Program Overview

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Introduction to the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a three-year program designed for students with advanced abilities in the writing of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The program offers a balance of intimate and intensive writing workshops with courses in literature, form and technique, and related electives both in and out of the English Department.

Program Requirements

• Completion of forty-eight (48) semester credits
  • Completion of the following courses:
    • E640—Graduate Writing Workshop: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, or Poetry (12 credits)
    • E513—Form & Technique in Modern Literature: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, or Poetry (3 credits)
    • One pre-20th Century literature course at the 500-level or above (3 credits)
    • One course (300-level or above) outside the English Department (waived if your undergraduate degree is in English or Creative Writing—3 credits)
    • E699—Thesis (12 credits)
• Completion of portfolio
• Additional requirements for dual-genre thesis option

Funding Opportunities

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA) are available on a competitive basis and are the primary funding opportunity for our graduate students. These positions are fully funded and come with a tuition waiver and monthly stipend for the 9-month academic year.

Internship Opportunities

We offer a variety of for-credit internships (some paid) in such areas as college teaching, public education, arts administration in literature, and literary editing – including the Center for Literary Publishing and the Colorado Review. A paid internship as editor of Greyrock Review, a literary magazine staffed by CSU undergraduates, is also available to a first-year student selected by the faculty.

Creative Writing MFA Faculty

• Andrew Altschul, Professor
• Ramona Ausubel, Associate Professor
• Dan Beachy-Quick, Professor, Interim Chair & Undergraduate Coordinator, University Distinguished Teaching Scholar
• Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, Professor
• Matthew Cooperman, Professor of English
• Camille Dungy, University Distinguished Professor, Director, Creative Writing Program
• Stephanie G'Schwind, Director, Center for Literary Publishing
• Dana Masden, Master Instructor
• Nina McConigley, Associate Professor
• Todd Mitchell, Associate Professor, Director of Creative Writing Teaching Program
• Sarah Perry, Assistant Professor
• Sasha Steensen, Full Professor of English

Creative Writing Reading Series

Each semester at Colorado State University, the Department of English welcomes major literary voices to the Lory Student Center to share their work live and to engage with the local community. Visiting writers hold audience question and answer sessions, book signings, class visits, and other outreach activities.

Recent Books

Below is a selection of forthcoming and recently published books by Creative Writing MFA Faculty in the Department of English at Colorado State University.

• America, A Love Story by Camille Dungy
• Unstuck: A Writer's Guide by Ramona Ausubel
• How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley
• the atmosphere is not a perfume it is odorless by Matthew Cooperman
• Sweet Nothings by Sarah Perry
• WIND—MOUNTAIN—OAK: THE POEMS OF SAPPHO by Dan Beachy-Quick
• Finding Querencia by Harrison Candelaria Fletcher
• Well by Sasha Steensen
• Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille Dungy
• The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel
• The Thinking Root by Dan Beachy-Quick
• Wonder About The by Matthew Cooperman
• Breakthrough: How to Overcome Doubt, Fear and Resistance to Be Your Ultimate Creative Self by Todd Mitchell
• Everything Awake by Sasha Steensen
• Cowboys and East Indians by Nina McConigley
• Variations on Dawn and Dusk by Dan Beachy-Quick
• Guidebook to Relative Strangers by Camille T. Dungy
• The Gringa by Andrew Altschul
• Gatherest by Sasha Steensen
• Last Panther by Todd Mitchell
• Presentimiento by Harrison Candelaria Fletcher
• Trophic Cascade by Camille T. Dungy
• NOS (disorder, not otherwise specified) by Aby Kaupang and Matthew Cooperman
• Awayland by Ramona Ausubel

What do CSU Writers Do?

Our graduates have appeared in a vast array of prestigious publications including The Atlantic, McSweeny's, Cincinnati Review, and many others. They have found success in equally many exciting fields including communications consultant, college dean, professor, research administrator, journal editor, and many others. And their accolades include awards like the Pulitzer Prize, Colorado Book Award in Poetry, Chicago Writers Association book of the year, and more!

Organization of Graduate Student Writers

The OGSW consists of representatives from the Creative Writing MFA and is dedicated to providing students with opportunities to practice, enjoy, and participate in the creative writing community. We do this by organizing readings, workshops, visiting speakers, and other free events and services for the MFA/CSU community.

Creative Writing MFA Blog

The Creative Writing MFA blog is written by graduate students at various stages of degree completion and features posts by writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction about their lives as writers and members of the CSU community. The blog includes entries such as:

• Hearing by Izzy Martens
• Beginning to Remember by Jake Friedman
• On Not Writing About My Father by Dorothy Angle
• On Ambition, Vision, and Voice by Henry Dykstal
• Writing as Letting Go
• RELATIVE TIME: A RELFECTION ON THE FIRST YEAR(?) OF MFA
• On Friendship
• The Ice Persists
• An Exceptional Day in the Life
• And to the West, Mountains

Application Information

Applicants should familiarize themselves with the program and the department, including course offerings and degree requirements. A complete application includes a two-page statement of purpose; a writing sample (12-20 pages of poems; two short stories or a chapter or two of a novel; two short essays or a chapter or two of a memoir); three letters of reference; and transcripts. Those applying for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship must also complete a separate GTA application. The application deadline is January 1. The MFA Program at CSU is a WICHE Western Regional Graduate Program. Residents of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming are eligible for in-state tuition.