florida state university phd creative writing

The Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing is the recognized terminal degree which offers the minimum professional training deemed necessary by the major schools in the United States for university and college teaching and for positions in the publishing industry. It is also the degree most frequently held by professional writers.

Criteria for Admission to the Program

• Students applying for admission to the MFA degree program generally have completed a bachelor’s or master’s degree in English from an accredited institution with a 3.2 GPA in upper-division English courses, meet university admission requirements, and submit evidence of creative ability in fiction or poetry (10 pages poetry, 20-30 pages fiction). For each annual cycle, applications are due by January 15, when review will begin.  
• When an undergraduate degree has been completed in a program having different requirements from those of CSULB or in some field other than English, additional preparation may be required before the student can be considered for classified status in the degree program.  
• At the time of the student’s conditional classification into the program, an examining diagnostic committee consisting of at least two instructors in the student’s field of specialization and at least one other faculty member must approve and evaluate the student’s work no later than the end of his/her first full year in residence and judge whether the student should continue in the program.  
• The student shall present a written appeal to the MFA Coordinator.
• Within ten (10) working days of receipt of a written appeal by a student, the MFA Coordinator shall refer the appeal to an ad hoc committee consisting of three tenured creative writing faculty not involved with the issue.
• The committee shall meet in formal sessions holding hearings at separate times for the student and for the faculty involved to gather information and evidence relevant to the issue.
• After deliberation, the committee shall present its findings to the MFA Coordinator within thirty (30) working days from the origination of the committee. (Working days do not include periods of time between semesters.)
• The MFA Coordinator shall inform the concerned student in writing of the committee’s decision.
• Attain fully classified status.
• Remove all undergraduate deficiencies as determined by the graduate advisor, the department chair, and the dean of graduate studies.
• Submit a program of courses for approval by the student’s faculty advisor.
• Up to 24 units of credit from a Master of Arts program in Creative Writing may be acceptable after review and approval by the faculty evaluation committee.

Requirements for the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

The MFA degree is a 48-unit degree normally requiring full-time residency. Course requirements are arranged according to the following structure.

(32 units chosen in consultation with faculty advisor)

Take one of the following pairs in Year 1:

• ENGL 505A - Seminar in Prose Writing (4 units)
• ENGL 505B - Seminar in Prose Writing (4 units)
• ENGL 506A - Seminar in Poetry Writing (4 units)
• ENGL 506B - Seminar in Poetry Writing (4 units)

Take one of the following pairs in Year 2:

• ENGL 605A - Advanced Seminar in Prose Writing (4 units)
• ENGL 605B - Advanced Seminar in Prose Writing (4 units)
• ENGL 606A - Advanced Seminar in Poetry Writing (4 units)
• ENGL 606B - Advanced Seminar in Poetry Writing (4 units)

Take in both fall and spring of Year 2:

• ENGL 590 - Directed Reading (3 units)
• ENGL 696 - Seminar in Theory, Criticism, and Research (4 units)
• ENGL 698 - Thesis (1-6 units)

(16 units chosen in consultation with a faculty advisor) from 400-, 500- and 600-level English Department courses.

A student wishing to take a course in another department must obtain advance written approval from an MFA advisor. A student may not enroll in any 500-level course if he or she earned credit for the class at the 400-level as an undergraduate at CSULB. Up to six units total of 400-level coursework may be taken to fulfill the electives requirement, subject to the following restrictions:

• A student may not enroll in any 400-level Creative Writing course if he or she earned credit for that class as an undergraduate at CSULB.
• A student may not enroll in any 400-level Creative Writing course that is in his or her own degree focus.
• A student wishing to take any 400-level course must obtain advance written approval from an MFA advisor.

Both fiction and poetry specializations

Both fiction and poetry specializations share a common core of courses which offer study in literary history, theory, and research. The remainder of the courses offer students the opportunity to develop additional skills in their particular area of related interest. The program culminates in a major creative project (novel, short story collection, or poetry collection) of publishable quality.

Single Subject Teaching Credential in English

For information, refer to the undergraduate Option in English Education

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Fully Funded PhD in Creative Writing at Florida State University

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Florida State University (FSU), located in Tallahassee, FL, provides an immersive and fully funded Ph.D. program in creative writing, updated with the latest information. The program structure includes 12 hours of general literature requirements and an additional 18 hours (9 specifically for Creative Writing students) in an Area of Concentration.

PhD Program Requirements

Prospective students seeking admission to FSU’s Ph.D. in creative writing program must hold a relevant master’s degree, showcasing their commitment to advanced study in the field.

PhD Funding Coverage

Ph.D. students admitted to the program receive a four-year assistantship, covering tuition and providing a stipend. The stipend amount, as of the latest available information, was $16,200. Additionally, students are eligible to apply for a fifth year of financial support based on satisfactory progress in their academic and research endeavors.

Application Requirement

The application package should include:

Transcripts: Official transcripts from all previous academic institutions attended.

Letters of Recommendation: Typically, three letters of recommendation from individuals familiar with the applicant’s academic and creative writing capabilities.

Writing Portfolio: A portfolio showcasing the applicant’s creative writing skills. This may include samples of fiction, poetry, or nonfiction writing.

Statement of Purpose: A well-crafted statement outlining the applicant’s academic and creative writing goals, as well as their reasons for pursuing a Ph.D. at FSU.

Application Deadline

January 15, 2025

Application Fee

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Creative Writing Program 405 Williams Building Tallahassee Florida, United States 32306-1580 Phone: 850-877-7411 Email: [email protected] https://english.fsu.edu/programs/creative-writing

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ACADEMIC MAP (Effective Summer 2024 and after) *Please Note: Face-to-face/in-person instruction of this program is available ONLY at the main campus in Tallahassee, FL. This program is NOT available via Online/Distance Learning.* This map is a term-by-term sample course schedule. The milestones listed to the right of each term are designed to keep you on course to graduate in four years. The Sample Schedule serves as a general guideline to help you build a full schedule each term. The General Education and Elective courses must be selected to satisfy all area and diversity requirements unless your program meets these requirements with major courses. Milestones are courses and special requirements necessary for timely progress to complete a major. Missing milestones will result in one of two types of map registration stops. The first level (Degree Map Off-track) is placed following grade posting if the student has missed a milestone (course and/or GPA) for the first time in the major. If a student is in non-compliance with milestones for two (2) consecutive semesters (excluding summers), a Major Change Required stop is placed on the student's registration. A student may major in English with a concentration in Literature, Media, and Culture; Creative Writing; or Editing, Writing, and Media. This MAP is not intended to substitute for guidance from a departmental advisor.

Mapping Coordinator: Shellie Camp Email: [email protected]

Sample Schedule and Required Milestones by Term

Employment Information Representative Job Titles Related to this Major: Writer, Press Relations, Teacher, Critic, Personnel Officer, Archivist, Lawyer, Editor/Editorial Assistant, Researcher, Investigator, Administrative Officer, Reporter, Technical Writer, Management Trainee, Public Relations Specialist, Speech Writer, Legislative Assistant, Trainee, Information Specialist Representative Employers: Local School Boards; Universities, Colleges, Junior Colleges; Businesses; Publishers of Magazines, Newspapers, Books. An English major can qualify for a variety of positions in Education, State and Federal Government, and private industry and business. English majors are attractive to employers because of their classroom training in analysis, research, and interpretation, and because they are expected to be able to communicate effectively on paper or in public International Opportunities: International study is available for all students and may include opportunities for internships or taking course work towards various majors and minors. International study may have an impact on the MAP; therefore, it is important to consult with the academic advisor before participating. Interested students can find information about international study, research, internships, and service opportunities at: global.fsu.edu/undergraduate-students/going-abroad. This Map is not a contract, either expressed or implied, between the University and the student, but represents a flexible program of the current curriculum which may be altered from time to time to carry out the academic objectives of the University. The University specifically reserves the right to change, delete or add to any Map at any time within the student’s period of study at the University.

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FSU | The Career Center

The Career Center

Creative writing.

FSU students have designed a variety of blueprints to design their careers when engaging in the Creative Writing major. There are some commonalities with career design blueprints, which are the foundation building blocks of Self-Knowledge and Options Knowledge. Whether you are just beginning to design your career or updating your design, the information, tools, and materials below will provide you with a solid foundation to design your career.

Self-Knowledge

To help you explore, here are interests, values, and skills commonly associated with common career fields related to Creative Writing. This list is not exhaustive yet gives you a starting point for your Career Design.

Enterprising

Conventional

Achievement

Working Conditions

Key Transferrable Skills

Communication

Critical Thinking

Research & Innovation

Teamwork & Cross-cultural Collaboration

Key Technical Skills

Desktop publishing software

Graphics or photo imaging software

Presentation software

Word processing software

Learn More about You

The Career Center provides assessments that can help you explore and identify your interests, values, and skills. Utilize the Computer Assisted Career Guidance Systems and virtual values activity to see how your interest, values, and skills match those that are closely correlated with this major and compare occupation options that develop from your assessment results to those found in this blueprint.

Focus2Career    My Next Move    SIGI3    Virtual Values Card Sort

Options Knowledge

Exploring occupations is an important step in your career design. Finding occupation options that match your interest, values, and skills create a solid foundation for your career design. Additional information that will help you design your career is job titles, typical work duties, training and education required, industry growth and projected growth, and salary data based on geographical areas.

General Information and Resources

Access valid and reliable occupation information through the resources below and compare the occupations you explore to your self-knowledge.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook O*Net CareerOneStop

Sample Occupations

Research Assistant, Librarian , Law librarian, Legislative aide, Congressional researcher, Convention planner, Bookstore manager, Buyer, retail store, Market researcher, Psychometrician, Patient education officer, HMO, Program coordinator, Programmer / Analyst  Attorney, Counselor / Psychologist, Social worker, Foreign Service officer, Curriculum planner, Industrial analyst, City manager, Creative writer, Technical writer,  Speech writer, Journalist, Drama, art, music critic,  Web writer, Newsletter writer, Editor, Publications coordinator, Editorial assistant, Web designer, Advertising copywriter, Reading specialist, K-12 teacher,  College instructor, Peace Corps / Teach for America teacher, Speech Therapist, Sales manager, Training consultant, Public relations representative, Politician,  Lobbyist

Salary Range Based on Sample Occupations

Introductory Range: $30,380 - $35,880

Mid-Career Range: $63,400 – $67,120

Experienced Range: $126,800 - $133,460

Additional salary information: FSU Graduating Senior Survey Dashboard Board of Governors Dashboard

Explore the FSU Community to Find Opportunities that Match You

To see your major's tailored CandidCareer playlist click  here 

Connect with The Career Center

Drop-in to Career Advising with the Career Center and meet with a Career Advisor to explore and build your Individual Action Plan.

Drop-in Career Advising Options

Connect with your Career Liaison who specializes in supporting students in this major and related industries.

Meet Your Liaison

Sample Registered Student Organizations

FSU Society for Collegiate Journalists

FSU Film Club

Kudzu Review FSU

Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law

Explore NoleCentral for Additional Options

Research Graduate and Professional School Options

Depending on your long-term goals, graduate school might be part of you career design. Utilize these resources using the keyword "Creative Writing" to research your options.

Career Cornerstone      Petersons      US News & World Report      Grad Schools.com      Study.com

Career, Internship and Graduate School Fairs

Each year the Career Center hosts career, internship and graduate school fairs to help students connect with employers. These events and more can be found in NoleNetwork, the centralized job board and connection to career events and opportunities at FSU.

Engage with the people and opportunities to learn more about yourself and career options. Career Advisors, Career Liaisons, Alumni, ProfessioNole Mentors, employers and other people you meet through involvement on and off campus will help you refine your career design.

After finding a Registered Student Organization to engage with, engage with Career Center and FSU Campus events and Programs to help you connect and build your network while also developing ProfessioNole Competencies.

Career Center Events and Programs

Connect with professionals and FSU Alumni who are in careers that you want to learn more about or tryout a career to see how it matches your interest, values, and skills.

FSU Events and Programs

Division of student affairs programs.

At FSU there is a program for everyone. Engage with one of the many programs that will help you develop, academically, personally, socially, and help you design your career.

Division of Student Affairs Program Connection

Student Government Association

Build Your Skills and Earn Badges

Earn badges and develop your ProfessioNole Competencies. From Financial Success options to learning how to build an App, there is a badging pathway for you. Pathways allow you to enhance your skills while working autonomously and alongside your peers, industry experts, and other ProfessioNoles. While you are earning badges, be sure to engage in ProfessioNole Ready so you are prepared to seek new experiences that will help you in your career design.

Prepare to Connect

As you design your career, the Career Center can help you prepare to connect with employers and graduate and professional school programs through services, programs, and events.

Career Advising Mock Interviews

Grad School Boot Camp ProfessioNole Ready

Resume Cafés Information Sessions

Build Your Network

FSU is here to help you build your network. However, you can also get engaged with opportunities and groups outside of the FSU community by getting involved with professional associations and engaging in or following groups on LinkedIn.

Engage in Professional Organizations

National Association of Independent Writers & Editors

The International Women's Writing Guild

American Society of Journalists and Authors

Society for American Travel Writers

Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators  

Asian American Journalists Association

Native American Journalists Association

Writers Guild of America West

Engage in LinkedIn Groups

To search for LinkedIn Groups you can use the names of the associations above in the linked in search box and set your filter to groups or companies. You can then generate a list of LinkedIn Groups to explore and join or connect. Additionally, try some of the following keywords:

Creative Writing      Fiction Writing     Story-Telling    Journalism    Journalist    Non-Fiction 

Experiences like internships, leadership, research, creative works and global engagement, also known as experiential learning or formative experience, are a key part of determining your interests, values, and skills and developing competencies for career success. Experiential learning provides the opportunity to apply the knowledge you have gained in the classroom to a real-world experience while enhancing your transferrable and industry specific skills. By engaging in these types of experiences, you can “try on” the various work environments within your aspirational career field.

Experience Essentials

Many FSU Students engage in experiences throughout the year, however it is important to know when application deadlines occur and that majority of employer recruit heavily in the Fall semester to hire interns for the upcoming summer. Below are some sample of possible experiences related to this major.

Types of Experiences

Internships.

Editing Writing and Media Academic Internship

Florida Press Foundation Internships

Book Jobs Internships (Publishing)

Florida House of Representatives Internship

U.S. State Department Virtual Student Federal Service Internships

The Southeast Review (Internships and Submissions)

WFSU Public Media Internships and Volunteering

FSU Honors in the Major Research

FSU Digital Humanities Research

Florida Association of Museums

FSU Leadership Programs

Global Engagement

U.S. Fulbright Program

FSU Global Exchanges

Literacy Volunteers of Leon County

Junior Achievement of the Big Bend (Youth Education)

Idealist Internship Database

Find Experiences

FSU provides or connects students with experiences every day. For internships, the Career Center's NoleNetwork connects students to internship opportunities on campus, across the country, and even globally. The Career Center's "Gain Experience" webpage also connects you with opportunities and other FSU departments. Other departments and programs on campus can also help connect with an experience that matches your career design.

Experiences Through FSU

Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement

The Center for Global Engagement

FSU International Programs

Innovation Hub

The Center for Leadership and Social Change

Sample Employers

• City of Tallahassee
• Defense Intelligence
• Department of State
• Deutsche Bank
• Fasig Brooks
• Florida Board of Governors
• Florida Department of Environmental Protection
• Harris Corporation
• Teach for America
• U.S. Department of State
• Zimmerman Agency

Sample Work Settings

• Advertising Agencies
• Archives Art Galleries
• Banks or Investment Firms
• Colleges/Universities
• Consulting Firms
• International Business Organizations
• Professional and Technical Journals
• Radio/TV Industry Research Departments
• Social Service Agencies
• Agency for International Development

Earn Recognition for Your Experience

Get recognized for your experiences. Whether it is one experience or a combination of various types of experiences that you engage in and complete during your time at FSU, there is a recognition program for you. Checkout the Experience Recognition Program options through the FSU Career Center and the Garnet and Gold Scholar Society, which is the highest experience recognition and honor offered at FSU.

