work, whether an extended work of creative nonfiction,
a novella, or a collection of stories.
Although students in the APLP would have priority admission to upper-level workshops and
to dedicated seminars, these courses would be open to other English majors and qualified
students from other departments. We hope that attracting students from other departments
and indeed, other schools, will ensure a vibrant mix of intellectual interests and promote the
art of reasoned and passionate writing across the disciplines. More narrowly, we would
particularly anticipate cross-pollination with students in our own Poetry Program.
3. Program Description.
For clarity, below we refer to Literary Prose seminars as ENSP: Special Topics in Literature,
though a new mnemonic for these courses, ENLP: Literary Prose, is already available to us
on SIS. Likewise, we refer below to our Creative Writing workshops as ENWR: Academic
and Creative Writing, though a new mnemonic, ENCW, Creative Writing, is also available
on SIS. The course numbering, as currently in SIS, needs to be rethought. It is our
intention to make these changes in mnemonics and to reorganize the numbering beginning
with the spring, 2015.
The APLP would be a two-year course of study, and admission would be competitive.
Students would apply in the spring semester of their second year and would declare a major
in English, although the requirements for the APLP would differ from the requirements for
a standard major; students would also be encouraged to double-major or minor in another
discipline that relates to their projects and inclinations.
Students in the APLP will take four upper-level English literature courses, four upper-level
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prose workshops, two seminars geared toward students in the program (although open to
others), and an additional advanced course pertaining to the student’s specific interests,
outside the English Department. In the fourth year, all APLP students will take the
capstone/thesis course in the second semester.
In addition, the APLP program will be strongly encouraging students to participate in the
other arts. Taking classes in studio art (drawing, painting or sculpture), drama, playwriting,
scriptwriting or cinematography, photography, digital imaging, and music performance
provides vital opportunities for students to strengthen/broaden their literary imaginations.
Indeed, many of the most talented students in the cohort interested in the APPW and the
APLP already are involved in other outlets for their creative and artistic impulses.
Following are the requirements for a major in English with a concentration in literary prose:
APLP Course Requirements
two of the three ENGL survey courses, 3810, 3820, and 3830
6 hrs.
one pre-1800 course at the 3000 level or higher
3
one English literature seminar at the 4000 level or higher
3
four upper-level ENWR workshops that must include both fiction and
nonfiction and could also, with approval, include poetry
12
two ENSP 4000-level Literary Prose seminars
6
one upper-level course in a cognate field in another department approved
by the APLP director (for example, MDST 3104 or ANTH 3490)
3
one senior capstone course
3
Total hours for the major
36
All ENWR workshops already exist, although the structure and outside reading list (if any) is
always at the discretion of the Creative Writing instructor. Literary Prose seminars,
described below, all exist in one form or another – as ENSPs, ENWRs, J-term or summer
term experiments, courses taught by faculty at other universities – but are being adapted for
the APLP audience to focus more on issues of theory and poetics. The ENWR capstone
course is a new course, with a certain amount of the thinking adapted from our normal
Master of Fine Arts thesis procedures.
Course descriptions - Workshops
ENWR 3610: Intermediate Fiction Writing
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This is a workshop for experienced writers and in many ways is as much about reading short
fiction as it is about writing short fiction. Students will write two stories for peer discussion
in the workshop and substantially revise one based on comments from peers and the
instructor. Creative responses to weekly reading assignments encourage students to focus on
the most fundamental aspects of the short story. Active classroom participation and love of
reading and writing fiction are essential.
ENWR 3559: Flash Fiction
Sudden or flash fiction is an increasingly visible genre distinct from the short story. We will
examine the genre historically, critically and ultimately in terms of craft. Accomplished
writers in the genre tend to have the poets’ interest in language and tend to use language
rather than character development to power narrative. Students interested in taking the class
should have a strong interest in reading and writing stories as well as a strong interest in
language. Students will be expected to exhibit a mastery of the reading by producing ten
drafts and ten revisions of the flash stories they will write. Students will also each contribute
one additional piece to a class anthology based on a theme decided upon by the class.
