university of miami creative writing mfa

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Creative Writing- Master of Fine Arts

For information, contact: Director of Graduate Studies Department of English 356 Bachelor Hall, 513-529-7530 www.MiamiOH.edu/english/graduate

The MFA in Creative Writing prepares students to launch a career in fiction writing, screenwriting, poetry, or creative nonfiction. Students produce a high-quality, publishable portfolio of creative writing, receive practical advice about the literary marketplace, and develop a sophisticated understanding of the literary field. The program has an additional focus on pedagogy, and students enroll in creative writing and literature classes on campus while learning and practicing the craft of teaching creative writing.

Program Requirements

Repeated 4 times.

May include up to 4 credit hours of ENG 710, ENG 751 or ENG 780 with department approval.

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Registrar's Office

• Graduate Academic Programs >
• Communication >
• Cinematic Arts >
• M.F.A. in Motion Pictures
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Students must complete a minimum of 66 credit hours with the approval of the faculty advisor. At least 24 must be at or above the 700-level and at least 12 must be earned for thesis. Motion Picture students must maintain an overall minimum GPA of 3.0 for all courses.

M.F.A. candidates are expected to follow a set sequence of courses during the first two semesters of their studies. Several courses are required during the second year of studies. Candidates are strongly encouraged to explore not only a primary but also a secondary area of specialization in the program and develop a minimum of two creative projects consistent with their areas of primary interest and secondary specialization. A minimum of 6 credit hours in each area of specialization is required. Under faculty committee supervision, students will develop one or two creative projects in the third year of their studies.

All M.F.A. students must demonstrate deeper, critical understanding of motion picture practice in diverse social and cultural contexts.  To this end, students are encouraged to take advantage of available study abroad programs. Students are also encouraged to participate in an internship during the summer of the first year or second year of studies.

By the end of the second year, students must complete a film and television literacy test, based on a list of 150 culturally and historically significant titles complied by the faculty. The list is circulated to each student upon entrance into the program. The test is administered annually in the spring semester. Students are required to earn 85/100% on the test in order to complete the degree.

This three-year program culminates with a thesis portfolio that demonstrates, not only skillful execution of craft, but strong conceptual development rooted in collaborative work and innovative uses of technology.

Admission Requirements

The following is a list of the required conditions as well as the required documents/fees for your application for admission to the Master of Fine Arts degree program In Motion Pictures in the School of Communication. 

• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution
• The School's official application
• An $85.00 non-refundable application fee
• Three letters of recommendation
• 500-word typed statement of academic and professional goals
• Note:   In addition, international applicants must send an official copy of their diploma for all degrees earned, and all documentation that confers their degree, with English translation for all degrees earned. 
• Note:   All transcripts must be the original document, forwarded directly from the university:   Xerox copies, true copies, notarized copies and other types of copies are not acceptable.
• Note:   Only for international applicants.
• Note:   Only for international applicants.   The name entered on the graduate application must exactly match your name as it appears on your passport.

Contact the Office of Graduate Studies, call 305-284-5236 or email ([email protected]), for information. 

Curriculum Requirements

Required plan of study.

No more than 9 credit hours will be allowed for graduate internships and advanced projects and directed research. Courses may be taken, with program director approval, from other programs or departments within the University of Miami.

The M.F.A. in Motion Pictures focuses on media creation with an emphasis on combining advanced technical proficiency and innovative narrative skills. Students gain practical and theoretical mastery of their particular professional concentration in screenwriting, production, and producing. Additionally, all students engage in critical studies of film history and theory in order to develop the analytical skills necessary for creative, cutting edge experimentation.

The Program’s objective is to nurture individual creative voices and encourage independent thinking, as well as to support the unique creative collaborative process of media creation. Graduates are prepared to pursue careers as professional moving image artists, enter the teaching profession, provide service to the community and beyond, and enter moving image related professional fields.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Students will demonstrate advanced production skills in their area of concentration (producing, directing, cinematography or editing) in both analog and digital technologies. Students are also expected to learn and practice the primary activities of both creative and physical production: to follow the producing process from idea through script to preparation and execution of a production plan, as well as finish and exhibit the resultant production.
• Students will demonstrate film literacy with a clear fluency regarding important classic and contemporary international cinema and its cultural and social contexts.
• Screenwriting students will demonstrate advanced skills in screenwriting and television writing, with attention to professional screenwriting standards.

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Miami University Creative Writing

MFA Faculty who regularly teach MFA workshops and/or serve on thesis committees.

