- About Our MFA
THE UVA MFA PROGRAM
The University of Virginia's MFA in Creative Writing Program is a three-year graduate program that, starting in 2023–24, admits four poets and four fiction writers each academic year. Students have the option to graduate in two years on an accelerated schedule. Our program is full time and residency is required for all years of study.* All of our students receive the same financial support (up to $30,000 in fellowships and/or wage income each academic year ).
WHAT MAKES UVA UNIQUE?
Applicants often ask what makes UVA any different from other MFA programs. There are many possible answers, but among our favorites are:
- Our graduate classes are small and our faculty-to-student ratio is very high. We will be accepting four students in poetry and four in fiction writing for the 2023–24 academic year.
- All our students receive the same amount of funding, and they do not have to re-compete. We believe this promotes collegiality among our students and supportive, constructive workshops.
- Our students do not teach in the fall of their first year, which preserves time for writing—one of the main reasons students go to MFA programs in the first place. First-year students teach one creative writing class in the spring.
- Our students teach creative writing classes in fiction and poetry largely of their own design (they don't just run a discussion section of a larger course or do freshman comp).
- Our program also offers great academic flexibility, enabling our MFA students to take graduate-level courses from faculty in other UVA departments and schools like studio art, politics, education, music, and drama, just to name a few.
- We are one of only five graduate programs that awards an annual $15,000 Henfield Prize to a currently-enrolled student for outstanding work in fiction. Henfield Prize page for full details.
- And we think our faculty is among the best in the nation. See our faculty page for a full listing and more details.
REA VISITING WRITERS AND LECTURERS
Through the generosity of the Dungannon Foundation, our MFA students also study under Rea Visiting Writers and Lecturers . Rea Visiting Writers take residence at UVA for one week, give a public reading of their work, and conduct a craft talk with our MFAs and advanced undergraduates. The Rea Writers also receive manuscripts from our MFA students in advance of their visit, and while in residence, conduct intensive one-on-one manuscript consultations. Rea Lecturers visit for a shorter duration, give a public reading of their work, and conduct a craft talk with our MFAs and advanced undergraduates. We host at least two Rea Writers each year (one in fiction, one in poetry) and as many Rea Lecturers as funding and time permit. See this page for a listing of recent Rea visitors .-->
KAPNICK FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE
In addition to our permanent faculty, the University of Virginia is also home of the Kapnick Foundation Distinguished Writer-in-Residence , a new program in the tradition of William Faulkner’s legendary residencies at the University in 1957 and 1958. The program brings writers of international stature to Charlottesville for extended stays to teach and engage with the UVA student body, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and to leave a lasting mark on the literary community. A list of our Kapnick writers appears here .-->
To receive the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, a student accepted into the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences complete a three-year program at the University of Virginia, with an option to graduate in two years. For details, see our MFA curriculum page .
Our students' final projects must comprise a substantial body of original writing of a hundred or more pages of fiction (short stories or a novel) or a collection of approximately thirty poems. The University of Virginia requires all degree candidates to file their theses online in the UVA Library's Libra database. Students have the option to restrict access to their theses (to just users on the UVA network) for up to ten years. For details, see our MFA curriculum page .
Our MFA program is also the home of Meridian ( Web site here ), a semiannual literary magazine edited by our graduate students and distributed nationally. Meridian publishes each spring. The journal features outstanding fiction, poetry, and nonfiction from both emerging and established writers, and work from Meridian contributors has gone on for inclusion in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, and the Pushcart anthology.
AFTER GRADUATION
While what our students accomplish during their stay in Charlottesville is important to us, we're also very proud of what they've done afterward. Several writers from our recent graduating classes have distinguished themselves, our program, and the University of Virginia by winning important literary prizes including The Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, Pushcart Prize selections, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, the Yale Younger Poets Series Prize, the Barnard Women Poet's Prize, the Prix de Rome, and other awards. Our graduates continue to land major book contracts, even in a time of publishing turmoil. While many MFA programs advise you to read the work of their faculty before applying, we suggest another idea is to read the recent novels, poetry collections, memoirs, and short stories of our graduates. See our Alumni Books page for recent examples by UVA MFA alumni. Those same young writers have also gone on to become Stegner Fellows, Olive B. O'Connor Fellows, as well as becoming junior faculty members at colleges and universities across the nation. Recent student awards are listed here .
