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Master of Fine Arts Program

The Department of English and Comparative Literature offers graduate study leading to the Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. The M.F.A. in creative writing is a professional program intended for full-time students who wish to receive a terminal degree in creative writing.

The M.F.A. is a 54-unit program which offers study in poetry or fiction with a balance between contrasting approaches: studio and academic, traditional and experimental, and commercial and aesthetic. The program has two stages – graduate seminars followed by intensive work with one or more professors in tutorials and manuscript preparation.

For more information, please visit the   M.F.A. Program's website.

The MFA Program Directors are Professors Stephen-Paul Martin (Fall) and Sandra Alcosser (Spring). 

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(SIMS Code: 112139)

The minor in creative writing allows students in a wide variety of fields to benefit from programming and curriculum offered by SDSU’s MFA creative writing faculty. Courses in fiction, poetry, screenwriting, creative publishing and editing allow students to sharpen their skills and pursue interests in creative writing in a supportive environment.

The creative writing minor is not available to students majoring in English or comparative literature. Courses in the minor may not be counted toward the major, but may be used to satisfy preparation for the major and general education requirements, if applicable. A minimum of six upper division units must be completed in residence at San Diego State University.

Required Courses

The creative writing minor consists of a minimum of 15 units to include

• ECL 280 - Introduction to Creative Writing Units: 3
• ECL 495 - Internship Units: 1-3 (three units)

An Additional Nine Units

An additional nine units selected from

• ECL 570 - Techniques of Poetry Units: 3
• ECL 571 - Techniques of the Short Story Units: 3
• ECL 573 - Techniques of the Novel Units: 3
• ECL 576A - Literary Publishing and Editing Workshop A Units: 3
• ECL 576B - Literary Publishing and Editing Workshop B Units: 3
• ECL 577 - Techniques of Screenwriting Units: 3
• ECL 579 - Topics in Creative Writing Units: 3
• ECL 580 - Writing of Poetry Units: 3
• ECL 581W - Writing of Fiction Units: 3
• ECL 584W - Writing Informal Essays Units: 3

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Alumna Gives Back to Poets in the MFA in Creative Writing Program

Poet Sarah B. Marsh-Rebelo raised her teacup to toast the MFA in creative writing/poetry students whom she honored at a special MFA Scholars Appreciation Tea.

Students received a scholarship to help them complete their graduate studies and they were honored at the annual tea attended by Marsh-Rebelo, her husband John, Dean Monica J. Casper , Sandra Alcosser , director of the MFA in creative writing/poetry program, Blas Falconer , professor of poetry, and a few of Marsh-Rebelo’s closest friends.

This year three students received scholarships and read their poems to the rapt audience in the Finch Conference Room of the Arts and Letters building. Honorees were Alejandra Hernández , Luis Torres , and Laura Ribitzky .

Marsh-Rebelo is a 2012 graduate of the MFA in creative writing/poetry program and her manuscript “Over My Shoulder” published that same year, is a collection of more than 45 heartfelt poems.

“Poetry allows us an avenue to share our pain; feel the pain and make room for the positive,” said Marsh-Rebelo in her address to the students. After hearing them read their poems, she said, “I love where you go. To share your thoughts and feelings is such a gift.”

Dean Casper said, “Sarah B. is a wonderful and devoted friend to the college, especially our MFA program. Her direct support of graduate students aids in their learning and creative expression, while offering an important contribution to the humanities writ large. As we have seen during the pandemic, we need the arts – including poetry – now more than ever. I am so grateful.”

Past scholarship awardees often continue on their poetic journey to win national awards, publish their work, and contribute to poetry in public forums around the world. 2019 Marsh-Rebelo Scholars Dan Waldman and Brent Ameneyro both won prestigious fellowships and notoriety this year.

In closing, Marsh-Rebelo said to the students,“Write as if your life depended on it — because it does.”

MFA Student Highlights

Laura ribitzky.

“I felt surprised, thrilled, and honored to have been selected as a recipient of the Sarah B. Marsh-Rebelo Scholarship for Poetry,” said Laura Ribitzky. “This is my first semester at SDSU's MFA Creative Writing program, and the scholarship helped make that possible.

