For those of us at Cambridge Common Writers, our time in the Lesley MFA in Creative Writing Low-Residency program were some of the most formative years in our writing careers. We spent four semesters learning from the very best, and building a community that would carry us through the following years of submissions, rejections, lack of motivation, publication joys, and successes. All of us came into the program at different points in our craft—some were already published, others felt we still had a long way to go before we were ready to put our work, and therefore ourselves, out into the world. For some of us, it wasn’t until the moment of our graduation, when we had reached the end of our time with Lesley, that we thought, “Okay, now I’m ready to get to work.”
Enter the Post-Graduate Study in the Lesley MFA, a new opportunity for alums to take that extra step when it comes to their writing–whether it’s deepening a current creative work, transitioning from short stories to a novel, cross-genre writing, revising or finishing work, or preparing work for publication. At $4500 per semester, which can be taken at any time post-graduation, alums can create their own study plan with the MFA Writing Faculty Mentor of their choice and continue to work on their creative writing studies or professional development.
Intrigued? So are we. Here are a few key details about the study:
- Each 15-week (6 month) semester coincides with current MFA semesters (Fall – June, Spring – January).
- A semester corresponds to six credits offered at the reduced rate of $750/credit instead of the regular $875/credit for MFA tuition.
- This amount of credits is similar to a semester’s writing in the MFA program, although the content will be determined by the PGS student and the faculty mentor.
- There is no limit to the number of semesters a PGS student can sign up for and the semesters do not have to be consecutive.
- Faculty mentors in the MFA Program are also PGS faculty mentors, with the exception of any faculty on leave at the time.
- The PGS student may select which mentor they would like to work with, plus a #2 choice. If neither choice is available due to MFA program needs, the PGS student will be informed so that they can either proceed with a different faculty mentor, or delay the PGS semester until the faculty is free to work with them.
- As of now there is no financial aid for the PGS option, although the Program is considering a structure that will allow this possibility in the near future.
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