oxford university mfa creative writing

Creative Writing

There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in creative writing whilst a student within the Faculty and a number of our academics are also published authors. Oxford's English Faculty also has some of the country's leading poets among its lecturers. Our academics, the Professor of Poetry and other invited guests give regular lectures and workshops at the Faculty. Browse recent events below.

Creative Writing Workshops & Lectures

Anna Deavere Smith playwrighting workshop: Causing a Scene/Scene-ing a Cause

Professor Smith held two workshops for University of Oxford students entitled ‘Causing a Scene/Scene-ing a Cause’.The workshops were designed to bring short scenes conceived by student playwrights into performance. 

Jeanette Winterson workshop

"Generous and candid, Jeanette had the room enraptured for two hours, as she discussed everything from stalking your characters home, to writing with your whole body." 

Rachel Cusk workshop

"Rachel’s candour and eloquence – and sometimes astounding capacity for truth-telling – sent everyone spiralling into almost palpable coils of thought."

Alan Hollinghurst workshop

"For those of us who had a first encounter with a creative writing ‘class’, we could not have chosen a more amicable and supportive environment."

Alice Oswald postal poetry workshop

Prof Oswald invited participants to anonymously write and send a poem to another workshop participant.

Zadie Smith lecture on 'Conscience and Consciousness' at the Oxford Literary Festival

Following a talk at the Oxford Literary Festival, Zadie Smith joined English Faculty students at a formal dinner.

Professor of Poetry lectures

The current Professor of Poetry is A.E. Stallings. She will be giving one lecture each term for the four years of her tenure. You can watch and/or listen to previous Professor of Poetry talks by A.E Stallings and Alice Oswald by clicking on the links below. Visit the Professor of Poetry page for more information.

A Lament for the Earth

In Sleep A King

Sidelong Glances

On Behalf of a Pebble

Interview with Water

Useful links.

The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing

The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing is committed to outreach, collaboration, and fostering research into life-writing. It promotes a lively, cross-disciplinary dialogue on the full range of life-writing, including biography, memoir and social media forms.

Authors at the Faculty

Hermione lee.

Elleke Boehmer

Bart van Es

Hannah Sullivan

Sally Bayley

Matthew Reynolds

Are you seeking one-on-one college counseling and/or essay support? Limited spots are now available. Click here to learn more.

The Best 15 Creative Writing MFA Programs in 2023

April 7, 2023

Whether you studied at a top creative writing university , or are a high school dropout who will one day become a bestselling author , you may be considering an MFA in Creative Writing. But is a writing MFA genuinely worth the time and potential costs? How do you know which program will best nurture your writing? This article walks you through the considerations for an MFA program, as well as the best Creative Writing MFA programs in the United States.

First of all, what is an MFA?

A Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is a graduate degree that usually takes from two to three years to complete. Applications require a sample portfolio for entry, usually of 10-20 pages of your best writing.

What actually goes on in a creative writing MFA beyond inspiring award-winning books and internet memes ? You enroll in workshops where you get feedback on your creative writing from your peers and a faculty member. You enroll in seminars where you get a foundation of theory and techniques. Then you finish the degree with a thesis project.

Reasons to Get an MFA in Creative Writing

You don’t need an MFA to be a writer. Just look at Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison or bestselling novelist Emily St. John Mandel.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of reasons you might still want to get a creative writing MFA. The first is, unfortunately, prestige. An MFA from a top program can help you stand out in a notoriously competitive industry to be published.

The second reason: time. Many MFA programs give you protected writing time, deadlines, and maybe even a (dainty) salary.

Third, an MFA in Creative Writing is a terminal degree. This means that this degree allows you to teach writing at the university level, especially after you publish a book.

But above all, the biggest reason to pursue an MFA is the community it brings you. You get to meet other writers, and share feedback, advice, and moral support, in relationships that can last for decades.

Types of Creative Writing MFA Programs

Here are the different types of programs to consider, depending on your needs:

Fully-Funded Full-Time Programs

These programs offer full-tuition scholarships and sweeten the deal by actually paying you to attend them.

• Pros: You’re paid to write (and teach).
• Cons: Uprooting your entire life to move somewhere possibly very cold.

Full-Time MFA Programs

These programs include attending in-person classes and paying tuition (though many offer need-based and merit scholarships).

• Pros: Lots of top-notch programs non-funded programs have more assets to attract world-class faculty and guests.
• Cons: It’s an investment that might not pay itself back.

Low-Residency MFA Programs

Low-residency programs usually meet biannually for short sessions. They also offer one-on-one support throughout the year. These MFAs are more independent, preparing you for what the writing life is actually like.

• Pros: No major life changes required. Cons: Less time dedicated to writing and less time to build relationships.

Online MFA Programs

Held 100% online. These programs have high acceptance rates and no residency requirement. That means zero travel or moving expenses.

• Pros: No major life changes required.
• Cons: These MFAs have less name-recognition

The Top 15 Creative Writing MFA Programs Ranked by Category

The following programs are selected for their balance of high funding, impressive return on investment, stellar faculty, major journal publications , and impressive alums.

Fully Funded MFA Programs

1) johns hopkins university, mfa in fiction/poetry (baltimore, md).

This is a two-year program, with $33,000 teaching fellowships per year. This MFA offers the most generous funding package. Not to mention, it offers that sweet, sweet health insurance, mind-boggling faculty, and a guaranteed lecture position after graduation (nice). No nonfiction MFA (boo).

• Incoming class size: 8 students
• Admissions rate: 11.1%
• Alumni: Chimamanda Adiche, Jeffrey Blitz, Wes Craven, Louise Erdrich, Porochista Khakpour, Phillis Levin, ZZ Packer, Tom Sleigh, Elizabeth Spires, Rosanna Warren

2) University of Texas, James Michener Center (Austin, TX)

A fully-funded 3-year program with a generous stipend of $29,500. The program offers fiction, poetry, playwriting and screenwriting. The Michener Center is also unique because you study a primary genre and a secondary genre, and also get $3,000 for the summer.

• Incoming class size : 12 students
• Acceptance rate: a bone-chilling less-than-1% in fiction; 2-3% in other genres
•   Alumni: Fiona McFarlane, Brian McGreevy, Karan Mahajan, Alix Ohlin, Kevin Powers, Lara Prescott, Roger Reeves, Maria Reva, Domenica Ruta, Sam Sax, Joseph Skibell, Dominic Smith

3) University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is a 2-year program on a residency model for fiction and poetry. This means there are low requirements, and lots of time to write groundbreaking novels or play pool at the local bar. Most students are funded, with fellowships worth up to $21,000. The Translation MFA, co-founded by Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak, is also two years, but with more intensive coursework. The Nonfiction Writing Program is a prestigious three-year MFA program and is also intensive.

• Incoming class size: 25 each for poetry and fiction; 10-12 for nonfiction and translation.
• Acceptance rate: 3.7%
• Fantastic Alumni: Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, Sandra Cisneros, Joy Harjo, Garth Greenwell, Kiley Reid, Brandon Taylor, Eula Biss, Yiyun Li, Jennifer Croft

4) University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)

Anne Carson famously lives in Ann Arbor, as do the MFA students U-Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. This is a big university town, which is less damaging to your social life. Plus, there’s lots to do when you have a $23,000 stipend, summer funding, and health care.

This is a 2-3-year program, with an impressive reputation. They also have a demonstrated commitment to “ push back against the darkness of intolerance and injustice ” and have outreach programs in the community.

• Incoming class size: 18
• Acceptance rate: 4% (which maybe seems high after less-than-1%)
• Alumni: Brit Bennett, Vievee Francis, Airea D. Matthews, Celeste Ng, Chigozie Obioma, Jia Tolentino, Jesmyn Ward

5) Brown University (Providence, RI)

Brown offers an edgy, well-funded program in a place that doesn’t dip into arctic temperatures. Students are all fully-funded for 2-3 years with $29,926 in 2021-22. Students also get summer funding and—you guessed it—that sweet, sweet health insurance.

In the Brown Literary Arts MFA, students take only one workshop and one elective per semester. It’s also the only program in the country to feature a Digital/Cross Disciplinary Track.

• Incoming class size: 12-13
• Acceptance rate: “highly selective”
• Alumni: Edwidge Danticat, Jaimy Gordon, Gayl Jones, Ben Lerner, Joanna Scott, Kevin Young, Ottessa Moshfegh

Best MFA Creative Writing Programs (Continued) 

6) university of arizona (tucson, az).

This 3-year program has many attractive qualities. It’s in “ the lushest desert in the world ”, and was recently ranked #4 in creative writing programs, and #2 in Nonfiction. You can take classes in multiple genres, and in fact, are encouraged to do so. Plus, Arizona dry heat is good for arthritis.

This notoriously supportive program pays $20,000 a year, and offers the potential to volunteer at multiple literary organizations. You can also do supported research at the US-Mexico Border.

• Incoming class size: 9
• Acceptance rate: 4.85% (a refreshingly specific number after Brown’s evasiveness)
• Alumni: Francisco Cantú, Jos Charles, Tony Hoagland, Nancy Mairs, Richard Russo, Richard Siken, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, David Foster Wallace

7) Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ):

Arizona State is also a three-year funded program in arthritis-friendly dry heat. It offers small class sizes, individual mentorships, and one of the most impressive faculty rosters in the game. Everyone gets a $19,000 stipend, with other opportunities for financial support.

• Incoming class size: 8-10
• Acceptance rate: 3% (sigh)
• Alumni: Tayari Jones, Venita Blackburn, Dorothy Chan, Adrienne Celt, Dana Diehl, Matthew Gavin Frank, Caitlin Horrocks, Allegra Hyde, Hugh Martin, Bonnie Nadzam

FULL-RESIDENCY MFAS (UNFUNDED)

8) new york university (new york, ny).

This two-year program is in New York City, meaning it comes with close access to literary opportunities and hot dogs. NYU is private, and has one of the most accomplished faculty lists anywhere. Students have large cohorts (more potential friends!) and have a penchant for winning top literary prizes.

• Incoming class size: 40-60
• Acceptance rate: 6%
• Alumni: Nick Flynn, Nell Freudenberger, Aracelis Girmay, Mitchell S. Jackson, Tyehimba Jess, John Keene, Raven Leilani, Robin Coste Lewis, Ada Limón, Ocean Vuong

9) Columbia University (New York, NY)

Another 2-3 year private MFA program with drool-worthy permanent and visiting faculty. Columbia offers courses in fiction, poetry, translation, and nonfiction. Beyond the Ivy League education, Columbia offers close access to agents, and its students have a high record of bestsellers.

• Incoming class size: 110
• Acceptance rate: 21%
• Alumni: Alexandra Kleeman, Rachel Kushner, Claudia Rankine, Rick Moody, Sigrid Nunez, Tracy K. Smith, Emma Cline, Adam Wilson, Marie Howe, Mary Jo Bang

10) Sarah Lawrence (Bronxville, NY)

Sarah Lawrence offers speculative fiction beyond the average fiction, poetry, and nonfiction course offerings. With intimate class sizes, this program is unique because it offers biweekly one-on-one conferences with its stunning faculty. It also has a notoriously supportive atmosphere.

• Incoming class size: 30-40
• Acceptance rate: N/A
• Alumni: Cynthia Cruz, Melissa Febos, T Kira Madden, Alex Dimitrov, Moncho Alvarado

LOW RESIDENCY

11 bennington college (bennington, vt).

This two-year program boasts truly stellar faculty, and meets twice a year for ten days in January and June. It’s like a biannual vacation in beautiful Vermont, plus mentorship by a famous writer, and then you get a degree. The tuition is $23,468 per year, with scholarships available.

• Acceptance rate: 53%
• Incoming class: 40
• Alumni: Larissa Pham, Andrew Reiner, Lisa Johnson Mitchell, and others

12)  Institute for American Indian Arts (Santa Fe, NM)

This two-year program emphasizes Native American and First Nations writing. With truly amazing faculty and visiting writers, they offer a wide range of genres offered, in screenwriting, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Students attend two eight-day residencies each year, in January and July, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At $12,000 a year, it boasts being “ one of the most affordable MFA programs in the country .”

• Incoming class size : 22
• Acceptance rate: 100%
• Alumni: Tommy Orange, Dara Yen Elerath, Kathryn Wilder

13) Vermont College of Fine Arts

One of few MFAs where you can study the art of the picture book, middle grade and young adult literature, graphic literature, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry for young people. Students meet twice a year for nine days, in January and July, in Vermont. You can also do many travel residencies in exciting (and warm) places like Cozumel.

VCFA boasts amazing faculty and visiting writers, with individualized study options and plenty of one-on-one time. Tuition is $48,604.

• Incoming class size: 18-25
• Acceptance rate: 63%
• Alumnx: Lauren Markham, Mary-Kim Arnold, Cassie Beasley, Kate Beasley, Julie Berry, Bridget Birdsall, Gwenda Bond, Pablo Cartaya

ONLINE MFAS

14) university of texas at el paso (el paso, tx).

The world’s first bilingual and online MFA program in the world. UTEP is considered the best online MFA program, and features award-winning faculty from across the globe. Intensive workshops allow submitting in Spanish and English, and genres include poetry and fiction. This three-year program costs $14,766 a year, with rolling admissions.

• Alumni: Watch alumni testimonies here

15) Bay Path University (Long Meadow, MA)

This 2-year online program is dedicated entirely to nonfiction. A supportive, diverse community, Bay Path offers small class sizes, close mentorship, and a potential field trip in Ireland.

There are many tracks, including publishing, Narrative Medicine, and teaching. Core courses include memoir, narrative journalism, and the personal essay. The price is $785/credit, for 39 credits, with scholarships available.

