About the MFA in Writing
Our Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Writing program prepares you as a writer in the professional and creative aspects of your craft. Through your MFA path, you will engage in the intensive study and practice of writing in a specific genre while also benefitting from interdisciplinary flexibility that supports intellectual inquiry, cultural engagement, and focused creative growth.
What You Can Do with Your MFA in Writing
ELEVATE YOUR PROFESSIONAL PATH
"Our MFA in Writing program is dedicated to mentorship, exceptional writing support, and an inclusive, vibrant community, with opportunities for professionalization and networking, both during and following the MFA experience.
Our graduates go on to sustain professional writing lives in a range of creative, educational, and cultural fields that centre communication and critical thinking.
They publish books, teach, work as editors and writers, and take on key roles in literary, arts, and media organizations."
~ Dr. Jeanette Lynes, MFA in Writing Director
GROW YOUR CRAFT
But the MFA isn't just about your professional path. Our program is grounded in the joy and practice of writing. You're supported to read and write deeply, to stretch your creativity and critical thinking, and to grow as a writer.
Small class sizes, proximity to the Prairies and the opportunity to be mentored by an established author was what drew me to this MFA program.
But looking back, I got so much more than that. In a world that can change by the minute, it was a real gift to spend two years building my own project alongside a supportive cohort and skillful faculty.
~ Özten Shebahkeget, USask MFA in Writing program graduate and CBC Manitoba reporter.
Photo credit: Ian McCausland
CREATE IN COMMUNITY
During your MFA, you will engage in multi-genre study, including deep-dive workshops in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction and an intensive, one-on-one mentorship.
Importantly, you will create in community, developing your work in close conversation with a supportive cohort of MFA in Writing graduate students. Together, your cohort will also organize the monthly River Volta Reading series events, giving you a unique opportunity to make creative connections with our diverse Saskatoon and Saskatchewan writing communities.
PUBLISH YOUR WORK
Our MFA in Writing students and alumni maintain an active publishing practice.
Many of their published works and books began as thesis manuscripts developed during the program.
Explore selected publications by our graduate students.
Featured News and Events
Who You Will Study With
FACULTY
Jeanette Lynes
"The creativity and talent of our MFA in Writing students amaze me. It's so gratifying to witness their growth as writers, and I'm always learning from them."
Jeanette Lynes (Ph.D. York) is the director of the MFA in Writing program, and a creative writing professor, novelist, poet, and essayist.
Jeanette’s most recent novel, The Paper Birds (HarperCollins Canada, 2025) was a national bestseller and won the 2026 Saskatchewan Book Awards (SBA) Fiction Prize. It was also shortlisted for the SBA City of Saskatoon Book Award and longlisted for the Toronto Book Awards.
Her forthcoming work includes Apron Apocalypse: Lyric Essays (Thistledown Press, 2026), which won the John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Award, and Zigzag: Research and Creative Writing (University of Regina Press, 2027).
In 2021, Jeanette was awarded USask's Outstanding Graduate Mentorship Award from the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
She has directed the MFA in Writing program since its inception in 2011. She has also been a Writer in Residence at Saskatoon Public Library and served as faculty at Sage Hill Writing.
- The Apothecary’s Garden (HarperCollins Canada, 2022). National Bestsellers list for seven weeks. Finalist for a High Plains Book Award. Finalist for two Saskatchewan Book Awards.
- The Small things that End the World. (Coteau Books, 2018). Saskatchewan Book Awards Fiction Award. Muslins for Peace and Justin Fiction Award.
- The Factory Voice. (Coteau Books, 2009). Longlisted for the Giller Prize and a ReLit Award.
- Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare Poems. (Wolsak & Wynn, 2015). Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award.
For more information, see Jeanette Lynes' writer's website: jeanettelynes.ca
To contact Jeanette, see her faculty profile page.
Sheri Benning
Sheri Benning (Ph.D. Glasgow) is a creative writing professor, poet, and filmmaker.
Sheri's fourth collection of poetry, Field Requiem , was published by Carcanet Press in 2021 and shortlisted for The Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and two Saskatchewan Book Awards.
Poems from Field Requiem have appeared in The Forward Book of Poetry 2023, The Paris Review, Poetry Review, PN Review, The Times Literary Supplement, Brick, Prairie Fire, The Manchester Review, and Grain Magazine.
