usc phd creative writing stipend

Application deadline: December 1

The program provides dual emphasis in literature and creative writing, culminating in the dissertation, which combines critical analysis with creative originality. Roughly half of the dissertation is based on original research, that is to say, research contributing to knowledge which enriches or changes the field. Doctoral candidates not only read and write texts as finished products of scholarship in researching their creative work’s literary and historical milieu, but also consider the text as writers create it, then compose texts as writers, a process that goes to the source of the study of literature and of literature itself. This integration of literature and creative writing is reflected in the structure of the dissertation, which introduces the creative work within a context of critical inquiry, bringing together the examination and embodiment of the literary act, a new model of scholarship and creative innovation.

PhD candidates in literature and creative writing must pass the same departmental screening examination taken by PhD candidates in Literature who are not working in the area of creative writing. The exam tests students in various areas of emphasis (British literature, American literature, poetry, prose, etc.) and literature and historical periods as a measure of their preparedness to undertake independent research.

The literature and creative writing student takes 64 units in all, 32 in literature, 24 in creative writing workshops and seminars and 8 units of dissertation studies credits.

Admission Requirements

Requirements for admission to study in the department of English include: scores satisfactory to the department in both the verbal and quantitative General Test and the literature Subject Test of the Graduate Record Examinations; evidence of experience and ability in creative writing, as demonstrated by a creative writing sample; evidence of competence in writing English and interpreting English literature, as demonstrated by a sample of written work by the applicant on literary subjects; a satisfactory written statement by the applicant of aims and interests in graduate work; letters of recommendation from at least three college instructors; and grades satisfactory to the department earned by the applicant at other institutions. This program will accept applicants with BA degrees or transfer students with an MA or MFA in creative writing.

Degree Requirements

These degrees are under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Graduate School    section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by the Graduate School.

Graduate Curriculum and Unit Requirements

The graduate curriculum is divided into 500-level foundation courses and 600-level advanced courses. The 500-level courses offer fundamental work in theory and in the history of British and American literatures and cultures. The 600-level courses feature advanced studies in theory, creative writing seminars and workshops and special topics. Although students will normally take 500-level courses leading up to the screening procedure (see Screening Procedure) and 600-level courses thereafter, students after consultation with their advisers may be permitted to take 600-level courses in the first semester of their graduate training.

The student’s course work must total at least 64 units. No more than eight units of 794 Doctoral Dissertation and no more than four units of 790 Research may count toward the 64 units. A maximum of 12 transfer units, approved by the graduate director, is allowed toward the 64 units minimum required by the PhD (See Transfer of Course Work .)

The student will be assigned a faculty mentor in his or her first semester in the graduate program and will be encouraged in subsequent semesters to begin putting together an informal qualifying exam committee. The makeup of the qualifying exam committee may change as the interests of the student change. The faculty mentor and informal qualifying exam committee will assist the student in planning a program of study appropriate to the student’s interests leading to the screening procedure.

Screening Procedure

At the end of the student’s fourth semester (second semester for students who enter with an MA or MFA degree or near equivalent), the student will sit for a departmental examination, which is part of a comprehensive screening procedure. Rarely, and only with the approval of the graduate director and the graduate committee, will a student be allowed to postpone the departmental examination and the screening procedure, and then only for one year. Prior to the screening procedure, the student will be allowed to take a maximum of four units of independent study ( ENGL 590   ), and that independent study will normally be used to prepare for the departmental examination; all other units must be in the 500- or 600-level seminar.

Qualifying Exam Committee

Immediately following successful completion of the screening procedure, the student will nominate formally a five-member qualifying exam committee, including a chair and three other members from the English Department who are in the student’s areas of interest and an outside member from another PhD-granting department. The committee must be in place and approved by the Graduate School at the time the student chooses a dissertation topic, writes the dissertation prospectus and schedules a qualifying examination.

Qualifying Examination

Following completion of course work, the student must sit for a qualifying examination, at a time mutually agreed upon by the student and the qualifying exam committee.

This is a field examination given in the subject of the student’s proposed dissertation research. No less than one month before the qualifying examination, the student will submit to the qualifying exam committee a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus, it is understood, will not be a polished dissertation proposal, but at a minimum it should display a strong knowledge of the subject, much of the relevant secondary material and other contexts crucial to the writing of the dissertation, and should present a workable plan of attack as well as a reasonably sophisticated understanding of the theoretical assumptions involved in the subject.

The qualifying examination will consist of both written and oral portions with special emphasis areas in creative writing. It will focus on the dissertation area and its contexts with the specific format and content of the examination being negotiated among the student and all members of the examination committee. Upon successful completion of the qualifying examination the student proceeds to the writing of the doctoral dissertation.

Dissertation

The final stage of the program is the submission of a creative dissertation that makes an original, substantial and publishable contribution to creative literature: a book of poems, a novel, a collection of short stories.

Foreign Language

PhD students are required to demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language. This may be demonstrated by completing a course in the literature of that language at the 400 or 500 level (with a grade of B [3.0] or better) or by passing a foreign language exam that tests proficiency in reading comprehension and translation. PhD students may also be required to demonstrate proficiency in additional languages, as determined by the qualifying exam committee in view of the student’s proposed field of research.

Applying to the PhD

Admissions guidelines.

To apply to the Media Arts and Practice PhD program, please refer to the admission guidelines on the USC School of Cinematic Arts website . Please note that applicants must complete applications for both USC Graduate Admissions and the School of Cinematic Arts (SCA).

Step One: USC Graduate Application

For information on applying to USC and to start the USC Graduate Admissions application, please visit the USC Graduate Admissions website .

Step Two: School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) Slideroom Application

For information on how to complete the SCA Slideroom application, please visit the SCA Application Procedures page . The SCA Slideroom application should be completed only after completing the USC Graduate Admissions application above .

• Personal Statement
• Writing Sample of Analytical Writing
• Creative Work Portfolio
• Curriculum Vitae/Resume
• Letters of Recommendation (3)

Application Deadline:

December 1 for all applicants

Frequently Asked Questions

What funding is available for students, do i need to contact faculty prior to applying, how long should the writing sample and personal statement be, can i submit a screenplay for the writing sample, what should the portfolio include, is the gre required, can you look at my materials beforehand and provide feedback, what professions do ma+p phd students end up in, do i need a masters degree to be considered for the ma+p phd program, i am having trouble figuring out how to submit the usc graduate application. can you help, i have submitted my application. how do i submit my test scores, transcripts and additional materials, do i need to take the toefl or other english language certification as an international applicant, can the toefl be waived.

• Dean of the Graduate School
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Fellowships for PhD Students

• Scholarships for Masters Students
• Academic Support, Professional Development and Diversity Inclusion Programs

USC FELLOWSHIPS FOR INCOMING PhD STUDENTS

Most PhD students at USC will receive at least one year of fellowship funding from the Graduate School as part of a four or five-year package of support. The stipend amount and the duration of the fellowship will vary by department and by school. All applicants who are admitted into a qualifying USC PhD program are automatically considered for these fellowships. Fellowship recipients are selected by the faculty of the school or department in which they intend to pursue their studies. In addition to general opportunities, the Graduate School offers the following fellowship top offs for incoming PhD students. Fellowship top off recipients are selected by the faculty of the school or department in which the student intends to pursue their studies.

Provost’s Fellowship Top Off

for incoming PhD students whose combination of background and training will make a substantive, documentable, and unique contribution to the program as assessed by faculty. Provost’s fellowship top off recipients are students who excel through their academic or professional contributions and contribute to diversity and/or the reduction of salient inequalities in the program and/or field.

Annenberg Fellowship Top Off

Funding for prospective masters and professional doctorate students.

Funding for students pursuing a master’s or professional doctorate degree is coordinated by the school or program. Students are encouraged to explore additional opportunities through the USC Fellowships and Awards database

External Fellowship Opportunities for PhD Students

The USC Graduate School provides a variety of resources to support PhD students seeking funding, including information sessions, boot camps and proposal review workshops.

Students who receive one of a number of designated national awards may be eligible for stipend top offs from the Graduate School. Fellowships eligible for top offs are noted in the USC Fellowships and Awards database  

Staff in the Graduate School serve as coordinating officials for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the Ford Foundation’s Pre-Doctoral and Dissertation Completion Fellowships, the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, the U.S. Department of Education, Fulbright Hays Program, the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships, the Josephine De Karman Fellowships and the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowships.

PhD students applying for external fellowships that are “institutionally limited,” meaning that there is a limit placed on the number of students who can apply, or whose applications require the approval of a university official, should contact the Graduate School well in advance of any deadlines.

FELLOWSHIP BOOT CAMP

The External Fellowship Boot Camp is an intensive writing workshop in which students prepare a funding application. In the fall, the Boot Camp is targeted to students pursuing the National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship Program and the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. In the Spring, Boot Camp is designed for advanced PhD students in the humanities and social sciences who will be applying for a variety of kinds of support.

Participants may be eligible for a research award of up to $1,000 if they submit a complete proposal to one of the identified fellowships. Boot camp attendees meet as a large group and in smaller, rotating groups of their peers.

Graduates of the boot camp have enthusiastically endorsed the program:

• The boot camp “definitely helped me gear my essay towards a larger audience, which is particularly important since the review panel for my discipline may include scholars from other fields”
• “I loved it and felt like because of the difference in discipline everyone had a unique perspective and advice so each reviewer’s comment was different instead of getting the same feedback over and over again”
• “The most important things I learned during the boot camp were about addressing the broader impacts criterion of the NSF GRFP. I feel much more confident now about telling a story relating my experiences to the evaluation criteria.”

For the fall Boot Camp, applications, including a recent CV and a rough draft of a 2 or 3 page personal statement are due to the graduate school in early June. Applications for the Spring Boot Camp are usually due in late February.

University of Southern California

Los Angeles , CA

https://dornsife.usc.edu/cwphd

Degrees Offered

Fiction, Poetry, CNF

Residency type

Program length.

64 units (5 years)

Financial Aid

Students admitted to the Ph.D. program in Creative Writing and Literature receive financial support and assistance in the form of Teaching Assistantships and Fellowships, which include full tuition remission, year-round health and dental benefits, and a stipend at the current rate.

Teaching opportunities

Editorial opportunities.

• Chris Abani PhD 2005
• Dexter L. Booth PhD
• Stephan Clark PhD
• Jonathan Escoffery PhD (Fiction) 2024
• Emily Geminder PhD (Fiction) 2021
• Katherine Karlin PhD (Fiction) 2009
• Lisa Lee PhD
• Robin Coste Lewis PhD (Poetry)
• Ryan McIlvain PhD
• Bonnie Nadzam PhD (Fiction) 2010
• Jessica Piazza PhD 2014
• Michael Powers PhD
• Jianan Qian PhD (Fiction) 2025
• Josie Sigler Sibara PhD (Fiction) 2013
• Amy Silverberg PhD (Fiction)
• Safiya Sinclair PhD
• Brandon Som PhD (Poetry) 2014

Send questions, comments and corrections to [email protected] .

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories , Best American Essays , Best American Poetry , The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology .

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PhD Program

Poetry: Mark Irwin, Anna Journey, Robin Coste Lewis, Susan McCabe, David St. John Fiction: Aimee Bender, Percival Everett, Dana Johnson, Viet Thanh Nguyen Nonfiction: Geoff Dyer, Maggie Nelson, Danzy Senna, David Treuer

The program offers full funding in the form of fellowships and assistantships, which include tuition remission, year-round health insurance coverage, and a modest stipend.

Students are encouraged to cultivate their diverse interests with courses outside of the English Department. Many students choose to pursue a complimentary graduate certificate concurrent with the PhD degree. The Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences offers graduate certificate programs in Gender Studies, Visual Studies, East Asian Studies, and Visual Anthropology, among others.

Students also have the opportunity to participate in PhD student-run projects such as the Loudest Voice, a reading series, and Gold Line Press, a publisher of poetry and fiction chapbooks. There is also the English Department’s Boudreaux Visiting Writers Series and Frank N. Magill Poetry Series, as well as the University-wide Visions & Voices series. USC also hosts the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

For a list of alumni, please visit the program’s website .

GRADUATE STUDENT RESOURCES INFORMATION

Graduate students have access to resources in and out of the classroom throughout their academic career at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Student support services and resources are available in a number of ways including financial, career, mentorship, and wellness.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

USC aims to fully fund all of its doctoral students. This generally consists of tuition, a stipend for living expenses, and a health benefits package.

Additional Financial support opportunities (internal fellowships, travel awards, WiSE awards…)

• GSG Travel Grants
• WiSE Awards and Grants
• Nationally Coveted College Scholarships
• FastWeb.com’s Graduate Scholarships
• Petersons’ Graduate Scholarship Search Engine
• External National Fellowships and Scholarships Information

CAREER SUPPORT

• Viterbi Career Connections
• Career Success Navigator
• Graduate Student Career Plan
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Viterbi Graduate Mentorship Program The Viterbi Graduate Mentorship Program is designed to help new Viterbi graduate students adjust smoothly to life at USC and Los Angeles. Participating new students (mentees) will be paired up with current Viterbi graduate students (mentors).

Viterbi Link Viterbi Link is your exclusive online mentoring platform where engineering alumni and/or current peer mentors share their career-, industry-, or school-related experiences and information

WELLNESS & SAFETY

Student Wellness The University is dedicated to fostering a healthy and safe campus environment. Information on a variety of services including: medical, counseling, wellness and health promotion that are available for students.

Safety Safety of students is the #1 priority of USC. USC is trying every effort and would like to do more to protect students as well as educate students to protect themselves. 

Student Organizations We encourage all graduate students to join student organizations throughout USC. Organizations exist for multiple affiliations, interests, professions, and more. USC has more than 800 student organizations that host programs, events, seminars, and other gathering

Published on November 8th, 2019

Last updated on August 18th, 2023

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PhD in Creative Writing

Program overview.

The PhD in Creative Writing and Literature is a four-year course of study. Following two years of course work that includes workshop, forms classes, pedagogical training, and literature, students take exams in two areas, one that examines texts through the lens of craft and another that examines them through the lens of literary history and theory. Recent examples of the genre area include Comic Fiction, History of the Love Lyric, and Fantasy; recent examples of the scholarly area include History of the Novel, 20th Century American Poetry, and Modern & Contemporary British Fiction. In the first two years, students take three courses per semester; the teaching load throughout the program is one class per semester. Every PhD student has the opportunity to teach creative writing, with many also teaching literature classes. Most students are funded by teaching, with two or three at a time funded by editorial work at  The Cincinnati Review or Acre Books, and others funded in their dissertation year by college- or university-level fellowships. Fifth-year support, while not guaranteed, has generally been available to interested students in the form of student lecturerships, which carry a 2-2 load. The Creative Writing PhD at the University of Cincinnati has maintained over the last decade more than a 75% placement rate into full-time academic jobs for its doctoral graduates. Two-thirds of these positions are tenure-track.

Application Information

• Exam Areas and Committee
• Doctoral Candidacy Form
• Foreign Language
• Exam Procedures
• Dissertations
• Applying for Fifth-Year Funding
• Working for The Cincinnati Review
• Teaching Opportunities
• All Creative Writing Graduate Courses
• Archive of Technique & Form Courses

What are you looking for?

Undergraduate and post doc domestic stipend calendar.

These are awards made by a USC department to a student that are paid directly to the student each month. Stipends for all domestic students are processed on the following schedule. Students are strongly encouraged to sign up for direct deposit.

Domestic students are those students who are U.S. Citizens or Permanent Resident Aliens.

For information on how to receive your payments, please refer to the Student Stipend Payments webpage . NOTE: The direct deposit process for domestic stipends has changed. If you had direct deposit before, please follow the link above to see how to update your information.

International and Graduate students should refer to the International and Graduate Stipend Calendar .

Summer 2023

Spring 2024, summer 2024.

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