Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 1 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. Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 2 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 Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 3 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 Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 4 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- Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 5 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. Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 6 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. Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 7 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 Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 8 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 Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 9 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 Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 10 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 Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 11 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 Proposal for the Area Program in Literary Prose September 5, 2014 Page 12 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