Creative Writing

Faculty

John Fulton, MFA, University of Michigan

Fiction
Contemporary Fiction

Jill McDonough, MFA, Boston University

Poetry
Contemporary Poetry
Teaching of Creative Writing

Askold Melnyzcuk, MA, Boston University

Fiction
Contemporary Fiction
Editing and Publishing

Joyce Peseroff, MFA, University of California, Irvine

Poetry
Modern and Contemporary Poetry
Teaching of Creative Writing

Lloyd Schwartz, PhD, Harvard University

Poetry
Poetics
Modern and Contemporary Poetry

For additional English Department faculty participating in the MFA in Creative Writing, see under “English ” in this publication.

The Program

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a selective three-year program that admits approximately five applicants in fiction and five in poetry each academic year. Every student receives financial support from the university. The program offers an intense and focused opportunity for students to further their commitment to writing as the center of their professional lives. Through a combination of mentoring by accomplished faculty in a series of creative writing workshops, courses focused on the study of literature offered through the English MA program, and electives that include the practice of literary editing and the teaching of creative writing, students will have the guidance to develop and shape their work to the full extent of their talent. After three years in the program, they will be prepared to sustain their commitment to contemporary literature as writers, readers, editors, and teachers.

At the UMass Boston MFA program, we help develop the individual style of each student. Our professors don’t want you to sound like them; they want you to write your best work. Our students take advantage of our relationships with programs like 826Boston, Roxbury Community College’s Writing Center, and Grub Street. They work for literary magazines and presses including Consequence, Hanging Loose, Breakwater Review, Broadsided, and University of Massachusetts Press, and start and run their own literary magazines. They teach undergraduate creative writing classes at UMass Boston and continuing education classes for the Osher Life Long Learning Institute. Our students and graduates publish widely, and find jobs they love. Most importantly, they’re happy they chose UMass Boston.

The MFA degree requires six semesters of full-time study, with 9 credits required in each of the first four semesters, and 6 credits in the final two semesters, during which students will concentrate on completing a thesis in fiction or poetry under the direction of a faculty member. MFA workshops are limited to 12 students, and seminars are limited to 15. Students have the opportunity to work with visiting writers; recently these have included Fanny Howe, Carolyn Forché, Tyehimba Jess, Bob Shacochis, Justin Torres, and Patricia Smith.

Programs

Creative Writing, MFA