MFA Program Overview

The requirements  of the MFA program allow students flexibility in modifying the program to best serve their professional and vocational goals.

• Our Program emphasizes nonfiction, dramatic writing, poetry, and fiction
• Offers a Writer-in-Residence Program each semester; recent residents include Mellisa Fay Greene, Lee K. Abbot, Jack Myers, and Michael Parker 
• Provides study-abroad opportunities
• Coordinates Writers-in-Community Internships
• Hosts annual four-day Literary Festival

Only 39 of the required 54 credit hours are taken up with specifically required course work, leaving 15 hours to be determined by the student in consultation with his or her committee chair/thesis director. This flexibility allows students to modify their programs to best serve their professional and vocational goals.

The general course of study includes 12-18 hours in graduate creative writing courses, at least 9 in a single genre; a 3 hour craft course; a minimum of 12 hours in literature (British, American, or  World); and up to 15 hours of creative thesis credit. See requirements and electives for details.

To graduate, a student must complete 54 hours, maintain a 3.0 GPA, and complete all work within 6 years. Full-time students generally finish within 3 years.
M.F.A. graduates must successfully complete a professional-quality manuscript in a single genre, and pass an oral defense examination based upon the thesis and an essay produced in the thesis colloquium course.

View the MFA Student Guide.