Is an MFA in fiction writing worth it?

Novelist David Guterson, author of the notable Snow Falling on Cedars, once stated, “When I went to college, I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.”

The study of creative writing at colleges and universities is a modern phenomenon – and a steadily booming one. Today, creative writing can be a heavy draw at both the undergraduate and graduate level, whether in fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. The Master of Fine Arts, or MFA, has been on the upswing for some time. According to a 2016 article in the Atlantic, in 1975 there were some 52 MFA programs in creative writing. In 2008, that number had increased to 156, reports Lit Hub – and by 2016, just eight years later, it was up to a whopping 244. Not all of these programs require full-time onsite commitments, however: With the increasing trend toward “distance education,” low-residency programs are offered more and more over the traditional on-campus setting. Writers can also choose between the traditional academic program, which includes a broad mix of creative writing and literature, and the so-called “studio” type, which focuses largely on the writing.

Nearly all programs include workshops in which writers respond to each other’s work in a group setting. But what about publication? To what extent do MFA programs prepare the writer for a professional career in writing?

One size doesn’t fit all. To give an overview of the various benefits of the MFA, we’ve interviewed six program directors and coordinators in fiction writing, plus five successful MFA graduates from different fiction-writing programs. Is an MFA worth the time and money? You decide.

1 PART ONE: MFA PROGRAM DIRECTORS SPEAK OUT

What does the writer gain from the workshop approach? Do you use other teaching strategies besides workshops?

LAN SAMANTHA CHANG, IOWA WRITERS’ WORKSHOP: Every writer is unique, and every workshop differs depending on the instructor and the students. A focus on improving writing in a strong environment is the most important activity and is more likely to lead to the development of a career than a focus on professionalism. To provide opportunities for students, we support a number of student reading series and host visiting literary agents, and many of our students meet their agents while enrolled in the program, but we do not encourage them to do this. We believe a focus on writing is ultimately the effective strategy.

The benefit of the workshop approach is that it tasks students with putting into words their reactions and responses to a work in progress. There’s a vocabulary which workshops develop, jargon-heavy maybe, that in theory is useful when it’s time for a student to look at their own drafts and figure out where they want to take them. Also, workshops present the manuscript as a landmark in the story’s gradual