One workshop in a different genre
One workshop in any genre
In spring quarter of the second year, with advising and mentoring by the faculty, each student will complete the MA Capstone Essay.
In year three, students will be almost wholly dedicated to their creative thesis manuscripts. Third-year students will take three quarters of the MFA Thesis Workshop/Tutorial.
Some students will complete their MFA thesis manuscript by the end of this year; others will wish to take more time. The Graduate School permits students to submit the culminating project for the MFA at the end of full-time enrollment, or afterward.
In all three years, students will be mentored by the faculty in the practice of their writing, the design of their projects, and regarding artistic and intellectual resources for their work. In the teaching of creative writing and, through summer editorial work at TriQuarterly.org , students will get first-hand experience in editing a literary journal.
Visiting writers (including some anglophone international writers) will bring new perspectives to artistic practice, the three genres, and cross-genre or multi-genre work.
Students will pursue their work on our beautiful Evanston campus, amid artists, filmmakers, scholars and public intellectuals, with easy access to the vibrant literary arts scene of Chicago.
Each year, the MFA+MA program admits in all three genres. Information on the application process can be found here .
Program description.
The MFA Program in Creative Writing consists of a vibrant community of writers working together in a setting that is both challenging and supportive. This stimulating environment fosters the development of talented writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The program is not defined by courses alone, but by a life built around writing.
Through innovative literary outreach programs, a distinguished public reading series, an exciting public student reading series, special literary seminars with visiting writers, and the production of a high-quality literary journal, students participate in a dynamic literary community actively engaged in all aspects of the literary arts—writing, reading, teaching, publishing and community outreach. Students also have the opportunity to enjoy America's most literary terrain; New York University is situated in the heart of Greenwich Village, a part of the city that has always been home to writers.
The MFA in Creative Writing is designed to offer students an opportunity to concentrate intensively on their writing. This program is recommended for students who may want to apply for creative writing positions at colleges and universities, which often require the MFA degree. The MFA program does not have a foreign language requirement.
All applicants to the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS) are required to submit the general application requirements , which include:
See Creative Writing for admission requirements and instructions specific to this program.
Special project, program information.
Course | Title | Credits |
---|---|---|
Major Requirements | ||
Select four graduate creative writing workshops | 16 | |
Select one to four craft courses taught by the members of the CWP faculty: | 4-16 | |
The Craft of Poetry | ||
The Craft of Fiction | ||
The Craft of Creative Nonfiction | ||
Additional Courses | ||
Select courses from any department | 12-16 | |
Total Credits | 32 |
Taken in four separate semesters. Students are required to take workshops in the genre in which they were admitted to the program.
Craft courses may be repeated provided they are taught by different instructors.
With the permission of that department and of the director of the CWP.
A creative special project in poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction consisting of a substantial piece of writing—a novel, a collection of short stories or essays, a memoir, a work of literary nonfiction, or a group of poems—to be submitted in the student’s final semester. The project requires the approval of the student’s faculty adviser and of the director of the CWP.
The MFA degree may also be earned through the Low Residency MFA Writers Workshop in Paris. Under this model, degree requirements remain the same, although Craft courses and Workshops take the form of intensive individualized courses of study with the faculty, including three substantial packet exchanges of student work per semester. All students earning the MFA degree through the low-residency program must also participate in five ten-day residencies in Paris, which involve a diverse series of series of craft talks, lectures, readings, special events, faculty mentorship meetings, and professional development panels.
Please note : The following is a sample plan of study for a student enrolled in the poetry track. Fiction and creative nonfiction plans of study would parallel the below, substituting the Workshop requirements accordingly (i.e., Workshop in Fiction or Workshop in Creative Nonfiction, respectively).
1st Semester/Term | Credits | |
---|---|---|
Workshop in Poetry I | 4 | |
The Craft of Poetry | 4 | |
Credits | 8 | |
2nd Semester/Term | ||
Workshop in Poetry I | 4 | |
General Elective or CWP Craft Course | 4 | |
Credits | 8 | |
3rd Semester/Term | ||
Workshop in Poetry I | 4 | |
General Elective or CWP Craft Course | 4 | |
Credits | 8 | |
4th Semester/Term | ||
Workshop in Poetry I | 4 | |
General Elective or CWP Craft Course | 4 | |
Credits | 8 | |
Total Credits | 32 |
Upon successful completion of the program, graduates will have achieved the following learning outcomes:
Nyu policies, graduate school of arts and science policies, program policies.
To qualify for the degree, a student must have a GPA of at least 3.0, must complete a minimum of 24 points with a grade of B or better, and may offer no more than 8 points with a grade of C (no more than 4 points with a grade of C in creative writing workshops). A student may take no more than 36 points toward the degree.
University-wide policies can be found on the New York University Policy pages .
Academic Policies for the Graduate School of Arts and Science can be found on the Academic Policies page .
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The Creative Writing Program offers the MFA degree, with a concentration in either poetry or fiction. MFA students pursue intensive study with distinguished faculty committed to creative and intellectual achievement.
Each year the department enrolls only eight MFA students, four in each concentration. Our small size allows us to offer a generous financial support package that fully funds every student. We also offer a large and diverse graduate faculty with competence in a wide range of literary, theoretical and cultural fields. Every student chooses a special committee of two faculty members who work closely alongside the student to design a course of study within the broad framework established by the department.
Students participate in a graduate writing workshop each semester and take six additional one-semester courses for credit, at least four of them in English or American literature, comparative literature, literature in the modern or Classical languages or cultural studies (two per semester during the first year and one per semester during the second year). First-year students receive practical training as editorial assistants for Epoch, a periodical of prose and poetry published by the creative writing program. Second-year students participate as teaching assistants for the university-wide first-year writing program. The most significant requirement of the MFA degree is the completion of a book-length manuscript: a collection of poems or short stories, or a novel, to be closely edited and refined with the assistance of the student’s special committee.
MFA program specifics can be viewed here: MFA Timeline Procedural Guide
Every graduate student selects a special committee of faculty advisors who works intensively with the student in selecting courses and preparing and revising the thesis. The committee is comprised of two Cornell creative writing faculty members: a chair and one minor member. An additional member may be added to represent an interdisciplinary field. The university system of special committees allows students to design their own courses of study within a broad framework established by the department, and it encourages a close working relationship between professors and students, promoting freedom and flexibility in the pursuit of the graduate degree. The special committee for each student guides and supervises all academic work and assesses progress in a series of meetings with the students.
At Cornell, teaching is considered an integral part of training for a career in writing. The field requires a carefully supervised teaching experience of at least one year for every MFA candidate as part of the program requirements. The Department of English, in conjunction with the First-Year Writing Program, offers excellent training for beginning teachers and varied and interesting teaching in this university-wide program. These are not conventional freshman composition courses, but full-fledged academic seminars, often designed by graduate students themselves. The courses are writing-intensive and may fall under such general rubrics as “Portraits of the Self,” “American Literature and Culture,” “Shakespeare” and “Cultural Studies,” among others. A graduate student may also serve as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate lecture course taught by a member of the Department of Literatures in English faculty.
All MFA degree candidates are guaranteed two years of funding (including a stipend , a full tuition fellowship and student health insurance).
Optional MFA Lecturer Appointments Degree recipients who are actively seeking outside funding/employment are eligible to apply to teach for one or two years as a lecturer. These positions are made possible by an endowment established by the late Philip H. Freund ’29 and a bequest from the Truman Capote Literary Trust.
The application for Fall 2025 admission will open on September 1, 2024 and will close on December 1, 2024 at 11:59pm EST. Please note that staff support is available M-F 9am-4pm.
Eligibility: Applicants must currently have, or expect to have, at least a BA or BS (or the equivalent) in any field before matriculation. International students, please verify degree equivalency here . Applicants are not required to take the GRE test or meet a specified GPA minimum.
To Apply: All applications and supplemental materials must be submitted on-line through the Graduate School application system . While completing your application, you may save and edit your data. Once you click “submit,” your application will be closed for changes. Please proofread your materials carefully. Once you pay and click submit, you will not be able to make any changes or revisions.
DEADLINE: Dec. 1, 11:59 p.m. EST . This deadline is firm. No applications, additional materials or revisions will be accepted after the deadline.
MFA Program Application Requirements Checklist
General Information for All Applicants
Application Fee: Visit the Graduate School for information regarding application fees , payment options, and fee waivers . Please do not send inquires regarding fee waivers.
Document Identification: Please do not put your social security number on any documents.
Status Inquiries: Once you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email. You will also be able to check the completion status of your application in your account. If vital sections of your application are missing, we will notify you via email after the Dec. 1 deadline and allow you ample time to provide the missing materials. Please do not inquire about the status of your application.
Credential/Application Assessments: The admission review committee members are unable to review application materials or applicant credentials prior to official application submission. Once the committee has reviewed the applications and made admissions decisions, they will not discuss the results or make any recommendations for improving the strength of an applicant’s credentials. Applicants looking for feedback are advised to consult with their undergraduate advisor or someone else who knows them and their work.
Review Process: Application review begins after the submission deadline. Notification of admissions decisions will be made by email or by telephone by the end of February.
Connecting with Faculty and/or Students: Unfortunately, due to the volume of inquiries we receive, faculty and current students are not available to correspond with potential applicants prior to an offer of admission. Applicants who are offered admission will have the opportunity to meet faculty and students to have their questions answered prior to accepting. Staff and faculty are also not able to pre-assess potential applicant’s work outside of the formal application process. Please email [email protected] instead, if you have questions.
Visiting: The department does not offer pre-admission visits or interviews. Admitted applicants will be invited to visit the department, attend graduate seminars and meet with faculty and students before making the decision to enroll.
Transfer Credits: Transfer credits are not available toward the MFA program.
Admissions FAQ
Contact [email protected]
Mfa in writing.
The Michener Center for Writers is the only Creative Writing M.F.A. program in the world that provides full and equal funding to every writer—yet it is our extraordinary faculty and sense of community that most distinguishes us. Our program is a three-year, fully-funded residency M.F.A. with a unique multi-disciplinary focus. Writers apply and are admitted in a primary genre—fiction, poetry, playwriting or screenwriting—and study in both their primary and a secondary genre(s). There are no teaching duties, a luxury that allows our Fellows to commit themselves fully to their writing. And because only twelve writers are admitted each year, our faculty can devote ample time and energy to every writer. With unparalleled support and the deeply held belief that literary art matters now more than ever, the Michener Center offers writers 3 years of unencumbered space to make the work that only they can make.
2024 emmy nominations: mcw alumni & their work.
The 2024 Primetime Emmy nominations were announced this week. We’re thrilled to see three MCW alumni and their work in the mix! Shōgun, written… Read more
1. The World After Alice by Lauren Aliza Green “When Morgan and Benji surprise their families with a wedding invitation to Maine, they’re aware the… Read more
Alumn John McManus (MCW 2004) is the winner of the 2024 American Short(er) Fiction Prize, judged by Dantiel W. Moniz for his story “Jack Sprat’s… Read more
MCW Alumn Monica Macansantos (MCW 2013) been awarded a Black Mountain Institute 2024-2025 Shearing Fellowship. The fellowship brings writers to the UNLV campus for one year… Read more
Rachel Kondo (MCW 2016), co-creator of Shōgun on FX, has been awarded the 2024 New Voice Award from Austin Film Festival. Kondo is being honored alongside… Read more
Look out for MCW alumni work in your feed this summer: TV series Shōgun (FX) and Fallout (Prime Video), and podcast Pack One Bag (Lemonade… Read more
Michener Center Fellow Darius Atefat-Peckham has been named a runner-up for the 2024 UT Keene Prize for Literature, for an excerpt from his forthcoming book… Read more
Michener Center Playwriting Alumnus Abe Koogler‘s play Staff Meal has opened to rave reviews, with recent coverage from The New York Times, Vulture, Observer, New York Theatre… Read more
The Michener Center aims to be a welcoming, inspiring, and invigorating community where writers feel safe and supported to take chances on the page. We are extremely proud that there is no hierarchy here—all students receive equal funding—and we firmly believe that our egalitarian approach fosters a higher level of work that more competitive environments suppress.
