brooklyn college creative writing

Second Year

Fourth year, degree details.

42 Pathways Credits

52 Major Credits

26 General Elective Credits

Students may apply a second major, or a minor, towards their general elective credits.

120 Total Credits

The four-year degree map is designed to help you take the right courses in the right order so you can graduate in four years. It also helps you distinguish what courses qualify as Pathways courses, or Major courses, or General Elective courses. Ideally, you should follow the four-year degree map as closely as possible, but you are free to make some adjustments so long as the prerequisite requirements are satisfied.

Period 1 - 900-1500: ENGL 3111, ENGL 3112, ENGL 3520, ENGL 4101, CMLT 3614.

Period 2 - 1500-1660: ENGL 3120, ENGL 3121, ENGL 3122, ENGL 3123, ENGL 3124, ENGL 3125, ENGL 4102, CMLT 3615.

Period 3 - 1660-1800: ENGL 3131, ENGL 3132, ENGL 3133, ENGL 3234, ENGL 4103, CMLT 3616.

Period 4 - 1800-1900: ENGL 3140, ENGL 3141, ENGL 3142, ENGL 3143, ENGL 3145, ENGL 3151, ENGL 3156, ENGL 3157, ENGL 3158, ENGL 3160, ENGL 4104, ENGL 4107, CMLT 3606, CMLT 3617.

Period 5 - 1900-1950: ENGL 2402, ENGL 3152, ENGL 3153, ENGL 3156, ENGL 3159, ENGL 3160, ENGL 3161, ENGL 3162, ENGL 3163, ENGL 3164, ENGL 3165, ENGL 3170, ENGL 3171, ENGL 3172, ENGL 3173, ENGL 3193, ENGL 4110, ENGL 4107, ENGL 4108, CMLT 3607, CMLT 3608, CMLT 3610, CMLT 3618, CMLT 3622, CMLT 3623 , CMLT 3624, CMLT 3625.

Period 6 -1950-present: ENGL 2402, ENGL 3154, ENGL 3161, ENGL 3162, ENGL 3166, ENGL 3167, ENGL 3174, ENGL 3180, ENGL 3187, ENGL 3191, ENGL 3193, ENGL 3194, ENGL 3254, ENGL 4109, ENGL 4112, ENGL 4113, ENGL 4114, CMLT 3609, CMLT 3611, CMLT 3619, CMLT 3621, CMLT 3622, CMLT 3623, CMLT 3625, CMLT 4601, CMLT 4602.

**ENGL Breadth & Depth Area A: a course that addresses Race/Ethnicity or Empire/Post-colonialism (e.g., English 3158, 3160, 3161, 3162, 3166, 3169, 3182, 3194, 3234, 3240, 3526, Comparative Literature 3620, 3623, 3625, 3632, or another course with permission of the chairperson)

***ENGL Breadth & Depth Area B: a Genre course, or a Thematic Studies course (addressing a theme such as Memory, Migration, Environmental Humanities, Literature and Psychology, Gender and Sexuality), or an Interdisciplinary Studies course (English 3156, 3157, 3158, 3159, 3163, 3181, 3182, 3183, 3184, 3185, 3186, 3188, 3189, 3190, 3191, 3192, 3265, 3281, 3282, 3286, 3287, 3288, 3292, 4107, 4110, 4111, Comparative Literature 3601, 3602, 3603, 3604, 3605, 3608, 3612, 3613, 3628, 3629)

In conjunction with the four-year degree map, you should review Degree Works, and the Brooklyn College website, for an approved list of courses in your major. Overall, it is best to review your academic plan with your advisor on a regular basis.

Contact Information

English Department 3416 Boylan Hall Roni Natov [email protected]

Go back to the Degree Maps List

Creative Writing BFA Brooklyn College

• Understand CUNY Major Requirements

Major in Creative Writing BFA at Brooklyn College

• Credits required to complete this program: 52
• No more than 0 credits may be taken pass-fail for this Major.
• Click the icon in the box below to see requirements underneath the headers.
• You can click 'Select Transfer College' to select which college (up to three) you are transferring from, to review any courses that can be taken to satisfy these requirements.

These requirements are based on the Degree Works programming used by Brooklyn College for determining financial aid eligibility and graduation requirements. If there are any differences between what you see here and the college bulletin, please let us know. In all cases, the college bulletin is the definitive source of information about requirements.

This is still very much a work in progress, so please report any issues or feedback to us, we want to hear from you!

• All colleges have a general residency requirement as well as a 'Major Residency' requirement. For example, if a major is 40 credits, most colleges will require that at least 20 of those credits are taken "in residence" AKA after you transfer.
• In our attempt to be entirely transparent, we are displaying "Remarks", which may contain improper casing, misspellings, etc.
• Many programs may have a GPA requirement for a course to apply.
• We always show what’s in the blocks as of today. No history.

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Creative Writing at Brooklyn College

Go directly to any of the following sections:

• Available Degrees
• Student Demographics

Creative Writing Degrees Available at Brooklyn College

• Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing
• Master’s Degree in Creative Writing

Brooklyn College Creative Writing Rankings

The bachelor's program at Brooklyn College was ranked #151 on College Factual's Best Schools for creative writing list . It is also ranked #12 in New York .

Popularity of Creative Writing at Brooklyn College

During the 2020-2021 academic year, Brooklyn College handed out 28 bachelor's degrees in creative writing. Last year, the same number of degrees were handed out.

In 2021, 25 students received their master’s degree in creative writing from Brooklyn College. This makes it the #20 most popular school for creative writing master’s degree candidates in the country.

Creative Writing Student Diversity at Brooklyn College

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the creative writing majors at Brooklyn College.

Brooklyn College Creative Writing Bachelor’s Program

Of the 28 creative writing students who graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2020-2021 from Brooklyn College, about 54% were men and 46% were women.

The following table and chart show the ethnic background for students who recently graduated from Brooklyn College with a bachelor's in creative writing.

Brooklyn College Creative Writing Master’s Program

Of the 25 students who graduated with a Master’s in creative writing from Brooklyn College in 2021, 12% were men and 88% were women.

The majority of master's degree recipients in this major at Brooklyn College are white. In the most recent graduating class for which data is available, 64% of students fell into this category.

The following table and chart show the ethnic background for students who recently graduated from Brooklyn College with a master's in creative writing.

• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Gabriel Liendo under License

More about our data sources and methodologies .

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ENGL 3301/3302: Creative Writing Workshop: Syllabus

• OER Statement
• Index of Works and Images

Syllabus: ENGL 3301/3302: Creative Writing Workshop

• Syllabus 3301_3302 Spring 2023 Helen Phillips Downloadable Syllabus. Includes Course Information, Grading, Assignments, Course Requirements and Policies, University Policies and Schedule

Course Information

ENGL 3301 (#3615)/ENGL 3302 (#3480): Writing Fiction I & 2 (Spring 2023): Section TR2               

Prof. Helen Phillips (she/her): email: [email protected]

Class Time: Tues./Thurs. 2:15-3:30pm; Office hour: Thurs. 3:30-4:30pm

Classroom: Boylan Hall 3146; Office: 3108 Boylan Hall

Course Requirements

• Five Writing Exercises . During the first part of the semester, you will complete five one-to-two-page writing exercises based on prompts I will give you. These exercises will facilitate experimentation and will arise from the assigned readings . The writing prompts will be given in class and posted on our Blackboard site.  
• Short Shares . Each of you will share one of your short writing exercises with the class. On your appointed short share date, please bring 22 hard copies of your piece to class.
• Readings. During the first part of the semester, there will be assigned readings of short fiction relevant to the weekly themes. Please read these works thoughtfully, as class discussion (both in person and on Blackboard) will center on them and your writing exercises will arise from them. We will also be “adopting” the literary magazine One Story , and editor Lena Valencia from One Story will visit our class.
• Journal . Please keep a journal for in-class writing exercises. We may sometimes share these writings aloud. You will type up all of your journal entries and submit them as part of your final portfolio on Fri., May 19.
• Blackboard: Four Blog Entries + Sixteen Blog Responses. Each week, I will post a prompt on Blackboard to be completed and posted on the class blog. Each week, one-third of the class will be assigned to post their response to the prompt, and the other two-thirds of the class will be assigned to write comments for at least two of those classmates who posted their responses to the prompt. The online blog entries are due by midnight every Tuesday, and the comments are due by midnight every Wednesday. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR BLACKBOARD POSTS COUNT TOWARD YOUR ATTENDANCE GRADE, AS THE FOURTH HOUR OF THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE ONLINE. Please reach out to me if you need help navigating Blackboard.
• Workshop Story . During the second part of the semester, you will hand in a story to be discussed in workshop.
• It should be 5-10 pages (please discuss with me first if shorter or longer).
• It should be a new piece that you’ve written specifically for this class.
• Workshop Note : Please include, as the final page of your

workshop submission, a note to us about your process, your intentions/vision for the piece, your imagined audience, and any challenges you face with it. This should include 1-5 questions you have about your piece that you would like to discuss .

• Workshop Responses: You will read and respond to all of your classmates' workshop submissions. Come to class prepared for an active discussion. Bring a thoughtful typed response (min. five sentences) to each workshop piece. There are two options for your response:
• You may write a direct response , in which you:

(a) articulate your observations about the piece.

