New School MFA in Creative Writing program event recordings
Abstract
The collection consists of roughly two decades of sound recordings documenting guest speakers, faculty, and students of The New School's MFA in Creative Writing Program, including events that pre-date the official establishment of the program in 1996. Included in this collection are awards ceremonies, tributes and celebrations, conferences and symposia, book and literary magazine launches, readings series and forums, and ongoing partnerships with external institutions such as the Harlem Writers Guild, Publishing Triangle, the Story Prize, and BOMB magazine.
Dates
- 1984-2012
- Majority of material found within 1994-2012
Creator
- New School (New York, N.Y.) (Host institution, Organization)
- New School (New York, N.Y.). Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program (Sponsor, Organization)
Extent
5.9 Cubic Feet (4 boxes)
442 1/4 inch Audio Cassette
22 DAT
5 1/4 inch Audio Tape
4 u-matic
8 minidv
107 CDs
Language of Materials
English
Scope and Contents
The collection consists primarily of audio cassette recordings and optical discs (CDs) documenting public programming sponsored in whole or in part by the MFA in Creative Writing Program at The New School, also referred to as the Graduate Writing Program. Although The New School established an MFA in creative writing in 1996, this collection contains recordings of events sponsored by the predecessor Writing Program that had existed at the university for decades.
Recordings transition from analog to digital around 2008-2009.
Although the MFA in Creative Writing Program continues to host public programming into the 2020s, the absence of recordings beyond 2012 is likely indicative of a change in audio recording technologies and formats, as consumers shifted from storing sound and video on removal media, such as tapes and discs, to cloud-based storage or the Internet.
Guest speakers include major Anglophone non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and essay writers, including art and music critics, historians, memoirists, and journalists. Literary magazines and journals represented in the collection include Artforum, BOMB, Fence, Granta, Harper's, and Tin House.
Frequent event moderators are founding faculty member Robert Polito and professor Luis Jaramillo.
Most events appear to have transpired in either Tishman Auditorium or Wollman Hall, both in the university's flagship building at 66 West 12th Street. University Hall and Room 510 are also frequent locations.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use. No access copies of the DAT, audio reels, U-matic cassettes, or MiniDV recordings in the collection are currently available. Access to audio cassettes may be available in The New School Archives reading room, depending upon the condition of the cassettes once they are evaluated by Archives staff. Researchers desiring remote access and willing to pay a digitization fee may do so upon consultation with The New School Archives.
Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment to listen to audio cassettes and compact discs in the reading room or for more information about ordering digital files.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright is held by each work's respective author. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the user.
Historical note
The New School established a Master's in Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing in 1996, after six decades of offering non-credit writing workshops. The Graduate Writing Program, as it was called in promotional material distributed by The New School, was situated in the Schools of Public Engagement, formerly known as the Adult Division, the "founding" division of the New School for Social Research as it was conceived in 1919.
Robert Polito was the first director of the Graduate Writing Program, who joined the Adult Division faculty of The New School in 1989. Designed as a full-time, four semester program, the MFA in Creative Writing was largely modeled on the workshop method of instruction, in which a teacher who was also a prominent professional writer would work closely with students on their individual manuscripts, rather than give lengthy lectures. Courses in literature, as well as writing forums, which existed as part of the New School’s special events and reading series, would complete the program curriculum.
The initial program offered four writing concentrations: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, and Writing for Children (after 2017, Writing for Children and Young Adults). As of Fall 2024, a fifth concentration was added in Arts Writing. Also included in the curriculum as of 2025 are literary readings sponsored by organizations such as the Cave Canem Foundation, The Story Prize, National Book Foundation (presenters of the National Book Awards), National Book Critics Circle, Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), PEN America, Academy of American Poets, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Poetry Society of America, and Publishing Triangle.
As of 2025, the Creative Writing Program is directed by John Reed, and the MFA Writing chairs are: Laura Cronk, Poetry; Caron Levis, Writing for Children and Young Adults, Coordinator; Helen Schulman, Fiction; Camonghne Felix, Non-fiction; and Margaret Rhee, Arts Writing.
References
Course Catalogs, New School Course Catalog Collection, 1919-2017, The New School Archives Digital Collections, New York, New York.
“Creative Writing Program.” The New School. Accessed May 20, 2025. https://www.newschool.edu/writing/.
Dickey, Elizabeth. “New School MFA Writing Program Proposal with Accompanying Memorandum to New School Provost Judith Walzer.” January 11, 1995. The New School Schools of Public Engagement Executive Dean's Office Records, NS.02.01.04, The New School Archives Digital Collections, New York, New York.
Arrangement
Arranged in chronological order by event date.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The staff of The New School Archives and Special Collections assembled the earliest recordings in this collection from a larger set of legacy recordings transferred from The New School's Raymond Fogelman Library following the establishment of The New School Archives, circa 2012. Additionally, Pam Tillis, director of public programs for The New School for Public Engagement, transferred Creative Writing Program recordings to The New School Archives upon the Archives's establishment in 2012. Archives staff added post-2012 events to the collection with the accession of recordings directly from the Creative Writing Program in 2024.
Processing Information
New School Archives staff based all description in this finding aid on container inscriptions and corresponding marketing documents, such as course catalogs, press releases, and university newsletters. Staff did not listen to the tapes or discs to verify content.
- Audiocassettes (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Authors (Occupation) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Compact discs (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Creative nonfiction (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Creative writing -- Study and teaching (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Poetry -- Study and teaching (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Sound recordings (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Title
- Guide to the New School MFA in Creative Writing program event recordings
- Status
- In Process
- Author
- Jason Adamo and Jenny Swadosh
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin