mfa creative writing programs in north carolina

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MFA in Creative Writing

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Specialize in poetry or fiction through our Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Work with our award-winning poets and writers to hone your craft.  Request Info ‌

Starting your application is easy.

The MFA is a two-year, fully-funded program, consisting of workshops, interdisciplinary coursework and a final thesis of literary work. Distinguished by the one-on-one attention students receive from our faculty poets and writers, the program offers a strong, supportive start to a creative life in words.

• Admission Info ‌
• Degree Requirements ‌

Admission Info

Our program is small, so we can focus on you. We accept only about a dozen students each year, with six or seven students in fiction, and another six or seven in poetry. We offer full funding in the form of a graduate teaching assistantship to all eligible admitted applicants. Deadline to apply: Feb. 1. 

How to Apply ‌ Apply Now ‌

One of a Kind

Ours is the only Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area.

Degree Requirements

The MFA is a 36-hour program, consisting of four workshops, six graduate-level courses and a thesis of literary work. 

Our students apprentice under master writers , and as such, prepare to become the next generation of master writers themselves. Student work produced here has been published and honored by prestigious groups such as The American Academy of Poets, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and The American Poetry Review , among others. Learn More ‌

Faculty Mentors

Our faculty of working poets and writers believe that individual attention is key: that’s what makes our program so strong. We’ll work with you as you wrangle with your words, while you polish your poems, until your manuscript is submission worthy. We want to help you fine tune your skills and launch your career.

Our poetry faculty:

• Sumita Chakraborty ( Arrow )
• Eduardo C. Corral  ( Slow Lightning ; Guillotine )
• Meg Day ( Last Psalm at Sea Level )

Our fiction faculty:

• Belle Boggs  ( The Gulf ;  The Art of Waiting )
• Carter Sickels ( The Prettiest Star, The Evening Hour )
• LaTanya McQueen ( When the Reckoning Comes, And it Begins Like This )

Retired faculty: 

• John Balaban ( Locusts at the Edge of Summer; Empires; Passing Through a Gate ; etc.)
• Wilton Barnhardt  ( Western Alliances,   Lookaway, Lookaway ;  Emma Who Saved My Life; etc.) 
• John Kessel  ( The Moon and The Other ;  Pride and Prometheus;  etc.)
• Dorianne Laux ( The Book of Men; Only As the Day is Long; Facts About the Moon ; etc.)
• Jill McCorkle  ( Old Crimes, Life After Life ;  The Cheer Leader, etc.)

Meet the Faculty ‌

"They’re a thoughtful, positive, critically savvy group."

Kij Johnson (MFA '12)

Outstanding Alumni

Sarah Grunder Ruiz

Meet 2018 MFA alumna Sarah Grunder Ruiz — and learn more about her debut novel,  Love, Lists and Fancy Ships . 

Since our MFA program was established in 2005, we’ve helped some outstanding writers find their voices. Among our alumni are:

• Therese Anne Fowler , whose fourth book, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald , was a 2013 New York Times bestseller and was the inspiration for a TV show,  Z: The Beginning of Everything .
• Tyree Daye , whose debut poetry collection,  River Hymns , earned The American Poetry Review 's Honickman First Book Prize. Daye was also a 2019 recipient of the prestigious Whiting Award in poetry. 
• Kij Johnson , whose f irst collection of short stories,  At the Mouth of the River of Bees,  contained stories that won Nebula and Hugo Awards. Johnson now teaches at the University of Kansas.
• Noel Crook , whose debut collection, Salt Moon , won the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award and was published by Southern Illinois University Press. 
• Alyssa Wong , who as a student in the program won the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Short Story and the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction.  

Additional MFA Resources

• Info for Current Students ‌
• Graduate Teaching Assistantships ‌
• Thesis and Grad Timeline ‌
• NC State Literary Readings ‌
• NC State Fiction Contest ‌
• NC State Poetry Contest ‌

Contact Information

Assistant director, mfa program.

Chelsea Krieg Campus Box 8105 NC State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8105

[email protected] ‌

Graduate Services Coordinator

Ciru Mutura Campus Box 8105 NC State University Raleigh, NC 27695-8105 919.515.4106

[email protected] ‌

Skip to Main Landmark (Press Enter)

Spartan Alert

Creative writing, m.f.a.

The Master of Fine Arts in creative writing is a two-year residency program with an emphasis on providing studio time for the writing of poetry or fiction. Our students develop their particular talents through small classes in writing, literature, publishing, and the arts. 

As a community of writers, students read and comment on each other’s work under the guidance of distinguished resident and visiting faculty, who also meet with students in one-on-one tutorials. 

PROGRAM DISTINCTIONS

• UNC Greensboro’s Creative Writing program is one of the oldest and most distinguished in the country.
• The residential faculty at the MFA Writing Program in Greensboro are not only award-winning writers, but also committed teachers who have spent their careers mentoring young writers.
• Graduates have published more than 200 works of poetry and fiction since 2008.
• Many graduates have received prestigious literary prizes. For example, MFA alumna Kelly Link was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist in fiction. 

THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

• The program is kept intentionally small, enabling students to work one-on-one with faculty in a close-knit community of writers.  
• 18-24 hours in writing courses are required, including workshop courses for poetry or fiction and tutorials in writing where students work one-on-one with members of the faculty. 
• The program offers fully funded graduate assistantships, including out-of-state and in-state tuition, health insurance, and a stipend. 
• Students serve as fiction and poetry editors for “The Greensboro Review,” the program’s literary journal for more than 50 years. 
• Each year the faculty also invites writers and editors to visit the campus for readings, workshops, and master classes with MFA students.

AFTER GRADUATION

• Alumni from the MFA Writing Program at Greensboro have gone on to teach or direct writing programs at such places as Clemson University, Colorado State University, Cornell University, Florida State University, the University of Vermont, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
• Graduates have continued their literary careers with a variety of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley-Tufts Poetry Award, and numerous grants including those from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

APPLY TO Creative Writing, M.F.A

*Only required if there are additional admission requirements

• For a full list of application instructions, visit https://english.uncg.edu/mfa/admission-assistantships/  
• Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores are no longer required for admission to this program.
• Students must submit a writing sample of fiction or poetry to be reviewed by all faculty members in the genre. The primary decider of admission is the student’s writing sample. 

Get more information

Want more information let’s get started, program details.

Degree Type: Master's

College/School: College of Arts and Sciences

Program Type: Majors & Concentrations

Class Type: In Person

Learn More About the Department of English

Similar Degree Offerings

• English, M.A.
• English, Ph.D.

Terry Kennedy Director of MFA in Creative Writing Department of English [email protected] 336-334-5459

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‘Community Matters Here’: Inside NC State’s Creative Writing MFA Program

The program, known for its commitment to variety and experimentation, is the only one of its kind in the Triangle.

When Meghan Tanaka was preparing to graduate from the University of Mississippi with a double major in English and philosophy in 2020, she knew she wanted to go on to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing with a specialization in poetry. What she didn’t know was which of the hundreds of MFA programs in the United States she should apply to. 

“It was one of my professors who suggested that I apply to NC State,” she recalls. “He recommended it because the program has really good faculty, and also because it’s smaller. Small class size means you get a lot of faculty attention.” 

Tanaka took her professor’s advice, and she’s glad she did. Now in her second year at NC State, Tanaka has flourished in the MFA program . The small classes taught by excellent faculty — including Dorianne Laux, whose sixth book of poetry, Only as the Day Is Long , was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry — are a big reason why, of course. But there’s also one other factor her professor didn’t know about: the sense of community that pervades the program from top to bottom.

“For me, community is what sets this program apart from the others,” she says. “It feels really good to know that you can talk with your professors and your classmates about life and writing and the scary stuff we’re all going through. You’ve got people you can lean on.” (You can read Tanaka’s poem “Stargazer” in the literary journal Pigeon Pages .)

An Unlikely Pairing That Makes Good Sense

Although the casual observer might be surprised to discover an excellent graduate-level arts program at a world-class STEM university like NC State, the pairing actually makes sense when North Carolina’s rich literary history is taken into account. The state has been home to so many respected, beloved writers — including Thomas Wolfe, Zora Neale Hurston, David Sedaris, Jaki Shelton Green, Charles Frazier, Jill McCorkle, Randall Kenan, Lee Smith and Anne Tyler, to name only a very few — that it’s fitting for North Carolina’s largest university to host a program dedicated to continuing that legacy.

It also makes sense for a university whose mantra is Think and Do to feature a program devoted to tangible creative output, informed by a mixture of classroom instruction, peer support and faculty mentorship. The MFA is a two-year, 36-hour program comprising writing workshops, interdisciplinary coursework in academic subjects and a final thesis consisting of a book-length literary work supervised by a faculty advisor. The program has two tracks: fiction and poetry. All students admitted to the program receive full funding in the form of a graduate assistantship.

Since the program enrolled its first cohort of students in 2003, it has earned a national reputation for offering high-quality instruction while welcoming many different styles of writing, says Belle Boggs, director of the program. 

“Thanks to the vision and example of the program’s founders — John Kessel, Wilton Barnhardt, and John Balaban — we’ve been open to and inclusive of and excited about a wide variety of forms and genres since the very beginning,” Boggs says. “That celebration of a diversity of styles — postmodernism, traditional realism, gritty Southern fiction, science fiction — is not something you can get just anywhere. But we’ve been doing that a long time, perhaps longer than any other program out there.” 

The program’s openness to variety and experimentation has made it popular with prospective students, she says. 

Celebration of a diversity of styles — postmodernism, traditional realism, gritty Southern fiction, science fiction — is not something you can get just anywhere.

“Last year we received over 275 applications for 13 spots,” Boggs says. “That means we can be selective in recruiting really amazing, interesting writers who build a great community.” 

One of those new recruits is Rafeeat Aliyu, a first-year fiction writer from Kwara, Nigeria. Aliyu writes speculative fiction in the burgeoning Afrofuturist tradition. (You can see a list of Aliyu’s publications, and find links to many of them online, at her website .)

“I wrote my first story in primary school, about a family of ghosts, from the point of the view of the young ghost daughter,” Aliyu says. “I kept writing, and after undergrad I got a few stories published; but not many Nigerian magazines cater to what I write. Nigerians have always had these weird, fantastical stories about mermaids and things like that, but when it comes to literature, publishers mostly just go for literary fiction — writers like Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.” 

