The editing semester

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

In a unique opportunity, each student in our low-residency MFA in creative writing program spends an entire semester working with an editor, revising and editing your own manuscript in a process mirroring what happens when a book is accepted for publication and the writer works with an in-house editor.

You will be carefully matched with an editor who will help you to think more objectively and reflexively about your work. Your editor will provide you with the tools to self-edit your manuscript with increasing confidence at the micro and macro levels. You will learn from their experience and expertise what it takes to make a manuscript not only polished, but eminently publishable.

Working one-on-one with an editor allows a writer to see the manuscript with greater objectivity, and to master the tools to shape its potential into a great reading experience on the page. Students practice revising on two levels: the developmental level, where they push their projects toward completion, and the line level, where they polish their poetry or prose. They learn about the practical aspects of publishing from start to finish, and identify agents and editors who share their aesthetic. They leave the semester with a roadmap for finishing and polishing their manuscripts and a working knowledge of the publishing industry.

In that critical editing semester, you will learn not only to shape your work as an artist, but to approach new projects in the years ahead with editing skills and well-deserved confidence.