Sheri's previous poetry collections include The Season’s Vagrant Light: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet Press), Thin Moon Psalm (Brick Books) and Earth After Rain (Thistledown Press).
Thin Moon Psalm and Earth After Rain each won two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Thin Moon Psalm was also nominated for the ReLit Poetry Prize and won the Alfred G. Bailey manuscript award.
Additional Highlights:
- Sheri's prose has twice received honourable mention in the National Magazine Awards and been shortlisted and longlisted for the CBC short story prize and the CBC poetry prize.
- Sheri has won grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Saskatchewan Arts Board.
- Sheri completed a PhD at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests include the intersection of contemporary poetry and poetics with ecocriticism and environmental philosophy.
For more information, see Sheri Benning's writer's website: sheribenning.com
To contact Sheri, see her faculty profile page.
ADJUNCT FACULTY
Josiah Nelson
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Meredith Hambrock
Meredith's most recent novel, She’s a Lamb! (ECW Press, 2025), won the 2026 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. The novel was also named a Best Book of the Year at Indigo, Kobo, and McNally Robinson Bookstores and has been shortlisted for a 2026 Sask Book Award in the Fiction Category. Meredith’s debut mystery novel, “Other People's Secrets,” (Crooked Lane Books, 2022) was called “audacious” and “fabulous” by the New York Times Book Review and nominated for a Lefty Award in the Best Debut Mystery Category. Meredith holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. She has taught as a fiction writing instructor and served as an MFA in Writing mentor at the University of Saskatchewan. Check out our Mentor Spotlight profile of Meredith here. |
Josiah Nelson holds an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan, where he teaches creative writing. 
Meredith Hambrock has worked in writing rooms on over 100 episodes of TV Comedy. She most recently served as Executive Story Editor on the sitcom “Corner Gas Animated.” In 2022, her episode “A Lot to Be Desired” was nominated for a Leo Award.MENTORS
Mentor Spotlight: Madeleine Thien
Recently, Kamryn Heavin, English Honours student, had a conversation with acclaimed author and USask MFA in Writing Mentor, Madeleine Thien.
How Your Mentorship Works
Your mentorship experience is an enriching and significant component of your MFA in Writing journey, giving you the opportunity to work with established, published authors. Here's how it works:
- You begin your six-month mentorship in April of your first year of studies.
- You are assigned a mentor based on a fit between your proposed writing project and the mentor’s work.
- You can work with a proposed mentor of your choosing providing you get program approval.
- Confirmation of you mentor is dependent upon their availability.
- After you've been assigned your mentor, you will set up a regular schedule with them for your six-month mentorship.
- Your creative project work with your mentor will constitute a portion of your MFA thesis.
Please note: To be eligible for the mentorship, you must achieve a minimum mark of 80% in your first-year MFA in Writing course requirements.
Why Choose Our MFA?
YOUR JOURNEY
Your MFA journey begins by strengthening your craft through intensive workshops with faculty, before moving on to work with an established writing mentor as develop your own original manuscript. Your journey culminates in the completion and defence of your creative thesis, preparing you to continue your writing life beyond the MFA with a strong, professional foundation.
While I could talk about all the opportunities the MFA afforded me—learning from visiting writers, the six-month mentorship with one of my all-time favourite authors, teaching, scholarships, the Writing North festival, The River Volta Reading Series, completing a book-length manuscript—it was being in the trenches with other writers that meant the most to me. We were from different backgrounds, wrote in different styles and genres, but we came together with a common goal: to grow as writers.
~ Aaron Kurmey, MFA in Writing Graduate and Creative Writing Instructor
YOUR OPPORTUNITIES
Writing may be a solitary practice, but a sustainable writing life is often connected to community. During your MFA, you’ll become part of our unique literary ecosystem, through public readings, and publishing and networking opportunities – all situated within the diversity of our Central Western Prairies and Treaty 6 Territory.
Program Information
- The MFA in Writing is a two-year program, beginning in the Fall term, with convocation taking place in fall at the end of your second year.
FULL-TIME PROGRAM
- The MFA in Writing is a full-time program. You should be prepared to devote much of your time to your program requirements.
- Our writing workshops are fully on-site.
- Each year, you will take a variety of graduate seminars.
THESIS
- In the second year, you complete your thesis.
- Your thesis can be a novel, a work of creative non-fiction, a play, or a collection of poems or short stories.
- MFA in Writing students defend their thesis in August or September of their second year.