Peace Corps Writers MFA Program: Now Open for PCVs and RPCVs

Peace Corps Writers MFA Program: Now open for PCVs and RPCVs

Do you want to earn your Master’s Degree in Creative Writing while serving in the Peace Corps? Or do it today as an RPCV and not have to step onto a college campus?

Would you like to write a memoir or book about your Peace Corps experience?

Here is your chance to do both! I have arranged with National University in California to offer an online only Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program for Peace Corps writers. This MFA is sponsored by the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA). PCVs & RPCVs will receive a tuition discount. The tuition for the MFA is in the area of 20K.

National University is the second-largest private, nonprofit institution of higher education in California and the 12th largest in the United States. It is one of the very few universities that offer a totally online MFA Creative Writing degree.

The inaugural Peace Corps Writers program is slated to begin in Fall 2016 – accepting a class of 12-15 students.

I will teach the initial class that will focus on your Peace Corps experience and how you might develop that material into a memoir or non-fiction book. This class will be one month in length. Students take one class at a time, for one or two months each.

The MFA is a flexible program. Students can complete the degree within 13–18 months. As all courses are online, students have the opportunity to progress at their own pace and live anywhere in the world while obtaining a degree. All students have the opportunity to developed advanced skills as writers of fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry and screenwriting. The MFA is a terminal degree; it provides graduates with the academic credentials to teach at the university level, or to pursue longstanding aspirations to write.

Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing course description

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is a studio degree where students produce creative work and refine it through workshops that focus on developing craft in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or screenwriting. In online workshops, students write constructive critiques of the work of their classmates, read modern texts from the writer’s perspective, and participate in generative writing activities.

Courses are taught by established writers in the field who share their perspective and expertise in the craft. Participating in seminars and workshops, students build valuable skills in their chosen concentration. The culmination of the program is the thesis project, a publishable-quality final project in the student’s chosen specialty that demonstrates a critical application of knowledge in the field which should make an independent contribution to existing work in that area. During the thesis process, students work one-on-one with a faculty mentor in drafting and revising a publishable quality thesis.

This program is excellent preparation for a professional career in writing, working in the areas of publishing or filmmaking, and is the minimal academic qualification appropriate for those who desire to teach creative writing at the college or university level. Students are expected to focus in one genre, but are required to take seminar workshops in different genres in order to broaden the scope of their reading and writing.

Students are encouraged to take graduate courses in English Literature as electives, as the critical study of literature goes hand in hand with its composition.

Additional information on the National University program is at: http://www.nu.edu/OurPrograms/CollegeOfLettersAndSciences/ArtsAndHumanities/Programs/Master-Fine-Arts-Creative-Writing.html

If you are interested in earning an MFA in creative writing contact me: jcoyneone@gmail.com for additional information.