(b) ask the writer questions about the piece.

• Print two copies of your workshop response : one for me and one for the writer. You may also email or give them in hard copy the marked-up text.
• IMPORTANT: Your workshop responses are an essential component of your grade. Through these responses, you express your respect for your classmates’ efforts. Your grade will be severely affected if you fail to hand in 100% of the workshop responses in a timely fashion.
• Workshop Self-Reflection : This consists of an email to me, of any length, sometime in the week following your workshop (and prior to our post-workshop meeting), in which you reflect on your workshop experience. What was useful, what questions you still have, ideas you have for revision, etc.
• Post-Workshop Meeting . I will meet with each of you individually following your workshop, typically during my Thursday office hour. We will discuss your workshop and I will give you my in-depth feedback.
• Final Portfolio . On Friday, May 19 , by midnight , you will hand in your final portfolio (by email to [email protected]). This consists of:
• A Learner’s Letter : A 1-3-page letter in which in which you reflect on your journey over the course of the semester. What challenged you? What inspired you? What did you explore as a writer, as a reader, as a peer? What did you choose to do for your “Something New,” and why? What are your creative aims going forth?
• Something New: A revision of something you’ve written earlier in the semester? An expansion of a journal entry or short writing exercise? A new story? You tell me. (Approx. 5-10 pages)
• In-Class Journals : All of the in-class journal entries. typed. 
• Literary Magazine Submission : You will submit something you’ve written to a literary magazine of your choice and will fill out the “Submission Worksheet” (we will be discussing the submission process as a class). There is a 99% chance that your story will be rejected! This will enable you to begin your rejection letter collection, a prized possession of all writers.  

Extra Credit

Option #1: Attend a Literary Event (in person or remote). In order to get credit, email me the event details and a paragraph in which you describe your experience.

Option #2: Review a Literary Magazine. Read at least three works in a literary magazine (many are listed here: http://www.clmp.org/directory ), and write a one-to-two-page description/analysis of what you read.

Required Reading

• Course readings : All readings for the course are available as PDFs on our LibGuides website: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/cww . PDFs are password-protected with the password engl3301.
• One Story : As soon as possible, please subscribe to the literary magazine One Story through CLMP’s Literary Magazine Adoption Program . Go to https://adoption.clmp.org/students/ and enter our class code, 82592858313849117471 , to order your bargain year-long subscription for $15.00. One Story editor Lena Valencia will visit our class, and we will discuss Spring 2023 issues of the magazine.  
• Recommended Reading : In preparation for workshop, I highly recommend The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom by Felicia Rose Chavez (Haymarket Books, 2021) and Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses (Catapult, 2021).

Course Policies

• If your mechanics need attention, I will indicate that on your written work. If you would like additional support for your mechanics/grammar, I recommend Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker.
• 50% of your grade will be based on your participation : your contributions to discussion, your sharing of your writing, your sixteen Blackboard comments, your responses to the readings, your involvement in workshopping others’ stories, your meeting with me, your promptness, your attendance both in class and on Blackboard.

Attendance Policies

• As per English Department policy, you will receive an automatic F if you miss six or more classes. Two tardy arrivals are equivalent to one absence. You are responsible for any material you miss. Please notify me about absences in advance.
• Please note that your Blackboard posts count toward your attendance grade , as the fourth hour of the course is online.
• Class discussion is a critical element of this course. I expect everyone to contribute each week.
• I will mark you absent if your phone/computer/device is distracting you from class discussion. Your full presence is required, and mindfulness is essential for this course.

University Policies

University Policies & Information

Plagiarism: The faculty and administration of Brooklyn College support an environment free from cheating and plagiarism. Each student is responsible for being aware of what constitutes cheating and plagiarism and for avoiding both. The complete text of the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy and the Brooklyn College procedure for policy implementation can be found at www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/policies. If a faculty member suspects a violation of academic integrity and, upon investigation, confirms that violation, or if the student admits the violation, the faculty member MUST report the violation. Students should be aware that faculty may use plagiarism detection software.

Accommodations for Disability: The Center for Student Disability Services (CSDS) is committed to ensuring students with disabilities enjoy an equal opportunity to participate at Brooklyn College. In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations, students must first be registered with CSDS. Students who have a documented disability or suspect they may have a disability are invited to schedule an interview by calling (718) 951-5538 or emailing [email protected]. If you have already registered with CSDS, email [email protected] or [email protected] to ensure accommodation emails are sent to your professor.

Consideration of Religious Observance: New York State Education Law requires that we “make available to each student who is absent from school, because of his or her religious beliefs, an equivalent opportunity to make up any examination, study or work requirements which s/he may have missed because of such absence on any particular day or days.”

Student Bereavement Policy: Students who experience the death of a loved one must contact the Division of Student Affairs, 2113 Boylan Hall, if they wish to implement either the Standard Bereavement Procedure or the Leave of Absence Bereavement Procedure. More information: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/about/initiatives/policies/bereavement.php

The Magner Career Center: The Magner Career Center, located in 1303 James Hall, has valuable resources, including resume and interview preparation, finding an internship, choosing a career, and more. 

The Brooklyn College Library: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/library.php

Student Support Services : Including Food Pantry & Counseling: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/about/offices/studentaffairs/student-support-services.php

Sexual and Gender-based Harassment, Discrimination, and Title IX : Brooklyn College is committed to fostering a safe, equitable and productive learning environment. Students experiencing any form of prohibited discrimination or harassment on or off campus can find information about the reporting process, their rights, specific details about confidentiality, and reporting obligations of Brooklyn College employees on the Office of Diversity and Equity Programs website. All reports of sexual misconduct or discrimination should be made to Michelle Vargas, Title IX Coordinator (718.951.5000, ext. 3689), and may also be made to Public Safety (719.951.5511), the New York City Police Department (911 or a local NYPD precinct), or Melissa Chan, Assistant Director of Judicial Affairs, Division of Student Affairs (718.951.5352) as appropriate.

Course Schedule

Readings/assignments are due on the day they are listed.

Blackboard posts are due Tues. at midnight; Blackboard responses are due Wed. at midnight.

Thurs. 1/26                Introduction to course

Tues. 1/31                 Assignment : Bring in a paragraph from a published piece of writing to which you have a strong reaction. Please type this paragraph & bring in 22 copies.

Thurs. 2/2                  “Robo-Baby” Matthea Harvey

“Twilight” J. Robert Lennon

“Fingers” Rachel Heng

“Thin City 5” Italo Calvino

“The Letter from Home” Jamaica Kincaid

Tues. 2/7                  “The Swan as Metaphor for Love” Amelia Gray

“Mary When You Follow Her” Carmen Maria Machado

“The Funeral” Tony Wallin-Sato

“Zoology” Natalie Diaz

“Jane Death Theory #13” Rion Amilcar Scott

“Rongorongo” Ed Park

Thurs. 2/9                  In-Class Writing Intensive

                                    “Your Brain on Fiction” Annie Murphy Paul             

Tues. 2/14                 Flash Fiction Assignment (300 Words) + 4 Short Shares

Thurs. 2/16                “Puppy” George Saunders  

“The Burglar” Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

Tues. 2/21                  NO CLASS (MONDAY CONVERSION DAY)

Thurs. 2/23                Point-of-View Assignment + 4 Short Shares

Tues. 2/28                 Bring 3 questions for BC alum De’Shawn Charles Winslow

First chapter of In West Mills or Decent People by De’Shawn

Thurs. 3/2                  “Birds in the Mouth” Samanta Schweblin

“The Hunter” E.L. Doctorow                                    

Tues. 3/7                   (Un)Familiar Assignment + 4 Short Shares

Thurs. 3/9                  “Interiors” Kathleen Collins

“The First Full Thought of Her Life” Deb Olin Unferth

Tues. 3/14                 Innovative Structure Assignment + 5 Short Shares  

Thurs. 3/16                “Friday Black” Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

“Fairy Tale” Alexandra Kleeman

Tues. 3/21                 “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” Ursula K. Le Guin

“The Ones Who Stay and Fight” + “Intro” by N.K. Jemisin

Thurs. 3/23                “Parable” Assignment + 4 Short Shares

Tues. 3/28                 Bring 3 questions for One Story editor Lena Valencia

One Story Reading Assignment

Thurs. 3/30                2 Workshops

Tues. 4/4                   2 Workshops

Thurs. 4/6                 SPRING BREAK

Tues. 4/11                 SPRING BREAK

Thurs. 4/13               SPRING BREAK

Tues. 4/18                 2 Workshops

Thurs. 4/20                2 Workshops

Tues. 4/25                 2 Workshops 

Thurs. 4/27                2 Workshops 

Tues. 5/2                   2 Workshops

Thurs. 5/4                  2 Workshops

Tues. 5/9                   2 Workshops

Thurs. 5/11                2 Workshops

Tues. 5/16                 1 Workshop + Course Celebration & Writer’s Life Discussion

Fri. 5/19                     Final Portfolios

d ue via email to [email protected] by midnight

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MFA Program Profile: Brooklyn College

I found the Fiction section of Brooklyn College’s MFA program very informative. You offer a very clear picture of how time pursuing an MFA through Brooklyn will be spent. Is your program unique in its structure? What makes Brooklyn’s MFA program unique in your eyes?

