MFA in Creative Writing - Josip Novakovich

Teaching Philosophy

I teach both fiction and nonfiction, and in both my approach is to push against the limits of the genre, towards a bit of cross-genre. In nonfiction, I encourage story-development, vivid descriptions, fresh word choices, as though we were writing fiction, while staying with the task to tell the truth to the best of our abilities and recollections. In fiction, in addition to intensifying the dramatic action and the events that make the crux of the story, I look for information, thoughtfulness, authority of telling, and story-telling. In electronic communication I use the track-changes program for marginal comments and for line-editing suggestions, and I offer an end-note with my editorial suggestions for revising and improving your work.