Assistant Professor Creative Writing (Fiction)

Assistant Professor Creative Writing (Fiction)

The George Mason University Department of English invites applications for a nine-month, tenure track Assistant Professor Position in Fiction. We encourage applicants whose work explicitly engages pressing issues of racial, cultural, sexual, gendered, economic, or religious difference including African American, Latinx, Native American, Asian American, immigrant, and other marginalized voices. George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason’s academic and culturally inclusive environment.

Launched in 1980 as the department’s first terminal degree, Mason Creative Writing today encompasses both an undergraduate BFA and graduate MFA program. The MFA Program is a three-year residential program with concentrations in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Located in vibrant and diverse Northern Virginia, the program draws from and contributes to the extraordinary literary and cultural scene in the region as well as in nearby Washington, D.C., with all the additional amenities that the nation’s capital has to offer.

Coinciding with its 40th anniversary, Mason Creative Writing established Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice as a chartered center of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This new collaborative center harnesses synergies from initiatives that have flowed from the program over the past four decades: Fall for the Book, a nationally prominent literary festival; Stillhouse Press, a literary imprint and “teaching press”; Cheuse Center for International Writers, which brings writers from around the globe to campus and supports students’ international research; Poetry Daily, an online anthology of contemporary poetry; the Northern Virginia Writing Project and its Writers in the Schools program; and two highly regarded literary journals, phoebe and So to Speak. Watershed Lit also fosters research by faculty and the professional development of students, serving as a catalyst for transformational experiences.

This position is a part of the College of Humanities and Social Science’s inclusive excellence diversity cluster hire initiative designed to create a cohort of faculty across departments whose scholarship focuses on issues related to inequalities; underrepresented regions and languages of the world; underserved, vulnerable populations; race, racism, and antiracism; and intersectional approaches to the study of difference, diversity, discrimination, and social justice. This cohort will contribute to interdisciplinary programs and enhance the mentorship of a majority-minority student population.

George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university, with an R-1 rating and is committed to keeping our doors open and accessible to as many capable students as possible. Mason was recently named the most diverse university in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report. Our students represent all races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, sexual orientation, and gender identities and hail from over 130 countries.

Responsibilities:

Candidates will teach in the Creative Writing MFA and BFA programs beginning fall 2021, teaching a 2:2 load. Candidates should be prepared to teach creative writing graduate courses including forms of fiction, creative writing workshop.

Specific Duties:

• Teaching graduate courses and workshops with an option to eventually include undergraduate courses if desired (2-2 load);
• Directing MFA theses;
• Reviewing fiction applications and assisting in student recruitment;
• Partaking in faculty meetings;
• Contributing other service as required.

Required Qualifications:

• MFA or PhD in creative writing;
• Demonstrated excellence in the teaching of writing and literature;
• At least one full-length book of fiction in print or in press by a nationally recognized press.

For Full Consideration, apply by December 30, 2020, and submit the following required documents:

• Cover Letter;
• CV;
• Academic Transcripts;
• List of Professional References with contact information;
• Writing Sample.

 https://creativewriting.gmu.edu/