ENWR 4810: Advanced Fiction Writing
This is an advanced class for ambitious students eager to explore a variety of ways to craft
literary fiction. We’ll examine how writers have worked within the long story's more leisurely
scope—contracting and expanding time, organizing structure, shifting among points of view,
creating spaces, controlling tensions, crystalizing characters—so that students develop the
skills to craft stories with depth and complexity. The class will revolve around student
writing and published texts that may include: Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, Edward P. Jones,
Zadie Smith, Wells Tower, Gina Berriault, George Saunders and others. By the end of the
term, you will have completed either two 15 page (or so) stories or a 35 (or so) page story.
ENWR 3350: Intermediate Literary Nonfiction Workshop
We will read examples of literary nonfiction by such writers as Tom Wolfe, Virginia Woolf,
Henry Allen, Jamaica Kincaid, F. Scott Fitzgerald, David Foster Wallace and Joan Didion, to
name a few, as a way of discovering and defining just what “literary nonfiction” is. Students
will write short nonfiction pieces throughout the semester, as well as two longer, polished,
well-crafted essays. Topics might include the personal essay, memoir, profile piece, travel or
food writing, arts writing, science writing, for example. This class will be structured along the
lines of a creative writing workshop so that prior experience in such classes is useful, but not
necessary. A love of reading and writing is essential.
ENWR 4350: Advanced Nonfiction Writing - proposed
Voyages of Body and Mind
An advanced class for ambitious students who want to study ways of crafting literary
nonfiction that focuses upon journeys, both internal and external. We’ll examine how other
writers have taken their senses, scientific minds, beliefs, and literary bloodlines upon
ventures into unknown parts, including deep inside themselves or even others’ bodies. We’ll
study technical aspects of converting observation, speculative thinking, fact, and not-quite-
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fact into living, compelling narrative—how to contract and expand time, organize structure,
shift among inner and outer worlds, create spaces, control questions and tensions—so that
you can develop skills and craft your own exploratory pieces. The class will revolve around
your writing and texts that might include works of Eula Biss, Anne Carson, Charles Darwin,
Annie Dillard, Daniel Mendelsohn, Caryl Phillips, and Richard Selzer.
Course descriptions - Literary Prose Seminars
ENSP 3559: Literary Editing
This course provides an opportunity to learn how to edit and publish a book-length project,
using both print-on-demand and ePub, and to assist in editing and production of Meridian, a
national U.Va. literary journal. This work (1) offers experience in publishing, (2) creates a
portfolio project students can use for job searches, and (3) helps Meridian meet publication
deadlines. Due to time constraints, some class content is “flipped,” requiring students to
watch instructional videos at home. There will also be in-class lab exercises designed to
stimulate class discussion and guide studetns through your project, as well as homework
assignments on The Chicago Manual of Style and outside reading of Meridian submissions.
Students will need to download and install InDesign on a personal laptop to complete the
final project.
ENSP 4500: Topics in Literary Prose: The American Short Story
We will read selections of short fiction with an eye on craft – point of view, plot and
character development, the significance of setting, management of time, use of dialogue, to
name a few -- as they relate to the thematic concerns of the story. We will discuss the
choices the writer makes to bring his or her initial vision to life on the page, and how those
decisions influence and affect the way we read the story. Our focus will be modern
American writers but we might stray into other countries and forms as we need
them. Active classroom participation and a love of reading (obviously) is a
must. Requirements: weekly response papers, brief oral presentation, final paper/project.
ENSP 4559: Topics in Literary Prose: Narrative Theory in Practice
In this course we will investigate how narrative works with a series of weekly exercises
designed to help students understand and master the insights coming out of narrative theory,
particularly in the structuralist tradition of Gérard Genette, Roland Bathes, Tzvetan
Todorov, Gerald Prince, Mieke Bal, Seymour Chatman, Dorrit Cohn, and many others. The
course is designed for any student, fiction writer or literature major, who wants to gain a
definitive grounding of the subtle dynamics and techniques of literary prose. Among the
weekly topics will be narrative distance, levels of dialogue, levels of consciousness,
focalization, embedded narration, temporal order and frequency, unreliability, surface
reading, and reader response. Given that, increasingly, many fictive and narrative techniques
are finding their way into almost all writing, this course would be equally useful for fiction
writers as well as those whose primary interest lies in nonfiction.
