Creative Writing Programs
MFA Creative Writing Programs :: Includes PhD, MA
New & Featured Sponsored Listings:
Hamline University
MFA in Writing
MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults (low-res)
At Hamline, you’ll benefit not only from being a part of the only university in the U.S. with three fine arts programs in creative writing and an award-winning national literary magazine, but also from the cultural and literary bounty of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Hamline students experience a world-class education in the process and craft of writing taught by award-winning practicing writers. Our faculty have published more than 250 books and won the highest awards given for excellence in writing for children, young adults, and adults. Our alumni go on to publish, teach, and work in the literary publishing industry.
Northwest Institute of Literary Arts
Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA in Creative Writing &
MFA in Publishing & Editing
(low-res)
The Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, an organization of writers,
sponsors the Whidbey Writers Workshop's two low-residency MFAs: the MFA
in writing and the MFA in Publishing and Editing. The only accredited
MFA program in the country sponsored by an association of writers
includes tracks in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and writing for
children/young adults and Publishing and Editing. Each semester begins
with a 10-day intensive residency on Whidbey Island, Washington; classes
begin there and continue online for an additional 16 weeks. MFA in
writing students may take an additional Certificate in Publishing and
Editing for a total of 70 semester credits.
[Read more about this
program]
Naropa
Univeristy
Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
MFA in Writing & Poetics (res)
MFA in Creative Writing (low-res)
The Jack Kerouac School emphasizes innovative approaches to literary arts. Our programs problematize genre while cultivating contemplative and experimental writing practices. Each year, we invite more than sixty guest faculty to our internationally renowned Summer Writing Program, a four-week colloquium of workshops, lectures, and readings. This distinguishing feature fosters an intensely creative environment for students to develop their writing projects in conversation with a community of writers. Founded in 1974 by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, the Jack Kerouac School consists of the undergraduate Core Writing Seminars, a BA in Writing & Literature, a residential MFA in Writing & Poetics, a low-residency MFA in Creative Writing, and the Summer Writing Program.
Rosemont College
MFA in Creative Writing
The mission of Rosemont College’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is to empower students with real-life skills and experiences that will enable them to achieve their professional and creative goals as writers, and to become productive contributors of larger writing communities as authors, teachers, publishers, and readers. We have envisioned a program where the students have opportunities to work with established and accomplished writers, editors, and industry professionals, in a variety of settings that allow our students to blossom and discover their own unique voices as writers.
Vermont College of Fine Arts
MFA in Writing (low-res)
Established in 1981, the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing Program was one of the first low-residency programs in the country. The Atlantic named it one of the top five low-residency programs nationwide. The 1200+ alumni/ae have published over 650 books and received nearly every literary award in the country. Unlike traditional residential programs, VCFA brings students together twice each year on campus from every corner of the world. The diversity of perspectives, attitudes, and voices is exceptional. After each residency, writers return home inspired and ready to continue the semester through discourse with their advisors.
Complete Sponsored Listings
Arcadia
University
MFA in Creative Writing (low-res)
A low-residency program incorporating online workshops, one-on-one work with faculty members, and a residency spent abroad. Each student produces a manuscript length thesis as well as a plan to publish it.
Ashland University
MFA in Creative Writing (low-res)
Ashland University offers the only two-genre low-residency program in the country, with a cross-genre option and degree tracks in poetry and creative nonfiction. The program is characterized both by an insistence on high aesthetic standards for the creation of new literature and by an emphasis on a supportive community of writers.
Butler
University
MFA in Creative Writing
The MFA is a 36-hour studio MFA that includes ten three-credit courses and six hours of formal thesis work with an advisor. We offer programs in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as electives in screenwriting, young adult fiction, poetic form, literary editing and publishing, and teaching creative writing. We offer top-flight, full-time faculty, nationally recognized visiting faculty, and one of the finest visiting writers series in the country. We operate a MFA-run literary magazine and other publishing enterprises, and also offer teaching and service opportunities through an array of programs.
The
College of Saint Rose
MFA in Creative Writing
This new full-residency, 48-credit program provides serious writers with the opportunity to work within their chosen genres—fiction, creative nonfiction or poetry—in workshops with an accomplished full-time faculty of creative writers, literary scholars and a visiting writer each semester and to complete a full-length creative work as a thesis.
Eastern
Oregon University
MFA in Creative Writing
Innovative, intense, intimate. The new low residency MFA in Creative Writing combines the rigor and energy of small, focused workshops (5-7 students working with faculty mentors) in the heart of Northeast Oregon’s Grande Ronde Valley. If you value the real West over the resort town West, then join us in the low residency MFA program at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.
Eastern
Washington University
MFA in Creative Writing
The Inland Northwest Center for Writers Master of Fine Arts program is an intensive, two-year, pre-professional course of study with an emphasis on the practice of literature as a fine art. The program includes course work in the study of literature from the vantage point of its composition and history.
