Pan-European MFA in Creative Writing at Cedar Crest College

Pan-European MFA in Creative Writing at Cedar Crest College The Pan-European MFA centers around three 15-day European residencies. Summer 2013 was held in Dublin, 2014 in Barcelona, and 2015 in Vienna/Bratislava.

During three 15-day residencies, students participate in workshops, seminars, field experiences, and face-to-face classroom instruction from faculty. From September through May, students work individually with a faculty member in continual online communication, creating and submitting work and receiving feedback from their faculty mentor. We'll be in Dublin this summer 2016. Genres: Poetry, fictio

n, travel writing, creative nonfiction, or a dual-genre

Total credit hours: 48 total credits, to be completed in a little more than two years

Our faculty consists of highly acclaimed and published writers of poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, screenplays, radio plays, oratorios, libretti, and collaborative projects. All are dedicated to mentoring students throughout the MFA program, providing valuable insight and instruction. They include:

Robert Antoni
David Bezmozgis
Jeffrey Greene
Aleksandar Hemon
Jake Lamar
Fred Leebron
Gwyneth Lewis
Dinaw Mengestu
Jayne Anne Phillips
Kathryn Rhett
David St. John
Keija Parssinen


Application Deadlines:

deadline December 1, 2015 for the Spring 2016 Distance Mentorship (Coursework begins February 1, 2016)

deadline April 1, 2016 for the Summer 2016 Residency held during July 2 - July 16, 2016

Explorations on our last day in Barcelona: Mass at La Catedral de Barcelona, the Gothic Quarter, Exotica Brunch, Castell...
07/12/2025

Explorations on our last day in Barcelona: Mass at La Catedral de Barcelona, the Gothic Quarter, Exotica Brunch, Castell Montjuic, and more, then final 1-1 mentoring sessions! We had a lovely graduation ceremony for our nine 2025 MFA graduates and our fabulous sea-side farewell dinner! Congrats! We can’t believe it’s been two weeks. We miss each other already!

In today’s seminar, Passion with A Thousand Faces: Contemporary Catalan Fiction, Jaume Pons said: “We are still inventin...
07/10/2025

In today’s seminar, Passion with A Thousand Faces: Contemporary Catalan Fiction, Jaume Pons said: “We are still inventing the forms of fiction . . . we are still storytellers around a fire.” After our final genre workshops, the graduating students read from their theses and blew us all away!

We were all very engaged with our locale seminar telling the story of the Spanish Civil War during our walking tour toda...
07/09/2025

We were all very engaged with our locale seminar telling the story of the Spanish Civil War during our walking tour today. Nick Lloyd, author of Forgotten Places: Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War told us about the “May Days” in and around the Place de Catalunya, with bullet holes still evident from the fighting in the streets. The afternoon was free for exploring (Park Guell, a UNESCO World Heritage site was popular), and two seminars in the evening had our attention! In our Screenwriting Seminar, Geoffrey Cowper and his friend, Anna shared their experiences as filmmakers in the industry. Geoffrey told us that he learned early on, “From the most personal comes the best story . . . those things that you don’t want anyone to know, those are the things you should write about.” Anna likes to write more collaboratively and recommended co-writing. We ended the evening with a Publishing Panel—Alix Leveugle, an editor with Penguin/Random House and Marina Penalva, a literary agent. Barcelona is the hub for Spanish publishing and experienced a publishing boom in the 1970s. Each explained their process, first as the agent for writers looking to publish their work. Alix told us, “Once we love the book and buy the publishing rights, we’ll start selling—first in-house to our sales teams!”

Today began with an engaging seminar with Jamal Mahjoub, author of eight novels and a travel memoir, on “Liminal Spaces:...
07/08/2025

Today began with an engaging seminar with Jamal Mahjoub, author of eight novels and a travel memoir, on “Liminal Spaces: Between Fiction and Non-Fiction." Jamal asked us to think about “What is truth in this context and what is fiction?” He told us the writer “must believe in their characters and the world they live in, and the way this is conveyed is through an attention to emotional truth.” In the afternoon the opportunity to be with our mentors for 1-1 tutorials is something we always look forward to and then we headed out for a Modernisme tour along the Passieg de Gracia. We lingered on the “Block of Discord” learning of the rivalry of the three great genius architects of Catalan modernism: Antoni Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch. We found benches to rest after taking the Metro to see the unique Hospital Sant Pau, built 600 years ago and then, the highlight of the evening, a tour of the Sagrada Familia, the as yet unfinished cathedral and masterpiece designed primarily by Gaudi that began construction in 1882.

