Saint Mary’s College of California

MFA Program

See writers who attended this program
Program Established: 
1995
Location: 
Moraga, CA
Genre: 
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction
Residency: 
Full
Duration: 
2 Years
Incoming Class Size: 
18
Application Deadline: 
December 15, 2023
Application Fee: 
$50 (fee waiver available upon request)
Contact E-mail: 
Contact Name: 
Chris Feliciano Arnold
Core Faculty Includes: 

Poetry: Matthew Zapruder
Fiction: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Nonfiction: Marilyn Abildskov

Visiting writers rotate every semester. 

Funding/Employment Opportunities: 

The program offers partial funding with publishing fellowships and administrative assistantships. The program offers partially funded teaching fellowships; all students also receive some form of waiver, fellowship, or scholarship.

Affiliated Publications/Publishers: 

Omnidawn Publishing, Wave Books, ZYZZYVA

Other Features: 

The program hosts a reading series, a craft conversation series, a graduate-student reading series, retreats, and panels on teaching, publishing, and life after the MFA. Other features include funding to attend literary conferences and symposia. The priority application deadline is December 15 and offers priority scholarship/fellowship consideration; the final application deadline is January 31.

Graduates: 

Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, Teresa Bonham, Josh Braff, Lily Brown, Alix Christie, Jenny Drai, Rebecca Farivar, Alex Green, Gabe Gomez, Janet Hardy, Jennifer Jean, Jill Kolongowski, Brett Fletcher Lauer, Katherine Maxfield, Erin Lindsay McCab, Melissa Lion, Yuska Lutfi, Rusty Morrison, Risa Nye, Kaya Oakes, Robert Andrew Perez, Kiran Bains Sahota, Michael Sikkema, A. E. Watkins, Mary Volmer, among others.