Creative Writing, Low Residency MFA

Creative Writing MFA Program Overview

The MFA in Creative Writing at New England College is one of the country’s oldest and most highly esteemed low-residency programs. We offer a small and selective program that enables us to maintain a close-knit, supportive community. Students are individually mentored by accomplished, award-winning faculty members who are among the most compelling writers in their respective genres and are also recognized for their excellence in teaching.

Students are offered the opportunity to work on the literary project of their choice during their time in the program, with cross‐genre writing, hybrid forms, and fluidity in genre encouraged.

Announcing the New England College MFA Post-Graduate Residency Program

New England College’s Post-Graduate Residency offers those holding an MFA in Creative Writing from any institution the opportunity to return to the graduate program setting and engage in workshops, lectures, readings, and dynamic conversations surrounding writing.

Our Post-Graduate Residency opportunity happens each July as part of our on-campus summer residency program. The residency welcomes post-MFA writers to our beautiful New Hampshire campus for 10 days alongside our MFA population, allowing for an expansion of our literary community and cross-pollination across genre and level of professional expertise. Enrollment is limited to 10 participants each year.

The Post-Graduate Residency experience includes:
• Single room housing
• Full meal plan
• Faculty feedback during peer workshops
• Participation in lectures, seminars, and generative workshops
• Attendance of student and faculty readings
• Access to the Danforth Library and other campus resources

Eligibility:
The program is open to those holding an MFA in Creative Writing from any institution.

Cost of attendance:
Total program fee: $,2800

Application requirements:
• MFA Institution
• MFA Date of graduation
• Bio
• Narrative statement of interest (1–3 pages)
• Work samples (10–20 pages)

Application deadline: April 15

Virtual Information Session

If you’re passionate about storytelling and ready to take your writing to the next level, NEC’s MFA in Creative Writing program could be the perfect fit. Watch this recorded information session and hear from acclaimed faculty and learn how this program’s unique, supportive environment can help you reach your creative goals. Or contact the program director for guidance and answers to any questions about how this program can help you hone your craft.

Learn More About NEC’s MFA in Creative Writing

Creative Writing MFA Program Highlights

Why Earn Your Creative Writing MFA?

A master’s degree in Creative Writing immerses students in a creative workshop environment that allows them to hone their writing craft. It helps students express their creativity and increase their skills through different genres of writing that can prepare them for different career areas.

Low Residency Creative Writing MFA Learning Outcomes

Upon graduation from the MFA in Creative Writing, students will have learned to:

• Produce and revise original works of literature through an exploratory process, culminating in the completion of a substantial body of high-quality literary work
• Engage in critical discourse surrounding their own writing and the writing of others while developing an in-depth understanding of the writer’s craft and its use in the writing process
• Locate their writing in historical, theoretical, and cultural contexts through an understanding of the movements that influence the writing, reading, and critical reception of literary works
• Actively engage in academic, geographic, and cultural literary communities as they contribute to the advancement of the literary arts
• Demonstrate the skills, knowledge, and discipline necessary for a successful postgraduate professional life in creative writing

What Can You Do with a Creative Writing MFA Degree?

Earning an MFA in creative writing can prepare graduates for several career paths. Some options focus on the creative process, while others use creative writing as a component of their work. Many of them focus on communication in some form.

Jennifer Militello Named New Hampshire’s Next Poet Laureate

New England College proudly announces that Jennifer Militello, accomplished poet and director of the College’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, has been named as New Hampshire’s next Poet Laureate after the State’s Executive Council confirmed Gov. Chris Sununu’s nomination of Militello.

Militello’s five-year term as Poet Laureate begins in April 2024. She will serve as an ambassador for poets in the Granite State and elevate the visibility and value of poetry in New Hampshire.

“I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to serve poetry and poets here in New Hampshire,” stated Militello. “I can’t wait to connect with writers and readers, students and teachers, as I move into this incredible role. And I feel fortunate to have the continued support of New England College as an institution that values the creative arts.”

MFA in Creative Writing Alumni Named First Poet Laureate of Massachusetts

Regie Gibson—award-winning poet, educator, and 2007 graduate of New England College’s MFA in Creative Writing program—has been appointed the first-ever Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The honor recognizes Gibson’s decades-long dedication to the craft of poetry and his work in bringing the written and spoken word to new audiences.