The fiction program at Brooklyn College is rigorous, intimate, and supportive. Our students receive extensive feedback from faculty members inside and outside of class; it is not unusual for a faculty member to critique a new draft of a student’s work months or even years after a workshop has ended. Our students have the unusual opportunity to take a novel workshop, if they wish. They are grounded in the essentials of craft with a first-semester craft course, which equips them to wrangle with difficult questions of voice, pacing, point of view, language, dialogue, uses of time, child narration, etc., over the course of the program. During their second year, students participate in one-on-one revisions and thesis tutorials, which offer them the chance to work closely with faculty members, practiced writers from around the city, and editors from major literary journals and publishing houses. Because we wish to prepare our students for the realities of the publishing world, we offer an editors’ panel each fall, and an agents’ panel each spring; after each event, students have the opportunity to meet with an editor/agent and submit a sample of their work for consideration. Our student reading series, held at Freddy’s Bar in the South Slope, gives students a chance to share their work in public, while our Intergenre Reading Series allows students to hear the work of established fiction writers, poets, and playwrights in an intimate setting. Just as important are the happy hours, parties, dinners at faculty members’ homes, summer trips to Brooklyn Cyclones games, and post-workshop drinks, all of which contribute to an extremely warm and congenial sense of community in our program. Our students tend to leave the program with lifelong friends and mentors—and, therefore, with lifelong support for their writing and publishing endeavors.

Your program makes mention of intergenre workshops. Can you describe those a little more? Many authors would like to learn about other areas of writing and I hear limited intergenre exploration as a criticism to other programs.

Each year, we offer an intergenre class, taught by a member of the MFA faculty and taken by students from the poetry, playwriting, and fiction programs. In these classes, students are asked to write in genres other than their own. (Topics for these classes have ranged from “Dictionaries” to “Modernism.”) The intergenre format allows students to learn about the practices, mindsets, and aesthetics of other genres; it sometimes results in cross-genre collaboration, and very often in cross-genre friendship.

Would you describe Brooklyn’s MFA in fiction as highly literary or broader in focus?

Although our students have gone on to write in a variety of genres—our alums have published literary novels and short story collections, young adult novels, children’s novels, mysteries, etc.—our program’s primary focus is on the creation of literary fiction.

I know this can be difficult to define, but with applications for the following year due soon, what does Brooklyn look for in MFA candidates? Specifically in their writing samples?

It is hard to define, but not necessarily hard to recognize. As Justice Potter Stewart famously said of pornography, “I know it when I see it.” We look for striking prose, and for a command of language, character, and narrative. We look for confidence, nuance, and emotion. We don’t seek out any particular style or approach—in our opinion, excellent writing justifies its own means. Although the manuscript is by far the most important piece of the application, we also care about getting a sense of the person behind the writing. The personal statement, as such, is an important component of the application.

If you could provide a piece of advice for incoming students, what would it be?

Take advantage of the social resources that your MFA program provides. You’ll need willing readers (and friends with whom to commiserate and celebrate) for the rest of your writing life.

Many students are tempted to use their two years to polish and perfect an existing novel draft, for instance, or an existing collection of short stories. It’s often a better use of time for students to write a body of fresh new work—in doing so, students are often forced to take risks, try out different voices and styles, and discover new approaches to their writing practice.

How does the environment of Brooklyn and Manhattan play into the experience of pursuing an MFA at Brooklyn?

Students at Brooklyn College have access to all the city’s resources—to jobs and internships at publishing houses, magazines, and literary journals; to readings and book parties; to the Brooklyn Book Festival; to adjunct teaching jobs at various CUNY campuses; to wonderful independent bookstores and writers’ spaces; to panels, colloquia, and craft lectures. Our students, alumni, and faculty receive updates on many such events, opportunities, and resources via a weekly MFA newsletter. Some students choose to take copious advantage of these opportunities—our graduates have started successful literary journals, such as Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading ; some students frequently give readings, write book reviews for lit blogs and magazines, and take on literary internships, to list just a few examples. (Our playwriting students are especially active in the Brooklyn/Manhattan scene—the directors of the playwriting program take special care to help students gain access to the New York theater world, and to help them find venues for producing their own plays.)

Many of our students, however, prefer to focus on their own writing during the program, and they only dip into the literary scene of Brooklyn and Manhattan on occasion. Our campus, located at the end of the 2 and 5 trains, provides a respite from the bustling city; students have the quiet and space to pursue their own work here, and it is quite possible for them to opt out of the literary scene if they wish. In this sense, I think that Brooklyn College students have the best of both worlds—they have access to the dynamism and opportunity of the city’s literary offerings, and also to the quiet, immersive, calm atmosphere provided by our campus.

Book Review and Interview - The Hypothetical Girl by Elizabeth Cohen

David bowie's top 100 books.

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Creative Writing, B.F.A. Four-Year Degree Map for Bulletin Year 2019-2020

• Creative Writing, B.F.A. Program Page
• Creative Writing, B.F.A. Student Learning Outcome

Second Year

Fourth year, degree details.

42 Pathways Credits

48 Major Credits

30 General Elective Credits

Students may apply a second major, or a minor, towards their general elective credits.

120 Total Credits

Contact Information

English Department 3416 Boylan Hall Roni Natov [email protected]

The four-year degree map is designed to help you take the right courses in the right order so you can graduate in four years. It also helps you distinguish what courses qualify as Pathways courses, or Major courses, or General Elective courses. Ideally, you should follow the four-year degree map as closely as possible, but you are free to make some adjustments so long as the prerequisite requirements are satisfied.

Field 1 – Middle Ages: ENGL 3111, ENGL 3112, ENGL 3520, ENGL 4101, CMLT 3614.

Field 2 – Renaissance: ENGL 3120, ENGL 3121, ENGL 3122, ENGL 3123, ENGL 3124, ENGL 3125, ENGL 4102, CMLT 3615.

Field 3 – Eighteenth Century: ENGL 3131, ENGL 3132, ENGL 3133, ENGL 4103, CMLT 3616.

Field 4 – Nineteenth Century & Romanticism: ENGL 3140, ENGL 3141, ENGL 3142, ENGL 3143, ENGL 3145, ENGL 3151, ENGL 3156, ENGL 3157, ENGL 3158, ENGL 3160, ENGL 4104, ENGL 4107, CMLT 3606, CMLT 3617.

Field 5 – Modernism: ENGL 2402, ENGL 3152, ENGL 3153, ENGL 3156, ENGL 3159, ENGL 3160, ENGL 3161, ENGL 3162, ENGL 3163, ENGL 3164, ENGL 3165, ENGL 3170, ENGL 3171, ENGL 3172, ENGL 3173, ENGL 3193, ENGL 4110, ENGL 4107, ENGL 4108, CMLT 3607, CMLT 3608, CMLT 3610, CMLT 3618, CMLT 3622, CMLT 3623 , CMLT 3624, CMLT 3625.

Field 6 – Postmodernism & Contemporary Discourses: ENGL 2402, ENGL 3154, ENGL 3161, ENGL 3162, ENGL 3163, ENGL 3166, ENGL 3167, ENGL 3174, ENGL 3180, ENGL 3187, ENGL 3191, ENGL 3193, ENGL 3194, ENGL 4105, ENGL 4107, ENGL 4109, ENGL 4110, ENGL 4111, ENGL 4112, ENGL 4113, ENGL 4114, CMLT 3609, CMLT 3611, CMLT 3619, CMLT 3621, CMLT 3622, CMLT 3623, CMLT 3625, CMLT 4601, CMLT 4602.

In conjunction with the four-year degree map, you should review Degree Works, and the Brooklyn College website, for an approved list of courses in your major. Overall, it is best to review your academic plan with your advisor on a regular basis.

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Creative Writing M.F.A

Brooklyn Creative Writing M.F.A.

REQUEST INFO

The Writer’s Foundry M.F.A. in Creative Writing program at our Brooklyn campus stands in Clinton Hill on the border of Fort Greene, two of the most vibrant neighborhoods in all of New York City. We seek to attract writers who dedicate themselves to excellence in all areas of literary life.

The Writer's Foundry is an intimate program that specializes in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Students work together in workshops, craft classes, symposia and master lectures. Our program takes two years to complete and boasts a flexible schedule with evening offerings tailored toward the working writer.

Each applicant is considered for a Writer’s Foundry Tuition Scholarship. This means that students will receive generous funding for the duration of their time at the Writer’s Foundry.

We hope you'll consider applying to our program. You can reach us directly at  [email protected] . We look forward to connecting with you.

We look forward to reading your work. 

Foundry Fellowship

In addition to generous tuition scholarships, all MFA students are encouraged to apply for a Foundry Fellowship during their second year. Foundry Fellows receive generous stipends to:

• Help edit, design and write for the Writer’s Foundry Review (a literary journal curated by the MFA students of The Writer’s Foundry at St. Joseph’s University).
• Manage and maintain the program’s social media accounts.
• Represent the program at literary events such as AWP, Brooklyn Voices, Brooklyn Book Festival, and more.
• Assist with other various tasks.

