Students are required to take four workshops in their genre track (fiction, non—fiction, or poetry). Additionally, students are required to take one “cross—genre” workshop, outside of their genre track. 

EN502—  Graduate Prose Workshop (fiction or non—fiction). Offered every semester.

EN503— Graduate Poetry Workshop. Offered every semester.

Each student is required to take one craft or theory course. These courses are offered every third semester at minimum. 

                  EN506— Reading for Writers: Prose

                  EN506— Reading for Writers: Poetry Form and Theory 

Each student must complete four electives, chosen from MFA offerings or 300+-level undergraduate offerings, sampled below. 

EN501— Graduate Seminar with topics in “Writing for Young Readers,” “Creative Writing for Wellness,” “Teaching College Writing,” “Science Fiction and Fantasy for All Genres,” “Voice Does the Work,” “Voice & Vision,” and more. Typically offered every semester. 

EN505— Literary Editing and Publishing. Offered every other year. 

EN455s— Writing in the Schools. A service—learning course offered every semester. 

EN393 or EN493— Special Topics in Literature with topics such as “Race and Queens,” “Women and Violence,” “Sex, Suffrage, and Empire,” “The Personal Essay,” “The Graphic Novel,” “Visiting Writers Series,” and more. Typically offered every semester. 

EN381— Studies in Major Authors with topics such as “Hemingway and Fitzgerald,” “American Women Writers to 1900,” and “20^th Century American Women Writers.”  

Once all required workshops, EN506, and a majority of electives are complete, a student may begin thesis work. Six credit hours of thesis work are completed over two semesters. Students work one-on-one with a thesis advisor from among our full-time or adjunct faculty. 

The successful thesis consists of a substantial sample of work in the student’s home genre, approved by the thesis advisor and a second faculty reader, successfully defended, and submitted online per University guidelines.

EN710— First Semester of thesis work

EN711— Second Semester of thesis work

The MFA program holds service as one of its founding principles and integral components and requires that all MFA students complete a service project.  Students have a variety of options to fulfill this requirement; a few examples are working as a reader for Booth and volunteering for Writers in the Schools or for the Wellness Initiative.

All MFA students are required to read their work in public at least once during the course of their degree program. The reading does not need to be from thesis material, nor must it occur during the thesis year. The program will make several opportunities available, but these do not exclude other public community reading opportunities.

Our program allows students to set their own pace. Many students complete the program in three years. Numerous students have opted to take more time, with the maximum being seven years. The program cannot be completed in fewer than six semesters.

Media and communication jobs are projected to grow 6 percent by 2031. Now is a great time to upskill and set yourself apart in the communication job market.* 

The Booth Tarkington Writer-in-Residence program is designed to bring emerging writers to the MFA program as guest faculty. These writers help expand the scope of our course offerings. Past designees have included:

2023-2024: Leah Johnson. Leah Johnson is an eternal midwesterner and author of award-winning books for children and young adults. Her bestselling debut YA novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, was a Stonewall Honor Book, and the inaugural Reese’s Book Club YA pick. In 2021, TIME named You Should See Me in a Crown one of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. Leah’s essays and cultural criticism can be found in Teen Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan among others. Her debut middle grade, Ellie Engle Saves Herself is forthcoming from Disney-Hyperion in May 2023. When she’s not writing or ranting about pop culture and politics on Twitter, Leah is a professor of creative writing and composition.

2021-2022: Hanif Abdurraqib. Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of three essay collections and two books of poetry: They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (2017, Two Dollar Radio);  Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest (University of Texas, 2019), A Little Devil In America (2021, Random House); The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (2016, Button Poetry); and A Fortune For Your Disaster(2019, Tin House). He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School and an editor-at-large at Tin House.

2017: Justin Taylor, fiction. He is the author of the story collections Flings (HarperCollins, 2014) and Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever (Harper Perennial, 2010), and the novel The Gospel of Anarchy (Harper Perennial, 2011). His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and The New Republic. He is the fiction editor for The Literary Review and lives (most of the time) in Portland, Oregon.

2014–2015: Alix Lambert, documentary filmmaker and television writer. Lambert’s documentaries include The Mark of Cain, Bayou Blue, and Mentor. She is the author of Crime and The Silencing.

2010–2011: Michael Dahlie, fiction. Our first Booth Tarkington Writer-in-Residence, Michael Dahlie, author of A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living and The Best of Youth, joined our faculty full-time as of August 2012.

