Writers At Work: MFA in Creative Writing for PCVs and RPCVs

Writer At Work

Jack Kerouac

As you know from the announcements from the NPCA and emails from me, the Peace Corps cohort is comprised of current or returned PCVs, employees of the NPCA, or other members of the NPCA that have been closely involved with the Peace Corps. All members of the cohort must also be members of the NPCA to receive the 15% tuition discount for the program.

The cohort is a unique opportunity. As a student you would be in a small cohort with other Peace Corps volunteers (current or former) who all want to pursue an MFA degree and write about their experiences in the Peace Corps or things inspired by that experience. The cohort will share three classes all instructed by me.

But the program isn’t just about the Peace Corps experience. National University has had a long-standing MFA program that has produced hundreds of graduates in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting. It is the oldest fully-online MFA program, started in 2005. So, much of your coursework will just be on the craft of writing and you will get to choose your own direction with these classes (conforming to the program requirements of course.) So, you will have to take some classes in nonfiction, but if you wanted to end up focused in poetry, that would be a possibility.

If you haven’t seen the informative program website yet, give it a look. It tells you more about the program in general, so you can get a general overview. http://faculty.nu.edu/blogs/mcw/

Again, all the classes are asynchronous, which means you don’t have to be in the online classroom at any given time or date. There are due dates, of course, but no live sessions because students are over the world in different time zones. So, as long as you think you can have decent internet access a couple times a week, you should be okay in the classes. We also do a one course at a time format, so you are only taking one four or eight week course at any given time.

National University is a fully-accredited, not-for-profit university, and offer Federal financial aid as well.

If you are still interested, contact me at: jcoyneone@gmail.com