The University of Central Arkansas in Conway will soon offer a new masters degree in creative writing.
The state Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the new program during its two-day meeting in Batesville.
The master of fine arts in creative writing is only offered at one other college in the state — the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. The masters is considered a terminal degree in the discipline.
The University of Central Arkansas is home to the literary journal the Toad Suck Review and the undergraduate journal the Vortex as well as the Oxford American magazine.
“Years of work on the part of core UCA faculty, including Associate Professor of Creative Writing Mark Spitzer, who wrote the program proposal, have gone into making this a deliberate, innovative program that is serious about preparing the next generation of writers to succeed in the 21st- century literary landscape,” said Stephanie Vanderslice, associate professor of creative writing and the program’s first director.
The Arkansas Writers MFA at UCA will focus on extensive courses in craft taught by practicing writers, as well courses as in editing and publishing and in the teaching of writing and creative writing.
The program will begin in the fall of 2012. It is three-year, 60-credit degree program that will also include the production of a thesis containing original literary work. The application deadline for the first year will be March 15, 2012.