We were treated to a phenomenal seminar with Alice Miller today on Change in Poetry & Prose, investigating how we set up...
07/07/2025

We were treated to a phenomenal seminar with Alice Miller today on Change in Poetry & Prose, investigating how we set up expectation, tension and change within our work by exploring the work of other poets and novelists. Alice explained negative capability, an idea about the role of the artist, as the ability to exist “in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason,” a definition that comes from a letter that Keats wrote, describing the genius of Shakespeare.
Workshops in the afternoon for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction presented student work for feedback and learning from each other in small groups, and the evening was free for exploring this wonderful city of Barcelona—the Gaudi Houses are a big draw— or sharing ideas on the pool terrace with a glass of wine!

After a Sunday morning visit to the Picasso Museum, a group of us had a sumptuous and leisurely lunch at Els Quatre Gats...
07/06/2025

After a Sunday morning visit to the Picasso Museum, a group of us had a sumptuous and leisurely lunch at Els Quatre Gats, Catalan for 4 Cats. An art nouveau-style cafe that first opened in 1896, 4 Cats became a hub for the Modernisme movement and a central meeting point for Barcelona's modernist figures, such as Pablo Picasso and Ramon Casas i Carbó, a Catalan artist. Other students found so many ways to spend the day at the MOCO Museum discovering an artist new to them, a Gaudi House, Parc Guell, the Bansky museum, St Joseph’s market and the Barcelona Cathedral. And, of course, tapas!

A day-long excursion to the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, founded in 1025, was a real treat for us today! Located on ...
07/05/2025

A day-long excursion to the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey, founded in 1025, was a real treat for us today! Located on the mountain of Montserrat, the unusual geologic formations are fascinating, and we hiked up to an overlook with incredible views. Several of us took the funicular straight up the mountain for a wild ride, and on the tamer side we visited the basilica’s art museum with early Dali drawings and Picasso paintings. Montserrat plays an important role in the cultural and spiritual life of Catalonia as its most important religious retreat. After a break at a cafe for pastries and cappuccino, we made a special visit to the statue of the Black Virgin Mother inside the monastery, a highlight of our trip!

Our classes are held at L’’Ateneu Barcelonès, a historical building here in Barcelona built in 1796, originally designed...
07/05/2025

Our classes are held at L’’Ateneu Barcelonès, a historical building here in Barcelona built in 1796, originally designed as a palace. L’Ateneu hosts a variety of Catalan literary events and classes, including those of the Escola de Escritura, the second largest creative writing school in continental Europe. The gorgeous library and private palm-lined café offers students a literary oasis, hidden in Barcelona’s city center. This morning, Diana Spechler gave students instruction on how to write a strong sentence—essential for every prose writer! Afternoon tutorials focused on one-to-one mentoring in poetry, fiction, non-fiction and screenwriting, and the final group of graduating students presented a wide range of literary scholarship, from Welsh Kings to The Life & Writing of Ingeborg Bachmann!

Catalan writer, translator, and publisher Jaume C. Pons Alorda mesmerized us with a sweeping history of Catalan language...
07/04/2025

Catalan writer, translator, and publisher Jaume C. Pons Alorda mesmerized us with a sweeping history of Catalan language and literature from the medieval period to the present day. After dispersing for lunch in the Barrio Gotico (tapas, anyone?), we dove into poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting workshops, followed by a free evening to explore Barcelona.

After a buffet breakfast at our hotel and a bus ride into the heart of Barcelona, we walked to L’Atenue Barcelonies, a b...
07/03/2025

After a buffet breakfast at our hotel and a bus ride into the heart of Barcelona, we walked to L’Atenue Barcelonies, a beautiful and historic building that will host our classes and graduation ceremony. Film professor Adria Guxens gave a fascinating lecture on Spanish and Catalan film. Next, five of the graduating MFA students gave presentations on their literary scholarship. Then we broke off into smaller groups to explore the city, eat tapas, and drink sangria!

Tuesday our MFA Residency began with Paul Miller sharing how films get made, where stories come from—answer, anywhere an...
07/03/2025

Tuesday our MFA Residency began with Paul Miller sharing how films get made, where stories come from—answer, anywhere and everywhere—and how to pitch, followed by petit lunch choices, including pesto, a crowd favorite. Another crowd favorite was Laura Patricio for a fabulous locale seminar on the moving poetry of Salvador Espriu, then afternoon workshops, and MFA students reading new work to an appreciative audience!

Our first full classroom day at Castell Jalpi! Faculty member Bob Antoni shared a workshop on Crafting Verisimilitude: 1...
07/01/2025

Our first full classroom day at Castell Jalpi! Faculty member Bob Antoni shared a workshop on Crafting Verisimilitude: 10 Tricks to Convince the Reader of Your Made-up World using short stories by George Saunders, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Karen Russel, stories that make use of magical realism—the juxtaposition of an absolutely normal person in an otherwise unbelievable setting! New favorite literature then lunch, afternoon workshops and faculty readings with Alice Miller and Ruben Quesada!

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