Creative Writing (Campus MFACW)

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Creative Writing (Campus MFACW) Overview

Chatham’s campus-based Creative Writing program grows from the legacy of Rachel Carson '29, a creative writer known for her social conscience. Our students understand that writing is ultimately a public act with the power to affect meaningful change. Their ideas, their convictions, their writing matters. We teach students to think deeply about their places, spaces and identities, to look within and around, and then connect to the world with care and intention.
Degrees Offered
  • MA
  • MFA
Program School
Application Deadline

July 1

The application deadline is July 1st, but we will continue to accept applications after the deadline as long as there is space available in the program.

Credits Required

36

Chatham offers an MFA (36 credit hours) in Creative Writing and an MA (30 credit hours) in Creative Writing. The majority of our students who choose a full-time academic schedule are completing either program in under two years.

Cost Per Credit

$1,160

Cost consists of program tuition (cost per credit times number of credits) as well as any applicable University and degree-specific fees.

National Recognition

Top-Rated Program

In 2007, the Atlantic Monthly named the program one of the top five innovative MFA programs in the U.S,. and in 2016 Publisher's Weekly named the program one of five distinctive MFA programs in the nation.

Explore the Creative Writing Degree:

The MFACW/MACW is a broad program of study designed to prepare students for careers as writers or positions requiring similar skills, such as editing, publishing, and content development for the web; to enable students to improve their writing through interaction with our faculty and other writing students; and to become experienced critics of literary works.

Pre-requisite: 

  • 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.
    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.
  • Six credits of undergraduate courses in writing are recommended, but not required.

Completed application for admission by the posted deadline, including:

    • Online application
    • Admissions Essay (current prompt found in application portal)
    • Curriculum vitae or Resume
    • Two official letters of recommendation, preferably written by former writing teachers or professors who can speak to your writing
    • Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended
    • Creative writing sample in your primary genre ranging from 10-20 pages (maximum).  It can be one creative work or several pieces combined.

Admissions Materials can be uploaded in the application or submitted to:
Chatham University
Office of Graduate Admission-Berry Hall
Woodland Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Email Admissions

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.

International Applicants

International Applicants must submit additional documentation to the Office of Admissions. A list of these documents can be found on the International Admission web page.

Chatham offers an MFA (36 credit hours) in Creative Writing.    

Additionally, Chatham offers an MA (30 credit hours) in Creative Writing. This program is distinct from the MFA in Creative Writing in that no thesis is required; therefore removing ENG698 and the genre-specific thesis seminar course. 


ENG523: The Craft of Creative Writing: Multiple Genres

This course may substitute for any other craft course for students specializing in any genre. Students will be introduced to the craft of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, and will also be introduced to the workshop method and given instruction on sending out work for publication.

ENG568: Practicum: Fourth River

This course is a practicum in which graduate students publish the print edition of Chatham's national literary journal, The Fourth River. All phases of the publishing process are addressed, with a special emphasis on editorial acquisitions and copy-editing.

ENG584: The Environmental Imagination

This is a multi-genre course that focuses on the art and craft of nature and environmental writing. Students will read and study contemporary nature and environmental writing, and will be expected to generate creative work that illustrates a deep understanding of the literary tools available to writers in this genre.

View Full MFA Curriculum

View Full MA Curriculum

The Summer Community of Writers is by far my best memory of graduate school so far, and it has blown pretty much every other workshop I've taken in the past out of the water. I hope I can experience it again in the future.

Our Faculty

Faculty members are accomplished teachers, practitioners, and active leaders in the field.

Full Faculty
Photo of Alexandra Reznik
Assistant Professor of Humanities, Women’s and Gender Studies Program Coordinator
Close-up photo of a student writing in a notebook in the library

Funding Opportunities

A number of research, special project, and teaching assistantships are available to first-year full-residency students that help defray the cost of the tuition while also earning valuable, hands-on experience. These assistantships are re-awarded in the recipient's second year as long as they are a full-residency student in good standing. These assistantships include a full tuition award, as well as a fellowship working with The Fourth River literary magazine.

View Funding Opportunities : Checkerboard 1 - Funding Opportunities
Photo of several people gathering at picnic tables on Chatham University's Eden Hall Campus in front of a white barn.

Summer Community of Writers

We have a vibrant, supportive community of students and faculty. A hallmark of Chatham's program is its Summer Community of Writers (SCW), a ten-day, six-credit course for students featuring acclaimed national writers for an exciting learning experience. SCW takes place on our beautiful Eden Hall Campus with daily workshops, dynamic craft lectures, faculty and student readings, and ample time to write, which many mention as one of the highlights of their Chatham MFA degree.

Photo of a garden courtyard, with a green plant growing to make a pattern over the stone. In the distance there are red brick buildings.