Our MFA candidates have come from places as varied as western India, South Korea, eastern Europe, and northern Idaho. Their backgrounds and experiences lend to the pages they produce, which are unique and uniquely vital. We aren’t seeking writers of any particular aesthetic, but rather we are looking for writers whose work is distinct, urgent, and arresting.
Each year, we receive hundreds of applications for twelve seats in the cohort. We accept only full-time, in-residence candidates for the three-year program. There is no low-residency or part-time option.
Applicants must meet the UT Graduate School’s minimum requirements for consideration, which include completion of a Bachelor’s Degree prior to enrollment. The Michener Center no longer requires GRE scores.
James Michener was the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of over 40 books, including Texas , Hawaii , and Tales of the South Pacific . In his final years, he and his wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, moved to Austin, TX, where they endowed the Texas Center for Writers, a three-year MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Texas. The first cohort of Michener Fellows graduated in 1996. After Mr. Michener’s death in 1997, the Center was renamed in his honor.
To ensure both continuity and fresh perspectives, the Michener Center faculty is built with fixed and moving parts. Writers from UT’s departments of English, Theatre and Dance, and Radio-Television-Film comprise our Resident Faculty, and each year we also welcome an exciting roster of distinguished Visiting Faculty. That our faculty members—resident and visiting—are as passionate about their teaching as they are their writing is of the utmost importance. Like our students, our faculty afford the program a wealth of varied experience, an abiding sense of shared enterprise, and deep commitment to the making of literary art. For more on our outstanding faculty in each genre, visit our Faculty page .
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For more than 30 years, writers have come to American University to develop their work and exchange ideas in the District’s only creative writing MFA program. Our graduate workshops provide a rigorous yet supportive environment where students explore a range of approaches to the art and craft of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
As an MFA student at American, you are free to pursue a single genre or explore several. You will acquire a deeper understanding of your own work and hone your skills in a collaborative setting.
This two-year, 36-credit-hour MFA program integrates writing, literary journalism, translation, and the study of literature to prepare students for a range of career possibilities. Write, give feedback, and receive guidance from a close-knit community of respectful peers and faculty. In the MFA program, you'll find lawyers, military veterans, musicians, teachers, and business executives who are passionate about the written word.
Connect with accomplished professors and the resources you need to reach your goal. Our faculty members have been featured in a variety of media and publications including the New Yorker , the New York Times , National Public Radio, Bill Moyers & Co., and the Washington Post.
Our faculty of award-winning poets, novelists, translators, and nonfiction writers will help you help you hone your craft and pursue your career as a writer. You will receive instruction and guidance from successful authors published by university presses and major publishers, including Houghton Mifflin, Scribner, Vintage Books, Viking Press, and WW Norton. Our active and engaged faculty members are regularly featured in top media outlets such as The New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and New Republic ; in literary journals like Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and Shenandoah ; and on television and radio.
Living and learning in the nation's capital provides numerous benefits for MFA students. We partner with organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts, Library of Congress, 826DC, Writopia Labs, and Folger Shakespeare Library to facilitate opportunities for our students.
Our students have recently published books with WW Norton, Copper Canyon, University of Wisconsin Press, and MIT Press. They have been featured on This American Life , Poets & Writers , in Creative Nonfiction , Psychology Today , and more.
97% of graduates are employed, in grad school, or both 6 months after graduation.
Our alumni have gone on to work for organizations including:
Folio is a nationally recognized literary journal sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences at American University in Washington, DC. Since 1984, we have published original creative work by both new and established authors. Past issues have included work by Michael Reid Busk, Billy Collins, William Stafford, and Bruce Weigl, and interviews with Michael Cunningham, Charles Baxter, Amy Bloom, Ann Beattie, and Walter Kirn. We look for well-crafted poetry and prose that is bold and memorable.
Recent award-winning publications by our MFA alumni :
Rachel Louise Snyder recounts how her mother’s death left her unmoored and untoward in her new memoir .
Kyle Dargan served as editor for The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer with Janelle Monáe.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Literature) won the 2023 NAACP Image Award for fiction for her most recent novel, Take My Hand .
More about ralvell.
MFA Creative Writing candidate Ralvell Rogers is making his mark on the literary world.
My time at AU has been brilliant in the fact that I've already learned much about what it means to be a Writer with a capital "W" and more importantly, a literary scholar. Though there is an obvious focus on our course work, it's been made clear to me that our work isn't exactly all that matters in the classroom. We are continuously connecting our work in class to the lives that we live on a daily basis and the world that we all live in, and I think that is very important for writers and entrepreneurs in the publishing sector because we are essentially the historians of our respective generations.
He is the author of The Kansas City Boys Choir: Providing Hope for Tomorrow , which has been endorsed by luminaries Kevin Powell, G.S. Griffin, and Congressman Emanual Cleaver II. Ralvell has also established his own publishing company, Ambitious Stories, LLC, out of Kansas City, MO. He founded it earlier this year to focus on "often unheard, yet riveting and inspiring stories from the heart."
More about valzhyna.
Alumna Valzhyna Mort has gained international acclaim for her third poetry collection, Music for the Dead and Resurrected (FSG, 2020), which won the 2021 International Griffin Prize and was named one of the best poetry books of 2020 by the New York Times . Publishers Weekly called this work in their starred review, "poems of reclamation and resurrection; to live in them is to confront the hard work of witness." The New Yorker wrote in its review, "Memory, metaphor, and myth intermingle to sometimes nightmarish effect in this collection by a Belarus-born poet. Mort excavates the individual and communal traumas wrought by a violent and repressive national history, and calls herself 'a test-child exposed to the burning reactor of my grandmother’s memory.'" Mort teaches poetry, literature, and translation at Cornell University.
For more than 40 years, writers have come to American University to develop their work and exchange ideas in the District’s only creative writing MFA program.
What is the application deadline for a merit award.
The application deadline is February 1. All applications are automatically considered for merit awards. After February 1, the program continues to consider applications, but cannot guarantee those applicants will be considered for merit awards.
The required MFA thesis consists of an original, book-length manuscript. It may be a novel, a novella, a memoir or collection of stories, creative nonfiction, or poems. The thesis is due approximately a month before the end of the student's final semester.
Most students complete the 36-credit degree in 2 years. Full-time study is 9 credits (3 classes) per semester. Others pursue their degree part-time, taking 1-2 classes per semester as best fits their schedules. All workshops, and many literature courses, are offered at night, so that students with full-time jobs can still complete their coursework.
The committee regards the writing sample as the most important part of the application. It's therefore important that you pay close attention to the manuscript guidelines (see below). Send what you feel is your strongest work that shows your demonstrated talent. It is not important to the committee whether or not work has been previously published.
Those submitting applications in poetry should send no more than 12 poems or 15 pages (with no more than one new or continuing poem per page). If submitting fiction/nonfiction, please submit 15-25 pages. While the catalog calls for a 25-page writing sample, we value quality over quantity. We are interested in seeing only your very best work, which can consist of one or more stories or works of creative nonfiction or an excerpt from a novel. If you send an excerpt from a novel, please include a brief description of the work as a whole.
Still have questions? Email [email protected] .
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On this page:, at a glance: program details.
Degree Awarded: MFA Creative Writing
The MFA in creative writing at ASU has always been an unswervingly student-first program. Through small classes, intimate workshops and one-to-one mentoring, the centuries-old apprenticeship model thrives within the New American University. Poets and fiction writers work with outstanding faculty who have published more than 80 books and garnered national and international attention through awards and honors that include:
Additionally, in concert with the Master of Fine Arts program, several campus entities contribute to the MFA experience: the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing offers students a wide range of fellowships, support for professional development, and other teaching and leadership opportunities including a Community Outreach Graduate Assistantship. The Center for Imagination in the Borderlands brings writers and other artists for intensive workshops, classes and public events, and offers an artistic development and teaching assistant fellowship and two research assistantships. The Master of Fine Arts program also hosts a newly inaugurated series of craft lectures and an alumni reading series.
Furthermore, students have access to a variety of additional professional development opportunities, including serving on the editorial board of an international literary journal Hayden's Ferry Review, translation experience through the Thousand Languages Project and internships with award-winning independent literary press Four Way Books.
Sally Ball , Director of Creative Writing, Professor
Justin Petropoulos , Program Manager
Faculty in Creative Writing
Curriculum plan options.
Coursework (39 credit hours)
Other Requirement (6 credit hours) ENG 592 Research (6)
Culminating Experience (3 credit hours) ENG 593 Applied Project (3)
Additional Curriculum Information The creative writing program requires 48 credit hours of study evenly divided between writing courses and literature courses designed to inform that writing.
While students are expected to satisfy these requirements in the genre in which they were accepted, the program encourages cross-genre study, and electives can include courses taken outside of the creative writing program or even outside of the English department.
A written comprehensive exam and an applied project are required.
Applicants must fulfill the requirements of both the Graduate College and The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Applicants are eligible to apply to the program if they have earned a bachelor's or master's degree from a regionally accredited institution. Applicants should have an undergraduate major in English or creative writing; however, exceptional students who do not have either of these undergraduate majors may be admitted on the basis of writing excellence.
Applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in the last 60 hours of their first bachelor's degree program, or a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in an applicable master's degree program.
All applicants must submit:
Additional Application Information An applicant whose native language is not English (regardless of current residency) and has not graduated from an institution of higher learning in the United States must provide proof of English proficiency . Applications will not be processed without valid proof of English proficiency. Please note that official scores must be sent to ASU in order for the application to be processed.
The personal statement should include the applicant's writing background, intended area of specialization and a brief self-evaluation of recent work (double-spaced, up to three pages or 750 words). The creative manuscript should be up to 20 pages of poetry or up to 30 pages of prose (prose should be double-spaced). Students applying for a teaching assistantship must submit a statement of teaching philosophy and an academic writing sample.
Learn about our programs, apply to a program, visit our campus, application deadlines, learning outcomes.
A Master of Fine Arts in creative writing graduate is prepared primarily for the professional creation of new art, including fiction, poetry and other written forms. In addition to working as novelists, poets and short story writers, graduates go on to careers in education, arts administration, media and entertainment, and in political and community organizations. Career examples include:
Global experience.
With over 250 programs in more than 65 countries (ranging from one week to one year), study abroad is possible for all ASU students wishing to gain global skills and knowledge in preparation for a 21st-century career. Students earn ASU credit for completed courses, while staying on track for graduation, and may apply financial aid and scholarships toward program costs. https://mystudyabroad.asu.edu
If you have questions related to admission, please click here to request information and an admission specialist will reach out to you directly. For questions regarding faculty or courses, please use the contact information below.
http://www.as.miami.edu/english/creativewriting/
The University of Miami’s MFA Program in Creative Writing offers a fully funded, two-year course of study in the writing of poetry, fiction, or cross-genre literature while providing substantial training in the teaching of creative writing and composition. Students may apply to receive a third year of funding, during which graduate students focus on professional development and publication as they continue to teach undergraduate writing courses. The program features a broad multilingual focus in a vibrant, multicultural city unlike any other. Enrollment is kept deliberately small to maximize student-teacher interaction, and faculty at UM are supportive of the linguistic and cultural differences that writers bring to their art.
The James Michener Fellowships and Teaching Assistantships support all our graduate students. Awards include a full tuition waiver and an annual stipend. MFA candidates teach one section of Introduction to Creative Writing per semester during their second year in the program or one section each of Creative Writing and Composition.
Students who proceed into a third year will teach Creative Writing and Composition, with additional professional development options in literary magazine editing and communications/public outreach. They will receive faculty mentorship towards professional development.
Graduates of the MFA in Creative Writing have gone on to publish award-winning novels, books of poetry, and creative nonfiction; have been awarded Stegner Fellowships and other residencies; and have gone on to find employment in teaching and publishing.
