Low Residency Master of Fine Arts in Narrative Media Writing

Low Residency Master of Fine
Arts in Narrative Media Writing

Earn your Master of Fine Arts in Narrative Media Writing and write a publishable nonfiction manuscript or a marketable screenplay in two years. There are two tracks offered in our low-residency MFA program: Narrative Nonfiction and Screenwriting.

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Profiles of Tenacity: Kayla West

Kayla West is a fourth year Entertainment and Media Studies major with a minor in sociology and certificates in New Media and Personal and Organizational Leadership. She is from Suwanee, […]

Collage of headshots with headline that reads "2026 Alumni Awards" and pictures of Sarah Karges, Eric NeSmith, Tracy Brown and Wilson Lowrey.

Karges, NeSmith, Brown and Lowrey named 2026 Grady College Alumni Award recipients

Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 Alumni Awards, recognizing alumni who have established a tradition of service and achievement in […]

Ivan Mendoza is pictured holding a bucket for a book drive.

Profiles of Tenacity: Ivan Mendoza

Ivan Mendoza is a second year advertising major with minors in criminal justice and film studies from Powder Springs, Georgia set to graduate in May 2028. Mendoza is the president […]

A group of women pose for a picture behind a bulldog statue.

Circles of Success offer unique connection for mentors and mentees

January is National Mentoring Month, a prime time for UGA students to commit to further their professional career by connecting with a mentor. The traditional one-on-one UGA Mentor Program may […]

A film crew records some students working on their laptops at a table.

The Oglethorpe Echo class recognized by Google News Initiative for solving problems in community journalism

Grady College journalism students and faculty were represented on the international stage in November when the JournalismAI Innovation Challenge project they worked on was featured in a documentary. The program […]

An overhead view of a woman talking with a group of around 30 students sitting at u-shaped tables.

MFA Narrative Nonfiction program completes spring 2026 residency

The MFA in Narrative Nonfiction program wrapped up a weeklong residency Jan. 4-9 at Grady College. Students in the sessions heard from both MFA faculty as well as a lineup […]

Hear tell Podcast

Listen to the narrative nonfiction podcast Hear-Tell which features writing from current low-residency MFA students, alumni, faculty and visiting lecturers.

PERSPECTIVES

“I am excited to be a part of a team of alumni, students, and faculty that want to keep talking about true stories and how we tell them.”

Josina Guess

(MFA ’23), about the Hear-Tell podcast

PERSPECTIVES

“This program changed the trajectory of my life, and it can do the same for others.”

Roz Bentley

(MFA ’17), graduate and Nonfiction mentor

PERSPECTIVES

“In each case, the mentors challenged me, forced me to ask questions about my writing that I haven’t thought about, and offered a different perspective based on life experience, based on background, based on their own paths as a writer.”

Matt Pearl

(MFA ’19), national correspondent, E.W. Scripps

PERSPECTIVES

“I get the biggest satisfaction working with the MFA students,” Hand continued. We are here to help create some really cool projects that hopefully will help someone go out into the marketplace or help them get their degrees to help with education.”

Hadji Hand

(ABJ ’98), screenwriting mentor

PERSPECTIVES

“As a filmmaker, I understood structure and the basics, but my mentors helped me elevate my understanding and execution for creating impactful stories. It’s a master class, not a basic class.”

Wendy Eley Jackson

(MFA ’19), founder and executive producer of Auburn Avenue Films

PERSPECTIVES

“I try to teach students sound screenplay structure and then push them to find their own voices within the structure and to come up with something unique and viable.”

Christine Swanson

screenwriting mentor

PERSPECTIVES

“The program exemplifies the difference between good teachers who can identify potential and great teachers who know how to pull that potential out of you for everything it’s worth.”

Brandon Fleming

(MFA ’21), author of “Miseducated: A Memoir”

PERSPECTIVES

“This program is refreshingly different than the typical MFA program. It’s a positive and supportive community where folks really look out for one another and contribute to their peers’ development throughout the program and beyond.”

KaToya Fleming

(MFA ’18), Lead Editor, Lookout Books

PERSPECTIVES

“I had vague ideas of what I would write but it wasn’t until I sat in my first MFA sessions that I realized how high the bar would be set, and how deeply I’d need to embed myself in a compelling story that only I could tell.”

Martin Padgett

(MFA ’18), author of “A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco, and Atlanta’s Gay Revolution”