Creative Writing

Major: Creative Writing
Degree Awarded: Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Calendar Type: Quarter
Total Credit Hours: 45.0
Co-op Option: None
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code: 23.1302
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code: 27-3043

About the Program

*Please note that at this time this program is NOT accepting Screenwriting applications at this time, pending programmatic review.

With a dual focus on writing for production (screenwriting) and writing for publication (fiction), the new Drexel M.F.A. is the only low-residency M.F.A. located in the city of Philadelphia. The Drexel M.F.A. combines the teaching of craft with hands-on exposure to the professional machinery of industry. As a leader in experiential education, Drexel is uniquely positioned to offer students this experiential MFA in which students are encouraged to engage with the world in order to best reflect upon it, write stories worth telling, and embark upon successful careers.

M.F.A. students undertake an intensive two-year process of story creation, critique, revision, and career preparation. Students take part in online workshops, reading tutorials, and one-on-one packet exchanges with notable published writers. Three times during the M.F.A. students gather with professors in intensive residences. Fiction writers convene in New York to meet with publishers, agents, and editors. Screenwriters gather in L.A. to meet with agents, directors, and producers. Accomplished authors and screenwriters lead workshops and give craft talks at all residencies. Writers of both genres will gather in craft retreats in a distinctive location and a culminating graduation residency on campus.

This degree actively provides students with tools and skills needed to forge professional ties and rewarding careers in creative writing, thus leveraging Drexel’s historical approach to education, which is experiential and career focused. To this end, the Drexel M.F.A. provides students with opportunities to learn teaching pedagogy and to take part in one-of-a-kind, community-based learning experience designed to spark creativity, make a positive impact in the world, and put tools in students’ hands for post-M.F.A. employment.

Graduates will be equipped to create and market their own books and screenplays. Graduates will also be prepared to seek work in television and theater production, literary magazines, literary marketplace publications and conference organizers, publishing houses, literary retreat centers, community-based writing organizations, and in literary agencies.

Drexel's Creative Writing M.F.A. sets forth as a founding principle that art and industry are essential partners when it comes to improving the human condition.

Additional Information

For more information, contact:

Nomi Eve
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of English and Philosophy
nae28@drexel.edu
 

Admission Requirements

Admissions Criteria

• A bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college or university

Required Documents

• A completed application
• Official transcripts from all universities or colleges and other post-secondary educational institutions (including trade schools) attended
• Personal statement (250-500 words) addressing:
  • Your experience with creative writing thus far
  • Why you are seeking an MFA
• Writing sample - Please provide 20-25 double-spaced pages, in Word or PDF file, of one of the following:
  • Completed short story
  • Collection of flash fiction
  • Novel-in-progress
  • Screenplay
• Additional requirements for international students

Optional Documents for Teaching Fellowships

If you are interested in pursuing an optional teaching fellowship while in the M.F.A program, please send the following to Nomi Eve, Program Director, at nae28@drexel.edu by the application deadline:

• One letter of recommendation addressing the applicant's suitability to teaching
• 2-5 page persuasive or informative essay or a published article that demonstrates your excellence in expository writing
  • Document must be double spaced, in MLA format, and sent as a Word or PDF file

An in-person or virtual interview will be requested once all materials are received.

Degree Requirements