Code | Title | Credit Hours |
---|---|---|
Workshop Requirement | ||
Students must take 12 credits of workshop in the genre they were admitted to. | 12 | |
Creative Writing: Fiction III | ||
Creative Writing: Poetry II | ||
Form Requirement | ||
Students must take 12 credits of forms in the genre they were admitted to. | 12 | |
Form in Poetry | ||
Form in Fiction | ||
Thesis Requirement | ||
Master's Thesis | 6 | |
Required Electives | 6 | |
Total Credit Hours | 36 |
Third Year Option:
ENG 820 is required for third year students. Students make take up to 6 credits in electives during their third year.
Required electives must be literature or forms courses, or other graduate courses at the university.
Year One | ||
---|---|---|
First Semester | Credit Hours | |
or | Creative Writing: Fiction III | 3 |
or | Form in Poetry | 3 |
Elective | 3 | |
ENG 691 | TAs Only | 0 |
Credit Hours | 9 | |
Second Semester | ||
or | Creative Writing: Fiction III | 3 |
or | Form in Poetry | 3 |
Elective | 3 | |
Creative Writing (TAs Only) | ||
Credit Hours | 9 | |
Year Two | ||
First Semester | ||
or | Creative Writing: Fiction III | 3 |
or | Form in Poetry | 3 |
Master's Thesis | 3 | |
TAs Only | ||
Credit Hours | 9 | |
Second Semester | ||
or | Creative Writing: Fiction III | 3 |
or | Form in Poetry | 3 |
Master's Thesis | 3 | |
Creative Writing (TAs Only) | ||
Credit Hours | 9 | |
Total Credit Hours | 36 |
The MFA in Creative Writing Program provides its students with a thorough understanding of how to write publishable novels, collections of stories, and books of poetry in order to contribute to the global literary canon; a range of critical and craft-based strategies in order to attain their creative and artistic vision; the skills needed to establish their own expertise, voice and style within the literary genre of their choice; the necessary preparation for careers in the production of contemporary literatures and arts administration within and outside of the academy; and training to teaching in two- and four-year colleges and in research universities. In addition to guiding our students in the writing and revision of their creative theses, we work to assist them in publishing their books, developing a forum for the reading of these works, and obtaining appropriate employment.
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The New School invites you to join a community of diverse writers, become part of New York City’s publishing world, and build a network of support on campus and beyond. Our prestigious MFA Creative Writing program is designed to help you develop your writing in supportive workshops and literature seminars led by an internationally recognized faculty and renowned authors.
books published annually by alumni and faculty
annual writing events, including the National Book Awards Finalist Reading
of admitted MFA students awarded merit-based university scholarships (2020–2021)
As an MFA student at The New School, you can choose your concentration—in Arts Writing, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, or Writing for Children and Young Adults—and receive personalized faculty mentorship and faculty and peer critiques. Innovative courses in publishing and multimedia storytelling engage you in the development of literature. Popular graduate minors include Impact Entrepreneurship and Transmedia and Digital Storytelling . Or you can apply to WriteOn NYC! , a New School–funded fellowship program providing MFA students with high-quality teaching experience in area middle schools and high schools. All students benefit from evening classes and events, which enable them to work or attend responsibilities during the day while enrolled in a full-time program.
In addition to the renowned MFA in Creative Writing, The New School offers other programs and opportunities for writing students. These include noncredit courses and summer intensives, as well as an undergraduate major in the Bachelor’s Program for Adults and Transfer Students, the Writing and Democracy Honors Program, and undergraduate minors in related fields. Summer Writing Intensive Continuing Education Courses Writing & Democracy Honors Program BA in Creative Writing Undergraduate Creative Writing Courses
Creative Writing students come to The New School from across the United States and around the world to live the writer's life in New York City. Evenings with agents and editors, offered exclusively for MFA students, provide informal opportunities to meet publishing professionals.
We are proud to feature books recently published by The New School's Creative Writing community.
Kacen callender, mfa '14.
Brenda wineapple, faculty.
Safia elhillo, mfa '15.
Events & news.
Undergraduates.
To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.
To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.
To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a two year program offering a degree in either Poetry or Prose, and is a part of the English Department's Creative Writing Program. Founded in 1947 by Theodore Roethke, the Creative Writing Program's tradition of transformative workshops continues with our current faculty: David Bosworth , David Crouse , Rae Paris , and Maya Sonenberg (Prose), and Linda Bierds , Andrew Feld , Richard Kenney, and Pimone Triplett (Poetry). They include among their many honors fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The list of our alumni publications represents a significant chapter in the history of American literature. The program has been ranked among the top ten in the country.
Students participate in writing workshops in prose and poetry, and undertake coursework in literary periods and types, and critical theory. MFA candidates also present a Creative Manuscript (minimum 30 poems,100 pages of 5 short stories and/or personal essays, or 150 pages of a novel or book-length essay), a Critical Essay (20-30 pages, addressing the student's relationship to his or her reading based on the student's own writerly concerns and studies), and an oral presentation (a discussion with and/or questions from the candidate's thesis committee on the creative manuscript, critical essay, and/or the writing process and which may include a reading from the candidate's Creative Manuscript).
The program admits only ten to twelve students each year. The relatively small size of our program (20-25 students) allows for close associations to develop among students and faculty. The first year is devoted to participation in workshops and literary seminars, and the second year allows for concentrated work on a creative manuscript and critical essay under the supervision of one of our regular faculty.
Students are funded through Teaching Assistantships, Fellowships, and a long-standing relationship with the Amazon Literary Partnership.
Students also enjoy Seattle's lively literary and arts scene. Seattle is home to numerous reading series, the Seattle International Film Festival, and many highly-acclaimed theater companies. Surrounded by spectacular scenery, Seattle is minutes away from hiking, skiing, and boating.
Learn more about UW's Creative Writing Program .
Application materials are due January 2 (or the first business day after January 1 st ). Initial offers of admission are usually made by mid-March.
We offer a funding package to all admitted MFA students for two academic years. Learn more about the funding package and other funding opportunities here: MFA Funding and Support .
The MFA is designed to be completed within six full-time quarters (two academic years). MFA students can refer to the MFA Degree Requirements and MFA Program Guide .
The Creative Writing Program acknowledges that the University of Washington, like all of our businesses, institutions and our lives, exists on Indigenous land. Such land acknowledgements are necessary as we push for justice and liberation in institutions and a broader society that continues to live out the settler colonial legacies of land theft, genocide, and enslavement. This is Duwamish territory, and we are grateful to be here.
The UW English Department aims to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use are powerful and hold the potential to empower individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences and with those with whom we disagree; and to offer methods for exploring, understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world--skills that align with and support the University of Washington’s mission to educate “a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.”
As a department, we begin with the conviction that language and texts play crucial roles in the constitution of cultures and communities, past, present, and future. Our disciplinary commitments to the study of English (its history, multiplicity, and development; its literary and artistic uses; and its global role in shaping and changing cultures) require of us a willingness to engage openly and critically with questions of power and difference. As such, in our teaching, service, and scholarship we frequently initiate and encourage conversations about topics such as race and racism, immigration, gender, sexuality, class, indigeneity, and colonialisms. These topics are fundamental to the inquiry we pursue. We are proud of this fact, and we are committed to creating an environment in which our faculty and students can do so confidently and securely, knowing that they have the backing of the department.
Towards that aim, we value the inherent dignity and uniqueness of individuals and communities. We acknowledge that our university is located on the shared lands and waters of the Coast Salish peoples. We aspire to be a place where human rights are respected and where any of us can seek support. This includes people of all ethnicities, faiths, gender identities, national and indigenous origins, political views, and citizenship status; nontheists; LGBQTIA+; those with disabilities; veterans; and anyone who has been targeted, abused, or disenfranchised.
The English department seeks to promote inclusion, diversity, and equity, especially racial equity, by recruiting, retaining, and supporting a diverse population of faculty, students, and staff in ways that counter ongoing legacies of systemic inequity and settler colonialism, and their organizing epistemologies.
The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish people of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations. The Department's promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion values endeavors that build on this recognition as a means of transforming our research, pedagogy, and/or service.
Read more about the UW English Department's commitment to diversity, equity, and justice .
Creative Writing
Home / For Students / Applying to MFA Programs
Want to learn more about applying to MFA programs in Creative Writing? Trying to decide if it's right for you? Check out our FAQ below with advice from faculty members and Creative Writing Ph.D. students to help you decide and learn more.
You can also watch a Zoom recording of our MFA in Creative Writing Information Session.
Click on a Question to Get Started:
What is an MFA?
Do I need to be published?
How much does it cost? What kind of resources will I need?
What do you wish you would’ve known about MFA programs before you applied?
How do I apply? What materials do I need to apply?
What are other resources I can look into?
Which MFA programs have graduates from our undergraduate creative writing concentration gone to?
Should I get one? What should I consider in determining whether or not to pursue an MFA?
Where should I go? How can I decide?
"I think applying only to what pops up when you Google “Top Ten 10 Best Creative Writing MFA programs” is not the kind of research you need to do. Find out the success rate of the graduates at programs you are interested in. Read the books of the teaching faculty. Research deeply before you apply. If you can, go visit and arrange to observe a class. Pay attention to the culture of the place to see if it suits you and ask other students in the program what has worked for them."
How many programs should I apply to?
—Jennifer Tseng
What is a low-residency program?
What is a fully-funded program? (What are some fully-funded programs?)
What sort of teacher training will be provided at a program in which teaching assistantships make up a large portion of the funding?
When should I start thinking about whether or not to apply for an MFA? What is the typical timeline for applying, hearing back from programs, etc?
Who should I ask for recommendation letters?
How do I ask for recommendations? How far in advance should I ask?
"You should ask AT LEAST two months in advance. Make sure to remind the faculty member what classes you took with them, why you’re applying, what you’ve been up to since graduation, and ask them what you can do to make it easier for them. You should sign up for Interfolio so that the faculty member has to do fewer letters. It’s good to politely remind faculty as the deadlines get near."
Here’s a list of universities with MFA programs in poetry, fiction, and/or creative nonfiction that graduates from our creative writing concentration have gone to:
Last modified: February 17, 2021 185.80.151.9
As part of our series How to Fully Fund Your Master’s Degree , here is a list of universities that have fully funded MFA programs in creative writing. A Master’s of Fine Arts in creative writing can lead to a career as a professional writer, in academia, and more.
Fully funded MFA programs in Creative Writing offer a financial aid package for full-time students that includes full tuition remission as well as an annual stipend or salary during the entire program, which for Master’s degrees is usually 1-2 years. Funding usually comes with the expectation that students will teach or complete research in their field of study. Not all universities fully fund their Master’s students, which is why researching the financial aid offerings of many different programs, including small and lesser-known schools both in the U.S. and abroad, is essential.
In addition to listing fully funded Master’s and PhD programs, the ProFellow fellowships database also includes external funding opportunities for graduate school, including fellowships for dissertation research, fieldwork, language study, study abroad, summer work experiences, and professional development.
Would you like to receive the full list of more than 1000+ fully funded Master’s and PhD programs in 60 disciplines? Download the FREE Directory of Fully Funded Graduate Programs and Full Funding Awards !
University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL): Students admitted to the MFA Program are guaranteed full financial support for up to 4-years. Assistantships include a stipend paid over nine months (currently $14,125), and full payment of up to 15 credit hours of graduate tuition.
University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ): All accepted MFA students receive full funding through a graduate teaching assistantship for 3 years. This package includes tuition remission, health insurance, and a modest stipend (in 2018 it was about $16,100 per academic year).
Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ): 3-year program. All students admitted to the MFA program who submit a complete and approved teaching assistantship application are awarded a TA by the Department of English. Each assistantship carries a three-course per year load and includes a tuition waiver and health insurance in addition to the TA stipend ($18,564 per year). In addition, students have diverse opportunities for additional financial and professional support.
University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR): Four-year program. Teaching assistantships currently carry an annual stipend of $13,500 for students with a BA. TAs also receive a waiver of all tuition costs and teach two courses each semester. Nearly all of our accepted students receive TAs. Additionally, the students compete each year for several fellowships.
