Creative Writing FAQs

"How do I write a proposal for my thesis and get a committee together, and when should I do that?"

GUIDELINES FOR MFA THESES PROPOSALS AND MANUSCRIPTS
If you are planning to graduate in the spring, you should find a major professor by the fall (someone you have had workshops with who is in your major genre(s) and with whom you feel comfortable). You should also ask two other members of the English department (at least one should teach in the MFA program) to serve as readers on your thesis. Please email me as soon as you have your committee set up and let me know who is on the committee and who is directing your thesis.

You should work with your major professor to establish a reasonable timeline for writing and submitting your proposal and meeting with your thesis committee (I would recommend the meeting regarding your proposal take place by the middle of the fall semester).

The proposal should be 5-10 pages in length and include a substantial bibliography. In the proposal you will introduce readers to your project (what is it, why is it important, etc.) and to your aesthetic vision. You should discuss your own voice and the writers who have influenced your voice. What do you plan to accomplish with this creative thesis? How do you plan to do it? Why do you write the way you do? What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? Think of the proposal as setting a context for your project and giving us a place to begin a discussion about what you plan to do. The bibliography should list books, both creative and critical, that have influenced you as a writer. You should be conversant with your genre, and especially the important contemporary creative works published in your genre

Although I encourage students to write new work for each workshop, your thesis can be composed of revisions of any work you have done while at Chatham. The idea is to collect your best work (if you doing a collection of poems, stories, or essays), or finish a long piece you might have begun in another class. You want to produce a publishable work, if at all possible. A reasonable length would be anywhere between 50 and 100 pages of creative work, plus a 5-10 page introduction.