university of michigan ann arbor creative writing mfa

5 Uncommon Tips on Your MFA Creative Writing Application

A couple of years ago, I made the decision to apply to MFA programs in creative writing. Compared to medical school or law school, the application process for an MFA can sometimes feel like a crapshoot, with the odds of getting into a fully-funded program hovering somewhere below four or five percent (and some programs like Iowa, Michigan, Michener—gulp—even less!). Still, it seems that every year, a few applicants manage to get admitted to a handful of programs, which brings up the question of whether the process is as random as one might initially think.

As a caveat, I’ve never served as a reader for any programs’ admissions committee (for a genuine insider look, follow Elizabeth McCracken’s twitter and listen to everything she says!), but I happen to have been lucky enough to get accepted to several fully funded schools on my first try. Whenever someone asks me for advice, I get a little queasy, because I barely knew what I was doing back then. However, I’d like to think that I’ve had some time to reflect on the process and have spoken to many people, including students who’ve been accepted and faculty members. I’ve since graduated from my MFA and hold (at the time of writing) a Zell postgraduate fellowship in fiction at the University of Michigan.

I’ll skip the general consensus—polish the writing sample, apply to more than one school, get feedback on your materials, etc. Instead, I’ll offer some less common ones that I thought worked for me. I hope they help with your application, and I’m certainly indebted to many writers who came before me and similarly shed light on their own experiences.

Presenting yourself . Most of us writers tend to dislike being pigeonholed, or to accept the idea that there are certain themes or styles we keep reverting to again and again. I definitely struggled with this (and continue to) but for the application process, presenting ourselves in a way that is unified and meaningful can sometimes spell the difference between sticking out in the pile or not. I write a lot about the Philippines, where I grew up, and this location not only influences the setting of my stories, but also informs my thematic sensibility as well as my identity. My personal statement talked about my background growing up in a predominantly Christian and Chinese-Filipino family, the conflicts at the dinner table as a result of our ethnic and religious upbringing, and how these issues are explored in my work. My fiction samples were chosen with this in mind (of course, they also happened to be my best work at the time), and I imagine my recommendation letters further attested to my experience as an immigrant. As a result, I believe I demonstrated myself as someone who deeply cares about what I write and has something important to say about the world around me. A place or region might not be the element that binds your application materials together. It might be a style, philosophy, or occupation—but whatever it is, it should resonate meaningfully in all aspects of your work (you can even ask your recommenders to talk about it). If readers can come away with the feeling that they know you and what motivates you to write, then you only need to show that you also can write.
Range and length of sample . This might sound like a contradiction to the above, but it really isn’t. Rather, this is the part where you get a chance to display your skill and flexibility as a writer. For my sample, I chose three stories with varying styles: fabulist, comedic, and straight realist. They also differed in their lengths: short, medium, and long. What kept them all together was the setting of the Philippines, which again referred back to my personal statement and kept them from feeling haphazardly chosen. You might wonder if this is a good idea, since schools often just ask for 25 to 30 pages of creative sample, and might even say something to the effect that they’re looking for “a demonstration of sustained, quality work.” I debated with myself on the correct approach, and you might not agree with my conclusions: If programs clearly ask for just a single story, and if they feel more traditional in their aesthetics, then perhaps sending a longer story is better. However, the risk of sending one story is the risk of increasing subjectivity, and has to do more with the practical reality of the selection process than anything else. We all know that readers have different tastes, and if for some reason they don’t connect with the first few pages of your work, they most likely won’t read on. If you present them with a shorter work first, they might be willing to read the beginning of the second story, and if they still don’t like that, then the third. If each story is different stylistically, you’re increasing the chances that one of these would be appealing to the readers, and they might reconsider the stories that they passed on the first read.
Potential . I’ve heard anecdotes of applicants being turned down because the admission committee thought they were “overqualified” to be studying in an MFA program. This probably doesn’t apply to most of us, but the principle remains: administrators are looking for people they believe can get something out of the two-to-three-year experience. In other words, they’re looking for writers’ potential as much as writers’ ability. I can certainly speak to this. When I applied, I’d barely taken any creative writing workshops. I’d just started writing literary fiction and I was unpublished. I took screenwriting as an undergrad (a related field, I know) but I still emphasized the things I anticipated learning from an MFA, including the benefit of being in a community. I did not downplay my background in screenwriting (and as it happened, also journalism), but I was able to articulate how each tradition influenced me as a writer. You might be someone who’s majored in creative writing as an undergrad and knew for a long time that you want to write literary fiction. That’s okay (in fact I think that’s great!). But you still have to find a way to communicate your limitations while playing to your strengths. To a large extent, it seems to me more of an attitude check: nobody wants to be with the writer who feels privileged and entitled to a seat at the MFA table.
Preparedness . Sometimes, perhaps because I got in on my first try, I wonder if my acceptance was a fluke, and if I was really ready for the MFA experience. Of course, I’ve heard many people who felt similarly, some who even have a lot of creative writing background under their belt. The impostor syndrome aside, I do think that it’s good to gain as much exposure to the literary world as possible before applying to an MFA program. This not only gives you a better sense of why you write and what you write (going back to my first point), but moreover it increases the likelihood that once you are accepted, you’ll know how to make the most out of your time and the resources being offered. I had a wonderful experience at the University of Michigan—indeed, I’ve never read or written more in my life than I did at that point, and I could not have asked for a better set of cohort or mentors. I have grown exponentially as a writer. Rightly or wrongly, though, I did consciously set myself apart as someone who was a beginner, who had the most to learn about writing literary fiction. This attitude has enabled me to develop in leaps and bounds. At the same time, I could see how—had I been further along in my progress—I could’ve used the MFA in a different way: writing that novel I’ve always wanted, giving more thought to the direction of my career, the business side of the industry, finding an agent, etc. I think there’s something valiant and admirable about finding yourself as a result of experimenting during the MFA years, but it might also be worth considering and being aware of the different trajectories in entering a program. As a suggestion for preparing yourself pre-MFA-application, I highly suggest going to a conference (the Napa Writers’ Conference, Wesleyan Writers Conference, and the Key West Literary Seminar being some of the more well-known ones I’ve personally attended and recommend).
On success . My final note on the application process is less of a tip and more of a reminder. When the time comes around to February or March, and should you find yourself not getting into the programs of your choice, recuperate from the rejections and take them in stride. View the result both as a sobering reminder of the odds stacked up against anyone applying for an MFA, and also as an opportunity to become better prepared, so that if you do get in later, you will be in an improved position. Similarly, should you be fortunate enough to get into your top programs, view the achievement as the means to an end, and not the end in itself. If a study were to be conducted on MFA admittances, I’m almost sure that the findings would show that acceptances to programs are in no way predictive of future success in publishing. Only diligence and perseverance are positive indicators of writerly success, and in this sense, we all can take comfort in the fact that all of us have a fair shot if we’re in it for the long haul.