Boise State University (Boise, Idaho): 3-year fully funded MFA program dedicated to poetry and fiction. All students receive a tuition waiver, health insurance, and a Teaching Assistantship with a stipend of $11,450 per year.
Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH): 2-year program, graduate assistantships (including stipend and scholarship) are available for all eligible face-to-face students. 100% tuition scholarship. Graduate stipend (the 2020-21 stipend is $11,500).
Brown University (Providence, RI): All incoming MFA students received full funding. All graduate students receive a fellowship that pays a monthly stipend and provides tuition remission, the health fee, and health insurance. The stipend for the 2020-2021 academic year is $29,926. Also, students in good standing receive a summer stipend of $2,993.
Boston University (Boston, MA): Tuition costs will be covered for every admitted student for the MFA degree in the BU Creative Writing Program. In addition, admitted students will receive university health insurance while they are enrolled, and all admitted students will receive stipend support of roughly $16,000 for the academic year.
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY): All MFA degree candidates are guaranteed 2 years of funding (including a stipend, a full-tuition fellowship, and student health insurance).
University of California Irvine (Irvine, CA): 3-year program. The Department is committed to providing 3 full years of financial support to all domestic students in the MFA Programs in Writing. Financial support for MFA students is given in the form of Teaching Assistantships providing full tuition coverage as well as University health insurance. Students will earn an estimated $22,569 for the academic year.
University of California San Diego (La Jolla, CA): MFA in Writing students are eligible for financial support if they study full-time, maintain good academic standing and make timely progress toward the degree. All students are eligible for full funding, including international students provided they meet the English language certification requirement for teaching assistants.
University of California Riverside (Riverside, CA): All incoming students are granted a full fellowship and stipend for their first year. After the first year, students receive full tuition and a salary through teaching assistantships.
Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL): 3-year program. All of the MFA students qualify for a position as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. The GTA position comes with a tuition waiver and a stipend. The standard stipend is $9,000, but some enhanced stipends are available. The Graduate College offers several fellowships for current graduate students.
Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL): The majority of students receive support in the form of a teaching assistantship and are provided with a stipend, a tuition waiver, and a health-insurance subsidy. MFA students receive a three-year assistantship. For 2022-23, MA/MFA stipends will be $16,400, and typically these amounts go up each year. Also, The FSU Graduate School offers several fellowships and awards.
Georgia College & State University (Milledgeville, GA): The MFA Program offers workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and students take cross-genre workshops. All students admitted to the MFA program receive a Graduate Assistantship for all 3 years that includes a stipend and tuition remission.
University of Houston (Houston, TX): MFA students can receive a teaching assistantship for 3 years. Starting salary for MFAs is $17,935/9 months. Students in the Creative. As part of the assistantship, students are awarded either a Graduate Tuition Fellowship, which remits tuition, or a Creative Writing Program Fellowship, which covers the cost of tuition.
University of Idaho (Moscow, Idaho): All English Teaching Assistants (TA’s) are offered full tuition waivers. Teaching Assistants are given a stipend of $14,000 per year. Also offers three scholarships and three outstanding fellowships to support qualified MFA, graduate students.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Urbana, IL): Three-year MFA program. Students accepted into the MFA program will receive full tuition waivers, guaranteed teaching assistantships.
Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): M.F.A. programs offer a generous teaching package to creative writing students. All applicants receive consideration for appropriate fellowships that will carry a stipend of about $19,000, plus tuition and fee-remission that covers roughly 90% of the cost of enrollment.
Iowa State University (Ames, IA): 3-year MFA program. Starting half-time 20 hours per week teaching assistantships for MFA students total $19,250 over 10 months and also receive a full-tuition waiver scholarship (approximate value $10,140) and health insurance coverage. The department has several resources available through which to offer fellowships and scholarships to qualifying new students.
University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA): 2-year residency program. Financial assistance is available for all students enrolled in the program, in the form of teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and fellowships. Most fellowships and assistantships provide either tuition scholarships or full tuition remission.
John Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD): 2-year program. All students receive full tuition, health insurance, and a generous teaching fellowship, currently set at $30,500 per year. Some students work as assistant editors on The Hopkins Review. They often win prizes such as Stegner Fellowships or grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
University of Maryland (College Park, MD): This 3-year program accepts 8 applicants who are fully funded by Teaching Assistantships for up to three years of graduate study. Our aid packages include a stipend of about $20,000 per academic year and 60 credit hours of tuition remission.
Miami University (Oxford, OH): All students admitted to the MFA program in Creative Writing hold generous Graduate Assistantships (which include a summer stipend). Non-teaching assistantships may also be available.
University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL): An intensive two-year study with a third year option. The James Michener Fellowships and Teaching Assistantships support all our graduate students. Awards include a full tuition waiver and annual stipend of $18,915.
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI): All MFA students accepted into the program are offered a full tuition waiver, a stipend of $23,000/yearly as well as $5,000 in summer funding, and health care benefits. Additionally, various fellowships and prizes are awarded each year to MFA students.
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN): All admitted MFAs receive full funding, in the form of teaching assistantships or fellowships. Teaching assistantships carry a full tuition waiver, health benefits, and a stipend of about $18,600. Also, a variety of fellowships are available for graduate students.
University of Mississippi (University, MS): All of our students are fully funded. We offer two main sources of funding, the Grisham Fellowships and Teaching Assistantships.
University of Nevada Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV): 3-year program. All MFA students admitted to the Creative Writing International program at UNLV are offered Graduate Assistantship funding of $15,000 per year (which includes in-state tuition and provisions for health insurance).
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL): Funding is provided for 3 full years, summers included. Tuition is covered by a tuition scholarship during any quarter in which you are receiving a stipend.
University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN): Every student admitted to the MFA receives a full-tuition scholarship, a fellowship that carries a full stipend of $16,000 per year and access to a 100% health insurance subsidy.
North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC): A two-year, fully-funded program, They accept only about a dozen students each year and offer full funding in the form of a graduate teaching assistantship to all eligible admitted applicants.
Ohio State University (Columbus, OH): All admitted students are fully funded for our 3-year MFA program in Creative Writing. In addition, all students receive either a graduate teaching associateship, a Graduate School fellowship or a combination of the two. For graduate teaching associateships, the student receives a stipend of at least $17,000 for the nine-month academic year.
University of Oregon (Eugene OR): A two-year residency MFA program. All incoming MFA students funded with a teaching appointment. Student instructors receive tuition remission, monthly stipends of approximately $18,000.
Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR): All students admitted to the MFA program will automatically receive a standard teaching Graduate Teaching Assistantship contract, which provides full tuition remission and stipend of approximately $12,800 per year to cover living expenses. In addition to tuition remission, all graduate students have the option to receive 89% coverage of health insurance costs for themselves and their dependents.
University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA): 3-year MFA program. All students admitted to the program will receive Teaching Assistantships for two or three years. All Teaching Assistantships include salary, medical benefits, and tuition remission.
Rutgers University–Newark (Newark, NJ): Each full-time incoming student receives in-state Tuition Remission and a Chancellor’s Stipend of 15K per year. Students are also eligible for Teaching Assistantships, and Part-Time Lectureships teaching Comp or Creative Writing. Teaching Assistantships are $25,969 (approximate) plus health benefits.
University of South Florida (Tampa, FL): 3-year program. MFA students receive a tuition waiver, a teaching assistantship that comes with a stipend, and enrollment in group health insurance.
Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL): Almost all MFA students hold graduate assistantships, which provide stipends for the academic year and full remission of tuition. The annual stipend, which comes with tuition remission, ranges from $13,000 to $14,500.
Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY): Three-Year M.F.A. in Creative Writing. All students are fully funded. Each student admitted receives a full-tuition scholarship in addition to an annual stipend of $17,500.
University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC): 3-year MFA program. The MFA at Carolina is pleased to provide fellowship and/or assistantship funding to all accepted students, earning our program the designation of “fully funded” from Poets and Writers.
University of Tennessee — Knoxville (Knoxville, TN): There is no cost to apply to the MFA program. All of our PhD candidates and MFA students are fully funded, with generous opportunities for additional financial support.
University of Texas in Austin (Austin, TX): All students in the New Writers Project receive three years of full funding through a combination of teaching assistantships (TA), assistant instructorships (AI), and fellowship support. The complete package includes full tuition remission, health insurance, and a salary.
University of Texas James Michener Center (Austin, TX): A three-year, fully funded residency MFA program that provides full and equal funding to every writer. All admitted students receive a fellowship of $29,500 per academic year, plus total coverage of tuition.
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN): Each year a small, select class of talented writers of fiction and poetry enroll in Vanderbilt’s three-year, fully-funded MFA Program in Creative Writing. The University Fellowship provides full-tuition benefits, health insurance, and a stipend of $30,000/yearly. In 2nd year and third-year students have the opportunity to teach for one semester.
University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA): Three-year MFA program. Students will receive fellowship support and/or teaching income in the amount of $20,000 each academic year, as well as full funding of your tuition, enrollment fees, and the health insurance premium for single-person coverage through the university.
Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA): Three-year MFA degree offers tracks in Poetry and Fiction, and all students are fully and equally funded via GTA-ships of more than $20,000 per year.
Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO): Because of selectivity and size they are able to offer all the new students full and equal financial aid for both years in the program in the form of a University Fellowship, which provides a complete tuition waiver plus a stipend sufficient for students to live comfortably in our relatively inexpensive city. All MFA students receive health insurance through Washington University.
Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY): Three-year, fully-funded, residential MFA program in creative writing offering generous assistantships, which will allow MFA students to gain valuable experience tutoring and teaching.
West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV): A three-year program. All Master of Fine Arts students receive a full tuition waiver and an assistantship, which includes a stipend valued at $16,750.
Wichita State University (Wichita, Kansas): Most of the MFA students are GTAs who teach two composition classes each semester. They pay no tuition, receive $4,250 each semester and may buy discounted health insurance. The MFA program also awards two $12,500 fellowships each year.
University of Wisconsin–Madison (Madison, WI): All accepted MFA candidates receive tuition remissions, teaching assistantships, generous health insurance, and other financial support. In addition to the approximately $14,680 paid to each MFA annually in exchange for teaching, every MFA candidate will receive another $9,320 in scholarships each year.
University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY): All of our full-time MFA students are fully funded with two-year graduate assistantships. Currently, assistantships include a stipend of $12,330 per academic year, a tuition and fees waiver, and student health insurance. Students also receive summer stipends of up to $2,000 for the summer.
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For All Online Programs
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Cost per credit $637
Total courses 16
Term length 10 Weeks
Share your story with the world with an online Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing . Throughout the program, you'll learn from talented writers who will help you sharpen your skills. Not only will you graduate from the program with a completed novel, but you'll also learn about the business side of creative writing — so you can feel prepared to market your work.
And while most MFA programs require a residency, Southern New Hampshire University's online MFA in Creative Writing can be completed entirely online, with no travel necessary.
Skills you'll learn:
Explore genres, develop your writing skills and learn how to market yourself with an MFA in Creative Writing from SNHU. By the end of the program, you'll have written and revised a complete novel in one of four genres: contemporary, young adult, romance and speculative.
And with embedded certificates in either online teaching of writing or professional writing , you'll have the skills to support your writing career – no matter where you're headed next.
In the MFA Creative Writing program, you'll study the craft of writing, selecting novels for close study of the elements of writing, authorial techniques, genre conventions and creative decisions.
And as one of the only programs of its kind that encourages a focus on genre fiction, our online MFA lets you hone your craft in an area specific to your strengths and interests. This culminates as your thesis project – a completed novel in the contemporary, young adult, romance or speculative genre.
At SNHU, we also know there's more to a career in writing than perfecting your craft. That's why the online MFA Creative Writing program puts a strong focus on the practical skills you'll need to succeed in the industry. This includes studying the publication process, helping you make informed decisions to get your work into readers' hands.
Visit the course catalog to view the full MFA in Creative Writing curriculum .