The Writer's Foundry faculty members Lee Clay Johnson, Cleyvis Natera and Alicia Mountain read segments of their writing while introducing prospective students to the Creative Writing MFA program at St. Joseph's University.

---START CATEGORY CONTENT---

--- end category content---.

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Esse non videri — “To be, not to seem.”

The mission of St. Joseph’s University is to provide a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, rooted in a liberal arts tradition that supports provision for career preparation and enhancement. READ OUR FULL MISSION.

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Andrew C. Ciofalo, founder of Loyola University Maryland journalism program, dies in Russia

Andrew C. Ciofalo, a veteran newspaperman who established the journalism program at Loyola University Maryland and also directed an American study-abroad education company, died March 7 of undetermined causes at Moscow City Hospital No. 67. He was 89.

The former Towson resident had lived in Russia for the last five years with his wife of many years, Dr. Olga Timofeeva, a neuroscientist.

“Professor Ciofalo helped to inspire my passion for journalism. He encouraged me to take on leadership roles in our college newspaper and he taught me the importance of an independent press that holds people and institutions in power to account,” wrote Trif Alatzas, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Baltimore Sun, in an email.

Kevin M. Atticks, Maryland secretary of agriculture, had also been a student of Professor Ciofalo.

“He was a rare combination of practitioner and visionary,” Mr. Atticks wrote in an email. “His friendship, humor and mentorship was omnipresent, and his lifelong commitment to experimental education ran deep.”

Andrew Carmine Ciofalo, son of Andrew C. Ciofalo Sr., a tile mason and artisan, and his wife, Frances, a retail manager, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and was a graduate of Salesian High School on Staten Island.

Professor Ciafalo earned a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from Brooklyn College and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

He began his newspaper career in 1955 as an editorial assistant for the New York Daily News, and after graduating from Columbia, was named managing editor of Manhattan East, a New York city weekly community newspaper. He had been a contributor to the old Brooklyn Eagle.

From 1962 to 1969, he had been an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia Journalism; an editorial consultant to Circus Magazine; a senior writer for Custom Book Publishers; a managing editor of Clyde Magazine, a general men’s magazine; and a radio news writer for the old New York Herald Tribune.

Professor Ciafalo was a lecturer in journalism at Brooklyn College from 1962 to 1972 and director of development at the New York Institute of Technology.

From 1970 to 1976, he was director of college relations and development at Bronx Community College. While there, he established a university housing initiative, the University Heights Development Corp., that renovated off-campus dormitories as senior citizen housing.

In 1981, he served as an editor and writer for McGraw Hill, where he wrote a newsletter, “This Month In Telecommunications.”

Professor Ciofalo was hired in 1983 by Loyola where he established what is now its Communication Department.

“Andy Ciofalo was an energetic and innovative member of the Communication Department faculty at Loyola, where he founded the journalism and editing track,” wrote John E. McIntyre, former copy desk chief and assistant managing editor at The Sun, in an email.

“He was intimately involved in the creation of the book editing track and establishment of the student-run publisher Apprentice House Press,” wrote Mr. McIntyre, who was an adjunct professor for more than 20 years at Loyola where he taught editing. “I was invited twice to participate in his summer program in Cagli in Italy’s Marche. Over four weeks undergraduates did interviews, wrote stories, took photographs and created online content. He was a huge encourager of students and faculty.”

Professor Ciofalo had a knack for recruiting students.

“Andy single-handedly altered the trajectory of my life and career,” Mr. Atticks wrote. “Toward the end of my freshman year, I was leaving a music class contemplating a music major when the elevator door opened and there was Andy.

“After a quick two-flight conversation, Andy had convinced me to give journalism and publishing a try. It worked. Now 30 years later, I’m leading the very publishing house Andy envisioned, Apprentice House Press, that would provide book industry experience for our students, and have built a career founded on communication.”

“He leaves a legacy of teaching so many aspiring journalists over the years and I feel fortunate that our paths crossed,” Mr. Alatzas wrote.

In 2002, he founded the Cagli Program in International Reporting, and since 2005, Professor Ciofalo had been president of the Institute for Education in International Media — ieiMedia LLC — which operates the Cagli Program as an independent entity, and includes partnerships with Marquette University, Temple University and Gonzaga University.

The institute also includes experimental projects in Italy, Northern Ireland, China, Spain, Israel and Turkey, in partnership with San Francisco State University, Iowa State University, James Madison University, University of Jamestown, Cal State University Fullerton, Guangxi Normal University and Hebrew University.

After 30 years at Loyola, he retired in 2013, and moved to Venice, Florida.

Reflecting on his tenure in a Sun op-ed piece in 2023, Professor Ciofalo wrote:

“Would I do anything different today? Of course I would. I would work with students to engage intellectually with the issues facing journalism now. Never has the threat been so terminal,” he wrote.

“But also there never have been more platforms to which we must adapt without losing the meaning of journalism for our society. We are living in a selfie world where ego supersedes the truth of objectivity. Even more challenging, a mind-altered society cannot distinguish between the real world and fantasy. If there is an audience out there, we have to find it — and nurture it.”

When he wasn’t writing, teaching or lecturing, Professor Ciofalo enjoyed traveling. He was also a frequent contributor to The Sun and other newspapers.

“He loved Italy and cooking and eating, and was also a great cook himself,” said his daughter, Terri Ciofalo, of Champaign, Illinois. “He was also a baritone tenor and enjoyed singing.”

Last month, in a blog post , Professor Ciofalo contemplated the lede, or opening paragraph, of his obituary, and had written several suggested entries.

His headline was “Old and Productive — Gone today,” and he had written:

“Prof. Emeritus Andrew Ciofalo, who actively ran his American study-abroad education company well into his 90’s, died today at age 98 while living obscurely on financial fumes in Moscow, Russia.”

Under a second headline, “He Coulda Been Somebody,” he had written: “The prideful young man who was once called ‘the best writer’ in his Columbia graduate journalism class by the revered Prof. Larry Pinkham, died today at age 98 in Moscow, Russia — never having lived up to those expectations. But Prof. Andrew Ciofalo did pivot into an innovative career in journalism education where he helped others fulfill his faded dream.”

Plans for services to be held in the chapel on the Loyola campus are incomplete.

In addition to his wife, Dr. Timofeeva, and daughter, he is survived by a son, David Andrew Ciofalo of Roland Park; a stepdaughter, Jennifer Lynn Tosh of Roland Park; a brother, Thomas Ciofalo of Ramsey, New Jersey; and four grandchildren. Earlier marriages to Linda Stivak and Judith Dobler, ended in divorce.

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Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

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English, M.A.

School of humanities and social sciences, program overview.

The Master of Arts in English develops familiarity with literature from a wide range of writers, geographies, experiences, and sensibilities, and provides instruction in different theoretical concepts and critical methods that can be employed in literary analysis. The literature we study extends from the medieval era to the present, in works originally written in English, as well as global works accessible in translation from the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Our courses explore the extraordinary capacity of literature to excite the imagination and express different perspectives about the world. We are committed to addressing issues of aesthetic, political, and cultural significance, and to building a community where our students, whose diversity we cherish, can enrich their own knowledge, even as they benefit others by the insights they share.

Where You'll Go

Our graduates have found roles and careers in diverse fields, including education and publishing, and as writers for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Others have been accepted into doctoral programs.

Program Details

The program information listed here reflects the approved curriculum for the 2023–24 academic year per the Brooklyn College Bulletin. Bulletins from past academic years can be found here .

Program Description

The Master of Arts in English program immerses students in literature dating from the Middle Ages through the present. Through the study and analysis of a variety of literary texts, critical and theoretical approaches (including, among others, new historicism, reader-response theory, deconstruction, feminist criticism, and post-colonial studies), and historical concepts, students are afforded the opportunity to develop individual interpretations of texts and to evaluate controversies surrounding the canon. Small-group tasks, oral presentations, short papers, and longer research papers complement lectures, discussions, and examinations. Travel and research grants are available to our students, several of whom have presented at graduate colloquia at Brooklyn College and at other universities throughout the country and abroad, or have had papers accepted for publication in journals.

Our graduates have found new employment or enhanced their present careers in diverse fields including education, publishing, writing for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Others have been accepted into doctoral programs.

Matriculation Requirements

Applicants must:

• offer at least 15 credits in advanced courses in English literature;
• have a minimum undergraduate grade point average of 3.00;
• submit a sample of critical writing of about 10 pages, and
• submit a two-page statement of academic purpose.

Foreign applicants for whom English is a second language are required to pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) with a score of 650 on the paper-based test or 280 on the computer-based test, or 114 on the Internet-based test before being considered for admission.

General matriculation and admission requirements of Graduate Studies are in the section “Admission.”

Program Requirements (33 Credits)

Thirty-three credits are required for the degree.

