MFA in Creative Writing
Writing for the 21st Century
The Alma College MFA features a strong literature-based curriculum and offers inspirational and exploratory residency experiences designed to develop your ability to read and think critically and to write with a high level of artistic proficiency.
This program offers study in three concentrations:
- Fiction
- Creative Nonfiction
- Poetry
About the Program
Designed for the modern student, the two-year program follows a low residency format. You’ll complete five 10-day intensive residencies (or six residencies for a dual genre concentration) and four terms of one-on-one study with a faculty advisor (five terms for a dual genre concentration).
Over the course of the term, the primary focus will be your own creative writing. Students submit five monthly packets of work to their faculty advisors. Each packet includes approximately 25 pages of creative work as well as craft papers, three to four pages each, on a technique or techniques gleaned from assigned reading. Each term’s reading and writing activities require a minimum of 25 hours per week. It may also include conferencing with other students.
In addition, writers who have completed an MFA or Ph.D. at any accredited college or university may apply for a postgraduate semester in the Alma College MFA program to further their study in creative writing.
At A Glance
5
10-day intensive residency experiences during the two-year program
3
Writing genres
Events
Join us to learn more about the program. Registration is required.
20-Minute Sessions
Tuesday, January 21, 2025 & Thursday, February 20, 2025
Schedule time with Program Director Sophfronia Scott to get your individual questions answered about applying to the program.
Virtual Open House: Learn About MFA Residencies and the Alma MFA Book Award
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Join Alma College MFA faculty, students, and program director Sophfronia Scott who will share highlights from the recent winter residency and details of the new Alma MFA Book Award that gives Alma MFA students and alumni the opportunity to compete for a publishing contract.
Virtual Open House: Preview of the Alma MFA Summer Residency in Oxford, England
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Here’s an opportunity to get an inside look on our international adventures: Join the Alma MFA in Creative Writing for our next virtual open house. Our MFA students will share their side of this very special experience—an experience that could be yours if you take your place in our artistic community!
Fiction & The MFA: A Virtual Open House
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Meet one of our award-winning MFA fiction faculty members at this special virtual open house. You will receive a sample lesson and discuss pursuing fiction writing at the graduate level. Program director Sophfronia Scott will be available to answer questions.
The Soul of Writing Nature and Spirituality: A Workshop With Sophfronia Scott
Saturday, March 22, 2025
We all have our own story, a personal narrative of significant events or special encounters with the outdoor world that has shaped our spirituality. Writing it, though, presents a specific kind of challenge: We are trying to capture the ineffable in words. But if we choose the right words, we successfully communicate our own faith and give others a way to access their own. Using as our model the writing of the monk Thomas Merton, who had a particular divine connection to nature, we will spend the day working with prompts and discussing the development of essays and memoir. The day will be led by Sophfronia Scott, a Merton expert and director of Alma College’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program.
Poetry & the MFA: A Virtual Open House Celebration of National Poetry Month
Thursday, April 10, 2025
The Alma MFA in Creative Writing is celebrating National Poetry Month with a virtual open house event featuring a sample lesson and discussion by our talented poetry faculty. They will also take Q&A and discuss what it’s like to study poetry writing at the graduate level at Alma.
Creative Non-Fiction & the MFA and Application Questions: A Virtual Open House
Thursday, May 8, 2025
What in the world is “creative non-fiction” and what does it mean to write it? The Alma College MFA’s award winning creative nonfiction faculty will offer a sample lesson and discuss pursuing the many facets of nonfiction writing at the graduate level.
Explore
Student & Alumni Spotlights
No one describes the Alma experience better than those living it. Explore their stories, in their own words, below.
Studying abroad was something I always wanted to do when I was in undergrad, but never got around to it. Joining the Alma College MFA program, I was able to combine my two biggest passions, which are traveling and writing.
