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Creative Writing Programs

February 2021 eLitPak :: Writing for the Screen and Stage

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Screenshot of Point Park University Low-Res MFA in Writing for the Stage & Screen February 2021 eLitPak Flier
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Low-residency MFA At Point Park University

Point Park University’s low-residency MFA in Writing for the Screen & Stage is accepting applications now thru June 15, 2021. Discover your creative voice with a team of professional writers and a program that will prepare you for a multi-faceted writing career. We offer generous artistic scholarships based on your submitted artistic portfolio. Applying is free! Do it today!

View the entire February eLitPak here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get first access to future eLitPaks.

February 2021 eLitPak :: Fresno State MFA

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We Grow Writers

In the heart of California, Fresno State’s Master of Fine Arts program is home to The Normal School magazine and the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Our creative writing program offers advanced study in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Nineteen of our alumni published their debut books in the past five years. Are you next? Fall 2021 application deadline: March 1.

View the entire February eLitPak here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get first access to future eLitPaks.

University of South Alabama Launches Race and Identity Lecture Series

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Screenshot of University of South Alabama Race & Identity Lecture SeriesOn January 27th the English department at the University of South Alabama launched their virtual Race and Identity Lecture Series with USA Writer in Residence Frye Gaillard and Journalist in Residence Cynthia Tucker with “Reflections on Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: A New Perspective of Race in America.” They have three more events scheduled in the series all to be held via Zoom.

This month is Dr. Channette Romero, an associate professor of English at the University of Georgia, who will take part in a conversation on Political Humor in Indigenous Animation on February 24 at 4:30 PM. Next month features Reverend Joseph Brown on Race and Identity in Literature in Culture. In April, Dr. Mudiwa Pettus will present Against Compromise: What Black Rhetorical Education in the Age of Booker T. Washington Teaches Us About Our Current Moment.

The English department offers an MA in English with an emphasis in creative writing and is home to the Stokes Center for Creative Writing.

Write in Brooklyn with the MFA at St. Francis College

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The low-residency MFA in creative writing at St. Francis College offers a lecture series called Write in Brooklyn which features prominent writers from a range of genres. In 2019, they launched their own YouTube channel allowing you to view these discussions online. Participants in this series have included Mahogany Brown, Dominique Morisseau, Jason Reynolds, and Amber Tamblyn.

The low-residency program meets in-person twice a year in January and June. The January residency this year was moved completely online. They offer separate genre tracks in fiction, poetry, and dramatic screenwriting/playwriting. They have a 6-to-1 student to faculty ratio that offers “an intimate, focused environment for aspiring writers to flourish.”

Stop by their listing on NewPages to learn more.

Becka McKay on The Poetry of Language / The Language of Poetry

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Becka McKay, director of the MFA in Creative Writing at Florida Atlantic University as well as poet and translator, was featured in the podcast series In Conversation: An Arts and Letters Podcast. This podcast features Michael Horswell, dean of FAU’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, talking with various faculty members “about research and creative activity that spans the arts, humanities, and social sciences.” New episodes are released on the second Tuesday of the month.

Screenshot of Becka McKay's Interview in the In Conversations podcast

The podcast episode was recorded from a video call back in December 2020. The first question asked was about Becka’s journey of poetry and translation. Her answer: “I have been writing poetry since I could write.” She talked about running away from poetry for awhile and how she majored in history in college and even had thoughts of going to veterinary school. With all of this she had the idea, though, that she wanted to be an historian who writes poetry.

Check out the full podcast here and don’t forget to learn more about the MFA program here.

January 2021 eLitPak :: Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing: Low-residency Graduate Programs

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Early Placement Application Deadline: February 1 for May entry. Spalding’s nationally distinguished low-residency MFA is the most affordable of the top-tier programs. In the MFA and its sister programs, study one-on-one with outstanding faculty, gain editorial experience on Good River Review, and develop a lifelong writing community. Fiction; poetry; creative nonfiction; writing for children and young adults; writing for TV, screen, and stage; and professional writing. Scholarships and assistantships available.

View the full January 2021 eLitPak Newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on our weekly newsletter and monthly eLitPaks.

Creative Writing in the Heart of Brooklyn

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Long Island University, Brooklyn MFAThe MFA in Creative Writing at Long Island University is an innovative program centering on world literature, multi-genre education, and publishing. They prepare their students to be “professional writers in the world and visionary literary citizens.”

The LIU Brooklyn MFA is a two-year residency program that also helps prepare its students for careers in creative writing, academia, translation, and publishing. Students have the option of studying poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and translation to receive a robust multi-genre education.