Image: The Hopwood Room, where some workshops are held at the Helen Zell Writers’ Program, University of Michigan.

You are what you eat., 1 thought on “5 uncommon tips on your mfa creative writing application”.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. It’s exactly what I dd in my sample. Anyone who wants to see real successful samples of statements of purpose should read this post: 10 Statement Of Purpose Examples: How To Wow The Admission Committees Of Fully-Funded MFA Programs (Guide + Samples +Tips) https://www.creativewritingnews.com/statement-of-purpose-examples-2/

Creative Writing at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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Creative Writing Degrees Available at U-M

Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing
Master’s Degree in Creative Writing

U-M Creative Writing Rankings

The bachelor's program at U-M was ranked #34 on College Factual's Best Schools for creative writing list . It is also ranked #1 in Michigan .

Popularity of Creative Writing at U-M

During the 2020-2021 academic year, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor handed out 24 bachelor's degrees in creative writing. This is a decrease of 33% over the previous year when 36 degrees were handed out.

In 2021, 22 students received their master’s degree in creative writing from U-M. This makes it the #29 most popular school for creative writing master’s degree candidates in the country.

U-M Creative Writing Students

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the creative writing majors at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor.

U-M Creative Writing Bachelor’s Program

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 24 students earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing from U-M. About 63% of these graduates were women and the other 38% were men.

The majority of bachelor's degree recipients in this major at U-M are white. In the most recent graduating class for which data is available, 58% of students fell into this category.

The following table and chart show the ethnic background for students who recently graduated from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor with a bachelor's in creative writing.

U-M Creative Writing Master’s Program

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 22 students earned a master's degree in creative writing from U-M. About 64% of these graduates were women and the other 36% were men.

The following table and chart show the ethnic background for students who recently graduated from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor with a master's in creative writing.

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MFA Program

Poetry: Aaron Coleman, Kelly Hoffer, Tung-hui Hu, Khaled Mattawa Fiction: Julie Buntin, Gabe Habash, Peter Ho Davies Creative Nonfiction: Aisha Sabatini Sloan

The program offers full funding for two years, which includes full tuition remission and monthly stipend through fellowships and graduate student instructorships. The program will be able to offer six qualifying graduates one year of post-MFA funding.

Michigan Quarterly Review

The program hosts the Zell Visiting Writers Series, through which invited guests give readings, hold craft talks, and offer individual consultations with students. Other program features include opportunities to teach with 826michigan and InsideOut Detroit, curate the student reading series, and partner with other area literary organizations.

Brittany Bennett, Vievee Francis, Donovan Hohn, Airea D. Matthews, Celeste Ng, Chigozie Obioma, Hanna Pylväinen, Paisley Rekdal, Jia Tolentino, Jesmyn Ward

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Art of the Word: Inside the University’s MFA program

The 10 Best Creative Writing MFA Programs in the US

The talent is there.

But the next generation of great American writers needs a collegial place to hone their craft.

They need a place to explore the writer’s role in a wider community.

They really need guidance about how and when to publish.

All these things can be found in a solid Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree program. This degree offers access to mentors, to colleagues, and to a future in the writing world.

A good MFA program gives new writers a precious few years to focus completely on their work, an ideal space away from the noise and pressure of the fast-paced modern world.

We’ve found ten of the best ones, all of which provide the support, the creative stimulation, and the tranquility necessary to foster a mature writer.

We looked at graduate departments from all regions, public and private, all sizes, searching for the ten most inspiring Creative Writing MFA programs.

Each of these ten institutions has assembled stellar faculties, developed student-focused paths of study, and provide robust support for writers accepted into their degree programs.

To be considered for inclusion in this list, these MFA programs all must be fully-funded degrees, as recognized by Read The Workshop .

Creative Writing education has broadened and expanded over recent years, and no single method or plan fits for all students.

Today, MFA programs across the country give budding short story writers and poets a variety of options for study. For future novelists, screenwriters – even viral bloggers – the search for the perfect setting for their next phase of development starts with these outstanding institutions, all of which have developed thoughtful and particular approaches to study.

So where will the next Salinger scribble his stories on the steps of the student center, or the next Angelou reading her poems in the local bookstore’s student-run poetry night? At one of these ten programs.

Here are 10 of the best creative writing MFA programs in the US.

University of Oregon (Eugene, OR)

Starting off the list is one of the oldest and most venerated Creative Writing programs in the country, the MFA at the University of Oregon.

Longtime mentor, teacher, and award-winning poet Garrett Hongo directs the program, modeling its studio-based approach to one-on-one instruction in the English college system.

Oregon’s MFA embraces its reputation for rigor. Besides attending workshops and tutorials, students take classes in more formal poetics and literature.

A classic college town, Eugene provides an ideal backdrop for the writers’ community within Oregon’s MFA students and faculty.

Tsunami Books , a local bookseller with national caché, hosts student-run readings featuring writers from the program.

