Low-residency MFA in creative writing

Our low-residency MFA community inspires and sustains a lifetime of creative work.

Concentrations in the MFA in creative writing

Children and young adults

Work with Pablo Cartaya, Traci Chee, Joe McGee, Isabel Quintero, Jessica Rinker and Kathryn Reiss.

Creative nonfiction

Work with Lidia Yuknavitch, Gayle Brandeis, Brian Turner, Suzanne Roberts, Gina Frangello and Leta McCollough Seletzky.

Fiction

Work with Rebecca Makkai, Lidia Yuknavitch, Alan Heathcock, Brendan Basham, Gayle Brandeis and Peter Mountford.

Poetry

Work with Brian Turner, Faylita Hicks, John Murillo, Lee Herrick, Rick Campbell and Gailmarie Pahmeier.

An audience gathered in the Prim Library for a reading

By writers, for writers

Come lean toward our fire and tell us your stories, poems, essays. We’re listening.

Our program was built entirely by writers, to guide authors organically through the exploration of their craft and thorough preparation for a sustainable life of creation and publication. No other program nurtures a writer from line and sentence to essay, story, poetry collection or novel like ours does.

Our editing semester is a uniquely practical experience in crafting work which is both thrilling and publishable. Our gifted faculty are here because they want to launch unique, individual voices within a global dialogue; to see risks taken, new moves in language braved, and students grow into professional and artistic peers.

How does a low-residency MFA program work?

We’ve made this program so that people who are unable to walk away from jobs and families and service can still become masters of their craft . . . NOW.

Over four distance-learning semesters, and five total 10-day residencies,  students will focus on their chosen genre (fiction, poetry, writing for children and young adults, or creative nonfiction) while exploring new territories of artistic expression.

Faculty meet with their students one-on-one during each residency to set plans, then work with them intensively throughout the semester providing written critiques. With a student-to-mentor ratio never greater than 5:1, students receive creative, focused, individualized feedback.

Each residency is a 10-day intensive period of workshops, seminars, readings and more, in which we explore the wide landscape of the writing life from practical tricks-of-the-trade to subtleties of conceptual nuance. Residencies are in early January and early August. 

Contact the director

June Sylvester Saraceno

June Sylvester Saraceno
MFA-CW Program Director
jsylvestersaraceno@unr.edu

Apply to the low-residency MFA in creative writing 

Features of the low-residency MFA in creative writing

The Editing Semester

Work a full semester one-on-one with an editor to make your manuscript polished – and publishable.

Approach your manuscript with greater objectivity, master the tools to shape its potential into a great reading experience on the page, and learn about the practical aspects of publishing from start to finish.

More about the editing semester

Writers in the Woods

Writers in the Woods presents intimate readings and workshops, open to all, with acclaimed authors in all genres.

The program has hosted scores of poets and writers from all over the country, including Carmen Maria Machado, Kaveh Akbar, Kim Addonizio, Rebecca Makkai, Nick Flynn, Tim O’Brien, Patricia Smith and many others.

More about Writers in the Woods

Sierra Nevada Review

The Sierra Nevada Review is a biannual online literary magazine managed and edited by the MFA-CW students.

The magazine publishes poetry, short fiction, and literary nonfiction “that leans toward the unconventional, surprising, and risky. We appreciate experiments in form and content, and prefer works whose meanings deepen on repeated readings.”

More about the Sierra Nevada Review

We want artists who will write for the rest of their lives. If you are interested in adding your voice to this transformative conversation and intrigued by the possibility of working with teachers and peers who are passionate about the art they love, then please contact us — we look forward to meeting you.