English

Overview

We encourage M. A. students to explore their interests across our curriculum. Together with their colleagues and faculty mentors, the M. A. cohort participates fully in the life of the English Department. The deadline for applications for the 2019-20 year is March 10, 2019 (final deadline).  Applications start October 1st on Cal State Apply.

The MA in English handbooks below provide information on how to apply to the M.A. in English and helps newly admitted students gain a sense of what to expect as they navigate their way through the program.

MA Student Accomplishments

Graduates of the English program at Sonoma State University have seen considerable long-term success in fields such as advertising, editing and publishing, public relations writing, graphic design, software development, and legal work. Many are teaching English in Bay Area community colleges and other universities around the country. Several have landed tenure-track positions in English at Santa Rosa Junior College, Napa Valley College, and Porterville College.

Creative writing graduates from the program have received awards including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a National Poetry series winner, the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for Poetry, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Creative writing graduates have published books with Graywolf, Wesleyan University Press, Rescue Press, Omnidawn, Letter Machine Editions, Swoon Reads: Macmillan, and Kelsey Street Books.

MA program graduates have pursued further degrees at other prestigious programs. For the Ph.D. in English, students have completed degrees at University of Texas, Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts, University of Michigan, and University of California at Berkeley. For the MFA in Creative Writing, students have gone on to University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Temple University, Naropa Institute of Disembodied Poetics,University of Arizona, University of Denver, University of Chicago Center for the Book, California College of the Arts, San Francisco State University, Mills College, Saint Mary’s, University of San Francisco, and University of Massachusetts.