Elyse Littleton
Pick up your pens and broaden your imagination: The University of Mississippi’s English department is adding a Bachelor of Fine Arts in creative writing to its repertoire for students. This is the first program of its kind among schools in the Southeastern Conference and one of few nationwide.
Senior English major Emily Suh sees the new program as filling a gap many current English students have recognized by giving students the chance to deepen their studies into genres of interest.
“Throughout my career as an English major, I have heard many conversations on how some students would have liked more specialized courses with certain genres like science fiction or fantasy rather than the general idea of fiction,” she said.
Suh hopes that the program will provide even more opportunities as it grows.
“The BFA program will hopefully bring more opportunities for these specializations, but as of right now, it’s already a huge leap to have a degree that will focus on the creative writing aspect itself rather than it being an add-on,” Suh said.
Senior lecturer in English Dustin Parsons will serve as the program’s first director and will help students who wish to pursue a more specialized degree track. This program aims to give students the opportunity to learn how to write in multiple genres — poetry, screenwriting, fiction, non-fiction and nature writing. The curriculum will also help students publish original work.
Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of English Caroline Wigginton explained that the program will allow students to have more exposure in writing for all genres as compared to students who major in English. Through the new program, students will be able to pursue a variety of careers whether they wish to become an author or work in publishing
Although there is a current emphasis in creative writing for English majors, the BFA’s curriculum is different. The creative writing emphasis for English requires at least three workshop courses, whereas the creative writing BFA program requires double the amount with various offerings.
The BFA curriculum will emphasize more writing and workshops, as well as a senior thesis. The final senior thesis is also compatible with an Honors College thesis.
“Workshops are a way to create an interactive space where you can receive feedback from everyone in the class,” Suh said. “It’s also a small and intimate space where everyone in the course has a common goal: create an excellent piece of writing. This brings these students together, and you’re forced to have conversations about your work.”
The process of proposing a new academic program is long. The BFA in creative writing has been in the works since before COVID-19, Wigginton said, but due to the pandemic, the process was slowed down.
Now that the program has been approved, the application is available to all interested students via the program’s website. The priority deadline for current students is Oct. 1, and the priority deadline for incoming freshmen and transfer students is Jan. 10.
“We don’t see the BFA in creative writing as an exclusive degree and that only people who have a lot of experience and training can apply. We want to encourage creative writing for all of our students,” Wigginton said.
