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Creative Writing
Director: Professor Linsey Abrams
NAC 6/210; 212-650-6340; gradenglish@ccny.cuny.edu
For more than three decades City College has offered serious writing students a chance to meet one another and to work under the guidance of a legendary faculty. Writers who have taught at City College include Donald Barthelme, David Bradley, Harold Brodkey, Gwendolyn Brooks, Anthony Burgess, Alfred Corn, Francine du Plessix Gray, John Hawkes, Joseph Heller, Maureen Howard, George Lamming, Ann Lauterbach, William Matthews, Edna O'Brien, Joel Oppenheimer, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Manuel Puig, Adrienne Rich and Susan Sontag.
The Program's graduate curriculum in English and American literature, which constitutes half an MFA student's credits, is developed and taught by distinguished members of the English Department faculty. Writing students, enlivened and challenged by the formal study of literature, have called these courses "a writer's ideal education."
Requirements
1. Forty-two credits are required for the degree: Creative Writing Workshops: 15 / Critical Practice Seminars: 9 / Literature Seminars: 15 / Thesis Tutorial: 3. The Graduate English courses are worth three credits each.
2. The thesis must be a mature, substantial body of work: a collection of stories or poems, or a novel. The student will ask a faculty member to be the mentor and will, in consultation with the mentor, decide on a project.
3. There is no foreign language requirement for M.F.A. students who enrolled in Fall 2011 or subsequent semesters. (Note: students who enrolled before Fall 2011 must pass a foreign language translation exam, given once a semester, or receive a grade of B or above in the translation workshop before the M.F.A. degree can be earned.)
4. Full-time study consists of three courses per semester: one CW workshop and two seminars in either literature or critical practice. Part-time study, taking one or two courses a semester, is common in the program.
Writing Faculty
* Fiction: Salar Abdoh, Linsey Abrams, Keith Gandal, Mark Jay Mirsky, Emily Raboteau
* Poetry: Michelle Valladares
* Children's Literature: Pamela Laskin
* Translation: David Unger
Guest Faculty
* Poetry: Elaine Equi, David Groff
* Fiction & Nonfiction: Ernesto Mestre, Michael Archer
* Playwriting: Marc Palmieri