I give a lot of credit to the director of the MFA program, Sophfronia Scott. She has built a program and a group of people who are so talented and welcoming — eager to offer you a seat at the table and make you feel like you belong.
I don't necessarily want to be in a place where everyone is like me — they look like me, walk like me, talk like me, think like me. In that situation, I don't grow. That's what the Alma College MFA program provides.
Studying abroad was something I always wanted to do when I was in undergrad, but never got around to it. Joining the Alma College MFA program, I was able to combine my two biggest passions, which are traveling and writing.
I give a lot of credit to the director of the MFA program, Sophfronia Scott. She has built a program and a group of people who are so talented and welcoming — eager to offer you a seat at the table and make you feel like you belong.
I don't necessarily want to be in a place where everyone is like me — they look like me, walk like me, talk like me, think like me. In that situation, I don't grow. That's what the Alma College MFA program provides.
Get to Know MFA in Creative Writing
Meet the Faculty
Study Options
The program is thoughtfully crafted to provide you with the flexibility to delve into newfound interests that are bound to arise during your graduate journey.
Residencies
During each 10-day residency, you'll immerse yourself in a vibrant learning community and engage in enriching experiences.
Who is it for?
The Alma MFA is for students who want to make a serious commitment to the craft of writing. Our students come from all walks of life and varying levels of experience. There will be those who are published and those who are not. There will be students who have been in workshop before and those for whom this will be their first. But what everyone will have in common is a passion for writing and reading and a willingness to learn. They long to be around other creatives who care about writing as much as they do and want to talk about the work — a lot! They wish to pursue a degree and a literary life in a way that allows them to maintain their work and family lives. The best and most efficient way to do this is with the low residency MFA in Creative Writing.
The program provides ongoing focus and the deep dive both graduate and postgraduate students need to understand their craft and to learn how they want to show up in the world as writers. For complete details of the program, view the MFA Student Handbook.
Your MFA Decision Journal
We created this helpful tool to help you explore your goals and guide your exploration.
Admissions and Aid
Not sure where to begin? We’re here to help you every step of the way.
Our team is glad to answer your questions and walk you through the application and financial aid process. Contact the program director, or download Your MFA Decision Journal to help you better understand your motivations and goals.
Application Requirements
Application Requirements
Application Requirements
- College transcripts for each college or university attended
- Curriculum vitae (CV) or resume
- A creative writing sample.
- Length: A maximum of 25 pages for fiction or creative nonfiction, a maximum of 10 pages for poetry — no more than one poem per page.
- Personal essay; 3-4 pages.
In this essay please address the following:- Discuss your specific interest in the Alma College MFA and your preparation for pursuing a formal study of creative writing.
- Your strengths and weaknesses as a writer.
- Goals for your two years in the program.
- Additional experience including what you can bring to our artistic community.
- Literature essay; 3-4 pages.
In this essay please discuss the books and writers that have influenced you. - Two letters of recommendation.
There is no application fee.
Application Deadlines
Application Deadlines
Application Deadlines
- Summer Residency (August 20-27, 2025; Oxford) – Deadline to apply: May 30
You will receive an admission decision in two weeks.
- Winter Residency (December 27, 2024-January 4, 2025; Lake Junaluska, NC) – Deadline to apply: November 30
Tuition and Fees
Tuition and Fees
Tuition and Fees
Learn more about the tuition and fees and cost of attendance for the MFA in Creative Writing.
Tuition Policy
Tuition Policy
Tuition Policy
All applicable fees and charges are payable in advance of enrollment. Tuition is due on a term basis. Each term begins with residency so tuition is due before the first day of each new residency. Tuition and fees are subject to change without notice. All MFA students will be billed for the term (tuition; room and board for students staying on campus; the single-room fee for students who request a single room, if available), with the exception of graduating students who are charged room and board (if staying on campus) and the graduation residency fee.