Graduates garner an impressive range of critical acclaim; Yale Younger Poet winner Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Cave Canem Prize winner and Guggenheim fellow Major Jackson, and PEN-Hemingway Award winner Chang-Rae Lee are noteworthy alumni.

With its appealing setting and impressive reputation, Oregon’s MFA program attracts top writers as visiting faculty, including recent guests Elizabeth McCracken, David Mura, and Li-young Lee.

The individual approach defines the Oregon MFA experience; a key feature of the program’s first year is the customized reading list each MFA student creates with their faculty guide.

Weekly meetings focus not only on the student’s writing, but also on the extended discovery of voice through directed reading.

Accepting only ten new students a year—five in poetry and five in fiction— the University of Oregon’s MFA ensures a close-knit community with plenty of individual coaching and guidance.

Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)

Cornell University’s MFA program takes the long view on life as a writer, incorporating practical editorial training and teaching experience into its two-year program.

Incoming MFA students choose their own faculty committee of at least two faculty members, providing consistent advice as they move through a mixture of workshop and literature classes.

Students in the program’s first year benefit from editorial training as readers and editors for Epoch , the program’s prestigious literary journal.

Teaching experience grounds the Cornell program. MFA students design and teach writing-centered undergraduate seminars on a variety of topics, and they remain in Ithaca during the summer to teach in programs for undergraduates.

Cornell even allows MFA graduates to stay on as lecturers at Cornell for a period of time while they are on the job search. Cornell also offers a joint MFA/Ph.D. program through the Creative Writing and English departments.

Endowments fund several acclaimed reading series, drawing internationally known authors to campus for workshops and work sessions with MFA students.

Recent visiting readers include Salman Rushdie, Sandra Cisneros, Billy Collins, Margaret Atwood, Ada Limón, and others.

Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)

Arizona State’s MFA in Creative Writing spans three years, giving students ample time to practice their craft, develop a voice, and begin to find a place in the post-graduation literary world.

Coursework balances writing and literature classes equally, with courses in craft and one-on-one mentoring alongside courses in literature, theory, or even electives in topics like fine press printing, bookmaking, or publishing.

While students follow a path in either poetry or fiction, they are encouraged to take courses across the genres.

Teaching is also a focus in Arizona State’s MFA program, with funding coming from teaching assistantships in the school’s English department. Other exciting teaching opportunities include teaching abroad in locations around the world, funded through grants and internships.

The Virginia C. Piper Center for Creative Writing, affiliated with the program, offers Arizona State MFA students professional development in formal and informal ways.

The Distinguished Writers Series and Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference bring world-class writers to campus, allowing students to interact with some of the greatest in the profession. Acclaimed writer and poet Alberto Ríos directs the Piper Center.

Arizona State transitions students to the world after graduation through internships with publishers like Four Way Books.

Its commitment to the student experience and its history of producing acclaimed writers—recent examples include Tayari Jones (Oprah’s Book Club, 2018; Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2019), Venita Blackburn ( Prairie Schooner Book Prize, 2018), and Hugh Martin ( Iowa Review Jeff Sharlet Award for Veterans)—make Arizona State University’s MFA a consistent leader among degree programs.

University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX)

The University of Texas at Austin’s MFA program, the Michener Center for Writers, maintains one of the most vibrant, exciting, active literary faculties of any MFA program.

Denis Johnson D.A. Powell, Geoff Dyer, Natasha Trethewey, Margot Livesey, Ben Fountain: the list of recent guest faculty boasts some of the biggest names in current literature.

This three-year program fully funds candidates without teaching fellowships or assistantships; the goal is for students to focus entirely on their writing.

More genre tracks at the Michener Center mean students can choose two focus areas, a primary and secondary, from Fiction, Poetry, Screenwriting, and Playwriting.

The Michener Center for Writers plays a prominent role in contemporary writing of all kinds.

The hip, student-edited Bat City Review accepts work of all genres, visual art, cross genres, collaborative, and experimental pieces.

Recent events for illustrious alumni include New Yorker publications, an Oprah Book Club selection, a screenwriting prize, and a 2021 Pulitzer (for visiting faculty member Mitchell Jackson).

In this program, students are right in the middle of all the action of contemporary American literature.

Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO)

The MFA in Creative Writing at Washington University in St. Louis is a program on the move: applicants have almost doubled here in the last five years.

Maybe this sudden growth of interest comes from recent rising star alumni on the literary scene, like Paul Tran, Miranda Popkey, and National Book Award winner Justin Phillip Reed.

Or maybe it’s the high profile Washington University’s MFA program commands, with its rotating faculty post through the Hurst Visiting Professor program and its active distinguished reader series.

Superstar figures like Alison Bechdel and George Saunders have recently held visiting professorships, maintaining an energetic atmosphere program-wide.

Washington University’s MFA program sustains a reputation for the quality of the mentorship experience.

With only five new students in each genre annually, MFA candidates form close cohorts among their peers and enjoy attentive support and mentorship from an engaged and vigorous faculty.

Three genre tracks are available to students: fiction, poetry, and the increasingly relevant and popular creative nonfiction.

Another attractive feature of this program: first-year students are fully funded, but not expected to take on a teaching role until their second year.

A generous stipend, coupled with St. Louis’s low cost of living, gives MFA candidates at Washington University the space to develop in a low-stress but stimulating creative environment.

Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)

It’s one of the first and biggest choices students face when choosing an MFA program: two-year or three-year?

Indiana University makes a compelling case for its three-year program, in which the third year of support allows students an extended period of time to focus on the thesis, usually a novel or book-length collection.

One of the older programs on the list, Indiana’s MFA dates back to 1948.

Its past instructors and alumni read like the index to an American Literature textbook.

How many places can you take classes in the same place Robert Frost once taught, not to mention the program that granted its first creative writing Master’s degree to David Wagoner? Even today, the program’s integrity and reputation draw faculty like Ross Gay and Kevin Young.

Indiana’s Creative Writing program houses two more literary institutions, the Indiana Review, and the Indiana University Writers’ Conference.

