Mentors from the industry

The low-residency format enables us to recruit faculty members from around the country who have excelled both as writers and teachers of nonfiction. Coming from successful careers as published authors and as editors and writers for such publications as The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly, they are adept at working with a wide range of student interests—narrative, memoir, personal essay, literary journalism.

Focused

With its unique focus on a single genre and its strong professional emphasis on publishing, Goucher's M.F.A. in Nonfiction (M.F.A.N.) has gained a reputation as the best in its field. We are committed to preparing our students for writing careers. We bring editors and agents to the summer residencies and lead discussions on such practical matters as writer finances. We also sponsor annual trips to New York, where second-year students meet with some of publishing's top editors and agents.

Accomplished

Since the program's start in 1997, Goucher M.F.A.N. students and alumni have published nearly 300 books and have become Pulitzer finalists and winners of the Alicia Patterson Fellowship, Atlantic Media's Michael Kelly Award, the Sidney Award for best magazine essay, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the New York Book Festival Award for best historical memoir, and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. Most of the books have grown out of the 150-page M.F.A.N. manuscripts required for graduation.

Our M.F.A. in Nonfiction offers engaged faculty and lasting relationships.

If you have any questions, please contact the M.F.A.N. program director, Leslie Rubinkowski, at leslie.rubinkowski@goucher.edu.

Why choose Goucher?