Aliyu heard that Western markets might be more friendly to her work, and in 2018 she met an alum of NC State’s program who told her she should consider applying. Now that she’s been admitted to the program, she’s happy to have found such a welcoming artistic home at NC State. Aliyu is studying under the supervision of speculative fiction writer Cadwell Turnbull, author of the acclaimed new novel No Gods, No Monsters . Turnbull’s fiction has appeared in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 and The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 .

The Key: Rigor and Nourishment

Over on the poetry track, faculty member Eduardo C. Corral — whose second book, Guillotine , was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2020 — says NC State’s emphasis on community is what drew him here.

“My first book of poetry came out in 2012, and after that I started doing poetry readings at colleges all over the country,” he says. “I did 12 to 15 readings a semester for years. I saw a lot of different programs during that time. But when I came to NC State, right away I noticed that community matters here. And that’s important, because the key to making any writing workshop successful is two words: rigor and nourishment. You have to have both, working in tandem. And that only succeeds if the students respect each other. Community is what makes that kind of respect possible.”

Community is what sets this program apart from the others.

When asked what it’s like to teach poetry at a STEM school, Corral laughingly replies, “The undergrads will catch any mistakes I make in anything having to do with math — especially when it comes to grading! The percentages do have to add up to 100, you know?” 

He goes on to note that scientists and engineers are a naturally inquisitive bunch. “They’re trying to figure out how to make bridges safer, how to make energy systems more environmentally friendly; they’re problem solvers, and that lends itself to writing poetry. The trick is to remind them that there’s no equation for how to write poetry, so they have to draft a new set of questions for every poem. I help them focus on the questions, not just on the solutions.” 

Alumni Making Their Mark

NC State’s MFA program has helped many outstanding writers find their voices. The program’s alumni include:

• Threa Almontaser , whose first book of poetry, The Wild Fox of Yemen , won the 2020 Walt Whitman Award and was recently longlisted for the National Book Award.
• Emily Cataneo and Arshia Simkin , who launched the Redbud Writing Project , an adult education writing school offering classes in fiction, nonfiction and poetry, both in person and online.
• Leila Chatti , whose debut poetry collection, Deluge , was published by Copper Canyon Press and won the Larry Levis Prize from Virginia Commonwealth University.
• Noel Crook , whose debut poetry collection, Salt Moon , won the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award and was published by Southern Illinois University Press. 
• Tyree Daye , whose debut poetry collection, River Hymns , earned the American Poetry Review ‘s Honickman First Book Prize. Daye was also a 2019 recipient of the prestigious Whiting Award in poetry, one of the largest and most prestigious awards given to emerging writers in the United States. Daye’s second poetry collection, Cardinal , was featured on the New York Times list of the best poetry of 2020. 
• Kij Johnson , whose first collection of short stories, At the Mouth of the River of Bees , contained stories that won Nebula and Hugo Awards. Johnson now teaches at the University of Kansas.
• Sarah Grunder Ruiz , whose debut romantic comedy, Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships , comes out this fall with Berkley/Penguin. Sarah teaches in NC State’s First Year Writing Program.
• Alyssa Wong , who as a student in the program won the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Short Story and the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction.

Boggs says many of the program’s alumni demonstrate a remarkable commitment to the program even after they graduate. “Alumni frequently come back for readings and workshops, and to mentor our students,” she notes. “For example, Cadwell Turnbull studied in the program under John Kessel and Wilton Barnhardt, and now he’s our newest faculty member. His addition to the program continues their teaching tradition and at the same time brings an important new voice into the program.”

Another alum is Therese Anne Fowler, whose fourth novel, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald , was a 2013 New York Times bestseller and was adapted into the Amazon TV show Z: The Beginning of Everything , starring Christina Ricci. Her latest novel, It All Comes Down to This , will be published in June 2022. 

The program’s famed openness to difference helped Fowler find her way into writing after she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology — not the typical academic preparation for a fiction writer, she notes.

“I came out of the social sciences and did not have a background in reading literature,” Fowler recalls. “For someone like that, who also has the desire to express themselves through fiction writing, it’s important to know you don’t have to be a literary scholar to get into the program.” 

Fowler says the most important thing she got out of the program was learning how to critique her own work. “I think you can learn to write without studying it the way we did in the program,” she says, “but because the workshops require you to assess and deconstruct and analyze other people’s work and then produce some kind of commentary on it, that process taught me how to do that for my own work. And gaining that ability helped me shorten the path from aspiration to success.” 

The Transformative Impact of Philanthropy

As successful as the program and its alumni have been, now it’s poised for even greater success thanks to Tony McLean Brown ’83 and his family, who earlier this year made a $1 million gift to support the MFA program. The gift marks the largest for a humanities department at NC State and one of the largest funded endowments in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. 

“This gift is transformative,” said Dean Jeff Braden when the gift was announced. “Tony and his family are creating a legacy that will launch the careers of many gifted poets, novelists and other writers for years to come.”

Director Belle Boggs says the Browns’ generous gift will allow the program to greatly expand its efforts to recruit students from diverse backgrounds, likely doubling the impact of the program’s  diversity recruiting efforts.

Our students care deeply about their impact on the community.

