Department of English
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5331 USA
(269) 387-2572
Doctor of Philosophy in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis
Please send all inquiries to english-graduate@wmich.edu.
A 90-credit hour degree, the doctoral program in creative writing allows students to hone their writing of poetry, fiction, and playwriting.
Students coming to this degree are granted up to 30 hours credit from their master鈥檚 program, and are then required to take ENGL 6150: Literary Criticism, a forms course in their genre, one class in their major area (i.e., contemporary poetry, fiction, or playwriting), and at least 12 credit hours of workshop in their genre. Having fulfilled these requirements, students take an additional 9 elective credits, six hours of teaching pedagogy, and round out their doctoral experience with reading and dissertation hours. The program is designed with significant flexibility to meet the student鈥檚 educational aims.
Doctoral students from our program have gone on to tenure-track jobs at a variety of institutions, including Kansas State University, California State University, San Bernardino, West Chester University, The University of Southern Mississippi, Kendall College, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Pacific Lutheran University, and Truman State University.