The purpose of the Sewanee School of Letters is to provide a Master’s program of the best quality, in English and in Creative Writing, to students who have only summers to devote to study. The faculty consists both of Sewanee professors, from English and allied departments, and distinguished faculty from other campuses. Courses are rigorous, but the atmosphere intimate and friendly. Each entering class will number around 25 and total enrollment will never be much more than 100.

The curriculum of the School of Letters is designed to permit students to complete course work for the M.A. or M.F.A. in four or five summer sessions. The sessions are approximately six weeks long, running from early June to mid-July. Typically students enroll in two classes per summer.

The M.F.A. Program:

Completion of the M.F.A. in Creative Writing requires ten course credits. Eight of these credits will be earned through course work: four writing workshops and four classes in literary criticism and history, which should come from both the British and American sides and cover several literary periods. This course work may be completed in four summer sessions. M.F.A. students will earn their final two credits by submitting a thesis, a manuscript of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. Students at the thesis-level may do their work at home, corresponding with their thesis advisors. All work for the M.F.A can be completed in five years.

The M.A. Program:

Completion of the M.A. in English and American Literature also requires ten course credits. Students in the M.A. program are expected to prepare themselves broadly in English and American literature. This means that students are expected to complete at least two courses in English literature, one of which must be Shakespeare, and at least two courses in American literature, of which one must cover literature written before 1900. Additionally, students are expected to take one class in non-English literature in translation. Like M.F.A. students, M.A. students must earn eight credits with course work, typically in four summers. They can earn the remaining two credits either with a thesis or with additional course work. Those who choose the thesis option may, like M.F.A. students, complete the thesis at home, corresponding with an advisor. All work for the M.A. can be completed in five years.

Transfer Credits:

In either program up to two units of graduate credit may be transferred from other institutions, to count toward a degree from the Sewanee School of Letters. Each course must be approved for transfer by the Director, preferably before the work is done. Transfer course credits cannot also be counted for degree credit elsewhere and must be of a grade of B or better. Graduate credits, whether they are earned at Sewanee or transferred from another institution, cannot count toward a degree after ten years have elapsed.

Facilities:

Classes meet in state-of-the-art classrooms in Gailor Hall. Gailor was renovated in 2005 to house the English, Classics, and modern language departments, The Sewanee Review, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the School of Letters.

Students who request campus housing stay in Humphreys Hall, the newest and nicest of Sewanee’s dorms. Completed in 2003, it consists of comfortable, air-conditioned suites. They take their meals in McClurg Dining Hall, completed in 2000. Visit this link to see more: http://www.sewanee.edu/ reslife/humphreys.htm

Sewanee’s Jessie Ball duPont Library houses 713,000 print volumes, along with more than 318,000 microforms and over 20,000 records, tapes, CDs, videocassettes and DVDs. Because of the long-standing strength of the English department and allied programs such as The Sewanee Review and The Sewanee Writers’ Conference, its holdings in literature and literary scholarship are especially strong. Those resources are supplemented by cooperative agreements with other libraries, including one which gives Sewanee students borrowing privileges at the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University, an hour and a half away in Nashville. The duPont library also has several computer labs, equipped to accommodate Mac or PC users.