Joseph bates.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2006 Co-Editor of the Miami University Press Associate Professor of English

Areas: Narratology, Creative Writing Pedagogy, Fantastic, Absurd, and Grotesque Literatures; Southern Literature, Film Studies, Religion and Literature

Margaret Luongo

MFA, Creative Writing, University of Florida, 2001 Associate Professor of English

Areas: Creative writing practice, Short fiction, Experimental prose, Contemporary short forms

TaraShea Nesbit

PhD, University of Denver, 2015 Associate Professor of English

Areas: 20th and 21st Century Fiction and Creative Nonfiction, Historical Fiction, Lyric Essays, Multi-Genre Texts, Creative Writing Pedagogy.

Brian Ascalon Roley  

JD, University of California, Los Angeles and MFA, Creative Writing, Cornell University, 1998 Professor of English and Affiliate of Global and Intercultural Studies, Director of Creative Writing

Areas: Creative Writing; Film, Theatre and Literature Adaptations; Disability / Medical Narratives; Contemporary and Twentieth Century Literature; Asian American Literature; Literature and the Law

Emily Spencer

Assistant professor of english.

M.F.A., University of Iowa, Iowa Writers’ Workshop B.A., The Ohio State University

Areas: Poetry and Poetics, Writing and Health Science, Confessional Narrative, African American Writing, and Social Poetics

PhD, University of Chicago, 1987 Professor of English and Co-Editor of the Miami University Press

Areas: Modern and Contemporary British, Irish, American, and Anglophone Literature, Creative and Performance Writing, Poetry and Poetics, Anecdotes and Ephemera, Travel Writing

Cathy Wagner

PhD, University of Utah, 2000 Professor of English

Areas: Creative Writing, Poetry Writing, Contemporary and Modern American Poetry and Poetics, Contemporary and Modern British Poetry and Poetics, Poetry and Politics

Lizzie Hutton

Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2018

Assistant Professor of English, Director of the Howe Writing Center

Areas: Writing Studies, literacy studies, reading-writing connection, disciplinary history of English studies, writing center studies, transfer studies

Visiting Faculty

Jen Sammons M.Ed., M.F.A.

Visiting Assistant Professor

Expertise:  Lyric Essay, Autoethnography, Student Development Theory, Constructivist Pedagogy, Creative Writing, Hybrid Forms

Expertise: Lyric Essay, Autoethnography, Student Development Theory, Constructivist Pedagogy, Creative Writing, Hybrid Forms

University of Miami

http://www.as.miami.edu/english/creativewriting/master-of-fine-arts/

Degrees Offered

Fiction, Poetry

Residency type

Program length, financial aid.

All MFA candidates receive some form of financial aid. We offer Teaching Assistantships in Creative Writing and/or Freshman Composition (optional) and a small number of Creative Writing Scholarships. Teaching Assistantships include full tuition and a stipend ($15,965 for the 2008-09 academic year). Teaching assistants have the option to teach two sections of Introduction to Creative Writing, one in fall and one in spring, or one section of Creative Writing and one section of Composition during their second year in the program . In their third year, teaching assistants teach two courses and focus on the professional development of publishing, grants, fellowships, and jobs. Please also see Graduate School webpage for other financial aid resources.

Teaching opportunities

TAships are available

• Chantel Acevedo MFA
• Mario Alejandro Ariza MFA (Poetry)
• Pankaj Challa MFA (Fiction) 2009
• John Griswold MFA 1999
• Daisy Hernández MFA (Fiction) 2013
• Mia Leonin MFA 1995

Send questions, comments and corrections to [email protected] .

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , Best American Poetry , The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology .

University of South Florida

Department of English

TAMPA | ST. PETERSBURG | SARASOTA-MANATEE

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Creative writing mfa.

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of South Florida is a funded three-year degree.  MFA students receive a full tuition waiver and the teaching assistantship comes with a stipend and health insurance. Each year we accept an average of nine students who write comics, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.

Our award-winning faculty include John Fleming, Julia Koets, Jarod Roselló, Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Heather Sellers (program director), and Jake Wolff. We value children’s literature, YA, eco literature, speculative fiction, historical fiction, documentary poetics, poetry of mindfulness, formal poetry, memoir, lyric essay, and hybrid and experimental work, alongside traditional genres.