* By "residency is required," we mean that we are a full-time, traditional graduate program and expect our MFA students to live in/near Charlottesville and attend classes and program events. We have had students live in nearby cities like Richmond or Lexington due to family or other needs, but we cannot alter academic class or teaching times to accommodate students who choose to commute.
- How to Apply
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- Rea Writers
- Kapnick Writers
- Henfield Prize
- Sydney Hall Blair Fellowship
- Media Links
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- Contact/Visit
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The Graduate Program
At a time of rapid transition in the field of literary and cultural studies, we are intent upon sustaining our offerings in traditional historical periods, elaborating those in diverse world literatures, and engaging fully with the spectrum of current theoretical concerns. The University of Virginia is also widely recognized as a leader in digital humanities, an area for which much of the initiative comes from faculty and graduate students in the English department. We take pride in offering graduate study superintended by an internationally renowned faculty.
The Master of Arts Program provides advanced training in literary studies, preparing students for either admission to Ph.D. programs or careers in a variety of fields that require intellectual ingenuity, skills in writing or research, or training in literary criticism and theory. Those who wish to pursue doctoral degrees regularly gain admission to other fine programs. Those seeking careers immediately following the MA have found jobs in secondary teaching, technology, the public sector, business, publishing, and higher education. The MA degree may be completed in three full semesters, though students opting to write an MA thesis often take a fourth semester.
Students may also opt to complete an MA on a part-time basis, so long as they complete the degree within five years. Some students take a full load in their first semester and then finish the degree as a part-time student, but other schedules are possible. Some sample MA timelines may be found here .
Note: The funding of an MA degree can be challenging, as few sources of scholarship support are currently available, either at UVA or nationally. This is a matter of much current concern and discussion in graduate education circles. (See the description, below, of our MA Teaching concentration, a partly funded degree.) Funding issues may impinge on a student’s decision to study full or part time, in that many students take loans that require them to maintain full-time status. All students with loans should contact their lenders directly to understand any implications part-time status might have for them. Moreover, part-time UVA students are currently not eligible to receive student wages, so may not hold student jobs at the university (though this policy is under review and may change). UVA Student Financial Services can help students understand if part-time status is the right financial choice for them.
In addition to our regular MA, we offer an MA in English with a Concentration in Teaching Literature and Writing . This two-year program provides specialized training in teaching, and, in the second year, teaching opportunities and financial support (tuition, fees, one-person health insurance coverage, and a salary per course). In cooperation with the Law School, we offer an interdisciplinary MA in Law and Literature . Our BA/MA program enables selected UVa undergraduates to take graduate courses in their fourth year and go on to complete the MA degree the following year. Interested MA students may choose to earn a graduate certificate in American Studies , Africana Studies , Gender Studies , Environmental Humanities , or Digital Humanities . The MA in English is a terminal degree; UVa MA students who apply to the PhD program compete with other transfer applicants.
The PhD program , with its coursework, exams, guided dissertation research, and training in teaching, places graduates in college and university research and teaching positions, in secondary education, and in academic administration, as well as in positions in publishing, consulting, the public sector, private foundations, and journalism—everywhere that research skills, rigorous analysis, and good writing are valued. In addition to their specialized research, interested PhD students may choose to earn a graduate certificate in Premodern Cultures and Communities , American Studies , Gender and Sexuality Studies , Africana Studies , Environmental Humanities , or Digital Humanities . Financial support, including health insurance and tuition remission, is awarded to all PhD students from the first through the sixth year of study. As part of their package, PhD students teach one course per semester in years two through four and in year six of the program. The fifth year of study is a fully funded year dedicated entirely to writing the dissertation without teaching obligations. Beyond the sixth year, students in good standing may receive tuition remission, fees, and a salary in consideration for teaching. Government loans and work-study funding are also available. Students typically complete the doctoral degree in six to seven years.
