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Florida Atlantic University

Florida, united states.

Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton, a diverse community with all of the cultural advantages of a major metropolitan setting, is located three miles from the Atlantic Ocean, halfway between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Students in the MFA program specialize in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction, pursuing half of their coursework in creative writing workshops and half in literature and theory seminars.

The MFA is a 48 credit hour program. Students complete seven courses in writing workshops/special topics, six courses in literature/literary theory, and six credit hours of thesis. We also offer two interdiscliplinary graduate certificates, one in literary translation and one in environmental humanities. Students can also work on Swamp Ape Review, our literary magazine. Internships are available for course credit.

Each year in addition to the traditional workshops in fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry, a number of special topics courses are available to students. Recent examples have included Translation, Writing Flash, Experimental Fiction, and Teaching Creative Writing. Thesis hours are conducted one-on-one with individual faculty.

Contact Information

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Graduate program director.

Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton, a diverse community with all of the cultural advantages of a major metropolitan setting, is located three miles from the Atlantic Ocean, halfway between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Students in the MA and MFA programs specialize in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction, pursuing half of their coursework in creative writing workshops and half in literature and theory seminars. Both programs require completion of a creative thesis and feature small, rigorous workshops and seminars. The MFA is a 48 credit hour program. Students complete seven courses in writing workshops/special topics, six courses in literature/literary theory, ENG 6009 Principles and Problems of Literary Study, and six credit hours of thesis. The MA is a 30 credit hour program, consisting of four courses in writing workshops/special topics and three courses in literature/literary theory, plus ENG 6009 Principles and Problems of Literary Study, as well as six credit hours of thesis. Interdiscliplinary coursework is also available, in such fields as screenwriting and playwriting, through the School of the Arts in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters.

Each year in addition to the traditional workshops in fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry, a number of special topics courses are available to students. Recent examples have included The Poem in Practice, Writing The Short Story Sequence, Writing the First Novel, Teaching Creative Writing, and Writing Across Genres. Recent offerings in literature have included History of the English Language, Women in Literature, Latino Literature and Theory, James Joyce, Langston Hughes, Jane Austen, William Faulkner, Thinking Like a Poet, African-American Autobiography, American Science Fiction and The Cold War, and Food and Identities in Asian-American Literature. Thesis hours are conducted one-on-one with individual faculty.

A. Papatya Bucak

http://www.fau.edu/english/creative/bucak.php

Andrew Furman

http://www.fau.edu/english/creative/furman.php

Jason Schwartz

http://www.fau.edu/english/creative/schwartz.php

Becka McKay

http://www.fau.edu/english/facultypages_mckay.php

Publications & Presses +

Swamp Ape Review

Visiting Writers Program +

2023-2024: Ross Gay, Matt Bell, Omer Friendlander

2022-2023: Paisley Rekdal, Patricia Engel, Sarah Manguso

2021-2022: Toni Jensen, Rion Amilcar Scott, Rachel Eisendrath

Reading Series +

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Florida Atlantic University

Boca Raton , FL

http://www.fau.edu/english/mfa

Degrees Offered

Fiction, Poetry, CNF

Residency type

Program length, part-time study.

Yes, but it will entail partial funding

Financial Aid

The program offers full funding. The program offers a stipend plus tuition waiver (students are still responsible for other required student fees) to all accepted students. The program also awards the Lawrence Sanders Fellowship, the Griffin Award, and the Swann Awards for summer funding.

Teaching opportunities

Teaching assistantships that include tuition wavers offer students the opportunity to teach composition and creative writing during their time in the program.

Editorial opportunities

Yes, with our student-run national literary magazine: Swamp Ape .

Cross-genre study

Yes, students often experiment with genre

• Stephanie Anderson MFA (CNF) 2015
• Christopher Notarnicola MFA (Fiction) 2018

Send questions, comments and corrections to [email protected] .

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , Best American Poetry , The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology .

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Florida Atlantic University

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MFA Program

Poetry: Becka Mara McKay, Romeo Oriogun Fiction: Ayşe Papatya Bucak, Jason Schwartz Nonfiction: Stephanie Anderson, Andrew Furman

The program offers full funding in the form of a graduate teaching assistantship position with a stipend, tuition waiver, and health insurance to all accepted students. The program also offers the Lawrence A. Sanders Fellowships, the Myrna Skurnick Fellowships, the Griffin Award, and the Swann Awards for summer research/travel funding.

Coastlines , Swamp Ape Review

This program hosts the Off the Page Reading Series as well as the Lawrence Sanders Writer-in-Residence series, and creative writing workshops in literary translation, experimental prose, writing the environment, and creative writing pedagogy. Students have the opportunity to teach creative writing at the undergraduate level and in the community. Students can also complete internships for credit; previous students have interned with the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Tethered by Letters, Theater Lab (FAU’s resident theater company), and other organizations.

The program also offers a graduate certificate in literary translation; the College of Arts and Letters offers a certificate in Environmental Studies.

The MFA at Florida Atlantic University

• May 1, 2020

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December 2022 elitpak :: our lady of the lake university’s online mfa & ma programs.

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University of South Florida

Department of English

TAMPA | ST. PETERSBURG | SARASOTA-MANATEE

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Creative writing mfa.

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of South Florida is a funded three-year degree.  MFA students receive a full tuition waiver and the teaching assistantship comes with a stipend and health insurance. Each year we accept an average of nine students who write comics, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.

Our award-winning faculty include John Fleming, Julia Koets, Jarod Roselló, Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Heather Sellers (program director), and Jake Wolff. We value children’s literature, YA, eco literature, speculative fiction, historical fiction, documentary poetics, poetry of mindfulness, formal poetry, memoir, lyric essay, and hybrid and experimental work, alongside traditional genres.

Our program is tightly knit and sincerely supportive. Workshops are positive and generative. We offer many opportunities for students to read their work publicly, to participate in writing groups and internships, and to work in literary editing and publishing. Saw Palm , our literary magazine, gives students hands-on editorial experience.

As part of the Literary Editing and Publishing course, students have started literary magazines, edited anthologies, written book reviews and weekly columns, and started freelance copyediting and writing businesses. The Spoonbill Reading Series allows MFAs to read alongside faculty. A monthly Nonfiction Salon is open to all writers. The USF Lecture Series and the USF Humanities Institute bring in guest speakers. Recent visitors to the creative writing program include Jericho Brown, Terrance Hayes, Chen Chen, and Naomi Nye.

MFAs typically take three courses and teach two courses. Our teaching training is superb. First year MFAs teach first year writing in our thriving and diverse undergraduate program; they are supported by a pedagogy practicum and official mentoring. Second year students have the opportunity, as courses are available, to teach creative writing courses. A creative writing pedagogy practicum, one of the few in the country, prepares students to design and deliver high quality introductory creative writing courses.

Florida State University

FSU | The English Department

The English Department

Creative writing.

Consistently ranked among the top writing programs in the country, Florida State University’s Creative Writing Program has an internationally recognized reputation of excellence. Among our faculty are winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and the National Poetry Series. Our faculty is not only dedicated to the craft of their own writing, but is also widely known for strong mentorship and committed teaching.

Our students are respected as some of the strongest emerging and established voices in writing today, frequently going on to meaningful careers in academia, and publishing their work with some of the most respected presses in the country. Located in the heart of Tallahassee, a capital city with Southern charm, our program offers a thriving community to all writers who are looking to strengthen their craft while building life-long relationships in writing.

For questions about the Creative Writing Program, and/or graduate admissions, please e-mail  [email protected] . 