Courses in English and comparative literature are grouped in the following areas of study:

• Literature before 1500: English 7101X , 7102X , 7103X , 7120X , CMLT  7130X .
• Literature from 1500 to 1800: English 7201X , 7202X , 7203X , 7204X , 7205X , 7206X , 7207X , 7220X , CMLT  7230X .
• Literature from 1800 to 1900: English 7301X , 7302X , 7303X , 7304X , 7305X , 7320X , CMLT  7330X .
• Literature from 1900 to the present: English 7401X , 7402X , 7403X , 7404X , 7405X , 7406X , 7420X , CMLT  7430X .
• Theory and criticism: English 7501X , 7502X , 7503X , 7504X , 7505X , 7506X , 7507X , 7508X , 7520X .
• Language: English 7601X , 7602X , 7603X , 7604X , 7605X , 7620X .

The following courses are required: English  7501X ; English  7800X ; English  7810X ; one course from five of the six areas of study; two electives.

Students must complete English  7501X , which satisfies the area 5 requirement, by the end of their third semester. It is recommended that students take the course in their first or second semester.

Early in the first term, students must meet with the graduate deputy to plan their program of study for the degree. It is recommended that students thereafter consult with the graduate deputy at least once a semester to discuss and plan further their degree progress.

Students must identify one area in which to complete three courses in total for a specialization in consultation with the graduate deputy.

Students must submit a thesis acceptable to the department on a subject related to their areas of literary and critical interests.

A reading knowledge of a foreign language is strongly recommended. Students who intend to study toward a doctoral degree are advised to become proficient in college-level foreign language study.

Courses in the English Department offered toward the degree must be 7000-level courses.

Student Learning Outcomes

Department goal 1: read and think critically.

Program Objective 1: Learn to read literature in its historical context; identify characteristic styles and subject matter of different periods.

Program Objective 2: Learn to read through a variety of critical lenses.

Program Objective 3: Be able to carry out close readings of literary texts.

Department Goal 2: Understand how language operates

Program Objective 1: Be able to identify and demonstrate knowledge of literary terminology.

Department Goal 3: Express ideas–both orally and in writing–correctly, cogently, persuasively, and in conformity with the conventions of the discipline

Program Objective 1: Identify, write, and edit for currently accepted conventions of standard English mechanics, grammar, and style (including proper punctuation, subject-verb and noun-pronoun agreement, parallel construction, appropriate tense sequences and moods, etc.).

Program Objective 2: Learn and follow the conventions of literary argumentation, including formulating thesis statement, and conventions of quoting and citing textual evidence.

Program Objective 3: Learn how to rethink and revise essays.

Department Goal 4: conduct research

Program Objective 1: Learn to develop viable research questions and identify appropriate sources.

Program Objective 2: Learn to use library resources, including collections, databases, and archives.

Program Objective 3: Learn how to summarize and cite both primary and secondary sources in support of the argument.

Program Objective 4: Learn appropriate scholarly conventions, such as MLA Style or Chicago Manual of Style.

Program Objective 5: Learn how to avoid plagiarism by citing sources properly.

Admissions Requirements

• Fall Application Deadline—May 15, rolling admission
• Spring Application Deadline—November 15, rolling admission

Supporting Documents for Matriculation

Submit the following documents to the Office of Graduate Admissions:

• Transcripts from all colleges and universities attended. Applicants who earned a bachelor’s degree outside the United States need to submit a Course by Course International Transcript Evaluation. See Graduate Admissions for more information.
• Two letters of recommendation.
• A sample of critical writing on literary topics (about 10 pages, typically consisting of undergraduate writing, e.g., one paper or two shorter papers).
• A statement of academic purpose (two pages).

Required Tests

• F-1 or J-1 international students must submit English Proficiency Exam. TOEFL- 79, IELTS- 6.5, PTE- 58-63, Duolingo 105-160.

Refer to the instructions at Graduate Admissions .

Geoffrey Minter

3149 Boylan Hall E: [email protected] P: 718.951.5000, ext. 3651

Or contact:

Office of Graduate Admissions

222 West Quad Center 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210 E:  [email protected] P: 718.951.4536

Office Hours

Mondays–Fridays, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

To make an appointment with a graduate admissions counselor, visit:

BC Admissions Appointment Tool

Departmental Information

Comprehensive exam, general information.

• Students in the M.A. English Teacher program are required to pass a comprehensive examination. This three-hour test is given twice a year, in the fall and spring semesters.
• The exam is usually taken at the end of the final semester of course work or in the semester following. To be eligible for the exam, M.A. English Teacher students must have completed, or be in the process of completing, five English courses. They must also have a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or higher and have resolved all incompletes in their courses.
• Students must apply to take the Comprehensive Exam through the  Brooklyn College WebCentral Portal . Click eServices and Graduate Student Transactions.
• All students are encouraged to purchase the current 11th edition of  A Glossary of Literary Terms  by M.H. Abrams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, and to use it in all their literature courses. The identification questions in Part I of the examination will be selected from the current edition of this book.
• The exam consists of three parts and tests students in the following areas: knowledge of literary terms and historical concepts, understanding of major modern literary critical issues, and ability to write a coherent essay in clear and lively style, free of grammatical errors.

M.A. Model Examination

This section tests your knowledge of literary terms, critical and theoretical approaches, and historical concepts. Listed below are 75 terms from  A Glossary of Literary Terms (11th Edition) , by Abrams and Harpham. The exam will feature 15 of these terms, selected at random, from which you will choose five on which to write a single, well-developed paragraph about each. Include definitions, explanations, significance, historical background if applicable, citing examples drawn from literature. At least one of your five write-ups must refer to a work or works that you read as a graduate student at Brooklyn College; when making such a reference, make note of the class number and semester where you read this material (e.g., English 7703, fall 2021).

• Aestheticism
• Archetypal Criticism
• Author and Authorship
• Blank Verse
• Book History Studies
• Canon of Literature
• Character and Characterization
• Chivalric Romance
• Cognitive Literary Studies
• Courtly Love
• Cultural Studies
• Deconstruction
• Dialogic Criticism
• Discourse Analysis
• Ecocriticism
• Empathy and Sympathy
• Expressionism
• Feminist Criticism
• Fiction and Truth
• Figurative Language
• Gender Criticism
• Gothic Novel
• Great Chain of Being
• Interpretation and Hermeneutics
• Interpretation, Typological and Allegorical
• Linguistics in Literary Criticism
• Marxist Criticism
• Metaphor, Theories of
• Metaphysical Poets
• Miracle Plays, Morality Plays, and Interludes
• Modernism and Postmodernism
• Narrative and Narratology
• Neoclassic and Romantic
• New Criticism
• New Historicism
• Performance Poetry
• Poetic Diction
• Point of View
• Postcolonial Studies
• Poststructuralism
• Primitivism and Progress
• Psychological and Psychoanalytic Criticism
• Queer Theory
• Realism and Naturalism
• Short Story
• Stream of Consciousness
• Structuralist Criticism

This section tests your ability to analyze literary passages and write coherent essays about them in a clear and lively style, free of grammatical errors. Listed below are eight works representative of different periods and movements. [Note that the works listed on this page, and linked in the PDF below, are examples  of the kinds of works that may appear on the actual exam; the actual exam will make use of different passages.] Each semester’s exam includes a different set of passages, but each is a representative range of options. You are to pursue a close reading of  two of these passages provided (PDF) , analyze each passage, and connect your observations to relevant contexts, such as the respective period, genre, or literary movement(s) associated with each text.

• Julian of Norwich,  Shewings  (c. 1423)
• John Milton,  Areopagitica  (1644)
• Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (c. 1650)
• Nathaniel Hawthorne,  The Scarlet Letter  (1850)
• Theodore Dreiser,  Sister Carrie  (1900)
• Virginia Woolf,  To the Lighthouse  (1927)
• James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues” (1957)
• Shani Mootoo,  Out on Main Street & Other Stories  (1993)

This section tests your knowledge of major modern literary critical issues and your ability to write a coherent essay in a clear, lively style, free of grammatical errors. The question is always the same, verbatim.

You have encountered several modern critical approaches during your study for the M.A. degree (such as feminist, psychological, Marxist, post-colonial, and historical). We are interested in knowing how you move from an understanding of the theory to its practical application in the classroom. Discuss how you could integrate one or two modern critical approaches into the teaching of two texts drawn from two different historical periods.  You are free to use examples from your own teaching or student-teaching experience.  What questions would students respond to, what points would you raise, and how would you raise them, and what activities would help develop students’ facility with the critical approach(es) to the texts you have chosen?

Criteria for Grading the M.A. Comprehensive Exam Essays

• Does the writer understand the critical issues raised by the question?
• Is the writer familiar with other theoretical or critical texts than the one cited in the question?
• Has the writer demonstrated breadth of knowledge of texts without becoming superficial?
• Has the writer selected examples from more than one historical time period?
• Is the essay coherent and organized?
• Does the writer indicate the ability to pay close attention to details when analyzing texts?
• Have all parts of the question been considered?
• Are there a minimum of grammar and style problems?

Tips for Students

• Take time to read the question carefully and understand what is being asked.
• Take time to plan your response, including the formulation of a proposition and at least a rough outline of the essay’s principal parts and the chief examples you will use.
• Answer all parts of the question.
• It is not necessary to repeat the question, but be sure to address the issues raised and to place them in a theoretical context.
• Tie your examples to critical issues.
• Demonstrate understanding of key critical terms used in the question.
• One way to demonstrate breadth of knowledge of texts is to construct a paragraph that presents a series of examples.
• Be sure to discuss at least two texts (from two different historical periods) in some detail.
• Avoid vague language and broad, unsupported generalizations.
• Avoid merely retelling stories, plots, or narratives.
• Obtain a copy of the current edition of M.H. Abrams’  A Glossary of Literary Terms .

