UMKC Launches Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and the Media Arts

The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) is pleased to announce its Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and the Media Arts -- the first interdisciplinary MFA program of its kind in the region. The program is admitting for the fall 2009 semester.

One of the few interdisciplinary MFA programs in the U.S., the MFA in Creative Writing and the Media Arts is poised to attract literary talent to the region. Working across genres in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting and screenwriting, the program will provide graduate students with intensive training in their chosen literary form and skills in associated media.

"This program fits nicely with the interdisciplinary nature of our times," said Michael Pritchett, program director and associate professor of English. "We’ll be preparing our students for careers in multiple disciplines – as authors, playwrights, poets, teachers, screenwriters, editors, etc. – in a marketplace that’s shifting toward mixed-media and cross-genre work."

More than ten years in the making, the MFA Program in Creative Writing and the Media Arts enhances UMKC’s growing reputation as a center for the literary arts. Anchored by award-winning creative writing faculty, the program includes New Letters, a nationally-acclaimed magazine; "New Letters on the Air," a nationally-syndicated weekly radio program; BkMk Press; visiting writers, such as B.H. Fairchild, Edward P. Jones and C.D. Wright; the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, home to Missouri’s only MFA program in Theatre; and two summer writing workshops. The program also offers students substantial financial support through teaching assistantships, fellowships, scholarships and awards.

The literary resources available to MFA students are enhanced by an extensive network of ongoing collaborations between UMKC and Kansas City’s arts resources, including the Kansas City Public Library; The Writers Place; the Kansas City Art Institute; the Film Society of Greater Kansas City; KC Artist LINC; the American Jazz Museum; Rainy Day Books; and the Kansas City Literary Festival.

"UMKC contributes so much to the Kansas City arts scene," writes The Kansas City Star editor and UMKC alumnus Steve Paul. "This MFA program will by its very nature help to further the cause of cultural literacy by preparing a larger body of students for multi-disciplinary work as thinkers and writers and creative artists."

For more information, please visit http://cas.umkc.edu/creativewriting/mfa.htm