Q: Can I get teaching experience while getting
this degree?
A: Yes, you can be hired to teach English 99,
remedial composition, and you also have the opportunity to act as a teaching
assistant in other undergraduate composition as well as literature
classes. In addition, you will be
eligible to work as a tutor in the Writing Center.
Q. Does the English department have a literary
magazine? Would I have the opportunity
to work on it?
A. SSU’s English Department is home to two
award-winning literary magazines—zaum, a student magazine edited and produced
completely by students, and Volt, the national, Pushcart
Prize-winning magazine known for publishing innovative work. Students can be involved in everything from
editing to distribution.
Q. Is there a reading series?
A. Every spring. Our series has hosted
Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and nationally and internationally known
writers, including Yusef Komunyakaa, Lyn Hejinian, Lynn Freed, James Alan
McPherson, Rae Armantrout, Clark Coolidge, Michael Palmer, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, and Robert Creeley. We try to bring in writers with a broad
range of aesthetics and sensibilities.
Q. Will I get any exposure to agents and
editors?
A. Agents and editors come to campus to speak
and answer questions every year.
Q. What are the graduate level workshops like
A. Supportive, rigorous, challenging, and
generative.
Q. What are the benefits of an MA in English,
with a Creative Writing Concentration?
A. We believe the best training for a writer is
to read, and to know literature in depth.
The graduates who leave our program tell us again and again how much the
reading we require of them has fed their writing and furthered their
development as writers.
Q. Will
my writing get enough attention?
A. This is what we pride ourselves on most.
Besides participating in writing workshops, you will work one-on-one with your
mentor for the duration of the program.
Q. What is entailed in the creative thesis?
A. The thesis is a book-length manuscript—a
novel, a collection of poems, a nonfiction book, or a collection of stories
ready to send out for publication. It
will also contain a critical introduction in which you articulate your own
aesthetic theory.
Q. What does this degree prepare me for?
A. With this degree, you are qualified to teach
any English class at the community college level. You can also go on for an MFA or Ph.D. In addition, you will also have a manuscript ready for
publication.
Q. What is the atmosphere like in the program?
A. Students admitted to the program find it
rigorous, challenging, and exciting.
They enjoy the intimacy of the program as well as the support they
receive from both the faculty and other students in the creative writing
community.