Language Requirement

One of the degree requirements for the M.A. English program is to demonstrate reading knowledge of a foreign language. Students should turn their attention to this matter early in their studies (see note below). The foreign language requirement can be fulfilled in the following ways:

• For the most frequently requested languages (Spanish and French), you must complete and return an application to the English graduate deputy by the date specified in the current Schedule of Classes (and posted on the “Graduation” page of this site). The test is given every fall and spring semester, as specified in the  Schedule of Classes and “Graduation” tab here. The test gives you two hours to translate a passage of 500 to 600 words from the foreign language into idiomatic English with the aid of a dictionary. If you are to be tested in French or Spanish, sample passages are available from the English graduate deputy.
• For all other languages, identify a professor in one of the foreign language departments at Brooklyn College who is willing to test your knowledge of your chosen language and agree on a mutually convenient date to take the test. The English graduate deputy can assist.
• Take a course at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Language Reading Program (see below) in French, German, Italian, Latin, or Spanish (not all languages are offered every semester). If you pass the course with a grade of B or better, this will satisfy the foreign language requirement. It is your responsibility to request that the GC Language Reading Program notify the English graduate deputy of the course results.
• If your first language is not English, speak to the graduate deputy about possible exemption from this requirement.

CUNY Language Reading Program

The CUNY Graduate Center Language Reading Program  will offer intensive, noncredit courses in languages designed to assist graduate students in meeting the language requirements for their degree. These courses last for 12 weeks and aim at developing a reading knowledge of the languages.

Separate tuition ($275 per course for currently matriculated students) must be paid for offerings of the CUNY Graduate Center Language Reading Program. Registration forms are available in the office of the Language Reading Program, Room 4415, on the fourth floor of the Graduate Center. Registration can be handled either in person (in our offices) or by mail.

The Graduate School and University Center The City University of New York 365 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016-4309

Contact:  Diana Toman P: 212.817.2083

Note:  Students are strongly urged not to wait until their last semester in order to fulfill the foreign language requirement, as this can result in unanticipated hold-ups in graduation. It is highly recommended that students turn their full attention to this matter one or two semesters earlier, at least.

Take note of dates and deadlines. This information and more is available in the Academic Calendar .

General information such as the schedule of class meetings, the location of classes, and other such matters may be found on the Registrar  webpage. The  Brooklyn College Graduate Bulletin also contains current degree requirements and college policies and procedures.

Program Notes

Kurt Johnson  (M.A. ’16) will begin a position as an academic adviser at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, in summer 2021.

Steven Mechlowicz Neal  (M.A. ’18) has been admitted to the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at the New School, starting in fall 2021.

Catherine Champney  (M.A. ’20) has accepted an offer of admission, with full funding, to the University of Delaware Ph.D. program in English, starting in fall 2021.

Steven Mechlowicz Neal (M.A. ’18) had a version of his master’s thesis accepted to the Ben Jonson Journal , published by Edinburgh University Press. His essay, “Ben Jonson’s  The Alchemist : Shaping Behavior in the Shadow of the Apocalypse,” appears in the Fall 2020 issue, vol 27, no 2. He argues in part, “In straining to escape their present and to a future marked by heavenly expectations, Jonson’s characters evoked his contemporaries’ desires to address their own exigencies. By capturing his audience’s attention referencing popular current events, Jonson created a stage for his greater concern, that faith in economic as well as religious transcendence exposed his milieu to divisive radicalism and victimization.”  The article is available here .

Having received multiple Ph.D. offers of admission,  Crystal Payne  ’18 M.A. will begin the English Ph.D. program at Washington University in St. Louis in fall 2020 with full funding.

Jane Odartey  ’14 M.A. has published many poems since graduating, including “Conversing With the Farmers” in the Spring 2019 issue of  The Malahat Review , whose website also features an  interview with Jane . A Queens resident, Jane blogs at  janethroughtheseasons.com .

Congratulations to the recent alumni who gained admission to the following graduate programs for fall 2019:  Kareem Joseph  M.A. ’19, English Ph.D. program at Emory University;  Gizem Iscan  M.A. ’17, Ph.D. program in American culture studies at Bowling Green University;  Grant Crawford  M.A. ’19, English Ph.D. program at St. Johns University;  Dhipinder Walia  M.A. ’18, English Ph.D. program at the CUNY Graduate Center; and  Melissa Clairejeune  M.A. ’15, English Ph.D. program at Florida State University.

Congratulations to  Alessandra (Dyer) Jacobo  M.A. ’15, who received a competitive fellowship from the University of Kansas, where she is a Ph.D. candidate in American studies, to study Haitian Kreyol in summer 2019.

Daniel Cohen  ’15 M.A. received tenure at Brooklyn’s James Madison High School, where he teaches English.

Amanda Wochele  ’12 M.A. has published two books of poetry:  Jack Frost  (Finishing Line Press, 2017) and  Climate Control  (Dancing Girl Press, 2019).

Congratulations to  Jason Collins  ’09 M.A., who gained admission to the Ph.D. program at the City University of Hong Kong. Jason will begin in fall 2019  with generous fellowship support from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.

DeShawn Winslow  ’13 M.A. completed the M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and has published his debut novel,  In West Mills ( Bloomsbury, 2019).

Congratulations to the recent alumni who gained admission to the following graduate programs for fall 2018:  Katie Contess  ’17 M.A., Ph.D. program in modern culture and media at Brown University;  Chante Reid  M.A. candidate ’18, M.F.A. in creative writing at Brown University;  Joseph Romano  ’18 M.A., Ph.D. program in English at Columbia University; and  Alessandra (Dyer) Jocobo  ’15 M.A., Ph.D. program in American studies at the University of Kansas.

Congratulations to  Gizem Iscan  ’17 M.A. and  Esther Ritiau , current M.A. candidate, whose paper “Geographies of 20th-Century Working Class Culture,” was accepted for presentation at the 2018 Working Class Studies Association conference. Their panel will be chaired by Brooklyn College English Professor Joseph Entin. Esther was also featured at this year’s Northeast Modern Language Association Conference, where she presented her research on  The Yellow Wallpaper  as part of a panel on the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Jonathan Holley  ’15 M.A. was admitted to the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program at the CUNY Graduate Center in fall 2017 to study the history of African American performers in opera.

Joseph Romano  ’18 M.A. had his paper, “A Rejection of ‘The Rejection of Closure’: Lyn Hejinian, Leslie Scalapino and the Post-Language Poetics of Occurrence and Collaboration,” accepted to the National Poetry Foundation’s Poetry & Poetics of the 1990s Conference at the University of Maine, in June 2017.

Congratulations to  Jason Hoelzel  ’14 M.A., who was admitted to the Harvard Divinity School master’s program, starting fall 2017.

Congratulations to  Robert Weitzer  ’15 M.A., who will begin the Ph.D. in English at SUNY Stony Brook in fall 2017.

It’s a banner spring 2017 for  Tristan Cooley , who will present at three academic conferences: “Alchemy of Language in The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale,” at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill conference Transformations: Tracing Forces of Change in the Medieval and Early Modern Period; “Disastrously in Death: Zero K and the Technological Now,” at Northern Illinois University’s MCLLM graduate conference on Altered States, Times, Perspectives; and “The Sacred Midwest in ‘Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way,’” at the International David Foster Wallace Conference, Illinois State University.

Congratulations to M.A. students who gained admission to doctoral programs starting fall 2016:  Shayne McGregor  ’16 M.A. will attend the Ph.D. program in English at Yale University;  Kelly Roberts  ’16 M.A. will attend the English Ph.D. program at Rutgers University; and  Yashari Nunez  ’15 M.A. will attend the English Ph.D. program at the University of North Dakota.

Ursula Lukszo  ’07 M.A. completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Stony Brook in 2013 and now teaches in the English Department at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas.

Lauren Navarro  ’07 M.A. is an assistant professor of English at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY).

Beatrice Bradley  ’13 M.A. collaborated with Professor Tanya Pollard to write an essay about Shakespeare’s  The Winter’s Tale  that was accepted for publication by the academic journal  English Literary Renaissance . She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago.

De’Shawn Winslow  ’13 M.A. will attend the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at the University of Iowa in fall 2015.

Brittney Date  ’15 M.A. will move to Madrid, for a 2015–16 teaching position through the Council on International Education and Exchange.

Summer 2015 will find  Shayne McGregor  ’15 M.A. in Philadelphia at the Library Company of America, where he received a fully funded weeklong archival research grant.

Several recent graduates will be starting Ph.D. programs in fall 2015, including  Andrew Dunn  ’11 M.A. at the CUNY Graduate Center to study digital humanities,  Rebeca Rivera  ’13 M.A. at Drew University,  Jake Sanders  ’14 M.A. at SUNY Buffalo to study 20th-century literature,  Jennifer Caroccio  ’14 M.A. at Rutgers-Newark to pursue U.S. Latino/a studies,  Washieka Torres  ’14 M.A. at the program in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green University,  Jeremy Specland  ’13 M.A. at Rutgers University-New Brunswick to study English,  Shoba Parasram  ’11 M.A. to study education at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, and  Bradley Nelson  ’14 M.A. at the CUNY Graduate Center to study 19th-century American literature. Congratulations and best wishes to all.

