2018 MFA Index: A Guide to More Than 200 Programs
A look at 153 full-residency programs and 59 low-residency programs, sorted alphabetically by region.
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From the Magazine
The Road Less Traveled: Making It Without an MFA
No MFA? No problem. A novelist shares his journey to publication—and becoming a successful full-time writer—without attending a graduate writing program.
Flood Is Water: On Leaving an MFA Program
A writer and publishing professional reflects on her decision to leave an MFA program, and how academic and workshop language can be used to reify the invisible structures that suppress marginalized communities.
Advice to MFA Applicants: Ten Points to Consider Before Applying
Do some financial planning, head to the library, research locations, and ask around—ten tips to consider before you apply to a graduate writing program.
The Intangibles: MFA Takeaways That Can’t Be Measured
MFA graduates from around the country share the valuable skills, experiences, and other intangible benefits they took away from their MFA programs.
San Francisco Bay Area
Grant Faulkner, executive director of National Novel Writing Month and the cofounder of 100 Word Story, leads a literary tour of San Francisco, a city of rollicking rogues and home of the Beats.
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A Lifetime to Write: Warren Wilson and the Origins of the Low-Residency MFA
This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the country's oldest low-residency MFA program in creative writing, established by poet Ellen Bryant Voigt in 1976 at Goddard College before relocating to Warren Wilson College in 1981. Contributing editor Jeremiah Chamberlin explores the program’s history and legendary faculty, and how it has served as a model for other low-residency programs across the country.
Industrious After Wisdom: Thoughts on the MFA as a Student and Teacher
Writer and teacher Jim Minick recalls his unique experiences as a student in one MFA program while teaching in another, and offers ideas about what an ideal full- and low-residency program might include.
Making the Road by Walking: From Brooklyn to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Back
A novelist revisits the challenges of attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as a person of color, and explores the importance of inclusion, community, and home.
The Aha! Moment: Kate Daniels of the MFA Program at Vanderbilt University
As part of a continuing series, poet Kate Daniels, director of the MFA program at Vanderbilt University, discusses the potential she saw in poetry applicant Tiana Clark’s admissions essay.