Boggs says the Browns’ gift will also support the expansion of the program’s community engagement efforts. “Our students care deeply about their impact on the community,” she says, “and we’re exploring ways to support them in programs of outreach teaching, publishing and literary ventures that will positively affect the literary landscape of North Carolina and beyond.”  

For example, in 2016 poetry students Tyree Daye and Alabama Stone founded a literary outreach program called Street Smarts and the Arts that hosted informal poetry workshops with homeless youth in Raleigh. The program ended when funding cuts shuttered the homeless center where the workshops were held, but Daye and Stone created a record of the participants’ artistic achievements by publishing an anthology of the poetry produced in the workshops. 

The MFA program also sponsors an annual poetry contest and an annual fiction contest , both of which have no entry fee and are open to all North Carolina residents. The fiction contest, which is currently taking submissions, awards two prizes: 

• The James Hurst Prize for Fiction ($500) is awarded to the best unpublished short story of no more than 5,000 words. 
• The Shorter Fiction Prize ($250) is awarded to the best unpublished short story of no more than 1,200 words. 

The postmark deadline for entries in the fiction contest — hard copies only, no electronic submissions — is Oct. 15, 2021. Visit the fiction contest webpage for more details.

For prospective students who are interested in applying to the MFA program, Boggs says the program is first of all looking for students who have extraordinary talent. “But in addition to that talent and spark,” she says, “we also want people who are going to be generous, enthusiastic, constructive, supportive members of our community. We want people who want to be part of a team.”

Boggs says she couldn’t be more happy about having joined this particular team. 

“When I first came here as a visiting writer, not to be corny about it, but I fell in love with the program,” she says. “I love being on a big campus that offers cool events like the AV Geeks at the Hunt Library, lectures about public science, art exhibits, musical performances, so many amazing opportunities — but at the same time we have this small, tight-knit community of writers.”

If its history is any indication, this small program will continue to make a big impact on students, the university, the community and the literary landscape for a long time to come.

• creative writing
• english department
• graduate school

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University Catalog 2023-2024

Creative writing (mfa), degree requirements, full professors.

• Wilton Barnhardt
• Belle McQuaide Boggs
• Eduardo C. Corral
• Dorianne Louise Laux

Assistant Professors

• Maya L. Kapoor
• LaTanya Denise McQueen
• Carter Sickels
• Cadwell Turnbull

Practice/Research/Teaching Professors

• John J. Kessel
• Jill Collins McCorkle
• Joseph H. Millar

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2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog

A PDF of the entire 2023-2024 Undergraduate catalog.

2023-2024 Graduate Catalog

A PDF of the entire 2023-2024 Graduate catalog.

Graduate Coordinator: Dr. Melissa Crowe

The Department of Creative Writing offers an intensive studio-academic apprenticeship in the writing of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction leading to the Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing. Courses include workshops in the three genres, special topics and forms courses, as well as a range of courses in literature. While students are accepted in, and expected to demonstrate mastery of one genre, they are encouraged to study, and must show proficiency in, a second genre. Students, in consultation with their advisors, tailor their course schedules to their own professional and educational interests, selecting a variety of courses in creative writing, literature, criticism, rhetoric and composition, film studies, and applicable cultural studies. Though the M.F.A. is a terminal degree designed for writers wishing to pursue various career paths in teaching, writing, publishing, and community arts organization, students are urged to pursue the degree primarily as a way of mastering their art by rigorous study and practice among a community of other dedicated writers. The M.F.A. degree without supporting publication credentials does not guarantee employment.

Admission Requirements

Applicants seeking admission to the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing are required to submit the following five items to the Graduate School before the application can be processed.

• A typed manuscript in the applicant’s primary genre, labeled “poetry,” “fiction,” or “creative nonfiction”: 10 pages of poetry, 30 pages of fiction, or 30 pages of creative nonfiction (double-space prose, single-space poetry). The manuscript should demonstrate mastery of basic craft and unmistakable literary promise. Applicants are advised not to apply with a mixed-genre manuscript.
• An application for graduate admission.
• Official transcripts of all college work (undergraduate and graduate).
• At least three recommendations from individuals in professionally relevant fields addressing the applicant’s achievement and promise as a writer, and ability to successfully complete graduate study.
• An essay (300-500 words) on the applicant’s goals in pursuing the M.F.A., including previous educational experience.

An applicant must have successfully completed an appropriate undergraduate degree (usually, but not necessarily, a B.A. in English or a B.F.A in creative writing), with at least a “B” average in the major field of study. Acceptable fulfillment of all the above constitutes the minimum requirements for, but does not guarantee, admission to the M.F.A. program.

In general, we are seeking candidates who show artistic commitment and literary promise in their writing, and whose academic background indicates they are likely to succeed not only in graduate study but as publishing professional writers. Therefore, in evaluating candidates, the admissions committee places great emphasis on the quality of the manuscript.

Applications must be received by the published deadline . All interested applicants will be considered for graduate assistantships, which will be awarded on a competitive basis as they become available.

