The M.F.A. degree includes two stages. With the exception of Forms and Techniques (best completed early in the M.F.A. program) and the Master Workshop (completed toward the end of your degree), requirements may be fulfilled in the order that fits student’s schedule and needs. 

Students are required to take 36 total hours of coursework, in addition to 6 hours of M.F.A. Thesis in the following distribution: 

Stage 1: Required Seminar Courses (36 credit hours: 12 classes) 

• 5 classes in creative writing 
  
  • 3 workshops  in the primary genre 
  • Poetic Forms and Techniques (poetry students)*  
    OR 
  • Fiction Forms and Techniques (fiction students)* 
  • Master Workshop—end of coursework 
• Writers on Literature 
• 3 classes in literature 
  
  • Students should divide their courses between early and later literatures. Early literature is defined as pre-1900 and later literature is defined as post-1900.
• 2 electives courses 
  
  • Electives courses may consist of seminars in literature or other literary studies, workshop in the primary genre, workshop in a crossover genre, Writers on Literature, or coursework in another department that complements the student’s program. Students receiving a Teaching Assistantship to teach first-year writing will use one of their electives courses to take English 6300: College Teaching, unless exempted.

* Students are strongly encouraged to take the course in Forms and Techniques early in the M.F.A. program.

Foreign language requirement: Foreign language competence. Student must demonstrate reading knowledge of a foreign language. This requirement may have been met prior to the M.F.A., or be completed as part of the M.F.A. student’s course of study.    

Stage 2: Thesis

The M.F.A. thesis is an extended creative work: a novel or a collection of short stories or novellas 
for fiction writers; a collection of essays or a memoir for nonfiction writers; and a collection or 
cycle of poems for poets. The thesis should include a substantive, reflective introduction of 10-15 pages that discusses the student’s growth as a writer during their graduate education, the 
literary context of the thesis, and other influences on the creative work.

When coursework is complete, students may solicit their thesis director, followed by the remaining committee members in consultation with the thesis director and the Director of Creative Writing.

M.F.A. students will enroll in ENGL 7399 or 7699: Master’s Thesis following the completion of coursework. Students must enroll for six hours of thesis credit the semester of defense and graduation. The thesis defense is held following the completion of the thesis and prior to the submission of the thesis to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

For a complete list of degree requirements and procedures, current students may consult the M.F.A. Student Handbook by visiting the Graduate Student Sharepoint Site. Go to Academic Programs, Graduate Studies, Graduate Forms and Info.