Program description: Our 65-hour, brief-residency MFA in Writing combines superb instruction with unparalleled flexibility. Each semester of the program begins with a ten-day residency, in which students and faculty gather for an intensive workshopping and learning experience.

At the conclusion of the residency, students return home to study independently with a faculty mentor for the rest of the semester. During the semester, each instructor supervises a small number of students, and each student's program is highly individualized to meet each student at his or her level of writing.

Students may customize the location, season, and pace of their studies. The same amount of writing is required in each option:

• Spring (May) and fall (November) residencies in Louisville, each followed by a 6-month semester in which students may expect to spend about 25 hours a week on their writing and reading
• Summer (June/July) residency abroad (previous locations: Paris, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, London, Dublin, Prague, Greece, and Rome) followed by a 9-month semester in which students may expect to spend 12-15 hours a week on their writing and reading
• Combine the spring Louisville residency with the 9-month summer semester schedule
• A combination of spring, summer, and fall semesters

Program Director Sena Jeter Naslund, author of the bestselling Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, Adam & Eve, and The Fountain of St. James Court, or; Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman, brings more than thirty-five years of teaching experience in regular and low-residency graduate programs to the Spalding MFA Program.