Component Type | PC (Windows OS) |
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Operating System | Currently supported operating system from Microsoft. |
Memory (RAM) | 8GB or higher |
Hard Drive | 100GB or higher |
Antivirus Software | Required for campus students. Strongly recommended for online students. |
SNHU Purchase Programs | |
Internet/ Bandwidth | 5 Mbps Download, 1 Mbps Upload and less than 100ms Latency |
Component Type | Apple (Mac OS) |
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Operating System | Currently supported operating system from Apple. |
Memory (RAM) | 8GB or higher |
Hard Drive | 100GB or higher |
Antivirus Software | Required for campus students. Strongly recommended for online students. |
SNHU Purchase Programs | |
Internet/ Bandwidth | 5 Mbps Download, 1 Mbps Upload and less than 100ms Latency |
Additional Information:
SNHU has provided additional information for programs that educationally prepare students for professional licensure or certification. Learn more about what that means for your program on our licensure and certification disclosure page .
In addition to a focus on your creative interests, part of our 48-credit online MFA curriculum requires you to choose from 2 certificate offerings. These certificates are included as part of your MFA program and are thoughtfully designed to round out your education and better prepare you for a multitude of writing-related careers.
The Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching of Writing could be the right fit for you if you're interested in teaching in an online classroom setting — a great supplement to a writing career. You'll learn approaches to editing and coaching, as well as how to establish a virtual instructor presence and cultivate methods for supporting and engaging students within online writing communities.
Alternatively, you might be more drawn to the Graduate Certificate in Professional Writing , which highlights the technical and business opportunities available to writers. Students will develop a range of skills, such as copywriting, social media, marketing principles and content generation, learning many of the freelancing skills integral to today’s project-driven economy.
Every graduate of Southern New Hampshire University's online MFA program will leave the program with a 50,000-word manuscript for a novel in one of the four genres the program covers – contemporary, young adult, romance or speculative genre.
If you'd rather combine elements of the four offered genres, you can do that, too. For example, you might write a YA speculative fiction novel. Throughout your tenure in the program, you can choose to work on a singular idea that you will develop during the three thesis courses, or begin a new project for your thesis.
"My three thesis classes for the MFA degree were the most helpful," said Kathleen Harris '21 . "I was actually writing a book as my thesis, so it was both enjoyable and advantageous for the degree. And it was the end of a very long milestone of accomplishments."
Our no-commitment application can help you decide if SNHU is the right college for you and your career goals. Apply up until 2 days before the term starts!
Upcoming term starts: January 06, 2025 | March 24, 2025
Online student experience what’s it like going to snhu.
Attending college online at SNHU can be a life-changing experience. In fact, 93.2% of online students would recommend SNHU according to a 2023 survey with 21,000+ respondents.
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You’ll take your courses within SNHU’s Brightspace platform. This is where you’ll find your:
Our online MFA program is taught by a diverse and accomplished faculty of professional writers, who bring with them decades of experience and exhibit strong leadership both in the classroom and in their professional careers. This experience informs the development of courses and curriculum that can help position MFA graduates for success, wherever they go next.
Melissa hart.
Melissa Hart is the author of seven books. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, CNN, The Los Angeles Times and more. She was a contributing editor at The Writer Magazine for 15 years and is a frequent contributor at writing conferences across the Northwest.
Position Adjunct Instructor, MFA
Joined SNHU 2017
"This is a smart, well-crafted program designed for diverse writers who may work full-time and be involved in caregiving, as well. Kind-hearted, talented instructors guide you every step of the way, from a basic study of genre fiction to preparing a polished thesis manuscript for professional publication."
At Southern New Hampshire University, you'll have access to a powerful network of more than 400,000 students, alumni and staff that can help support you long after graduation. Our instructors offer relevant, real-world expertise to help you understand and navigate the field. Plus, with our growing, nationwide alumni network, you'll have the potential to tap into a number of internship and career opportunities.
Recently, SNHU has been nationally recognized for leading the way toward more innovative, affordable and achievable education:
Founded in 1932 , Southern New Hampshire University is a private, nonprofit institution with over 180,000 graduates across the country. SNHU is accredited by the regional accreditor New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), which advocates for institutional improvement and public assurance of quality.
No application fee. No test scores. And no college essay. Just a simple form with basic information. It’s another way SNHU helps you reach your goals sooner.
It's easy, fast and free.
Whether you're applying for an undergraduate or graduate degree, you’ll fill out a form to verify your previous education experience. As part of our admissions process, we'll help you request transcripts from your previous school(s) to see if you can transfer any credits into your SNHU program! (Also for free!)
Additional requirements:
Additional requirements for the online MFA include a creative writing sample (8-12 pages) and a personal statement. Writing samples will be evaluated on narrative technique and structure, character and setting, and the command and execution of language. The personal statement asks you to explain how someone else’s story – such as a novel, movie, or a personal account – has impacted their life and influenced their drive to become a writer.
After reviewing your official evaluation, you can decide if SNHU is right for you! If you choose to enroll, just pick your start date and get ready for classes to begin.
Talk to an admission counselor: 888.327.SNHU | [email protected]
SNHU is accredited by the regional accreditor the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) . The university also carries specialized accreditations for some programs.
As a nonprofit university, SNHU offers some of the lowest online tuition rates in the country. And when you work with our Financial Services team, we'll explore ways to help you save even more on your education – and customize a payment plan that works for you.
*before previously earned credits are applied
Tuition rates are subject to change and are reviewed annually.
**Note: Students receiving this rate are not eligible for additional discounts.
Additional costs: Course materials vary by course.
If 3 of your prior learning credits ($637/credit) are accepted toward your master’s degree.
Your remaining tuition cost: $17,199
If 9 of your prior learning credits ($637/credit) are accepted toward your master’s degree.
Your remaining tuition cost: $13,377
If 12 of your prior learning credits ($637/credit) are accepted toward your master’s degree.
Your remaining tuition cost: $11,466
How we estimate your tuition cost:
We look at the cost per credit multiplied by the number of credits you need to earn for a master's degree. This master's degree requires 48 credits. SNHU allows you to transfer in up to 12 credits, requiring a minimum of 36 credits to be taken at SNHU. This is only a tuition estimator and doesn't account for other fees that may be associated with your program of choice.
Transfer credits toward your master's degree program at SNHU. If you’ve taken one course or many, we’ll evaluate them for you.
Fill out the FAFSA to see if you’re eligible for grants or work-study. (You could also be offered loans, though you’ll have to pay those back later.)
Earn credits in leadership, technology and more – while taking advantage of an online graduate tuition discount for active-duty service members and spouses.
Getting free money for college – from SNHU or an outside organization – could help you save hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Bring in credits from popular options like CLEP, Sophia Learning, Google and other common credit for prior learning (CPL) experiences.
Receive an online tuition discount if your organization has partnered with SNHU for educational benefits. And consider asking your employer about tuition reimbursement.
If becoming a novelist is your dream, the online MFA in Creative Writing program is a great stepping stone. You'll sharpen your writing skills and apply critique to your work, finishing the program with a complete and publishable novel.
At SNHU, embedded certificates prepare you for even more career opportunities. You’ll graduate with skills needed to make a living as a professional writer in a variety of fields – from marketing, public relations and content writing to grant writing, publishing and teaching.
In addition to careers as authors or editors, MFA graduates can find roles in a wide array of industries, including:
Teach writing courses in higher education at a college or university, either in-person or online.
Influence consumer action through copywriting, from print ads to digital advertising and broadcast commercials.
Create written content such as blog posts, ebooks and podcasts that attract and retain customers.
From movies and plays to comedy and podcasts, writers often find success in the entertainment industry.
Increase in postsecondary teaching positions through 2032, projected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1
Median annual salary for writers and authors as of May 2023. In the same timeframe, editors made $75,020 and postsecondary teachers made $84,380. 1
Understanding the numbers When reviewing job growth and salary information, it’s important to remember that actual numbers can vary due to many different factors—like years of experience in the role, industry of employment, geographic location, worker skill and economic conditions. Cited projections do not guarantee actual salary or job growth.
I came out of the MFA program with a whole toolbox of writing skills, a solid idea of how the business side of writing works, a finished manuscript — and the confidence to go forward with publishing.
Tara Lynn Conrad '21G
I was attracted to the program because it was fully online. I work full time and have two small children – I did not have time to attend in-person classes. This program gave me the flexibility that I needed to attend school and live my life.
Felicia Warden '20G
The instructors were helpful and the resources were endless. The writing center offered a lot of assistance, and I even made some friends that I will have long after I leave.
Jamilla Geter '21G
A well-designed MFA in Creative Writing will build solid writing skills and a foundation in the business of many writing-related careers. Southern New Hampshire University’s online MFA in Creative Writing is one such practical, business-focused program. It teaches students to revise and reflect on their art while learning the print and digital business models — even digital tools — they need to support their creative endeavors.
Graduates of SNHU’s program come away knowing how to use business tools like project management software and online freelance editing resources.
Publishing industry expert and “Publishers Weekly” columnist Jane Friedman – and a subject-matter expert who helped develop the program at SNHU – points to another important aspect of business-oriented programs: writing in the digital age. Most MFA creative writing programs, she said, “are concerned only with artistic excellence. That's fine up until the point you start thinking about how to build a paying career."
Friedman went on to say, “I have a special interest in how the digital age is transforming writing careers, publishing and storytelling. Rather than taking a dark view of how the Internet era has affected writers’ livelihoods, I'm more interested in how revolutionary change can inspire new business models and how authorship will ultimately evolve.”
Yes. SNHU’s MFA in Creative Writing requires no specific undergraduate background. You could have a degree in accounting, as long as you have a passion for writing and your writing sample shows potential.
Because we understand that people start or change careers at any point across their lifetime, we want to ensure access to all of our programs to any student who wishes to learn more about that area of study and earn a credential in that field.
According to Poets & Writers, there are more than 200 MFA in Creative Writing programs throughout the United States. Of those, the vast majority are either full-residency or low-residency programs. 2
Determining which is the best creative writing program comes down to how you answer this question: Which one is best for you ?
Once you’ve narrowed your options by reviewing rankings, school reputations and course offerings, consider the demands on your life: Can you take time off from work to pursue a traditional MFA with a residency requirement? Do you have responsibilities at home that will limit how much time you can devote to your studies? How quickly do you want to earn your degree? And, last but not least, what’s your budget?
Many elite literary programs require 2-year residency commitments. Some welcome only traditional literary fiction – not a wide range of genres. SNHU’s online MFA in Creative Writing can be completed entirely online with no residency requirement. It’s also one of the only programs that welcomes genre writers, which means you can hone your craft in an area tailored to your strengths and interests.
You'll also have a sense of community – even in an online environment. So if you're looking for the chance to get involved as an online student, SNHU's the place for you. Our opportunities to join the ranks of fellow writers include:
Finally, our program gives you the option to pursue one of 2 graduate writing certificates – online teaching of writing and professional writing – making it a pragmatic choice for a wide variety of career directions.
To MA or to MFA? Once you've decided to earn an advanced degree in creative writing, you need to drill down into the specifics to know which option best fits your needs: What do you want to learn? What skills do you want to acquire? What are your career aspirations?
Practically speaking, a Master of Fine Arts differs from a Master of Arts in a few fundamental ways:
Kathleen Harris '21G completed both her MA and MFA at SNHU.
"Both programs were wonderful not only because of the capable professors and instructors, but mainly because I felt I was working toward a goal of both writing and teaching in the field," said the graduate, who finished her MFA in 2021.
Read more about MA vs MFA .
Yes. The MFA is considered a terminal degree, which is similar to professional degrees granted in other fields, such as the PhD or the EdD, according to guidelines established by the College Art Association of America. 3 For that reason, most universities view it as a qualification to teach creative writing at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
In fact, the curriculum for the online MFA degree at Southern New Hampshire University may set you up for success in this area. Students in the program are required to choose one of two embedded certificate offerings – one of them being a Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching of Writing.
The certificate requires 4 courses:
Throughout your courses, you'll learn how to develop your own approach to teaching the craft. You'll explore tools for web-based courses and writing workshops, and you'll practice effective approaches to editing and coaching.
Once completed, you should be able to create a positive and influential virtual instructor presence and methods for supporting and engaging students within online communities.
