Where writers become Professional Storytellers.
This is where books get finished, where craft is studied, and where the author learns the craft of what makes a book sell.
An institution with standards, traditions, and instructors who write for a living — the MFA brought into the modern era, taught by professionals working in the field, not career academics.
A professional school where experts
in their field train the next generation of writers.
Author Academy is where working writers train the way professionals in every serious field train: with rigor, mentorship, and a community that expects excellence.
Standards
Author Academy isn’t for everyone. Like any professional school, we expect prospective students to be prepared for the program.
Working Instructors
Every instructor is a professional author with books in the world — writers who have demonstrated excellence in their craft not through repetition, but through the ultimate test: are readers paying for their writing?
Tradition
Education is changing, but tradition is not. Every student is welcomed into the writing community and the Author Academy ranks. These traditions turn classmates into writing partners, friends and colleagues.
Professional Storytellers.
Through disciplined practice, expert mentorship, and a lifelong commitment to the craft, our students become Professional Storytellers.
The MFA, brought
into the modern era.
Author Academy’s Novelist Cohort is based on the traditional Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, designed by our team of bestselling authors and founder David Viergutz, MFA. Twelve core courses and two terms over one academic year.
Term I — Foundations
Structure, character, scene, voice, close reading, and the writing practice itself.
Term II — Execution
The novel engine, dialogue, setting, revision, the professional author, and a capstone.
Electives
Chosen between Term I and Term II. Genre Studies on modern novels, plus masterclasses on the working author's real problems.
Capstone
The Novelist Cohort ends in a Capstone event in Las Vegas — a week of business courses, the Academy Graduate Banquet, and the signing event at Reader Nation.
Membership means dedication to
lifelong learning.
Membership is the life of the Academy — the full Core curriculum with updates forever, weekly live sessions, moderated critique circles, writing sprints, quarterly meetups, free members-only masterclasses and Academy Partner Perks.
- The twelve-course Core, plus the full course archive
- Weekly live sessions and moderated writing sprints
- Critique circles matched by genre and rank
- Rank progression and your academic transcript
- Vendor perks, the resource library, newsletter and podcast
The Novelist Cohort.
Twelve writers over two semesters study and produce a professionally written, published novel — culminating in a signing event at Reader Nation in Las Vegas, alongside a class of colleagues.
Selective Admission
A short application and sample. We admit for seriousness, not credentials.
Faculty Mentorship
A mentor beside you at every milestone of the manuscript.
Editorial
A full-manuscript copy edit and a developmental edit from working editors.
The Signing
Reader Nation, Las Vegas — with an Author Nation ticket in your name.
David Viergutz
Bestselling author of more than thirty novels. Disabled veteran. Former law enforcement officer. MFA in Creative Writing. Full-time storyteller and publisher.
David founded Author Academy on a conviction earned across thirty books: writers become professionals the same way anyone does — through disciplined practice, expert mentorship, and a community that holds the bar high.
“I’ve received my MFA. I wrote 20+ books before that. I know what it takes to study the craft and apply it. My MFA left me wanting. This Academy is everything I was missing.”David Viergutz · Founder & Dean
Doors open April 2027.
The founding Spring Term admits by application from the waitlist. Join it and you will hear from the Dean directly when the window opens.