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Program Overview

The Writing, MFA program at Washington University in St. Louis is designed to provide students with a comprehensive education in creative writing. The program is tailored to help students develop their writing skills and prepare them for a career in writing.

Degree Requirements

• Total Units Required: 42
• Degree Length: Four semesters/two years
• Students are expected to be enrolled in 12 graduate credit units during each semester of their first year and 9 graduate credit units during each semester of their second year.
• Grade Requirement: A minimum grade of B is required for coursework to count toward the degree. Students must maintain a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA.

Required Courses

Each semester, Writing students are required to enroll in the Graduate Workshop for their genre.

• Course List Code | Title | Units
  • WRITING 5800 | Independent Study | 3
  • WRITING 5801 | Fiction Workshop | 3
  • WRITING 5802 | Poetry Workshop | 3
  • WRITING 5803 | Nonfiction Workshop | 3

Mentored Experience Requirements

MFA in Writing students at Washington University must complete a department-defined Mentored Experience. The Mentored Experience Requirement is a degree requirement for MFA in Writing students that is notated on the student’s transcript when complete.

Mentored Teaching Experiences (MTEs)

• Mentored Independent Teaching (MIT): MIT is a semester-long experience for MFA students who engage as the primary instructor or co-instructor of a course under the mentorship of a faculty member as part of the MER.
• Students and mentors complete a mentorship plan prior to the start of each MIT experience.
• To complete each MIT assignment and to ensure that it applies toward their degree requirements, students must register for the appropriate course number (ASGS 8020) for each semester of engagement.

Required Pathways for Completion

• Students work with their faculty mentor and their Director of Graduate Studies to plan how and when they will complete their MERs.
• Students register during the normal registration period for courses in accordance with one of these approved pathways.
• MFA in Writing students are required to take two MITs at 20 MER units each.

Thesis Requirements

The required work for the MFA culminates in a thesis, which may take different forms but is usually a volume (or most of a volume) of poems, stories, or essays; a novel (or most of a novel); or a memoir or other long-form creative nonfiction work (or most of one).

• A Title, Scope, & Procedure form for the master’s thesis must be signed by the thesis committee members and by the program chair.
• It must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences, at least six months before the degree is expected to be conferred.
• A Master’s Thesis Guide and a Thesis Template that give instructions regarding the format of the thesis are available on the website of the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences. Both should be read carefully at every stage of thesis preparation.

Philosophy of Teaching

Our MFA students learn through mentorship and teaching to gain valuable experience as instructors in the creative writing classroom. MER in the MFA Program of the English Department provides pedagogical training in creative writing workshops and best classroom practices, classroom observation, and in-classroom experience.

Preparatory Engagement

Preparatory Engagement activities are those that represent an introduction to the foundational skills associated with teaching or communication. Pedagogical preparation engagement activities are normally completed before students are permitted to engage in assisting or teaching in a classroom.

• During the fall and spring of their first year, students will observe 2000-level courses in their genre taught by second-year MFA students.
• Students are required to take four pedagogy workshops in the spring of their first year in the MFA.
• Students are required to take a one-day pedagogy seminar in August, just before they begin their MIT in the fall of their second year.