Yes, you can earn your MFA online, but many schools require a face-to-face residency component – meaning time away from your current job and busy schedule. Many, but not all.
In fact, SNHU’s program is one of the few 100% online MFAs available. The university assembled a who's-who from the world of professional writing to build the program, bringing together authors from a diverse range of genres in the process. The result is an online MFA program that embraces the perspectives of many different writers and students.
For many students, earning an MFA online is the only way they'd be able to make it happen. Learning online certainly doesn't mean you'll be isolated – especially at SNHU. No matter the type of fiction they want to write, MFA students will find teachers and fellow students who share their interests.
It depends on how you define “worth it.” Whether it's an undergraduate creative writing degree or a master's, a degree in the subject is worth pursuing if your goals include becoming a better writer and increasing your chances of successfully publishing your work.
SNHU’s online creative writing MFA is designed to teach students how to adapt to an evolving literary and publishing landscape. In their courses, students embrace the digital tools that will help them forge successful writing careers.
Our curriculum creators and faculty also know the road to becoming a successful author is not always easy. That's why our creative writing program has a dual focus:
Related articles.
1 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, on the internet, at:
Cited projections may not reflect local and/or short-term economic or job conditions and do not guarantee actual job growth.
2 Poets & Writers, MFA Programs Database, on the internet, at https://www.pw.org/mfa (viewed June 20, 2024).
3 College Art Association of America, Guidelines for the MFA Degree in Art and Design, on the internet, at https://www.collegeart.org/standards-and-guidelines/guidelines/mfa (viewed June 20, 2024).
Other pages in this section:
Students complete a degree path inspired by Sewanee's literary traditions and one that works with their schedule.
Students at the School of Letters take three summers of residential study at Sewanee, supplemented by an independent study and then a thesis semester. Most students complete the program in three years, though there are options for condensing or extending this timeline if desired. The MFA is awarded upon completion of 30 credit hours and successful submission of a creative thesis.
Each summer, students enroll in a workshop and a forms course, as well as the Craft and Practice colloquium (see below) for a total of seven (7) credits per summer. While most students take classes in the track they chose when applying to Sewanee (fiction, poetry, or nonfiction) they are allowed to take classes in any genre they like. It is common for students to have a primary and secondary genre interest, or to try a little bit of everything. Forms courses are essentially literature seminars, though their focus is on developing creative practice and critical reading skills rather than on scholarly writing or theory-driven analysis. Forms courses change topic and instructor from summer to summer, and so may be repeated for credit.
This is a one (1) credit colloquium focused on professional development, publishing opportunities, craft talks, submit-a-thons, meetings with visiting authors/editors/agents, and anything else that falls under the broad rubric of “the writing life.” The School of Letters offers a robust and varied series of public programs, class visits, panel discussions, and informal gatherings during the six-week summer session. Students are expected to attend these events and produce short-form responses detailing what they have learned and how they intend to apply it in their own writing and publishing practice. Students are automatically registered for this class during their first and second summers. During the third summer, students are invited to all School of Letters events but are not registered for the class and need not submit responses to events they attend.
During the calendar year between the second and third summers, students are strongly encouraged to take a one-semester independent study for four (4) credit hours. The student proposes an independent study project to the Director, who will pair them with a faculty member to serve as one-on-one mentor. Students have considerable latitude in proposing independent studies. Some use the time to do a deep dive into the work of a particular author, topic, or research question; some take the opportunity to explore a secondary genre interest; some use the time to do preparatory work for their thesis. The student and her mentor work together to develop a reading list, define the scope and nature of the work, and set a schedule.
When the student has twenty-four (24) credit hours, they are eligible to begin their thesis work. Most students hit this benchmark at the end of their third summer of study. The thesis is a mandatory, one-semester project worth six (6) credits. Upon approval of the thesis proposal, the student is invited to choose their own advisor. The advisor will provide detailed editorial feedback as well as general guidance, but thesis work is primarily self-directed and more intensive than the independent study. It is expected that the student will enter the thesis process with a substantial body of material already drafted, so that the thesis semester can be primarily focused on revision and, ideally, completion of a full-length creative manuscript such as a novel, a memoir, or a collection of poems, essays, or short stories. Students may choose to embark upon their thesis semester immediately after they finish their third summer, or wait until the following spring.
First summer - Workshop, Forms, Craft and Practice - 7 credits
Second summer - Workshop, Forms, Craft and Practice - 14 credits total
Between summers two and three - Independent study - 18 credits total
Third summer - Workshop and Forms course - 24 credits total
After third summer - Thesis - 30 credits total
Students who wish to hasten their degree progress may request additional independent studies. Such requests are granted at the Director’s discretion and may be limited based on faculty availability. Students who wish to slow their degree progress–either to extend their time at Sewanee or to accommodate changes in their personal lives–have the option of registering as half-time students over the summer (i.e. only taking one class) or declining to take an independent study. Declining the independent study is not recommended, as may result in paying for extra credits. The thesis is required to graduate.
Our writing workshops are designed to challenge and develop writing skills and knowledge of literary traditions. Our faculty members are renowned writers eager to encourage emerging literary artists.
Our students have gone on to do some pretty amazing things. Our MFA graduates are now actors, published writers, workshop leaders, and more.
At the end of each summer, our MA and MFA students participate in WRITERS READ, where students share their written work with the Sewanee community.
Welcome. The MFA Program in Writing welcomes brave and innovative writers and encourages the formation of mutually-supportive, inspiring literary communities. The program is small, with typically 4 to 8 new students admitted and funded each year. The intimate nature of the program allows students to work very closely with writing faculty and each other within the quarterly cross-genre workshop.
The MFA program is a two-year full-time, in-person program foregrounding the interconnectedness of literary arts practice, modes of production and distribution, and the rigorous study of literatures, arts, and cultures. The program offers the option of extending to a third year; the majority of students choose to do so.
All graduate writing workshops are cross-genre and often interdisciplinary, investigating and often undermining a studio-versus-academic distinction in advanced literary education. Moreover, the program encourages interdisciplinary research and holistic approaches to teaching and learning. Therefore, teaching creative-critical reading and writing skills as a Teaching Assistant is a popular choice among all Writing students in the MFA program, most of whom are eligible for scholarships and fellowships in addition to union-represented compensation for Teaching Assistant work.
Program participants are encouraged to focus exclusively on writing, teaching, research, and art-making during their residency, allowing writers to integrate pedagogical training and artistic practice as a way to prepare for future scholarly endeavors while creating a book-length work of literature. To that end, each quarterly cross-genre workshop discusses writing-in-progress and published works in terms of poetics, prosody, and literary conventions alongside the interrelationship between aesthetic intervention/ experiment and radical social change across cultures, nations, regions, and movements.
While each writer’s extra-departmental coursework is flexible, program participants are expected to take five workshops. The cross-genre workshops function less as editorial sessions or as explications of craft techniques than as vibrant skill-sharing intellectual roundtables. UCSD’s writers generate dazzlingly diverse collaborations in writing and literary/arts events, many of which result in various forms of publication. Both faculty and graduate projects tend to repurpose, interweave, hack, and muddle generic categories and/or radically elasticize their conventions.
UC San Diego is a tier-one research university respected internationally for untangling mysteries and manifesting world-altering possibilities in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The MFA in Writing is part of the Department of Literature, a world literature department with a focus on critical theory, social justice, and cultural, ethnic, and gender studies, where faculty members work in multiple languages, geographies, and historical periods. All graduate writing workshops are offered in English, but program participants may work with Literature and extra-departmental faculty on bilingual or multilingual projects, including works in translation.
With ties to Visual Arts , Music , Ethnic Studies , Science Studies , the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop and the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination , along with other departments, centers, and programs, unprecedented entanglements of artistic and scholarly experimentation are encouraged. The MFA program co-exists with a thriving undergraduate writing major and benefits from the long-established New Writing Series and the Archive for New Poetry . Current MFA Writing Faculty include Kazim Ali , Amy Sara Carroll , Ben Doller , Camille Forbes , Lily Hoang , Jac Jemc , Casandra Lopez , Brandon Som , Anna Joy Springer , and Marco Wilkinson . Emeriti Writing Faculty include Rae Armantrout and Eileen Myles .
Application Period 9/4/2024 - 12/4/2024
Decision Notifications February - April 2025
Program Begins Fall 2025
[ Admission Overview ]
For the love of books
Find your write path to success and enjoy the flexibility of studying from anywhere in the world with a 100% online Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree. Writing has never been more global!
A Master of Fine Arts degree, also referred to as MFA, is a graduate degree in an artistic craft that demonstrates that a person has achieved the highest level of training and skill in that discipline. Like with a doctorate, an MFA is a terminal degree, which permits you to teach courses at the graduate level. If you want to grow as a writer, an MFA in Creative Writing can help you hone your writing skills in genres like fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, and professional writing. These types of programs typically take around eighteen months to three years to complete. In today’s digital age, pursuing a creative writing degree has never been more accessible or rewarding.
Whether you’re looking to break into the publishing industry, enhance your storytelling, or simply explore your creative potential, an online creative writing degree can open doors to endless possibilities. If you’re new to this topic, have no fear! I’ll explain everything. Here are all the things we’ll cover in this blog post:
What the journey looks like, what you can do with an mfa in creative writing.
A good MFA in Creative Writing program will offer you the opportunity to explore and tailor your studies to your specific interests and strengths. The following are some of the most popular genres you can study:
@madlines #randomthingstowriteabout #creativecontrol ♬ 528Hz The Love Frequency – Solfeggio Tones 528Hz
Fiction: Writing novels, short stories, and flash fiction. There are many subgenres of fiction to explore — like the ever-popular science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, romance, thriller, and mystery categories.
Poetry: Learning to craft various forms of poetry, like free verse, sonnets, and haikus.
Creative Nonfiction: Writing memoirs, personal essays, and literary journalism.
Playwriting/Screenwriting/Scriptwriting: Writing scripts for films, television, radio, podcasts, video games, and all other audio-based platforms.
Children’s Literature: Writing books and stories for children and young adults.
Graphic Novels and Comics: Writing scripts and plots for illustrated storytelling.
The journey to earning an MFA in Creative Writing is a transformative experience that hones your craft, expands your creative horizons, and connects you with other peers. This path is filled with enriching activities that strengthen your unique writing voice, all leading to your creative thesis at the end. No matter what school you choose, these are the four components of an MFA that you are sure to experience.
@riosdelaluz If you have writer’s block, taking a writing workshop can help! 💗 I recommend looking up Corporeal Writing & Literary Liberation if you want to find some great choices for writing workshops. #writing #workshop #creativity #writersblock ♬ original sound – ❤️🔥Rios de la Luz | Author📚
Writer’s Workshops: These are the kinds of workshops where you share your work with peers and experts and then give and receive critical feedback.
Seminars: These classes cover literary theory, writing and storytelling techniques, and the close study of genres and styles. Experts in the field always deliver these.
Thesis Capstone Projects: It should come as no surprise that you will be required to complete a significant piece of creative work — a novel, an anthology of short stories, a screenplay, or a poetry collection. For some schools, it might be a fully polished and complete manuscript.
Interacting with Peers and Experts: As you can see, learning on an online campus does not mean you will be isolated from the community of writers. You are still a vital part of it, in fact, and access all the same support systems, networking opportunities, and lifelong bonds.
Whether you’re dreaming of becoming a published author, a screenwriter, or a literary critic, an MFA equips you with the skills and confidence to pursue a multitude of writing careers. In this section, we’ll explore some of the opportunities awaiting MFA graduates that open doors to exciting and fulfilling professional endeavors.
@the.third.person picking your school! #mfa #creativewriting #writertok #writingtips #gradschool ♬ Chill Vibes – Tollan Kim
Author: Of course, right? Write and publish your work equipped with the skills, knowledge, and experience gained from an MFA degree.
Professor: With an MFA, you can teach creative writing at any level — from middle school to graduate school. Plus, you can also be a director of a writing center.
Editor: This is a person you can find working for publishing houses, magazines, online publications, and any other creative studios you can think of.
