phd programs for writing

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Reading/writing/literacy, doctor of philosophy (ph.d.), you are here, a research-focused doctoral program for scholarship on reading, writing, and literacy. .

The Ph.D. program in Reading/Writing/Literacy is committed to furthering knowledge in literacy and literacy education. Doctoral students construct an individualized program of study based on their areas of interest, to develop their understanding and expertise in particular aspects of the field.

What Sets Us Apart

About the program.

In the Ph.D. program in Reading/Writing/Literacy, doctoral students customize their course of study to their individual interests. Of 20 required courses, 10 of them are electives, allowing students to work with their advisors to develop a program that is best suited to the individual’s areas of interest.

4 courses per semester (fall/spring)

Culminating experience Comprehensive examination and dissertation

Duration of program 4–6 years

Transfer courses accepted Up to 8 courses with approval

The Ph.D. program in Reading/Writing/Literacy emphasizes the interrelationships and integration of theory, research, policy, and practice. Doctoral students construct individual programs of study with their advisor to suit their interests, combining core courses with additional coursework in research methodology and electives.

In addition to the core doctoral courses, students focus on developing their understanding and expertise in particular aspects of the field. These aspects might include teacher education, pedagogy and curriculum, leadership, policy, urban education, multicultural education, adult and community-based literacy in and out of school, or literacy in international contexts. Throughout the program, students learn to conduct research on critical issues and problems in literacy.

In the Ph.D. program in Reading/Writing/Literacy, students create individual programs of study. They are encouraged to develop one or more areas of concentration. Options include, but are not limited to:

• Teacher education and professional development
• Literacy policy and leadership
• Postsecondary learning environments
• Adult literacy education
• Reading, writing, and literacy across elementary, middle, and secondary curricula
• Children’s and adolescent literature
• Literacy practices with families, schools, and communities
• Urban education
• Digital literacies and technologies for teaching and learning
• Critical literacies

Students in the program benefit from the vast resources of the University of Pennsylvania. We encourage our doctoral students to choose electives from our program's courses, from other Penn GSE programs, and from across the University of Pennsylvania. 

The program includes six required courses, four research courses, and 10 electives. For more information on courses and requirements, visit the  Reading/Writing/Literacy Ph.D. program in the University Catalog .

Our Faculty

Our faculty are renowned scholars and researchers who are committed to educational practice and to supporting scholar-practitioners.

"Their willingness to push to find the right solution for me ended up reshaping how I approach a lot of work I do, and gave me a unique angle with how I was coming at education and literacy."

T. Phillip Nichols

Our graduates.

The Ph.D. program in Reading/Writing/Literacy prepares scholar-practitioners for careers in research and teaching at colleges and universities and other educational organizations with a primary mission related to furthering knowledge in literacy and literacy education.

Alumni Careers

• Assistant Professor, Baylor University
• Assistant Professor, California State University
• Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University
• Director of Undergraduate Research, University of Connecticut
• Professor, Reading Area Community College
• Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh

Admissions & Financial Aid

Please visit our Admissions and Financial Aid pages for specific information on the application requirements , as well as information on tuition, fees, financial aid, scholarships, and fellowships.

Contact us if you have any questions about the program.

Graduate School of Education University of Pennsylvania 3700 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 (215) 898-6415 [email protected] [email protected]

Tamika Easley Program Manager (215) 898-3245 [email protected]

Paula Rogers  Program Assistant  (215) 898-5023  [email protected]

Please view information from our Admissions and Financial Aid Office for specific information on the cost of this program.

All Ph.D. students are guaranteed a full scholarship for their first four years of study, as well as a stipend and student health insurance. Penn GSE is committed to making your graduate education affordable, and we offer generous scholarships, fellowships, and assistantships.

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You May Be Interested In

Related programs.

• Education, Culture, and Society Ph.D.
• Reading/Writing/Literacy M.S.Ed.
• Reading/Writing/Literacy Ed.D.
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Ph.D. Creative Writing

Ph.d. in creative writing.

A rigorous program that combines creative writing and literary studies, the Ph.D. in Creative Writing prepares graduates for both scholarly and creative publication and teaching. With faculty guidance, students admitted to the Ph.D. program may tailor their programs to their goals and interests.

The creative writing faculty at KU has been widely published and anthologized, winning both critical and popular acclaim. Faculty awards include such distinctions as the Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Osborn Award, Shelley Memorial Award, Gertrude Stein Award, the Kenyon Review Prize, the Kentucky Center Gold Medallion, and the Pushcart Prize.

Regarding admission to both our doctoral and MFA creative writing programs, we will prioritize applicants who are interested in engaging with multiple faculty members to practice writing across genres and forms, from speculative fiction and realism to poetry and playwriting/screenwriting, etc.

The University of Kansas' Graduate Program in Creative Writing also offers an  M.F.A degree .

Opportunities

A GTA appointment includes a tuition waiver for ten semesters plus a competitive stipend. In the first year, GTA appointees teach English 101 (first year composition) and English 102 (a required reading and writing course). Creative Writing Ph.D. students may have the opportunity to teach an introductory course in creative writing after passing the doctoral examination, and opportunities are available for a limited number of advanced GTAs to teach in the summer.

Department Resources

• Graduate Admissions
• Graduate Contacts
• Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

Affiliated Programs

• LandLocked Literary Magazine
• The Project on the History of Black Writing
• Center for the Study of Science Fiction
• Ad-Hoc African/Americanists and Affiliates

Degree Requirements

• At least 24 hours of credit in appropriate formal graduate courses beyond the M.A. or M.F.A. At least 15 hours (in addition to ENGL 800 if not taken for the M.A.) of this course work must be taken from among courses offered by the Department of English at the 700-level and above. English 997 and 999 credits cannot be included among the 24 hours. Students may petition to take up to 6 hours outside the Department.
• ENGL 800: Methods, Theory, and Professionalism (counts toward the 24 required credit hours).
• The ENGL 801/ENGL 802 pedagogy sequence (counts toward the 24 required credit hours).
• Two seminars (courses numbered 900 or above) offered by the Department of English at the University of Kansas, beyond the M.A. or M.F.A. ENGL 998 does not fulfill this requirement.
• ENGL 999, Dissertation (at least 12 hours).

If the M.A. or M.F.A. was completed in KU’s Department of English, a doctoral student may petition the DGS to have up to 12 hours of the coursework taken in the English Department reduced toward the Ph.D.

For Doctoral students,  the university requires completion of a course in responsible scholarship . For the English department, this would be ENGL 800, 780, or the equivalent). In addition, the Department requires reading knowledge of one approved foreign language: Old English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. Upon successful petition, a candidate may substitute reading knowledge of another language or research skill that is studied at the University or is demonstrably appropriate to the candidate’s program of study.

Doctoral students must fulfill the requirement  before  they take their doctoral examination, or be enrolled in a reading course the same semester as the exam. Students are permitted three attempts at passing each foreign language or research skill. Three methods of demonstrating reading knowledge for all approved languages except Old English are acceptable:

• Presenting 16 hours, four semesters, or the equivalent of undergraduate credit, earned with an average of C or better.
• Passing a graduate reading course at the University of Kansas or peer institution (e.g., French 100, German 100, etc.) with a grade of C or higher. In the past, some of these reading courses have been given by correspondence; check with the Division of Continuing Education for availability.
• Passing a translation examination given by a designated member of the English Department faculty or by the appropriate foreign language department at KU. The exam is graded pass/fail and requires the student to translate as much as possible of a representative text in the foreign language in a one-hour period, using a bilingual dictionary.
• Passing a translation examination given by the appropriate foreign language department at the M.A.-granting institution. Successful completion must be reflected either on the M.A. transcript or by a letter from the degree-granting department.

To fulfill the language requirement using Old English, students must successfully complete ENGL 710 (Introduction to Old English) and ENGL 712 (Beowulf).

A doctoral student must fulfill the University residency requirement before taking the doctoral exam.

Post-Coursework Ph.D. students must submit, with their committee chair(s), an annual review form to the DGS and Graduate Committee.

Doctoral students must take their doctoral examination within three semesters (excluding summers) of the end of the semester in which they took their final required course. If a student has an Incomplete, the timeline is not postponed until the Incomplete is resolved. For example, a student completing doctoral course work in Spring 2018 will need to schedule their doctoral exam no later than the end of Fall semester 2019. Delays may be granted by petition to the Graduate Director in highly unusual circumstances. Failure to take the exam within this time limit without an approved delay will result in the student’s falling out of good standing. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices.

A student may not take their doctoral exam until the university’s Research Skills and Responsible Scholarship requirement is fulfilled (ENGL 800 or equivalent and reading knowledge of one foreign language or equivalent).

Requirements for Doctoral Exams

Reading Lists: 

All students are required to submit three reading lists, based on the requirements below, to their committee for approval. The doctoral exam will be scheduled a minimum of twelve weeks after approval from the whole committee is received. To facilitate quick committee approval, students may copy the graduate academic advisor on the email to the committee that contains the final version of the lists. Committee members may then respond to the email in lieu of signing a printed copy.

During the two-hour oral examination (plus an additional 15-30 minutes for a break and committee deliberation), a student will be tested on their comprehension of a literary period or movement, including multiple genres and groups of authors within that period or movement. In addition, the student will be tested on two of the following six areas of study:

• An adjacent or parallel literary period or movement,
• An author or group of related authors,
• Criticism and literary theory,
• Composition theory, and
• English language.

No title from any field list may appear on either of the other two lists. See Best Practices section for more details on these six areas. See below for a description of the Review of the Dissertation Proposal (RDP), which the candidate takes the semester after passing the doctoral exam. 

While many students confer with the DGS as they begin the process of developing their lists, they are also required to submit a copy of their final exam list to the DGS. Most lists will be left intact, but the DGS might request that overly long lists be condensed, or extremely short lists be expanded.

Review of Literature

The purpose of the Review of Literature is to develop and demonstrate an advanced awareness of the critical landscape for each list. The student will write an overview of the defining attributes of the field, identifying two or three broad questions that animate scholarly discussion, while using specific noteworthy texts from their list ( but not all texts on the list ) as examples.

The review also must accomplish the following:

• consider the historical context of major issues, debates, and trends that factor into the emergence of the field
• offer a historical overview of scholarship in the field that connects the present to the past
• note recent trends and emergent lines of inquiry
• propose questions about (develop critiques of, and/or identify gaps in) the field and how they might be pursued in future study (but not actually proposing or referencing a dissertation project)

For example, for a literary period, the student might include an overview of primary formal and thematic elements, of the relationship between literary and social/historical developments, of prominent movements, (etc.), as well as of recent critical debates and topics.

For a genre list, the Review of Literature might include major theories of its constitution and significance, while outlining the evolution of these theories over time.

For a Rhetoric and Composition list, the review would give an overview of major historical developments, research, theories, methods, debates, and trends of scholarship in the field.

For an English Language Studies (ELS) list, the review would give an overview of the subfields that make up ELS, the various methodological approaches to language study, the type of sources used, and major aims and goals of ELS. The review also usually involves a focus on one subfield of particular interest to the student (such as stylistics, sociolinguistics, or World/Postcolonial Englishes).

Students are encouraged to divide reviews into smaller sections that enhance clarity and organization. Students are not expected to interact with every text on their lists.

The review of literature might be used to prepare students for identifying the most important texts in the field, along with why those texts are important to the field, for the oral exam. It is recommended for students to have completed reading the bulk of (if not all) texts on their lists before writing the ROL.