“Additionally, it served as validation and a warm welcome to a field that for a long time I barely even let myself dream of entering. I arrived in the U.S. as a young immigrant many years ago, and English was my second language – I knew three words at the time: he, she, and dog. But before I understood the meaning of English words, I heard the music, the poetry in them. Reading, writing, and sharing poetry have long felt like vital, but luxury pursuits.

“The MFA Creative Writing program in Poetry takes these pursuits seriously and provides an encouraging and supportive space within which to build and develop my craft alongside my fellow poet-classmates. From day one, it was clear to me that the director, coordinator, and professors pour their hearts into leading, facilitating, guiding, and teaching. They are incredibly dedicated artists and educators, and I feel grateful to be in their company

“I am also deeply grateful for this scholarship, as it eased a bit of the financial burden of starting a graduate school program and allowed me to immerse myself more fully in the creative writing community. Sarah B. Marsh-Rebelo, a poet and champion of the arts, is an inspirational member of this community. I recently had the privilege of meeting her, and was instantly taken with her own poetry, humor, and enthusiastic support for poets.”

Alejandra Hernández

Beautiful boy , I have known you so long longer than measuring in years or in stories or kisses or songs. I felt you wrap yourself around me when I was a kid, maybe we want to believe motherhood was forced on me but I chose it. You, are deliciously kind. When your eyes get real bright, I am liquid inside. I have found my reprise -- and I wrap myself around you and hum.

Level Headed I count the capsules out of the prescription bottle, making sure I haven’t lost any. Three days without is plenty to condition myself unsteady.

I feel fine, I feel alright — tiny white pellets in my belly. When I cry, my mouth is dry, contrived of something heavy.

And when I speak, I talk too fast — I share too much. I walk, head up — grin: confidence’s a rush.

I often miss that humble thing I was before the medication.

Luis Torres 

“The scholarship helped me understand myself as a writer who could be taken seriously by those who have been practicing poetry their entire lives. While I was writing ‘in the dark,’ so to say, the acceptance into the writing program and the scholarship, without which I would not have been able to attend, allowed me to shift what I was doing into the light of a career. 

“The way I engage with words now is as a professional, not simply because of a change of attitude, but because of the support and encouragement I've received from faculty, donors, and peers of the MFA program.”

If you would like to join Sarah in donating to the MFA Poet Scholarship Fund for upcoming poets, please visit: philanthropy.sdsu.edu/MarshRebeloScholarship.

Rajiv Mohabir – Sixth Finch

• Post author By John Rice (he/Them)
• Post date April 17, 2024

MFA alum Rajiv Mohabir has three poems in this Spring 2024 issue of Sixth Finch , out just today!

Sixth Finch , is a quarterly journal of poetry and art, operating continuously since 2008. You should read Rajiv’s poems right now, then think about submitting your poems for the next issue!

https://sixthfinch.com/mainspring24.html

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University of Notre Dame

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2024 MFA in Creative Writing Final Thesis Reading

Time: Sat Apr 20, 2024, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Location: Philbin Studio Theatre (View on map )

Join us in celebrating the work of our graduating second-year MFA students! Readers will include Gussie Beaver, Rose Darline Darbouze, Tim Fab-Eme, Alaina Johansson, Chibuike Ogbonnaya, Jamjun Rorsoongnern, and Taylor Thomas.

This is a free, but ticketed, event. 

Get Tickets

Gussie Beaver received her B.A. in English from Duquesne University in 2022, Summa Cum Laude. She was the 2021 recipient of the O’Donnell Undergraduate Research Award and the Carroll Creative Writing Scholarship. This enabled her to attend the Elk Rivers Writer’s workshop in Livingston, Montana. She was a Duquesne University Writing Center consultant. Gussie was featured in Duquesne’s alumni magazine Much Ado and was the treasurer of the Duquesne Poet’s Society. Her work has been published multiple times in the literary magazine Lexicon. She is interested in the personification of animals and objects and experimenting with formation. Her favorite poets are Emily Dickinson and e. e. cummings.

Rose Darline Darbouze   is from Béraud, Haiti. She is an MFA candidate in creative writing and is a recipient of a grant from the Graduate School Professional Development Awards at the University of Notre Dame. She was the 2022-2023 Sparks Editorial Fellow at Notre Dame Review , and her work is forthcoming in the Birmingham Poetry Review .

