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 new students in two of our three genres. The genres in question rotate annually. Information on the application process and the genres in which applications will be considered can be found here .
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2. program type in contrast to more traditional residency programs, where students attend classes on campus, low-residency programs involve distance education and brief on-campus or specific-site residencies. depending on the program, residencies may last one weekend or several weeks per year..
Degree: The Mills College Flex Res MFA Program in Creative Writing offers degrees in poetry or prose.
Program type : Flexible, hybrid, and online options
Application deadlines : Applications accepted until July 15 for Fall 2021.
Contact: [email protected]
Students anywhere in the world can earn an MFA in creative writing at Mills College. We offer a range of options you can select from to create an individualized educational experience that fits your goals and your schedule.
Student aid offered: Part-time graduate assistantships and editorial positions with our journal 580 Split .
Genres | Degrees | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Fiction, Criticism & Theory, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Popular/Genre Fiction | MA, PHD, BA, MINOR | ||
| TX, US | Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Playwriting | MA | ||
| CO, US | Fiction, Criticism & Theory, Playwriting, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry | BA | ||
| NY, US | Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting | MFA, BA | ||
| GA, US | BA | |||
| AK, US | MA, MINOR | |||
| CT, US | Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction | MFA, BA, MINOR | ||
| MI, US | BA, MINOR | |||
| NY, US | MINOR | |||
| PA, US | BA | |||
| MI, US | Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction | MFA | ||
| MA, US | ||||
| DC, US | Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction | MFA | ||
| SC, US | MINOR | |||
| IN, US | BA, MINOR | |||
| MD, US | ||||
| MN, US | Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting, Writing for Children, Professional Writing (technical writing, PR, etc.) | AFA | ||
| CA, US | Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting, Writing for Children, Literary Translation | MFA | ||
| OH, US | BA | |||
| CA, US | Screenwriting, Playwriting | MFA | ||
| NC, US | BA, MINOR | |||
| CO, US | Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Playwriting, Writing for Children, Professional Writing (technical writing, PR, etc.) | AA | ||
| PA, US | Fiction, Poetry, Professional Writing (technical writing, PR, etc.), Criticism & Theory, Writing for Children, Playwriting, Creative Nonfiction | MFA, MA, BA, MINOR | ||
| AZ, US | Fiction, Poetry | MFA, BA, MINOR | ||
| AR, US | Fiction, Screenwriting, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Popular/Genre Fiction | BFA, MA, BA | ||
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May 15, 2024
Whether you studied at a top creative writing university or are a high school dropout who will one day become a bestselling author , you may be considering an MFA in Creative Writing. But is a writing MFA genuinely worth the time and potential costs? How do you know which program will best nurture your writing? If you’re considering an MFA, this article walks you through the best full-time, low residency, and online Creative Writing MFA programs in the United States.
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this article, let’s start with the basics. What is an MFA, anyway?
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is a graduate degree that usually takes from two to three years to complete. Applications typically require a sample portfolio, usually 10-20 pages (and sometimes up to 30-40) of your best writing. Moreover, you can receive an MFA in a particular genre, such as Fiction or Poetry, or more broadly in Creative Writing. However, if you take the latter approach, you often have the opportunity to specialize in a single genre.
Wondering what actually goes on in a creative writing MFA beyond inspiring award-winning books and internet memes ? You enroll in workshops where you get feedback on your creative writing from your peers and a faculty member. You enroll in seminars where you get a foundation of theory and techniques. Then, you finish the degree with a thesis project. Thesis projects are typically a body of polished, publishable-quality creative work in your genre—fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.
You don’t need an MFA to be a writer. Just look at Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison or bestselling novelist Emily St. John Mandel.
Nonetheless, there are plenty of reasons you might still want to get a creative writing MFA. The first is, unfortunately, prestige. An MFA from a top program can help you stand out in a notoriously competitive industry to be published.
The second reason: time. Many MFA programs give you protected writing time, deadlines, and maybe even a (dainty) salary.
Third, an MFA in Creative Writing is a terminal degree. This means that this degree allows you to teach writing at the university level, especially after you publish a book.
Fourth: resources. MFA programs are often staffed by brilliant, award-winning writers; offer lecture series, volunteer opportunities, and teaching positions; and run their own (usually prestigious) literary magazines. Such resources provide you with the knowledge and insight you’ll need to navigate the literary and publishing world on your own post-graduation.
But above all, the biggest reason to pursue an MFA is the community it brings you. You get to meet other writers—and share feedback, advice, and moral support—in relationships that can last for decades.
Here are the different types of programs to consider, depending on your needs:
These programs offer full-tuition scholarships and sweeten the deal by actually paying you to attend them.
These programs include attending in-person classes and paying tuition (though many offer need-based and merit scholarships).
Low-residency programs usually meet biannually for short sessions. They also offer one-on-one support throughout the year. These MFAs are more independent, preparing you for what the writing life is actually like.
Held 100% online. These programs have high acceptance rates and no residency requirement. That means zero travel or moving expenses.
The following programs are selected for their balance of high funding, impressive return on investment, stellar faculty, major journal publications , and impressive alums.
1) johns hopkins university , mfa in fiction/poetry.
This two-year program offers an incredibly generous funding package: $39,000 teaching fellowships each year. Not to mention, it offers that sweet, sweet health insurance, mind-boggling faculty, and the option to apply for a lecture position after graduation. Many grads publish their first book within three years (nice). No nonfiction MFA (boo).
The only MFA that offers full and equal funding for every writer. It’s three years long, offers a generous yearly stipend of $30k, and provides full tuition plus a health insurance stipend. Fiction, poetry, playwriting, and screenwriting concentrations are available. The Michener Center is also unique because you study a primary genre and a secondary genre, and also get $4,000 for the summer.
The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is a 2-year program on a residency model for fiction and poetry. This means there are low requirements, and lots of time to write groundbreaking novels or play pool at the local bar. All students receive full funding, including tuition, a living stipend, and subsidized health insurance. The Translation MFA , co-founded by Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak, is also two years long but with more intensive coursework. The Nonfiction Writing Program is a prestigious three-year MFA program and is also intensive.
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.
This is a 2-3-year program in either fiction or poetry, with an impressive reputation. They also have a demonstrated commitment to “ push back against the darkness of intolerance and injustice ” and have outreach programs in the community.
Brown offers an edgy, well-funded program in a place that only occasionally dips into arctic temperatures. All students are fully funded for 2 years, which includes tuition remission and a $32k yearly stipend. Students also get summer funding and—you guessed it—that sweet, sweet health insurance.
In the Brown Literary Arts MFA, students take only one workshop and one elective per semester. It’s also the only program in the country to feature a Digital/Cross Disciplinary Track. Fiction and Poetry Tracks are offered as well.
This 3-year program with fiction, poetry, and nonfiction tracks has many attractive qualities. It’s in “ the lushest desert in the world, ” and was recently ranked #4 in creative writing programs, and #2 in Nonfiction. You can take classes in multiple genres, and in fact, are encouraged to do so. Plus, Arizona’s dry heat is good for arthritis.
This notoriously supportive program is fully funded. Moreover, teaching assistantships that provide a salary, health insurance, and tuition waiver are offered to all students. Tucson is home to a hopping literary scene, so it’s also possible to volunteer at multiple literary organizations and even do supported research at the US-Mexico Border.
With concentrations in fiction and poetry, Arizona State is a three-year funded program in arthritis-friendly dry heat. It offers small class sizes, individual mentorships, and one of the most impressive faculty rosters in the game. Moreover, it encourages cross-genre study.
Funding-wise, everyone has the option to take on a teaching assistantship position, which provides a tuition waiver, health insurance, and a yearly stipend of $25k. Other opportunities for financial support exist as well.
8) new york university.
This two-year program is in New York City, meaning it comes with close access to literary opportunities and hot dogs. NYU also has one of the most accomplished faculty lists anywhere. Students have large cohorts (more potential friends!) and have a penchant for winning top literary prizes. Concentrations in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction are available.
Another 2-3 year private MFA program with drool-worthy permanent and visiting faculty. Columbia offers courses in fiction, poetry, translation, and nonfiction. Beyond the Ivy League education, Columbia offers close access to agents, and its students have a high record of bestsellers. Finally, teaching positions and fellowships are available to help offset the high tuition.
Sarah Lawrence offers a concentration in speculative fiction in addition to the average fiction, poetry, and nonfiction choices. Moreover, they encourage cross-genre exploration. With intimate class sizes, this program is unique because it offers biweekly one-on-one conferences with its stunning faculty. It also has a notoriously supportive atmosphere, and many teaching and funding opportunities are available.
11) bennington college.
This two-year program boasts truly stellar faculty, and meets twice a year for ten days in January and June. It’s like a biannual vacation in beautiful Vermont, plus mentorship by a famous writer. The rest of the time, you’ll be spending approximately 25 hours per week on reading and writing assignments. Students have the option to concentrate in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Uniquely, they can also opt for a dual-genre focus.
The tuition is $23,468 per year, with scholarships available. Additionally, Bennington offers full-immersion teaching fellowships to MFA students, which are extremely rare in low-residency programs.
This two-year program emphasizes Native American and First Nations writing. With truly amazing faculty and visiting writers, they offer a wide range of genres, including screenwriting, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In addition, each student is matched with a faculty mentor who works with them one-on-one throughout the semester.
Students attend two eight-day residencies each year, in January and July, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At $12,000 in tuition a year, it boasts being “ one of the most affordable MFA programs in the country .”
VCFA is the only graduate school on this list that focuses exclusively on the fine arts. Their MFA in Writing offers concentrations in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction; they also offer an MFA in Literary Translation and one of the few MFAs in Writing for Children and Young Adults . Students meet twice a year for nine days, in January and July, either in-person or online. Here, they receive one-on-one mentorship that continues for the rest of the semester. You can also do many travel residencies in exciting (and warm) places like Cozumel.
VCFA boasts amazing faculty and visiting writers, with individualized study options and plenty of one-on-one time. Tuition for the full two-year program is approximately $54k.
14) university of texas at el paso.
UTEP is considered the best online MFA program, and features award-winning faculty from across the globe. Accordingly, this program is geared toward serious writers who want to pursue teaching and/or publishing. Intensive workshops allow submissions in Spanish and/or English, and genres include poetry and fiction.
No residencies are required, but an optional opportunity to connect in person is available every year. This three-year program costs about $25-30k total, depending on whether you are an in-state or out-of-state resident.
This 2-year online, no-residency program is dedicated entirely to nonfiction. Featuring a supportive, diverse community, Bay Path offers small class sizes, close mentorship, and an optional yearly field trip to Ireland.
There are many tracks, including publishing, narrative medicine, and teaching creative writing. Moreover, core courses include memoir, narrative journalism, food/travel writing, and the personal essay. Tuition is approximately $31,000 for the entire program, with scholarships available.
Whether you’re aiming for a fully funded, low residency, or completely online MFA program, there are plenty of incredible options available—all of which will sharpen your craft while immersing you in the vibrant literary arts community.
Hoping to prepare for your MFA in advance? You might consider checking out the following:
Inspired to start writing? Get your pencil ready:
Best MFA Creative Writing Programs – References:
With a Bachelor of Arts in English and Italian from Wesleyan University as well as MFAs in both Nonfiction Writing and Literary Translation from the University of Iowa, Julia is an experienced writer, editor, educator, and a former Fulbright Fellow. Julia’s work has been featured in The Millions , Asymptote , and The Massachusetts Review , among other publications. To read more of her work, visit www.juliaconrad.net
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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 15, 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]
The Department of English offers the Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing for students committed to pursuing the writing life. This three-year degree provides advanced graduate-level coursework in writing, language, literature, as well as studies in a related field.
Workshops in poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction are at the heart of the creative writing program, while courses in the Reading as Writers and Topics in Advanced Writing series enable writers to explore a variety of issues relating to contemporary themes in American and world literature. The program encourages experimentation across genres, fostering the discovery of new and varied forms for a developing voice.
Our program is committed to the goal of improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of departmental operations. Diversity, here, includes but is not limited to: race, indigeneity, gender identity, sexual orientation, caste, religion, cultural/educational background, (dis)ability, nationality, and socioeconomic status.
Please view our graduate handbook for more information.
The MFA thesis, completed in the spring of your third year in the program, is a book-length manuscript suitable for publication. The minimum length for prose is 120 pages and the minimum length for poetry is 50 pages. (Some students, in consultation with their advisors, have completed multi-genre theses.) Feel free to consult the bound MFA theses on the bookshelf in the Assistant Director's office in 112 Pillsbury.
Class of 2025: Your thesis is due to your committee on Monday, April 21, 2025. Please work out specific arrangements (e.g. time, format) with your committee.
The MFA booklist will consist of 20 books of your choice, books that have been particularly influential or useful to you in the composition of your work. The list must include at least one book from each genre. The booklist should be assembled during your first and second years in the program. Strive for a balanced list, keeping classic as well as contemporary works in mind. Please keep your thesis advisor updated on your progress assembling the booklist.
Class of 2025: Your booklist is due to your committee on Monday, April 28, 2025.
During the fall of your third year, in the context of the thesis seminar, you'll devise a topic for your MFA essay (see below). During early spring of your third year, you'll consult with your thesis advisors about the MFA essay. In April of your third year, one week after the due date for the MFA thesis, you must give the completed essay, along with the booklist, to your thesis director and second reader, in preparation for your defense. Note: no changes to the thesis or other materials may be made between the date when you hand them in and the defense. Commentary and feedback on the MFA essay will take place within the context of the defense.
What should the MFA essay look like? This is a literary essay, personally voiced and intellectually rigorous. It is 2,500–3,500 words long (10–15 pages, double-spaced). It should focus on a specific topic (e.g. structure in experimental fiction; trauma and memoir; urban settings in contemporary poetry) as evidenced in your booklist and in your own work. You do not need to admire all of the works on your list; nor are you expected to discuss all twenty selections from your booklist in your essay. The essay is not a "hoop" through which you must jump, it can serve as both a preface to your thesis and as a way of reflecting on your own writing process and on the place of your own work within a larger tradition.
Class of 2025: your booklist and essay are due to your committee on April 28, 2025.
The MFA defense will take place in May. Students who are deemed not ready to defend will be discouraged from doing so. At the defense, you will read briefly from and discuss your creative work (for about 30 minutes) and then field questions from audience members (30 minutes) about your thesis. The first portion of your defense is open unless otherwise requested. The second portion of your defense (60 minutes) will consist of you and your committee members only; this portion is closed to the public. Your committee will ask questions about the thesis, booklist and essay. After a brief private discussion with each other, your committee members may either sign off on the thesis as is, or ask for revisions to the thesis–or the essay.
MFA Thesis Defenses will take place May 5-9, 2025.
The Thesis is due April 21, 2025. The MFA essay and booklist are due April 28, 2025.
At least two faculty members of your choice will work with you as advisors on your final manuscript.
It is your responsibility to seek out faculty who you think will be the most supportive of you as a writer, regardless of department.
Note: Mentorship is a mutual endeavor. Make use of faculty office hours to introduce yourself to potential advisors.
Graduate students in Brown's Literary Arts MFA program may choose to focus in one of three tracks – Fiction, Poetry, or Digital/Cross Disciplinary Writing. The Graduate School has notified candidates regarding admission decisions for Fall 2024 in all three tracks: Cross-Disciplinary, Fiction and Poetry.
The two-year program is structured to allow graduate student writers maximum possible time for creative and intellectual exploration. Students attend two courses each semester: the writing workshop and an elective in the first three semesters (with an additional half-course in pedagogy in semesters two and three); and in the final semester an independent study for completing the thesis as well as an elective.
Elective courses may be selected from among the full offerings of the Brown University curriculum. In years past, students have taken courses in literature, history, philosophy, theater and performance studies, modern culture and media, religious studies, and foreign languages. Studio fine arts courses and translation workshops are often appropriate choices – as are workshops offered on special topics or in other genres.
The thesis may be a substantial work of fiction or poetry, or a substantial digital or cross-disciplinary project. It is intended to represent the student’s achievement during the two years in residency at Brown.
Applications may be submitted from 30 September to 11:59 pm ET on 15 December 2023. If seeking a fee waiver , the deadline is 1 December.
Graduate program handbook, learn about applying, financial information.
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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 .
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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.
.b{fill:#21386d;}.c{fill:#21386e;} 10-week terms, .cls-1 { fill: #21386e; } learn around your schedule, .st0{fill:#f1f2f2;} .st1{fill:#f2bb44;} .st2{fill:#23386e;} .st3{fill:none;stroke:#23386e;stroke-width:2.5;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st4{fill:none;stroke:#f1f2f2;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st5{fill:#25396a;} .st6{fill:#21386d;} .st7{fill:none;} .st8{fill:#f1bb45;} .st9{fill:#21396d;} .st10{fill:#22356b;} .st11{fill:none;stroke:#23386e;stroke-width:4;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st12{fill:#ffffff;stroke:#21376d;stroke-width:4;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st13{fill:none;stroke:#21376d;stroke-width:4;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st14{fill:#21376d;} .st15{fill:none;stroke:#21376d;stroke-width:4;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st16{fill:none;stroke:#23386e;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st17{fill:none;stroke:#21386d;stroke-width:4;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st18{fill:#ffffff;stroke:#21386d;stroke-width:4;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st19{fill:none;stroke:#23386e;stroke-width:2;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st20{fill:#ffffff;stroke:#21376d;stroke-width:2;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st21{fill:none;stroke:#21376d;stroke-width:2;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st22{fill:none;stroke:#21376d;stroke-width:2;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st23{fill:none;stroke:#21386e;stroke-width:0.75;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st24{fill:none;stroke:#091c38;stroke-width:2;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st25{fill:#ffffff;stroke:#23386e;stroke-width:4;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st26{fill:#091c38;} .st27{fill:#ffffff;stroke:#21376d;stroke-width:4;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st28{fill:#ffffff;stroke:#23386e;stroke-width:2;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st29{fill:#ffffff;stroke:#21376d;stroke-width:2;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-miterlimit:10;} .st30{fill:#ffffff;} 24/7 online support, what does an online course look like.
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) , which means we meet certain standards of academic quality, and have the tools and resources necessary for students to be successful. 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).
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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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 ]
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is designed to develop skills in writing fiction and reading literature. By the end of the program, students will have completed a book-length manuscript of their own creative work. The courses are all offered 100% online. After completing this fully online MFA program, students will have achieved a level of sophistication in their writing that will allow them to pursue a number of career options.
Code | Title | Credits |
---|---|---|
Advanced Workshop I | 3 | |
Studies in the Craft of Creative Writing | 3 | |
Advanced Workshop 2 | 3 | |
Studies in the Contemporary Novel | 3 | |
Advanced Workshop 3 | 3 | |
Studies in the Scope and Ethics of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction | 3 | |
Advanced Workshop 4 | 3 | |
Studies in Contemporary Poetry | 3 | |
Advanced Workshop 5 | 3 | |
The Culture of Writing, Editing, and Publishing | 3 | |
Researching and Writing about Literature | 3 | |
Thesis | 3 | |
Total Credits | 36 |
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Creative writing mfa guide, mfa research guide.
The application process for the Master of Fine Arts degree can be arduous and time consuming, but proper preparation and research can make the ordeal far less stressful. Factors to consider when researching graduate programs:
It is important not to rush through this process. Taking the time to seriously consider your needs is instrumental in finding the program that fits you. While it is a good idea to pick multiple schools when applying for any graduate degree, it is especially important for the MFA. Because the selection process depends a lot on a matter of taste and preference, applying to multiple programs increases your chances of acceptance. It is usually a good idea to apply to as many programs as fees allow.
The Writing Sample Once you’ve selected the programs you’re interested in, it’s time to start putting together your application materials. The writing sample is an important part of your application and is by far the most influential aspect. You should give yourself a lot of time to work on it. Asking a professor experienced in the MFA process to look over it would be incredibly beneficial, providing you give them plenty of time in advance. Fine tuning and revising your writing sample should be taken as seriously, if not more so, as the rest of your application materials.
