LU MFA Foundations

In the LU MFA Foundations series, our faculty members discuss or clarify foundational elements of the craft of creative writing:

The Top 5 Books That Have Influenced Us as Readers and Writers -- LU MFA Faculty

Defining Young Adult Literature -- Beth Mead

Literary Fiction & Genre Fiction -- Wm. Anthony Connolly

Defining Prose Poetry -- Eve Jones

Recommended Resource for MLA Format -- LU MFA Faculty

You? A Professional Scholar? -- Julia Gordon-Bramer

The Practice of Writing -- Wm. Anthony Connolly

Reading Like a Writer -- Tony D'Souza

On Empathy -- Kelli Allen

Recommended Glossary of Poetic Terms -- Scott Berzon

When To Stop Working on Your Novel -- Tony D'Souza

Recommended Reading for Advice to Poets -- Eve Jones

Defining Flash Fiction -- Mary Anderson

Defining Creative Nonfiction -- Catherine Rankovic

Sample Guidelines for Workshops -- Beth Mead

On Publishing Your Work-- Catherine Rankovic

For MFA students who plan to teach frosh comp:
5 Things Freshman Composition Students Need to Learn -- Beth Mead

Lindenwood University MFA in Writing Program
On-Campus or Fully Online (No Residency Requirement)

LU MFA Foundations: Defining Creative Nonfiction--Catherine Rankovic

What is Creative Nonfiction?

"Nonfiction stories that read like fiction so that readers are as enthralled by fact as they are by fantasy. The word 'creative' refers to the use of literary craft, the techniques fiction writers, playwrights, and poets employ, such as description, dialogue, and suspense, to present factually accurate prose about real people and events—described in a compelling, vivid, dramatic way."
—creativenonfiction.org

Creative nonfiction is sometimes also called "literary nonfiction" or "the literature of witness." The genre includes autobiography, memoir, history, biography, essays, nature writing, travel writing, true adventure, true crime, and pop-culture reviews and analysis.

Recommended Creative Nonfiction Books:
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
Lee Gutkind, The Best of Creative Nonfiction (anthology)
Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit
Bell Hooks, Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood
John Krakauer, Into the Wild
Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes
George Orwell, A Collection of Essays
Scott Russell Sanders, A Private History of Awe
Patti Smith, Just Kids
Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life

—Catherine Rankovic

In the LU MFA Foundations series, our faculty members 

discuss or clarify foundational elements of the craft of creative writing.

Other entries in the series are linked here.

TLR5 Acceptances

We enjoyed reading so many wonderful submissions for issue 5 of The Lindenwood Review. All submission responses have now been sent, and we are very happy to announce our acceptances for issue 5, which will be published this spring:

ESSAY:

Our Mother: A Prequel

Betty Jo Buro

Fortune Tellers

Thomas N. Mannella III

The Dog-Eared Page

Kavanaugh

POETRY:

Postcard from Bodega Bay, 1963

Michael Boccardo

Mystery

Daye Phillippo

Communion Season

Bianca Diaz

Goat

Cara Chamberlain

Dinner at Mom's

Michael Gould

Night Light

George Bishop

Light and Dark During the Sermon

George Bishop

Copperhead, Ambler Gorge

Charles Laird Calia

Learning to Paddle a Canoe

Karen Hildebrand

The Spider in My Bedroom May Be an 18th Century Privateer

John Findura

Faith

Carl Auerbach

Old Loves

Carl Auerbach

Sanctuary

Michelle Askin

In the Rain: Lake Superior

Dick Bentley

Working Draft

Gwendolyn Jensen

Late Afternoon in the Shadows of the Fruit Trees

Kelly Talbot

Solvent Can

Robert Lee Kendrick

City of Bridges

Kirk Schlueter

Paper Birthday

Jennifer Jackson Berry

Looking at Six Mile Creek

Robert Lee Kendrick

Zenith Singularity

Joddy Murray

Ventana

Alison Hicks

Killing Time

Jennifer Gray

FICTION:

A Bowl Full of Oranges

Carmelinda Blagg

Where's Billy?

Lawrence F. Farrar

Mother Superior

Jennifer Robinette

FLASH FICTION (Contest Winner & Honorable Mentions):

The Someone on the Roof

GennaRose Nethercott (Winner)

The Son of a Coal Miner

Nate Pillman

Chasing

Sarah Hausman

The Final Score

Ashley Cowger

We Passed Upon the Stair

Vallie Lynn Watson

A Promise

Maria Brandt

Still Auditioning
Eileen Malone

Disconnected
Ernesto Pavan

What She Showed Me
Bryce Emley

Thank you to all who submitted their work. Issue 6 submissions of Poetry, Fiction, and Personal Essay (updated guidelines here) will be accepted between June 1 and November 1, 2015. Details for our free Prose Poetry Contest are available here, with entries accepted between May 1 and August 1. Visit us at www.lindenwood.edu/lindenwoodReview.

LU MFA FAQs

Please visit us at www.lindenwood.edu/MFAwriting.

LU MFA in Writing Website

Prospective Student Information

LU MFA Faculty

LU MFA Foundations

The Lindenwood Review

Calls for Submission -- Send a FB friend request to Lindenwood Writing-Program

Calls for submission and literary events are posted on Facebook through our program account. Send a friend request to Lindenwood Writing-Program if you'd like to see these posts on your wall. We also have a FB page at www.facebook.com/LindenwoodMFAWriting (general program info) and a page for The Lindenwood Review, our literary journal.

Below are two recent calls posted on FB:

www.foliateoak.com

www.pen.org

Spring Quarter 2015 LU MFA Class Schedule

Current MFA students:
Click HERE to view registration instructions.

SP QTR 15 ON-CAMPUS CLUSTER:
Creative Writing for the MFA
Instructor: Kelli Allen
Wednesdays 6-10pm beginning April 8
Room: LUCC Conference Room
Read the full Cluster First Assignment post HERE

SP QTR 15 ONLINE CLASSES:
Online classes can be accessed as of Sun. April 12
First assignment post due by Mon. April 13 at 11:59pm
Read the full First Assignment info post for online classes HERE
Click on each course title below for detailed class info
Instructor bios are here

Fundamentals of Contemporary Fiction / Wm. Anthony Connolly (craft) -- FULL

Focused Fiction Workshop: George Saunders / Zachary Vickers (workshop/literature)

The Prose Collection: Raymond Carver / Mary Anderson (literature/craft)

Genre Fiction Workshop: Focused Sci-Fi Workshop / Kelli Allen (workshop/craft) -- FULL

Genre Fiction as Literature: Young Adult Literature / Beth Mead (literature) -- FULL

Narrative Journalism / Tony D'Souza (workshop/craft)

The Personal Essay (workshop/craft) / Andrew Pryor (section OL1) / David Hollingsworth (OL2) -- both sections FULL

The Long Poem / Scott Berzon (craft/workshop)

Prose Poetry / Eve Jones (workshop/craft) -- FULL

Selected Emphases in Poetry: Sylvia Plath & the Tarot / Julia Gordon-Bramer (literature/craft)

Special Topics: Manuscript Preparation and Publication / Catherine Rankovic (craft/workshop)
    Section OL1: Publishing Your Novel
    Section OL2: Publishing Your Collection of Stories, Essays, or Poems

THESIS GUIDELINES for SP QTR 15