The MFA in Creative Writing was founded in 1995 on the strength of the College’s literary traditions and its strong faculty in creative writing. In its 30 years of existence, the Program has graduated more than four hundred students, many of whom have gone on to literary success, publishing creative work and working in the fields of education, publishing, and professional writing.
The MFA in Creative Writing program offers a two-year course of study (44 units) leading to the Master of Fine Arts degree in the genres of creative nonfiction, fiction, or poetry. A third year of study (22 additional units) is available for students to earn a concentration in a second genre. Students in the program typically take six or seven courses per year, over the fall and spring semesters. The core of the program is the writing workshop, which provides an opportunity for writers to work and learn with established writers on developing their own voice, material, and style.
The formation of a community of writers is essential to an effective MFA in Creative Writing. Full-time, continuous attendance is vital. Our program emphasizes an intimate involvement with the development of each writer’s aesthetic and is strongly based on the cohort model. The cohort is reciprocal, informed by what each student brings to the table, and it builds off of each successive workshop or craft class taken by the group.
Program Director
Chris Feliciano Arnold, Professor, cfa1@stmarys-ca.edu.
Student Learning Outcomes
• Engage at a professional level in the writing of their chosen genre (creative nonfiction, fiction, or poetry).
• Articulate the correspondences between their own writing and the corpus of literature and thought that primarily inform their aesthetics.
• Use information technology with a high level of sophistication, either for the purpose of academic research or for the purpose of primary research which may inform a given piece of writing.
• Work effectively as professional writers: publish work in literary journals and magazines; solicit and procure literary agents; solicit and procure publishers for manuscripts or book projects; give public readings; apply for and receive funding for literary projects; exhibit a preparedness for finding employment in various professional fields, such as education, journalism, public relations, publishing, and technical writing.
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