Our program is tightly knit and sincerely supportive. Workshops are positive and generative. We offer many opportunities for students to read their work publicly, to participate in writing groups and internships, and to work in literary editing and publishing. Saw Palm , our literary magazine, gives students hands-on editorial experience.

As part of the Literary Editing and Publishing course, students have started literary magazines, edited anthologies, written book reviews and weekly columns, and started freelance copyediting and writing businesses. The Spoonbill Reading Series allows MFAs to read alongside faculty. A monthly Nonfiction Salon is open to all writers. The USF Lecture Series and the USF Humanities Institute bring in guest speakers. Recent visitors to the creative writing program include Jericho Brown, Terrance Hayes, Chen Chen, and Naomi Nye.

MFAs typically take three courses and teach two courses. Our teaching training is superb. First year MFAs teach first year writing in our thriving and diverse undergraduate program; they are supported by a pedagogy practicum and official mentoring. Second year students have the opportunity, as courses are available, to teach creative writing courses. A creative writing pedagogy practicum, one of the few in the country, prepares students to design and deliver high quality introductory creative writing courses.

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What You Won’t Learn in an MFA

An mfa can teach you skills, but will it prepare you for a writing career.

By 2018, I had written five books and decided to pursue an MFA in creative writing with a concentration in fiction. For me, earning an MFA gave me the time and space I needed to quit my day job and transition to writing full-time, but that was something I had been building toward for over a decade. Of course, I can’t speak to all MFA programs, but in many cases, they focus almost exclusively on writing skills and don’t give writers the concrete skills they need to make money writing and publishing. I often found myself answering questions for my classmates about what publishing was really like. It simply wasn’t being taught, sometimes because faculty themselves were struggling with how to navigate writing as a business.

An MFA program may be the right choice to help you become a better writer, or because you want the qualification to teach writing at a college; it may not give you insights into navigating the publishing landscape.

Here are some of the professional development skills you may need to gain outside of the classroom on your writing journey.

Getting published

Many MFA programs don’t talk to authors about the good, the bad, and the ugly in both traditional publishing and self-publishing. There is often an assumption that if you’re in an MFA program, you’ll be seeking a traditional publishing deal. But most programs also don’t teach writers the skills to query small presses or agents who can query large presses. Even as self-publishing has become an increasingly popular publishing choice, many MFA programs aren’t giving students a clear picture of what it involves.

Contracting

My MFA program was great, but never once during my studies did I hear anyone talk about how to read, negotiate, or understand a contract. As an indie author, you’ll have fewer contracts to interact with than authors who choose to traditionally publish their work, but contracts will still come up—contracts with designers who are working on your books, contracts with podcasts or magazines publishing excerpts of your work. In my MFA program, students who were publishing were left to talk with each other to try to understand how contracts work. Most writers aren’t legal experts, and we benefit from having either a private attorney or an attorney through an organization such as the Author’s Guild review our contracts. I would love to see MFA programs better prepare writers to navigate these business interactions, to negotiate writing rates, and to understand what rights we may be signing away with a particular contract.

Writing to market

The culture of MFA programs often shames or diminishes the idea of writing to market, and instead prioritizes creating literary art for the sake of art. This is a completely valid way to approach your writing life. However, if your goal is to publish your work and sell books, understanding the market and how to write books that appeal to readers is important. There’s nothing wrong with writing books with mass-market appeal, but, depending on the program you attend, you may not hear that in classes. Especially for writers considering the self-publishing route, learning how to understand current trends and how to write books that connect to them is invaluable.

Writing is your passion, and seeing your name in print might be your dream, but when it happens, your writing also becomes a business. Understanding how to manage a writing business is something that most new writers won’t have a lot of experience with. For example, when you get paid from book sales, speaking arrangements, or most anything to do with your books, taxes aren’t going to be withheld. Instead, you’ll need to put money aside to pay your taxes. MFA programs generally don’t cover these details or highlight the importance of hiring an accountant or tax professional to help you with setting up your writing business. You may need to form an LLC for your self-publishing business, open a business bank account, and file taxes appropriately for your writing work. As a self-published author, you also may need to keep records tracking orders and inventory.

Most authors are not able to make a living from books alone. Many writers are balancing a variety of different content creation and income streams. This may include teaching at a college or university (for which a terminal degree such as an MFA is required), freelance writing, and independent teaching, to name a few possibilities. The more writing programs can give MFA students the tools they need to understand the business side of their work, the more successful they will be.

Sassafras Lowrey writes fiction and nonfiction and was the recipient of the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for emerging LGBTQ writers.

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