Spalding is well known for the flexibility we offer students, and we continue to innovate in ways that allow us to provide exemplary instruction in creative writing to graduate students who have busy family and working lives. Now, when an in-person MFA residency doesn’t fit your plans, you no longer need to delay your graduate studies to advance your writing practice.
Spalding’s new virtual summer residency option offers a way you can stay on track to earn your degree. Whether you attend residencies virtually in summer or on-campus in fall and spring—or attend a mix of both—you’ll earn a highly respected Spalding low-residency MFA in creative writing and be part of a thriving alumni community that will support your writing career long after graduation.
Our virtual residency offers the same genre options as in person: fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children and young adults, and writing for TV, screen, and stage. As always, MFA, MA in Writing, and certificate students may participate in the Naslund-Mann virtual residency.
Spalding’s first virtual week-long residency takes place June 22-29 and will be fully synchronous, meaning that sessions happen live, in real time. Kathleen Driskell, chair of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing, will lead the residency; workshops will be taught by our outstanding MFA faculty of actively publishing and producing writers.
Just as with our residencies on Spalding’s campus in Louisville, the virtual residency is an
immersive week of live interactive workshop sessions, lectures, readings, panel discussions, and active discussion among students and faculty. Our community will read and discuss books in common, complete cross-genre writing exercises, and explore the interrelatedness of the arts. We’ll have a visit and Q&A with a distinguished visiting writer.
In other words, our new virtual option offers all the intellectual stimulation, artistic support, and flexibility you’d expect to receive at one of our in-person residencies, without the travel time and costs.
The summer virtual residency is paired with our extended independent study. During independent study, students turn in a packet of original creative writing every six weeks and should plan to dedicate about 10 to 12 hours each week to their writing and reading. The Summer 2024 semester finishes up in February 2025, so students can begin their next semester at the Louisville residency in May or with another virtual residency in June.
February 1 is the early-decision application deadline for both spring and summer. Application deadlines for prospective students are March 1 for May (on campus) or April 1 for June (virtual) entry. For more information, visit spalding.edu/mfa or email us at schoolofwriting@spalding.edu.h