Construct Your Blueprint

Now that you have the tools and basic concepts to being building your career. Start designing your custom blueprint.

NoleNetwork is the not just your connect to Career Center events, but your connection to employment opportunities. Below are opportunities related to this major that you may be interested in pursuing.

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Individual Learning Plan

As you design your career and build your blueprint create overarching goals with smaller smart goals that create the building blocks of your blueprint. Revisit and revise your plan as you meet your goals. If you get stuck, visit the FSU Career Center.

• Customized Individual Action Plan

The Career Center part of the Division of Student Affairs 100 South Woodward Avenue Tallahassee, FL 32306 Hours: M - F  8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

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Home / News / University News / FSU celebrates researchers with Developing Scholar Award

FSU celebrates researchers with Developing Scholar Award

Florida State University has recognized eight outstanding faculty members with the Developing Scholar Award, which recognizes the research and creative contributions of associate professors.

The recognition comes with a one-time award of $10,000 to be used to promote the awardee’s program of research and creativity during the academic year subsequent to the award’s presentation.

“We have tremendous faculty scholars at Florida State University,” said Vice President for Research Stacey S. Patterson. “It is a privilege to recognize these eight associate professors for their hard work and dedication to their respective fields and for the excellent contributions they have made in a relatively short time. We look forward to supporting their bright futures at FSU.”

Martin Bauer, Mathematics, College of Arts and Sciences

Bauer is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics where he specializes on infinite dimensional Riemannian geometry and its applications to mathematical fluid mechanics, data science and shape analysis. He has published more than 65 peer-reviewed articles in some of the highest ranked outlets in theoretical and applied mathematics. His research is currently supported by the National Science Foundation and the Binational Science Foundation. One of his current projects, being done in collaboration with other FSU faculty, uses mathematics and network science to uncover patterns of electrical activity of neurons in the brain that code information about the foods we eat.

Shayok Chakraborty, Computer Science, College of Arts and Sciences

Chakraborty’s research involves the development of sophisticated active learning algorithms, which automatically identify the salient and informative samples from large amounts of data for manual annotation, in order to alleviate the data annotation-related challenges posed by modern machine learning applications. In 2022, he received the NSF CAREER Award, which recognizes junior faculty for their research and educational contributions. His research has also been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Amazon Research Awards Program and Intel. Dr. Chakraborty’s paper on person-centered multimedia computing received the 2017 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Multimedia Best Department Article Award. He is a senior IEEE member.

James Frederich, Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences

Frederich’s research group is broadly interested in leveraging synthetic organic chemistry to address problems at the interface of chemistry, biology, and medicine. Frederich joined the faculty at Florida State University in July 2014. He has been consistently funded by the NIH since 2017 and has also obtained private funding from LentoBio and Ichor Biosciences. In 2024 Frederich co-founded Cyprus Therapeutics, a startup company focused on developing small molecule drugs for brain cancer. Frederich earned his doctorate in 2011 from University of California Irvine, and then moved to UCLA where he was supported as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Patrick Harran.

Hadi Mohammadigoushki, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

Mohammadigoushki’s research revolves around flow and dynamics of complex fluids. Complex fluids are ubiquitous in both nature and industry. These systems are widely found in applications such as oil-gas, pulp and paper, food, adhesives, detergents, cosmetics and protein gels. His research group’s primary goal is to discover new phenomena in complex fluids and to investigate the connection between molecular properties and processing conditions of complex fluids. Mohammadigoushki joined FSU in 2016 after completing his doctorate at the University of British Columbia and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2020 and has also obtained research funding from the National Institutes of Health, DARPA, the State of Florida and Colgate-Palmolive.

Allison Wing, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, College of Arts and Sciences

Wing investigates hurricane development and the role of tropical cloud systems in the water cycle and climate, specifically how the clustering of convection influences heavy rainfall events and how changes in the properties of clouds and the way they clump together affects the planet’s future warming. Wing earned her doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014 before serving as a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. In 2021, NASA awarded her the New (Early Career) Investigator Award and in 2022, she received the NSF CAREER award. She was also listed among the “Brilliant 10” by Popular Science Magazine in 2021.

Rachel Yohay, Physics, College of Arts and Sciences

Yohay’s research attempts to elucidate the interactions between elementary particles at the electroweak scale. As a member of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), she uses data collected by the CMS detector to search for rare signatures that may portend the existence of new light fundamental scalars — essentially, cousins of the Higgs boson. Yohay is funded by the Department of Energy and has received the prestigious DOE Early Career Award. She received her doctorate from University of Virginia in 2012.

Patricia Homan, Sociology, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy

Homan is director of research and strategic initiatives for FSU’s public health program. Her research focuses on population health, gender and racial inequality, life course and aging. Her research has won multiple national awards including the 2022 National Institutes of Health Matilda White Riley Early-Stage Investigator Award, the 2022 Early Career Gender Scholar Award, and the 2021 Sociology of Sex and Gender Distinguished Article Award. Her citation count in Google Scholar shows her work was more widely cited than faculty members in most top ranked Sociology departments nationwide in the last year — with 544 citations in 2023. Two of her articles were in the top 10 most downloaded articles of 2023 in their respective journals. She received her doctorate from Duke University in 2018.

Lindsey Eckert, English, College of Arts and Sciences

Eckert’s research and teaching focus on the intersections between British Romanticism and media history. Eckert is interested in how Romantic literature was shaped by rapidly changing technologies at the turn of the nineteenth century, and she works across literary genres (poetry, novels, biography) and didactic texts (especially almanacs and pocketbooks). She was selected to serve as the Reviews Editor at the Keats-Shelley Journal and was asked to peer review work by Book History journal. She received her doctorate from the University of Toronto.

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Creative Writing

Published: June 14, 2018 | 2:17 pm

Florida State University

FSU | The English Department

The English Department

CREATIVE WRITING

The Creative Writing program , which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, is a thriving community for all writers who are looking to strengthen their craft while building life-long relationships in writing.  

LITERATURE, MEDIA, AND CULTURE

The Literature, Media, and Culture program , which offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees, exposes students to provocative questions that spark scholarly engagement and creativity, helping them discuss the social and political impact of literature. 

RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION

The graduate program in Rhetoric and Composition focuses on rhetorical and social practices and theories of composition, particularly emphasizing the relationships between texts, technologies, language, and literacies.

EDITING, WRITING, AND MEDIA

The undergraduate Editing, Writing, and Media track emphasizes the production, analysis, and interpretation of a wide range of historic, contemporary, academic, and everyday texts.

English Department

405 Williams Building Tallahassee,

Florida 32306-1580

Phone: (850) 644-4230

Program Contacts

[email protected]

[email protected]

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• Creative Writing
• Areas of Study

The MFA degree and the undergraduate concentration in creative writing at ASU are thriving programs with deep interests in craft and content: the choices writers make about what to say and how to say it. Students work with core faculty in workshops, and also in literature classes designed specifically for writers, organized around either a subject matter or a strategic approach. Recent examples include “The Anti-Workshop,” “Visio-Textual Collaboration,” “The Black Female Body as Its Own Utopia,” “Worldbuilding,” “Literary Horror,” “Research-Based Fiction,” “Climate and the Imagination,” and “Ethics of Form.” There are also opportunities in nonfiction and translation.   Our programs are enhanced by many partnerships: the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing brings writers to campus for events large and small; the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands offers intensives with visiting writers and houses Poetry for the People, an arts/activism curriculum that takes a radical and galvanizing pedagogical approach, comprised of both teaching and mentorship, with explicit commitments to social justice and anti-racist practices. The generously endowed Swarthout Awards and Swarthout Fellowships allow us to support excellent work by students at all levels.    Graduate and undergraduate students in creative writing often serve in an editorial capacity with our national literary magazine, Hayden’s Ferry Review , and with HFR’s Thousand Languages Project (translation). MFA students also intern with New York-based Four Way Books, an award-winning independent press. Undergraduates can intern with ASU’s national electronic journal Superstition Review and participate in a range of campus literary clubs and publications. Creative writing also hosts an annual lecture series called Conversations in Craft and Content.

Please contact Program Manager, Justin Petropoulos , with questions regarding Creative Writing Area. For questions related to a specific program, please contact the appropriate undergraduate advisor or graduate advisor .

Scroll down to learn more about our programs, news, faculty, and alumni.

Degree Programs

English (Creative Writing) (BA)

Creative Writing, MFA

Cross-area programs.

English, BA

Culture, Technology and Environment, BA

English Minor

Featured alumni.

Christopher Burawa  (2004) is a poet and translator. His translation  Flying Night Train: Selected Poems of Jóhann Hjálmarsson  was published by Green Integer Books in 2009. His book of poems,  The Small Mystery of Lapses , was published by Cleveland State University Press in 2006. His translations of contemporary Icelandic poet Jóhann Hjálmarsson won the 2005 Toad Press International Chapbook Competition. He was awarded a 2008 American-Scandinavian Foundation Creative Writing Fellowship, a 2007 Literature Fellowship for Translation from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2006 Witter Bynner Translation Residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute, and a MacDowell Colony fellowship in 2003. He is the Director of the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Kevin Vaughan-Brubaker  (2001) is a public art project manager with the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. He is secretary of the board for Nightboat Books, an independent literary press based in New York City, and teaches arts and humanities classes for the University of Phoenix Online. He also plays bass and keys in the band Mondegreen and collaborates with artists on public art projects and gallery installations. He lives in Phoenix.

Jennifer Chapis  (2000) has published poems in magazines and anthologies including  The Iowa Review, Colorado Review, McSweeney's  online ,   Best New Poets , and  Online Writing: Best of the First Ten Years .  She received the Florida Review Editor's Prize, the GSU Review Poetry Prize, and the Backwards City Poetry Series Prize for her chapbook,  The Beekeeper's Departure .  Her book-length manuscript has been a finalist for the Colorado Prize, the New Issues Poetry Prize, the Dorset Prize, and the Benjamin Saltman Award, among others.  In 2008, her poetry was showcased for a full year as part of a creative marketing project hosted by the world’s largest flavor and scent manufacturer.  Her  Poem as Salad  was chosen by the Center for Book Arts limited-edition broadside series.  A full-time faculty member at New York University, she has received NYU's Outstanding Teaching Award, and was recently a guest lecturer of creative writing at the Königin-Olga-Stift School in Stuttgart, Germany.  Founding Editor of Nightboat Books, Jennifer lives in New York City with her husband, fiction writer Josh Goldfaden.

Caitlin Horrocks ' (2007) first short story collection,  This Is Not Your City , won the 2008 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction and is forthcoming from Eastern Washington University Press. Stories from the collection have appeared in  The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2009 ,  The Paris Review ,  Prairie Schooner ,  Epoch  and other journals .   Her work has been short-listed in  Best American Short Stories  and has won awards from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' conferences and the  Atlantic Monthly . She was the 2006-2007 Theresa A. Wilhoit Fellow at Arizona State University and is currently an assistant professor of writing at Grand Valley State University, teaching fiction and creative nonfiction. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with fellow writer and ASU MFA alum W. Todd Kaneko.

Chris Hutchinson  (2009) has published poems in literary journals and anthologies in Canada and the US. He is the author three collections of poetry,  Jonas in Frames: An Epic  (Goose Lane Editions, 2014),  Unfamiliar Weather  (Muses’ Company, 2005), and  Other People’s Lives  (Brick Books, 2009). During his studies at ASU he taught creative writing to undergraduate students for the English Department, and to high school and elementary school students for ASU’s Young Writer’s program. He lives in Vancouver, BC.

Tayari Jones  (2000) named the 2008 Collins Fellow by the United States Artists Foundation, has published three novels.  Silver Sparrow,  released by Algonquin Books in 2011, earned praise from  Library Journal ,  O Magazine , Slate , and  Salon .  The Untelling  was awarded the Lillian C. Smith Award for New Voices by the Southern Regional Council and the University of Georgia Libraries.  Leaving Atlanta  received numerous awards and accolades, including the Hurston/Wright Award for Debut Fiction. It was named “Novel of the Year” by  Atlanta Magazine , “Best Southern Novel of the Year,” by  Creative Loafing Atlanta , and the  Atlanta Journal-Constitution  and  Washington Post  both listed it as one of the best of 2002.  Essence  has called Jones, "a writer to watch," and the  Atlanta Journal Constitution  proclaimed her "one of the best writers of her generation." She has received fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and Le Chateau de Lavigny. A graduate of Spelman College and the University of Iowa, she has taught at Prairie View A&M University, East Tennessee State University, the University of Illinois, and George Washington University. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark University.

Bill Konigsberg  (2005) is the winner of the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for young adult/children's books for  Out of the Pocket . The novel made the Indie Next list for the fall of 2008, and was chosen for the ALA’s 2009 Rainbow List, and by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center as one of their 2009 Choices for teen novels. The New York Public Library included  Out of the Pocket  on their Stuff for the Teen Age list for 2009. His second novel,  Openly Straight , was released in 2013 and praised by the  New York Times  and  Booklist . His first adult literary novel,  Father, Son and Holy Buddha , is in circulation. Konigsberg has been a sports writer for the Associated Press and ESPN.com. In 2002, he won a GLAAD Media Award for his ESPN.com article “Sports World Still a Struggle for Gays.”

Hugh Martin  (2012), who spent six years in the Army National Guard and eleven months in Iraq, is the author of the poetry collection  The Stick Solders , which won the 2011 A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize from BOA Editions, Ltd. Named the 2014-15 Emerging Writer Lecturer at Gettysburg College, Martin is the recipient of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship and the Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award from  The Iowa Review . His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including  The Kenyon Review ,  The American Poetry Review ,  Crazyhorse , and  The New Republic . Kent State UP published his chapbook,  So, How Was the War? , in 2010.  

Gary Short  (1990) is the author three full-length volumes of poetry:  10 Moons and 13 Horses  (University of Nevada Press);  Flying Over Sonny Liston  (University of Nevada Press), winner of the Western States Book Award; and  Theory of Twilight  (Ahsahta Press). Winner of a 2008 Pushcart Prize, he has also published three chapbooks. A fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and a Stegner Fellow at Stanford, he has received the Writers at Work Award from Quarterly West. He has taught at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Old Dominion University, and the University of California, Davis. He currently directs the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi. 

Sarah Vap (2005) is the author of four collections of poetry:  End of the Sentimental Journey , published by Noemi Press in 2013;  Faulkner’s Rosary , from Saturnalia Books in 2010;  Dummy Fire , which won the 2006 Saturnalia Poetry Prize; and  American Spikenard , which won the 2006 Iowa Poetry Prize. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship for Poetry, she is co-editor of poetry for the online journal  42 Opus , and lives with her husband and their two sons in Santa Monica, California.

Outreach Programs

The tradition of outreach at ASU dates back to its days as the Arizona Territorial Normal School, when producing original literary work was encouraged in student and faculty publications. From the 1906 journal known as The Tempe Normal Student to the weekly 1932 Phoenix radio program that featured original poetry and prose from the college, through the 60s and 80s with the publication of The Prospector and Catalyst, and today through Channel 8’s Books & Co. and the award-winning Hayden’s Ferry Review, ASU creative writers have been reaching out to the community. Since the MFA program was established in 1984, our faculty, staff and students have been involved in projects in valley elementary schools, high schools, reservations, libraries, detention centers, Alzheimer’s units, and hospitals. More recently, through Piper Global Initiatives, students and faculty have been involved in exchanges with institutions and writing communities around the globe. In this way, the Creative Writing Program has opened the “classroom” to include the world.

The Young Writers at Work Program

Young Writers at Work projects are found in primary and secondary classrooms, libraries and community centers in our immediate community and beyond. These workshops are often one- or two-week residencies, wherein our graduate students teach in settings where the participants are not likely themselves to become writers. The program sends our MFA candidates from their own classrooms to the classrooms of others, where an understanding of writing is not based on theory or privilege, but on the real world, with the real considerations of age, ability, interest, and life experience. The program began in 1985 in the Phoenix Public Libraries, and our first partners were The Friends of the Library. Many venues have followed, with community partners never hard to find. Some partners provide funds for the graduate students.