The Fourth River

The Fourth River is a journal of nature- and place-based writing published by the Chatham MFA program. The journal takes its name from a subterranean river beneath Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a city famously sited at the confluence of three rivers: Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio. The Fourth River literary journal grew up from the idea that between and beneath the visible framework of the human world and the built environment, there exist deeper currents of force and meaning supporting the very structure of that world.

Explore The Fourth River : Checkerboard 4 - The Fourth River
Black and white photo of Rachel Carson sitting behind a desk full of books with pen in hand.

Nature and Environment

Rachel Carson ’29 is Chatham's most distinguished alumna. In her honor, students may choose from a variety of literature courses focusing on the natural world, including Ecofeminism, Wildness and Literature, Nature and Culture, and Writing about Food, as well as a course in Environmental Imagination. The Fourth River, our national literary journal, focuses on nature and place-based writing.

Learn About Rachel Carson : Checkerboard 5 - Nature and Environment
Photo of a young hijabi student working at her laptop in Cafe Rachel

Publishing

Students interested in publishing can take The Fourth River practicum, where they have the opportunity to work as an assistant editor for our national literary journal, or our Independent Literary Publishing course, where students create and run their own literary press. There are also many opportunities for publishing internships in the Pittsburgh area, with a number of our students earning internships for Autumn House PressCreative Nonfiction, and Pittsburgh Quarterly.

Photo of many books laying open on a circular table with a pair of glasses in the middle.

Annual Reading Series

Our MFA program offers the opportunity to meet and learn from established authors of all genres. The Melanie Brown Lecturer Series is presented each year through the generosity of The Melanie and Fred R. Brown Endowed Fund, and the selection of each year's Lecturer is guided by the desire to highlight fiction writers with a strong sense of place in her or his writing. Similarly, our annual Dialogues Reading Series invites authors of international renown to visit our campus and host readings and lectures on craft.

  • Past lecturers have included: Cristina Garcia, Shaka Senghor, Renée Watson, Kaveh Akbar, Jaquira Diaz, Martha Southgate, Safia Elhillo, M. Evelina Galang, Margot Livesey, Amy Bloom, Karen Bender, Sam Chang, Stewart O’Nan, Alix Ohlin, Wiley Cash, Brad Kessler, Ann Pancake, Michael Byers, and Debra Marquart.

MFA in Creative Writing

Photo of a student working on her computer at a table outside

Holding Space on the Page

Summers at ChathamU usually mean one thing for the literary-minded among us: the MFA in Creative Writing program’s Summer Community of Writers.

Photo of Caitlyn Hunter, a young Black woman, seated between two library bookshelves with a pile of books in front of her. She is reading a book titled "Black Women Writers, 1950-1980"

‘Black is Not a Monolith’

Photo of a man closing his eyes and looking down mid-poetry performance, with a microphone in front of him
Play Video

Word Circus is a monthly reading series presented by the Chatham MFA Creative Writing Program in collaboration with Most Wanted Fine Art Gallery.

Photo of a young female student in a tie dye Chatham University shirt, wearing a mask and seated at a table in the quad on Shadyside Campus

Chatham’s MFA Program Gets Creative, Despite COVID

Photo of a young man in a red jacket posing with a beer bottle in front of the Pittsburgh skyline

MFA Student Launches Online Magazine

Black and white profile of woman with dark hair and eyeliner.

Fiction is Still True: A Conversation with Brittany Hailer, MFACW ‘15

Brittany Hailer, MFACW ‘15, is an author and a journalist at Public Source and other outlets. Her new book Animal You’ll Surely Become is a genre-blending work of poetry and creative nonfiction that explores issues of addiction, sexual assault, and fractured families. Sarah Cadence Hamm, MFACW ’13, Associate Director, Brand and Content Strategy, an alumna herself, sat down with Hailer for a chat about journalism, authorship, and the Chatham community.

Photo of two students seated on Adirondack chairs outside on Shadyside Campus

Alumni Careers

Here is an overview of what some recent graduates have gone on to do, and some of the places where they’re doing it: Editor-in-Chief at Autumn House Press, Pittsburgh, PA; Award-winning journalist for Public Source, Pittsburgh, PA; Acquisition Reader at Upstart Crow Literary Agency, Pittsburgh, PA; Writer and Community Specialist at ModCloth, Pittsburgh, PA; Information Specialist at USO, Frankfurt, Germany; Teaching Fellow at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA; Associate Professor at Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH; and Official Speech Writer for Tibetan President in Exile.

Do you have questions?

We make it easy to get in touch:

Call Us

800-837-1290

Text Us

412-419-3772 (standard text/SMS rates will apply)

Email Us

graduate@chatham.edu

Request Information

Complete our Request for Information form

Or, answer a few questions and we will be glad to help.

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