Sufjan Stevens, MFA Creative Writing ’00
Sufjan Stevens ’00 takes poetic and unflinching songwriting to great heights.
After recording his debut solo album, A Sun Came, in 1999, Sufjan Stevens, MFA Creative Writing ’00, moved to New York City and enrolled at The New School. As a Creative Writing student, he developed a passion for the short story form with hopes to write a novel, but he ultimately returned to songwriting.
In an interview with The Creative Independent, Stevens explains the influence fiction writing had on his songwriting: “I developed my songwriting voice in the tradition of fiction writing, using techniques that I learned in writing workshops. I’d just apply all of those techniques to songwriting. I conditioned myself to really ‘show, don’t tell’ and to use active verbs and dynamic nouns and be as specific as possible. Within songs you want to create scenes, establish setting, and develop the narrative around conflict. You learn to play around with situational irony and funny juxtapositions, all things that are very useful when you are still learning the trade.”
Since graduating, Stevens has released seven studio albums. He has been recognized by multiple institutions and has received numerous accolades. Most notably, Stevens’ song, “Mystery of Love,” written for the movie Call Me by Your Name, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 2018 Oscars. He the song at the award ceremony.
