Newswise — The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at the University of Mississippi has been recognized by The Atlantic Monthly magazine as one of five "Up-and-Coming Programs" in the nation.
Other institutions on the list, printed in the periodical's Fiction 2007 issue, are Brooklyn College, Ohio State University, Rutgers University at Newark and the University of Wisconsin.
"To be named in The Atlantic this way is recognition of a lot of hard work on the part of our students, faculty and administration," said David Galef, professor of English and administrator of the MFA program.
In his Atlantic essay "Where Great Writers Are Made," journalist and fiction author Edward J. Delaney writes, "Some programs, such as Mississippi's and Brooklyn's, seem to form around a dynamic teacher " Barry Hannah and Michael Cunningham, respectively."
Hannah, an acclaimed author who has won numerous awards and other recognition, is a long-standing writer-in-residence at the university. He serves as director of the MFA program, which remains the only one of its kind in the state.
In making selections for the Atlantic list, Delaney personally visited some 30 of the nation's 300 colleges with creative writing programs and contacted many others long distance to interview program directors, faculty, students and graduates. He discovered that aspiring writers consider several factors " including funding, size, selectivity and location " when choosing an MFA program.
Since UM's program began in 2000, it has stayed small and selective, attracted outstanding students, retained its exceptional faculty and been supported with private funding.
"We are thriving because of great students, an excellent faculty and generous financial support from John and Renee Grisham," Galef said.
For three years straight, UM students in the program have garnered inclusion in Best New American Voices, an anthology of the best of fiction workshops across the country. Other student recognition includes the Association of Writing Programs Intro Award for Non-Fiction, the Iron Horse Discovery Award for Poetry, the Best American Poetry 2007 award and publication in a number of national magazines.
"This result is due to the efforts of an innovative teaching staff and a department dedicated to keeping the spirit of creative writing alive and well in Mississippi," said Patrick Quinn, chair and professor of English.
"The news comes as verification of what we've already suspected " that our program is doing everything right," said Beth Ann Fennelly, associate professor of English. "We're wildly proud of our students' successes, and the notice our program has received is particularly remarkable in that our program is relatively young and underfunded."
For more information about the Department of English, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/.(edwin smith)
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