CSU's CREATIVE WRITING MFA

POETRY, FICTION & NONFICTION

Three years, infinite possibilities

Apply to the MFA now!

CSU's CREATIVE WRITING MFA

POETRY, FICTION & NONFICTION

Over 25 years of guiding writers to unexpected heights

Apply to the MFA now!

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.

Learn More About Fort Collins

The Creative Writing Program at CSU recognizes and affirms the value of, and the need for, stories from people of all backgrounds. We believe that a healthy literary culture must seek out and support work from communities whose voices have historically been marginalized. Our pedagogy, including close mentoring in a supportive community and an embrace of wide-ranging approaches, strives to hear these stories, to respect them, and to bring them into the world.

MFA Program Information

Program requirements image

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.
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TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA) are available on a competitive basis. A required orientation and pedagogy seminar provide GTAs with extensive training in teaching college composition. The GTA application is separate from the application to the program, and includes a written statement that should speak to your qualifications and enthusiasm for college teaching. Emphasize any formal or informal teaching experience, such as tutoring, writing-center counseling, or even coaching. In addition, remind your references to speak to your potential for college teaching in their letters.

All applicants who are not awarded a GTA will be automatically considered for a number of other available fellowships. Other options for financial support are detailed in the Guide to CSU’s MFA Program, below.

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.

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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.

Click here to download the Guide to CSU's MFA program in Creative Writing

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"If there's a book that you want to read but it hasn't been written yet then you must write it"

- Toni Morrison

"If there's a book that you want to read but it hasn't been written yet then you must write it"

- Toni Morrison

Creative Writing MFA Faculty

Retired

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Creative Writing Reading Series

Each semester at Colorado State University, the Department of English welcomes major literary voices to the Lory Student Center to share their work live and to engage with the local community. Visiting writers hold audience question and answer sessions, book signings, class visits and other outreach activities.

The series features Pulitzer Prize winners, U.S. poets laureate, National Book Critics Circle Award winners, Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winners, NAACP Image Award nominees, Oprah’s Book Club selections, National Book Award finalists and recognized voices in young adult literature among others.

Recent visitors include: Dorothy Allison, Julie Carr, Ross Gay, Eduardo C. Corral, Jennifer Egan, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Pam Houston, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dinty W. Moore, Gregory Pardlo, Khadijah Queen, Susan Steinberg, Cheryl Strayed, Ira Sukrungruang, Mary Szybist, and Brian Turner.

Click in the events calendar for author information and details about upcoming readings.

Click for Creative Writing Reading Series web page

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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.

Gatherest by Sasha Steensen
Awayland by Ramona Ausubel
Variations on Dawn and Dusk by Dan Beachy-Quick
The Sincere Cafe: Stories by Leslee Becker
Trophic Cascade by Camille T. Dungy
NOS (disorder, not otherwise specified) by Aby Kaupang and Matthew Cooperman
Presentimiento by Harrison Candelaria Fletcher
Last Panther by Todd Mitchell
The Gringa by Andrew Altschul
Guidebook to Relative Strangers by Camille T. Dungy
Love, in Theory by E.J. Levy

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“My MFA has helped me realize the value of my voice and the importance of giving myself permission to create art.” – Colin Raunig, 2018

“My teachers taught me invaluable lessons in craft that I carry with me in my writing to this day.” – Andrew Mangan, 2016

“My MFA degree taught me different ways of thinking, of approaching, of making… A large part of the reason why I loved the MFA program at CSU was because of the people I got to work with.” – Melissa Hohl, 2016

“Not only did I learn an incredible amount about writing and poetry from my classes, professors, and the reading I did because of these, but I learned about the necessity of community building and literary citizenship that comes with being a poet.” – CL Young, 2018

“The M.F.A. degree was essential to my artistic and professional life… My craft deepened and focused during my time at CSU, and the professors and the work helped me refine my voice and develop an artistic aesthetic.” – Claire Boyles, 2018

“My MFA connected me to a group of writers who continue to nurture me and my work, who push me and my work in ways that make us both smarter and better.” – Aliceanna Stopher, 2019

“Great training for my life as a teacher, writer, and person. Three years to concentrate on study was a gift that allowed me to grow and challenge myself to see if I could be a writer.” – Devin Murphy, 2009

“I teach writing now and think often of my CSU professors… I learned plenty about craft at CSU, but more importantly I learned about practice and process.” – Cornelius FitzPatrick, 2015

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.

Welcome Back, by Elena Brousard Norcross

September 18, 2020

Welcome back to a most peculiar year. Here at CSU, the MFA program in Creative Writing has done their best to keep calm and carry on. Carry on is something I’ve been thinking of a lot lately.

Click to read more

Writing While Quarantining with Two Young Children, by Sarah Olson

May 8, 2020

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…

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Becoming a Writer, by JV Genova

April 29, 2020

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 more

I Came to Grad School to Quarantine Myself, by Hannah Barnhart

April 2, 2020

…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…

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Serendipity between Omaha and Fort Collins, by Annmarie Delfino

March 18, 2020

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?

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A Scattered and Uncomprehensive Guide to Writing About Trauma, by Julia Oshiki

March 3, 2020

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…

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Reflecting on a sick-day, by Jack Berning

February 27, 2020

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.

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I’ve Got a Question, by Tyler Toy

December 18, 2019

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 […]

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New Future, by Mike Moening

November 15, 2019

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 […]

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Here, by Lucia Sabo

November 1, 2019

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 […]

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Click Here for All Blog Entries

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