MFA, BFA and Other Creative Writing Degrees in Tennessee

Written by Jennifer Williams

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Liberty University

Featured Program: AA: Creative Writing (Non-Licensure)

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Southern New Hampshire University

Featured Program: BA in Creative Writing and MA in English and Creative Writing with various concentrations

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Grand Canyon University

Featured Program: B.A. in Professional Writing for New Media

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Penn Foster

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Tennessee is a state so full of history and life that it just breaths raw material for writers of all genres. It’s a state with a deep and troubled history, the ominous beauty of wide-open pastures and magnificent mountains, and a rebellious heart – the recognized birthplace of rock and roll.

Take your pick – there’s something for every writer in Tennessee.

Tennessee’s Contributions to Literary Canon

Wilma Dykeman, a native of the state, was well-known as a novelist and writer of Tennessee state history. She had many awards under her belt, too, including Tennessee Conservation Writer of the Year. In the 1950s, she launched her career with her publication The French Broad. The book focused mainly on Tennessee’s early history and the character of its mountain people. Dykeman was also an early proponent of civil liberties and societal progression. These ideas can be seen in some of her writings, like Neither Black Nor White, while others, like Return the Innocent Earth, highlight her belief in maintaining the dignity of human life and the environment.

Donald Davidson, a Campbellsville native, was widely recognized for his poetry but didn’t exactly have a clean slate. He started out well enough with a master’s degree in English from Vanderbilt, where he eventually spent his entire career. He was even a founding member of the student-professor coalition which created and published The Fugitive, an esteemed poetry magazine that ran from 1922 to 1925. After gaining some literary standing, he began to sprinkle his poetry with ideology, using his writings as a platform. In fact, he was one of twelve authors of the anti-capitalist publication I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition. Davidson carried the belief that a people’s history is its source of meaning and value. Many of his writings embodied this theme and, in the 1930s, as American culture became more commercialized, he used his writing to call upon society to return to and embrace its regional identities. He later retired from Vanderbilt in the 1960s and published a collection of poems, but his scholarly reputation had already been destroyed by his antiliberal and racist tendencies.

Shelby Foote, originally from Mississippi, spent the last five decades of his life in Memphis. After his service in WWII, he permanently relocated to Memphis. The post-war era was a struggle, so he took odd jobs, like radio copywriting and newspaper reporting, to make ends meet. Even though they seemed like just odd jobs at the time, he didn’t sway too far from where he started. He ended up publishing four novels. His real calling, though, was for history, and he certainly had a knack for writing it. He probably never imagined he would be remembered as the greatest Civil War historian of all time, but that’s exactly what happened. His monumental Civil War research coalesced into the 3-book series The Civil War: A Narrative which ultimately became his legacy.

No matter what your talent is – rhythmical poetry, historical narration, or activist prose – the eternal words of writers like Dykeman, Davidson, and Foote are a reminder that a career in creative writing can be yours too.

Tennessee’s unique history and culture have always been a bedrock of literary opportunity, and today, large cities like Chattanooga and Nashville exist as thriving literary hubs for aspiring writers. If you want to become a writer in Tennessee, networking within your local writing community is a great place to start. The mainstay of a successful writing career, though, is having a degree in creative writing, whether a BA or BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) at the undergraduate level, or a MA or MFA (Master of Fine Arts) for creative writing graduate students.

“The point I would make is that the novelist and the historian are seeking the same thing: the truth – not a different truth: the same truth – only they reach it, or try to reach it, by different routes. Whether the event took place in a world now gone to dust, preserved by documents and evaluated by scholarship, or in the imagination, preserved by memory and distilled by the creative process, they both want to tell us how it was: to re-create it, by their separate methods, and make it live again in the world around them.”

~ Shelby Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville

Tennessee’s Creative Writing Classes, Courses, and Workshops Can Prepare You for a Creative Writing Degree

You’ve probably realized by now that becoming a writer doesn’t mean following a prescriptive path like most other professions. There’s no rigid outline to hold up that’s going to promise you success. Sure, there’s a few basic tenets to follow, but writing, for the personal and intimate art that it is, takes its direction from the passion and vision of its author. It ends up being a creation unique to the one who created it. Your journey as a writer, then, starts with knowing yourself deeply – your thoughts, desires, and ambitions – and using that introspection to create something truly unique. This means you’ll need an outlet for self-reflection, and the best place to start is within your local writing community.

The Chattanooga Writers’ Guild is an excellent resource for experienced and novice writers. The group meets once a month. Workshops are held on Saturdays and includes a feedback and critique period. Monthly writing contests are open to members. Each month, a different genre is featured. Top prize is $50 plus publication in the Chattanooga Pulse, a local circular featuring art, culture, politics, and all the happenings in and around the Chattanooga metropolitan area. The group’s annual writing contest is limited to poetry, fiction, and nonfiction submissions; the top three winners get cash awards and publication in the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild Anthology.

WriterFest Nashville is a must-attend event if you live in the Nashville area. This ticket-holding event is a hot-spot of opportunity for both aspiring and published writers, poets, and screenwriters. You’ll hear from keynote speakers and have access to best-selling authors, nationally recognized publishers, booksellers, marketing specialists, and publicists. If you’re looking for a chance to network with the pros, create professional connections, and get your stuff read, then WriterFest Nashville is where you need to be!

Another great resource in the Nashville area is Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore owned by novelist Ann Patchett. It carries an extensive selection of works by local authors and hosts a slew of in-store events, including meet-the-author events that often host big names like Barbara Kingsolver. You’ll also find Parnassus Books set up at the annual Southern Festival of Books, one of the oldest literary festivals in the country. It takes place in downtown Nashville every year and typically draws in about 200 authors and 60 publishers.

Don’t forget to follow the local literary circulars, too. Literary journals like Nashville-based Broken Ribbon are a great way to stay current on all things literary in your local area. Broken Ribbon is an annual print journal for emerging scholarly voices. The publication accepts regular submissions throughout the year and hosts one poetry and one fiction writing contest every year for cash prizes. There is a $15 submission fee, but top prize is $100 and publication in Broken Ribbon’s annual print journal.

Writing Colleges in Tennessee Offering Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Creative Writing Provide a Path to Becoming a Writer

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