English Lit PhD or Creative Writing PhD?

[tt1020]

Hey, all. I applied to a mix of English lit and creative writing phd programs. I've been accepted with funding to both and am trying to figure out which is ultimately best for me. I'm finishing up my MFA in poetry this spring. Anyone have suggestions or in the same situation and want to talk? Feel free to message me. 

[SimSimSim]

My advisors, though, to answer the initial question, kept telling me to go for straight Lit Phds since, because I already have an MFA, it, to them at least, looks better on the resume than two CW degrees. Hope my comments are helpful, and congrats--you must produce quality work since getting accepted to, or being waitlisted at, any of those programs is no easy feat. 

[cloudofunknowing]

There was a similar query to this posted not that long ago - though by someone preparing to apply to lit and cw programs - and I responded to this at length (see below). Like you, I applied to both kinds of PhD programs as an MFA'er and was faced with a similar decision. I chose the literary studies route over the cw one. The advice I was given by my mentors mirrored that of SimSimSim's: the redundancy of two terminal degrees in the same area, especially in a job market being what it is (and with the tenure-track cw market being its own distinct beast). For all of these programs, the other things to consider is "rank" (however defined) and job placement rate, especially in your articulated fields (genre of your creative writing, area for literary studies). I'd be happy to correspond about this via pm, too, if you like.  

 

[tt1020]

Thank you both for your help! I also appreciate the link to your reply/thread with the similar question.

In terms of genre/area: I'm (broadly) interested in disability studies/neurocognitive studies/trauma and the use of experimental form/metaphor in contemporary poetry. These interests go hand in hand with the content/craft of my own poetry. 

My poetry profs are mostly against the idea of a lit studies PhD, and my lit profs don't see the point in a CW PhD. However, they're also retiring/close to retirement and have admitted to being a bit out of the loop with this....

I'm also curious about the sense of community  and how divided the critical and creative communities are there. If I go the critical route, I'd still want to participate in the creative community. The MA and MFA at my program are super separate and I'm wondering if it's the same kind of thing with most PhD programs.

[rimeroyal]

First thing to consider is that an MFA is already a terminal degree, so it might be good to ask yourself whether you absolutely do feel like it's best to spend the next 4-5 years doing a PhD. Back at my undergrad, there was a CW MFA instructor as well as a CW professor with a PhD, and there wasn't much difference, in terms of status in the department. The only difference I noticed was that the PhD seemed to have a better grip on the market and teaching students how to handle it, but I think that's more reflective of the person rather than the degree. If you stick to CW, think hard about whether those 4-5 years are worth investing instead of hitting the job market and using that time to get settled there.

That said, lit and CW are totally different fields, both in teaching and what they do. CW teaches workshops and organizes academic writing groups; some of what they do sounds like your interests--for example, the CW folks here in Wales did a series of teleconferences last semester talking about experimental poetry as it relates to ecology and brought on some guest speakers who are published poets who mess with translation, etc. As far as I know, most of us in lit don't do much creative work on a professional level, we mostly stick to our subject material and bring up new ways to look at it. Then again, I'm a medievalist, so even our purest "lit" people do stuff that looks totally different from, say, the postmodernists. I knew a professor who was doing research on trauma and war stories, and some of the lit theory specialists study experimental writing, but it's all critical work, less output in the sense CW folks do it.