The English Department makes every effort to place its students and has a good record of doing so. Recent recipients of the PhD have found teaching positions at such institutions as Williams College, Illinois, Ohio Wesleyan, Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Virginia Commonwealth University, Bowdoin, Clemson, Iowa, McGill, Nevada, MIT, Dartmouth, Bowling Green, New Mexico State, Penn, North Carolina, Rutgers, Fordham, Tufts, Arizona, Wake Forest, and Berkeley. Find more information about placement and careers in and outside of academia here .
The University library system is a resource of many dimensions. The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library holds a number of remarkable collections of American and British literature. Most noteworthy is the Barrett Library, one of the finest research collections in the world for American literature, including rare books and manuscripts of Cabell, Cather, Crane, Cummings, Eliot, Frost, Harte, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Holmes, Howells, James, Twain, Wharton, and Whitman. Manuscripts in the collection include The Red Badge of Courage , the 1860 Leaves of Grass , and The Sun Also Rises . Other collections of note include the William Faulkner Collection, the unique Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Novels, the Wagelin Collection of American Poetry, the Taylor Collection of American Fiction, and the Tunstall Collection of Poetry. Alderman Library, the largest circulating library on Grounds, is an excellent research facility with a standard working collection suitable for advanced studies across the humanities. The library's online holdings and well-staffed Scholars' Lab provide access to a large collection of literary works and advanced computer techniques for working with the texts. In addition, Clemons Library holds an abundant collection of video material and a well-equipped media center. The Department itself is the home of three prize-winning journals: New Literary History , an internationally respected journal of theory and interpretation; Studies in Bibliography , the premier international journal of analytical bibliography and textual study; and Meridian , a student-edited journal of writing.
Students with physical or learning disabilities which may require reasonable accommodation at the University should contact Brad Holland, Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities . Information about the larger University and Charlottesville communities may be found here .
The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only. The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found at http://records.ureg.virginia.edu/index.php .
Creative Writing: The Accolades Keep Coming In
Much has and will be written about the effects of the pandemic on the arts and on artists. it is challenging to think of all those who have not been able to share their work with audiences, yet at the same time inspiring to discover the power of art to find a way to guide us still and move us forward..
Yet, there is another side to this unprecedented shutdown to consider as well. How can we quantify the remarkable work that will come out of this period – a time which allowed many artists to focus on their work in a way they have never been able to before.
These days the Creative Writing program at UVA seems to be reaping some of these benefits as it is in the midst of a remarkable string of accolades and successes shining a light on its many treasures. "The faculty in the Creative Writing program have always been incredibly prolific, generative writers," said the program's Director Kiki Petrosino . "To have a year with this many professional accolades is already amazing, but even more so considering the constraints that have been put on all sorts of artists through the pandemic."
One of the program's and the world's true gems is no surprise at the front of this accolade parade – the legendary Rita Dove, a former Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner whose poetry continues to make its mark around the globe. On November 30, Dove took the stage of The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as one of the featured alumni in a gala celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Fulbright Scholars program. That evening, the 1974 Fulbright Scholar appeared alongside an impressive array of special guests and fellow scholars who shared their inspiring stories and key moments of their overseas experiences and the ongoing positive impact they are making in their communities and around the world.
Meanwhile, the year also saw the release of Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems , Dove's first new collection of poems in 12 years. It was named one of the best books of 2021 by NPR, which called it "both for and of our current moment – one that can feel apocalyptic." Dove's words, they wrote, "pierce history, explore meaning, and interrogate memory." In the book, Dove also shares with her readers for the first time that she has been living with a form of multiple sclerosis since 1997 and explores her journey unflinchingly but with hope. The book recently has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
Another highly-acclaimed recent effort comes from Lisa Russ Spaar. Her latest collection of poems, Madrigalia: New and Selected Poems , was named among the "Favorite Books of 2021" by Virginia Living Magazine, which hailed it by writing, "These poems address life and dreams and history and death. Madrigalia is a beautiful book that delights with wit and words matched with an emotional draw." In her review of the book, Jennifer Chang of The Believer wrote, "Lisa Russ Spaar sounds like no other poet writing today." This spring brings another milestone in Spaar's remarkable career with the release of her first novel, Paradise Close , in which the paths of an orphaned girl in 1971 and a sixty-something recluse in 2016 entwine in a novel of damaged souls and salvaged hope.
