MFA in Creative Writing

A premier program, designed for you.

Our MFA curriculum is customized to fit your artistic and professional interests in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.

A home for writing in the Midwest.

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Butler University’s 36-hour MFA in Creative Writing program is supported by a lively Indianapolis literary community. You’ll have opportunities to edit content for our literary magazine, have coffee or a meal with guests of the Visiting Writers Series, and work with top-flight, full-time faculty. The Efroymson Center for Creative Writing, one of the few such dedicated writing centers at any university, provides a cozy home for classes, quiet writing space, or after-hours socializing. Many graduates say they never want to leave the program, noting our emphasis on community over competition.

In addition to building a foundation through graduate workshops in your home genre, you’ll have the opportunity to choose from in-depth elective courses, such as screenwriting, young adult fiction, literary editing, publishing, and teaching creative writing. As a full-time student, you can finish program requirements—10 courses and six hours of formal thesis work—in just two years.

MFA in Creative Writing FAQs

Our Mission

The Butler MFA Program in Creative Writing is committed to providing a supportive and inclusive learning environment that gives each student the tools with which to build a life as a writer and as a citizen of the literary world. In welcoming writers of diverse backgrounds and experiences, and in emphasizing the value both of intense apprenticeship to the craft of writing and service to the community, we aim to be a program that is reflective of, and responsive to, the larger world of which it is a part.

Our Home

Since opening its doors in December 2011, The Efroymson Center for Creative Writing has hosted MFA courses, poetry luncheons, public readings, and literary discussions. It also provides workspace for visiting writers, students, faculty, and alumni. Formerly an elegant private residence, the building was purchased and remodeled with a $1 million donation from the Efroymson Family Fund.

Butler University, Center for Creative Writing