Degree Requirements (48 total credit hours)

• An M.F.A. candidate must successfully complete a minimum of 48 credit hours of graduate study: 21 credit hours in writing ( CRW 530   ,  CRW 540   ,  CRW 542   , CRW 544   , CRW 546   , CRW 548   , CRW 550   ); six credit hours of thesis ( CRW 599   ); and 21 credit hours in other graduate literature courses, ( CRW 501   , CRW 503   , CRW 523   , CRW 524   , CRW 525   , CRW 543   , CRW 545   , CRW 547   , CRW 560   , CRW 580   , CRW 581   , CRW 591   , CRW 594   , CRW 598   ; ENG 502   , ENG 504   , ENG 505   , ENG 506   , ENG 507   , ENG 508   , ENG 509   , ENG 511   , ENG 513   , ENG 514   , ENG 560   , ENG 561   , ENG 564   , ENG 565   , ENG 566   , ENG 572   , ENG 580   ) with an option of substituting up to six of those credit hours of study in a related discipline, as determined by the student’s advisor, the M.F.A. coordinator, and the chair of the Department of Creative Writing.
• An M.F.A. candidate is required to complete at least 12 credit hours of writing workshop courses in a primary genre (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction).
• An M.F.A. candidate is required to complete a minimum of six credit hours in a secondary genre, which must include at least one 3-hour writing workshop ( CRW 530   , CRW 542   , CRW 544   , CRW 546   , CRW 548   , CRW 550   ). Forms courses ( CRW 543   , CRW 545   , CRW 547   ) may be used to fulfill the remaining hours.
• A maximum of 9 credit hours in secondary genre(s) workshop courses will count toward fulfilling the 21 hour writing requirement.
• A minimum GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) must be maintained in all graduate course work; a “B” average is required for graduation.
• An M.F.A. candidate must complete a substantial book-length thesis manuscript of literary merit and publishable quality acceptable to the thesis committee: this ordinarily will be a novel; a novella; a collection of short stories, poems, or essays; a single long poem; a long nonfiction narrative; or some combination of the foregoing within the primary genre.
• An M.F.A. candidate must pass the Master of Fine Arts examination.
• A maximum of six credit hours of graduate course credit may be transferred from another regionally accredited institution in partial fulfillment of the M.F.A. UNCW regulations will be applied in determining the transferability of course credits, and requests for transfer credit must be approved by the M.F.A. coordinator, the chair of the Department of Creative Writing, and the Graduate School.
• The M.F.A. program is designed to be completed in three calendar years. All requirements must be completed within five calendar years.

Creative Writing

Chapel Hill has always been a magnet for writers. Some students come with the goal of becoming novelists or short story writers or poets or dramatists; others discover their vocations while  undergraduates.

The University has long had a vigorous writing tradition, beginning when “Proff” Koch, Paul Green, and Samuel Selden were working with Thomas Wolfe, Kay Kyser, Betty Smith, Frances Gray Patton, and Howard Richardson in the early twentieth century. Beginning in 1947 and continuing for almost two decades,  Jessie Rehder served as a one-woman program and published several books of her students’ work; upon her death in 1966, Max Steele became director of Creative Writing the program expanded to include such legendary writers as Doris Betts and Daphne Athas. In the years since, Carolina’s Creative Writing program has been home to luminaries like Randall Kenan, Lee Smith, Sarah Dessen, Carolyn Kizer, Algonquin Books founder Louis D. Rubin, Alan Shapiro, Pam Durban, Michael Chitwood, and Marianne Gingher. Hundreds of alumni have gone on to write books, films, albums, plays, and television shows, pursue graduate study in creative writing, and publish stories, poems, and essays in the world’s best journals, magazines, and newspapers.

Masters in Creative Writing Programs in North Carolina

1-6 of 6 results

College of Humanities and Social Sciences - NC State University

Raleigh, NC •

North Carolina State University •

Graduate School

• • Rating 5 out of 5   1 review

Graduate Student: NC State's MSW program will prepare you to handle a wide variety of social work careers. The professors are amazing and teach students how to engage in various social justice activities on multiple levels. This grad program was an excellent career decision. ... Read 1 review

North Carolina State University ,

Graduate School ,

RALEIGH, NC ,

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

Featured Review: Graduate Student says NC State's MSW program will prepare you to handle a wide variety of social work careers. The professors are amazing and teach students how to engage in various social justice activities on multiple... .

Read 1 reviews.

College of Arts and Sciences - University of North Carolina - Wilmington

Wilmington, NC •

University of North Carolina - Wilmington •

• • Rating 4.67 out of 5   3 reviews

Master's Student: As a transfer student from Cape Fear Community College, I received my Bachelor's of Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. My overall experience as a transfer student was very good. ... Read 3 reviews

University of North Carolina - Wilmington ,

WILMINGTON, NC ,

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

Featured Review: Master's Student says As a transfer student from Cape Fear Community College, I received my Bachelor's of Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. My overall experience as a transfer student was very good. .

Read 3 reviews.

College of Visual and Performing Arts - University of North Carolina - Greensboro

Greensboro, NC •

University of North Carolina - Greensboro •

University of North Carolina - Greensboro ,

GREENSBORO, NC ,

Florida International University

Graduate School •

• • Rating 4.63 out of 5   286

The Schools of Public Engagement at The New School

The New School •

NEW YORK, NY

• • Rating 4.67 out of 5   6

Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences

Lesley University •

CAMBRIDGE, MA

• • Rating 4.75 out of 5   4

Queens University of Charlotte

Charlotte, NC •

• • Rating 4.84 out of 5   19 reviews

Master's Student: Although I have not started classes, yet I have been pleased with the information I have learned from the professors and the opportunities now being in a program at this institution will have for my career. ... Read 19 reviews

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CHARLOTTE, NC ,

19 Niche users give it an average review of 4.8 stars.

Featured Review: Master's Student says Although I have not started classes, yet I have been pleased with the information I have learned from the professors and the opportunities now being in a program at this institution will have for my... .

