I have been a reporter at a small daily in California for two years and have also worked as a reporter at an English-language newspaper in Costa Rica. I am seriously considering a graduate degree in journalism, in part because I would like to improve my writing, which is not much of an option at a small paper with few editors. I am also interested in learning more about literary-journalism techniques I could translate into longer freelance pieces.
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Despite the debate over the merits of journalism school, I also want to use the experience as leverage for later career moves into public relations or teaching. With all that said, I am interested in hearing anything you know about good graduate-journalism programs focusing on literary journalism, especially for reporters who have already done some "real world" work. Do you think this kind of degree will be helpful in the future, or is it still too unknown? How do you think editors would respond to someone with a Master's of Fine Arts instead of a journalism degree?
I am looking now at NYU, Stanford and Oregon, which seems to be the only program with a focus in creative nonfiction.
Amanda
Given your career goals -- to vault out of daily journalism and into teaching or public relations -- a master's degree makes sense. It will certainly open some doors for you as an educator.
The degree, in and of itself, will not matter much to editors. Your enhanced skills will, but newspapers these days are much more interested in Web skills than in literary journalism. So, this sounds better as an exit strategy than as a way to advance your career within journalism.
Your initial list sounds solid. Also take a look at the master of fine arts in creative nonfiction at Goucher College in Towson, Md. It is a focused, two-year, limited-residency program.
There are single courses in literary journalism -- Boston University, the University of Maryland, Indiana University -- but Oregon seems to be most extensive. Also take a look at the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism in Grapevine, Texas. Its conference for nonfiction literary writers of the Southwest July 14 to 16 may be of interest to you.
And look into the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard. It is scheduled for Nov. 17 to 19 this year and may give you the fix you're looking for. Most of the speakers are working journalists. It gets great reviews and keeps up a year-round, online presence.
