Friday, November 5th, 2010

West Virginia Wesleyan is launching a new program for aspiring prose and poetry writers, the Low Residency Master of Fine Arts Program.  The program will serve non-traditional or returning students who do not want a full-time residential program, since it requires only 20 days per year on campus. Students spend ten days in July and ten in January meeting with their faculty mentor and setting up the course of study for the next semester. They also participate in workshops, lectures, and seminars in their area of interest.

During the semester, they send writing to be critiqued by their faculty mentor, who sends it back within a week. Faculty mentors have no more than four students, guaranteeing a close relationship. The program offers interested writers the opportunity to explore the connection between place and identity, focusing on their home area, one of the field study destinations, such as Ireland, or the Appalachian region itself. The program will officially launch in July, 2011 with a three-day literary festival, and the deadline for applications is March 1, 2011.

Interested writers should contact Dr. Irene McKinney, Director of the program at Wesleyan at mckinney_i@wvwc.edu. Dr. McKinney is West Virginia State Poet Laureate, and the author of five books of poetry.