The low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing is now a well-established format in American higher education. The nation’s first low-residency MFA program in creative writing was inaugurated at Goddard College in 1976. Since then, a number of other low-residency MFA programs have been launched, some of which are now considered among the finest MFA programs in the nation.

The SPU program is directly modeled on this tradition of excellence.

The heart of the program involves the ancient relationship between master and apprentice. Writing is ultimately a solitary experience, so the rhythm of students sending packets of completed material and receiving detailed feedback from their mentors is both appropriate and highly effective.

The beauty of this type of program is that it allows students to maintain their current jobs and locations, while offering two stimulating and intensive residency periods at stunning locations in the American West—the high desert of New Mexico and an island off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.