The Reviews of Literature will not be produced in an exam context, but in the manner of papers that are researched and developed in consultation with all advisors/committee members,  with final drafts being distributed within a reasonable time for all members to review and approve in advance of the 3-week deadline . While the Review of Literature generally is not the focus of the oral examination, it is frequently used as a point of departure for questions and discussion during the oral examination.

Doctoral Exam Committee

Exam committees typically consist of 4 faculty members from the department—one of whom serves as the Committee Chair—plus a Graduate Studies Representative.  University policy dictates the composition of exam committees . Students may petition for an exception for several committee member situations, with the exception of  the Graduate Studies Representative .

If a student wants to have as a committee member a person outside the university, or a person who is not in a full-time tenure-track professorship at KU, the student must contact the Graduate Secretary as early as possible. Applications for special graduate faculty status must be reviewed by the College and Graduate Studies. Requests for exam/defense approval will not be approved unless all committee members currently hold either regular or special graduate faculty status

Remote participation of committee members via technology

Students with committee members who plan to attend the defense via remote technology must be aware of  college policy on teleconferencing/remote participation of committee members .

A majority of committee members must be physically present for an examination to commence; for doctoral oral examinations this requirement is 3 of the 5 members, for master’s oral examinations the requirement is 2 of the 3 members. In addition, it is required that the student being examined, the chair of the committee, and the Graduate Studies Representative all be physically present at the examination or defense. Mediated attendance by the student, chair and Grad Studies Rep is prohibited.

The recommended time between completion of coursework and the doctoral examination is two semesters.

Final exam lists need to be approved and signed by the committee at least 12 weeks prior to the prospective exam date. This includes summers/summer semesters. The lists should then be submitted to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Reviews of Literature need to be approved and signed by the committee at least 3 weeks prior to the exam date. Failure to meet this deadline will result in rescheduling the exam. No further changes to lists or Reviews of Literature will be allowed after official approval. The three-week deadline is the faculty deadline--the last date for them to confirm receipt of the ROLs and confer approval--not necessarily the student deadline for submitting the documents to the faculty. Please keep that timing in mind and allow your committee adequate time to review the materials and provide feedback.

Students taking the Doctoral Exam are allowed to bring their text lists, the approved Reviews of Literature, scratch paper, a writing utensil, and notes/writing for an approximately 5-minute introductory statement to the exam. (This statement does not need to lay out ideas or any aspect of the dissertation project.)

Each portion of the oral examination must be deemed passing before the student can proceed to the Review of the Dissertation Proposal. If a majority of the committee judges that the student has not answered adequately on one of the three areas of the exam, the student must repeat that portion in a separate oral exam of one hour, to be taken as expeditiously as possible.  Failure in two areas constitutes failure of the exam and requires a retake of the whole.  The doctoral examining committee will render a judgment of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory on the entire examination. A student who fails the exam twice may, upon successful petition to the Graduate Committee, take it a third and final time.

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the exam. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student exams but not others.

The doctoral oral examination has the following purposes:

• To establish goals, tone, and direction for the pursuit of the Ph.D. in English for the Department and for individual programs of study;
• To make clear the kinds of knowledge and skills that, in the opinion of the Department, all well-prepared holders of the degree should have attained;
• To provide a means for the Department to assess each candidate’s control of such knowledge and skills in order to certify that the candidate is prepared to write a significant dissertation and enter the profession; and
• To enable the Department to recommend to the candidate areas of strength or weakness that should be addressed.

In consultation with the Graduate Director, a student will ask a member of the Department’s graduate faculty (preferably their advisor) to be the chairperson of the examining committee. The choice of examination committee chair is very important, for that person’s role is to assist the candidate in designing the examination structure, preparing the Review of Literature (see below), negotiating reading lists and clarifying their purposes, and generally following procedures here outlined. The other three English Department members of the committee will be chosen in consultation with the committee chair. (At some point an additional examiner from outside the Department, who serves as the Graduate School representative, will be invited to join the committee). Any unresolved problems in negotiation between a candidate and their committee should be brought to the attention of the Graduate Director, who may choose to involve the Graduate Committee. A student may request a substitution in, or a faculty member may ask to be dismissed from, the membership of the examining committee. Such requests must be approved, in writing, by the faculty member leaving the committee and by the Graduate Director.

Reading Lists

Copies of some approved reading lists and Reviews of Literature are available from the Graduate Secretary and can be found on the U: drive if you are using a computer on campus. Despite the goal of fairness and equity, some unavoidable unevenness and disparity will appear in the length of these lists. It remains, however, the responsibility of the examining committee, and especially the student’s chair, to aim toward consonance with the most rigorous standards and expectations and to insure that areas of study are not unduly narrow.

To facilitate quick committee approval, students may copy the graduate secretary on the email to the committee that contains the final version of the lists and reviews of literature. Committee members may then respond to the email in lieu of signing a printed copy.

Comprehension of a literary period (e.g., British literature of the 18th century; Romanticism; US literature of the 19th century; Modernism) entails sufficient intellectual grasp of both the important primary works of and secondary works on the period or movement to indicate a student’s ability to teach the period or movement and undertake respectable scholarship on it.

Comprehension of an author or group of related authors (e.g., Donne, the Brontës, the Bloomsbury Group, the Black Mountain Poets) entails knowledge, both primary and secondary, of a figure or figures whose writing has generated a significant body of interrelated biographical, historical, and critical scholarship.

Comprehension of one of several genres (the short story, the lyric poem, the epistolary novel). To demonstrate comprehension of a genre, a student should possess sufficient depth and breadth of knowledge, both primary and secondary, of the genre to explain its formal characteristics and account for its historical development.

Comprehension of criticism and literary theory entails a grasp of fundamental conceptual problems inherent in a major school of literary study (e.g., historicist, psychoanalytic, feminist, poststructuralist, etc.). To demonstrate comprehension of that school of criticism and literary theory, a student should be able to discuss changes in its conventions and standards of interpretation and evaluation of literature from its beginning to the present. Students will be expected to possess sufficient depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge to bring appropriate texts and issues to bear on questions of literary study.

Comprehension of composition theory entails an intellectual grasp of fundamental concepts, issues, and theories pertaining to the study of writing. To demonstrate comprehension of composition theory, students should be able to discuss traditional and current issues from a variety of perspectives, as well as the field’s historical development from classical rhetoric to the present.

Comprehension of the broad field of English language studies entails a grasp of the field’s theoretical concepts and current issues, as well as a familiarity with significant works within given subareas. Such subareas will normally involve formal structures (syntax, etc.) and history of the English language, along with other subareas such as social linguistics, discourse analysis, lexicography, etc. Areas of emphasis and specific sets of topics will be arranged through consultation with relevant faculty.

Ph.D. candidates must be continuously enrolled in Dissertation hours each Fall and Spring semester from the time they pass the doctoral examination until successful completion of the final oral examination (defense of dissertation).

• Students enroll for a minimum of 6 hours each Fall and Spring semester until the total of post-doctoral exam Dissertation hours is 18. One hour each semester must be ENGL 999. In order to more quickly reach the 18-hour minimum, and to be sooner eligible for GRAships, it is highly recommended that students enroll in 9 hours of Dissertation in the Spring and Fall semesters. 
• Once a student has accumulated 18 post-doctoral exam  hours, each subsequent enrollment will be for a number of hours agreed upon as appropriate between the student and their advisor, the minimal enrollment each semester being 1 hour of ENGL 999.
• A student must be enrolled in at least one hour of credit at KU during the semester they graduate. Although doctoral students must be enrolled in ENGL 999 while working on their dissertations, per current CLAS regulations, there is no absolute minimum number of ENGL 999 hours required for graduation.
• Students who live and work outside the Lawrence area may, under current University regulations, have their fees assessed at the Field Work rate, which is somewhat lower than the on-campus rate. Students must petition the College Office of Graduate Affairs before campus fees will be waived.

Please also refer to  the COGA policy on post-exam enrollment  or the  Graduate School’s policy .

As soon as possible following successful completion of the doctoral exam, the candidate should establish their three-person core dissertation committee, and then expeditiously proceed to the preparation of a dissertation proposal.  Within the semester following completion of the doctoral exam , the student will present to their core dissertation committee a written narrative of approximately  10-15 pages , not including bibliography, of the dissertation proposal. Copies of this proposal must be submitted to the members of the dissertation committee and Graduate Program Coordinator no later than  three weeks prior  to the scheduled examination date.

In the proposal, students will be expected to define: the guiding question or set of questions; a basic thesis (or hypothesis); how the works to be studied or the creative writing produced relate to that (hypo)thesis; the theoretical/methodological model to be followed; the overall formal divisions of the dissertation; and how the study will be situated in the context of prior scholarship (i.e., its importance to the field). The narrative section should be followed by a bibliography demonstrating that the candidate is conversant with the basic theoretical and critical works pertinent to the study. For creative writing students, the proposal may serve as a draft of the critical introduction to the creative dissertation. Students are expected to consult with their projected dissertation committee concerning the preparation of the proposal.

The review will focus on the proposal, although it could also entail determining whether or not the candidate’s knowledge of the field is adequate to begin the composition process. The examination will be graded pass/fail. If it is failed, the committee will suggest areas of weakness to be addressed by the candidate, who will rewrite the proposal and retake the review  by the end of the following semester . If the candidate abandons the entire dissertation project for another, a new RDP will be taken. (For such a step to be taken, the change would need to be drastic, such as a move to a new field or topic. A change in thesis or the addition or subtraction of one or even several works to be examined would not necessitate a new proposal and defense.)  If the student fails to complete the Review of the Dissertation Proposal within a year of the completion of the doctoral exams, they will have fallen out of departmental good standing.  For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices.

After passing the Review of the Dissertation Proposal, the student should forward one signed copy of the proposal to the Graduate Secretary. The RDP may last no longer than 90 minutes.

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the review. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student exams but not others.

The Graduate Catalog states that the doctoral candidate “must present a dissertation showing the planning, conduct and results of original research, and scholarly creativity.” While most Ph.D. candidates in the Department of English write dissertations of a traditional, research-oriented nature, a creative writing candidate may elect to do a creative-writing dissertation involving fiction, poetry, drama or nonfiction prose.  Such a dissertation must also contain a substantial section of scholarly research related to the creative writing.  The precise nature of the scholarly research component should be determined by the candidate in consultation with the dissertation committee and the Graduate Director. Candidates wishing to undertake such a dissertation must complete all Departmental requirements demanded for the research-oriented Ph.D. degree.

Scholarly Research Component (SRC)

The Scholarly Research Component (SRC) of the creative-writing dissertation is a separate section of the dissertation than the creative work. It involves substantial research and is written in the style of academic prose. It should be 15-20 pages and should cite at least 20 sources, some of which should be primary texts, and many of which should be from the peer-reviewed secondary literature. The topic must relate, in some way, to the topic, themes, ideas, or style of the creative portion of the dissertation; this relation should be stated in the Dissertation Proposal, which should include a section describing the student’s plans for the SRC. The SRC may be based on a seminar paper or other work the student has completed prior to the dissertation; but the research should be augmented, and the writing revised, per these guidelines. The SRC is a part of the dissertation, and as such will be included in the dissertation defense.

The SRC may take two general forms:

1.) An article, publishable in a peer-reviewed journal or collection, on a specific topic related to an author, movement, theoretical issue, taxonomic issue, etc. that has bearing on the creative portion. The quality of this article should be high enough that the manuscript could be submitted to a peer-reviewed publication, with a plausible chance of acceptance.

2.) A survey . This survey may take several different forms:

• A survey of a particular aspect of the genre of the creative portion of the dissertation (stylistic, national, historical, etc.)
• An introduction to the creative portion of the dissertation that explores the influences on, and the theoretical or philosophical foundations or implications of the creative work
• An exploration of a particular technical problem or craft issue that is salient in the creative portion of the dissertation
• If the creative portion of the dissertation includes the results of research (e.g., historical novel, documentary poetry, research-based creative nonfiction), a descriptive overview of the research undertaken already for the dissertation itself
• A combination of the above, with the prior approval of the student’s dissertation director.

The dissertation committee will consist of at least five members—three “core” English faculty members, a fourth faculty member (usually from English), and one faculty member from a different department who serves as the Graduate Studies representative. The committee may include (with the Graduate Director’s approval) members from other departments and, with the approval of the University’s Graduate Council, members from outside the University. If a student wants to have a committee member from outside the university, or a person who is not in a full-time tenure-track professorship at KU, the student must contact the Graduate Secretary as early as possible. Applications for special graduate faculty status must be reviewed by the College and the Office of Graduate Studies. Requests for defense approval will not be approved unless all committee members currently hold either regular or special graduate faculty status.

The candidate’s preferences as to the membership of the dissertation committee will be carefully considered; the final decision, however, rests with the Department and with the Office of Graduate Studies. All dissertation committees must get approval from the Director of Graduate Studies before scheduling the final oral exam (defense). Furthermore, any changes in the make-up of the dissertation committee from the Review of the Dissertation Proposal committee must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Once the dissertation proposal has passed and the writing of the dissertation begins, membership of the dissertation committee should remain constant. However, under extraordinary circumstances, a student may request a substitution in, or a faculty member may ask to be dismissed from, the membership of the dissertation committee. Such requests must be approved, in writing, by the faculty member leaving the committee and by the Graduate Director.

If a student does not make progress during the dissertation-writing stage, and accumulates more than one “Limited Progress” and/or “No Progress” grade on their transcript, they will fall out of good standing in the department. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices

Final Oral Exam (Dissertation Defense)

When the dissertation has been tentatively accepted by the dissertation committee (not including the Graduate Studies Representative), the final oral examination will be held, on the recommendation of the Department.

Although the dissertation committee is responsible for certification of the candidate, any member of the graduate faculty may be present at the examination and participate in the questioning, and one examiner—the Graduate Studies Representative—must be from outside the Department. The Graduate Secretary can help students locate an appropriate Grad Studies Rep. The examination normally lasts no more than two hours. It is the obligation of the candidate to advise the Graduate Director that they plan to take the oral examination; this must be done at least one month before the date proposed for the examination.

At least three calendar weeks prior to the defense date, the student will submit the final draft of the dissertation to all the committee members (including the GSR) and inform the Graduate Program Coordinator. Failure to meet this deadline will necessitate rescheduling the defense.  The final oral examination for the Ph.D. in English is, essentially, a defense of the dissertation. When it is passed, the dissertation itself is graded by the dissertation director, in consultation with the student’s committee; the student’s performance in the final examination (defense) is graded by the entire five-person committee

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the defense. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student defenses but not others

These sets of attributes are adapted from the Graduate Learner Outcomes that are a part of our Assessment portfolio. “Honors” should only be given to dissertations that are rated “Outstanding” in all or most of the following categories:

• Significant and innovative plot/structure/idea/focus. The writer clearly places plot/structure/idea/focus in context.
• Thorough knowledge of literary traditions. Clear/flexible vision of the creative work produced in relation to those literary traditions.
• Introduction/Afterword is clear, concise, and insightful. A detailed discussion of the implications of the project and future writing projects exists.
• The creative dissertation reveals the doctoral candidate’s comprehensive understanding of poetics and/or aesthetic approach. The application of the aesthetic approach is innovative and convincing.
• The creative dissertation represents original and sophisticated creative work.
• The creative dissertation demonstrates thematic and/or aesthetic unity.

After much discussion about whether the “honors” designation assigned after the dissertation defense should be for the written product only, for the defense/discussion only, for both together, weighted equally, or eradicated altogether, the department voted to accept the Graduate Committee recommendation that “honors” only apply to the written dissertation. "Honors" will be given to dissertations that are rated "Outstanding" in all or most of the categories on the dissertation rubric.

Normally, the dissertation will present the results of the writer’s own research, carried on under the direction of the dissertation committee. This means that the candidate should be in regular contact with all members of the committee during the dissertation research and writing process, providing multiple drafts of chapters, or sections of chapters, according to the arrangements made between the student and each faculty member. Though accepted primarily for its scholarly merit rather than for its rhetorical qualities, the dissertation must be stylistically competent. The Department has accepted the MLA Handbook as the authority in matters of style. The writer may wish to consult also  the Chicago Manual of Style  and Kate L. Turabian’s  A Manual for Writers of Dissertations, Theses, and Term Papers .

Naturally, both the student and the dissertation committee have responsibilities and obligations to each other concerning the submitting and returning of materials. The student should plan on working steadily on the dissertation; if they do so, they should expect from the dissertation committee a reasonably quick reading and assessment of material submitted.

Students preparing their dissertation should be showing chapters to their committee members as they go along, for feedback and revision suggestions. They should also meet periodically with committee members to assess their progress. Prior to scheduling a defense, the student is encouraged to ask committee members whether they feel that the student is ready to defend the dissertation. Ideally, the student should hold the defense only when they have consulted with committee members sufficiently to feel confident that they have revised the dissertation successfully to meet the expectations of all committee members.

Students should expect that they will need to revise each chapter at least once. This means that all chapters (including introduction and conclusion) are shown to committee members once, revised, then shown to committee members again in revised form to assess whether further revisions are needed, prior to the submitting of the final dissertation as a whole. It is not unusual for further revisions to be required and necessary after the second draft of a chapter; students should not therefore simply assume that a second draft is necessarily “final” and passing work.

If a substantial amount of work still needs to be completed or revised at the point that the dissertation defense is scheduled, such a defense date should be regarded as tentative, pending the successful completion, revision, and receipt of feedback on all work. Several weeks prior to the defense, students should consult closely with their dissertation director and committee members about whether the dissertation as a whole is in a final and defensible stage. A project is ready for defense when it is coherent, cohesive, well researched, engages in sophisticated analysis (in its entirety or in the critical introduction of creative dissertations), and makes a significant contribution to the field. In other words, it passes each of the categories laid out in the Dissertation Rubric.

If the dissertation has not clearly reached a final stage, the student and dissertation director are advised to reschedule the defense.

Prior Publication of the Doctoral Dissertation

Portions of the material written by the doctoral candidate may appear in article form before completion of the dissertation. Prior publication does not ensure the acceptance of the dissertation by the dissertation committee. Final acceptance of the dissertation is subject to the approval of the dissertation committee. Previously published material by other authors included in the dissertation must be properly documented.

Each student beyond the master’s degree should confer regularly with the Graduate Director regarding their progress toward the doctoral examination and the doctorate.

Doctoral students may take graduate courses outside the English Department if, in their opinion and that of the Graduate Director, acting on behalf of the Graduate Committee, those courses will be of value to them. Their taking such courses will not, of course, absolve them of the responsibility for meeting all the normal departmental and Graduate School requirements.

Doctoral students in creative writing are strongly encouraged to take formal literature classes in addition to forms classes. Formal literature classes, by providing training in literary analysis, theory, and/or literary history, will help to prepare students for doctoral exams (and future teaching at the college level).

FALL SEMESTER            

• GTAs take 2 courses (801 + one), teach 2 courses; GRAs take 3 courses.
• Visit assigned advisor once a month to update on progress & perceptions. 1st-year advisors can assist with selecting classes for the Spring semester, solidifying and articulating a field of specialization, advice about publishing, conferences, professionalization issues, etc.

SPRING SEMESTER

• GTAs take 2 courses (780/800/880 + one), teach 2 courses. GTAs also take ENGL 802 for 1 credit hour. GRAs take 3 courses.
• Visit assigned advisor or DGS once during the semester; discuss best advisor choices for Year 2.

SUMMER SEMESTER

• Enroll in Summer Institute if topic and/or methodology matches interests.
• Consider conferences suited to your field and schedule; choose a local one for attendance in Year 2 and draft an Abstract for a conference paper (preferably with ideas/materials/ writing drawn from a seminar paper).  Even if abstract is not accepted, you can attend the conference without the pressure of presenting.
• Attend at least one conference to familiarize yourself with procedure, network with other grad students and scholars in your field, AND/OR present a paper.

FALL SEMESTER

• Take 2 courses, teach 2 courses.
• Visit advisor in person at least once during the semester.

WINTER BREAK

• Begin revising one of your seminar papers/independent study projects/creative pieces for submission to a journal; research the journals most suited to placement of your piece.
• Begin thinking about fields and texts for comprehensive examinations.
• Choose an advisor to supervise you through the doctoral examination process.
• Visit assigned 1st-year advisor in person at least once during the semester (at least to formally request doctoral exam supervision OR to notify that you are changing advisors).
• Summer teaching, if eligible.
• Continue revising paper/creative writing for submission to a journal.
• Begin reading for comprehensive exams.
• Attend one conference and present a paper. Apply for one-time funding for out-of-state travel  from Graduate Studies .
• Teach 2 courses; take 997 (exam prep).
• Finalize comps list by end of September; begin drafting rationales.
• Circulate the draft of your article/creative piece to your advisor, other faculty in the field, and/or advanced grad students in the field for suggestions.
• Revise article/creative piece with feedback from readers.
• Teach 2 courses; take 997 or 999 (dissertation hours). Enroll in 999 if you plan to take your comps this semester, even if you don’t take them until the last day of classes.
• Take comps sometime between January and May.
• Summer teaching, if available.
• Submit article/creative work for publication.
• Continuous enrollment after completing doctoral exam (full policy on p. 20)
• Research deadlines for grant applications—note deadlines come early in the year.
• Attend one conference and present a paper.
• Teach 2 courses, take 999.
• Compose dissertation proposal by November.
• Schedule Review of Dissertation Proposal (RDP—formerly DPR).
• Apply for at least one grant or fellowship, such as a departmental-level GRAship or dissertation fellowship. (Winning a full-year, non-teaching fellowship can cut down your years-to-degree to 5 ½, or even 5 years.)
• Conduct research for and draft at least 1 dissertation chapter.
• Conduct research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter.
• Revise & resubmit journal article, if necessary.
• Attend 1st round of job market meetings with Job Placement Advisor (JPA) to start drafting materials and thinking about the process.
• Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter, if teaching (1-2 chapters if not).
• Visit dissertation chair  and  committee members in person at least once during the semester.
• Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter (1-2 chapters if not teaching).
• Apply for a departmental grant or fellowship, or, if already held, try applying for one from outside the department, such as those offered by KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities or the Office of Graduate Studies. For  a monthly list of funding opportunities , visit the Graduate Studies website.
• Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter.
• Attend job market meetings with JPA in earnest.
• Apply for external grants, research fellowships, postdoctoral positions with fall deadlines (previous fellowship applications, your dissertation proposal, and subsequent writing should provide a frame so that much of the application can be filled out with the “cut & paste” function).
• Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter (1-2 if not teaching).
• Visit dissertation chair and committee members in person at least once during the semester.
• Polish dissertation chapters.
• Apply for grants and fellowships with spring deadlines.
• Defend dissertation.

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AWP's Guide to Writing Programs is a free, searchable database of graduate and undergraduate writing programs in the US and abroad. Each member program listing contains information about faculty, admissions, requirements of study, and tuition and financial aid.

Nonmember programs can enhance their listings by joining AWP today .

Use the search and browse features below to explore undergraduate and graduate writing programs.

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2. program type in contrast to more traditional residency programs, where students attend classes on campus, low-residency programs involve distance education and brief on-campus or specific-site residencies. depending on the program, residencies may last one weekend or several weeks per year..

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Degree: The Mills College Flex Res MFA Program in Creative Writing offers degrees in poetry or prose.

Program type : Flexible, hybrid, and online options

Application deadlines : Applications accepted until July 15 for Fall 2021.

Contact: [email protected]

Students anywhere in the world can earn an MFA in creative writing at Mills College. We offer a range of options you can select from to create an individualized educational experience that fits your goals and your schedule.

Student aid offered: Part-time graduate assistantships and editorial positions with our journal 580 Split .

Is there program information that should be updated? Let us know in the space below. Be sure to include the program's name.

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Our MFA database includes essential information about low- and full-residency graduate creative writing programs in the United States and other English-speaking countries to help you decide where to apply.

Adelphi University

Poetry: Jan-Henry Gray, Maya Marshall Prose: Katherine Hill, Igor Webb

Albertus Magnus College

Poetry: Charles Rafferty, Paul Robichaud Fiction: Sarah Harris Wallman Nonfiction: Eric Schoeck

American University

Poetry: Kyle Dargan, David Keplinger Fiction: Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Stephanie Grant, Patricia Park Nonfiction: Rachel Louise Snyder

Antioch University

Poetry: Victoria Chang Prose: Lisa Locascio

Arcadia University

Poetry: Genevieve Betts, Michelle Reale Fiction: Stephanie Feldman, Joshua Isard, Tracey Levine, Eric Smith Literature: Matthew Heitzman, Christopher Varlack, Elizabeth Vogel, Jo Ann Weiner

Poetry: Genevieve Betts, Michelle Reale Fiction: Stephanie Feldman, Joshua Isard, Tracey Levine, Eric Smith

Arizona State University

Poetry: Sally Ball, Natalie Diaz, Eunsong Kim, Alberto Álvaro Ríos, Safiya Sinclair Fiction: Matt Bell, Jenny Irish, Tara Ison, Mitchell Jackson, T. M. McNally Creative Nonfiction: Sarah Viren

Ashland University

Poetry: Aria Aber, Dexter Booth, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Adam Gellings, Tess Taylor, Vanessa Angélica Villareal

Fiction: Kirstin Chen, Brian Conn, Edan Lepucki, Sarah Monette, Nayomi Munaweera, Vi Khi Nao, Naomi J. Williams, Kyle Winkler

Nonfiction: Cass Donish, Kate Hopper, Lauren Markham, Thomas Mira y Lopez, Lisa Nikolidakis, Terese Mailhot, Kelly Sundberg

Augsburg University

Poetry: Jim Cihlar, Michael Kleber-Diggs Fiction: Stephan Eirik Clark, Lindsay Starck Nonfiction: Anika Fajardo, Kathryn Savage Playwriting: Alice Eve Cohen, Carson Kreitzer, TyLie Shider Screenwriting: Stephan Eirik Clark, Andy Froemke

Ball State University

Poetry: Katy Didden, Mark Neely Fiction: Cathy Day, Sean Lovelace Nonfiction: Jill Christman, Silas Hansen Screenwriting: Rani Deighe Crowe, Matt Mullins

Bard College

Mirene Arsanios, CA Conrad, Hoa Nguyen, Christopher Perez, Cedar Sigo, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Roberto Tejada, Monica de la Torre, Simone White

Bath Spa University

Poetry: Lucy English, Carrie Etter, Tim Liardet, John Strachan, Samantha Walton, Gerard Woodward Fiction: Gavin James Bower, Celia Brayfield, Alexia Casale, Lucy English, Nathan Filer, Aminatta Forna, Maggie Gee, Samantha Harvey, Philip Hensher, Steve Hollyman, Emma Hooper, Claire Kendal, Kate Pullinger, C.J. Skuse, Gerard Woodward Nonfiction: Celia Brayfield, Richard Kerridge, Stephen Moss Scriptwriting: Robin Mukherjee

Poetry: Lucy English, Carrie Etter, Tim Liardet, Gerard Woodward Fiction: Gavin James Bower, Celia Brayfield, Nathan Filer, Aminatta Forna, Maggie Gee, Samantha Harvey, Philip Hensher, Claire Kendal, Kate Pullinger, Gerard Woodward Nonfiction: Richard Kerridge, Stephen Moss

Bay Path University

Mel Allen, Leanna James Blackwell, Jennifer Baker, Sari Botton, Melanie Brooks, María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado, Áine Greaney, Shahnaz Habib, Jessica Handler, Ann Hood, Susan Ito, Karol Jackowski, Yi Shun Lai, Anna Mantzaris, Meredith O’Brien, Lisa Romeo, Kate Whouley

Bennington Writing Seminars at Bennington College

Current Faculty: Poetry: April Bernard, Michael Dumanis, Randall Mann, Craig Morgan Teicher, Mark Wunderlich Fiction: Monica Ferrell, David Gates, Manuel Gonzales, Amy Hempel, Jill McCorkle, Elizabeth McCracken, Deirdre McNamer, Stuart Nadler, Katy Simpson Smith, Taymour Soomro Nonfiction: Eula Biss, Jenny Boully, Hugh Ryan, Clifford Thompson, Peter Trachtenberg

Binghamton University

Poetry: Tina Chang, Leslie L. Heywood, Joseph Weil Fiction: Thomas Glave, Liz Rosenberg, Jaimee Wriston-Colbert, Alexi Zentner Nonfiction: Leslie L. Heywood

Poetry: Tina Chang, Leslie L. Heywood, Joseph Weil Fiction: Thomas Glave, Liz Rosenberg, Jaimee Wriston-Colbert, Alexi Zentner Nonfiction: Leslie L. Heywood

Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University

Poetry: Julie Hensley, Young Smith Fiction: Julie Hensley, Nancy Jensen, Robert D. Johnson Nonfiction: Nancy Jensen, Robert D. Johnson, Evan J. Massey

Boise State University

Poetry: Martin Corless-Smith, Sara Nicholson, Taryn Schwilling Fiction: Mitch Wieland (Director), Anna Caritj Creative Nonfiction: Clyde Moneyhun

Boston University

Poetry: Andrea Cohen, Karl Kirchwey, Robert Pinsky Fiction: Leslie Epstein, Jennifer Haigh, Ha Jin

Boston University—MFA in Literary Translation

Odile Cazenave, Margaret Litvin, Petrus Liu, Christopher Maurer, Roberta Micaleff, Robert Pinsky (advising), Stephen Scully, Sassan Tabatabai, J. Keith Vincent, William Waters, Anna Zielinska-Elliott

Bowling Green State University

Poetry: Abigail Cloud, Sharona Muir, F. Dan Rzicznek, Larissa Szporluk, Jessica Zinz-Cheresnick Fiction: Joe Celizic, Lawrence Coates, Reema Rajbanshi, Michael Schulz

Brigham Young University

Poetry: Kimberly Johnson, Lance Larsen, Michael Lavers, John Talbot Fiction: Chris Crowe, Ann Dee Ellis, Spencer Hyde, Stephen Tuttle Nonfiction: Joey Franklin, Patrick Madden

Brooklyn College

Poetry: Julie Agoos, Ben Lerner Fiction: Joshua Henkin, Madeleine Thien Playwriting: Dennis A. Allen II, Elana Greenfield

Brown University

Poetry: Sawako Nakayasu, Matthew Shenoda, Eleni Sikelianos, Cole Swensen Fiction: Colin Channer, Laird Hunt, Karan Mahajan, Jacinda Townsend Cross Disciplinary & Digital Language Arts: John Cayley, Thalia Field, Sawako Nakayasu

College of Arts and Sciences » Academic Units » English » Creative Writing » Graduate Program » PhD in Creative Writing

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, literature, and theory, students take exams in two areas, one which examines texts through the lens of craft and another which 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 , 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.

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Creative Writing Graduate Programs in America

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Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Cambridge, MA •

Harvard University •

• • Rating 4.6 out of 5   5 reviews

Master's Student: I go to the Extension School and the classes have been amazing! The papers have truly taught me to be a better writer. My fellow students are some of the most interesting people I've ever known. Highly recommend! ... Read 5 reviews

Harvard University ,

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CAMBRIDGE, MA ,

5 Niche users give it an average review of 4.6 stars.

Featured Review: Master's Student says I go to the Extension School and the classes have been amazing! The papers have truly taught me to be a better writer. My fellow students are some of the most interesting people I've ever known.... .

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Brown University Graduate School

Providence, RI •

Brown University •

Brown University ,

PROVIDENCE, RI ,

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Evanston, IL •

Northwestern University •

Northwestern University ,

EVANSTON, IL ,

University of North Texas

Denton, TX •

• • Rating 4.66 out of 5   106 reviews

Current Master's student: The University of North Texas Library Sciences Program is wonderful. The online program has been designed with untraditional students in mind. Specifically, the school library certification program is perfect for teachers continuing their education while still working in the classroom. Almost every student enrolled in this program us currently working in the education program in some form or fashion, and the course work is challenging yet manageable. The professors work hard to support students. The courses are not full of busy work. Instead, each course has been created with many opportunities to learn and practice skills relevant to the school library profession. It is clear that all of the professors have real world experience in the library field and translate those experiences into their teaching. ... Read 106 reviews

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DENTON, TX ,

106 Niche users give it an average review of 4.7 stars.

Featured Review: Current Master's student says The University of North Texas Library Sciences Program is wonderful. The online program has been designed with untraditional students in mind. Specifically, the school library certification program... .

Read 106 reviews.

College of Arts and Science

Nashville, TN •

Vanderbilt University •

Vanderbilt University ,

NASHVILLE, TN ,

Washington University in St. Louis - Arts & Sciences

St. Louis, MO •

Washington University in St. Louis •

Washington University in St. Louis ,

ST. LOUIS, MO ,

College of Arts and Letters - University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, IN •

University of Notre Dame •

University of Notre Dame ,

NOTRE DAME, IN ,

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Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Los Angeles, CA •

University of Southern California •

University of Southern California ,

LOS ANGELES, CA ,

Cornell University College of Arts & Sciences

Ithaca, NY •

Cornell University •

Cornell University ,

ITHACA, NY ,

Rackham School of Graduate Studies

Ann Arbor, MI •

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor •

• • Rating 5 out of 5   1 review

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor ,

ANN ARBOR, MI ,

1 Niche users give it an average review of 5 stars.

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Krieger School of Arts & Sciences

Baltimore, MD •

Johns Hopkins University •

• • Rating 4.4 out of 5   15 reviews

Master's Student: I am currently enrolled in the AAP biothecnology, and so far my expreinces has been good. The information session held for each program were great and we could bring our question to get answers. And aftter you submithed you appilcation you were assigned an addmissions specailst to help you with question and help you with registration which is amazing. I look forward to my studies and classes with Johns Hopkins. ... Read 15 reviews

Johns Hopkins University ,

BALTIMORE, MD ,

15 Niche users give it an average review of 4.4 stars.

Featured Review: Master's Student says I am currently enrolled in the AAP biothecnology, and so far my expreinces has been good. The information session held for each program were great and we could bring our question to get answers. And... .

