Welcome
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is for students with advanced abilities in the writing of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Our three-year program offers a balance of intimate and intensive writing workshops with courses in literature, form and technique, and related electives both in and out of the English Department. Writers work closely with a distinguished faculty of publishing writers that includes winners of prestigious national awards and fellowships. Coursework culminates in a thesis—a collection of poetry, short stories, or essays; or a novel or memoir—and the completion of a comprehensive portfolio. A dual-genre thesis option is available to students with exceptional promise in a second genre of writing.
Applicants should familiarize themselves with the program and the department, including course offerings and degree requirements. A complete application includes a one-page statement of purpose; a writing sample (12-20 pages of poems; two short stories or a chapter or two of a novel; two short essays or a chapter or two of a memoir); three letters of reference; and transcripts. Those applying for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship must also complete a separate GTA application.
The application deadline is January 1.
The MFA Program at CSU is a WICHE Western Regional Graduate Program. Residents of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming are eligible for in-state tuition.
For information about the application process click here.
To apply now, click here.
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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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Leslee Becker
- Professor of English
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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
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.
I’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 moreWelcome Back!, by Elena Brousard-Norcross
Welcome back to the blog! After a good full month of getting back into step with the Creative Writing dance here at CSU, it’s time to start broadcasting the voices of the incredible folks that make up our MFA program. […]
Click to read moreAccessing Reality, by Luke Eldredge
A Masters in the Fine Arts is not a one-way ticket to an illustrious career path of lucrative success. No one is of the illusion that we write for the money. For most of us, we write because we have […]
Click to read morePining, by Hannah Bright
I can still remember what it felt like to pine for CSU. Visiting this same green website, letting my mouse linger over the slightly rotating geometric shapes, drooling a bit at the corners of my silly grinning mouth, searching pockets […]
Click to read moreMy CSU, by Melissa Merritt
Colorado State University lives inside the small city of Fort Collins, snugged up against the arid foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The city itself holds 168,080 souls, who rarely think about the growing number of CSU students who share their […]
Click to read more