Build the Foundation of Your Career
Our pragmatic approach to creative writing gives our students an edge in today’s competitive job market. With a sharp focus on career preparation, Monmouth’s M.F.A. students gain perspective on the business of literature by learning interview techniques, publishing strategies, and marketable industry skills. Additionally, graduates of the program will leave Monmouth with a publishable creative thesis. Students pursuing a career in teaching may also work as a Graduate Teaching assistant or paid adjunct within Monmouth’s English department during the M.F.A. program.
Potential career paths include:
- Author
- College professor
- Book or magazine editor
- Literary agent
- Journalist
- Professional or technical writer
- Advertising or digital copywriter
I think one of the greatest advantages to a M.A./MFA program, which isn’t normally talked about, is the ability to take yourself seriously as a writer. Being with likeminded students and professors, who are all striving to create art, allows you to push yourself and expand your own parameters as an artist. This program has been a wonderful experience for me. I’m grateful for it every single day.
John Vurro, M.A./MFA candidate in fiction. Vurro’s story “Mentors” won the 2021 Graduate Creative Writing Award. A chapter of his novel, Play, Rewind, won second place in the 2022 Graduate Creative Writing Award, and the first chapter of Play, Rewind was a finalist in Craft Lit’s First Chapter Contest. Vurro’s fiction has been published in The Literary Review, Eclipse, Glint, and elsewhere.