Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

About

At Spalding, we understand how powerful a person’s voice can be, how writing can inspire change and shape the world, how it can influence and drive creativity, how it makes us want to learn. Spalding’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is an opportunity to build a life around language.

Whether your goal is publishing stories and essays, writing for the stage or screen, or crafting poems that move people, this program offers the space, structure, and support you need to grow. You’ll be part of a vibrant and welcoming community of writers that values collaboration, conversation, and the shared journey of building a creative life. While developing your writing craft through workshops and classes, you can tailor your BFA studies to your specific interests, focusing on the genres, writing styles, and literature you are passionate about.

A unique partnership with Spalding’s nationally recognized low-residency MFA in Writing (MFA) program gives BFA students a front-row seat to the literary world. Week-long MFA residencies each spring and fall bring distinguished visiting writers to campus; recent visitors include award-winning graphic novelist Danica Novgorodoff and best-selling memoirist Javier Zamora. BFA students have the opportunity to meet these authors, participate in residency activities, and attend lectures by nationally recognized MFA faculty members such as Kentucky Poet Laureate Kathleen Driskell, best-selling novelist Silas House, and Salon.com chief content officer Erin Keane. In the process, they meet MFA graduates from across the country and see firsthand what a top-ranked graduate program in writing has to offer. BFA students in their third or fourth year can even earn graduate credits in the Spalding MFA program.

Strong writing skills form the foundation of a wide variety of careers. While developing a creative practice, BFA students also gain experience putting their writing to work by completing practicums, internships, and senior seminar projects. They’re invited to attend the MFA program’s business-of-writing sessions, featuring publishers, literary agents, and editors. Students leave the BFA program prepared to continue their studies in Spalding’s MFA or Master of Arts in Writing or to step into a career where writing, communication, storytelling, publishing, problem solving and critical thinking are in high demand.

Meet the Director

Charles Maynard is the author of seven books in the Far Away Land Role-Playing Game
series (under the pseudonym Dirk Stanley) and several card games. His most recent book is Far Away Land: Adventures in the Materiosphere (2021). His first novel, The Way Things End, was published in 2019. He is working on a middle-grade fantasy series as well as a new novel about consciousness and Appalachia. He is obsessed with emergent group storytelling. He is the BFA Director of Creative Writing at Spalding. He holds an MFA from Spalding University.

BFA students have the opportunity to study with outstanding members of Spalding’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing faculty and the School of Liberal Arts faculty.

Features

The BFA’s undergraduate magazine, The Opal, gives students the opportunity to work as editors for an online, student-run publication. Going into its third year, The Opal is focused on providing a space for emerging writers across the country.

The undergraduate creative writing community at Spalding is a close-knit group of writers intent on learning and mastering their craft. The writing community shares work and engages in campus life events that include:

• Annual Celebration of Student Writing
• Writing contests
• Author visits
• Writers in residence
• The Spalding School of Professional and Creative Writing’s residencies (as mentioned above)
• Writing workshops
• Salon-style reading sessions

You can gain valuable experience outside Spalding as well. Spalding students have held internships at the following places:

• Filson Historical Society
• Fons Vitae
• Hydra Publications
• Kentucky Author Forum
• Louisville Magazine
• Spalding University Writing Center
• Today’s Woman Magazine

Classes and Program

The BFA in Creative Writing requires 52 credit hours of the following University Studies Courses:

• Communication (12 credit hours)
• Humanities (15 credit hours)
• Natural Sciences (9 credit hours)
• Religious Studies (6 credit hours)
• Social Sciences (9 credit hours)

In addition, students take the core curriculum of the BFA in Creative Writing:

• Creative Writing Workshops (18 credit hours)
• Literature (15 credit hours)
• Capstone Courses (18 credit hours)
• Electives (17 credit hours)

BFA in Creative Writing students may earn graduate credits in the Spalding MFA program.

Financial Aid Options

Spalding University has a robust offering of financial aid including scholarships, grants, loans, and other types of aid. Check out our Financial Aid page for more information.