Hamline University
MFA in Writing
MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults (low-res)
At Hamline, you’ll benefit not only from being a part of the only university in the U.S. with three fine arts programs in creative writing and an award-winning national literary magazine, but also from the cultural and literary bounty of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Hamline students experience a world-class education in the process and craft of writing taught by award-winning practicing writers. Our faculty have published more than 250 books and won the highest awards given for excellence in writing for children, young adults, and adults. Our alumni go on to publish, teach, and work in the literary publishing industry.
Hollins University
Jackson Center for Creative Writing
MFA in Creative Writing
Our intensive two-year studio/hybrid MFA program helps you find your way in an atmosphere of cooperation and encouragement. We support college graduates who want to concentrate on craft and on reading the way writers do. The 24 students in this highly regarded program work successfully in poetry, short fiction, novels, and creative nonfiction—and between genres, too. We're known for our strong sense of community and our lively co-curricular program. Our faculty take time to work with students. Hollins alums have a remarkably high record of publication: this is a program for people who really want to write.
Mills
College
MFA in Creative Writing
Part of the San Francisco Bay Area’s vibrant literary community, Mills College offers innovative MFA programs that allow you to explore poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and book art—enhancing your creativity and extending the power of words to the world around you.
Murray State University
MFA in Creative Writing (low-res)
In the beautiful lakes region of Western Kentucky, something extraordinary is happening. Masters in their craft—some of the most widely respected novelists, poets and essayists working today—are guiding a group of talented and diverse writers in Murray State University's high quality, low-residency, and very affordable MFA program.
Naropa
University
Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
MFA in Writing & Poetics (res)
MFA in Creative Writing (low-res)
The Jack Kerouac School emphasizes innovative approaches to literary arts. Our programs problematize genre while cultivating contemplative and experimental writing practices. Each year, we invite more than sixty guest faculty to our internationally renowned Summer Writing Program, a four-week colloquium of workshops, lectures, and readings. This distinguishing feature fosters an intensely creative environment for students to develop their writing projects in conversation with a community of writers. Founded in 1974 by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, the Jack Kerouac School consists of the undergraduate Core Writing Seminars, a BA in Writing & Literature, a residential MFA in Writing & Poetics, a low-residency MFA in Creative Writing, and the Summer Writing Program.
National University
MFA in Creative Writing (online)
The National University MFA program is a completely online program with no residency requirement. Workshop classes are conducted in electronic classrooms with fellow writers from around the country and the world.
Northwestern
University
School of Continuing Studies
MA/MFA in Creative Writing
The part-time Master of Arts/Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Northwestern University offers scheduling flexibility to pursue your writing goals while balancing your professional and personal life. Core writing competency is developed through peer workshops, reading and discussing other authors’ works, literature courses, electives, a teaching practicum, and publishing internships.
Northwest Institute of Literary Arts
Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA in Creative Writing &
MFA in Publishing & Editing
(low-res)
The Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, an organization of writers,
sponsors the Whidbey Writers Workshop's two low-residency MFAs: the MFA
in writing and the MFA in Publishing and Editing. The only accredited
MFA program in the country sponsored by an association of writers
includes tracks in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and writing for
children/young adults and Publishing and Editing. Each semester begins
with a 10-day intensive residency on Whidbey Island, Washington; classes
begin there and continue online for an additional 16 weeks. MFA in
writing students may take an additional Certificate in Publishing and
Editing for a total of 70 semester credits.
[Read more about this
program]
Oklahoma
City University
The Red Earth MFA in Creative Writing
The Red Earth MFA in Creative Writing: Write in the middle of it all. A new kind of low-residency program. Two years, five residencies. Creative and professional development.
Pine
Manor College Solstice Low-Residency
MFA in Creative Writing (low-res)
The Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College is co-educational, inclusive, and affordable. Our program is designed to help students reach their full potential as writers through a demanding curriculum that balances the workshop experience with the study of literary craft, criticism, and theory.
Rosemont College
MFA in Creative Writing
The mission of Rosemont College’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is to empower students with real-life skills and experiences that will enable them to achieve their professional and creative goals as writers, and to become productive contributors of larger writing communities as authors, teachers, publishers, and readers. We have envisioned a program where the students have opportunities to work with established and accomplished writers, editors, and industry professionals, in a variety of settings that allow our students to blossom and discover their own unique voices as writers.
Saint
Mary's College of California
MFA in Creative Writing
Founded in 1995, the MFA Program in Creative Writing is a two-year course of study leading to the M.F.A. degree in creative nonfiction, fiction, or poetry. The Program provides the time and formal training necessary for serious students to improve their writing. It embodies the finest qualities of Saint Mary’s College: an investment in the social justice and educating the whole person. We model community both in the classroom and in the arts community, attending to the powerful role of developing artists in a culture that is thirsty for the knowledge only arts can bring.