Financial Aid
Financial Aid
Financial Aid
Our students take advantage of the program’s low residency format to continue with their current employment and finance their education from their own resources. Students are encouraged to complete the free application for federal student aid (FAFSA).
Do you have a mentor or supervisor that can refer you to this program? When they refer you to the Alma College MFA in Creative Writing, you will receive a $2,000 scholarship.
If you need additional assistance or have other questions, contact the Financial Aid Office at (989) 463-7347.
Enrollment Deposit Fee
Enrollment Deposit Fee
Enrollment Deposit Fee
Accepted applicants are required to pay an enrollment deposit of $300. $100 of this fee is applied as a credit to the student’s account for the first term. Another $100 serves as a security deposit from which the college may recover expenses incurred by the student for damages to college property. The final $100 is a processing fee. Any unexpended portion of the security deposit can be gifted back to the college upon graduation or is refunded to the student after graduation.
Academic Calendar
Academic Calendar
Academic Calendar
Summer Residency
August 20-27, 2025
Mentored Studies Term
July-November
End of Term, Final Grades Due: December 10, 2024
Winter Residency –Lake Junaluska, NCDecember 27, 2024 – January 4, 2025
Mentored Studies Term
January-May
End of Term. Final Grades Due: May 17, 2025
Post Graduate Term in Creative Writing
Post Graduate Term in Creative Writing
Post Graduate Term in Creative Writing
Writers who have completed an MFA or Ph.D. at any accredited college or university may apply for a postgraduate semester in the Alma College MFA program to further their study in creative writing.
The term, like the MFA format, provides for one-on-one work with a faculty advisor. The writer works with their advisor to develop a study plan for the term that includes deadlines, feedback expectations, and points of contact such as a mid-semester check-in and written evaluations. The term is designed to be genre flexible. Writers may choose to work in the genre in which they earned their degree (fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry), or they may use the time to try a genre they have not written in before. They may also work in a genre not offered in their degree program, but in which an Alma faculty mentor has expertise such as playwriting or screenwriting. Postgraduate students receive their first choice of faculty advisor, so if a writer wants to study one of these specialties they should choose accordingly.
Writers may work to complete a current manuscript or use the term to jumpstart a new project. They are free to develop their own study plans and goals, which need not be tied to the MFA’s programming and requirements. For example, writers are not required to write critical papers, though a faculty advisor may suggest craft books if they determine it may benefit the writer’s project.
Residency Attendance
Each postgraduate term must begin with attendance at an MFA residency. This requirement is waived for graduates of the Alma MFA, though most writers will agree that the residency experience is one of the highlights of studying writing at Alma.
Credits
The term is a 13-credit offering
- 11 credits for the term
- Two credits for the residency
Tuition and Fees
Term tuition (six months): $5,000
Optional residency, fees include room and board:
- Local (Alma, MI): $1,352
- International (Venice, Italy): $5,500 / per person – (Double room for Single use)
$4,935 / per person – (Twin room for two people – sharing)
*Fee does not include airfare.
Admissions Deadlines
- Winter 2024: November 30, 2024
- Summer 2025: May 30, 2025
To apply, students must complete Alma College’s Application for Non-Degree Enrollment Status and submit to the registrar.
Refer a Writer
Do you have a mentor or supervisor that can refer you to this program? When they refer you to the Alma College MFA in Creative Writing, you will receive a $2,000 scholarship.
Get Your Book Published
Alma’s MFA in Creative Writing offers a unique opportunity for students and alumni to compete for a publishing contract with Running Wild Press, a small press whose books have been named “Best of the Year” by the book review magazine Kirkus Reviews.
Writers can submit book-length manuscripts in fiction, nonfiction, or narrative poetry, with finalists selected by top acquisition editors from Running Wild and its RIZE imprint. The winner — to be chosen solely from MFA program students and alumni — will receive an up-front prize of $200, as well as a contract from Running Wild, including an offer of net revenue of 40 percent for paperback, ebook, and audiobook sales.