The M.F.A. With its main focus on the writing workshop and the creative thesis, the M.F.A. Admission to the M.F.A. The deadline for applications is March 1.
in Creative Writing at Southern is a full-residency, terminal-degree program, preparing students for careers as writers, teachers, editors, and professionals in the publishing world. also requires students to study literature at the graduate level and provides opportunities for students to train for teaching collegiate-level writing. Located midway between New York City and Boston in New Haven, Co
nnecticut, Southern offers a thriving and long-lived culture, tradition, and community of creative writers. Along with a nationally-recognized, award-winning creative-writing faculty, Southern is also home to the graduate literary magazine Noctua Review, and partial home to the national, award-winning literary arts periodical, The Connecticut Review. The Creative Writing Program's visiting writers' and editors' series brings nationally-renowned writers to campus to read from their work, as well as editors from such prestigious national publications as Sou'wester, Louisiana Literature, Cincinnati Review, and The Gettysburg Review. Visiting writers have included authors Steve Almond, Dale Peck, Brock Clarke, Marilyn Nelson, Stewart O'Nan, Erin McGraw, Andrew Hudgins, Michelle Richmond, Sandra Rodriguez Barron, Tom Perrota, Michael Martone, Penelope Pelizzon, and Alan Michael Parker, and Allison Joseph. Our students have been published in journals such as Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The South Carolina Review, Phoebe, Southern Review, McSweeney's, Quarterly West and American Letters and Commentary, and have accumulated a range of national awards, fellowships, and book contracts. program is competitive, with roughly six poets and six fiction writers admitted each year. Applications will be reviewed in the order they are received, and applicants will be notified of their status no later than mid-April.
06/04/2026
MFA grads and current students Chelsea Dodds, Julie Teixeira and Elisabeth Mead Kennedy read at Cantean on June 18th at 6:30 p.m.! The reading is Chelsea's second to celebrate her new chapbook with friends and family who couldn't make the first; Julie Teixeira's de facto thesis reading; and Elisabeth's first reading at Cantean as an excellent poet and loyal supporter of SCSU's Visiting Writers Series and the SCSU writing series at Cantean. Everybody welcome! Cantean is located at 1660 Whitney Avenue in Hamden. Y'all come!
06/04/2026
MFA Fiction student Steve Hamm gives a brief reading with eleven other writers June 4th at 7:00 p.m. at Best Video in Hamden as part of the Sleeping Giant Reading Series. Get out and support Steve if you can!
05/31/2026
Congratulations to Chelsea Dodds, who has a poem in the latest Northeast Coast Poetry issue! Chelsea will be reading with Elisabeth Kennedy and Julie Teixeira at Cantean on June 18th at 6:30 p.m. (more to come).
Issue III: Summer — The Northeast Coast
Welcome to Issue III:Summer IntroductionA Message from the EditorPrologue“The Waves” by Gwen North ReissChapter I“Smartwatch” by Brooks Thomas“Tony Soprano’s Ghost (A Haibun)” by Claire Zoghb“A Poem Written by a Raccoon (After Tao Lin)” by Chris Belden“ode to the stranger who lef...
05/28/2026
Come on out to MFA Kristin Dringoli’s fantastic reading and writing class series at Cheshire’s Ball and Socket on June 3rd at 7:00 p.m., featuring Ramona Ausubel and Lara Ehrlich.
05/28/2026
Congratulations to Shelley Stoehr for her poem "Strip Clubs are Microcosms of Capitalism" in Beehive!
This year's issue of Fresh Ink is out, with work by two MFA grads, a current MFA studnet, and an SCSU undergrad: Nancy Manning, Natalie Schriefer, Amy Gray, and Chris Boniecki. Congrats to all!
(A link is in the comments.)
05/14/2026
Ball & Socket Arts is hosting a series of author events at ReRead Books and at the Ball & Socket Gallery in Cheshire on May 16th and 17th. Award-winning authors Jedediah Berry and Ryan Habermeyer will be discussing their work, taking questions, and signing books (available for purchase at the event). Registration is required for workshops and highly encouraged for the author event.
05/13/2026
Congratulations to Shelley Stoehr, whose poem "My Best Friends are Wh**es" will be published in PEACH FUZZ MAGAZINE!
05/11/2026
Natalie Schriefer joins other poets whose work is featured in the NUTMEG ANTHOLOGY for a reading at Byrd's Books in Bethany,
Friday 5/15/2026, 7:00pm.
178 Greenwood Ave.
Bethel, CT 06801-2530
Please join us tomorrow May 9th at 1:00 p.m. in Engleman D253 for this year's MFA thesis reading, featuring Uniel Critchley, Jennifer Rubino and Veronica DaSilva. Everyone welcome! And please spread the word about our program to people of all ages who might be interested.
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06/04/2026
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