The Solstice Model: An Alumni Perspective

By Colleen Egan '22 G'24

The Solstice MFA is designed for people who want to hone their craft within a writing community. The program’s low-residency model was the biggest selling point for me. Solstice students can work from anywhere and come together as a cohort twice a year for a 10-day residency on the Lasell campus. This gave me the ability to work full time and still receive my MFA. I was also able to apply the skills I learned in my residencies to my full-time position in arts education.

As a Double Laser graduate of the Solstice MFA program at Lasell, I built a network of creatives, close friends, and mentors — and I got to do it on a campus where I already felt at home.

The Solstice MFA in Creative Writing program was founded at Pine Manor College in 2006 and joined Lasell University in 2022. It is led by Founding Director Meg Kearney and Assistant Director Quintin Collins ’18. The program offers creative writing workshops, craft classes, and electives during its on-campus residency periods, while the rest of the semester is spent working 1:1 with a faculty mentor on creative and critical work. Students can concentrate their writing in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics and graphic narratives, and writing for children and young adults. Prominent faculty, guest instructors, consulting authors, and alumni include Dennis Lehane, Jacqueline Woodson, Gina Chung, Sandra Scofield, Jonathan Todd, David Yoo, and Renée Watson.

Image by Todd Dionne