Tim Fab-Eme is an engineer and poet who experiments with poetic forms on environmental and social justice themes. He’s the Issue 7 poetry editor of Reckoning: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice , and Cove Park’s 2022 funded writer-in-residence on climate action. Tim loves exploring nature, gardening, and fishing in the mangrove swamps of his island home, Egun-Okom (Ogonokom). His work has appeared in The Malahat Review , The Fiddlehead , Magma , New Welsh Reader , About Place Journal , Reckoning: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice , Channel: Ireland’s Environmental Literary Journal ; apt , Planet in Crisis Anthology , Deep Wild Journal: Writing from the Backcountry , Land and Territory Anthology , Delmarva Review , FIYAH , and The Future of Black: An Afrofuturism & Black Comics Poetry Anthology , Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review , FU Review , The Maine Review , etc. His other projects center on the lore, myth, and experiences of marginalized folks and communities.

Alaina Johansson  lives in Indiana with dogs, Brigit and Søren. Previous work is published in Early American Literature , Psaltery & Lyre , and 3:AM Magazine . An MFA student studying Poetry at the University of Notre Dame, Johansson works as an editorial assistant at Action Books.

Chibuike Ogbonnaya writes stories that explore humanity, gender and sexuality. They obtained combined honors in English and Literary Studies and History and International Studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Their unpublished collection of thematically linked short stories featuring women, feminine gay men, and gender queer was a finalist for the Iron Horse Literary Review First Book Prize. Chibuike is an alumni of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus Creative Writing Workshop. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Green Mountains Review, The Forge Literary Magazine , Taint Taint Taint Magazine , Stellium , Akuko Magazine , Black Femme Co , and elsewhere.

Jamjun Rorsoongnern is a ลูกครึ่ง (Thai american) writer gripped by the musings of nondiscursive knowledge building. At times, their writing dons normative white religious aesthetics in a subversive exploration/queering of sensuality & disidentification. Admittedly a theory nerd, she finds herself fangirling over Barthes, Vuong, Muñoz, Baldwin, & Derrida. Jam writes towards literary/linguistic openings in hopes of creating liminal utopias/liberation/depths with their reading/cultivated communities.

Taylor Thomas (she/her) is a biracial emerging writer from Indiana. Her work has been published in Bayou Magazine , Salt Hill Journal , The Journal , So to Speak Journal , and many more. She was the runner-up for the 2024 Nicholas Sparks Prize Fellowship. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She lives in South Bend, Indiana with her husband, Herschel, and her dogs, Bella & Buster. Website: taylornoellethomas.com

Originally published at english.nd.edu .

Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA

Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts

UCRPDLRMFA @ LATFOB

It's the best time of the year...

...LATFOB! Three days of the best book events Southern California has to offer...and we'll be all over it. 

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books kicks of on Friday, April 19th with their annual Book Prizes where we'll be in the audience with our fingers crossed for Professor Ivy Pochoda, whose novel "Sing Her Down" is a finalist  for the Mystery Prize .  Saturday and Sunday are filled with panels, talks, and signings. As usual, we'll be in booth 134 with candy, water, shade, and program info. Anyone who can sit for a bit to relieve Kathryn, we could use you! 

Here's a full run-down, by participant: 

Alex Espinoza (Faculty) Gender Bending: Sexuality, Metamorphosis, and Identity in Fiction - Tickets Required Seeley G. Mudd 124 Saturday, Apr 20 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Event Description A queer, early-Internet twist on the Manhattan prep school novel; a hilarious nod to 1950s lesbian pulp fiction; and a raw and vulnerable work of brutalist magical autofiction: these stories use humor, wit, and contemporary characters to recreate some of fiction’s oldest storytelling devices. Effortlessly combining struggle and angst with comedy and joy, the authors of these novels have breathed new life into old tropes and given us completely original characters we won’t be able to stop thinking about.

David Ulin (Faculty) Writing in Public - Tickets Required Seeley G. Mudd 123 Saturday, Apr 20 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Event Description Join us for a cross-genre investigation into artists and art-making with two writers at the top of their game. Maggie Nelson’s chronological essays show the writing, thinking, reading, and conversing that occupied her while writing her most well-known books. Likewise, Hari Kunzru’s novel moves back and forth through time, delivering an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind.

