Graduate Studies
Students in our M.A. and Ph.D. programs enjoy:
- Nationally competitive graduate stipends, up to $15,000 per year, with opportunities to teach a wide range of courses, including creative writing workshops
- Generous graduate student travel funding
- Editorial fellowships on New Ohio Review, Quarter after Eight, and Brevity
- Opportunities to interact with our distinguished visiting writers, including funding for long-term mentoring arrangements
M.A. candidates complete two years of study and write a thesis of creative work in their genre. Doctoral candidates must complete five years of study, comprehensive exams, a major critical essay, and a creative dissertation.
Graduate Seminars
Creative Writing graduate seminars mix both studio and academic approaches while being selective regarding genre (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction). There are typically two poetry and fiction workshops offered per year, each of the four workshops taught by different instructors, and one creative nonfiction workshop. Form and theory courses in each genre are offered annually depending on student demand. The catalogue numbers for workshops are 690 (fall quarter), 691 (winter quarter), and 692 (spring quarter). Current and recent courses include:
- 765: Theory of Literature: Poetry, Mark Halliday
- 691: Creative Writing Seminar: Fiction, Joan Connor
- 765: Theory of Literature: Fiction, Zakes Mda
- 691: Creative Writing Seminar: Poetry, Jill Allyn Rosser
- 694: History of the Essay, Dinty W. Moore
- 765: Theory of Literature: Fiction, Darrell Spencer
Creative Writing Requirements
In addition the general PhD requirements, doctoral students in creative writing must take two doctoral seminars in their period of specialization and two doctoral seminars in periods other than their period of specialization. They also take two creative writing workshops a year for the first two years of doctoral study, including one in a second genre. They take a fifth workshop in their third year as part of their preparation for the creative writing dissertation.
In addition to the general MA requirements, masters students in creative writing must satisfy either the bibliography and methods requirement or the English language requirement, but they are not required to do both. They must take three creative writing seminars, ENG 765 Form and Theory, and complete a creative master's thesis.
Admissions Materials Online
For information on applying to the graduate program in creative writing, please see the admissions page of this site. Please note that the writing sample for creative writing applicants should be appropriate to genre: fiction (20-40 pages), nonfiction (20-40 pages), or poetry (10 poems). In addition, applicants for the Ph.D. program in creative writing should submit a critical paper from a previous literature class. Applicants for the M.A. program should send only their creative work.
