Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (low-residency)
Naropa’s online creative writing MFA provides the structure, support, and professional development you need to take your writing to the next level from the comfort of home.
Program Overview
Naropa’s Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing is a flexible program for writers who want to deepen their craft without putting their lives on hold. Whether you’re working on a manuscript, preparing for doctoral study, or seeking an artistic breakthrough, this hybrid MFA combines the focus of online learning with the energy of immersive residencies in Boulder, Colorado.
This is not your typical low-residency MFA in Creative Writing. Grounded in Naropa’s legacy of experimental poetics and contemplative education, our curriculum invites you to explore multiple genres—poetry, prose, hybrid work, translation, and performance—while refining your voice and vision through mentorship, collaborative scholarship, and critical inquiry.
Through small online asynchronous workshops, cross-genre courses, and one-on-one guidance from practicing writers, our MFA creative writing programs keep you connected to a vibrant creative community from wherever you are. Each semester of this two-year degree includes dynamic residencies in Boulder, Colorado, filled with readings, panels, and workshops that re-energize your practice and connect you with peers and faculty.
If you’re looking for one of the best low-residency MFAs in creative writing that honors your autonomy, your schedule, and your artistic instincts, this is the place.
Cross-Genre Curriculum
Naropa’s experimental creative writing MFA is intentionally open-genre, because great writing doesn’t always fit neatly into a single category. Whether you’re working in poetry, fiction, memoir, playwriting, hybrid forms, or something entirely your own, this program gives you the freedom to explore and the structure to grow. Recognized as one of the most innovative MFA creative writing programs, the low-residency option offers the flexibility of distance learning without compromising the depth of artistic engagement.
Our curriculum encourages experimentation across narrative forms and literary traditions, helping you sharpen your voice while pushing the boundaries of craft beyond the page. You’ll read deeply, write widely, and engage with contemporary trends through a lens that includes critical theory, contemplative inquiry, and cultural awareness.
Rather than a single genre study, we create space for the intersection between prose and performance, lyric and logic, taking inspiration from your inner voice and outer world. This cross-disciplinary focus allows you to develop a distinctive aesthetic grounded in inquiry, intuition, and innovation. We also offer the only low-residency MFA with professional development in writing pedagogy without additional cost or credit hours to support those already working in education or with plans to pursue a teaching career. As a creative writing MFA low-residency program, it’s designed to meet the needs of working writers who want both flexibility and depth in their graduate studies.
One-on-One Mentorship
Unlike other low-residency programs, our curriculum includes intimate online courses that lead up to one-on-one thesis mentorship. Students take one 6-credit course each semester, connecting with their instructor and peers through cross-genre study and generative asynchronous workshopping. With an emphasis on personal inquiry and reflection, students build lasting relationships with faculty mentors.
Generative Residencies
Every semester, our Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing students gather in Boulder, Colorado, for enriching and energizing residencies. Graduate students meet one-on-one with mentors, enjoy master classes with guest writers, attend readings, and bond with other writers in the program. Residencies include spring and fall symposiums, providing students with a rich 4-days of writing community and inspiration. Each academic year culminates in a week-long writing intensive at Naropa’s Summer Writing Program. This annual festival brings over 60 artists, writers, and thinkers to Boulder for workshops, readings, panels, and community celebration in the name of art.
Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Quick Facts
- Fifteen annual days of residency in Boulder, CO
- Multi-genre curriculum
- One-on-one mentorship with accomplished faculty
- Unique Experimental Approach
- Involvement in the Summer Writing Program
- A cohort-based structure that fosters strong community bonds among MFA students
- Transfer up to 12 credits
- Multiple Scholarship and Financial Aid Options
- Applications open for Spring & Fall 2026
Program Format
Naropa’s Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA is a two-year, 40-credit, hybrid graduate program designed to support both your writing and your life. You’ll combine intimate asynchronous online courses with four immersive residencies in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, allowing for deep creative focus, consistent mentorship, and meaningful artistic community.
Each semester includes a multi-day in-person residency, where you’ll participate in master classes, ground with communal dharma arts workshops, attend readings and panels, and meet one-on-one with faculty mentors. Recent guest faculty have included Dot Devota, E. Tracy Grinnell, Tom Committa, and Jake Skeets.
Spring and Fall residencies align with Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School Symposiums, bringing you into conversation with writers and thinkers across disciplines as you network with peers and professionals in the MFA degree creative writing community. Recent panels have included themes on disability poetics, ecopoetics, and translation.
The summer residency takes place during Naropa’s Summer Writing Program. Students choose to take one or three weeks of workshops during this renowned international festival of group workshops, lectures, performances, and readings. Those who opt for one week of summer residency also take a four-credit online summer course from the comfort of home.
