western colorado university mfa creative writing

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Western Colorado University

Colorado, united states.

Western Colorado University's Graduate Program in Creative Writing offers an MFA and an M.A. in four areas: Genre Fiction, Nature Writing, Poetry, and Screenwriting, as well as an M.A. in Publishing.

The program uses a low-residency format. At the end of each July, students attend a one-week residency on Western's campus in Gunnison, Colorado. MFA students attend three such residencies; M.A. students attend two. During the academic year, all students take classes online. As a result, candidates in the program can live and work anywhere during the academic year while pursuing the degree.

Western’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing is distinctive for three reasons:

First, our five Concentrations are innovative, responding directly to emerging markets in the literary world.

Second, our Faculty are national leaders in their fields. All are highly successful writers, and taken together they have published hundreds of books and authored and directed many films and shows.

Third, our curriculum is rigorous and demanding, committed to excellence at every level.

An advanced degree in creative writing at Western Colorado University provides you the opportunity to hone your craft, elevate your art and inspire the world. Join our welcoming and inclusive community and become the writer you are meant to be.

Contact Information

1 Western Way 117 Quigley Hall Gunnison Colorado, United States 81231 Phone: (970) 943-2014 Email: [email protected] https://western.edu/program/graduate-program-creative-writing/

Bachelor of Arts in English with Creative Writing Minor +

Undergraduate program director, master of fine arts in genre fiction +, graduate program director, master of fine arts in nature writing +, master of fine arts in poetry +, master of fine arts in screenwriting +, master of arts in publishing +, master of arts in genre fiction +, master of arts in nature writing +, master of arts in poetry +, master of arts in screenwriting +, tyson hausdoerffer.

Tyson Hausdoerffer is Director of Western’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. He is currently working on a verse translation of Homer's Iliad. He lives in Crested Butte, Colorado.

http://www.western.edu/faculty/thausdoerffer/

Candace Nadon

Candace Nadon has an MFA in Fiction from Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing and a PhD in English with Creative Concentration from Georgia State University. Her fiction, poetry, and lyric essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Hartskill Review in The Fourth River, Platte Valley Review, Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, and Mary: A Journal of New Writing, among others. She edited the book Our Place Two, and contributed to the forthcoming textbook Primary Research and Writing. Candace is a fifth generation Coloradan and currently lives in Durango, CO, where she teaches at Fort Lewis College and is working on a novel.

https://western.edu/people/candace-nadon-phd/

Laura Pritchett

Laura Pritchett is the author of five novels. She began her writing journey with the short story collection Hell’s Bottom, Colorado, which won the PEN USA Award for Fiction and the Milkweed National Fiction Prize. This was followed by the novels Sky Bridge, Stars Go Blue, Red Lightning, and The Blue Hour, which garnered other awards. Stars Go Blue, her bestselling novel, has been optioned for film.

She’s also written two nonfiction books, Great Colorado Bear Stories and Making Friends with Death: A Field Guide to Your Impending Last Breath. Environmental issues are close to her heart, and she’s editor of three anthologies about conservation: Pulse of the River, Home Land, and Going Green: True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Sun, Salon, High Country News, The Millions, Publisher’s Weekly, The Normal School and many others. Her first play, Dirt: A Terra Nova Expedition, was produced last year.

She grew up on a ranch in northern Colorado with eight siblings and hundreds of weird animals, including a pet racoon and blind pigeon. She still resides in Colorado, has two teenage kids in college, and spends free time walking and cloudgazing.

https://www.laurapritchett.com/

Allyson Longueira

An award-winning writer, editor and designer, Allyson Longueira has worked in fiction and nonfiction in multiple media, including newspapers, magazines and books. She holds a BA in English from Rutgers University and an MA in journalism from the prestigious University of Missouri School of Journalism.

While a newspaper editor, she led her newspaper to three general excellence awards in three consecutive years from the Society of Professional Journalism and the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. After she transitioned to fiction editing, Allyson launched Fiction River Presents, a new series of reprint anthologies published by WMG Publishing, for which she serves as series editor.

She has taught writing, publishing and design at the college and professional levels, including a post as adjunct professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication as well as teaching professional workshops and lectures through WMG Publishing alongside award-winning authors and editors Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. In 2020, Allyson joined the faculty of Western Oregon University as part of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing, where she teaches alongside Publishing Concentration Director and New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson.

Allyson is the publisher and CEO of WMG Publishing, Inc., headquartered in Lincoln City, Oregon.

https://western.edu/people/allyson-longueira-ma/

Ana Maria Spagna

Ana Maria Spagna, MFA is the author of several books including, most recently, the braided nonfiction narrative PUSHED: Miners, a Merchant and (Maybe) a Massacre, and the poetry chapbook, Mile Marker Six. Her previous books on nature, work, civil, indigenous, and LGBTQ rights, include Uplake: Restless Essays of Coming and Going, Reclaimers, stories of elder women reclaiming sacred land and water, a finalist for the Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the memoir/history Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey, winner of the River Teeth literary nonfiction prize, 100 Skills You’ll Need for the End of the World (as We Know It) a humor-infused exploration of how to live more lightly on the planet, and two previous essay collections, Potluck andNow Go Home. Her first novel for young people, The Luckiest Scar on Earth, about a 14 year-old snowboarder and her activist father, appeared in 2017. A four-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award, Ana Maria’s essays have appeared in Orion, Ecotone, Sierra, Grist, Brevity, and regularly in High Country News. After working fifteen years on backcountry trail crews, she turned to teaching. In addition to Western, has taught at Whitman College, St. Lawrence University, Antioch University, and as the William Kittredge Distinguished Writer in Residence in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. She lives with her wife, Laurie, in Stehekin, Washington.

https://western.edu/people/ana-maria-spagna-ma/

Andrew Sellon

Andrew has over twenty years of corporate sphere experience in training, facilitating, coaching, and public speaking. Andrew is uniquely qualified in the arena of presentation skills because he also brings to each engagement over three decades of experience as a professional actor. His stage performances have been hailed by the New York Times and other newspapers across the country, and he taught acting for two years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His recent film and TV appearances include “Begin Again”, “Mamarosh”, “the Smurfs”, “The Blacklist”, “The Mysteries of Laura”, “The Good Fight”, and HBO’s “Divorce”. He is also an accomplished voiceover artist and audiobook narrator.

When coaching others, Andrew’s forte is in helping clients to shed any “performance anxiety” and to channel their own personalities to develop the spoken communication skills needed to convey their message persuasively in all types of venues. His clients learn to deliver their unique material with ease and confidence, and to engage their audiences to ensure that their message continues to resonate after the presentation.

Andrew’s clients have included large corporations, academic institutions, and small not-for-profit organizations. He is an ambassador for literacy in his role as President Emeritus of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, performing educational outreach at schools across the country for over a two decades. For a number of years, he was also Editor in Chief of the Society’s highly respected semiannual magazine, the Knight Letter, which is catalogued by a number of major academic libraries across the country.