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Warren Wilson College

Swannanoa, NC •

• • Rating 5 out of 5   2 reviews

Master's Student: They are interested in asking questions and critical thinking more than following a rote academic approaches. They support investigating coursework into doesn't necessarily fit the traditional measures of valuable knowledge. ... Read 2 reviews

SWANNANOA, NC ,

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

Featured Review: Master's Student says They are interested in asking questions and critical thinking more than following a rote academic approaches. They support investigating coursework into doesn't necessarily fit the traditional... .

Read 2 reviews.

Lenoir-Rhyne University

Hickory, NC •

• • Rating 4.3 out of 5   23 reviews

Master's Student: Overall, my academic experience has been great. The professors are extremely accomplished, smart, and helpful. They make themselves available to their students anytime and are willing to work with us to make sure we succeed. There is no culture of competition between the students which means that we are all encouraged to work together, study together, and help each other learn. ... Read 23 reviews

HICKORY, NC ,

23 Niche users give it an average review of 4.3 stars.

Featured Review: Master's Student says Overall, my academic experience has been great. The professors are extremely accomplished, smart, and helpful. They make themselves available to their students anytime and are willing to work with us... .

Read 23 reviews.

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Miami University

• • Rating 4.56 out of 5   25

Winston-Salem State University

WINSTON-SALEM, NC

• • Rating 4.39 out of 5   31

College of Charleston

CHARLESTON, SC

• • Rating 4.33 out of 5   15

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“The MFA Program for Writers’ unique rigor and emphasis on craft endow its students with a strength both rare and deeply necessary.”

“Perhaps the greatest gift the program offers is commitment, an awareness of the writer’s evolving creativity and confidence.”

“Writers are made on this mountain in North Carolina; humble and generous human beings are made here.”

“The Program not only transformed my writing and thinking, but also afforded me the discovery of my best self.”

“I leave this program with confidence and community, neither of which I could lay claim to before. But I also leave with a sense of calling.”

Founded in 1976

Award-winning faculty and alumni

One of the top writing programs in the nation

About the Program

Degree Requirements

Tuition and Financial Aid

Program Design

The residency.

The four-semester course of study toward the Master of Fine Arts degree is carried out by alternating on-campus residency sessions with semesters of independent study under close faculty supervision.  The January and July residencies, attended by all faculty and students, are ten days long and initiate each semester.

The Non-resident Semester

Following the residency, correspondence between the student and  the faculty supervisor occur at regular, contracted intervals. This individualized course of study and thorough engagement with faculty, occurring within the context of one’s ongoing adult life, make the Program useful to writers at all stages of their development.

Low Student-Faculty Ratio

In the lectures, seminars, classes, and team-taught workshops, students will find an environment that is non-competitive, while our low student-faculty ratio (usually 3:1 and never more than 5:1) ensures that each student will receive personalized attention that will help provide direction for the semester.

Shop the MFA Store

Our program’s unparalleled instruction in the writer’s craft is available to all through our MFA store. Audio recordings of residency lectures and videos from our new “Craft and the Writing Life” series are available for download, and our faculty anthologies are available for order from local bookseller Malaprop’s. All proceeds from store downloads and anthology royalties go to scholarships to support our MFA students.

CRAFT AND THE WRITING LIFE

Application Information

Application requirements.

Application deadlines for program admission in fiction or poetry are March 1 for the July semester and September 1 for the January semester. Requirements include the application form, a fiction or poetry manuscript, personal and critical essays, transcripts and curriculum vitae, and two letters of recommendation. The application is routed through Submittable; the fee is $75.

The Holden Residency Scholarship

Supported by the Holden Fund for Diversity, this residency-only, fully funded opportunity is intended for a writer of color who is contemplating pursuing an MFA degree and wishes a deeper introduction to what our program offers and entails before applying for full admission. Deadlines are the same as for full-program entry.

I will always be humbled by, and grateful for the program that changed my life .

The program is intellectually rigorous, but with that rigor comes a generosity of spirit  that you’d be hard pressed to find elsewhere. The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson taught me that no matter where we are in our writing lives, there is always more work to be done; such work is a gift, and the Program gave me the tools to honor it.

                                                                                                  – Lara Egger (poetry, 2016)

2024 AWP Conference – Complete Schedule of MFA Events

Congratulations january 2024 mfa graduates, join us for the 2024 awp conference in kansas city, january 2024 mfa residency public schedule of events, our next virtual open house is january 21st.

Shop for MFA Faculty Books Online

AWP Podcast: 40th Anniversary Reading

In honor of the program’s 40th anniversary, and continuing a tradition–”The Fastest Reading in the World”– begun at Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville, NC, twenty faculty and alumni read from their work at the AWP Conference in Los Angeles on April 1, 2016.