Between residencies, you’ll engage in asynchronous coursework with your faculty mentor and peers, exchanging creative work and critical discussions, contemplative reflections, and generative feedback. This structure ensures continuity and accountability while giving you the flexibility to write from wherever you are, even when life gets in the way. As one of the most innovative low-residency MFA in creative writing programs available, it supports your writing practice without requiring you to pause your life.
Course Spotlight
Craft of Writing: Rooting in the Archive
This course delves into the Naropa University Archive and its rich offerings to explore traditions, movements, and/or schools of writing that inform or extend the aesthetic vision of the Jack Kerouac School toward mindful writing. Possible recent historical examples include New American Poetry, the Beats, San Francisco Renaissance, the New York School, Black Mountain Poetics, the Black Arts Movement, and Language poetry, among others.
Degree
Requirements
Unlike many courses in online creative writing MFA programs, our asynchronous classes build community through writer-to-writer feedback and a structured curriculum. Writers choose between professional development in writing pedagogy and a course focused on building their author brand, providing the professional development opportunity that fits their goals. Summer courses allow students to complete this part-time graduate degree in just two years. Writers choose between 6 credits of the Summer Writing Program or attend the festival for one week alongside a 4-credit online craft class. This flexibility keeps your degree on track, no matter your schedule.
Degree Requirements
26 credits of online asynchronous craft courses
Students work in small cohorts, workshop creative work, deepen critical inquiry, and build towards their creative thesis manuscript. Instructors provide feedback throughout the semester towards each writer’s unique goals. Students choose three 6-credit courses and one 4-credit course from the following:
- WRI-631E Craft of Writing: Rooting in the Archive(6)
- WRI-648E Craft of Writing: Contemplative Experiments(6)
- WRI-678E Craft of Writing: Cultures & Communities(4)
- WRI-793E Craft of Writing: Special Topics (4 or 6)
- WRI-735E Craft of Writing: Contemporary Trends(6)
Professional Development:
Students choose one professional development course.
- WRI-700E Professional Development: Writing Pedagogy (4)
- WRI-755E Craft of Writing: Professional Development (4)
6 credits of MFA Thesis
6 credits of MFA Thesis (faculty mentorship on a book-length creative manuscript)
4 credits of the Summer Writing Program
Two eight-day summer residencies are completed at Naropa’s Boulder campus.
Choose two of the following:
- WRI-751 Summer Writing Program(2)
- WRI-752 Week Two Summer Writing Program(2)
- WRI-753 Summer Writing Program(2)
4 credits of fall and spring residencies in Boulder, CO.
- WRI-789WE Fall Residency(1)
- WRI-791WE Spring Residency(1)
Why Choose Naropa?
At Naropa, writing isn’t just a discipline—it’s a practice of presence, imagination, and transformation. Our low-residency Creative Writing MFA is rooted in the belief that bold, authentic work emerges through experimentation, community, and personal inquiry.
A Legacy of Literary Activism
Founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics has long been a home for writers who push boundaries and break form, no matter where they live. In fact, the school’s name comes from the notion that poets and writers can stay connected through their work, not just the space they physically occupy. Our creative writing MFA supports a range of goals—whether you’re interested in writing in the expanded field with multimedia work or using this opportunity to prepare for a career in academia, this program is for you.
A Writing Community Wherever You Are
Whether you're in Boulder or working from home, you're never writing alone. Our hybrid MFA structure blends the flexibility of online study with the depth of in-person residencies—so you stay grounded in a creative community wherever you are. As an MFA in creative writing online program with immersive residencies, it offers the best of both worlds for writers seeking connection and independence. Enjoy collaborating with peers at our student-led Poem Machine reading series, residency brunches, and walks to Boulder Creek during the Summer Writing Program.
Real-World Experience, Real Mentorship
From editing and teaching to publishing and performance, you’ll gain practical experience while receiving one-on-one guidance from working writers and artists in this online program. Students who take writing pedagogy often go on to teach Naropa undergraduates in our first-year composition course before moving on to other teaching opportunities. Those interested in journals and presses have the opportunity to contribute to Bombay Gin, our nationally distributed literary journal, or explore the mindful art of letterpress printing at the Harry Smith Print Shop. If you're looking for a mindful writing program that nurtures your craft and your inner life, Naropa is exactly where your voice belongs.
How this Program Prepares You
Naropa’s low-residency creative writing MFA prepares you not only to publish but to participate in the literary world with clarity, integrity, and confidence. Through rigorous coursework, intimate mentorship, and immersive residencies, you’ll graduate with a deep body of work and a clear artistic vision.
A Cohesive Creative Portfolio
You’ll complete a book-length thesis manuscript, developed through regular feedback from mentors and peers. This polished collection can serve as the foundation for speaking engagements, teaching applications, or further academic study.. Recent creative writing MFA alumni publications include Surfacing, Amber Ridenour Walker (freelines press), The Austin Chronicles, A.R. Farina (Four Horsemen Publications), Supernormal Stimuli, Rosie Accola (bullshit lit).