Students make up the editorial staff of this lauded literary magazine, in some cases for course credit or a stipend. An MFA candidate serves each year as assistant director of the much-celebrated and highly attended conference .

These two facets of Indiana’s program give graduate students access to visiting writers, professional experience, and a taste of the writing life beyond academia.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI)

University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

The University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program cultivates its students with a combination of workshop-driven course work and vigorous programming on and off-campus. Inventive new voices in fiction and poetry consistently emerge from this two-year program.

The campus hosts multiple readings, events, and contests, anchored by the Zell Visiting Writers Series. The Hopgood Awards offer annual prize money to Michigan creative writing students .

The department cultivates relationships with organizations and events around Detroit, so whether it’s introducing writers at Literati bookstore or organizing writing retreats in conjunction with local arts organizations, MFA candidates find opportunities to cultivate a community role and public persona as a writer.

What happens after graduation tells the big story of this program. Michigan produces heavy hitters in the literary world, like Celeste Ng, Jesmyn Ward, Elizabeth Kostova, Nate Marshall, Paisley Rekdal, and Laura Kasischke.

Their alumni place their works with venerable houses like Penguin and Harper Collins, longtime literary favorites Graywolf and Copper Canyon, and the new vanguard like McSweeney’s, Fence, and Ugly Duckling Presse.

University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN)

Structure combined with personal attention and mentorship characterizes the University of Minnesota’s Creative Writing MFA, starting with its unique program requirements.

In addition to course work and a final thesis, Minnesota’s MFA candidates assemble a book list of personally significant works on literary craft, compose a long-form essay on their writing process, and defend their thesis works with reading in front of an audience.

Literary journal Great River Review and events like the First Book reading series and Mill City Reading series do their part to expand the student experience beyond the focus on the internal.

The Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer Series draws exceptional, culturally relevant writers like Chuck Klosterman and Claudia Rankine for readings and student conversations.

Writer and retired University of Minnesota instructor Charles Baxter established the program’s Hunger Relief benefit , aiding Minnesota’s Second Harvest Heartland organization.

Emblematic of the program’s vision of the writer in service to humanity, this annual contest and reading bring together distinguished writers, students, faculty, and community members in favor of a greater goal.

Brown University (Providence, RI)

One of the top institutions on any list, Brown University features an elegantly-constructed Literary Arts Program, with students choosing one workshop and one elective per semester.

The electives can be taken from any department at Brown; especially popular choices include Studio Art and other coursework through the affiliated Rhode Island School of Design. The final semester consists of thesis construction under the supervision of the candidate’s faculty advisor.

Brown is the only MFA program to feature, in addition to poetry and fiction tracks, the Digital/Cross Disciplinary track .

This track attracts multidisciplinary writers who need the support offered by Brown’s collaboration among music, visual art, computer science, theater and performance studies, and other departments.

The interaction with the Rhode Island School of Design also allows those artists interested in new forms of media to explore and develop their practice, inventing new forms of art and communication.

Brown’s Literary Arts Program focuses on creating an atmosphere where students can refine their artistic visions, supported by like-minded faculty who provide the time and materials necessary to innovate.

Not only has the program produced trailblazing writers like Percival Everett and Otessa Moshfegh, but works composed by alumni incorporating dance, music, media, and theater have been performed around the world, from the stage at Kennedy Center to National Public Radio.

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)

When most people hear “MFA in Creative Writing,” it’s the Iowa Writers’ Workshop they imagine.

The informal name of the University of Iowa’s Program in Creative Writing, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop was the first to offer an MFA, back in 1936.

One of the first diplomas went to renowned writer Wallace Stegner, who later founded the MFA program at Stanford.

It’s hard to argue with seventeen Pulitzer Prize winners and six U.S. Poets Laureate. The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is the root system of the MFA tree.

The two-year program balances writing courses with coursework in other graduate departments at the university. In addition to the book-length thesis, a written exam is part of the student’s last semester.

Because the program represents the quintessential idea of a writing program, it attracts its faculty positions, reading series, events, and workshops the brightest lights of the literary world.

The program’s flagship literary magazine, the Iowa Review , is a lofty goal for writers at all stages of their career.

At the Writers’ Workshop, tracks include not only fiction, poetry, playwriting, and nonfiction, but also Spanish creative writing and literary translation. Their reading series in association with Prairie Lights bookstore streams online and is heard around the world.

Iowa’s program came into being in answer to the central question posed to each one of these schools: can writing be taught?

The answer for a group of intrepid, creative souls in 1936 was, actually, “maybe not.”

But they believed it could be cultivated; each one of these institutions proves it can be, in many ways, for those willing to commit the time and imagination.

Dental hygiene has become a popular profession for students wanting to enter the health profession.…

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Belinda Kremer

Belinda Kremer holds an MFA in Creative Writing: Poetry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Since 1996, she has taught pre-composition, composition, advanced writing, disciplinary writing, literature, creative writing-- poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, drama-- writing for the sciences, writing for digital media, pedagogies of writing, and writing-tutor training in Michigan, New York, and California. Belinda also has extensive backgrounds in writing program and writing center administration, and in supporting faculty in teaching writing with technology. Her poetry appears in her full-length book DECOHERENCE , and in literary journals such as Calyx and FENCE.

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LEARNING & TEACHING ONLINE: MOST RECENT PRESENTATIONS
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Decoherence: Poems Stockport Flats 2013
Collide: Styles, Structures, and Ideas in Disciplinary Writing Belinda Kremer & Richard McNabb, eds. Pearson 2009

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University of Michigan receives $50 million from Zell Family Foundation, led by alumna Helen Zell, for Creative Writing Program

[email protected]

Largest donation in history of U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Nationally recognized program producing award-winning authors

The $50 million gift will permanently fund the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program for which Zell, a U-M alumna, initially committed $10 million in seed funding starting in 2004. The program, established in 1982, used Zell’s previous donation to fuel its growth and, in the past nine years, has earned recognition as one of the top writing programs in the country.