Tuition for the MFA in Creative Writing at Butler University is set at $920.00 per credit hour for the 2021-2022 school year. Allowing for small annual increases in tuition, a student entering the program in Fall 2021 should expect tuition and fees for the degree to total roughly $33,000. A quick glance at the tuition costs for other MFAs shows that Butler is an extraordinary value, especially when one considers the high quality of our faculty and visitors, our small class sizes, and our auxiliary programming.

*Tuition is subject to change each academic year.

The Office of Financial Aid awards Federal Direct Loans to degree-seeking graduate students enrolled at least half-time (three credit hours). There is no gift assistance for graduate students awarded through the Office of Financial Aid. Federal Direct PLUS Loans for graduate students and private loans are available to those needing additional assistance.

Efroymson Scholarships (2 per year): The Efroymson Family Fund, a fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, sponsors the Efroymson Scholarships in Creative Writing. These scholarships are awarded to two out-of-state applicants who show great promise. The scholarship awards $15,000 to scholars, typically applied as $6,000 for the first two years and $3,000 for a third year.

K-12 Teacher Discount: Announced in Feb 2023, the MFA will offer a special tuition discount for any K-12 teacher in Central Indiana. The discount will be applicable throughout the student’s time earning the degree. Please contact our MFA Director for more information.

A variety of funding opportunities are available, some directly from the MFA program and many through our affiliate programs.

Booth Editors & Design Assistants

Section Editors (hired by application): Three positions, one each in Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction. Editors manage the workflow of submissions to Booth. They assign work to their respective staffs, send out rejection letters, work toward a 60-day turnaround on all submissions, push the best work monthly to roundtable discussion, and take an active role in facilitating conversation at the roundtable meetings. Editor pay is on a sliding scale based on volume of work, between $1,000- $2,000.  Section Editors must have previous experience as a Booth reader, so new students are not eligible.

Writing in the Schools

Vonnegut Youth Writing Internships: As part of an ongoing partnership between Butler MFA’s Writing in the Schools Program, Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), and the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library (KVML), students can apply for a paid internship that will place them as writing tutors within four IPS high school writing centers (Arsenal Tech, Crispus Attucks, George Washington, and Shortridge). These interns will support high school students with a variety of writing tasks—from academic papers to college application essays— and will also help to establish an after-school creative writing club at the respective high school they are assigned to.

Both current and incoming MFAs are eligible for this opportunity. The compensation for the internship will be commensurate with the cost of an MFA course (approximately $2,500 per semester) and will be a full school year appointment, barring extenuating circumstances. Selected interns will be asked to participate in a daylong training workshop before the start of the fall semester and will be expected to work at least 12 hours per week at their designated writing center location.

Bridge Program

Mentors (4 per year): Bridge Mentors work at our Writing Club, which meets once a month. Each mentor is responsible for planning and teaching creative writing lessons for an assigned age group (elementary, middle school, or high school). One floating mentor assists where needed. Writing Club serves local students grades 3–12. Mentors are paid $50 per session of Writing Club and are hired by the Bridge Program Coordinator, with preference given to students with previous teaching experience and/or demonstrated skill working with children.

Teachers (varies by need): Bridge Teachers lead a one-time workshop for the Bridge audience. Workshops are two hours long and teach students about a topic of craft. Teaching positions are filled through a call out and proposal process, and teachers are paid half the profits generated from registration, at a minimum of $100. MFAs with previous teaching experience are preferred.

Teaching Fellows

Teaching Fellows (8–10 per year): Funded directly by the MFA program, fellows shadow and assist instructors teaching undergraduate courses in First Year Seminar, or MFA faculty teaching Perspectives on the Creative Arts and creative writing courses in the English department. First year MFA students are ineligible for teaching fellowships, and positions are awarded first to MFAs who haven’t yet served as a fellow. FYS Fellows are paired with a professor by the FYS director and are paid $1,200 per semester, serving for one year. PCA and creative writing fellows are also paid $1,200 per semester, with an appointment of one semester.

Writers’ Studio/Peer Tutoring

Graduate Tutors (varies by need): Open only to students who have previous experience at a university writing center. The Writers’ Studio provides tutoring to undergraduate students of all majors. Graduate tutors report directly to the Director of Peer Tutoring, who makes all hiring decisions, including rate and hours. MFA administration only provides references.