Sharpen Your Critical and Cultural Analysis
Our curriculum centers on intersectionality, theory, and contemplative reflection. You’ll learn to read and write with nuance, recognizing how identity, language, and power shape both text and self through radical genre-bending writing. You’ll explore work that not only goes beyond the canon but shifts how you understand the role of the writer in society. These values are at the heart of what makes us one of the most experimental MFA creative writing programs for writers committed to both craft and consciousness.
Expand Creative Possibilities
Contemplative education creates a container for exponential growth. From exploring writing as ritual to harnessing the art of divinatory poetics, you’ll take creative risks, explore hybrid aesthetics, and refine your unique voice through feedback, revision, and reflection, pushing your work beyond what you imagined it could be.
This is more than a degree—our experimental creative writing MFA is a site of transformation, designed to meet you wherever you are and support the writer and artist you’re becoming.
What You'll Learn
In just two years, this part-time graduate degree will transform the way you write and the way you engage in the ever-changing world.
Highly Developed Writing Craft
Hone your voice in every step of the writing process.
Skill in Critical Analysis
Learn to discuss literary works through a variety of critical lenses.
Contemplative Writing Practice
Use your writing practice as a tool for self-inquiry and discovery.
Social and Cultural Awareness
Recognize the power of intersectionality on and off the page.
Professional Development
Graduate with a publishable manuscript and/or professional dossier, including a focus on contemplative writing pedagogy
Career Opportunities with a Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing
- Lyricist.
- Poet and Writer.
- Proofreader or Copy Editor.
- Educator.
- Community Organizer.
- Archivist.
- Publisher.
- Podcaster.
- Content Creator or Strategist.
Discover Career Pathways for Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing:
Hear from a Graduate
I believe one way to stay young is to challenge myself with new situations. Since there is no sense of cliquishness [at Naropa], it is easy to interact with the younger students. One of the students just taught me a simple approach to writing a critical analysis, which is something I had never learned before. I also feel as if my life experiences add to the discussions, as if I am a grandmother elder giving back to a community.
JKS offers nothing less than exactly what you need to expand your creative expression and personhood, which allows for the enhanced impact of your participation and contributions in this world.
FAQs About the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing
What is a low-residency MFA program, and how does it work at Naropa?
Our low-residency creative writing MFA blends online creative writing coursework with immersive in-person residencies. Over two years, you’ll take asynchronous classes from anywhere, then gather on campus several times a year for writing intensives, workshops, and community events. It’s a structure that supports both deep focus and real connection through contemplative writing and generative study.
Who is the program designed for?
This hybrid MFA degree in creative writing is ideal for those who need flexibility but don’t want to sacrifice rigor, mentorship, or community. Whether you’re balancing a full-time job, raising a family, or simply need geographic flexibility, Naropa’s low-residency program provides the structure and space you need to support your creative practice.
How long does it take to complete a low-residency MFA in creative writing?
This is a two-year program that includes asynchronous courses, six residencies (fall, spring, and summer), and a final thesis manuscript. Most students complete the program on this timeline while balancing other life responsibilities.
How is Naropa’s low-residency MFA in creative writing different from other programs?
Naropa’s program stands out for its open-genre structure, contemplative inquiry, and commitment to experimental and socially engaged poetics- qualities that place it among the best creative writing MFA programs. You’ll work across forms, explore mindfulness in your creative process, and learn from renowned faculty and guest writers during our residencies and Summer Writing Program. Our professional development credits in contemplative writing pedagogy set graduates apart in community and academic teaching positions.
What types of funding are available?
While full funding is not available for low-residency students, partial scholarships and Graduate Assistantships are offered on a competitive basis. Over 75% of Naropa grad students receive some form of financial support.
Learn More About the Program
Connect
with your counselor
Junia McGillen
Admissions Counselor
- Schedule a Meeting
- junia.mcgillen@naropa.edu
- (303) 276-6005
Connect
with your counselor
Junia McGillen
Admissions Counselor
Ready to Apply?
Admission Requirements
Naropa University places equal importance on intellectual rigor and thoughtful self-inquiry. Our admissions process considers academic achievements and a candidate’s receptivity to introspection and personal growth.
Learn more about admission requirements and the application process for our Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing.
Costs and Financial Aid
Graduate Scholarship Opportunities
Paying for a degree can be challenging, but scholarships can make a big difference. At Naropa University, we offer various scholarship options, including merit-based and financial need-based aid. Several graduate assistantship positions are available for distance learners.
To explore all the ways you can receive financial support, check out our scholarship page.
Interested in our Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA?
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A Countercultural Institute: Ram Dass & Allen Ginsberg
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Snapshot Memory: The Jack Kerouac School in the 1990s
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