Andrew coaches and consults from his home base in Westchester, N.Y.

https://western.edu/people/andrew-sellon-mfa/

Carol Guerrero-Murphy

Carol Guerrero-Murphy has a significant history of publishing while teaching creative writing from preschool through graduate levels in Southern Colorado. Her latest book, Bright Path Dark River (October 2020) is a finalist for the CAL poetry award. Chained Dog Dreams is her second full length book (finishinglinepress November 2019). Her first book, Table Walking at Nighthawk (Ghost Road Press, 2007) was nominated for a Pushcart and earned a WILLA Award. She is semi-retired, writing and teaching in the Adams State Prison College Program, bringing to students her belief in the restorative power of literature and writing, and is affiliate faculty in the Western Colorado University M.F.A. Creative Writing program. Six poems from Bright Path, Dark River, are featured in The Missouri Review. Journal publications among many others include Southwestern Literary Review, Pilgrimage, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, American Poetry Review and many others. Anthologies include Pilgrimage: Thirty Years; and Even Cowboys Carry Cellphones. Many of her poems are set in the Huerfano and San Luis valleys of Colorado and in Alaska where she spent her childhood. She is a professor emerita from Adams State University. She has a doctorate from Denver University’s program in English/Creative Writing.

https://western.edu/people/carol-d-guerrero-murphy/

CMarie Fuhrman

CMarie Fuhrman, MFA is an author and poet whose work is rooted in the landscape of the West. She is the author of the collection of poems, Camped Beneath the Dam, and co-editor of two significant anthologies, Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry and Native Voices: Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations. She has published or forthcoming poetry and nonfiction in multiple journals, including Terrain.org, Emergence Magazine, Platform Review, Northwest Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Poetry Northwest, and several anthologies. CMarie is a regular columnist for the Inlander and the Elk River Writers Workshop Director. She is the Associate Director and Director of poetry for the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University, where she teaches Nature Writing. CMarie is the host of Terra Firma, a podcast from Colorado Public Radio. She resides in the Salmon River Mountains of Idaho and is the state of Idaho’s 15th Writer in Residence.

https://western.edu/people/cmarie-fuhrman/

Julie Kane holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. from Boston University and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, where her dissertation on the villanelle won the Lewis P. Simpson Dissertation Award. Her poetry books include “Rhythm & Booze” (2003), a National Poetry Series winner; “Jazz Funeral” (2009), winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize; and “Paper Bullets” (2014), a collection of light verse. The Vietnam memoir that she co-authored with Kiem Do, “Counterpart” (1998), became a History Book Club Featured Alternate.

Kane’s poems and translations appear in over 50 anthologies, including “Penguin’s Poetry: A Pocket Anthology,” “Norton’s Seagull Reader” and “Best American Poetry 2016.” She has collaborated with composer Dale Trumbore on the one-act opera “Starship Paradise,” premiered by Center City Opera Theater of Philadelphia, and with composer Kenneth Olson on City of Lights for orchestra and soprano, premiered by the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony.

Composer Libby Larsen’s settings of Kane’s poems have been recorded on CDs by The American Boychoir and by mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer. Kane’s scholarly essays have been published in Twentieth Century Literature, Literature/Film Quarterly, Modern Language Quarterly, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, and other journals and edited collections. The 2011-2013 Louisiana Poet Laureate, she is a Professor of English and recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award at Northwestern State University of Louisiana.

https://western.edu/people/julie-kane-phd/

Kevin J. Anderson

Publishing Concentration Director Professor Kevin J. Anderson is the author of 140 novels, 56 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists; he has over 23 million books in print in thirty languages. Anderson has coauthored fourteen books in the “Dune” saga with Brian Herbert and over 50 books for Lucasfilm in the Star Wars universe. He has written for the X-Files, Star Trek, Batman and Superman, and many other popular franchises. For his solo work, he’s written the epic “SF” series, “The Saga of Seven Suns”, and a sweeping nautical fantasy trilogy, “Terra Incognita”, accompanied by two progressive rock CDs (which he wrote and produced). He has written two steampunk novels, “Clockwork Angels” and “Clockwork Lives”, with legendary drummer and lyricist Neil Peart from the band Rush. He also created the popular humorous horror series featuring Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., and has written eight high-tech thrillers with Colonel Doug Beason.

Anderson holds a physics/astronomy degree and spent 14 years working as a technical writer for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is now the publisher of Colorado-based WordFire Press, a new-model publisher using innovative techniques and technologies to release books worldwide in print and eBooks. They have released over 300 titles. Anderson is also one of the founders of the Superstars Writing Seminar, which has been one of the premiere professional and career development seminars for writers. He is also an accomplished public speaker on a wide range of topics. He and his wife, bestselling author Rebecca Moesta, have lived in Colorado for 20 years; Anderson has climbed all of the mountains over 14,000 ft in the state, and he has also hiked the 500-mile Colorado Trail.

https://western.edu/people/kevin-j-anderson-mfa/

Maya Jewell Zeller

Maya Jewell Zeller (she/her/hers) was born in the walk-up apartment above her parents’ gas station on the Oregon Coast and grew up in various communities of the Pacific Northwest. She has taught writing and literature to a range of demographics: high school and college students, fourth graders and senior citizens; at multiple universities, schools, conferences and retreats, in the U.S. and abroad, including Centrum’s Port Townsend Writers Conference and Litfuse Tieton. A two-time writer-in-residence in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Recipient of a 2016 Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and Travel Grant from the American Association of University Professors, Maya has had work translated and presented internationally in Madrid, as part of the Unamuno Author Festival (2019) and Reading Series (2018), and as a visiting writer at University of Oxford’s Meet the Poet at Teddy Hall; she has additionally won awards from Sycamore Review, New South, New Ohio Review, Dogwood, Florida Review and Crab Orchard Review. Maya’s poems and essays have also been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes, Best of the Net, and other awards. Maya is the author of the poetry collections Alchemy for Cells & Other Beasts (a collaboration with visual artist Carrie DeBacker; October 2017, Entre Rios Books), Rust Fish (April 2011, Lost Horse Press) and Yesterday, the Bees (October 2015, Floating Bridge Press). Other manuscripts have been named finalists with such prizes as the National Poetry Series (four time finalist), University of Wisconsin Brittingham/Pollak Prize, Prairie Schooner, Waywiser, New Issues’ Green Rose Prize, and OSU/The Journal, Versa Editions (Amsterdam); and Maya’s poems, essays, stories, and reviews appear in journals such as Bellingham Review, West Branch, Pleiades, New Ohio Review, High Desert Journal, Cincinnati Review, The Rumpus, Willow Springs, The Moth, Booth Journal, Moss, and Rattle, as well as anthologies such as Pie and Whiskey: Poems and Prose on Butter and Booze; Forest Under Story; All We Can Hold; and New Poets of the American West. Her essay “The Privilege Button” appeared in the New York Times-Reviewed anthology, This is the Place (Seal Press, 2017). Maya serves as Poetry Editor for Scablands Books and Associate Professor in the Professional and Creative Writing Program (BA and MA) for Central Washington University, where she also coordinates the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series. She is currently at work on a memoir, “Raised by Ferns” (out on agented submission); as well as an Advanced Poetry Writing Textbook for Bloomsbury (co-author Kathryn Nuernberger, University of Minnesota), in addition to several poetry manuscripts and a humor novella, “A Few Nondescript Adventures of Some Consequence.”

https://western.edu/people/maya-jewell-zeller/

Richard Wilber

I’m a teacher as well as a working writer, so my career highlights include noting with pride that a number of my students have found success in fiction or nonfiction writing. Two students I worked with have won Pulitzer Prizes, and many, many more have gone on to find success as novelists, short-story writers, newspaper reporters and columnists, and editors of both fiction and nonfiction magazines. I’m enormously proud of all of them.

I am the co-founder and co-judge (with Sheila Williams, the award-winning editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine) of a major international undergraduate writing award, The Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. Watching the writing careers blossom for many of the winners and finalists of that award over the past quarter-century has been a major highlight.