• Incoming class size: 20
• Acceptance rate: an encouraging 78%
• Alumni: Read alumni testimonies here

Prepare for your MFA in advance:

• Best English Programs
• Best Creative Writing Schools
• Writing Summer Programs

Best MFA Creative Writing Programs – References:

• https://www.pw.org/mfa
• The Creative Writing MFA Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students , by Tom Kealey (A&C Black 2005)
• Graduate School Admissions

Julia Conrad

With a Bachelor of Arts in English and Italian from Wesleyan University as well as MFAs in both Nonfiction Writing and Literary Translation from the University of Iowa, Julia is an experienced writer, editor, educator, and a former Fulbright Fellow. Julia’s work has been featured in  The Millions ,  Asymptote , and  The Massachusetts Review , among other publications. To read more of her work, visit  www.juliaconrad.net

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MSt in Literature and Arts

• Entry requirements
• Funding and Costs

College preference

• How to Apply

About the course

This is a two-year, part-time MSt degree in interdisciplinary studies in the humanities. It is focused on the study of British history and culture through the lens of four humanities disciplines: literature, history, history of art, and philosophy. The course is structured around four five-day residences and two online modules.

Based in Oxford, and taking full advantage of the remarkable resources that this university has at its disposal, the Literature and Arts course is designed around three sequential periods of British history: the early modern period (c 1500-1700), the ‘long’ eighteenth century (c 1688-1800), and the ‘long’ nineteenth century (c 1800-1914). British history is understood in an expansive sense that includes Britain’s relationships with the rest of the world.

By studying each period through the lens of multiple disciplines, you will have the opportunity to acquire a multi-faceted picture of the past and explore connections between different aspects of British culture and society. In this framework giant achievements such as Shakespeare’s plays or Turner’s art can be understood not only as uniquely inspired works but also as products of their times and influences on future developments.

The MSt in Literature and Arts (MLA) is a two-year, part-time course.

In year one, there are three compulsory five-day residences and one online module consisting of nine units (Core course two).

In year two, there is one compulsory residence and one online module (Core course three).

Although the online modules are not assessed, it is a requirement that you engage with the online modules to the satisfaction of the course director. The online modules are fully supported by a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment.

Students are supported by tutorials with the course director before or during each residence, input from the course director in asynchronous discussions in the online modules, supervision from tutors in relation to each assignment, and supervision from a dissertation supervisor or supervisors. The course director is also able to offer support at any time throughout the course by email/phone.

After taking a broad view of British history and culture in a global context at the first residence (Core course one), the three subsequent residences enable you to choose from a range of subjects, each rooted in one of the core disciplines of literature, history, history of art and material culture, and philosophy. You will take two options out of four offered. Please note that due to timetabling constraints it may not always be possible to allocate you to your first and second choices.

For Residence two, which is focused on the early modern period, the options offered are likely to include ‘Sacred Monsters: Shakespeare in History’, ‘Tudor Monarchy’, and ‘The Elizabethan Country House’.

For Residence three, which is focused on the ‘long’ eighteenth century, the options offered are likely to be ‘Green Retreats: Nature and Landscape in Eighteenth-Century Literature’, ‘Overseas Trade and the Rise of Britain as a Superpower’, ‘The Rise of Landscape in British Painting’, and ‘Bentham, Hume and Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy’.

For Residence four, which is focused on the ‘long’ nineteenth century, the options offered are likely to include ‘Fiction c 1800-1820’, ‘History, Historiography and Medievalism: The Victorians and the Crusades’, and ‘The British Empire and the Country House’. It cannot be guaranteed that any particular option will be offered.

Each residence will comprise a full timetable of lectures and seminars in the mornings and afternoons. In keeping with the Oxford ethos of tutorial instruction, individual tutorials and supervisions will also be an integral part of the course, most notably with regard to the dissertation. Individual supervision will be undertaken both face-to-face and by email. It is generally expected that the ratio of taught content to self-directed learning will be 1:18.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Department for Continuing Education and this role will usually be performed by the course director.

It is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Where appropriate a supervisor may be found outside the Department for Continuing Education.

Assessment is through four assignments, each assignment following a residential session, and a dissertation. The four assignments contribute 40% of the final mark and the dissertation contributes 60%.

A computer and reliable internet connection will be required as there are two compulsory online components of the course.

The minimum recommended IT specification  can be found on the department's online support website. Please note that mobile devices are not compatible with uploading assignments etc.

Graduate destinations

Graduates of the programme have progressed to doctorates at the University of Oxford and also at Cambridge, London, Manchester, Roehampton, Southampton, Warwick, and York. In addition, each year a small number of MLA graduates have been offered places on the DPhil in Literature and Arts , which was established by the department to provide a route to part-time doctoral study for graduates of interdisciplinary humanities master's courses.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

Entry requirements for entry in 2024-25

Proven and potential academic excellence.

The requirements described below are specific to this course and apply only in the year of entry that is shown. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

Please be aware that any studentships that are linked to this course may have different or additional requirements and you should read any studentship information carefully before applying. 

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours in a humanities subject.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA normally sought is 3.5 out of 4.0.

If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

• Publications are not expected.

English language proficiency

This course requires proficiency in English at the University's  higher level . If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.

*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) † Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides  further information about the English language test requirement .

Declaring extenuating circumstances

If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.

You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Performance at interview

Interviews are normally held as part of the admissions process.

On the basis of your application, you may be invited for interview. Interviews will normally take place within four weeks of each closing date, will last about half an hour and will involve at least two interviewers. They will normally take place via video call on Microsoft Teams. The interviews are designed to explore your potential to work in an interdisciplinary way, to think critically and flexibly, and to make imaginative and academically sustainable connections between the subjects you study.

If invited for interview you will be asked to choose a text, image, or object which interests you and which you can present to the interviewers and discuss. This part of the interview will take no more than fifteen minutes.

How your application is assessed

Your application will be assessed purely on your proven and potential academic excellence and other entry requirements described under that heading.

References  and  supporting documents  submitted as part of your application, and your performance at interview (if interviews are held) will be considered as part of the assessment process. Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed.

An overview of the shortlisting and selection process is provided below. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide  more information about how applications are assessed . 

Shortlisting and selection

Students are considered for shortlisting and selected for admission without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, sexual orientation, as well as other relevant circumstances including parental or caring responsibilities or social background. However, please note the following:

• socio-economic information may be taken into account in the selection of applicants and award of scholarships for courses that are part of  the University’s pilot selection procedure  and for  scholarships aimed at under-represented groups ;
• country of ordinary residence may be taken into account in the awarding of certain scholarships; and
• protected characteristics may be taken into account during shortlisting for interview or the award of scholarships where the University has approved a positive action case under the Equality Act 2010.

Processing your data for shortlisting and selection

Information about  processing special category data for the purposes of positive action  and  using your data to assess your eligibility for funding , can be found in our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.

Admissions panels and assessors

All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgement of at least two members of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent within the department).

Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.

Other factors governing whether places can be offered

The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:

• the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the  About  section of this page;
• the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
• minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.

Offer conditions for successful applications

If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide more information about offers and conditions . 

In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:

Financial Declaration

If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a  Financial Declaration  in order to meet your financial condition of admission.

Disclosure of criminal convictions

In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any  relevant, unspent criminal convictions  before you can take up a place at Oxford.

The department is committed to supporting you to pursue your academic goals. 

The Rewley House Continuing Education Library , one of the Bodleian Libraries, is situated in Rewley House. The department aims to support the wide variety of subjects covered by departmental courses at many academic levels. The department also has a collection of around 73,000 books together with periodicals. PCs in the library give access to the internet and the full range of electronic resources subscribed to by the University of Oxford. Wi-Fi is also available. The Jessop Reading Room adjoining the library is available for study. You will have access to the Central Bodleian and other Bodleian Libraries.

The department's Graduate School provides a stimulating and enriching learning and research environment for the department's graduate students, fostering intellectual and social interaction between graduates of different disciplines and professions from the UK and around the globe. The Graduate School will help you make the most of the wealth of resources and opportunities available, paying particular regard to the support and guidance needed if you are following a part-time graduate programme. The department’s graduate community comprises over 600 members following taught programmes and more than 70 undertaking doctoral research.

The department provides various IT facilities , including the Student Computing Facility which provides individual PCs for your use. Many of the department's courses are delivered through blended learning or have a website to support face-to-face study. In most cases, online support is delivered through a virtual learning environment. 

Depending on the programme you are taking with the department, you may require accommodation at some point in your student career. Rewley House is ideally located in central Oxford; the city's historic sites, colleges, museums, shops and restaurants are only a few minutes’ walk away. The department has 35 en-suite study bedrooms, all with high quality amenities, including internet access.

The Rewley House dining room has seating for up to 132 people. A full meal service is available daily. The department operates a Common Room with bar for students. 

Department for Continuing Education

The need for new learning opportunities throughout life is now recognised throughout society. An intensive, initial period of higher education is not always enough in times of rapid social, economic and technological change. The Department for Continuing Education is known worldwide as a leading provider of extended learning for professional and personal development.

The department provides high-quality, flexible, part-time graduate education, tailored for adults. Students can undertake graduate-level certificates, diplomas and taught master’s degrees in a wide range of subjects. Increasing numbers of courses are delivered in mixed mode, combining intensive periods of residence in Oxford with tutored online study.

The department recruits adult students of all ages on a regional, national and international level. Many courses are offered jointly with other academic departments around the University. Courses are offered in the following areas:

• Mathematical, physical and life sciences
• Medical and health sciences
• Social sciences .

All postgraduate students on the department's courses are members of its Graduate School. The Graduate School aims to provide a stimulating and enriching environment for learning and research. It also fosters intellectual and social interaction between students coming from different disciplines and professions. Interdisciplinary research seminars, training opportunities and other events are offered by the Graduate School in support of this goal.

All masters' and DPhil applicants are considered for Clarendon Scholarships . The department is committed to seeking scholarship support for other students wherever possible.

View all courses   View taught courses View research courses

The University expects to be able to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across the collegiate University in 2024-25. You will be automatically considered for the majority of Oxford scholarships , if you fulfil the eligibility criteria and submit your graduate application by the relevant December or January deadline. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential. 

For further details about searching for funding as a graduate student visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information about how to apply for Oxford scholarships requiring an additional application, details of external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.

Please ensure that you visit individual college websites for details of any college-specific funding opportunities using the links provided on our college pages or below:

Please note that not all the colleges listed above may accept students on this course. For details of those which do, please refer to the College preference section of this page.

Further information about funding opportunities for this course can be found on the department's website.

Annual fees for entry in 2024-25

Further details about fee status eligibility can be found on the fee status webpage.

Information about course fees

Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges .

Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.

Where can I find further information about fees?

The Fees and Funding  section of this website provides further information about course fees , including information about fee status and eligibility  and your length of fee liability .

Additional information

This course has residential sessions in Oxford. You will need to meet your travel and accommodation costs in attending these sessions. Further, as part of your course requirements, you may need to choose a dissertation, a project or a thesis topic. Depending on your choice of topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

Living costs

In addition to your course fees, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.

For the 2024-25 academic year, the range of likely living costs for full-time study is between c. £1,345 and £1,955 for each month spent in Oxford. Full information, including a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs, is available on our living costs page. The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. When planning your finances for any future years of study in Oxford beyond 2024-25, it is suggested that you allow for potential increases in living expenses of around 5% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. UK inflationary increases will be kept under review and this page updated.

If you are studying part-time your living costs may vary depending on your personal circumstances but you must still ensure that you will have sufficient funding to meet these costs for the duration of your course.

Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs). 

If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our brief  introduction to the college system at Oxford  and our  advice about expressing a college preference . For some courses, the department may have provided some additional advice below to help you decide.

The following colleges accept students on the MSt in Literature and Arts:

• Blackfriars
• Campion Hall
• Harris Manchester College
• Kellogg College
• Regent's Park College
• St Catherine's College
• Wycliffe Hall

Before you apply

Our  guide to getting started  provides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

If it's important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under a December or January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance . Check the deadlines on this page and the  information about deadlines and when to apply  in our Application Guide.

Application fee waivers

An application fee of £75 is payable per course application. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:

• applicants from low-income countries;
• refugees and displaced persons; 
• UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and 
• applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.

You are encouraged to  check whether you're eligible for an application fee waiver  before you apply.

Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?

You do not need to make contact with the department before you apply but you are encouraged to visit the relevant departmental webpages to read any further information about your chosen course.

Completing your application

You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents .

For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application .

If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.

Referees: Three overall, academic wherever possible

Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.

Your referees should be able to provide an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. If possible the referee should be an academic but otherwise a professional colleague or someone who knows your work in the public sphere and can comment on your intellectual acumen would be acceptable.

If you are a current master’s student or have completed a master’s course, one of your referees should be your supervisor or course director from this course. If you do not provide a reference of the kind, the department will usually ask you to do so before completing the assessment of your application.

Your references should comment on your intellectual ability, academic achievement, motivation and ability to work in a group.

Official transcript(s)

Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.

More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.

Personal statement: A maximum of 1,000 words

Your statement should be written in English and should explain your reasons for applying and why you think the programme of study is appropriate for you at this stage. It should demonstrate your commitment to the course, your ability to complete it successfully and your understanding of the aims of the programme. You might also discuss what your personal contribution to the experience of the student group as a whole would be.

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.

This will be assessed for:

• your reasons for applying
• evidence of motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of study
• the ability to present a reasoned case in English
• commitment to the subject, beyond the requirements of the degree course
• capacity for sustained and intense work
• reasoning ability
• ability to absorb new ideas, often presented abstractly, at a rapid pace.

Written work: Two essays, a maximum of 2,000 words each

You should provide examples of your own critical writing on a subject relating to the arts and/or humanities, written in English.

Extracts from longer pieces are welcome but should be prefaced by a note which puts them in context. The department will not accept one long extract in lieu of two shorter pieces. The word count does not need to include any bibliography or brief footnotes.

They will be assessed on your understanding of the subject and any methodological problems it presents, on your powers of expression and analysis, on your use of primary sources and secondary literature and on your use of scholarly referencing.

They will also be assessed for a comprehensive understanding of the subject area; your understanding of problems in the area; your ability to construct and defend an argument; and your powers of analysis and expression.

If you have not studied humanities subjects at a higher education institution or have not written an essay in the humanities in recent years, you may like to consider taking an online course offered by the Department for Continuing Education in literature, history, history of art, or philosophy in advance of making an application to the MLA. These courses can be a valuable way to improve your skills and are a way to explore the relevant subject areas before you apply to the MLA.

