Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing

MFA in Creative Writing Admission Requirements

Applicants must meet the minimum university requirements for graduate study. Applications from candidates in any field will be considered. Admission is based on samples of creative writing in the student’s chosen genre (10-20 pages), academic record, a personal statement, and two letters of recommendation, one of which must come from a creative writing instructor or professional writer.  Please do not send letters from friends or any other non-professional contact.

Program Description

The Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing at Mount Saint Mary's University, Los Angeles is an artist-training program for graduate students who want to write professionally in the genres of novel, short story, playwriting, poetry, screenplay and non-fiction. Ideal for working adults, the degree program can be taken fully online, fully on-campus, or a combination of the two. Utilizing the latest technology in remote learning, the MFA in Creative Writing offers students the freedom to fit a graduate degree into their lives while maintaining other commitments. Students may pursue the degree in Spanish as well as English.

What gives our program its special character? We develop writers in multiple genres, believing that you can excel in more than one. We are interested in the whole writer, an expert who isn't narrow.  Our integration of the humanities into our course of study reflects commitment to intellectual rigor and liberal arts as the cornerstone of human understanding. We pay close attention to the needs of developing artists in courses that are innovative and demanding.

The teachers in our program put a premium on helping our students into their professional careers, through continued mentoring. This means not only teaching the techniques that make you the best writer you can be, but also preparing you for the publication market. Our writers and director, combined, have a long track record of helping students garner national and international literary prizes and book-length publications. Whatever your career path, our job is to help you write stories, novels, plays, poems, or screenplays, at the highest level, and get them into print or staged before an appreciative public. In that, we are practical minded. Our curriculum is set up to get you there.

Our students are of all ages and from many different educational backgrounds. You need not have completed a degree in literature in order to apply. Combining humanistic depth, intellectual rigor, multicultural and bilingual study, technology, a flexible online format, cross-training in multiple genres, and practical preparation--Mount Saint Mary's MFA in Creative Writing truly stands apart.

Degree Requirements

• 15 units of Creative Writing Workshops
• 3 units of Poetics (to be taken during first year)
• 9 units of Literature and Thought
• 3 units of Electives from HUM or FLM
• 6 units of Thesis

• Total Credit Hours: 36

Creative Writing Workshops (15 units)

Complete 15 units of Creative Writing Workshops:

• CRW 220 Novella (3)

• CRW 221 Short Forms (3)

• CRW 222 Memoir (3)

• CRW 223 Latin American Chronicle (3)

• CRW 230 Fiction Writing I (3)

• CRW 231 Poetry Writing I (3)

• CRW 232 Writing for the Screen I (3)

• CRW 233 Non-Fiction Writing I (3)

• CRW 234 Writing for Screen and Television (3)

• CRW 236 Playwriting I (3) 

• CRW 240 Fiction Writing II (3)

• CRW 241 Poetry Writing II (3)

• CRW 242 Writing for the Screen II (3)

• CRW 243 Creative Writing Non-Fiction Writing II (3)

• CRW 246 Playwriting II (3)

• CRW 248 Special Topics in Creative Writing (3)

• CRW 249 Studies in Genre (3)

• CRW 257 Latin American Novella: Boom and Post Boom (3)

• CRW 258 Latin American Short Story and Poetry (3)

• CRW 261 Short Stories (3)

• CRW 282 Vignettes and Photography (3)

Poetics (3 units)

• CRW 244 Poetics (3)

*Must be taken during first year in program. 

Literature and Thought (9 units)

Complete 9 units of Literature and Thought:

• CRW 220 Novella (3)
• CRW 232 or 242 Screenwriting (3)

• only one Screenwriting course can be used to fulfill this requirement

• CRW 244 The Creative Habit (3)
• CRW 248 Special Topics in Creative Writing (3)
• CRW 249 Studies in Genre (3)
• CRW 250 Afro-Latinx/Mixed Genre (3)
• CRW 252 Border Latinx American Writing (3)
• CRW 260 Studies in Literary Adaptation
• CRW 271 Auteur Theory (3)

Elective (3 units)

HUM or FLM elective course (3)

Thesis (6 units)

Complete 6 units of Thesis:

• CRW 296 Thesis (3)
• CRW 296 Thesis (3)
  • These are taken in consecutive semesters, normally in the last two semesters of the student's course of study.

Thesis continuation is for students who require a third semester.

• CRW 297A Thesis Continuation (1)

Required for completion of the degree is a submission of a manuscript in one genre, closely reviewed, edited, and refined with the assistance of the student's Thesis Committee. The Creative Writing Thesis can be written in English and/or Spanish. For more information on the Thesis proposal and approval process, contact the MFA in Creative Writing Program office. Manuscripts must reach specific length requirements:

• Novel, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction: 150-250 pages

• Poetry: minimum 60 pages

• Screenwriting, Playwriting: 90-120 pages

Total Credit Hours: 36