Students in Pacific’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing program earn a graduate degree in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry over the course of two years through five intensive residencies, coupled with four semesters of guided study.
In the belief that writers can and must lead full and interesting lives, the program embraces students who have full-time jobs and other obligations, helping each to design an individualized course of study to be carried out in collaboration with a faculty mentor.
The writers who serve as faculty for the MFA program are outstanding for both their level of national or regional literary achievements and for their teaching records and abilities. These accomplished authors share a sense of joy around their work, bringing diverse writing styles and voices to the mix.
Like the faculty, Pacific’s MFA students are talented and committed writers from around the globe. While they are in various stages of life, they share a devotion to their art. They write because they can’t help it. They write to pay attention to their inner lives and to the lives of others. From baristas to brain surgeons, our MFA students understand implicitly that the apprenticeship they receive here is ongoing and that writers discover their original voice and moral point of view over time. They know that the process requires patience and the ability to embrace the muscular discipline that literary writing demands.
The Pacific University MFA in Writing program residencies are an opportunity for students to connect with faculty mentors and guest authors in idyllic settings focused on the craft of writing. Over the 10 intensive days of events, students meet some of the best minds of the literary world.
Each day is filled with an expansive selection of presentations and events designed to provide tools and inspiration for the art of writing. In the mornings, students typically attend a craft talk and workshops. After lunch they may choose among a number of talks, panels, classes and readings. Each evening closes with readings by the faculty and students. In addition to the scheduled events, the residency includes time for contemplation, writing and informal gatherings. Though students in the program specialize in a particular genre for their degrees, the residency offers opportunities to experience and appreciate the relationship among all the literary genres.
Toward the end of the residency, each student is paired with a faculty advisor and together they create an individualized study plan that outlines the student’s projects for the guided study that follows. The residency is both a rich reward and a stimulus for the months of solo work that lie ahead.
The study plans that shape each semester’s work in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program grow from the students’ own interests, needs, and developing visions and guide the trajectory of their work. During the guided study students send writing to their advisors and, in turn, receive critiques and support, including specific suggestions as well as general advice for the developing craft and course of study.
The MFA degree requires successful completion of at least four semesters of study and five residency periods. During the course of the program, students read approximately 80 works of literature, about which they write commentaries during their first two semesters and bibliographic annotations during their last two semesters. They complete an analytical paper on an author, a literary theme, or another aspect of contemporary letters. For their thesis, they prepare a polished manuscript of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. At their fifth residency, students discuss their work in a thesis review and do a public presentation that includes a critical introduction to a reading of their creative work.
Upon completion of the program, degree recipients will demonstrate mastery-level rhetorical skill and imaginative originality in creative works. Graduates of Pacific’s MFA in Writing program are encouraged to apply to teach undergraduates on Pacific University’s campus in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Pacific University Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program
503-352-1531 | mfa@pacificu.edu
530 NW 12th Ave., Portland, OR 97209
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday - Friday
On Wednesday, November 4, at 4pm Pacific Time, director Scott Korb and assistant director Jennifer Scanlon will be hosting a virtual information session to discuss the MFA program and our Residency Writers Conference. We're eager to see you!
Join for this thrilling conversation between Pacific MFA faculty poets Frank X. Gaspar and Ellen Bass on the occasion of the release of Gaspar's POEM FIRE: NEW AND SELECTED.
We welcome back June 2026 residency emcee Donna Denizé (MFA '25) for the next in our Kwame Dawes Mapmakers Alumni Institute series, joined in conversation with faculty poet Safia Elhillo. Donna's lines of inquiry will engage with what Safia has called the "Poetics of the Third Space." Brought together by the MFA Alumni Council's Pacific Basin committee, the event is free and open to the public, and will be hosted on Zoom November 17 beginning at 5:30pm Pacific Time. Join us for this fascinating conversation.
The Pacific MFA in Writing welcomes registrations for the Dec. Body Chronicles Session, "Neurodivergence & the Writer."
Mapmakers Alumni Institute | Owólabi Aboyade and Jenny Linn Loveland in Conversation
Description
On the final Friday of our January residency, for the first time we're hosting a collaborative Mapmakers Alumni Institute, featuring Jenny Linn Loveland and Owólabi Aboyade, both 2025 graduates in nonfiction. Their conversation, which has emerged over years of friendship, will take up the topic of crafting the surreal in nonfiction writing.
Brought together by the MFA Alumni Council's Pacific Basin committee, the event is free and open to the public, and will be hosted on Zoom January 15, 2027, beginning at 9:00am Pacific Time. Join us.
