University of British Columbia (Distance MFA)

MFA Program

See writers who attended this program
Program Established: 
2005
Location: 
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Genre: 
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction
Residency: 
Online
Duration: 
2-3 Years
Incoming Class Size: 
18
Application Deadline: 
January 5, 2024
Application Fee: 
$168.25 Canadian (for international applicants), $112 Canadian (for Canadian applicants)
Contact E-mail: 
Contact Name: 
Giulia Sperman
Core Faculty Includes: 

Poetry: Susan Musgrave, Cecily Nicholson, Bronwen Tate
Fiction: Anosh Irani, Nancy Lee, Annabel Lyon, Maureen Medved, Alix Ohlin, A. E. Osworth, Linda Svendsen, Timothy Taylor, John Vigna
Children/YA: Emily Pohl-Weary, Jordan Scott, Tanya Kyi
Nonfiction: Mandy Catron, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich
Graphic Novel: Sarah Leavitt
Screenwriting: Sara Graefe
Playwriting: Frances Koncan
Writing for Television: Zac Hug
Speculative Fiction: Nalo Hopkinson
Indigenous Writing: Billy-Ray Belcourt

Funding/Employment Opportunities: 

The program offers partial funding. The program offers teaching assistantships, graduate supportive initiative scholarships, and endowed scholarships.

Other Features: 

This Optional-Residency (Distance) MFA program was the first distance education MFA program in Canada and remains the only full MFA which can be taken completely online. The program offers courses in graphic novel writing, playwriting, writing for television, screenwriting, and writing for children. Students are required to take coursework in three genres during the degree.

Most students attend an optional ten-day residency that is offered each July at the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver.

Graduates: 

Paulette Bourgeois, Amy Jones, Ellen Keith, Amy Stuart, Sarah Selecky, Shyam Selvadurai, Shauna Singh Baldwin, Katherena Vermette