Start or continue your application

You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, please  refer to the requirements above  and  consult our Application Guide for advice . You'll find the answers to most common queries in our FAQs.

Application Guide   Apply

ADMISSION STATUS

Closed to applications for entry in 2024-25

Register to be notified via email when the next application cycle opens (for entry in 2025-26)

12:00 midday UK time on:

Friday 19 January 2024 Latest deadline for most Oxford scholarships

Friday 1 March 2024 Final application deadline for entry in 2024-25

*Three-year average (applications for entry in 2021-22 to 2023-24)

Further information and enquiries

This course is offered by the Department for Continuing Education

• Course page on the department's website
• Funding information from the department
• Vides journal  produced by current students
• Academic staff
• Departmental research
• Continuing Education Graduate School
• Postgraduate applicant privacy policy

Course-related enquiries

Advice about contacting the department can be found in the How to apply section of this page

✉ [email protected] ☎ +44 (0)1865 270456

Application-process enquiries

See the application guide

Other courses to consider

You may also wish to consider applying to other courses that are similar or related to this course:

View related courses

Visa eligibility for part-time study

We are unable to sponsor student visas for part-time study on this course. Part-time students may be able to attend on a visitor visa for short blocks of time only (and leave after each visit) and will need to remain based outside the UK.

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Everything you need to know about an MFA in creative writing!

Creative writing is a core skill that contributes significantly to our understanding of the human experience.  with creative writing, you can share new ideas, explore different styles and genres, and advocate for an informed society.  keep reading to learn more about pursuing an mfa course in creative writing  , table of contents, what does a creative writer do professionally , what skills will i learn with an mfa in creative writing , which are the top universities in the world offering mfa in creative writing courses , what are the minimum eligibility criteria for admission to an mfa in creative writing , what are the job opportunities i can consider with an mfa degree in creative writing , key takeaways .

Creative writing is a tool that can help you unleash your creativity, thoughts, and opinions on different topics. At the university level, creative writing is encouraging to allow you room to expand your vocabulary and create new pieces of writing. Pursuing a creative writing course at the MFA level is one of the best ways to receive formal training in this art style. MFA students pursue highly intensive studies with distinguished professors and peers. 

As a result, your creative and intellectual writing skills are honed as professionally and objectively as possible. 

Keep reading to learn more about creative writing and the opportunities an MFA in this niche can present to you. 

Professionally, a creative writer’s job description includes constructing various copies for a wide range of audiences. Creative writers are often required to express ideas with clarity in the form of essays, scripts, books, and any other type of content copy. 

Some of your primary responsibilities as a creative writer will include- 

• Conducting relevant research before and during the writing process. 
• Preparing different kinds of material for assignments. This includes planning the outline of the content and the synopsis. 
• Conducting careful fact-checks before submitting any assignment 
• Ensuring that there is a logical flow in the content written. 
• Attending hosted feedback sessions and making the relevant revisions based on the editors, publishers, and clients. 
• Finally, creative writers require to regularly sharpen their skills by attending workshops and training sessions. 

Typical graduate creative writing degrees focus on three core specializations: poetry, fiction & creative nonfiction. As a result, an MFA course from a reputed university will allow you to take a holistic approach to write as a profession. 

Therefore, if you have a flair for poetry, you will also be required to take fiction & non-fiction classes, in addition to literature seminars and intensive writing workshops.  

The core skills you will learn in the realm of fiction creative writing include- 

• Developing relevant insights into a narrative arc. 
• Contributing to character development, plot, and overall story tension. 
• Developing a knowledgeable foundation in graphic narratives, novels, and flash fiction. 

Some of the crucial skills you will develop through non-fiction creative writing include- 

• Generating memoirs, essays, personal narratives, and other certain forms of journalism . 
• Developing excellent listening skills. 
• Developing the ability to apply productive critiques through regular revision. 

As a part of poetry, some of the core skills you will be trained in include- 

• Developing a firm foundation in poetic terms & forms (such as pyrrhic, villanelle, and blank verse). 
• Being able to create concrete structures and creative dialogues in the form of poetry. 

Some of the top universities that you can consider include- 

• Portland State University (United States) 
• Auckland University of Technology (New Zealand) 
• Long Island University Brooklyn (United States) 
• University of Cumbria (United Kingdom) 
• University of Lincoln (United Kingdom)
• University of Hull (United Kingdom) 
• Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) 

Each of the above universities has course curricula that are designed to reflect current industry trends and behaviors. Some of the key modules covered in MFA creative writing courses include- 

• New media 
• Personal essay writing  
• Short story writing 
• Poetry 
• Radio drama 
• Playwriting 

To be eligible for an MFA degree in creative writing, you need to meet the following prerequisites- 

• Bachelor’s degree 

As an MFA creative writing applicant, you need to hold an undergraduate degree. The degree does not necessarily have to be creative writing. However, your prior coursework is a factor that is taken into consideration during the admission process. As a result, experience with writing workshops can significantly boost your application. 

• Minimum GPA 

The minimum GPA requirements for an MFA creative writing degree can vary depending on the university. Some MFA courses do not uphold a minimum GPA. Other universities do, with a GPA of 2.5 often being the benchmark. 

Your GPA will also significantly influence your chances of receiving an institutional award such as a scholarship. 

• Professional experience 

A typical MFA in creative writing admission requirement is your CV or resume as supplemental material. Professional experience in the industry can bolster your chances of obtaining a fellowship. This professional experience can range from writing for clients to teaching. 

With an MFA qualification in creative writing, some of the best job opportunities that you can consider in the industry include- 

• Author/Content writer 
• Journalist 
• Social media specialist 
• Travel blogger
• Email marketing specialist 
• Ghostwriter 
• Screenwriter 
• Playwriter 

Working on continually keeping yourself updated on the latest skills in the industry can help you receive significant career opportunities. You can also consider working as a freelance content writer. 

• Creative writing is an important skill that plays a crucial role in communicating information, concepts, and ideas clearly to a defined audience. 
• Pursuing an MFA in creative writing can equip you with a vast range of skills that are currently in demand in the industry. 
• Several reputed universities across the globe offer MFA and equivalent degrees in creative writing. 
• MFA courses are often designed to give you an all-rounded perspective on approaching different kinds of assignments. 

Was this blog informative? If so, please share your thoughts in the comments below. Click here to reach out to us for pursuing an MFA in creative writing. We would be happy to assist you with your queries! 

Liked this blog? Read next: How to write an article | Amazing tips everyone must try!

Q1. What does a grant writer do? 

Answer – You can consider a career as a grant writer with an MFA in creative writing. Grant writers help research facilities and non-profit organizations secure funding by writing engaging grants. These grants convey the organization’s story in a convincing, tailored, and engaging manner. 

Q2. Do I have to submit samples of my work during the application process for an MFA in creative writing? 

Answer – Yes, all MFA degrees will require you to submit relevant samples of your work in a pre-specified format. 

Q3. Do I need computer skills for a career as a creative writer? 

Answer – Yes, basic computer skills are a core requirement for your career as a creative writer.

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Creative Writing, MFA

Small, intensive and supportive, merging a playful approach to contemporary experimentation with an ambitious exploration of literary traditions, Miami University's MFA program draws students from across the country and beyond to classes in creative nonfiction, poetry, fiction, multimedia and performance writing.

Practice-Oriented

The program’s core consists of four practice-oriented workshops focused on student writing. MFA writers also take seminars in literature (usually in contemporary British and American literature) and a course devoted to questions of theory and practice. Every aspect of the program - especially the close mentorship of faculty writers - is designed to nurture the composition of a publishable full-length work of fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction by the end of the second year of study.

Miami’s graduate creative writing alumni enjoy successful writing careers (recent graduates have sold first books to Alfred A. Knopf, Random House and Harcourt) as well as careers in university teaching, public service, editing and publishing.

Funding Opportunities

All students admitted to the MFA program in Creative Writing hold generous Graduate Assistantships, teaching first-year composition in Miami’s renowned rhetoric and composition program. Non-teaching assistantships may also be available. Students teach creative writing during the second year.

My time at Miami was integral to the process of writing and selling my memoir. The creative writing faculty helped foster my voice and style and find the language I needed to talk about my project and my writing, which gave me an edge when pitching agents and publishers. My cohort provided astute and serious criticism of my writing as well as a community of writers with different writing styles and interests whom I still look to for advice and feedback.

Matt Young, author, Eat the Apple (Bloomsbury, 2018)

Graduate Successes

Faculty and mentors.

Graduate students often work with faculty from across the department, taking advantage of our rich interdisciplinary expertise

MFA Faculty

Joseph bates.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2006

Co-Editor of the Miami University Press Associate   Professor of English

Margaret Luongo

MFA, Creative Writing, University of Florida, 2001

Associate Professor of English

Eric Melbye

PhD, Creative Writing, University of Denver, 2001

Associate Professor of English (Middletown Campus)

Areas: Community-Based Learning, Creative Writing, Creative Writing Pedagogy, Exile Studies

PhD, English and American Literature, Cornell, 1995

Professor of English and Affiliate of American Studies, Director of the Miami University Humanities Center

Areas: U.S. Literary and Cultural History Since 1950, Cold War Studies, Postmodernism, Fiction Writing

TaraShea Nesbit

PhD, University of Denver, 2015 Associate   Professor of English

Areas: 20th and 21st Century Fiction and Creative Nonfiction, Historical Fiction, Lyric Essays, Multi-Genre Texts, Creative Writing Pedagogy.

Brian Roley  

JD, University of California, Los Angeles and MFA, Creative Writing, Cornell University, 1998

Professor of English and Affiliate of Global and Intercultural Studies, Director of Creative Writing

Areas: Creative Writing; Film, Theatre and Literature Adaptations; Disability / Medical Narratives; Contemporary and Twentieth Century Literature; Asian American Literature; Literature and the Law

Emily Spencer ,

M.F.A., University of Iowa, Iowa Writers' Workshop B.A., The Ohio State University

Areas: Poetry and Poetics, Creative Writing, Contemporary Poetry

PhD, University of Chicago, 1987

Assistant Professor of English and Co-Editor of the Miami University Press

Areas: Modern and Contemporary British, Irish, American, and Anglophone Literature, Creative and Performance Writing, Poetry and Poetics, Anecdotes and Ephemera, Travel Writing

Cathy Wagner

PhD, University of Utah, 2000 Professor of English

Areas: Creative Writing, Poetry Writing, Contemporary and Modern American Poetry and Poetics, Contemporary and Modern British Poetry and Poetics, Poetry and Politics

Current Creative Writing Grad Students

Creative nonfiction and fiction mfa students, ritika bali.

BA, English Literature, Lady Shri Ram College for Women MBA, Marketing, Institute of Management Technology

Creative interests: prose poem, flash, short stories, magical realism, photo essays, spiritualism, graphic novels, migration literature, journaling, folklore and legends, Indian mythology, historical fiction

Kayla Belser

BA International Business, University of Cincinnati BA Creative Writing, Northern Kentucky University

Chris Bowyer

MA Philosophy, Miami University BA Philosophy, Miami University

David W. Carstens

BA, English, Kenyon College

Creative interests: technology, religion, German, literature, philosophy, social alienation, individualism, game design, the internet, community (and the lack thereof), environmentalism, loneliness, climate change.

Ash Ganderi

BA, Creative Writing & Mass Communication, Miami University

Priyadarshini Oshin Gogoi

BA, MA, University of Delhi

Creative interests: YA and children's fiction, poetry, micro and flash fiction, hybrid genres, memoir, non-fiction writing, and speculative fiction

Joshua Konecke

MA, Kansas State University BA, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Molly Moran

MA, Georgetown University BA, Catholic University of America

Tanushree Mukherjee

MA, Journalism and Media Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Creative Interests: Reading fiction, hope to complete a long-form fiction project

Mary Newton

BA, English/Creative Writing, UCLA MA, English/Literature, San Francisco State University

Xavier Prince

BA, English, Salisbury University

Sammie Steiner

BS, English Language Arts Education, University of Central Florida

Creative Interests: Novels and novellas, Southern Gothic, queer identity, absurdism, environmentalism, humor, and ordinary perspectives

Kendra Stiers

BA, Creative Writing, Miami University

BS, Creative Writing, Ashland University

Poetry MFA Students

Jeremy daugherty.

BA, MA, English, Northern Kentucky University

Creative interests: elegy and the works of confessional poets; creative writing pedagogy in the composition classroom.

Adefemi Fagite

BA, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta

Creative interests: social injustice, grief, speculative fiction, and African poetry

Matt Farley

BA, English Literature/Creative Writing, Miami University

Hallie Fogarty

BA, Northern Kentucky University

Creative interests: women poets, Affrilachian Literature, formal poetry, LGBTQ writers, mental illness in poetry, sestinas, confessional poetry

Sophia Judge

BA, Creative Writing, University of Cincinnati

Creative interests: climate-based literature and poetry, feminist works

Ross Kohler

BA, Miami University

Maddie Portune

BSB, Marketing & International Studies, IUPUI MA, English Literature, Indiana University

Creative Interests: Poetry (confessional, new formalism, micro), modern adaptations of mythology & religion, historical fiction (esp. Exploring European history & language), bisexuality in popular media & literature, feminist theory, queer theory, pedagogical approaches to writing & literature, linguistic justice & literary studies in young adult literature

Danton Remoto

MPhil, Publishing Studies, University of Stirling UK;  BA/MA Literature, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines

Creative Interests : Postcolonial Poetry, Lyrical Poetry, Creative Writing Pedagogy

Hossein Sobhani

MA, University of Southern Denmark BA, Persian Gulf University

Creative Interests: Narrative and the way in which our lives and identities are intertwined with narrative

Cody Tieman

BA, English, Denison University

Kyle Williams

BA, University of West Indies

Reynie Zimmerman

Director of Graduate Creative Writing Program,   Brian Roley

Interim Director of English Department Graduate Studies, Madelyn Detloff ( [email protected] )

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Graduate Admissions

Creative Writing (MFA in English)

The MFA in English with a focus in Creative Writing is awarded by the Graduate College. The Creative Writing Program, also known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, also offers  Nondegree Course Work . For the MFA in English with a focus in nonfiction writing, apply to the  Nonfiction Writing Program .

