University of Southern Maine

Graduation Requirements

The MFA requirements are fulfilled when the student has completed the following:

• Submitted the creative thesis with a mentor signature page to the MFA office.
• Presented a seminar or panel paper during the residency.
• Delivered a 20-minute reading from the creative thesis.

Graduating Student Seminars and Panels
Students must prepare a panel presentation or a seminar to be given during the fifth and final residency. The panel presentation or seminar may be in any of the 6 concentrations and may focus on ideas related to the third semester enhancement project or on another topic. Panel presentations consist of related 20-minute presentations given by two or three students (or occasionally, students and members of the faculty), followed by questions and answers from the audience. If you would like help in finding appropriate co-panelists, feel free to use the student listserv or to ask the MFA staff for recommendations. It is advisable for a panel to choose a moderator to introduce the panel and facilitate the discussion.

Seminars should be pedagogically viable, interactive classes focused on a topic of literary interest. They normally consist of approximately 30 minutes of presentation followed by 20 minutes of discussion. Seminar and Panel Expectations for Faculty also apply to graduating student seminar leaders. Students will receive a written graduating student seminar or panel evaluation from a faculty member in attendance.

Seminar or panel descriptions must be turned in to the MFA office no later than two months before the start date of the next residency. Please follow the format of the sample descriptions exactly. Mentors will offer guidance in the logistics and presentation of a seminar or panel paper, but the content of the seminar is expected to be a student-generated project. Please follow Guidelines for Seminar Reading Lists, which follows the sample seminar and panel descriptions. Please keep required reading to a reasonable minimum and choose sources that are easily available to seminar attendees. Any handouts are the responsibility of the student. Copyright laws prohibit the MFA office from distributing copies of published work.

Finally, students must perform a 20-minute, public reading from the completed thesis. A faculty member will attend and evaluate the Graduating Student Readings. If the student wishes to ask a faculty member to introduce their reading, they must make all arrangements themselves (keeping in mind that some faculty are only present for half the residency). Introductions should be very brief and are included in the twenty minute reading time.

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Related Links:

Program Timeline
Important dates and deadlines on the Stonecoast academic calendar.

Sample Annotations Examples of three approaches to the monthly critical “annotations”: analytical, meditative and imitative

Thesis Guidelines
University and program policies and requirements for the creative MFA thesis.

Concentrations
In-depth descriptions of the six possible third-semester concentrations.