Creative Writing MFA
Creative Writing About
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of South Florida is a funded three-year degree. MFA students receive a full tuition waiver and the teaching assistantship comes with a stipend and health insurance. Each year we accept an average of nine students who write comics, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.
Our award-winning faculty include John Fleming, Julia Koets, Micah Hicks, Brenda Peynado, Jarod Roselló (program director), Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Heather Sellers, Ajibola Tolase, and Jake Wolff. We value children’s literature, YA, eco literature, speculative fiction, historical fiction, documentary poetics, poetry of mindfulness, formal poetry, memoir, lyric essay, and hybrid and experimental work, alongside traditional genres.
Our program is tightly knit and sincerely supportive. Workshops are positive and generative. We offer many opportunities for students to read their work publicly, to participate in writing groups and internships, and to work in literary editing and publishing. Saw Palm, our literary magazine, gives students hands-on editorial experience.
As part of the Literary Editing and Publishing course, students have started literary magazines, edited anthologies, written book reviews and weekly columns, and started freelance copyediting and writing businesses. The Spoonbill Reading Series allows MFAs to read alongside faculty. A monthly Nonfiction Salon is open to all writers. The USF Lecture Series and the USF Humanities Institute bring in guest speakers. Recent visitors to the creative writing program include Jericho Brown, Terrance Hayes, Chen Chen, and Naomi Nye.
MFAs typically take three courses and teach two courses. Our teaching training is superb. First-year MFAs teach first-year writing in our thriving and diverse undergraduate program; they are supported by a pedagogy practicum and official mentoring. Second year students have the opportunity, as courses are available, to teach creative writing courses. A creative writing pedagogy practicum, one of the few in the country, prepares students to design and deliver high quality introductory creative writing courses.
In the first year, students are required to take the Introduction to Graduate Study and the teaching practicums. Every effort is made to enroll students in the workshop and craft courses of their choice.
Thesis committees are formed in the fall of the second year. In the third year, students submit their thesis in March. Our end-of-year event, Curtain Call, features a reading by the graduating MFAs, for the campus and community.
Get Involved
Our highly engaged and vibrant MFA Program holds numerous informal literary and social events throughout the year. We also have regularly scheduled programming and offer many opportunities for you to gain professional experience and get involved.
Spoonbill Reading Series
Pairing MFA students with faculty readers, this popular monthly event gives MFA students a chance to practice reading their work in public.
Saw Palm
Founded by John Fleming in 2006, our program’s literary magazine has global reach. MFAs who wish to work on the magazine enroll in our Literary Editing and Publishing course and gain hands-on experience as the journal is entirely MFA student-run.
Teaching Circles
MFAs come together to talk about publishing pedagogy essays, devising research topics, applying for funding, building syllabi, and implementing lesson plans.
MFA Student Committee
In addition to hosting social events, the committee, open to all MFAs, assists with job searches in the department, invites writers to campus, and sponsors workshops on teaching, submitting work, professional portfolios, and mock interviews.
Nonfiction Salon
Held on the first Friday of each month during the academic year, the Salon is open to all writers in the program. Topics include applying for residencies, reading a literary contract, finding an agent, ethics in memoir, teaching nonfiction, delivering a successful live reading, and thesis-to-book.
Writers' Harvest
Held in conjunction with the City of Tampa, this nationally-supported creative writing fundraiser addresses food insecurity in our community, and features local and USF writers giving readings and soliciting donations.
Bridge Reading Series
Run by students in the MFA program, the Bridge Series pairs MFA students with our undergraduate creative writers for a celebratory evening of live readings.
