Creative Writing Programs :: NewPages Guide

 

 

Western Connecticut State University

MFA in Professional Writing - (low res)

181 White St.

Danbury, CT 06810

Website: http://www.wcsu.edu/writing/mfa

Program director: Brian Clements

Program contact: Brian Clements

Phone: 203-837-8876

Email: clementsb@wcsu.edu

Degrees offered: MFA, MA

Genres: All

Type of program: Low res

Length of program: 2 years or more (depending upon student’s study plan)

Enrollment: 40-50

Total credits required: 60

Application deadlines: February 1 for priority consideration; any time thereafter on space-available basis

Scholarships available: Yes, but for students already in program

Core faculty:

Assistantships: Yes

Publishing/editing courses: Yes

Literary magazine: Yes

Reading series: Yes

Recent visiting writers:

Program description: The program hosts two residencies per year: one in the first week of August and another in the first week of January. The residencies provide the essential locus for building community in the program; you can expect a week of intense work in one-on-one meetings with mentors and equally intense entertainment; our days will start at approximately 9 am and will run throughout the day with workshops, lectures, and meetings with faculty, and will conclude with readings and other social events after a community dinner.

We also understand that local students might appreciate ongoing programming outside of the residencies. Therefore, we offer a series of on-campus workshops, readings, and lectures during the normal academic year.

The program’s coursework is mostly conducted in one-on-one mentoring with our full-time faculty, our six Writers in Residence, and/or our Writing Mentors. Out of the programs 60 hours, 44 are conducted in independent study; the other 16 are fulfilled in online multigenre workshops where you interact with an instructor and your peers, reading their work and providing feedback and receiving the same attention to your work.

Students also engage in hands-on learning in an enrichment project and in an internship or teaching practicum; this experience is essential in preparing our students to move into real-world writing and editing positions upon completion of the program.

Students from our program have had success in publishing in national publications such as Newsweek and Christian Science Monitor and have taken jobs in publishing, corporate writing, college teaching, and freelance.