Graduate Education in the Department of English
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing
The Stetson Low-Residency M.F.A. of the Americas is a two-year, pass/fail, hybrid program consisting of classroom and online work culminating in a master's degree in one of two genres: Prose or Poetry in the Expanded Field.
Admission Requirements
- Earned undergraduate degree or master's degree from a college or university with institutional accreditation, with a minimum grade point average of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale
- Completion of application
- Application fee
- Official transcripts from all previous universities or colleges attended
- Two completed recommendation forms
- Work Sample – (Poetry in an Expanded Field: 8-10 pages or the equivalent) or (Prose: 15-25 pages of double-spaced prose)
- Personal Statement – 1-2 pages or a 1-3 minute video explaining why you want to be considered.
All international applicants whose native language is not English are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and submit a combined score of 550 or better (new scoring of 213 or better) or the Internet-based test scoring of 80 or better. Please contact the Office of Graduate Admissions for additional information.
International transcripts are required to be translated if the grading and evaluation system used differs from those used by the United States education system. Official translation and a course-by-course evaluation from all prior institutions and grade-point average computation must be provided to the Office of Graduate Admissions. Please use one of the following services for evaluation:
World Educational Services
22 Prince St.
PMB 101
New York, NY 10012
Josef Silny & Associates
7101 SW 102 Ave.
Miami, FL 33173
The MFA of the Americas is designed to develop writers whose creative practice embodies an expanded notion of inquiry, making, contexts, and kinships. Our curriculum emphasizes craft, experimentation, reading strategies, translation, site-specificity, and an exploration of the political, social, aesthetic and cultural constellations that form us and our work. Students create a textual work or body of work that reverberates within international contexts and spaces, culminating in a final presentation and performance. The MFA of the Americas forges a lively community of makers who can be exemplars, collaborators, and conduits to a larger creative life.
Program learning outcomes include:
- Analysis: Compose a self-curated, self-directed series of textual works that demonstrate movement between detail and larger purpose.
- Making: Choose and deploy the tools and strategies which build a sustained self-directed textual work or body of work.
- Context: Articulate how your work participates in a contemporary (horizontal) conversation and in relation to work over time (vertical).
- Kinships: Demonstrate work that expresses connections between fields, communities, nations, etc.
Note: Textual work or series of works may take a variety of forms: writing, image, performance, etc.
M.FA. of the Americas in Creative Writing, Faculty
Carmody, Teresa
Director, Core Faculty, Prose
B.A., The Evergreen State College
M.F.A., Antioch University
Ph.D., University of Denver
Crucet, Jennine Capó
Affiliate Faculty, Prose
B.A., Cornell University
M.F.A., University of Minnesota
Diggs, LaTasha N. Nevada
Affiliate Faculty, Poetry in the Expanded Field
B.S., New York University
M.F.A., California College of the Arts
Gonzalez-Peña, Veronica
Affiliate Faculty, Prose
B.A., University of California-San Diego
M.A., New York University
Lopes, Cyriaco
Affiliate Faculty, Poetry in the Expanded Field
B.F.A., Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
M.F.A., Visual Language, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
M.F.A., Digital Arts, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Noel, Urayoán
Affiliate Faculty, Poetry in the Expanded Field
B.A., University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras
M.A., Stanford University
Ph.D., New York University
Sauer, Stephanie
Affiliate Faculty, Prose
B.A., California State University
M.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Witek, Terri
Core Faculty, Poetry in the Expanded Field
B.S., Peabody College - Vanderbilt University
M.A., Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
ENCW 612. Prose: Introductory Course. 11 Credits.
Prose cohort meets for an introductory nine-day workshop and immersion experience. Students subsequently develop individual reading lists, choose exemplary models, and produce original work (short fiction/creative nonfiction or novel/manuscript chapters). 4 individual online packets (each the equivalent of 20-25 pages of prose) exchanged with the instructor over the 6-month session. Hours: 2 hr. onsite + 9 off-site = 11.
ENCW 613. Poetry in the Expanded Field: Introductory Course. 11 Credits.
PIA(E)F cohort meets for an introductory nine-day workshop and immersion experience. Students subsequently develop individual reading lists, choose exemplary models, and experiment with different ways of poetic making/writing. 4 individual online packets (each the equivalent of 8-10 pieces) exchanged with the instructor over the 6-month session. Hours: 2 hrs. onsite + 9 off-site = 11.
ENCW 614. Prose: Intermediate Course. 11 Credits.
Prose cohort meets for a nine-day workshop and immersion experience. Students subsequently add cross-cultural reading to their reading lists and continue to produce original prose. 4 individual online packet exchanges with the instructor over the 6-month session. Hours: 2 hrs. onsite + 9 off-site = 11.
ENCW 615. Poetry in the Expanded Field: Intermediate Course. 11 Credits.
PIA(E)F cohort meets abroad for a nine-day cross-cultural workshop and immersion experience. Students subsequently add cross-cultural reading to their reading lists and begin to choose and implement individual methods of poetic production. 4 individual online packet exchanges with the instructor over the 6-month session. Hours: 2 hrs. onsite + 9 off-site = 11.
ENCW 616. Prose: Advanced Course. 11 Credits.
Fiction cohort reconvenes for a nine-day workshop and immersion experience. Students subsequently add new reading in a chosen direction and begin to outline the final project - a collection of shorter works (stories, lyric essays, fictions, etc.), or one longer work (novella, novel, memoir, creative nonfiction, etc.). 4 individual online packet exchanges with the instructor over the 6-month session focus on refining skills and revision. Hours: 2 hrs. onsite + 9 off-site = 11.
ENCW 617. Poetry in the Expanded Field: Advanced Course. 11 Credits.
PIA(E)F cohort reconnoiters for a nine-day workshop and immersion experience. Students subsequently add new reading in a chosen direction and begin to outline final projects. 4 individual online packet exchanges with the instructor over the 6-month session focus on extending poetic skills and revision. Hours: 2 hrs. onsite + 9 off-site = 11.
ENCW 618. Prose: Final Project Course. 11 Credits.
Prose cohort meets for a final nine-day cross-cultural workshop and immersion experience. Students subsequently complete cross-cultural work and concentrate on moving their original material through revisions. 4 individual online packet exchanges with the instructor over the 6-month session, culminating in the equivalent of a collection of book-length manuscript presented at the next in country residency. Hours: 2 hrs. onsite + 9 off-site = 11.
ENCW 619. Poetry in the Expanded Field: Final Project Course. 11 Credits.
PIA(E)F cohort meets for a final nine-day cross-cultural workshop and immersion experience. Students subsequently complete cross-cultural work and concentrate on moving their original material through revisions. 4 individual online packet exchanges with the instructor over the 6-month session, culminating in the equivalent of a book-length poetic project presented at the next in country residency. Hours: 2 hrs. onsite + 9 off-site = 11.
Note: For a more detailed description of the final project period course, please refer to degree requirements on the MFA Experience site.