The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a three-year program combining professional training in creative writing with literary study. Students in this program specialize in fiction or poetry and complete at least 12 units (or 48 hours) of coursework: 5 units of Creative Writing, 2 of Literature, 3 of Electives, and 2 of Thesis.
5 Creative Writing units:
Four workshops in the appropriate genre (poetry or fiction) over the first four semesters in the program and one craft class the first semester (also in the appropriate genre, poetry or fiction).
2 Literature units:
For courses that will satisfy the requirements, see the following course descriptions at the 400- and 500-level. Check under the course title for “Area Requirement” to make sure the course counts as “MFA Literature.” (Literature courses at the 400- and 500-level in other departments on campus may be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies in 210 English Building.) These two courses are typically taken after the first semester and before the third year.
3 Elective units:
Typically one of these Electives is the first-semester EN 593 Pro-Seminar in College Teaching (Composition or Business & Technical Writing), which all first-year students take to supplement their teaching. MFA students who want to work on Ninth Letter satisfy a second Elective requirement by taking CW 560 Literary Publishing & Promotion in the second semester. The third Elective can be satisfied in any number of ways and usually gets done in the second year.
2 Thesis units:
MFA students begin taking Thesis Hours (CW 599, minimum of two units) once an arrangement with a Thesis Advisor has been set up, usually after the third semester.
First-year students teach one course per semester, which means they must take three courses. The rule of four applies every semester. Second- and third-year students teach two courses per semester and take two courses. Again, the key number is four. One or more course obligations can be satisfied in the second and/or third years through certain forms of Ninth Letter editing.