MFA in Creative Writing - Program Requirements

Each semester begins with a ten-day residency, one in December/January and another in July. In addition to working closely with faculty in workshops, seminars, and panels, you will have the opportunity to interview faculty to help them make a decision as to whom they would like to work with one-on-one in the following semester. At the end of the residency, you will be paired with a faculty mentor and jointly develop a study plan for the succeeding five months.

During those five months, you should be prepared to spend 25 hours per week writing, revising, and reading as part of your coursework. Each month, one packet of writing will be submitted to your mentor for a close reading. Poets are to submit between 5-8 poems a month, while prose writers should submit approximately 20-25 pages of creative work. Also each month, you will need to read a minimum of two books in your area of interest and write short essays on craft.

Your faculty mentor will respond to you by mail, e-mail, and phone, with detailed comments and suggestions for improvement. In the third semester, you can concentrate in one of several areas, such as writing a critical thesis on some aspect of the craft, on a particular writer, on an internship experience in publishing, or on some social/cultural issue related to writing.

In the fourth semester, you will work intensely with your mentor to finish and polish your creative thesis. For prose, the thesis should be between 110-130 pages; for poetry, 45 pages.

Finally, in the fifth (graduation residency), you will be asked to give a public reading as well as a formal presentation on some aspect of your third semester work.

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