This fall, another notable book launch out of the Creative Writing Department came from Rabih Alameddine, this year's Kapnick Foundation Distinguished Writer in Residence. The National Book Critics' Circle Award finalist for An Unnecessary Woman , Alameddine's latest, has been hailed as a transporting journey about an Arab American trans woman's journey among Syrian refugees on Lesbos island. "The novel," said Petrosino, "highlights individuals across a variety of identities who situate themselves relative to the reality of refugees and forced migrations of many kinds." Alameddine, whose previous honors have included a John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, a Harold Washington Literary Award, a Lambda Literary Award, two Arab American Book Awards, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, was also honored with the prestigious 2021 Lannan Literary Award for Fiction and a longlisting for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Kiki Petrosino and Debra Nystrom were among the Creative Writing faculty enjoying honors this year. They are two of six Virginia poets to receive Poetry Fellowships in 2022. In addition, Petrosino's latest book of poetry, White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia , recently won the Spalding Award for the Promotion of Peace and Justice in Literature and the UNT Rilke Prize. This summer, she will release her first full-length book of prose, Bright: A M emoir.
Another department member is highlighting her prodigious writing talents in the music world, Jana Horn's debut album Optimism . Horn, a postgrad fiction-writing student and an MFA fiction writing student has been called "a skeletal marvel" by the Guardian . The songs represent a rumination on broken communication and what it is to be known. Optimism came to be after Horn scrapped plans for an earlier debut album she had recorded after she said she had learned how to appreciate the "ugliness and imperfection" in music, she said.
Creative Writing Program Lecturer, Professor Anna Martin-Beecher , was recently shortlisted for the Sunday Times Charlotte Aiken Young Writer of the Year Award for her debut novel, Here Comes the Miracle – a "profoundly beautiful story about love and loss, and the beautiful and violent randomness of life." Beecher is a current MFA candidate in the department and a winner of the $10,000 Henfield Prize for Fiction. She has also written widely for theatre and performance, including Nest, which toured the UK in 2019.
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This biannual magazine celebrates the arts at UVA and offers a glimpse of the scholarship, work, and talents of the people who bring them to life. Consider these short pieces to be vibrant snapshots of a dynamic landscape, and invitations to further explore the ways in which students, often from entirely different backgrounds or cultures, are coming together via the arts to innovate, create, collaborate, explore and discover…and grow.
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MFA Creative Writing Program
Blake Bailey, Darden Endowed Professor in Creative Writing
- After a national search conducted in the spring, Blake Bailey has been appointed the Darden Endowed Professor in Creative Writing. Blake, who is the Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography for his book Cheever: A Life , officially joins the faculty of the MFA Creative Writing program this fall. Blake’s other recent awards and achievements include the 2010 Francis Parkman Prize (Best Book of American History from the Society of American Historians); one of only seven prestigious Academy awards in Literature presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2010; Finalist (Biography) for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize; Finalist (Biography) for the 2010 James Tait Black Memorial Prize; and Finalist (Bisexual Nonfiction) for the 2010 Lambda Literary Award. Last year, Blake was selected to serve as one of five judges to determine the finalists and winner of the 2010 National Book Award in Nonfiction. He is under contract with Alfred A. Knopf for a biography of novelist Charles Jackson which is expected to see publication in 2013.
- MFA Fiction student Ann Barry Burrows published “Long at Table” in the December 2010 issue of Alimentum Journal .