Applicants must meet the  Admission Requirements of the Graduate College  and the department offering the degree program (review the department's web site or the General Catalog for departmental requirements).

Tuition and fees vary by degree program and the type of student you are.

• Fall semester—Dec. 15
• Spring semester—not offered

The graduate application process has two steps

• You must first submit the online application to the Graduate College and pay the $60 application fee by credit card ($100 for international applicants).
• Once you have submitted your application, you will receive an email instructing you on how to upload your supporting documents and submit letters of recommendation. A few programs require materials be sent directly to them. However, almost all supplemental material can and should be uploaded from your Admissions Profile in MyUI , our online service center for applicants and students. You can only access this AFTER you have submitted your application.

Degree Program Supplemental Materials

• Mail manuscript of your best work, with a  Manuscript Cover Sheet (PDF) - address listed below Receipt of your manuscript will be noted on your Admissions Profile.
• A Statement of Purpose
• Application for Graduate Awards
• Your General GRE test scores (optional but recommended)
• Supplemental Financial Aid

Recommendations

The application requirement section of your Profile includes an electronic letter of recommendation feature. If your program of study requires letters of recommendation, you will be asked to give the contact information of your recommenders including their email on your Admissions Profile. The recommender will then get an email giving them instructions on how to upload the recommendation letter and/or form.

• Three letters of recommendation

Materials to send to Admissions

• A set of your unofficial academic records/transcripts uploaded on your Admissions Profile. If you are admitted, official transcripts will be required before your enrollment. For international records, all records should bear the original stamp or seal of the institution and the signature of a school official.  Documents not in English must be accompanied by a complete, literal, English translation, certified by the issuing institution.
• Your official GRE scores are not required for admission to this program. However, applications that include GRE scores may be more competitive for a greater range of financial assistance (the University's institutional code is 6681).
• International students may also be required to submit TOEFL, IELTS, or DuoLingo scores to comply with the university's English Language Proficiency Requirements .
• Once recommended for admission, international students must send a  Financial Statement .

Apply Online , the $60 application fee ($100 for international students) is payable by Discover, MasterCard, or Visa.

Creative Writing Program The University of Iowa 102 Dey House Iowa City, IA 52242-1000 [email protected] 1-319-335-0416

Enrollment Management The University of Iowa 2900 University Capitol Centre 201 S. Clinton St. Iowa City, IA 52242 [email protected] 1-319-335-1523

Creative Writing

MA or PGDip or PGCert

Find out more by joining a live webinar

Start dates: September 2024 / September 2025

Full time: PGCert: 4 months, PGDip: 8 months, MA: 12 months

Part time: PGCert: 2 semesters, PGDip: 3 semesters, MA: 24 months

Location: Headington

Department(s): School of Education, Humanities and Languages

Find a course

Whether words come easily to you, or you work tirelessly at every sentence, we want to help you bring your writing craft to a professional level. We’re looking for passion, no matter your background or level of experience. Every writer might be different - but every writer can benefit from the insight of our published experts.

Our Creative Writing MA is a well-established course taught by acclaimed professional writers published around the world. You’ll benefit from the input of creative writing fellows and visiting lecturers such as Patience Agbabi, Sally Bayley, and Steven Hall. And you’ll be studying in one of the world’s great literary cities.

You'll gain a better understanding of your craft and how to apply it to different literary genres and forms. You’ll also meet and pitch your work to top literary agents Felicity Bryan Associates and publisher Philip Gwyn Jones. Whether or not you aspire to get published, we’ll support and encourage you all the way to achieving your full writing potential.

Attend an open day or webinar Ask a question Order a prospectus

Why Oxford Brookes University?

Our teaching staff are prize-winning writers who will pass on their experience through seminars and workshops.

We’ll assess your portfolio of work to see how we can best support you to grow as a writer.

Small groups help to build trust among peers and tutors.

Pitch your work to literary agents. Any graduating student who achieves a distinction is guaranteed to have their work read by a publisher.

You’ll learn a lot about yourself and you may find that the full MA isn’t right for you. You can choose to finish with a PGDip or PGCert.

Course details

Course structure, learning and teaching.

You might be considering this course because you want to become better at your craft. Or you may simply want to complete a writing project in a structured environment. Whatever your creative writing aims, we want to help you.

The Writing Studio core module will take you out of your comfort zone and get you thinking critically about your work and your practice. In your optional modules, you’ll learn about the techniques successful writers use to achieve their aims. You’ll also learn about poetry and voice, explore different narratives forms, and sharpen your life-writing skills.

For your final project, you’ll complete an extended piece of your own creative writing, accompanied by a self-evaluating critical commentary.

You’ll join a supportive community and benefit from insightful masterclasses run by our group of creative writing fellows. They’ll also critique your work, helping you increase your chances of getting published if that’s your aim.

You’ll learn creative writing skills through reading, writing and discussing. You’ll learn to create, and to adapt.

You’ll experience a variety of teaching and learning methods that include:

• Collaborative seminars
• Presentations and shared readings
• Group workshops
• Visiting notable speakers
• 1-1 supervision
• Writing and rewriting.

You’ll also work with our Creative Writing Fellows and guest speakers who each lead a class every semester:

• Patience Agbabi FRSL, award-winning poet, international performance poet, and children's author, most recently The Infinite and The Time-Thief
• Sally Bayley, fiction and nonfiction author, most recently Girl With Dove and No Boys Play Here
• Steven Hall, a Granta Best Young British Novelist 2013, author of internationally-acclaimed The Raw Shark Texts , and Maxwell's Demon
• Simon Mason, author of Moon Pie (Guardian Children's Fiction Prize - shortlisted) and YA series Garvie Smith , and leading children's fiction editor

You’ll constantly share and discuss your work with your tutors and your peers. This regular feedback will strengthen your self-assessment skills - helping you develop your craft as a writer.

You’ll be formally assessed via:

• Portfolios of your creative writing, with accompanying critical essays
• A final Writing Project in your chosen form and genre

Study modules

The modules listed below are for the master's award.

All students take the core compulsory module The Writing Studio. In addition:

• MA students choose two elective modules and complete the The Writing Project.
• PGDip students choose two elective modules.
• PGCert students choose one elective module.

Taught modules

Final project, compulsory modules.

The Writing Studio

This is the core module taken by all our students at the beginning of the MA. Through workshops led by our staff and Creative Writing Fellows, it’s designed to lead you out of your comfort zone and get you writing in ways you might never have contemplated. In our virtual space – the studio – you are free to think, write and depart in new directions. It demands a readiness to go out of the “comfort zone” and ask real questions of your own writing.

Optional modules

Bringing a story to life.

You’ll learn about the techniques – the “tricks of the trade”, in a completely positive sense – which highly successful authors use to achieve their aims. You’ll explore how narratives and stories are constructed through elements like plotting, pace, perspective and structure. You’ll be aiming to identify these writerly techniques, to describe them and - most importantly of all – to incorporate them in your own writing.

We’ll look at:

• characterisation through dialogue
• unspoken stories
• the unreliable narrator
• omniscient narrators
• the slow reveal.

Writing Poetry Now

What is poetry? What is it for, and what can it do that prose can’t? You’ll focus on contemporary poetry in terms of its functions, as well as its form. While the emphasis will be on your own writing, we’ll also study the poetry of both contemporary and traditional writers from Britain and further afield, who work or have worked in a variety of forms and using a range of techniques.

You’ll also look at topics like:

• poetry and place
• narrative poetry
• experiments in form.

Writing the Lives of Others

If you’ve ever wanted to write about your own life, or the lives of others, this module is for you. We’ll look at autobiography, biography, hagiography, diaries, fictional recreations of real lives, and fictions taking in individual or family lives. Using the set texts as a basis, each session will consist of a short, tutor-led discussion, focusing on the technical issues. You’ll follow these with intensive attempts to apply these techniques to your own writing.

Topics on this module include:

• Autobiography
• Hagiography
• Fictionalising Lives.  

Writing Voice

You’ll explore methods for writing creatively in relation to voice. We’ll discuss and analyse works by contemporary authors in a range of forms (poems, novels, short stories), to inspire you to explore different voices in your own writing.

We’ll investigate:

• how writers create distinctive voices to control and modulate tone and register in a text
• the interplay of multiple voices (author, narrators, characters)
• interrelated notions of identity, authenticity, social construction, style and aesthetics.

Topics will include:

• Monologue and Dialogue
• Unreliable Voices
• Children’s Voices
• Historicised voices.  

Independent Study

This is a great chance to design your own course of study, allowing you to explore an area of writing that fascinates you. You’ll start by producing a detailed project plan, to be agreed with your supervisor and module leader. You’ll develop high-level research skills, manage your own schedule and produce well-structured, articulate work at master’s level. Examples of independent studies have included: an extended poem developed from the literature and art of ancient Persia, and a pacy novel for young adults set in a militaristic dystopia.

The Writing Project

You’ll complete an extended piece of your own creative writing, in any genre, accompanied by a self-evaluating critical commentary. You’ll develop your work in group sessions, through one-to-one tutorials, and in workshops with Creative Writing Fellows. 

Your writing project will be a maximum of 20,000 words in length, but the minimum word length may vary according to the genre and format. You’ll decide all these factors – genre, format and length – in consultation with your module leader and supervisor.

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Our commitment to research-led teaching means that all our teaching staff are recognised experts in their field. They contribute to the canon of published work in their specialist fields influencing debate and discussion. And they value the opportunity to share their ideas with students through their teaching.

We are home to the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre, which:

• creates a space for discussion and research
• promotes connections between poets, academics, and readers of poetry in the local community
• sponsors readings by poets, such as Simon Armitage, and a regular seminar series.

Research supervision is offered in the following areas:

• English 20th-century poetry – particularly Eliot and Heaney
• Irish writing
• Modernist drama
• Witchcraft in the 19th century
• John Clare and eco-criticism
• Sir Walter Scott
• Shakespeare
• Theatre and science
• Contemporary literature
• Thomas More
• Modernist poetry
• Franz Kafka
• Victorian religion
• Literature and war.

On the MA Creative Writing course, we’ve had a lot of success in producing brilliant writers. However, we’re not a factory for producing writers. That’s why many of our graduates take their newly acquired skills to companies and organisations such as the UK Civil Service, Ralph Trustees Ltd, Hestia Charity and the National Trust. Whether it’s critical thinking, creative problem-solving, or research, you’ll be highly prized in sectors such as:

• PR, marketing and communications
• NGOs and charities
• higher education
• media and journalism.

Student profiles

Sarah Stretton

"I was attracted to the course by the literary fellows and the focus on workshopping and developing as a writer"

Dr Morag Joss

Morag Joss is the award-winning author of the Sara Selkirk novels, Half Broken Things, Puccini’s Ghosts, The Night Following, Among the Missing (Across the Bridge) and Our Picnics in the Sun. She has also written for television, and writes short stories for print and broadcast. Her prizes and shortlistings include the CWA Silver Dagger, the USA Edgar Award for best novel, and a Heinrich Böll residency on the island of Achill, Ireland.

I was attracted to the course by the literary fellows and the focus on workshopping and developing as a writer

Entry requirements

Specific entry requirements.

Applicants should normally hold a good honours degree (2.2 or above), or equivalent, in an appropriate discipline and must be able to demonstrate ability in creative writing.

A portfolio of recent creative work must be submitted consisting of 2000 words prose, or 5 poems, or a proportionate mixture of the two. Applicants may also be interviewed. If it is some time since you completed your undergraduate education and you do not meet the standard requirement, it may be possible to consider your application based on evidence of other relevant personal and professional experience, the support of your referees and your portfolio of written work.

Please also see the University's general entry requirements .

English language requirements

Applicants whose first language is not English should hold one of the following qualifications:

• British Council (IELTS) Test: band 7 overall with at least 6 in each band
• Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency: grade C or above
• NEAB University Test in English for Speakers of Other Languages: Pass
• JMB Test in English for Overseas Students: grade 1, 2 or 3.

Please also see the University's  standard English language requirements .

Pathways courses for international and EU students

We offer a range of courses to help you meet the entry requirements for your postgraduate course and also familiarise you with university life in the UK.

Take a Pre-Master's course to develop your subject knowledge, study skills and academic language level in preparation for your master's course.

If you need to improve your English language, we offer  pre-sessional English language courses to help you meet the English language requirements of your chosen master’s course.

English requirements for visas

If you need a student visa to enter the UK you will need to meet the UK Visas and Immigration minimum language requirements as well as the University's requirements.  Find out more about English language requirements .

Terms and Conditions of Enrolment

When you accept our offer, you agree to the  Terms and Conditions of Enrolment . You should therefore read those conditions before accepting the offer.

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply, application process.

All applications for the MA in Creative Writing must be accompanied by a portfolio of recent creative work.

This must consist of 2000 words prose, or 5 poems, or a proportionate mixture of the two.

Tuition fees

Questions about fees.

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 534400

[email protected]

Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support.

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

• For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
• For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy  page

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Optional costs

Funding your studies, financial support and scholarships.

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences believes strongly in the importance of making a difference to the world of our students, and in the ability and potential of our students to make a difference in the world. The Dean's Scholarship is one small way in which we make that belief tangible.

International students can apply for our International Students Scholarship . Please click on the link below to find out more.

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course

Programme changes : On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.

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Hone Your Craft in the Capital City

For more than 30 years, writers have come to American University to develop their work and exchange ideas in the District’s only creative writing MFA program. Our graduate workshops provide a rigorous yet supportive environment where students explore a range of approaches to the art and craft of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

As an MFA student at American, you are free to pursue a single genre or explore several. You will acquire a deeper understanding of your own work and hone your skills in a collaborative setting.

A Program of Study That Gets Results

This two-year, 36-credit-hour MFA program integrates writing, literary journalism, translation, and the study of literature to prepare students for a range of career possibilities. Write, give feedback, and receive guidance from a close-knit community of respectful peers and faculty. In the MFA program, you'll find lawyers, military veterans, musicians, teachers, and business executives who are passionate about the written word.