Sunday, 12pm Signing at MWA Booth #363

City of Fallen Angels: L.A. Noir - Tickets Required Hoffman Hall, Edison Auditorium Sunday, Apr 21 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Event Description A string of mysterious deaths on Catalina Island; a psychological entanglement with a neighbor in Hollywood; two women sucked into a deadly cat-and-mouse chase; a corrupt PR firm protecting the wealthy and depraved: what do they all have in common? The main character: Los Angeles, the reigning queen of noir fiction.

Elizabeth Crane (Faculty) Fiction: Women (and Men) on the Edge - Tickets Required Seeley G. Mudd 123 Saturday, Apr 20 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Event Description One of the wisest characters in these books about the female experience says it best: “Being a woman is a dangerous business.” These gripping, unforgettable stories highlight women (and occasionally men) on the edge: the edge of aging, illness, career path, war, mystery, sanity, and salvation. No matter where you are in life, these stories will touch anyone who has ever felt like a new chapter is about to begin.

Emily Rapp Black (Faculty) Writing on Grief: The Price We Pay for Love - Tickets Required Seeley G. Mudd 123 Sunday, Apr 21 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM Event Description Everyone will experience some type of grief in life, but no two people will experience grief the same way. This is why it’s crucial to have writers exploring the topic from all angles–grieving death, identity, love, friendship, purpose, politics, and countless other areas of life. No matter the source of your grief or which part of the process you find yourself in, these stories are sure to offer comfort, insight, inspiration, or catharsis.

Heather Scott Partington (Alum) Fiction: You Know What They Say About Happy Families - Tickets Required Taper Hall 201 Saturday, Apr 20 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM Event Description What is that saying about “all happy families?” Spanning different countries, generations, births, deaths, addictions, betrayals, illnesses, triumphs, and everything in between, these four stories honor the wide spectrum of complexities across different families while also suggesting that, no matter the circumstances, most families are probably more alike than they realize.

Ivy Pochoda (Faculty) Sunday, 12pm Signing at MWA Booth #363

Jesenia Chavez (Student) Signing Alegria Bookshop (booth #28) Saturday 4/20 12:00-1:00pm Sunday 4/21    3:00-4:00pm

Mag Gabbert (Alum) reading from 'SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS' Poetry Stage Saturday, Apr 20 4:20 PM - 4:40 PM Event Description Mag Gabbert is the author of the full-length poetry collection SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS (Mad Creek Books, 2023), which was selected by Kathy Fagan as the winner of the 2021 Charles B. Wheeler Prize in Poetry; the chapbook The Breakup, which was selected by Kaveh Akbar as the winner of the 2022 Baltic Writing Residencies Chapbook Award; and the chapbook Minml Poems (Cooper Dillon Books, 2020). Mag’s awards include a Pushcart Prize and a 92NY Discovery Award. She lives in Dallas, Texas and teaches at Southern Methodist University.

Natashia Deon (Alum) Hell Hath No Fury: Powerful Women in Crime Fiction - Tickets Required Seeley G. Mudd 123 Saturday, Apr 20 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Event Description Women have long been the primary consumers of true crime stories, so it was only inevitable for female voices to take center stage in contemporary crime fiction. These female authors and their protagonists take complete control of their narratives, whether they’re reckoning with true crime podcast culture, the legacies of infamous serial killers, the weight of mental health stigmas, or the unbearable sacrifices that often come with speaking up.

Tod Goldberg (Faculty) Welcome to the Underworld: Crime, Gangsters, and Hitmen - Tickets Required Seeley G. Mudd 124 Saturday, Apr 20 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Event Description Welcome to the crime underworld, where gangsters, hitmen, and vigilantes await. These stories showcase humanity at its darkest – the violent, brutal, unforgiving edges of our society – and also at its brightest – the brave, stubborn, unforgettable detectives and heroes willing to stare that darkness straight in its face.

1:00-2pm: Signing books in Booth 363 – Mystery Writers of America

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Blas Falconer

Blas Falconer is the author of three poetry collections, including Forgive the Body This Failure , and a coeditor of two essay collections, The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity and Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets . His poems have been featured by Poetry , Poetry Northwest , Harvard Review , Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, Poetry Society of America, the Academy of American Poets, and The New York Times , among other literary journals and institutions. His awards include an NEA Fellowship, the Maureen Egen Writers Exchange, and a Tennessee Individual Artist Grant.  He is a poetry editor for The Los Angeles Review and Mentor and Muse (online) .