Alumni from the MFA program have published hundreds of books, and these works have achieved recognition from the New York Times, Oprah’s Book Club and nearly every other prestigious writing award. (Visit www.lsa.umich.edu/english/grad/alumni/MFA.asp for a full list).

The new gift brings Zell’s full financial contribution to the program to more than $60 million. In recognition of her support, U-M is renaming the program the Helen Zell Writers’ Program.

“The goal of this MFA program is twofold—to ease the financial burdens of talented budding authors so they have time to write, and to teach them the skills that will help them refine their voice,” Zell said. “Books have the power to inspire and change people, to create action, to generate movements, and to better understand those qualities that are uniquely human. We want to capture important stories that might otherwise go untold.”

The Creative Writing Program at U-M comprises two years of study, as well as a post-graduate year for qualifying students in the form of “Zellowships” dedicated just to writing. The program provides 22 students with more than $1 million of financial support each year through tuition waivers, stipends and health insurance.

More than 1,000 students apply to this highly competitive program each year; only 22 are selected. The curriculum includes writing workshops where students read and comment on each others’ works in progress and a visiting writer series, in which published authors hold individual consultations with students, give lectures and present readings. In addition, the program brings in agents and editors to provide students with exposure to the publishing business, as well as with a stage from which they can showcase their work.

“Helen Zell is a patron of writing at the University of Michigan,” said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman. “This is a transformative gift in the humanities, and one that builds on the Michigan literary legacy of Avery Hopwood and the Hopwood Awards. Helen is changing the lives of writers and providing the means for important works to be written, enriching the literary landscape. Her support of fiction and poetry is a commitment to the written word, which allows readers to explore, provides intellectual awakening, and stirs the imagination.”

The award-winning authors from the MFA program have produced memoirs, fiction and poetry. Among their extensive ranks are:

Elizabeth Kostova, author of “The Historian,” which became the first debut novel to hit number one on the New York Times best-seller list in its first week.
Hanna Pylväinen, who took advantage of the program to write her first novel, “We Sinners,” about conservative religion in the contemporary United States. The book won a Whiting Writers’ Award last year.
Jesmyn Ward, who won the 2011 National Book Award for her second novel, “Salvage the Bones,” about a Mississippi family during Hurricane Katrina.
Nigerian author and Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan, who wrote “Say You’re One of Them,” a collection of short stories giving voices to the poverty and violence in Africa. The book was named the No. 1 fiction book in 2008 by Entertainment Weekly and was the first short-story collection selected by Oprah’s Book Club in 2009.
Laura Kasischke, alumna and program faculty member won the National Book Critics Circle Award for the poetry collection “Space, in Chains,” in 2012.

“Without the Zell Postgraduate Fellowship, ‘We Sinners’ would have been banished to the bottom of my to-do list, which is to say, it might not have been written at all,” Pylväinen said. “To have someone preemptively believe in you and invest in you is a remarkable thing. It encouraged me to take my own work seriously and to see that it could have relevance outside the academy.” Pylväinen is now working on her second novel.

Zell, a 1964 graduate of U-M’s Department of English Language and Literature, is pleased that her bookshelves are now lined with works generated from the MFA program.

“What a prized collection,” Zell said. “The caliber and volume of product are amazing. Michigan is serving as a platform from which these talented writers are launching successful literary careers. And, we, as readers, are the ones who really reap the rewards.”

Zell became involved with the program in 2001, when she endowed the department’s first visiting professorship in fiction. That seat drew visiting professor Nancy Reisman to campus in 2001 as the first Helen Herzog Zell Professor. Reisman’s 2004 debut novel, “The First Desire,” was named a 2004 New York Times Notable Book and received the 2005 Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers from the Foundation for Jewish Culture.

At Zell’s request, her professorship will be renamed the Nicholas Delbanco Visiting Professorship, pending approval by the U-M Board of Regents. The change is designed to honor Delbanco, the Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature, and one of the first directors of the program. He continues to teach in the program.

“This is both a transformative and enduring gift, an act of great faith in and generosity towards those young artists who embrace the work of words,” Delbanco said.

“Helen’s gift puts writers exactly where they want to be—at their desks, with no commitments but those they make to their art,” said Michael Byers, director of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program. “From these desks, a great wealth of language and storytelling is emerging, and those stories will continue to inform and enlarge our sense of the world for decades to come.”

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What You Won’t Learn in an MFA

An mfa can teach you skills, but will it prepare you for a writing career.

By 2018, I had written five books and decided to pursue an MFA in creative writing with a concentration in fiction. For me, earning an MFA gave me the time and space I needed to quit my day job and transition to writing full-time, but that was something I had been building toward for over a decade. Of course, I can’t speak to all MFA programs, but in many cases, they focus almost exclusively on writing skills and don’t give writers the concrete skills they need to make money writing and publishing. I often found myself answering questions for my classmates about what publishing was really like. It simply wasn’t being taught, sometimes because faculty themselves were struggling with how to navigate writing as a business.

An MFA program may be the right choice to help you become a better writer, or because you want the qualification to teach writing at a college; it may not give you insights into navigating the publishing landscape.

Here are some of the professional development skills you may need to gain outside of the classroom on your writing journey.

Getting published

Many MFA programs don’t talk to authors about the good, the bad, and the ugly in both traditional publishing and self-publishing. There is often an assumption that if you’re in an MFA program, you’ll be seeking a traditional publishing deal. But most programs also don’t teach writers the skills to query small presses or agents who can query large presses. Even as self-publishing has become an increasingly popular publishing choice, many MFA programs aren’t giving students a clear picture of what it involves.

Contracting

My MFA program was great, but never once during my studies did I hear anyone talk about how to read, negotiate, or understand a contract. As an indie author, you’ll have fewer contracts to interact with than authors who choose to traditionally publish their work, but contracts will still come up—contracts with designers who are working on your books, contracts with podcasts or magazines publishing excerpts of your work. In my MFA program, students who were publishing were left to talk with each other to try to understand how contracts work. Most writers aren’t legal experts, and we benefit from having either a private attorney or an attorney through an organization such as the Author’s Guild review our contracts. I would love to see MFA programs better prepare writers to navigate these business interactions, to negotiate writing rates, and to understand what rights we may be signing away with a particular contract.

