Low Residency MFA Programs
Pros and Cons of Brief Residency Programs in Creative Writing
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a terminal graduate degree, the highest degree attainable in the field. The MFA is generally completed in two to three years, and consists of a series of writing workshops culminating in a creative thesis. Graduates of MFA programs are considered qualified to teach writing at the college level.
Residency MFA Programs
Traditional MFA (master of fine arts) in creative writing degree programs require spending two to three years at a school taking writing workshops and other classes. These programs often include a teaching component, such as leading undergraduate writing workshops and studying pedagogy under graduate professors. Programs have traditionally ranged from accepting four to 40 students each year, and entrance to programs is considered highly competitive.
Iowa Writer’s Workshop
An example of a traditional MFA program is the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, one of the oldest and most well established programs in the country. The Iowa program, founded in 1939, is famous for having an ongoing stream of famous writers on the faculty (such as Richard Yates, John Cheever, and Phillip Roth), and for graduating an ongoing stream of highly successful writers (such as Flannery O’Connor, Ann Patchett, and James Tate.)
Low-Residency MFA Programs
Low residency degree programs are set up for people who do not wish to uproot their lives to attend school – some students are married and do not wish to leave home or force spouses to move, some have jobs they cannot or do not wish to leave. Working primarily from home attracts many people for many reasons, and creative writing, because of the solitude required for it, and because of mail and the internet, is one of the few areas to which low residency masters programs are suited. Low residency programs involve one or two visits to the campus per year (these are called “residencies”) for a period of approximately ten days each. During this time, intense daily workshops are held, along with lectures, readings, meetings, and social gatherings for the students and faculty. Between residencies, students send work to the professors they are working with by email or mail, and professors send comments back to their students through email, mail, audio file, or over the phone.
Spalding University MFA
An example of a low residency MFA program is the Spalding University MFA program in Creative Writing in Louisville, Kentucky. Sena Jeter Naslund founded the brief-residency MFA program at Spalding in 2001. Since then, students and faculty members have published widely, and many graduates have praised the program as supportive and intensive. Faculty members include award-winning writers Silas House, Kenny Cook, Mary Yukari Waters, and Charles Gaines.
Pros and Cons of Low Residency Programs
Pros
- Ability to live anywhere
- Ability to work from home
- Intensive feedback from professors on each piece of work submitted
- Less competition between students
Cons
- Less contact with classmates
- Less available funding (in some cases)
- Up and Coming Programs with less built-in prestige, name recognition
While the traditional MFA set up allows for the campus experience that many students expect, the low residency option is well suited to those with outside obligations, who wish to pursue and MFA in their own time and space. Just as email provides easy exchange of workshop materials between students and faculty, classmate conversations and exchanges of work can be set up independently through an online email group, chat group, or blog. Several traditional MFA programs provide full funding for students, which is so far not the case in low-residency programs—but low-residency programs allow students to work while they attend school, which is usually much more difficult in a full residency program. The pros and cons of each model must naturally be weighted with personal considerations. The ones offered here are no more than a head start for those in the searching process.
To read more about MFA programs, click here to visit the MFA blog. To read more suite101.com articles on MFA programs, click here.
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