• Why get an MFA – what are the pros and cons?
• What’s the difference between low residency and full time courses?
• What do I need to apply?
• Where can I find the information I need to start this process?

• What are your criteria in a program?
• Location and cost – two key factors.
• Specialty programs
• Studio v. academic orientation
• The importance of class size and faculty
• The importance of range in your list

• Do you really need to take the GREs?
• Do the results really matter (particularly in math!)?
• Who can you ask to write your recs – and how to ask them

• The dos and don’ts of personal statements
• What to use for a critical writing sample

• How to choose what work to send
• Short Story v. Novel Excerpt
• How to deal with different programs with different manuscript criteria

• Learn about the nuts and bolts of MFAs
• Understand the different types of MFA experience, and which is right for you
• Refine your MFA criteria and create a well-researched list of schools to apply to
• Move through all the application paperwork in a logical and organized way
• Receive tips on personal statements and writing samples
• Select and revise work for your MFA writing sample

• If you are ready to start your MFA applications
• You have some creative writing experience

• The Creative Writing MFA Handbook by Tom Kealey

Mark Spencer is the author of Ghost Walking (novel, Moonshine Cove, 2016), A Haunted Love Story (nonfiction novel, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012), The Masked Demon (novel, Main Street Rag, 2012), Images of America: Monticello (local history, Arcadia Publishing, 2011), The Weary Motel (novel, winner of the Omaha Prize for the Novel, published by The Backwaters Press), Only Missing (a novella, winner of the Faulkner Society’s Faulkner Award for Fiction), Love and Reruns in Adams County (novel, Fawcett-Columbine/Random House), Wedlock, (two novellas and three short stories, Watermark Press), Spying on Lovers (short stories, winner of the Patrick T.T. Bradshaw Book Award sponsored by Amelia Press) and Trespassers (Main Street Rag, 2014), a short story collection.

His short stories and articles have appeared in a wide variety of literary magazines, including The Laurel Review, Short Story, The Chariton Review, South Dakota Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Kansas Quarterly, Texas Review, The New Review, Z Miscellaneous, The Maryland Review, Natural Bridge, New Mexico Humanities Review, The MacGuffin, and elsewhere. Recent publications include a novella serialized in the online journal Admit Two and short stories in Amarillo Bay, Storyglossia, Tattoo Highway, Steel City Review, Blood Lotus, The Istanbul Literature Review, and Bewildering Stories.

He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize eight times and has received four Special Mentions in Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. He also won the 2003 St. Andrews Press Short Fiction Prize. Trespassers, Mark’s most recent short-story collection, was a finalist in four national book competitions: the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award, the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction, the A.E. Coppard Long Fiction Prize, and the Quarterly West Novella Competition.

After earning his B.A. in English Literature at the University of Cincinnati, Mark earned his M.F.A. in creative writing at Bowling Green State University and did Ph.D. work at Oklahoma State University.

Mark is a professor of English and Creative Writing in the MFA program and Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Several times, Mark has been named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.