GRE Not all programs require the Graduate Record Examinations but there are quite a few that do. The requirements for admission of the school you’re applying to should be on their website. But in the interest of providing yourself with more options, if you can take the GRE it would be a good idea to do so. Register early, preferably during the summer, because students nationwide are registering for the same exam. Finding an available testing center and a decent time slot becomes more difficult the longer you wait to register.
Letters of Recommendation Most MFA programs require two to three letters of recommendation. This is another part of the application that should be thought of earlier rather than later. Request letters from professors that you respect and have a good working relationship with. Some MFA programs require attachable forms to go along with these recommendations. Getting those forms to these professors should be done as promptly as possible. Make sure that your professors have the correct mailing address for the programs you’re applying to.
Transcripts The MFA program will require the transcripts of any university you have attended. If you are a transfer student, get in touch with past schools you’ve attended and request they be sent to your programs of choice. It is better to do this early so that your application isn’t hindered by missing documents. Transcript Request forms can be picked up at the Registrar’s office or downloaded online. Several MFA programs require you to send your transcripts be sent to graduate admission office and the individual program you’re applying to. It is imperative that check each program to see whether or not they require multiple transcripts be sent.
May – June – July – August Summer is an ideal time to research programs you’re interested in. There are plenty of resources available for students pursuing an MFA (listed below). Spend ample time looking over the program’s website and attempt to get a feel for whether or not it will be a good fit. If you do find a program that peaks your interest it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the faculty in your discipline. If feasible, visit a handful of the institutions you’re applying to. Environment should be just as important a factor as ranking, financial assistance, and opportunities. If accepted, this is where you will be living and writing for an extended period of time. It is important to consider your surroundings. The summer is also a good time to work on your writing sample, one of the most important aspects of the application. Spending time on this during the summer frees up a considerable amount of time during the fall semester and allows you an opportunity to redraft or edit the piece later if it doesn’t meet your standards. This is also a good time to prepare for the GRE. Some students use this time to study for the examination while others decide to complete them during the summer. In either case, because of the high demand for seats at testing centers it is a good idea to register for a time that suits you before they become unavailable.
September At the beginning of the semester, it may be worthwhile to request a professor in the English department, preferable specializing in fiction or poetry, look over your writing sample and give you feedback. This can only increase your chances of getting accepted and most professors are more than happy to lend a helping hand if you give them enough time. The beginning of the semester is also the time to begin requesting letters of recommendation. Remember to select professors with whom you have a good working relationship. These requests should be made early so as to give professors enough time to formulate and write their letters without being rushed. If you haven’t done so already, register for the GRE.
October – November This is the time to begin your applications if you haven’t started already. As in any process, there is always the chance that someone—whether they are yourself, the post office, or the office of the program you’re applying to—will make a mistake. Giving yourself plenty of time before the deadline will allow you to correct any mistakes without having to rush or panic. Remind those you’ve requested letters of recommendation about upcoming deadlines and provide them with the information they need in order to send the applications. If there are any programs that request electronic submissions, make sure your professors are made aware when emails containing the link are delivered.
Poet’s & Writers Magazine An extensive database of MFA programs. The database allows you to search for schools by state, gives the names of a program’s core faculty members, the genres it supports (i.e. poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction), the total size of the program, and the deadline for each school, available funding and employment opportunities like teaching and research assistantships, and the program’s literary publications.
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs An extensive database which allows you to intensively customize your search by genre, program type (studio, research, low-residency, etc.), and location. It even allows you to search for specific faculty members and find the programs they’re associated with. The search provides a lot of information, including:
Creative Writing MFA Handbook
Advice regarding applying for the MFA degree. The blog’s regular contributors are at various different places in their writing and academic careers. Some of them are instructors at MFA programs, some already hold their fine arts degree, while others are in the process of earning them.
The Atlantic Articles that deal with the process of selecting an MFA program
Request information, visit campus, how to apply.
Best bets: mfa resources.
The tabs on this page will help you navigate through the various disciplines and foci within the MFA Program.
The library is here to support all your creative endeavors. Librarians are available every day to answer questions and provide additional help.
The leading international index of journals, books, dissertations, and more on literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory and criticism, and dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing.
A literature reference database that includes biographical, bibliographical, and critical content. The LRC is built on the Gale Group three author databases: Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online.
Search by genre, title, or author. Includes reading recommendations and award lists.
Widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language, this descriptive dictionary traces the historical development of the language.
An archive of scholarly journals. Content spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. The most recent 3-5 years of journals are generally not available. JSTOR has a number of other collections to which we do not subscribe. Provided through a cooperative agreement with Stetson's College of Law Library.
Need more help, ask a librarian.
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Academic libraries.
Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts
Lizi Gilad Silver: “I’ve lived my life feeling out of place geographically as well as physically, perpetually searching and asking where and what is home. The answer I’ve come to, over and over again, is literature. This is where I feel most at home. I find shelter in books and writing. A place beyond body, God, and land; my home is the written word.”