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ENSP 4550: Topics in Literary Prose - proposed
Forms of Life Writing
How do memoirists find shapes in the flows of life? How do they choose the moments and
images that create patterns—repetitive ripples, enormous gyres—that in turn give sense and
meaning to experience? How do they create the “I” that will see and translate what’s seen;
how do they know what is “true” and find ways to render it both truthfully and
meaningfully? These and other questions of persona, shape, and time will engage us in this
seminar, which will focus upon forms of memoiristic writing but will also consider hybrids
in which writers hunt or imagine the lives of others. Readings might include works of Vivian
Gornick, Jamaica Kincaid, Maggie Nelson, Michael Ondaatje, W. G. Sebald, Tobias Wolff,
and Geoffrey Wolff. In addition to weekly readings, you will explore memoiristic techniques
and strategies through a sequence of writing exercises.
Course description - Capstone
ENSP 4920: The Capstone Course
The aim of this course, which falls in the fourth and final semester of the APLP program, is
to refine and revise the fiction and nonfiction that the students have written in the preceding
two years and to make selections in order to fashion a coherent single work. APLP students
will read stories and essays by established writers, exploring their various aesthetic concerns
and ideas about art, writing, and the creative act, while polishing their own prose pieces.
Students will participate in weekly discussions of assigned readings as well as the work of
their fellow classmates, and will meet with their advisors in individual conferences. The final
requirement of the course is to produce a polished collection of several short stories and/or
essays, or a single long piece of fiction or nonfiction, of approximately 40 pages.
4. Market Profile.
Likely APLP Students and their Prospects. Students attracted to the new APLP will be
committed to the art and study of serious imaginative writing, exploring and representing the
world they see through narrative prose. While many will focus exclusively upon reading and
writing English literature, others will be double majors coming from natural and social
sciences; humanities such as classics, philosophy, or religion; or other fields in the narrative
arts, such as theater or media studies; some, finally, may come to us via a broad interest in
the digital arts in conjunction with work in studio art and music composition.
To give some idea of the potential appeal and success of the program, we offer these figures:
according to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), from only twelve
colleges and universities that offered creative writing programs in 1967, there are now over
500. Among these are programs at Auburn, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Macalester, MIT,
Northwestern, NYU, Tulane; the Universities of California, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Miami,
Michigan, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Pennsylvania; and on and on.
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The numbers of majors or minors in these programs range, with the University of Miami,
for instance, maintaining a core group of 60 majors, while Cornell teaches more than 500
students annually (majors/minors and other students drawn to these courses from across the
university); UNC Chapel Hill’s program teaches 400 students per semester; and U-Penn’s
program attracts 700 students each year. At present, our combined creative writing courses
at U.Va. attract about 450 students per year.
The proposed program lies squarely in the tradition of liberal arts and is thus not a preprofessional program designed to stream students into particular graduate programs or
professions. Yet students graduating with this concentration, having mastered arts of prose
narrative, will be well placed not only for graduate programs in creative writing but for
careers in teaching, publishing, journalism, and professional writing across many fields, such
as marketing, advertising, speechwriting, or screenwriting. As the 22 January 2014 report
released by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the National Center
for Higher Education Management Systems revealed, in the long term “majoring in a liberal
arts field can and does lead to successful and remunerative careers in a wide array of
professions.” Also referring to these findings, an article in Inside Higher Ed continues:
Although students typically choose a major based on their interests rather than
earning potential, the report’s findings reinforce that they are in fact making the right
call, [Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on
Education and the Workforce] said. . . .
While making the case that liberal arts graduates are perfectly payable and
employable, the report also drives home the fact that there’s one area where
humanities and social sciences majors have everyone beat: meeting employers’
desires and expectations.