Recognition and Rankings

NEC Ranked Top College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as a leading college in the state, as acknowledged by US News & World Report, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

NEC Ranked Leading College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as a leading college in NH, as acknowledged by EduRank, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

NEC Ranked Top College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as one of the best ten colleges in NH, as acknowledged by Resource.com, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

NEC Ranked Leading College in the Northeast

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as one of the best colleges in the Northeast, as acknowledged by Research.com, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

Recent Alumni

Diana Whitney | Diana Whitney writes across the genres in Vermont with a focus on feminism, motherhood, and sexuality. Her first book, Wanting It, became an indie bestseller and won the Rubery Book Award in poetry. She was the longtime poetry critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she featured women poets and LGBTQ+ voices in her column. Her essays, op-eds, and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Kenyon Review, Glamour, and many more. Her anthology, You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves, was released by Workman Publishing to critical acclaim and won the 2022 Claudia Lewis Award for the best poetry book of the year and became a YA bestseller. Diana was awarded a 2021–2022 Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council for her new collection about girls, rape culture, and excavating female adolescence. She holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MA from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and attended the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. Her irreverent parenting column, Spilt Milk, syndicated for years, ran as a public radio commentary series and became a blog at The Huffington Post. Diana also works as a feminist activist in her community and beyond. Her advocacy for survivors of sexual violence has been featured in The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Christian Science Monitor, among other press outlets.

Brent Ramsey | Brent is a former Paris fashion correspondent who has built a career in brand storytelling as a strategic communication consultant, content strategist, poet, and freelance journalist. Originally from Monroeville, Alabama, he received his MA in Global Communications from The American University of Paris, and a BA in Communication with a concentration in Print Journalism from University of South Alabama, followed by an MFA in Creative Writing from New England College, where he also served as adjunct for the Professional Writing program. In addition to running his own consultancy, Brent previously served as Director of Public Relations for a boutique agency in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where his client roster included high-end hospitality, fashion, and jewelry brands, as well as tech start-ups, super apps, and e-commerce companies. As a journalist, his work has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, L’Officiel, Women’s Wear Daily, Notion, and other publications in the United States, the U.K., Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Brent is passionate about bridging theory with practical application, while also mentoring and preparing students for real-life opportunities in an increasingly global industry. In his free time, he enjoys writing, reading, traveling, and collecting vinyl records.

Kevin Bertolero | Kevin Bertolero is the founding editor of Ghost City Press and was a founding member of the Kettle Pond Writers’ Conference. He holds degrees in literature from Potsdam College and the University of New Hampshire, as well as an MFA from New England College. In 2022, he started & Change, a journal of gay poetry.

Shilo Niziolek | Shilo Niziolek (she/her) is a disabled queer writer living in Portland, Oregon. Her memoir Fever is out through Querencia Press, and an excerpt from the book was a 2022 Pushcart nomination. Her chapbook of essays, A Thousand Winters in Me, is out through Gasher Press. Ghost City Press published Shilo’s microchapbook, I Am Not an Erosion: Poems Against Decay, a self-portraiture project that uses her own photos and medical records to make collage pieces. Shilo’s work has been published or is forthcoming in West Trade Review, Juked, [PANK], Entropy, Oregon Humanities, HerStry, Pork Belly Press, and Phoebe Journal, among others. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction and fiction from New England College and is associate faculty in the English Department at Clackamas Community College.

Day Heisinger-Nixon | Day Heisinger-Nixon is a poet, essayist, interpreter, and translator. Their debut poetry collection, ROOM | ROOM | ROOM, recipient of the 2024 Other Futures Award, is set for publication with Futurepoem in 2026. Raised in an ASL-English bilingual home in Fresno, California, Day holds an MA in Deaf Studies: Cultural Studies from Gallaudet University and an MFA in Creative Writing: Poetry from New England College. Their essays and poetry have appeared in or are forthcoming from Apogee Journal, Peach Mag, Boston Review, Foglifter, Nat. Brut, and elsewhere. A three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and a nominee for the Best of the Net Prize, Day’s work has received recognition from Witness Magazine, Indiana Review, Boston Review, and Death Rattle Writers Festival, among other organizations. As an interpreter, Day works primarily between ASL, English, International Sign, and Spanish. In addition to these, Day holds varying levels of proficiency in several other languages, spoken and signed. They seek to practice a language justice-informed model of language work, and largely specialize in academic, conference, liaison, and solidarity interpreting. Day has interpreted in more than 20 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Tara Betts | Dr. Tara Betts is the author of Break the Habit (Trio House Press, 2016), Arc & Hue (Willow Books, 2009), 7 x 7: Kwansabas (Backbone Press, 2015) and The GREATEST!: An Homage to Muhammad Ali (Argus House, 2013).

Catherine Broadwall | Catherine Broadwall is a writer, teacher, and scholar based in Seattle. She is the author of the poetry book Shelter in Place (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019), along with six shorter collections. She teaches literature and creative writing at DigiPen Institute of Technology.