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English Department

405 Williams Building Tallahassee,

Florida 32306-1580

Phone: (850) 644-4230

Program Contacts

[email protected]

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Becka Mara McKay

Becka Mara McKay directs the Creative Writing MFA at Florida Atlantic University. Publications include a chapbook of prose poems, Happiness Is the New Bedtime (Slash Pine Press, 2016); a book of poetry, A Meteorologist in the Promised Land (Shearsman Books, 2010); and several translations of fiction and poetry from Modern Hebrew. Her work can be found in recent or forthcoming issues of Bennington Review, Colorado Review, Copper Nickel, Ghost Town, Interim, Ninth Letter, The Ocean State Review, Post Road , and River Styx.

Articles By This Author:

• [INHABITIVENESS: The desire to remain in one place] Poetry Winter 2017-18

E-mail:  [email protected]

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at BGSU is widely recognized as one of the country’s most prestigious. For more than fifty years, graduates of BGSU’s Program in Creative Writing have contributed to contemporary literary culture and published hundreds of books.

The MFA in Creative Writing program gives a comprehensive and rigorous education in the professional writing, editing, and marketing of poetry and fiction. Artistic development, craft knowledge, and professional presentation are guiding principles. 

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the MFA degree, students in the Creative Writing with a specialization in Fiction or Poetry program are expected to be able to:

• Develop individual, original approaches to writing fiction and/or poetry
• Produce a book-length thesis comparable in quality to the published work of contemporary poets and fiction writers
• Develop an understanding of their work’s place within the context of contemporary literature 
• Collaboratively assess literary work for publication 
• Apply craft knowledge to produce and distribute a literary journal through relevant technologies 
• Develop pedagogical skills sufficient to design and teach courses at the college level 

Admission Requirements

Application deadline is January 15 for Fall Semester.  Since application reviews may begin immediately after the deadline, we recommend submitting your application and providing all required documents before the deadline. Documents required:

• Applicants below 3.00 GPA must submit a GRE score unless they have already completed a master’s degree.  Enter your GPA and GPA Scale with your undergraduate degree under the Academic History tab.
• Three Letters of Recommendation
• Statement of Purpose (1-2 pages)
• A fiction or poetry sample (20 - 30 double-spaced pages of fiction, or 10 - 15 pages of poetry with poems single- or double-spaced)
• An academic or professional writing sample (8 - 15 pages, double-spaced)

Please do not submit screenplays, children’s stories, fantasy, or science fiction.

International applicants are required to submit scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), or the Pearson Test of English Academic (PTEA). Successful completion of ELS 112 will also be accepted for this requirement.  Additionally, Duolingo test scores will be accepted for applications through Summer 2025. Applicants of the Graduate College who have completed a previous degree (associate, bachelor’s master’s or doctorate) from a U.S. college/university or are from a country (click  here  for a complete list) in which instruction was delivered in English (and attended the university for at least two years) are exempt from providing these test scores. Please review the Creative Writing MFA program’s Application page at  http://www.bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/english/creative-writing/apply-online.html  for detailed information about application materials.

Application Requirements

Admissions Categories and Grade Point Average Requirements

International Application Information

Degree Requirements

Curriculum requirements, required courses (24 credits).

ENGL 6320 taken during the summer semester may not be used to satisfy workshop requirements.

• ENG 6320 - Graduate Writers Workshop (12 hours)
• ENG 6310 - Technique of Fiction
• ENG 6330 - Creative Writing and Desktop Publishing
• ENG 6370 - Pedagogy of Creative Writing
• ENG 7820 - Topics in English Studies

Electives (6 credits)

Select 2 courses

Culminating Experience (6 credits)

• ENG 6990 - Thesis Research

Minimum Total Credits (36 credits)

Additional requirements.

• Minimum of 3 credits of 6990 required for Plan I master’s students.  Maximum of 6 credits may be applied toward degree requirements. 
• Minimum 3.0 graduate cumulative grade point average
• Minimum of 18 credits must be at the 6000-level or higher
• Minimum of  24 credits must be earned at BGSU
• All requirements must be completed within six years from the end of the earliest course used to fulfill degree requirements.