Each student is accepted into one of three
genres: fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction.
Up to 9 semester hours of graduate transfer
credit may be accepted.
Graduate Assistantships are awarded a small
number of qualified students who teach online
sections of freshman-level writing courses.
Blackboard training is required. Graduate
Assistants are closely mentored by the Director
of Composition.
Students can move through the MFA program at
a pace they find comfortable, taking as few as 3
hours in an academic term or as many as 12.
30 hours of ENGL 517V Writer’s Workshop are
required. A typical Workshop taken for 6 credit
hours requires a minimum of 40 pages of prose
(20 for poetry), plus rewrites, as well as
reflective essays/reviews/critical essays on at
least 10 books (usually half to be selected by
the instructor and half by the student). In
addition to weekly interaction between student
and Faculty Mentor, students working with the
same Mentor critique each other’s work
throughout the semester, using Blackboard.
The final 6 credit hours of ENGL 517V
Writer’s Workshop focus on the Thesis, a
book-length manuscript of publishable quality
that must be approved by both the
thesis-semester Faculty Mentor and another
faculty member. In addition, the student must
submit a 5-to-7-page critical essay to
demonstrate competence as a critical reader, a
broad knowledge of literary history, and a depth
of knowledge of contemporary literature.
Students work with a different Faculty
Mentor within their genre each semester.“Genre jumping” is allowed with the
permission of the MFA Director for one semester.
18 hours of electives and residency credit,
ENGL 518V. Students enroll in elective courses
based on personal and professional goals with
the guidance of the Director. Electives can be
courses in literature, language study, literary
theory, and publishing. The optional
Residencies generally consist of one week to ten
days of intensive workshops, seminars, lectures,
and readings. Residencies might be held on the
UAM campus, but students can also attend
pre-approved writers conferences anywhere in the
world to earn residency credit. The Director
determines the number of credit hours earned
based on the length and nature of the
conference. Residencies are graded on a
pass/fail basis, and whether on the UAM campus
or at another location, the student is required
to turn in to the Director a daily journal kept
during the residency and a reflective essay
about the impact of the residency on his or her
growth as a writer. A student can also earn
Residency credit through an Internship approved
by the Director. As with the Residency, the
student demonstrates professional growth through
a daily journal and a reflective essay.
Students must earn a C or better in all
courses and maintain a minimum grade-point
average of 3.0.
