New Guide Advises Writers on "Low-Residency" Programs in Creative Writing

A new guide for those considering graduate study in creative writing, "The Practicing Writer's Primer on Low-Residency MFA Programs," offers expert advice and program assessment strategies, plus a directory of nearly two dozen programs in the United States and Canada.

(PRWEB) September 13, 2004 -- Thinking about graduate study in creative writing? Considering one of the Low-Residency" options that combines short, intensive sessions on campus with independent work back home? A new guide, The Practicing Writers Primer on Low-Residency MFA Programs," offers expert advice and program assessment strategies, plus a directory of nearly two dozen programs in the United States and Canada.

Erika Dreifus, who edits the free monthly resource newsletter, The Practicing Writer," wrote this primer to provide further information to her fellow writers. Dreifus earned A.B., Ed.M., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte.

Dreifus also credits her teaching and advising experiences for motivating her to focus on this particular project. Im not convinced that theres a single 'best program out there, one that every writer who hopes to attend an MFA program should aim for," she says. Each person has a unique set of talents, strengths, and academic and professional needs and goals; it makes sense that each persons program search should be different." Her purpose, she says, is to help potential MFA students locate the programs that may be most appropriate for them.

To that end the Primer includes a set of self-assessment questions writers can use to determine whether the low-residency option is a good one for them in the first place; a list of what Dreifus calls consideration categories," or issues she recommends applicants keep in mind when assessing individual programs; and a directory of graduate degree-granting MFA programs administered through a low-residency model.

Dreifus has focused on low-residency programs not only because she investigated them when she decided to earn a graduate degree in creative writing herself, but because theres a remarkable degree of interest in these programs. So many new ones have developed in the past few years, with more launching all the time."

For more information about The Practicing Writers Primer on Low-Residency MFA Programs, please see http://www.practicing-writer.com

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