Writing to market

The culture of MFA programs often shames or diminishes the idea of writing to market, and instead prioritizes creating literary art for the sake of art. This is a completely valid way to approach your writing life. However, if your goal is to publish your work and sell books, understanding the market and how to write books that appeal to readers is important. There’s nothing wrong with writing books with mass-market appeal, but, depending on the program you attend, you may not hear that in classes. Especially for writers considering the self-publishing route, learning how to understand current trends and how to write books that connect to them is invaluable.

Writing is your passion, and seeing your name in print might be your dream, but when it happens, your writing also becomes a business. Understanding how to manage a writing business is something that most new writers won’t have a lot of experience with. For example, when you get paid from book sales, speaking arrangements, or most anything to do with your books, taxes aren’t going to be withheld. Instead, you’ll need to put money aside to pay your taxes. MFA programs generally don’t cover these details or highlight the importance of hiring an accountant or tax professional to help you with setting up your writing business. You may need to form an LLC for your self-publishing business, open a business bank account, and file taxes appropriately for your writing work. As a self-published author, you also may need to keep records tracking orders and inventory.

Most authors are not able to make a living from books alone. Many writers are balancing a variety of different content creation and income streams. This may include teaching at a college or university (for which a terminal degree such as an MFA is required), freelance writing, and independent teaching, to name a few possibilities. The more writing programs can give MFA students the tools they need to understand the business side of their work, the more successful they will be.

Sassafras Lowrey writes fiction and nonfiction and was the recipient of the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for emerging LGBTQ writers.

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Creative Writing Program Marks Three Decades of Growth, Diversity

Black and white photo shows old American seaside town with title 'Barely South Review'

By Luisa A. Igloria

2024: a milestone year which marks the 30 th anniversary of Old Dominion University’s MFA Creative Writing Program. Its origins can be said to go back to April 1978, when the English Department’s (now Professor Emeritus, retired) Phil Raisor organized the first “Poetry Jam,” in collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winning poet W.D. Snodgrass (then a visiting poet at ODU). Raisor describes this period as “ a heady time .” Not many realize that from 1978 to 1994, ODU was also the home of AWP (the Association of Writers and Writing Programs) until it moved to George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

The two-day celebration that was “Poetry Jam” has evolved into the annual ODU Literary Festival, a week-long affair at the beginning of October bringing writers of local, national, and international reputation to campus. The ODU Literary Festival is among the longest continuously running literary festivals nationwide. It has featured Rita Dove, Maxine Hong Kingston, Susan Sontag, Edward Albee, John McPhee, Tim O’Brien, Joy Harjo, Dorothy Allison, Billy Collins, Naomi Shihab Nye, Sabina Murray, Jane Hirshfield, Brian Turner, S.A. Cosby, Nicole Sealey, Franny Choi, Ross Gay, Adrian Matejka, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ilya Kaminsky, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Jose Olivarez, and Ocean Vuong, among a roster of other luminaries. MFA alumni who have gone on to publish books have also regularly been invited to read.

From an initial cohort of 12 students and three creative writing professors, ODU’s MFA Creative Writing Program has grown to anywhere between 25 to 33 talented students per year. Currently they work with a five-member core faculty (Kent Wascom, John McManus, and Jane Alberdeston in fiction; and Luisa A. Igloria and Marianne L. Chan in poetry). Award-winning writers who made up part of original teaching faculty along with Raisor (but are now also either retired or relocated) are legends in their own right—Toi Derricotte, Tony Ardizzone, Janet Peery, Scott Cairns, Sheri Reynolds, Tim Seibles, and Michael Pearson. Other faculty that ODU’s MFA Creative Writing Program was privileged to briefly have in its ranks include Molly McCully Brown and Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley.

"What we’ve also found to be consistently true is how collegial this program is — with a lively and supportive cohort, and friendships that last beyond time spent here." — Luisa A. Igloria, Louis I. Jaffe Endowed Professor & University Professor of English and Creative Writing at Old Dominion University

Our student body is diverse — from all over the country as well as from closer by. Over the last ten years, we’ve also seen an increase in the number of international students who are drawn to what our program has to offer: an exciting three-year curriculum of workshops, literature, literary publishing, and critical studies; as well as opportunities to teach in the classroom, tutor in the University’s Writing Center, coordinate the student reading series and the Writers in Community outreach program, and produce the student-led literary journal Barely South Review . The third year gives our students more time to immerse themselves in the completion of a book-ready creative thesis. And our students’ successes have been nothing but amazing. They’ve published with some of the best (many while still in the program), won important prizes, moved into tenured academic positions, and been published in global languages. What we’ve also found to be consistently true is how collegial this program is — with a lively and supportive cohort, and friendships that last beyond time spent here.

Our themed studio workshops are now offered as hybrid/cross genre experiences. My colleagues teach workshops in horror, speculative and experimental fiction, poetry of place, poetry and the archive — these give our students so many more options for honing their skills. And we continue to explore ways to collaborate with other programs and units of the university. One of my cornerstone projects during my term as 20 th Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth was the creation of a Virginia Poets Database, which is not only supported by the University through the Perry Library’s Digital Commons, but also by the MFA Program in the form of an assistantship for one of our students. With the awareness of ODU’s new integration with Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) and its impact on other programs, I was inspired to design and pilot a new 700-level seminar on “Writing the Body Fantastic: Exploring Metaphors of Human Corporeality.” In the fall of 2024, I look forward to a themed graduate workshop on “Writing (in) the Anthropocene,” where my students and I will explore the subject of climate precarity and how we can respond in our own work.