- MFA Poetry student Jennifer Graham published “The Inner Workings of Our Blue-Green Marble Called Earth” and an interview in Red Ochre Lit journal (February 2011).
- Luisa A. Igloria , GPD of the MFA Creative Writing Program, won First Prize in the 2011 Philippines Free Press Literary Award for Poetry. The Awards were announced at the Manila Press Club in July, 2011. Since November 2010, she has been writing a poem a day at Via Negativa ; one of these poems is viewable as a video poem .
John McManus, MFA Faculty (Fiction)
- Michael Pearson led a 2011 Summer Study Abroad Program to Santiago de Campostela, Spain.
- Janet Peery received a Fellowship to the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. She was a presenter at a panel in the 2010 AWP Conference in Denver on “The Light— or Limit— of Faith in Fiction”. Recent MFA fiction graduate Emily Louise Zimbrick was moderator.
- Tim Seibles was Poet in Residence at the Stadler Center, Bucknell University in Spring 2010. He was a Judge for the New England Pen Award for the best book of poems published in 2009.
- MFA Nonfiction student Marion Charlene Thomas placed Finalist in the 2010-11 ODU Women’s Studies Department Essay Contest.
- MFA Poetry student Wendi White won the 2010-11 ODU College Poetry Prize in the Graduate Category; the contest was judged by Adrian Matejka.
- The new community support organization Friends of the MFA Creative Writing Program was created in summer, 2011. The group held an organizational meeting on July 30 and has since put together a slate of nominated officers and board members, including Katherine Jackson (president), Mary Westbrook (vice president), Joleen Westerdale (secretary), and Andrea Nolan (Finance Officer). Friends of the MFA Program is excited to widen its membership, work on development and fundraising projects, and be instrumental in providing networking and resources for alumni and supporters of the MFA Creative Writing Program. Recommended donation for membership is $20 ($10 for students / free for current MFA students). The group has already received its first donation of $25 in honor of a poetry reading given in Virginia Beach by Tim Seibles. Friends of the MFA will be sponsoring some events this fall, so be on the lookout for these.
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Intermediate and advanced writers can take courses from our full-time faculty by instructor permission, and citizen scholars can also apply. See our undergraduate page for more information. At the graduate level, we offer one of the best MFA programs in the country with award-winning faculty and alumni whose poetry and prose is in print or ...
Professor of Creative Writing, Director of the APLP.
The University of Virginia's MFA in Creative Writing Program is a three-year graduate program that, starting in 2023–24, admits four poets and four fiction writers each academic year. Students have the option to graduate in two years on an accelerated schedule.
© 2024 By the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. Legal Links. Privacy; Consumer Information ; Accessibility; Non-Discrimination Notice
The graduate program in English at the University of Virginia has long been a distinguished one. We offer three graduate degrees, including the Master of Arts, the Doctor of Philosophy, and the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
The UVA Creative Writing Program offers one of the best MFA programs in the country, along with undergraduate English concentrations in poetry and literary prose and elective coursework. Explore Creative Writing Events. View Calendar. Creative Writing Stories. Stanley Stepanic on Fact and Fiction in "A Vamp There Was"
UVA Creative Writing Program Database. The University of Virginia Creative Writing Program is the home of a two-year, fully funded MFA program and undergraduate concentrations in poetry writing and literary prose.
Kiki Petrosino and Debra Nystrom were among the Creative Writing faculty enjoying honors this year. They are two of six Virginia poets to receive Poetry Fellowships in 2022.
After a national search conducted in the spring, Blake Bailey has been appointed the Darden Endowed Professor in Creative Writing. Blake, who is the Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography for his book Cheever: A Life, officially joins the faculty of the MFA Creative Writing program this fall.
Master of Fine Arts. Of the 48 credits required for the degree, students are expected to complete a minimum of 24 credits of graded coursework, including twelve credits of ENCW 7610 (MFA Fiction Workshop) or ENCW 7310 (MFA Poetry Workshop) and twelve credits of graduate literature courses in the Department of English, approved graduate courses ...