MFA in English (Creative Writing)

One copy of academic records from all postsecondary colleges and universities attended. (Unofficial transcripts are acceptable for application evaluation; official transcript records will be required upon acceptance.)

Three letters of recommendation from former undergraduate or graduate teachers or from other writing professionals who know your work well. These must be submitted online by your recommenders.

In no more than 1,000 words, please discuss any of the following topics: your approach to writing and reading; the books, artworks, movies, places, experiences, and people that inspire or inform your work; your sense of what writing is for, or “why you write”; your sense of what you’d like to accomplish during and after your MFA; the project you intend to complete as your thesis. Your statement of intent is the second most important part of your application.

25-30 pages of prose (which may be any combination of short fiction, nonfiction or a novel or manuscript excerpt) or 20 pages of poetry (which may be 20 individual short poems, or several longer poems up to the page limit). You may apply in both genres, submitting a separate work sample to each. Or, if your work is of a genre which falls between poetry and prose, you may use the same work sample in both applications. Your writing sample is the most important part of your application.