Spalding
University
MFA in Creative Writing
The Spalding MFA offers an intellectually stimulating and emotionally supportive experience; unparalleled flexibility and individually tailored graduate study; a diverse and close-knit community of writers. (Low-Residency)
Stony
Brook Southampton
MFA in Writing & Literature
Immerse yourself in your work while in the company of other serious writers at our seaside campus in the Hamptons. Enrollment in our workshops, led by distinguished authors, is capped at twelve. Unlike most MFA programs, ours does not track students into a single genre. We welcome full and part-time students, and offer a Manhattan Track to the MFA.
University
of Arkansas - Monticello
MFA in Creative Writing Program (online)
UAM's entirely online program offers workshops in creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. We offer our students a rigorous, yet flexible education with small classes and a quality education at an affordable price.
University
of California, Riverside-Palm Desert
MFA Program in Creative Writing &
Writing for the Performing
Arts (low-res)
The low residency MFA program at UCR-Palm Desert, the first of its kind in the University of California system, offers a full academic and professional immersion into the writing world. In addition to their creative work, students meet one-on-one with industry professionals to help guide them towards the next step of their careers.
University
of Central Oklahoma
MFA in Creative Writing
Students participate in two sequential workshop tracks allowing intensive, sustained experience in a primary and a secondary genre, chosen from among poetry, short story, novel, nonfiction, and screenwriting. The 36-hour program is usually completed in two years, concluding with the submission of a book-length thesis of publication quality.
University of Idaho
MFA Program in Creative Writing
Idaho’s three-year curriculum is ideal for those who demand rigorous instruction in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Our program—small by design—limits enrollment in graduate workshops to 10-15 students, which allows for an intimate and dynamic work environment, and full access to our award-winning faculty. Moscow, and its abundant wilderness opportunities, is an ideal place to focus on writing.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
MFA in Creative Writing
The MFA degree at UIUC provides students with graduate study and professional training in the writing of fiction and poetry with our distinguished graduate faculty: Philip Graham, LeAnne Howe, Janice N. Harrington, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Michael Madonick, Audrey Petty, and Alex Shakar. The degree’s primary goal is to give writers time and space to work on perfecting their art. Upon graduation, students will have the skills necessary to teach writing and will produce a book-length, publishable manuscript. Students will also have the opportunity to gain experience in literary editing and publishing while working on Ninth Letter.
University of North Carolina-Greensboro
MFA Writing Program
We are one of the oldest MFA programs in the country. With an emphasis on studio time in which to study the writing of poetry or fiction, students also develop their talents through small classes in the arts. Workshops and individual conferences with faculty are the core of the curriculum.
University
of South Carolina
MFA In Creative Writing
The University of South Carolina MFA blends the camaraderie of a small program with the resources of a large English department. Students work closely with well-published and supportive faculty and interact frequently with both internationally acclaimed and emerging visiting writers. All admitted students are funded across their three years here. (All second- and third-year students are fully funded and all first-year students are fully or substantially funded.) Intensive yet collegial workshops comprise the program's center, while students also receive world-class training in literary study with optional opportunities in pedagogy, editing, and outreach in a vibrant, inexpensive, and relaxed college city.
University
of Tampa
MFA in Creative Writing (low-res)
The University of Tampa low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program is designed to help poets, fiction writers and creative nonfiction writers advance their command of craft through exposure to literature from a writerly perspective and with supportive critique and mentoring.
University
of Wyoming
MFA in Creative Writing
The University of Wyoming's Creative Writing MFA program is an intensive two-year studio degree in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Special features include a flexible curriculum, cross-genre opportunities, opportunities for interdisciplinary study, and our Eminent Writers in Residence program, which brings distinguished authors to campus to work closely with our students. We have a deeply committed faculty, a lively visiting writers series, an incomparable natural setting, and full funding for students, including teaching assistantships with reasonable teaching loads, full tuition waivers, summer stipends, and support for travel and publication.
Vermont College of Fine Arts
MFA in Writing (low-res)
Established in 1981, the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing Program was one of the first low-residency programs in the country. The Atlantic named it one of the top five low-residency programs nationwide. The 1200+ alumni/ae have published over 650 books and received nearly every literary award in the country. Unlike traditional residential programs, VCFA brings students together twice each year on campus from every corner of the world. The diversity of perspectives, attitudes, and voices is exceptional. After each residency, writers return home inspired and ready to continue the semester through discourse with their advisors.
Washington University St. Louis
MFA in Creative Writing
The MFA Program at Washington University in St. Louis is a two-year program where 20 to 25 students are working toward MFA degrees in fiction or poetry. Each year our reading series brings a diverse group of poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers to the department. In addition, the Hurst Professor program brings in four distinguished visitors each year to present their newest work, lecture on the craft of writing, and work one-on-one with our MFA students. Students teach creative writing courses in their second year. All students are fully and equally funded.
Western
State Colorado University
MFA in Creative Writing
Western’s low-residency MFA in Creative Writing focuses on writing for larger audiences: concentrations in mainstream as well as genre fiction; poetry with an emphasis in form; and screenwriting for Indies, Hollywood, and television. Residencies occur the last two weeks of July, high the Colorado Rockies.
Complete list of Creative Writing Programs is here