Connect with accomplished professors and the resources you need to reach your goal. Our faculty members have been featured in a variety of media and publications including the New Yorker , the New York Times , National Public Radio, Bill Moyers & Co., and the Washington Post.

Prominent Authors Dedicated to Your Success

Our faculty of award-winning poets, novelists, translators, and nonfiction writers will help you help you hone your craft and pursue your career as a writer. You will receive instruction and guidance from successful authors published by university presses and major publishers, including Houghton Mifflin, Scribner, Vintage Books, Viking Press, and WW Norton. Our active and engaged faculty members are regularly featured in top media outlets such as The New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and New Republic ; in literary journals like Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and Shenandoah ; and on television and radio.

A City For Writers

Living and learning in the nation's capital provides numerous benefits for MFA students. We partner with organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts, Library of Congress, 826DC, Writopia Labs, and Folger Shakespeare Library to facilitate opportunities for our students.

Our students have recently published books with WW Norton, Copper Canyon, University of Wisconsin Press, and MIT Press. They have been featured on This American Life , Poets & Writers , in Creative Nonfiction , Psychology Today , and more.

We Know Success

97% of graduates are employed, in grad school, or both 6 months after graduation.

Our alumni have gone on to work for organizations including:

• Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington
• EEO ClassIn
• Fulbright Association
• Goodwin University
• PEN/Faulkner Foundation
• Shout Mouse Press
• Street Sense Media
• The Building People
• W. W. Norton & Company, Inc

Publications

Folio is a nationally recognized literary journal sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences at American University in Washington, DC. Since 1984, we have published original creative work by both new and established authors. Past issues have included work by Michael Reid Busk, Billy Collins, William Stafford, and Bruce Weigl, and interviews with Michael Cunningham, Charles Baxter, Amy Bloom, Ann Beattie, and Walter Kirn. We look for well-crafted poetry and prose that is bold and memorable.

News & Notes

Writers Series Brings Leading Authors and Thinkers to Campus this Fall

Recent award-winning publications by our MFA alumni :

• Valzhyna Mort won the 2021 International Griffin Prize for her third poetry collection, Music for the Dead and Resurrected (FSG, 2020), which was named one of the best poetry books of 2020 by The New York Times.
• Field Study by Chet’la Sebree won the 2020 Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award; Mistress  won the 2018 New Issues Poetry Prize.
• "The Niece" by Yohanca Delgado was selected for the Distinguished Stories list in Best American Short Stories 2020 .
• Trouble Sleeping  by Abdul Ali won the 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize.
• Daydreamers by  Jonathan Harper was named a Kirkus Indie Books of the Month Selection.

Rachel Louise Snyder recounts how her mother’s death left her unmoored and untoward in her new memoir .

Kyle Dargan served as editor for The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer  with Janelle Monáe.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Literature) won the 2023 NAACP Image Award for fiction for her most recent novel, Take My Hand . 

Ralvell Rogers MFA, Creative Writing

More about ralvell.

MFA Creative Writing candidate Ralvell Rogers is making his mark on the literary world.

My time at AU has been brilliant in the fact that I've already learned much about what it means to be a Writer with a capital "W" and more importantly, a literary scholar. Though there is an obvious focus on our course work, it's been made clear to me that our work isn't exactly all that matters in the classroom. We are continuously connecting our work in class to the lives that we live on a daily basis and the world that we all live in, and I think that is very important for writers and entrepreneurs in the publishing sector because we are essentially the historians of our respective generations.

He is the author of The Kansas City Boys Choir: Providing Hope for Tomorrow , which has been endorsed by luminaries Kevin Powell, G.S. Griffin, and Congressman Emanual Cleaver II. Ralvell has also established his own publishing company, Ambitious Stories, LLC, out of Kansas City, MO. He founded it earlier this year to focus on "often unheard, yet riveting and inspiring stories from the heart."

Valzhyna Mort MFA Creative Writing

More about valzhyna.

Alumna Valzhyna Mort has gained international acclaim for her third poetry collection, Music for the Dead and Resurrected (FSG, 2020), which won the 2021 International Griffin Prize and was named one of the best poetry books of 2020 by the New York Times . Publishers Weekly called this work in their starred review, "poems of reclamation and resurrection; to live in them is to confront the hard work of witness." The New Yorker wrote in its review, "Memory, metaphor, and myth intermingle to sometimes nightmarish effect in this collection by a Belarus-born poet. Mort excavates the individual and communal traumas wrought by a violent and repressive national history, and calls herself 'a test-child exposed to the burning reactor of my grandmother’s memory.'" Mort teaches poetry, literature, and translation at Cornell University.

Look inside the Creative Writing MFA

For more than 40 years, writers have come to American University to develop their work and exchange ideas in the District’s only creative writing MFA program.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the application deadline for a merit award.

The application deadline is February 1. All applications are automatically considered for merit awards. After February 1, the program continues to consider applications, but cannot guarantee those applicants will be considered for merit awards.

What is the MFA thesis?

The required MFA thesis consists of an original, book-length manuscript. It may be a novel, a novella, a memoir or collection of stories, creative nonfiction, or poems. The thesis is due approximately a month before the end of the student's final semester.

How long does it take to earn the MFA degree at American University?

Most students complete the 36-credit degree in 2 years. Full-time study is 9 credits (3 classes) per semester. Others pursue their degree part-time, taking 1-2 classes per semester as best fits their schedules. All workshops, and many literature courses, are offered at night, so that students with full-time jobs can still complete their coursework.

What does the admissions committee look for in an applicant's writing sample?

The committee regards the writing sample as the most important part of the application. It's therefore important that you pay close attention to the manuscript guidelines (see below). Send what you feel is your strongest work that shows your demonstrated talent. It is not important to the committee whether or not work has been previously published.

Those submitting applications in poetry should send no more than 12 poems or 15 pages (with no more than one new or continuing poem per page). If submitting fiction/nonfiction, please submit 15-25 pages. While the catalog calls for a 25-page writing sample, we value quality over quantity. We are interested in seeing only your very best work, which can consist of one or more stories or works of creative nonfiction or an excerpt from a novel. If you send an excerpt from a novel, please include a brief description of the work as a whole.

Still have questions? Email [email protected] .

Please send me information about Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

It looks like you already used that name and address to request information for one or more AU graduate program(s).

If you have not previously requested AU graduate program information, create a new request

So, You Want an MFA?

Whether you are curious about or actively planning to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing, we welcome you to attend this virtual panel! Creative Writing faculty and recent MFA graduates will share their experiences completing graduate degrees in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation. You'll get to ask about application tips, hot takes, whether the MFA path is right for you, and more! 

Daniel Raeburn  is the author of  Chris Ware,  a book of art criticism, and  Vessels :  A Memoir of What Wasn’t.  His essays have also appeared in  The New Yorker, The Baffler, Tin House,  and in  The Imp , his series of booklets about underground cartoonists. He’s been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Vermont Studio Center, the Howard Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Chicago and received his MFA in Writing & Literature from the Writing Seminars at Bennington College, a 24-month low-residency program.

Stephanie Soileau's collection of short stories  LAST ONE OUT SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS is forthcoming from Little, Brown & Co. in Summer 2020. Her work has also appeared in  Glimmer Train, Oxford American, Ecotone, Tin House, New Stories from the South , and other journals and anthologies, and has been supported by fellowships from the Wallace Stegner Fellowship Program at Stanford University, the Camargo Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She earned her BA in English at the University of Chicago and MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She teaches fiction at the University of Chicago.

Will Boast is the author of a story collection,  Power Ballads , a memoir,  Epilogue , and a novel,  Daphne.  His short fiction, reporting, and essays have appeared in  The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Guardian, Glimmer Train,  and the  Virginia Quarterly Review,  among other publications. His first attempt at an MFA was at Indiana University. He completed the task at the University of Virginia. He then did even more workshopping through a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford and a Charles Pick Fellowship at the University of East Anglia. He's also been a Literature Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. He's taught fiction and non-fiction at Chicago since 2014. 

Lina M. Ferreira C.-V.  graduated with both a creative nonfiction writing and a literary translation MFA from the University of Iowa. She is the author of  Drown Sever Sing  from Anomalous press and  Don’t Come Back  the co-editor of the forthcoming anthology  The Great American Essay  and the editor and translator of the forthcoming  100 Refutations  from Mad Creek Books . She’s been the recipient of the Best of the Net award and the Iron Horse Review’s Discovered Voices award, has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and is a Rona Jaffe fellow. She moved from Colombia to China to Columbus to Chicago, where she works as an assistant professor for the University of Chicago.

Korey Williams earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University—a full-residency and fully-funded 2-year program that offers 1- to 2-year Lectureship Appointments post-graduation. Although his concentration was in poetry, he pursued a cross-genre project and, thus, his thesis committee included faculty in both poetry and fiction. In addition to Cornell, Williams has studied at Illinois Wesleyan University and the University of Oxford. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of Chicago, and his work appears or is forthcoming in The Offing, Narrative Magazine, Spoon River Poetry Review, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, and elsewhere. 

Julie Iromuanya is the author of  Mr. and Mrs. Doctor  (Coffee House Press), a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, the Etisalat Prize for Literature (now 9 Mobile Prize for Literature), and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize for Debut Fiction. Her scholarly-critical work most recently appears in  Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism,   Callaloo: A Journal of African American Arts and Letters,  and  Afropolitan Literature as World Literature ( Bloomsbury Publishing) .  She is a 2020 George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation fellow, and she was the inaugural Herbert W. Martin Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Dayton. Iromuanya earned her B.A. at the University of Central Florida and her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Up until 2019, she taught in the MFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Arizona. She is currently an assistant professor in the Program in Creative Writing at the University of Chicago. 

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing The Write Stuff for Writers

Credit Hours

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100% online, 8-week courses

Transfer in up to 50% of the degree total

Grow Your Writing Passion into a Career with Liberty’s Online MFA in Creative Writing

Many people write creatively, but few hone their skills to develop their writing craft to its highest form. Even fewer learn the other skills it takes to become a successful writer, such as the steps needed to get a book published and into the hands of readers. Liberty’s 100% online Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing can help you develop your writing passion into a career so you can set your works free to impact culture and the world.

Employers in every industry need professionals who have strong writing skills, so you can be confident that your ability to write effectively can also help set you apart in your current career. With in-demand writing expertise and the ability to customize your degree with electives in literature or writing practice, Liberty’s online MFA in Creative Writing can help you achieve your professional writing goals.

Our online MFA in Creative Writing is designed to help you build on your writing skills with specific workshops dedicated to the craft of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or screenwriting. With a work-in-progress approach to writing practice and mentorship from our faculty of experienced writers and scholars, you can learn the specific skills you need to make your writing stand out.

Ranked in the Top 10% of Niche.com’s Best Online Schools in America

• What Sets Us Apart?
• Private Nonprofit University
• 600+ Online Degrees
• No Standardized Testing for Admission
• Transfer in up to 75% of an Undergrad Degree
• Transfer in up to 50% of a Grad/Doctoral Degree

Why Choose Liberty’s MFA in Creative Writing?

Our online MFA in Creative Writing is mainly offered in an 8-week course format, and our tuition rate for graduate programs hasn’t increased in 9 years. Through our program, you can study the writing process and develop your creative skills through workshops with experienced writing professionals. With our flexible format, you can grow in your creative writing while continuing to do what is important to you.

As a terminal degree, the online MFA in Creative Writing can also help you pursue opportunities to teach writing at the K-12 or college level. You will gain comprehensive and in-depth exposure to writing, literature, publishing, and many other professional writing skills that you can pass on to students. Partner with the Liberty family and learn under faculty who have spent years in the field you love. Your career in professional writing starts here.

What Will You Study in Our MFA in Creative Writing?

The MFA in Creative Writing program is designed to help you become an excellent creative writer across the genres of creative fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, and poetry. You can learn how to produce aesthetically and culturally engaged creative works while gaining professional knowledge and practice. You will also study foundational contemporary literature so that you have a background in studying important works to draw on for your writing.

To help you in your professional writing, you will also study many essential skills in editing, layout, and the business of publishing so that you can best position yourself for success in the market. Through your creative writing courses and workshops, you can develop your craft so that you will be ready for your thesis project.

Here are a few examples of the skills Liberty’s MFA in Creative Writing can help you master:

• Marketing your projects and pursuing new writing opportunities
• Organizing writing and adapting it to different types of writing
• Tailoring writing to specific audiences and markets
• Understanding what makes art effective, compelling, and impactful
• Writing compelling stories that engage readers

Potential Career Opportunities

• Book and magazine writer
• Business communications specialist
• Creative writing instructor
• Publications editor
• Screenwriter
• Website copy editor and writer
• Writing manager

Featured Courses

• ENGL 600 – Editing, Layout, and Publishing
• ENGL 601 – Writing as Cultural Engagement
• ENGL 603 – Literary Theory and Practice
• WRIT 610 – Writing Fiction

Degree Information

• This program falls under the College of Arts and Sciences .
• View the Graduate Arts and Sciences Course Guides (login required).
• Download and review the Graduate Manual for MFA .

Degree Completion Plan (PDF)

Not sure what to choose?

Speak to one of our admissions specialists to help you choose the program that best fits your needs.

• Tuition & Aid

Your success is our success, which is why we are committed to providing quality academics at an affordable tuition rate. While other colleges are increasing their tuition, we have frozen tuition rates for the majority of our undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs for the past 9 years – and counting.

All Tuition & Fees

Financial Aid & Scholarships

Financial Aid Forms & Eligibility

Scholarship Opportunities

Admission Information for the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA)

Admission requirements.

• A non-refundable, non-transferable $50 application fee will be posted on the current application upon enrollment (waived for qualifying service members, veterans, and military spouses – documentation verifying military status is required) .
• Unofficial transcripts can be used for acceptance purposes with the submission of a Transcript Request Form .
• Creative Writing Sample – A creative writing sample of one creative writing work of at least 2,500 words or a culmination of creative writing samples totaling 2,500 words.*
• Applicants whose native language is other than English must submit official scores for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or an approved alternative assessment. For information on alternative assessments or TOEFL waivers, please call Admissions or view the official International Admissions policy .

