Requirements
These requirements apply to students matriculating at Northwestern for Fall 2027 or later. Students matriculating before that date can also choose to opt into these requirements if desired. Students are not allowed to mix and match old and new program requirements.
The requirements page for the program prior to Fall 2027 can be found HERE.
The following account is not an official description of the degree requirements, which can be found on The Graduate School’s website, but an outline of study. All students admitted to the MFA+MA program are, without exception, guaranteed full funding (stipend plus tuition) for two academic years and two summers. The academic years are spent primarily on creative writing workshops and literature courses (both those designed for scholarly study and those intended to help the writer establish a stance toward literature itself, past and present). The Graduate School allows students five years in which to complete their degree, but we strongly encourage students to finish within the term of their funding.
Writing Workshops
Over the two years of the program, MFA+MA students will take six genre-specific writing workshops, each focusing on technique, stances, artistic goals, and literary contexts that are particular to each genre. Because we admit between five and seven students each year, some of these workshops may, from time to time, combine genres and focus on elements of writing that are common to genres, including style, structure, and mode of discourse (lyric, narrative, research-based, etc.).
Coursework
The MFA+MA course schedule is a sequencing of studies and workshops in preparation for writing the two main new works each student will create: the MA Capstone project and the MFA thesis manuscript. The MFA+MA program requires six graduate-level seminars in English, beginning with English 410: Introduction to Graduate Study. In order to gain some expertise in the full range of English and American literature and culture, two of the remaining courses must be focused on literature before 1800 and two must be focused on literature after 1800. The last of the coursework may be taken outside the English Department, with the Director's approval.
Graduate Assistantships
In the first year, funding is provided in the form of a Fellowship, allowing students to focus solely on their studies. Throughout the second year, funding is provided to MFA+MA students in the form of Graduate Assistantships, through which students are assigned teaching duties. All students will take English 571: Teaching Creative Writing in their first year to prepare to teach their own introductory creative writing courses in the second year of the program.
Editorial Practicum
During their first funded summer in the program, Litowitz students will serve as part-time Editorial Assistants for the prestigious online literary journal TriQuarterly, gaining editorial experience that will help shape their own projects and giving them working knowledge of producing an online literary journal.
First-Year Review
As is common practice in graduate programs, at the end of the first year, the Director and faculty evaluate students’ performance to determine whether they should continue into the second year or leave the program. This decision is based on satisfactory performance in coursework and demonstrated ability to develop significant artistic and critical/scholarly projects to carry them to degree completion.
MA Capstone
All Litowitz students will complete an article-length critical essay in the second year. This essay can be an expanded version of an essay written for an English Department graduate seminar, a critical introduction to the student's thesis project, or an annotated bibliography. The project will be revised in response to comments from, and, as appropriate, in consultation with, the seminar instructor.
MFA Thesis
At the end of the second year, students will complete their MFA Thesis, a full draft of a book-length manuscript.