Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing and Environment

Iowa State University

The MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment (CWE) cultivates in its students an interdisciplinary approach to research and writing. The program's unique design allows writers to develop a heightened environmental imagination that finds expression in quality, publishable works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. The program is designed to prepare students for careers as writers, teachers, editors, and environmental educators. The MFA degree requires 54 hours of graduate credit: a core of creative writing and other English courses, a book-length thesis (6 credits), experiential environmental fieldwork (3 credits), and 12 credits in disciplines other than English (such as Landscape Architecture, Anthropology, or Environmental Science, among many others) relevant to an individual student's research interests and thesis project. Through a program of study that includes a rigorous combination of creative writing workshops, literature coursework, environmental fieldwork experience, interdisciplinary study in courses other than English, and intensive one-on-one work with a mentor (major professor), our MFA program offers gifted writers an original and intensive opportunity to document, meditate on, mourn, and celebrate the complexities of our transforming natural world.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences