Post-master’s Certificate

Miss your MFA days?

Wherever you earned your MFA, or MA with creative thesis, Spalding’s Post-master’s Certificate in Writing Enrichment brings you back to your writing with a low-residency semester of study in any of the creative writing genres we teach.

If you earned your degree somewhere other than Spalding, the Post-master’s Certificate offers another invaluable benefit: a lifetime of access to the best MFA alumni association going. Our alum association offers year-round opportunities: professional development at spring and fall residencies in Louisville, literary-themed travel opportunities, local get-togethers with other alums and online writing groups to keep you engaged.

The 15-hour certificate includes a 3-hour residency course, which you can complete on campus or virtually. Virtual residencies, which offer the same immersive curriculum as students receive on campus, are taught live in real time by our outstanding MFA faculty.

Residency is followed by a 12-credit-hour independent study course, completed from home while you work one-on-one with a Spalding MFA faculty mentor. You can mix and match genres—for instance, you might study screenwriting during the residency but switch to fiction for the independent study. Our virtual Business of Writing Seminars offer insights into editing, publishing and career options.

Our 15-credit-hour Post-master’s Certificate in the Teaching of Creative Writing allows you to focus on your specific teaching interests, whether at the undergraduate or high school level or in community spaces such as libraries, parks systems, corrections centers or other venues. You’ll complete a 3-credit-hour residency course on campus, built around a special teaching seminar. After residency, you’ll complete a 12-hour independent study course, working one-on-one with a Spalding MFA faculty mentor to study the pedagogy of creative writing. For teachers, the certificate may fulfill their school district’s requirements for continuing education or may apply toward an increase in salary.

To inquire about application requirements and options for study, email schoolofwriting@spalding.edu.

Features

An MFA or MA with creative thesis is the minimum education requirement.

The certificate can be earned in six to nine months, depending on the student’s preferred pace of study.

Application deadlines

• March 1: application deadline for spring semester, starting in May with residency on campus
• April 1: application deadline for summer semester, starting in June with a virtual residency
• August 1: Application deadline for fall semester, starting in November with residency on campus

We welcome veterans.

We are members of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, SCBWI and the Playwrights’ Center.

Spalding is the world’s first certified Compassionate University.

You can get to know our faculty and directors on our blog.

For more information, email schoolofwriting@spalding.edu.