The first time I spoke with Lizi Gilad Silver (’14) was in early 2012. I’d just read her application to the MFA program and found myself in tears. In the course of an hour, reading her entrance essays, her poems, and her nonfiction, a picture began to develop of a woman who understood well that this tangible life is at best fleeting, that what matters ultimately is what we leave behind and that there is no greater legacy than the love we give, in whatever form. Because the quote above came from Lizi’s statement of personal history, which told the bold truth: that her time here was short, due to cystic fibrosis, and that she wanted to put it on the page. “I don’t want to be a great writer despite the challenges I’ve faced,” Lizi wrote. “Living in the fringes provides a better vantage point with which to observe life and drives me to write it down.” There was an immediacy in her words that made me pick up the phone, to tell her that I’d be lucky to teach her here at UCR, that we could help her, that we could give her a community of like-minded writers who would give her that sense of home, that sense of belonging, she seemed to desperately crave.
I remember it was the late afternoon when I dialed her number. When we hung up, two hours later, it was dark outside. We’d talked about everything – her writing, her illness, her life, her family’s journey to this country, her faith, which we shared, her dreams, her fears – and we laughed an awful lot. She also asked me probing questions about her work and what I saw in it. What I landed on that night – and what I land on now, over a decade in the dust, thumbing through her files on my computer – was that Lizi Gilad Silver’s writing was fierce. Uncompromising. Passionate. Empathetic. But above all else: Fierce.
She was also gentle and kind and compassionate. And as I got to know her and her work over the next two years….and then over the next several years, as she published her work, and eventually returned to the program to lead a seminar…what I found was that Lizi saw the world differently than anyone I’d ever known, that she had an easy way of talking to emerging writers, that she calmed them in a remarkable way, and also inspired vulnerability. Here was a person who wrote with such profound lucidity about the twists toward the end of life, the ones she kept managing to avoid, all the while knowing they were coming along at some turn, somewhere soon. In my memory, I can see her in the seminar she led, her tiny frame at the front of the room, the audience rapt, and thinking: This is her element. Though I was wrong, it turns out. Her element was in the act of being present, wherever she was. You found yourself in her presence, you had her, in full.
It's funny the things you remember when a person is gone. What I can tell you is that one of the last times we spoke she told me she wasn’t writing much anymore, because she didn’t know how much time she had left and she didn’t want to spend her time sitting alone. But believe me when I tell you, she was a writer, no matter how often her fingers touched a keyboard or put pen to paper.
“Your body is a magician for the way it heals. It’s also a magician for tricking you into believing in the everlasting strength and health of the moment,” Lizi wrote in one of her early essays. I’ve come back to it many time since Lizi passed away in June of 2023. “There will come a day when the curtain will lift and you’ll see your body for what it truly is: fragile, miraculous, momentary.” Lizi’s moment lasted for 45 years. Too brief by any measure. In her wake she left a beautiful family, dear friends, and so many words, including two amazing collections of poetry – Hyperion (Big Lucks) and Drip, Drip (Boatt Press) – and countless essays. And for those of us lucky to have known her, we have her memory, which is indeed a blessing.
And now, thanks to the profound generosity of a donor, we are pleased to announce the Lizi Gilad Silver Memorial Scholarship, to be given to a new or continuing student studying poetry or nonfiction. This annual scholarship in the amount of $10,000 will be awarded to a student who best represents the values, the determination, the compassion, the kindness, and above all else, the transcendent talent of Lizi Gilad Silver. Applications for the scholarship will be available October 15 th.
It is hard for me to think of Lizi now without thinking of that first conversation we had, twelve years ago. We were both so young then and all things seemed innately possible and infinite. I suppose that’s the gem of youth. You think you’ll have forever for everything. But the remarkable thing is that Lizi will always be here now, her words will be discovered, fresh and vibrant and needed, with every student who walks this path with us. And those students will learn of a fierce woman who believed passionately in the power, the sanctity, and the safety of the written world.
About Lizi Gilad Silver:
Lizi Gilad Silver was the award-winning author of two collections of poetry, Hyperion and Drip, Drip. Her nonfiction appeared in The Rumpus and the Literary Bohemian, among many others. She graduated from the Low Residency MFA @ UC Riverside in 2014. She lived in Southern California with her husband and daughter.
About the Low Residency MFA:
Founded in 2008, the Low Residency MFA @ UC Riverside is the premier Low Residency MFA program in the nation and the #1 ranked low residency screenwriting program (Movie Maker Magazine). Housed in the Palm Desert Center, the Low Residency MFA offers majors in fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, and playwriting and minors in each, as well as poetry. Faculty include: Mickey Birnbaum, Elizabeth Crane, Alex Espinoza, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Tod Goldberg (Director), Gabino Iglesias, Joshua Malkin, Ivy Pochoda, Wlliam Rabkin, Rob Roberge, John Schimmel, Mark Haskell Smith, & David Ulin.