*A sample of one or more poems totaling a minimum of 750 words may also be submitted. Song lyrics are not accepted at this time as writing samples.

Preliminary Acceptance

If you are sending in a preliminary transcript for acceptance, you must:

• Be in your final term and planning to start your master’s degree after the last day of class for your bachelor’s degree.
• Complete a Bachelor’s Self-Certification Form confirming your completion date. You may download the form from the Forms and Downloads page or contact an admissions counselor to submit the form on your behalf.
• Submit an official/unofficial transcript to confirm that you are in your final term. The preliminary transcript must show a minimum of 105 completed credit hours.
• If you are a current Liberty University student completing your undergraduate degree, you will need to submit a Degree/Certificate Completion Application .
• Send in an additional, final official transcript with a conferral date on it by the end of your first semester of enrollment in the new master’s degree.

Dual Enrollment

Please see the Online Dual Enrollment page for information about starting graduate courses while finishing your bachelor’s degree.

Transcript Policies

Unofficial college transcript policy.

Unofficial transcripts combined with a Transcript Request Form can be used for admission. Official transcripts are required within 60 days of the admissions decision or before non-attendance drops for the first set of matriculated classes, whichever comes first, and will prevent enrollment into future terms until all official transcripts have been received.

Before sending unofficial college transcripts, please make sure they include the following:

• Your previous school’s name or logo printed on the document
• Cumulative GPA
• A list of completed courses and earned credit broken down by semester
• Degree and date conferred (if applicable)

Official College Transcript Policy

An acceptable official college transcript is one that has been issued directly from the institution and is in a sealed envelope. If you have one in your possession, it must meet the same requirements. If your previous institution offers electronic official transcript processing, they can send the document directly to [email protected] .

If the student uses unofficial transcripts with a Transcript Request Form to gain acceptance, all official transcripts must be received within 60 days of the admissions decision or before non-attendance drops for the first set of matriculated classes, whichever comes first. Failure to send all official transcripts within the 60-day period will prevent enrollment into future terms until all official transcripts have been received.

Admissions Office Contact Information

(800) 424-9596

(888) 301-3577

Email for Questions

[email protected]

Email for Documents

[email protected]

Liberty University Online Admissions Verification

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Lynchburg, VA 24515

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Submit your application online or over the phone.

Apply by phone: (800) 424-9595

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Who May Qualify?

• Active Duty
• Reserve/National Guard
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Available Benefits:

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What is an mfa in creative writing.

A Master of Fine Arts degree, or MFA, is a terminal degree in an artistic craft that demonstrates that you have achieved the highest level of training and skill in your discipline. Like a doctorate, an MFA often allows you to teach courses at the graduate level while also providing many opportunities for scholarship and leadership in education. If you want to grow your creative writing skills to become the best writer you can be, then the Master of Fine Arts can help you get there.

How will students work towards developing their writing skills?

With creative writing workshops and a thesis project, you will receive support and guidance to help you become the best writer you can be.

How long will it take to complete the MFA in Creative Writing?

You can complete the MFA in Creative Writing in just 48 credit hours!

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• Israel-Hamas War

My Writing Students Were Arrested at Columbia. Their Voices Have Never Been More Essential

O n April 30, 56 years after Columbia sent the police in to arrest student protesters who had taken over Hamilton Hall in protest of the Vietnam War—protests the school loves to promote—I was walking my 12-year-old daughter home after her choir performance. We had gone an extra stop on the subway because the stop at 116th, Columbia’s stop, was closed. Instead, we had to walk back to our apartment from the 125th stop. When we got within sight of Columbia, a line of dozens of police blocked our path. I asked them to let us through; I pointed to our apartment building and said we lived there. As a Columbia professor, I live in Columbia housing.

“I have my orders,” the cop in charge said.

“I live right there,” I said. “It’s my daughter’s bedtime.”

“I have my orders,” he said again.

“I’m just trying to get home,” I said.

We were forced to walk back the way we came from and circle around from another block. Luckily, our building has an entrance through the bodega in the basement. This is how I took my daughter up to her room and sent her to bed.

Read More: Columbia's Relationship With Student Protesters Has Long Been Fraught

A week earlier, I had brought some food for the students camping out on Columbia’s West Lawn and had met with similar resistance. Security guards asked whether I was really faculty; I had already swiped my faculty badge that should have confirmed my identity. They asked to take my badge, then they said I hadn’t swiped it, which I had, two seconds earlier, as they watched. They said their professors had never brought food to them before. I didn’t know what to say to this—“I’m sorry that your professors never brought you food?” They called someone and told them the number on my badge. Finally, they were forced to let me through. They said again that their professors had never brought them food. “OK,” I said, and walked into campus. I reported their behavior and never received a reply.

On April 30, after I had got my daughter to bed, my partner and I took the dog down to pee. We watched the protesters call, “Shame!” as the police went in and out of the blockade that stretched 10 blocks around campus. Earlier that day, we had seen police collecting barricades—it seemed like there would be a bit of peace. As soon as it got dark, they must have used those barricades and more to block off the 10 blocks. There were reports on campus that journalists were not allowed out of Pulitzer Hall, including Columbia’s own student journalists and the dean of the School of Journalism, under threat of arrest. Faculty and students who did not live on campus had been forbidden access to campus in the morning. There was no one around to witness. My partner and I had to use social media to see the hundreds of police in full riot gear, guns out, infiltrate Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, where protesters had holed up , mirroring the 1968 protests that had occupied the same building.

In the next few days, I was in meeting after meeting. Internally, we were told that the arrests had been peaceful and careful, with no student injuries. The same thing was repeated by Mayor Adams and CNN . Meanwhile, president Minouche Shafik had violated faculty governance and the university bylaws that she consult the executive committee before calling police onto campus. (The committee voted unanimously against police intervention .)

Read More: Columbia Cancels Main Commencement Following Weeks of Pro-Palestinian Protests

Then, Saturday morning, I got an email from a couple of writing students that they had been released from jail. I hadn’t heard that any of our students had been involved. They told me they hadn’t gotten food or water, or even their meds, for 24 hours. They had watched their friends bleed, kicked in the face by police. They said they had been careful not to damage university property. At least one cop busted into a locked office and fired a gun , threatened by what my students called “unarmed students in pajamas.”

In the mainstream media, the story was very different. The vandalism was blamed on students. Police showed off one of Oxford Press’s Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction . (This series of books offers scholarly introductions that help students prepare for classes, not how-to pamphlets teaching them to do terrorism.)

“I feel like I’m being gaslit,” one of my students said.

I teach creative writing, and I am the author of a book about teaching creative writing and the origins of creative-writing programs in the early 20th century. The oldest MFA program in the country, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, was funded by special-interest groups like the Rockefeller Foundation and, famously, the CIA, and was explicitly described by director Paul Engle as a tool to spread American values.

Read More: 'Why Are Police in Riot Gear?' Inside Columbia and City College's Darkest Night

The way we teach creative writing is essential because it shapes what kinds of narratives will be seen as valuable, pleasurable, and convincing. Today’s writing students will record how our current events become history. One of the strategies Columbia took with its police invasion was to block access of faculty, students, and press to the truth. It didn’t want any witnesses. It wanted to control the story.

For weeks, Columbia administration and the mainstream media has painted student protesters as violent and disruptive—and though there have been incidents of antisemitism, racism, and anti-Muslim hatred, including a chemical attack on pro-Palestine protesters , I visited the encampment multiple times and saw a place of joy, love, and community that included explicit teach-ins on antisemitism and explicit rules against any hateful language and action. Students of different faiths protected each other’s right to prayer. Meanwhile, wary of surveillance and the potential use of facial recognition to identify them, they covered their faces. Faculty have become afraid to use university email addresses to discuss ways to protect their students. At one point, the administration circulated documents they wanted students to sign, agreeing to self-identify their involvement and leave the encampment by a 2 p.m. deadline or face suspension or worse. In the end, student radio WKCR reported that even students who did leave the encampment were suspended.

In a recent statement in the Guardian and an oral history in New York Magazine , and through the remarkable coverage of WKCR, Columbia students have sought to take back the narrative. They have detailed the widespread support on campus for student protesters; the peaceful nature of the demonstrations; widespread student wishes to divest financially from Israel, cancel the Tel Aviv Global Center, and end Columbia’s dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University; and the administration’s lack of good faith in negotiations. As part of the Guardian statement, the student body says that multiple news outlets refused to print it. They emphasize their desire to tell their own story.

In a time of mass misinformation, writers who tell the truth and who are there to witness the truth firsthand are essential and must be protected. My students in Columbia’s writing program who have been arrested and face expulsion for wanting the university to disclose and divest, and the many other student protesters, represent the remarkable energy and skepticism of the younger generation who are committed not only to witnessing but participating in the making of a better world. Truth has power, but only if there are people around to tell the truth. We must protect their right to do so, whether or not the truth serves our beliefs. It is the next generation of writers who understand this best and are fighting for both their right and ours to be heard.

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Table of Contents

Letter from the president, letter from the dean, schedule of celebrations, department of economics, departments of english and history, government, international relations and global studies, college of liberal arts combined, department of mexican american and latina/o studies, plan ii honors, dean's distinguished graduates, undergraduate degree candidates, mission of the college of liberal arts.

In the College of Liberal Arts, we teach students to think critically and independently so they can thrive in the world beyond campus. We are dedicated to promoting cutting-edge research that helps people better understand human history, society, and culture.

By providing students a strong foundation in the humanities and social sciences, we serve as a model in education and intellectual excellence for other universities. Our distinguished faculty is committed to teaching and to developing the best academic programs available in their fields. And our graduates must be able to read analytically, write cogently, and speak persuasively.

We do this in an atmosphere that fosters fellowship and understanding among students, faculty, and the administration. With a large and diverse student body, we recognize the importance of respecting students as individuals with unique needs, goals, and challenges.

In all courses and programs, we emphasize ethics, integrity, citizenship, and awareness of global issues. Students learn to assume personal responsibility for their actions, while they develop self-reliance and a passion for life-long learning. The College guides the lives of its students by fostering creativity, leadership, and service to community and nation.

Dear Graduate,

As we welcome you to your convocation, I hope you feel the excitement and pride that comes from successfully completing a goal through hard work, self-discovery, and determination. Your degree from The University of Texas is a significant accomplishment and, today, you will be awarded a well-earned UT diploma.

At one of the top universities in the world, you studied with amazing professors, learned alongside brilliant students, and challenged yourself and others. Your diploma is a symbol of academic success, but it represents much more; it connects you to your time on the Forty Acres, while linking you to Longhorn Nation forever. Remember the friendships, the mentors, and the experiences that shaped you. Carry these memories with you as you embark on the journey ahead and rely on your ability to do great and hard things. It is your turn to change the world!

Class of 2024, your perseverance is second to none, and the entire Longhorn community compliments you on your steadfastness and tenacity. Despite all the elements outside of your control, you emerged stronger and wiser. I extend my deepest congratulations to each of you, and please know that I am proud of you!

Hook 'em Horns!

Jay C. Hartzell, President, The University of Texas at Austin

Dear Graduates,

Congratulations!

You've made it to the end. We're so proud of you. Your family and friends are so proud of you.

In the College of Liberal Arts, we pride ourselves on introducing our studetnts to the hardest and most important questions about the world and how we live in it. What is the good life? What is the structure of society? How is power attained and distributed? What is the human mind? What is language? How do people live together in a complex society? What happens when they fail to do so?

Our goal is to help equip you with the skills and knowledge you'll need to continue answering these questions as an adult. I say “continue” because your presence here at commencement means that you’ve already acquired so much knowledge and so many essential skills. You’re already quite accomplished at wrestling with the big questions.

But there is so much more to learn. So many new things to encounter and master. You will struggle. You will often fail. I can’t promise you that we’ve given you all or even most of the answers. What you’ve built here, though, is a strong foundation. You’ve proven that you can handle challenge and difficulty and complexity. You’ve proven that you can fail and grow and then succeed. You’ve proven that you can handle the real world. You can flourish in it.

I wish you the best as you continue to do so.

Ann Huff Stevens, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts

Administrative Officers 2023-2024

Ann huff stevens.

Dean, College of Liberal Arts David Bruton, Jr. Regents Chair in Liberal Arts

Steven Hoelscher

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Robert Crosnoe

Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies

Associate Dean for Student Affairs

Thursday, May 9

College of Liberal Arts

Moody Center

Friday, May 10

Gregory Gymnasium

Hogg Auditorium

Saturday, May 11

William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center Auditorium

Saturday, May 11, 2024, at 9 a.m., Gregory Gymnasium

Thomas Wiseman, Professor and Chair

PROCESSIONAL

Haiqing Xu | Associate Professor

Saroj Bhattarai | Associate Professor

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Thomas Wiseman | Department Chair, Professor

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

UT Economics, 2000

Consultant at Good Works Strategic Advisors

PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES TO DOCTORAL CANDIDATES

Presented by Robert Town | Graduate Studies Committee Chair, Professor

PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES TO MASTER'S CANDIDATES

Presented by Stephanie Houghton | MA Program Director, Associate Professor of Instruction

RECOGNITION OF ECONOMICS HONORS PROGRAM CANDIDATES

Presentation of certificates to bachelor candidates.

Presented by

Richard Murphy | Associate Professor

Gerald Oettinger | Associate Professor

CLOSING REMARKS

Recessional, economics commencement reception.

Saturday, May 11, 2024, at 11 a.m.

Bernard & Rapoport Audre (BRB) Lawn

You are cordially invited to attend the reception following the ceremony The reception will take place outside of BRB.

Tony C. Budet is a community leader, nonprofit sector investor, and trusted advisor to and advocate for mission-oriented organizations in Central Texas. He is a former long-tenured and accomplished credit union executive who seeks to boost performance through injection of strong culture, core values, and focused collaboration.

