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The early decision deadline for fall entry is February 1. The regular decision deadline is July 1, but the Admission Committee will continue to review applications as long as there is space in the cohort.
Most full-time students will be able to complete the program in two years.
Cost consists of program tuition (cost per credit times number of credits) as well as any applicable University and degree-specific fees.
In 2007, the Atlantic Monthly named the program one of the top five innovative MFA programs in the U.S,. and in 2016 Publisher's Weekly named the program one of five distinctive MFA programs in the nation.
The MFACW is a broad program of study designed to prepare students for careers as writers or positions requiring similar skills, such as editing, publishing, and content development for the web; to enable students to improve their writing through interaction with our faculty and other writing students; and to become experienced critics of literary works.
The Summer Community of Writers is by far my best memory of graduate school so far, and it has blown pretty much every other workshop I've taken in the past out of the water. I hope I can experience it again in the future.
A limited number of research, special project, and teaching assistantships are available to full-residency students to help defray the cost of the tuition while also earning valuable, hands-on experience. These assistantships come in the form of tuition remission and can cut the final tuition bill by over 30%.
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The Summer Community of Writers 2020 has been cancelled due to COVID-19. See you in 2021! We have a vibrant, supportive community of students and faculty. A hallmark of Chatham's program is its Summer Community of Writers (SCW), a ten-day, six-credit course that brings together low- and full-residency MFA students, community members, and acclaimed national writers for an intense and exciting learning experience. SCW takes place on our beautiful Eden Hall campus with daily workshops, dynamic craft lectures, faculty and student readings, and ample time to write that many mention as one of the highlights of their Chatham MFA degree.
The Words Without Walls program, in which full-residency students have the opportunity to teach creative writing at the Allegheny County Jail and Sojourner House, is a social outreach program developed and run by Chatham MFACW students that offers transformative experiences for both students and underserved populations.
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The MFACW program hosts the Emerging Black Writers-in-Residence program, which aims to support and feature the art and teaching of young Black writers. MFACW alumni Caitlyn Hunter and Cedric Rudolph will be the writers in residence for the 2020-2021 academic year.
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Recently named by The Writer magazine as the best conference in Pennsylvania, Conversations and Connections is a one-day writer's conference at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA that brings together writers, editors, and publishers in a friendly, supportive environment.
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As part of our innovative creative writing field seminars, MFA students travel with faculty abroad. Recent trips have included Indonesia, Ireland, Chile, and South Africa, as well as continental trips to New Orleans and Canada. Program tuition goes toward these trips, making them affordable for most students. More importantly, the trips are transformative for our students, whose writing becomes sharper and more nuanced when in an unfamiliar environment.
Immerse yourself in a community of creative writers with Chatham’s new post-baccalaureate Certificate of Completion in Travel Writing. This certificate requires 12 credit hours and can be completed in two semesters plus one summer, in full- or low-residency format.
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Rachel Carson ’29 is Chatham's most distinguished alumna, and in her honor we have built a concentration in Nature Writing. Students may choose from a variety of literature courses focusing on the natural world, including Ecofeminism, Wildness and Literature, Nature and Culture, and Writing about Food, as well as a course in Environmental Imagination. The Fourth River, our national literary journal, focuses on nature and place-based writing.
Students interested in a concentration in publishing can take The Fourth River practicum, where they have the opportunity to work as an assistant editor for our national literary journal, or our Independent Literary Publishing course, where students create and run their own literary press. There are also many opportunities for publishing internships in the Pittsburgh area, with a number of our students earning internships for Autumn House Press, Creative Nonfiction, and Pittsburgh Quarterly.
Our low-residency students work closely during their distance terms with faculty mentors who are seasoned educators and award-winning writers from all over the country. Chatham low-residency mentors have included Dilruba Ahmed, Derek Green, Paul Hertneky, Kathy Ayres, Karen Bender, Rachel Mennies, Abby Mendelsohn, Robert Yune, Melanie Fox, Sherrie Flick, Katherine Miles, and BK Loren.
Our MFA program offers the opportunity to meet and learn from established authors of all genres. The Melanie Brown Lecturer Series is presented each year through the generosity of The Melanie and Fred R. Brown Endowed Fund, and the selection of each year's Lecturer is guided by the desire to highlight fiction writers with a strong sense of place in her or his writing. Similarly, our annual Dialogues Reading Series invites authors of international renown to visit our campus and host readings and lectures on craft.
Judged by members of The Fourth River editorial team, the Chatham University MFA in Creative Writing is pleased to announce the winners of the Into the Light Writing Contest/Stuart H. Hunt Memorial Award. You can read their work by downloading the PDF below.
For basic inquiries, please email Joseph Bisciotti, Humanities Program Assistant.
