Creative Writing and Literary Arts Program

UAA's MFA in Creative Writing

Say it, before it melts like hoar in the winter sun. - Eva Saulitis

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at the University of Alaska Anchorage is a low-residency program in creative writing that emphasizes a literary approach to exploring and redefining relationships between people and place. We take advantage of the North's boundless terrain to help writers discover their own place in the world. This philosophy encompasses a landscape of memory, family, and culture, making it possible to imagine anything and to write about it—from the local to the global, from the personal to the communal, and from the unlimited mind to the infinite universe.

The MFA is a 45-credit degree program taken over a three-year period. One course, worth five-credits each, is taken each semester for nine semesters. The course work culminates in a book-length thesis of creative work accompanied by a critical essay and an annotated bibliography. The accredited degree program offers studies in three genres: Fiction, Literary Nonfiction, and Poetry that will teach students how to master craft, read the classic works that define the evolution of their genre, and develop skills to balance the demands of life with the discipline of writing.