MFA Program
See writers who attended this programValerie Hsiung, Jeffrey Pethybridge, Michelle Naka Pierce, Andrew Schelling, Anne Waldman
Guest Faculty Includes: Cindy Arrieu-King, Caren Beilin, Jenny Boully, Tom Comitta, Veronica Corpuz, Johannes Goransson, Brandon Shimoda
The program offers Berrigan, Creeley, and Kerouac Scholarships; four Zora Neale Hurston Scholarships; one Leslie Scalapino Award; one kari edwards Award; Charles B. Edison Jinpa Scholarships; W.E.B. DuBois Scholarships; and Naropa Honor Scholarships and Naropa Presidential Scholarships.
Low Residency students may be considered for a Graduate Assistantship if they live locally. Read more about Graduate Scholarships at Naropa at the program’s website.
The program offers an open-genre degree with coursework in poetry, prose, and cross-genre.
Courses are taught via correspondence with mentors. Each packet will have various assignments from readings, critique, reflection, and creative. We recommend that graduates in the Low Residency plan for at least 15 hours per week for coursework.
Students will also attend three residencies each year where they will meet their mentors for that semester: Two long weekend residencies that coincide with symposia in Fall (October) and Spring (March), as well as a choice during the Summer: take one correspondence course plus attend one week of Summer Writing Program, or all three weeks of Summer Writing Program in June. The residencies all take place at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, creating opportunities for cross-pollination across MFA cohorts.
The program hosts the Summer Writing Program, which brings in more than fifty guests each year and offers students the opportunity to be in dialogue with a community of writers and artists. The program includes workshops, lectures, panels, readings, special events, and more.
Thesis work is conducted in the second and final Spring semester.
Tony Farina, Ada McCartney, Sun Yung Shin