Even as the University and wider community go through shifts and change through time, the MFA program has grown with resilience and grace. Once, during the six years (2009-15) that I directed the MFA Program, a State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) university-wide review amended the guidelines for what kind of graduate student would be allowed to teach classes (only those who had already earned 18 or more graduate credits). Thus, two of our first-year MFA students at that time had to be given another assignment for their Teaching Assistantships. I thought of AWP’s hallmarks of an effective MFA program , which lists the provision of editorial and publishing experience to its students through an affiliated magazine or press — and immediately sought department and upper administration support for creating a literary journal. This is what led to the creation of our biannual Barely South Review in 2009.

In 2010, HuffPost and Poets & Writers listed us among “ The Top 25 Underrated Creative Writing MFA Programs ” (better underrated than overrated, right?) — and while our MFA Creative Writing Program might be smaller than others, we do grow good writers here. When I joined the faculty in 1998, I was excited by the high caliber of both faculty and students. Twenty-five years later, I remain just as if not more excited, and look forward to all the that awaits us in our continued growth.

This essay was originally published in the Spring 2024 edition of Barely South Review , ODU’s student-led literary journal. The University’s growing MFA in Creative Writing program connects students with a seven-member creative writing faculty in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.

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Celebrating the Spring 2024 MFA Graduates

Creative Writing MFA Alumni Spotlight: Monica Mody ('10)

Published: May 14, 2024

Author: Paul Cunningham

"The MFA program I attended at the University of Notre Dame allowed for and encouraged radical experimentation with form, language, and genre. I was able to familiarize myself with avant-garde currents in art and literature cross-culturally, and any static ideas about what I thought a poem could do exploded during my experimentations at Notre Dame." — Monica Mody in conversation with Sophia Naz, The Bangalore Review

Dr. Monica Mody moved to the Santa Barbara area to teach as core faculty in the Pacifica Graduate Institute's Mythological Studies MA/PhD Program. Her areas of specialization include decolonial, indigenous, and women of color paradigms and epistemologies; Anzaldúan frameworks; earth-sourced and feminist spirituality and ritual; poetry, divination, oracular speech, and arts-based research; and nondual embodiment, in conversation with ancestral lineages from South Asia. Her most recent full-length poetry collections include Wild Fin (Weavers Press, 2024) and Bright Parallel (Copper Coin, 2023).

Of Wild Fin , Maw Shein Win (author of Storage Unit for the Spirit House ) notes how it "weaves the reader through an eclectic warp and weft of grief and fury, rupture and suture, mysticism and calls for climate and social justice." Divya Victor (author of Curb ) calls Wild Fin a “A deeply personal and tender contemplation of ecological grief which, in impressionistic and reflective disclosures, asks us to acknowledge our inalienable enmeshment with each other and with the earth.” Of Bright Parallel , Sumana Roy (author of V.I.P.: Very Important Plant ) writes "Everywhere inside this book I found soil—living, dying, composting, growing, resting, and restless. I emerged frome very page with some of it in my hands." Sampurna Chattarji (author of Dirty Love ) describes Mody's "attunement to the natural world" as "precise," asserting that the "feministic enquiry is utterly embodied . . . she draws all to the brink of the motherpool."

For me, the poem is in some ways a zone of communion where many meanings and horizons can be attained, because, the way my brain works, no monomyth settles it. I am continually doing the work of seeing who I am in relationship with, who is before me inviting me into the task of becoming. — Monica Mody in conversation with Sophia Naz, The Bangalore Review

Mody is also the author of the cross-genre Kala Pani (1913 Press, 2013), and three chapbooks including Ordinary Annals (above/ground press, 2021). In a review of Kala Pani that appears in Rain Taxi , Elizabeth Robinson writes "With great inventiveness, Mody wends narrative around and within narrative, as though the bonds and bounds of story could twist, Houdini-like, to effect their own escape." Joyelle McSweeney (author of Death Styles ) writes "Gender, genre, national identity, multiple languages, and the body's 'natural' borders are all debased and reworked in this queer, unstable mix, which releases energy as it forms and breaks down and forms again."

Her peer-reviewed article, " Arts-based Practices: Research and Transformation in the Academy ," was published in the Transformative Power of Art Journal . Tarka Journal published her scholarly essay and poem sequence, "When Yoginis Appear with Animals: Animistic Relational Elements and the Non-Dual Matrix." Her conversation with Pakistani-American poet Sophia Naz, " Roots and Resonance ," was published by The Bangalore Review , and a poem "Glasshouse—Anthropocene" came out in Greening the Earth: A Global Anthology of Poetry (Penguin Random House India, 2023). She read at the South Asian Literary and Arts Festival in Menlo College, CA, where she also interviewed poet, curator, and cultural critic Ranjit Hoskote on his aesthetics.

The Center for Black & Indigenous Praxis at the California Institute of Integral Studies invited her to speak on a BIPOC Scholar Panel, and the Department of Women's Spirituality invited her to do a book talk/reading and conversation in conjunction with her two new poetry collections, in October 2023 and then in March 2024. Other presentations included the El Mundo Zurdo Conference and a Scholar Salon at the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology; readings included the 2023 Lit Crawl San Francisco. Monica was also invited on The Beat: A Poetry Podcast and the Mythic Podcast .

Dr. Monica Mody holds a Ph.D. in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame, and is a Bachelor of Arts and Laws (Hons.) from the National Law School of India University. She was born in Ranchi, India, and lives on the Chumash coast, California. Stay in touch with her via her substack ( monicamody.substack.com/ ).