On the writing side, my novel, “Alien Morning,” was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2016, and my short story, “Something Real,” won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History-Short Form of the year in 2012. As a novelist, anthology editor and short-story writer, simply seeing my work appear in print is a continuing highlight.

https://western.edu/people/richard-wilber-edd/

Steven Coughlin

As a creative writer, I have published poems, short stories, and essays in several literary journals and magazines, including the Gettysburg Review, New Ohio Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Gulf Coast, Seneca Review, and Slate.com. My first full-length collection of poetry, Another City, was published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press, and my second collection, Deep Cuts, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. In 2018, I published Driving at Twilight, a poetry chapbook.

https://western.edu/people/steve-coughlin/

Mitali Jahagirdar

Mitali Jahagirdar is a WGA Award nominee for her writing as staff writer on Disney+’s JUST BEYOND based on R.L. Stine’s graphic novel series, and previously adapted the YA novel TIGER’S CURSE for Netflix. She is presently in development with Netflix’s “Created By” initiative and was Story Editor for Netflix’s THE HENNA ARTIST. The proud daughter of Indian immigrants, Mitali spent her early years in Central Florida, then left for New York City, where she studied Economics and Journalism at NYU. Mitali went on to serve as a litigation paralegal at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP before deciding to pursue her love of TV and film. In 2017 she received her MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA, and since then her thriller and sci-fi/fantasy voice has won her membership in the CAPE New Writers Fellowship, NBC Writers on the Verge Fellowship, Film Independent Screenwriting Lab, Sony Diverse Writers Program, and recognition on the 2020 CAPE List.

https://western.edu/people/mitali-jahagirdar/

Johanna Parkhurst

Johanna Parkhurst is the author of multiple young adult romance novels and adult contemporary romance novels. The majority of her works feature LGBTQ+ characters, as she considers herself to be primarily a writer of LGBTQ+ romance. Her most recently published ghostwritten work was a YA romance that received a Kirkus-starred review. She has been traditionally published, published by small presses, and she currently self-publishes her own works; she is the owner and operator of Maple Mountains Press, LLC. Her recent novel Counterpoint, which was published by Heart Eyes Press under the name J.E. Birk, was a bestseller in several Amazon categories upon its release. ILYBSM, a novel she penned with two co-writers, spent multiple weeks in the top 100 Gay Romance novels category on Amazon in December of 2022. Her novella The Worst Bad Thing was a Rainbow Romance award-winner.

Johanna is a long-time teacher who is happiest in any writing classroom. She was a Faculty of the Year recipient at Pueblo Community College and is currently the Director of the Genre Fiction M.A./M.F.A. program at Western Colorado University. She enjoys paddleboarding, skiing, and traveling. She does not enjoy vacuuming.

https://western.edu/people/johanna-parkhurst/

Byron Aspaas

Byron F. Aspaas is a Diné (Navajo) poet whose works work has been published in journals and anthologies including RedInk, Yellow Medicine Review, the Denver Quarterly, and the Diné Reader and works remotely from Colorado as adjunct faculty at San Juan College while teaching continuing education courses with the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Identity Project.

https://western.edu/people/byron-aspaas/

Derek Sheffield

Derek Sheffield was born in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and grew up there and on the shores of the Salish Sea. After spending eight years in Seattle and earning an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington, he lived briefly in Oregon’s high desert before moving to central Washington, near Leavenworth.

Since 2003, he has worked as a professor of English at Wenatchee Valley College, where, in partnership with biologist Dr. Dan Stephens, he teaches Northwest Nature Writing, a learning community where the precision of poetry melds with the excitement of science. Thanks to support from the Spring Creek Project, he has been able to work alongside many devoted scientists and artists during field residencies at Loowit-Mount St. Helens and the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest. He is a hiker, birder, fisher, forest bather, and father. He takes much delight in the fact that his daughters know many of their fellow beings and are often making their own poems and paintings when they aren’t assembling twigs, leaves, and grasses into nests and boats for Fairies.

Author of the poetry collections Through the Second Skin, finalist for the Washington State Book Award, and Not for Luck, selected by Mark Doty for the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize, and coeditor of Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy and Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry, he serves as poetry editor of Terrain.org, the world’s oldest online journal devoted to place-centered art and literature.

https://western.edu/people/derek-sheffield/

Cameron McGill

Cameron McGill is a poet, educator, and songwriter from Champaign, Illinois. He is the author of Meridians (Willow Springs Books) and In the Night Field (Augury Books/Brooklyn Arts Press). His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Grist, Northwest Review, Raleigh Review, RHINO, and Western Humanities Review, as well as the anthologies Teeth of the Billow Tree (Willow Springs Books) and Poetry Is Bread (Nirala Publications, forthcoming 2023). He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho and has received fellowships/scholarships from Summer Fishtrap, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, and the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference. In 2022, he released his seventh studio album The Widow Cameron. He teaches poetry in the GPCW at Western Colorado University and serves as Scholarly Assistant Professor at Washington State University, where he teaches creative writing and co-directs the Visiting Writers Series. He lives and writes and plays the piano in Moscow, Idaho.

https://western.edu/people/cameron-mcgill/

Claire Boyles

Claire Boyles (she/her) is a writer and former farmer who lives in Colorado. A 2022 Whiting Award winner in fiction, she is the author of Site Fidelity, which won the High Plains Book Award for short story collections and was longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award, the Colorado Book Award, and the Reading the West Award. She has received support from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Foundation, the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers Workshop, and the Community of Writers. She has been a Peter Taylor Fellow for the Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop.

https://western.edu/people/claire-boyles/

Laura Resau

Laura Resau is the award-winning author of nine highly acclaimed young adult and children’s novels with Scholastic and Delacorte Press, including Star in the Forest (film-optioned) and The Queen of Water (co-authored with María Virginia Farinango). Her picture book, Stand as Tall as the Trees: How an Amazonian Community Protected the Rain Forest (co-authored with Patricia Gualinga), is coming in July of 2023, followed by her sci-fi young adult novel, Virch, coming in the spring of 2024.

Laura draws inspiration from her time abroad as a cultural anthropologist and ESL teacher. She has collaborated with women from Ecuador and Mexico to celebrate their stories and voices. Loved by kids and adults, her novels have garnered many starred reviews and honors, including the IRA YA Fiction Award, the Américas Award, five Colorado Book Awards, spots on “best-of” booklists from Oprah, School Library Journal, the American Library Association, Bank Street, and more.

Laura’s writing has been called “vibrant, large-hearted” (Publishers’ Weekly on Red Glass) and “powerful, magical” (Booklist on What the Moon Saw). Also an educator and nature-lover, she has recently joined the faculty in the graduate program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University. She lives with her family in Fort Collins, Colorado and donates a portion of her royalties to Indigenous rights organizations in Latin America.

https://western.edu/people/laura-resau/

Karen Auvinen

Karen Auvinen is a poet, writer, mountain woman, outlier and life-long westerner, and author of the memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living (Scribner), finalist for the Colorado Book Award and the Willa Award.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, LitHub, Real Simple, Westword and The Rumpus, as well as High Desert Journal, Ascent Magazine, Cold Mountain Review and The Columbia Review, among others. Her fiction has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. A collection of stories about outliers in the West is forthcoming.

Past gigs include Writer-in-Residence for the State of Colorado, editor, book-buyer, rural postal route driver, caterer, clinic assistant, landscaper, summer camp director and guest chef. She lives at 8600 feet with her partner, artist Greg Marquez, River the dog and Dottie the cat, within the Roosevelt National Forest and the ancestral territories of the Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples.

https://western.edu/people/karen-auvinen/

Ligiah Villalobos Rojas

Ligiah Villalobos is a Writer, Producer, Consultant, Educator and Lecturer. She is best known for writing and executive producing the indie feature film Under the Same Moon, (La Misma Luna). Acquired by Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company at the Sundance Film Festival, the film became the highest sale for a Spanish-language film in the history of Sundance. Made for under $2M, the film earned over $23M worldwide. Villalobos has developed projects for multiple studios and networks, including ABC, NBC, ABC/Family, Lifetime, Hallmark Hall of Fame, F/X, Showtime, BET, HBO Max and STARZ, among others. And she was a Cultural Consultant on the Academy Award winning Pixar movie, COCO and the Disney movie, Planes. Before becoming a writer/producer, Villalobos was a studio executive at The Walt Disney Company, where she oversaw television production in Latin America for five years, launching eight #1 children shows in seven countries. She then oversaw the Writing Fellowship Program and launched the Directors Training Program for the Studio. Villalobos was then hired as a Current Programming Executive at The WB, where she oversaw six prime times shows, including the four highest rated shows on the network. Recently, Villalobos was the Executive Producer of 20 Spirit & Friends animated shorts for Dreamworks TV Animation, which can be seen on PeacockTV. She is a writer on the upcoming animated series Rosie’s Rules for PBS, premiering in October, and the Creator and Executive Producer of the Sonoro/IHeart Media scripted podcast titled, Adelita: Changing the Key, premiering later this fall on all platforms. She is also developing a six-part music-driven limited series titled Q, inspired by the classic novel Don Quijote de la Mancha, and she is attached to do an American adaptation of the South African feature film Sink. The animated feature film Koati, which she co-wrote and is associate producer on, was released in theatres in 2021. Villalobos is a tenured Associate Professor at Cal State LA and has been an adjunct professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts and at LMU. She is on the Board of Immigrant Defenders Law Center and on the Honorary Board of The Point Foundation, the largest scholarship-granting organization for LGBTQ students of merit. She is the recipient of the Humanitas Prize for the film, Firelight. She received her MFA from Antioch University in Creative Writing.