Employers consistently say they want to hire people who have a broad
knowledge base and can work together to solve problems, debate, communicate and
think critically, the report notes—all skills that liberal arts programs aggressively, and
perhaps uniquely, strive to teach.
(“Liberal Arts Grads Win Long-Term,” IHE, 22 January 2014)
Indeed a creative-writing workshop is nothing if not a concentrated locus for exactly the sort
of problem-solving, debate, communication, and critical thinking here described. Students
who choose a program like the APLP not only follow their hearts and minds but ultimately
equip themselves with invaluable, transferable, employable skills.
For some proof of this claim we need look no further than our own APPW graduates. Of
the 117 students who have graduated from the Area Program in Poetry Writing since the
first class walked the Lawn in 2002, nine have published books of poems, fiction, and
memoir; over 40 have gone to top MFA programs, usually with full fellowships; 11 have
pursued and/or received the MA and PhD and one just completed medical school at the
University of Virginia and is doing a residency in family medicine at Tufts. Several other
graduates are working in publishing or as literary agents. Because the APPW is an
interdisciplinary program, encouraging students, for example, to matriculate in the
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Commerce, Architecture, or Engineering Schools while also majoring in English, our alumni
are now employed in a very wide diversity of fields, including members of the clergy,
elementary and secondary school teachers, practicing musicians, arts administrators, winemakers, paralegals, government employees, editors, stand-up comedians, and as publicminded young citizens in programs like Teach for American and AmeriCorps. The APPW
community remain in close touch with each other and with former faculty, and are often
instrumental in helping one another find jobs, housing, and offering, by their example, a way
to live as a writer and artist in our time.
Some Testimonials from Potential APLP Students at U.Va. The following are excerpts
from current students who have applied to the program:
I came to U.Va. as an Echols scholar hoping to use the academic freedom that the
program allowed to make up for the fact that, at the time, U.Va. did not have a
concentration in prose writing. I became disenchanted with the idea of “creating” a
creative writing major when I learned that 1) it barred me from double majoring and
2) such a degree might raise eyebrows, as U.Va. does not officially offer such a
program. I resigned to pursue writing through ENWR classes and my spare time and
be satisfied with the traditional English department coursework. As long as I could
generate output, I thought, I’d be happy.
Unsurprisingly, I was very pleased to hear that we’d finally have a prose
writing program at U.Va. . . . A program that focuses on creative writing, rather than
one that merely allows for limited amounts of it, would provide me with the practice
and veteran expertise that would make me grow as a writer, which is the main goal of
my college career. . . .
I want to take part in the APLP because I know that I will be passionate about it. I
especially like the concept of being able to study English, as well as other creative
fields, while staying enrolled in writing workshops and “using everything,” in the
spirit of Gertrude Stein. As I am planning to pursue a career in publishing, the
workshop environment would provide me with the skills needed to excel in
reviewing the work of other writers, as well as helping me to strengthen and develop
my own voice. . . .
The APLP would allow me to develop my literary prose writing in the company of
teachers and fellow students who also desire to improve as prose writers. This
infectious energy for prose writing would propel me in my own literary prose efforts,
especially in moments of frustration. Because of the program’s small size, my
professors, classmates, and I would form the kind of close connections so helpful in
having honest, constructive discussions of our respective work. In having my work
examined by longtime and aspiring writers’ critical eyes, I would gain new insight
into how the conscious and involuntary choices I make when writing—the tense I
employ or the point of view I adopt, for example—affect the larger impressions my
work makes on others. In reading and discussing my classmates’ work and the prose
of published writers, I would develop a sharpened ability to consider my thoughts on
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such work and give these thoughts coherent voice. I would, in turn, learn to more
objectively read and revise my own writing. . . .
. . . I want my writing to make people feel something they cannot articulate on their
own. Have you ever read a poem or a story that you did not know you needed until
after you finished reading it? That’s how I felt after reading Virginia Woolf’s “A
Room of One’s Own,” or David Foster Wallace’s speech, “This is Water.” It’s the
effect I am after as a writer, I suppose, and I’m still a long way off.