Tony earned a BA in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin. He served as President and Chief Executive office of University Federal Credit Union (UFCU) in Austin, Texas. He was honored by the National Credit Union Foundation as a 2024 Herb Wegner Award winner and was inducted into the Credit Union House and Credit Union Executives Society Halls of Fame in 2023. Currently, Tony serves as a consultant to Good Works Strategic Advisors partnering with and counseling executive directors of Central Texas nonprofits. He also serves as a Nexus committee member and mentor for the Austin Center for Faith and Work.

Friday, May 10, 2024, at 3 p.m., Hogg Auditorium

Sienna String Quartet

Student Marshal

Douglas Bruster

Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professorship in English Literature

Distinguished Teaching Professor

Grand Marshal

Elizabeth Cullingford

Jane Weinert Blumberg Chair in English

Faculty Marshal

Walter Buenger

Barbara White Stuart Centennial Professor in Texas History

Martha Newman

Chair, Department of History

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

Keith Sharman

Producer, 60 Minutes

Winner of Alfred I. duPont- Columbia Awards

University of Texas at Austin, History, Class of 1998

PRESENTATION OF SPECIAL AWARDS

English and History Faculty

RECOGNITION OF DEGREE CANDIDATES

Mildred Hajek Vacek and John Roman Vacek Chair

CELEBRATORY MUSIC

Steel Pan Ensemble

This year's commencement address will be delivered by Keith Sharman . Keith Sharman is an award-winning producer for 60 Minutes in New York. He has won two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, the broadcast journalism equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize: the first for a 2006 investigation into a billion-dollar corruption scandal in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and the second, for being part of the CBS NEWS team that covered the Newtown shootings in 2012. Keith has received twelve Emmy nominations and won his first for 60 Minutes’ coverage of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.

During his 23 years at 60 Minutes / CBS NEWS, Keith has specialized in big interviews, breaking-news, economics, history, politics, sports & war. He’s produced pieces that included interviews with President Joe Biden; Vice President Kamala Harris; Secretary of State Antony Blinken; former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush (for an obituary of President George H.W. Bush). In 2019, he produced the first interview with Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia following the assassination of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. In 2017, he produced Congressman Steve Scalise’s first interview during his recovery from the Congressional baseball shooting.

This past February, he was part of a 60 Minutes / CBS News team that were the first journalists to cover the U.S. Navy’s response to attacks on international commercial shipping in the vital waterways of the Red Sea.

Keith has reported stories from more than twenty-five different countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Russia & Syria. He’s also worked with some of the biggest names in broadcast news, including Ed Bradley, Anderson Cooper, Steve Kroft, Norah O’Donnell, Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl, and Mike Wallace.

He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and two daughters.

Friday, May 10, 2024, at 8:30 a.m., Gregory Gymnasium

Professor and Chair

Elliott Morris

Editorial Director of Data Analytics, ABC News

SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS

Michael Anderson

Director, International Relations & Global Studies

PH.D. HOODING

Presentation of certificates to graduates.

Announced by

Bethany Albertson

Associate Professor, Department of Government

Raul Madrid

Professor, Department of Government

Elliott Morris is the Editorial Director of Data Analytics at ABC News, where he develops polling aggregation and election-forecasting models and manages the data science and visualization teams for FiveThirtyEight, a popular political analysis website. He is a regular guest on the network’s podcasts as well as its broadcast and streaming news programs, where he provides political analysis of notable events and upcoming elections.

Elliott is also the author of STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them, a book about public opinion polling and democracy which was published in 2022 by W. W. Norton. Elliott’s academic interests include Bayesian statistical modeling, the dynamics of public opinion during elections, why and how voters make decisions, survey sampling in eras of politically motivated nonresponse, and political theory.

From 2018 to 2023 Elliot was a Senior Data Journalist and US Correspondent for The Economist, where he covered American politics, public opinion polling, demographics, and elections — among other topics. Elliott was the lead developer of the paper’s election forecasting models, including for the US and several European and South American countries.

Elliott is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin (2018), where he majored in Government and History and minored in Computer Science. He lives outside Washington, DC with his wife (also a proud longhorn), dog and two cats. When he’s not working he enjoys walks through the area’s plentiful trails and parks, reading a variety of non-fiction books and articles, and brainstorming his next book project. He is originally from Texas’s coastal bend.

Thursday, May 9, 2024, at 6 p.m., Moddy Center

Faculty Procession

Welcome remarks.

Ann Huff Stevens - Dean, College of Liberal Arts

Alumni Speaker

Pete Geren, CEO & President, Sid W. Richardson Foundation

Recognition of Dean's Distinguished Graduates

Presentation of graduates.

• African and African Diaspora Studies; Race, Indigeneity & Migration Studies; Ethnic Studies
• American Studies; Urban Studies
• Anthropology
• Asian Studies; Asian American Studies; Asian Cultures and Languages
• Classical Studies; Classical Languages
• Geographical Sciences; Geography; Environmental Sciences; Sustainability Studies
• French; French Studies; Italian Studies
• European Studies; German; Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
• Health and Society
• Human Dimensions of Organizations
• Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures; Portuguese; Spanish
• International Relations and Global Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies; Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures; Jewish Studies
• Various COLA Majors

Student Speaker

Joshua Russell, Plan II & Rhetoric & Writing

• Latin American Studies
• Linguistics
• Mexican American & Latina/o Studies
• Plan II Honors Program
• Religious Studies
• Rhetoric & Writing
• Women's & Gender Studies

Commencement Speaker

CEO & President, Sid Richardson Foundation

Geren is President and CEO of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. A native of Fort Worth, he earned his undergraduate degree in history at UT Austin and attended The University of Texas Law School. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for four consecutive terms. In 2007, Geren was confirmed as the 20th Secretary of the United States Army, a post he rose to after joining the Pentagon in September 2001.

Joshua Russell

Plan ii & rhetoric & writing.

Joshua, a Michigan-born Texan, is graduating with a degree in Plan II Honors and Rhetoric and Writing. During his time at UT, Joshua was committed to addressing disparities in higher education, advocating for the creation of safe and supportive writing spaces, and participating in and organizing events that focused on showcasing Black artistic expression. He’s performed at every Poetry on the Pond since its inception in 2021 and, in his final semester, received the “All We Can Save” Poetry Award.

Saturday, May 11, 2024, Auditorium, at 10 a.m., William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center Auditorium

Karma R. Chávez, Professor and Chair

Mary “Maggie” Rivas-Rodriguez

Professor, School of Journalism and Media

Director, Center for Mexican American Studies

Karma R. Chávez

Bobby and Sherri Patton Endowed Professor in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies

Chair, Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies

Jose Reuben Parra-Cardona

Professor and Associate Dean, Steve Hicks School of Social Work

Interim Director, Latino Research Institute

Maria E. Cotera

Associate Professor and Graduate Advisor, Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies

Rachel V. González-Martin

Associate Professor and Undergraduate Advisor, Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies

Reception to follow, hosted by the Center for Mexican American Studies.

Dr. Ruben Parra-Cardona is a Professor and Associate Dean for Global Engagement at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work and the Interim Director of the Latino Research Institute.

Before coming to UT, Professor Parra-Cardona was at Michigan State University where he was an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Social Science; and the associate director of the MSU Research Consortium on Gender-Based Violence. He was funded by NIMH to investigate the treatment efficacy and relevance of two versions of an evidence-based parenting intervention culturally adapted for Latino families with young children.

Professor Parra-Cardona is currently funded by NIDA to extend this line of research to Latino families with adolescent children. He is the recipient of the 2013 American Family Therapy Academy Early Career Award for his innovative work on cultural adaptation research.

Professor Parra-Cardona has a wealth of experience on research collaborations across the U.S.-Mexico border, and is currently vice-president of the Family Process Institute, a member of the board of directors of the Centro de Investigación Familiar (a leading family therapy institute in Mexico and in Latin America), and a clinical faculty member and researcher in the Instituto Regional de Estudios de la Familia (a leading family therapy institute in northern Mexico).

Professor Parra-Cardona completed his master’s and doctorate degrees at Texas Tech University and his bachelor’s degree at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), Guadalajara, México.

Saturday, May 11, 2024, at 9 a.m., Hogg Auditorium

1st Marshal:

Carol MacKay

Professor, Department of English

2nd Marshall:

Helena Woodard

Alexandra Wettlaufer

Professor of French and Comparative Literature

Director, Plan II Honors Program

Hayden W. Head Regent's Chair

Stuart Stedman Director's Chair in Plan II

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESSES

Presentation of Plan II Chad Oliver Teaching Award

Lito Elio Porto

Associate Professor of Instruction, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

William Cotton Hearn, '24

Plan II Honors and Government

Heidi Boutros Gesch , '04

Born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Egypt, Heidi Boutros Gesch completed her BA in Plan II Honors and Government at the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 as a Dedman Scholar, where she graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and was awarded a Truman Scholarship. She received her MPhil degree in international relations at Oxford University, where she was a Marshall Scholar and selected as a Goldman Sachs Global Leader.

She completed her JD at Yale University, where she was a Fellow of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a merit-based fellowship exclusively for immigrants and children of immigrants who are pursuing graduate school in the United States.

While still an undergraduate, Heidi wrote a country report for the UN World Conference against racism, interned with the International Justice Mission in India, worked on the Milosevic trial at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, and investigated prison conditions in Russia for the Moscow Center for Prison Reform. Her senior thesis evaluated the motives behind attacks against white farmers in post-apartheid South Africa. Before embarking on her Oxford University program, Heidi interned with the Public Defender Service of DC, investigating felonies on behalf of indigents, and later worked for the FBI, where she analyzed drug trafficking and money laundering intelligence. More recently, she has worked with USAID in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She was previously a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Public Integrity Section, where she investigated and prosecuted public corruption crimes. She is now working for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria, VA.

This year, 5 graduates in the College of Liberal Arts were designated as Dean’s Distinguished Graduates, based on high achievements in scholarship, leadership, and service to the College.

Joshua L. Crutchfield

African and African Diaspora Studies Ph.D.

Joshua L. Crutchfield is a scholar of 20th century Black freedom movements, African American women’s history, Black intellectual history, and abolition studies. He is an incoming postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Black Studies at Northwestern University. He has extensively published and presented his research, earning fellowships, awards, and prizes, while also contributing to his discipline and campus community at The University of Texas. His research has been recognized with the Harry Ransom Center UT Fellowship, the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Women and Politics, and the Graduate Association for African American History’s Memphis State Eight Paper Prize. He has also served as managing editor of the academic blog Black Perspectives, and as internship coordinator for the “Commemorating Student Activism: Past, Present, and Future” (CSA) project.

Faith M. Deckard

Sociology Ph.D.

Faith M. Deckard is a sociology Ph.D. graduate at The University of Texas and an incoming assistant professor at UCLA. Her research examines how marginalized communities experience, navigate, and respond to institutions like the U.S. criminal justice system. Her passion for research and teaching is rooted in her lived experience. Witnessing several family members navigate the criminal justice system made her keenly aware of the relationship between individual agency and structure and influenced her perception of education as a vehicle to increase awareness of social problems and provide people with tools to develop and enact solutions. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Austin Branch of the American Association of University Women. At UT, she taught undergraduate students, prospective college students (via Summer Discovery), and women behind bars (via the Texas Prison Education Initiative), and she has served her department as Sociology Student Minority Liaison and Student Chair.

Austin German

Linguistics Ph.D.

Austin German is a Ph.D. graduate in Linguistics whose research focuses at the intersections of sign language typology, sociolinguistics, and language development. His research focuses on an emergent sign language, developed by several deaf siblings in an Indigenous community of southern Mexico. He received a BA in Linguistics and a BS in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego in 2018. He has conducted long-term fieldwork with signers of Zinacantec Family Homesign (ZFHS), a sign language developed by three deaf siblings and their hearing extended family members in Zinacantán, an Indigenous community of southern Mexico. German has also collaborated with other scholars to produce the first ethnographic comparison of sign language socialization practices in three different Indigenous Mesoamerican communities.

Tristin Brynn Hooker

Rhetoric and Writing Ph.D.

Tristin Brynn Hooker is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing. Her research examines the rhetoric of rare diseases at the intersection of clinical science, patient advocacy, and public policy. Her work has appeared in Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Computers and Composition, and College Composition and Communication. Hooker studies the material and generative effects of rhetorical processes, the development and sustainability of institutions, and the transformative power of research and education, which sit at the vital intersection of clinical research, pharmaceutical regulation, patient- provider communication, and patient advocacy. Hooker has have served as an editorial assistant for Rhetoric Society Quarterly and as associate editor of Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. She also served as a member of the UWC’s graduate administrative team, and as assistant director of lower-division writing.

“Molly” Mary McNamara

Clinical Psychology Ph.D.

“Molly” Mary McNamara is receiving her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from The University of Texas at Austin and is a recipient of a Harrington Dissertation Fellowship. Her research investigates cognitive mechanisms of depression, including advanced computational approaches to understanding depression. She has accepted a postdoctoral position at Harvard Medical School McLean Hospital. While at UT, she has published nine articles and has additional manuscripts in progress. McNamara was selected to supervise her peers in UT’s graduate-level practicum course, and currently supervises practicum students at Harvard Medical School. Additionally, she led a summer workshop series to fill a clinical training gap for first-year doctoral students. She was primary mentor on two honors theses and mentored several additional undergraduates who are now pursuing advanced degrees. McNamara also provided over 1,000 hours of low/no-cost therapy to the Austin community.

Undergraduate

This year, 16 graduating seniors in the College of Liberal Arts were designated as Dean's Distinguished Graduates, based on high achievements in scholarship, leadership, and service to the College.

Eddie Lee Bankston Jr.

