Department of Creative Writing and Literary Arts

Department_of_Creative_Writing_and_Literary_Arts(2)
Department of Creative Writing and Literary Arts

Master of Fine Arts
in Fiction, Literary Nonfiction, or Poetry

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is a low-residency program in creative writing that emphasizes a literary approach to exploring and redefining relationships between people and place. We take advantage of the North's boundless terrain to help writers discover their own place in the world. This philosophy encompasses a landscape of memory, family, and culture, making it possible to imagine anything and to write about it—from the local to the global, from the personal to the communal and from the unlimited mind to the infinite universe.

The MFA is a 45-credit degree program taken over a three-year period.  One course, worth five-credits each, is taken each semester for nine semesters.  The course work culminates in a book-length thesis of creative work accompanied by a critical essay and an annotated bibliography.  The accredited degree program offers studies in three genres: Fiction, Literary Nonfiction, and Poetry that will teach students how to master craft, read the classic works that define the evolution of their genre, and develop skills to balance the demands of life with the discipline of writing.

2012 Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Series

The 2012 Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Lecture Series began on Sunday, July 8th with prize winning author Gary Snyder as our series keynote speaker.  The Series continued with readings by all the UAA Department of Creative Writing and Literary Arts faculty and special guest David Kranes. 

Gary Snyder

Snyder 3002013 Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Series

The 2013 Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Lecture Series is scheduled for Sunday, July 14th through Tuesday, July 23rd.  Visit us again in early June 2013 for a Readings Schedule.

 

 

We all know that the power of a great poem is not that we felt that person expressed himself well.  We don't think that.  What we think is "How deeply I am touched."  That's our level of response.  And so a great poet does not express his or her self; he expresses all of our selves. ~Gary Snyder