The variety of graduate courses offered by the Department of English provides candidates for the MFA in Creative Writing with an opportunity for advanced study of the works of literary masters. All courses are held in the late afternoon or evening, allowing most students to schedule work and college obligations easily. A wide variety of literary topics, periods, and genres is covered.

Except for the Fiction MFA students, who, in their first semester, take "The Craft of Fiction" (English 7910X) in lieu of a literature course, all full-time MFA students take one literature course each term, in addition to their workshop and tutorial. This literature requirement may be satisfied in the following ways: through enrolling in one of the Masters-level courses offered by the English Department; the cross-genre crafts course (poetry, fiction, and playwriting--open only to second-year students, with enrollment limited to ten, offered approximately every three or four semesters); a literature group tutorial (English 7940X) limited to five students, offered in a year-by-year rotation by a member of the playwriting, fiction, or poetry faculties; an individual tutorial (an option the student may choose only once); a graduate course at any CUNY campus, including the CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College; up to a maximum of two 7000-level courses from the departments of Art, History, Modern Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Speech, Television and Radio, or Theater or the Conservatory of Music; the substitution of one writing workshop or tutorial outside the major writing concentration for one literature course. The following 7000-level English courses do not count toward the literature elective requirement: 7011X, 7010X, 7507X. Students wishing to take 7000-level courses outside of the English department and the departments specified above must receive prior approval from the Graduate Deputy (Boylan 2314, phone: 718-951-5197).  The elective requirement is critically important, and failure to fulfill it will impede completion of the degree.

Literature courses can be viewed at these links: fall term courses | spring term courses. (Please note: these links will take you to the MA Program section of the English Department website. To return to the MFA section, press your browser's "back" button.)