Thank you for your interest in the Arkansas Writers MFA Program.  Be sure to check out other links in this website to find out more about our program.  What follows is a brief description of our program and what we hope it can do for you.

The Arkansas Writers MFA is a writing-intensive studio program in Creative Writing that will uniquely prepare graduates for careers in writing pedagogy and publishing.

Our goal is to provide graduate students the opportunity to concentrate on the study, practice, and teaching of Creative Writing in a highly focused writing program taught primarily by writers for writers. At 60 hours, this three-year program will ensure that graduates build multi-genre backgrounds in the popular discipline of Creative Writing through workshops, forms courses, topics courses, a wide variety of electives, and specialized teaching and editing practicums. To ensure individualized attention, the program will admit 5 to 8 students annually. By the third year, the program will maintain an enrollment of approximately 15 graduate students. After being trained, some students will be offered mentored graduate assistantships for teaching introductory undergraduate classes in Writing; others will receive departmental support as graduate assistants in the Writing Center. Sponsored Programs and Torreyson Library at UCA have also pledged their support for employing graduate students in the proposed MFA program in Creative Writing. All students will complete a thesis project.

Our students will have the opportunity to pursue internships with local arts organizations and non-profits as well as with the nationally recognized literary magazines the Oxford American and the Toad Suck Review.  In addition, a special course in “Getting the Most Out of the MFA” will help students to maximize their time in the program as they develop as writers and artists.

For further information, contact Stephanie Vanderslice, Program Director, at 501-450-3340 or via email at stephv@uca.edu. 

We look forward to hearing from you.