I am confident that learning to write is a process, not something I am simply
“good at” or “bad at,” as people often claim they are. The only way I can mature as a
writer is to continue examining others’ writing, as well as my own, with a critical eye.
I need more practice, more guidance, and the opportunity to give writing the time
and energy it deserves. For this reason, I think that the APLP would be a good fit for
me.
Many people love reading fiction, and I’m no different. I have been reading and
engaging with literature for more than half of my life. When I took “Introduction to
Fiction Writing” last fall, I discovered a new way to engage with literature through
writing stories, an experience which I found thrilling. I hope to become a part of a
caring, insightful and fair writing community through the APLP with people who are
as thrilled by writing and reading fiction as I am. . . .
I am a rising third year transfer student who has great interest in the APLP and
would very much love to be a part of it. I am a lover of literature and writing and for
the last 3 years I have been working on a 75,000 word YA historical fiction novel set
in the West Indies. I believe that this program would be a tremendous benefit to me
and afford me the opportunity to refine my craft and enhance my abilities as a
serious writer.
The APLP will provide me with the necessary foundation to practice the craft of
storytelling in an interactive and rigorous academic environment. The fiction writing
classes I have take in the past year have been the most challenging and rewarding
experience of my college career, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue
my studies in a program tailored to my interest in classes filled with talented writers
who share my passion for storytelling.
5. Review of Competing Programs
Hallmarks of an Effective Minor in Undergraduate Creative Writing. The most
comprehensive profile of the type of concentration we propose (as currently offered by peer
institutions) comes from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). We quote
from the AWP’s “Hallmarks of an Effective Minor in the Undergraduate Study of Creative
Writing” (“minor” here refers broadly to a concentration or emphasis):
For their undergraduate students, many colleges and universities offer a minor in
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creative writing or a BA in English with an emphasis or a concentration in creative
writing. The AWP recognizes that colleges and universities have different strengths
and missions, and AWP encourages innovation and variety in the pedagogy of
creative writing. Among its member programs, however, AWP has recognized
common elements of an effective minor, concentration, or emphasis in creative
writing. We will use the term “minor” in referring to this course of study.
These hallmarks represent the components of an excellent undergraduate minor in
creative writing. For undergraduate writers, a good four-year curriculum requires
more general studies of literature, the humanities, the sciences, and the fine arts; it
also provides extracurricular experiences in writing, publishing, and literature.
One must become an expert reader before one can hope to become an expert writer.
To cultivate that expertise, a strong undergraduate program emphasizes a wide range
of study in literature and other disciplines to provide students with the foundation
they need to become resourceful—as readers, as intellectuals, and as writers. The
goal of an undergraduate program is to teach students how to read closely as writers
and to engage students in the practice of literary writing. An undergraduate course of
study in creative writing gives students an overview of the precedents established by
writers of many eras, continents, ethnicities, and sensibilities; it gives students the
ability to analyze, appreciate, and create the components that comprise works of
literature. By creating their own works, student writers may apply what they have
learned about the elements of literature.
Below are specific recommendations for the creative-writing minor made by the AWP:
Students who earn a minor or a concentration in creative writing should complete
between 12 to 15 credits in creative writing courses:
•
a minimum of two tiered workshops in their chosen genre: introductory
workshops, intermediate workshops, or advanced workshops
•
at least one craft-of-a-genre course in their chosen genre (a “Seminar in
Poetic Forms and Poetics” is a typical course required of student poets while
a “Seminar in Narrative Strategies” fulfills the same requirement for the
student fiction and nonfiction writers)
•
a minimum of one workshop in a supplementary genre
•
completion of a capstone course, which may include a creative portfolio, in
the senior year
The creative-writing track of our proposed program exceeds this set of requirements for the
creative-writing minor. Indeed, it exceeds the AWP’s requirements for the creative-writing
major, as well, which (in addition to stipulating literature courses in line with the traditional
English major), call for three tiered workshops rather than two, as well as the completion of
a creative thesis or portfolio.
