Graduate Education in the Department of English

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) 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.

• Application for Admission
• $50 Application fee
• Earned undergraduate degree or master's degree from a college or university with institutional accreditation
• Official transcripts from all colleges and universities are required for enrollment
• Two professional letters of recommendation 
• Work Sample
  • Poetry in the Expanded Field: 5-8 work samples (text, image, sound, video, or combination thereof)
  • Prose: 1-4 work samples (15-page minimum, 20-page maximum; narrative samples must be double spaced)
  • Exploratory Path: 4-8 work samples, combination of genres and forms
• Applicant Statement 
• Upon admittance to the program, a $300 non-refundable deposit is required to save your seat

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:

1. Analysis: Compose a self-curated, self-directed series of textual works that demonstrate movement between detail and larger purpose.
2. Making: Choose and deploy the tools and strategies which build a sustained self-directed textual work or body of work.
3. Context: Articulate how your work participates in a contemporary (horizontal) conversation and in relation to work over time (vertical).
4. 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.

Degree in Creative Writing

• M.F.A. in Creative Writing

M.FA. of the Americas in Creative Writing, Faculty

Austin, Derrick
Affiliate Faculty, Poetry in the Expanded Field
B.A., University of Tampa,
M.F.A., University of Michigan

Borsuk, Amaranth
Affiliate Faculty, Poetry in the Expanded Field
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles
M.A., University of Southern California
Ph.D., University of Southern California

Bowles, Brendan
Program Director, Core Faculty, Prose
B.A., University of Toronto
M.A., University of Toronto
M.F.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst

LaBrie, Sarah
Affiliate Faculty, Prose
B.A., Brown University
M.F.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

Note: For a more detailed description of the final project period course, please refer to degree requirements on the MFA Experience site.