Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing
Our Program
You can write anywhere, it's true. But here in the Piney Woods of East Texas, a place of rolling hills, bluebonnets, and barbecue, you can do so much more. Because, let's be honest, the writing is only the beginning.
It's right there in our name. We're an MFA program in creative writing, editing, and publishing. A short drive from Houston and the Gulf Coast, we're home to the Texas Review Press and the Texas Review, as well as the National Book Awards Festival at Sam Houston.
A 48-hour full-residency program, we offer more than just workshops. Our students gets hands-on training through internships with the Texas Review Press and Texas Review and take courses in editing and publishing as well as courses in literature, theory, and pedagogy. We also offer a course we call "The Writer's Life," which prepares students not just for life in an MFA program but for life beyond the MFA.
Always striving to find ways to support our students financially, we offer three $10,000 fellowships annually (each renewable for three years), as well as graduate assistantships.
So, if you're a writer who wants to do more, come write here. Come make books here. Come to Texas.
The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing is designed to assist students in their development as writers of fiction, poetry, and/or creative nonfiction; to provide practical, hands-on experience in the field of editing and publishing through the Texas Review and Texas Review Press; to deepen a student’s critical engagement with language and literature; and to prepare those students for careers as published authors, as well as teachers of creative writing in a range of settings, including universities, schools, arts center, prisons, community outreach centers, and individual workshops.
The MFA program at Sam Houston State University allows you to:
- focus on poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction;
- enjoy intensive instruction with dedicated professors.
Students participate in writing workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, undertake coursework in literature and pedagogy, and study narrative and poetic theory. Our workshops are taught by our core faculty—Scott Kaukonen, Ginger Ko, Nick Lantz, and Katie Jean Shinkle, and our students engage regularly with visiting writers of national reputation.
The curriculum for our MFA program is built around the workshop; students take fifteen hours of workshop, including at least three hours in prose and three hours in poetry. MFA students are also required to:
- take either poetry & prosody or narrative theory;
- earn six hours of credit in the practicum in publishing courses;
- take "The Writer's Life," a course that prepares students for life in an MFA program—and beyond the MFA program; and
- complete 15 hours of coursework in literature, language, and pedagogy courses.
The whole process leads to the student’s MFA thesis, which may be a book-length collection of short stories, poems, or essays, or a novel or memoir.
Competitive fellowships, graduate assistantships, and scholarships are available. Our graduate assistants work in a variety of capacities, including with the Texas Review and Texas Review Press, as tutors in the Academic Success Center and teachers of first-year composition courses, and as assistants to the director and other faculty members.
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