Comparisons with Competing Programs among Peer Institutions. Among our most
prominent peer institutions with creative writing programs are Cornell University, the
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University of Michigan, the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Columbia
University. Below are the curricula requirements for their undergraduate concentrations.
Cornell University Creative Writing Minor
(open to non-English majors; a total of five courses with three credits or more)
introductory workshop
intermediate workshop
advanced workshop
literature course at 2000 level or higher
a fifth course at any level of creative writing or literature
University of Michigan Creative Writing Subconcentration
(in addition to regular requirements for the English major for a total of 36 hours)
introductory workshop
intermediate workshop
advanced workshop
thesis tutorial
University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop Undergraduate Creative Writing Track
(in addition to regular requirements for the English major for a total of 36 hours)
two single-genre writing workshops (two hours each)
two advanced workshops in any genre (three hours each)
one special topics course (three hours each)
optional honors thesis in creative writing
Columbia University Major in Creative Writing
(36 points required: five workshops, four seminars, three related courses)
five workshops at introductory, intermediate, advanced, and senior level, plus one in
a different genre
two craft and practice seminars
one history and context seminar
one special topics seminar
three courses in other fields germane to the student’s interests, such as “American
Narrative Culture,” “Philosophy of Language,” or “Classical Myth”
The programs at Cornell, Michigan, and Iowa, like our proposed APLP, are housed within
English departments; the first is open to non-English majors, while the latter two require
students to fulfill the usual prerequisites and requirements of the English major, as well as
completing the creative writing coursework. These programs require a sequence of at least
three tiered workshops; two require at least one readings courses in literature or special
topics; only one requires a creative thesis. We are indeed more rigorous in requiring four
upper-level workshops, one of which must be in a second genre, and in having students take
two special topics seminars and produce a creative thesis in the final semester.
The fourth peer program, at Columbia, is not part of an English major and requires more
seminars specific to the major (vs. literature seminars, as in an English department). Yet like
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this program, we will require students to take a cognate course in a field outside of English
or Creative Writing in order to broaden their knowledge of narrative.
Further Features of an Effective Undergraduate Minor in Creative Writing. Other
recommendations by the AWP include ensuring that the program be taught by an
accomplished and stable faculty who will be evaluated by students each term; that students
are further inspired by outstanding visiting writers and a strong program of public readings;
that admission be selective; that classes remain small; that students have the chance to work
on a literary journal; that students have the chance to present public readings. We meet every
one of these recommendations, and have done so for decades. On selectivity: admission to
the program will be competitive, based upon an application submitted in the spring of the
second year; this application will include a statement of purpose, a writing sample, and a
faculty recommendation, and will be reviewed by three faculty members. To begin, we plan
to keep the program intimate, admitting ten students per year. If demand increases (as recent
emails from students suggest that it will), we will open a second cycle of admissions in the
fall.
Finally, further hallmarks of strong programs, according to the AWP, are that students have
access to internships and other vocational possibilities and receive support to attend literary
conferences. This latter group of recommendations we will work toward meeting.
Altogether, our proposed APLP not only matches but exceeds the requirements of programs
offered by peer institutions and is on its way to meeting all AWP recommendations.
6. Program Evaluation
We believe there will be a consistent demand for our Literary Prose Concentration based on
the performance of its poetry equivalent over the last decade and the continuous interest
expressed by current undergraduates, prospective majors, and prospective applicants to the
College. Like the Poetry Writing Concentration, we believe the Literary Prose Concentration
is best comprised by a small cohort of undergraduates who work closely with our creative
writing faculty in advanced coursework. The poetry concentration has had no difficulty
filling its slots each year, and we expect the prose concentration, if anything, to be even more
popular. There are plenty of candidates. For example, we traditionally offer only five
sections of ENWR 2600, our Introduction to Fiction Writing course, but in Fall 2014, we
offered seven sections. On the first day of classes, every section was filled to capacity and
had a waitlist, in some cases a dozen students deep—and this was with SIS restrictions that
limited enrollment mostly to first- and second-year students. There is already a rising
“body” of students interested in advanced prose work.