Students are able to learn about commercial, independent, and academic publishing during the course of their study while studying directly with professionals at the heart of the publishing industry. Current faculty include Zaina Arafat, Rita Banerjee, and Robin Hemley.

The priority deadline to apply to the program is February 15. Learn more by stopping by their listing on NewPages.

Sponsor Spotlight :: Eastern Michigan University Interdisciplinary MA in Creative Writing

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The MA in Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University is distinguished as one of the only interdisciplinary programs for creative writing in the country. They accept applications year-round with January 10 being the priority deadline for the fall term.

“Locating the writer’s work along the frontiers of social imaginaries and civic possibilities, our program nourishes opportunities to develop a conceptually rigorous and imaginatively engaged writing.” The program also emphasizes the importance of aesthetic risk and social application while also offering writers opportunities to explore multiple arts and mixed genres.

Core faculty for the program are Rob Halpern, Carla Harryman, Christine Hume, and Matt Kirkpatrick. Recent visiting writers include Latasha N. Nevada Diggs, Nathaniel Mackey, Ted Pearson, Joanna Rocco, Daniel Borzutzky, Wayne Kostenbaum, Kevin Killian, Sarah Schulman.

They also have a literary magazine, BathHouse Journal, and a reading series, BathHouse Reading Series.

Stop by their listing at NewPages to learn more about the program.

November 2020 eLitPak :: Fairfield University Low-Res MFA Program

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Fairfield’s two-year, low-residency MFA program helps writers develop their literary voice and make connections that lead to publication. Students receive mentorship from an award-winning faculty of authors and gather for nine-day residencies on Enders Island. Degrees are offered in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or dramatic writing. Concentrations are available in publishing, spiritual writing, social justice, and literary health and healing.

View full November eLitPak Newsletter here.

November 2020 eLitPak :: MFA in Creative Writing at UNCG

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UNCG MFA in Creative Writing August 2020 eLitPak flier
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Find your Story Here

Application Deadline: January 1.
One of the first creative writing programs in the country, UNC Greensboro’s MFA is a two-year residency program offering fully funded assistantships with stipends and health insurance. Students work closely with faculty in one-on-one tutorials; take courses in poetry, fiction, publishing, and creative nonfiction; and pursue opportunities in college teaching or editorial work for The Greensboro Review. More at our website.

View full November eLitPak Newsletter here.

An MFA in the Pandemic

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Guest Post by Samantha Tucker

Ohio State University logoWhen I applied to MFA programs, it was with the intention of finding a writing community. During my time at The Ohio State University, I was lucky to foster strong relationships with my classmates through our shared experience and dedication to the written word. To this day, I continue to edit and be generously edited by a group of talented writers, most of whom I met in my very first class, a nonfiction workshop with the writer Lee Martin.

But what is a writing community when the people sharing their art are only able to do so virtually? And when writers find themselves in the middle of so many American catastrophes, where do we find the urge to create at all? I asked Lee Martin, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio State, for insight on his teaching and writing life during a pandemic.

How have your workshops/classes adapted to being online?

Lee: We seem to be adapting well. I love my students, and the level of engagement seems to be high. It’s not quite the same, of course, as sitting around a table, but we’re doing fine. I’ve had some students comment on how our Zoom meetings give them a chance to feel a part of our writing community, so that’s a good thing. I just wish we could do the things we used to do—go out for $4 burger night at Brazen Head Pub, have spaghetti dinners at my and Cathy’s house, have bowling parties, etc. Ah well, I hope we’ll be able to do those things and more very soon.

How has your writing changed, if at all?

Lee: I find myself writing steadily as a way of escaping the reality of what’s going on in the world around me. It’s a comfort to me to escape into the worlds of my own making in novels and stories set before the pandemic. I’m only now working on something more current that, of course, will eventually have to face the pandemic head-on.

What are your words of wisdom as to finding the space in this chaos to create art?

Lee: I’ve been thinking a lot about how to stay in the present moment of what delights me rather than thinking about all that depresses me or makes me fear for the future. Silence is a good thing. If we can find those places of silence we can fill them with the efforts of our own choosing rather than the worries and the fears that the current climate places upon us. Today, for instance, Cathy and I went out to Inniswood Metro Gardens and disappeared into the natural world and immediately felt our breath coming more easily. Such places and moments are all around us. All we have to do is look for them.

Reviewer bio: Samantha Tucker is an anti-racist essayist in Columbus, Ohio. Find her words at www.theamericandreamstartshere.com.