MFA Program Information
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
- Completion of forty-eight (48) semester credits
- Completion of the following courses:
- E640—Graduate Writing Workshop: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, or Poetry (12 credits)
- E513—Form & Technique in Modern Literature: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, or Poetry (3 credits)
- One pre-20th Century literature course at the 500-level or above (3 credits)
- One course (300-level or above) outside the English Department (waived if your undergraduate degree is not in English or Creative Writing—3 credits)
- E699—Thesis (12 credits)
- Completion of portfolio
- Additional requirements for dual-genre thesis option
- For more details, consult the Guide to CSU’s MFA Program.
TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS
Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA) are available on a competitive basis, as are the positions of Assistant to the Director of Creative Writing and Assistant to the Director of the Creative Writing Reading Series. A required orientation and pedagogy seminar provide extensive training in teaching college-level English.
If you are applying for a GTA, please provide a written statement that speaks to your qualifications and enthusiasm for college teaching. Most GTAs will teach college composition. In your application, emphasize any formal or informal teaching experience, such as tutoring, writing center counseling, or even coaching or outdoor recreation. In addition, remind those who are writing your letters of reference to speak to your potential for college teaching.
Most MFA students, regardless of whether they hold a GTA, are given the opportunity to teach a (paid) section of Beginning Creative Writing during their third year in the program.
Other options for financial support are detailed in the Guide to CSU’s MFA Program.
INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
We offer a variety of for-credit internships (some paid) in such areas as college teaching, public education, arts administration in literature, and literary editing – including the Center for Literary Publishing and the Colorado Review. A paid internship as editor of Greyrock Review, a literary magazine staffed by CSU undergraduates, is also available to a first-year student selected by the faculty.
Click here for Colorado Review internship information.
Creative Writing MFA Faculty
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Andrew Altschul
- Associate Professor
- Director of Creative Writing
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Ramona Ausubel
- Assistant Professor
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Dan Beachy-Quick
- Professor
- Assistant Chair & Undergraduate Coordinator
- University Distinguished Teaching Scholar
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Harrison Candelaria Fletcher
- Associate Professor
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Matthew Cooperman
- Professor of English
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Camille Dungy
- Professor
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Stephanie G'Schwind
- Director, Center for Literary Publishing
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EJ Levy
- Associate Professor
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Todd Mitchell
- Assistant Professor, Director of Creative Writing Pedagogy
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Sarah Sloane
- Professor
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Sasha Steensen
- Professor
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Debby Thompson
- Associate Professor
Retired
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Leslee Becker
- Professor of English
Recent Books
Below is a selection of recent books by Creative Writing MFA Faculty in the Department of English at Colorado State University. Click on the book cover for more information about each selection.
Creative Writing MFA Blog
The Creative Writing MFA blog is written by graduate students at various stages of degree completion and features posts by writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction about their lives as writers and members of the CSU community. Scroll through the carousel of entries below or click the button for a full listing of blog submissions.
Writing While Quarantining with Two Young Children, by Sarah Olson
Here’s the thing about writing while quarantining with two young children: there is no waiting for the muse to appear or inspiration to strike…
Click to read moreBecoming a Writer, by JV Genova
Were you to ask me—more years ago than I care to mention, back when I was a child playing my Atari—what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer would have been, “a writer.”
Click to read moreI Came to Grad School to Quarantine Myself, by Hannah Barnhart
…Excluding those who are working the front lines in health care, essential service employees, or parents who are taking on extra responsibilities, the majority of us who are sheltering-in-place, staying-at-home, and waiting out this pandemic, life is a little less busy…
Click to read moreSerendipity between Omaha and Fort Collins, by Annmarie Delfino
I’m not sure how much stock to put in coincidences… but what are the odds that the one apartment tour I was at home for would bring people who were moving from not only the city, but the school I was soon heading toward?
Click to read moreA Scattered and Uncomprehensive Guide to Writing About Trauma, by Julia Oshiki
I’m a creative nonfiction writer – which is to say that I write personal essays about family relationships and dynamics. Which is to say that, for me, writing involves a lot of hunching over my laptop…
Click to read moreReflecting on a sick-day, by Jack Berning
I’d stayed home from school one day in second grade with a ravenous cold. As I attempted to sleep the day away, our home phone continued to ring (remember landlines? those were kinda dope) bringing me out of my slumber. I’d curse the thing—salesman!— they’d never quit calling.
Click to read moreI’ve Got a Question, by Tyler Toy
It has become a weird thing, to me, to read and write toward a theme, some assertion about human nature. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Is the job of the writer to parse all of their […]
Click to read moreNew Future, by Mike Moening
I’ve never been much of a blogger, so when I realized I had to opportunity to write a blog post, I obviously reacted with nothing but excitement. Excitement, that is, until I realized that these blog posts seem to have […]
Click to read moreHere, by Lucia Sabo
The reservoir was lapping and lapping at my chest and my hair was silky wet. I closed my eyes to the sun and I let her warm me like a baking croissant. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I thought. Ahhhhhhhhh. I am nervous I’m […]
Click to read moreBack to Basics, by Grace Loveland
I was seven, I think. I had lined up several dolls at the end of my bed and was attempting to show them how to do long subtraction. They were an unruly class, constantly pushing each other down, never remembering […]
Click to read more