Adam Novy has studied characterization and voice, cinema of the French New Wave and James Joyce’s “Ulysses” during the last school year. Now he’s taking Time Present, Time Past, a course that examines the way time works in fiction. He’s also completing a thesis project–a novel–and taking an interdisciplinary seminar that includes sculptors, painters, performance artists and filmmakers.
Novy, who would like to be a literary writer, is preparing for that by working toward a degree in writing offered by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
“This has engaged all of my artistic and intellectual interests,” said Novy, who began his second year in the program this fall. “It has taught me how to think. I’m studying the fundamentals that are essential to a graduate writing program. At the same time, I can explore other areas that are of interest to me.”
Novy, 26, is among 47 students enrolled in the school’s master of fine arts in writing program, which includes workshops, tutorials, thesis advice, seminars, electives and internship opportunities offered at the school.
“This is truly a studio-based program,” said Janet Desaulniers, program director, associate professor and writer. “Courses are based on the studio curriculum in fine arts, but instead of painting and producing work, students in this program are writing and producing work.”
The program is for writers of fiction, poetry, essays, scripts and creative non-fiction. It also attracts artists who work with image and text and want to focus on text, she said.
“It offers a new context for the telling of tales, plus the opportunity for collaboration with artists and aspects of other forms” of art, said Desaulniers, who has been director since the program’s inception in fall 1996.
“I can’t imagine a more fertile place to learn to be a writer than an art school,” said Jana Wright, director of academic administration at the school. “Writing is an art. A writing program is a natural extension of an art school. We’re so visually sophisticated here– painting to sculpture to film. What do writers work with? They work with images.”
The program brings together a “community of writers and artists” who produce “experimental and hybrid works, new forms and genre,” Wright said. “Work will happen that we can’t even discuss because we don’t know what form it will take. We’re still learning about the possibilities.”
That’s one reason Novy applied for admission to the two-year program. “I wanted a challenging program that would help me find my voice as a writer,” said Novy of Chicago, who has a bachelor’s degree in English and art history from the University of Denver.
Hands-on guidance by writers and other artists and a step-by-step examination of the creative process are what separate this program from those conducted at scholarly institutions, Desaulniers said.
“Traditional graduate writing programs spring from the English departments of colleges and universities,” she said. “Even when successful, they’re the poorly dressed cousins of the English department. I think an MFA program should be situated in an art-making environment. This is an art school. We have artists generating art. Writers belong in an art-generating environment.”
The writing program is believed to be the only one in the country offered by an art school, said Maryrose Flanagan, a spokeswoman for Associated Writing Programs, based at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
The program “attracts people engaged in the creative evolution of their own work,” Wright said. “Art schools attract creative people. The creative process is about what you do to create work. Whether it’s poetry or painting, it’s a very similar process.”
Novy said the program has exceeded his expectations. “It has given me access to established writers and other artists I wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to interact with. It has accelerated my development. It has taught me how to think.”
Established writers on the faculty include James McManus and Michael Collins.
Novy recently sold a chapter of his novel to Quarterly West, a literary magazine published by the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. (The manuscript will be published by the University of Utah Publications Council in summer 1998.)
About three-fourths of the courses focus on: development of student writing through workshops, which examine students’ works and the fundamentals of writing; topical seminars on subjects such as literary criticism and small-press publishing; interdisciplinary seminars that focus on the work of visual artists and writers and encourage collaboration and an exchange of ideas; tutorial graduate projects, which pair a student with a graduate adviser from the liberal arts faculty; and thesis advising, which is taken in the second year and enables students to shape their final thesis topic with direction from members of the writing faculty.
Workshops are “an essential component” of any writing program, Novy said. Every week students read the work of two writers and discuss all aspects of the works-in-progress.
“Last semester, I brought in about 50 pages of a manuscript,” Novy recalled. “I was attached to everything in the story. The class was attached to only certain parts. It took me awhile to understand what they were talking about, but eventually I saw they were right, and I cut out a lot of material.”
“This isn’t the traditional workshop where we say, `Here’s the assignment. It’s due Nov. 13th,’ ” said Desaulniers, who has a master’s degree in fine arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. “I’ve been through that, and I’m not sure a scholarly environment is the best way to learn (to be a literary writer). We examine works–novels, films, paintings–that students can generate work from.”
For example, this semester she is teaching a seminar called exercises in literary craft.
“We’ll examine an aspect in a particular work–let’s say it’s characterization. Students analyze the technique and apply it to their works. It’s teaching about the process of creating art,” said Desaulniers, whose stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares and other literary magazines.
In another example, Rosellen Brown, a fiction writer and poet, is teaching a course about the use of time in fiction and poetry this semester, Desaulniers said. “Students examine Brown’s use of time, and then try it with what they’re working on. The student enters his work through the use of time. Again, this is teaching about the artistic process.”
The remainder of the program’s coursework is composed of electives such as art history, historic preservation and art administration. Novy took an elective course on James Joyce during his first year in the program and found it challenging.
“We had to read `Ulysses,’ ” he recalled. “It was very difficult, but I profited because it forced me to read in gymnastic ways. It helped me examine my work from many different angles and think about how mechanics such as voice and time work in a story. I learned a lot. It was Navy SEAL training for the brain.”
Instead of six hours of elective credit, students may participate in an internship arranged with graphic artists, poetry centers, arts organizations and community programs. Other internship opportunities give students practical experience in various phases of small-press publishing such as editing and production, Wright said.
The writing program faculty is composed of five full-time and seven part-time instructors. In addition, students may work with graduate advisers in other disciplines such as sculpture, filmmaking, performance art and photography to learn about other art forms, Wright said.
People of diverse occupations, including business professionals, medical personnel, homemakers and visual artists are enrolled in classes offered during the day and evening, Wright said.
After completing the program “some will become literary writers. Others will support their creative endeavors by working in another occupation. We encourage them to remain engaged in writing for the duration of their careers. True writers arrange their lives around this desire to create,” said Wright, who assisted in the planning and development of the program.
“Our goal is to demystify the habits of mind and life necessary to be a literary writer so our students can make it as an artist in this country,” Desaulniers said. “To be an artist in America is to find a job you love that allows you to write.”
Novy, who also wants to be a college professor, recommends that those interested in this type of program “be ready to write. Be prepared to write every day. Sometimes it’s difficult to feel like you’re making progress, but I know I’m a heck of a lot further now than I was at the same time last year.”
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For more information about the master of fine arts in writing program, call the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 312-899-5219.