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10 Best MFA Creative Writing Programs in 2024
University Of Michigan Creative Writing Mfa : Mika Perrine
MFA Creative Writing
University Of Michigan Creative Writing Mfa
Creative Writing Mfa Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate

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COMMENTS

MFA in Writing
Capstone Program in Creative Writing; English in Action; 2024 Commencement ; English Minor; ... MFA in Writing; How to Apply; Prospective Students; Current Students; Internship Program ... 435 S. State Street 3187 Angell Hall Ann Arbor, MI 48109 [email protected]. Intranet (Login Required) Report Sexual Misconduct. Click to call (734) 764-6330
5 Uncommon Tips on Your MFA Creative Writing Application
A couple of years ago, I made the decision to apply to MFA programs in creative writing. Compared to medical school or law school, the application process for an MFA can sometimes feel like a crapshoot, with the odds of getting into a fully-funded program hovering somewhere below four or five percent (and some programs like Iowa, Michigan, Michener—gulp—even less!).
English and Literature
English and Literature - Creative Writing is offered at University of Michigan. ... Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Top 0.5% worldwide . Studyportals University Meta Ranking. 4.2 Read 69 reviews. Overview Overview. ... and the Helen Zell Writer's MFA Program, providing a distinctive array of choices for applicants and a rich cultural ...
Creative Writing at University of Michigan
During the 2020-2021 academic year, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor handed out 24 bachelor's degrees in creative writing. This is a decrease of 33% over the previous year when 36 degrees were handed out. In 2021, 22 students received their master's degree in creative writing from U-M. This makes it the #29 most popular school for creative ...
University of Michigan Fully Funded MFA in Creative Writing
All MFA students accepted into the program are offered a full tuition waiver, a stipend of $30,054 (currently for '22-'23), as well as $6,000 in summer funding, and health care benefits. Additionally, various fellowships and prizes are awarded each year to MFA students. The University of Michigan offers a 2 year fully funded MFA in creative ...
15 Best Creative Writing MFA Programs in 2024
The best MFA Creative Writing Programs in 2024 are revealed. We cover everything from online MFAs to fully-funded residential programs. ... University of Michigan. Anne Carson famously lives in Ann Arbor, as do the MFA students in UMichigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program. This is a big university town, which is less damaging to your social ...
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we've published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests ...
Art of the Word: Inside the University's MFA program
The Helen Zell Writers' Program is a top-ranked two-year Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing, with cohorts in fiction and poetry. In the program, students work on their respective creative writing pieces while also serving as Graduate Student Instructors. At the end of the program, they essentially have completed a full body of ...
The 10 Best Creative Writing MFA Programs in the US
University of Oregon (Eugene, OR) Visitor7, Knight Library, CC BY-SA 3.0. Starting off the list is one of the oldest and most venerated Creative Writing programs in the country, the MFA at the University of Oregon. Longtime mentor, teacher, and award-winning poet Garrett Hongo directs the program, modeling its studio-based approach to one-on ...
Belinda Kremer
Belinda Kremer holds an MFA in Creative Writing: Poetry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Since 1996, she has taught pre-composition, composition, advanced writing, disciplinary writing, literature, creative writing-- poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, drama-- writing for the sciences, writing for digital media, pedagogies of writing, and writing-tutor training in Michigan, New ...
University of Michigan
Financial Aid. In the first year, all MFA students accepted into the program are offered a full tuition waiver and a stipend of $16,000, either through a fellowship or a combination of a gradership and a fellowship, as well as $6,000 in summer funding. The total first year package equals $22,000.
University of Michigan receives $50 million from Zell Family Foundation
Helen Zell ANN ARBOR—Chicago philanthropist Helen Zell donated $50 million to the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts—the largest gift in the college's history, the university announced today. The donation was made through the Zell Family Foundation, for which Zell serves as executive director.
Considering Michigan for MFA in Creative Writing : r/uofm
Considering Michigan for MFA in Creative Writing. University of Michigan is on my short list of schools that I plan on applying to for the MFA program. Could any of you guys tell me anything about your MFA program, the English department in general, or just what it's like to live in Ann Arbor (apartments, commuting, etc)? I'm currently ...
Jeffrey Chin
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States ... University of Michigan English Department Writing Program & New England Literature Program ... New York University, Adjunct Faculty Creative Writing (MFA ...
What You Won't Learn in an MFA
The culture of MFA programs often shames or diminishes the idea of writing to market, and instead prioritizes creating literary art for the sake of art. This is a completely valid way to approach ...
Creative Writing Program Marks Three Decades of Growth, Diversity
By Luisa A. Igloria. 2024: a milestone year which marks the 30 th anniversary of Old Dominion University's MFA Creative Writing Program. Its origins can be said to go back to April 1978, when the English Department's (now Professor Emeritus, retired) Phil Raisor organized the first "Poetry Jam," in collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winning poet W.D. Snodgrass (then a visiting poet at ODU).
Prospective Students
The Helen Zell Writers' Program is a two-year, fully-funded graduate program in creative writing leading to the Master of Fine Arts degree. During their two years of coursework, students concentrate in either fiction or poetry. Students come to the Helen Zell Writers' Program in preparation for a lifetime of writing, professional publication and artistic growth.
Celebrating the Spring 2024 MFA Graduates
One of the most rewarding times of the year in the Creative Writing program at WVU is the end of the spring semester, when graduating MFA students get to read from their theses to a crowd of family, colleagues, and English department faculty. ... April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Milano Reading Room of the Downtown University Library, the third ...
Frequently Asked Questions
Visiting a class, connecting with an alum. For any specific, answerable questions that have not been covered here or adderssed elsewhere on our program website, feel free to contact the English Department Office at [email protected]. Helen Zell Writers' Program. 734.764.6330. 734.763.3128.
Creative Writing MFA Alumni Spotlight: Monica Mody ('10)
"The MFA program I attended at the University of Notre Dame allowed for and encouraged radical experimentation with form, language, and genre. I was able to familiarize myself with avant-garde currents in art and literature cross-culturally, and any static ideas about what I thought a poem could do exploded during my experimentations at Notre Dame."
Reading and Q&A with Leslie Jamison
Ann Arbor, Art, arts at michigan, Author, book event, Book Talk, Contemporary Literature, Department Of English Language And Literature, English Language And Literature, Graduate, Literary Arts, Literati, Mfa Program In Creative Writing, Storytelling, UMMA, World Literature, Writing: Source: Happening @ Michigan from University of Michigan ...