African and African Diaspora Studies, Humanities Honors

Eddie Lee Bankston Jr. is graduating with dual majors in African and African Diaspora Studies and Humanities Honors from The University of Texas at Austin. During his time at UT, he served a leadership role in Project SEED, guiding a team of undergraduate researchers in reviewing articles on the stress experienced by bilingual children serving as cultural intermediaries for their parents. He also worked for the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis transcribing interviews on the settlement experiences of black Cubans in Miami, FL during the Civil Rights Era. Bankston is a recipient of the President’s Award for Global Learning for his investigation of racial discrimination on UK campuses while studying in London. At A New Way of Life, he wrote grants to expand their S.A.F.E housing network to Detroit, MI. While volunteering at Doug’s House in in Austin, he collaborated on a virtual scrapbook, highlighting the power of collective efforts in creating tributes amid the HIV/AIDS journey.

Megha Bhatia

Plan II Honors, Health and Society

Megha Bhatia is a Plan II Honors and Health and Society graduate. She is a mentor and coordinator for the Plan II-KIPP partnership, an Osier Lab research assistant, and a recipient of the President’s Award for Global Learning. She is passionate about challenging health inequities and advancing medical humanities as a future physician. As a leader in the undergraduate-run Osier Lab, she helped build a UT Signature Course on cultural humility in healthcare, published in a kids’ science journal, and served as onboarding officer. As program coordinator for the Plan II-KIPP partnership, she worked to connect undergraduates to young people who seek a friend to share and learn from and, in return, foster mentors’ openmindedness and self-growth. While abroad, Bhatia worked on a team building a patient-turning tool to prevent bedsores with Kenyan and UT nursing and engineering students. Through her honors thesis on the mental health of wound care nurses, she was able to contribute to the research on the subject in sub-Saharan Africa.

Mishell Magnus Ducloux

Humanities, French

Mishell Magnus Ducloux is graduating with a degree in Humanities and French. She plans on teaching English in France and pursuing either law or linguistics. As the first in her immigrant family to receive a degree in the United States, she is driven to pave the way for her younger siblings, and her move from Mexico to Austin has inspired much of her studies, research, and service. Ducloux has tutored refugee children in a local home, using her French and Spanish there, and has helped Afghan families apply for re-parole and Dreamers for DACA. Her experiences culminated in a large-scale research project that seeks ways to better serve Hispanic students and to enhance the linguistic ecology on campus. After graduating, she plan to teach English in France and then pursue a degree in either law or linguistics.

Neerul Gupta

Rhetoric and Writing, Psychology Honors

Neerul Gupta is a Dedman Distinguished Scholar and Liberal Arts Honors student, graduating with degrees in Rhetoric and Writing and Psychology Honors. While earning her degrees at UT Austin, Gupta received two fellowships at leading Texas research centers, presented at two national conferences, earned multiple awards, and published an article in Psychology Today. Gupta had initially planned to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, but instead fell in love with the storytelling aspects of psychology. Now an aspiring copywriter, she worked as a content writer for the School of Design and Creative Technologies and an editor at Spark magazine. After graduating, Gupta plans to teach English in Madrid.

Brooke E. Jordan

Brooke E. Jordan graduated with a bachelor's in Psychology and minor in Health Communication. As a peer mentor, teaching assistant, and research assistant, she completed her honors thesis examining developmental learning trajectories. Jordan worked as a uRA, piloting an experiment for an external investigator and leading a team of eight uRAs and as a senior lead PACE Mentor. She concurrently served as a TA for two courses and also worked as a COLA front desk associate. She now works at Brown University as a joint-laboratory manager of three research labs.

Noor M. Khan

International Relations & Global Studies

Noor M. Khan is graduating with degrees in International Relations & Global Studies with minors and certificates in Asian American Studies, Global Management, and Business Spanish. She loves engaging with AAPI and other minority group communities through art, social justice activism, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work. An instance of Islamophobia she faced as a child led to her interest in different cultures and her academic concentrations, which provided her with vocabulary to understand her experiences and histories and the desire to help others feel seen. Academically, Khan pursued a capstone project on acculturation and served as an intercultural competency trainer. Professionally, she served as a DEI intern at Texas Instruments. She has exhibited poetry on South Asian America throughout Austin and organized events with the Center for Asian American Studies, planning its first community iftar. She looks forward to a professional focus on DEI.

Amara Kwiatkowski

Amara Kwiatkowski is graduating with a degree in Government. She has worked with the Center for Community Engagement and served as editor-inchief of Texas Orator, a multi-partisan publication, throughout her time at UT. She also served as chair in the Community Engagement Collective (CEC), leading members in organizing The Project, UT’s largest day of service, and Alternative Breaks (AB), a spring break community service trip. She completed an independent research project on voting rights and racial disparities in Austin and acted as a research apprentice on the Mapping Violence project, investigating the problematic history of elections in Texas. Kwiatkowski hopes to pursue a career as a political science researcher and professor, studying contentious politics.

Plan II Honors, Human Development & Family Sciences

Nina Mbonu is a Dedman Scholar and premedical student majoring in Plan II Honors and Human Development & Family Sciences. She has volunteered at St. David’s Medical Center and served as a TA for Plan II’s Pathways to Civic Engagement. Her time at UT has been largely inspired by her identity as a Nigerian immigrant, her passion for service-oriented leadership, and her desire to work in global pediatric medicine. As a freshman, she worked as an RA for the Origins Project, contributing to the research and development of a human fossil database and co-authoring a paper published in the Journal of Human Evolution. Mbonu is currently an RA for Project TAURUS, a study researching the impact of racial discrimination on health, where she is researching the impact of parent-child conflict on adolescent anxiety in immigrant vs. non-immigrant households. As a Student Counselor for Dell Medical School, she mentored students from underrepresented backgrounds. She also served as an intern at People’s Community Clinic and a bedtime reader at Helping Hand Home for Children.

Samuel Mills

International Relations & Global Studies, Asian Studies

Samuel Mills is graduating with dual degrees in International Relations and Global Studies and Asian Studies with a focus on modern Korean history. He has staffed conferences through Central Texas Model UN and competed on the collegiate circuit across North America. He has conducted research through an undergraduate-led think tank, Global Macro Team, and through the many hours working in archives to produce his undergraduate thesis. Mills looks forward to enrolling in graduate school with the goal of earning a Ph.D. in history and a career in academia.

Morgan Pace

Morgan Pace is graduating with a degree in Government. During her time at UT Austin, she has played on the Texas soccer team and served as president of the National Black Law Student Association, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and the Black President's Leadership Council. She is the recipient of the annual Sharon H Justice Leadership Scholarship. As president of the National Black Law Student Association, she has discovered that learning is a tool for empowerment. As the President of Delta Xi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, she leads a group of women in their mission to provide service to all mankind. They have broken barriers in the community for decades and Pace was honored to continue to carry this legacy. As the co-chair of the Black President's Leadership Council, Pace embraced the opportunity to guide Black leaders on campus.

Marco A. Pevia

Spanish, Linguistics

Marco A. Pevia is graduating with degrees in Spanish and Linguistics and a minor in Portuguese. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, his research focused on the impact of Heritage Spanish instruction on the linguistic and social anxieties of Heritage Spanish speakers. This research also informs his Spanish Honors thesis. As a McNair Scholar, Pevia's work interrogated the usage of Black English by Latinx speakers at his own community high school in Texas. He has received support from the Longhorn Center for Academic Equity, which has motivated his work as a mentor in the First-Gen Longhorns program. In this position, he mentored ten first-year, first-generation college students. After graduating from UT, Pevia plans to attend a Ph.D. program for Hispanic linguistics and eventually seek a tenure-track position at a research university, continuing to support heritage students.

Ingrid Piña

Humanities Honors

Ingrid Piña has received supported from the Dedman Distinguished Scholars Program, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, and the Humanities Honors Program. She researches Venezuelan migration, writes poetry, and practices videography. She serves as head chef at Pearl St. Co-op. After completing various communications internships for U.S. Department of State offices, and after studying in Mexico when the Title 42 policy was extended to Venezuelan migrants without warning, Piña conducted independent research on how migrants and U.S. federal offices communicate online. She is graduating with a degree from the Humanities Honors Program, where she designed her own course plan encompassing research and interests in the arts. Piña was accepted to the MFA Poetry program at Johns Hopkins, with full funding, and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Visual Anthropology following the MFA.

Kimia Pourebrahim

Kimia Pourebrahim is graduating with a degree in Humanities Honors with a course of study focused on Immigrant and Refugee Health. She served as a leadership member and clinical volunteer for the C.D. Doyle Free Clinic and Health Careers Mentorship Program and biked from Texas to Alaska to advocate for cancer prevention. As a future physician, Kimia is devoted to advancing accessible health education. Her experience as a first-generation Iranian immigrant in Belgium and the United States drove her passion for improving health education for refugee communities. Able to speak Farsi and engage meaningfully with Afghan culture, Pourebrahim designed and facilitated culturally adapted cancer education workshops for Afghan refugee women in Austin. Collaborating with the Livestrong Cancer Institute, she is coordinating free mammograms and pap-smears for the women she's guided for the past year. She looks forward to pursuing a career as a refugee healthcare provider.

Olivia Richert

Environmental Science, Government

Olivia Richert is graduating with degrees in Environmental Science and Government and will be attending law school in August with a passion for energy law. She is an alumna of the Archer Fellowship Program and currently works at Tesla as an energy and charging policy intern. Richert cites her impressive physical height as a source of empowerment, motivating her commitment to public service and to alleviating the gender imbalance in government. As a staunch environmentalist, her long-term goal is to assume a leadership role at a federal agency to drive systemic shifts toward a climate-friendly power grid. In preparation, she has pursued internships at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Tesla.

Ritesh Soule

Ritesh Soule is graduating with a degree in History with a Pre-Health Professions certificate. At UT, he researched the history of medicine and the social determinants of health through his honors thesis and through volunteering in organizations such as Dell Med HLA, Dell Seton Medical Center, Micah 6. At Dell Med HLA, Soule helped the unhoused find resources at C.D. Doyle Clinic and track health funding in Austin in the 1960s through the Model Cities Champions group. After graduation, Ritesh will matriculate to medical school.

Cameron Waltz

Asian Studies, International Relations, Chinese, Government

Cameron Waltz is a Dedman Distinguished Scholar and an aspiring policymaker in U.S.-China relations. While at UT, Waltz took on four majors to examine the bilateral U.S.-China relationship from as many perspectives as possible. He studied abroad three times and achieved fluency in Chinese and intermediate proficiency in Korean. As an intern—and later junior fellow—at the Bush China Foundation, Waltz co-authored several reports and op-eds on U.S.-China affairs. He wrote an Asian Studies honors thesis investigating the process of Taiwanese foreign policymaking and how it might shape U.S.-China security ties in the coming decades. As an undergraduate fellow at the Clements Center, he organized UT's first Undergraduate National Security Thesis Symposium, which united students across disciplines to share their policy-relevant research. As editor-in-chief of the Intercollegiate U.S.-China Journal, he helped expand the staff from four students to 23, spread across both countries. As vice president of Liberal Arts Council, Waltz worked with Associate Dean Carter to develop best practices to protect COLA students' well-being and privacy amid online learning.

Dean's Distinguished Graduates Honorable Mention

The 2024 Dean's Distinguished Graduates Honorable Mention recipients are:

• Alexander Vu, Economics
• Chloe Brownlow, Health and Society
• Emily Lawitz, Religious Studies, Middle Eastern Studies
• Grace Ann Arulanandam, Italian Studies
• Kaya Stiffel, Psychology
• Keziah Reina, Linguistics
• Mary Michael, Sustainability Studies
• Mimi Calzada, Rhetoric and Writing
• Monica Olivo, Mexican American and Latina/o Studies
• Nathan Silverstein, Government
• Olivia Green, American Studies, History, Liberal Arts Honors
• Rachel Chen, Sociology, Psychology, Liberal Arts Honors
• Sara Apostol, Humanities
• Simon Gerst, Jewish Studies, German, Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
• Tanya Velazquez, Latin American Studies
• Zander Vasquez, Sociology, Psychology
• Zoe Alvarez, History, Government, Liberal Arts Honors
• Arianna Avalle, Italian Studies
• Andra Bailard, Comparative Literature
• Keith Padraic Chew, Government
• Ashley Garcia, History
• Emily Martin, French

Degrees and honors listed are only projections. Actual degrees conferred and honors earned will be determined after final grades are submitted.

THE CORE PURPOSE OF THE UNIVERSITY

To transform lives for the benefit of society

OUR CORE VALUES

A caring community, all of us students, helping one another grow

Expanding knowledge and human understanding

To seek the truth and express it

The will to excel with integrity and the spirit that nothing is impossible

INDIVIDUAL OPPORTUNITY

Many options, diverse people and ideas, one university

RESPONSIBILITY

To serve as a catalyst for positive change in Texas and beyond

Undergraduate creative writing courses

Part-time study in creative writing at Oxford

Completely new to the world of creative writing? Need an extra push to finish your novel, poem or play? Looking for a low-residency master's programme? No matter where you are in your writing journey, we have a flexible, part-time course for you.

Diploma in Creative Writing

Our two-year, part-time Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing  helps you to strengthen your ability in four major areas of literary activity — prose, poetry, drama and analytical reading — as well as the chance to specialise in the genre of your choice.

There are distance-learning and face-to-face options available. The Diploma is a good foundation for those wanting to progress to a master's in creative writing.

Find out more about the  Diploma in Creative Writing . 

Short courses and the Certificate of Higher Education

Our  weekly classes and flexible online courses in creative writing are taught at undergraduate level and cover all genres – fiction, poetry, memoir, drama, writing for young adults and critical reading. There are courses for beginners as well as those with experience and class sizes are kept small to maximise interaction between you and your classmates and tutor.

Credit earned from these courses is transferable towards our Certificate of Higher Education - a part-time undergraduate course in which you study a main subject discipline but also undertake study in other academic subjects.

Student spotlights

Tahmina maula.

Tahmina worked as a senior manager in education before taking a career break to undertake the Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing.

Charles Bush

Charles Bush published his debut young-adult novel thanks to the skills and experience gained from completing the Undergraduate Certificate of Higher Education.

Georgia Fancett

Studying on the Certificate of Higher Education led Georgia to writing a prize winning novel.

Short courses and part-time qualifications

Literature, creative writing and film studies

Undergraduate diploma in creative writing, mst in creative writing.