MFA in Creative Writing for Writers of Spanish

Core Faculty, continued Kelly McMasters is the co-editor of the anthology This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home (2017) and the author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town. The book was listed as one of Oprah’s top 5 summer memoirs and is the basis for the documentary film The Atomic States of America. Her essays, reviews, and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, The Paris Review, The American Scholar, River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, Tin House, Newsday, Time Out New York, Columbia Magazine, and MrBellersNeighborhood.com, among others. She has received a Pushcart nomination and an Orion Book Award nomination. Read more about her work at kellymcmasters.com.

Martha McPhee is the author of the novels Bright Angel Time, Gorgeous Lies, L’America, and Dear Money. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and she has been nominated for a National Book Award. She has written essays and reviews for The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, More, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and The American Scholar. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Red Book, and Open City. She is at work on a fifth novel. Read her blog and more about her work at marthamcphee.com.

J. Stephen Russell is professor of English at Hofstra University, where he has served since 1983. He earned a PhD in English literature from Johns Hopkins University, with a specialization in medieval English literature. He is the author of The English Dream Vision: Anatomy of a Form (1988), Writing at Work (1985, rpt., 1993), Allegoresis: The Craft of Allegory in Medieval Literature (1988), Chaucer and the Trivium: The Mindsong of the Canterbury Tales (1998), The Cause (fiction, 2009), and over 30 articles and reviews on English, French, and Latin writers from the fourth through the 15th century. At Hofstra he teaches medieval literature, literary theory, and science fiction. From 2001 to 2007 he was the first dean of Hofstra University Honors College.

Hofstra University is an EO/AA/ADA educator and employer.

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for Writers of Spanish hofstra.edu/mfa

For more information about the MFA in Creative Writing for writers of Spanish, please contact: Office of Graduate Admission Phone: 516-463-4723 Email: graduateadmission@hofstra.edu

MFA in Creative Writing MFA in Creative Writing

Photo credit Jaime Toussaint

Miguel-Angel Zapata holds a doctoral degree in romance languages from Washington University. A prolific poet, anthologist, and literary theorist, he recently published Hoy dia es otro mundo [Today is Another World]; La Nota 13 [Note 13]; and Uno scrive poesia camminando [One Writes Poetry Walking], tr. Emilio Coco (Italy: Ladolfi Editore, 2016). He was awarded the 2011 Latino Literature Prize in the Poetry Category for his book Fragmentos de una manzana y otros poemas [Fragments of an Apple and Other Poems] (Seville: Sibilina, 2011), among others. Earlier published works include Ensayo sobre la rosa: Poesía selecta (2010), Mario Vargas Llosa and the Persistence of Memory (2006), A Sparrow in the House of Seven Patios (2005), El cielo que me escribe (2002), Moradas de la voz. Notas sobre poesía hispanoamericana contemporánea (2002), Escribir bajo el polvo (2000), and Lumbre de la letra (1997).

for Writers of Spanish hofstra.edu/mfa

AWARD-WINNING CORE FACULTY

WHY CHOOSE HOFSTRA?

Photo credit Jaime Toussaint

In Hofstra’s MFA program, students work in an intimate community of writers and readers. They have the resources, time, and freedom to concentrate on their creative development while immersing themselves in the study of literature. Our MFA program gives students the opportunity to: • �Work with award-winning, published faculty – in both Spanish and English – devoted to teaching talented students.

• Enjoy close working relationships with faculty in small writing seminars.

• �Interact with nationally and internationally renowned writers through Hofstra’s Great Writers, Great Readings Series (hofstra.edu/gwgr).

• �Integrate graduate writing seminars with courses in literature that examine the linguistic and cultural traditions that shape and inform contemporary Spanish and English writing.

• �Take courses at times that accommodate busy working schedules (late afternoons and early evenings, Monday through Thursday).

STUDENT BODY

At the heart of our program are workshops, craft courses, and literature seminars led by a distinguished faculty of actively publishing writers of international reputation. With close mentoring, students discover their authentic voice and come to understand their place in the world as literary artists.

TEACHING FELLOWSHIPS Registered students in good standing are eligible for fellowships to work with a faculty mentor while teaching either general creative writing or a genrespecific undergraduate workshop. Students apply for this opportunity, which may be repeated, during the semester prior to the one in which they wish to participate.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS • �Successful completion of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited university with an overall GPA of at least 3.0.