Content Creator: Creating content for websites, social media platforms, and marketing campaigns. This could be articles, blogs, scripts, you name it!
Copywriter: They write advertising and marketing materials for all sorts of businesses and agencies out there. In addition to articles and blogs, they also create engaging captions, summaries, and emailers.
Screenwriter/Playwright/Scriptwriter: If it’s a script or a play — whether for screen, stage, or game — no one will write it better than these pros.
Journalist: This person writes articles, features, and reports for newspapers, magazines, and online news outlets.
Public Relations/Communication Specialist: This is a professional who crafts press releases, speeches, and other communications for organizations and government bodies.
Grant Writer: This writer uses their skills to secure funding for nonprofit organizations and research institutions by writing proposals.
Literary Agent: These bookish professionals represent authors and help them get their work published.
Many reputable institutions now offer online degrees, and that number rises every year. Their online programs are designed to provide the same rigorous education as their on-campus counterparts but with the flexibility to work on your studies from anywhere at a pace that works around even the busiest of lifestyles and schedules. Plus, there is no need to relocate. Institutions that used to be geographically out of reach are now right at your fingertips. It’s more cost-effective, too. Usually, you don’t pay any of the fees associated with campus activity, and you also eliminate any cost of commuting there every day.
@sav.fs Peace out school 📚🎓😙✌🏼💻 #school #gradschool #onlineschool #lsu #masters #mastersdegree #relatable ♬ Paper Planes – FULL SONGS
There are nearly 280,000 degrees available online in the US right now, coming from more than 422 postsecondary degree-granting institutions. A large number of these are MFAs in Creative Writing. Don’t worry. I know none of us have the time or attention span to read about all of them in one blog, so I have curated a short list of highly reputable schools to consider.
Southern New Hampshire University : With SNHU’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, students not only graduate from the program with a completed 50,000-word novel — in a contemporary, young adult, romance, or speculative genre — but they also learn about the business side of creative writing to prepare them to market their work. This program also includes two embedded certificates in online teaching and professional writing. SNHU knows there’s more to a successful career in writing than becoming a great writer, so this program also strongly focuses on all the practical skills needed to thrive in the industry and get your work into readers’ hands.
University of New Orleans : Their Creative Writing MFA program for fiction writing, nonfiction writing, and poetry writing is taught by the same award-winning faculty of writers as the campus program. In many distance learning MFA programs, students are paired with a single faculty member for the duration of their studies. Still, UNO’s Online MFA is organized to provide students the benefit of exposure to a variety of professors in each genre over the course of their studies. Plus, you’d get the opportunity to write and edit for Bayou Magazine .
Liberty University : Designed to build writing skills through workshops for fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting, Liberty’s MFA ensures students gain comprehensive and in-depth exposure to writing, literature, editing, layout, publishing, and a myriad of other professional writing skills that employers want to see. This program also prepares students for teaching at every level of education. And by the by, LU has TWO literary magazines. LAMP Literary Magazine publishes all kinds of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, and photography from former and current students and faculty. Lamplight Literary and Fine Arts Magazine, meanwhile, focuses on the positivity of Christianity through the creative arts.
The University of Texas at El Paso : UTEP’s main mission is to prepare serious writers for publishing and teaching careers. While their MFA is workshop-heavy, they also believe in the necessity of a strong background in theory and form. By the end of the program, students will have in their hands a complete and publishable manuscript in either poetry or fiction. UTEP is traditionally known as a multilingual border school, and that extends to the online campus as well. This means the classes and discussions are held in English, but students can always opt to submit their creative writing assignments in Spanish.
Lindenwood University : An award-winning MFA in Writing program that focuses on the study and practice of the creative writing craft by offering a giant range of courses in small class settings, which allows personalized attention from faculty who are respected and published authors, journalists, and editors. With the addition of professional courses focused on publishing, teaching, and writing-related work, students are also equipped to serve as editorial assistants for The Lindenwood Review literary journal. We’re talking literary fiction, genre fiction, novels, short stories, poetry, prose poetry, creative nonfiction, young adult, middle grade, and even more specialized focus areas beyond that in writing and teaching composition. Students also have the opportunity to serve as editorial assistants on The Lindenwood Review .
Our Lady of the Lake University : What a powerful collaboration! Their combined Master and Master of Fine Arts (MA-MFA) in Literature, Creative Writing, and Social Justice prepare writers to become active and socially aware scholars, writers, educators, and professionals. This nationally unique program is designed for individuals who want to combine creativity with social justice – whether for their own work, to help their communities, or to build a professional practice. OLLU’s combined MA-MFA degrees, with a social justice project and a critical-creative thesis, takes at least three years to complete.
Concordia University – Saint Paul: Their Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is designed to hone skills in writing fiction and reading literature. The aim is to prepare you for professional writing careers with a combination of theoretical inquiry and practical application. The workshops, literature courses, and craft courses are all led by esteemed, published faculty and cover a wide range of genres and subjects of creative writing. Students will possess a completed book-length manuscript of their own creative work by the time they reach the end of the program. French studies are also available to pair with this program, with opportunities to visit Montreal.
Bay Path University : Are you compelled by the stories of others (or yourself), always yearning to figure out just what happened and what makes people do the things they do? Bay Path’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction will help you reveal, unravel, and give expression to the true stories you already know — and the true stories still waiting to be uncovered. This school is dedicated to diversity and inclusion, evident in the wide range of identities, cultures, and lived experiences found in the faculty and student body — resulting in vibrant storytelling. While studying creative nonfiction, students are offered a choice of professional tracks in publishing, teaching creative writing, or narrative medicine. Bay Path also runs its own literary journal, Multiplicity Magazine, published annually and curated by MFA faculty and students.
@titsmgee77 I have an MFA. 💙 #snhu #snhucelebrate @SNHU #foryou #fyp #education #mfa #writertok #writer #writersoftiktok ♬ where is my mind (piano version) – your movie soundtrack
Try to watch that video of a 46-year-old mother finishing her MFA in Creative Writing without crying. I dare you! Then, imagine what your own video might look like down the road.
In an ever-evolving modern landscape of education, online MFA degrees in creative writing provide a unique blend of flexibility and academic rigor. Aspiring writers can hone their craft from anywhere in the world, working from wherever they are most comfortable. Plus, these programs are more than just a pathway to a degree; they are a journey of self-discovery and artistic growth. Through virtual classrooms, writers connect with mentors and peers who inspire and challenge them, fostering a vibrant community of creativity and support – just as they do on physical campuses. As you continue your writing journey, remember that the stories you create have the power to change the world.
Get a deeper look at lucrative career options for professional writers by clicking here .
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Are you looking to unleash your creative writing talent and make your mark on the world of storytelling? If so, Liberty University’s online Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Script and Screenwriting – Feature Film program may be right for you! Through this online MFA degree, you can join an academic community where creativity knows no bounds, and storytelling takes center stage – all while being guided by accomplished, industry-proven faculty.
This program seeks to equip competent professional storytellers who can model standards of morality and ethics in the film industry. As you progress through your courses, you can explore how to craft scripts that challenge the mainstream entertainment world, fuel public interest in biblically grounded films, and represent Christian values – without compromising excellent storytelling. By pursuing the feature film specialization, you can learn specifically about the nuances of writing scripts for full-length films in a way that captivates audiences.
Immerse yourself in a dynamic learning experience as you delve into character development, dialogue crafting, and plot construction. Our comprehensive curriculum teaches a wide variety of practical skills applicable to the film industry. Fuel your passion, expand your horizons, and forge connections as you explore the opportunities and challenges of writing for film in our MFA in Script and Screenwriting – Feature Film degree online.
Ranked in the Top 10% of Niche.com’s Best Online Schools in America
As a student in our MFA in Script and Screenwriting – Feature Film master’s degree, you can pursue opportunities to submit your scripts to festivals and competitions where industry professionals will offer critique and feedback on your writing. Our faculty will guide and evaluate your script development according to industry standards for content, format, presentation, and execution. By taking advantage of opportunities to have your work seen, you can further hone your craft and potentially expand your network.
Maybe you’re interested in pursuing your script and screenwriting master’s degree but are worried about the commitment of balancing school with your work or family life. That’s where our online MFA comes in! With our 100% online courses, you can complete your coursework on your schedule (as long as you adhere to assignment deadlines and course end dates).
Additionally, Liberty is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges ( SACSCOC ), demonstrating our commitment to academic excellence. The professors in our MFA in Script and Screenwriting degree online have extensive experience both in academia and in the film industry, so they can provide valuable insights into pursuing a career in this competitive field.
Our MFA in Script and Screenwriting – Feature Film degree online is broken down into 3 main sections: core courses, feature film courses, and elective courses. This well-rounded assortment of classes can help you build your expertise as you learn how to translate your ideas into compelling written content for the big screen.
Within the core courses, you’ll explore how to draw on your convictions, emotional life experiences, and passions to create riveting story ideas. You’ll also study visual storytelling, the use of theology in cinema, methods for examining the worldview behind a film, the interpretation of films from a philosophical perspective, and the fundamentals of story and character development. Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to analyze the business side of the film industry – such as developing elevator pitches and building your brand – as well as study great screenplays that have stood the test of time.
As you complete the feature film specialization, you’ll delve into writing for both short and full-length films. Through a sequence of workshops and projects, you will watch a variety of films, read several screenplays, and write your own screenplays using what you’ve learned in the program. You’ll also receive feedback and critique from your professors and peers, with the goal of helping you grow as a writer and develop a professional, polished finished product.
Looking to customize your studies to match your interests? Our script and screenwriting master’s degree allows you to mix and match various film elective courses, so you can expand your skill set and explore your passions. You’ll be able to pick from courses in topics such as documentary writing, animation storytelling, writing for network/cable, book-to-film adaptations, and screenplay coverage writing.
Course guides coming soon
Degree Completion Plan (PDF)
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Our two-week residencies bring students together from around the world to develop their craft, share their work, experience different cultures, landscapes, and languages, and above all, to grow as writers.
This isn’t just a degree; our experience is also about travel, adventure, and connecting cultures. It is invigorating to leave behind the daily routines of home and open yourself to new experiences and sensations that feed your creative soul.
During the residencies, we meet weekday mornings for the cross-genre craft and locale seminars. Most weekday afternoons are dedicated to workshops and tutorials with faculty-mentors. The student-to-faculty ratio is low, and our faculty members give a lot of time and attention to help students reach their goals and complete their work.
Afternoon and weekend excursions ignite our imaginations as we explore museums and historical sites, attend plays and musical events, and enjoy the local cuisine, among many other adventures. Each residency location has something to offer students outside of the program, whether connecting with family heritage in Dublin, swimming in the Mediterranean, or taking part in the café culture in Vienna.
Students participate in open-mic readings, thesis readings, and craft presentations that allow them to showcase finished work and works-in-progress.
During the residency, students form strong bonds as they become part of a diverse cohort of other writers. To help keep these bonds strong, we hold reunions on the Cedar Crest campus and at the annual AWP conference. Additionally, we host monthly webinars on craft and professionalization.
The MFA immerses student-writers in new locations while providing the structure needed to produce a body of work by the end of the degree. The connections made during the MFA are ones that fuel good writing. We hope you join our community.
Research & artistry, alumni & giving, a college of liberal arts department, summer vacation spotlight: mfa students, alum deepen craft at prestigious writing conferences and workshops, what did you do on your summer vacation.
For MFA graduate students Chase Cate, Linnea Harris, Becca Tabb, Sarah Mullens, and alum Bryce O’Tierney, the initial answer to a familiar back-to-school essay question— write —goes far beyond the clickity-clack of a keyboard.
While the act of writing is often labeled as a solitary endeavor, the reality for this group has been collaborative and nourishing. This summer, these writers were each accepted into competitive writing programs held across the country, where they had the opportunity to not only write—but also reflect, imagine, craft, learn, explore, engage, and generate new work alongside a cohort of accomplished writers, poets, and teachers.