We do, however, plan to re-evaluate the concentration’s success periodically through several
measures:
- The number of applications to the concentration each year (to measure future
demand)
- Student evaluations of the concentration by graduating fourth-years (to gauge current
student satisfaction with the concentration)
Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose
September 5, 2014
Page 13
-
Statistical data collected from Literary Prose Concentration alumni, specifically if
they have applied to graduate creative writing programs, graduate program in
literature, or professional schools within five years after leaving U.Va., and their
acceptance rates.
While we believe the Literary Prose Concentration will have no problem filling its small
number of positions, we intend to implement the following responses to various enrollment
scenarios:
Over-demand. Because we intend to keep the number of students in the concentration very
small, too many applications would simply result in a more competitive selection process.
While we believe our first annual application pools will be relatively modest in number (ten
to fifteen), larger application pools would simply create a more difficult selection process for
the faculty, but not a larger number of students in the concentration itself. We think this is
the most likely enrollment scenario, especially as “word of mouth” from one English major
spreads to another.
Under-demand. We think an under-demand scenario, with fewer than ten students
applying in multiple years, is unlikely. However, the first remediation strategy would be
increased marketing of the prose concentration. As we do already, we would encourage our
MFA students, the instructors who lead ENWR 2600, to encourage their best students to
apply for the concentration. If this one-on-one encouragement does not yield adequate
applications, advanced SIS users in our creative writing offices can collect course lists of
prior ENWR 2600 students, creating a broad pool of students to email. We would also
leverage broader English Department email lists and websites, and consider streamlining
application procedures if need be. If these additional marketing efforts fail, we would reevaluate the program using student and faculty feedback.
Demand with Significant Fluctuation. Our approach to this scenario would be similar to
under-demand: increased marketing, streamlined applications. We believe that our creative
writing graduate students and faculty can already encourage many of the best undergraduate
writers to apply. However, if we see periodic low application numbers, we will need to
broaden our marketing efforts.
Initial Bulge Then Decline. We think this scenario unlikely given the immense popularity
of our narrative classes, even amid the chatter of a student body immersed in Facebook,
Twitter, and streaming movies. We believe that telling stories—fictional and nonfictional—is
hardwired into the human condition. And we believe that our creative writing and English
faculty members still have a few tricks to show the smart-phone generation. However, if the
concentration were to face multiple years of declining applications, we most likely would
revisit the concentration’s design and requirements. Combining the poetry and prose
concentrations might be another remote possibility, if enrollments in both declined for
several years.
Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose
September 5, 2014
Page 14
7. Final Remarks
Since the famous William Faulkner visits of the 1950s, U.Va. has had a reputation as a
university seriously committed to creative writing. Over the years our undergraduate and
very highly ranked graduate programs have burnished this reputation. The APLP is the next
step, perhaps even an overdue next step, but we see it less as filling a hole than as a
laboratory for the practice and pedagogy of creative writing. We recognize that there are
new directions we may want to go, and see both our undergraduate concentrations – the
APPW and the APLP - as the vehicles. Among these new directions:



Digital storytelling. Colleagues in the English Department and in the Academic
Writing Program have more experience in this area than our core faculty, and we
anticipate working with them to develop courses and thinking in digital narrative as
part of the APLP.
Digital Arts. Very recent informal conversations among the arts chairs and
directors of the College have suggested that digital arts may offer a truly
interdisciplinary, and indeed, inter-school, opportunity for a cohort of exceptionally
creative and technologically savvy students. We would anticipate participating in
such efforts through the APLP.
Science writing and other knowledge-based prose. While the point may be
obvious, it is worth repeating that every year many hundreds of students graduate
with Bachelor’s Degrees in highly specialized fields, but do not desire to follow their
love for the subject into graduate school. Thus, some coursework in science and
environmental writing – or, popular history and biography, travel writing, arts and
music criticism - could help prepare these students for a most rewarding alternate
route to pursuing their interests.
Jane Alison
Sydney Blair
Elizabeth Denton
James Livingood
Christopher Tilghman, Director