https://western.edu/people/ligiah-villalobos-rojas/

Gwyneth Gibby

Gwyneth Gibby is the Associate Publisher for WMG Publishing Inc., where she puts her skills as a marketing expert to great use. She directed feature films for Hollywood legend Roger Corman and taught film and video production for an MFA program sponsored by the Royal Film Commission in Jordan. She was an award-winning investigative reporter for newspapers in Corvallis and Lincoln City, Oregon. Gwyneth is also an expert in narrative in the digital medium.

https://western.edu/people/gwyneth-gibbey/

Geoff Geib received his MFA in 2009 from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television where he won the Michael Minor and Robert Green award in screenwriting. After graduating, he worked as a staff writer on the final two seasons of the television show Medium and later sold an original drama pilot entitled Happy Accidents to CBS Paramount. He has written/developed numerous television and feature scripts since, including an adaptation of the New York Times bestseller The Art Forger. He has taught screenwriting at Cal State University Long Beach, in the graduate school at Hollins University and in the Professional Program at UCLA. Geoff’s IMDb page proudly lists the PA work he did on Gilda Radner’s Greatest Moments from 2002 and his dramatic turn as the ‘Lightswitch Guy’ in the hopefully never seen independent film Ante Up.

https://western.edu/people/geoff-geib/

Julie Czerneda

Having written twenty-three novels (and counting) published by her beloved DAW Books and Hugo-winning editor Sheila E.Gilbert, as well as numerous short stories, and editing several anthologies over the past 25 years, Julie E. Czerneda was inducted in the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2022. Julie’s works combine her training and love of biology with a boundless curiosity and optimism. Her most recent releases are Imaginings, Julie’s first short story collection, and her standalone science fiction novel To Each This World. Her next novel, A Change of Place, returns to her fantasy series, Night’s Edge, in 2024. Julie is represented by Sara Megibow of KT Literary.

https://western.edu/people/julie-czerneda/

Tenea D. Johnson

Tenea D. Johnson is a multimedia storyteller, musician, editor, arts & empowerment entrepreneur, and award-winning author of8 speculative fiction works, including Frequencies, a FictionAlbum and Broken Fevers, of which Publisher’s Weekly wrote“the 14 hard-hitting, memorable short stories and prose vignettes in this powerhouse collection … are astounding in their originality” (starred review). Her debut novel Smoketown won the Parallax Award while R/evolution earned an honorable mention that year as well. She’s had the pleasure of presenting her fiction, musical stories, and stories off the page at venues and galleries including the Public Theater, the Knitting Factory, and the Museum of Fine Arts. Her short work appears in anthologies like Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism andBeyond, Sycorax’s Daughters, and In Trouble. Incandescence, her latest project, is a speculative fiction/dance film collaboration.

https://western.edu/people/tenea-johnson/

Liz Sczudlo

Liz Sczudlo is a television writer and executive producer living in Los Angeles, CA. Liz was born and raised in Washington D.C. and attended Brown University, where she pursued a degree in Modern Culture & Media before earning a degree in Film and Television Directing from UCLA. Her writing credits include “Dynasty” (CW), “Jane the Virgin” (CW), “The Following” (Fox), “Switched at Birth” (Freeform), “Awkward” (MTV), “Reign” (CW), “90210” (CW), and several films for Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel. She’s developed pilots with Freeform, Hulu, TBS, CW, CBS, and Village Roadshow. Liz is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America, West.

https://western.edu/people/liz-sczudlo/

E. Lily Yu is the author of On Fragile Waves, Jewel Box (October2023), and a collection of essays forthcoming in 2024, as well as the librettist of Stars Between, with composer Steven K. Tran, for the Seattle Opera’s 2021 Jane Lang Creation Lab. She received the Washington State Book Award for Fiction in 2022, the Artist Trust LaSalle Storyteller Award in 2017, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer in 2012. More than thirty of her stories have appeared in venues from McSweeney’s toTor.com, as well as thirteen best-of-the-year anthologies, and have been finalists for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, andWorld Fantasy Awards.

https://western.edu/people/e-lily-yu/

Amy is writer of plays, film, and television. Most recently, Amy was a Co-Producer and Writer on The Conners on ABC, where she got to write for one of the best casts on television. She also wrote the screenplay for Equity, a financial thriller about women on Wall Street, which premiered at Sundance in 2016. Amy is also an educator and writing coach, and was on the writing faculty of NYU’s Graduate Film School for over a decade. Amy lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children, and five brightly colored parakeets who fly freely around the living room.

https://western.edu/people/amy-fox/

Gary LIlley

Gary Copeland Lilley is the author of eight books of poetry, the most recent being The Bushman’s Medicine Show, from Lost Horse Press (2017), and a chapbook, The Hog Killing, from Blue Horse Press (2018). He is originally from North Carolina and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. He has received the Washington DC Commission on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. He is published in numerous anthologies and journals, including Best American Poetry 2014, Willow Springs, The Swamp, Waxwing, the Taos International Journal of Poetry, and the African American Review. He is the Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Writers Conference and a Cave Canem Fellow.

https://western.edu/people/gary-lilley/

Erica Reid is a Colorado poet, editor, educator, and critic. Her debut collection Ghost Man on Second won the 2023 Donald Justice Poetry Prize and will be published by Autumn House Press in early 2024. Erica’s poems appear or are forthcoming in Rattle, Birmingham Poetry Review, The Inflectionist Review, Colorado Review, and more.

https://western.edu/people/erica-reid/

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MFA Program

Poetry: CMarie Fuhrman, Carol Guerrero-Murphy, Tyson Hausdoerffer, Julie Kane, Maya Jewell Zeller, Cameron McGill, Byron F. Aspaas, Derek Sheffield, Steve Coughlin

Genre Fiction: Candace Nadon, Rick Wilbur, Johanna Parkhurst, E. Lily Yu, Julie Czerneda, Tenea Johnson, Laura Resau

Nature Writing: Karen Auvinen, Steve Coughlin, CMarie Fuhrman, Laura Pritchett, Ana Maria Spagna, Laura Resau, Claire Boyles, Maya Jewell Zeller

Publishing: Kevin J. Anderson, Gwyneth Gibby, Allyson Longueira

Screenwriting: Mitali Jahagirdar, Emily Spivey, Ligiah Villalobos Rojas, Geoffrey Geib, Kimberlea Kressel, Liz Scudlo

The program offers scholarships and loans.

Western Press Books

Students attend a one-week residency each July at the Western Colorado University campus in Gunnison, Colorado.

The program now offers five distinct concentrations: Genre Fiction, Nature Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Screenwriting.

Rolling admission is from August 1 to May 31.

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Creative Writing - Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

The MFA in creative writing is a three-year degree program that values literary study, innovation and writing that tests the limits of conventional forms.

The program challenges students to write in a variety of genres and to study literature from the point of view of a working writer. Recent graduates have become not only published authors of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, plays and screenplays, but also journalists, editors, publishers, and college-level and secondary-level teachers.

The degree program culminates in the submission and oral defense of a creative thesis in poetry or fiction. Students may develop custom programs in nonfiction and scriptwriting with available faculty with secondary interests in those genres.

Requirements

Required coursework, language requirement.

