MAPH

The Masters of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) Creative Writing Specialization is intended for students who plan to do a creative writing thesis project in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. Unlike MFA programs at other institutions that offer more strictly professionally-oriented training in writing, students at UChicago are encouraged to develop their writing skills in the context of interdisciplinary humanistic study. Students may wish to do so in the course of a year of intensive study of literature, or, perhaps, philosophy, music, or art history.

Students completing the Creative Writing Specialization take:

• 1 CRWR course in the student's chosen genre in Autumn Quarter
• 1 CRWR Thesis/Major Projects Workshop in Winter Quarter
• 3 academic courses relevant to the proposed thesis area
• 2 elective courses to be taken in any area of student interest

MAPH Creative Writing Specialists have the option to enroll in a Winter Quarter Creative Writing Thesis Workshop and complete a creative writing thesis. The instructor of the Winter Quarter Creative Writing Thesis Workshop will act as the student's thesis advisor throughout the Spring Quarter. In addition to this, specialists will also complete a critical essay about the project. 

Instructor permission is required for graduate students enrolling in Creative Writing (CRWR) courses. Two seats are reserved for graduate students in our Workshop I, Workshop II, Thesis Workshop, and Creative Writing Studio courses. 

The Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) Option in Poetics is intended for students who are primarily interested in the critical study of poetry and poetics. Offered in cooperation with the University’s Program in Poetry and Poetics, this option facilitates a critical engagement with the poetry of numerous historical periods, geographical regions, and aesthetic traditions, including modern and contemporary English language poetry. 

Students enrolled in this option are required to take the MAPH Core course in Autumn Quarter, the Poetics seminar, and three courses on the study of poetry and poetics from any number of departments and committees across the Arts & Humanities Division. (Relevant courses in the Social Sciences Division may also count toward these requirements.) Of these three courses, one must be on pre-Romantic poetry, one on non-Anglophone poetry (which can be studied in English translation), and one on modern and/or contemporary poetry. Students will consult with their MAPH preceptors and advisors on how to fulfill these distribution requirements, and may petition to substitute other courses for these requirements under special circumstances. Additionally, students in the MAPH Poetics Option will write a thesis with a relation to poetry and poetics under the supervision of a faculty member in the Poetics Program.

Further opportunities for students in the Poetics Option may include internships at Chicago Review—the University’s graduate student-run literary journal—and participation in the Poetics Workshop, a bi-weekly colloquium for the peer review of student and faculty work. Students in the option also benefit from frequent visits to campus by nationally-recognized poets through the Poetics Program’s “Poem Present” reading series, and talks by distinguished visiting scholars through the “History and Forms of Lyric” lecture series.