Columbia University School of the Arts
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- MFA in Creative Writing
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Contact Information:
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Mailing Address:
- 415 Dodge Hall, MC 1804
- 2960 Broadway
- New York
- NY
- 10027
- Program Director: Lis Harris
- Program Contact: Frank Winslow
- Phone Number: (212) 854-4391
- Website: arts.columbia.edu/writing
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: Facebook
- Twitter: Twitter
- Blog: Instagram
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Program Information:
- Degree: MFA
- Type: residency
- Length of Program: 2-3 years
- Genre: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translation
- Enrollment: 300
- Total Credits Required: 60
- Application Deadlines: January 5, 2022 @ 11:59 PM ET
- Scholarships: yes (see website)
- Assistantships: yes (see website)
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Core Faculty:
Hilton Als, Paul Beatty, Susan Bernofsky, Anelise Chen, Nicholas Christopher, Timothy Donnelly, Deborah Eisenberg, Richard Ford, Rivka Galchen, Lis Harris, Leslie Jamison, Margo Jefferson, Heidi Julavits, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Dorothea Lasky, Victor LaValle, Sam Lipsyte, Richard Locke, Phillip Lopate, Ben Marcus, Shane McCrae, Orhan Pamuk, Deborah Paredez, Gary Shteyngart, Wendy S. Walters, Lynn Xu, Alan Ziegler
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Visiting Faculty:
Joshua Cohen, CAConrad, Cynthia Cruz, Meghan Daum, Nicholas Delbanco, Mark Doten, Farnoosh Fathi, Joshua Furst, Jen George, Alan Gilbert, Aracelis Girmay, Michael Greenberg, Xiaolu Guo, Madhu Kaza, John Keene, Nicole Krauss, Hari Kunzru, Paul La Farge, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Lynn Melnick, Daphne Merkin, Ben Metcalf, Erroll McDonald, Kamila Aisha Moon, Jen Percy, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Alice Quinn, Camille Rankine, Christine Schutt, Leanne Shapton, Benjamin Taylor, Jia Tolentino, Lara Vapnyar, Natasha Wimmer, Brenda Wineapple, James Wood, Mark Wunderlich, Wendy Xu, Monica Youn, Jenny Zhang
- Publishing/Editing Courses: yes (see website)
- Reading Series: The Creative Writing Lecture Series, Nonfiction Dialogues, Poetry Series, Literary Translation Series, Student and Alumni Reading Series
- Literary Magazine: Columbia Journal
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Recent Visiting Writers:
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, NoViolet Bulawayo, Rachel Cusk, Mariana Enriquez, Maria Dahvana Headley, Lewis Hydes, Saeed Jones, Amitava Kumar, Catherine Lacey, Terese Marie Mailhot, Sawako Nakayasu, Maggie Nelson, Matthew Salesses, Namwali Serpell, Tracy K Smith, Emily Wilson
Program description: The Columbia University School of the Arts MFA Writing Program, offering concentrations in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry, and a joint course of study in Literary Translation, is highly regarded for artistic diversity and for its outstanding faculty of acclaimed writers and editors. The rigorous approach to literary instruction requires 60 credits over 2-3 years of study.
At the core of the curriculum is the writing workshop. All workshops are small, ensuring that all students present work at least three times per semester. Students receive substantial written responses to their work from their professors and classmates and have regularly scheduled one-on-one conferences with faculty. Thesis workshops are dedicated to shaping each student’s work into book form.
The School of the Arts Writing Program considers the study of literature from the practitioner’s point of view—reading as a writer—essential to a writer’s education. In addition to workshops, students take craft-oriented seminars and/or lectures designed to illuminate, inform, augment, and inspire each student’s experience and practice as a writer. New seminars, lectures, and master classes are created every year.
Extracurricular programming includes Life After the MFA professional panels and the annual Agents Mixer, Columbia Journal, Columbia Artists/Teachers, Incarcerated Writers Initiative, Veterans Writers Workshop, and Our Word (students advocating diversity).
Scholarships, teaching fellowships, and internships are available.
Find more great programs at the NewPages Guide to Graduate Creative Writing Programs.