Students earning the creative writing MFA must complete a foreign language requirement, either before or after enrolling at CU Boulder, prior to the semester in which they intend to graduate. The language requirement can be met in one of the following ways:

• Complete a fourth-semester (second-semester sophomore) college language course with a grade of C or better. Completion of only freshman-level language courses does not qualify as evidence of competence.
• Take the foreign language proficiency exam administered each semester by the English department. In some cases, students may be asked to make independent arrangements for such an exam. 
• Present other evidence of competency in a foreign language to the associate chair for graduate studies. In most cases, this evidence consists of native or near-native command of a language; a written exam may be administered to confirm such fluency.

General Requirements

All students must complete a thesis as part of the degree requirements. The thesis should be a book of poetry, short stories, literary/creative nonfiction or a substantial portion of a novel, play or screenplay. It may also be a combination of these genres. The thesis should be at least 70 pages in length, though most students write between 70 and 150 pages. The bulk of work used in a thesis should have been written while the student was enrolled in the creative writing MFA program, and it should be in a form acceptable to the committee. The thesis must include an abstract (1 to 3 pages) that states the writer's aims and explains how the thesis reflects those aims.

Students take a total of 9 thesis hours in one or more semesters. The student should select a committee of three faculty (the advisor, who is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department; one other creative writing faculty member; and a faculty member in literary studies) during the semester prior to that in which they will defend the thesis. A rough draft of the thesis should be made available to the advisor prior to the thesis defense so that problems may be discussed at an early enough date to enable the student to work on them. The advisor will work with the student to advise them on manuscript length, suggestions for improvement and general compilation. The advisor and the student will also agree on a reading list about which the student may be questioned at the defense.

See the index in the  Graduate Student Handbook  for the MFA-CRWR Thesis Action Item Checklist, which includes deadlines and a suggested schedule.

A thesis defense must take place before the semester's deadline for completing defenses (see the Graduate School's website for a list of semester deadlines). A student must give their completed thesis to their entire committee and file a Master's Examination Report at least two weeks in advance of the defense. The defense is an oral examination of the thesis that lasts about an hour. All committee members must be present in person or via teleconference. A positive vote from at least two of the committee members is required to pass. A student who fails the defense may not reattempt it for at least three months, and not until any work prescribed by the committee has been completed. The student may retake the examination only once; the second exam covers the same material and includes the same committee members as the first.

Thesis Submission and Format

The final draft of the MFA thesis must be submitted to the Graduate School by the applicable deadline and must comply with the Graduate School's specifications for theses and dissertations as described on the Graduate School's Master Graduation Information - Thesis Plan webpage. Students must include all stipulated parts of the thesis (e.g., title page, signature page, abstract, table of contents, bibliography) and are encouraged to ask the Graduate School to check the format of the thesis before they submit the final copy ( [email protected] ).

Candidacy and Diploma Applications for MFA

Students must submit their Candidacy Application for an Advanced Degree by the stipulated deadline, which is generally the third or fourth week of classes in the semester in which the student plans to graduate. The candidacy application confirms that all degree requirements will have been completed by the end of the semester. Return all forms to the graduate program assistant for signatures and submission to the Graduate School.

All students planning to graduate must apply online to graduate. This step must be completed regardless of whether the student plans to attend the commencement ceremony. See the Graduation section for more information.

MFA students have four years from the semester in which they are admitted and begin coursework to complete all degree requirements. To continue past four years, students must file a petition for an extension of the time limit with the dean of the Graduate School. Such petitions must first be submitted for endorsement to the English Department's associate chair for creative writing. Extensions may be granted for up to one year.

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Interview with Kevin J. Anderson, MFA - Director of the M.A. in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration for the School of Graduate Studies at Western Colorado University

About Kevin J. Anderson, MFA: Kevin J. Anderson is Director of the Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration for Western Colorado University’s School of Graduate Studies. As Director, he teaches all the courses in the program along with his co-professor Allyson Longueira, and serves as students’ primary mentor throughout their enrollment. The Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration is currently in its fourth year, and has recently expanded to hire an additional faculty member to support growing student interest and enrollment in the program.

Professor Anderson holds a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MFA from Lindenwood University. In addition, he is a #1 international bestselling author with over 170 books published and 24 million copies in print. Notably, he coauthored fourteen books within the Dune saga, in collaboration with Brian Herbert, and has also written for numerous science fiction series, including those for Star Wars, X-Files, Star Trek, Batman, and Superman. Professor Anderson has run his own publishing house, WordFire Press, for fifteen years, with over 400 titles published by more than a hundred authors, and he carries this experience into his mentorship of the next generation of authors and publishers.

Interview Questions

[MastersinCommunications.com] Could you elaborate on Western Colorado University’s Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration, including its curriculum structure, and how it prepares students for careers in an ever-changing book publishing landscape?

[Professor Anderson] I developed this program five years ago to offer up-to-date practical knowledge of the rapidly changing publishing industry. Our program is unique in that it is evenly balanced between traditional publishing and indie/new-model publishing. Each semester has two courses, Traditional Publishing and Indie/New-Model Publishing, with lectures, readings, podcasts, and guest speakers on a variety of subjects.

Traditional publishing courses go over the “standard” model of publishing, usually centered in New York, and covers different types of editors, literary agents, publicists, design and publicity teams, contracts, printing and distribution in bookstores as well as libraries. This will prepare students for jobs in traditional publishing houses in New York and elsewhere. But more than a decade ago the field of indie publishing exploded with immediate hands-on technologies to produce and distribute ebooks and print-on-demand print books, sold directly online. Our indie publishing curriculum prepares students to produce and distribute their books directly via Amazon and other vendors and prepares them to form their own publishing companies as soon as they graduate from the program.

The core of the Publishing concentration is the hands-on work on actual projects. Each cohort of students creates an original anthology, writes the call for submissions, and then reads the slushpile stories. With funding from Draft2Digital, this anthology pays professional rates, and so we receive a lot of submissions. The students select the final stories, on a firm budget, then write rejections, write contracts, and over the course of the following semester work with the authors, edit the manuscripts, create the cover art, design, and layout of the book. They publish and market the book in hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook formats, and launch it in a gala book-signing event at the Gunnison Arts Center. Our very first anthology won the Colorado Book Award for best anthology. Students also do a solo thesis project, selecting a public-domain classic and producing a fine new edition, from start to finish, which is also published with their name as editor before they graduate. Thus, when students graduate, they leave the program with two significant works, with their name prominently featured, for their portfolio.

Our students have come from a diverse set of backgrounds in the publishing industry, from veterans of traditional publishing (including authors with many traditional works published) who want to learn the newly available skills of indie publishing, to already-successful indie authors who want to understand traditional publishing, to media specialists and marketers who want to understand the core industry, to writers who want to form their own presses, to complete neophytes who find the topic interesting. Some are young students moving immediately from their undergrad degrees, while others are military retirees or successful authors who want to become publishers. Most of our students come from the “trenches” rather than from academia.

[MastersinCommunications.com] Western Colorado University’s Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration is delivered primarily online. What technologies and learning management system does the online program use to create an ideal learning environment for its students? Does the online program use synchronous instruction, asynchronous instruction, or both?

[Professor Anderson] We are a low-residency program, so most of the time students receive instruction via Canvas. Weekly assignments include written lectures and readings, with interactive discussions in Canvas. Because publishing is such a rapidly changing field, most of our materials are podcasts, Publishers Weekly, blogs. All of that instruction is asynchronous learning, which students can do on their own time.

We also have real-time Zoom discussions, formal as well as informal “hangouts,” and we have numerous guest speakers, including New York Times bestselling authors, the head of Audible, editors or publishers of major New York publishing houses, literary agents, award-winning cover artists, representatives from Amazon and major ebook platforms, and some of the most successful indie authors with seven-figure annual earnings. These speakers often remain in contact with the program and are available to interact with students outside of the lecture. We believe that the education in this ever-changing industry does not end with the receipt of a degree, and the growing community of students and alumni and guest speakers remains a vibrant ongoing resource for graduates and current students alike.

