The University of New Mexico offers a 3-year 49-credit hour MFA in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction designed for students who wish to supplement writing workshops with a strong academic foundation and a background in teaching. As New Mexico’s flagship institution, UNM offers advanced degrees across a broad range of disciplines, including law, medicine, and fine arts. MFA students work closely with an advisor, as well as a dissertation director chosen in their second year. Committees on studies often include distinguished scholars and writers from outside the MFA program.

MFA students run Blue Mesa Review, UNM’s nationally recognized literary journal. Second year students are invited to participate in the MFA student retreat, which takes place annually at the Ghost Ranch Conference Center in Abiquiu, New Mexico. The Joseph M. Russo MFA tutorial program offers MFA students the opportunity to work one-on-one with students pursuing undergraduate degress in creative writing. Third year students may receive credit for community service work that includes opportunities to teach creative writing workshops in local high schools and arts management work at local galleries.

Teaching assistants take pedagogy courses in composition and creative writing and teach a 2/2 load for which they receive a stipend and tuition remission.