The MFA Program at Wash U is a two-year program where thirty students are working toward MFA degrees in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Entry into the program is competitive—out of hundreds of applications received, we accept fifteen students (five each in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction). Our students come from all over the US and around the world, with a diversity of writing styles that continues to surprise us.
The two-year program is rigorous and challenging but fosters a close-knit community of support that continues long after degrees have been granted. At the heart of the program are the fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry workshops, with craft courses in all genres, access to the department’s courses in literature, and many other courses in the College of Arts & Sciences also available to MFA students. Students may also take graduate courses from other departments when appropriate to their creative endeavors.
Collectively, our world-renowned faculty have written and translated and edited dozens of books in all genres and have won fellowships and awards such as the Guggenheim, Whiting, Book Critics Circle Prize, NEA Fellowships, and many others. Our program is geared toward developing our students’ full potential as writers through core genre workshops, craft classes, individual meetings and an event series that brings renowned national and international writers to campus. Our close partnerships with the Center for the Literary Arts, Dorothy and the Modern Literature Collection at Olin Library provide a multitude of additional resources for our students.
Our alumni have gone on to publish an astounding array of literature in all genres, with large and independent publishers and in a multitude of literary journals. They have also received such as The Whiting, NEA, and National Book Award, and fellowships including the MacDowell Fellowship, and Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship.
Our reading series brings a diverse group of poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers to the department, and the Hurst Professor program brings distinguished visitors each year to present their newest work, lecture on the craft of writing, and work one-on-one with our MFA students.
We are happy to tell you more about our MFA program! Feel free to contact the program director, David Schuman (dschuman@wustl.edu) or the assistant director, Shannon Rabong (scrabong@wustl.edu), with your questions.
