Creative Writing MA/MFA

Are you a writer with a story to tell? Do you dream of publishing or producing it? Join the more than 1000 writers from around the globe who have chosen 杏吧直播appto pursue their passion and advance their craft in a variety of genres. Earn your MA/MFA in creative writing with limited campus visits. 

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Why Study Creative Writing at Wilkes?

At Wilkes, we focus on the craft, community, and career of writing. Industry feedback is an incredible benefit to aspiring writers. That is why each creative thesis is read and evaluated by a working agent, editor, publisher, or producer. These outside readers provide detailed notes about your work and review them with you during a one-on-one residency meeting.

This focus on the profession of writing, along with the dedication of our faculty (who "stay with you" even after you graduate), has propelled our creative writing MA/MFA students to an exceptional level of success after graduation, resulting in hundreds of published or produced works.

The Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing encourages students to find their voices and tell their stories while making meaningful connections. Creative writers across genres will find a flexible program where they can complete courses online in between in-person residencies held twice a year on the 杏吧直播app campus in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Focus on fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, writing for television, poetry, spoken word, or publishing under the mentorship of accomplished writers and faculty members. 

 

Low-Residency Program

Come together twice a year to attend workshops, connect with your cohort, check in with your mentor and expand your craft.

Complete your coursework online between residencies with the support and guidance of accomplished writers.

Enjoy readings from nationally-acclaimed writers, program alumni, faculty and mentors.

View Our Residency Schedule and Apply

What Will You Learn?

  • Learn how to live like a writer, building a writing plan, schedule and practice that encourages discipline and supports and sustains your creative process.
  • Discover how to tell your story in a way that engages the audience鈥攅xploring genres, experimenting with writing conventions, and mastering the presentation of your work so it can be shared with the world.
  • Focus on developing your craft with concentrations in fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, writing for television, poetry, spoken word, or publishing.
  • Revise with intention鈥攆or that's where the 鈥渞eal writing鈥 begins. Process notes and feedback, translating them into actionable edits that make your project shine through revision.
  • Explore how to get published/produced. Learn ways to share your finalized manuscript with editors, publishers and producers, and how to pitch your project when given the opportunity. We do this by offering you that training and practice while you鈥檙e in the program!
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Program Highlights

Accomplished Alumni

Our creative writing MA/MFA program boasts of not just several but hundreds of published or produced alumni. That鈥檚 because our faculty don鈥檛 say good-bye when you leave our program; rather, as they put it, 鈥淲e stay with you.鈥

Review by Agents and Editors

Every student鈥檚 thesis is read by a professional agent, editor, director or producer, providing valuable feedback, advice for the manuscript's eventual publication/production, and insight into the publishing world.

Scholarships and Graduate Assistantships

Most low-residency MFA programs can鈥檛 offer scholarships, but our program has six of them, and six graduate assistantships (with Etruscran Press, Kaylie Jones Books and Blue Moon/HaveScripts) to help make our already low tuition more affordable.

Alumnus wins the Man Booker Prize

杏吧直播appalumnus Marlon James MA 鈥06 won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings. He is the first Jamaican author to win the prize, considered one of the most prestigious prizes in literature.

Marlon James

Careers & Outcomes

In addition to publishing and producing hundreds of literary works, our creative writing MA/MFA graduates go on to work as professors, editors, teachers, literary agents, directors of reading series, script writers for video games, high school teachers, book reviewers, freelance writers/editors, public relations or marketing directors, and in a variety of writing or writing-related jobs.

Marlon James MA '06, Fiction

Brian Fanelli MFA '10, Poetry

Adrienne Pender MFA '11, Playwriting

Morowa Yejide MFA '12, Fiction

Nisha Sharma MFA '14, Fiction

Leah Vernon MFA '15, Nonfiction

Andre Carter headshot

I arrived for the January residency and the community experience was as advertised. I was able to engage with faculty on day one in a way I would not have dreamed of. My writing cohort sealed the deal.

Andre Lewis Carter MFA 鈥18 Author of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, published by Kaylie Jones Books, 2022.

Vibrant Writing Community

Our writing community is incredible. Successful writers in their own right, our faculty members, outside readers and advisory board members come together to support and mentor students in the program.

Notable names include:

  • Ibrahim Ahmad, Executive Editor at Viking Press
  • Beverly Donofrio, Riding in Cars with Boys
  • Susan Cartsonis, Resonate Entertainment
  • Kaylie Jones, Kaylie Jones Books
  • Ken Liu, winner of the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, and FantLab Awards
  • Tim Seibles, Poet Laureate of Virginia
  • Johnny Temple, Publisher at Akashic Press
  • Chris Tomasino, The Tomasino Agency
  • William J. Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize Winner
  • Ross Klavan, Tigerland
  • Marlon James MA 鈥06, A Brief History of Seven Killings
  • J. Michael Lennon, Norman Mailer: A Double Life

In addition to our talented faculty, board members and outside readers, 杏吧直播apphas created partnerships with several nationally known organizations.

Nationally Renowned

Our program regularly ranks as one of the top Creative Writing programs in the nation.

  • Best Colleges' Best Online Master鈥檚 in Creative Writing Programs (2023, #3)
  • College Rank's Best Online Master鈥檚 in Creative Writing Programs (2023, #10)
  • College Choice' Best Online MFA in Creative Writing Programs (2023, #4)