MFAWriting

We believe creativity is sparked when you have space to develop your ideas, and from your first to your final semester at CCA you’ll have close, sustained support from your professors through one-on-one mentorships. Our award-winning faculty includes Faith Adiele, Tom Barbash, Dodie Bellamy, Rita Bullwinkel, Jasmin Darznik, Joseph Lease, Trisha Ya-wen Low, Aimee Phan, Denise Newman, and Leslie Carol Roberts.

The Bay Area, a site of rich literary history, is our home. You’ll have access to resources and literary institutions you won’t find anywhere else, like City Lights Publishers, Litquake, and the Bay Area Book Festival. In the fall semester, we offer Tuesday Seminar, a course that brings illustrious professional writers right into the classroom with you.

MFA Writing faculty have received major prizes, fellowships, residencies, and grants. Their books have been New York Times bestsellers and award-winning collections in fiction, hybrid essay/memoir, poetry, literary criticism, creative nonfiction, and memoir. Together they offer unique voices across multiple genres, aesthetic traditions, and vibrant writing communities.

MFA Writing Faculty

MFA in Writing program alumni have impressive success getting their work out in the world, publishing books across genres. Recent publications include:

• Tom Comitta, The Nature Book, Coffee House Press, 2023
• Dior Stephens, Cruel/Cruel, Nightboat, 2023
• Alka Joshi, The Perfumist of Paris, Harper Collins, 2023
• Sonja Swift, Echo Loba, Loba Echo, Rocky Mountain Press, 2023
• Jessamyn Violet, Secret Rules to Being a Rock Star, Three Rooms Press, 2023
• Alka Joshi, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, Harper Collins, 2021
• Julie Lythcott-Haims, Your Turn: How to Be An Adult, Henry Holt, 2021
• Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist, Mira Publishing, a division of Harper Collins, 2019
• Rheea Mukherjee, The Body Myth, Unnamed Press, 2019
• Adam Nemett, We Can Save Us All, Unnamed Press, 2018
• Sonia Belasco, Speak of Me As I Am, Philomel Books, 2017
• Julie Lythcott-Haims, Real American, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2017
• Molly Prentiss, Tuesday Nights in 1980, Simon & Schuster, 2017
• Catie Jarvis, The Peacock Room, Hyperborea, 2016
• Andrew Nicholson, A Lamp Brighter Than Foxfire, Colorado State, 2015
• LaTasha Nevada Diggs, TWerk, Belladonna Press, 2013

In addition to becoming published authors, our students find traction at established and emergent platforms like Medium, and also work as educators; performance artists; editors; and writers for newspapers, magazines, and marketing agencies.

Our two-year program welcomes students of all ages, career profiles, and backgrounds, including law, advertising, tech, music, and academia. We focus on your writing sample and your letters of recommendation in making admissions decisions.

Start your application

You’ll apply to CCA and submit all required application materials via SlideRoom. Afterward, you may be contacted for an interview with a faculty member as part of the application process. Being selected for an interview doesn’t indicate applicant status or increase or decrease an applicant’s chances of being admitted into their desired graduate program. Interviews are conducted at the program’s discretion and are used to gain more insight into an application.

MFA Writing application requirements

• Application and $70 nonrefundable application fee
  To be completed and submitted on SlideRoom.
  
  
• Resume/curriculum vitae
  Please outline your educational and professional background and relevant experiences and activities, including community work. Resumes/CVs must be in PDF document format.
  
  
• Two recommendation letters
  You’ll request two letters of recommendation from academic or professional sources in SlideRoom by entering the contact information for your recommenders/references. They will then receive an automated email from SlideRoom with instructions for uploading their letter of recommendation.
  
  
• Unofficial college transcripts
  You are required to provide your complete undergraduate academic history. Students who have already taken graduate courses are encouraged to submit those transcripts, too. For international applicants, all transcripts must be in English or accompanied by a certified English translation.
  
  Please provide an unofficial transcript from the college where you will receive or have received your bachelor’s degree, as well as unofficial transcripts for all other undergraduate coursework. Unofficial transcripts will be used for review purposes.
  
  Once you have been admitted and enrolled, all students will need to submit official, sealed transcripts showing the completion of a bachelor’s degree to our graduate admissions office by August 1 of the fall semester they begin enrollment at CCA.
  
  
• Proof of English proficiency (international applicants only)
  Review and plan to meet our English proficiency requirements for graduate students.
  
  
• Personal essay
  In a personal essay, submitted as a PDF, write 500 to 1,000 words about your writing experience, why you want to study writing at the graduate level, your educational objectives, and any critical influences on your work.
  
  
• Portfolio
  Your portfolio, submitted as one to two PDFs (up to 10 MB each), should consist of a selection of writing samples (totaling no more than 25 double-spaced pages) that reflect your main areas of interest.
  
  You may include poems, short stories, a section of a novel, text for performance (include video, if available), creative nonfiction, or writing for new genres. You’re welcome, but not required, to submit visual materials in support of your application, including book arts and videos.
  
  Please note: We do not accept co-written material.

For prospective student inquiries, including questions about the program or how to apply, please contact us