My co-professor and I also have one-on-one calls with every student each semester. In addition, I have remained in direct personal contact with about 75% of my students in the past three cohorts and actively give mentoring and advice. Many of them have founded their own publishing houses or published and distributed their own books, and they in turn have mentored current students.

[MastersinCommunications.com] To supplement the online courses, students of Western Colorado University’s Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration attend two intensive summer residencies—one at the beginning of the program and one shortly before their graduation. Could you describe what these residencies entail, and how they enhance students’ learning outcomes in the program?

[Professor Anderson] The model changed post-Covid. Each summer we meet for an intensive week-long virtual residency where we do live real-time zoom classes, lectures, and guest speakers. As interns for WordFire Press, the new cohort acts as the proofing team on an actual book in production, and they also develop keywords.

After the week-long virtual residency, the students then meet in person on campus in Gunnison, Colorado. Here we have daily in-class sessions, sometimes a visiting guest speaker. In this interactive environment, the students develop the concept for their anthology and write up the call for submissions. This is the project they will work on over the course of their degree. They also learn about copyright and public-domain works, and choose their solo project to produce as their publishing thesis.

[MastersinCommunications.com] How is faculty mentorship integrated into Western Colorado University’s Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration, and what advice do you have for students in terms of making the most of the mentorship opportunities and support systems available to them?

[Professor Anderson] Since we have only two professors running the program, we each advise every student and are available for personal consultations throughout the two semesters. I remain in close contact with my graduates and continue to mentor them after graduation. Graduates have gone on to work for a major traditional publishing house, a university press, book-marketing services, and many have founded their own presses; one has purchased an existing press and is now running it. All of the alumni, three cohorts now, maintain an active discussion group on which they share information, news, support, and marketing help. We also participate in numerous writing conferences such as Superstars Writing Seminars, LTUE, 20Booksto50K, and Writers of the Future, which are attended by graduates and current students.

[MastersinCommunications.com] How can students who are interested in Western Colorado University’s Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration put forth a competitive application?

[Professor Anderson] We are looking for ambitious, passionate, hard-working students who are open-minded and flexible. Publishing is an industry in constant flux, and students need to stay on the leading edge, and must be willing to look realistically beyond old-school traditional publishing and be willing to consider alternative paths. Our past cohorts are made up of an ethnically diverse group of students, ranging in age from young post-undergrad students to senior citizens (including a 75 year old), and we have accommodated neurodiverse individuals and those who needed special changes to receive instruction.

We believe that publishing speaks to everyone, and that all stories by all types of individuals can be told … but they won’t be told without a publisher willing to publish them.

[MastersinCommunications.com] What makes Western Colorado University’s Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration an excellent graduate degree option for students? How does this program prepare students particularly well for advanced, cutting-edge careers in today’s dynamic publishing industry?

[Professor Anderson] This is not an esoteric, academic-only program. Graduates of Western Colorado University’s Publishing MA program will actually know HOW to do what their industry and their career requires. They will produce books, every step of the way, and they will learn marketing, run their own Amazon and Facebook ads, and they will participate in their own book launch and signing event. Every graduate of this program emerges as an actual PUBLISHER, not just someone with a Publishing degree.

[MastersinCommunications.com] What further developments in the publishing industry do you anticipate happening in the next few years? What are some trends in the space that students and professionals alike should be aware of? For students seeking to break into or advance in the publishing industry, do you have any general advice?

[Professor Anderson] Learning doesn’t stop when you get your degree. To succeed in this field, you have to be aware of changing needs and developments, new technologies, new pricing structures. What worked best last year might not work best this year. The traditional publishing industry has had to adapt and make serious changes over the past ten years, from decentralizing offices in (expensive) New York, to shifting bookselling patterns from in-person bookstore sales to online sales, to changing book cover designs to focus on sales based on a thumbnail image online rather than full-size in front of a customer in real life. Indie publishing has experienced dramatic growth and any author or publisher who wants to be successful must work double-time just to stay ahead of the curve.

Programs like the Publishing Master’s degree at Western Colorado University provide students with the guidance and resources to stay ahead of others in the publishing industry.

Thank you, Professor Kevin J. Anderson, for your unique insight into Western Colorado University’s Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Publishing Concentration!

How to Become a Writer in Colorado with a BFA, MFA or Similar Creative Writing Degree

Created by CreativeWritingEDU.org Contributor

There’s the old stereotype about writers enjoying the bottle, and maybe the lower levels of oxygen in Colorado’s higher elevation have a similar effect.

The home of Karouac’s beatnik School of Disembodied Poetics, and for a time Hunter S. Thompson, Colorado has established itself as a safe space for strong and eclectic personalities. It’s a perfect place for creative writers, many with a reputation for finding their own path and challenging existing societal norms.

Anne Waldman, author of dozens of books, pamphlets, and numerous poetry collaborations, co-founded a creative writing school in Boulder in just such a philosophical vein; a unique spirit she called “outrider” that has since contributed to the establishment of a new poetic style:

Colorado – The Counterculture Capital

If hippies were a cultural response to the Vietnam War, beatniks came first as a 1950s cultural response to societal rigidity begotten by the Great Depression and World War Two.

With an etymology tracing back to Jack Kerouac and his phrase, “beat generation,” beatniks were all about individuality, freedom, and expression. This kind of atmosphere was a natural incubator for writers and poets, with notable names in addition to Kerouac including Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Joanne Kyger, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ken Kesey, Gregory Corso and many more.

All those names except Kerouac himself, due to his untimely death, were celebrated poets and novelists, and fixture faculty at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics located in Boulder as part of Naropa University.

Founded by Ginsberg and beat-associated poet Anne Waldman, the acclaimed school is going strong to this day, offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees in creative writing, taught by a star-studded staff.

The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics was founded in a cultural tradition that produced classic works like On the Road , “Howl,” Naked Lunch , and, “Bomb.”

The school exemplifies the tradition found in many creative writing programs of older experienced artists giving back to the next generation’s authors and poets.

It’s the perfect illustration of the guidance and inspiration you can get out of a creative writing degree program that matches your goals with its strengths.

Colorado’s Creative Writing Classes, Courses, and Workshops Can Prepare You for a Creative Writing Degree

As with any art form, practice makes perfect. Fortunately, Colorado offers many opportunities for you to gain experience in your craft.

The Colorado Writers’ Café specializes in community building among writers throughout the state. Its unique approach involves contacting various Colorado writing groups and arranging for Café members to sit in on a meeting. This ensures maximum networking, with members experiencing a smorgasbord of writing personalities.

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers promotes member books, organizes an annual writing conference, sponsors contests and awards, is a hub for writing resources, and is an all-around fun organization to be a part of. As its name implies its main focus is on fiction with the goal of helping its members get published.

If you live in Douglas County then check out Castle Rock Writers. In addition to sponsoring an annual conference that features prominent speakers and awards, this group also puts on monthly workshops where authors give talks on all kinds of topics. The most recent workshop was on the theme of transitioning from blogging to writing a memoir.

There’s also the Colorado Authors League based in Denver and serving its members throughout the state. You need to be published before you can apply for membership with this organization. It’s dedicated to promoting its member writers through strategies like publicity events, advertising, and social media networking.

Speaking of being published, when you’re ready for this there’s no shortage of venues in Colorado.

The Colorado Review is an annual literary journal put out by Colorado State University, but you don’t need to be a student to have your work considered for publication. It accepts submissions for non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and book reviews.

WildBlue Press in Denver has a knack for identifying talent. It publishes in a range of categories including true crime, sci-fi/fantasy, memoir, and mystery.

If the material you write is moving, beautiful, surprising, and has a rich literary quality, then contact Unbridled Books in Lakewood. They’re behind several bestsellers and up-and-coming authors you might have heard of.

Writing Colleges in Colorado Offering Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Creative Writing Provide a Path to Becoming a Writer

As you gain experience in local writing groups you’ll encounter lifers . Similar to those in purgatory as described by Dante, these are aspiring authors that can’t cross the Rubicon into the realm of the published. They are a living demonstration of why it’s important to avail yourself of every opportunity to hone your skills.

