Writing and Applied Arts
(Bachelor of Fine Arts)
Overview
To meet industry demand for exceptional writing skills infused with creativity, UW-Green Bay offers the first and only degree of its kind in the UW-System: The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing and Applied Arts.
Craft-Focused Workshops, Community-Facing Opportunities
The B.F.A. in Writing and Applied Arts is a craft-focused, community-facing program offering a range of workshops, including novel writing and revision, romance writing, poetry, world-building, creative nonfiction, environmental writing, grant writing, professional writing, placemaking, and writing for professional clients. Small class sizes (10 to 25 students) place student work at the center of discussion. Students can write and revise a novel, poetry manuscript, memoir, tabletop game narrative, or public-facing awareness campaign with mentored feedback. In addition, through its focus on Applied Arts, the B.F.A. in Writing and Applied Arts offers opportunities for students to discover and tell our region’s untold stories—connecting a student's love of reading and writing to real-world problem-solving, advocacy, and change.
The Business of Writing
As emerging professionals, B.F.A. students develop expertise transferrable to any workplace. They also gain skills in user experience, workflow, audience awareness, listening, empathy, communicating complex ideas, and critical thinking — skills ranked in the top 10 most sought-after qualities by job recruiters. In the final year of the B.F.A in Writing and Applied Arts, students engage in at least nine credit hours of hands-on expertise in areas such as small press publishing, copywriting, writing for nonprofits, podcasting, project development, journal editing, digital and social media, game writing, and marketing.
Choose One of Four Emphases
Students choose one of four interdisciplinary emphases:
- Community Storytelling Emphasis. Students in the Community Storytelling Emphasis bring writing to broader communities by organizing regional events, developing community workshops, writing for social justice, and advocating to tell untold stories.
- Editing and Publishing Emphasis. Students in the Editing and Publishing Emphasis learn all aspects of editorial production in preparation to become copyeditors, publishers, publicists, content developers, and promotional and marketing professionals.
- Game Writing Emphasis. Students in the Game Writing Emphasis use skills of game craft, world-building, and choice networks to become creators of interactive experiences for tabletops, screens, historical sites, and public spaces.
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Professional and Technical Writing Emphasis. Students in the Professional and Technical Writing Emphasis work with clients to master the production of effective technical manuals, dynamic data visualizations and user interfaces, as well as engaging multimedia designs.
Program Outcomes for B.F.A. Students
- Students will create, draft, and revise original works in multiple genres and forms.
- Students will analyze the techniques, construction, and production of various written expressions.
- Students will critique works by peers and published writers alike in various classroom settings, including the craft workshop.
- Students will situate their work and the works of other writers within multiple larger audiences of readers, writers, the publishing industry, and other relevant markets.
- Students will explore sources of support for storytelling projects, including their own individual projects.
- Students will engage with issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, collaboration, and ethics as they impact craft, writing, and publication in professional, classroom, and community settings
- Students will interpret, research, and evaluate works of literature and related media by placing them in historical, philosophical, psychological, intertextual, and other contexts appropriate to the discipline.
- Students will articulate their aesthetic choices using appropriate artistic and professional terms.
- Students will develop proficiency in producing, copyediting, curating, managing, and disseminating various kinds of projects in an effort to engage communities within and outside of UW-Green Bay.
- Students will use reading, writing, and editing as vehicles for their own personal, intellectual, and imaginative growth.
- Students will make, break, succeed, and fail— and in failing, practice the writer's skills of revision and resilience.
Major Area of Emphasis
Students must complete requirements in one of the following areas of emphasis:
Rebecca A. Meacham; Professor; Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, Chair
Charles A. Rybak; Professor; Ph.D., University of Cincinnati
Ann Mattis; Associate Professor; Ph.D., Loyola University
Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier; Associate Professor; Ph.D., Marquette University
Rebecca L. Nesvet; Associate Professor; Ph.D., University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Jennifer Young; Associate Professor; Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University
Julialicia Case; Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of Cincinnati
Jonas Gardsby; Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Kristopher Purzycki; Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Christopher Williams; Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Roshelle L. Amundson; Assistant Teaching Professor;M.F.A., Goddard College
Paul Belanger; Assistant Teaching Professor; Ph.D., Deakin University
Tara DaPra; Assistant Teaching Professor; M.F.A.,University of Minnesota
Tracy Rysavy; Assistant Teaching Professor; M.A., Boston College
Albert C. Sears, Assistant Teaching Professor, Ph.D., Lehigh University
Erica Wiest; Assistant Teaching Professor; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
William M. Yazbec; Assistant Teaching Professor; Ph.D., Florida State University
