Low-residency is inherently more flexible than traditional, campus-based writing programs. Only low-residency can offer both the lively camaraderie of a peer group and intense one-on-one mentoring with expert faculty, allowing you to write and receive feedback on far more pages than you would in a traditional program.
Intellectual stimulation and artistic support are hallmarks of Spalding residencies. These weeklong gatherings instruct and inspire through faculty-led workshops, lectures, readings, book-in-common discussions and cultural events. Friendships form over conversation. Collaborations continue after class. Writing becomes a less solitary pursuit.
In-person and Virtual Residency Options
Spring and fall residencies begin in late May and mid-November, respectively. They take place in Louisville, where students may opt to stay at the historic, four-star Brown Hotel, engage in our city’s thriving downtown arts scene, and study on our green and growing campus.
When an in-person residency doesn’t fit your plans, our virtual option can keep you on track to earn your degree. During the virtual summer residency in late June, you’ll engage with the same immersive curriculum as students receive on campus, taught live in real time by our outstanding MFA faculty. As with our residency on campus, the virtual residency is an immersive week of live interactive workshop sessions, lectures, readings, and active discussion among students and faculty.
Tuition is the same for both types of residency, though virtual residencies save travel time and costs. Like in-person residencies, virtual residencies lead to a highly respected Spalding degree. No matter which residency type you attend — perhaps a mix of both — you’ll become a part of a thriving alumni community that will support your writing career long after graduation.
The Primary Focus: Your Concentration
At residency, you’ll participate in a faculty-led workshop, attend faculty lectures in your area of concentration, and sample faculty lectures in other areas as well. You’ll read books or scripts in your area and regularly hear their authors discuss the path to publication or production.
Cross-genre Exploration
Cross-genre reading and exercises will make you a better writer. Maybe you never intend to write poetry — you’ll still discover how to add texture to your work by using compressed language. Even if you’re not a screenwriter, the study of five-act structure can strengthen your own work. And if you plan to teach, whether in or outside of the academy, you’ll need to be comfortable with the language and special considerations of many genres, not just your own.
Plenary lectures at each residency examine universal questions of subject, structure and style. At each residency you’ll get to know another genre in a rotating series as you write outside your area in a brief cross-genre exercise, read work by a distinguished visiting writer, hear the writer speak and chat with them during a private Q&A. Recent Distinguished Visiting Writers include Kaveh Akbar, Javier Zamora, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Kwame Alexander, Natasha Trethewey, Gene Luen Yang, Ann Patchett, Doug Wright, and more.
All MFA students have the option simply to hop over to a different genre one residency and workshop in a new area. The things you learn there will give you a new perspective and inform your writing for years to come.
Special Seminars
Beyond single-genre workshops, we offer specialized options to students in the MFA, MAW and post-master’s programs. Our teaching seminar lets you gain skills you’ll use when teaching undergraduate creative writing courses. Our book-length manuscript workshop offers faculty and peer critique on an entire novel, story collection, memoir, book of essays or full-length poetry collection. We also offer special-topic workshops such as musical theatre, adaptation and place-based writing.
What Happens After Residency?
Once residency is over, students begin a 12-credit-hour independent study, working one-on-one with an expert faculty mentor.
Flexibility in Scheduling
We offer two semester lengths so you can customize your weekly workload during independent study. Our shorter, six-month semester schedule includes two semesters a year, each one beginning with a residency in Louisville. The weekly workload during independent study, including reading and writing, is about 25 hours a week. On this track, MFA students graduate in two years, MAW students graduate in one year, and certificate students finish in about 6 months.
By contrast, our extended semester schedule includes one semester a year, allowing for a more leisurely pace. Semesters begin with an on-campus residency in Louisville in May or a virtual residency in June, followed by an independent study requiring about 12 hours a week. On this track, MFA students graduate in four years, MAW students in two years, and certificate students in about 9 months. And students enjoy a break during the springtime months.
Whether you take the shorter or extended semester, the coursework and tuition are the same. You can mix and match semester lengths or take a leave of absence and extend your study even longer.
Perhaps most important, low-residency programs teach you how to integrate writing into your daily life, in the thick of your other commitments. You won’t develop that discipline in campus-based programs, where you step away from “real life” for two or three years to do nothing but write—and then are left to figure out how to keep writing once you’ve gone back to your job and family responsibilities.
How to Apply
We accept applications year-round. Early-placement application deadlines:
March 1 to begin your studies in May with a residency on campus or in June with a virtual residency
August 1 to begin your studies in November with residency on campus
