The MFA in Creative Writing at Southern Connecticut State University is a flexible full-residency, terminal-degree program that prepares students for careers as publishing writers, teachers, editors, and professionals in the publishing world. We work with students who attend full-time and students who attend part-time, and we are committed to working with the student’s needs in mind.
Our curriculum focuses on the development of the writer through experiences in the writing workshops and the creative thesis, but writers also need to be readers and study literature, so our students study literature from ancient world lit to contemporary lit with experts in each field. Other courses focus on literary theory, composition and rhetoric, and teaching collegiate-level writing. In some cases, MFA students may also teach their own courses.
Our MFA Program in Creative Writing is designed to graduate fiction writers and poets who
- have the skills and experience to become publishing writers;
- have the experience and depth of knowledge to become university instructors of creative and expository writing;
- have a comprehensive foundation in intensive literary study, literary analysis, literary theory, and critical writing;
- become versatile critical thinkers and perceptive, able communicators, prepared for the post- graduate job market, in positions such as freelance writers, editors, grant writers, teachers, technical writers, proofreaders, copyeditors, publicists, media and marketing associates, freelance reporters, and administrators in arts organizations.
In addition to publishing poems and stories in national literary journals, our students have published novels, collections of stories, memoirs, and collections of poems. We celebrate these writers by bringing them back to campus for a public reading of their work.