Spalding University
Naslund-Mann
Graduate School of Writing
Writers Thrive Here
Why Serious Writers Choose Spalding
Focus on Your Area of Concentration
Our creative writing concentrations include fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children and young adults, and writing for TV, screen, and stage. MFA students complete a creative thesis in their concentration. MFA students may spend a residency workshop or full semester studying another genre with no extra time or cost added to their degree. Certificate and MAW students may opt to concentrate on creative writing or professional writing and editing.
Explore Your Genre & Beyond
Low residency brings you to campus for an exciting week of learning each semester, followed by independent study from home that fits in with work and family life. Write prolifically in your concentration, explore across genres, examine the interrelatedness of the arts, gain editorial experience on a literary journal, learn about publishing—and become part of a lifelong literary community. Optional teaching seminar, full-manuscript workshop, translation studies, and more are available as well.
Explore Your Genre & Beyond
Low residency brings you to campus for an exciting week of learning each semester, followed by independent study from home that fits in with work and family life. Write prolifically in your concentration, explore across genres, examine the interrelatedness of the arts, gain editorial experience on a literary journal, learn about publishing—and become part of a lifelong literary community. Optional teaching seminar, full-manuscript workshop, translation studies, and more are available as well.
Publish, Produce, and Find Professional Success
Our alums have careers as editors, professors, nonprofit administrators, media professionals, content developers, podcasters and more. They publish their creative work with top presses, write for the television and film industries, and have plays produced throughout the United States and beyond. While our curriculum focuses primarily on craft, our virtual Business of Writing seminars let students and alumni learn from professionals in the writing, editing, and publishing fields.
Hone Your Craft With Extra Faculty Attention
Our program is centered on one-on-one attention from faculty mentors. You will write more throughout the semester than in other similar programs, and you will get more individualized feedback from your faculty mentor. Prose and script writers send up to 225 new or revised pages. Poets and picture-book writers may have 35 poems or picture books critiqued. Detailed, supportive, honest feedback helps you improve your writing quickly. You’ll develop your own reading list and write short craft essays to learn technique.
Hone Your Craft With Extra Faculty Attention
Our program is centered on one-on-one attention from faculty mentors. You will write more throughout the semester than in other similar programs, and you will get more individualized feedback from your faculty mentor. Prose and script writers send up to 225 new or revised pages. Poets and picture-book writers may have 35 poems or picture books critiqued. Detailed, supportive, honest feedback helps you improve your writing quickly. You’ll develop your own reading list and write short craft essays to learn technique.
Customize Your Experience: Transfers, Acceleration, Scheduling, & Locale
MFA students may apply to transfer credit from other programs. Additionally, MFA students may accelerate their studies with a published book or produced script. All students may choose shorter independent study courses requiring about 25 hours a week in writing and reading, or longer independent studies requiring about 12 hours a week. Coursework and tuition are the same. Choose residencies in Louisville (with the historic Brown Hotel as our “dormitory”) or abroad.
Join a Lasting Community of Writers
The Word on Campus
Spalding in the News
Faculty Focus Friday | Charles Maynard, Writing Professor and Director of the Spalding Writing Center
What do you like about working and teaching at Spalding?
I like the small class sizes and the opportunity to gravitate to areas where I have strengths, and have people be accepting of that.
Middle-Grade and Picture Book Author Leah Henderson Joins Spalding MFA in Writing Faculty
The Spalding University Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program is pleased to announce that award-winning author Leah Henderson has joined the faculty in the area of Writing for Children and Young Adults.
Screenwriter Bruce Marshall Romans Joins Faculty of School of Creative and Professional Writing
Screenwriter Bruce Marshall Romans Joins Faculty of School of Creative and Professional Writing
Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing welcomes acclaimed television and film writer and producer Bruce Marshall Romans to the faculty. Romans, whose television writing and producing credits include Hell on Wheels and Marvel’s The Punisher…
Faculty Focus Friday | Charles Maynard, Writing Professor and Director of the Spalding Writing Center
What do you like about working and teaching at Spalding?
I like the small class sizes and the opportunity to gravitate to areas where I have strengths, and have people be accepting of that.
Middle-Grade and Picture Book Author Leah Henderson Joins Spalding MFA in Writing Faculty
The Spalding University Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program is pleased to announce that award-winning author Leah Henderson has joined the faculty in the area of Writing for Children and Young Adults.
Screenwriter Bruce Marshall Romans Joins Faculty of School of Creative and Professional Writing
Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing welcomes acclaimed television and film writer and producer Bruce Marshall Romans to the faculty. Romans, whose television writing and producing credits include Hell on Wheels and Marvel’s The Punisher…