“These students had the opportunity to attend some of the most prestigious and innovative summer writing workshops and conferences in the nation. I’m excited that they were able to expand their own literary communities in this way,” said Camille Dungy , University Distinguished Professor and director of the creative writing program.
Dungy continued: “The fellow participants and faculty they met this summer will continue to walk this path with them for their whole careers. Thanks to these summer opportunities, our CSU students will grow and expand as artists alongside these other talented and committed writers who have become their colleagues and peers.”
Below, learn more about our students’ summers and the positive impact these experiences had on their writing lives.
Poets Chase Cate (a third-year MFA student) and Bryce O’Tierney (a recent MFA grad who currently teaches English, composition, and interdisciplinary liberal arts at CSU) both attended the Napa Valley Writers Conference in Napa, California this past July. Known for being an intimate workshop with an emphasis on process and craft, participants attend workshop for two hours daily over five days.
Cate, who had the chance to work with poet and Johns Hopkins Professor Bruce Snider , said the experience was foundational as they move into their thesis year.
“NVWC gives you the opportunity to participate in workshops of only 12 people with renowned writers from around the country,” said Cate. “The workshop gave me the opportunity to go into my thesis year with confidence and preparedness. I was able to craft new material for my thesis while working with people who weren’t yet familiar with my work, which provided me with fresh viewpoints.”
O’Tierney said the draw to Napa for her was the generative nature of the poetry workshop, which is known for encouraging participants to write a new poem for workshop each day.
“The generative aspect of workshop was replenishing and invigorating to my writing practice,” she said. “The rigorous requirements of the poem-prompts from my workshop facilitator, C. Dale Young , pushed me into unexpected turns of material—diction, association, shifting tonalities—that I might not have arrived at otherwise. I left the week with satisfying drafts of five new poems, and nourishing connections with other writers.”
Hosted by Orion Magazine, the Orion Environmental Writers’ Workshop is held at the picturesque Omega Institute in New York’s Hudson Valley. Described as “a creative laboratory for anyone seeking to reflect their environments through their work,” the week-long workshop offers breakout craft intensives, faculty readings and lectures, student readings, and panels on publishing.
For Harris, a third-year student in creative nonfiction, the workshop environment felt like a dream, evoking childhood.
“It felt like a summer camp for adult writers who draw inspiration from the natural world, which was such a joy! It was quite special attend a workshop led by a publication that puts forth such beautiful and important writing that I’ve long admired,” she said.
“At Orion, I had the opportunity to work with Alison Deming , an environmental writer whose work has been a beacon to me for years. Every day, she sent us forth from workshop with instructions to spend time in the natural world in some way and write, and I ended up generating new work that will be central to my thesis project. I chose to camp in the woods on the campus for the week, and whenever I work on the essays that began at Orion, I’ll remember writing amidst the trees and fireflies.”
Up north in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Sarah Mullens (who also studies in the creative nonfiction program) attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference held on the Bread Loaf campus of Middlebury College. Known as one of the oldest and most prestigious writing conference in the country, Bread Loaf was established in 1926 with the help of poet Robert Frost, and has hosted notable faculty, including MacArthur Fellows, U.S. Poets Laureate, and recipients of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.
As a first-time participant, Mullens described finding a cohort of writers she’s excited to collaborate with in the future.
“For me, Bread Loaf was all about community. I made writing friends I know I’ll have for a long time. Five of us even planned DIY retreat for this winter.”
Held on the banks of Lake Bemidji at Bemidji State University, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference provides participants the opportunity to “inhabit a single intimate workshop with an award-winning writer for the duration of the conference.”
Tabb, a third-year student studying creative nonfiction, noted the conference is known for hosting prolific faculty and visiting writers, including Danez Smith, Kazim Ali, and Sun Yung Shin.
Kazim Ali , who served as Tabb’s instructor for the week, taught a workshop called “A Prose Practice: The Profound Daily”. In the workshop, writers “use the ordinary and daily around us to explore and reveal the deep, painful, and ecstatic experiences of any ordinary life.”
“My favorite part about this experience was the workshop,” said Tabb. “I loved Kazim’s daily practices. His focus on fragmentation enabled me to free myself from the constraints of a perfect sentence—opening up more accuracy and depth in my writing.”
Harris, who also attended the conference, added that the inviting atmosphere not only re-invigorated her practice, but also allowed her to come away with new lifelong friends.
“It felt so special to connect with other writers so sincerely, and to learn from my workshop leader, Lia Purpura , whose work I’ve been reading attentively since my undergrad career,” she said.
“The faculty in attendance at the workshop were just outstanding, and held craft talks and readings every day. There was such reverence for writing in every room, and by the end of the week, I felt energized about my own work in a brand-new way.”
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4) University of Michigan. Anne Carson famously lives in Ann Arbor, as do the MFA students in UMichigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program. This is a big university town, which is less damaging to your social life. Plus, there's lots to do when you have a $25,000 stipend, summer funding, and health care.
Its Master of Fine Arts program is one of the best MFA creative writing programs in the country, exposing students to various approaches to the craft. While studying under award-winning poets and writers, students may specialize in either poetry or fiction. 3. University of Texas at Austin - New Writers Project.
MFA in Creative Writing Program Guide. Whether focusing on poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, a creative writing degree prepares students for a multitude of career options. Spanning two years, a master of fine arts (MFA) program trains you to become a skilled writer, communicator, and editor who can receive and apply feedback effectively.
University of Oregon (Eugene, OR) Visitor7, Knight Library, CC BY-SA 3.0. Starting off the list is one of the oldest and most venerated Creative Writing programs in the country, the MFA at the University of Oregon. Longtime mentor, teacher, and award-winning poet Garrett Hongo directs the program, modeling its studio-based approach to one-on ...
Our list of 255 MFA programs for creative writers includes essential information about low-residency and full-residency graduate creative writing programs in the United States and other English-speaking countries to help you decide where to apply. It also includes MA programs and PhD programs.
The Litowitz MFA+MA Program is the highest-funded graduate creative writing program in the country, providing a full three years of funding and free tuition, as well as health insurance and conference funding. Our faculty includes Natasha Trethewey, Chris Abani, Charif Shanahan, Juan Martinez, Daisy Hernández, and Sarah Schulman.
The MFA in Creative Writing is designed to offer students an opportunity to concentrate intensively on their writing. This program is recommended for students who may want to apply for creative writing positions at colleges and universities, which often require the MFA degree. The MFA program does not have a foreign language requirement.
The Master's of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing degree program at Drexel University provides students with the tools and skills to forge professional ties and succeed as professional writers. This two-year program leverages Drexel's historical approach to education with an emphasis on experiential and career-focused opportunities. With a mix of online and in-person opportunities, the MFA ...
Overview. The Creative Writing Program offers the MFA degree, with a concentration in either poetry or fiction. MFA students pursue intensive study with distinguished faculty committed to creative and intellectual achievement. Each year the department enrolls only eight MFA students, four in each concentration.
MFA in Writing. The Michener Center for Writers is the only Creative Writing M.F.A. program in the world that provides full and equal funding to every writer—yet it is our extraordinary faculty and sense of community that most distinguishes us. Our program is a three-year, fully-funded residency M.F.A. with a unique multi-disciplinary focus.
This two-year, 36-credit-hour MFA program integrates writing, literary journalism, translation, and the study of literature to prepare students for a range of career possibilities. Write, give feedback, and receive guidance from a close-knit community of respectful peers and faculty. In the MFA program, you'll find lawyers, military veterans ...
The MFA in creative writing at ASU has always been an unswervingly student-first program. Through small classes, intimate workshops and one-to-one mentoring, the centuries-old apprenticeship model thrives within the New American University. Poets and fiction writers work with outstanding faculty who have published more than 80 books and ...
Master of Fine Arts in Fiction and Poetry. The University of Miami's MFA Program in Creative Writing offers a fully funded, two-year course of study in the writing of poetry, fiction, or cross-genre literature while providing substantial training in the teaching of creative writing and composition. Students may apply to receive a third year ...
Creative Writing Program. The New School invites you to join a community of diverse writers, become part of New York City's publishing world, and build a network of support on campus and beyond. Our prestigious MFA Creative Writing program is designed to help you develop your writing in supportive workshops and literature seminars led by an ...
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a two year program offering a degree in either Poetry or Prose, and is a part of the English Department's Creative Writing Program. Founded in 1947 by Theodore Roethke, the Creative Writing Program's tradition of transformative workshops continues with our current faculty: David Bosworth, David ...
"An MFA is a Masters Fine Arts, which you can get in Poetry, Fiction, or Nonfiction Writing (fewer programs are available in Nonfiction). There are also MFAs in visual art. The program is 2-3 years and involves taking seminars in which you study literature as well as participating in a group workshop where you read and comment on your peers ...
The Drexel University Creative Writing MFA program is excited to partner with Running Wild, LLC to launch the inaugural Running Wild Press Writing Contest. All Drexel students and alumni are encouraged to submit a book length (50,000 words or more) manuscript for a work of fiction to become eligible to win a professional book contract with ...
The MFA in creative writing is a three-year residency program offering tracks in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students in the program are members of a literary community that includes a student-organized program of readings, potluck dinners with faculty, three journals, a student-run publisher—Stillhouse Press—and the annual Fall for the Book literary festival.
A Master's of Fine Arts in creative writing can lead to a career as a professional writer, in academia, and more. Fully funded MFA programs in Creative Writing offer a financial aid package for full-time students that includes full tuition remission as well as an annual stipend or salary during the entire program, which for Master's degrees ...
Most MFA creative writing programs, she said, "are concerned only with artistic excellence. That's fine up until the point you start thinking about how to build a paying career." Friedman went on to say, "I have a special interest in how the digital age is transforming writing careers, publishing and storytelling. Rather than taking a dark ...
About the MFA Program. Founded in 1980, Mason's MFA program boasts a national reputation with internationally recognized faculty who you will work with to develop your literary art. In addition to being regularly published, our faculty are active members in organizations like PEN/Faulkner, the Academy of American Poets, and the Association of ...
The M.F.A. fiction specialization at Brooklyn College is a two-year course that maintains an enrollment of 30 students. While every member of the ongoing and visiting faculty works according to their methods, we are united in our conviction that newer writers need a balance of encouragement and serious, thoroughly considered feedback.
Our MFA is designed for the writer interested in an immersive writing experience while expanding their knowledge of literary traditions. Curriculum Overview Students in the MFA program focus on perfecting their craft, completing courses in literary tradition and practice.
The MFA is awarded upon completion of 30 credit hours and successful submission of a creative thesis. WRITING WORKSHOPS AND FORMS COURSES Each summer, students enroll in a workshop and a forms course, as well as the Craft and Practice colloquium (see below) for a total of seven (7) credits per summer.
The MFA Program in Writing welcomes brave and innovative writers and encourages the formation of mutually-supportive, inspiring literary communities. ... Therefore, teaching creative-critical reading and writing skills as a Teaching Assistant is a popular choice among all Writing students in the MFA program, most of whom are eligible for ...
Southern New Hampshire University: With SNHU's Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, students not only graduate from the program with a completed 50,000-word novel — in a contemporary, young adult, romance, or speculative genre — but they also learn about the business side of creative writing to prepare them to market their work ...
This Creative Writing MFA program is the first graduate-level writer's program offered by an American college that includes residencies that take place exclusively in Europe. Award-winning, internationally acclaimed faculty-writers. Our faculty consists of highly acclaimed and published writers of poetry, nonfiction, fiction, screenplays ...
Our MFA in Script and Screenwriting - Feature Film degree online is broken down into 3 main sections: core courses, feature film courses, and elective courses.
The MFA Experience Our two-week residencies bring students together from around the world to develop their craft, share their work, experience different cultures, landscapes, and languages, and above all, to grow as writers. This isn't just a degree; our experience is also about travel, adventure, and connecting cultures. It is invigorating to leave behind the […]
Sarah Mullens, MFA candidate in creative nonfiction. Up north in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Sarah Mullens (who also studies in the creative nonfiction program) attended the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference held on the Bread Loaf campus of Middlebury College. Known as one of the oldest and most prestigious writing conference in the country ...