The Program

Started in 1980, the Graduate Creative Writing Program at George Mason University is one of the most highly regarded programs in the country. The faculty include award winning and internationally recognized writers. Alumni of the program have published with both major and small presses and in national commercial and literary magazines and are collectively publishing several books each year.

Mason's MFA program consists of three concentrations that mirror each other in structure but are unique in content. The fiction and poetry concentrations have been in place since the Creative Writing program began, while the nonfiction concentration was established in 1999. Each concentration requires 48 semester hours of writing workshops and literature courses. Twelve to eighteen hours are in writing seminars in the chosen genre and include a course in the historic forms of the genre. At least 12 hours are in literature. A minimum of three hours are in a genre other than the concentration. Six hours are in thesis. The remaining hours are in electives.

Students in the poetry concentration earn 48 semester hours as described above. Special topics courses in poetry include the prose poem, war poetry, etc. Students are given the chance to study different forms of poetry while also exploring a form (or forms) of prose writing that may in some way inform their poetry. Students in poetry must also pass an MFA exam. This is a written examination based on a comprehensive reading list developed by the student.

Fiction students are offered special topics courses such as writing the novel, women in fiction, etc. These courses, along with literature electives and other genre studies, enrich the experience of the fiction student.

Nonfiction students are offered special topics courses including the personal essay, the memoir, the biography and autobiography, magazine writing, sports writing, travel writing, and research for literary nonfiction. Students have the opportunity to balance the nonfiction writing that looks inward (the memoir, the personal essay) with the nonfiction writing that explores the world outside (magazine writing, travel writing, sports writing), while fine-tuning the program to their backgrounds and goals.

Fiction and nonfiction students must either pass an MFA exam, as described above for poetry students, or conduct an independent project such as editing an anthology or writing a volume of critical essays. Students may complete the project by developing a reading list tailored to the students' own writing, serving at least one year as editor of an on campus journal, completing an editing project, or teaching creative writing workshops to a special audience (not TA work).

MFA Degree Requirements

The faculty of the George Mason Creative Writing Program stress that the M.F.A. is a studio degree; that the process of reading and writing is the greatest help to a person who wants to develop writing talent; and that this reading and writing must be done over a significant course of time. Earning an M.F.A. at George Mason takes at least four semesters.

Finally, the Writing faculty believe that getting an MFA is not the end of the development of craft but rather a major step along the way.