Skip to main content
MFA Programs/MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of New Hampshire
MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of New Hampshire logo

MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of New Hampshire

MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of New Hampshire campus

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Writing at UNH offers an intimate, highly-regarded program where you'll develop your craft alongside nationally recognized faculty and dedicated peers. The program is small, highly-ranked and selective. We emphasize one-on-one contact between a nationally recognized faculty and talented students.


Here you'll focus on fiction, narrative nonfiction, or poetry while engaging with visiting writers, gaining editorial experience through our online journal Barnstorm and pursuing paid internships in arts organizations. With teaching assistantships, scholarships, and personalized mentorship, this two year program has launched hundreds of successful writers across genres, from novelists and poets to essayists and memoirists.

Do you want to shape your gifts and passion for writing? Work one-on-one with nationally recognized faculty? Get the support of a talented community of peers? Focus on fiction, narrative nonfiction or poetry in our graduate M.F.A. program, which has launched the careers of hundreds of poets, novelists, storywriters, essayists and memoirists. What is notable is not just how hard students work on their own creative writing, but how much effort goes into their response to the work of their peers. Writers here care deeply about each other, and the production of honest work that captures life on the page.

Many exciting opportunities are available, including a visiting writers’ series, where you’ll have the chance to connect with some of the finest contemporary poets, novelists and essayists currently at work. You can take advantage of paid internships in local arts organizations, editorial positions at our online journal Barnstorm, teaching assistantships, tuition scholarships and grant awards. Our students typically complete the program in two years, although at times we have had more local students move more slowly through the program taking a class a term.

Our Students Have Been Published In

The Rumpus
National Poetry Series
Massachusetts Review
Beyond Words
The Bangalore Review
Trafalgar Square Books
Black Lawrence Press
Broadstone Books
Change Seven
Kelsay Books
Kelsey Review
PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize
Park Row Books
RipRap
Showbear Family Circus
WestWord
Glimmer Train
The Missouri Review

MFA Program details

University
University of New Hampshire
Highlights
The UNH Writer's SeriesThe Portsmouth Music Hall internshipThe MFA's "Read Free or Die" MFA student readings in Dover
Associated Publications

How to apply

Cohort size
10
Fee
$65
Deadline
Regular: January 15
Teaching opportunities
Yes
Requirements
Online ApplicationOfficial TranscriptsThree Recommendation LettersPersonal Statement/Essay QuestionsWriting Sample
Funding opportunities
Six out of ten MFA students receive direct financial aid, with most funding taking the form of teaching assistantships, tuition scholarships, and grant awards. Other opportunities include paid internships in local arts organizations and editorial positions at their literary journal, Barnstorm.

Core Faculty

Fiction
Tom Paine, Clark Knowles, Sam Seal
Poetry
David Blair, Elizabeth Powell
Nonfiction
Jaed Coffin

Notable Alumni

Erin SomersErin Somers
Shannon GarveyShannon Garvey
Ben LudwigBen Ludwig

Testimonials

“I cherished my time at UNH’s MFA in Creative Writing program and consider it one of the best investments I’ve made. The workshops were particularly valuable and the professors and my cohort were instrumental to my growth as a writer and the completion of my short story collection. As a T.A., I taught composition and rhetoric and fiction, supported by an invaluable practicum that has shaped my teaching practice as a creative writing professor.”

Amy Neswald

MFA '17

“The MFA at UNH was the perfect place for me to become a better writer. The community is serious yet supportive, and the student-run journal (Barnstorm) and monthly reading series (Read Free or Die) let us dip our toes into the publishing world and regularly read our stuff aloud to the public. Tom Paine and the other faculty care deeply about student’s writing, and the seacoast has it all: winding coastlines, the White Mountains to the north, and Boston an hour south.”

Dani Mueller

MFA '25

FAQ