Habits of Mind

The novelist and essayist Wallace Stegner, who taught creative writing at Stanford University, had this to say about the efficacy of teaching people how to write: "1. It can be done. 2. It can't be done to everybody." Now that that's out of the way and we're still stuck in the mud as to whether creative writing can be taught, let me say that Texas has a wealth of universities and colleges that offer M.A. degrees with an emphasis in creative writing or undergraduate degrees in English with an emphasis in creative writing. But we chose to concentrate on profiling the four institutions in Texas that offer Master of Fine Arts degrees in creative writing, which tend to require more workshop classes -- more actual writing time -- than M.A. degrees. M.F.A. degrees also make it easier for the recipient to obtain a tenure track teaching position at a university. Below you'll find a bounty of information on the creative writing programs at UT's Michener Center for Writers, the University of Texas at El Paso, Southwest Texas State University, and the University of Houston. For more about creative writing programs, visit the Associated Writing Programs' Web site, http://awpwriter.org/.