Jacob Chandler  ’14 M.A. presented the paper “Identity and Materialism: Reading the Space Between Persons and Things” at the University of Alabama—Huntsville graduate student conference, spring 2015.

M.A. student  Haneen Adi  is an intern at Verso Books.

Cherry Lou Sy  ’13 M.A. is pursuing her M.F.A. in creative writing at Long Island University.

Elizabeth Lotto  ’13 M.A. is contracts associate at DK, an imprint of Penguin/Random House Books.

Michelle Gordon  ’14 M.A. is a contributor to the online magazine, Germ.

Charles (Chet) Jordan  ’12 M.A. is an instructor at Gutman Community College (CUNY) and a Ph.D. student in the composition & rhetoric program at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Bob Williams  ’13 M.A. published the novel  Two Is for You  (Open Books, 2015).

Suzette Andrews  ’13 M.A. teaches English composition and developmental writing at Medgar Evers College (CUNY), and is a member of the Budget Committee in the School of Liberal Arts and Education. She conducted the workshop presentation “Moving Beyond One-Size-Fit-All: Using Writing Assessment as a Tool for Differentiating Instruction” at CUNY’s Best Practices Conference, fall 2014, and received a grant from PSC-CUNY to present an excerpt from her M.A. thesis, “Narrationality: The Allegorical Space between the African Burial Ground and Ground Zero” at Florida International University’s Conference on Literature and Crisis, spring 2015.

Beatrice Bradley  ’13 M.A. began the Ph.D. program in English at the University of Chicago in fall 2014. She is studying Renaissance literature.

Natalie Nuzzo  ’14 M.A., English teacher at David A. Boody Middle School, received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study at the Emily Dickinson archives in Amherst, Massachussetts, in summer 2014. She is co-editor of  Wreckage of Reason II: Back to the Drawing Board , a collection of experimental women’s writing. She was also named an Astor Education Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum in fall 2014.

Elroy Esdaille  ’11 M.A. gained admission to the doctoral program in education at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, for fall 2014.

Bradley Nelson  ’14 M.A. participated in the University of Maryland Digital Humanities Seminar in summer 2014.

Nicole Casamento  accepted a position as editorial associate at  ARTnews .

Beatrice Bradley  received funding from the Brooklyn College School of Humanities and Social Sciences to travel to present an abridged version of her M.A. thesis at the Medieval-Renaissance Conference at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise in fall 2013.

Kat Thek  ’12 M.A. landed a job as assistant to the chief digital marketing officer at Harper Collins publishers. A new department, Digital Marketing brainstorming sessions “happen in a room that looks like the inside of Jeanie’s bottle in  I Dream of Jeanie ,” says Thek, “and all of the walls are coated with white board paint so you can go nuts on the walls.”

Bob Williams  had “Forevermore,” an essay on Edgar Allan Poe’s  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket  published in  The Montreal Review , February 2013. He has also published two stories this year, “Strollers” in  Epiphany  (April 2013) and “The Hanger Thief” in  The Faircloth Review  (May 2013). His critical essay “Blowing Bellows: And All That Would-Be Could Be in Jonson’s Volpone” is forthcoming in the  Ben Jonson Review  in 2014.

Natalie Nuzzo  and  Cherry Lou Sy  received travel grants from the Office of the Associate Provost to present papers at conferences in spring 2013. Nuzzo will present her work on the reproduction and subversion of social class on Facebook at the Northeast Modern Language Association conference at Tufts University. Sy will present a paper about the performance artist Staceyann Chin at the American Literature Association conference.

Vivien Cao  presented her paper “You’re a Good Man, Walter White,” about signifiers in  Breaking Bad , at the CUNY Graduate Center conference In Trans: Reading Between and Beyond, November 2012.

Claudette Visco  ’12 M.A. has a job a writer for the Poetry Division at Shmoop, an educational website in Silicon Valley, California.

Congratulations to our many current students and recent alumni who will enter Ph.D. programs this in fall 2012.  Amina Tajbhai  ’12 M.A. has been admitted to the Ph.D. program in English at Fordham University.  James Osborne  ’10 M.A. has been admitted to the Ph.D. English program at the University of Arizona.  Timothy Griffiths  ’12 M.A. has been admitted to the Ph.D. program in English at the CUNY Graduate Center.  Lindsay Lehman  ’08, ’10 M.A. has been admitted to the Ph.D. program in English at the CUNY Graduate Center.  Francisco Delgado  ’09 M.A. has been admitted to the Ph.D. program in English at SUNY Stony Brook.  Michael Carosone  ’97, ’07 M.A. has been admitted to the Ed.D. program at Teachers College, Columbia University. We wish them well!

In addition to a new job at Brooks Brothers,  Michael Dell’Aquila  ’10 M.A. has two forthcoming publications: one in a short story anthology called  Writing Our Way Home  (Guernica Editions, eds. Licia Canton, Elena Lamberti and Caroline Di Giovanni) and a poem in the upcoming issue of the  Paterson Literary Review .

Stephen Spencer  ’11 M.A. will present his paper, “Cognitivism, New Criticism, and the Epistemic Persona of Nabokov’s Lolita” at the CUNY Graduate Center’s conference on May 4, 2012, “Principles of Uncertainty: A Conference on Critical Theory.”

Natalie Nuzzo , current M.A. student, will present “Intentional Exposures and Coded Behaviors in the Age of Facebook: Social Constraints in The House of Mirth” at a special session, “Edith Wharton and the Age of TM(I)nformation,” convened by the Edith Wharton Society at the American Literature Association annual conference in San Francisco in May 2012.

Timothy Griffiths , graduating M.A. student, chaired a session at the Northeast Modern Language Association conference in March 2012, entitled “Intellectual Spars and Rival Texts in 20th-century African-American Literature.”

Joan Jean-Francois , current M.A. student, had her paper “Will The Real Racist Joseph Conrad Please Stand Up?” accepted to the College English Association conference, March 2012, and her paper “Nationalism vs. Postcolonialism in W.B. Yeats’s Works” accepted to the graduate English conference at California State University-Fullerton that same month.

Jonathan Gardner , current M.A. student, presented his paper “The Shield, Antiheroes, and Oppression in America” at the 22nd Annual Mardi Gras Conference at Louisiana State University on February 16, 2012.

Michelle Gibbs , current M.A. student, had tremendous success submitting her paper on Derek Walcott to conferences this year. “Colonial Trauma of Dissociative Proportions in Dream on Monkey Mountain” was accepted to conferences from Aberdeen, Scotland, to Madrid, to Brooklyn, New York. She presented it at the College English Association: Caribbean Chapter conference, On Exile and Its Variations, at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo, March 2012; at the 42nd Annual Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference in Boston in April 2012; and also in April read her paper by Skype at the University of South Florida’s English Graduate Association conference, Re-conceptualizing Cartography: Space-Time Compression and Narrative Mapping. She will present it once again at the Brooklyn College Graduate English Conference, The Shifting Self, on April 28, 2012.

Claudette Visco , graduating M.A. student, presented her papers “The ‘Unspoken’ Codes of Second Language Acquisition: Karen Ogulnick’s Onna Rashiku: The Diary of a Language Learner in Japan” at the graduate symposium, Belonging, sponsored by the Rice University Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, March 30, 2012.

Chet Jordan  will present a paper based on his thesis about visual rhetoric and the teaching of composition at the conference Making Meaning: Language, Rhetoric and the Power of Access, University of Michigan, September 2011.

Michelle Gibbs  will present her paper “Postcolonial Schizophrenia in Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain” at the Fordham University Graduate English Conference, The Art of Outrage, October 2011.

Michael Clyne  ’10 M.A. traveled to Ireland in June 2011, to present his paper, “Diffusing a Politics of Contradiction in The Waves,” at the International Virginia Woolf Conference at the University of Glasgow.

Jennifer Stoops  ’08 M.A. Teacher was admitted to the Ph.D. program in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center for fall 2011.

John Yi  ’05, ’07 M.A. has been accepted to the Ph.D. program at Teachers College, Columbia University, for fall 2011. His focus will be on the import of postcolonial studies and migrant literatures for pedagogical theory and practice.

Christopher Irving , who began the M.A. program in fall 2010, has a new book,  Graphic NYC Presents Dean Haspiel  just out from IDW Publishing. It is a combination of creative nonfiction essays on the Emmy Award–winning comic book artist as well as a collection of his earlier comic book work. Check out gnycpresents.blogspot.com for a preview and other information. Irving edits and writes for the  Graphic NYC , a comic book journalism site that features photo and essay profiles on many comic book luminaries.

Fearful Symmetry: Thinking Through Dualities, the SUNY Stony Brook graduate English conference in February 2010, featured four Brooklyn College M.A. students.  Francisco Delgado  presented “Neither Japanese nor American: Identity and Citizenship in John Okada’s No-No Boy”;  Saad Ibrahim  presented “Of Elephants and Horses: The Rationalization of Human Nature and the Work Ethic in Dickens’ Hard Times”;  Michael DiBerardino  presented “The Split Gaze: Labor, Insight, and the Product of Poetry in Chaucer’s ‘Parliament of Fowls’” and  Patricia Marquez , presented “Detecting Literature’s Impact on Ideology with the Emergence of the American Novel.”

Patricia Marquez , is presenting her paper “The Copyright and Trademark: Piracy, Artist Rights, and the New Semiological Culture” in a panel on Cyber Aesthetics at the Northeast Modern Language Association conference in April 2011, at Rutgers University. Marquez also delivered a presentation, “The Devaluing of the Author in New Historicism,” at the SUNY Albany Graduate English Conference in April 2010.

Stephen Spencer  will present his paper “‘A Lower Flight’: Astronomy and Narrativity in Paradise Lost” at the 19th Annual Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in April 2011.

The Fourth Annual Brooklyn College Graduate English Conference, “The New Urgency: Emerging, Evolving, and Redefining Literature,” April 30, 2011, features papers by current M.A. students  Suklima Roy ,  Gregory Kirkorian ,  Saad Ibrahim ,  Timothy Griffiths , and  Phil Rafferty , along with students from St. John’s University and New York University.

Timothy Griffiths  will present his paper “Of Hobos, Farmers, and Geologists: Mixed Environments, Dual Alienation, and the Emblems of Occupation in Breece D’J Pancake’s ‘Trilobites’” at the University of Rhode Island Graduate English Conference, “[Pre]Occupations: Working, Seizing, Dwelling,” April 16, 2011.

T. Olubunmi Olosunde  ’09 M.A. Teacher has been admitted to the Ph.D. program in English for fall 2010 at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Catherine Baker  ’10 M.A. has been accepted for fall 2010 to the University of Tulsa and the University of Miami, home of the  James Joyce Quarterly  and  James Joyce Literary Supplement , respectively.

Kam Hei Tsuei  will present a paper at the 2010 National Black Writers Conference, Medgar Evers College (CUNY), March 25–27, entitled “The Total Scale of Kamau Brathwaite’s Nation Language.”

Jarad Krywicki  ’09 M.A. has been accepted to the Ph.D. programs at University of Colorado (Boulder) and University of South Carolina (both with full funding).

Patricia Marquez , a first-year M.A. English student, will present her paper, “Detecting Literature’s Impact on Ideology with the Emergence of the American Novel,” at the SUNY Stony Brook Graduate Conference on February 20.

Sarah Kilby , current M.A. English student, published two poems, “The Bottletree” and “The Day She Remembers,” in volume 7 of  Anamesa , an interdisciplinary journal of graduate student writing based at New York University.

Clare Callahan  ’08 M.A. and  Sarah Brown  ’08 will co-chair a panel called “Looking Back on Activism and Twentieth Century American Literature,” at the Northeast Modern Language Association conference in April in Montreal. As their title suggests, their panel examines representations of activism and the relationship between literature and activism through the theme of “looking back.” The papers they have selected include “How Do You Spell ‘Modernity?’: Oppen and the Enchantment of Ideology,” “‘What my heart not my mouth has uttered’: Edwin Rolfe and the Body Politic,” and “(Re)relevance and Social Activism: Don DeLillo on the Subject of Terror.” Callahan, a first-year student in the Ph.D. program in literature at Duke University, will be a graduate assistant for the NeMLA conference organizers for the second year in a row. Brown is pursuing a master’s degree in liberal studies at the CUNY Graduate Center when she is not working in 2314 Boylan Hall.

Bridget English  ’07 M.A. is a Ph.D. student at National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where in addition to studying modern Irish literature she regularly blogs about her experiences as an expatriate graduate student there.

Lia Deromedi  and  Michael Dell’Aquila  both received grants in fall 2009 from the CUNY Graduate Investment Program. Deromedi’s funding will offset her research expenses in writing her thesis, which examines how Primo Levi translates traumatic memories into language in his novel,  If Not Now When . As part of her comparative and interdisciplinary study on Levi, she is incorporating scholarship in trauma studies, cultural studies, Holocaust studies, and linguistic studies. This spring (2010), she will present her work at two conferences: Trauma: Intersections among Narrative, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis, and the New Jersey College English Association annual conference. Dell’Aquila’s funding will enable him to present a paper at the conference Mothering and Migration: (Trans)nationalisms, Globalization and Displacement, hosted by the Association for Research on Mothering at the University of Puerto Rico in February, 2010.

Leah Sadykov , who received both her M.A. in English and M.A. English Teacher degrees from Brooklyn College in 2007, published her thesis in the inaugural issue of the journal  Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies  (June 2008). The article, “Linguistic Determinism,” engages the debate in linguistics between the Sapir-Worf hypothesis and “the contemporary linguistic trend of universalism.” Sadykov currently teaches high school journalism and English courses and is an adjunct English instructor at Suffolk Community College.

The Support You’ll Find

Brooklyn College is an integral part of the cultural and artistic energy of New York City. Our faculty members in English offer incomparable expertise and tremendous talent, and each brings a unique perspective to their teaching and mentoring in and out of the classroom.

Eric Alterman

Eric Alterman is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism. He was the “The ...

Sophia Bamert

Matthew Burgess

Matthew Burgess began teaching at Brooklyn College in 1999 while pursuing his M.F.A. in Poetry. H...

Monica De La Torre

Joseph Entin

Joseph Entin teaches in the English Department and the American Studies program at Brooklyn Colle...

Nicola Masciandaro

The Whim (blog) Current Projects: Appalling Melodrama, ...

Simanique Moody

Roni Natov has lived her entire life (almost) at Brooklyn College, where she was a student and ha...

Jonathan Nissenbaum

Jon Nissenbaum earned his Ph.D. under the supervision of Noam Chomsky and David Pesetsky. Before ...

Helen Phillips

Helen Phillips is the author of six books, including the novel THE NEED (Simon & Schuster, 20...

Tanya L. Pollard

Tanya Pollard trained in Classics, English, and Comparative literature, at Oxford and Yale. She t...

Karl T. Steel

For Karl Steel’s CV, see

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Brooklyn. All in.

Literature Grant 2024 Winter Grantee zakia henderson-brown

• Post author By John Rice (he/Them)
• Post date April 2, 2024

The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2024 Winter Literature Grant to Queens College MFA alum zakia henderson-brown for her upcoming collection of poems “Power Theory” .

Since 2007 the foundation has supported and fostered talented artists of all kinds, enabling them to enhance their craft and realize their artistic vision. The awards are established to support and encourage artists residing in New York City who are currently working in music, visual arts, performance and literature.

zakia henderson-brown is a 2023 NYFA/NYSCA Poetry Fellow and the author of What Kind of Omen Am I , winner of Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship, selected by Cate Marvin. She was a Poets House Emerging Poets fellow, and has received additional fellowships and support from the Fine Arts Work Center, Callaloo Journal , Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and Cave Canem. Her poems have appeared in Adroit , African American Review , Beloit Poetry Journal , the Brooklyn Review, Burner Magazine , Epiphany , Little Patuxent Review , Mobius: The Journal of Social Change , Reverie , No, Dear , North American Review , Obsidian , the Offing , Thethepoetry.com , Torch , Under a Warm Green Linden, Vinyl , Washington Square Review , and the anthologies New Daughters of Africa (Amistad: 2019) and Why I Am Not a Painter (Argos: 2011).

She has worked as a community organizer at Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement; as a researcher at UNITE HERE!, a resource coordinator at Break the Chains: Communities of Color and the War on Drugs; and as a research associate at the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College. She completed the 2010 Activate! organizing fellowship at Social Justice Leadership and is an emerita board member of the Brooklyn Movement Center, where she co-founded the anti-gendered and sexualized street harassment collective, No Disrespect.

zakia was selected as a finalist for the 2021 Publishers Weekly Star to Watch program, selected as a finalist for the 2019 Furious Flower Poetry Prize by A. Van Jordan, nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2023 by Under a Warm Green Linden and in 2013 by Beloit Poetry Journal , and has been in residence at the T.S. Eliot House, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Louis Armstrong House Museum. She currently serves as a senior editor at nonprofit publisher The New Press. She is a Brooklyn native and loyalist.

Power Theory focuses on how different actors navigate, exercise, and grapple with power across different contexts. Overall, the project focuses on the mundane, fraught, and necessary ways we connect with one another in the natural and socially constructed worlds, across both time and circumstance. But these poems also explore the ways we alternately wield and relinquish power *in order to* connect, especially in times of great conflict. Some of these poems explore family loss, and the ensuing grief that comes along with it; the sometimes transcendent experience of mourning, and how we must relinquish power to truly heal. Some of the poems in the manuscript explore how women exercise and navigate power in the face of daunting, entrenched patriarchal obstacles. Still others of these poems explore how to grapple with power in a racialized and social justice context, the seemingly never-ending push and pull that we all must engage. The poems explore all of these while remaining at turns tonally playful and somber, and experimenting with conventions of the line and sonnets.

Please visit zakia’s website or Instagram for more information.

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