R eaders include faculty members Debra Allbery, Dean Bakopoulos, Charles Baxter, Marianne Boruch, Karen Brennan, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Lan Samantha Chang, A. Van Jordan, Matthew Olzmann, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Mary Szybist, Peter Turchi, Monica Youn, and C. Dale Young, and alumni Natalie Baszile, Robin Black, Victoria Chang, Jenny Johnson, Rose McLarney, and Meghan O’Rourke.

The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College

701 Warren Wilson Rd. Swannanoa, NC 28778 [email protected]     (828) 771-3715

STUDENT ACCOUNTS       STUDENT ACCESS       FACULTY ACCESS

Creative Writing, M.F.A.

College of Arts and Sciences

Expand your knowledge and hone your craft with our fully funded, three-year master’s degree in creative writing, which combines the intimacy of a small program with visits by renowned authors from around the world.

Our dynamic MFA program provides a rigorous yet nurturing community where aspiring writers can compose, experiment, learn and evolve. You’ll have the chance to work with stellar faculty, which includes winners of the National Book Award, the PEN Open Book Award, the Berkshire Prize and the Iowa Poetry Prize (to name only a few).

Program Highlights

Internationally recognized faculty.

Learn from our diverse and dynamic faculty of inspiring teachers, dedicated mentors and award-winning writers.

World-Class Visiting Authors

Engage with renowned authors from around the world through the Open Book as well as our Fall Literary Festival and other series.

Hone your teaching skills and ignite a love of writing in young learners by visiting local public schools as a Split P fellow.

Cola Literary Review

Support and promote new literary work by established and emerging authors by editing our annual print journal.

What You’ll Study

Popular experiences include Fiction and Poetry workshops as well as our annual literary events. Study literature, theory of teaching composition, and electives while completing a book-length MFA project with the mentorship of faculty. Graduates have gone on to careers as authors and agents, in publishing and on the faculty at universities.

Building Skills

Gain the professional and personal intelligence it takes to have a successful career.

Creating professional written content for inclusion in scholarly journal articles, books and reports

Thinking imaginatively, generating original ideas and expressing unique perspectives through art and innovation

Aesthetic and Conceptual Awareness

Cultivating an understanding of artistic and abstract concepts, enhancing appreciation for beauty and creative expression

Foster learning by conveying knowledge, skills and concepts to students

Gathering and analyzing information to increase knowledge or solve problems

Critical Thinking

Analyzing and evaluating information to make informed decisions or judgments

Using your degree

Make your college experience the foundation for a successful future.

Learn how alumni use degrees with outcome data from Gamecock GradStats , a service of the University of South Carolina Career Center.

Potential Careers

• Fiction Writer
• Creative Writing Professor
• Literary Agent
• Journalist / Essayist

Job Titles of Alumni

• Writer and Editor
• Poetry Fellow
• English Teacher
• Assistant Professor
• Communications Specialist
• Freelance Writer

Average Alumni Salary

Five to 10 years after graduation without additional education $76,434

Workplace Settings

• Literary Journals and Magazines
• Small or Large Presses
• Literary Agencies
• Freelance Writing
• Journalism / Commentary
• Higher Education
• Yemassee Journal
• Tulsa Artist Fellowship
• Editorial Consulting
• University of South Carolina
• University of North Carolina at Asheville
• Word Life Editorial

Faculty members in the creative writing program are generous with their time and advice, while taking a light hand in shaping your experience. I have the guidance I need while being able to make my own decisions and explorations.

You may also like

Related Degrees

Theatre, M.A.

Conducting: Music, M.M.

School of Music

Opera Theatre: Music, M.M.

Music Performance, M.M.

Violin/Viola Pedagogy: Music, M.M.

Piano Pedagogy: Music, M.M.

Music Theory: Music, M.M.

Linguistics, M.A.

Theatre, M.F.A.

Go to Charlotte.edu

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M.A. in English: Creative Writing

The diverse field of Creative Writing studies involves the writing of prose, poetry, and drama for the page, screen, and stage. At UNC Charlotte, the Creative Writing Concentration offers studies in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Faculty seek to familiarize aspiring writers with the techniques and theories of poetics and prose while helping them delve more deeply into their chosen genre. Integral to a creative writer’s experience at UNC Charlotte is the studio workshop, where students draft and share work and critique their peers’ writing. Also important are issues of craft, the literary history of a writer’s genre, the culture of publishing (book, magazine, and online), and sustained independent work toward a long-form capstone project.

Creative Writing faculty at UNC Charlotte have achieved national distinction with award-winning books and work published in The Southern Review , Kenyon Review , Missouri Review , Esquire, Denver Quarterly, McSweeney’s, Glimmer Train, Colorado Review, Gettysburg Review, New Stories from the South , and many others. They have won awards such as the Editor’s Choice at New Issues Poetry & Prose; the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award in Fiction; the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize; a variety of artist residences; and fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council and elsewhere. Faculty hold MFAs or PhDs from Purdue University, the University of Denver, and Vanderbilt University.

Students completing the MA Concentration in Creative Writing will be well-prepared for MFA and Ph.D. programs in the field. Undergraduate and MA students from Charlotte have been accepted with funding to a number of graduate programs, including at Columbia University, the North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Colorado at Boulder, UNC Wilmington, UNC Greensboro, NC State, and New Mexico State University.

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Click here for information about 1. guidance regarding MFA programs; and 2. the capstone experience in creative writing, including descriptions of the project and thesis options, as well as samples of prospectuses, help with critical introductions to creative work, and other helpful materials.

