MFA Program
See writers who attended this program
Poetry: Debra Kang Dean, Kathleen Driskell, Lynnell Edwards, Erin Keane, Douglas Manuel, Greg Pape, Maggie Smith, Jeanie Thompson, Keith S. Wilson
Fiction: Wiley Cash, K. L. Cook, Kirby Gann, Rachel M. Harper, Roy Hoffman, Silas House, Angela Jackson-Brown, Robin Lippincott, Lee Martin, Nancy McCabe, Elaine Neil Orr, John Pipkin, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Neela Vaswani
Nonfiction: Dianne Aprile, Roy Hoffman, Jason Kyle Howard, Robin Lippincott, Lee Martin, Nancy McCabe, Elaine Neil Orr, Felicia Rose Chavez, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Neela Vaswani, Rebecca Walker
Writing for Children & Young Adults: Beth Bauman, Lamar Giles, Ellen Hagan, Leah Henderson, Lesléa Newman
Writing for TV, Screen, and Stage: Larry Brenner, Gabriel Jason Dean, Helena Kriel, Kira Obolensky, Bruce Marshall Romans, Charlie Schulman, Sam Zalutsky
Translation: Jeremy Paden
The program offers partial funding through graduate assistantships, scholarships, and editorial and reading positions with our literary journal.
In addition to fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, the program offers writing for children and young adults, and writing for TV, screen, and stage.
Students can choose a faster, higher-intensity pace or a slower, less intensive pace, depending on the time they have available. Students can complete two semesters a year, spending about 25 hours a week on writing and reading during independent study. Or they can opt to complete one semester a year, devoting about 12 hours a week to independent study. Travel abroad is an option during independent study.
The program hosts three residencies each year. The spring (May) and fall (November) residencies take place at the Spalding University campus in Louisville, Kentucky. Students and faculty stay at the historic, four-star Brown Hotel, two blocks from campus. The summer (June) residency takes place virtually and is held live, in real time.
Spalding’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing also offers a 15-credit post-baccalaureate certificate and a 35-credit MA in Writing (MAW). Students can matriculate from the certificate or MAW into the MFA, earning two degrees for about the cost of one. A post-master’s certificate is available for writers who already hold the MFA or an MA with creative thesis.
Spalding does not charge a registration fee, residency fee, or graduation fee.
Rolling admission deadlines include an early-placement deadline of March 1 for the Spring semester, with residency on campus in May; April 1 for the Summer semester, with virtual residency in June; and August 1 for the Fall semester, with residency on campus in November.
Larry Brenner, Avitus Carle, Whitney Collins, Annie Frazier, Jacquelin Gorman, Nathan Gower, Leah Henderson, Silas House, Angela Jackson-Brown, Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan, Erin Keane, Katrina Kittle, Jennine DOC Krueger, Nancy Chen Long, Jessica Love (a.k.a. Jessica Patrick), Andrew Najberg, Andrea Nasfell, Scott O’Connor, Andie Redwine, Bruce Marshall Romans, Catherine Rush, Mervyn Seivwright, Katerina Stoykova, Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (S.A. Bodeen), Frank X Walker, Skye Wallin, Julia Watts, Charles Dodd White, Crystal Wilkinson, Lindsay Zibach