CSUSB to offer MFA in creative writing

From the university's Web page:

New M.F.A. in creative writing offered at CSUSB
Jan. 7, 2008
By Sam Romero

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Looking to fine tune the literary skills of future novelists and poets, the sole creative writing Master of Fine Arts program offered in San Bernardino County will launch at Cal State San Bernardino in fall 2009.

The new writing program is accepting applications through April 1, 2009. General applications for admission to the university run through March 1.

"The pool is deep and in need of tapping," said Jim Brown, the M.F.A. coordinator in fiction, speaking of students around the inland region - an area often stereotyped as a weak source of culture and talent. "We've placed students at UCR, UCI, Syracuse, University of Massachusetts and many other prestigious schools," he said. "Now it's time to keep our students local and give them a voice here at Cal State San Bernardino."

A two-year terminal studio arts degree, the M.F.A. program requires writers to choose a concentration in fiction or poetry and, by the end of the program, produce a publishable, book-length manuscript. The book requirement is pretty typical of an M.F.A. program, Brown said. "It's our thesis."

Untypical, however, is that the degree offers a teaching focus in composition, the "beef-steak" of part-time work in higher education, he said.

The five CSUSB faculty, including Brown, who will teach in the M.F.A. program are all nationally recognized writers. Brown's work includes essays, novels and short stories. His "L.A. Diaries" has been optioned for film by Art Monterastelli, producer and writer for "The Hunted" and his personal reflections on his mentor, writer Oakley Hall, who passed away in October and was instrumental in UC Irvine's graduate creative writing program, was recently published in Orange Coast Magazine.

Brown's colleagues, Kevin Moffett and Glen Hirshberg, also have been widely published. Moffett's writing has appeared in McSweeney's, Tin House and The Chicago Tribune, while Hirshberg has published two collections of stories and two books. Poets Julie Paegle and Juan Delgado round out the M.F.A. program's faculty team. Paegle has appeared in literary publications such as The Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Best New Poets and Prairie Schooner. Delgado has published several books of poetry, including "A Rush of Hands," which is in its second printing.

For more information on the M.F.A. in creative writing, call the CSUSB English department at (909) 537-5824.

For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university's Office of Public Affairs at (909) 537-5007 and visit the news Web site at http://news.csusb.edu.