Creative Writing (CRWR)

Graduate Degree Program
College: Arts and Humanities

Abstract

The MFA in Creative Writing provides a professional course of study for graduate students seeking to perfect their ability to compose poems, stories, and novels. While primarily affording students intensive studio or practical work within their chosen genre, the MFA in Creative Writing requires that students incorporate such work with a traditional study of literature. The goal of the MFA in Creative Writing is to provide an atmosphere in which students can both hone their skills as writers and gain a theoretical and historical understanding of their craft.

The Department of English also offers graduate study leading to the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in English Language and Literature. Please visit the English Language and Literature listing for more information.

Financial Assistance

Each year, the program accepts 6 applicants (3 in fiction and 3 in poetry), who are fully funded for three years by Teaching Assistantships. Our aid packages are typically 2-year agreements with options for a third extended thesis year. As Teaching Assistants, our MFA students do not teach during the fall semester of the first year. Students are expected to contribute to the editing and publishing of Brack Water, the student-run literary journal, during their first semester and subsequent semesters. In the spring semester of the second year, students teach one course. Students teach one course each semester of the second year, and in the third year, they teach two courses each semester. 
The program can be completed in 2 or 3 years. Applicants who are admitted without a Teaching Assistantship can choose to self-fund or apply for a Graduate Assistantship, which provides full tuition remission and the same stipend and benefits as a Teaching Assistantship. 

Contact

Lindsay Bernal
Academic Coordinator
Creative Writing Program
Department of English
2116E Tawes Hall
7751 Alumni Drive
Universtiy of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
Telephone: 301.405.3820
Email: lbernal@umd.edu
 
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
Director
Creative Writing Program
Department of English
3103 Tawes Hall
7751 Alumni Drive
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
Telephone: 301.405.3789
Email: lyb@umd.edu

Website: http://www.english.umd.edu/academics/creativewriting

Courses: ENGL

Relationships: English Language and Literature (ENGL)

General Requirements

• Statement of Purpose
• Transcript(s)
• TOEFL/IELTS/PTE (international graduate students)

Program-Specific Requirements

• Letters of Recommendation (3)
• CV/Resume (optional but strongly recommended)
• Writing Sample

In addition to fulfilling Graduate School requirements, applicants to the M.F.A. degree program should present a 3.0 GPA. Admission is for the Fall semester only. All application materials must be submitted electronically. 

Application Deadlines

RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Program Website: http://www.english.umd.edu/academics/creativewriting
Application Process: gradschool.umd.edu/admissions

Resources for research in the College Park and Washington, D.C. area are unsurpassed. The university’s libraries hold over 2,000,000 volumes. In addition to the outstanding holdings of the Library of Congress, the area also offers the specialized resources of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Dumbarton Oaks, the National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Center for the Study of the Visual Arts. 

UMCP is a member of the Consortium of Institutions in the Washington area, which permits graduate students at College Park to enroll in courses at other universities for graduate credit at UMCP. Graduate students in English also may take courses for graduate credit at the Folger Institute of Renaissance and Eighteenth-Century Studies, which runs a series of seminars by distinguished scholars each year.