David Hicks, Director of the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, and Mandy Pennington, Director of Digital Marketing at Wilkes, who is completing her MFA, speaking about creative writing at the university and LitFest 2024. LitFest is a weeklong series of readings, discussions, screenings and more, celebrating the written word, running from June 21 through June 27th, open to the public at no charge. For information: www.wilkes.edu/cw
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Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.
Find a home for your poems, stories, essays, and reviews by researching the publications vetted by our editorial staff. In the Literary Magazines database you’ll find editorial policies, submission guidelines, contact information—everything you need to know before submitting your work to the publications that share your vision for your work.
Whether you’re pursuing the publication of your first book or your fifth, use the Small Presses database to research potential publishers, including submission guidelines, tips from the editors, contact information, and more.
Research more than one hundred agents who represent poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers, plus details about the kinds of books they’re interested in representing, their clients, and the best way to contact them.
Every week a new publishing professional shares advice, anecdotes, insights, and new ways of thinking about writing and the business of books.
Find publishers ready to read your work now with our Open Reading Periods page, a continually updated resource listing all the literary magazines and small presses currently open for submissions.
Since our founding in 1970, Poets & Writers has served as an information clearinghouse of all matters related to writing. While the range of inquiries has been broad, common themes have emerged over time. Our Top Topics for Writers addresses the most popular and pressing issues, including literary agents, copyright, MFA programs, and self-publishing.
Our series of subject-based handbooks (PDF format; $4.99 each) provide information and advice from authors, literary agents, editors, and publishers. Now available: The Poets & Writers Guide to Publicity and Promotion, The Poets & Writers Guide to the Book Deal, The Poets & Writers Guide to Literary Agents, The Poets & Writers Guide to MFA Programs, and The Poets & Writers Guide to Writing Contests.
Find a home for your work by consulting our searchable databases of writing contests, literary magazines, small presses, literary agents, and more.
Poets & Writers lists readings, workshops, and other literary events held in cities across the country. Whether you are an author on book tour or the curator of a reading series, the Literary Events Calendar can help you find your audience.
Get the Word Out is a new publicity incubator for debut fiction writers and poets.
Research newspapers, magazines, websites, and other publications that consistently publish book reviews using the Review Outlets database, which includes information about publishing schedules, submission guidelines, fees, and more.
Well over ten thousand poets and writers maintain listings in this essential resource for writers interested in connecting with their peers, as well as editors, agents, and reading series coordinators looking for authors. Apply today to join the growing community of writers who stay in touch and informed using the Poets & Writers Directory.
Let the world know about your work by posting your events on our literary events calendar, apply to be included in our directory of writers, and more.
Find a writers group to join or create your own with Poets & Writers Groups. Everything you need to connect, communicate, and collaborate with other poets and writers—all in one place.
Find information about more than two hundred full- and low-residency programs in creative writing in our MFA Programs database, which includes details about deadlines, funding, class size, core faculty, and more. Also included is information about more than fifty MA and PhD programs.
Whether you are looking to meet up with fellow writers, agents, and editors, or trying to find the perfect environment to fuel your writing practice, the Conferences & Residencies is the essential resource for information about well over three hundred writing conferences, writers residencies, and literary festivals around the world.
Discover historical sites, independent bookstores, literary archives, writing centers, and writers spaces in cities across the country using the Literary Places database—the best starting point for any literary journey, whether it’s for research or inspiration.
Search for jobs in education, publishing, the arts, and more within our free, frequently updated job listings for writers and poets.
Establish new connections and enjoy the company of your peers using our searchable databases of MFA programs and writers retreats, apply to be included in our directory of writers, and more.
Each year the Readings & Workshops program provides support to hundreds of writers participating in literary readings and conducting writing workshops. Learn more about this program, our special events, projects, and supporters, and how to contact us.
The Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award introduces emerging writers to the New York City literary community, providing them with a network for professional advancement.
Find information about how Poets & Writers provides support to hundreds of writers participating in literary readings and conducting writing workshops.
Bring the literary world to your door—at half the newsstand price. Available in print and digital editions, Poets & Writers Magazine is a must-have for writers who are serious about their craft.
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Every day the editors of Poets & Writers Magazine scan the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know.
In our weekly series of craft essays, some of the best and brightest minds in contemporary literature explore their craft in compact form, articulating their thoughts about creative obsessions and curiosities in a working notebook of lessons about the art of writing.
The Time Is Now offers weekly writing prompts in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction to help you stay committed to your writing practice throughout the year. Sign up to get The Time Is Now, as well as a weekly book recommendation for guidance and inspiration, delivered to your inbox.
Every week a new author shares books, art, music, writing prompts, films—anything and everything—that has inspired and shaped the creative process.
Listen to original audio recordings of authors featured in Poets & Writers Magazine . Browse the archive of more than 400 author readings.
Ads in Poets & Writers Magazine and on pw.org are the best ways to reach a readership of serious poets and literary prose writers. Our audience trusts our editorial content and looks to it, and to relevant advertising, for information and guidance.
Start, renew, or give a subscription to Poets & Writers Magazine ; change your address; check your account; pay your bill; report a missed issue; contact us.
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Read select articles from the award-winning magazine and consult the most comprehensive listing of literary grants and awards, deadlines, and prizewinners available in print.
