Creative Writing, M.F.A.

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a low residency or entirely online program (according to student needs) which focuses on the study of creative writing and poetics, and particularly on the creation, critique, revision, and publication of creative literary works in fiction, creative nonfiction, and/or poetry.

Admissions

General Admission Requirements. Admission to Graduate Studies (see Graduate Admission requirements ).
Program Admission. In addition to meeting university admissions requirements for a graduate degree, prospective creative writing students must submit the following application materials:
1. A one to two-page letter that states the applicant¡¦s reasons for applying to the program and their personal and/or professional objectives
2. Two letters of recommendation.
3. A twenty to thirty-page creative writing sample.
4. Submit official GRE scores and have an Admissions index of 980 or higher, obtain by the following:

GPA on at least the last 60 semester credit hours times 200 Plus 15 times (Verbal + Quantitative - 260).

Students may be admitted into one of two concentrations of study in the MFA Program:

MFA in Creative Writing - Creative Writing
MFA in Creative Writing - Applied Literary Translation

Students on Track 1 will be admitted through the application process of the MFA Program, under the advisement of the MFA Program Director.

Students on Track 2 will also undergo a secondary application process, under the advisement of the Director of the Applied Literary Translation Certificate Program and the Publisher of the Dalkey Archive Press, as they will be working closely with the Press on projects. Students must have the approval of the Director or Publisher relevant to the concentration, and they cannot switch freely between the declared concentrations.

Students on each of the two tracks share most, but not all of the available options of courses for completing the degree; each concentration focuses on an aspect of Creative Writing in the Fine Arts, and the restrictions guide students toward specialization of their choices. The differences between track1 and 2 are based on the kind of electives permitted and the kind of thesis project permitted. Students on either track 1 or track 2 will share courses designated for degree requirements A and B (below); however, they are distinguished by differences in options available for degree requirements C and D (below).

Degree Requirements for Track 1: MFA in Creative Writing - Creative Writing

Students must complete a 36 credit hour program with a final minimum of a ‘B’ in each course, consisting of:
1. Twelve (12) credit hours of Creative Writing Workshop courses, to be chosen from the following Core Courses (each of which may be taken up to four times, and of which any combination of four with satisfy the requirement): ENGL 6364 Graduate Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop ; ENGL 6361 Graduate Poetry Writing Workshop ; ENGL 6363 Graduate Fiction Writing Workshop ; ENGL 6360 Graduate Writing Workshop .
2. Three (3) credit hours of ENGL 6333 Form and Poetics .
3. Fifteen (15) credit hours of elective courses, to be chosen from ENGL and PUBL (courses from other divisions require the approval of the MFA director).
4. Six (6) credit hours of MFA Thesis, to be connected with the Thesis Project.
Prior to the beginning of the MFA Thesis courses (in item “D.” above), students must submit a MFA Thesis Proposal and gain the approval of a Thesis Advisor. This proposal should be no more than two pages in length, and it should detail the genre of the thesis as well as a specific description of the project. At the time of the proposal’s submission, students must have completed 12 credit hours of Workshop, with at least 6 of those credit hours earned in the same genre as that of the thesis project; that is, 6 out of 12 hours taken for item “A,” above, should be in the same genre as the proposed project.

Degree Requirements for Track 2: MFA in Creative Writing - Applied Literary Translation

Students must complete a 36 credit hour program with a final minimum of a ‘B’ in each course, consisting of:
1. Twelve (12) credit hours of Creative Writing Workshop courses, to be chosen from the following Core Courses (each of which may be taken up to four times, and of which any combination of four with satisfy the requirement): ENGL 6364 Graduate Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop ; ENGL 6361 Graduate Poetry Writing Workshop ; ENGL 6363 Graduate Fiction Writing Workshop ; ENGL 6360 Graduate Writing Workshop .
2. Three (3) credit hours of ENGL 6333 Form and Poetics .
3. Fifteen (15) credit hours of elective courses consisting of: PUBL 6323 Grant Writing /ENGL 6310 Grant Writing , PUBL 6311 International Publishing /ENGL 6311 International Publishing , PUBL 6322 Applied Translation /ENGL 6322 Applied Translation , and two ENGL 63XX courses on any World Literature Topic.
4. Six (6) credit hours of MFA Thesis, to be connected with the Thesis Project.
Prior to the beginning of the MFA Thesis courses (in item “D.” above), students must submit a MFA Thesis Proposal and gain the approval of a Thesis Advisor according to the guidelines of the Director of the Applied Literary Translation Certificate Program. Students must have completed items A, B, and C of the degree requirements, at the time of submission of this proposal. This proposal should be no more than two pages in length, and it should detail the genre of the thesis (in this case, literary translation) as well as a specific description of the project being completed for the ALT Certificate that serves as a thesis project for this track.