Nature Writing – MA or MFA in Creative Writing

A voice with the land, a heart for justice. For writers seeking a graduate nature writing program, Western Colorado University’s Nature Writing concentration offers advanced study within the MA or MFA in Creative Writing, combining live online workshops, immersive summer residencies, and mentorship from practicing writers.

As one of five concentrations in Western’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing, the Nature Writing concentration provides a supportive literary home for writers committed to environmental justice, social equity, and contemporary place-based writing. Students explore how stories can protect what we love while developing work that engages ecology, community, and cultural awareness.

Designed for working professionals and active writers, this low-residency nature writing master’s pathway offers the flexibility to pursue graduate study without relocating. Students write across forms including memoir, personal essay, fiction, poetry, and experimental writing while receiving guidance from mentors who share a deep commitment to the living world.

Whether students pursue the one-year MA or the two-year MFA, the program emphasizes craft development, ethical engagement, and the creation of a polished body of work rooted in place, ecology, and social responsibility.

Flexible for Your Schedule: Both the MA and MFA pathways are designed to support working professionals. Students may follow a full-time or half-time track and have up to five years from initial enrollment to complete their degree.

A Flexible, Low-Residency Model: Complete live online coursework during the academic year and attend intensive summer residencies in Gunnison, Colorado.

Genre Fluidity: Explore memoir, personal essay, fiction, poetry, and experimental writing while focusing on your primary creative genre.

The Summer Residency: Join a supportive community of writers in the Colorado Rockies to workshop your work, attend craft sessions, and build literary relationships.

Real-World Impact: Develop a body of work that connects environmental awareness, social justice, and creative expression.

Western’s Ecopoetry Track within the Poetry concentration invites writers to explore the relationship between language, place, ecology, and the more-than-human world. Rooted in close attention to landscape and the living world, this specialized poetry pathway supports writers engaging ecological imagination, environmental change, and questions of justice, community, and belonging.

Drawing on the combined strengths of Western’s Poetry and Nature Writing concentrations, the Ecopoetry Track offers a distinctive opportunity for poets to deepen their craft through place-based writing, environmental literature, and contemporary ecopoetics. Writers from any landscape—urban, rural, or wild—are welcomed into this creative and interdisciplinary literary space.

Students in the Ecopoetry Track move through the Poetry cohort while completing at least two Nature Writing courses, creating a strong foundation in both poetic craft and environmental storytelling. Through close reading, field-based observation, and sustained creative practice, students engage contemporary ecopoetics alongside broader poetic traditions.

The culminating thesis or capstone centers on a cohesive collection of ecopoetry, developed under the mentorship of a practicing ecopoet. This pathway is designed for poets who want to strengthen their relationship to place and create meaningful work that responds to a rapidly changing world.

Students interested in the Ecopoetry Track should apply through the Poetry concentration and indicate their interest in ecopoetics in their application materials.

Students in the Ecopoetry Track will:

• Read widely in contemporary poetry, ecopoetics, and nature writing
• Strengthen their understanding of poetic craft, form, and literary terminology
• Engage diverse literary voices and environmental traditions
• Develop the ability to read critically and analytically as writers
• Situate their own work within poetic, ecological, and literary lineages
• Draft, revise, and complete a cohesive collection of ecopoetry