A degree in creative writing can do wonders for your inspiration, motivation, abilities, and professional network. Your professors have been there and done that. As people who care about the power of the written word, they also want to see this field thrive and pass on the flame to the next generation. You must decide if you’re ready to pick up the torch.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Other Bachelor’s Degrees in Creative Writing in Colorado

Adams state university.

Accreditation: HLC

Degree: Bachelor – BA

Public School

• English-Creative Writing emphasis

Colorado College

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Private School

• English-Creative Writing track

Colorado State University-Fort Collins

COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS

• English-Creative Writing concentration

Naropa University

• Creative Writing and Literature

University of Colorado Boulder

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

University of Denver

COLLEGE OF ARTS, HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

• English and Literary Arts-Creative Writing concentration

Western Colorado University

COMMUNICATION ARTS, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (CALL) DEPARTMENT

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Other Master’s Degrees in Creative Writing in Colorado

Degree:  Master – MFA

• Creative Writing
• Creative Writing and Poetics

Regis University

• Creative Writing, optional specializations in (Dual-Genre, Creative Writing Pedagogy)

Degree: Master – MA

• Professional Creative Writing (Nonfiction Writing, Dramatic Writing, Fiction Writing, Poetry Writing)

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN CREATIVE WRITING

Degree: Master – MFA, MA

• Creative Writing (Genre Fiction, Nature Writing, Poetry, Publishing, Screenwriting)

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• MFA in Creative Writing

The MFA in Creative Writing challenges students to write in a variety of genres and to study literature from the point of view of a working writer. Recent graduates have become not only published authors of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, plays, and screenplays, but also journalists, editors, publishers, and college-level and secondary-level teachers. The degree program culminates in the submission and oral defense of a creative thesis in poetry or fiction. Students may develop custom programs in non-fiction and scriptwriting with available faculty with secondary interests in those genres. The MFA in Creative Writing is designed as a three-year degree program that values literary study, innovation and writing that tests the limits of conventional forms. 

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Admission Requirements

• Complete and up-to-date admission requirements can be found on our A dmissions  page. 
• Check  how to complete and submit an online application . Please do not send application materials to the English Department. 

Teaching assistantships (TAs), Graduate Part-time Instructorships, various graduate level awards are available to MFA students on a competitive basis. The department funds about 70% of accepted MFA applicants each year. Students applying for admission to the program do not need to apply separately for teaching assistantships.

MFA students who are TAs and GPTIs teach creative writing courses only (not composition or literature). If offered a teaching appointment upon admission, you can expect:

• During the first academic year, a  Teaching Assistant  (TA) is paid a monthly stipend set by the Graduate School. Based on the 2020-2021 rates, first-year TAs are paid approximately $5,695.36 with a tuition credit waiver of five (5) in-state or out-of-state tuition credits each semester. As a first-year TA, you will be responsible for leading one (1) section of ENGL 1191 Introduction to Creative Writing in the fall semester and one (1) section of ENGL 1191 Introduction to Creative Writing in the spring semester.
• After your first year of satisfactory teaching and academic performance, you will be promoted from a TA to Graduate Part-time Instructor (GPTI). Contingent upon course enrollment and availability, your funding offer will increase to three (3) sections of Creative Writing during your  Second-Year Teaching Graduate Part-time Instructorship (GPTI)  and  Third-Year Graduate Part-time Instructorship (GPTI). Based on the current 2020-2021 rates, the compensation for one semester at one (1) course assignment at the GPTI-rate is approximately $6,582.60 with a tuition credit wavier of five (5) in-state credit hours. The compensation for a second semester of two (2) course assignments at the GPTI rate is estimated to be approximately $13,165.19 with a tuition credit waiver of 9-18 hours of in-state tuition credits.
• MFA TAs and GPTIs also receive a 90% contribution towards the cost of the CU Boulder Student Gold Health Insurance premium each semester as part of their compensation.

Tuition Remission for Teaching Assistantships:

Students with teaching assistantships are responsible for paying the cost of tuition for any credit hours taken in excess of what their waiver covers each semester. For example, if the TA compensation includes a waiver for 5 credit hours, and you enroll in 6 credit hours, you will be responsible for paying the difference in tuition cost between 5 and 6 credits. Non-resident students will be charged out-of-state tuition rates. Resident students will be charged in-state tuition rates. Tuition waivers may not be carried over between terms, and must be used in the same semester as the qualifying appointment

In addition to teaching assistantships, there are a limited number of paid positions available, such as reading series organizer, lead GPTI and hourly office assistants. Other resources for financial support include:

• The Office of Student Employment
• CU Graduate School Fellowships and Grants
• National Fellowships
• The Office of Financial Aid  
• Tuition and fees estimator : Out-of-state students who receive teaching assistantships must pay the non-resident tuition rate for or any credits not covered by their tuition waiver.

Students must take 45 hours of coursework (15 courses). At least 39 hours must be taken at CU Boulder. With approval from the Associate Chair for Creative Writing, up to 6 hours of coursework may be taken in departments other than English. A requirement may be waived if a student has taken an equivalent graduate course at another institution; waivers must be approved by the Associate Chair for Creative Writing. Coursework must be taken in the following areas:                                                               

• 4 courses (12 credits) of writing workshops (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, publishing) (The publishing workshop may be taken two times for credit.)
• 4 courses (12 credits) in literature (Literature courses may be taken in other graduate departments with the approval of the Associate Chair for Creative Writing.)
• 2 courses (6 credits) in two of the following: Studies in Poetry; Studies in Fiction; Studies in Literary Movements
• 2 courses (6 credits) of electives. This may include courses from other departments with the approval of the Associate Chair for Creative Writing.
• 9 credits of thesis writing. Thesis hours may not be taken in the first year.

MFA students have four years from the semester in which they begin coursework to complete all degree requirements. To continue past four years, you must file a petition for an extension of the time limit with the Dean of the Graduate School. Such petitions must first be submitted for endorsement to the English Department Associate Chair for Creative Writing. Extensions may be granted for up to one year.

All MFA-Creative Writing students must complete a thesis as part of the degree requirements. The thesis should be a book of poetry, short stories, literary/creative non-fiction, or a substantial portion of a novel, play, or screenplay. It may also be a combination of these genres. The thesis should be at least 70 pages in length, though most students write between 70-100 pages. The bulk of work used in a thesis should have been written while a student is enrolled in the MFA-Creative Writing program, and it should be in a form acceptable to the committee. The thesis must include an abstract (1 to 3 pages) that states the writer’s aims and explains how the thesis reflects those aims.  See the APPENDIX in the Graduate Student Handbook for the MFA-CRWR Thesis Action Item Checklist which includes deadlines and a suggested schedule.

MFA-Creative Writing students take a total of nine thesis hours in one or more semesters. The student should select a committee of three faculty (the advisor, who is a Creative Writing faculty member; one other Creative Writing faculty member; and a faculty member in literary studies) during the semester prior to that in which she or he will defend the thesis. A rough draft of the thesis should be made available to the advisor prior to the thesis defense so that problems may be discussed at an early enough date to enable the student to work on them. The advisor will work with the student, advising on length of manuscript, suggestions for improvement, and general compilation. The advisor and the student will also agree on a reading list about which the student may be questioned at the defense.

A thesis defense must take place before the semester’s deadline for completing defenses (see the Graduate School’s website for a list of semester deadlines ). You must give your completed thesis to your entire committee and file a  Master’s Examination Report  at least two weeks in advance of your defense. Consult the Graduate Program Assistant for Assistance with the process.  Please see the Graduate Student Handbook for additional defense requirements.

Thesis Submission & Format for MFA Degrees

The final draft of the MFA thesis must be submitted to the Graduate School by the applicable deadline and must comply with the Graduate School’s specifications for theses and dissertations. See information for the Master Graduation Requirements (thesis option). It is required that you include all parts of the stipulated thesis (title page, signature page, abstract, table of contents, bibliography, etc.). It is also suggested that students ask the Graduate School to pre-check the format of the thesis before submitting the final copy. To do so, email a copy of your thesis to  [email protected] .

