The MFA in Creative Writing is designed to be completed in three years. Students may specialize in Fiction or Poetry. A minimum of 49 hours is required for this terminal degree. A series of creative writing workshops, courses in form and theory, new media writing, composition pedagogy, and literature and theory electives are designed for students wishing to pursue careers as writers or writer/scholars at the college level. Students also have the opportunity to work as editors on the Minnesota Review and The New River: a Journal of Digital Writing and Art. A creative thesis, a written final exam, and an oral defense are required.<br>The goal of MFA in Creative Writing is to immerse graduate students in a culture of productive creativity by doing the following: providing them with an opportunity to work in apprenticeship fashion with writing faculty, helping them to acquire a keen sense of the evolving landscape and the challenges in the field of creative writing, empowering them to create a dynamic learning community of writers in the heart of Southwest Virginia, and enabling them to develop the requisite skills they need in order to publish full-length collections of poetry and fiction. The program will also prepare students for teaching at the college-level.