| 2019-2020 Course Catalog
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing - Low Residency
Chatham University’s Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing (MFA) program is 42 credits hours that can be completed in two years with two summer residencies of 10 days each. The program is very similar to Chatham University’s highly acclaimed residency program with the same innovative focus on nature, environment, and travel writing. It is the premier graduate program for nurturing creative writers interested in the environmental imagination and place-based writing. Alumna Rachel Carson, a creative writer whose work demonstrates both lyricism and social conscience, inspires the program.
The low residency program is different from the residency program in a couple of ways. First, in lieu of writing workshops and literature courses each term, students take six-credit mentorships with a publishing writer. These mentorships are meant to combine the rigors of a writing workshop with that of a graduate-level literature course. Second, low residency students must complete two residencies of ten days each in their first and second summers. The MFA program's Summer Community of Writers residency takes place on the Chatham University Eden Hall Campus in Pittsburgh and consists of intensive workshops, craft lectures, panels, and readings with well-known creative writers and faculty. Students are required to live and eat on campus. A residency fee of approximately $500 covers lodging and all meals in the dining hall. Low residency students have the opportunity to take one of the creative writing field seminars along with the residency students, although the field seminar is not required. Field seminars include additional fees for travel and lodging and will vary depending on the location.
Admission Requirements
The Low Residency Program is a rolling admission Program, there is no formal application deadlines.
- Have a completed baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university, with an overall undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale
- 6 credits in undergraduate Writing are recommended, but not required.
If a Student has below a 3.0 GPA, please feel free to apply if you show extreme promise through other achievements. Additional Admissions documents may be requested. - Complete application for admission, including:
- Online application
- In approximately 500 words, please explain why you are interested in pursuing this degree. How will the degree impact your future personal and career goals?
- Curriculum vita or resume
- Two official letters of recommendation, preferably written by former writing teachers or professors who know your writing
- Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended
- Writing Sample ranging from 10-20 (maximum) pages. It can be one work or several pieces combined. Please provide on standard 8 ½ x 11 paper.
Admissions Materials may be submitted to:
Chatham University
Office of Graduate Admission
Woodland Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Fax: (412) 365-1609
Email: graduate@chatham.edu
For specific questions about the Program, please reach out to Rachel Fiscus at 412-365-1141 or at r.fiscus@chatham.edu.
Integrated Degree Program
Chatham University undergraduates applying through the Integrated Degree Program (IDP) must complete all requirements outlined on their respective admission or track tab on the IDP Portal Site. All IDP applicants should work closely with their academic advisor to ensure they are meeting all requirements according to their IDP course of study.
Learning Outcomes
At the completion of the MFA program students will:
- Develop and hone skills in creating, editing and revising in the student's primary genre.
- Demonstrate ability to read and respond thoughtfully and critically in both oral and written form to other student’s work.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how to perform in a workshop situation.
- Recognize and write within the genres of nature, environmental or travel writing.
- Write and publically present (orally) a polished creative manuscript of marketable quality.
- Cultivate a professional identity in terms of self-presentation in both written and oral forms to include reading their work aloud at public venues, interviewing other writers, attending outside readings, writing book reviews and organizing literary events.
- Demonstrate understanding of the theory and practice of literary publishing, including the practice of submitting work to literary journals and/or to quality trade publishers.
- Develop a nuanced sense of place and the ways in which place is important to the student’s work.
- Travel to a national or international destination and generate creative works from that experience
- Analyze and write with care about literary texts of considerable difficulty.
- Recognize critical positions and literary arguments, including the student’s own critical and aesthetic position.
- Demonstrate a good reading knowledge of modern and contemporary literature and how the student’s own work fits within a literary tradition.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the theory and practice of teaching creative writing.