Find a home for your poems, stories, essays, and reviews by researching the publications vetted by our editorial staff and listed in the Literary Magazines database. Here you’ll find editorial policies, submission guidelines, and contact information—everything you need to determine which publications match your vision for your writing and your writing life. Use the filters below to find magazines with reading periods that are open now or opening soon (within the next thirty days), accept unsolicited submissions, and match all of your criteria for the perfect publisher of your work.
COMMENTS
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.
Find information about more than two hundred full- and low-residency programs in creative writing in our MFA Programs database, which includes details about deadlines, funding, class size, core faculty, and more.
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.
Guide to Writing Programs AWP's Guide to Writing Programs is a free, searchable database of graduate and undergraduate writing programs in the US and abroad. Each member program listing contains information about faculty, admissions, requirements of study, and tuition and financial aid.
The best MFA Creative Writing Programs in 2024 are revealed. We cover everything from online MFAs to fully-funded residential programs.
The Columbia MFA is a two-year program requiring 60 credits of coursework to complete the degree and can take up to three years to complete the thesis. Students concentrate in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction, and also have the option of pursuing a joint course of study in writing and literary translation.
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.
MFA. The Department of English offers the Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing for students committed to pursuing the writing life. This three-year degree provides advanced graduate-level coursework in writing, language, literature, as well as studies in a related field. Workshops in poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction are at the ...
Graduate students in Brown's Literary Arts MFA program may choose to focus in one of three tracks - Fiction, Poetry, or Digital/Cross Disciplinary Writing. The Graduate School has notified candidates regarding admission decisions for Fall 2024 in all three tracks: Cross-Disciplinary, Fiction and Poetry.
MFA Creative Writing. This guide is intended to support MFA Creative Writing students as they conduct research. Getting Started; Recommended Databases; ... Database that indexes and abstracts articles on art and related disciplines from periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins published throughout the world. ...
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.
The University of Virginia Creative Writing Program is the home of a two-year, fully funded MFA program and undergraduate concentrations in poetry writing and literary prose. We offer creative writing courses starting at the introductory level for undergraduates on up to our graduate workshops and form of fiction/poetry classes.
53 fully funded MFA programs in Creative Writing that offer full tuition remission as well as an annual stipend or salary during the entire 1-2 year program.
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.
Creative Writing (MFA) The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is designed to develop skills in writing fiction and reading literature. By the end of the program, students will have completed a book-length manuscript of their own creative work. The courses are all offered 100% online. After completing this fully online MFA program, students ...
Creative Writing MFA Guide. The application process for the Master of Fine Arts degree can be arduous and time consuming, but proper preparation and research can make the ordeal far less stressful. It is important not to rush through this process. Taking the time to seriously consider your needs is instrumental in finding the program that fits you.
Welcome This guide describes databases, library services, and other resources for Stetson's Low-residency MFA in Creative Writing (MFA of the Americas). The tabs on this page will help you navigate through the various disciplines and foci within the MFA Program. The library is here to support all your creative endeavors.
The W's MFA in Creative Writing expects around 28 students for the fall semester, as it kicks off its 10 th year. The program is a hybrid between online and in-person classes. Much of the course load is achieved through synchronous online classes during the regular semester. There are also four shorter residency classes held on location, such ...
A guide to 158 full-residency and 64 low-residency programs in creative writing, plus questions to consider before you apply.
Online MFA in Creative Writing This guide is intended to help you identify and locate scholarly and non-scholarly resources (books, articles, etc.) for the Online MFA in Creative Writing program.
The W's Creative Writing MFA nationally ranked Fri,08/16/24-11:53AM, 80 Reads The W's Creative Writing MFA nationally ranked COLUMBUS, Miss.-- Mississippi University for Women's low-residency Master's of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing program has been recognized on a national scale by Intelligent.com, which ranked the program 10 in ...
MFA alum Chandanie Somwaru has just been named a recipient of the Poetry Foundation's Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship.. The Poetry Foundation awards five Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships annually. Among the largest awards offered to young poets in the US, the $27,000 prize is intended to support exceptional US poets between 21 and 31 ...
We've compiled this annual guide to graduate creative writing programs—which includes our rankings of the top full- and low-residency MFA programs (with honorable mentions) and, new to this year, doctoral programs—to provide a spark for the deep thinking and serious consideration that the process of choosing a program requires.
MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. UCR Palm Desert Center 75080 Frank Sinatra Drive Palm Desert, CA 92211-5202 . Phone: (760) 834-0926 Fax: (760) 834-0796 E-mail: [email protected]. Find Us. Related Links. College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences ...
David Hicks, Director of the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, and Mandy Pennington, Director of Digital Marketing at Wilkes, who is completing her MFA, speaking about creative writing at the university and LitFest 2024. LitFest is a weeklong se…
A collection of articles edited by the staff of Poets & Writers Magazine, this handy resource includes straightforward advice from writers, teachers, and professionals in the literary field, additional resources to help you choose the program that's right for you, and much more.
Complete list of nearly 1,000 literary magazines with details on editorial focus, submission guidelines, and more.