Students earning the MFA in Creative Writing must complete a foreign language requirement, either before or after enrolling at CU Boulder, prior to the semester in which they intend to graduate. The requirement may be fulfilled in one of the following ways:

• Complete a fourth-semester (second-semester sophomore) college language course with a grade of  C  or better. This means completing a course that is the  second  semester of a sophomore-level foreign language. If you have completed or will complete this coursework at another institution, the Graduate Program Assistant will need a record of it your file if it is not part of your original application. Completion of only freshman-level language courses does not qualify as evidence of competence.
• Complete two semesters of Old English (ENGL 5003, ENGL 5013, ENGL 5023).
• Demonstrate proficiency in one foreign language by taking the appropriate language proficiency exam administered at least once each semester by the English department. For uncommon languages, students may be asked to make independent arrangements for their exam. The language exam consists of translating a text written in a foreign language into written English, utilizing English language sentence structure. The text is on the reading and comprehensive level of a fourth-semester student of the chosen language. Students are given two hours to complete the translation and the exam is open-book, open computer.
• Present other evidence of competence in a foreign language to the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. In most cases, this other evidence consists of native or near-native command of a language.

For additional information about satisfying the language requirement, see the  English Department Graduate Program Handbook .

For additional information about the language exam,  see the FAQ for the Language Proficiency Exam .

The semester in which you plan to graduate, the  Candidacy Application for an Advanced Degree  must be submitted by the stipulated deadline, which is generally in the third or fourth week of classes. The Candidacy Application confirms that all degree requirements will have been completed by the end of the semester, and it be approved by the Associate Chair for Creative Writing. Please consult the Graduate Program Assistant for assistance with this process.

All students planning to graduate must  apply online to graduate . This step must be completed by the published graduation deadline for each semester, regardless of whether or not you plan to attend the commencement ceremony. To do this, log in to your Buff Portal account. On the apply for graduation card, select the “Apply for Graduation."

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Western Colorado University

Gunnison , CO

https://www.western.edu/academics/school-graduate-studies/graduate-program-creative-writing

Degrees Offered

Fiction, Poetry, CNF

Program length

2 years, optional 3rd year

Financial Aid

The GPCW is currently offering several scholarships for new, full-time MFA / M.A. students who enroll for summer 2019. Scholarships range from $4,000/yr. to $10,000/yr. We are tremendously grateful to the Temple Hoyne Buell Foundation for support for one of our current poetry scholarships. 

Cross-genre study

MFA candidates in good standing may apply to add a second concentration to their degree by increasing the duration of their program to six semesters and a fourth summer residency. Admission to the second concentration requires a letter of intent and depends on approval from the faculty in both concentrations.

• Brian Calvert MFA (Poetry) 2018

Send questions, comments and corrections to [email protected] .

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , Best American Poetry , The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology .

English Department

• MFA Creative Writing

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• MA English Studies

I came to Western, a newly minted English major, and soon learned the attentive and engaging faculty at WWU would help me write the future of my own writing and teaching life. With small classes, provocative assignments, and opportunities for both cross-genre study and intensive, pedagogical training, I left Western knowledgeable, confident, and empowered to forge ahead in the literary and academic world. —Julie Marie Wade, Lambda Literary Award winner and author of Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures

In our versatile MFA program, you will gain fluency in single genre, multigenre, cross-genre, or hybrid writing, as well as an understanding of the way diverse genres can inform one another. Our creative writing courses are coupled with in-depth literary study and analysis, making you a multifaceted scholar, writer, and teacher.

You may gain teaching experience (if awarded a teaching assistantship or internship), as well as professional editing experience with scholarly and creative writing journals, such as the award-winning Bellingham Review .

Our Distinguished Alumni…

Kate Christie is the author of Gay Pride & Prejudice, Beautiful Game , and Leaving LA , published by Bella Books. She is the author of 15 titles and now writes full-time under her own imprint, Second Growth Books.

Jai Dulani was featured in Best New Poets 2020 . His work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review , The Offing , and Waxwing . He has received fellowships from Kundiman, VONA/Voices, and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. He is co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence in Activist Communities .

Spencer Ellsworth is the author of the Starfire Trilogy , which begins with Starfire: A Red Peace , published by TOR, Macmillan’s science fiction division.

Julie Marie Wade is the author of Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures , winner of the Colgate University Press Nonfiction Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award. Her latest book, Catechism: A Love Story , was selected by C.D. Wright as the winner of the AROHO/To the Lighthouse Prize in Poetry.

Caroline Van Hemert is the author The Sun is a Compass , published by Little Brown Spark, which won the Banff Mountain Book Award for Adventure Travel and was cited as one of the best outdoor books of 2019 by Outside, Bustle , and Forbes . Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, Audubon, Outside, Washington Post , and others.

Soham Patel is a Kundiman fellow and an assistant editor at Fence and The Georgia Review . She is the author of four chapbooks of poetry including ever really hear it , winner of the 2017 Subito Prize.

Dayna Patterson is the author of If Mother Braids a Waterfall (Signature Books, 2020), and the founding editor of Psaltery & Lyre , an online literary journal dedicated to publishing literature at the intersection of faith and doubt.

Urban Waite is the author of The Terror of Living , The Carrion Birds, and Sometimes the Wolf (Harper Collins), which have been named to various Best Book of the Year lists, such as E squire, The Boston Globe, LitReactor, and Booklist. His novels have been translated into nine languages.

Program Requirements: 55 credits

Core courses: (20 credits total, each course is 5 credits) in creative writing to be taken in at least two different genres from the following:.

• English 502: Seminar in the Writing of Fiction (repeatable)
• English 504: Seminar in the Writing of Poetry (repeatable)
• English 505: Seminar in the Writing of Nonfiction (repeatable)
• English 506: Seminar in Creative Writing: Multigenre (repeatable)
• English 520: Studies in Poetry (repeatable)*
• English 525: Studies in Fiction (repeatable)*
• English 535: Studies in Nonfiction (repeatable)*

*These courses may be taken as either creative writing or literature credits, depending on the nature of your final project. To use them as part of the creative writing core requirement, you must take them as creative writing courses.

ELECTIVES: (20 credits total, each course is 5 credits) in literature, composition/rhetoric, pedagogy, or critical theory, to be taken from the following:

• English 500: Directed Independent Study
• English 513: Teaching Composition (required for Graduate Teaching Assistants)
• English 509: Internship in Writing, Editing and Production (repeatable)
• English 510: Seminar: Topics in Rhetoric (repeatable)
• English 515: Studies in Literary and Critical Theory (repeatable)
• English 540: Studies in Global Literatures (repeatable)
• English 550: Studies in American Literatures (repeatable)
• English 560: Studies in British Literature (repeatable)
• English 570: Topics in Cultural Studies (repeatable)
• English 575: Studies in Women’s Literature (repeatable)
• English 580: Studies in Film (repeatable)
• English 594: Practicum in Teaching
• English 598: Research in the Teaching of English (repeatable)

English 520, 525, and 535 (see creative writing courses) may also be used for literature credit, depending on the nature of the final project. The same class may not be used for both literature and creative writing credit.

THESIS: (10 credits granted upon program completion)

• English 690 Thesis Writing

Note: A student may, with permission, take up to 5 credits in approved 400-level courses. A student may have only 10 credits total/combined 400-level and/or 500 (Independent Study) credits. Students are encouraged to fill out their two years of study with electives that stress creative writing, pedagogy, editing/publishing, literature, or rhetoric, as dictated by the student’s interests and career goals. Must be enrolled each quarter for a minimum of 8 credits as a TA (Teaching Assistant) or 10 credits for Financial Aid.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• A successful creative thesis, with a critical preface, approved by the student’s Creative Writing Thesis Committee and the Graduate School.