New IU dual degree to combine culture with creative writing

IU used to have a lot of first places. It used to be the No.1 party school in the country. It used to be home to the No.1 basketball team in the country. But now, IU can finally add an up-to-date first to its list.

IU proclaimed the first joint Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and African-American and African Diaspora Studies in the nation on Oct. 14.

The four-year MA/MFA degree will provide students with faculty and resources in a creative writing program, said Jennifer Piurek, assistant managing editor for University Communications.

“Students who come seeking this dual degree will infuse the IU community with creative and diverse ways to view the African American and African Diaspora through original works of poetry, stories, fiction, etc.” said Professor Iris Rosa, co-director of African American and African Diaspora Studies Graduate Studies.

Piurek said students could take a fiction workshop with a course on the traditions in African-American novels, a poetry workshop with a course of contemporary black poetry or a course on the Harlem Renaissance with a study of theory and craft of writing.

Ross Gay, an MFA faculty member, said students will learn about African-American literature and how they can form their own writing, aesthetic and sensibility.

Gay will be joining the faculty of the new program.

“Next semester, I’ll be teaching a class on African-American poetry after the Black Arts Movement. This will give students a strong sense of the various developments in black poetry since the last major, coherent and critically apprised movement,” Gay said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

The graduate program is relatively small with 36 students currently enrolled, and it works to recruit a strong and diverse class as possible, according to IU’s Creative Writing Program Web site.

Currently, nearly two-thirds of the program’s 36 MFA students are African American, Latino, Asian American or Native American, Piurek said.

“By its very nature, we do not anticipate the degree attracting huge numbers of applicants,” said Professor John McCluskey, former chair of the AAADS department. “The program should benefit the students both in terms of intellectual and academic focus and enhance their credentials when seeking employment upon graduation.”

Rosa said the new program will give students ample opportunities in different fields of work.

“Students who seek this dual degree will have opportunities,” she said, “to work in colleges, universities, public school systems, write scripts for theatre productions, produce works of poetry, write novels and be citizens who inform the public through their creative art form.”

“The opportunities are endless.”