Boston University Creative Writing Faculty

Creative Writing, MFA

UMass Boston's Creative Writing MFA is a highly selective, 3-year creative writing master's program. UMass Boston is Boston's only public research university and the most diverse university in New England. We admit approximately five students in fiction and five students in poetry each academic year, starting in the fall semester.

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What we provide: The program offers an intense and focused opportunity for students to further their commitment to writing as the center of their professional lives. Through a combination of mentoring by accomplished faculty in a series of creative writing workshops, courses focused on the study of literature offered through the English MA Program, and electives that include the practice of literary editing, the teaching of creative writing, digital poetics, documentary poetics, the art of memoir, and more—students will have the guidance to develop and shape their work to the full extent of their talent. After three years in the program, their will be prepared to sustain their commitment to contemporary literature as writers, readers, editors, and teachers.

Our program prioritizes diversity, inclusion, and sustaining community partnerships. Students in our program take advantage of our relationships with community programs and institutions like 826Boston, Grub Street, Write on the Dot, and the Black Seed Writers group. They work for literary magazines and presses including Consequence, Hanging Loose, University of Massachusetts Press, Breakwater Review, and Black Ocean, and start and run their own literary magazines. They teach undergraduate creative writing classes at UMass Boston and continuing education classes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). Our students and graduates publish widely, and find jobs they love. Most importantly, they're happy they chose UMass Boston.

Who we are: As a group, the four core MFA faculty members have decades of experience in writing, teaching, editing, and publishing and the visiting prose writer is invited by the fiction faculty to teach in the program for one or two years. Collectively, program faculty have published dozens of books and received some of the highest honors and prizes in literature. More importantly, they are dedicated to the teaching of creative writing and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in creative writing and literature. Read more about them on our faculty page and on individual faculty websites.

Who are our students?: Students who apply to and are admitted to our program are all unique: some have traditional academic and English department backgrounds, but many more do not. Some join our program directly from undergraduate programs, but many more come to us later in life with years or even decades of work experience in other fields.  For each student who wants to pursue a career in teaching or academia, another student wants to do something entirely different. Graduates from our program have published numerous books and won prestigious writing awards. Many work in teaching, publishing, web development, journalism, and in community-oriented literary programs. While there is no single background or trajectory for our students, they all share some common characteristics: our students are compassionate, socially engaged, self-directed, and committed to their writing and to the broader community. If this sounds like you, you might be a great fit for our program! Reach out to us at englishmfaprogram@umb.edu

The MFA degree requires: six semesters of full-time study, with 9 credits required in each of the first four semesters, and 6 credits in the final two semesters, during which students will concentrate on completing a thesis in fiction or poetry under the direction of a faculty member. MFA workshops are limited to 12 students, and seminars are limited to 15. Students have the opportunity to interact with writers in our Global Voices Visiting Writer series (recent visitors have been Raquel Salas Rivera and Carole Maso) and work with visiting prose writers; recently these have included Jane Unrue, ZZ Packer, and Fanny Howe.

View UMass Boston's Creative Writing MFA Program FAQ for more information on diversity, inclusion, and other relevant matters for how UMass Boston, the English Department, and the Creative Writing MFA Program work to create a welcoming environment for every student and a community for all!

>> MFA Program Statement on Black Lives Matter

Final Deadline to apply is January 15!
** While rare, if space is available, we'll happily consider applications after the deadline.

Please contact us with any questions.

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, MFA Program Director
Lillian.Bertram@umb.edu
englishmfaprogram@umb.edu
617.287.6702

MFA PROGRAM THRILLED TO HAVE VISITING WRITER, Jennifer Haigh!

Jennifer Haigh joins UMass Boston MFA program as visiting Fiction Faculty!
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UMass Boston MFAers winning so many awards!

MFA students present and past collecting publication and honors!
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MFA SUBMIT-A-THON! EVENT CONTINUES TO GET STUDENTS PUBLISHED!

UMass Boston Publishing Event Yields Lots Of Fun!
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Boston University Creative Writing Faculty

Source: https://www.umb.edu/academics/cla/english/grad/mfa

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