Bluegrass Writers Studio
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- Eastern Kentucky University
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Contact Information:
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Mailing Address:
- 101 Mattox Hall
- 521 Lancaster Ave.
- Richmond
- KY
- 40475
- Program Director: Robert Dean Johnson
- Program Contact: Robert Dean Johnson
- Phone Number: (859) 622-6263
- Website: bluegrasswriters.org
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: Facebook
- Twitter: Twitter
- Blog: Blog
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Program Information:
- Degree: MFA
- Type: low-residency
- Length of Program: 2 years
- Genre: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry
- Enrollment: 30
- Total Credits Required: 48
- Application Deadlines: August 1 (Fall), December 1 (Spring), May 1 (Summer)
- Scholarships: yes (see website)
- Assistantships: yes (see website)
- Core Faculty: Julie Hensley, Nancy Jensen, Robert D. Johnson, Carter Sickels, Young Smith
- Publishing/Editing Courses: yes (see website)
- Reading Series: BGWS Summer Reading Series
- Literary Magazine: Jelly Bucket
- Recent Visiting Writers: Jericho Brown, Ayse Papatya Bucak, Gabriel Bump, Kayleb Rae Candrilli, Camille Dungy, Beth Ann Fennelly, Tom Franklin, Amy Greene, Silas House, Holly Goddard Jones, Ada Limon, Lee Martin, Oliver de La Paz, Ira Sukrungruang
Program description: Established in 2008, Bluegrass Writers Studio (BGWS) is Eastern Kentucky University’s Low-Residency MFA is Creative Writing Program. The studio-based, 48-hour terminal degree program offers concentrations in the writing of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid forms, and students may work in multiple genres.
Fall and spring workshops are held live, online, one evening per week and students also take non-synchronous courses in foundational and contemporary literature and craft. Students attend two summer residencies—in Lisbon, Portugal and/or Richmond, KY—where they meet and work with visiting writers, agents, editors, and other writing professionals. The program culminates with a book-length thesis that candidates complete under the direction of a core faculty member.
BGWS graduates have gone on to secure editing and teaching jobs; publish poems, essays, and stories in dozens of national literary journals; and publish book-length poetry and prose with regional and national presses. Follow us on Instagram @bgwritersstudio.
Find more great programs at the NewPages Guide to Graduate Creative Writing Programs.