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The History

The MFA Writing Program at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is one of the oldest such programs in the country. During the early years, the University had among its faculty a number of noted writers, such as Allen Tate, Caroline Gordon, John Crowe Ransom, Hiram Haydn, Peter Taylor, and Randall Jarrell. They invited other distinguished writers to campus to meet with students and read from their work; these writers included Saul Bellow, Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, Flannery O’Connor, Robert Penn Warren, and Eudora Welty.

In 1965, under the leadership of Robert Watson, creative writing offerings were formalized. Since that time, the faculty has intentionally kept the program small, enabling students to work one-on-one with faculty in a community of writers.

Department of English UNC Greensboro

Physical Address: 3143 Moore Humanities and Research Administration Building Greensboro, NC 27412

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 26170 Greensboro, NC 27402

Phone: 336-334-5311 Fax: 336-334-3281 Email: [email protected]

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With more than 475 undergraduate and 20 graduate students, and 45+ faculty members, the School of Art and Design at East Carolina University is the most comprehensive art school in North Carolina and one of the largest in the Southeast. Our students come from North Carolina, the east to the west coast, and countries outside of the United States. The ECU School of Art and Design has been an accredited, institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design since 1962. Over 50 continuous years of specialized accreditation has resulted in a rigorous curriculum with flexibility and practical applications.

The MFA at ECU is a 60-hour degree program and completed over three years, and we offer concentrations in Ceramics, Graphic Design, Metal Design, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Textile Design. Our program guarantees multiple opportunities for teaching assistantships and mentoring to approved candidates. This 3-year program provides access to numerous visiting artists and scholars, workshops, symposiums, travel opportunities, and financial support.

Meet Our MFA

Loraine Scalamoni MFA ’24

Loraine Scalamoni is a contemporary figurative artist and MFA Candidate in painting and drawing in her second year at ECU. She brings all the trials, prejudices, and instincts that come with her history as a woman into her paintings. Her recent work focuses on themes of pain and power in love relationships, using symbolism to further those ideas. She creates work that encompasses the power her models embody. Loraine typically uses oil paint and acrylic transfers as her medium, and a palette of saturated color, which brings positive energy to the work.

Just a Little Prick , 2022

Power Trip , 2022

Etoile , 2022

Tyler King MFA ’25

Born in Rome, GA Justin Tyler King obtained an undergraduate in Graphic Design at Mercer University and has designed for the likes of health clinics, non-profit organizations, local apparel stores, and more. King currently is a graduate student at ECU and is striving to break from typical design conventions found in corporate branding. King believes that brands do not need to be limited by a sterile corporate dogma of design, but rather can find freedom in expressive type that can better convey their message.

These designs by Justin Tyler King capture the essence of the Graphic Design movement called New Wave, which was most prominent in the 1970’s into the late 90’s. The designers of this movement sought to depart from the restrictive conventional grids that were fixated on by designers of the Swiss International Movement. New Wave designers worked with grids only to break them with a variety of type. These designers believed that type could be far more expressive than a phrase typed on a page. Type can exist in many different shapes, sizes, and fonts within the same design to convey a concept to its maximum potential.

#breakthegrid , 2022

Characters with character , 2022

New Alignment , 2022

Graduate Publication

ECU School of Art and Design is proud to be the home for our MFA students, representing diverse disciplines in creative research. They are innovative thinkers, distinguished makers, and global participants who understand the responsibility of interdisciplinary and civic engagement in defining our visual world. This publication captures their voice.

view grad publication & Volume Three

The artwork in this book belongs to the ECU MFA students (2022–2023). The typeface used in this book is Franklin Gothic URW.

Faculty mentor: Dan Elliott

Portrait photography direction: Angela Franks Wells

Studio photography direction: Brian Culbertson

If you wish to contribute to the production cost of & , donations can now be given online here: https://give.ecu.edu/SoAD (under additional options, please select Gift Instructions and note MFA Grad Publication.)

Apply to the MFA Program

To apply to our graduate program, you must have received an undergraduate degree in art from an accredited institution. If you do not have a BFA in Art, but your portfolio demonstrates an outstanding competency in the intended discipline, the School of Art and Design Graduate Committee will consider your application, provided that you have completed an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution.

Admission to the East Carolina University School of Art and Design MFA degree requires acceptance by the Graduate School for study at ECU and by the SoAD MFA in the intended discipline.

Application materials include:

For ECU Application Portal ( TargetX )

• Online application form
• A statement of purpose (reason for pursuing graduate studies at ECU)
• Application fee
• 3 letters of recommendation
• Transcripts
• A digital portfolio containing 20 examples of work as individual files using the naming convention: LastFirstName-number. Accepted file types are [1] still images in jpg/pdf , [2] time-based work in mp3/mp4 , and [3] text in pdf only. Do not submit pptx or docx.
• A list of works with title, medium, size, date, and other relevant information (pdf)
• Resume in reverse chronological order (pdf)
• A statement of the applicant’s philosophy as a maker/designer (pdf)

Completed applications are due February 1 to be considered for assistantship and scholarship funding.

For more information, please contact the Graduate Programs Coordinator, Seo Eo [email protected] 252 328 6281

Apply Today

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