Melissa Cahnmann-Taylor | Professor of TESOL and World Language Education in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, Dr. Cahnmann-Taylor’s honors include a 2017 Richard Ruiz Scholar-Artist Residency Award (Guanajuato, MX), 2015 Beckman Award for Professors Who Inspire, a 2013–2014 Fulbright Award (Oaxaca, Mexico), three NEA Big Read Grants (Jeffers 2015, Poe 2016, Hua 2018), top Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prizes, a Jewish Currents Prize, first place in Anthropology and Humanism poetry prize, a Leeway Poetry Grant, and several Pushcart Prize nominations.

Cole Phillips | Writer and educator living in coastal Maine and teaching in New Hampshire at Manchester Community College. His work has been featured in New World Writing, Juked, Post Road, Green Mountains Review, and elsewhere and has been longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions. He was a semi-finalist for the 2021 River Styx Microfiction Contest. He is the author of Standish Blue (Ghost City Press) and is the prose editor for Malasaña.

Kimberly Priest | Kimberly Ann Priest is the author of Slaughter the One Bird (Sundress Publications, 2021), finalist in the American Book Awards, and the chapbooks The Optimist Shelters in Place (Small Harbor Press, 2022), Parrot Flower (Glass Poetry Press, 2021), Still Life (PANK, 2020), and White Goat Black Sheep (FLP, 2018).

Reverie Konieki | A voice can be singular, yet also belong to all the bodies and experiences it connotes. Language is where we construct the common dream of the human experience yet fail at ultimately allowing one to fully experience the body of another. My artistic aim is to explore these seemingly contradictory aspects of the physical and metaphysical with wonder.

Application Requirements

The NEC MFA program looks forward to your application. Though we have year-round rolling admissions, please note the preferred deadlines below which allow us to give an application our fullest consideration.

Preferred Deadlines

• Summer: Rolling Admission
• Winter: November 1

Personal Essay: 1–4 pages
Applicants should address their preparation for graduate work as writers and scholars, the vision and goals they have for themselves and their work as writers looking to undertake a graduate degree program, and any other information pertinent to their application process.

Writing Sample: 10–15 pages in poetry; 20–25 pages in prose and Writing for Stage and Screen
Applicants should submit a sample of creative work in the genre for which they are applying. Dual genre applicants should submit a sample that contains both genres of interest, with a shorter sampling of their secondary genre focus included. Prose should be double-spaced; poetry may be single-spaced. Plays and film and television scripts can use standard format.

Two Letters of Recommendation
Letters of recommendation should address an applicant’s potential for rigorous creative and critical work at the graduate level.

Please have recommenders send letters to your counselor or graduateadmission@nec.edu.

Official Transcripts
Applicants must submit proof that they have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. Rare exceptions may be made for individuals who can show a high level of professional achievement.

Official transcripts are legal documents and must be sent from the institution to your counselor or graduateadmission@nec.edu.

For additional Admissions questions, please contact the Graduate Admissions Office at graduateadmission@nec.edu or 603.428.2252.

Teaching Assistantships and Scholarships

The NEC MFA offers several merit-and need-based financial assistance packages.

Full Teaching Assistantships
Full Teaching Assistantships cover the full cost of tuition. The teaching load for full teaching assistants is four courses per year.

Partial Teaching Assistantships
Partial Teaching Assistantships provide partial tuition for students. The teaching load for part-time teaching assistants is one to three classes per year.

The Joel Oppenheimer Scholarship
The Joel Oppenheimer scholarship is awarded to an MFA student whose writing sample demonstrates outstanding literary achievement and exceptional promise.

The Joel Oppenheimer Scholarship is awarded in memory of the distinguished Black Mountain poet, Joel Oppenheimer, who taught at New England College from 1982 to 1988. He lived among the poets and artists of Greenwich Village, and was a columnist for The Village Voice from 1969 to 1978 before settling in Henniker, New Hampshire, where he was a popular presence in the local community. His most important publications include Collected Later Poems of Joel Oppenheimer (1997); Names and Local Arbitrations (1988); Drawing from Life: A Selection of Joel Oppenheimer’s “Village Voice” Columns (1997); Don’t Touch the Poet: The Life and Times of Joel Oppenheimer (1998); Just Friends: Friends and Lovers Poems, 1959–1962 (1980); New Spaces Poems 1975–1983 (1985); and Poetry: The Ecology of the Soul (1983).

Pilgrim Plus Scholarship
New England College provides NEC alumni with a 25% tuition discount applied to graduate level classes across a wide range of graduate programs.

For additional information and assistance with program tuition and financial aid, you may contact Student Financial Services at 603.428.2226 or sfs@nec.edu.