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The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences - University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA •

University of Virginia •

• • Rating 4 out of 5   1 review

University of Virginia ,

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA ,

1 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Graduate School of Arts & Sciences - New York University

New York, NY •

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• • Rating 4.78 out of 5   9 reviews

Alum: NYU has a strong brand name internationally, and in my honest opinion it remains among those few private institutions where you can still get the return on your investment for your education. I secured a Research Assistant Technician job for two years directly after graduating from GSAS, and the combined experiences enabled me to get into medical school after reapplication. For "city kids", New York University is the school for you. New York City is your campus, which may not be for everyone, especially those who want the traditional 'college quad' setup like at an Ivy League school or small liberal arts school. I was able to commute to school from Brooklyn. Bobst Library is like a church to me. Thank you, NYU, for helping me get a 2nd chance at becoming a doctor! I went from a failed Princeton premed to a successful University of Rochester School of Medicine alum who has gone on to becoming a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon in solo private practice. ... Read 9 reviews

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Featured Review: Alum says NYU has a strong brand name internationally, and in my honest opinion it remains among those few private institutions where you can still get the return on your investment for your education. I... For "city kids", New York University is the school for you. New York City is your campus, which may not be for everyone, especially those who want the traditional 'college quad' setup like at an Ivy... Thank you, NYU, for helping me get a 2nd chance at becoming a doctor! I went from a failed Princeton premed to a successful University of Rochester School of Medicine alum who has gone on to becoming... .

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The New School

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Master's Student: I am a graduate student in the Parsons School of Design and a MFA major in the Design and Technology program. My career interest is to become a video game developer. I just finished my first semester at the New School and so far I like it. The professors and my classmates have been very supportive and I feel my comfortable sharing my opinions and knowledge about various subjects. This is a 360 from my undergraduate school where professors did not care about students especially ones who just learned on their own. I recommend the New School and Parsons School of Design if you want to expand your video game development skills. ... Read 31 reviews

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Current Doctoral student: I am currently a student in the physical therapy program. Class sizes are about 40. It is an accelerated program so it is about 2.5 years instead of 3. Professors are wonderful. They utilize PBL instruction, which stands for problem based learning. I would recommend this program to others. ... Read 19 reviews

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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

Creative writing news, 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.

• College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
• Department of English
• Academic Programs
• Graduate Studies
• Creative Writing

PhD in Literature & Creative Writing

PhD in Literature and Creative Writing

Building on excellence in creative writing and a record of excellence in the student's MA preparation in the broad range of English and American literature or MFA preparation in creative writing and literature, the PhD student in literature and creative writing should work toward increased sophistication as a writer/scholar. The PhD student should also continue to strengthen and deepen an understanding of three areas of expertise: his/her specific genre, including the history of the genre and contemporary theoretical approaches to the genre; a historical period, rhetoric or literary theory; and a specific individualized area of inquiry. The career of a PhD student should be marked by increasing independence in his/her creative writing and in thinking and writing about literature and/or literary theory. Working toward these objectives advances the student's competence in writing the creative dissertation. The PhD in Literature and Creative Writing constitutes solid preparation for creative publication, scholarly publication, and expert undergraduate and graduate teaching.

Minimum Requirements for Admission

• MA in English or MFA in Creative Writing
• 3.5 GPA in graduate studies
• Studies in one foreign language (Student can complete this requirement while in residence.)

Fall Admission Application Deadline: January 15

No spring admission, application materials.

Consult the Creative Writing Program website for details on required materials and submission procedures.

Degree Requirements

• 45 hours of coursework
• Foreign language competence. Students must demonstrate reading knowledge of two foreign languages or intensive knowledge of one foreign language.
• 2 written doctoral examinations
• 1 oral examination
• 1 dissertation prospectus and hearing
• Dissertation and hearing

Distribution of Coursework

• 3 hours of Introduction to Doctoral Studies in English
• 6 hours of bibliography, literary theory, or rhetoric
• 3 hours History of Poetry and Poetics OR History of Narrative and Narrative Theory
• 3 hours of Writers on Literature
• 9 hours of Early Literature 
• 6 hours of Later Literature 
• 6 hours of Elective Courses, each contributing to the student’s area of expertise. Students should select each of these courses in consultation with his/her faculty mentors.
• 12 hours of Workshops including one Master Workshop in the major genre

General Policies and Procedures

Program guidelines are available here .

Department of English

College of humanities, main navigation, creative writing, about the creative writing program.

Our Creative Writing Program is vibrant and highly successful. We are committed on all levels to developing well-rounded practitioners with substantial backgrounds in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, digital writing practices, hybrid and other experimental forms, book arts, and literary history and theory.  Our program hosts a dynamic reading series and opportunities for interaction with visiting authors and scholars.

Undergraduates are introduced to a variety of writing lives through small workshops and intensive focus on their work, while studying the larger ecology of contemporary publishing.  In our graduate program, home to  Quarterly West  and  Western Humanities Review , students intensify and deepen their investigation. We offer a modular MFA in Environmental Humanities, the American West, or Book Arts.  Many graduates in our PhD Program, which  Atlantic Monthly  rated as among the top five in the country, publish widely in literary journals, place books before or soon after completing the program, win national and international awards, oversee and participate in a graduate reading series, and go on to find good academic positions.

Our renowned and aesthetically diverse faculty, whose honors include Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, Pushcart Prizes, the Berlin Prize, and other prestigious recognition of their creative work, scholarship, and teaching, includes Katharine Coles, Lindsey Drager, Michael Mejia, Lance Olsen, Jacqueline Osherow, and Paisley Rekdal.  Additionally, each year the Creative Writing Program brings in a nationally recognized ESRR Distinguished Visiting Writer to teach graduate and undergraduate workshops and seminars for a half semester or longer.

Contact Information

Michael Mejia Director, Creative Writing Program [email protected]

Karli Sam Graduate Advisor [email protected]

Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing

We offer   two graduate degrees   in Creative Writing: An MFA and a PhD that prepares students to pursue careers as teachers of writing.  The creative Writing faculty also sponsors an annual   Guest Writers Series  and the   Utah Symposium in Science and Literature .

Graduate students also comprise the editorial staff of   Quarterly West   and   Western Humanities Review , and host the monthly  Working Dog   readings.

Creative Writing MFA Information

CREATIVE WRITING MFA - Modular Track Information

CREATIVE WRITING PhD Information

English MFA - Creative Writing

The English MFA program in creative writing is small and selective. It gives students the   opportunity to study literature, participate in intensive writing workshops, and work in a close community of writers.   Studies may focus their literature coursework in any area of English or American literature.

Coursework Requirements

English mfa timeline.

Students will take a minimum of nine courses of at least three credit hours each:

• Four creative writing workshops
• English 7450: Narrative Theory and Practice   or   English 7460: Theory and Practice of Poetry (depending on the genre of the thesis)
• Four other courses, including at least two literary history courses

MA Thesis & Thesis Defense

During their residence, MFA students are expected to work closely with members of the creative writing faculty and write book-length thesis of publishable quality —a novel, a collection of stories, or a collection of poems.

A complete draft of the thesis should be submitted to the committee chair at least three weeks before the desired defense date. After the thesis has been approved by the chair, a defense date is scheduled and cleared with the other committee members. When the date and time have been set, the student should inform the Graduate Advisor, who will schedule a room for the defense and post an announcement so that the public may attend.

Click on the link below to download a recommended, two-year timeline for an MFA in English from our department.

   ENGLISH MFA TIMELINE

English MFA - Creative Writing (Modular Track)

The University of Utah Creative Writing Program offers a modular MFA program in poetry, fiction and nonfiction that allows students to take courses in Environmental Humanities, the History of the American West and Book Arts while completing a manuscript in the genre of their choice.

Funding Opportunities

About the modular track.

The modular MFA is the only MFA program in the nation that allows students to create courses of study that would capitalize on these three distinct areas, to use the historical, aesthetic and cultural knowledge gained from these subjects in their own creative writing.   Upon entering the MFA program, students interested in the modular MFA would declare whether they wanted to pursue a single track (MFA with an Environmental Humanities emphasis, for instance) or a multidisciplinary track (MFA with an American West/Environmental Humanities emphasis).

While enrolled in a writing workshop of their choice each semester, students will also take a wide variety of graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses from departments across campus, including History, Communication, Art and Art History, Philosophy and Film, as well as English.   These courses include topics such as Environmental Ethics, Film Directors of the American West, Bookbinding, Digital Arts, Global Environmental History, Videogame Studies, Sound Poetry, Artists’ Books, and Art and Architecture of the American West.   Students are also encouraged to take our hybrid graduate writing workshop called Experimental Forms in which students combine poetry, fiction, nonfiction and new media in diverse and original ways.

Modular MFA Requirements

Our traditional MFA program requires nine graduate courses, plus six hours of thesis research. Of these nine courses, four are creative writing workshops, one is a theory and practice in the genre of the student’s thesis, and at least four courses are in literary history and special topics.

Our modular MFA program requires the same number of courses and hours of thesis research, but allows students in particular modules (or multi-disciplinary modules) to take courses outside English to fulfill their four literary history/special topics requirements.

Approved Modular Courses

Below is a list of possible approved courses regularly offered at the university in each of the three modules that modular MFA students might take. This list is not exhaustive; modular MFA students are encouraged to research their departments of interest to find other graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses that might apply.  Courses not on this list must be pre-approved by both the Director of Graduate Studies and the Director of Creative Writing for the student to receive credit towards her modular MFA degree.

Environmental Humanities

EHUM 6900/005:  Environmental Leadership/Orientation Week 0, Fall1 EHUM 101:  Foundation in Environmental Humanities Fall1 EHUM 6103:  Ecology of Residency (Taft-Nicholson Center - Summer) Fall2 EHUM 6105:  EH Writing Seminar Spring1 EHUM 6804:  Tertulia - Reading/discussion group - Fall1, Spring 1

Other courses of interest

Environmental Humanities encourages students to explore courses offered through the College of Humanities. Courses vary semester to semester, year to year. Courses of interest might include:

COMM 6360:  Environmental Communication COMM 7200:  Environmental Communication EHUM 6850:  Issues in Environmental Humanities - topic varies according to semester ENGL 5980:  Ecoctriticism ENGL 6240:  Literature of the American West ENGL 6810:  Post-humanist Theory & Practice ENGL 7700:  Seminar in American Studies ENGL 7850:  Digital Humanities HIST 6380:  US Environmental History HIST 7670:  Colloquium in Environmental History PHIL 5530:  Environmental Philosophy PHIL 6520:  Advanced Bioethics

American West

ENGL 6200:   Introduction to American Studies ENGL 7700:   Special Topics in American Studies ARCH 6231:   Art and Architecture of the American West HIST 6910:   Special Studies in American History HIST 7620:   Colloquium in the History of the American West HIST 7870:   Colloquium in the American West FILM 7870:   Special Topics in American West Film and Filmmakers

Book Arts / Publishing / New Media

ENGL 7050:   Experimental Forms ENGL 7810:   Publications Workshop: Lit and American Studies ENGL 6680, 7740 or 7720   (whichever number applies):

*Seminar in the Theory and Practice of New Media Writing *New Media and Poetry *Sound Poetry *Critical Studies in Artists’ Books

ARCH 6052:   Digital Media ART 3360:   Letterpress Printing ART 3365:   Bookbinding ART 3630:   Digital Studio ART 4060-065-070:   Nonmajor Letterpress II ART 4075:   Nonmajor bookbinding III ART 4090:   Nonmajor Artist’s Books COMM 6520:   Interactive Narrative COMM 6550:   Digital Imaging COMM 6640:   Comm Tech and Culture COMM 6650:   Videogames Studies COMM 6670:   Activism & New Media COMM 6680:   Computer Mediated Communication COMM 6690:   New Media, Special Topics COMM 7640:   New Media, Special Topics

Students interested in pursuing the Modular MFA have the option of applying or being considered for a number of fellowship opportunities. Students primarily interested in Environmental Humanities will be considered for a half-teaching fellowship that will cover half their tuition expenses and fees. Students interested in the American West and/or Book Arts/New Media studies will be eligible to apply for The Center for American West/ J.W. Marriott Special Collections Fellowships after they have been accepted into the MFA program. These fellowships will require that students work as archivists and transcribers in one of four areas:  Science and Technology in the West, Multimedia Archives of the West, Utah Oral Histories, and Utah Outdoor Recreation Oral Histories.

Students who are selected for one of these fellowships will receive first-year funding for tuition and fees of up to $12,400 with the possibility of the same amount of funding for a second year. Students who receive the Center for American West/J.W. Marriott Special Collections Fellowship will also be given credit for a one-credit independent study course in Archival Research that will be noted on their transcripts.

Publishing internships also may be made available with FC2, Eclipse, University of Utah Press, Red Butte Press/Book Arts, and other local journals and presses. Credit for internships may fall under the heading of ENGL 7810, the publications workshops for Literature and American Studies.

English PhD - Creative Writing

The English PhD with a specialization in Creative Writing is neither a fine arts degree nor simply a traditional literature PhD with a creative dissertation. The program is designed to help the student become a better writer, as well as a writer who knows the history of his or her chosen genre and who is aware of the critical theory relevant to it.

The PhD is generally recognized as a writer's best preparation for a teaching career at the college or university level.   Many colleges cannot afford to hire someone to teach only creative writing; the PhD is strong evidence that the writer can also teach literature courses and that he or she can take a full and active part in the academic community.

Qualifying Examinations

• English PhD Timeline

Students will take ten courses of at least three credits each:

• English 6480: Introduction to Critical Theory
• At least three workshops (one in a genre other than the dissertation is recommended)
• At least three courses in literary history, including one covering literature before 1700 and one covering literature between 1700 and 1900
• English 7450: Narrative Theory and Practice or English 7460: Theory and Practice of Poetry (depending on the genre of the dissertation)
• One or two electives (depending on the number of workshops taken; one of these courses may be taken in a department other than English, with the prior approval of the Director of Graduate Studies)

In creative writing, exams focus on the genre (poetry or prose) of the student’s dissertation. Students will be examined in four fields; lists in each field normally include 25-30 major works or their equivalent. Students must complete all required coursework and satisfy the language requirement before scheduling their qualifying exams. Examination lists will be devised by students in consultation with the members of their committee.

• The genre from its beginnings until the end of the nineteenth century
• The genre from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present
• Topics or themes are devised in consultation with the student’s supervisory committee, especially the committee chair, and might focus on specific literary, generic, or thematic areas (e.g., history of lyric, gothic literature, graphic novels, the literature of war, queer literature, etc.) or a cultural studies field or otherwise interdisciplinary area (e.g., American studies, digital humanities, film studies, race/ethnic studies, religious studies, gender/sexuality studies, art history, etc.).
• This list will focus on theoretical questions relevant to the genre or the dissertation.

English Creative PhD Timeline

Click on the link below to download a recommended, two-year timeline for a Creative Writing PhD in English from our department.

   ENGLISH Creative Writing PhD TIMELINE

Creative Writing and Literature

Students enrolled in the Master of Liberal Arts program in Creative Writing & Literature will develop skills in creative writing and literary analysis through literature courses and writing workshops in fiction, screenwriting, poetry, and nonfiction. Through online group courses and one-on-one tutorials, as well as a week on campus, students hone their craft and find their voice.

Covid updates. The bivalent COVID-19 booster is required for on-campus presence.

Creative Writing and Literature Master’s Degree Program

Earn Your Way In

Excel in 2 Degree Courses to Qualify for Admission

Online and On Campus

Average Course Tuition

Total Number of Courses

Develop your skills in creative writing and literary analysis.

Explore literature, fiction, screenwriting/writing for TV/playwriting, poetry, and nonfiction.

What You'll Learn

Through the master’s degree in the field of creative writing and literature you will:

• Master key elements of narrative craft, including characterization, story and plot structure, point of view, dialogue, and description.
• Develop skills across multiple genres, including fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic writing.
• Analyze works of literature and learn how to approach these texts as a writer and a scholar.
• Practice the art of revision as a means to hone your voice as a writer.

Your Harvard Degree Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in Extension Studies, field: Creative Writing and Literature.

Admissions, Courses, and Degree Requirements

At Harvard Extension School, your admission is based largely on your performance in two specific Harvard Extension courses that you complete before submitting an application.

To get started, we invite you to explore the degree requirements, confirm your initial eligibility, and learn more about our unique “earn your way in” admissions process.

Bryan Delaney

Playwright and Screenwriter

Talaya Adrienne Delaney

Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

Our community at a glance.

Your peers in English, literature and creative writing work in a variety of writing, research, and communication industries, such as publishing, advertising/marketing, fundraising, and education (secondary and higher education).

Average Age

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Work Full Time

Would Recommend the Program

Professional Experience in the Field

Pursued for Personal Enrichment

The vast array of courses available, the flexibility in schedules, the incredible faculty and teaching assistants, and the warm student community all drew me in. Before I knew it, I had taken a handful of courses and realized that I could apply for a degree program.

Read Gairik Sachdeva's Story

Cost and Financial Aid

Affordability is core to our mission. When compared to our continuing education peers, it’s a fraction of the cost.

After admission, you may qualify for financial aid. Typically, eligible students receive grant funds to cover a portion of tuition costs each term, in addition to federal financial aid options.

Learning & Connection

Deep learning springs from human connection. That’s why we work so hard to bring people together — whether in a live virtual classroom or an in-person seminar on campus.

Our approach to online learning fosters interaction without sacrificing flexibility. Each week, you’ll engage with your instructor, participate in peer discussions, and receive one-on-one support from teaching staff—all from your home or office.

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

A division of Harvard University dedicated to bringing rigorous programs and innovative online teaching capabilities to distance learners, working professionals, high school students, college students, and those seeking higher learning in retirement.

Visit the Health Advisories website for the latest vaccination and mask information and to Report a Case.

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Due to unhealthy air quality levels , campus will be closed Thursday, Nov. 15 and Friday, Nov. 16

Writing Center

Summer 2023 Foundations of Graduate Writing Series

Graduate writing is different from undergraduate writing, and writing is a communication skill that you need to master regardless of your major. Do you know all the parts of a graduate research paper? How to write an abstract or literature review? How to find articles based on your research question? How to seamlessly integrate sources into your writing? 

The Writing Center is here to help! We have partnered with the College of Graduate Studies to help you gain the resources and skills you need to improve your writing skills as you enter into advanced study of your field/discipline. 

The Foundations of Graduate Writing series includes seven carefully selected workshops to help you increase your confidence and comfort with writing at the graduate level. All sessions are conducted online via Zoom.

Monday, July 10th, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (PT)

• Graduate Writer Mindset (Workshop 1), 10:00-11:15
• Break, 11:15-11:30
• Academic Voice (Workshop 2), 11:30-12:45
• Discussion, Q&A, Evaluations, 12:45-1:00

Tuesday, July 11th, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (PT)

• Recognizing the Parts of a Research Paper (Workshop 3), 10:00-11:15
• How to Find Good Articles (Workshop 4 with Librarian Bernd Becker), 11:30-12:45

Monday, July 17th, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM (PT)

• Abstracts and Literature Reviews (Workshop 5), 10:00-11:15
• Sentence Variety and Rhythm (Workshop 6), 11:30-12:45

Tuesday, July 18th, 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM (PT)

• Writing Group Creation Training (Workshop 7), 10:00-11:15

Zoom registration is required to attend. Spots fill quickly, so sign up soon! Though attendees will receive the most benefit from attending all the workshop sessions as a cohesive whole, you are welcome to register for whichever dates you can attend.  

REGISTER HERE

Questions? Contact the Writing Center Director, Michelle Hager ([email protected]). 

What to Know About Creative Writing Degrees

Many creative writing degree recipients pursue careers as authors while others work as copywriters or ghostwriters.

Tips on Creative Writing Degrees

Prospective writing students should think about their goals and figure out if a creative writing degree will help them achieve those goals. (Getty Images)

Many people see something magical in a beautiful work of art, and artists of all kinds often take pride in their craftsmanship. Creative writers say they find fulfillment in the writing process.

"I believe that making art is a human need, and so to get to do that is amazing," says Andrea Lawlor, an author who this year received a Whiting Award – a national $50,000 prize that recognizes 10 excellent emerging authors each year – and who is also the Clara Willis Phillips Assistant Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

"We all are seeing more and more of the way that writing can help us understand perspectives we don't share," says Lawlor, whose recent novel "Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl" addresses the issue of gender identity.

"Writing can help us cope with hard situations," Lawlor says. "We can find people who we have something in common with even if there's nobody around us who shares our experience through writing. It's a really powerful tool for connection and social change and understanding."

Creative writing faculty, many of whom are acclaimed published authors, say that people are well-suited toward degrees in creative writing if they are highly verbal and enjoy expressing themselves.

"Creative imaginative types who have stories burning inside them and who gravitate toward stories and language might want to pursue a degree in creative writing," Jessica Bane Robert, who teaches Introduction to Creative Writing at Clark University in Massachusetts, wrote in an email. "Through formal study you will hone your voice, gain confidence, find a support system for what can otherwise be a lonely endeavor."

Read the guide below to gain more insight into what it means to pursue a creative writing education, how writing impacts society and whether it is prudent to invest in a creative writing degree. Learn about the difference between degree-based and non-degree creative writing programs, how to craft a solid application to a top-notch creative writing program and how to figure out which program is the best fit.

Why Creative Writing Matters and Reasons to Study It

Creative writers say a common misconception about their job is that their work is frivolous and impractical, but they emphasize that creative writing is an extremely effective way to convey messages that are hard to share in any other way.

Kelly Caldwell, dean of faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City, says prospective writing students are often discouraged from taking writing courses because of concerns about whether a writing life is somehow unattainable or "unrealistic."

Although creative writers are sometimes unable to financially support themselves entirely on the basis of their creative projects, Caldwell says, they often juggle that work with other types of jobs and lead successful careers.

She says that many students in her introductory creative writing class were previously forbidden by parents to study creative writing. "You have to give yourself permission for the simple reason that you want to do it," she suggests.

Creative writing faculty acknowledge that a formal academic credential in creative writing is not needed in order to get writing published. However, they suggest, creative writing programs help aspiring authors develop their writing skills and allow space and time to complete long-term writing projects.

Working writers often juggle multiple projects at once and sometimes have more than one gig, which can make it difficult to finish an especially ambitious undertaking such as a novel, a play for the screen or stage, or a well-assembled collection of poems, short stories or essays. Grants and fellowships for authors are often designed to ensure that those authors can afford to concentrate on their writing.

Samuel Ace, a published poet and a visiting lecturer in poetry at Mount Holyoke, says his goal is to show students how to write in an authentic way that conveys real feeling. "It helps students to become more direct, not to bury their thoughts under a cascade of academic language, to be more forthright," he says.

Tips on Choosing Between a Non-Degree or Degree-Based Creative Writing Program

Experts note that someone needs to be ready to get immersed in the writing process and devote significant time to writing projects before pursuing a creative writing degree. Prospective writing students should not sign up for a degree program until they have reached that sense of preparedness, warns Kim Todd, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts and director of its creative writing program.

She says prospective writing students need to think about their personal goals and figure out if a creative writing degree will help them achieve those goals.

Aspiring writers who are not ready to invest in a creative writing degree program may want to sign up for a one-off writing class or begin participating in an informal writing workshop so they can test their level of interest in the field, Todd suggests.

How to Choose and Apply to a Creative Writing Program

In many cases, the most important component of an application to a writing program is the writing portfolio, writing program experts say. Prospective writing students need to think about which pieces of writing they include in their portfolio and need to be especially mindful about which item they put at the beginning of their portfolio. They should have a trusted mentor critique the portfolio before they submit it, experts suggest.

Because creative writing often involves self-expression, it is important for aspiring writing students to find a program where they feel comfortable expressing their true identity.

This is particularly pertinent to aspiring authors who are members of minority groups, including people of color or LGBTQ individuals, says Lawlor, who identifies as queer, transgender and nonbinary.

How to Use a Creative Writing Degree

Creative writing program professors and alumni say creative writing programs cultivate a variety of in-demand skills, including the ability to communicate effectively.

"While yes, many creative writers are idealists and dreamers, these are also typically highly flexible and competent people with a range of personal strengths. And a good creative writing program helps them understand their particular strengths and marketability and translate these for potential employers, alongside the more traditional craft development work," Melissa Ridley Elmes, an assistant professor of English at Lindenwood University in Missouri, wrote in an email.

Elmes – an author who writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction – says creative writing programs force students to develop personal discipline because they have to consistently produce a significant amount of writing. In addition, participating in writing workshops requires writing students "to give and receive constructive feedback," Elmes says.

Cindy Childress, who has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana—Lafayatte and did a creative writing dissertation where she submitted poetry, says creative writing grads are well-equipped for good-paying positions as advertising and marketing copywriters, speechwriters, grant writers and ghostwriters.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual compensation for writers and authors was $63,200 as of May 2019.

"I think the Internet, and writing communities online and in social media, have been very helpful for debunking the idea that if you publish a New York Times Bestseller you will have 'made it' and can quit your day job and write full time," Elmes explains. "Unless you are independently wealthy, the odds are very much against you in this regard."

Childress emphasizes that creative writing degree recipients have "skills that are absolutely transferable to the real world." For example, the same storytelling techniques that copywriters use to shape public perceptions about a commercial brand are often taught in introductory creative writing courses, she says. The ability to tell a good story does not necessarily come easily to people who haven't been trained on how to do it, she explains.

Childress says she was able to translate her creative writing education into a lucrative career and start her own ghostwriting and book editing company, where she earns a six-figure salary. She says her background in poetry taught her how to be pithy.

"Anything that we want to write nowadays, particularly for social media, is going to have to be immediately understood, so there is a sense of immediacy," she says."The language has to be crisp and direct and exact, and really those are exactly the same kind of ways you would describe a successful poem."

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May 31, 2023

Purdue University offers new Medical and Healthcare Writing Graduate Certificate

Program prepares students for success in an in-demand job category

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – When people think about jobs in the health care industry, they often think about client-facing roles – doctors, nurses, administrative staff and other medical personnel. But beyond the scrubs and lab coats, there are other professionals whose roles, though less visible, are still critical to the success of health care organizations. Medical and health care writers are one such example.

Considered a subfield of technical writing, medical and health care writing is what makes hard-to-understand medical information accessible to a variety of audiences. From writing the informational pamphlets that come with drug prescriptions to preparing the grant applications that sustain medical research facilities, health care writers play an essential role in the function and success of the system.

To help meet the need for skilled medical and health care writers, Purdue University is offering a new 100% online Medical and Healthcare Writing Graduate Certificate . The program consists of three fully online courses, all taught by Richard Johnson-Sheehan, a nationally known expert in scientific, technical, medical and health care writing and a professor of English and professional writing at Purdue.

Purdue’s Medical and Healthcare Writing Graduate Certificate offers students a high-quality, immersive and fast-paced skill-enhancing opportunity that can lead to success in the medical and health care writing industry. The courses cover important skills essential to health care writing areas, including proposal and grant writing. Each course runs for eight weeks. Classes can be taken individually, or students can complete all three to earn the certificate.

"This certificate covers three areas that will get you up and running as a medical and health care writer,” Johnson-Sheehan said “The introduction to medical writing course offers an overview of the career field and several major genres. The proposals and grants course will teach you a fundamental genre that is essential in the health care industry. The editing and publishing course will allow you to collaborate with authors who are experts in their areas but need support with publishing their research, marketing products or services and securing investment for their projects.”

The weekly commitment per class is approximately five hours, making this certificate an accessible option for busy professionals seeking a quick and convenient way to earn a health care writing credential. Courses start in August, October, January and March.

"The certificate offers an asynchronous approach to learning, which means you can complete the courses online and on your own schedule,” Johnson-Sheehan said. “The certificate puts an emphasis on practical communication skills that can be learned with some guidance and practice but are difficult for clients and employers to find among writers and editors.”

Though medical and health care writing has always been a vital component of the health care industry, the field has experienced a lot of growth recently. New tests, drugs and treatments for COVID-19 increased demand for medical writers who can create instruction manuals for patients (for example, the instructions that come with at-home rapid COVID tests). Medical grant writers are also in demand due to the large amount of research being conducted on COVID-19 and variant diseases as well as other diseases.

Demand for medical and health care writers is also on the rise in the medical regulatory compliance industry. Medical writers play a key role in preparing documentation for patents, regulatory filings and grants – particularly in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Because of these factors, medical and health care writers can expect to earn higher wages than other technical writers. According to an American Medical Writers Association salary survey, the median annual salary for medical writers was $144,500 in 2019. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual salary for all technical writers is $78,060. This makes medical and health care writing one of the more lucrative subfields of technical writing.

“Medical and health care writing is a satisfying career for health care professionals who are looking for more flexibility, creativity and well-paid work that can be done from home or other remote locations,” Johnson-Sheehan said. “For professional writers, medical and health care writing is a quickly growing field that pays well and involves intriguing topics with exciting storylines.”

To learn more about Purdue’s Medical and Healthcare Writing Graduate Certificate, visit the program’s webpage .

Writer: Rachel Barton, [email protected]

Source: Richard Johnson-Sheehan, [email protected]

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Master’s in Writing vs MFA - What’s the Difference?

Strong storytelling has the power to create an emotional connection between a writer and their audience. Through this creative outlet, writers can communicate their unique experiences and perspectives in a way that deeply resonates with others — developing a sense of empathy, trust, and love for the arts.

If you’re looking for ways to strengthen your writing skills to model this connection, entering a graduate-level writing program — an M.A. or an MFA — may be your next step.

• What is a Master’s in Writing?

A Master of Writing degree is a graduate program designed to expand career-focused professionals’ knowledge of written art and craft. In this program, students study writing and literature in a variety of genres while taking writing pedagogy courses and learning editing skills.

When you enroll in a master’s in writing program, you’ll likely be asked to select a concentration, such as:

• What is an MFA?

A Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree is a terminal degree designed for students who are passionate about a particular creative field or art. MFA students learn by gaining practical experience in their field of interest along with its history, classical works, and facts.

MFA programs span broad broad academic disciplines of art, including:

• Fashion design
• Visual Arts

If you decide to pursue an MFA degree in Writing, you’ll likely be asked to select a concentration:

• Screenwriting
• M.A. in Writing vs. MFA in writing

• What are the differences between an M.A. in Writing and an MFA in Writing?

Earning an M.A. in Writing before pursuing a terminal degree provides an opportunity to get trained in writing pedagogy. This will make you a stronger applicant for MFA and Ph.D. programs because you will be already trained to teach. Hence, by earning an M.A. first, you may be able to get into better terminal degree programs. 

______ Who are you called to be? Pursue your purpose at PLNU. ______

• What are the similarities between an M.A. in Writing and an MFA in Writing?

Both master’s in writing and MFA degrees focus on the discipline’s particular craft, including its history and academics. This is great for those who are passionate about writing because at no other point in life will someone pay you for your academic writing.

Prerequisites

Although both of these graduate programs heavily emphasize written craft, you’re not required to have a bachelor’s degree in English or creative writing to apply. Applicants of M.A. in Writing and MFA in Writing programs must hold any bachelor’s degree or the equivalent from an accredited institution.

While application requirements may vary depending on the program, applicants are likely asked to submit the following:

• Official transcripts
• Letter of recommendation
• Portfolio/Creative writing sample
• Teaching statement

Collaborative Space

In both M.A. in Writing and MFA in Writing programs, graduate students are guided under the supervision of a faculty member. Students will also collaborate with their peers in writing workshops and perform advanced creative work for formal audiences.

Oftentimes, both of these higher education programs offer graduate teaching assistant positions , where full-time graduate students can aid in teaching an undergraduate curriculum, evaluate student assignments, and lead classroom discussions.

While not all master’s programs require a thesis, many do. For example, students in PLNU’s M.A. in Writing program will complete a master’s thesis — an independent thesis project written under the guidance of a faculty member at the culmination of their degree program.

Similarly, all MFA students are required to complete a thesis. Since the program is terminal, the thesis serves as a demonstration of your professional competency in written art. It is also your proof of artistic mastery through the creation of a body of work that contributes to, builds on, or extends knowledge in your written concentration.

Post-Grad Connections

Both M.A. in Writing and MFA in Writing students are provided with a strong professional network, as they are able to receive feedback and guidance from experienced faculty and peers. These programs also grant students access to publishing and literary communities.

• Career opportunities with a Master of Writing degree

A master’s in writing program will prepare you for a wide variety of literary styles, genres, formats, and audiences. The knowledge and experience you’ll gain will help you lead a successful and fulfilling career in a variety of areas, including:

• Nonprofit or governmental organizations
• Editing and publishing
• Fiction and nonfiction
• Higher education

Four careers that an M.A. in Writing will equip you for:

1. college professor.

Median annual salary: $76,920 (per BLS ) Projected growth from 2021 to 2031: 12%

2. Copywriter

Median Annual Salary: $64,855 (per ZipRecruiter ) Projected growth from 2021 to 2031: 4%

3. Communications specialist

Median annual salary: $58,370 (per ZipRecruiter ) Projected growth from 2021 to 2031: 6%

4. Social media manager 

Median annual salary: $54,358 (per ZipRecruiter ) Projected growth from 2021 to 2031: 10%

• Careers opportunities with an MFA in Writing

With an MFA degree, you can establish a career in local newspapers and magazines, advertising agencies, freelance writing businesses, or schools. Depending on your state’s requirements, you may be able to teach at primary and secondary schools, or as an adjunct in higher education.

Four careers that an MFA in Writing will prepare you for:

1. college professor.

Median annual salary: $165,081 (per Salary.com ) Projected growth from 2021 to 2031: 12%

2. Technical writer

Median annual salary: $78,060 (per U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ) Projected growth from 2021 to 2031: 6%

3. Literary agent

Median annual salary: $51,293 (per ZipRecruiter ) Projected Growth from 2021 to 2031: 11%

4. Columnist

Median annual salary: $76,135 (per Salary.com ) Projected growth from 2021 to 2031: 4%

• Which should I choose?

Talk to an admissions counselor to see which program is right for you!

If you want to develop a deeper understanding of how to faithfully expand the art and craft of your writing and its pedagogy, check out PLNU’s Master’s in Writing program. This two-year program will strengthen your practice in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry through a flexible curriculum and expert mentorship. You’ll also have the opportunity to be selected for various graduate teaching assistant positions!

Request Info

Related Articles

How can i become a writing professor, 7 careers you can pursue with a master’s in curriculum and instruction, should i earn a master’s in writing with the rise of ai, table of contents, request more information, start your journey, start your journey today.

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Grant Writing News & Graduate and Postdoctoral Researcher Opportunities

Research development & grant writing newsletter.

The May 2023 issue of the Research Development & Grant Writing Newsletter   is out!

This month’s Featured Articles include:

• May 2023 Select List of Humanities, HSS, and Arts Opportunities & News
• Understanding Forensic Sciences Funding
• Consider Joining the NSF Rotator Program
• Tips for Pursuing Funding from Industry
• AFRI Sustainable Agricultural SYSTEMS RFA
• Make Your Case for Value-Added Benefits
• Welcoming New Faculty
• Implicit Requirements
• How to Write a Successful NSF CAREER Proposal Online Course

The Research Development and Grant Writing Newsletter is available to faculty, staff, students, and affiliates with log-in access to the Albertsons Library. This subscription is sponsored by the Division of Research and Economic Development with support from the Albertsons Library. For reference,  previous newsletters are located here .

Graduate and Postdoctoral Researcher Opportunities

National science foundation.

NSF supports research opportunities and provides stipends for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and scholars. NSF recently posted a list of these opportunities that includes information on:

Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants Graduate Research Fellowship Program Internship Opportunities Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities

You can also find more information on their website, NSF Education & Training Application , which has a growing list of opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

DOE Webinar – Career Skills After a PhD

The DOE Basic Energy Sciences Early Career Network will be presenting a webinar titled “Career Skills After a PhD”. Identifying the skills necessary to achieve success in a desired field can be challenging for early career scientists. Webinar panel members will provide perspectives from their career paths in government, academia, national laboratories, and industry.

Date: June 16, 2023 Time: 11:30-12:30 MST Registration Link Additional Information

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2020 Outreach Courses

Creative writing, disabilities awareness, and inclusion course series:.

11/5/2020—12/22/2020 (Near East and Northern African regions, though open to all)

This short course series contains six one-hour courses (each with a 30-minute lecture and two 15-minute assignment sections). Courses are captioned/subtitled in Arabic and in English. Each course is taught by a different disabilities writer/activist.

The courses in the series are released on a weekly basis. To view the course series on your own schedule, please click here: bit.ly/DAwritingcourse

Instructors include Sheila Black , a poet, writer, and disabilities activist and currently director of development at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), the main professional organization for creative writing programs; Ron Marz , comic book writer known for the Green Lantern and the Silver Surfer, but also for an international creative collaboration  project in 2012 where he and others, at the invitation of the Syrian government, created the Silver Scorpion, a Syrian-American teenage superhero who is wheelchair-bound; Elsa Sjunesson , Hugo, Aurora, and British Fantasy awards winner, and an activist for disability rights; and Melody Moezzi , writer, lawyer, and disabilities activist, a United Nations Global Expert and an Opinion Leader for the British Council's Our Shared Future initiative, and who, several years back, was part of an ECA program involving young American-Muslim leaders.

WORD/MOVEMENT

6/15/2020 through 8/1/2020   (Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia)

The Movement sessions of this course work with aspects of meaning-making in dance, with establishing context and point-of-view, and with generation of movement and experimentation with structure. These sessions form the starting point of each Word session, which are in creative writing workshop format. Participants experiment with form and with language, fusing responses, insights, and reactions from the Movement sessions into their creative writing.

View text galleries of some of the course projects and assignments submitted by the Russian-speaking and Latvian-speaking participants here:   http://www.distancelearningiwp.org/wordmovementtextgalleries

(AFTERNOTE: This course’s emphases on diverse perspectives and on resiliency, occurring as it did in the midst of an unexpected global pandemic, both echoed and intersected with the myriad types of virtual artistic and issue-oriented collaborations appearing across the United States during this time.)

WOMEN'S CREATIVE MENTORSHIP PROFESSIONALIZATION PROJECT

4/15/2020 through 10/15/2020  (Argentina, Botswana, Colombia, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Somalia, South Africa)

This project furthers already-established connections in the IWP's Women's Creative Mentorship (WCM) Project ,  broadens international networks and collaborations, and amplifies the many threads of conversation established by the mentor-mentee groups. A series of professional practice seminars anchored and applied these topics.

Participants were invited to create digital collages of their work in this project, and, given the COVID-19 pandemic, their work beyond it.

Click below to view the WCM participants' short videos, their texts and images, and their writing resource lists in response to being asked to describe their past few months, including the balancing/un-balancing of life, COVID-19, writing, and global and local concerns: http://www.distancelearningiwp.org/digitalcollageswmp2020

Russian Nonfiction Writing Program

In a world with seemingly infinite amount of information at our fingertips, how do we distinguish what is real, and what is trustworthy from that which is merely arresting? How do we approach the challenges of research, bias, and, for that matter, the fallibility of memory? What about biographies, history books, propaganda? What counts as nonfiction, and what rules does one follow writing it?

Twenty-three Russian college students grappled with these questions during this class, IWP’s first virtual Russian Nonfiction Writing course. Supported by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, the course, which ran from October to December 2020, was designed to increase students’ familiarity with the craft and protocols of non-fiction in a time when journalism and other forms of non-fiction are in danger of being misused, falsified, or censored. It was taught by two expert practitioners: journalist and novelist Alisa Ganieva (Moscow; IWP Between the Lines Instructor, Fall Resident ’12 & ’18) and journalist Jen Percy (New York City; MFA degrees from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program, faculty in the Creative Writing MFA Program, Columbia University). Every week they focused on a new subgenre: biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs; experimental forms of nonfiction; travelogues and immersion journalism; published dissent in a range of forms, from humor and satire to essays; and gonzo journalism. Students completed weekly writing assignments; their strongest pieces appear in a digital anthology you can find here :

Alisa GANIEVA (Алиса Ганиева) is a Russian novelist, essayist, and media journalist; she grew up in Dagestan, the setting of most of her fiction. In 2009, her Salaam, Dalgat! won Russia’s prestigious national Debut Prize; it was followed by T he Mountain and the Wal l (English translation 2015) and The Bride and Bridegroom (shortlisted for the 2015 Russian Booker; published in the US in 2018); the English translation of her most recent novel, Offended Sensibilities, is forthcoming in 2022. She is also literary critic for Nezavisimaya Gazeta . A repeat participant in various IWP residencies and events, she was a juror for the 2018 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Her work has been translated into many languages and praised globally.

Jennifer PERCY , the author of Demon Camp: A Soldier’s Exorcism (2014), is a widely published journalist and magazine writer. Her work has appeared in the Oxford American , Harper’s , T he New Republic and the New York Times Magazine , among many other places; her honors include a NEA grant, a Pushcart, the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and, in 2020, the Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Trauma. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she teaches writing at Columbia University.

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David Anua r’s translations into Spanish of twelve poets from the 2022 residency appear in Iowa Literaria #5 .

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Wendy Chen Moves Passionately Through Writing and Teaching

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Emma Atkinson

Wendy Chen’s work has always been deeply personal.

Her parents, who immigrated to the United States from China, encouraged a young Wendy to study poetry and writing. She remembers her understanding and love of language being bolstered by her bilingual upbringing.

“I grew up interested in language and thinking about the ways that we move between languages, and how words have this very transformative life of their own in our daily lives,” Chen says.

And now, her dissertation as a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Denver’s department of English, titled “Understudy,” draws on the grief she’s experiencing related to her father’s dementia.

“Writing has always been a way for me to work through intense emotions and experiences that are sort of hard to make sense of,” Chen reflects.

The heart of the dissertation is an epic poem, titled “Moly.”

“It comes from the name of this mythical flower in ‘The Odyssey,’ and it riffs off of the imagery and the journey of ‘The Odyssey,’ in thinking through grief, with my father's dementia,” she says.

A central part of Chen’s process in writing her dissertation is the incorporation of dream logic, which Chen defines as the idea of how dreams can inform one’s writing. Her understanding of the tactic came from DU professor Patrick Cottrell, who teaches a class on the subject.

“We kept a dream journal, and we learned how to lucid dream,” she remembers. Cottrell’s teachings and guidance, Chen says, truly helped to shape her dissertation.

“There can be something very meaningful about dream logic and how that could be more truthful to grief and the grieving process, when rationality and waking life and facts don't really help us to make sense of what has happened—if something has ended, like an illness or a death,” she says.

There’s a roster of other DU English professors who Chen says have helped influence her writings. In particular, she mentions Selah Saterstrom, who teaches Divinatory Poetics and “has such a compelling perspective on the tarot, divination, poetry and life.”

And Chen recalls the “wonderful, discerning editorial eye” of her dissertation director, Graham Foust, who assisted her during negotiations for her post-grad position.

Though she is about to finish her final academic pursuit, Chen isn’t at all new to the world of publishing; she’s already an author several times over.

In elementary school, Chen wrote poems that her teachers would laminate and bind into books—the first of several books of poetry that she would eventually go on to produce.

Chen’s first book of poems, “Unearthings,” was published in 2018. Like much of her work, the collection draws on her personal experiences. She writes that “the collection’s narratives of isolation, exile, and immigration explore what it means to be an Asian American woman.”

And Chen has two forthcoming volumes: a novel, “Their Divine Fires,” publishing in 2024; and a book of translations of Chinese poetry, titled “The Magpie at Night: Complete Translations of Li Qingzhao’s Poetry,” which will be out in 2025.

The next leg of Chen’s professional journey will see her take on a tenure-track English professorship at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the fall.

She says the opportunities for teaching she had at DU helped to build her confidence as an educator, crediting the department’s professors with guiding her through the teaching process.

“I think having the opportunity to teach, to lead classes on my own and be the instructor on record has been really valuable for me to really, firmly know that this is what I want to do, and this is where I want to go.

“I think, in order to learn how to be a teacher, you do have to teach and have that experience, right?” she says. “You can talk about it all you want, like, ‘This is how we might run a class,’ but you never really can replicate what it's like, being in front of the classroom and having all these different perspectives come at you. And figuring out how to navigate that can be very hard to impart without that experience. So having that experience, having the mentorship of the department, I think that's been very invaluable.”

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