Welcome to the MFA in Creative Writing

Find your voice. Hone your craft. Expand your horizons. Join a vibrant writing community. The MFA in creative writing at FDU offers all the rewards of a full-time experience and all the flexibility and affordability of a low-residency program.

Remote coursework over two years with our acclaimed working-writer faculty is complemented by ten-day in-person residencies — summer in New Jersey and winter in a 17th-century abbey in England. FDU’s MFA is renowned for its lively intensity, community spirit, and innovative cross-genre structure. The program is rounded out with author and publishing professional visits.

Mariella Diaz“It was here — through the direction of our mentors, the keen eye of our peers, and the wisdom of these friendships — that I came to recognize that the story I wanted to tell was the one I was already living.”

Mariella Diaz, MFA, Fiction 2016

A low-residency MFA accommodates every writer’s complicated schedule and ambition. Dedicate time to your writing without upending your life in progress, get feedback from acclaimed writers and teachers, workshop online and in person, travel, focus and retreat, read, be as creative as you want to be, meet new people who are as serious about writing as you are, meet great writers in person, learn about the publishing journey, get teaching experience, join a vibrant community of like-minded writers, start your manuscript, finish your book.

Study Your Chosen Genre

  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Creative Nonfiction
  • Writing for Children and Young Adults
  • Literary Translation

Join the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. In the last year alone, our students and alumni have published middle-grade novels, won juried poetry collection prizes, written award-winning nonfiction books and major trade house novels, they’ve launched an international literary magazine, bought a landmark bookstore, brought an original reading series to Symphony Space, NYC, edited anthologies, started an independent press, won an NEA, won an NAACP Image Award… to name just a few of our community’s accomplishments.

Program Highlights

  • The residency in Wroxton, England. Explore nearby Oxford and London, while immersing yourself in writing and peaceful retreat at FDU’s 17th-century Jacobean country mansion.
  • The FDU MFA is dedicated to cross-genre work. Writers learn from each other and from all different kinds of writing.
  • A lively and communal alumni community, with experiences and professional guidance as well as opportunities.
  • Option to add a second genre track, for a dual concentration degree over three years.
  • Opportunity to study the pedagogy of teaching college composition — a practical preparation that expands earning opportunities for you after your MFA, before you’ve even published.
  • A flexible online model that has all the attentiveness and rigor of a full-time residential program.
  • Scholarships, graduate assistantships, and teaching assistantships.

For More Information

Email us for more information, including tuition costs.

Gracelyn Weaver, Coordinator
Minna Zallman Proctor, Director
MFA in Creative Writing
Fairleigh Dickinson University
285 Madison Ave. M-MS3-01
Madison, NJ 07940
phone: 973.443.8632

email: writingmfa@fdu.edu

Contact Information
Follow our residency highlights and alumni successes
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/FDUWritingMFA/