from Rosa Alcala

Hello friends,

Please pass this on to your lists or advise students who are looking for an MFA
Program.

Also, please note that students do not have to be bilingual to get into the
program--it simply means we draw students from Spanish-speaking and
English-speaking countries, and our courses focus on literatures originating in
these two languages. Because a class normally has students who speak either
language or both, discussion often moves spontaneously between languages, but
students often choose to write in just one. It's an exciting program, which
responds to the bilingual realities of this border region.

Hope everyone is well.

Thanks, Rosa
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T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E X A S A T E L P A S O
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MFA in Creative Writing
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The only one of its kind in the U.S., the MFA at utep offers a fully
bilingual (Spanish and/or English) course of study in fiction, poetry,
playwriting, screenwriting, and non-fiction. The MFA normally requires
three years to complete. Our close ties with Theater, English,
Languages and Music give our students access to literature courses in
these areas and the opportunity to produce collaborative work. Our
bilingual literary magazine, the Rio Grande Review, is entirely MFA-edited.
The MFA experience is one of close mentoring, with an emphasis on
placement in careers in teaching, editing, and writing. MFA
students come from all over Latin America and the United States. Recent
graduates have won major prizes: the highly prestigious 2006 Premio
Clarin de Novela (Argentina), the 2005 Premio Nacional de Cuento de
Colombia, the 2005 Chicano-Latino Literary Award given by UC Irvine,
the 2004 Concurso Nacional de Novela Joven de Mexico (National Mexican
Prize for Young Novelists), the 2004 Premio Nacional de Poesia Joven
"Elias Nandino" (National Prize for Young Poets), the Premio Bienal
Cope de Poesia (Peroe 2002) and the 2004 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize.
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In addition to our award winning faculty, our department regularly
invites writers as means to enrich our students' experience. In the
past, guest writers have included: Susan Briante, John Rechy, Paco
Ignacio Taibo II, Tim Z. Hernandez, Victor Villasenor, Edwin Torres,
Michael Martone, Rocio Ceron, Robert Boswell, Sara Anderson Vaux,
Reda Mansour, Alberto Ruiz Sanchez and Elena Poniatowska.
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We offer assistantships to many of our students.
Application deadline: February 1, 2008