California College of the Arts' MFA in Writing Program is a two-year course of study. The program offers workshops in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, cross-genre writing, playwriting or screenwriting, and rather than requiring you declare a specific genre, we instead leave open the option to take workshops in various genres.
The MFA in Writing Program affirms both innovative and traditional practice, offering a flexible and rigorous course of study to support each writer's unique path. Graduate writers benefit from the dynamic and varied cultures of writing inherent in the Bay Area, just as they do studying writing at an art school where many modes of artistic expression converge and flourish.
Students take graduate seminars and undergraduate studios in painting/drawing, film/video, photography, printmaking, book arts, visual criticism, and architecture. We welcome student work that combines or crosses genres or art practices.
We are a diverse, supportive, and lively community of faculty and student writers situated in a beautiful collective work space that offers a capacious, light-filled studio and serene garden.
CCA offers a remarkable faculty of accomplished writers, Mentored Study (one-to-one assistance with a faculty writer every semester); distinguished writers in residence, small workshops and seminars; the opportunity to work on our national literary journal, Eleven Eleven; a Writers Series (a.k.a. The Friday Seminar) at which authors, editors, performers, and others read their work and engage in discussion with MFA candidates and faculty in an intimate setting.
CCA offers merit-based scholarships, underrepresented-minority/diversity scholarships, as well as opportunities to work as teaching assistants.
Applying
See Graduate Admissions for how to apply.
Transmission
Transmission is the online literary journal for students in the program.
Small Press Traffic
Small Press Traffic Literary Arts Center is housed at CCA and brings together independent readers and writers through publications, conferences, and a weekly reading series.