• �Twelve (12) semester hours of advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in literature (in English or Spanish) with a grade of B or better. Motivated students who have concentrated in other disciplines will also be considered based on the strength of their application.

• �A creative writing portfolio of 15-30 pages of original work in one genre (poetry, playwriting, fiction, creative nonfiction), written in Spanish, to be evaluated by the creative writing faculty. Please visit hofstra.edu/mfa for more details.

• �A personal statement describing the student’s rationale for applying to the program, as well as the student’s interests and literary influences.

• Two or three letters of recommendation.

photo credit Diego Berruecos

Hofstra’s location – 25 miles from New York City, the literary and publishing capital of the world – makes it ideally situated to offer an MFA in creative writing with a concentration in Spanish. The program is the first of its kind on Long Island and the second in the New York metropolitan area.

Photo credit Sigrid Estrada.

Hofstra now offers the Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing for Writers of Spanish. The program draws innovatively on the talents and experiences of Hofstra’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and Department of English faculty. This dynamic program integrates literary scholarship and focused instruction in writing, allowing students to graduate with a terminal degree in dramatic writing, fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. The curriculum consists of 36 semester hours of courses in creative writing and literature, of which 21 semester hours are in Spanish. Financial resources include scholarships, teaching or publishing fellowships, and the Judith Jedlicka Award.

Hofstra’s MFA program serves a diverse student body. Some students are motivated writers who recently completed their undergraduate studies; others enter our program with an impressive body of professional experience or other advanced degrees. This diversity of life experience fuels the creative process in the classroom, allowing for animated workshops and exciting discussions.

Álvaro Enrigue was a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library and a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores of Mexico. His work, written in Spanish or English, has appeared in The New York Times, El País, The Believer, Letras Libres, and The New York and London Review of Books, among others. He is the author of five novels, three books of short stories, and one of literary criticism, published by Anagrama in Spanish and Dalkey Archive and Riverhead in English. His novel Sudden Death, first published in Spain as Muerte Súbita in 2013, was awarded the prestigious Herralde Prize in Spain, the Elena Poniatowska International Novel Award in Mexico, and the Barcelona Prize for Fiction. Enrigue was born in Mexico and lives in New York City.

Phillis Levin’s Mr. Memory & Other Poems (2016) was a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is the author of four other poetry collections, May Day (2008), Mercury (2001), The Afterimage (1995), and Temples and Fields (1988), and is the editor of The Penguin Book of the Sonnet (2001).

Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Grand Street, Poetry, The Nation, Paris Review, The Plume Anthology, Kenyon Review, The Yale Review, The New Republic, The Poetry Review, and many other magazines and anthologies. Her honors include the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award; a Fulbright Scholar Award to Slovenia; the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship; a Bogliasco Fellowship; and grants from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Read more at phillislevin.com.

Valeria Luiselli published a book of personal essays titled Papeles falsos (Sidewalks) in 2010, and her work has been published in magazines and newspapers such as Letras Libres and The New York Times. Her first novel, Los ingrávidos (Faces in the Crowd) was originally published by Sexto Piso in April 2011 and in the U.K. by Granta in May 2012. In 2014 she was named one of the “5 Under 35” by the National Book Foundation (U.S.). Her most recent novel, La historia de mis dientes (The Story of My Teeth) was one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015 and won the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Asymptote, McSweeney, and Granta. She recently completed a PhD in comparative literature at Columbia University. Luiselli’s most recent book is Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions (2017), which is structured around 40 questions she asked of undocumented Latin American children facing deportation.

Julia Markus is a novelist and biographer whose fourth biography, Lady Byron and Her Daughters, published in 2015, presents the previously maligned Lady Byron in an astonishing new light. She received expansive reviews in The New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal’s weekend edition called Lady Byron and Her Daughters “deliciously absorbing …” She toured with the book in the United States and in the U.K. and was shortlisted for the prestigious Elma Dangerfield Prize. Her other works include the novel Uncle, which won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Award, and the biography Dared and Done: The Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. She has received an NEA fellowship and two NEH awards, and she is presently a judge for the Plutarch Prize in biography. Read more at juliamarkuswrites.com.