MFA Program
See writers who attended this program
Amy Bobeda, Steven Dunn, Valerie Hsiung, Jeffrey Pethybridge, Michelle Naka Pierce, Andrew Schelling, Julia Seko, Anne Waldman
The program offers partial funding. The program offers three Graduate Fellowship awards which cover full tuition plus stipend and scholarship: the Anne Waldman, Allen Ginsberg, and Anselm Hollo. The program offers numerous additional partial-funding awards for all other candidates in the form of scholarships in the names of Ted Berrigan, Robert Creeley, and Jack Kerouac, as well as graduate assistantships. Summer Writing Program Scholarships, for which MFA students are eligible, are the Zora Neale Hurston award, Leslie Scalapino Award, the kari edwards Award.
Candidates can find more information to apply for other, non-program specific scholarship awards offered by Naropa University on their website.
The program hosts the Summer Writing Program, which brings in more than fifty guests each year and offers students the opportunity to be in dialogue with a community of writers and artists. The program includes workshops, lectures, panels, readings, special events, and more.
The Kerouac School regularly hosts several readings and events, including the 5x5 student reading series (cohosted with 4 other graduate programs in the Front Range), the Fall Symposium, the Allen Ginsberg Visiting Fellow, the Spring Symposium which includes the Scalapino Lecture in Innovative Poetics, and Women of Naropa. The Symposia coincide with the MFA Creative Writing residencies, creating opportunities for cross-pollination across MFA cohorts.
The program also offers space in the curriculum to explore contemplative practices in tandem with their writing such as meditation, yoga, ikebana, or Contemplative Poetics. Other features include a seminar in pedagogy, where students gain the experience needed to teach undergraduate courses or work in the Naropa Writing Center. The Kerouac School is also the home of the Harry Smith Print Shop where students can take classes in letterpress printing and book arts.
The program’s deadline for priority applications—meaning guaranteed consideration for the full fellowships—is February 2. After that, general applications are accepted on a rolling admissions and students are still eligible for the many forms of partial funding.
Erik Anderson, Will Christopher Baer, Brenda Coultas, kari edwards, Richard Froude, Ryan Gallagher, Laird Hunt, tess lavoie-brown, Rachel Levitsky, Ella Longpre, Lester Mayers, Sean Murphy, Angel Rodriguez, Mayra Rodriguez Castro, Sarah Schantz, Eleni Sikelianos, Danielle Vogel